Another bet

This is going to be a great season, I'm pumped.

Date placed:
Mar 31, 2008 6:15p Single #110256726
Baseball - MLB Moneyline
American League
(927) Los Angeles Angels -137 Mon@7:05p
Competitor: (928) Minnesota Twins



Risk US$ 20.00 to win US$ 14.60

Can't lay off

Deposited 100 dollars into bodog. Maybe I might grind some games there as well.

Date placed:
Mar 31, 2008 4:08p 2 Team Parlay #110246227
Baseball - MLB Moneyline
National League
(908) Los Angeles Dodgers -198 Mon@4:10p
Competitor: (907) San Francisco Giants



Baseball - MLB Moneyline
National League
(909) New York Mets -225 Mon@4:10p
Competitor: (910) Florida Marlins



Risk US$ 25.00 to win US$ 29.35

Date placed:
Mar 31, 2008 12:27p 4 Team Parlay #110228038
Baseball - MLB Moneyline
American League
(918) Detroit Tigers -225 Mon@1:05p
Competitor: (917) Kansas City Royals



Baseball - MLB Moneyline
National League
(906) Philadelphia Phillies -210 Mon@3:05p
Competitor: (905) Washington Nationals



Baseball - MLB Moneyline
American League
(921) Tampa Bay Rays -125 Mon@3:05p
Competitor: (922) Baltimore Orioles



Baseball - MLB Moneyline
American League
(924) Cleveland Indians -172 Mon@3:05p
Competitor: (923) Chicago White Sox



Risk US$ 5.00 to win US$ 25.35

Back Again

I only played one hu match the entire spring break breaking even. It was a 50nl match as I'm not at my top game mentally and that's a big O NO. I was so frustrated after going up 100ish dollars only to call it away on one hand, but sick vb by my opponent though. Things didn't go as planned as I hung out with friends more, but w/e. I grinded 4 hours today after moving up failed horribly. I think the break did me good as I was fresh. I see some pretty sick swings at nl50, this is a sick sick game. Below are all the hands from today. I hope to finish the month strong tomorrow as this month was meh, another dissapointment.

Down 3buyins

Well I'm done trying to move up. I just dropped nearly a quarter of the bankroll in like half an hour trying to move up. I'm not too dissappointed with how I played as I didn't lose confidence and didn't look at the money at being dollar units, but as chips. My pocket pairs were cracked and I'm lucky I didn't lose the max in them. I got it all in in a 3 way pot with KK against a7 fd, and 77 LOL and lost the flip. Huge pot seeing how I would be even if I just won that flip. O well, I guess I'll try to move up next time when I'm actually rolled for it. Knock on wood. I hope to get the bankroll to 2000 by the end of the month. It is at a tick below 800 right now.

Reflection

Daniel Negreanu talks about reflecting back on his career and this one significant walk after a particularly tough week at the table in Vegas. He was young, and had to decide to continue down the path of poker or not. Well, we all know what happened, but he details how the next morning when he woke up he was hungry and never thought about quitting for one second again. I looked back at my blog archives and was trying to find the defining moment for me where I felt hungry and quitting never crossed my mind again. I would have to say on the date I started this blog, quitting never crossed my mind seriously. After a memorable hu match in November, I would have to say that was the moment where I feel I'm going to commit. I've been grinding hands a lot this month, I think I set a new record already for hands played in a month. I'm hoping to maintain that and hit the tables hard during Spring Break next week. I have my last final tomorrow, a very important class. Funny thing is I don't even care really and am pretty apathetic on whether or not I get the B in that class to advance. I think I reached another plateau when I realized that this hu losing streak started about the same time my first midterms did at the end of January. I'm starting to run/play a little better in hu now, and think I've fixed my leak or just lack of confidence. I'm hoping to get in a lot of hu hands next week, and probably redeposit in PS because I busted my roll there almost lol. The next post will show how this month went, it started pretty shitty. Me messing up since the 1st midterms show how outside life influences can affect your poker game negatively. It should be a lesson to me on not to play when another life event outside the felt is bothering me, or at least set a limit. But what's the fun in life if you can't push the limits to none and don't break the rules? It's also not a coincidence my upswing has stemmed from me not caring about school as much after failing a math midterm that I stressed out so much about. Funny how failing one class can lead to a life affirming moment. Sucks I have to take that class again next quarter, but this time it won't affect my poker tables. I failed after messing up the 1st midterm so bad lol. The score was ridiculous, no curve b/c the teacher is oldschool.

Just Ran Poker EV

Wow, I am running 1400ish below expectation, is this even possible? This can't go on forever can it?

HU Poker

I know I've been taking a real beating every time at the hu tables, but I had no idea it was that bad. I thought I was on a 16 buyin downswing, but apparently it's 28. Good thing I have PT, and can graph this stuff. I think this downswing started right before midterms, as my mindset has been decimated. I guess I'm learning the hard way that when things outside of the felt aren't going good, you shouldn't be playing poker. I don't think I'm going to stop hu, maybe I'm in denial. I really think I've taken some brutal hits and not being rolled for hu has made me a bit -ev at times, but I still think I can win at hu. I think lifetime since summer I'm breakeven in hu now. This isn't really tearing my heart out that much lol, I guess I'm getting better at accepting things. The best poker player in the world has to be the best hu player in the world. HU is the purest form of poker, and it's the epitome of poker playing. The swings are so much more brutal and every saying about poker is like 10x as true for hu. Damnit the 6max heater ended today, I don't think I was playing my best, but I also don't think I was playing bad. See hand below, brutal huh? but i guess I've been on a heater the past weekend.



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I definitely don't wanna bitch about this being a bad beat, but I sorta had that feeling as soon as I clicked call, but I mean w/e. The game is the game.

Full Tilt Poker, $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $86.20
SB: $50
BB: $61.75
UTG: $74.25
MP: $48.25
Hero (CO): $72.50

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (CO)
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.75, BTN calls $1.75, SB folds, BB calls $1.25

Flop: ($5.50) A 8 3 (3 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $3, BTN calls $3, BB folds

Turn: ($11.50) 3 (2 Players)
Hero bets $8, BTN calls $8

River: ($27.50) 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets $27.50, BTN raises to $60, Hero calls $32.25 and is All-In

Results: $147 Pot ($3 Rake)
BTN showed 3 3 (four of a kind, Threes) and WON $144 (+$71.50 NET)
Hero mucked A A (a full house, Aces full of Threes) and LOST (-$72.50 NET)

Update

http://img441.imageshack.us/my.php?image=marchgraphmo2.jpg



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My month so far...HU is killing me, every downswing so far has been hu. I think I'm slowly learning I can't be playing regulars all the time. I'm on a nice little heater running very hot and playing very well 6 max. Played in a tourney today and sucked. Lucky it was 10 bucks...the daily double. Busted with kk when i committed on an a high flop. I guess I made a big mistake, but he called with a4o though? Seriously, I made a potsized raise pre, maybe I need to rethink my tourney game?

Thinking about Tilt

I've been playing a bit more hu this month and find that it's harder to get on tilt when you lose a buyin or two if you even have a bankroll of just 14x the buyin. I only wished that I had the discipline to wait for 20 times the buyin before I started to play hu again. O well, no use over crying over something that won't change. The cardplayer article on tilt is very interesting and goes through the 4 stages of tilt. http://www.cardplayer.com/magazine/article/17279 I personally felt the anger once today when I felt I deserved this one pot, but managed to split it after an ace fell on the river nullifying my queen kick for trips. I still feel frustration a lot when I lose to runner runners. (I think I have to accept in poker and life it's like Snoop from the Wire said, "Deserve got nuthin' to do with it." So pumped about the season finale despite all the action having happened already really) I generally am able to accept the game being the game, but I don't think I will ever reach level 4 of tilt if it's completely different than 3. I don't think I will ever feel indifferent about losing, I'm just too competitive. I'll feel a bit of emotion and then move on after the inital pangs of losing. I don't think it'll be a flaw because I would be worried about my passion if I can just brush off losses and go on not even thinking about the outcome. Don't get me wrong, I constantly think about what I could have done differently, but I still care about the winning and losing over the long run. I frequently get more upset at myself than the cards really, because I know when I'm in the zone, I think I'm the best at the micro limits. That doesn't say much, especially when I don't have the numbers yet. I'm not clear of the author's point between stage 3 and stage 4 really, because I see the acceptance of the game being the game as the same as indifference over short term results. You can lose one hand, but you still have won Skalansky bucks in the game.

February Wrapup

I'm not too dissapointed in myself with the month despite being down a bit under 500 bucks after rakeback. Maybe I'm just rationalizing here, but I think losing always does humble me and teach me a lot more. The most important thing I've learned in February is that I think poker as a career is for me. It sounds strange, counter-intuitive... but I just really have the feeling I can do it. The swings are brutal, I ended the month on a hu session. I went up in a match 2 buyins in less than 15 minutes, I made a mistake and gambled with aq preflop. Obviously the guy has ak and it was deepstacked, I think I only committed because I felt like he was tilting. I wanted to fold, but decided that I had momentum. I quickly lost it and gave it all back lol. Very sick hands, but this is a very very sick game.

Goals for March: get a br of 5k, learn how to deal better with the swings aka not tilt in hu, (I went on tilt a few times this month, and the monstrous downswing was from playing 2/4, 1/2 hu and just playing scared there too), play in a few donkaments, (I don't think I've logged one in despite it being a goal of the year to play a lot more)