Poker in the Rear

Like I mentioned about a month ago, I had a hectic December travel schedule that took me to the Carribean, Washington DC and Michigan. Finally took the time to gather the pics and upload some, so enjoy!

Pic's are in the spoiler:


+ Show Spoiler +

Ah, the carribean..


We arrive on the boat with Sarah (cook), my brother and captain Mike (the captain and sarah's boyfriend).


boat interior


a bunch of locals pull boats up for some "wine'n" and the party gets started. We hop over for some beers.


Some of them come over to our boat... crazy locals.


We go on a bird tour


and I wonder when it will end


then we find a funny sign and I take the liberty of acting it out


and we find a funny plant that I use for a hat


then go on a swamp boat tour


I thought swamps were supposed to be ugly


my uncle, aunt, dad and me on the swamp boat


we find 2 crabs fucking... get a room


"...wanna go home with me???"


we get back to the boat for some drinking...


which leads to a dance party... long story


hillarious


poor captain mike get's served


next day we tour the land of grenada


and find sophisticated local art


i am deeply impressed


then we meet a monkey so we throw him a banana


I pose with him from a safe distance.


we visit a sugar cane rum distillery


and meet another monkey who is serious about littering


and captain mike says goodbye


we head out to cold ass DC, my uncle, brother and me


my lady and I take a pic in front of the lincoln memorial


and she laughs at my goofy ways


cool pic


view of the whitehouse from top of washington monument


abe and I hang for a bit


and we find the REAL r2d2 and C3po in the air and space museum @ a "american icons" exhibit. They also had the hat lincoln wore the night he was assasinated and the table that the declaration of independance was written on. of course we didn't take pictures of those

That's it. This is long enough, no need to post anymore =)

0 votes

Comments (11)

Well I'd have to say my run @ NL100 has me feeling like I am the donkey, but overall it has been a good year and I am on track with all of my goals! I really wanted to be @ NL100 by the end of December and that has been achieved. I'd like to make it to NL200 by the end of January but I'm not going to rush that. I'm gonna move up with 25 buy-ins @ the very least and maybe 30. I also still have a hell of a lot to learn as I am definitely NOT a favorite @ NL100 right now.

I feel like I might be @ NL100 for quite a bit because the truth is there are enough good players here that I can start practicing being a bit trickier. I want to open up my game and become a solid lag player, and I think this is a great limit to do it at. I feel like trying to learn a bunch of new stuff @ NL200 is going to be way too hard. So my plan is to really focus on LAG CardRunner Videos and get good at opening up my PFR range. Then I want to add some new tricks to my postflop play and get much better at hand reading so that I can value bet thinner and also bluff more profitably.

The big change is that I used to check/fold a lot and now I've started check/calling with things like TP marginal kicker. I've also started continuation betting a bit less and check raising a bit more, while also check / calling vs aggressive players and catching bluffs much more often. Overall, it's a lot more like playing the poker that I've read about and watched video's on which was never possible to do down in the microstakes.

I'm really happy that I started posting here on LP.net. I've met a lot of cool guys and many people who have been helping me out on hands and who have started replying to my blog somewhat consistently. I definitely think that a lot of my improvement was thanks to the LP community. It also helps to get past tilt and downswings when you have so many other people going through the same stuff with you. This must be what it's like to go to consistent AA meetings.

As far as non-poker life goes, things are quite good. I'm moving to Costa Rica by the end of January. I'd like to be @ NL200 before I got, but who knows if that will happen. I have a lot of work to do to organize that move and also finish up all my obligations here in Colorado. I'd rather just move to a nice apartment in Boulder, but I have to go down to Rica for work and I've given a promise to do it. Oh well. Only like 9 months and then I'm free to do as I please, and hopefully by that time the poerk winnings will be big enough that I can totally support myself through poker.

Things are going well with the girlfriend. We tend to have 1 big fight every month, but once we get it out of our system we're golden for a while. Also both gotten much better at not fighting about little things and supporting each other when the other one is feeling down. She did the christmas tour with me and met all of my family, and they all loved her. She was great and it made me feel really happy to see her getting along with everybody. We're planning to go out and get some sort of oriental foot massage thing and see a movie today. Either Charlie Wilson's war or Alien Vs Predator or P.S. I love you. Try and guess which movie was my choice, which was her choice, and which we both want to see =)

I really want to travel LESS this year and spend more time focusing on self improvement. Mental and physical. I feel like I've lost sight of a lot of things and pretty much poker is the only place I've stayed consistent. Haven't done much to try and improve in any other areas in my life. I really need to get back to focusing on my body cause I have serious neck pain. Also, it would be nice to be cut again and if we're gonna be in Rica there's a lot more potential beach time. Gotta be looking good.

Umm, that's about all I can think of for now. I guess it's ok to do such a long post since it's the year end wrapup and all that jazz. Let's do some graph's and things to show how my first year of NL cash games went. Sadly it all started on August 22nd so it's only like 4 months, but that's ok.








That's all from me for now! See you guys later!

0 votes

Sweet game. Just played the single player straight through from beginning to end tonight. It's 6am and now I'm going to sleep. Really fun and probably the best war game I've played other than Operation Flashpoint.

I'm tired and hungry now, yet strangely still very satisfied.

0 votes

Comments (13)

Just had a rough session on NL100. Only lost about 1 buyin, but I just feel destroyed. My mind is burnt out and I was having trouble keeping up with 4 tables. Very weird considering that @ NL25 I was doing 8 (and sometimes going for 16) and @ NL50 I was usually playing 6. I guess I'm just thinking more, which is good, but man it hurts my head.

I'm getting into lot's of situations that I've never been in before. I am afraid I'm getting FPS because I don't know if my tricky moves are being done at the right time. I feel a bit lost... but at the same time I am making some very solid plays. But my mistakes are very costly and they're killing my winrate.

Posted a bunch of hands and hopefully some advice will come to help me out. I guess this is just the transition period of moving up a limit. Some nights it's all super easy fish and old strategy is fine, other nights you have to step up the game a bit to win and it's confusing in the new ground.

I have been able to open up my PFR range and play around 23/21, which is huge for me since I used to be doing between 14/11 and 17/14. But I am also doing a lot of trickier things and checking when I used to bet and raising/betting where I used to check. Also more bluffing, though those haven't been as detrimental to my game as bad calls have been.

I dunno, just ranting. I feel like I can overcome it all but not feeling the greatest right now. I made sure to post some hands and I've decided to watch another CR vid on LAG play before getting onto the tables again. For now I'm gonna go play Call of Duty 4 which I got for xmas and haven't opened yet. Get my mind away from poker for a bit.

0 votes

Comments (3)

Not great, not bad. There were a lot more fish today @ NL100 which was nice. I messed up and got on too many tables, which lead to not playing any tables well enough. Made a few mistakes and had some confusing hands, but still came out winning thanks to some good plays vs some fish. Got a few hands I'd love advice on:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/346849 - Not sure how to handle this - no read on the guy.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/346834 - Is this a good way to handle it when I get counterfeit like that?

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/346809 - One of the first hands vs the guy, no big reads but felt he was pretty loose - Bad check-raise? I feel I'm committed after I Cr and have to call. I think this was an overall bad play... advice?

I think I'm pretty well into NL100 now with a $2,900 BR. I also made GoldStar on PS, so that's nice. Got about 20,000 FPP's right now and planning to keep saving those up now. Before I was buying lot's of books with em but I've gone through pretty much all of them and only the bottom of the barrel books are left. Maybe I'll save em up for a bigscreen TV.

That's all for now.

2 votes

Comments (4)

Well I started playing NL cash games a little less than 4 months ago after playing Limit full ring for a bit and then 9 and 18 person SNG's for a bit. I had to adjust my game a lot and really only knew how to read boards and do the math. I was pretty bad @ the strategy of it all.

I read that you would know if you were a long term winning player after logging 100,000 hands, because that would give enough time for variance to even out. I didn't realize @ the time that they meant 100,000 hands within a limit... so this achievement doesn't totally apply. But I've passed 100,000 hands and I'm definitely winning, so I feel like I definitely can beat the micro-stakes. Now it's time to see if I can keep climbing up!



Thanks to all of LP for the support, advice and encouragement. Big thanks to sMi and all my buddies there who have made poker fun and given me in depth advice on hands and strategy when I couldn't find anyone willing to talk to me. <3

Also, things are going better in NL100 and I am hopeful that I won't have to move back down to NL50 again. We'll see how that goes! The great thing is that I am finally able to 4 table and be fully absorbed because there's so much more thinking going on. At the lower levels I had to add lot's of tables to keep myself from being bored. This is so much more fun now =)

1 votes

Comments (7)

I'm in Michigan right now with my mom's side of the family, as per family tradition. We went to church last night and did the Christmas Eve service, which was filled with new wave Christian rock which was horrible. This is the 1 time of the year that I go to church and every time it reminds me why I don't go any more than that.

0 votes

Took another shot tonight and it went ok. I'm still making some significant mistakes, but I don't blame them on the new level... rather on my own complete stupidity. Trying to over think things. My first instinct keeps being "FOLD" then I start thinking too much and come up with reasons to do fancy shit that is completely idiotic because I don't think it all the way through. Stacked myself with QJs for no good reason. Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid...

But other than a few mistakes for significant losses, I did pretty well. Actually had like 0 small mistakes. But I only played a few hundred hands, so not much time to do stupid things. I like keeping sessions a bit shorter though. Helps me stay in perspective.

I will post hands tomorrow. Pretty late here right now and I'm ready for bed. Just happy to be winning @ NL100 now rather than losing like I was last night, heh. Hope that the third shot helps me get solidly entrenched into the limit. We'll just have to see!

0 votes

Comments (3)

And like someone said before, PS wasn't being nice to me!

I ran pretty badly in big pots - lost several flips with a pair vs AK after pushing preflop. But the most frustrating thing was that I ran into 2 mega fish and was kicking them around, but then they both sucked out on me for huge pots and left the table. When I sat down they were both 2-3 buyins deep. Then I would stack them and we'd be about even. Then I'd get them all in with a huge lead and they would suck out on me for when I had 250BB or so.... then they'd leave the table. AHHHHHhhhh!!

Here are my big losses to the fish:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/339178 - I knew he would stab at the pot and he'd feel committed if I check raised him... damn.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/339180 - ok, this isn't AS bad, but it felt painful after slowly taking pot after pot from him to double up, then lose it all and have to start again!

I also had the worst misclick of my life tonight - I'm sure many can top it but for me it was huge cause I'm taking a shot here and every buyin is a big deal to me. Here it is:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/339114 - /wrists

Overall I think I played pretty well... definitely made a few mistakes but most of my big losses were either bad beats, bottom set vs top set, KK vs AA, or flips. And I lost a lot of those types of hands.

Graph's and stuff:










I definitely feel fine playing @ NL100. Just need to run better and cut out a few mistakes... Not sure if I will keep playing NL100 or go back to NL50. I started with 22 buyins figuring to drop back down @ 20 buyins (nice quick shot). Right now I'm at $2,085... If I felt like I was being outplayed then I'd definitely run back to NL50, but it really felt a lot more like bad luck. Overall felt pretty standard. Dunno. Thoughts?

0 votes

Comments (9)

I really ran poorly today but it doesn't bug me very much cause I feel like I made less mistakes in this session than any I have played in the last week. Nothing went my way but I made sure to lose very little on the bad hands. Even made a decent laydown which you can see below my PT stats. Nothing huge since I had kicker trouble, but I actually put him on 22 before folding and was happily proven correct.



I know the stats aren't pretty, but I have excuses! My PFR was pretty low for 2 reasons. Mainly I was on very loose tables which lead to two things: First, I tightened up my PFR from the SB, especially w/ 1 person limping in. I usually raise from the SB vs 1 limper if I'm going to play, but I wonder if that's been a leak by getting into raised pots with decent hands OOP. Second, I got bad seats and had very loose players to my left on all tables, so I cut down on my blind stealing significantly.

Anyway, here's my best laydown of the session:

Submitted by : k2o4

POKERSTARS GAME #13910756637: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.25/$0.50) - 2007/12/16 - 21:49:16 (ET)
Table 'Magdalena' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: k2o4 ($51 in chips)
Seat 2: scampbe11 ($27.20 in chips)
Seat 3: Don Poka ($23.60 in chips)
Seat 4: Wii_fund ($63.65 in chips)
Seat 5: waynecameron ($49.95 in chips)
Seat 6: stackinkids ($124.95 in chips)
stackinkids: posts small blind $0.25
k2o4 : posts big blind $0.50

Holecards
Dealt to k2o4
scampbe11: calls $0.50
Don Poka: folds
Wii_fund: calls $0.50
waynecameron: calls $0.50
stackinkids: folds
k2o4 : checks

Flop (Pot : $2.25)

   
k2o4 : bets $1.75
scampbe11: folds
Wii_fund: folds
waynecameron: raises $3.25 to $5
k2o4 : raises $10.25 to $15.25
waynecameron: raises $34.20 to $49.45 and is all-in
Wii_fund said, "don't leave"
k2o4 : folds
waynecameron collected $31.15 from pot
waynecameron: shows (a full house, Deuces full of Nines)

Summary
Total pot $32.75 | Rake $1.60
Board  
Seat 1: k2o4 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: scampbe11 folded on the Flop
Seat 3: Don Poka folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Wii_fund folded on the Flop
Seat 5: waynecameron (button) collected ($31.15)
Seat 6: stackinkids (small blind) folded before Flop

0 votes