7 bi doesn't feel so good after lots of 5 bi losing days followed by 2-3 days of 1 buyin sessions. at least I'm above 3k again and overall am doing well on FPP to hit 100k by the end of jan, which is a big goal of mine. but i don't want to mass grind for it. Focusing on 4-8 tables and trying to get to NL200. I figure that in the process of doing that if I play nearly every day I should make my 100k fpp and clear my bonus.
Anyway, just happy to have a good session for once!
My only justification is that it still doesn't make up for the -4k or w/e in equity i ran last month, so no hating. Overall a solid month I guess, was sick for like 5 days so I didn't get to play as many hands. This wraps up 2008 wherein I'm up an estimated 50k which is like 100k below my goal so fuck that. 2009 goal: 150k.
I'm taking a break off from school next quarter (3 months) to focus on grinding. I hope I don't regret the decision, I plan to put in at least 150k hands 6 tabling 6max which I know isn't much to some of you . Very crucial next 3 months though.
So that this won't be a boring entry, here are some notable/interesting/funny/OMGHATELIFE deep hands that have occurred throughout the last couple months I thought I'd share/complain about:
So after playing today and getting absolutely NOWHERE in nl25, i achieved goldstar. I really feel that this is a great accomplishment for me, since its been 3 weeks since i started playing poker, and i really suck at poker still. I'm trying to play off the reload bonus ($75) and I'm going to continue to keep playing nl25 unless i get underrolled for it.
I think I will break through, I just dont know when it will hit me, but I think i can break through nl25 soon.
Also, what should I do with the FPPs? The cash bonuses seem to stack up really well later on, but I don't know if I'm going to get that many FPPs, as it will prob. take me forever to the FPPs needed to get $285, and even moreso the $650 one.
Made around $888 on Cake (inc. rb) from shortstacking NL100 and 200 the first half of the month. sorry to everyone who hates short stackers (everyone) but I just had to do it to clear the bonus asap cause I hate Cake!
After I cleared my bonus I threw in cash to Stars again and started playing NL10 to try to roll up for NL25.
I had to move back down several times cause I ran pretty bad at NL25 many many shots. You see these on the graphs every time there is a down swing.
Then on one Sunday, I had a sick 14 buy-in or so heater (you'll see it as the $0 to $462 line) which took my roll to about $910. Soon after (due to school having ended and me grinding a couple days) I got really bored of cash games and spewed a lot trying to improve in MTTs and SNGs which I still try.
My roll was $832 on Stars when I deposited $600 for the reload bonus which I did tonight, so I will look to be taking shots at NL50 at around $1600 and then take my $600 back. I can't wait for my rakeback to get in on Cake, then I can cash out $2k
My bank account only has like a couple hundred in it, so this will be nice.
And now I guess I will take some time to write about Vegas for anyone who is interested, or maybe just for myself in the future to look back on. Well, I am not 21 yet so I did not get to gamble but I did stay at MGM Grand, which I think is a very nice hotel. The food is great which I learned to appreciate much more due to the fact that I am older now. I went with two other families that were friends of my parents, totaling about 9 adults and 4 kids. We actually rented a van that was big enough to fit all of us.
We ate at a Chinese restaurant named Jasmine and the bill came out to about a little over $1000... We had ordered shark fin soup for each person and apparently it's a delicacy and cost about $80 per bowl.
I didn't understand how my family could afford this since every restaurant in Vegas is expensive, but I learned kinda like FPPs, you get points for spending time gambling in the casino and you can use these points to get discounts on your final bill after you leave. I asked my parents about it and they say they only really need to pay a couple hundred every time we come to cover our staying expenses, the points or whatever cover almost everything else.
My dad also saw Johnny Chan from across a concert hall of some Chinese singer. Funny thing, Johnny Chan used to go bowling with my dad in Houston before he became famous. They don't talk anymore and my dad didn't get to say hi to him. My dad said he got way fatter, which I would imagine so due to doing nothing but playing poker right?
Bought lots of clothes from around the area and caught a cold from visiting Big Bear mountain or city and going snow tubing there. It isn't that much fun, probably cause I am from Houston and didn't have the right winter wear.
Well that wraps it up for all I have to say about my trip, I did not hate the trip as much as I expected, except for the flight back home. It got delayed 2 hours and we ended up getting home at about 5 AM last night.
edit: after I got home from Vegas I entered a couple $2 180 man turbos, and placed 2nd in one of them for $72
Hope you all LPers had a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Good luck in poker for the next year everyone.
i think im going for it next year , i just can't help thinking about it these past few days after finishing my final milestone. im gonna go for it or die trying, gl to me lol
I actually managed to win 1 out of 5 donkaments i played today and probably the 1st i've won from like 35-40 this year im still prolly down to donkaments overally but thats mainly coz i play ones with extremely bad structure in betfair and i dont know what to do in some common spots an avarage tournament player would know
UFC, 5-Diamond, Vegas, Online Pokerby RaSZi, December 30
5-Diamond WPT
So me and Evy went to Vegas on 4th of December, and I was happily surprised by the weather. I mean I know it's not gonna be the blazing desert heat I remember from the summer, but I always automatically think of it when I think of Vegas. In stead it was only a little warmer than in Holland, but still pretty cold. No insane amounts of traffic, not the massive amounts of people wearing WSOP hats, just quiet basically. I really like Vegas best at times like this. It's like a whole different place in the winter.
We went a bit earlier because of the 5-Diamond WPT tournaments in bellagio. There were some 5k prelims we'd like to play before the main event. The prelims were sick structured as always in the US, but I never really got deep. One time I pretty much bubbled in a 5k tourney, but I had somewhat of a blowup to go out (REALLY?). The main event however was a great experience for me.
It was the first time I would play a tournament with a structure like this. 45k Starting stacks, 50-100, 90 minute levels, what......!?!? I was very anxious to start playing this cashgame. I didn't really know what to expect and I figured it was going to be something like, hardcore value monsters, pot control the hell out of overpairs or TPTK's in 3-way pots etc. We walk in and I'm half late but just in time to catch my hand utg. Unfortunately I'm eating candy have some water in my hands, and I have my paper to prove it's my seat, so it's all kind of chaotic. I look at my hand and I have {6h}{6d} and I make it 300 utg. Everyone folds to David Singer in the cutoff and he calls, as does the big blind. The flop is {2c}{6s}{Jh}, sweet.
However, we are 45k deep and the pot is 950. God it feels like a waste to flop a set here with 45k stacks. Is this gonna be like 800 call, 1800 call, 3400 fold type of hand where i increase my stack with 5%. I don't think so. I always wanted to try this and seeing I would normally not win a huge pot anyway in this situation in a tourney like this, it doesn't seem like a waste. I bet 8000, where I would've normally bet 800. I don't give it a lot of attention and people kind of laugh or gasp. The dealer says 'the bet is 8000' and I make my most sad Oh nooooees. Singer looks at it for a while and then calls!!! The big blind gets out of the way and Singer and me see a {10h} turn. I decide to go for the God-damnit-fuck-my-life-i-hate-confusing-chip-colours-check and hope he does something. Singer is a thinking player and he does some weird shit himself sometimes during live play, so I'm seriously thinking he could float me on the flop to scare the shit out of me. He thinks for a while and fires 7k.
I was really unsure how I wanted to proceed here. The problem is the turn is a nasty card imo. I seriously think he could float, cause he honestly thought I missclicked and he could take the pot away from me, but a lot of hands he can call preflop with, float on the flop, might get some outs on this turn. Also, if I call here, chances are big he is gonna put me on a big hand and shut down on the river. If i call and frontbomb the river, same deal plus I gave him a free card. I decided to go for a quick checkraise allin, trying to fake the agitated manner of someone who did something stupid in a big tournament and is desperately trying to get himself out a winner. He thought forever and then mucked his hand. I was satisfied with the way the hand went anyway, I won a lot of chips, plus the whole table thinks im a monkey now .
I ended day 1 with about 140k in chips, which put me in the top 10. I received the bold player of the day award from WPT, for being allin in the first hand I played and playing like a scandi all day long. Good times. Day 2 was going insanely well, where I bluffed 1 guy hard at the beginning of the day and then got some chips on a new table, where Benyamine was 2 to my right. We ended up in a pot at the end of the day where I raised utg with 79hh he called small blind and the big blind calls. The flop is {Qh}{10h}{4d} (FOR A SECOND I THOUGHT I FLOPPED A FLUSH BUT THEY DONT HAVE 4 COLOR DECK LIVE @!#@!#!@#@!) After they both check I bet 15k or so, Benyamine makes it 45 I shove 165 total, he tank-calls {Ac}{Qc} and holds for a 340k pot or something. That just blows, cause I would have had 500k and woulda been the leaderchip. Now I have 200k, which is plenty, but I don't feel good about it. Also, we had 2 hours left after that hand and I'd rather have him crippled. He played very well and was annoying even from my right.
Day 3 was just a whirlpool of runbads. I lost half my stack vs Nick Schulman (TheTakeover) with {Jd}{8c} vs {6d}{6h} on [8d}{8h}{6c}, which is pretty gross, but I'm happy I didn't go broke, because he had me covered. Then I had two interesting hands vs Amnon Filipe, one of which eh flatcalled pf from the sb with {Ac}{Kc} vs my hi-jack raise. He check-called the flop on {5h}{5s}{9c} turn {Ah} check check, river {10h} he checkcalls my 60%-pot bet. I had {Qc}{Tc} and I actually thought I was valuebetting against a low pair. He said 'Ok here's a gift' before calling with AK in that spot, which just goes to show how retarded live poker actually is. I mean I'm pretty positive I would only check the river to checkraise. To actually put someone on a flush or a 5 there or ANYTHING that beats you is pretty retarded. I don't mind flatting at all, but to presume your hand is dead is just so weak. Also I don't think it's cool to say 'here's a gift' and then after I showed my awesome valuebet turn over top pair top kicker, seriously wtf. Then I miss {Ah}{6h} vs his 99 on {Th}{8h}{7s}, to get down to like 80k. I folded down to 66k, when we're in the 2k-4k level and Justin Young opens in mid-late to 10,500. I crush his range with {Ac}{Td} from the big blind, so i stick it in. He has Kings and I'm out in 103rd place, where 100th place received, 22k$. Fuck my life, what a fucked up day.
Luckily we had Flight of the Conchords at home, which is an awesome show. They only have 1 season out but season 2 is coming, watch this clip!!!
Holidays and UFC
For the holidays we haven't been doing much. On Christmas Eve we planned a very lazy day, but David Williams asked to go out and have a 'sick dinner' with him his gf and Viffer. This sounded perfect to us, as we didn't feel like a huge party or whatever and these were people we know well, so you can just hang out. Unfortunately David had to cancel, but Viffer Evy and me went anyway. It was at 'Cut' in the new Palazzo Venetian building. We had a table a bit off to the side, which was very nice. David wasn't lying. The dinner was one of the best ones I ever had, if not the best one. Every little snack was the best I ever had. We stayed there for about 2 hours and then went on to have a drink at Encore, the new Wynn building. Viffers girlfriend works there so we went to check the place out, since it had only opened the day before. It looked absolutely gorgeous and classy. It has very un-vegas-like casino features. For instance, there is spot where you can see outisde. This sounds ... normal, but it's the first time I have ever seen it in a vegas casino. Actually see the sky, damn. Also there are a lot of big white columns throughout the main gambling area, which create somewhat of a room perspective. Very cool.
On first and second christmas day.. hmm.. I just read that out loud to Evy and she started laughing at me saying there is not second Christmas day here. Well in Holland we do have it, holllaaaaaaa. In fact Belgium has 3. Ok so we didn't do anything on Christmas day itself, which suit my lazy habits just fine.
On the third christmas day aka december 27th we went to the UFC!!!! I wasn't expecting going at all, but Erica Schoenberg had tickets and her and David weren't going, so we got to go. We went with Erica's family, who are awesome. Evy knew them really well already so it was really familiar anyway. We met them at Bellagio and from there went with a limo to MGM, where the actual fights were. Our seats were sick. We were on the second row next to the ring. We got to see everything really well and saw fighters coming and leaving etc.
The 3 most important fights were:
Nogueira vs Frank Mir
Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson vs Wanderlei Silva
Forrest Griffin vs Rashad Evans
I wanted to see jackson vs silva the most, since they have been longtime favorites of mine. I have been watching MMA fighting for a long time now and I always love it. This was my 3rd time going while I was in vegas too. Nogueira was just a sad performance vs Frank Mir, he looked out of shape and he was fighting like a lazy chump. Nobody ever knocked him out or had a ref interfere in his last 34 fights, and now he gets dropped 3 times by Frank Mir. SERIOUSLY. I mean Mir is ok at boxing and all, but he is definitely not better than other people nogueira made it to the end against. I kind of hated to see the ref stop the fight so soon and the fluke win. He deserved it this fight, but it just felt fucked up. If Nogueira is in shape there is no way Frank Mir could even make Nog flinch while boxing him.
Jackson vs Silva was for me the most anticipated fight. I love them both like I said. I thought rampage would win, definitely seeing silva's previous fights. Well, I mean Rampage alledgedly fled from the cops and stuff, but he still seems a better fighter now. He lost twice to Silva before thought, and you could tell he was very nervous. He dropped silva without too much trouble in the first round with a KO and to be honest it made me very sad. I have watched videos and dvd's of silva fights from 6 years ago, and to see him lay down there was just wrong. I guess he isn't the same guy as he used to be and his career in the 205 division is basically over now. Rampage wants to rematch Griffin before fighting for the belt again, but he says it's up to the UFC. Here is how the fight ended
The Griffin fight was very cool to watch. Constant action and very good boxing. Evans kind of luckboxed his way into a KO. Griffin was overal better, but Evans prevailed and took the win. He KO'd Lidell in an earlier fight, so i guess he can throw some punches, but I don't think he is champion material to be honest.
Online
Ever since we got here, I have been playing a lot online. It was perfect because I kept waking up at 6 am because of jetlag. I have a new method to 24-table on my laptop and that's going realy well. I have had my best month this year and I haven't played that many days. I think I played a total of 15 days or something, but I did get in 200,000 hands. I have mostly played 5-10, but 3-6 and 10-20 have been no exception. The biggest difference with before is confidence. I used to look at the games and see a lot of regulars and give myself reasons not to play, also cause I wanted to do other stuff. Now I just sit down see wherever there's 24 tables and play those stakes. I don't care about regulars anymore and as you grow in that mindset, you can see a lot of them aren't that good, or have exploitable glitches. It was my birthday on the 29th, and basically the laziest I had ever. Evy had to go to the dentist and had her wisdom tooth extracted, so she is in a lot of pain. We're just chilling at the house and after new years I think ill get some hours in before the PCA starts. I'm really motivated that I got my grind back and I don't want to lose it again .
After the PCA I will go back to Europe probably and travel the circuit there. A lot of exciting tuornaments there and also some new added ones that I want to play. My schedule looks something like this the way it looks now: Vegas-Bahamas-Vegas-Deauville-Kopenhagen-Moscow-Dortmund-San Remo-Monte Carlo-Vegas. After the PCA I will be in Vegas for a week more and then go home so that I'm in time for EPT Deauville. We might decide to go to Australia after the PCA, but chances are slim, especially seeing it's the longest you can actually fly lol. I don't like flying that much, it's very exhausting to me.
Pokervliegen
A while back a friend of mine came up with an idea to make affordable Vegas travels. He finished up his product and it became pretty sick. He is offering packages where you can go to vegas, play a tournament and stay in one of the famous hotels, for the same amount people normally spend on their ticket alone. I believe right now it's mostly for Dutch players, but check out the site, it's all self explanatory.
Wow I mean, just wow, haven't counted but thats over 10 2-3 outter I took, full stack bad beat of course. It really make me feel sick to see it happening again, and then again, and then again AND THEN AGAIN. I know I complain a shitload, but I do carry on every time I had those sick ds I mean I've just been sucked out on basically every hand I took to showdown. Everyday I realize how much you have to be lucky to win at poker, even if you have any edge. Today was so sick in term of bad beat, people have it more sets than me going allin vs my overpair than I have just in any pot. I really just wish it was closing this year to make a fresh new start where everything I took in bad beat will come back to me, in super deep stack pot everytime.
I have a lot of envy for people who can take 10 really horrible bad beat and keep a smile on their face, cause I really can't, it makes me feel like shit. I've been winning pretty constantly when I started poker and then I felt like I was totally doomswitched, right now I really am, I've been spewing occasionally but much much much less lately and I'm taking for granted I should be winning, however it doesn't work that way. There is a random number generator that more than rarely give good result to my seat. I think my mind really got conditioned to care about result because obv they don't go too often my way.
So now I ask to the poker god, I made some freaking dumbass fish and bunch of illogical bad regs happy, give me their luck for the new year. Frankly I think it'll turn around (it sorta started to go better during december until past 2 days lol)
I'm really starting to think about coaching, not because I am losing money or anything. Simply because I want to improve my game and move up in stakes and have a better edge and logic in marginal situation, which would obviously improve winrate. So if you are a coach, I'm gonna look for information on deals and I also swear I will work on my tilt issue throught I barely tilt anymore in term of gameplay. (I'm sure I still do a bit, which I will work on actually). It's quite obvious I know the basic of the game, but I really am willing to put more time to learn the game deeper. So hope I hear about you guys soon and good luck.
So, well it won't be nearly as long as evan's blog post but oh well, I've had good results (all online) played mainly heads up cash games... but I have no graphs cuz i format my comp and didn't track my hands in the last 5 months anyway.... I still remember every single month though, so here goes
January, NL200/NL400 +$13,000
February NL200/NL400 +$17,000
March NL400/NL600 +$45,000
April NL600/NL1k/NL2k +$115,000
May NL1k/NL2k/NL5k +$30,000
June NL1k to NL5k +$45,000
July NL1k to NL5k +$30,000
August NL600 to NL5k+$113,000 (Played some NL600 there a lot cuz I wasn't getting much action higher up)
September NL600 to NL10k+$111,000 (Was pretty much up 100k at the beginning of the month then broke even)
October NL600 to NL10k -$30,000 (My only losing month, was up 120k at the beginning, then 180k DS midway)
November NL600 to NL5k +$70,000 (stopped playing NL10k cuz i had trouble handling the swings... )
December NL600 to NL5k +$45,000 (I always get uber lazy in december so I didn't play much ~_~)
Extra!: -$39,600$ (Battlefield Poker going bankrupt along with 27 other skins of the microgaming network)
Well! I also started playing tournaments like a month ago but no real good results so far, playing like 1 tourney / day, made it close to the FT a few times (12th and 11th) but well no big money.... I'm prob breaking even in tourney or slightly down I'm not sure....
so I basically profited slightly more than 600k but standing more like at 560k cuz of that bankrupcy shit... I'm pretty happy with that since my initial goal was to make 300k (and i didn't plan to get ripped off 80% of my roll)!
So now, as for 2009, I'll try to play some more live donkaments, PCA, EPT, WSOP etc. and I'd like to make at least 1 final table.... also I'll try to put more hours in, play better and I'm hoping to make more than 1 million so I can take shots at 100/200 !
So i just ended the biggest single losing session i've ever had. It's sick. SO SICK. Unbelievably sick. Disgustingly sick. Set over set, runner runner, etc.
14th in 35k player Tourneyby Heath_at_Uk1, December 30
So I finished 14th the other day in the World Record Tournament. Mostly just deposited money for that tournament alone, but I have been thinking of taking another go at poker.
Cashed for $1,150, so that leaves me a nice roll to start with again. Just got to make sure I teach myself some discipline, and hold to my bankroll management. My biggest problem seems to be chasing my losses. Going to start out at NL25.
Hopefully I can get something going, I mean if I navigated a field of 35,000 players to finish 14th surely I was doing something right. Going to devote my entire roll to my cash adventure, so no more tournaments for awhile, unless someone wants to offer a staking deal for MTTs, Haha Thought not.
so i cashed out all the money i initially put in ($175) on both my sites... so now i am playing with only profits.
which is like $18 bucks on cake and $21 on pstars.
=/
BUT...after reading about SAKISAKI's win and FRINKx's year, i have been remotivated to grind it out. The sky is the limit. I want to be a tournament player, and to do that, i have to have the br to support it. time to grind 4nl on cake and 2nl on pstars. (btw i had a profit of 720, but blew most of it, which is why i needed to be remotivated)
Well the month started very very bad, then i got a little heater, but in the end didnt work out so well. However, I am still satisfied, still got a lot to work on my discipline, but I am happy because at least it is a winning month, and i played a decent amount of hands. With rakeback, its an OK month, could and should have been a lot better ofcourse, but whatever.
Here is the graph.
Thought it'd be a good idea to play some nl10 at stars since its pretty easy and all. Wrong, obviously.
Every 15% 3bet toolbag showed up with AA/KK, ate some nice suckouts, etc. Ah well fuck it. Hopefully I used up all of my runbad so it doesn't happen at nl20 tomorrow.
December has been a completely gaylord month pokerwise and I'm break even. Normally I play 40k-45k hands per month but I kind of got fed up and lost motivation halfway into the month. Doesn't help that I bought a PS3 and all kinds of games/blu-ray discs with FPPs since it just drags me even further away from the sessions. It's pretty fun but not really a good investment pokerwise. December was supposed to be a big month for me and I was hoping to win a lot but didn't happen at all.
I played live poker for the first time tonight. It was live, but not brick and mortar. As some of you know, the Montreal Casino has those PokerPro electronic tables. I'd prefer to play with chips and cards of course since if I want to stare at computer screens I can do so at home. But either way it went well! The table I sat at was supeeerrrrrrrrrrr soft. 70% of the table loved to limp and it's unfortunate that most of them were stationy so stealing pots was hard. They were just very fishy (not weak unfortunately) and one or two guys were total donks. So I just nit it up and profit. I'm surprised I managed to play for 2+ hours because whenever I've played "live" before (not for money) I get bored super fast. Maybe it's just because there's no money involved. Also lol @ the kids who rock up there like they're the shit with their sunglasses and they have a quarter of a buyin. And the guy who stares people down every time they make a move like he's even remotely capable of reading their souls. Ended with good results and it was pretty fun I guess.
Happy holidays to you all and gl gl.
Also, Gororok I'm rooting for you to make SuperNova gogogo!
year almost over and im takin some time off, i has played over 1 mirrion hands dis year woot. im a hardcore grinder but im gonna move into managing my own money and hopefully i can get some nice returns. i already has over 200% return dis year on my 8800$ profolio by shorting everything that moves up. got like $67000 in ultrashort S&P 500 so its like every 1% it moves down i make 1% of 134,000$!!! perfect place to park my $ imo. just awaiting the inevitable market crash.
obv poker has been great and my charts speakst for itself
it says 150k but obv after playin over 1 mirrion hands i has like $32k in pokerstars/fulltilt rakeback and bonuses. i dont spill any fpps and only use them for cash bonus. im prolly gettin a big lcd tv from full tilt store. i havent spend any of that shit. that plus random freeroll tournament winnings and i has T$1500 somehow in my acct. so im guessin i made over 185k$ from poker this year. i made like $18000 luckboxin the stock market that is like 203,000$ this year in taxable income. obv i goin to try to cut taxes and not report it how the tax books want ppl to report it.
my new year resolutions is to get in shape cuz im too fat. also got a sidebet with a buddy on that. i hasnt workout at all but i just ordered some exercise band home gym training from amazon so i'll see how that goes.
i dont know what to write on my blog. maybe i will has somethin when i fund my account with 250k+ and margins. woot. i think its still the best way to park ur money in. im still learning and tryin to fine tune my trend following trading strategy. i dont think my trading plans are that bad like tenbagger thinks. there are dumber ppl who just randomly throws their $ on retarded funds. I read some posts on 2+2 BFI section and some dude parked like 600k+ on some random fund right near the market top. all that fund did was buy different indexes and callin it diversified. rofl wtf.
good luck all and i wish i can win a sunday mil.
so to summarize:
1. i cant find much time to play poker anymore
2. i think i has an edge in the market
3. currently has a huge SDS position, i needs the market to crash to make good $
4. im becomin fatter and fatter
5. i hope i can find some interestin stuff to put on my blog but i dont
6. obv my blog iz mostly brag posts
7. my car is fixed, fuckin loose battery wires
8. i like pies over cakes
9. 30 inch monitors fuckin own
10. this brings me to my january goals, finishin games i dl'd but never really has chance to play. this will include GTA4, Fable, King's Bounty remake, fallout 3, and obv going to have many dotathons. those are ones in my head now. so far i been playin gta4 a lot that game is srsly awesome
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. Very crucial next 3 months though.
, i just can't help thinking about it these past few days after finishing my final milestone. im gonna go for it or die trying, gl to me lol
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