Sunday, September 25, 2011

playing tournaments today

decided to use up a bunch of frequent player points for free tournament buy-ins and have a relaxing day of tournaments while football and baseball games are going on.

2:58 PM: first up is a $10 9-handed freezeout where my over-pair (QQ)lost to a set from a loose fish that limp called TT and hit top set. and I'm down to 15BB 45 min in. Will keep update with new tournaments and new results as the day goes on.

this could get boring, lol.

3:16 PM: busted from that one after building back to a starting stack by getting AK vs KK all-in for 25BB. Then I shoved a couple of times one a flip, and lost a flip and was out.

Now I'm in a $60 9handed $15k freezout. Have lost a few BB over the first level.

3:59 PM: In chiplead in $15k guaranteed freezout. 5bb over average in $4k 9handed freezeout. Just started the $25k guaranteed RB+addon and the $100k guarantee freezout.

4:18PM: the i'm an idiot update. busted the 100k trying to run a bluff on a moron after he misclicked pf and i knew it. shoved a turn where i should have had 30% equity worst case scenario instead I had 4% equity. I suck. still in the 25k, still chipleader in the 15k, and got a double stack in the 4k.

5:56PM: in 8th place in the 15k guaranteed about to hit the money (36 players). Have half of an average stack in the 25k RB (took one addon) with a little over half of the field still running. Half of an average stack in the $5.5k guarantee with a little less than a third of the field remaining, half of which will get money. 15th place in the $8k shorthanded at the first break with about 15% of the field eliminated.

and I'm supposed to go to dinner in 2 hours. If I'm about to final table any of the tournaments I'll probably send the wife ahead and take a cab or something. If I'm shortstacked I'll just start shoving every hand and see what happens.

6:11 PM: just busted the 8k after I ran AK into KK pf, then lost a pot bluffing a turned GS against a sticky CCing player. Then finally got all-in AQ against QJ and he jacked the river. got set over setted to get knocked out of the $5.5k 20 short of the money. still got a tiny stack in the $25k guaranteed rebuy. and in 3rd place in the $15K.

EDIT: just busted the $25k. only got the $15k going. 28 players left.

7:05 PM: busted in 12th for $240. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Idiot chipleader (probably second worst player left in the tournament) opened for 3x when average stack was about 20bb (lol) I reshipped KTo and he tank called it off with Q8s. Hit his 8 on the river and that was all she wrote. Would have been a nice double up to put me in second place right before the final table. First place was $3.2k which would have been a nice score considering I spent the afternoon watching sports and sending emails while playing these stupid tournaments.

the only tourney I think I played bad all day was the $109 which was obviously the most expensive one. What can I say I'm and idiot. Overall I spent 28,000 carbon points to make about $210 so the exchange rate was only slightly worse than what I would get if I didn't have RB. not too bad.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

one time?!?!?!

Who knows what the odds of this happening are, but hey I might as well throw my 1-TIME on it.

French Investors Consider Purchasing FTP

Saturday, September 17, 2011

would be nice to win at showdown...

Hands: 8016
Results: -$1516

going to grab some dinner. Frustration ends the night early.

frustrating night

Hands: 5685
Results: -$1283

Ran really bad for most of the sessions, then I think I tilted a little at the end and got a little speculative and passive. A few too many weak bluffs or optimistic calls. That being said I was certainly running into the top of people's ranges as at least 3 times I ran AA into a set in a 3bet pot beyond other attemps at thin value that ran straights into flushes, top pair into rivered flushes, and overpairs into rivered trips. In general I don't think I made too many horrendous plays, but I think I can play better.

I was down about -$2400 at one point, and decided to call it a session when I got it back to -$900. Then as I'm closing tables I flop middle set against a fishy and slowplay and he turns the gutter and stacks me for 150bb. yay.

oh well tomorrow is another day. Only 28% of the way to the goal so still plenty of time to pick up 4-5 buy-ins and get back to even.

huge win for the red sox. Was a great game to listen to while I played. Hope everyone had a good friday.


later

jim

Friday, September 16, 2011

update

Hands: 1747
Profit: -$619.20

the night is young. overall feel pretty good about my play. made one loose 5bet shove that cost me $225 and one turn semi-bluff in a 3bet pot that cost me $300. Made a couple of call downs I didn't like, but in general most of my value bets and bluffs I felt were decent.

Going to grab some food and take about an hour break and then get back after it.

THE WEEKEND GOAL:

20,000 hands by midnight on Sunday September 18th. I'll probably need to be playing about 80% of the time I'm awake and not eating.

Will update with progress.

let's gogogogogogogoooooooo!

the weekend

got big plans for a lot of poker this weekend. will post goals on blog tomorrow. pumped to put in the hours.

also the sox need to figure some stuff out fast. Basically Lester and Beckett need to win two games apiece down the stretch and they need 3 other guys to step up and beat the Orioles. That will probably be enough to make it to the playoffs.

however, considering the importance on pitching in the postseason I can't feel too confident about their chances in October. In general it's easier to find a way to win playoff series with your pitching intact and a banged up lineup, than vice versa.

Had a great dinner with some friends and some folks I only slightly knew tonight. Everyone was a blast to hang out with, the birthday girl is one of those awesome people that you immediately like as soon as you meet her, and all of her friends were equally cool. The husband of the b-day girl picked up the tab like a pimp, so it quickly became the best free meal I've had in awhile.

here's to free meals!



also managed to lift about $300 off of a few people playing HU while reading the forums, so that was nice. Now time for a little Battlestar Galactica ***nerd alert*** and sleepy time.

word to your mom

piz

fun mix

Filterglove Launch Mixtape by Jean Tonique

Thursday, September 1, 2011

getting back to the grind

August was the first month since Black Friday that my poker winnings were worth reporting:



For those keeping score at home that means I had nearly 4 months of potential income stolen by the DOJ and the various entities that sponsored and supported their attack on our game. I'm not going to get into the Full Tilt issues because, frankly, it's depressing and there is little I can do about it. I hope that the personal ethics and honor of the people that stole and mismanaged the player's money will eventually matter enough for them to find away to return our cash. Obviously there isn't a lot of hope for that at this point, but raging against those thieves and charlatans won't make me a happier person.

Referring to the graph: That is almost all 1/2 though I took several shots at 2/4 and got crushed. Without those 2/4 shot I might have made 5 figs with RB and bonuses. The important thing is that I've requested a cashout and expect that I should have the funds in hand in a few weeks.

I'm not totally happy with my results. In general I expect my redline to be better, and I think I played very very poorly during the big downswing on the graph. But part of the redline being BE for the month comes from playing against my opponents. In general the 1/2 players on this network are very very good, and most of them play a very aggressive pro-redline game. I think this creates situation where you need play some hands in different ways and counter their default aggressive mode. I'm not sure that fighting aggression with more aggression is always the most profitable course, especially when out of position.

Other updates include the fact that I've taken steps to start playing on other networks. I won't go into the details because 1) it's relatively boring and 2) I'd rather keep it private. But I believe I should be able to continue playing through this interim period until the US government legalizes and regulates online poker.

I also have some personal goals for the last 4 months of the year. I want to have another 6 figure year which means I need to make about $50k over the final 4 months of the year. This is a pretty significant challenge considering I'll be playing mostly 1/2 to build bankrolls over that period, hopefully eventually transitioning back to mid-stakes. But I think I can do it, and it gives me something to shoot for.

Having a 6 figure year would be a big deal to me considering I essentially lost 4 months of work figuring out stuff after BF. There also is the frustrating reality that despite that profit if I don't get the money back the money lost on Full Tilt equals about 65% of that profit. Which is really disgusting.

But I can't complain about life. My team had a good summer of baseball, my wife is doing well despite her serious work hours during her intern year of residency, and I have my health and plenty of cash for living expenses. I even have enough of a bankroll that I can continue playing the game I love for a living after getting screwed by my government and Full Tilt.

The weather is awesome and I feel like grinding some. Hope everyone is doing well.

later

piz