August = Best Month of 2008 Part Deux

So I was home all of last week and got in a decent number of hands, but didn't really feel like taking the time to blog. It was nice to be home, but it is tough because my grandparents really aren't well and it is sad to see the way their health and happiness has deteriorated. It is also taking a really heavy toll on my parents who are trying their best to take care of the people that raised and supported them for so many years.

When it was time to get on the plane and head back to Boston I had mixed emotions. I was glad to get back to my apartment and routine and obviously to see Katy (who I notice I miss more now when one of us is away then I did in the past). But I was also reluctant to leave my family since I felt I was in some way helping them get by in this difficult time. I think my parents tend to find my eternal optimism and goofiness refreshing, and I can help deflate some of their stress by doing some chores and being around to talk. I also realize now that every time I see my grandparents it could very well be the last time. And that is just really hard to deal with. I know that I am able to handle this stuff better than most, though I don't know why, but even I have trouble with that thought.

I got back to Boston on saturday afternoon and have put in a couple of sessions since then. So far things have been going very well this month and I have a chance to surpass my best month of the year, which is saying something. And that bring's me to the title of the post. August was my biggest winning month ever in poker. I actually cracked the 20k mark for the month and did even better when bonii and RB were taken into account. All of my play was on FTP and was spread between the 2/4 and 5/10 NL games with a little 10/20 and 15/30 6max LHE thrown in.

Here is the graph: link

So obviously I'm feeling pretty good about my game right now. I think I have improved quite a bit in the last month, and a lot of it has to do with game selecting better, cutting down from 9-12 to 6-9 tables, and trying to avoid bad spew against decent regs especially in 3-bet pots. I've been finding more and more good spots to make some aggressive plays both pre and postflop, and I've also been working more on taking advantage of position in postflop spots instead of just being over aggro in 3-betting (at the same time I'm 3 and 4-betting as much as ever).

thats all for now. I'll try to up the posts over the next few months as I have some interesting trips planned before the end of the year.

cheers

jim

August = Best Month of 2008

So on wed. we won game 6 to complete a 3 game streak and take the Park League Championship after being down 2-1 in the best of 7 series. A week ago from last monday we had won our first round series (best of 5) in 4 games and we won the first game of the championship. Then last week on thursday and friday we suffered two tough one run losses.

During monday's game we were down 6-5 going into the 5th, but mounted a terrific comeback to win 12-6. Then on tuesday I got my second W of the series (also won game 1) when we were able to throw out the tieing run at the plate in the bottom of the 7th of a 7-6 game. That win got us a 3-2 lead in the series.

However game 6 found us facing a tough deficit right away. We gave up 3 runs in the first inning, and going into the bottom of the 6th we were still down 3-0. Then a series of singles and rbi outs got us 3 runs and leveled the score. However the other team put up another 3 runs in the top of the 7th and it looked like the series was going to game 7.

Just like we have done all season though, we found a way to battle back in the last inning and scored 4 runs in 5 batters without recording an out (including a 2rbi 3B and a 2rbi 2B). The walk off 2B to take the lead set off a wild celebration that included a dog-pile at home plate, gratuitous hugging and high-fiving, and lots of champagne spritzing.

It was the perfect ending to a great season. Probably the most fun I've ever had playing baseball, and arguably the best I've ever pitched. I finished the season 11-1 with about a 2.4 ERA and 2 saves. I had about a 3-1 strikeout to walk ratio, and got positive results in all but 2 outings (1 loss and one game where I allowed an inherited runner to score the winning run). Our team finished the year 26-16 which was a dramatic turnaround from last years 9-22 year.

poker update to come soon. gotta get on a plane.

quick update.

So lots of time since the last post. Here is the short of what is going on. I finally moved the last of my money off of Absolute because I got tired of dealing with those scumbags. Now pretty much all of my roll in on Full Tilt.

I've moved up and am playing mostly 3/6 and 5/10 NL, but still playing the 2/4 games when I can't find any good games at the higher limits. I'm still mixing in some 8/16 to 15/30 LHE on occasion, but more of a change of pace than anything else.

We are currently in the middle of the opening round of the playoffs. The first series is against arguably the best team in the league and the only team we had a losing record against in the regular season. It is a best of 5 series and we got out to fast start by winning the first two games. They came back and won the third on thursday night, and tomorrow is game 4. Hopefully we can pull it out and make it to the championship where I really like our chances. Things have been going well for me. I'm 9-1 on the season with about a 2.3 ERA. I might be getting the ball tomorrow night, or I might be closing or taking the ball for game 5 if we can't pull it off tomorrow.

Poker is going really well this month. I'm running good and I think playing pretty well. I'm on pace to have my best month ever, and there is a decent chance I could crack $20k for the first time ever. By I'm not keeping my fingers crossed as I think it is fairly unlikely since I'll probably hit a nasty downswing before the month is over (tends to happen imo).

thats all for now. I'm going to try and get back to posting semi-regularly. Its been a fairly busy summer, and I think I'm going to be cramming in tons of good stuff this fall.

later

jim

throwing well....running bad

Pitched a complete game shutout tonight to get my record to 6-0. My ERA is back under 2.0, and I'm still leading the league with 2 saves. I also played in the all star game last sunday and had a relatively easy inning despite walking a batter.

My changeup has become an extremely effective pitch for probably the first time ever. Its a pitch I've worked on and tinkered with since I was 11 years old, but at times I couldn't even comfortably throw it over the plate. I know that sounds weird as most non-ball players would think that throwing a slower version of your fastball would be relatively easy. But for the pitch to be effective it has to be thrown in the same rhythm and cadence as your fastball. This means your effort and arm speed must look close enough to fool batters at the time of release. The pitch also needs to have similar spin and you need to have good control of it. I've always struggled with blending it with my fastball, and I've rarely had great control of it (although my control greatly improved a few years ago when I was throwing it all of the time in an attempt to add it to my repertoire). But this year its just fallen in to place. Its a pitch I feel comfortable throwing in any count, and its given a new dimension to my fastball (ie an 88 mph fastball looks 95 mph after a hitter sees a few changeups). Also my changeup tends to tumble down and away from right handed hitters which contrasts nicely with my two seam fastball that runs in when thrown at its hardest.

My splitter has been effective, but my control problems with it has forced me to limit it to a mostly strikeout pitch. In a lot of situations I'm trying to pitch to contact to save pitches or to get a double play ball, and the change up is much more effective at that.

As for poker, sigh. I had a great start to the month. I was running and playing well and quickly was up $5k despite some ugly sessions at 15/30 limit and 10/20 limit. I really felt very confident in my 6max NL game. Then I faced the last week. Over the last week I've quickly given back that 5k due to some bad plays, and some really bad running. I'm running about $3k under expectation for the last 6k hands or so, and I've definitely made some spewey plays that cost me a couple of buy-ins out of some frustration.

I'm still up slightly on the month, and I still feel pretty good about my game. But its certainly taken the luster off of my attempt to grind 20-25k hands this week.

I'm also really excited about The Dark Knight coming out this friday. It looks to be a classic and I can't wait to go see it. Plus the X-files movie is coming out a week later, and that should be awesome as I'm a huge x-files fanboy.

Planning on going to see 311 and Snoop Dogg on friday. This will add to the other great concerts I've seen this summer that include Dave Matthews Band, and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones/Dropkick Murphies. The Bosstones show was last week and it was simply awesome. Only the second time I've been able to see my favorite band live, and it was almost as good as the first. I knew 95% of the lyrics and sang and danced along to ever song. The band looked like they were having a great time and I really hope they consider putting out a new album when they finish their summer tour.

I'm still planning on adding some thoughts about Vegas and various casinos in another post, but I didn't feel like getting to that tonight. Also hoping to getting back to blogging more often, but maybe shorter entries.

later

jim