Cap Anson's Poker Blog

Hello?

2007-10-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I tanked at poker pretty bad the last few months. I will spare you the details but suffice it to say I have spent more time working on my game and less time with things like this blog.

I plan on firing it back up on Cardrunners in the very near future as I am playing better and getting my life better organized to allow more time to do things like blog.

Thanks for reading.

Jeff

Quick Update

2007-07-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post yesterday but we sold a couple vehicles at work and my goddamn internet died at home last night so it was not really possible. This on the heels of having to replace my AC on Tuesday. Life delivered some bad beats this last 24 hours. But just like in poker, I am resilient and plan on stacking life this next week while on...

Vacation

We are leaving for Loveland, Colorado on Sunday at about 8pm. Why so late? Would you want to travel 10 hours with a 1 year old in a car? Hopefully she will sleep through the entire trip. To make things more interesting, we found out today that she has strep throat. Should make things fun.

The plan for Colorado is to spend a few days at my wife's sister's house along with their brother, other sister, parents, and all the nieces and nephews. Aside from the sister that lives there (plus a husband and two kids) the rest of us are from this area. Then on Thursday all 16 of us are going up into the mountains to stay at a cabin/resort joint in Estes State Park. We will be there a couple days then come home on either Saturday night or Sunday morning. I am not really looking forward to it but I am anxious to catch a couple Rockies games at Coors. I am hoping to see Greg Maddux pitch since the Padres will be in town. Hopefully it works out for the good.

Poker

I do not have time to get into the promised topic from my last post. I will see if I can get another post up tomorrow.

I have not played much the last few days. When I have, it is has been goofing off on Poker Stars with 5 card draw or on UB with PLO and HORSE. All together I have gambled away a buy in.

Oops...

Buh-Bye

Sorry for the short update. I will get you more either tomorrow or this weekend before we leave. No You Tube video today either....I will make up for it. I promise.

Later

Almost ALL Poker?!?!?!?

2007-07-16T14:54:00.001-07:00

EDIT: For those of you that came here after reading my sig on CR that says I posted nude pics of Jessica Alba......yeah, I lied.

Boy did I have a big weekend hands wise. I put in just over 5k while just 4 tabling! The results were not there though, as I lost about 1 buy. I get frustrated seeing some guys just kill the limit when I scuffle so bad at times. I just continue to make bad calls and I refuse to trust my reads.

I put in some hands at HU and that went ok. I was up big early, took a big down swing, then surged back. Typical stuff for HU. I suffered some rough beats and made a few bad plays. All in all it was a fun diversion. I think I will do some study of HU as I think it is a very profitable game to be good at if you can handle the swings.

Bankroll

After surging past $4k to start the week I dropped $381.35 in about 6k hands to end it. I also started staking a friend (more on that in a sec) which took another $500 out of play.

Roll: $3151.71
Month Total: -$688.24
YTD: +$1932.17

The month and YTD figures include rakeback and about $4k in total withdrawals.

I really want to make the jump to 1/2 but I am just not ready. Until I become consistent and mature in my post flop play I will play $100 even if I grow my roll to $10k.

Staking Deal

Earlier this week a friend, CoxhEd on CR, put a thread on the OT board about selling his laptop so he could roll himself to play again.

For those that do not know, he went through a very tough spell that involved his mother fighting and beating cancer. During this time he withdrew his roll and moved back home to care for her.
Upon seeing the thread about his laptop I started to consider an offer to stake him. I was not sure if I wanted to take an eighth of my roll out and I needed to make sure my wife was ok with it (I earn the money but we share everything, I only felt it would be best to discuss it with her). After a few days I decided to approach him with the idea.

Within a few hours of my first PM we had a deal. I shipped him $500 on UB so he can play $25nl until he builds to $1500 at which time we will have a discussion about continuing or stopping the deal. As far as how it is structured, I would prefer to keep that private but suffice to say it is fair to both of us.

This is my first time doing this and as you can imagine I was a bit cautious entering it. I really trust CoxhEd and I am super anxious to see him succeed. He was beating 1/2 (and maybe 2/4, I forget) when his mom got sick so I know he can do it. He is a super guy and really deserves any good fortune he receives.

Wrap Up

I will be back Wednesday with some discussion about what to do when you feel uncomfortable in a pot. The topic has come up some on the low limit board so I think I will delve into it a bit. I may also see about posting some hands. And finally, I have my second lesson with Primoman tomorrow night. I will update you all on how that went.

You Tube

Today's video ties into the ESPY's which were aired last night. This is one of my favorite video's of all time and in the interest of full disclosure, I still cry every time I see it. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePXlkqkFH6s

2007-07-10T08:05:00.001-07:00

What a long week...

On the 4th, as promised, I drank like 300 beers. It breaks down like this:

-I had an 8:00 tee time with my brother. After a tough first hole we turned the cart around and hit the clubhouse for some beer. Great plan.
- We finished golfing about 11:00 and I went home to get loaded up to head to my parents farm.
- Got to the farm about 1:00, started drinking.
- A friend and I drove around and shot things/animals with .22 rifles for a few hours, while drinking.
- We came back and sat around for a few hours bullshitting, and drinking.
- Etc, drinking, etc.

Are we seeing a pattern here?

About 7pm I just wore out. I was tired and full and drunk. Awesome.

Softball

Boy are we terrible. I mean really really terrible. For one, my batting average the last 3 years reads like this: .540, .623, .558. This season, which is 2/3 over, I am sitting at about .250. WTF? It is at the point where I am voluntarily sitting out big games because I am killing my team.

On Thursday we had a league game against a team we swept earlier in the season. The first game we manage only 4 runs in an 8-4 loss. The second game we crushed them 16-4 in 5 innings (1o run rule). So we were feeling OK coming into the weekend's big tourney.

Oops...

In two games we played a total of 10 innings and were outscored 27-7. In other great news it was 103 degrees on Saturday. Our pitcher (and best hitter) had to quit in the 3rd inning of the first game because he was super hot and light headed. In the second game my brother came off the field dry heaving he was so hot. What a shitty fucking day.

Out of the double elim tourney (two and BBQ as we say in the biz) we decided that we should come over on Sunday to watch the not so terrible teams that were still playing. And by watch, I mean drink.

I got up early Sunday (for me) and made up a gallon of mojitos in a water jug then headed for the ball diamonds. Once there seven of us proceeded to annihilate the mojitos and 5 or 6 cases of beer.

We were drunk. I mean wrestling in the front yard of a buddies house drunk. Yeah, I know...

We did much of the partying behind the center field fence so we could heckle the other teams. At one point a home run landed right by us. We grabbed the ball and saved it for later.

Side point important to the story: Our first basemen, Jung, is this 6' 2'', shaved head, broad shouldered, righty that looks pretty intimidating if you don't know him.

Soon after another ball came our way. Jung stands up on the picnic table and throws the original ball back left handed as we all chanted "Throw it Back! Throw it Back!" Of course the team in the field has no idea what is happening as they have no idea who we are. We proceed to repeat our performance like thrice more. Of course they have to stop the game for us each time. Pure drunken comedy.

Poker

As you may have been able to tell from my tales of drunkenness I have played almost no hands in the last week. When I did play, I had a rough time suffering set over set losses no less than 3 times. in a 500 hand stretch. I am stuck a bit over 2 buys since my last post and my roll sits at $3750 or so.

Being Fat

I have been really tired a lot lately. My friend Matt (mjrnt on CR) suggested that maybe it is because I sit on my ass all day at work then go home and sit on my ass some more. I am def 25 pounds overweight and I am sick of feeling older than I am. I really need to get out of the house and do something other than drink...like take a jog or something. Ugh. So as much as I hate to say this, tonight when I get home I am gunna go for a run. Hopefully I stick with this for a few months. If I prove to myself that I can, I will renew my membership at the YMCA for the first time in like 2 years so I can start with weights again.

Yuck.

You Tube

Will Ferrell and Pearl, the final chapter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiGd294SnB8

Pre-Independence Day Thoughts

2007-07-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

Between yesterday and today I got all the shit for my new computer. I am going to start assembling it this evening as long as I am comfortable I won't fuck anything up. If I get to the point where I realize I have no idea what I am doing I will wait for my brother to finish it up on Thursday. He says he will install the OS and drivers then as well. Hopefully he follows through, because I want this baby up and running in the worst freaking way.

Independence Day

As I said on Friday, I cannot wait for tomorrow! We got big plans starting with an 8:12 tee time at a local public course. I have not actually golfed a round, or a hole for that matter, since my lessons started. I am not expecting anything major since I have yet to pick up a driver, wedge, or putter... I am just looking to have fun and tip a few back with my little bro.

When we are done golfing I will venture out to my parent's farm to start drinking/blowing stuff up/shooting things.

I can't wait.

Poker

I have not played much since my last post. Friday my wife, daughter, and I went out for dinner with some friends. When we got home I was so tired I went to bed early. Saturday we went to my aunt's for dinner. Again, by the time I got home I was beat and went to bed early.

Side note: I tried a new drink concoction on Saturday. I mixed equal parts Sky vodka and and Cointreau (orange liqueur) and added a splash of club soda. It is a really good summer drink as it was quite refreshing. Of course the flavor is very strong and it is def a sipping drink. I highly recommend giving it a try.

So Sunday I sat down for a good 1,300 hand day. I split it into an afternoon and evening session. The afternoon stint was only about an hour as I was not playing well and suffered a set over set loss for a full buy. I guess my head really was not into it for whatever reason. I dropped like $150 and said screw it, then did some work around the house.

Sunday evening went far better as I won my losses back plus a buy in or so. I played very very well and got paid on a few big hands. I actually doubled up on two different tables within about 5 minutes of each other. Once was with a set of queens, the other I flopped AKJ with QT...the villain had AQ and could not let it go.

I hope to play 1k hands this evening as I have no idea when/if I will be able to play tomorrow. Thursday will also be tough since we will be working on the new computer. I hope to play a shit ton on Friday because this weekend is also a total loss. I have a softball tourney all day both Saturday and Sunday. If we get knocked out early Sunday I will get some hands in. Otherwise it will be slim pickings.

Bankroll

June:
Start: $4084.89
End: $3839.95
Net Difference: -$244.94
Witdrawls: $1021.00
Gross Difference (money made playing poker before withdrawls): +$776.06
Hands: Approx 20k

Current: $3936.77
July: +$96.82

It was certainly not my best month on record. But considering I missed a week due to illness and my continued inability to fold hands on the river when I know I am beat, I feel really good about things.

Goals

As I stated WAY back, my goal for the year is to be beating 2/4 by January 1st. I still think that is very possible and I will continue to work towards it. My more immediate goal is to make $2,000 while playing 20,000 hands in July. This will be VERY hard as I am taking a weeks vacation starting on the 23rd. I will work my ass off in the meantime and see what happens.

I want to move full time to 1/2 by the beginning of September, something that must happen if I am to have any shot at getting to 2/4 by New Years Day.

You Tube

Real Jeopardy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5H5r4_CoJo

Fake Jeopardy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM56uf3JbCU

2 Posts in 3 days? Who'd a Thunk it?

2007-06-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

I hate work. We are soooooo slow right now, it is sick. For those that don't know I work in a small car dealership. We run hot and cold. One week we are so busy I have no time to do anything...the next the lot is a morgue. Add to the pot that the owners are almost never here in the summer and things can get pretty shitty. If I am alone and we are busy, that sucks. If I am alone and we are slow, I get bored. Catch 22 for sure.

Poker

Not much to report here. I have played about 1,000 hands the last two days with minimal results. I won like $11.00 on Wednesday and dropped $4 yesterday. WoOt!!!

I am still having a problem making brutal calls. I am almost embarrassed by this, but lemme show you an example:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1218805

Ugh...

I need to follow my own advice:

http://www.cardrunners.com/fusetalk/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=67&threadid=24538&enterthread=y

I have been good about posting on the board since Wednesday when I committed to it. I have not been able to watch a video in the last few days but circumstances have not really allowed it. My home PC is fucked so I cannot watch anything on it (porn included!!!). And work is not always the best place to try and study. Although I have done it, I just find it harder to concentrate here. At least I am lucky that my bosses let me play poker and study all I want as long as my shit gets done.

Overall I am playing the best poker of my life. If I can just stop making the bad call, I would be in the clear.

Softball

We had a game last night and it did not go well. We are better as a team than last year but I am just horrible. Last season I hit in the .550 range. This year I would be lucky to be at .300. I almost don't want to go the field anymore.

We play in the A/B division which is the highest in town (population 25k) but got swept by a C team last night. We just could not hit and could not come up with the third out when we needed it. A 6th inning 2 out grand slam off the goddamn foul pole sealed our fate in the second game...can we get a break???

We got a big tourney next weekend, hopefully things go better.

4th of July

I cannot wait for the 4th! It is my second favorite day of the year (next to Christmas). My whole family on both my mothers and fathers side go out to my parents farm and just party all day. We get around 40-50 people a year out there and shoot trap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_shooting), drink, BBQ, and watch a sweet home done fireworks display. The 4th has given me some of my best memories as a child and I still love it to this day. It is just good old fashioned South Dakota fun.

Oh, and I love building sparkler bombs and blowing shit up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcRU6gZhb7U (there is your You Tube video of the day)

Things are SUPER powerful. I know a guy that lost a hand trying to throw it out the window of his car. Idiot...

New Computer

Last thing before I shove off. Rodeo helped my pick out stuff to build a new PC. I am psyched for all the stuff to get here so I can get it assembled, the OS and drivers installed, and start not having such a shitty PC at home.

Here is the thread that has all the components listed for those that care:

http://www.cardrunners.com/fusetalk/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=128&threadid=24581&enterthread=y

I'll be back either this weekend or Monday morning. Till then remember that no matter how bad it seems, you could always be this guy: http://www.nicemice.net/amc/photos/auto/2004-04-25-225625-cherryblossomfestival-cosplay

I'm baaaaaaaaacckkk.....New and Improved?

2007-06-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok, ok, ok.....so it has been a month.

It has been a BUSY month!

Allow me to explain:
-I spent 4 days in bed with a 102 degree fever (had brutally bad case of strep throat) and am still recovering a bit.
-I have played 16k hands in 14 days (took 12 days off so far...ugh) 4 tabling $100nl on UB
-I have had four birthday parties (me, my mother, my mother-in-law, and my nephew), my 6 year wedding anniversary, fathers day, and a cousin came to visit from Texas.
-I took up golf.
-Softball season is in full swing.

Add in to all this that my home PC is a big pile of dog shit...

I was without the computer for 4 or 5 days and have battled all sorts of virus and spyware issues over the last couple of weeks. Using any internet browser is almost out of the question right now. The good news is that I am building a new PC and hope to be up and running next week.

Taking the Dive

In order to try and get some structure in my poker life I am making some new commitments. They are as follows:

1. Post 5 times per day on SSNL board (only applies to days I play...not to off days).
2. Update blog a minimum of 3 times weekly.
3. Watch 3 video's per week.
4. Play at least a 25,000 hand per month pace.

I am hoping that I can hold myself to these. I think I am at a point where I can really break through and go from 3bb/100 to 6 bb/100 real quick like. In order to do that I need to fix a leak (calling off chips in various spots) and work my ass off. I have worked hard on the leak and have improved a ton in the last 10 days so the next step is studying and posting a ton.

Bankroll Progress

Month Start: $3854.27
Current Total: $3831.72
Withdrawls This Month: $1021.00
Gross Profit (incl. rakeback): +$998.45
Net Profit (incl. rakeback): -$22.55
16170 Hands

New Teacher

I took a two hour lesson from Primoman (Adam). He teaches a decidedly more LAG style than what I am used to. Pre-Adam I ran 18/16 for several 100k hands. Since the lesson (beginning of this month) I am running about 23/17. That is obv a pretty dramatic change.

With games being as nitty as they are right now I really think that opening up like this is the best way to turn a good profit. He actually advocates more of a 26ish VPIP but that is just too much for me... I am very comfortable where I am at and really enjoy the results I am getting. At some point in the near future I will be taking lesson number 2 (as soon as I get the new PC up and running).

Chris Benoit

I am saddened by the loss of Chris Benoit and his family. I am disgusted at his actions and I wish he was still alive so he could pay the proper price for what he did. However, he was a great performer and I choose to remember him for that as well.

You Tube

This posts video de jour....Paris Hilton gets out of jail, and sings about it?!?!?!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k66epna2Sss

See you soon kiddies!!!

Work, Being Old, Poker, and Guitar Hero???

2007-05-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week at work which has kept me from updating much. Sorry bout that. We sold 5 this week which is a ton for us (10-14 total per month ave). That in addition to some other paperwork has kept me away from CR and the tables during the day.

Tomorrow is a big day for me as I turn the ripe old age of 28! I plan on celebrating by working till noon (boooooo) then spending the afternoon with my wife and daughter. But tomorrow night, we tear this mutherfucker down. It's fight night and I cannot wait to see Rampage/Ice Man 2. I'm not sure where we are watching it but rest asssured there will be beer and cards involved.

On Sunday I am going to the horseraces and then grilling out at my place with some friends. More beer will be consumed.

As far as poker goes I have played sparingly this week. Summer is just so damn busy for me that it is tough to play as much as I want. I did post a winner last week and am up $250ish so far this week. My post flop play is improving but I still am struggling with the turn at times. I am def checking it to often when my flop c-bet fails. I am also getting check raised a ton on UB. I forgot how much better the play is there compared with Absolute, which is where I have been playing most of my hands the last few weeks.

As promised last post here is the first edition of my current BR and total:

Week Start: $3645.99
Monday: +$268.03
Tues: No Play
Wed: -$21.16
Thurs: No Play
Week Total: +$246.87
Current: $3892.86

I plan on withdrawing everything above $3k on the first of each month until I can get some bills paid off. This will slow my progress towards playing 1/2 but that's cool. If I can reduce my debt load my mind will be much more clear and I will play tons better.

Here is the You Tube video of the week:

The audio sucks, but all you Guitar Hero fans know how truly sick this is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yEjyuw42YY&mode=related&search=

Jeff

CR League Top 10, Here I Come!!!

2007-05-18T15:00:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned last week I finished 24th in the first CR League tourney. This week I took two ugly beats (all in pre with QQ vs KT and all in pre with AK vs AT) and finished 40th out of 109. Ugh.

I played well enough in both to final table but you know how it works with donkaments... However, I am now in 13th place in the overall leaderboard. I really ran kinda shitty the first two tournies so I am due for some cards. I fully expect to final table this Wednesday and jump into the top 6 or 8.

Cash game play has also gone will with four straight days of profit. I am playing my best poker in 2 months and damn does it feel freaking awesome. Now I need to get some time to watch some videos and post some on the board. My life has been a whil wind lately and things can only calm down from here.

I'll throw out another reminder for the charity tourney. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check the off topic board. There is a sticky at the top of the board that has all the info.

I am hoping to get my BR figures on the blog here every time I post. My books are at home so I can't do it right now, but I see others do it and I like the idea. It, in part, makes me publically accountable for my wins and losses.

And now, a new feature that I will add to each post. Here is the You Tube video of the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk6Dmhc916I

Ok, ok, and here is a bonus one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqk1-q8gXcY&mode=related&search=

Gotta love the Price is Right baby!

Jeff

Poker related info? NO WAY!!!

2007-05-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

First off, thanks to those that have shown interest in the fundraiser. We def need to get more CR people involved though!

I played about 800 hands last night on Absolute 4 tabling $50nl (which is actually $100nl at AP). Why do they have double buy-ins?

I ran super hot with my hole cards on all 4 tables to start but missed flop after flop. I had a very unorthodox player sitting to my left on two diff tables that cause me some problems as well (his VPIP was 30 but it included EVERY ace and he would call the whole way down with TPNK). It took me a good bit to really peg him and that cost me about $50 in the meantime. He made some strange plays and would def switch gears (not on purpose...he really did not know the diff). He was tough to play.

I took one crappy beat as a guy called my c-bet (I had KQ and missed the flop) with a wheel draw. The Q hit on the turn but I was a bit wary and checked behind. Then, of course a 5 falls on the river and the wheel hits (he had A4). He checked again and I value bet. He min-raised and I could not bring myself to fold as I thought he had something like QJ. I was wrong. I need to learn to check behind there. I felt like something might be up....I shoulda just checked. I'll make a note of that...

A bit later I had AA on the same table. Flop came 267 and our villain who limp/called PF check raises me 3x. My set radar went off straight away (I also saw A6, A7, 67 and 89 as possibilities as they were all def in his range). I had been playing semi-weak post flop at that table as there was a maniac who I tried to see a lot of flops against but I had the worst time hitting on (easy perverts). I took this into consideration and decided to call and reevaluate the turn (if he showed weakness I was going to bet out, figuring him for A6, A7, 89, or a pp and no set). Of course the ace hits and we are in business. He check/called a strong bet by me and did the same on the river when I shoved. He showed 66 for the under set.

The $225 pot was a nice way to FINALLY show some green in Poker Tracker for the session. I logged off shortly thereafter, happy with a $65 profit.

I will be back tomorrow as I wanna discuss some of my problems playing post flop.

Jeff

Finally, some pics!!!

2007-05-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

I finally got some pics to put up.

This group is pics that were taken by a local radio station and the local news paper. The pics of the in town flooding are from the North side of town where mjrnt lives. The circled house is his (obv).

And finally, this last group is what mjrnt's basement looks like post cleanup. Please keep in mind this is after he had almost 200 man hours of help from Thursday to Sunday. This was a fully finished basment....ugh.

This brings me to my next point. I am running a poker tournament on Stars on Sunday at 3:00 pm Eastern time to benifit mjrnt. It will be a $10+1 buy in plus a standard $10 donation (total investment of only $21!). Please check this link out for the full story:

http://www.cardrunners.com/fusetalk/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=23&threadid=21459&enterthread=y

As far as my joint goes, it is in decent shape. We washed everything with bleach water yesterday. I did get some bad news on Saturday when it was discovered that we accidently unplugged my freezer to plug in a sump pump. It was FULL with $300-$400 in food.

I was fucking pissed.

Shit happens though...and I have very little room to complain compared to the spot some people are in.

Jeff

Still No Pictures

2007-05-10T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I still do not have pics to post. I was going to snap some of the North side of town (where mjrnt lives) but the water went down 5 feet in 24 hours! They can FINALLY get into their homes again.

I had a meeting with my insurance adjuster this morning and got bad news: No coverage. I knew it was coming so the let down was small. I was able to secure financing at my bank to rebuild things so it should be ok.

I plan on helping mjrnt Friday and Saturday and another friend on Sunday (the one that had his basement wall cave in from my original flood post). It will be a long but rewarding three days of work.

On the good news front I played quite well in the CR League tourney last night. I placed 24th out of 191 and am quite pleased with the result! If I place top 25 in each I should be right up there in the end.

I had one tough beat that sealed my fate when I got A/I PF with AA vs 35s.

The flop came Q55!

I had another hand that got me some heat. When I get home I will grab the HH and get it on here.

Jeff

Flood Update

2007-05-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

I am going to try and get an update on here more or less every day as I think it is good therapy for the evils of flooding (and poker!).

Yesterday things slowed down for me. I did very little with my house and ended up not having any friends that needed anything. I got out and took some photos that along with the ones I am going to take during lunch today will get posted here.

My dad came to town and took my wife and I out to supper so we could get out of the house for a few hours. It was nice to just chill out, watch the Twins game, and have a few cocktails. After that I came home and collapsed into bed. I actually feel mostly rested for the first time since Friday.

Tough times are ahead though...

Matt's (CR name: mjrnt) house is still surrounded by water but it receded almost a foot overnight. He stopped at the store this morning and looked like death. I cannot imagine the stress he must be under. His family from out of town and a bunch of our mates are going over on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to completely gut his basement. We should have a crew of 10 and I still think it will take several days. I am not looking forward to it as I know I will be sore and tired on Monday. At the same time I want to do anything I can to help one of my truly good friends get his life back in order. He and his wife are wonderful people that don't deserve this kind of bull shit.

As far as cards go I plan on playing in the CR league MTT tonight and am looking VERY forward to it. I am not a big MTTer but when I play I usually hold my own even having scored big a few times. I enjoy playing them and think playing against what I expect to be a high level of competition will be an ultra fun test of my donkament poker meddle.

Jeff

I Fucking Hate Rain

2007-05-03T07:37:00.000-07:00

Another day, another reason not to blog.

Rain, tons of it.

The two posts I put on CR yesterday and today follow.

Yesterday's Post:

"So Saturday morning is started to rain. It kept raining all day. Then about 9pm it REALLY started to rain...A LOT. And it didn't stop.

We probably got about 1-2 inches from 9am to 9pm and 6-7 inches from 9pm-3am. Included in that was more than 3 inches in a one hour stretch.

Large parts of the city were flooded badly. It is not like you see on TV where people are on their roof. But in my town of 25,000 and in our general area (North Eastern South Dakota) there are several thousand homes destroyed and millions upon millions of dollars in damages.

I was at a friends 30th birthday party when my dad called to say my basement was starting to flood (he was staying the night). He also told me my brothers car had stalled a half hour ago and he had no idea when it was going to get towed out.

My wife and I left the party with the intentions of going home but when we saw how bad the streets were (3-5 feet deep in many places) and how many cars were stalled (literally hundreds) we decided to go get my brother. It never takes more than 15 minutes to get anywhere in our city. It is small and traffic is never that bad. It took me 45 minutes to get to my brother in my 4 wheel drive Chevy Tahoe. There were a number of times I was pushing water with my bumper. There were other times I was pushing it with my grill.

Really.

When I finally got to him, tow rope in hand, the water was almost waist deep (I'm 5' 8'' tall). I stripped down to my undershirt and took off my flip flops then waded over to his car. I kneeled down to feel for a tow hook. The water was fucking freezing and up to my chest. After a minute or so I gave up. We decided that maybe I could push him a couple hundred feet to dry street so I could hook the rope up easier. This was made more difficult by the 5 other stalled cars, the fact I had no shoes on, and by the trucks that came by making large waves that pushed the car a foot or more.

His car was floating.

We finally got it out of the water and towed it through two feet of water for a mile to the car dealership I work at. He has had the car (a VERY nice Acura CL) for 3 months. It is a total loss.

For my part my parents, wife, brother, and I were able to keep the water level in my basement under 2 inches. We had two sump pumps working full time and a wet vac that we would fill and haul outside and dump. I had to crawl around on my hands and knees for several hours with plumbers putty and fill little holes and cracks in the mortar between the cinder blocks that comprise my basement walls.

And then the sewer backed up.

I had people's shit floating in a yellow soup in my basement. To make matters worse I could not get the water to stop flowing up through my floor drain. After several hours I got a plug to stay and I was able to jam a rubber exercise mat into the shitter to plug that (I set my bowling ball on top of it to keep the water pressure from forcing the plug out).

I was awake for almost exactly 24 hours before I got some sleep. When I got up on Sunday after about 4 hours of rest the water was still coming in big time. I relieved my dad who had only slept about 2 hours and alternated between pumping water and hauling shit from my basement.

Later in the day my brother returned and a friend came over and we were able to remove my furniture and carpet. Some of the furniture is ok, the carpet is not.

I was able to get about 6 hours of sleep last night and things are looking up. I came into work for a few hours to take care of some stuff but I am leaving soon so I can rip down my walls that are wrecked and getting moldy already.

My insurance policy won't cover any of this. My back is fucked up. My left shoulder feels like there is knife in it. I am tired. I have a cut on my toe (long story) which sat in sewage for 15 straight hours while I worked (now I need a tetanus shot). I have not seen my daughter in 2 days (she is staying with family).

Did I mention that I am one of the lucky ones?

Fellow CR member mjrnt (real name: Matt) is a good friend of mine. He lives about 10 blocks north of me. His house in on a very small island. The rest of town is mostly drained but his street is under 4 to 5 feet of water. When you look down it the water starts at the doorstep of the homes on the south side of the street and stretches to the door step of the homes on the north side of the street. He has several feet of water in his, unlike mine, fully finished and furnished basement.

It is destroyed.

And his insurance won't cover it either.

We are talking over $50k in damages (compared to my $2,000-$3,000).

Did I mention that the water level is still rising?

I have another friend in a small town 20 miles south of here who had a wall in his basement give way. When he opens the door to the basement all he sees is water. He had a fuel oil (diesel used to run his furnace) tank down there and it leaked into the water. Now he can't pump into the street. His house is pretty much destroyed as it will cost more to fix the basement that the home is worth.

His insurance won't cover it either.

Look, I understand this is not exactly New Orleans. I still have a house and a place to work. My family and friends are safe. But please excuse me when I say that this is the worst thing that I have ever seen. Until you see it in person and can see how this is affecting people's lives there is no way to truly understand the enormity of it all.

I am sorry this is such a long post. Please understand that I am not looking for sympathy. I just needed some place to vent. My head feels like it is going to explode and my body feels like it is going to crumble. It just plain feels good to put this on virtual paper.

As I type this, with God as my witness, I am sitting at work at my desk with tears running down my cheeks. I am not sure what to say or do at this point. All I can do is cry."

Today's Post:

"Thanks for the kind words guys, it means a lot.

Here is a link to a page with thumbnails of our town taken by the local newspaper:

http://www.aberdeennews.com/ap...Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=1

When you click on a pic it takes several seconds to pop up (the entire page reloads) so be patient.

If you look at the very first one the red car on the right side of the pic is my brother's (the one in the story that I pushed out). It was taken a while before I got there. I know this because you can still see the tops of the wheels!

A lot of the pics aren't even of the worst areas. I plan on taking a ton of phots of mjrnt's neighborhood this evening since I finally have my house cleaned up.

Here is a link to the papers home page:

http://www.aberdeennews.com

At the top there is some links to video footage of the mess. Check the aerial video out, it is pretty amazing. Again, please be patient with the links, the page is probably getting bombarded by locals.

Some of the video links don't alwasy work. The first one does and if you watch it at the 3:10 mark where the words "North Dakota St. Area" pop up and at the 4:25 mark where it says "North State Street" you will see the neighborhood where mjrnt lives.

He is smack in the middle of it.

The water level is actually rising there and they expect it won't go down until Friday at the earliest.

At my house the water is still seeping in but it no longer requires constant attention. I can use my toilet and shower again and hope to be able to do laundry in the next few days. We worked until midnight or so last night at which time I got my first good nights sleep since Friday.

Tonight we are going to a friends house to haul the carpet and furniture from his basement and cut the damaged sheetrock out before the black mold starts to grow.

I talked to my brother-in-law who is a fireman in town and he said they were out all night on Saturday. Apparently there were dozens of electrical fires in peoples basements. He also told me that they carried dozens of elderly people from their basements through chest deep water. There were spots in town that the only way they could rescue was by boat. A local marina loaned several boats to city to aid in this effort.

My next door neighbor is a police officer and he also was hard at work on Saturday. They pulled a guy over and gave him a DUI after he hit a section of 2 foot deep water at about 40 MPH in town.

Fucking idiot.

I hope to get my computer back online this evening so I can get some hands in. I know my mind is super cluttered but I need a distraction! I will post some pics here later."

I hope to keep posting day by day with info about the progress our city is making. I plan on taking a bunch of photos tonight and will try to get them posted tomorrow.

Jeff

Quickie...

2007-04-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry (again) for the lack of updates. I will make a long story short here....I have been playing terribly for the better part of 2 months now. I am having trouble making myself take the time to make the kind of posts that you have (hopefully) come to expect. In light of this I will continue to update sporadically until I can get my head out of my ass long enough to stop the bleeding.

I'm Just a Swingin'

2007-03-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

What a week! I had my biggest winning day and two biggest losing days ever... I have not done my books yet but I suspect I was down about $250 or so. Not too bad considering the circumstances, I guess. I am still searching for some consistency and I think I have identified some things to help me in that fight:

1. I am daydreaming a lot while I play.
2. I am still calling off some chips on the river.
3. My "experiment" with re-raising min-check raises is over!

Allow me to expound:

1. I am daydreaming a lot while I play: This has always been one of my toughest issues to overcome. I have always had a creative, mind wandering, day dreaming sort of thought process. This made it tough to concentrate in school (it was worse in college since I had nobody to answer to) and makes it tough while at work. My brain is always working on something, too bad it isn't always what my body is working on... I am not sure how I can remedy this. In the past I have tried playing more tables so I am forced to concentrate at all times. I think I am at my best when I play 2-3 tables though. So when I have a slower pace with fewer tables I really have to work on concentrating. It is a never ending battle.

2. I am still calling off some chips on the river: I am paying people off too often when I have TPTK type hands and get value raised. I am a lot better with this but I need to be more disciplined. I am def working very hard on this and have shown improvement.

3. My "experiment" with re-raising min-check raises (in a raised pot): I think I mentioned it here at some point (or maybe not) but I have long been baffled by the min-check raise on the flop. So I decided to take one for the team and start playing back at players who do this.

I have found that if a blind is taking this line it is very often a steal attempt. This is especially true with flops that are uncoordinated and contain an ace or a king. This is not always the case but very often is. If a min-check raise comes from EP, a solid player, or a tight/passive player, beware. They use this to try and get action on monster hands. They will also use it with TT-KK on an ace high flop to see where they stand.

After you re-raise in this situation you are obv hoping for a fold. Of course, if they come back over the top you must fold. If they call, it can be a bit sticky. Usually following a call on the flop they will check the turn. If this is the case I narrow down their holding to a draw, a low-middle pp, or a weak ace (if an ace flopped). From here you can decide to either bet or check behind, depending on your reads. I will say this: a LOT of players use the min check raise to see where they stand with the three hand types I just listed. I cannot tell you how many times we checked down and they showed 55 or A4 or 67s. That def seems to be their range when they make this play (min check raise flop, call re-raise, check turn).

As with any other play I think playing back at the min-check raiser can be +EV if done at the right time. I spent 2 weeks doing it almost every time... I knew I would take some losses in doing so but it allowed me to get a better feel for when it will work in the future. I hope I explained this well enough that you all get the gist of it. If anything needs more in depth discussion, let me know and I will talk more about it in my next post.

This is also a great example of why you should have "check raise %" on your PAHUD at all times. You can get a great feel for who is doing it and how often. If a villain has a 10% figure for check raising, I am playing back at him a ton more. As I stated in my last post (scroll down lazy ass) I am willing to email my PAHUD layouts for UB, AP, or FTP at your request. Just drop me a line in the comments here or at CR (jeff218).

Thanks for reading kids. Until next time, good luck at the tables.

I love Full Tilt...

2007-03-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

FTP and I have a love/hate relationship. For all the days it pisses me off to no end there are days where I want to give it my man love as though it were Tina Fey (ppl on the off topic board should appreciate that one!). Of course we all know that the actual site has nothing to do with it...I just like blaming my losses on something other than me. It is WAY better for my self image.
I played about 1150 hands yesterday and started off by dropping a buy in at $100nl without losing more than $15 in a hand. I just could not hit a flop. After going to lunch I decided to fire up, for the first time, a single $200nl table. I have been told that for the most part $200nl does not have better players than $100nl and that it is just a bit more aggro. With this in mind I thought I would play for a bit.

About 30 minutes into the session I was playing quite well and had a nice run of cards. I was running well enough that my VPIP and PFR% were both pretty high (24/21) for my TAG style. I was up to about $290 when I got involved with the player sitting directly across from me. He was running 35/30 for the session with an AF of 12! He had been very aggro regardless of position and was all-in 2-3 times in the twenty hands we had played. He was also sitting with more than a buy-in (about $245).

The villain raised to $7 UTG and I called on the button with 9dTd. Of course I rarely limp but was looking to hit big and get paid. Plus if I 3 bet there is a VERY good chance I get 4 bet or shoved on preflop at which time I have to fold.

The flop came 8c9sTs. The poker gods are a cruel sort. I flop top two pair but there is 2 to a flush and 3 to a straight. Ugh.

He led for $12 into the $17 pot and I popped him up to $38. He 3 bet me to $112. At this point I have NO DOUBT I am ahead. In my mind his likely holding was AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AT, AJ, KJ, JT, or more or less any two spades. I had seen him get tricky with a hand earlier (checked a set with 5c6c9d on the flop, then bet 1/2 pot when an ace hit the turn) and at least one of his all-in hands was a flush draw. All this info made me think he did not have a set or QJ. I just could not see him firing with those hands. This also shows the value of concentrating on just 1- 3 tables and getting good reads. Most of us are not good enough to be playing 6 tables at once.

Here is where I goofed though. I was resigned to getting all-in and was ok with it, but I just called his flop 3 bet. Why? I have no clue. It was def the wrong play. I needed to shove. The turn came 5d to make the board 8c9sTs5d. He insta shoved for $128 more and I called.

I love being right.

He turned over AJ! Thankfully the river was a blank and I raked my biggest pot ever ($494.10). The best part is that I was not at all nervous and had no problem throwing the money in. This has been a problem in the past as that kind of cash means a lot to me. As a result I have been tentative to get my money in which can be a bad thing.

The good continued into the evening with me winning 4 more buys at $100nl thanks in most part to getting AA 8 times and winning every one. When you win $300 of off AA it makes being profitable a lot easier. All told I won $665 and felt very good about my play. I hope I can make it continue!

Over thinking At Low Limits:

One of the things I struggle with most in poker is practicing what I preach...and I preach a LOT! In fact I kind of think of myself as a Joe Torre type. He was a pretty good baseball player but is a great coach. While I am in no way suggesting I am a pretty good poker player or that I am a great poker coach, the parallel is there. I think, hope actually, that I give very good advice and analysis to other CR members on the low limit board. Of course when I play I will often ignore my own advice and take some pretty ugly lines.

In the past I have been particularly guilty of over thinking hands. I really believe this is a major problem with many of my peers as well. At $100nl, 98% of players are not paying attention to betting patterns, VPIP's, or PFR%. Unless a particular player really stands out they don't know who's aggro or nitty. They are too busing watching TV, thinking about which party to go to or who's mom is the hottest, surfing the net, downloading music, etc. to play anything more than the 2 cards directly in front of them.

When you are in a hand with 88 and think to yourself, "He cannot call here because my check raise on the flop and lead on the turn represented blah blah blah" there is a good chance the villain is thinking, "is my pizza done yet?" as he calls your shove with TT on an AK62J board. This is not to say that you should not try to analyze every move you and your opponent make. It is not to say that many villains are not capable of making solid decisions based on the board texture, pot size, and their opponents image. What I am trying to get across is that solid, no frills, ABC poker is the hands down best way to glean a profit at the lower limits. Do not get fancy. Do not bluff. Do not play shit cards and say, "I will outplay them on the flop." YOU CANNOT OUTPLAY SOMEBODY THAT ONLY PLAYS THEIR HOLE CARDS AND NOTHING MORE!!!!

Now, if only I could take my own advice...

Before I go, one last thing: I have PAHUD layouts for Absolute, FTP (racetrack. no avatars), and UB. They include most everything from my previous blog post (scroll down) on PAHUD with some tweaks (The UB layout is not as complete but since I play there so little I have not fixed that yet. It is still quite good though.). I can email these layouts to anybody that wants them. Be forwarned that once you import the layout and save it your old layout is gone forever unless you export it and save it to your hard drive. If you want any of the layouts email me at: midas_poop@yahoo.com or PM me on CR (jeff218) with your email addy. I wll send the layout plus instructions on how to get it up and running.

I hate Full Tilt...

2007-03-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

Once again, I need to lead off by apologizing for the lack of updates. I have not been playing much lately for several reasons:

1. Fantasy baseball
2. NCAA tourney
3. Speaker box building
4. Gran Turismo 4
5. Spring cleaning
6. I hate FTP

I am not sure what it is about Full Tilt but I cannot seem to run well there, EVER. As many of you have read from a few posts ago I left UB for Full Tilt and Absolute. I still have money in UB but don't play there much because it is so damn nitty and tough (FU Bill Frist).

Absolute has been very good to me and is filled with fishies. The problem is that I am not 100% sure my rake back is up and running there. Bill, of Rake Aid, and I are working on that. So I have been playing a lot of the dreaded FT. In my FT career I have cashed big (for me) in a tourney to the tune of about $1500 then donked it ALL off. This was pre-Card Runners.

Post Card Runners has not been much better. Several months ago I put a few bucks in FT to get enough points to "buy" a chip set since I did not have one. I only needed like 2,000 points. Unfortunately those 2,000 points cost me over $300. Thus, the infamous $300 poker chip set. I hate even breaking it out because of all the bad memories. Memories that my "friends" won't quit teasing me about.

Once that disaster was over I pulled my cash back out and put it back into UB. Of course then UB turned into 90% 18/13 players... So here we go again. I dropped $1k into FT a few weeks back and promptly lost half of it. How many times do I have to get all-in against a draw before they don't hit? Last Saturday I got all-in 13 times and lost 12 of them. Of the 13 I got my money in good 11 of them (the other two were set over set and AA vs a set of 4's).

Mid week was better as I reeled of a few winning days and actually posted a winning week on the cash tables for the first time in forever (over a month). The weeks have all been small losers but that shit adds up quick. So after winning about $700 in a 3 day stretch I had Saturday happen and dropped half of that. I took Sunday off to watch (and gamble on) NCAA's and build the box for my new sub.

Side note: the box turned out pretty sweet. I'll post pics of it and my whole system soon as I finish installing my stuff in my Tahoe.

Where was I? Oh yeah.... I didn't play much on Monday but did manage to lose half a buy in. Then yesterday happened. I got slaughtered. I had KK 13 times and won only 6 of those hands. Is that possible? IS THAT POSSIBLE??? Sorry. It was the ugliest 3 buy-in downswing I have had in a long ass time. I ran up against a set with a big over pair 4 times (KK twice, AA once, QQ once). I got all in 7 times and lost 5. My money was in right only twice... It was ugly.

So the promised, on the boards, fantasy baseball player rankings are on hold until I get my shit straightened out. Again. Incidentally, if you are interested, I am running a CR member only fantasy league on Yahoo. Check the off topic or sporting topic board for more info. We still need a few guys so don't be shy!

I promise further updates tomorrow and Friday. Till then, good luck!

Yeah, I'm still alive...

2007-03-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of an update...I have been a bit busy. Apparently I'm re-addicted to Gran Turismo 4! We have also been busy at work. Nice weather make for lots of car sales. This is a good thing (I like money).

Last week was my 5th straight loser at the cash tables (if you omit my tourney win). While the last two weeks I've only lost a total of about $250, I am still frustrated. On a good note, I think I have found a few leaks. The biggest is definitely my drop in aggression and increasing nittyness. I am really working on opening up and the results have been promising.

At this point I have pretty much given up on UB. I cannot get paid there and just can't deal with the tight, tough play. I tried FTP out but after I was 3-bet 4,562 times in two days I decided to give Absolute a try (seriously, how aggro is $100nl at FT?). Absolute may have the WORST PLAYERS EVER! There are tons of guys with 40%+ VPIP's and <10% class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">PFR%. Perfect.

In fact, I sat at a table with three guys that were: 85/24, 83/19, and 60/11 over 75 hands. Triple perfect.

I will try and put a bigger update up later this week as well as some discussion about fantasy baseball and the over thinking that occurs at lower limits.

Till then, good luck at the tables.

Snow, snow, go away...

2007-03-04T12:59:00.000-08:00

Holy shit did it snow here this week! 40 mile per hour winds, 18 inches of snow....what a mess. I took some pics. It is nothing groundbreaking but it shows just how much snow we got. Keep in mind that on Wednesday morning we had NO snow on the ground whatsoever...

This is my back yard. the main drift is about 4 feet deep. You should see my dogs trudge through it. Pure comedy.

This is my itty bitty 2 bedroome abode. It is hard to see but the snow is over 4 feet deep in my front yard. No stalking me now!

This is a 2005 Mustang that belongs to a guy several blocks over. His shitty house brings down an otherwise nice 'hood.

This Chevy aint going anywhere soon.

This van is on an emergency snow route, it probably got towed shortly after I took this.

This is on the outside edge of town. Keep in mind I live in a town of 25k in the plains of South Dakota. Snow blows in from everywhere.

This is a city street. The pic refuses to do the scene justice. Most streets had well over a foot of snow making it literally impossible for non 4 wheel drives to pass.

There is a car under there somewhere, really...

Pretty crazy stuff for sure.

On to poker related news.

I played a bit last night and won about $250. I played very well and took pretty good advantage of the Saturday night drunks.

Now lemme tell you about my Friday night.

I wanna preface this by saying that I am not a big tourney player. I love playing in them but I don't very often. As a result I understand tourney strategy but am not always the best or most patient at executing it. The best I have ever done in a tourney was second in a $10+1 on FTP with 1200 entrants. It paid $1600.

I entered the $30+3 $8k guarantee on UB at 9:00pm. Things started slow as I was playing tight. Right before the first break I caught this hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?875986

Right after the break I caught another gem:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?875995

At this point I was top third or so. I planned to continue to play tight into the second break but then this happened:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?876000

After that I def played tight as I was top 5 in chips. Antes soon kicked in and nothing eventful happened for a bit. I did take down a few pots with some pp's and over cards (KQ on a K high flop most notably) but mostly lost several smaller pots and won a few bigger ones here and there. I did get a bit lucky in a hand that my opponent played a bit weakly on the flop. I called the min raise from the bb hoping to hit big as he was deep stacked (at this point I was still top 5 in chips):

http://www.pokerhand.org/?876016 Nothing spectacular, I just found it to be an interesting hand!

At this point my cards left me, big time. I went from top 5 to bottom half mostly by way of blinds, antes, and others just plain passing me by. By the time this hand happened I was def in need of some chips if I wanted to go super deep:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?876145

The VERY NEXT HAND:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?876148

So now I am top 3...WOOO HOOOOO!!!! We were down to the final 3 tables and I was playing well when this happened. It coulda been sweet...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?876155

Once again I ran dead for a bit and lost about half my stack in the process.

Up until this point I had not sucked out or gotten my money in bad once. So it was about time!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?876417

My intention was to take it down on the flop. I figured that even if he called I would have the redraw to the flush...oops! Thank god for 2 outers!

What was that about two outers?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?876423

So now I am chip leader and we are down to the final two tables!

After awhile I made the final table despite another run of bad cards. Even with the bad run I managed to build up a very nice stack by taking advantage of the guys that did not wanna go out in 11-20th. The pay jump was large and guys were playing tight.

The final tables stack sizes looked like this:

RR28 22770
BubBanks 60715
Shadymdub 52230
jupitert 23565
Poker_Man3 87665
script12 81935
CapAnson 94955
Giant Frog 40150
TheSpartan 41585
GoodKharma 20930

Payouts were about (I forget what they all were for sure):
10th: $130
9th: $220
8th: $335
7th: $440
6th: $550
5th: $670
4th: $800
3rd: $950
2nd: $1580
1st: $2630

I had AK and QQ early on and three bet with both. Both times I took down 55K+ pots preflop. I also won a nice pot with 66 on the flop when it came 522. 35 hands into the final table we had lost 4 players and the stacks were as follows:

BubBanks 33790
Shadymdub 45960
jupitert 86015
Poker_Man3 78435
script12 130545
CapAnson 151755

I was essentially running over everybody as the play was VERY tight. I bought a lot of pots and took down a bunch of hands preflop. One player even bitched about my button raises.

When this next hand happened I had a very aggro image at the table. The guy I got involved with was also somewhat aggro. It bears noting that I 3 bet him twice preflop (the afore mentioned AK and QQ hands) and raised him up on a flop once (the aforementioned 66 hand) at the table already. In hindsight I played the hand weakly and got lucky. I guess you can't play perfect the WHOLE tourney...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?876485

That win gave me 190k with second place having just over 105k.

I ran dead for a few hands....and then lost my first big pot. Luckily I could afford it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?876506

I think I made a solid play and just did not hit.

Gimmie my chips back!!!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?876513

Oh shit...I just found out I do not have the rest of the HH's. Not sure where the went, dammit... I will have to request them from UB.

Ok, here is the cliff notes version:

I took out the 3rd and 4th place guys back to back hands with AK and 88 I think. I got to heads up with a tight ass player and had him dominated in chips (415k to 110k).

I proceeded to run his ass over for a bit. He was down to 70k and we got all in preflop. I had AQ he had K9...the flop came 99x. A bit later I had AT and the flop came TT2. We got all in on the turn. He had QT but the river came 2.

Once again I had him down to 70kish. I raised, he shoved and I called with KTo...he had AT!

Flop:QJx
Turn:x
River:9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

$2632.58 richer baby!!! It was 2:15 in the morning and I was jumping up and down like a prepubescent girl!!! Fucking SHIP IT!!!!!!!!!

I played very well for the whole tourney, especially the last 3 hours. I was super happy with myself and for the first time in weeks felt super confident in my play. It is such a good feeling to win. It is better than the best drug. The money is only half of it...the winning and the confidence are soooooo important to me right now.

If anybody cares I can post the rest of the hands later if I can get my hands on them. I will rely on feedback to decide if I do that or not.

Well, I should get back to my Gran Turismo 4 endurance race I am running with a friend of mine...but first check these sweet pics of the driving seat setup I made with my force feedback steering wheel (who said you have to be all grown up at 27?):

Modeling the seat is my friend Jamie. He's a redneck. The seat is from a 1984 Ford Tempo that I used to drive in high school. I used the seat track so it is fully adjustable fore and aft. Here is an over the shoulder pic that also shows my pitiful 27" TV that rests on a plastic container so it is high enough to be seen. At least the surround sound is nice...

Wow that was a long as post! All right, I am off to my turn at the wheel. Good luck all, I hope this week treats you as well as the weekend did me.

Thinking About a Switch to FTP

2007-03-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been mostly uneventful. I did not play at all on Monday or Tuesday and played very little yesterday. I did win a few bucks at the cash tables but gave it back in the two tournies I played. One of them I bubbled after shoving on a player that had raised like 10 of the last 12 hands and was running over the table. I had about 2400 left and blinds were 150/300 and about to escalate into antes. I had 44. He had 77. In the other tourney I got booted from UB about 45 minutes after it started. I could not log back on for almost 2 hours. Boy was I pissed. Needless to say I am trying to recoup the entry fee as the problem was UB's and not my ISP's.

The major news of the day, as it were, concerns my potential move to FTP. I currently play UB but have noticed an alarming trend as of late. It seems that every table is popluated with 2-3 guys that play a LAG or TAG style. They refuse to pay me off and in general play a tough style of poker. FTP has about twice the user base and just inherited all of the players from Doyle's Room (or at least a large portion of them.). If you have not heard about Doyle's Room, read the article at this link: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_law/article/1907

I played Doyle's for a bit and all I can say is this: The site was populated with the worst players I have EVER seen. The level of play at $100nl was about the same as the level at $10nl on UB. Really. So if these fish are going to Full Tilt....I may follow.

I am currently in the process of getting signed up for rake back there. I emailed FT last night and asked them to close my old, mostly unused, account and remove me from the system. As of 10am this morning that had been done. Quick! When I sign up for the new account I plan on using my same user name but using my work address and a different name on my account. I hope it works as I know FT is strict about their one "account per person" policy.

I plan on playing a bit tonight but my daughter is sick so that may not happen. I will, of course, keep you all informed as I try to get out of my recent slump.

Until next time, good luck at the tables.

How to Maximize PAHUD's Potential to Make You $$$!!!

2007-02-25T12:32:00.000-08:00

Updates abound today!

First off, I deleted a few of my old posts. They gave me bad memories and I want to stay positive as I move forward.

I just finished updating my profile. Amongst other things I added a pic of my daughter and I. It is not the best pic but is the only one I have on my computer of us both from any time in the last couple months. It was taken on Christmas at my parents house. How sexy am I anyway?

For those of you that did not read last nights post….do yourself a favor and check it out. Pretty funny stuff.

WARNING POKER CONTENT AHEAD!!!

PAHUD=friggin wicked awesome…if used properly. For the first several months I had it I just used the four numbers that were part of the standard layout. Then I realized I wasn’t using anywhere near it’s full potential. So I got to work and now my tables look like this:

Before we run through what all the numbers mean, let’s talk a bit about the layout.

You’ll notice that there are groups of numbers that are color coded to each other. I ditched the standard color scheme where the numbers change color depending on what the value was. For example, a VPIP of 10 may have been red while a VPIP of 50 changed to green. My colors never change. I like having numbers that are tied together by the same color. It makes for quick recognition of what stats are what which is handy when multi tabling.

I had to make three separate layouts. If you have never used your PAHUD layout manager, go there now (open PAHUD, click on options, then layout manager) so you can more easily understand what I am about to explain. In PAHUD’s world the top center player is always in seat one. This seat required its own numbers layout since it is unique from all the other seats. Seats two and six are virtually identical with only slight changes to the right column on seat two because the numbers were smushed together when I copied the layout (Click on edit, then duplicate player seat. Select the seat you want to copy then the seats you want to copy it to.). Seats five and three are 100% the same. Seat four is where I sit, and I have the option to see my stats turned off. I did copy the format from seats two and six on to seat four for when I observe tables.

Another thing I did was reduce the decimal point on all numbers to one (make sure the stat you have currently selected has only one decimal point then click edit and global copy decimal font.).

I turned off the “snap to grid” option under options because it made it more difficult to get the numbers where I want them.

So what do the numbers mean and why did I choose the ones I did?

Lets do this by color.

Orange: VPIP and PFR%. You better know what these mean…if not, try canasta.

Green: Bet Flop %, Bet Turn %, Bet River %. I used to use the aggression frequency stats but find these more useful since they display more or less the same thing but in a number that makes sense to me. If they bet the flop 10 out of 20 times, that is 50%. Easy like Sunday Morning.

Gold: Fold BB to Steal %, Fold SB to Steal %, Attempt to Steal Blinds %. Great info to know who calls your button raises and how often. If their fold BB to steal percentage is 19%. You know they are calling your steal attempts with garbage. Good info to have for certain. It is also nice to know who is stealing and how often so you can give them less/more credit for a button raise.

Blue: Fold to Flop Bet %, Fold to Turn Bet %, Fold to River Bet %. This is great for knowing how often or for how long a player will chase or hang on to a hand like 2nd pair. It tells you if they can lay down a hand and on what street they do.

Pink: Call C-Bet %, Raise C-Bet %, Fold C-Bet %. This is great info, in conjunction with check raise %, for deciding who you can and should c-bet and when.

Army Green: Fold to Flop Raise %. This is a great tool for helping to handle the preflop limp caller that leads out on the flop. Use this number in conjunction with bet flop % to determine if the guy has anything or is trying to take the pot with TPWK, 2nd pair, a draw, or nothing.

Lt Blue: Call Preflop Raise %. How often does a guy limp call or call a 3-bet? If this number is high but their VPIP is low, you can count on them having good hole cards. If their VPIP is high, you can bet they are calling raises with marginal holdings.

Yellow: Check Raise (PT). This is Poker Trackers check raise percentage figure. This number is great to use on its own and to combine with other stats to decide if a guy is slow playing, bluffing, or has a good hand.

Lt Pink: Total Hands.

That is a ton of info! I love having it all though as I think it helps me a ton when making decisions on the fly.

I also configured my popup stats (edit, configure popup stats) to have info in them that is not on my layout. The most important numbers I have on there are Went to Showdown %, Won Showdown %, and Won Showdown % When Raising Turn, and Won Showdown % When Raising River. I do not have these on my layout because room was tight and because I only use them when at a showdown. They are still quite helpful.

I also have Fold to River Raise % and the breakdown for Check Raise % on each street.

The main thing is to be able to use the numbers together and be able to put them in to context. If a guy that has a VPIP of 70%, bets the river 100% of the time, and wins at showdown 4% of the time over 1000 hands then shoves on a board of A89TJ with 4 hearts and you have AA with no heart….that is not an auto call! The numbers are there to help but ultimately you are responsible for making good reads and solid plays. PAHUD will help you do that but you cannot rely on it to make every decision for you.

The PAHUD website has a lot of info on what all the numbers mean as well as instructions on how to use the layout manager. Go there for more info.

Doing all of the layouts took me well over an hour by the time it was arranged perfectly (I am super anal about shit like that). It was well worth the time though. Please give this some thought and effort as I am convinced it can help you become a bigger winner.

******Edit: If you are having problems seeing the pic of my PAHUD screenshot, PM me on CR (jeff218) with your email addy or email me at midas_poop@yahoo.com and I can send you the pic in its full size glory. Also, I should have prefaced the post with the fact I play on UB. I have no experience using PAHUD anywhere else but have seen it used on FT and Stars. Of course the formatting would be different for those sites.

And one more thing I forgot to mention in my post: I FINALLY GOT MY RAKE BACK PAYMENT!!!!!! Degan was super helpful and assured me a delay will not happen again. I am very happy with their service even though it took two weeks to straighten things all out. I feel confident that moving forward there will be no more problems with Rake Aid. If you do not have rake back, wtf is holding you up? Go to www.rakeaid.com and signup. And use Jeff218 as your referal dammit! If you are already on UB and do not have it you can have multiple accounts (up to 4) there with your same name (not user name but real name) and address. If you have any questions about rake back on UB you can drop me a line and I will try and help.

Blog readers, please meet Maxi Mounds...

2007-02-24T22:44:00.000-08:00

Today was a busy day. Please allow me to elaborate!

I spent the first part of day removing my stereo from my 2004 F150 since the lease is up on the 1st of March. And drinking. Yeah, we did that too.

On a totally off track side note, I just signed papers on my new (used) rig, a 1998 Chevy Tahoe LT. It is loaded...leather, power EVERYTHING, and will soon have a kick ass sound system in it. To celebrate I bought a new Phoenix Gold Octane R9.0.5 amp (50x4 at 4 ohms plus 250x1 at 2 ohms for my sub) and a 12" Infinity Kappa 124.7 sub. Infinity you say? Trust me, the sound quality is second to none and it will thump as well.

All the new stuff will complement my Alpine Type R 5.25" components and 6.75" Pioneer coaxials (The 4ish year old models with the horn tweeters in them. Goddamn things cost me damn near as much as the Alpines did but they sound great. Then again I got a great deal on the Alpines. Am I rambling? Damn you Miller Lite and Forty Creek 7ups! By the way, Forty Creek is the most underrated Canadian whiskey ever. It is 10 times smoother than Crown and has a more subtle taste....wow, Jeff, just STFU).

Where was I?

Oh yeah!

Of course I am still rockin the now almost 6 year old sony head unit. How can I go wrong though? It set me back a ridiculous for me $450 when new and has dual Burr Brown DA converters. Sterophiles will understand what that means. For the rest of you let me translate: The shit sounds nice! Did I mention that it has NEVER skipped? Good stuff for sure.

I won about $230 yesterday! It was my first winner of any real amount since the 15th. I have gotten my fucking head on straight and am playing like only I can. I am starting to get my swager back as well. I am here to tell you that this game is WAY more mental than I ever gave it credit for. I used to ALWAYS feel like I was the best player on any given table at any time and I lost that. I am working my way back...it is time for ole Cappy to be the cock of the walk.

I will post a bigger update tomorrow complete with pics of my family and myself. I am also going to get away from the whining and self loathing and back into some good poker stuff. I am planning a nice post about optimizing PAHUD.

On to the main event of the evening:

I went to a "gentlemens club" with my wife and some friends to see this trainwreck: http://www.maximounds.com/world.htm Jesus H. Christ in a chicken basket was that fucked up! The pics on the site do NOT do her justice. She looks about 20 years older and 30 pounds heavier in person, except older and fatter and way more not hot in any way whatsoever. Did I mention her tits looked like over-stuffed, rock hard, veiny, deformed, kinda squarish marshmallows that were pounded by a jackhammer for three hours the day before...but uglier? Also terrible: I will never look at a bowl of cottage cheese the same way again.

I just threw up in my mouth.

And I just lost my audience...

To top it all off two of my buddies, one accompanied by his wife, went to sniffers row and got their heads engulfed by her massive puppies. All you could see was the back of their heads. My buddy Kent's arms were flailing around like a Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man (http://www.gofish.com/player.gfp?gfid=30-1018436). I could not make this up if I tried.

The best part is that I was already quite full so I didn't drink a drop and there was no cover. Plus, the two guys that got their heads crushed only spent a buck each! How can you beat that value on a cold snowy South Dakota night?

I am off to bed but you all should remind me to tell you about the time I gave a stripper a $10 bill when I thought it was a single. Or the time I went to a bachelor party in Denver at my brother-in-law's house. The latter involves three strippers (one was shaved, the other two were lesbos), a bottle of Goldschlager, gay porn, a butt plug, passing out in the bath tub kinda naked...twice, and puking in my neices bed! Good times.

What the hell kind of a turn did my blog just take?

Wow.

Till tomorrow, CapAnson....OUT! (God, how gay am I right now?)

Another gem of a night!!!

2007-02-21T21:58:00.000-08:00

I am too lazy to retype my nights recap so here is a copy of my seemingly nightly PM to fruitypro as I ask for his help to get me back on track:

More misery...

First of all, the totals: Down $900 since 2/6. In the 15 days since then that I have played I am up only 6 of them. Today is my low point with a 3 buy loss in about 2 hours of play (and that includes the one table I won $215 on). My session winning % for the month is well under 40%.

I lost big pots on the following hands:

Hand 1: I had TT, villain JJ. He raises preflop and I 3 bet in pos., he calls. Flop comes 8 high rainbow. He checks and I c-bet. He shoves for about $40 more. He is 78/30 and is as bad as anybody I have ever seen. I call.

Hand 2: I have QQ, CO (no reads) has KTs, and BB (55/22) has AA. CO limps preflop, I raise in pos, BB 3 bets me min, CO calls, I 4 bet. BB shoves for $24 more, CO shoves for about $7 on top of that. I thought and thought and thought and decided to call because the pot was too big to walk away from.

Hand 3: I have KK, villain QQ....all in on the flop for a $300 pot. Turn: Q, River: Q

Hand 4: I have KK, villain QQ....all in on the flop for a $300 pot. Flop had a Q.

I did misplay a hand this afternoon with JT that cost me about $60. I knew I should not have done it the second I made the move.

Just as last night I stayed quite calm. I am not upset at all. I am not beating myself up and have taken it in stride. I am very impressed and super happy with how I am carrying myself and with my mental state right now. It is awesome that I am proving to myself that I can control my emotions and thought processes.

I am, however, quite worried about my run. At this point my confidence is shot to shit. My roll is only $1800 (rakeaid, where the fuck is my money????????). I feel like I have played very well the last two days over all. I have had a few slips but that is what sperates the amatures from the pros, right? I know my mistakes, have reviewed them and am working on fixing them. But mostly I feel kinda lost. I am going through the motions but something is missing. I am not sure what to do here. I guess I will keep at it and pray to God that I can get back to being at least a break even player before I have to move down. As it is I should not really be playing $100nl with only 18 buys. I would not be if I did not have $1300 in rakeback coming as soon as rakeaid gets their shit in order. But one more 3 buy down swing and I am back at the $50 tables...yuck.

So my break was a bit shorter than I expected...

2007-02-21T11:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday blew.

I found myself in need of some cash and had to RAPE my roll for $1250. God that sucks. So in addition to the 7 buy down swing I pulled another 12+ buys out. IF I COULD EVER GET MY FN RAKEBACK MONEY FROM RAKEAID this would all be replaced. Wish me luck on that deal.

In light of this I logged on last night and went back to it. I decided to play two tables and really work on being more aggressive, especially in position. I also concentrated on making good reads and not calling off chips. I was killing the game for about $300 in less than two hours. Of course, then the bottom fell out...

I had AK on an TJQ rainbow flop lose to 64s. I will repeat that: AK on an TJQ rainbow flop lost to 64s!!! I was on the cutoff and had the button and SB call my preflop raise. On the flop we all checked. Should I bet there? I DID have THE nuts for Christ's sake. The turn put a second diamond on the board (can you see this coming?). SB checks, I bet about 60% of the pot, button folds, SB calls. River comes jack of diamonds. Of course I am not at all worried about the flush but QJ is a concern. I cannot remember how it all happened on the river but the moral of the story is that we each got about $30 into the pot. He had 64 of diamonds. Ugh...

KK went down to QTo when the turn put 4 hearts on the board. We got all-in on the flop which may have been a mistake. He was a fast and loose player and I figured he had a big heart. I was right. He just hit.

I also had KK vs AA where I flopped a set. Unfortunatly he did as well. Kiss another $150 good bye.

Over all I played well but had to deal with some of the same old shit. I am proud of myself for maintaining my cool and not getting to down in the dumps. I look forward to my session tonight as well as a lot of hands tomorrow and Friday since the bosses will be out of the office!

Time Off, It Does a Body Good!!!

2007-02-19T07:43:00.000-08:00

After reviewing the last few sessions (and with some hand advice from Fruitypro) I have established a few things:

1. I am fucking nuts.
2. I am way overplaying TPTK and big pp's.
3. I am trying waaaaaaayyyyyy to hard.
4. Did I mention I am crazy?

It is foolish to be all upset like I have been. First off it isn't like I am down that much (about $550). As I stated before, it is that I have trouble handling defeats of any kind. I hate losing at anything no matter how small. So when I lose at poker it feels doubley (did I just make a word up?) bad because not only am I losing money, I am losing...period.

As I said way back in my first blog post, I keep this running journal for two reasons. The first is that I hope to help people through my experiences. The second, and quite frankly, more important reason is that it is super helpful to me to put my thoughts down on "paper." This is a sort of therapy to me. Once I get the shit out of me, it is gone forever. I told you I'm nuts.

So the moral of the story is that I am not playing until Thursday. Three days of videos (poker with a bit of porn sprinkled in I imagine...) and relaxation. I have totally ignored my PS2 lately and I think she's lonely. I have played some Guitar Hero 2 but want to get some quality SOCOM: Combined Assult time in this week.

A vacation, not a bad idea at all...

Do yourself a favor, don't read this...

2007-02-12T22:03:00.000-08:00

Before I get started I need to apologize to the CR board members that are interested in my proposed study group. In a moment you will see the major reason why I have not been on the board or had time to orgainze the group as promised.

I must preface what I am about to post by explaining something about my personality: I am neurotic and obsessive compulsive. When I am runnining really well I put a lot of my extra time into poker. I have trouble walking away from the opportunity to make money. On the flip side, when I run poor....I put every ounce of my time, energy, and mental power into the game I am growing to fucking hate. I have played more in the last 7 days than in the 15 before. In those 7 days I have posted winners in only 1 (for $82, yippie skippy). On Sunday I had a point where I lost on 10 of 13 tables I had played. IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? Over that span my session winning % was UNDER 40. UNDER 40 FREAKING %.

I know, I know, we have all had this happen many times over......but this time it is killing me mentally. I am litteraly running myself into the ground. I took Saturday off and slept 14 hours and even that did not help.

The last straw was tonight. I ran well late Sunday and got about $200 back from the $400 I was down. I logged off early and went to bed on a good note. I played a 30 person MTT this afternoon and took 2nd. I started out great tonight and was up about $150 in 30 minutes when it started AGAIN. Here are the only 4 pots I lost over $30 tonight:

Hand 1:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818457

Hand2:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818472

Hand 3:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818476

Hand 4:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818479

Am I doing something wrong? Should I have I pitched the kings? Was I wrong to check the QQ on the turn (I thought he had an over pair after the flat call of my three bet and of the $25 I bet on the flop). Did I mention that the hand after the QQ vs AK hand I had 88 and flopped a set vs AA? Too bad I only had $35 cause I did not get a chance to rebuy? God I hate poker...

And now, for my pleasure, and your pain, I will post about 425 coolers that nobody will read. Why? Because it is better than punching shit...

Hand 5:
Can I possibly muck this???
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818485

Hand 6:
Nothing I could do here...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818487

Hand 7:
This makes me want to puke.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818491

Hand 8:
This I maybe shoulda pitched? God, I don't know...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818492

Hand 9:
Once again, what can I do different here?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818495

Hand 10:
Villain is 78/16 and will shove with ANY pair EVERY time.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818499

Hand 11:
Against the same player as hand 10.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818501

Hand 12:
tbittles strikes again...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818503

Hand 13:
This one really hurt. I was up for the night and had logged off all my other tables. I meant to log off this one as well but forgot to unclick autopost. Then I get this hand....what a way to finish.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?818508

Over this span I am running 16/13 (unulually tight for me) for two reasons:
1. I am not seeing shit for cards.
2. I am doing EVERYTHING in my power to play only the best hands in position in order to avoid the raping that I am taking.

Now you wanna hear the sick part? I am up $140 over the last 7 days while playing at home (which is where I got all these hands from) . Over that same time frame my roll is down $600...600+140=740 (for all you math majors out there). I am down $740 while at work! I will post 10 or 15 more hands from there tomorrow. Why? No idea...

I know this will turn around. The only question is will I figure out a way to chill the fuck out before it does? I have only really tilted three times through this:
1. I was at work and simply logged off.
2. After I lost hand 5 I threw a table across my basement (really) then logged off.
3. After hand 2 tonight, I logged off and tried my best not to break shit.

At this point I am not sure where to turn. I cannot bring myself to take time off. When I am not playing I am obsessing about playing which is evern worse. God, I need help...

*****UPDATE*****

So after I posted this and let my dogs out I was calmed down and decided to fire up two tables for 45 minutes before bed. I was up about $100 in 30 minutes....and ended up down $40. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE????????????????????????????????????????????

By the way, I need a new calculator, I dropped mine and it broke...

I'm All Grow'd Up...

2007-02-04T21:38:00.000-08:00

I hate the NFL. I hate Rex Grossman. I hate the fact that I am the ONLY person on the planet that wasn’t looking at Marvin Harrison’s feet and was instead looking at the ball moving around in his hands THE WHOLE FN TIME!!!! HE DIDN’T MAKE THE GODDAMN CATCH, WHO CARES IF HIS FEET WERE DOWN!!!!!! I hate that Cedric Benson got hurt so early. I hate that we did not use any of the momentum that we had early in the game. I hate that everybody loves Peyton Manning so fricking much. I hate that I didn’t bet more on the under but loaded up on the Bears.

I have been a Bears fan as long as I remember. I am over the top nuts about them. When Walter Payton died, may God rest his soul, my dad called me to see if I had heard. When I answered the phone I was already so torn up I couldn’t talk. He had my mom come over from work to check on me because they were so worried. I was 20. I am that kind of a fan. Scary, huh?

I lived and died with each miscue. I wanted to puke when Rex fumbled a snap. I did puke when he did it again. This was undoubtedly one of the 5 worst days of my life. Really.

But you know what I really hate?

I REALLY hated looking at my 7 month old daughter, Ava, dressed up in her Bears cheerleading outfit sitting on my wife Amber’s lap. I hated seeing Amber wearing my 3 sizes too big #54 jersey because I asked her to. I hated looking down at my Walter Payton jersey that Amber gave me for my wedding gift (told you I am nuts). I hated it because I was so busy feeling so bad about something so small when I was surrounded by people so important to me.

Then something happened. I stopped hating. I realized that while today sucked worse than getting teamed up with the fat kid for piggyback races in gym class, it was still ok.

It is amazing that it took me 27 years, but it finally happened. Poker has grown me up, seriously. I have learned that when bad shit happens (you called me with WHAT????) you have to get over it in order for good shit to happen.

So this weeks lesson? Tilt, both in poker and in life, will get you nowhere. Quit feeling sorry for yourself, dry your tears, and get back to work. Without a "can do" attitude you will fail at everything. And poker is the least of it!

Did I mention I hate Rex Grossman?

Sets: The Most Important Made Hand in Poker

2007-01-31T13:12:00.000-08:00

In the thread on CR discussing my last blog post somebody suggested that the Poker Commandments were general and had been done to death. They went on to suggest that a more in depth explanation of each commandment might be in order. I thought about that for a few days and decided he may be right.

I may or may not cover all of the commandments this way but at this point I think #4 is the best candidate for more discussion. There is a bunch of talk every week about pocket pairs and sets and how to play them on the CR board. There also seems to be a ton of posts concerning AA and KK and when to lay them down. So let’s dig in to these situations a bit further, shall we?

Disclaimer: I am not a professional. I don’t play one on TV and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. When I write my blog, it is for 2 reasons: 1. To hopefully help people through the sharing of my experience. 2. To help myself by putting thoughts on paper and using reader feedback to grow and, in some cases, change my game. If you think my advice sucks, please tell me so. If I agree that I was wrong, I’ll own up to it in my next blog. The LAST thing I want to do is dispense bad advice.

First off: NEVER EVER lay down AA or KK preflop at $100nl and below. If the villain says, “I have AA” and you are holding kings….GO ALL IN. I cannot say this any more definitively. The level of play is so uneven at these lower limits that you just never know what they might hold. I have seen a guy with 10/2 stats push all-in with anything from AA to TT to AQ. This topic is not up for discussion, so please don’t argue…

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, again, lets move on to the big stuff:

A set is the most important made hand in online poker. Period.

How can I say that when sets get beat by straights, boats, and bigger sets with mild frequency? How can a set be a better made hand than a full house? There are two main reasons why this is so:

1. Sets occur much more often than straights, flushes, and boats. Therefore you have more chances to make bank with ‘em.

2. People are terrified by a board with three suited cards and to a lesser degree three cards to a straight, making it tough to get paid. Sets are a hidden made hand. Does anybody suspect a set of 3’s on an AJ3 flop? Certainly not the guy with AJ!!!

The thing with sets is that they are hard to get paid off with if you play them poorly. This starts, of course, with the preflop handling of pocket pairs. My standard preflop line with pp’s is pretty simple. I raise pot with all pp’s regardless of position in an unraised pot. I have heard some guys say they only raise 55 and up from UTG. That is foolish and not well thought out. How much better is 55 than 33 on a flop when you missed your set? Zero. For all intents and purposes 22-77 is the same hand preflop. I know it sounds weird but 95% of the time the board will contain scary over cards to any of those pairs which renders them mostly useless without a set. Sure you will occasionally see a 254 flop and your 77 will be good. However, a bet in that situation still gets called by a hand like KQ or AJ. For the most part 22-77 are of similar value preflop and should be played that way.

If the pot is raised I will call with 22-77 if the villain has at least 80% of a buy-in or there are players to act behind me that are likely to also call (like a guy with a 50%VPIP to my left) and help increase my implied odds. I am not big on the complicated math end of things here and I know somebody will set me straight on what the odds are and how much of a stack my opponent should have. I’m ok with that! My general rule of thumb is 80%. If he has less, or more for that matter, I may re-raise but that is totally read dependant and is certainly not a play you should make every time.

I am very careful of calling 3-bets with small pp’s. At these limits a 3-bet usually means incredible strength and you will often find yourself dominated by JJ on up. In this case you can still call the 3-bet but only if you and your opponent are deep stacked and you have a good read. If I feel like I can win more at least a buy-in if I hit a set, I will consider calling.

With 88 and up I am pretty much willing to three bet in position preflop. If I am UTG+1 and UTG raises I may not 3-bet with less than JJ but once again, this is player dependant. I pretty much always 3-bet with JJ on up regardless of position or stack size.

Now on to the difficult decisions: What to do with JJ and QQ to a three bet or all in preflop? I hate to sound like a broken record but this is also read dependant. Against a loose fool an all-in raise (good) or call (ehhh, ok at best) is probably ok. If a guy is 15/10 it is pretty easy to lay down. These two hands are difficult to play postflop when an overcard hits so I will often err to the side of caution and not shove when in doubt. Try to see a flop and hit a set or at least get to a point where you can evaluate if the villain has AK or KK. Does the “Pick a Better Spot” commandment ring a bell?

Enough of the preflop babble, lets talk flop play baby.

If you flop a set, you should be prepared to felt 98% of the time. If the board is three to a flush or straight you still have to come out firing but you must be wary going forward. How you play a flopped set is really up to you. In most instances I raise and re-raise regardless of position. I think it is important not to fall into the trap of slow playing sets. They are huge hands but can still be drawn on and are vulnerable. If the board has zero on it in the way of draws and/or you are up against a weak opponent the check raise or check call can be used. If you suddenly start getting tricky with all your made hands your c-bets with nothing but over cards or an underpair will get no credit and you’ll get played back at, forcing you to fold. You must keep in mind the image you project!

Turn and river play are really not something I can discuss too much here. There are so many possible scenarios that to give advice would oversimplify things. I will say this: If you are worried about set over set, stop it…seriously. Another point worth mentioning concerns value betting the river. If the river does not complete any draws it is often a good idea to make a smaller bet in order to get a call. If, for example, you have 9s9h and the villain has Ac6c and the board is Qh3c9cAs you can definitely get a call if you don’t over bet. Gauge the size of the pot and decide what might get called. Making a 80% pot bet might get you the occasional pay day via a loose call, but not very often. Instead bet 50% to 60% of the pot and try to get that last bit of juice!

Sets are the best hand in poker, play them right and you’ll be stackin’ bills!

10 Commandments for Low Limit Grinders

2007-01-25T11:56:00.000-08:00

Before we get to the meat of this post let me give you a quick update on my quest for cash. Despite dropping $135 in 90 minutes early in the day playing $100nl, I had my biggest day ever yesterday winning $225 at $50nl. My hand of the day was kinda crazy. Sorry for cobbled up HH. I am at work but played this hand at home so I don’t have the exact HH in front of me.

UTG+1 - Hero $50
Button - Gomer $45
SB - Pyle $55

Hole Cards:
Hero: 22

Hero raises to $1.75, Gomer calls, Pyle calls (everybody else folds)

Flop:
K25 rainbow

Pyle checks, Hero raises to $4, Gomer re-raises to $8, Pyle calls, Hero re-raises to $20 (maybe I shoulda just called here?), Gomer re-raises all-in, Pyle re-raises all-in, Hero calls.

Turn:
10

River:
10

Showdown:
Pyle: K3 (LOL)
Hero: 22
Pyle: AA

Total Pot: $145

K3, are you freaking kidding me? I stacked the idiot in an $80 pot about 20 hands later as well.

Gotta love the fish….

I have been thinking about the following “rant” for awhile now. In fact I have slept on it a few nights trying to narrow things down to only 10 commandments. I know there have been several “Rules of Poker” posts and blogs and articles but this one has a different spin. While this applies to all players at all limits in many ways, my list is intentionally skewed towards low limit grinders like myself. So read on and enjoy.

10 COMMANDMENTS FOR LOW LIMIT GRINDERS

1. Thou shalt not play outside of their bankroll: This is common sense. We have all had this beat into our heads but for some reason we still ignore it. In fact, just yesterday I played some $100nl which I am in no way ready to do. This is not just about the money, it is just as much about the mental side of things. When you are focused in on one limit, to jump around to others can be disastrous.

2. Thou shalt wait for better spots: You have KTs in position and raise preflop. The UTG limper calls and the flop comes KQ5 rainbow. A player that smells a bit fishy pushes all-in into you. What to do? FOLD. Are you ahead? It is possible, maybe even likely. But this guy will give you better spots. Be patient and wait until you are certain (or at least more certain) you are good.

3. Thou shalt raise or fold, and not call preflop: Preflop you should only call with small to mid pp’s to a raise (and even then you should sometimes three bet). Otherwise raise or fold. As tempting as it might be to call a loose raiser with 89s it is generally a good way to get into a bad spot.

4. Thou shalt not fold AA, KK, or sets…EVER: This has received a ton of discussion on the CR board. At $100nl and below NEVER EVER fold AA or KK preflop. If you flop a set, NEVER EVER fold it (Unless of course the board is super scary like 789 suited or something like that, use judgment of course! The advice to never fold applies to a situation, for example, where you are worried about set over set.). If you are worried about set over set, you need to find a different game.

5. Thou shalt not bluff: C-bets with nothing do not count as a bluff. I am talking about two and three barreling and flat out bluffs in general. Players are too loose and unpredictable at this limit to bluff. It will not work often enough to be anything remotely resembling a +ev play.

6. Thou shalt not play distracted or while on tilt: No shit, you say? Even mild tilt can cause poor play. For a little bit more info on playing distracted please read my last blog post. We are all very guilty of this and you know it!

7. Thou shalt not blame poker site or fish for losses: Suckouts happen. Running flushes, straights, and boats happen. People beat your KK with 63o (happened to me last night). Is it SUPER frustrating? Absolutely. Will saying, “That’s UB for ya” or “FU you F’N fish” make the money you lost magically reappear in your account? Uhhh, no. If you take a bad beat, simply give a “nh” and hope the idiot sticks around. There is no reason to scare him away. I will never understand why people point out to a fish that they are, in fact, a fish. Why the hell would you insult the person that makes you money? Be nice to everybody and hope nobody else scares them off.

8. Thou shalt keep control of the table/pot: If you start calling too often you forfeit control of the pot. Be aggressive (but tight, TAG works best at low limits) in the pots you are in. If you feel like you are not in control of the table, leave. Find a better one. If you are involved in a pot and fell like you are along for the ride, slow down or fold. Pick a better spot (see commandment #2).

9. Thou shalt use pot control: If the board is scary or if you are not sure what your opponent might have, it is ok to check behind on the turn or river. I understand that getting max value is the goal but think of how many times you continued firing or raised the river after it was checked to you only to find out you were behind the whole time. Controlling the size of the pot is one of the most important keys in limiting swings and variance.

10. Thou shalt use all available tools: If you don’t have it, go out and but Poker Tracker right now. I’ll wait here. Got it? Good. While you’re at it Poker Ace HUD is a brilliant tool that has helped me multi-table since it makes “reads” for me. Using these two tools puts you ahead of 95% of players off the bat. I know it’s easy to put it off but watching videos on CR every week is also very important. You will always pick up something, so why not take advantage of them? I am also a huge advocate of posting on poker boards. You have the tools, USE THEM!!!

Hopefully something here helps somebody. In all seriousness if you really concentrate on these ten things I promise you with all my heart it will improve your game beyond measure. It sounds silly but when I implemented these things into my game I went from a minor winner to killing both $25nl and $50nl.

As always I look forward to your feedback.

A wise old owl gave me some advice once...

2007-01-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

First off, I want to wish Fruitypro a speedy recovery from what currently ails him. He has been one of the two most important people in my quest to be able to support my family by playing poker and I owe him a great deal for that. We have only spoken directly a handful of times but through IM’s and lessons I have grown fond of him and consider him a friend. So get well soon Dan, we miss you at CR!!!

Poker has been up and down for me the last couple of weeks. As you probably read (and if not, get to it!) in my last two posts I have not been running the best. However there is light at the end of the tunnel. I am up $275 in only 3,400 hands at work this week. I still cannot believe that I get paid to play cards. I guess it is nice working at your best friend’s business…

On the flip side, I have been struggling at home in the evenings which brings me to the core of this post.

Without getting into to much personal detail I will say that I have a certain amount of stress in my home life. It is not a relationship situation, it is our financial situation. Despite us both holding good paying, steady jobs we are still walking a fine line. Why am I telling you this? Well, I have a point…

I have a nasty habit of putting important things off. In this case I have put off some bills and as a result I have accrued late fees and several dings to my credit. In life, hiding from problems will NEVER EVER make them go away. I know you have probably heard this advice a million times from a thousand people but it has a special place here:

You cannot in any way, shape, form, or fashion play your best (or in my case even 75% of my best) poker when your mind is not clear.

Once again, you have heard this said before but to me it is the single most important factor in being a successful poker player!

Because I have caused myself stress in “real life” my “poker life” has suffered greatly. So do yourself, your account, and the people around you (wife, kids, friends, and family) a favor and attack all your problems head on. It will make you a much happier person and will only help your bank roll to grow that much faster.

One more quick thing. There is a thread going on CR's low limit board that shows a pretty common situation.

Here is the link: http://www.cardrunners.com/fusetalk/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=67&threadid=13384&enterthread=y

I think the poster made a VERY common mistake in over-valuing a hand. It looks good on the flop, but when you think about it, it holds a lot less clout than at first glance. It is also a great example of why a lot of flops should be a fold/raise play and not a call. I think he should have mucked on the flop but a 4-bet is not out of the question if for some reason you cannot give the villain any credit. It is a good thread, check it out.

Until next time, may the poker gods smile upon you!

Damn fold/show button!

2007-01-15T23:09:00.000-08:00

You know what my favorite part of having my own blog is? I can post whatever I want. This includes the dreaded "BAD BEAT STORIES"!!!! You want to see the mis-click of the decade? Read on, and please, cry with me (or for me, either way)...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?743012 BIGGEST MIS-CLICK I HAVE EVER MADE BY FAR

http://www.pokerhand.org/?743015 This hurt almost as bad...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?743016 At least they weren't all bad....never mind....

http://www.pokerhand.org/?743017 Two outs is plenty.....apparently

http://www.pokerhand.org/?743019 I should have seen this one, but I was tiltish (it was 4 or 5 hands after the 33 mis-click)

So to summarize:

My magical run became more of a train wreck than a typical Saturday night at Sigfried and Roy's house. I had one positive day last week. Thank God it was a biggie so I ended the week down about $180. I was playing well today until the above 5 hands happened. All total I only lost $80 for the day, which is a miracle, yet somehow I still want to choke somebody to death...

The best part? I wasn't even going to play tonight but I talked myself into it.....YUCK.

I did have one table that I left +$115. I want to list for you the 5 biggest losing pot sizes for this table (I played 236 hands):
$6.00
$5.75
$5.25
$5.00
$4.75

The big winner was my KK vs. villains QQ for a full buy-in. Thank God for small favors...

Thanks for listening to my incessant whining. I don't feel any better though......so I think I will go find a sharp object or something...

And one more thing (Parents, put your children away): FUCKING FOLD SHOW BUTTON, GO TO FUCKING HELL

I take the easy way out...

2007-01-11T22:29:00.000-08:00

Hello all! I started my new job Monday and have been a bit busy, so sorry for the lack of the mid week post I promised. To make up for it I am going to take the easy way out for this entry!

Earlier this week CR member peterpjames made the following post on CR's low limit board:

"While in my first month of 25NL play I've done well so far, I have two big weaknesses at the moment that I think need fixing to help me win at higher levels. I think a lot of players go through these issues so I was hoping for some input.

The first is being able to fold hands I should be able to fold. I go back later and say "why couldn't I fold AA on an 8-5-2 board when I got reraised? What else could he be doing that with there except a set, especially when he limp/called a raise preflop?" I tell myself that over and over and yet I get in situations where I'm paying off sets and two pair with TPTK or an overpair. I see this at the highest levels, so I'm not sure there's one easy solution, but any thoughts would help. I try to slow down and think hands through, but this is a spot where I'm obviously losing more money than I need to.

The second is hand awareness. While I think I'm paying people off too much, I think I'm not getting enough value on my bigger hands either. When I make a bet and get called, my mind starts working through all the possible ways I could be losing the hand. I don't think I get enough value for some of my winning hands because I just end up checking the turn and/or river. When looking at my PT stats you can see I'm very aggressive on the flop and then that aggression just drops off after that, especially on the river.

Any suggestions here? I know these are broad problems without easy quick fixes, but any input or advice would be appreciated!"

I have read several of peter's posts and tried to help where I could. In this case I put quite a bit of time and thought into my reply. I have reread it about five times because I (get ready to hear me pat myself on the back) really think it is some good stuff. So for your viewing pleasure I cut and pasted the reply. Enjoy!

"Honestly? In the example listed, if at $25nl, I am pretty much going to pay a set off EVERY time. Players make the same play with KK, QQ, JJ and even AK, AQ and TT. If you are concerned about a set or two pair, try controlling the pot by checking behind on the turn and/or river when you have position.

You can also try using blocking bets (half the pot or so) when out of position. These strategies will help you in not losing big pots with over pairs and TPTK. Of course there are times when you are good and you will profit less but that is breaks.

Pot control is one of the things than has really helped me reduce my swings and become super consistent. As far as your turn and river aggression...there could be worse problems, as long as you are not often folding the winning hand to others aggression.

At this limit c-betting the flop is a standard +ev play. The turn becomes more tricky for several reasons and there are a number of things to take into consideration:

1. You want to try and control the pot and it's size. There is nothing wrong with checking the best hand even if the board has a draw (depending on the villain you may still want to bet here, just not always). Often a bet will get called anyway so by checking behind you have saved yourself cash in the event of a draw hitting.

2. Many (probably 50% or more) players at $25nl will slowplay big hands on the flop oop. Say you have AQ on the button. You raise PF and get the UTG limper to call. The flop comes A59 rainbow. UTG checks, you lead out with a 75% pot bet and he calls. You have no idea where you are in the hand. You assume you are ahead but you may have just bet drawing to the 3 queens left in the deck...or even worse. If he checks the turn and you bet, he will most certainly at least call (as in the example above) and could very well raise. If he raises, you have to assume you are behind. At this point your thoughts will often be that he has a pp or Ax. In either case there is a decent chance you are behind (to two pair or a set).

This is the main argument for checking behind. Of course there are times when he will check raise with AT or AJ and that is up to you to know the player and decide what he might have. I am simply suggesting that by checking behind you can force him to play his own hand (instead of letting you do it for him) on the river which may reveal the true strength (or lack there of) of his holding.

Also keep in mind that if you are playing well, you will lay down the best hand on occasion. That is a crappy fact of poker.

3. Many players call on the flop with nothing (Ax for example) and will fold to another bet on the turn, tempting you to fire again...which sets you up for problems when they out flopped you. River aggression is mostly dependent on 3 factors:

1. What did the villain do preflop?
2. Did the villain show strength or weakness on the flop and turn?
3. What kind of player is the villain?

Taking this all into account it is often easy (and occasionally super confusing) to decide what the right play is. Just keep this in mind: At this limit, there is nothing wrong with being a bit conservative at times. I know CR preaches aggression but lower limits require a different touch. Big pots will happen often against all the fish so wait for a spot where you are sure you are good. There is NO REASON to throw a bunch of chips into a pot when you have no idea where you stand."

I hope this helps some of you out. I will give fruitypro 90% credit for this advice, as it were, because he was the one that taught it to me. This stuff has taken me from being a slow winner to a very consistent $50nl killer. I did $650 in business in 16 hours of 4 tabling last week and just put in my biggest day ever with a $200 profit in about 2 1/2 hours of play. Am I having huge days where I make a ton of cash? Not really. Am I having huge days where I lose tons of cash? NEVER! At the lower limits a soft touch with a little less aggro will pay dividends with very little risk involved.

As a quick side note: When I get time (hopefully this weekend) I will add several blog links to the page here. There are a number of good blogs out there that bear reading.

I should also mention that the Christmas party for my old job (bartender) is on Sunday. We go to the bar and DRINK ANYTHING WE WANT (even the good stuff....Grey Goose and Absolut, here I come) FOR FREE ALL FREAKING DAY!!!!!!!!!!

So, uhhhhhhh, wish me luck?

Good luck at the tables and as always, comments are welcome here at at CR!

I actually made a check raise!!!

2007-01-08T00:12:00.000-08:00

Greetings all, I hope this entry finds you during a streak as hot as mine.

To update you all I can only say that I am still on fire, having ended 22 of the last 24 days in the black! I won $650 in the last week in only 5,000 hands (about 16.65 hours). I wish I had more time to play. I actually will soon as I am starting my new job tomorrow and should be able to put 3-4 hours a day in at work within the next few weeks (I need to get trained in first).

I made the full time move to $50nl and have moved my goal of moving up to $100nl from April 1st to March 1st. Assisting me is the fact I can still turn my UB points into cash without affecting my rakeback. This means $650-$750 per month at my current limit for free. Greatness!!!

My roll currently sits at $1865 so with any luck I will be crushing $100nl in no time.

I have a couple of hands I'd like to post here for your viewing pleasure. The first is also going to be posted on the CR low limit cash board. Take a look:

Villain is 52/4 over only 25 hands.

Hand #37040933-68161 at Clarksville (No Limit Hold'em)
Started at 08/Jan/07 00:40:17

deutschplay is at seat 0 with $52.10.
CapAnson is at seat 1 with $51.30.
leo2302 is at seat 2 with $59.50.
ShazebAndleeb is at seat 3 with $108.05.
hmx808 is at seat 4 with $81.15.
ceo3002 is at seat 5 with $21.45.
The button is at seat 5.

deutschplay posts the small blind of $.25.
CapAnson posts the big blind of $.50.

deutschplay: -- --
CapAnson: As Qd
leo2302: -- --
ShazebAndleeb: -- --
hmx808: -- --
ceo3002: -- --

Pre-flop:
leo2302 raises to $1.50. ShazebAndleeb folds.
hmx808 folds. ceo3002 folds. deutschplay folds.
CapAnson calls.

Flop (board: Th Ad Kd):
CapAnson checks. leo2302 bets $2. CapAnson raises
to $6. leo2302 folds. CapAnson is returned $4
(uncalled).

I NEVER check raise. Seriously, I may do it once every 500 hands or so. In this case I made the play because I wanted to make sure my hand was good. I figured that if I bet and he called I really didn't know where I was. I thought he certainly may have AK, AT, or KT as those hands seemed within his range. I thought that if I checked and he checked behind I would pop on the turn and not be out the cash as if I had bet and he called (this way I still had no info but at least it did not cost me). The main idea of a check raise here was to gather info. Was it an ok line? When do you check raise?

I rarely use the play because I don't want to rely on others to bet my hand for me. I usually use it when I am not sure if I am good. I think by using it then I can get some info and make my opponent believe I am stronger than I am. The other times I use the check raise is usually against super aggro fishy types that can't get away from a hand.

Now for some fun...this hand may be the worst play I have ever seen!

Hand #37040728-101491 at Paterson (No Limit Hold'em)
Started at 08/Jan/07 02:32:42

rraid4life is at seat 0 with $48.50.
icatchin is at seat 1 with $69.85.
dankgambler76 is at seat 2 with $33.25.
scarney46 is at seat 3 with $91.15.
Ibbid is at seat 4 with $72.45.
CapAnson is at seat 5 with $51.75.
The button is at seat 4.

CapAnson posts the small blind of $.25.
rraid4life posts the big blind of $.50.

rraid4life: -- --
icatchin: -- --
dankgambler76: -- --
scarney46: -- --
Ibbid: -- --
CapAnson: Kc Ad

Pre-flop:
icatchin calls. dankgambler76 calls. scarney46
folds. Ibbid calls. CapAnson raises to $3.
rraid4life calls. icatchin calls. dankgambler76
calls. Ibbid folds.

Flop (board: 3c Kh 4c):
CapAnson bets $8. rraid4life calls. icatchin calls.
dankgambler76 folds.

Turn (board: 3c Kh 4c 4d):
CapAnson bets $25. rraid4life folds. icatchin
calls.

River (board: 3c Kh 4c 4d 6s):
CapAnson goes all-in for $15.75. icatchin calls.

Showdown:
CapAnson shows Kc Ad.
CapAnson has Kc Ad Kh 4c 4d: two pair, kings and fours.
icatchin mucks cards.
(icatchin has Ac 5c.)

I asked him why he called on the turn with just a draw and he claimed he thought I was bluffing. I then asked how he called the river bet and he once again said he thought ace high was good. I told him I was concerned he was slow playing a set.....he then asked me why I didn't fold if I was worried! I replied, "because you didn't raise." He lost his last $5 and left...

I'll be sure to post some time mid week with an update. Until then good luck at the tables!

Sterotypical First Blog Post!

2007-01-03T21:25:00.000-08:00

This is a new deal for me. I haven't blogged in my life and to be honest I used to find them (and the term "blog") sort of annoying. Thanks to the magic of CardRunners and the blogging of various pros (most notably fruitypro and CTS) I have decided to start my own public diary.

The reasons for doing this are twofold:
1. To help myself in learning the game by putting my thoughts, gripes, strengths, and weaknesses on digital paper.
2. To hopefully help other low limit grinders like myself.

I suppose I should follow traditional format and tell you all a bit about myself.

I am a 27 year old married guy living in South Dakota. I have a new baby girl (our first) who is the primary driving force behind EVERYTHING I do - those of you with children no doubt know what I am talking about. We have two dogs, a beagle and an English springer spaniel.

Besides poker I am into music (most any kind excluding country, hippy crap, and fringe stuff like death metal, electronica, etc.), sports, cars, video games, blah blah blah...typical guy stuff. I am also a bit of a chef (my mother caters professionally) specializing in Asian cuisine and meat. I love meat (easy sickos).

Enough small talk, lets cut to the chase here.

I started with poker the same way 90% of people do nowadays: by watching it on TV. Once the boom started, myself and several friends started home games. At about this same time (3 years ago) I made my first deposit onto Party Poker. I can't remember how much is was because I made so many of them. Suffice it to say I lost a lot back then. By the time I joined CR on July 1st, 2006 I probably had lost about $1500 playing mostly sit-and-go's and tourneys. I dabbled in limit hold em after reading "Theory of Poker" but found the game didn't really suit me.

It bears mentioning that at this point I have read "Super System", "Caro's Book of Poker Tells", and three books by Sklansky, "Small Stakes Hold Em", "Hold Em Poker", and the aforementioned "Theory of Poker." I do recommend them all to those of you that have not read up. "Super System" should be required reading. The three by Sklansky are GREAT reads to help you with the mathimatical side of the game. If you play live you should read Caro's book on tells. It is sick.

In the months leading up to me joining CR I took second in a $10 buy-in tourney on Full Tilt making about $1600 in the process. At this point I was a tightish player that ignored position for the most part but was not a typical loose idiot. I lost, but did it slowly. The slow losses took the $1600 I earned down to about $550 when I joined CR.

Upon joining I watched about 15 or so videos then hit the tables. Oops. I am not sure how but I lost every penny I had in the account. I think three things contributed:
1. I wasn't nearly as good as I thought I was. I tried to outplay people, a big mistake at $50nl.
2. I had a pretty sick run.
3. I was desperate to win. I wanted to win so bad I lived and died with every pot. I treated $10 like $1000.

At this point I took about 5 weeks off. I ignored CR completely. When I decided to comeback I decided to start fresh. I committed to taking one last stab at success (in part because I was/am mostly broke). I deposited $250 onto Party Poker using some money I had saved without my wife's knowledge (she still has no idea...). I played 4 tables of $25nl for about 3 weeks before Party shut down to US residents. I got the account to about $400 and was quite proud of my accomplishment. During this time I concentrated hard on not tilting and staying under control at the table. I also worked on studying Poker Tracker and using it to keep my play in line.

When Party closed I moved my cash to Ultimate Bet. After about a month I had the account up to nearly $500 and was struggling to be consistent. At this point I made a few other changes. I started keeping a daily tab of my bank roll. I also tightened up a bit. This yielded a great result. I made $700 over 13 days. I felt like I FINALLY turned the corner and was looking forward to a full time move to $50nl (I was playing both $25 and $50 tables at the time).

As if on cue I was dealt a crushing blow on November 26th. I dropped $272 in one day. One very long day. This started a very rough period where my roll went from $1,200 to $670.

On December, 15th I started private lessons with our friendly professional from the UK, fruitypro (Dan). I am not sure if he wants more students at this point but please trust me when I say you should run, not walk, to him and inquire about his tutelage. Starting on December 8th I have played 25 out of 27 days. During that time I have increased my roll 21 of those days. To be more specific, since I started with Dan I have won 16 out of 18 days. Over that stretch I increased my roll from $735 to almost $1,400. I have increased my VPIP slightly and my PFR% significantly. I am not calling as often pre-flop and am getting away from hands more easily (the two biggest holes in my game). I am also not trying to outwit people and have learned to control my aggression, controlling pot size more effectively in the process.

I just moved to $50nl last night and have set a goal to move to $100nl by April 1st. I actually think I can do it sooner but we will see.

Wow, that got a bit long...

I hope that my manifesto was at least a bit interesting to you all. I also hope somebody other than my mother will actually read this!

I plan to post 3-4 times weekly. I will include an update of the grind as well as some hand histories, sage advice, and witty banter.

Toodles!