Trainwrecked...

My last hand I played at Dave's last night.

The pot was 5 ways all in on the flop, flop came down A75 with 2 hearts, here's what everyone had.

Father Joe : AQ
Host Dave :55
me: 77
Danny: not sure but i think he had some sort of draws or an Ace-rag
Karl Tsu: A9 of hearts for top pair, nut flush draw.

Basically everyone moved all in after a couple of raises, reraises.

Turn came the 10 of hearts and river bricked out. Karl MF Tsu took down a 500+ dollars pot. NH.

No wonder neither Dave or Me boated it up, because all the freaking cards that needed to pair the board were basically all out. I was drawing to basically 3 outs at the river( the 3 10's). But I did have the best hand going in on the flop. Dave, Danny, Father Joe were baically all drawing to 1 outer( Dave's quad 5's) to beat me. If only I could dodge the flush draw.

ChanSlaughtered....

I totally got slaughtered at Dave's last night. Didn't make the tournament, then lost 300 dollars in cash game. SpecialK called all 3 of my bluffs, and twice I river 2 pair and someone also rivered the straight or flush. Another time I hit my bottom 2 pair and Father Joe had top set of kings. Re-raised with Jacks and ran into QQ. After down to my last 100, I went over to the 8 game's to try my luck. In the PLO round, the money went all in at the turn with me holding JJQ9 vs. Colin's 101073 on the board of J6510 rainbow. Of course the rive came '4' for the straight. I'm not much of Omaha player, but what's the equivalent of losing to a gutshot in Omaha comparing to holdem? I would imagine is like losing to a "1" outer at Hold'em at the river.

25/50 cents..

Stopped by Grayday's 25/50 cents game tonight, played like a total donkey. Raised every hand. Went all in with A5 vs. grayday's AK on A23 board. Went all in with flush draw vs. Timmy's AA, and lost. Was in for 200, down to like 25 at one point, slowly built it back up. Then thanks to a hand where this guy to the left of me, he said he has 46 dollars left and was going to go all in pre flop. So folded to me, I raised to 46 dollars pre flop in 25/50 cents game. I'm guessing that's a pretty bad play? I only raised it 92x BB pre flop. He said he only looked at one card and called me, I knew he had an ace, so I told him "you are ahead". of course flop came down KJ9. That got me back a little bit, then I over flushed someone with Q2 and won another decent size pot. cashed out 150, i'm happy I was only down 50 bucks with the way I was playing.

On a side note, I think Timmy has potentials to be a great poker player.

hand of the week no.1

This hand happened last night at Dave's between Timmy and me.

At this point, I have about 550 in front of me and nobody else on the table has over than 150. Timmy just been pretty card dead, not playing many hands. And I have been playing really aggresive and hitting. Anyway, here's the hand:

Timmy limps, I limp behind him with J7o, Riglier limps on the button and Danny raises to 5, Timmy calls, I call and Riglier calls. flop comes down K54 rainbow, Everyone checks. Turn is J, Danny checks again, I don't think he has anything at this point, maybe A10, AQ. Timmy checks again, I bet out 12. Folds around to Timmy, he check-raises to 30. I'm like what can Timmy have here?

I really don't think he has anything, he has about 70 behind. Although Timmy is sorta on a tight poker bankroll, most young kids are. Even though he is not a tight player, he generally doesn't get out of lines too much when raising. He's definitely capable of bluffing though. I decide to call the 18 dollars and see what he does at the river.

River comes down 3, and Timmy shoves all in for 70. My first instinct is to call, I really can't see him having any hand here. Because when you look at the board, it's K54J by the turn, even the board is still rainbow, any decent players who aren't the totally passive nits would bet at the turn if he has any sorta of big hands like set, 2 pair. Timmy is a player who will definitely bet 95% of the time if he has one of those big hands. If he checks again, he fails to build the pot and risk of the hand gets checked around again because only me and Rigliger behind him to act. He's never checking there. Factored in I've been running the table over and he has been card dead, the table dynamic, the fact that I only bet 12, I'm most likely has a marginal hand like hitting the J or on a complete steal. The check raise on the turn play by Timmy is understandable and makes sense.

Now he goes all in at the river, I 95% rule out he has 2 pair or a set, the only hand I'm really worried about is 67, maybe he's semi bluff at the turn, and hitting the straight at the river. But I also think Timmy would probably bet the turn with open ended straight draw after the pre flop raiser Danny checks twice. Also, if he hit the nut stiraght at the river, he probably would take a little time deciding how much to bet. He instantly goes all in.
So I put him on some sorta of gutshot draw at the turn, and misses on the river, or a complete stone cold bluff due to putting me on a marginal hand like 2nd pair, which he would be correct.

Afer thinking over 2-3 minutes, I flip over my J7, and say to Timmy" Even though I only have 2nd pair here, I think i'm good here". So I call and Timmy mucks. He never show, I think it was a stone cold bluff.

Banned from Nautica.

I'm banned from Nautica by that shemale cop at Nautica. Basically what happened was, I was sat at the first table of 2/5 and didn't like the players at my table, and I saw there were 2 seats open at the 3rd table. So, I just racked up my chips and went to sit down at the 3rd table. All the sudden, she came over and right from the start with her shitty attitude " Hey, you can't change table without someone replacing you at the first table". I wasn't in a good mood, I mean what the hell is the big deal? I paid my seat fees. I understand house rules and stuff, but at least come talk to me with better tone. So basically when she came over and told me I can't change table, I turned my head toward and said " Who's this woman"? I think she was ecstatic that I didn't mistaken her as a man. If I was in a total nasty mood , I could have said " Who's this man?". That would have totally pissed her off. With her being such a hard ass, one thing lead to another, and I ended up being told I'm banned from Nautica. After I went home, I emailed a letter to the Nautica management. and I did get a respond of thanking me for voicing my opinions. Of course, that was it as I expected. Here's the email I sent to Nautica:

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I'm writing this to tell you what happened to me last night at the Nautica Charity Poker at the Power House. I was sitting on a table, and I saw another table had 9 players so I went to another table to play. While I don' expect any customer service at a charity event like at a casino, I was really disappointed on how rude the security personnels were. I don't know her name, but she's the lady police officer, ID number 1982. She came over and told me I can't change table without another person replacing me at my table first. Maybe I didn't know the house rules correctly, but I really don't see a big deal of me going to play at another table. I wasn't having fun at my original table.

So, even if I was wrong about not being able to change table without informing the security guards first, I really didn't appreciate the way she came over and basically threatnening me and trying to intimate me. I admit my attitude wasn't the best, but the was caused by how she was trying to "boss" me around like if it's her house. I come to charity to donate money and have some fun, and I understand why sometimes the rules needed to be strictly enforced to make things run smoothly. But last night, it was totally over the board. It's not like I was cheating or other serious misconducts. It was honest mistake of me not knowing the house rules of not being able to change table without being escorted.

So what ended up happening is I got a little mad too, and my attitude might have shown some of it, and I apologize for it. But I really think she was over the line with her acts. Then soon the sergent came over and basically labelled me as a trouble maker without even asking me what happened. I'm not saying they pushed me, but they did try to grab me and push me out of there. I ended up being asked to show my ID, and the police officer told me that I can't no long come to Nautica Chairty Poker unless I receive a call from Mr. Jacobs. If i do show up, I will be arrested immediately.

Like I said earlier, while I don't expect any customer service, I understand it's a charity event. Alot of people are feeling like we are not being treated fairly. We are being yelled at sometimes, blatantly being accused of wrong doing. Maybe because of me coming from the business background, for the lack of better words, I feel like we players sometimes are being treated like "dirts" even though we are paying 20 dollars a hour to sit there and play poker. I know it's true that if we follow the rules and don't cause any troubles, we will be fine. but sometimes mistakes do happen, like that small mistake of me changing the table without informing. But the point of this, I believe the police officers have totally overreacted last night.

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I will email them again once Dec. comes around, they draw no crowds during the winter season due to weather. I'm sure I will be allowed back. Just gonna soften my tone a bit and apologize. I was in the middle of heated exchange, like tilting, I wasn't backing down from no one at night, this is why I got banned. If I was more mature and better self control, it would have never happened. Funny how now badbeats in poker don't tilt me that much anymore but badbeats in life do. I still have alot of room to grow.

Oh another thing...

I think I haven't won a tournament in 2 years....What has happened to my tournament games? I used to dominate at the Steve's basement tournaments for 2 years. Was the biggest winner there at tournaments, most wins on Pokerstars in wins though I played alot of tournaments. and have one of the better looking RIO% graph on sharkscope on my 550+ SnG tournaments prior to my current long drought.. so what has happened to my tourney game?

One of the biggest difference i notice at my tourney game after I switched over to cash game is now I've lost alot of my aggression. I used to over value hands strength in cash game when i was a tourney player. Now I under value hands in tournaments due to being a cash game player. Another problem is I call way too many bets on the flop with hands like 2nd pair, which might be a standard call on cash game, it's not suited for tournament plays. and i play way too many hands in tournaments. I play so many hands in cash game, it's just not going to work in tournaments. I have to restrain myself from wanting to see too many flops in tourney.

Looking back of my poker playing development, I started off as a totally maniac overly aggresive. made a little adjustment, tighten up, and became a good tourney player. Then siwtched to cash game player, now I become a very loose player. Not necessary aggresive, just very loose, play all kind of hands. I think being overly aggresive at the beginning is good, it developed my hand reading skills because I was put to tough decisions over and over again playing that aggresive style. Maybe I will go back to my old tourney style soon. Bring back the TAG, let go the LA"g".

Job vs Poker..

The only poker session I played was at Dave's for the past 10+days. I don't know what it is, but just don't feel motivated to drive to Nautica. This is what having a job can do to you. It makes you lose the sense of urgency and motivation for poker. It's almost like making you "lazy" in the poker sense, because you don't have to worry about your bills/rent with a job. I will admit, poker is definitely more fun when playing as a recreation. I can play like a maniac, and not worry about the consequence especially at the lower stake games. Even enough I have big enough bankroll for 2/5 now, losing say like 1.5k, which is only 3 buyins, still makes me sick to my stomach. So I trust myself to still play disciplined poker at the 2/5- whenever that might be.

Having one job is bad enough for poker, I just recently got a second part time job. My friend who works in a Chinese Newspaper, he said I'm good at writing stories. So he introduced me to the editor of a Chinese Newspaper based on Chicago IL with a branch here at Cleveland. It's not a totally non profit organization, we do make some money off the Ads. But the Newspaper is not very big in circulation. It's mainly targeted for the Chinese populations reside at Midwest region. My job is to come up with good stories with the current events happening around the Chinese community around the U.S and in china. I need to write 2+ articles a week. It pays very little(I could make more at the 25/50 cents game) but I really enjoy it. I'm finally doing some white-collar work instead of doing blue collar works all my life.
Maybe I will stop by Nautica one of those times after my meeting at downtown next time.

And on a side note, Fulltilt is pissing me off. I did a bankwire cashout all my money and they suspended my account for some reason asking me to send me copies of my ID and bills paper. Which is BS. This is the whole reason of why I chose the bankwire over check option because I dont have to go thru the troubles of sending in ID information.

Variance finally caught up with me...

I've been on a roll at cash game, don't know when was the last time I actually had a loss at a cash game, so poker god came on last night to remind me that he still exists.

Lost 330 at Dave's cash game last night. Basically all to 2 hands.

hand 1) timmy raises to 4, bill D calls, I call with 66. Flop comes A65, Bill D leads out with 10 dollars bet, he's as tight straight forward as a poker gets, so I immediately puts him on a big ace or even set of 5's. I just smooth call, because timmy raises pre flop, he might have a big ace. I'm hoping Timmy raises it up, he just calls too. turn is 7. Now Bill D checks, I bet out 25, and timmy raises 55, Billy D pushes all in for 200ish? I have like 90 behind, There's no hand I can put BillD on, I don't think he has 34, or 89. He's not a type of player who calls a raise with 34, and he doesn't lead out with gutshot. Now timmy is different story, he can raise with any 2 cards, he can definitely have the 89 or 34. But he only have about 50 left. I actually put Bill D on set of 5's. or A7. So I go all in too, and Timmy actually folds 34 for the smaller straight. and BillD shows 89 for the nuts, I mean since when does BillD leads out with gutshot? Is this his twin brother?

hand 2) Raise with KK to 4, only Timmy calls. Flop comes K63, I bet out 10, Timmy calls, turn is 4, I bet out 25, timmy makes it 65, I go all in for my 150 and he calls. river bricks out, he shows 25 for the straight. GG man.

Action, Action, Action, Action.......

Did someone say ACTION?

Tonight was the most action packed 2/5 NL action I've played so far. I've been playing very solid poker at the 2/5 level, Usually lose or win 1 buyin. but tonight, I played some huge pots after pots. Too many big hands to talk about, so I'm going to skip thru the thought process and just briefly touch on each hand.

Before I go thru the 2/5 hands, I was sat at the 1/2 next to Diablo for a bit, only to run into set over set. Lost 120 on that hand. MikeT was on the same table, like he said, good thing I got the set over set on the 1/2, could have been alot uglier at the 2/5. So after 30mins, I got called to the 2/5 and rebought 400 more.

hand 1) I'm at SB with KK, 3 limpers in front of me including EC at the button. I raise to 45, everyone folds to EC, of course he calls, why wouldn't he? Flop comes down 852 with 2 hearts, I bet out 80, he goes all in for 500+, which has me covered, I only have about 450. I just can't fold to EC, so I call, turn 10 of hearts, river Q of club. he shows 89 of hearts for the flush. There goes my first buy-in.

hand 2) rebought 500 more, EC limps, I limp behind him with Q10, now BB raises to 35, of course EC calls, I call with Q10. Flop comes KJ9. The BB thinks and bets out 80, EC folds, I raise him to 200, he instantly shoves all in, of course I instantly call! Turn 8, river A. he rolls over KK, I show my Q10 for the nuts, he starts berating me" how the fuck did you call 35 with Q10o"? I say "I'm on tilt!"

hand 3) I have 1200 in front of me right now, 5 limpers, I limp on the button with 34 of spades. Flop comes 652 with 2 diamonds. The BB leads out with 50, one calls, EC makes it 250, he has about 1100. I'm like "damnit, can this really be happening? I have the nuts and EC just makes it 250" EC does semi bluff alot, maybe he has straight and flush draw or a set or 2 pair. But I aint in no mood to fold the nuts on the flop. The other 2 guys only have about 300 dollars, so they don't worry me. So I push all in for 1200. EC was like" holy shit, you are the first guy that comes over top of me for 1000+". He looks confident, looks like he's trying to get the other 2 playres to go all in too. Of course the other 2 players go all in too, and EC immediately goes all in too for 1100. Turn brick, river brick. The BB shows a set, the other player shows 78 of diamonds for straight flush draw, EC shows 34o, and me and EC chops up a 3k+ pot. EC was like " man, I was counting your money already in my head when you push over the top of me with that 1200 dollars raise". Well, I was disappointed too to chop the pot.

Hand 4) about 100 dollars pre flop, I call a raise with 55 on the button. Flop comes J52 with 2 clubs, Tommy the Asian guy bets 50, Ec calls, I make it 150, Both Tommy and EC calls. turn 8 of clubs, now tommy comes out and bets 200, EC tanks and finally folds. I know he has the flush, so I ask him how much he has behind, he say 300. So I do a quick calculation, the pot has about 500? + the 200 he's betting, and I know I will get rest of his stack if I boat up. So i'm calling 200 to win 1k+? So i call, and river brick out and Tommy slows down and we both check, he shows 94 of clubs for the flush.

Hand 5) I start getting really aggresive, but unforunately no cards to back me up. by 11:00pm, I only have about 550 in front of me. Now comes this hand. I limp UTG with Q9 of spades, the next guy raises to 20, 3-4 calls including this old guy who just sat down. I call. Flop Q96 with 2 hearts, I bet out 70, the pre flop raiser calls, folds to that BB guy, he makes it 150, Well if he has 66, then it's just not my night I guess. I push all for total of 550, pre flop raiser folds, and the BB calls me. turn 8,river 10. I 'm like "shit, I could be beat here". He rolls over AA. So he didn't re-raise pre flop with AA, and he got screwed for that.

hand 6) Now I have about 1200 in front of me again at about 11:40, the same guy with AA last hand pushes all in with his last 65? I call with AJ, like 6 callers. I'm like damn, people want to gamble at late hours. Flop comes AJ6 with 2 spades, I was about to lead out with a bet, the guy next to me who has been on tilt all night announces" I'm all in" for 285, so I guess I check lol. the Jay guy who plays at Monday night's game at Little fag's. The same guy that went down to smoke and got robbed I think. He instantly calls the 285, he has about 600 behind. folds back to me. With the way Jay calls the 285, it doesn't seem like he has a hand like 55. I put him on big Ace or A5. So once again, i say to myself, if he has 55, then it's just poker. So I announce" I'm all in" for 1200. Jay thinks and folds Ak faced up. the first guy shows AQ, and my hand holds up for drawing a big pot.

Total cash out for the night 2050. Was in for 1100 though. so profit 950. not bad. and tonight I feel like poker was fun again! I crave action baby!!!

Another Sunday session..

Was going to go to Julie's tourney, I enjoy playing tournaments with the CPMG people. Only if I could cash more often, and not being out so quickly. Recently, I have been the first out in the tournmanets. Since there's no a cash game afterward, I figure if I drive 40mins to make it to the tourney and only have to drive back in like 30mins later, that would suck. But that wasn' t the main reason I didn't come, I had to go to Chinatown do some grocery shopping and didn't get home until like 1:50pm.

So I took a little afternoon nap, went to nautica again at about 7:00. got sat down at the 2/5 at 8pm. bought in for 500, right away I won some medium size pots and got up to about 800ish. Then this hand happened:

I limp UTG with AQo, 3 limpers, then this young kid on the button raises to 30, both the blinds call. I've seen this young kid do alot of raises at late positions, and I saw him showing down hands like Q10 when he raised pre flop at late position. So that raise to 30 doesn't mean he has a very strong hand. Besides, I haven't played many hands and I would say my image on the table is very solid/tight. and I have an ace at my hand, it decreases his chance of having aces, so now there's about 110 dead money in the pot, calling a raise with AQ out of position in multi-way pot is a suicide play. so I re-raise to 130, I'm confident he would fold even AK, only hand I am worried about is KK. Folds to him and he doesn't take long before folds, now to my suprise, the BB calls the 100. I immediately put him on a pocket pair, those people have no clues of pot odds, he only has about 350ish behind, he doesn't have the odds to call for a set, but those donkeys don't know that. now the flop comes 89J, about the worst flop possible, he checks to me, I bet out 140, no point of betting big here, those donkeys aren't going to fold if they have some hand. and he check raises me all in for about 200 more. and I have to fold my AQ. He told me he had AJ, I told him" no way you had AJ". then he laughed and said he had set of 8's.

After that hand, no many interesting hands for me, pretty boring session. I cashed out +190 for a small profit day.

After a long break, I'm back..

I haven't played at Nautica for 2 weeks. I only played poker twice the past 2 weeks and both were at Dave's. So tonight, I was going to go to Dave's, but I figured I would go check out Nautica for a bit.

Got sat down at the 1/2 first because there wasn't any seats for 2/5NL. Played about 40mins, broke dead even. Didn't pay my seat fee too, they forgot!

After the 40mins, I got moved to the 2/5 table. Sat down with 500. Basically, my stack was up and down, up to 800, down to 300. But I never had to rebuy or reload. Here are some of the interesting hands I played.

hand 1) This hand was the first time I ever turned my hand into a bluff at the 2/5 live game. Everyone folds to me at the cutoff, I raise to 20 with Q9suited, only the BB calls. The BB is an asian guy, he's not necessary tight, but he's very predictable. He doesn't get out of lines too much. Basically straight forward type of player. Anyway, flop comes Q107 with 2 spades, he checks to me, I bet 30, he thinks a bit and calls. At this point, I'm putting him on hands like AQ, KJ, 2 spades or some other straight draws. Since he doesn't get out of line too much, I figured to be KJ the most likely hand. Turn is a King. now he thinks a bit and checks again. I bet 50 to charge the draw hands, and if he has KJ, he just hit top pair, if I bet 50 at the turn, he might call, I know he's not raising me. He's a predictable player but he isn't a manaic. It's a scary board, it figures to hit the pre flop raiser hard. and besides, if i bet the turn, i might get a cheap showdown at the river. so he calls again, then river bricks out. now he thinks and comes out bet 50, which is a tiny bet, with that bet, I really think he has KJ, so the final board reads Q107K3, the pot has about 250 at this point, I was going to just call or fold, but my creative side kicked in, and I decided to turn my hand into a bluff. i know he didn't have a straight, I dont think he had KQ, K10 either. and if I raise there, he might even fold AQ. so i raise to 180, he thinks, thinks, and finally shows me the K4 of spades and said" king no good"? I got lucky this guy is not from CPMG, I can't never pull that move off against someone at CPMG. I like my loose image at CPMG, it gets my paid sometimes with my big hands. but sometimes, I hate my image too, it handcuffs me, I can't really do any creative plays.

hand 2) had Q4 at the BB. flop comes Q74 with 2 spades, I lead out with 20, the button instant calls, he has about 150 behind. now the SB min raises to 40. SB is another guy who's so predictable, and isn't going to play a big pot unless he has a huge hand. That min raise screams strenght at first, but then I look at the board, it's Q74 with 2 spades, and I lead out and the button instant calls, obviously he's on a draw. if the SB had a big hand, wouldn't he raise alot more than min raise? Alot of live players who aren't experienced at cash game tends to panic when they have a top pair with good kicker, they don't know how to handle the suituation when somone bets into them. Their hand is too "strong" to just call in their mind, and they don't want to play a huge pot with just 1 pair. So with that min raise, I first thought he might have 74 for bottom 2, but I quickly rule that out. he would have raise more with 2 pair. so hansd like QJ, KQ is the most likely hand. that min raise from him really accomplishes nothing, nobody is going to fold draws to a min raise. But like I said, alot of inexperienced cash game players play like that thinking it's a good way to find out where they are at with top pair, good kicker. of course if the pot was headsup and not so draw heavy, a min raise from a predictable player is more likely a monster hand than a good 1 pair hand. but with this hand, a bet, call and min raise, no way he had a huge hand. Anyway, after went thru the thought process, I re-raised him to 130, hoping to make the button folds his draw. the buttons thinks and shoves all in for 150ish? now the SB thinks, and whispers to me" i call and we check it down"? Technically, this is illegal lol, but at this point, I knew I had the best hand, might as well get his 110 dollars in. I didn't really say yes to him, I just said "ok" to particulair no one. and he calls, and we off to the river. turn 10, river Q, i kept my words and didn't bet my full house. He rolls over KQ, and I drag in a decent size pot.
yes I could have made more, in fact alot more, he's not folding trip queens with king kicker. but He probably would have folded on the flop after re-raise, all in with just 1 pair. it works out fair I guess.

cashed out 952 for profit of 452. an ok night i guess.

An almost break even 3 sessions of poker.

Went to Dave's on Sat night. All the ramps to W90 were closed at downtown, so I drove around 77, 71 or whatever it took me for a while, ending up driving about 100 miles total when I got back. Finally found the detour sign via 490. Got to Dave's at about 9pm. WOW, the place was packed! Dave and Mailman are running a great game! It was good to see everyone, and I must say, we have some of the greatest people in the CPMG. I'm so glad to be part of this poker group.

Well I bought into the tourney, but my main goal was to play cash game. But it was too early, so I paid my 30 dollars "entertainment fee" to sit there and peek on cards until cash game. Busted out tourney at about 11:00, hopped into cash game. Nothing went right for me, I actually played pretty tight/solid poker, but just couldnt hit a flop to save my life. Bought in for 150, reloaded another 100, lost a big chunk of the stacks to Special K where she flopped the nut straight. Total for Dave's, -195 in cash game, -30 in tourney, for total of -225.

Sunday, went to Nautica for 2/5, bought in for 400, I was kinda sleepy. So I played only about 3 hours, left up about 100.

Monday, went to Lil Fag's game, only played about 3 hours again because I had to work on Tuesday, +170. So total for the 3 days, +45 dollars.

I'm thinking about of adding something like " Hand of the week" and "Chan's random poker thoughts" to this blog. I hope people will enjoy to read them.

Finally..

Picked up my Brand new 2010 Honda Insight after work today. The car is beautiful. I really like it. I was going to get a SUV, but since I'm a bad driver, I figure I would stay with the small cars like Insight. Easier to park, drive. and of course it's hybrid. Gas isn't as expensive as before, still saving 30-50 bucks a month in gas still helps:)

Shit, I hate this..

So my manager called me on the phone today and asked me to come back to work. I was really motivated on the poker. Now I have to work 6 days a week again in the snow,it sucks! I know this sounds ridicious lol. There are so many people in this country that are dying for a job. any jobs! and here I'm debating whether I should go back to work at a 21 dollars a hour job. She even told me on the phone " We have offered works for you, so you can't apply for unemployment if you don't come to work". Man, I had it all planned out. Collect about 1400 a month in unemployment and I 'm sure I can make up the rest of my salary in poker winning. Now I won't have the energy to concentrate on poker anymore. I might still quit the job. Gonna put in alot of hard work. Try to build up big enough bankroll so I can quit the job.

But at least my credit score will be better when I'm taking out a loan for my new car. Test drove the Hyundai Sante Fe today. Liked it alot. But I'm still leaning toward the Honda Insight because I got a great deal on it. Probably will get it by this weekend. Now I can finally drive out to Dave's for some CPMG action.

And lastly, another winning session at the 2/5 on Tuesdays night. Bought in for 400, lost it fairly quickly when I tried to pull a bluff on a tight passive straight forward old folk. Only to find out he had the flush already. Re bought for 400 more, worked it to 1365. profit of 565. I did leave about 200 dollars on the table for not playing aggresive enough. I let this guy off the hook with my trip 9's vs his top pair. I didn't stay for long because there were so many people that were coughing on my table. Weather is bringing people down. and sharing cards and chips with them can make you catch the gems easily. Remember to wash your hands with sanitizer after poker session!

Not a good night..

Got there at matt's game at 9:30pm, bought in for 200, down to 100 in like 20mins, bought in for another 100, played another 1 hour without winning a hand. finally had about 120 left, and Uncle bob raised to 15, I looked down at AA, i made it 45, and lil fag tilt called my 45, he's always on tilt!. and Uncle bob called too of course. flop Q87, check to me, of course i went all in for my last 70ish? called and called, turn Q, river 8, I ended up having the 3rd best hand. uncle bob showed AQ and lil fag flashed the "8". and my AA got cracked by 2 people. After that, I got up and left, down 300. frustrating night. nothing went right.

on my way driving home, I was thinking about why I always seem to need to at least reload if not rebuying fairly quickly with my first buy in. I need to fix this leak, I need to copy something from Mailman's poker book, he always seem to last forever with his initial buy in. He told me he almost never goes 2 buy-ins deep, he doesn't bring more than 2 buy-ins to cash games. For me, 2 buy-ins seem like nothing.

Also, it's tough to play 2 different stakes of games. I'm just starting to get comfortable at the 2/5 with raise sizes and pot sizes, now I feel I play too loose at the 1/2 - mainly calling too many raises with marginal hands like 97o. I mean it's only 12 bucks after all? that's a min raise at the 2/5. And before I know it, i'm down to like half of the buy in. Need to adjust to the different stakes. of course the online .5/1 NL doesn't go well either. It's only 3-4 dollars raise preflop! of course I'm calling with any 2 cards and it shows on my results why it's not good to do that.

Chantastic weekend of poker...

Won the most money I've ever won in any 3 given days in my poker life. So that part is good:) But on a side note, I feel a little bad because I keep beating up the terrible players at nautica, I feel like my game has regressed. All the advanced strategies like 3 betting pre flop are being thrown out of the windows. Nautica is good for my bankroll, but not good for my poker improvement. Game selection is important, but I'm also looking for getting better. After all, I won't be playing at Nautica forever. I will be moving to either AC or Vegas eventually.

And my online game has suffered because of my live games. First of all, I don't feel motivated to hop online and multi tabling. It's just so boring. Secondly after got the taste of how easy money can come by at the 2/5 live, the online grinding of .5/1 NL doesn't do much for me. This is bad for me. Used to be if I win like 100+ dollars online, I would be happy. Now I don't have that feeling of joy anymore. And I have not been winning online. Just posted another -50 dollars lossing session last night.

Goal for the rest of the year: Play more online to get better while continue to grow my bankroll thru live.

And I still believe online poker is the backbone for most of the professional poker players. I might not be a professional yet, but if I want to do it semi- pro, I would have to rely on online poker too.

It's tough to play online poker...

I've been playing mostly live poker for the past 2 weeks, so last night after i came back from nautica, I figured I would fire up some little online action. Before I started up Fulltilt, I knew I shouldnt have. Because I was mentally drained from the live poker and my mind just wasn't there. Never play poker when you are not mentally ready and stable for it.

Anyway, i went against the little guy at my head and started up 4 tables of .5/1NL. Played about 700 hands in 1.5hours, just on total auto pilot and tilting mood. Was able to be up about 100, then one tilting move of Re-raising all in with A10 when I had 200 in front o fme, only ran into AA. After that hand, I forced myself to quit the session. -160 dollars playing like crap.

I really believe the mental aspect of poker is my biggest challenge in finding poker success. It's really hard to grind hours after hours sitting in front of computer. Especially when you just come back from live game. Never play poker when you don't feel like playing. Maybe when issue 3 passes, and Nautica is shut down, then I have no choices but play online poker, only then maybe I will concentrate more online. Right now, just tough for me because I play at Nautica everyday.

Bad runs of cards continues...

Samething today at the 2/5, couldnt get anything going, was in for 550, just just couldn't hit a flop to save my life. I think I've had like 10+ pocket pairs at the 2/5 in the past couple of sessions and haven't hit a single set. So when we were down to 5 players at the 3rd 2/5 table at nautica, I really turned on my aggression. Since I couldnt hit any flops, and now we re playing 5 handed, why not just steal? After 1/2 hours of playing 5 handed, i was able to turn my last 300 into 620, just relentless betting. So +70 for 3 hours of playing. Not great, but I will take the win.

On a side note, I've been extremely happy that I've been able to even score little winning sessions when I'm totally card dead. The old myself would have not been possible. My old self would have tried to raise and re-raise tons trying to make something happen, and turn some sessions into mass loss. Instead of right now, I let the game come to me. I guess my game is going toward another step of maturation. For that, I'm very happy.

Boring 2/5 session..

Nothing much to talk about today. Words aren't capable of describing of what kind of terrible cards I were getting. I ended up playing about 15 hands total in 5hours at the 2/5. Everytime when i m in early positions, I would find hands like K5suited, Q9o, I would definitely play those hands at late positions and button. Of course when I'm at late positions, I get 102o, 93o J2o, just utterly unplayable hands. Man I wasn't asking for much, I just wanted some connecting hands like 67o, is that too much to ask?

So again,I bought in for 400, totally Nitted( is that a word?) it up and walked out there up roughly 100 dollars thanks to a KQ hand where I flopped top pair and got paid.

A pretty good session at Matt lil fag's game

Got there last night at about 8pm, bought in for 200. Within 3 hands, I was down to about 100, raised with pocket 10's to 10, got re-raised by that TD guy at Nautica "James" to 40, I thought about moving in for my last 140, but since I had no ideas how he plays like, I just called hoping to hit a set despite I didnt have the odds for set mining. Flop came AKx and I had to check fold my 10's.

I was going to reload right away, but I decided to train my patience a bit. So I played with just 100 for the next 3-4 orbits. I was totally card dead again just like I was at Nautica at sunday, not even getting playable hands like 89o. Q2, K3, J6, 93 etc. Meanwhile, the table was going insane, so much action!! I finally decided screw the patience training, I can't play with just 100 in this game. So I reloaded 100 more, and what do you know? The luck would soon changed for me.

Within the next orbit after I reloaded to 200, I picked up Aces twice and both times I got action. First one, I had aces vs 3 guys all in pre flop 4 ways. Though 2 of them were pretty much pot commited with shortstacks. and my Aces held up in 4 ways. So now I have about 500 in front of me. A hand or 2 later, I picked up Aces again at the SB and again I got action, All in pre flop vs Kai. my Aces held up again and Kai had about 350 in front of him, so that got me to like 850.

After those 2 aces hand, I went on one of those really bad runs of cards. I wasn't even getting anything close to playable hands. so i sat there and keep folding folding. and made some "bored" bluffs and got called. so I was down to about 700.

For the next 1hour, I didn't play many hands. Finally picked up 66 and flopped a set vs Matt, won about 200 of that hand. Then a few hands later, Matt raised to 15, charlie called, i looked at at QQ at the button, I just called. flop came 1047 with 2 spades, the SB bet out 35, lil fag instantly called, I made it 130, the SB folded and Matt called. turn was a red "10", obviously not a great card. He checked, I thought about betting there to protect my hand vs flush draw but I decided to check. River was a blank, now he came out and bet 275, I tanked and decided to call. I didn't think he had 10 in his hand, with the way he was playing, he was raising with any top pair, but when the SB bet 35 on the flop, he didnt' even contemplate of raising, he just instantly called. so I didn't think he had 10 in his hand, so I called with my QQ and it was good.

That got me to about 1200, I think I reraised somone to 45 with 26suited pre flop and flop came 992, I bet out 70 and everyone folded. Played until 3am, and cashed out 1445 for a profit of 1145.

2/5 Session at Nautica on Sunday

No a good start for my poker career I guess. I've been playing 2/5 at Nautica lately. After posting some pretty good winning sessions including +1770 +1100. I've lost 3 straight sessions at 2/5 now. -300, -800 and -400 yesterday.

I guess it's a bit of downswing. I really thing I played well yesterday. Bought in for 400 at the 2/5, I won 300 dollars fairly quickly with KK vs JJ. That got me to 700, since then, I was totally card dead. Didn't play many hands, I was dealt a couple of cooler hands, but I was able to get away from it including one hand, where I called a raise with KJ of hearts, and flop came K52 rainbow. the pre flop raiser bets 120 into a 150 dollars pot and he had about 120 behind. I tanked and finally laid down the KJ, and he showed AK. This is why you don't play KJ to a raise.

So all day, my stack was between 300 - 700, I was never able to get anything going. There were some totally donkies on the table, I was just praying to hit a big hand, those guys weren't folding anything. I will post a couple of interesting hands:

hand 1) I was at SB with 65 of hearts with about 600 in front of me. a couple of players limped and I completed my SB, BB checked. Flop came 6J7 with 2 hearts, I flopped a pair and flush draw. I checked, one super loose donkey bet 30, another loose lady called the 30, I made it 130, and that first bettor quickly called and the lady folded. turn was a black 3. completing the 45, obviously a terrible card for me. I checked and hoping he checked behind to give me a free card. since the pot was almost 300, i had about 420 behind, if I bet anything there, I was pot commited. so I checked, and that first bettor quickly bet out 250, I sat there for a long time and finally decided to fold. and he showed me "3" . J3 maybe? I've definitely seen him playing any 2 cards from anywhere. he's one of the biggest donkey on the table. although 34 and 35 make some sense too, even 63, but I don't think he would call 100 dollars raise with 2nd pair and no redraw. Those players don't understand hands like top pair there is equivalent of 2nd pair, I was either bluffing or I got a huge hand, but they don't realize that, a top pair is top pair for them and they won't fold.

hand 2) the same donkey with the J3 raised to 20, got 2 callers and i looked down 99 at the SB and called too. flop came 235 with 2 spades. I know that pre flop raiser raises alot of hands and most likely he doesn't have an overpair there and the other 2 guys behind him are quickly straight forward players, so if I get thru that pre flop raiser, I have confidence of how to proceed with the hand if i get called or raised by the other 2 players in the hand. so I lead out with 50, and as I expected, the pre flop raiser quickly mucked. But the player behind him looked at his hand and called, the other guy called too. I was like "wow, one of them has to have a flush draw, and one maybe have hands like overpair to the board. I think if one of them had a set, they would raise since it's a pretty dangerous board. so turn came a red 10, I fired out 140, and now the first caller instantly moved all in, and folded back to me. Pretty easy fold here. Nothing I could beat, if he had pocket 10's I'm drawing dead right now. I folded and he showed A4 for flopped straight.

hand 3) Won a couple of small pots, built it back up to 450, then came the death blow hand. limped on the button with 56, there were like 5players in the hand. flop came 1074, not a totally bad flop for me, I got the open ended straight draw. one guy bet, the donkey called and i called. turn was K, putting a flush draw on the board, the lady bet, he called and i called. river was the "gem" card, a off suit "8"! now the lady checked and the guy checked too, I was thinking about how to extract the most value out of this hand. previously both of those guys have made some big "hero calls" when the flush draw missed and they were right. so i decided to overbet the pot presenting I had some missed draws. Plus after that 99 hand, I was acting like I was on tilt and threw the cards into the muck. so maybe those 2 donkies would put me on some sort of missed drawing hand. So I quickly moved all in and the lady tanked, tanked, She's like you bluffing? I tried the best I could looking weak, my heart was screaming" call now, bitch". after intense 2-3 mins, she folded, now this guy behind me did some acting even though he was the last to act. he looked at the board, looked at me, and was "thinking really hard". I knew i had the best hand, maybe he had 2 pair?. Of course I was praying he called, after a long study, he finally called. I proudly flipped over my 65 " I got a straight" and to my biggest suprise, he slammed the cards on the table" I got a bigger straight". I was like "what"? he showed 96. so basically I got fucking slow rolled! He was muttering about how he was worried about "QJ" for the bigger straight. Technically, he didn't have the Nuts, J9 would have been the nuts. QJ doesn't complete no straights, what an idiot! besides, with giving action in that hand, his hand was the stone cold nuts literally. The worst part is I got seriously slow rolled and the guy doesn't even know it LOL. After that hand, I know i couldn't win and I just got up and left.

First day....

Well, the time has finally come. I've been wanting to do this for a while now. People said making a living in poker is the hardest "easy living" out there, I completely agree. But I don't think I have enough understanding of it until I really get into it and live/breathe what variance in poker can do to you. But I want to challenge myself. I want to really put in some efforts and times to give this a serious try. Wish me luck!