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!