life's a grind

motivation

2009-09-08T01:11:00.000-07:00

For the past month I've been playing the best poker of my life. It seemed to relate directly with needing to raise more and more money for college. I developed specific needs for winning, rather than broad goals and wants of having more money or hitting milestone bonuses.

Not long after I began playing full time I felt like I was wondering. Poker and trying to win money that had no purpose was the only thing in my life. The problem is that there is no amount of money I could win that would satisfy me. Trying to reach that satisfaction level was daunting.

Certain periods along my journey have certainly helped, such as my stint in 6 max and dropping levels to work on my game, but the money has to mean something for me to play well. Having no real direction and being able to live comfortably on rakeback left me playing without thinking most of the time.

And yesterday, labor day, is my best day to date. $1250 with fpps
www.dudeopia.com

warm up

2009-08-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

www.dudeopia.com

For the past few days I've been starting my afternoon off 24 tabling nl50fr. Then I'd do 2 or 3 16 table nl100fr sessions. I'd end up break even or slightly down at nl50 and have been running at around 10ptbb/100 at nl100 for 10k hands. Obviously some of that is run good but the win rate is big enough over enough hands to know that I'm playing very well.

I've pretty much only been playing during prime time hours from 6-midnight central time and the games have been very good. The main point though is I'm able to make a lot of dumb calls and some dumb moves to get it out of my system. I get a base rate on my stats to get a feel for what is or isn't working so I can hopefully adjust. Then I'm ready to play my A game without the risk or playing against better skill. So many times I would start off the day badly only to have a nice solid A game session neutralize the losses and all I would be left with was fpps.

When I was working I'd have the entire day to think about the previous nights sessions. Since I've been playing full time I had no way of getting mentally prepared to play and I'd end up starting during the afternoon against 90% regs and shortstacks getting in way too many big pots.

it never stops

2009-08-18T20:27:00.001-07:00

www.dudeopia.com

im running very hot right now but it certainly doesnt feel like it. over the past week... tuition more than expected, gotta win x amount. done. oh i've gotta pay app fee, administration fee, and deposit even though we are just applying for the apartment. need x amount for parking pass, oil change, car payment. done. need x amount for books. done. still have ~$4k left on car loan and need x amount for next months bills/rent. mo money mo problems

store credit card

2009-08-11T14:35:00.000-07:00

www.dudeopia.com

So last July 2 I was buying a swimsuit at kohls and it was pretty busy being the holiday and all. At checkout I was asked if I wanted a Kohls card. I assumed it was the same as a grocery store card that gives you discounts. When she asked for my ss number I should have realized what was going on. I did eventually realize it towards the end of the process but just went with it b/c of the line and I was getting an extra 15% off.

Today was my scheduled payment. I can log onto the site to see my balance among other things but payments can only be made by check or possibly money order. I went to the store to find out the same information except cash is also allowed. I wanted to pay off the card and close it out too but the cash register can't look that information up for some reason. So I just went to the nearest atm, paid the $3 fee, and made a payment delaying the inevitable closing of the card another month.

It occurred to me that they don't accept visa/mastercard debit cards, the same thing as a check payment, because the % that goes to those companies decreases their bottom line that they are making in interest. However, the % paid to visa/mastercard should already be included in the cost of the items sold.

Anyway, thinking about how I got scammed into getting this card, the guaranteed tuition rate, cigarrette, alcohol, and gas taxes which are exorbitant reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry is at the dealership trying to get a deal from Elaine's bf Putty. They break up and the deal is off, George is getting money from Jerry for the vending machine, Elaine gets a dinner from Jerry to come make up with Putty, and Jerry starts pulling on his hair saying, "Everybody is ripping me off."

poker legislation

2009-08-11T01:51:00.000-07:00

www.dudeopia.com

There are several things in progress regarding the legality of online poker. I'm perfectly fine with the situation US players are in. We certainly want it made legal to attract a lot of new fish and lower costs for the companies so they can lower the rake and give more bonuses although they already make a boatload. The government has 2 lines of thought, votes and taxes. Online poker is in its current state because of votes and has bills to legalize because of taxes.

The Menendez bill has several problems. First it states one has to be 21 in order to play, ignoring the adult 18 year old who can vote, smoke, join the army, and gamble at casinos in states that don't restrict it to 21. The major problem is that this bill will tax 10% of deposits. Many on the 2p2 legislation forum have accepted the government getting theirs, but I have not. Arguments have been made that the site can cover this cost because of lower operating costs. This makes sense until you consider the high stakes games where a fish will lose thousands while the table has raked hundreds.

Barney Frank also has a bill going through the rounds and I'm unsure about the specifics of it. I have heard talk about a 3% on all wagers.

30 million was seized from several bank accounts in California owned by a payment processing company used by every poker site that allows US players. This company is being charged with bank fraud, money laundering, and other stuff related to illegal internet gambling. This scared US players because paper checks were unavailable for a bout 1.5 weeks. In the end $30 million is nothing for these companies and they have a solid shot of winning the court battles.

As soon as the government gets a tax taste of online poker the taxes will only go up. They will squeeze the life out of this untapped cash cow until the high stakes superstars and 3rd world shortstackers are the only ones left winning off the fish. Because banning or prohibiting online poker is impossible we need to wait and get legislation made with the poker player in mind.

college bs

2009-08-10T12:09:00.001-07:00

www.dudeopia.com

So as school is nearing I've been having some doubts about whether or not I want to commit to it. Several things are contributing to my uncertainty. So many people graduate and then can't find a job or end up settling for something less than they had hoped for. A solid chunk of school work is completely worthless and just wastes time.

I'm in the process of helping build a web site with a few friends with big ideas and somewhat limited know how in the technical aspects. I downloaded a few books about xhtml and php which made me think I can educate myself. I'm not even going to want a regular 9-5 with a boss for 30-40 years so what good is a degree anyway.

Then there's the financial side. Thinking about how classes and homework will add pressure and might cause my poker play to deteriorate is a little scary. UTD has a guaranteed tuition rate which locks in tuition prices for 4 years and any hours over 15 are free. The problems are that it is $650 more for my 12 hour semester, I don't have a choice between that and the other tuition rate listed, and unless some unknown benefactor gives me a free ride I won't ever take more than 15 hours.

keeping pots small and pot button

2009-08-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

www.dudeopia.com

Lately instead of raising to 3.5-4x as the first into a pot I've been raising to 3x or 2x if I'm close the the button with a short stack still left. Now I've been wondering about why my cbets are not working as much and the conclusion I came to today is simply that the pots are smaller which causes smaller cbets. The great thing about it is it throws people off what they are used to. Some people go into a hole b/c a raises is smaller so it will be harder to get me off a marginal made hand, some like the idea of not having to raise as much as a bluff but a lot of times have few or no outs.

The pot button on full tilt offers some interesting dynamics in that certain players, mostly fish, love to use it. The problem is that a good top pair hand ends up being a complete bluff catcher as the pot grows exponentially. There's not a better situation than having a set with the preflop raiser mashing pot oop.

The funny thing is I'm only up 1/2 a buyin over 17k hands this month at nl50fr. Extending on my last post I've pretty much accepted that I'm only able to play 1-2 hours of my A game each day. Hopefully that changes but grinding fpps at $15/hr while mentally preparing for the bigger games isn't so bad.

This hand sums up both of my thoughts. not sure why this guy thought I was folding the river after calling a pot sized turn bet.

***** Hand History for Game 13858140193 ***** (Full Tilt)
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, August 06, 03:24:29 ET 2009
Table Timber Canyon (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Seat 1: liveblind ( $23.20 USD )
Seat 2: dtorres3 ( $9.40 USD )
Seat 3: momo99 ( $31.50 USD )
Seat 4: DONK4LIF3 ( $9.25 USD )
Seat 5: Kairos_X ( $16.85 USD )
Seat 6: elgreenhornet ( $50.00 USD )
Seat 7: primemutton ( $64.15 USD )
Seat 8: MeiBra ( $18.55 USD )
Seat 9: celQ ( $12.10 USD )
MeiBra posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
celQ posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to elgreenhornet [ Js Kc ]
liveblind folds
dtorres3 folds
momo99 folds
DONK4LIF3 folds
Kairos_X folds
elgreenhornet raises [$1.00 USD]
primemutton calls [$1.00 USD]
MeiBra folds
celQ folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jd, 4c, 6d ]
elgreenhornet bets [$2.00 USD]
primemutton calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3s ]
elgreenhornet checks
primemutton bets [$6.75 USD]
elgreenhornet calls [$6.75 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6c ]
elgreenhornet checks
primemutton bets [$20.25 USD]
elgreenhornet calls [$20.25 USD]
primemutton shows [Td, 8c ]
elgreenhornet shows [Js, Kc ]
elgreenhornet wins $57.75 USD from main pot

skipping around in limits

2009-08-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

I'm about 2 weeks away from my 200k vpp milestone and preparing for the move to full tilt. So for the last few days I've been grinding some nl50 full ring a for a few hours a day just to keep busy churning out some vpps and then will hit nl100 and 200 6 max for a session each. I know I've been running better at the higher limits and probably just good overall.

However, I can't help but feel there is something mental at play. I know I was playing pretty poorly during some of my nl50 sessions which make up the majority of my hands this month. Then it seems when I switch over to the higher levels at 6 max I am playing very well, avoiding tricky spots while adjusting to others looseness and aggression properly.

These 2 hands made me feel really good about not losing a lot more. I can shove and get called by worse sometimes but I'm beat more often than called by worse. Villian in first hand is 60+% vpip and very passive. In the hand right before I got 3 streets of value where I had tptk against his nut flush draw turned 2nd pair. If he raises me on the flop or turn it's arrin and I hope I can do the same on any river since every q is in his range but the ace certainly made me stop and think.

***** Hand History for Game 31225461060 ***** (Poker Stars)
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, August 04, 12:26:22 ET 2009
Table Slipher III (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 2: seadragon68 ( $9.00 USD )
Seat 3: threeacesnkk ( $9.10 USD )
Seat 4: karter_35 ( $9.70 USD )
Seat 5: QuesqueFuque ( $23.70 USD )
Seat 6: bundesmiro ( $38.95 USD )
Seat 7: Jackpot6666 ( $116.35 USD )
Seat 9: elgrenhornet ( $81.25 USD )
bundesmiro posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
Jackpot6666 posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to elgrenhornet [ Jh Jc ]
elgrenhornet raises [$1.50 USD]
seadragon68 folds
threeacesnkk folds
karter_35 folds
QuesqueFuque folds
bundesmiro folds
Jackpot6666 calls [$1.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8s, Js, Qd ]
Jackpot6666 checks
elgrenhornet bets [$3.00 USD]
Jackpot6666 calls [$3.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qh ]
Jackpot6666 checks
elgrenhornet bets [$6.00 USD]
Jackpot6666 calls [$6.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Ad ]
Jackpot6666 checks
elgrenhornet bets [$14.00 USD]
Jackpot6666 raises [$28.00 USD]
elgrenhornet calls [$14.00 USD]
Jackpot6666 shows [Jd, Qs ]
Jackpot6666 wins $74.25 USD from main pot
elgrenhornet doesn't show [Jh, Jc ]

No reads on villian in this hand... His stats didnt show up when I opened it in hem. It seemed like this guy was trying to get as little value as possible.

***** Hand History for Game 31221907018 ***** (Poker Stars)
$200.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, August 03, 09:54:26 ET 2009
Table Geranium (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: snellesnelle ( $220.20 USD )
Seat 2: mdeckND ( $239.60 USD )
Seat 3: elgrenhornet ( $208.25 USD )
Seat 4: showtime ( $38.00 USD )
Seat 5: xSuPrA ( $236.75 USD )
Seat 6: iamajax ( $257.10 USD )
showtime posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
xSuPrA posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to elgrenhornet [ 8d Jd ]
iamajax raises [$8.00 USD]
snellesnelle folds
mdeckND folds
elgrenhornet calls [$8.00 USD]
showtime folds
xSuPrA folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5h, Qd, 8h ]
iamajax checks
elgrenhornet checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5d ]
iamajax checks
elgrenhornet bets [$10.00 USD]
iamajax calls [$10.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 2d ]
iamajax bets [$26.00 USD]
elgrenhornet calls [$26.00 USD]
iamajax shows [5c, 5s ]
iamajax wins $88.00 USD from main pot
elgrenhornet doesn't show [8d, Jd ]

healthcare

2009-08-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

I go to showdown way too much. Those little river bets in small pots kill me.

I don't have health insurance right now, although that may change b/c UTD has a student policy available. The reason is simple, I'm young and don't want to pay $200+ a month.

A lot of liberals think health care is a basic human right along with housing and a job. Besides the basic conservative line of thinking that the freedom of choice and responsibility is more important there is also the issue that dead beats would just take advantage and never feel any consequences. I do think it would be great if health care was available and affordable to everyone.

The only problem is that our government, much like the 18% of Americans under 65 including the young and healthy, cannot afford it which begs a question that is never asked. Why is health care so expensive? I have a few hypotheses that have no facts to back them up but are based on the little information I acquired while working in medical billing.

Most insurers have agreements with what hospitals or doctors they use. If you go out of the network for the insurer you use your bill is not covered. So the hospital thinks this is great and even gives the insurer a discount. I looked at so many eob's, explanation of benefits, which is basically a receipt showing what the insurer paid and they are writing off anywhere from 25-75% of a bill, especially medicare.

So the hospital is getting screwed because if they don't like it the insurer will go to another network. In order to recoup the reduced income they have to raise prices. Keep in mind uninsured individuals don't get to write off any part of their bill. So now fewer people can afford to pay out of pocket and are forced to not pay or file bankruptcy. The insurers who don't like the increases prices look for ways to deny a claim for any bogus unrelated reason they can find. Well now the hospital is losing more money and must increase the prices again.

One side note involving medicare... All hospitals must serve everyone whether or not they have any intention of paying. Although this has to be done what ends up happening is illegal aliens go to the emergency room for every little need and never paying. I'm not saying they all do it blah blah but so many claims with a Hispanic name and no social security number ended up going through our system 3 or 4 times before somebody higher up than me just had to claim it as a loss.

I have no idea what the laws and regulations regarding insurers are but that is where the problem lies. Medicare/medicaid is already 1/3 of our national budget. National programs are wasteful and inefficient and only serve to give those in power more power to garner votes. Find out why health care prices are so exorbitant and fix it. Everything else will fall in line.

random stuff

2009-07-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

Before my 3rd session yesterday I decided I'm not going to look at hem while playing. I was refreshing it pretty much after every medium sized pot. Too many of my decisions have been based on how I was doing which was bad either way. I'd be thinking about protecting wins, not risking more, winning back losses, or running up wins. I'd also be thinking about how loose or tight I was playing and adjust when the tables should be the only thing dictating that. So far it has at least kept my mind more at ease just thinking about each play based on it's validity and game flow.

My friend made a game for iphones and ipods called firehive. There are a bunch of bees buzzing around the levels and you try and set off a chain reaction with one bee that lights all of them on fire. It's entertaining and a little frustrating.

diet

2009-07-24T12:57:00.001-07:00

For what seems like forever I hit a wall several times a day and just feel tired. When I was working full time there was really nothing I could do about it besides just to continue working or get some sugar in my system. I had a couple of spots where I could hide and take a nap where no one would find me but those were taken away.

Now playing poker 20-25 hours I could just be lethargic and take several naps throughout the day. It is partially my sleep schedule, but I have been getting 8 hours a night pretty regularly. The only other explanation is my diet. I do get some vegetables, tomatoes and cucumbers on a sandwich, but practically no fruits as I eat out for pretty much every meal.

I have no intention to start shopping for groceries or doing any cooking so the other night I went and got a big multivitamin. 100 tablets for $4. I now have energy throughout the day. Last night I put it to the test. In June I was running several times a night and was jogging about 5 laps with some 100/200 yard sprints at the end. After almost a month of doing no exercise I went jogging last night and did 6 laps with ease.

terrible day

2009-07-23T09:32:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday I had one of those days where everything went wrong. It started with me going to get a chicken salad sandwich from arby's. Their deli sandwiches, although overpriced, are soo good. I go home to find the wrong order that was still good so it wasn't that big of a deal, but I was geared up for the chicken salad.

So I get started on a session around 12:45 and the power goes out after about 30 minutes. Normally I only see my girlfriend on the weekends because she lives 40 minutes away but I'm supposed to go and load up some boxes to bring back to her parents later that afternoon because she's moving out on Saturday. I've got that feeling that hasn't been hitting me as much anymore, I've got grind on the mind.

I connect to some random Internet connection and look for a lan center. The first one I call doesn't have any laptop stations. The second one does that will cost $2.50/hr and right as I'm about to get off the phone with them I ask if poker is ok and the guy said, "Oh, no we can't really let you do that." Those were the only 2 I could find as lan centers tend to only last for 1-2 years. I loaded up my laptop and call my girlfriend's roommate to see if she's home so I could have come early while I headed in the direction of another lan center I knew about.

The roommate, who normally works evenings at a department store I later found out was at a work convention, doesn't answer and the lan centrer had long been closed down and vacant. I then went to the gas station to get a drink while I decided on a course of action. Then I locked my keys in the car I got 9 months ago and never made a spare for. So after waiting there for 30 minutes my grandma who lives 7 minutes away picked me up to take me to my house for proof of ownership and then to the dealership.

Apparently they make 2 types of key, one for the door that's $10 and one that turns the ignition too for $40. I was already against spending over $50 on a locksmith that will take 5 minutes so I'm not wasting an hour to get this key for $40. My grandma was the one who talked to some guy who explained everything to her. I am dealing with some lady who I guess was new because she hadn't learned how to do keys yet and passed it on to some other lady, and I'm told it'll take 3 minutes. 15 minutes later the lady I talked to says, "Oh, here's your key. That'll be $42.xx." I repeated the price in a I'm not going to pay that tone. She then says I was asked and said yes to the super key which I declined. Well after another few minutes of her going into the back they give me the super key for $10.

Amanda, the girlfriend, informed me she had a meeting and instead of leaving at 3:45 I should wait for her to tell me when to leave. So I had to wait around longer than planned with no power. Halfway to her house she calls to ask what I wanted from Chili's. When I got there she's not back and I had to sit in the sun for 15 minutes where the sun and 90+ degree heat destroyed me.

This story was way too long for the subtance.

composure

2009-07-20T23:46:00.000-07:00

Being a professional poker player is all about composure. It does not matter if one's A game is the best there is if they are playing their C game most of the time. Since quitting my job I have played way too many hands below my top level.

The really frustrating part is that I've cut way back on the volume I play but continue to just play bad. Making 1 or 2 calls on the river where I know they hit some stupid 2-5 outer while thinking what difference does this 10bb make, whether I'm up or down 3 or 4 buyins.

I went from doing nothing to work on my game to watching lots of videos and reviewing a lot of my hands. Both approaches have gotten me nowhere because I need to be trying to improve while adhering to Phil Ive's lone piece of advice, seek it out, absorb it, but while you're at the table, forget it. When I was playing live 1-2 I had this epiphany myself, and it holds true for lots of things, but is easy to ignore.

possible switch to full tilt

2009-07-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

I've been routinely checking the table selection between stars and full tilts' nl200 6max games. Ft has many more games with no one on the wait list. As I look over it now there are almost no games there where the same stat is in the teens where as on pokerstars there are maybe 15-20 games like that, most of which have a wait list of 3 or more. I've never been a fan of joining a list as the 4th or higher person because by the time you get to the table the fish will be gone and it will be full of other regs and shortstacks.

The stars fpp program is very nice because a supernova can get 35%+ rakeback. I don't have any support for my claim but the higher rakeback in addition to the rakeback structure being dealt rather than contributed will attract more shortstacks to stars who are relying on the bonuses instead of profit.

If the tables are better an increase in .2BB/100 would cover the rakeback difference. Having more tables available at any given time of day plus more actual profit would make me play more. Anyway, before I can switch I need to hit my 200k vpp milestone for $2k so I can pay for school.

college

2009-07-14T22:13:00.000-07:00

About a month and a half ago I was seriously discussing going to Mexico for a few months with a few 2p2ers. The main reason that I had set a time frame for my visit was because of my gf of 13 months. Anyway after a lot more mediocre poker play that was way below my expectations and goals along with knowing I don't want to do this forever unless I became a nosebleed phenom I found out about a very intriguing degree at UTDallas and decided to enroll.

The program is called arts and technology which was not there when I graduated hs and wanted to do computer science. I definitely didn't want to have to take all of the math that was needed, but that isn't the case with this program. It has various paths including 3d animation, game design, and video production. It's still going to take me either 2.5 or 3 years.

I got in a short session of nl200 6m tonight before my internet died for an hour. I was disconnected while in a hand with the guy in the hand I'll post first where he limped the btn and I had A2o in the bb on a akk flop where I was check/calling and lost $20. I've been fortunate that this hasn't happened to me much but needless to say, it's frustrating. I don't really want to play anymore because my internet went off and on briefly a few more times.

Several tables had a certain player that is a solid winner at nl600 who started running over me after I raised ktss from the bb to a limper and bet folded a q66 flush draw flop and then folded to a few other 3 bets from various people. So I closed a few tough tables and opened up a new one and wanted to make sure I was on the attack. This was the first hand against the same guy I got disconnected from.

My hand to 3b with is certainly loose but the first 3b against an unknown has insane fold equity and I thought it being my first hand would increase it a little more. That's probably why he decided do what he did. I got very suspicious when he calls my cbet b/c with ak/aq he's giving up and w/ qq/tt/kk/aa he's almost always raising. Maybe with 99/tt he calls to evaluate. So on the turn I hit and it was time to go into bluff catching mode.

***** Hand History for Game 30474641823 ***** (Poker Stars)
$200.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, July 14, 10:23:10 ET 2009
Table Io IV (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Seat 1: Antman_B89 ( $283.10 USD )
Seat 2: CHENKO123 ( $97.25 USD )
Seat 3: Azimut85 ( $201.25 USD )
Seat 4: GeoJuggle3 ( $226.50 USD )
Seat 5: Rygar43 ( $186.00 USD )
Seat 6: elgrenhornet ( $200.00 USD )
Rygar43 posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
elgrenhornet posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to elgrenhornet [ Jc 9s ]
Antman_B89 folds
CHENKO123 folds
Azimut85 folds
GeoJuggle3 raises [$6.00 USD]
Rygar43 folds
elgrenhornet raises [$20.00 USD]
GeoJuggle3 calls [$16.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6s, 6c, 5d ]
elgrenhornet bets [$26.00 USD]
GeoJuggle3 calls [$26.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jh ]
elgrenhornet checks
GeoJuggle3 bets [$58.00 USD]
elgrenhornet calls [$58.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 3s ]
elgrenhornet checks
GeoJuggle3 bets [$95.00 USD]
elgrenhornet calls [$94.00 USD]
GeoJuggle3 wins $1.00 USD
GeoJuggle3 shows [8c, 9c ]
elgrenhornet shows [Jc, 9s ]
elgrenhornet wins $398.00 USD from main pot

I hadn't been on this table long but I raised 3 limpers w/ aj and the 3rd limper shoved his 50bb stack w/ aq. I got lucky and this hand happened not too long after. I'm not sure why he thought he had fold equity when my image was a little reckless

***** Hand History for Game 30474583296 ***** (Poker Stars)
$200.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, July 14, 10:20:47 ET 2009
Table Sootiyo III (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: cdeez8 ( $204.00 USD )
Seat 2: Chicholin ( $137.10 USD )
Seat 3: natural23 ( $273.90 USD )
Seat 5: elgrenhornet ( $336.35 USD )
Seat 6: inductive ( $200.00 USD )
cdeez8 posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
Chicholin posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to elgrenhornet [ Ad Jc ]
natural23 calls [$2.00 USD]
elgrenhornet raises [$10.00 USD]
inductive folds
cdeez8 calls [$9.00 USD]
Chicholin calls [$8.00 USD]
natural23 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8s, 3h, Jd ]
cdeez8 checks
Chicholin bets [$40.00 USD]
elgrenhornet calls [$40.00 USD]
cdeez8 folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7c ]
Chicholin bets [$87.10 USD]
elgrenhornet calls [$87.10 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 5d ]
Chicholin shows [Ac, Qd ]
elgrenhornet shows [Ad, Jc ]
elgrenhornet wins $284.20 USD from main pot

where i am in poker

2009-07-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

I've been playing frnl100 for about 9-10 months and I'm sick of it. I wanted to be at 2/4 by now. My winrate for the first few months was about 2.75BB/100 and this year has been around 1BB/100. People now have reads and I've slowly adopted some of the losing plays that are made over and over by other regs.

In order to combat this stagnation I've switched to 6max where finding maniacs is much much easier. The difference now from when I got stuck at nl50 6m is that I know how to combat the diff types of terribles. Besides it being fresh to me it's much easier to table select for 9-12 tables than it is for 16-20 and I'm unkown, although that won't last much longer.

I cleared an ftp bonus which then gave me enough ftp's to buy a month of stox poker which has tremendously helped me transition back to 6m. Leatherass is such a great coach. I've used a friend's cardrunners membership and I never really found videos to be all that helpful until listening to leatherass. I'm also interested to watch more from the mental coach guy.

I'm also giving nl200 an honest shot. fr200 is absolutely terrible and finding 10+ tables is impossible unless the games are great. I have no desire to play 4 other nitty regs and 4 shortstacks b/c all I'm going to do is spew when my tt or jj 3b gets called by someone oop and the flop is all unders or when I 3b ak from the blinds, get called, and then barrell away until they raise all in on the turn. Anyway, I don't have enough to maintain my 6 month safety fund, pay off the 5k left on my car, and pay for school, but there's only one way to make it to the top. If I'm table selecting well and not spewing there shouldn't be any problems.

..anyway yea I had a session of nl2006m today and I got on this incredible table with 2 50+vpip s 1 of whom was full stack the other had 300 bbs and I got up to 250. So I'm just playing straightforward tight waiting for the big hand / payday when some unkown gets all in pre w/ me for 130bb's utg vs bb and my kk < aa. He immediately left as it was his bb and I looked him up to find he's a breakeven player.

why blogs go dead

2009-07-13T04:05:00.000-07:00

blogs die off b/c people tend to store up all of their thoughts. When they finally update they exhaust all of their talking points in one post, shortening each thought. My plan is to pick a subject to discuss and write down others for another day... "doubtful"

tired of playing bad

2009-01-26T23:50:00.000-08:00

Starting tomorrow I will have a "strict" schedule of playing 4 1250 hand sessions during the weekdays and anywhere from 1000-3000 hands on saturday and sunday. That will put me at 28-30k hands each week. My first week I was pounding out as many hands as possible with few relaxed days thrown in. I don't want to feel pressure to play more each night and this will give me an easy way to achieve the hand goal as long as I start my first session at 1pm each day.

Weekdays are a lot nittier and I end up spewing everywhere instead of playing the hand for the value it's worth. Then I make up the loss in the late afternoon and end up spewing more at night when I'm not up $2-300.

What I forsee is getting on this schedule and running like God next month making up my lost ev. I have to continue looking at the positive which is that I'm still making more doing this, which is about 25 hours a week, than working full time.

Tilt is the biggest factor limiting people's win rates. If you have a solid grasp of the game and sit back and only do things when you are picking up signs then you will do great. A player like occasio who's game I have no respect for because he's a complete nit is actually winning at just under 1 BB/100, although my goal is 2.5. There are people like prettypolly who play laggy which seems much more fun and glamorous, but it's also a lot more difficult. Stick to what you know. Plenty of nits beat higher limits than nl100

still hate everything

2009-01-19T23:17:00.000-08:00

I've had a few points where I had a lot to say but just didn't get around to posting about it. I started off last week playing horribly for 3 days. I finally got a handle on what I was doing and thinking through a hand for the next 2 days. Then today came and I'm playing great and planning ahead in hands. My slansky line is going up again despite getting aces over kings 2-3 times more in a day than the other way around.
I thought I'd be playing tons of hands every day and rolling in money. I guess I'm glad this is happening now so that I know what it's like instead of making and spending a lot still being on a somewhat short bankroll and going on uncontrollable monkey tilt. I realize now that 40 buyins isn't that much when tilting and running bad coincide while playing 4 hours a day.
Trying to look at the bright side I should have been up $300 today despite aa > kk coolers and bluffing into the nuts twice.
The side of things is that I was down again. Even though $30 is nothing having another loss is eating at me.

i hate 09

2009-01-12T23:35:00.001-08:00

The month so far... It's missing about 3k hands but I think it says it all. I'm not playing well as a result of running so bad.

last day

2009-01-09T14:11:00.000-08:00

It's my last day of full time. I went to the dentist while I still have the benefit and now my teeth are sore. I've been here for about 11 months and I'm trying to get some of the vacation time that I would have gotten.

Other than that I'm up a solid $14 after 15k hands. If you have 3-5 outs you're good. Yesterday I had a 60% vpip idiot always limping in late position while i was in the blind and on either 4-5 hands I would bet the flop with the best hand and he'd always hit the next card, whether it was the turn or river.

I picked up a Toshiba X305-Q705. 4gb ram. 64bit windows. 17" screen. geforce 9700m. core 2 duo P7350. My setup is pretty sweet now using that for hem and my 24" screen for the tables. I've been using the trial software of hem and it is very nice and fast. My only problem is that I haven't been able to find a player search feature. In order to get stats on someone it either takes forever for me to scroll through the list or I have to use the hud, which is a good one and easy to use. With a hud I tend to get in call down mode against fish b/c they all play too loose and I never give credit.

I plan to look into the differences between hem and pokerev and their equity calculations. I loaded at least 95% of my hands into hem last night before I went to bed. It shows me as about $1000 over expectation while using pokerev's street by street analysis puts me under by a few hundred.

bad start to the year

2009-01-05T23:52:00.000-08:00

Whenever I have more than 1 day of losing/break even play I start feeling doubt and tell myself to stop tilting. But I look at the graph and feel better b/c I'd be at 2.5BB/100 if I were running neutral. However, I feel like 3BB/100 is what I'm capable of and I know there are a lot of spew spots where I told myself to bet/fold but ended up bet/calling b/c wtf is that line other than another suckout. I've also gotten in a few over shove spots with nut hands being called by really bad players. Another fortunate side to this stretch is that it is happening my last week of full time office work instead of next week.

dec results and 2009 goals

2009-01-01T14:30:00.001-08:00

I feel like I played poorly for different stretches causing me to lose in non showdown pots. Overall though I'm still pretty happy with the month.

Goals for the year:
1.5 million hands
500,000 vpps
nl200 as my primary game by april
nl400 as primary game by october
$80k in total profit
play a big live event
learn omaha

The purpose of the hands goal is to hit 500k vpps so if I move up I won't actually have to play that many hands to hit it. If I maintain my 3BB/100 win rate solely playing nl100 it will only take me 1.33 million hands to hit $80k which doesn't factor in bonus at all.

It should be a great year

general stuff and end of year

2008-12-29T11:41:00.000-08:00

I didn't play a ton over the Christmas holiday. I should surpass my most hands in a month by a few 1000. Starting in January I should be hitting 100k hands regularly
Only 2 more weeks of full time work and I can't freaking wait. This place sucks the life out of me. I don't have plans yet for new years and my gf is going out of town.

Looking back on a year is always a bit strange because it's easier to look back on a school year + summer. A year ago I was living large playing live 1-2 and moved up to 2-5 when I took a shot with $1500. lol That is so sad. I went broke when my hot streak turned cold, got a job, and started the trek online. Summer kind of seems like a blur but consisted of going to denton, tx to stay in a 3 bedroom apt alone while playing poker, video games, drinking and hanging out with my gf.
Since moving to nl100 4 months ago I paid off my credit card, bought a truck, have 2k in savings, and at the moment have 44 buyins online. The whole year up to the last few months I was on a strict budget. I'd get paid on the 10th and pay 3-400 on my credit card and 50 on my student loan leaving myself with about $250 for 2 weeks of food/beer/entertainment. Then I'd use the paycheck on the 25th to pay for the apartment have $250 left over.
It's kind of sad that the highlight of this year was going to Austin when I first got staked.

drifting

2008-12-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

I've continued drifting in and out of good play for the entire month. Bad play is characterized by not being in complete focus and trying to figure out what they have. What happens is I turn into a little bit of scared money and haven't been going to showdown as much, which has increased my w$sd % but I bleed profusely in non showdown pots. When I am on my better game I feel like I turn into Negreanu despite still having appropriate aggression on each street. I start calling down with any pair in certain situations raising my wtsd and lowering my w$sd but overall increasing my wins and not just giving up pots. I think the reason my overall $ goes up has something to do with people not being able to continue aggression w/o monsters or air and missed draws. When a blank hits the board I get the extra bet out of a bluff and get a free showdown against hands that have marginal to medium value. The good news is that my win rate for the month is still over 2ptbb/100 and overall at stars is right around 2.97ptbb/100.

2008-12-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

I let my boss know I want to go part time starting January 12, telling him I'd be taking some classes again. I might take 1 to 2 at the most but probably won't. My goal is to play a minimum of 100k hands/month which would put me at approximately 420k vpp's = $28,500 in bonus.

My schedule will be some thing like this for monday through friday.
8-12 work
12-1 lunch and nap
1-3 2k hands
3-4 exercise and shower
4-6 1.5-2k hands
6-12 relax, put in another 1k-2k hands, video game, go hang out and do whatever

I'm going to finish my christmas shopping once i get off of work and put my plan in motion by getting a membership to a small city owned gym.

I haven't been pressing myself the past few nights playing a little over 1k hands each night instead of ~2500 to get rid of some long term tilt and make sure I'm playing my A game. I felt like I wasn't thinking clearly about each decision I was making and getting a little too far marginal situations when I didn't lay out plans. Of course hind sight is 20/20 when I have my first solid session in a week and a half where I wasn't recovering losses, hitting sets and sucking out when the villian gives me a free card.

2008-12-15T13:44:00.001-08:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code:
document.write(paramCode)
382966

progress and grinding

2008-12-09T11:21:00.001-08:00

So far I've played 20k hands which is a ton. I should be able to play more hands than I did last month for a new personal record. Yesterday I stayed home and played 5k which I believe is the most I've done in a day.

Grinding is not something that comes naturally. I've been steadily increasing my hand average/day and it is coming more easily to me. I still find it very difficult to play for very long outside of my room and desk.

I'm $1250 on my way to my $2000 goal for the month. While the goal was low and $3000 should be easily attained each month I found it messing with my mind set. Getting a session started with the pressure of winning 20 buyins caused me to play a little scared and erratic. I hope I've gotten over it. Also I hit 50k fpp's and bought a $650 bonus which I should be able to clear in a week or so.

Over the weekend I played a hand at 1-2 where I was still playing badly and got in a very unconfortable spot. Normally at .5-1 there's never more than 2 people with much more than 100bb's so deepstacked situations arrive much more infrequently. The hand I played was one that, based on his hand, would make me feel like the best player ever or retarded and spewy. I'm at work so I don't have the history.

Anyway, villian and I have 175 bb's for 350. Villian was good and active. I have AKo on the co.
villian raises from mp1. I 3b to about 24. villian 4b's to about 70.
flop 7xx
villian bets about 75 and i shoved.

Now 100 bb deep I can easily shove or fold preflop. We had played a few hands together but hadn't gotten anything to showdown. Now obviously AA and KK never fold. QQ might but I probably wouldn't if our roles were reversed. JJ and TT can find a fold here but it isn't nearly as likely to 4b these oop imo. If he has AK he folds as well.
I'm quite embarrassed of the hand. Sure I could easily play AA and KK this way which I suppose was what I was doing. The problem was that I called the 4b preflop looking to pair mine. Deviating from a plan for no real reason is never good. Anyway he turned over 44 for a set and I was drawing dead to runner runner straight split.
I had 3b a few times on the table but hadn't been crazy. If I had any overpair he's getting very bad odds to hit the set and against my hand we're flipping preflop. Being deepstacked he can call the 3b and set mine. Everything about this hand pissed me off and him being oop was the worst part.

dec start

2008-12-03T07:26:00.000-08:00

Well so far I've played 4800 hands. I'm about $250 below expectation, down $120 in non showdown winnings, and am playing horribly but am up about $40. All that is a pretty good sign of how easy nl100 full ring is and that I'm pretty good at beating it.

I've been going to bed very late and feeling pretty bad at work. Taking a nap before I play doesn't make up for being sleep deprived.

I have a good friend taking up the online poker fight again w/ $100 playing nl10. I convinced him to play full ring and he watched me play for about 2 hours the other night. He could be successful at it because he could win live but I have doubts about the work and time he will put in. Playing underrolled and at a micro limit where you earn nothing with dreams of everything can lead to frustration without insense motivation.

November!!!

2008-11-30T13:48:00.000-08:00

happy 23rd to me which was on the 4th but whatever. I had the biggest profit and played the most hands i've played in 30 days. As you'll see in the graph some of it was running good at 1/2, but it doesn't matter b/c my overall win rate for 3 months or 111k hands is at 3.54 ptbb/100 = $7400. Add in bonus and I've made 2x what I've made at the day job in that span.

As of now im about 60% on going to part time and 30% on quiting all together. December will be a huge factor in that decision and if I can make at least $2k then it'll be pretty certain.

A friend and I went up to Oklahoma City last weekend to see the Reverend Horton Heat which was awesome despite horrible opening bands. It was definately a little trip I needed to take even though we went straight there and back that night. It's the type of thing I want to be able to do more of to keep some spontaneity in my life.

poker's effect on my life

2008-11-20T11:21:00.000-08:00

Currently going through a downswing. I'm running bad and playing absolutely horribly. I deviate from the plans I late out for hands b/c I'm playing them differently than I should and end up in tricky spots where I end up calling and losing. Last night I caught myself not even planning a hand out or trying to put the villian on a hand.

My life with or without poker-
ideal situation:
I'd be going to school with a part time job grinding life. I'd graduate with a degree in journalism or business or something this coming spring and get a real job. I never actually found a decent job in Denton aside from the telemarketing hell. I'd have zero monies saved up, my car would be broken down, with any other regular $6-8/hr job I'd need assistance from my parents which would be cutoff once they split. Never get into poker seriously ldo.

More likely situation:
Stop going to school, get the job I have now, no car once my old one breaks down b/c I have zero money saved up, no goals, no motivation, have no idea what I'm doing. never get into poker seriously

What's actually happened:
Stopped going to school, started playing and building online last march, bought car, have made more money the past 3 months playing about 10 hours a week than at my job, credit card paid off, 30 buyins for nl100. Helping mom and sister pay the bills for the past few months as well.

nl200

2008-11-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

I started playing nl200 over the weekend and have had some nice success. I'm up about 4.5 buyins over 6k hands or so. It's the same with a little more restealing and squeezing and a few more regs. Also, if I want to get on a table with a decent % of players to the flop I have to join waiting lists.

I could pull off about 1800 and pay off the 1300 on my credit card and almost have enough to buy a new computer or laptop and have 30 buyins for nl100, but I'm just going to keep pushing forward because nl200 is where a significant ammount of money can be made and it was my goal to play this level. If I break even or lose over the next 10k hands then I'll definately consider moving down and retooling.

best day yet

2008-11-11T17:33:00.000-08:00

1500 hands. w$wsf 43%. went to sd 25% won $ at sd 70%. makes poker seem pretty easy

figures

2008-11-10T09:20:00.000-08:00

Some basic figures according to my winrate and the stars bonus program if I were playing full time...

Over 95k hands in 12.5 weeks at stars my winrate for all levels is 2.82ptbb/100 but is 3.1 adjusted for equity. I'd be playing a minimum of 100k up to 120k hands per month. Under the stars bonus program you can get a $4000 bonus every 100k vpp's with a milestone bonus every 100k vpp's starting at 200k vpp's. Currently I've gotten about 15% rakeback on stars, but this volume of play equates to around 62%.

100k hands/mo * 12 = 1.2million
1.2 million hands/year * 3ptbb = $72,000
1.2 million hands * .35 vpp/hand = 420,000 vpps
$2k + 3k + 4k milestone bonuses + 5 * $4k = $29,000
$72,000 + $29,000 = $101,000/yr

Now I could average more than 100k hands/mo and I definately could improve my winrate and move up in limits. The converse could also happen as I would surely feel burned out. Currently I make $19,000/yr. Even if I didnt come close to the figures I posted I would make somewhere in the range of 3x what I do at work. Other than needing to get some money saved up I dont see any reason not to go full time.

I could continue playing 8-10 hours a week and making the same $1500/mo I do while going back to school. I hate the feeling of being trapped in a dead end job and unable to travel or go back to school or do anything else but wake up and go to work. I don't really have any passion to do anything with a degree but I still have the drive to get one.

2008-11-07T12:12:00.000-08:00

I'ts been quite a while since i've even looked at this thing, but I find it pretty funny that my bankroll is just about where I left off at about $2400. The reason for my time off is that I've had a few really crappy things happen in my life. I got up to almost $4000, took a small shot at nl200 and played a little scared for 3-4k hands, then I withdrew 700 once I lost 2 buyins so I could finally get a taste of the work I've done.

Not more than a few days later I found out my parents are getting divorced meaning I have to help support the family for a little while. So I then decided to pay my friend/staker back $600 which at that point left me with about $2000. A few weeks later I was back up to $3500 w/ about $450 worth of fpps and my car died. It leaked oil and water and I wasn't doing a very good job of checking on the levels consistantly. A seal cracked or something that would cost $1500 - 2000 to fix on the 1988 crown vic that I paid $950 for. On the following tuesday I bought an 04 ford ranger for $10k, pulling out $3k from stars for the down payment.

I was left with $500 w/ the $450 in bonus so over the course of 2.5 weeks I played 10k hands of nl25 and 4k hands of nl50.Onto the reason I'm coming back to this blog, I'm getting the full time pro bug again. It always seems to come when going on a long run of playing well and the cards cooperating. Over the last 35k hands I've been winning at 7ptbb's/100, which was helped by playing nl25 and nl50. My overall winrate at pokerstars over 90k hands since early august is 3ptbbs/100. I don't dream of being Daniel Negreanu or Phil Ivey, I just want to get to a place where poker allows me to do anything I want, most importantly finish college.

Several things need to change to help me progress to this goal faster. Simply, I need to play more hands/week. I've been averaging 9-10 hrs/week at 800 hands/hour since I left my apartment where I would grind all day saturday and sunday. On weekdays I need to set a very strict schedule for myself, which includes a nap after work and excercise 3-4 times a week, so that I will play 2k - 2.5k hands/night. Also in my way is WoW which I will stop playing completely. Like everyone I need breaks and WoW filled this time nicely, but was taking too much.
My posts should not ever be this long again

2008-07-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

br ~$2480. I've had a lot more ups and downs recently. Maybe I'll get around to posting a graph soon.

I keep going through phases about my thinking of moving to Austin or not. Some days I think of all the reasons not to go while the very next I'll think of why I really want to. The best thing to do is write them down and see.

To go: improve my poker playing more rapidly
start making 4-6k month = 2.5-4x what I make now
exciting and fun

Not to go: keep job for minimum of few extra months for security
girlfriend
security of living near parents
get credit card payed off and a few k in the bank

As I wrote these reasons out I got the feeling that staying home for a few extra months would not be as far a setback as moving down there and going bust would be. Also, my car is a an absolute pos that might last another year or 2 or might blow up tomorrow, so I need to get something else.

Lately I haven't been puting in the work that I should to improve. I don't go over hand histories because I think about them in my head. Obviously going over the hands in pt I get to think about all possible situations and there isn't any errors in memory. It's been at least a month since I've watched a video.

Interesting hand I misplayed from last night. frnl100 loose guy 25-35vpip 12-15 raise% limps in early position. I raise kk to 4.5 mp.

aa7r flop ($10)
check call $7
3 turn
i bet $14 he min chkraised me
a river
he shoves 50something and I call
he's got 78o

I should have chked behind on the turn. With a non ace rvr I should have called a bet or bet/fold to a raise. With the ace on the rvr I would have bet/called a raise or raised a bet.
Alright, back to work

movin up

2008-07-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

I've started playing nl100 full ring the past few days, although I'm still getting comfortable and haven't played a whole lot of hands. Being uncomfortable at a higher level causes me to make mistakes. Luckily, though, I've had a good little run and a suckout to be up 3 buyins over 1700 hands or so.

Although my initial goal was to be beating nl200 by the time my current lease is up so that I can seriously entertain the idea of moving to Austin I am thinking about paying back my staker and withdrawing to pay off my credit card, which is at 2100, once I get to an online bankroll of $3000. At my current full ring winrate I'd be able to make more than I make at my job playing only 14-16 hours a week opposed to the 40 hour work week.

I'm very close to where I set out to be 4 months ago, which will open so many possibilities for me, whether it be going back to college, moving or traveling to places like Austin, Buenos Aires, and Thailand, or staying here to try and build up the bankroll.

full ring

2008-07-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

I've been playing 8 tables of fr instead of 4 of 6m for the past week. I've got 3k hands of nl25 just to get my feet wet and 7k hands of nl50 and running at 6.5 ptbb/100 overall. I'm becoming more and more convinced that nl50 is the blackhole being down ~2 bi expectation. This goes along with my running horrible at 6m nl50.

Full ring definitely has weaker players and is easier, but my staker made comments along the line of not being able to learn as much at it. More multi-way pots do take some of the play out of it, but if my win rate is that much higher than I don't really have much choice when trying to climb up. Another thing is that I'm actually able to win some in non-showdown pots.

One disturbing statistic about the difference in my play from nl25 to nl50 is went to showdown %, in both 6m and fr it goes up about 8%. I need to look more into it to find out how much of that is people playing back at me and how much is me being looser and trying to overthink myself into calling.

goals

2008-06-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

I started out wanting to move up a level a month, which is very possible with a decent win rate at 25-30,000 hands/mo and rakeback. It's been 3 months and I've moved up twice, so I'm a little behind, but I feel like I have been improving a lot. Each move up, twice for 50nl, has been accompanied by a combo of bad play and running bad for at least 10,000 hands. The goal is to have a decent win rate at 100nl or 200nl by September, when my current lease expires.

Aside from that I have several options. Live at my parents while working part time and commuting to school. If I'm winning at a nice rate at 200nl I could live off that in Denton and try to get a part time job or something. My mom also knows a guy with his own IT company who is just working for himself at the moment but wants to expand. He had mentioned somewhere in the area of 25-30/hr, but this doesn't really seem like it's ever going to happen because it's been at least 1.5 months since he mentioned the idea.

The third option is to move to Austin with my staker, who is moving into a place with a poker friend of his at the end of July. He dropped the idea to me when he first staked me and we've talked a little more about it since. He and I would share a room, I know it seems kinda gay and sucks, but I did it when I first moved out, and I wouldn't have to pay any rent for a few months. It would definately be a grind playing at least 30 hours a week, but at 200nl I'd be making a lot more than I am anyway. It's a long shot but it's what keeps me going while pushing papers around at work all day.

Background

2008-06-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

I just recently changed from being a lurker to posting some on 2+2. I play microstakes and there is plenty of bad info along with good when looking over posted hands. After being somewhat inspired by wcgrider's story and blog I figured I would make this to sort of get more involved with the community. Anyway, here's my poker background.

In high school 4 1/2 years ago I, like everyone who enjoys poker on any level, thought I was better than average if not good at poker, playing in the occasional $5 live sng or cash game w/ acquaintances and would do better than most going off of basic starting hand info as play hands that match 2 of 3 requirements: both high cards, suited, connected. I might have read a limit he book somewhere during this timeframe. Upon turning 18 I promptly deposited $50 on Pacific and would play a mix of limit .25/.5 I believe until I won enough for a $5 sng. I was actually a winner at limit w/ very little knowledge and a loser at sng's, but the ratio would gradually shift towards sng's until I was broke. lhe is boring and sng's are fun to win. This happened for 3 or 4 deposits until I got into cs:s

Counterstrike took up the next 2 1/2 years while I was working part time at a medical billing office and going to community college. Toward the end of my time at comm college I became good friends w/ a guy on my cs team and we then moved into an apt together in Denton, Tx to go to school at UNT. I was living on very limited savings and mostly my credit card until I started at a telemarketing place which was hell but great money. Eventually my friend introduced the idea of going to Winstar, 40 min north on the OK border.

The first couple of trips to Winstar did not go well based on no idea how to play a live game against complete randoms and having a limited idea of bet sizing using scared money. Maybe the 3rd or 4th time I finally booked a win. I read another book or two on holdem and got my credit card paid off after two months and quit the telemarketing hell. After several months of trying to find another job in Denton I eventually settled on commuting to my old job at the medical billing place 40 minutes away. After about 2 months of that in early 2007 I was having great success at live 1-2 and quit to become "pro". Commuting for a 9/hr job that was extremely relaxed was almost as bad as the telemarketing. I had a nice heater for the next 3 months working off my initial bankroll of about $800 until eventually going busto. So I was completely broke and still couldn't find a job in Denton, so I took a once in a lifetime opportunity to go on tour with a band for the the summer of 07. When I got back I was just as broke only I hadn't signed up for any student loans, so I worked as a server where I was only getting day time shifts and making about $20 a day on 5 hrs of work plus the additional $2.75/hr you get. So with the first $100 i got I went to Winstar and had a huge win and went "pro" again. This time around it lasted for about 5 1/2 months and I had been beating the 2-5 game, which was easier for me due to the rake being such a smaller % and not having a bunch of old retirees at the table. Eventual busto due to one night of missing every flip w/ monster draws and being sucked out on several other times.

I have a friend from high school who is a mid stakes nlhe 6max player who I used as inspiration to deposit $500 on full tilt during my 2nd stint as "pro". I tried to learn some but didn't put in nearly enough work. I never truly had a good feel for it playing 25nl and 50nl and went bust pretty quick.

I then went back to the medical billing where I am today working full time and splitting time between my parents and my apartment. So I had been talking to my friend who was paying for UT with his poker playing and he offered to stake me if I would follow his directions and go over hand histories with him regularly.

After a weekend trip down to Austin 3 months ago for a weekend of poker training I was given a stake of $200 to start at 10nl. Due to some bonus I had left over and a lot of hands put in quickly I moved up after 3 weeks when I hit $450. After another month at 25nl I was up to $900 and took a shot at 50nl but played terribly and ran bad. Finally after 3 months I am at $1150 and confident at my ability to beat nl50.