Posts Tagged ‘texas hold em’

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The Dark Knight Rises: An Epic Month Of Gambling

February 2, 2012

“Allow me to reintroduce myself: my name is…”

When filmmaker Christopher Nolan revealed the final installment in his Batman trilogy was going to be called The Dark Knight Rises I wasn’t an instant fan of the name. Several months later, I can’t imagine a better one now that I’ve adopted his film’s title as my own personal mantra for 2012. For whatever reason–the girl I was recently dating would say ego–I felt like I needed a poker nickname. I mean, all the top notch card pros have one, right? What if I blow up someday? Make a TV final table? Are people going to know me as Mike Coombs? My friends in real life don’t even call me that. Maccent? Retired. Mac? Not good enough! So I made it a goal in December to figure out a proper nickname, even going as far as asking for help on Facebook. Bat-Mac? Cute, Mom, but this is grown man business. Birdcage? LOOOOOOOOOL. Nice needle, Ethan. The Serial Killer? Kinda dark, bro. How about Mac The Ripper then? Why yes…excellent. I actually ran with that for a couple weeks and even had a few people referring to me by it. Looking back, I can’t help but think what a tragic mistake that would have been. Then my buddy Vince started calling me The Dark Knight and after some initial resistance on my part, it all started to make perfect sense. My obsession with all things Batman is well-known, as is my complete inability to sleep at night, mostly due to a tireless work ethic when it comes to playing cards; much like Bruce Wayne constantly sacrifices his own personal well-being for the sake of Gotham City, I put my poker career before anything else, even my own health. No, seriously, I played over 220 hours of poker last month. Holy mackarel, Batman, I AM THE DARK KNIGHT.

The designation couldn’t have come at a better time. I was fresh off my first Royal Flush Jackpot and had completely turned my life around, a story you can read in this post. Since officially donning the cape and the cowl, I’ve been on the most ridiculous heater of my life. January 2012 was easily the best month of gambling I’ve had since summer of 2005 and quite possibly my most lucrative month of all-time. To put things in perspective, I had a solid 2011; for someone that had a good day job most of the year and only played small stakes poker, I turned a pretty serious gambling profit for the year. I made $348 less in January alone than I did all of last year combined. If you include the wages I get paid for propping the poker game at All-Star Lanes (and I don’t), then I’ve already made more money gambling in 2012 than I did in 2011. Sick.

I previously noted my life-changing turning point in the post I linked in that last paragraph. The run I’ve been on since that day has been completely absurd. I don’t know if the day’s events lit a fire under my ass or if karma has been rewarding me for having to put up with a bunch of nonsense, but I’ve been CRUSHING ever since. I hit that Royal Flush Jackpot on the 7th, then between January 13th and January 21st, I finished 2nd or better in 5 of 8 tournaments for a $1043 profit, including a 6-way chop @ Freddie’s $110 buy-in tournament that I had to share with a backer (45%) and my running partner (10%). I started propping for All-Star Lanes on January 13th and demolished the game all month long. In 100 hours, I profited $2,476 and that doesn’t include my hourly wage. I decided not to clock on one night so that I could earn hours for their freeroll and hit the All-Star Strike for $375, a jackpot I would not have been eligible for if I was working. I finished the month with seven straight winning sessions. I won $812 in match play bets on the black jack table. I randomly decided to play a day session on the last day of the month (I always play at night) and crushed the game for +$500. I hit every draw I had and I made it hurt. Everything just seemed to be going my way in January.

Well… almost everything. I’m sure some people were getting pretty sick of my run good and I can’t say it hasn’t been getting to my head. I mean, I’ve felt like I could walk on water and do no wrong at times, but I can assure you, I did not have a perfect month. I played my first $8-$16 session of the year at Parkers this past month and had my worst losing day in well over a year (-$636). To make matters worse, I usually sell half my action in that game, but that night I decided to take a shot and I felted over three racks without ever winning a hand. BRUTAL. This past week, I got shutout in Clearwater’s Poker Series. I lost almost $960 in buy-ins, despite having respectable finishes of 9th in the $250 NLHE event and 12th in the $250 H.O.R.S.E. event. A decent showing, but with such a pathetic turnout for the series I didn’t make any money for my performance. In the one event that was worth going deep in, the $460 NLHE Main Event, I busted out just shy of making it to Day 2. Fortunately (for myself), I had solid backing for all those events and only lost about $400 of my own money. But the series left me still waiting for that first big event cash. I have now whiffed the six events total at the Pendleton Round-Up and the Clearwater Series in the past few months and it has me feeling like I have something serious to prove. I haven’t been to Clearwater in years and it’s kind of weird for me to go into a local card room and not have everyone know who I am. While anonymity can be to one’s advantage when it comes to poker, fuck it, I like the recognition. I don’t want to fly under the radar; fear and respect me or figure it out the hard way.

Despite those setbacks, January was an incredible month. That kind of success is unsustainable, but if I can maintain even half that win rate in the All-Star Lanes game, I’m going to have a monster 2012. It didn’t take long into February for me to be humbled. I was worried that as soon as the calendar flipped so might my doom switch and today was a spectacularly bad day. Not only did I run bad, but I admittedly played like shit and lost more than was necessary. Oh well, challenge accepted: I now have a decent-sized hole to dig myself out of for the month, but The Dark Knight always seems to find his way out of sticky situations. Will he turn this rough start into another profitable month or is this the start of the end? Stay tuned next month. Same Bat-Time, same Bat-channel.

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Poker 2011 & The Royal Flush Of Destiny & 2012 Poker Goals

January 11, 2012

My biggest goal for 2011 was to make money gambling. After several years of talking about how good of a poker player I am, it was time to prove it. I’d been treading water in mediocrity for quite some time and didn’t have anything to show for all my self-proclaimed “knowledge.” I’d make a few scores here and there that suggested I was better than the average player, but I had way too many leaks in my game to be an actual long term winner. Last year, I exceeded whatever goal I had in mind. I just wanted to turn a little profit from my hobby and wound up making several thousand dollars and for a moment, I could see a career as a professional gambler in my near future.

Unfortunately, nothing comes easy. Full Tilt shut down and took about 33% of my bankroll with it; I spent a month in jail not making any money; I moved into my own place and through an unfortunate chain of events that were beyond my control, found a friend of mine indebted to me for $1500 (a debt that has since been paid off–good looking out Tiny T!); I lost any and all interest in working at my day job at Silver City and found myself filing for unemployment in November; and finally, my new job at Arena Sports Bar & Grille has gotten off to a slow start and I’m not making nearly as much money there as I thought I would be. Basically, instead of building a bankroll last year, I had to survive off my gambling winnings because actual work wasn’t paying my bills anymore.

I spent most of last year playing $4-$8 limit hold em and small stakes tournaments locally. Over roughly 750 hours of $4-$8, however, all I could really say was I’m a roughly break even player. I’m not crushing the game by any means and certainly haven’t proven I can make a living from it. Between the rake, tipping the dealers, variance, some terrible luck, and a game that is still not free of leaks, beating the game in the long run has been a formidable challenge. I still think I can do it and I plan to prove it, but if I’m really looking to make money playing limit hold em, it’s time to step my regular game up to the $8-$16 level.

I did get some experience in the $8-$16 games in Tacoma and Seattle last year. I sold half my action in all but one session, but over 81 hours I beat the game for 1.47 big bets an hour. Hardly a large enough sample size to be considered reliable, but still somewhat promising. If I’m not playing $8-$16 regularly, with 100% of my own action, by the end of the year, 2012 will be a long year for me. This is where I need to be at.

In 2011, I played 123 live tournaments, mostly at Chips Casino in Bremerton. Considering the size of the buy-ins, I absolutely crushed the game. I cashed in 33% of the tournaments I played, finished in the top three 18.5% of the time (!!), and at least chopped for first place in 12.2%. Those numbers are INSANE. For the year, I made roughly $2000 in live tournaments, or profited roughly 80 buy-ins (assuming an average BI of $25). All of these numbers include the fact that I didn’t cash in a single event with a buy-in of more than $50. I completely whiffed at Pendleton’s Fall Poker Round-Up and had one of the worst showings of my life in the first event of Muckleshoot’s Fall Poker Classic. Fortunately, I sold most of my action in those events, but the trip to Oregon was still a soul-crushing experience. Above anything else, it made me realize that despite my pedigree in local small stakes tournaments, my game still has a lot of work to do and I vow to return to Pendleton with something to prove in 2012. I refuse to come out of this year without a 5-figure tournament score. It’s my time.

I played a minimal amount of spread limit and no limit hold em in 2011, but found success in the few hours I put in. I profited roughly $1000 in about 40 total hours and that includes a brutal hand where I get stacked for $250 with AA after getting it all-in preflop vs KK. Along with trying to play more $8-$16 in this upcoming year, I absolutely need to get in more no limit cash games against weak players because differences in skill level is a much larger factor than it is in fixed limit games.

I opened 2012 by getting a job at All-Star Lanes. I’m not going to state many details on exactly what it is I’m going to be doing, but I’ve been hired to help out in the poker room: possibly dealing, possibly chip-running, but definitely playing a lot of poker. It sounds like my dream job and right now I’m being told everything I want to hear. How it works out remains to be seen, but I’m excited about the prospects, although not being able to play at Chips as much is going to sting. I love that place and I thank them dearly for treating me like royalty the last seven months. Carla, A.J., Dan, James: you guys are like family. I spent more time with you than anyone else last year and I know that all of you root me on wholeheartedly. I will miss you and try to visit often. I’m going to miss the regulars too. Somehow… a young, cocky, aspiring professional that never gives anyone air and plays cutthroat poker 100% of the time has mostly gained the respect and support of the local gambling community. Many of these players are friends of mine on Facebook now and follow my blog, so I thank you all for tolerating my unforgiving play and being willing to lock horns with me all year. Today, someone that won a seat to the World Series Of Poker 2012 Main Event seriously considered letting me play the event for him. I would hate to deprive someone of that experience, but I’d also love to bring a main event cash back home to Bremerton. What you say, Simi?

As I stated earlier, despite having such a successful year gambling in 2011 and showing a profit in 10 of 11 months (I was in jail all of May), multiple shenanigans lead to me having a very depleted bankroll to start 2012. I was basically operating on fumes. Off of unemployment and not being able to bank on my current job for more than $200 or so a week, I was starting to wonder if I’d even survive January without resorting to drastic measures. Fortunately, my gig at All-Star Lanes looks like a go, but still: if I was going to be playing a ton of poker there, how was I going to fund it? Start with a short roll and pray that I run good for a couple months? I certainly didn’t have the stake to absorb any significant downswings and if 800+ hours of live play last year proved anything, it’s that no matter how good you are, large downswings are still very common. I needed a miracle.

To make matters worse, I met a remarkable woman the last couple weeks of 2011, but what I thought was the beginning of an amazing relationship instead fizzled out rather quickly. It was incredibly disappointing and it was messing with my head. On Saturday, January 7th, whatever hope I had remaining for it to work out evaporated. But it’s funny, because as we were talking over lunch about how painful things were in that moment, we both recognized the fact that it would all make sense some day and that everything happens for a reason. Little did I know, it’d make sense to me within hours.

After my dismal lunch, I tried to go home and sleep it off… get a little rest in before my poker session that night. But sleep proved beyond my reach and instead I hit my boy MC up and told him I needed a guy’s night out. He said he needed to be home by 6 PM, but I showed up at Chips anyways, kidnapped him out of their live game, and we drove to All-Star Lanes to play their 7 PM tournament. After busting out in 7th place at the final table, it didn’t look like their live game was going to be too cracking that night, so I talked MC into going back to Chips since they had two jackpots that were over $2000. We get back to Chips and I toss $300 on the table, but the floor is gone and I can’t get all my chips yet, so I say “fuck it” and start walking around the casino bullshitting with various people.

Finally, after about 15 minutes or so, I sit down in the live game with $100 in white chips and $200 in cash and Carla asks if I wanna post my big blind. Sure I do. 3-4 people limp in, the small blind completes and I look down at AdJd in my big blind. Raise it up! Everyone calls and we see a flop of KdQdx.

I’ve been playing poker for 8 years and have logged TONS of live hours, but I’ve never hit a Royal Flush in a casino. I know someone that has hit three in a calendar year. Another friend of mine has been playing half the time I have and has four under his belt. I know a regular that recently hit a $11K Royal and followed it up with $2K one just a few months later. I’ve personally hit 11 royal flushes online, but I’ve never received jackpot money for one and I’ve never done it in live play. For whatever reason, I could feel this one coming in from the jump. Carla, the dealer, has said to me numerous times recently: “something great is going to happen to you soon, Mac.” I believed her.

I go ahead and lead the flop, betting my monster draw for value, not worried about losing customers (and a chance to draw out for a Royal) since that flop hits so many hands. Two players do call. A blank falls on the turn and I decide to bet again anyways to keep building a pot with my big draw, not really concerned about getting raised. Both players call again and one of them says, “bring a ten on the river.” I think in my head, “oh really? Be careful what you wish for, sir.”

With my life in shambles, my head in disarray, and my future in question, I can’t say anything has ever looked prettier than that Ten of Diamonds on the river. Red Royal Flush. Jackpot. $2389. Ship it.

I’m not saying that jackpot is going to solve all my problems, but it couldn’t have come at a more critical time. I am now right back where I was several months ago: with a reliable source of income that I can pay my bills with and a large enough bankroll that I can gamble with regularly and build over time. And rather than dwell in self-pity and wonder why things didn’t work out with ole girl, I know that everything that happened with her led up to that exact moment. I don’t hit that Royal Flush if we are still dating. Plain and simple. And I need that money way more than I need a woman in my life right now.

The Royal Flush Of Destiny… I’ve never been a religious person, but I do think there is some merit to concepts like fate and destiny. Like… everything that has happened in my past, good or bad, was meant to be and has shaped me into the person I am today. Well, I feel like this Royal Flush is a sign that my poker career should be my top priority right now. Fuck all the doubters; this is what I was meant to do. Instead of having to start from scratch all over again–through no little fault of my own–it’s like I’ve been given a reprieve and can continue doing exactly what it is that I want to do: work my way towards becoming a professional gambler.

I expect another successful year in 2012 and I have a list of goals that should be more than achievable: become an $8-$16 regular, play significantly more no limit cash games, log my biggest tournament cash of all-time, and, for crying out loud, have a profitable trip to Pendleton, Oregon.

2011 was a promising year. I proved that I have what it takes to beat the game of poker in the long run. It’s no longer a question. I feel I have answered it and that my calling is apparent. I experienced some growing pains and some struggles last year, but have learned from all of that. The struggles are over. I feel like Eminem on ‘Say Goodbye To Hollywood:’ “but no one ever puts a grasp/ on the fact I’ve sacrificed everything I have.” I really have; I’ve bet it all on this poker shit and I don’t plan on failing now. 2012 is my year.

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Some Interesting Poker Hands.

January 6, 2012

Here are some interesting hands from some of the poker tournaments I’ve played this past week.

First hand is from the final table of an All-Star Lanes tournament. I have 16,000 in chips and blinds are 1500-3000. It folds to the hi-jack (two off the button) and he limps in, leaving 7500 behind. I’m in the cut off with QdTd. My hand should do fairly well against my opponent’s range, but playing my hand creates several problems. First off, limping in for 20% of my stack with a weak Q high hand is not a great play. Secondly, any of the three players left to act behind me could raise and based on their stack sizes, I might have to call. Raising might seem like a decent option, but I don’t like my hand enough against his range to play for stacks and let’s be real: this dude is calling me if I put him all-in. He might not like his hand enough to raise it himself, but it’s rare that I see these weak players limp in for 30% of their stack and then fold to a raise. Folding is the right play here and you’ll soon see why. I call. The button goes all-in for 10,500. Both blinds fold, but the first limper calls for the rest of his stack, which is exactly 10,500 total. The uneducated player might think this is an easy fold, but they’d be wrong. With both players all-in for 10,500, 4500 in dead blind money, and 3000 from my limp, there’s 28,000 in the pot and it’s 7500 more for me to call. I’m getting 3.8 to 1 pot odds which means they could both show me AQ and I’d still be right to call. Even though calling in this spot is clearly correct, the situation shows why limping in the first place is wrong. The last thing I want to do at this stage of the tournament is play a huge pot with a mediocre hand that HAS to win a showdown when losing will cripple me and destroy any preflop fold equity I had going for me. I managed to spike a T on the river and win a huge pot against AK and KJ, a pot that propelled me to a second place finish in the tournament, but clearly, I misplayed my hand here by limping in.

Tournament at All-Star Lanes tonight. Two tables left. Blinds are 800-1600. There’s some weird button movement going on and I think I’m under the gun with A9o at a 9-handed table and about 16K in chips, so I muck. The dealer hands me my cards back and says “don’t fold your hand, you’re the big blind.” Everyone at the table saw me muck though and it folds to a thinking and aggressive player in mid-late position. He min-raises to 3200, leaving himself with about 8000 behind. Everyone folds around to me. I know this player saw me muck my hand and I feel like he’s trying to take a cheap stab at the blinds. While it may not be the case, his min-raise makes me think he wants the option of folding if someone else happens to wake up with a hand. His stack size dictates that he should either be folding or going all-in. My conclusion: I have him crushed. I audibly laugh, knowing how ridiculous this is going to look, and announce “all-in.” The table goes into a state of shock. Even the dealer is laughing. My opponent is perplexed and doesn’t seem to know what to do. Just as limping in with the QT in my previous hand was a mistake, this is yet another example of not planning ahead gone wrong. I’m sure he was going to muck if anyone else at the table re-raised him, but he had no plan whatsoever for this scenario. I’m sure it wasn’t even a possibility to him. For whatever reason, this player seemed to come to the conclusion that I was making some sort of move on him. He’s wrong. As a good player, I don’t expect to have much fold equity here, which means that I expect my hand to win the majority of the time in a showdown. Which means I’m NEVER bluffing. With 15.2K in the pot and having to call another 8000, he’s getting 1.9 to 1 pot odds and should call me with just about any two cards. Mathematically, he’s probably priced in, and knowing that, I still shoved it on him. He did the right thing and called and his K2 outdrew my A9. Min-raising with his hand in the first place is a mistake though. With his stack size, he has to either go all-in or fold it. There are too many stack sizes that you’re going to have to call when you get re-raised that giving yourself the option of folding to a 3-bet is clearly wrong. The sickest thing about this hand is that if he had just open-shoved himself, I may have seriously considered folding. I’m not saying that’s what I would have done for sure, but folding would have at least crossed my mind as a real option.

Same tournament, heads up with a friend of mine. We’ve been battling it out for a short time and though he started with a clear stack size advantage, I have gained significant ground. With the blinds at a ridiculous 6000-12000, he open-raises to 28K from the SB on the button. I look down at Ah5h and it’s 14K more to me. After calling the raise, I’d have 23K left behind. Since I’ll have first action after the flop, the idea of a pulling a stop and go (calling now and going all-in on any flop) seems appealing, but this is not the type of player that is going to fold two overcards (or many hands at all) in that spot. The only hands he’ll fold are complete garbage that totally whiffed the flop and if he has a hand like that, I might as well get him to stack off with it before the flop. I go all-in and he instantly looks disgusted as he stacks off for a 100K, and tournament-deciding, pot with Q4 offsuit. He flops a 4 that holds up to win and takes down first place. Yet another hand where poor planning preflop puts someone in a tough spot, playing a huge pot with a weak hand. With Q4o and 6000 in on the button, putting in a raise that crosses the commitment threshold is a questionable play since Q4o is a below average hand. I’m not folding too many hands that beat Q4, so my opponent might as well be raising blind and he might as well be going all-in. He’s clearly not playing his hand for value and his raise is entirely reliant on me not having a strong enough hand to play. His cards are completely irrelevant at this point. However, a queen heads up is a decent hand and he has the option of calling 6000 and being able to play the rest of the pot in position. A clearly superior option to stacking off for his entire stack preflop with a weak hand.

The theme of this blog post seems to be: PLAN YOUR HANDS. If you make a play and get a response to that play that either you a) don’t like or b) don’t know how to handle, you have misplayed your hand.

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College Basketball MacRankings: November 26th, 2011

November 28, 2011

TOP 25:

1. Kentucky (6-0)
Last Week: #2
Comments: I’ve had Kentucky at #2 all year and with North Carolina losing to UNLV, it only makes sense…

2. Ohio State (6-0)
Last Week: #3
Comments: …but I have a feeling maybe this team deserves to be #1 instead.

3. Duke (7-0)
Last Week: #6
Comments: Duke’s season is reminding me of 2010 when then kind of surprised everyone by winning the national title. It’s hard to argue against their preseason resume so far: they’ve already posted four quality wins, including two over top 15 teams. It should be no surprise that they are now #1 in the RPI rankings.

4. North Carolina (5-1)
Last Week: #1
Comments: Wow. The best frontcourt in the nation got beat up by UNLV… and Harrison Barnes left the building on crutches. Not good.

5. Syracuse (6-0)
Last Week: #5
Comments: Syracuse has a couple decent wins and remain undefeated, but I jumped Duke ahead of them anyways… this is a program that might be taking a lot of heat soon.

6. Florida (4-1)
Last Week: #7

7. Connecticut (5-1)
Last Week: #4
Comments: Losing to UCF is a slap in the face, but UCONN bounced back by beating a ranked Florida State team. There shouldn’t be too much cause for concern here.

8. Baylor (5-0)
Last Week: #9
Comments: Perry Jones is back in action this week and the Bears are looking plenty good already.

9. Louisville (5-0)
Last Week: #10
Note: Wayne Blackshear ineligible for the year. Peyton Siva injured.
Comments: Tough week ahead with games against Long Beach State and Vanderbilt.

10. Alabama (7-0)
Last Week: #11

11. Xavier (4-0)
Last Week: #12

12. Pittsburgh (5-1)
Last Week: #13
Comments:

13. Vanderbilt (5-1)
Last Week: #15
Comments: The Commodores are finally at 100% with center Festus Ezili returning from suspension this week.

14. Wisconsin (6-0)
Last Week: #16
Comments: Wisconsin posted their first quality win of the season over BYU and seem to be more of a team than the one man show I was expecting. On the down side, superstar Jordan Taylor is only averaging 11 points a game.

15. Marquette (5-0)
Last Week: #17
Comments: After blowing away their first four opponents, Marquette narrowly edged a Norfolk State team they beat by 31 a week earlier. Marquette has played a pretty easy schedule so far, but have Wisconsin and Washington coming up.

16. Michigan (5-1)
Last Week: #18
Comments: Even though Michigan lost to Duke, they move up a couple spots on the strength of wins over Memphis and UCLA.

17. Gonzaga (4-0)
Last Week: #19
Comments: The Zags have been mostly inactive and unchallenged the first couple weeks of the season. The typical Mark Few non-conference schedule awaits, however, with Notre Dame and Illinois coming up this week.

18. Missouri (6-0)
Note: Laurence Bowers out for season.
Last Week: #21
Comments: Missouri absolutely destroyed California last week.

19. Mississippi State (7-1)
Last Week: #23
Comments:

20. UNLV (7-0)
Last Week: Unranked
Comments: After toppling the #1 team in the nation, UNLV’s 7-0 start can no longer be ignored. The Running Rebels have five players averaging at least 9.8 points a game and might have the nation’s most surprising player in forward Mike Moser. The 6’8″ sophomore is averaging 15.1 points, 13.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 2.7 steals a game and should be on the National Player Of The Year radar after drilling North Carolina for 16 points and 18 rebounds.

21. Kansas (3-2)
Last Week: #14
Comments: Losses to Kentucky and Duke don’t look so bad and this team is good enough to rally back to a top 15 ranking eventually.

22. San Diego State (7-1)
Last Week: Unranked
Comments: Credit coach Steve Fischer for getting this team back into the top 25 after losing almost all his talent from last year’s amazing squad. The Aztecs have reeled off four straight quality wins since losing to Baylor and have a shown a knack for coming out on top in extremely close games.

23. Memphis (2-2)
Last Week: #8
Comments: The young Tigers had a rough week in the Maui Invitational, often looking like the same immature team they were most of last year.

24. Harvard (6-0)
Last Week: Unranked
Comments: I can’t even name a single player on this team, but Harvard just took down a Battle In Atlantis tournament that featured #4 Connecticut, #22 Florida State, and UCF.

25. Texas A&M (4-1)
Last Week: Unranked
Comments: A&M didn’t do anything to jump back in the rankings except watch their stock improve as other ranked teams took losses. I give the Aggies the slight edge over the rest of the field because they’ve managed to play well despite having their best player sidelined.

DROPPED OUT:

20. California (5-1)
22. Florida State (5-2)
24. Temple (3-2)
25. Arizona (4-2)

BUBBLE:

Cleveland State (6-1)
Creighton (5-0)
Indiana (6-0)
Northwestern (5-0)
Michigan State (4-2)
Oregon State (5-1)
Purdue (6-1)
Saint Louis (6-0)
Washington (4-1)

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September 2011 Gambling Results

October 2, 2011

Poker is such a grind. I made a resolution this past New Year’s to make a profit gambling. I was sick of thinking of myself as a great player without having the consistent results to prove it. I’ve destroyed that goal. I’ve won every month in 2011 and thanks to a great session on the second to last day of the month, I can add September 2011 to that list. In consistently achieving my goal to make money gambling this year, I’ve gotten ahead of myself. I was hoping to be playing professionally by 2013, but I’m ready to make the transition NOW. Part of me wants to throw caution to the wind, quit my day job and really put myself to the test… but that’s the part of me that has kept me treading in mediocrity for the past five years. I simply can’t afford to take that risk. Even if half my bankroll wasn’t indebted to me, I wouldn’t be close to having enough money saved up to take the plunge. Even at a limit as low as $4-$8, I’d be crippled after any sizable downswing without another source of income. My game still has plenty of leaks, but I’m convinced I can beat any limit game Washington state has to offer, so it’s frustrating that the only thing holding me back seems to be how much money I have to play with. So close… yet so far away.

I’ve had someone question whether or not I’d really want to play for a living. Not because they question my talent, but because they say that poker isn’t as much fun when you HAVE to play… when it becomes your job. When you have to put in the hours to make your money. Please. I have a day job now and still managed to put in over 160 September hours in just cash games. That doesn’t included the time I spent in the 17 tournaments I played. Playing is not going to be a problem for me. In fact, I’m in danger of letting poker completely dominate my life. If you include those tournament hours, I probably played around 200 hours last month, which would be a lot even for a full-time professional… and I’m still employed. Over a 450 hour sample size, my win rate in my regular game ($4-$8 fixed limit) is barely worth my time, so spending that much time playing is probably not my best investment. I think I need to cut my hours way back or find a full-time backer so I can move up to $8-$16.

I still have a tendency to think too much in the short term. I think it’s my biggest weakness now. Losing a big pot still hurts way more than it should. A bad run of cards, missed draws, coolers, and lucky catches for my opponents can still put me on tilt. My mood mirrors how my session is going far too often. For someone that is striving to play for a living and has proven that he will win in the long run, these attitudes are unacceptable. My focus on short term results makes me more susceptible to tilting, not playing my A game, and ultimately, cuts into my win rate in the long term and affects my overall performance. I feel like I could be doing much better than my current results if I can somehow get past this problem. Even right now, I feel down in the dumps because I started October off with a -54 big bet session and I haven’t won with TT, JJ, QQ, KK, or AA in my last 12+ hours of play. Unlucky? Yes. Any reason to whine and slum around my house feeling defeated? No. That money will come back. Time to get over it already and plug that leak. Coping with bad stretches separates the above average players from the great players and I’m ready for a promotion.

Rather than break down my exact results like I have in past months, I’ll just say I turned a modest profit for September. Considering the amount of time I put in, my final results are pretty unsatisfying. On the flip side, being stuck with two days left in the month and managing to turn a decent profit feels pretty good. My results in fixed limit cash games were not good at all. I lost at every limit I played, running absolutely brutal for multiple long stretches and probably not playing my best poker as a result, losing even more money than I should have. Before closing the month with a big win, I had six straight losing sessions–a first for 2011. It seems like I can’t go an entire month without 1 or 2 big downswings, even in months I’m generally killing the game. I also cashed for a profit in just 3 of the 17 tournaments I played (17.6% vs. a 45% ITM rate YTD) and went a stretch 8 straight tournaments without cashing at all (also a 2011 record).

Where I did do well last month was in the $2-$40 spread game at E&J Reyes and in the pit. I don’t have a lot of experience in spread games and haven’t had much success in them in the past. I’ve never been able to decide if I want to play a game that’s similar to how I play limit or how I play no limit. This time around I decided to play a mixture of both: seeing a lot of flops cheaply and using position like I do in no limit and using tight fixed limit hand selection in all other spots. I ran much better than average in these two sessions (88 > AA, JJ > AA, rivered a flush against trips, etc.) and I’m not expecting to maintain a $90/hour win rate. In the pit, I killed on match plays and pretty much expected to win every time I played one. Also, in one of my extremely rare moments of playing a table game, I hit quad 9s on Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em for a pretty decent payout and, unlike the degenerates who usually play the pit games, I immediately cashed out after my score.

Even though September was a small success, my bankroll actually decreased. I made way less at my day job than I budgeted for and had to take more out of my bankroll to pay bills than I made back in profit. Hopefully October will bring more consistency, both at my real job and on the felt. I just read that Full Tilt Poker has been purchased and maybe that means I’m that much closer to getting my money from them. I also got in touch with the dude that owes me a lot of money and he agreed to make a payment on the 5th. And seriously, does anyone in Kitsap County deserve the $9000+ Red Royal Flush Jackpot @ Chips Casino more than me?

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$300 NL Muckleshoot Poker Tournament

September 9, 2011

Okay, so I’m pretty embarrassed right now. It’s 11:45 A.M. and I’m sitting on my computer typing up this trip report for a deep stack poker tournament with 30 minute levels and starting stack sizes of 200 big blinds that started at 10:00 A.M. in a casino that is at least an hour’s drive away! Do the math there and you can see that I busted out of a tournament with an amazing structure within the first 20 minutes… something I thought was virtually impossible for a player of my caliber. I’d have to run AA into KK preflop and lose to a set, right? Apparently not… and here’s my story:

So the tournament starts with 3 players at my table missing and the cut off raising to 125 with blinds at 25-50. Before I can even look at my cards, the big blind–with the small blind and me still to act before him–has tossed out a call already. I look down at AcTc and 3-bet to 375. Seat 6 in the big blind instantly calls, not even considering for a second what it means that I saw him call out of turn and still decided to re-raise. The opener from the cut off folds pretty quickly and I take the pot down with a continuation bet after a pretty dry flop. Seat 6 already seems like a fishy noob to me.

I open to 150 from the hi-jack folded to me with ATo and the cut off and button (seat 6) both call. Not a great result… but a K72 board is about as dry as it gets, so I C-bet 375 and the lady in seat 5 raises to 1050 and seat 6 reraises to 2200. LOL. I fold and seat 5 folds KTo face up. Wow. Now I’m thinking both seat 5 and 6 are retards. A few hands later they get involved in another pot where seat 5 calls pretty substantial bets from seat 6 and folds to his all-in on the river.

Another hand occurs that I can’t remember exact details of, but I flopped a gut shot in position in a raised pot and declined the option of stealing on the flop when it checked to me. A little discouraged and gun shy from the previous couples hand, I limp in with KQo UTG+1 and get two limpers behind me and one of the blinds. Flop comes T42, two clubs. I check and it checks to black dude in Seat 7… He bets 150 into a 250 pot. He doesn’t seem like a tough player to me, and I have two overs and the Qc, so I decide to float him out of position and re-evaluate all my options on the turn regardless of what card falls. I spike the Ks and decide to let the donkey keep pushing, figuring I’m way ahead of him the vast majority of the time. He bets 400 and I merely call. The Ac spikes the river… Since the way I’ve played my hand actually looks like a mediocre club draw, I’m worried he’s checking behind on that river most of the time and I want to get a little more value out of my hand, so I decide to lead right into him for 600. He calls pretty quickly and shows me Ad5h. Groan.

UTG raises to 125 and one person calls in front of me. I have the button and 7h4h and can’t resist making the call in position on both players. The blinds both call, and we go 5 ways to a Q53, two club flop. It checks around to me… Even though betting here seems reasonable, I feel like 3 of my 4 opponents are loose and one of them is willing to get all his chips in, so I try to turn the nuts for free. The turn is Ts and it checks to me again. Now I can’t resist trying to take the pot down with so much weakness in front of me. I make a 60% pot-sized bet and black guy calls me. River is the 9s, which brings in a running spade draw, KJ, and some random 9x straight draws I think he might still pay off with… so I decide to check behind and he shows 9c7c, a hand I think he calls any reasonable bet with.

BUSTO HAND

So I’m sitting on around 8K and realizing that I’ve managed to lose 20% of my stack during the first level of the tournament. I’m a little perturbed by this result, but not wanting to switch gears too much just yet, I open to 150 with the 8h7h. Only seat 6 calls me in position. He’s the table chip leader and has seemed to me to be the most reckless player at the table. I’m eager to find a good spot with him. The board comes down QhTs5h. Since my image has been pretty bad so far, with some failed c-bets and semi-bluffs in my recent history and facing an opponent that I’ve seen willing to put a lot of chips in the middle, I decide to play my flush draw cautiously and check it to him… not wanting to get blown off my good draw by betting into him and allowing him to make some absurd raise. He checks behind me. 6h on the turn. Gin! I decide to lead out for 325 which I don’t think seems like a very strong bet after checking the flop, but with only 375 in the pot, that’s actually a pretty solid bet in retrospect. My opponent calls. The river is the Jd. I decide on a pot-sized bet of 1025. With a couple failed bluffs in my recent past and what I think has been a relatively weak line from me so far in this hand, I feel like this bet should reek like a bluff on my part. My opponent doesn’t take too long to announce he’s all-in. My first reaction is glee; he’s fallen for my trap! But then I realize I’m about to be all-in with an 8 high flush in the first level of a deep stack tournament. Not exactly ideal. Is it possible I’m beat here?? I take about a minute thinking it over and my answer is there’s no way in hell this opponent has me beat in this spot. If he had a big flush draw, why would he check behind on the flop when I gave him a chance to take it down by showing weakness in front of him. Then, he merely smooth calls me on the turn with a flush? I’m not buying it. Finally, aside from my river bet, I feel like I’ve played the hand rather meekly and that my river bet looks like a bluff. If he had a big flush, does he really think I’m paying off in this spot for my entire stack? Hardly! Plus, this is the third time in 20 minutes this same player has basically put his tournament life at risk. Even though I think an 8 high flush is pretty weak to be stacking off with at this stage of the tournament and I can fold and still have 130 big blinds, when I add up all the pieces of the puzzle (my bad image so far, his spewy image, my line this hand, his line this hand, etc.), folding in this spot seems ludicrous when it appears as though I’m increasing my stack drastically the vast majority of the time. To me, it really looks like he either rivered a straight or somehow thinks two pair is good. I make the call and he shows me Ah3h for the nut flush.

I’ve been trying to come up with ways I don’t get stacked in that spot with that action against that player and I just can’t come up with anything good. I was already a little frustrated with my play/luck so far and I can’t imagine how much more tilted I would be if I decided to fold my flush there and he doesn’t show me his hand. I’d have a hard time moving past it, thinking that I missed an obvious opportunity to double up. I wish I would have made the Hellmuthian lay down and could have managed to collect myself afterwards, but considering how he played the hand, I just don’t see any other option.

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Check-Raise: Mid August Report

August 17, 2011

I’m depressed today. I haven’t been having a great month gambling and I really compounded my problems this morning. I did something I never do. I play Blackjack with Match Play coupons (free money), but I never gamble in the pit. Today, I showed up 30 minutes early for the morning tournament at Chips and decided to sit down at Ultimate Texas Hold Em. I’ve played it a couple times before, with minor success, and it appeals to my poker side since a sound preflop strategy in this game seems profitable. Max bet AQ preflop and 2x bet Q9 on Q high flop and lose to KJ on the river. Ugh. Max bet AJ preflop and lose to J5. Really? Max bet A4 preflop and 2x bet top pair on the flop (playing two hands) and dealer turns over a set. I can’t count how many times the dealer flipped his first card and only one card in the hole could beat me and he had it today.

All in all, -$190 in the pit. Then I run bad in the live game and my final straw is losing with AQ to KK on a AT83K board in a 20 BB pot after check-raising the flop and leading the turn. I even had the sense to check the river because I felt like he had KK or QQ and since I have AQ, I just felt it was KK most of the time. “I knew I needed that King.” Yeah, no shit moron. Nothing like losing big pots to two-outers on the river. Good day all.

So it’s August 17th and I’m showing a $55 profit gambling this month. Considering that I’m destined to have some losing months, even at the peak of poker greatness, I shouldn’t be too stressed out… but this month is a bit different since I’ve had to pull from my gambling bankroll for the first time since I’ve had one (again) because I’ve been moving this month and have basically no furniture. To put things in perspective, I keep a monthly budget and I’m $25 away from going over with two weeks to go… and I budgeted HIGH. I won’t know exactly how much I’ve pulled from my bankroll until the end of the month, but I do know now is NOT the time to be breaking even.

People often tell me that gambling for a living isn’t as rosy as it sounds. That’s making a lot of sense to me right now. I’m not having a losing month (yet), but even breaking even seems like a colossal waste of time, especially when you’re the hours leader at Chips Casino for two months running. I’m working 5 days a week at my day job–which is more than I want to–and I’m still putting in about 30-35 hours a week at the tables. Which means I’m basically doing nothing else with my life. I haven’t made a non-poker update on this blog in over a month. I didn’t even bother to review the new Harry Potter movie. I haven’t even seen Captain America or the new Planet Of The Apes. What kind of movie buff am I? All I do is work, play softball, and gamble. I have no social life. I can’t even imagine what I’d do if there was a girl out there that wanted to date me. After taking a beating this morning, today is the first day in probably a couple months that I’ve actually taken some time out to just lounge around. Hell, I’ve been living in this new house for over two weeks now and I’ve only unpacked and sorted the bare essentials.

I’ll probably be back at the tables later tonight, but right now a break–even a small one–feels really good.

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Check-Raise: Moving Up To $8-$16

August 6, 2011

I’ve been bankrolled for $8-$16 for a while now, but due to my day job and location, I haven’t had a chance to move up in stakes… until last night.

Side note: I sat in the $4-$8 game for 20 minutes waiting for my $8-$16 seat and cracked it for +$233 (that’s a $706/hr win rate! lol)… and that includes calling a raise HU from the BB with AdKh against my friend and check-raising him on AhTh5d3h turn and getting 3-bet by 8h2h (uhhh… nh Matt, you weirdo) and paying off on river (-$44). Turned top set with QQ in huge multiway pot. Flopped top set of 9s on 94343 board–sorry, we’re not chopping. Turned nut flush vs. 2nd nut flush against my friend. Sick run. Also folded As8s first hand against a raise and would’ve flopped nut flush vs. set on unpaired, 3-spade board (also against my friend). With one cold-call in front of me, I would maybe call in that spot in my normal games, but being the first hand I got dealt at a new casino, I had no idea how the table was playing yet. Folding seems best.

Even though I’ve played as high as $20-$40 online regularly (way back), it’s always a little rattling moving up to a new limit and playing in a new casino. I definitely sat down w/ the intentions of playing much tighter than I would in my typical $4-$8 until I got a really good feel for the table. For a while, I didn’t think there was any real weak spots at the table, but 3 of the players were $20-$40 regulars and started playing like the game was beneath them, spewing chips. I was willing to give higher stakes players the benefit of the doubt, and even though there were a couple people in the game I thought played good, by the end of the night, I felt like I might be the best player in the game.

I finished +$187 and I got pretty unlucky in 3 pots.

My first pot I play, I pick up AA UTG and raise. 5-ways to J53 rainbow flop. I bet, 2 callers. Q on turn. I bet, two calls. T on river. I check-call HU and lose to JT. Not a good welcome to my new limit, but I felt like I read the situation perfectly.

I have Qd3d in BB. Several limpers, the spewiest $20-$40 player raises, I call from BB in 6-way pot. First limper (JT from previous hand) 3-bets, everyone calls, original raiser caps. I get trapped for 4 bets with my weak hand in a huge pot. Flop comes KdJcTd. Gin draw! I check-raise the field. Turn is 7d. I bet and get 3 callers. River is another diamond. I check-call and lose to the 3-bettors red Aces. Groan, but nh sir.

Same villain limps in 3rd position, folds to SB, he completes, I look down at AsJs and raise. Both call. Flop comes AAT. I bet, thinking I’m never getting action here. My nemesis raises, I 3-bet, he caps. I check-call turn and river and he shows AT. Yay! I can’t beat this dude.

Another weird pot: I raise a couple limpers with 99 and we see a J84, two heart flop 4-ways. It checks to me in last position, I bet and the SB raises me. Everyone else folds. This player hasn’t been particularly aggressive, but there’s a reasonable chance my hand is good and I have the 9h. Since my opponent isn’t all that aggressive and I plan on calling, I decide to make it 3-bets and get to the river for “free.” He just calls and checks to me when a small heart turns. I check behind. River gives me a 9-high flush and he checks again. I don’t see how my hand is ever not good here, so even though I obviously have good showdown value here, I think a value bet is in order. I’m rather shocked when he calls and shows two red Kings. Whoops.

I flopped a set of 3s in a raised pot from the BB but didn’t get a huge amount of action. I lead into the field on the flop, hoping to 3-bet the OG raiser, but I just get a couple callers and the preflop raiser pays me off through the river for a single bet on every street. Oh well.

Another decent pot, I limp in OTB with one limper holding 9d8d. 4-ways to 644, one diamond flop. I bet when it gets checked to me trying to pick up the pot… and the SB calls… I’ve already pegged him as a tricky, trappy player. Throughout the session, he flopped trips out of position at least 8 times and got away with a turn check-raise 75% of the time. Turn brings the Td, giving me the flush draw. He checks to me and I check back (betting isn’t bad against a passive, predictable player, but I’d already seen this guy’s movie several times) River is Ad. He checks to me again, I bet, he raises, I 3-bet and he calls with K4 and tables it in disgust. Odd line on the river and nice try sir.

And here’s the only reason I finished up. I’m stuck about $100 at this point and haven’t had a playable hand in forever. Two people limp in front of me and I begrudgingly limp with KJo from MP. My friend immediately punishes my first weak limp of the night by raising from the next seat, the $20-$40 spewer 3-bets w/out looking, my friend caps and we see the flop 7-ways in capped pot. Board comes QT9r and gets capped 4-ways w/out me ever betting or raising. SB leads into me on turn, I raise, my friend (the flop capper) folds and I clear the field, he 3-bets, I cap. I’m starting to think we have the same hand. I’m still the nuts on the river, he disappointingly checks to me, I bet, he raises, I 3-bet almost sure we’re chopping and he finally figures it out and calls. He doesn’t show and I’m good for about a $550ish pot. Question preflop decision-making on my part, the hand played itself postflop, and I was lucky to get 7 BBs on the turn and river before my opponent figured out I wasn’t playing. Huge pot, but not really expert play from me. Just luck.

I was happy with my play overall. I won that one big pot that saved my session and got unlucky in most of the other big pots I played. Most importantly, I didn’t feel outmatched at the table and came out of the session thinking I should be able to beat that game on a regular basis. Time to move on up!

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Check-Raise: My Journey From Spewy Amateur To Poker Professional – March 2011

March 31, 2011

It’s no secret that I fancy myself a poker player. I’ve been dabbling in the hobby for years now. Those of you that are familiar with my story know that I went on an insanely hot and extended run early in my poker career way back in 2005. I played my first hand of Texas Hold Em in August of 2004 and by June of 2005 I had a bankroll of $25,000. I was good, sure. I studied the game extensively, reading any book I could get my hand on and I thought about poker day and night, even when I was away from the tables. More importantly, I was absurdly lucky. I was making all sorts of mistakes when it comes to sustaining a bankroll. I’d move up two levels within the same session and happened to go on an upswing that lasted for three months through every level I tried. I wasn’t rolled for the levels I was playing, but it didn’t matter because I wasn’t losing. So when I did start to go through the inevitable downswings, I couldn’t afford them at the levels I was playing at and soon found myself struggling to get by financially. That was pretty problematic since I’d already quit my job and dropped out of the University Of Washington. Why bother going to class when I could be making $100 an hour gambling online? It was a fair question and even if my degree was within arm’s reach, what good was a college diploma going to do me if I was playing cards for a living? Needless to say, my early run of success completely blinded me as a poker player and practically ruined my life. Six years later, I’m still recovering from some of the damage I caused myself.

But poker never left me. Throughout the years, I’ve had a lot of minor successes. I’ve always been a good tournament player and every once in a while I’ll pull off a huge, life-saving cash in a big tournament. Then I’ll be rolled for a couple months until I blow it all back in cash games. This has pretty much been my poker career since my year as a moronic “pro.”

Yet, for some reason, I’ve always thought of myself as a good player… but that’s total bullshit. Whatever minor successes I may have had playing cards over the past five years has been completely negated by my alcoholism or severe leaks in my poker game. I might deposit $50 online and grind my way to a $600 bankroll, go out for drinks one night, come home plastered, wake up the next day, log on to my poker account and see my balance sitting at $0. This happened on several occassions. Why can’t they make an interlock system for computers?! I would have saved thousands over the years. With alcohol mostly out of my life for the past three years (I relapsed for about 8 months), I can no longer blame drunkenness for my inability to maintain a bankroll. I have roughly three years of sobriety since January 2008, but I’ve been a consistent loser during that time. I might have a month or two of profit here and there, but I recently purchased some online tracking software and my cash game results over the past couple years are alarming. They are terrible.

So with all this in mind, I made a vow to myself that in 2011 I would make money gambling. I don’t care how much I win, I just don’t want to be a loser anymore. I’ll save my goal to be a professional for 2013. Right now, I just want to slowly turn this ship around. So far, so good.

First off, let me make a disclaimer. For absurd reasons, gambling online in Washington is illegal. The sites I play on enforce this law. I will be making references to my “online” results frequently in my blog posts. THESE RESULTS SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. ALL ONLINE RESULTS I POST ARE EITHER A FIGMENT OF MY IMAGINATION OR FOR PLAY CHIPS ONLINE. I INCLUDE THEM WITH MY OVERALL RESULTS BECAUSE… UHHH…. IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD.

I have tracked my results sporatically for years now, but I’ll usually lose interest when I start to go through a rough patch or I don’t like what I’m seeing anymore. I can’t say I have a lot of big losing months saved on my computer anywhere… but most of my really good months can be easily located. This year, I decided it’s best to be honest with myself. Starting in January, I’ve tracked every single aspect of gambling that I’ve done: from “online” gambling, live cash games, local tournaments, house games to pit games, sports betting, and personal wagers. If I bet someone $5 that they can’t eat a certain jalepeno pepper, I’m logging that bet somewhere. I know EXACTLY how well I’ve done since the start of 2011 and my results are promising.

I’m currently on a four month winning stretch that started with a +$528 month in December. Here are my 2011 results:

January: +$71.91
February: +$212.68
March: +$129.16

Total: +$413.75 (+$941.75 including December)

Pretty modest numbers, but mission accomplished so far. I’m making money gambling, consistently. Even so, those results are disappointing if we do a little more number crunching. Here are some other notable facts:

*I’m up $792 in live tournaments in 2011. I’ve played 16 tournaments and cashed in 7 of them for a 44% in the money rate. Even more ridiculous, I’ve finished in the top three 6 of the 7 times I’ve cashed and I have 3 wins. I’m destroying live tournaments.

*I’m up $666.45 in online tournaments in 2011. I’ve cashed in 60 of 361 tournaments I’ve played (16.6%). My biggest cash is for $360, so I’m yet to get that huge score I’m anxiously waiting for. I’ve done well in online tournaments for the year, but I’ve had some incredibly bad luck so far. I usually have something absurd happen to me in the very late stages of big money tournaments.

*I’ve made $474.14 in rakeback in 2011. Rakeback is a feature offered on some poker sites. Every pot you play gets raked and Full Tilt Poker offers 27% rakeback, so once a week, I get a depost into my account for rakeback.

*Between tournaments, rakeback, and live cash games (~+$179), I’ve made about $2110… yet I’m showing a mere $400 profit for the year.

The conclusion: When it comes to online cash games, I AM THE WORST PLAYER ALIVE. To be specific, I’m down roughly $1500 playing cash games online and I’ve spent most of March trying to figure out what exactly I’m doing wrong. I started reading my fixed limit books again and I tried to focus on playing one limit only: $0.50-$1… and I had success. I showed an $83.85 profit at that limit for the month of March. Unfortunately, I didn’t start this plan until the 4th of the month and I’d already done severe damage to my bankroll by then. I also strayed away from my plan later in the month. For instance, tonight I decided to play one table of $2-$4 and got unlucky on back-to-back hands in my first orbit. A crushing start to a game I shouldn’t even be playing. Of course, I tilted after that and blew 100 big bets of my current limit before I swallowed my pride and left the table. In 40 minutes, I lost more money in one session of $2-$4 than I made all month grinding it out at $0.50-$1. It’s these kinds of scenarios that have kept me from sustained success: poor bankroll decisions, playing too many tables, steaming/tilting when I get unlucky, chasing losses, and running absurdly poorly when I do take a chance. Even though I was more restrained in March than I’ve ever been–78% of the hands I played were at the $0.50-$1 fixed limit level–I still managed to show a big loss in online cash games. In the 22% of hands I played outside my preferred limit I lost $663. Talk about a painful lesson in bankroll management… but at least I’m making sure I see it… and I proved I could make a profit if I stick to my guns and play the limits I should be playing.

A third of the way through 2011, I feel decent about my chances to be a successful poker player. I’ve shown a tremendous flair for winning tournaments, both online and live, and revisiting some poker literature really helped my live cash game out this month. I had a rough patch the past couple days that turned a great month into a merely good one, but I see good things ahead in that respect. I still feel like I’m swimming upstream, fighting my inability to win playing cash games online. Despite all the success I’ve had, my profit margin is small and I can blame it entirely on getting destroyed in online cash games… but it’s a leak I’m working and my big goal for April 2011 is to a show a profit in the online games. If I can turn that around for good, my modest profits will start to turn into substantial ones and I’ll be well on my way to achieving my 2013 goal.

Other notes:

*I’m up $13.70 in house games… playing for change with my dad, my brother and his friend.

*I’m stuck $25 in the pit (all from BlackJack) year-to-date. I avoid The Pit like The Plague, but Chips Casino in Bremerton offers a $5 and $10 Match Play on Wednesdays and turns a few hands of BlackJack into highly profitable bets. Unfortunately, I fall for the trick and keep playing after using my coupons. Stupid.

*I lost $122 on the NCAA tournament this year. RAPED.

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Poker: September 2010 Results

September 13, 2010

This is a bit premature, but I self-excluded myself from playing online poker for the rest of the month, so it’s not going to change much. Here are the results:

Starting Bankroll: $109.75
Ending Bankroll: $0.04
Net Profit: -$100.71
Deposits: $25
Cash Outs: $100
Transfers: $0
Rake Back: $35.71 (through Sept. 10th)
Bonuses: $50
Tournaments: +$69.20
Cash Games: -$341.33

Notes:

-I went busto on September 2nd and had to deposit money for the first time in ages. I put in $25 and got about $20 in rake back and built that $45 up to a peak of $366 within a week.

-I only cashed in 3 of 23 online tournaments I played before banning myself, but all of them were final tables. My best showing was 1st of 135 for +$149.50.

-When my bankroll reached $366, I decided to do something rare: cash some out.

-After my cash out and a couple days basically treading water, I decided to take a shot at a $100 buy-in NL cash game. This was 10x higher than I was usually playing and it seems whenever I decide to take a shot, the Gods punish me for it. The pivotal hands:

—I have Tc8c in the BB and someone raises it to $5. I’m going to fold if it folds around to me, but the SB calls and I decide to take a flop. The board comes T83 with two hearts. SB checks and the opening raiser has about $42 left and my objective is to get as much of it as possible. I figure if he has an overpair, I’m stacking him no matter what. If he has unpaired high cards, he might not call if I bet, but he’ll likely make a continuation bet if it checks to him and maybe even price himself in. Since checking seems to make me more money, that’s what I do. He goes all-in. Yay! The small blind calls $42. Boo! Not what I was hoping for at all. What does this guy have? I go into the tank for a bit… It’s really unlikely that he has TT or 88 since I have two of those cards and two of them are on the board… 33 is certainly a possibility, but I convince myself that it’s probably a big heart draw. Since I’m playing way over my head, the safe play would be to fold, but if I end up folding the winning hand, I’m not going to forgive myself. Since I think my hand is good, calling is out of the question, and I go all-in for $108. The SB calls and shows AhKh and the 4h comes on the turn and I don’t fill up. $270 pot and roughly 40% of my bankroll gets shipped to him.

—After that last beat, I decide to call it a night, but I can’t sleep at all because I’m steaming so bad. So I get back online and sit down in the same game looking to make my money back quickly. After a few hands, I pick up KK and make it $3.50 to go. Someone re-raises me to $10.50. Ugh. Am I really going to be up against aces right now? The button calls him. It folds back to me… only one hand has me beat, but do I believe it? I decide to go Matt Damon in Rounders and just shove it all-in for $100+. The re-raiser folds, which is great, but the button calls, which is shocking. What does this guy have that he’d play that way? Amazingly, he shows 22 and before I can even get over the shock of seeing his hand, he spikes a set on the flop, and stacks 70% of my remaining bankroll. Unbelievable. I’m playing on a Rush table, so I don’t even get the satisfaction of being able to berate him for such a horrendous play.

—I’m down to like $45 and take it to same $100NL game and decide that I’m getting it all-in at the first sane opportunity. After a few spots where my opponents fold, I pick up AQ and get one caller with position on me. I bet the pot on an A high flop and he calls. I get it all-in on a blank turn and he shows a flopped set and I’m busto for the second time this month.

-I played live for the first time in a loooooooong while. I went into Bremerton Lanes to see if they had a tournament and it was super dead. There were about five people waiting around in a live game and I decided to sit down against my better judgement. I bought in for $100 to play $4-$8, to kill the hour before the tournament, and basically just dwindled. I won two pots and they were both small and I never picked up any big hands. Lost $66.

Highlights from the live tournament:

—blinds @ 50-100 on deep stacks. One person limps, I limp with 66, SB calls, BB raises to $600. First limper folds, and since we are on deep stacks and I know this player will dump if I spike a set, I call. SB folds and the flop comes 953. He checks to me and it looks like a bet, but I’ve played with this guy before and I don’t think he’d make that raise w/out a pair, so I check behind and take one off. Turn is a 2 and he bets $800. I’m still pretty sure he has an overpair, but his check on the flop leaves enough doubt that I speculate with a call, plus I should have six outs, position, and some other river cards I might be able to bluff with. River is gin: a four peels off. No flush on board, so I’m sure I have the nuts. He leads out for $1000, which looks like an ace. I doubt he’d make that bet with KK/QQ/JJ, so I expect to get paid off and raise it to $2700, hoping he might even re-raise. He just calls and I’m surprised when he tables 99 for top set. hahaha… sorry buddy! Nice pot for me. It’s a pretty odd river call for him, but sometimes I think people need to show how bad of a beat they took… and I appreciate it!

—blinds @ 200-400. UTG goes all-in for about 1900 and I’m UTG+1 with AA and about $12K. I decide to just call because some players behind me have been raise happy. Everyone folds except the small blind, who calls also. The flop comes AT9 with two hearts. SB checks to me and even though I have top set, a bet is in order because that board is super draw-friendly. I bet out $1500 and the small blind becomes exasperated. I’m all for the cooperation play in a lot of spots, but this is not one of them. After throwing a mini-fit, he says “Fine, I’ll all-in” and raises about $7500 more. Hahahahhahaha. I call and flip over my aces and he tables QQ and walks away sonned.

—blinds @ 300-600. I pick up AA and raise to 1500. I have over $20K at this point and a player behind me has even more chips. We are easily the chip leaders at the table. He’s been really raise happy and doesn’t disappoint when he makes it $5500 to go. It folds around back to me and I go into acting mode. I count my chips, see how much I’d have left if I call and fold later, basically trying to sell AK or some other hand… After a minute or so, I go all-in and he instacalls and shows JJ. I hold and I have an enormous chip lead. I got chastised by a couple players after this hand, including my opponent. Some of the comments: “he had to think about that one” — “yeah, he must’ve been worried I had a set” etc. Uhhh… okay noobs. If I shove all-in without thinking about it, my hand range can be narrowed down pretty easily. I know if I had JJ in his spot, I would fold it. Hell, I wouldn’t have re-raised in the first place. Maybe my acting job didn’t play a role at all and he would have spewed with JJ regardless, but there’s certainly no rule that says if you have aces you must reraise as soon as possible.

—Per usual, when I get a huge chip lead, I get card dead for a long time and eventually dwindle down to an average stack. I make the final table with a good amount of chips, but all my opening raises get shoved on and I have to fold my attempts to steal the blinds.

—Busto hand: blinds are 2000-4000 and I have about $21K. Two people limp in, SB calls, and I have AT in the BB. I have enough chips left behind that the limpers can’t call me without fear and the limps indicate there isn’t a lot of strength out there, so I shove and take my chances. First person folds, but the second hesitates for a bit, sighs, and decides to call. She tables 99 and flops a set. GG. 7th place for money back. Laaaaaaaaaaaame.

Another shitty month… but on the bright side, I cashed out more money than I put into gambling this month, so my wallet actually saw a profit. I keep saying that playing above my bankroll is one of my biggest leaks, but I don’t think it’s wrong to take shots. I don’t want to grind it out for nickels and dimes and no one makes it big by playing it safe. It would just be nice if one time I took a shot something ridiculous didn’t happen. Sigh. Until next month….

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