Drive across the US and catching up

Been a while since I have got an update out, so this one will probably be a bit long.

To get started I managed to get my car in the shop and repaired before the main part of my summer trip. The guys at the dealership even managed to get my car across the street and get the oil changed so that I could get started back on my trip on time. Friday, May 14th, came and I got back on the road around 9. The weather was just a little rainy but it didn’t stop me from getting into Indiana in the early afternoon.

The next week was a little rough, with it being the one year anniversary of my Dad passing away. I got around and saw all my family up there and pretty much all of my friends. It was great to see everyone again, and without all their support I wouldn’t have made it through the week. Dad was a great man and he molded me into the man that I am today. Without his guidance in my life I would not be who I am and for that I will always be grateful.

Before I knew it the 21st of May came and I started my drive across the US. My plan for the first day was to get to Tulsa Oklahoma. I managed to get a little over a hour farther on day on and got into Oklahoma City before stopping for the night. After getting my hotel room for the night and some dinner I was off to sleep so that I could get back at it in the morning.

Day twos plans were to get to Alberquque, New Mexico, but since I had drove a little father the night before I changed the plans to at least make it to Arizona. After crossing the Arizona border with plenty of sunlight left in the day I decided that Flagstaff would be the new goal for the night. I would have made it had the weather not been so bad that the state had to close a portion of interstate 40 due to high winds and low visibility from the dust. After a minor detour I got a hotel room, and dinner for the night then headed to bed.

Day three came and saw me crossing over the Hoover Dam and arriving into Las Vegas. Since it was still before noon when I got to the dam I decided to stop and to a little sight seeing. Pictures do no justice to the Hoover Dam. I was amazed by the sheer size and beauty of the dam and surrounding area. Definitely happy about stopping for about a hour to do the tourist thing.

After the short stop I finished my drive into Vegas and have been getting settled into my suite here at the Rio. This will be my home for the next four nights, and then we move into the house. I think the rest of the day will be spent relaxing a bit, maybe some poker in the evening, some dinner, and then get some sleep. Gotta start getting my sleep cycle changed to it being 3 hours behind where I was just 3 days ago.

The next few days, weeks, and months will have many first and new things for me to experience. I can’t wait to not only experience them, but also document them here for me to look back on later down the road. Enjoy the pictures that I have taken over the past few days.

Until next time.

Beach Trip with family

This past weekend was a good relaxing first weekend of my trip. My brother and his family took me down to Panama City Beach Florida for the weekend, well it was more of a trip for the kids that I was privileged enough to get to join. We left Friday afternoon after my sister-in-law and brother got off work. It was rather stormy all the way into town but we finally made it in around 8 local time (central standard time). We all got to bed early so that we could get to the beach in the morning.

The weather come morning was not wet but it was rather windy and overcast. We made the best of it and headed down to the beach. It was great to just sit in the sand and watch the waves come in, plus getting to play in the sand with my wonderful niece and nephew. After some fun on the beach we headed back to the condo to each lunch and play in the pool for a while (the ocean was just a bit too rough for the kids to play in the water). After some afternoon naps we decided to head down to Pier Park to do some shopping, play on the carnival rides, and get something to eat. All in all we had a great day just relaxing and having some fun.

Sunday we packed up and headed back home. Once home me and my niece and nephew played outside with the bubble guns before getting cleaned up and heading to bed. We were all worn out after an action packed weekend.

Today was just another relaxing day for me. I slept in a bit then headed out to the store to pick up some things to make for dinner. I had dinner ready for my brother and sister-in-law when they got home from work. Tomorrow will be my last full day, plans are to get things packed up so I can leave and head up to my brothers for his graduation weekend, and then hopefully head out to see my nephew play in his t-ball game (as long as the weather cooperates).

Until tomorrow,

Merch

Another relaxing day

Another good day to help get this trip back onto a good start. Had lunch with my sister-in-law then went and found some good deals at the mall. After that I just relaxed the rest of the afternoon until my niece got home and I played some games with her for a little while. Dinner was had with a good friend down here in south Georgia and her soon to be husband. It’s always good to see good friends when you are in town.

Tomorrow me, my twin brother, my sister-in-law, niece, and nephew will be heading down to Panama City Beach for the weekend. I haven’t been down to PCB since I lived down here, has to be at least 10 years ago. I am looking forward to some quality beach time with family and am going to shut off all electronic devices until we get back home Sunday afternoon. This means I will not be putting out any blog updates until Sunday night.

Until then,

Merch

Day two, estimates and time with friends.

Day two was definitely better than day one, didn’t have to talk with any cops and didn’t have any more fender benders. I did go and get estimates on the damage I suffered yesterday and got all that paperwork up to my insurance agent this afternoon. Now I just have to wait to hear from the ladies insurance company so that I can submit the claim. Hopefully I can get everything taken care and get repairs done in two weeks when I am home for a couple of day before starting phase two of the trip.

Here is my planned itinerary for the entire trip. Of course the dates are always subject to change:

• April 28 - Arrive in Leesburg GA. Leave May 5th. (Going to Panama City Beach for the weekend).
• May 5 - Arrive in Sharpsburg GA. Leave May 12th.
• May 12 - Arrive in Hilham TN. Leave May 14th.
• May 14 - Arrive in Yorktown IN. Leave May 21st.
• May 21 - 8-12 hour drive to somewhere around Tulsa OK.
• May 22 - 8-12 hour drive to somewhere around Albuquerque NM.
• May 23 - 6-10 hour drive to the Rio casino and resort. Checking out on the 27th.
• May 27 - moving into out house for the next 6 weeks. Moving out on July 7th.
• July 7th - moving into Rio casino and resort. Leave Vegas on the 18th of july.
• July 18th - Arrive in Lake Tahoe. Staying for 2 days.
• July 21 - Arrive in San Fransico. Staying for 3 days.
• July 24 - Arrive in Los Angeles. Stay for 3 days.
• July 27 - Start heading back east. Stop at Flagstaff AZ.
• July 28 - Visit four corners and continue east. Stop at Mesquite TX for 2 days.
• July 29 - Arrive in Tyler TX. Staying for about a week till August 3rd.
• August 3 - Arrive back home in TN.

If I am going to be passing through where you live and you would like to meet up just send me a message or just leave a comment and I will get with you.

Until tomorrow,

Merch

Summer Trip Day One

Today was the first day of my summer road trip. I drove from my house in Tennessee down to my twin brothers in south Georgia, which is where I will be at for the next week.

I got everything packed up yesterday afternoon and got on the road this morning around 1000 EST. I decided to stop and get some lunch around noon and then stopped to top off my fuel after lunch. I am sitting there waiting for a lady in a Xterra to pull out so that I can pull up to the pump. Well she decided that she would rather back up, and she also decided not to look before backing up. That means that she backs straight into my brand new car that I just made the first payment on the day before. Of course her car didn’t sustain any damage but my car now has a bumper with a slight dent and a cracked grill.

Not really how I wanted to start my trip, hopefully it isn’t a sign of things to come. Tomorrow will now be spent going out and getting some estimates on what it is going to cost to get repaired and then getting all the paperwork to my insurance agent so that she can handle dealing with her insurance company for me.

Until tomorrow,

Merch



Here are some pics of the 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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Horseshoe Southern Indiana (Day 3 & Trip Recap)

        Well, I got home early afternoon yesterday, and really wish I could have stayed a bit longer. I really enjoyed my stay at the hotel and gained some more experience with live poker. My hotel room was exactly as described and had everything that I needed for a good nights sleep (except for the thin walls that allowed me to hear the loud discussion/arguement in the room next to mine at 1 in the morning, but that was resolved with a call to the desk and they sent security up to ask them to quiet it down). My biggest gripe about the hotel room was having to pay for internet and wireless not being available, come on folks get with the program here and upgrade your systems and give us free wireless internet. The only other issue I had was the long walk to the casino from the hotel, even though they have a golf cart shuttle that you can use if you wish it still takes a good 10 mins to walk to the casino from your hotel room. Not much can be done about this but if I were to have the choice between this casino/hotel to another one with a shorter walk I would be inclined to say that I would take the other one.

        On day 3 of my trip (Thursday) I played my 2nd tourney of the trip. The tourney didn't go as well as I would have liked it to. Late in the first hour I was in the BB with AK and got raised by the CO (who had just been involved in a hand where his TT got beat). I re-raised him to 1200 and he shoved his stack which made it ~1k to call. I made the call and was not able to beat his 77. The very next hand I picked up AJs and shoved into the blinds and a few limpers. I got called by a guy with 44 and managed to flop a broadway draw and turned the broadway. Leading up to the 1st break (end of 2nd hour) I didn't get very many cards and didn't pick up many chips. Just before the break I was in the BB with 64 of diamonds. It limped around to me and I checked. The flop came 8 high with 2 diamonds and a 6 on the board. I had ~2k and there was ~800 in the pot, so I shoved my middle pair and flush draw. I get called by and everyone else folds. I flip over my middle pair and am ahead at the moment but he flips over AQ of diamonds so he has my flush draw beat. Well a diamond came on the turn and I was sent to the rail with a bitter taste in my mouth (nice over call with your naked flush draw, this isn't the internet).

        My next trip up will probably be in late October for the WSOP-c event that is being held up there. Hopefully I will have more luck in the tourneys I decide to play than I did in these. Also I hope to have more funds to play more cash games than I was able to this trip since they were rather juicy and as weak as a $0.01/$0.02 table on PS.

Until the next update,

Merch

Horseshoe Southern Indiana (Day 2)

        Today started out with me sleeping in and just getting some good peaceful sleep in my hotel room. I decided to run into town (New Albany) to pick up some lunch and some things for me to eat for breakfast for the next few days. The drive was not as bad as I was expecting it. I did however miss my turn that was to take me to Wal-mart but still managed to get to Kroger. There is nothing surrounding the casino/hotel to go get food or anything like that besides the shops and restaurants within the casino/hotel. There is a gas station as well as a waffle house within 10 mins of the casino and not too far away from the nearest hotel (Holiday Inn Express), and the Kroger or Walmart are only about a 15-20 min drive away.

        Once I made it back from the grocery I ate my lunch and then headed down to the casino for some slot play. I found a $0.01 machine that I played on for about a hour and ended up being down $10. I went back to my room for a little rest and relaxation before heading back down later on in the night. I went back to the same machine and played for almost 2 hours and managed to gain a daily profit of $24, of which I gave back to the machine later in the night. It was a fun day though that resulted in me breaking even for the day and just enjoying a slow and relaxing day.

        Tomorrow brings a new day and a new tourney for me. I will be getting to bed shortly so that I will be rested up for my noon start of my tourney.

Until the next update,

Merch

Horseshoe Southern Indiana (Day 1)

        I got to the casino/hotel today at around 11:00 a.m. EST. I proceeded directly to the casino and got registered for the two events that I am going to play while I am here. After registering for my tourneys I inquired about getting checked into the hotel early. I was told to call up to the front desk and see if they could get me in for early check-in. I called up and they said they have a room available. I then went and moved my car closer to the hotel room area. I went in and got checked into my room and then moved my stuff into the room for my stay. Once I finally got everything moved up to my room I got everything arranged and situated for my stay, then I got into the shower and decided to take a quick nap before my tourney started. I also ate some lunch in my room so that I would not be distracted by any hunger pains during my tournament play.

        I got down to the poker room a little before 3 (start time of my tourney). I found my seat and got comfortable and check my starting stack amount. This was a $245 Bounty tourney (Event #5 of the 1st Annual S. Indiana Horseshoe Classic), that had $200 go to the prize pool, $35 to the house, and $10 towards a bounty on your head. About the 3rd hand I got in with AJo, and didn’t flop anything but turned a Jack. I lead out and got one caller, another blank came out on the river and once again I lead out and my only opponent folded and I took down a small pot to get myself going. The rest of the first hour was pretty quiet with me folding more than playing the hand. I did manage to get a bounty late in the 2nd hour when I raised from LP with 77 into a short small blind. He shoved and everyone folded back to me. It was very little for me make the call and I did so, my opponent flipped over AJ and I managed to dodge his outs to knock him out and collect his $10 Bounty chip.

        I managed to pick up another bounty when I had AQ and raised it up from middle position. One of the short stacks shoved and it folded back to me. I made the called and my opponent shoved Qx. The flop came QQx, turn was another blank, and the river was an Ace. Ship the $10 bounty chip. Towards the end of the 4th hour I was getting short and was not getting any hands. I looked at the first card that was dealt to me on the button and it was an Ace, I didn’t even look at my 2nd card. A very loose player limped in from EP and I shoved all in. He thought for a moment and finally called. I flipped over my 2nd card first, it was a Jack. My opponent flipped over A9 and my unsuited AJ held for a much needed double up.

        When we came back from the break I was once again under 10 BBs. I got AK and shoved into an early position raise, it folded back to him and he folded giving me the antes and blinds. Not too long after I got moved to another table and was dealt KQ in the BB. A player had raised it up in Middle Position and I was sitting with 7 BBs, I shoved into him and he called with KK. I didn’t flop any draws and the turn card brought me nothing but an end to my day. I finished 22nd out of 97 entrants, with the tourney paying top 9.

        I felt that I played pretty good today and got some more experience playing live. Hopefully on Thursday I will be able to build on this experience and get a final table (which will more than likely mean a cash) and hopefully a win.

        All in all I have enjoyed my first day here at the Horseshoe in Southern Indiana. Tomorrow I am going to go into Louisville and meet up with a high school buddy for some drinks and to just hang out and relax some more. I might get some more play in tonight or maybe tomorrow. Just determines on how I feel.

Until the next update,

Merch

Haven't been playing

I have taken about a 2 week break, will probably be a bit longer one from playing due to current personal reasons. This is actually a good thing since I needed a break and it will hopefully give me a fresh outlook whenever I do get back.

Poker Playing and a Poker CoPilot Review

Play has been going steadily since the last post. The roller coaster has continued but it seems to be making a change as of change. The last week has seen some profits coming in rather than losses going out or just breaking even. This has part to do with recent reviewing of videos on stoxpoker along with the recent addition of a program called Poker CoPilot. Poker CoPilot is a poker tracking program similar to poker tracker 3 or hold’em manager. The biggest difference is that Poker CoPilot is the only program that is built to run on a Mac computer of the three and the only program out there that has a Heads-Up Display (HUD). I will do a review about the program towards the end of the blog.

The videos I have been reviewing on Stoxpoker are produced by James “splitsuit” Sweeney. He has 2 different series that focus on ring games. I started with his first series that took me back to the basics. It was helpful in clearing some questions that I might have had, as well as helping me with ranging my opponents a bit more. I am almost done with this series and after I finish with it I will move on to his second series that is called Kiss the Ring. I have seen some changes in my game that has resulted in more winning sessions than losing sessions, and I can’t wait to see what things I will learn in the next few videos. It has really opened up my game to where I am not such a tight passive player and becoming more of a tight aggressive with some loose aggressive mixed in (which is something that I never did).

The videos have also helped me in table selection. I used to choose tables by the players per flop percentage. This is just fine but has some flaws in what tables to pick. Yes I want to get on a table with more players that see the flop because of my tighter playing style, but I also want to get onto a table with more fully stacked player rather than the short stack players. The reasoning behind this is that when you are playing against a short stack player in ring games, you are actually playing their game more than the more positive EV game that you should be playing with a full stack. So here recently I have been focusing on sitting on a table with 4-5 players that have a full buy-in or real close, and this has resulted in better sessions and better results. It is important to keep an eye on the table demographics as you play through your session to make sure you are staying in a position that is the one you want and the table doesn’t get taken over by short stacks. This type of thinking has made me consider moving up to what is called the deep tables, where you have double the normal buy-in (so $20 in $10NL rather than $10). These tables on the norm have 7-8 players at the table with $10 or more. The only concern I have is wether I should be buying in for the full amount ($20) or just buy in for my regular amount. I know that buying in for less than the full amount eventually causes me to lose EV because if I get paid off with a monster and only have $10 on the table, I could have gotten more had I put $20 on the table. I’ll have to do some research into this before I will feel comfortable with changing up the tables I play on any further.

Now the 2nd thing that has drastically helped my game is the addition of Poker CoPilot (http://pokercopilot.com/). Once again this is a program similar to Poker Tracker 3 and Hold’em Manager. It doesn’t have all the info that that these other 2 programs have, but it is the only program that can be natively ran on a Mac and its functionality is actually really nice. The support for this program is really good considering that it is basically being ran by one person. I started using the program about 30 days ago (using the free 30-day trial), and have had a few issues with it. Below you can find my pros and cons to this program, I hope it is helpful to anyone who might be considering getting the program for themselves.

Pros:

• Runs on a MAC (with development of PT3 for Mac not even started yet this is a big plus, considering most of your opponents are using either PT3 or a program similar to it).
• Updates a plenty (I think within the past 30 days I have gotten 2-3 updates to fix any bugs or to upgrade/update the program itself).
• Easy to use/setup (Was just a simple download and basically start using, as long as you have already setup to save your hands to your computer you will start benefiting on your first table, you might have to direct it to find your hand history folders, if you changed where it would be by default).
• Support is awesome, if a bug arises and is reported a fix for it is worked on quickly. Questions are answered within a day.

Cons:

• If you keep the program open for numerous days, it doesn’t recognize it as being a new day and will display all the stats from pervious days (since program first opened) as being todays stats along with any stats from todays play.
• Unable to customize date range, it does have today, one week, one month, three months, six months, year to date, one year, and max.
• Your stats in the HUD show your overall stats for the day (would rather see what my stats are for that table for that session).
• No way to chart your personal VPIP in the custom charts area.
• More functionality needed for the HUD (color ranges and more stats).

This program was much needed for the Mac poker players. With a purchasing price of $49.95 it is less than Poker Tracker 3 ($89.99) and Hold’em Manager ($80 for professional, $55 for Small Stakes version), now for me to find someone to purchase the program for me since I don’t have a CC or PP.

Until next time,

Merch

Roller Coaster

Well, the last few days have been a roller coaster. It all started Tuesday (2/17) when my afternoon cash session resulted in a $25 loss, then in the evening I got almost all of it back with a plus $23 session. Wednesday (2/18) rolled around and I had a loss for the day of $24. Thursday was a big come back day with me winning $47 followed by Friday and a winning day of $10. Yesterdays sessions were nasty all around with a $12 loss in the afternoon and a $14 loss in the evening. I feel that I am getting a bit stronger and have made some great lay downs that are saving me money.

Today the main issue was getting either min-bet-shoved on or limp-shoved on pre-flop when I have a big starting hand. Pretty hard to lay down KK in that spot and that is exactly where I was both times. The other losses came from getting in ahead and getting beat my the always awesome 2-3 outer or getting flushed down.

The tourneys have not been much better. I did get another cash, but it is a min-cash and doesn’t get me to where I want. The BAP that I have been running since last June is at an all time low in the $60s. Either I am going to get a big score soon to recover and get this thing ended or it is going to go busto. I would prefer the first one to happen.

Good Luck to all on the tables,

Merch

Winning Small, Losing Big!

Well the title says it all, if my hands held I won a small amount, but if they didn’t hold then I was losing big amounts. I had quite a bit of coolers tonight as well, like QQ into QQ and AA, or KK into KK. Every time I got in big with a top hand it usually meant me getting in behind, hard to fold those big starting hands when you are getting action pre-flop.

I did make some errors tonight but they were for minor losses (I know these minor losses add up in the long run, so I am going to try and fix those leaks), but that is a part of learning. You have to learn from these mistakes though because if you don’t then you will just think these mistakes are not mistakes and that you are doing everything right.

Other than those few mistakes, I just feel that I am still running really poorly. I hope this bad run ends sooner rather than later, and that I am not totally broke before it happens.

Until next time,

Merch

0-20 in 2009

Well 2009 keeps going by as do the tourneys without a single cash. I have had a few cashes in MTT SNGs, but I don’t count that towards my MTT cashes.

Seems I am able to get something going sometimes and then just go card dead or get out drawn at the wrong time and I am sent to the rail shortly there after. It is getting a bit unnerving and I don’t know what I need to do. I don’t think a drastic change is needed in my game (think that will hurt me more than help me). Hopefully I will just continue to grind these out and get something going into the right direction. Tomorrow is another day and it bring a new tournament with different opponents.

Merch

What do I need to change?

Played in some tourneys today along with my regular cash set and just got killed all over.

The cash games were just people catching their flush or straight or even their 2nd pair to beat my AA, KK, QQ. Pretty standard responses that they put me on AK or some other random stupid response that just shows how bad they really are.

The tourneys were just nasty. I am still 0 and who gives a damn for MTTs for 2009. I played a few micros and a few $26 MTTs. I had a great first hour of the 32k and ended it with over 13k in chips. The 2nd hour just killed me, the key hand was my JJ against 66 of another opponent. We both turned the Flush but he rivered the higher straight flush to take all but 3k of my chips. Not much I could do there. Just another case of me running poorly.

I have reviewed my previous hands and there is nothing that sticks out to me that I can change to improve my winnings. Just me getting unlucky more than I should. I know most of the big pros and top players in the poker community would just say this is variance, but I ask you if it is supposed to last this long? I mean I have been on a major down swing since last June with maybe a 1-2 decent day, not even a good day within that span. I have been working on my game adding in different tools and what not, but when people are not folding to your raises it doesn’t matter what you do or what tools you have especially when they are catching in the frequency that they are against me. I have also been working on the mental side of things but it is hard to stay on the positive when you are getting bad beat after bad beat. I would understand more if I was getting in behind more, but I am getting in ahead more than being behind. Maybe I am just getting in ahead too much, even though when I get in behind I am not catching on the same frequency as they seem to be catching on me.

Until next time,

Merch

January 2009 Recap

January didn’t bring a good start at all for the new year. I didn’t cash a single MTT that wasn’t a SNG, and finished off the month with a nasty run on the cash tables.

When I go back and look at my stats I see that I am playing way too passive, and my hands are not holding in key areas (hard to beat calling stating donkeys).

The month also didn’t finish too well with my laptop all but dying but I was able to get a new screen, new hard drive (180GB, did have 60GB), and 2 sticks of 1GB Ram for right around $150. Gotta love Ebay.

Hopefully February brings a change and I will start turning things around and get back into the black. I don’t like seeing all that red.

Until next time,

Merch

Running Bad

Well yesterday was a pretty bad day for me on the cash tables. I had all the signs telling me to get off the tables and call it quits, yet I stuck around and wound up losing 5.5 buy-ins. Today I had the same thing and feelings and got away before having a massive blow-up like yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow I will get on and won’t have any bad vibes and will be able to gain back what I lost over the last 2 days. I know my game can accomplish it and hopefully my fate will be able to hold also.

Where to go from here?

I am really lost right now. I just can't seem to get any traction going into the correct way. Every time I think I get something going I wind up getting into a head on crash with a calling station donkey. 

I understand variance and all, and understand how things will even out (as they say). But this has been going on for the past 3-4 months without any let up. Yes, I do have a few suck outs here and there, but they are no where near as much as I am getting sucked out on. It seems that I am only getting lucky early in the tourney and when it really matters is when I am getting crippled of knocked out, especially on the bubble or late in the tourney. 

This happens to me tonight, just in the money of a $2.25 tourney, I am in the BB with AK with a little over 10BBs. A few limpers before me, and I shove in my stack with all intentions of just taking the limpers out of the pot, but the button limper calls with 89s, for his entire stack. Of course he rivers the flush to all but cripple me:

Full Tilt Poker Game #8216188486: $2 + $0.25 Tournament (62386907), Table 1 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:50:17 ET - 2008/09/25

Seat 1: pimppokerstatus (9,188)

Seat 2: proptaxman (11,635)

Seat 3: indyontop (5,186)

Seat 4: DUKENDABEARS (3,236)

Seat 5: BPC487 (17,892)

Seat 6: dirkinseattle (16,914)

Seat 7: FreeToes (7,013)

Seat 8: UKman1 (21,115)

Seat 9: merchdawg (9,515)

pimppokerstatus antes 100

proptaxman antes 100

indyontop antes 100

DUKENDABEARS antes 100

BPC487 antes 100

dirkinseattle antes 100

FreeToes antes 100

UKman1 antes 100

merchdawg antes 100

UKman1 posts the small blind of 400

merchdawg posts the big blind of 800

The button is in seat #7

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to merchdawg [Kc Ac]

pimppokerstatus folds

proptaxman folds

indyontop folds

DUKENDABEARS has 15 seconds left to act

DUKENDABEARS folds

BPC487 calls 800

dirkinseattle folds

FreeToes calls 800

UKman1 calls 400

merchdawg raises to 9,415, and is all in

BPC487 has 15 seconds left to act

BPC487 folds

FreeToes calls 6,113, and is all in

UKman1 folds

merchdawg shows [Kc Ac]

FreeToes shows [8h 9h]

Uncalled bet of 2,502 returned to merchdawg

*** FLOP *** [Jh 9d Kh]

*** TURN *** [Jh 9d Kh] [7d]

*** RIVER *** [Jh 9d Kh 7d] [3h]

merchdawg shows a pair of Kings

FreeToes shows a flush, King high

FreeToes wins the pot (16,326) with a flush, King high

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 16,326 | Rake 0

Board: [Jh 9d Kh 7d 3h]

Seat 1: pimppokerstatus folded before the Flop

Seat 2: proptaxman folded before the Flop

Seat 3: indyontop folded before the Flop

Seat 4: DUKENDABEARS folded before the Flop

Seat 5: BPC487 folded before the Flop

Seat 6: dirkinseattle folded before the Flop

Seat 7: FreeToes (button) showed [8h 9h] and won (16,326) with a flush, King high

Seat 8: UKman1 (small blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 9: merchdawg (big blind) showed [Kc Ac] and lost with a pair of Kings

And then a few hands later I get it in again with AK and get called by QT, for over 1/2 his stack and he of course catches up on the river for a King high straight. 

Full Tilt Poker Game #8216231528: $2 + $0.25 Tournament (62386907), Table 1 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:55:12 ET - 2008/09/25

Seat 1: pimppokerstatus (2,702)

Seat 2: proptaxman (10,335)

Seat 3: indyontop (13,872)

Seat 4: kendah (10,392)

Seat 5: BPC487 (15,792)

Seat 6: dirkinseattle (38,576)

Seat 8: UKman1 (19,815)

Seat 9: merchdawg (1,702)

pimppokerstatus antes 100

proptaxman antes 100

indyontop antes 100

kendah antes 100

BPC487 antes 100

dirkinseattle antes 100

UKman1 antes 100

merchdawg antes 100

kendah posts the small blind of 400

BPC487 posts the big blind of 800

The button is in seat #3

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to merchdawg [Ks Ah]

dirkinseattle folds

UKman1 folds

merchdawg raises to 1,602, and is all in

pimppokerstatus has 15 seconds left to act

pimppokerstatus raises to 2,404

proptaxman folds

indyontop folds

kendah folds

BPC487 folds

pimppokerstatus shows [Qh Th]

proptaxman: So, if I reraise you wouldn't fold?

merchdawg shows [Ks Ah]

Uncalled bet of 802 returned to pimppokerstatus

*** FLOP *** [5s Jh 4c]

*** TURN *** [5s Jh 4c] [9c]

*** RIVER *** [5s Jh 4c 9c] [Kc]

pimppokerstatus shows a straight, King high

merchdawg shows a pair of Kings

pimppokerstatus wins the pot (5,204) with a straight, King high

merchdawg stands up

pimppokerstatus stands up

proptaxman stands up

indyontop stands up

kendah stands up

BPC487 stands up

dirkinseattle stands up

UKman1 stands up

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 5,204 | Rake 0

Board: [5s Jh 4c 9c Kc]

Seat 1: pimppokerstatus showed [Qh Th] and won (5,204) with a straight, King high

Seat 2: proptaxman folded before the Flop

Seat 3: indyontop (button) folded before the Flop

Seat 4: kendah (small blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 5: BPC487 (big blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 6: dirkinseattle folded before the Flop

Seat 8: UKman1 folded before the Flop

Seat 9: merchdawg showed [Ks Ah] and lost with a pair of Kings

It is really hard to stay positive when these beats keep happening over and over again. I know I am supposed to focus on wether I played the hand correctly, but when you play the hand correctly so many times and end up getting beat every time. 

Alot of people have told me I need to take a break, but I just got off a break. I was pretty much on a break the entire month of August, and I come back to running just the same way. It is really hard for me to take a full break away from it all since I don't have much anything else to do around here. I have already planned a trip in October to go visit my brother and his family. I think this will be a good time to just leave everything back at home (laptop, books, magazines, anything poker related) and just relax and not worry about anything poker related for a few days. Maybe that will help and clear my head. 

I really don't know what else there is that I can do, making any drastic changes to my game is at this point doesn't seem like the right thing to do, because it will just cause me to press with a new style/system and make mistakes that will just compound these beats that I am taking. 

All I really know is that if things don't start turning the other way anytime soon, then I will just go completely insane. 

Heres to things changing for the good soon, until next time,

Merch

Yuck!

Things have just been down right ugly lately. The $10NL cash project is just hanging in because of my RakeBack. I seem to be a few days where I get off the table with 1-2 buy-ins and then the next day it all goes back to someone else. The short stack idiots were getting the best of me, but I did some reading and started to play them a bit differently. It has helped me to not stack them as much, and for me to actually get their stack more. I will be happy to move up a level or two and get rid of these idiots that have no clue.

My have lost confidence in my tourney game. My reads are off and I am leaving too much on the tables, hopefully things will change here soon, and I will start rolling in the correct way again. It is just tough to keep going positive whenever every time you get a monster it gets sucked out on, and when you get in against a monster you don't get to beat them like that. I just feel that I need to get back into my routine here at my house and things will fall back into place. 

I will get back to doing some reading and getting back into the right mind set, and hopefully that will all help.

Merch

I have finally gotten the wantonness to getting back to playing tournament poker. This probably has to do with a 13th place finish in a micro buy-in tourney the other night. I managed to chip up pretty early in the tourney and maintained the stack throughout the tourney. Once we got into the money I chipped up to a top 9 stack and just before the FT bubble I get involved in a hand with AK. There was a 3x raise from EP, this player had been raising like this quite a bit, and I had a good re-steal so I stuck my stack in there. Well unfortunately this guy had to wake up with QQ and I didn't improve so I was sent to the rail. Was still nice to get somewhat deep again, and make me feel like I am doing the right things.

The $10NL project is still going well. I lost a few buy-ins at the beginning of the week, but had a great session last night, and it continued into my afternoon session today where I won about 4 buy-ins in about 2 hours. If I keep this up I will be moving up to $25NL. My goal is to get at least 25 buy-ins for the next level before I move up to it, but might add in 1 $25NL table into the mix and play 5 $10 + 1 $25 NL table once I get up to 20 buy-ins. The entire goal of this is to get up to the $100 NL level and get to where I can withdraw at least once a week, hopefully at that point I will be able to find a good withdrawal option, since the cash pick-up has gone bye-bye.

Merch

$10NL & 27man SNGs

Well the $10NL project is still going. I didn't have a good end to the week start of this week, but started to turn things around. I am really enjoying my time playing/learning cash games and see that it will only make me a better player being able to implement some cash strat into tourneys. I have usually been playing 4 full ring tables at once and today had a try at 6 full ring tables and it was a very good session tonight with me winning over 1 buy-in, and finishing positive on 4 of the 6 tables. I just need a bigger monitor so that I can fit these tables without any overlap. That is in due time, and then maybe I will progress to more tables. 

The tourney side has still been treating me so-so. I am still plugging away at them, but just not feeling 100%. I started playing the 27man SNGs on PS and have had some success. Hopefully these will be my saving grace, and get me going again with my current stake.

I also put up a new BAP this week to cover all my action (tourneys) for October, and 2 WSOP-c tourneys at Horseshoe Southern Indiana that will be played the first week of October. Hopefully I will start getting some results to get this thing sold out and get some bigger buy-in live tourneys under my belt. Would be fun to play these for sure.

Until next time.