ATTN EVERYONE MOVING MY BLOG

I have been parallelling this blog with my cardrunners blog for quite some time now, and recently realized that you do not have to be a member of Cardrunners in order to view the blog. So I will only be posting there from now on. If you have problems viewing it please leave a comment and let me know. I hope this works out from here on out.

HERE IS THE LINK

Tahoe

I went to Tahoe for the weekend. I planned to ride on Saturday, but Sat morning I realized I had left my boot liners back in Santa Cruz. I was hungover and feeling a bit lazy, so I just decided to stay in and drink all day. We got 2 kegs of Pabst and 1 keg of Fat Tire for the weekend for 35 people. We proceeded to play beer die, beer pong, thumper, and flip cup until we couldn't remember where we were. It was alot of fun and we left early Sunday for the 4.5 hour drive back home. Everything went well, although I lost 3 BIs playing poker from the cabin. I am recovering now and really eager to begin working out really hard every day this week. Its not easy staying skinny, but I really want to be skinny by Vegas.

Making Life Better

Whether you believe in God or not, you have to admit, you are only given one life as who you are on Earth. Many people tell you to make the most of it, but that can be taken so many different ways. Some people drink and smoke, living life in the moment and destroying their body in the process. Some people take huge risks like mountain climbing, sky diving, etc. And some people play the game of life conservatively, enjoying small pleasures, and being satisfied without taking risks. In the game of life, we must make the most +EV decisions in order to come out ahead. When we put our poker skills into play while making a real life decision, we put ourselves ahead of others in the game of life.

; Just like the hit board game, life can take many unexpected turns. Logic, psychology, math, and disguise are all skills acquired from poker that help with life’s small and big decisions. We can use logic to determine the best route to and from school, as to save a few minutes a day (+EV). We can use psychology to convince our friends that we should all go to the movies rather than the bowling alley. We can use math when splitting the bill at a restaurant. And we can disguise the strength of our beer pong skills before facing off against a couple of cocky opponents. Poker skills extend far past the computer monitor or the table; look to make correct decisive choices when presented with any problem.

; Regardless of the situation, making the best decisions all the time will yield us the greatest utility throughout life. This is why it’s good to take care of your body, learn about everything, and stay focused on the end goal. With every decision, ask yourself, “Will this yield me the greatest utility in the long run?” Another way of putting it is, “Is this how I want to live my life?” or “Will I be happy about this decision later?” Look to optimize your life whichever way you want to live it. It’s +EV.

My next article will be called "Respect Your Winnings" talking about swings and making plans with your money.

Weekly Blog Article

I have decided that I want to add something special to my blog. So starting either tonight or tomorrow I am going to put up a short poker article every week on my blog. Its going to be unprofessional and not something I want to post on the articles tab or put up anywhere else really. My first topic is going to be "life is better when you know poker" or something like that. I will write it and have it up in a day or so and keep em coming from there. Feel free to throw out topics that you want me to talk about.

Also, I have an article coming out soon called "The Economics of Poker" so keep an eye to the articles tab, it should be up soon.

Peace

Poker EV January

Today was another up and down day. I made $1k during a half 6max half FR session. We took a break and played Halo 3, then I came back and lost $1500. Here is a very depressing graph of my January:

I play so well

I am proud that my play is so wild as to induce poor play from a regular.

Today there hasn't been much crazy stuff going on, and I am not known for making 4bet bluffs. In fact, I almost always make it a point to call a shove after I 4bet, even with weak hands like JTs or something. So this is the first hand:

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: MrteddyKGB ($904.50) -
Seat 2: allleee ($173.35) -
Seat 3: loeda4789 ($136.80)
Seat 4: jisoo ($402)
Seat 6: actionDJ ($400) -


PRE-FLOP:

MrteddyKGB posts small blind $2
allleee posts BIG blind $4
Dealt To: actionDJ


FOLD loeda4789
RAISE jisoo ($12)
RAISE actionDJ ($48)
FOLD MrteddyKGB
FOLD allleee
RAISE jisoo ($96)
RAISE actionDJ ($172)
CALL jisoo ($76)


FLOP:

Pot: $410


CHECK jisoo
CHECK actionDJ


TURN:

Pot: $410


BET jisoo ($230)
CALL actionDJ ($228)


RIVER:

Pot: $868




SHOWDOWN:
jisoo:

MUCK actionDJ

jisoo collected $804 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $806 Rake: $2

Final Board:


Seat 1: MrteddyKGB small blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-2)
Seat 2: allleee big blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-4)
Seat 3: loeda4789 folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 4: jisoo showed [Jh Th] and won 804 with two pair, Jacks and Tens - Net Gain/Loss: ($404)

Seat 6: actionDJ button mucked [Kc Kd] - Net Gain/Loss: ($-352)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

I expect to get 4bet light sometimes, and here I am trying to induce a shove, whereas I feel if I shove allin, he folds alot of the time. So the flop is horrible, but I feel I have gotten too much of my stack in pre to be folding this flop. My read is pure genius and emphasizes the weak play of some of the regulars. If he had AK he would shove allin preflop. If he had AQ, he would probably do the same. I don't know why he would have a weaker ace, and if he has AA he probably checks the turn. If he had TT he would get it all in pre, so my read on the turn is that he might be turning JJ into a bluff or something, or just some sort of really stupid pure bluff. I am sure he shows up with AQ or something a little bit of the time, but honestly I don't know why he is doing that, its good for me that he is though. So I call and it was a good call, but I am certaintly tilted by the result because this is a very rare situation, the variance won't be coming back around my way for a while.

So about two orbits later this hand comes up:

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: MrteddyKGB ($876.50) -
Seat 2: allleee ($179.65) -
Seat 3: loeda4789 ($249.60) -
Seat 4: jisoo ($669.20)
Seat 6: actionDJ ($428.70)


PRE-FLOP:

allleee posts small blind $2
loeda4789 posts BIG blind $4
Dealt To: actionDJ


RAISE jisoo ($12)
RAISE actionDJ ($48)
FOLD MrteddyKGB
FOLD allleee
FOLD loeda4789
RAISE jisoo ($96)
RAISE actionDJ ($192)
CALL jisoo ($96)


FLOP:

Pot: $450


BET jisoo ($477.20)
CALL actionDJ ($236.70)


TURN:

Pot: $1163.9




RIVER:

Pot: $1163.9




SHOWDOWN:
jisoo:

MUCK actionDJ

jisoo collected $861.4 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $863 Rake: $2

Final Board:


Seat 1: MrteddyKGB button folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 2: allleee small blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-2)
Seat 3: loeda4789 big blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-4)
Seat 4: jisoo showed [3h Ah] and won 861.40 with a flush, Ace high - Net Gain/Loss: ($432.7)

Seat 6: actionDJ mucked [Kd As] - Net Gain/Loss: ($-380.7)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Obviously I am fine with getting all my money in preflop after seeing his style at its loosest. So I make a similar 5bet for the exact same reason as before. I kinda feel that he will frequently overread into it and think I am bluffing more likely here than the last hand. So I think I am outleveling him, because I think he thinks: He knows I just saw him do this with KK so he (Me) must be trying to steal another pot as a bluff here. That being said I guess he is planning the stop and go because he figures it will create more fold equity. On the flop I am most worried about AQ, but other than that its not a horrible board to make a light stack off. I definetely calculated the FD as part of his range as well as any pair and given the previous hand I may have made a slightly tilty call, which happened to be good. Again he sucked out and I lost another stack to him. I didn't berate him in chat although I felt like it, I just said its been a while since one person single handedly put me on tilt. I am going to play some Call of Duty 4 for an hour and hopefully return with a fresh mind.

My girlfriends parents are coming into town for the night, to check out her art show which is up all week on campus (UCSC). I am suppose to be going to Tahoe tomorrow, but I might back out. I need the hours here, and NOONE understands that. This "Its poker you can do whatever you want, bring your job with you" bullshit is really pissing me off and my gf is the last person to back me up :/

Frustrating Day

I played 2 sessions today. The first I ended up $1200 and the second I lost $1500. Even during the first session, I was running horrible. I played well lost 2/3 big flips, and other standard stuff. Somehow I got people to just hand me a bunch of money at the end, do to my maniac looking image. Then I sit down and play a second session after dinner. I am feeling great, and playing great. I made a bad payoff when I had AA, then I had to fold 2 sets, got it in with another set and was behind, and lost a big pot with AA, and other ridiculous stuff. I lost a big flip against Adam001 when I 3bet and made a tiny 5bet to induce a shove, and he min6bet and I shoved JJ he called with AK and obviously hit. I stacked him on another table where I 3bet KK cbet a flop 999 checked the turn, and overbet shoved the river. I knew he couldn't get away, although in the future he might. I am very frustrated ending down for the day. There is definetely some sick variance associated with this LAG/TAG 6max, but I am also expecting profits sometime in the future. I have only made $380 for the month of January, over 16k hands. If I don't start making money by February I will either need a stake or a job, and I am not getting a job!

I am happy with the way I played, and am just gonna shake off today with some video games and come back tomorrow and try and play a 6 hour session. One thing I am noticing is that I make good money for the first 2 hours then near hour 3 I lose, it might be me or it might be my mind making a pattern where there isn't one.

Hand vs SunTsuReps

I feel like it is a fullhouse or nothing here. Maybe a weak ten but I'm really not convinced. I think he expects me to call with an overpair cuz I am a station. But its really tough to tell cuz it looks like a good spot to turna small pair or weak 7 into a bluff. Maybe he would be so kind as to post his hand, since I am showing mine :D

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: actionDJ ($540.50)
Seat 2: UnderRated ($392)
Seat 3: ODNLA ($400)
Seat 4: SunTzuReps ($543.50) -
Player Notes: semi LAG regular
Seat 5: coolsven ($503.50) -
Seat 6: _TheP0t_ ($1094.10) -


PRE-FLOP:

coolsven posts small blind $2
_TheP0t_ posts BIG blind $4
Dealt To: actionDJ


RAISE actionDJ ($12)
FOLD UnderRated
FOLD ODNLA
CALL SunTzuReps ($12)
CALL coolsven ($10)
CALL _TheP0t_ ($8)


FLOP:

Pot: $48


CHECK coolsven
CHECK _TheP0t_
BET actionDJ ($36)
CALL SunTzuReps ($36)
FOLD coolsven
FOLD _TheP0t_


TURN:

Pot: $120


BET actionDJ ($72)
CALL SunTzuReps ($72)


RIVER:

Pot: $264


CHECK actionDJ
BET SunTzuReps ($172)
FOLD actionDJ

SunTzuReps collected $261 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $264 Rake: $3

Final Board:


Seat 1: actionDJ folded on the River - Net Gain/Loss: ($-116)
Seat 2: UnderRated folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 3: ODNLA folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 4: SunTzuReps button collected 261 - Net Gain/Loss: ($141)
Seat 5: coolsven small blind folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-12)
Seat 6: _TheP0t_ big blind folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-12)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Playing LAG 6max

Well it felt good playing 26/22 I didn't run good at all. I was playing a couple HU tables and lost during the overall session, but here are my stats for my new style 6max game which I totally stole from sweating tjbentham for 20 minutes:

I can really get used to this playing style. What I am going to do is work hard to mix up my game while 4 tabling 6max. I will adjust down to 19/17 after half a session at 28/24. Of course this is all opponent dependant, may go the other direction. This will likely help me with my HU my 6max and my FR game, but I feel my BB/hr will suffer for a while during this period. Oh well its worth it. Tjbentham said something totally amazing to me the other day: "If you just fix one small leak in your game, that can make you $5/hr more for the rest of your life." That adds up fast.

I'm stuck at the airport waiting for my ride home. PCA was awesome and meeting Shana's parents was pretty cool but a lil awkward.

Peace out for now

PCA The Rest

Things were kinda a blur the last few days. Three nights ago we got a table at Aura the nightclub and I proceeded to spew $2500 on booze and have a total blast. Two bottles of Patron 3 bottles of Grey Goose and a bottle of rum later half of our crew got kicked out for being too drunk. Tjbentham was the first to go relatively early in the night. Then Fin was bumped out and ended up getting lost outside and waking up in a flowerbed, off the hook Fin!!!

Danny (Clay's sister's husband) got kicked out for being too drunk. Meanwhile his wife and Tommy Chen's girlfriend, Tiffany, randomly decided to make out on me. We were just chillen at the table possibly talking or something, one is to my left the other to my right, and they musta looked deep into each others eyes and just knew they had to kiss or something, cuz from what I remember it wasn't making much sense, but hey who can argue.

They tried to kick out Tom (Brystmar), and eventually they kicked out my girlfriend Shana, and it took 4 Atlantis employees to wheelchair her to the taxi cab. I carried her home (literally), paid some guy to make sure she didn't try to wonder around outside, and went back to the party to finish paying the bill and stuff. Overall a very eventful night. The next day we all felt like shit, I almost lost myself at Chop Stix, but managed to make it to the Supernova VIP party and have a decently good time with some free wine. We met up with a bunch of people and ended up hanging out at Clay's for a while then back to our condo for Guitar Hero III and Rock Band. I got to sweat Peachy and tjbentham for a while and learned alot that night. TJ has given me an offer for lessons, which I have to take, but won't be able to afford for a little while.

I lost every credit card roulette I played in :( I officially run worse than Echo. All in all that was about 2k in food, 2k at the nightclub, and I somehow owed Brystmar 4k. I am back to being broke again for a while, but I will scrounge up the money and be ballin again by the end of the month. I am going to play like a champ and win alot this month. I promise.

Right now I am at Shana's grandparents in Florida. We are celebrating her grandfathers 90th birthday later today, and I get to hang out and meet the family. We leave for home tomorrow where I am looking forward to relalxing and playing poker for a long time.