Chicken anyone?

One of my friends gave me the link to this youtube vid. It's pretty funny. Check it out if you want.

Uneventful poker weekend

I put in quite a few hands this weekend. I think I ended up about even for the weekend. I had a lot of sessions where I just didn't get anywhere and it seemed like every winning session was canceled out by a losing one.

I'm still playing mostly $2/4 NL and $3/6 NL while working on building a MASSIVE roll for $5/10 NL. As many of you know, I like to mix it up and play on all four major poker sites: PokerStars, FTP, Cake, and UB. I have the roll to play $5/10 NL no problem when you add all the rolls from the sites up, but I want to pad each individual account a bit more before I move up. It really sucks having a bad day and seeing like 20% of the roll on one particular site vanish.

Cashing out for a big down payment on my house that I bought at the end of January really set me back. I had about 2-3 months in a row before then where I was beating $5/10 NL for a pretty good clip. Oh well... I should be back up soon. I'm going to shoot for a target date of June 1, which is a little over a month away. My goal will be to have 100 buyins online before I move up.

Once I get back to $5/10 NL I'm going to work on building an "offline roll." This roll will be used for live poker as well as kept aside for a potential doomsday online poker scenario. I will cash out anytime I'm over 110 total buyins online. The cashout money will be put towards my "offline roll" until I have $50k set aside.

So once I have those two goals accomplished, I'm going to work on paying off my house. Ideally, I'd like to get that done with by the end of the year. I definitely think that it's possible.

After all that, I'm going to start reloading money back into my investment fund. I had to take a little bit out of there for taxes and a few other various things, so I don't have as much in there as I did a few months ago.

I think having these goals will be good for me. The past few months I've felt a little bit aimless and this will give me something to work towards. I'd be really happy with myself if I can look back on this blog post at the end of the year and check all of these things off my list.

Awesome day

Yesterday, I crushed. I'm playing some of the best poker of my career right now. I only got stacked two times yesterday. Once was a big, 3-barrel bluff that wasn't a very good play. The other one was just a flip on the flop with TPTK AK vs a pair and a flushdraw.

My mindset has been a lot better lately and I've noticed that it's 10xs easier to win if you go into your sessions expecting to play well and crush. Gloomy, glass-half-empty attitudes produce mediocre/poor play. With that poor play comes break even sessions and losses. I feel this is true for most poker players. It definitely isn't something you can really pinpoint and put your finger on... in regards to how someone with a particular mindset will change their play... I believe the changes are primarily subconscious. But I'm convinced that having a positive attitude will have a positive impact on your results.

New modded tables & new HUD setup

Today I had a productive lesson with Nutedawg. We did a live sweat. I'm amazed that I still learn a few new things with each lesson we have... that's pretty impressive considering I think we've done 22 lessons so far, each about 2 hrs long.

Anyways, after the lesson Nute helped me get a new set-up as far as a table mod that would work with Table Ninja. Here's what my new tables look like on Stars:


Nute also suggested that I go with a HUD that has a lot less stats on it. I still have all the info I need in the pop-ups, but I think not having all of the random, little stats on the HUD will improve my play. It should help me focus on various things like table image, board texture, and other factors which seemed to sometimes not get enough attention when I have a massive HUD with a ton of stats at my disposal. I'm pretty excited to try this out, as I think it may take my game to the next level.

I played another session after my lesson with Nute and it went really well. I lost a flip or two and ran KK into AA AIPF but I also won a bunch of stacks as well.

Students, check your email inboxes later on in the day as I'm going to produce the weekly D2K newsletter sometime later today. It's been a while since the last one and from now on I'm going to try and make sure that I get at least one of these out per week. I think they are quite helpful.

Shoot Results

I ended up shooting a total of 169/200 in the main event (5-stand) and I shot a 124/150 in the sporting clays event spread over Saturday and Sunday. I didn't shoot my best but it was OK for the first tournament of the year. It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend time with my dad and younger brother.

Managed to get in a session before I went to bed tonight and I feel that I played really well. Having a HUD again was really nice and I felt it made everything, mainly my pre-flop decisions, so much easier than when I had been playing stat-less on my laptop over the weekend. I lost a few big pots due to no fault of my own... a few standard hands really, my KK lost vs AK AIPF and I also lost with the nut flush draw and an overcard on a KXX board when someone felted KT for half a buyin.

I'm happy that my month is finally turning around and it looks like I'll be able to make some money this month if I keep playing solid and running average. Not sure exactly how much I'm up so far but I'll check when the month is completed.

First Day of the Shoot

Today, we shot 75 birds of sporting clays and 100 birds of the main event (5-stand). I hit 63/75 in the sporting and hit 90/100 in the 5-stand (in a 3-way tie for 8th overall). There are quite a few people at the shoot.. probably somewhere between 100-120 people are participating in the shoot. The targets we pretty good today, but there were a bit on the easy side. I'm sure they will toughen them up tomorrow for sure.

I managed to get in three poker sessions today. Once again, I was HUD-less. Apparently Internet Explorer on my laptop is messed up and I can't figure it out, which means no HEM. Some type of proxy problem supposedly but I can't fix it.

Anyways, the first two sessions went really well. I played good and ran average. The last session of the day was terrible. I kept on getting terrible boards running out on the turn and river. Lost tons of medium pots. Got coolered a few times too. I was playing a mixture of $2/4 NL and $3/6 NL on Stars.

Tomorrow, my friend Bill who lives in Minneapolis is going to head over to the gun club and meet up with us. Hopefully they'll let him shoot in the sporting event even though it'd just be for practice... I'm sure it won't be a problem. I'm looking forward to the second day of the tournament as we will probably see some very challenging target presentations.

Sporting Clays Tournament

This weekend, I'm in Minneapolis for a sporting clays tournament with my brother and dad. It's the Minnesota State 5-Stand Tournament. It should be a lot of fun and the first event is a 75 bird sporting event. On Saturday afternoon we will shoot the first half of the 5-stand event, which I believe is 100 targets.

We're staying at a relative's house and I played a short 2 hour session tonight and felt pretty good about my play. I spewed a bit in a few medium pots but other than that, I'm really happy with the way I maximized my value with my strong hands. I played without a HUD or HEM for the first time in a while... because I accidentally deleted Internet Explorer off my laptop and couldn't get it re-installed... which prevented HEM and PT3 from working. Oh well, it was probably good that I played a session without a HUD. It was a really different feel and I actually feel that I was much more in touch with the table dynamics. I would have had even better reads on my image and table dynamics but I was playing on Stars and it seemed like I switched tables a ton do to the table breaking or shortstack infestation.

This was my first hand of the session. I just laughed. So standard.

Hopefully the shooting tournament goes well, as we just got in a single practice session on Thursday. I was shooting terribly at the beginning of the practice session on Thursday but started to get a lot better towards the end, so hopefully that's a good sign.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Feeling great about my play

The past few days have gone quite well and I'm gaining a lot more confidence in my play. I'm playing a lot more solid, sticking to 4 tables, and keeping my sessions to precisely two hours in duration. Also, not looking at daily results has allowed me to just relax when playing and focus on making the correct decisions. It's a lot more fun and relaxing playing poker when you aren't constantly obsessing about how much you are up or down on the session. I've known this for a while, but it seems like over time I begin to start peeking at my results during the session and it gradually gets worse and worse. I'll continue to avoid looking at my results until the month's end.

I've been giving a lot of lessons over this past week and I think they all have gone really well. I have picked up a few new students lately and they seem to have a ton of promise. I'm sure they will advance quickly through the ranks with my help. They seem to be very quick learners.

Giving lessons actually helps my game out as well, mainly because it forces me to explain the various reasons I would take a certain line in a hand. Also, the past few lessons were great because I actually ended up learning something from one of my students. He had a particular strategy that he employs vs. shortstackers and apparently he destroys those ratholing bastards. I tried the line he suggested a few times today and it worked every time.

In other news, the weather in North Dakota is FINALLY getting nice. It was 65 degrees F out today. The temperature was perfect, but it was a little bit windy out. I took the opportunity to go hit some golf balls on the driving range, which was a lot of fun

Recent thoughts

So it seems like I've been slacking a bit on updating the blog... I'll try and post more updates.

Anyways, the pokering has been mediocre as of late. I'm having issues with getting distracted when I play. Last year, when I was playing poker I laughed at the thought of getting burned out from playing poker... but I think I'm starting to see some signals that I might be getting a tad bit bored while playing. I'm browsing the internet way too much when I'm playing, reading forums, talking on Skype or google chat, texting on my cell phone, etc. I feel that all that stuff is adversely affecting my game. I never used to do any of that stuff while playing, so I think it might be a small sign of me not being quite as focused as I previously was early on in my career. It could be a little bit of complacency seeping into my play. When I do all that extra stuff I just default into some sort of weird "nit mode"... which isn't good at all.

I'm going to do a few things to change that. No chatting of any sort while I'm playing. If I'm online on Skype I'll have an away message posted that says I'm playing poker at the time. Same thing with google chat. Also, not going to use the internet while playing anymore. If I get a phone call on my cell phone, I'm going to ignore it and return the call when my 2 hour session is finshed.

Another thing I want to start doing again is avoid looking at my results. One of my good poker friends, Noek aka "Peten2toms", is a big advocate of this idea. It's tough for me to do, but I think the more I avoid peeking to see how I'm doing during the day and during the week the better off I'll be. I'll just check at the end of this month.

Poor play, up and down

I'm pretty disappointed with myself. The past 2-3 days or so haven't gone well. I've just had super swingy sessions and nearly canceled out my strong start to the month. Yes I've gotten coolered, sucked out on, blah blah blah all that standard shit but really I have no one to blame but myself.

I've made some pretty poor decisions in big pots that have cost me my stack. Seems like every time I go out on a limb to "make a play" I get snapped off or shoved on. Blah. I also had a few sessions where I played a few too many tables and I'm sure that adversly effected my results.

I think I need a bit more structure to my week. I'm going to make a schedule that I follow from now on, that includes watching instructional videos, a self HH review, and other things that will help me stay on track.

Solid day

It's been a while, but I finally crushed again today. I ran well and played well. A good combination.


All the hands were played at $2/4 NL. I played about 8 hours total, spread over 3 sessions... my final session of the day was the longer one, as I had position on 3 massive fish that were deepstacked so I stuck around until they went busto/left.

I only got felted for 100bbs two times. This one was super standard vs a reg who likes to 3-bet a decent amount from the blinds. He had one of the worst hands I could hope for, obviously. The other hand I lost was just a simple pre-flop cooler AK vs AA.

I only misplayed one hand really, it was a really weird 3-bet pot situation and I had JJ on a T9XXX board... 3-way.. the villain who bet the river was soo soo nitty that I should have folded despite having an overpair, as he'd always have QQ+ or a slowplayed set... I managed to only lose about 60% of my stack but the river call was pretty bad. I nearly laid it down in the heat of action but didn't. I think the pot odds inticed me to call but I don't think I'm ahead often enough vs this particular opponent to justify the call. I 3-bet it pre-flop because the 2nd player in was a massive fish calling like all 3-bets so I wanted Tasfel to fold and Jarco131 to call.

Overally, it was a solid day and I must say... damn, it feels good to start winning and string together some decent days in a row.

Quick update and thoughts about coaching

So March wasn't the greatest month for me either. I ended up with a profit though, but not anywhere close to the months I had towards the end of 2008. I know my problem is now and I've fixed it thanks to a lesson with Nutedawg. I realized that I hadn't had a lesson from him in nearly two months and without coincidence my game started falling apart.

I really believe that consistent coaching can benefit anyone and it's almost necessary if you are a full-time pro or aspiring to be one. Even if you think you've learned a lot from your coach, if they are a good coach you can learn something new with each lesson. It's an excellent idea to get a brush up lesson if you are struggling with your game because if you've had an extended bad run your emotions may be clouding your judgment when you are analyzing your hands by yourself at the end of sessions.

If you are advanced in your relationship with your coach, you need to make sure to choose lesson formats that will benefit you the most. This is important because if you always have the same format of lesson (for example, a video review) then you may feel like your lessons are getting "stale."

The cost of taking lessons is so trivial when you start to think about how much extra profit you can make while playing using new advanced strategies you may have learned from your lessons. Most of the time, lessons more than pay for themselves over time. I'm not going to make the mistake of taking too much time between lessons again.

I did make a bunch of money from staking other poker players but haven't figured out exactly how much. But lets just say I made some good investments. Even a local player who lives in my town is starting to pan out as he totally killed 50NL at the end of March. He made $1.6k profit in one week !!!

I'm looking forward to an excellent April and I'm very motivated to put in some quality hands.