Vegas!

I'm leaving for Vegas Sunday afternoon and I'll be there until June 21st. From there I'll fly out to Kentucky to shoot in the U.S. Open Sporting Clays Championships with my Dad and brother. That will run June 22-28. Then after that, I'm considering flying back to Vegas for June 29-July 13th, since one of my students has room in the house he's rented.

If anyone is going to be in Vegas when I will be, go ahead and shoot me an email if you want to meet up/hang out or whatever.

The first go around, I'll be staying in a house with 7 other online poker players. As of now, I only really know one of them well... my friend John. It'll be awesome to meet everyone and make some new friends. Hopefully we'll all learn a lot too since we'll likely be playing online at the house a decent amount and sweating each other play.

I don't really have any plans to play any WSOP donkaments as of now. I just don't really enjoy playing MTTs, but I've had decent success in them in the past. I might play a few of the smaller ones just to say I played in a WSOP event, but I doubt I'll buy into some of the larger ones (unless someone wants to stake me, buy action, or something). They are just too much of a luckfest. So I'll be playing online on my laptop, playing live cash poker, drinking/clubbing, and relaxing and enjoying the nice weather. It should be a good time.

The house is pretty sick. Appearantly it is a 6 bedroom house that is 3,400 sq. ft., 3 full bathrooms, pool, and a filled with a bunch of other cool stuff like a 50'' TV and a pool table. I'll post some pics from the website the house is listed on. I might take a few pics when I get there too.

Pool

Front door

Pool table



Kitchen



Kitchen table



Stairs


TV



Random Table



Master bedroom



Bedroom 2



Bedroom 3



Family room

New Laptop

I got a new laptop a few weeks ago, but didn't get a chance to post any pics of it until now. It's a pretty sick setup, but the main thing I like about it is the high resolution 17'' screen. I can play four tables at a decent size for each table without overlap.

It is a DELL Studio 17 Laptop with the following specs:

Hard Drive - 250GB
Memory - 4GB
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo T9550
Optical Drive - 6X Slot Load Bluray (BD) Combo Drive (BD Read Only)
Monitor - 17" Widescreen
Weight - 7.42 lbs
Battery - 9 cell battery which should last between 3-5 hours depending on your operating conditions. (I have 3 batteries total)
Color - Jet Black
Security Software - 3 Year McAfee

Here are some pics:

Laptop Front View

Laptop Side View

Laptop Backpack

Cake Poker

I've been playing quite a bit lately on Cake poker and it's definitely one of the toughest runs I've ever had on the site. I've had all sorts of crazy stuff happen to me over the past few days. People calling my 3-bets OOP with 58s then c/c a big c-bet on a KXX with a gutshot and binking it on the turn and CRAI when I have AA. Losing flips, etc. and other standard stuff.

Luck is not on my side in the short run over the past week or so, which is unfortunate. I'm going to post some pictures of my new laptop computer sometime tomorrow probably.

$25/50 NL CAP FTW

Yesterday, I played some $25/50 NL CAP on FTP! Weeeeeeeeee. MASSIVE fish was on the table. I had to sit.

Anyways, for those of you who aren't familiar with the CAP games on FTP... it caps off the amount you can put in the pot at 30 big blinds. So essentially, it was like everyone is sitting with $1.5k but the blinds are still $25/50. It is similar to a NL game in the fact that you can bet up to the max on any street.

I got some good pre-flop hands and won a few nice pots vs some regs who overplayed their small pairs vs me. I also won a few flips as well to finish up a decent amount. I also was the one who polished off the fish, although the hand vs. him was quite uninteresting... I just had QQ and he had AK.

Last weekend's shoot

Here are some video clips and pictures from the Minnesota State FITASC tournament I shot in last weekend with my dad and brother.

Video clip of me shooting

Video clip of Chad shooting a rabbit target

walking out to shoot

pond where targets were thrown over

our squad viewing the targets



Dad taking aim at a target



Chad taking aim at a target



Me shooting



my Dad hitting a target



Me shooting over cool scenery



shot going towards target

Ran better today

Put in a session after I got back home from the shoot. I ran a lot better today and finished in the green.

The last day of the shoot went pretty well and the weather was 10xs better than it was on Saturday. I did a bit better in the FITASC event, shooting a 61/75 and finished with a total score of 114/150 which probably put me right in the middle of the pack in Master class.

I shot the sporting clays event today poorly. I think I might have been worn out or something... my eyes may have been tired from viewing and shooting so many targets. I ended up shooting 81/100 in that event. I got some cool pics and vids from the shoot that I'll post sometime tomorrow. I'm too tired to post that stuff now.

Joke

I've never gotten coolered so much, in such a short amount of time as I just did during the past few hours.

After the mid-way point of my session the coolers would not stop coming and I was on the wrong end of nearly every single all in and there wasn't anything I could do about it. Nearly every hand I got coolered in was an auto-stackoff for me based upon my hand strength, the action in the hand, and vs the villain I was up against. I actually started to get really, really frustrated because one reg in particular seemed to be doing the majority of the coolering. He must have felted me like 6 or 7 times. He ran like GOD. I really couldn't leave my tables though cause I had a few of the worst players I'd ever seen before to my right, 200bb's deep on both $10/20 NL and $5/10 NL tables.

It's a miracle that I didn't lose more than a couple of buyins overall... but I know I was up BIG about halfway through the session... then this hand happened vs a MASSIVE fish and it went all downhill from there.

This one was also vs a HUGE fish.

There are many more of course, but I'm not going to post them for a few different reasons. First off, I think I played many of them perfectly and I don't want to give away the lines and bet sizing that I took. Secondly, if I posted the rest of the hands I'd probably vomit all over my new laptop after looking at them again.

The first day of the shoot went OK. I shot a 90/100 in the sporting clays event and a 53/75 in the FITASC. It was really windy out and actually quite cold. I'm hoping the weather will be nicer for Sunday.

FITASC Shoot this weekend

So I'm in Prior Lake, MN (near Minneapolis) this weekend to shoot in the Minnesota State FITASC shoot. FITASC is a version of sporting clays where you have to start with your shotgun at a lowered position, at about the middle of your chest. The targets are generally more difficult at a FITASC shoot compared to a regular sporing clays shoot. This shoot is normally a lot of fun so I'm looking forward to it.

I got my brand new laptop yesterday and was able to get it all set up before I went out of town. It's a prett sick setup. I like it a lot. It's a Dell Studio 17'' laptop that's souped up a bit. I'll post some picks of it once I get back home.

I played poker the whole drive down in the van while my brother and Dad took turns driving. I have one of those Verizon Broadband cards that gets internet wherever you can get cell phone service. I had a few times where I lost connection while playing but fortunately it didn't occur at a critical moment. I think it actually works out better when I play on Pokerstars because I didn't seem to time out on there nearly as much as when I was playing on FTP.

I didn't get much sleep last night due to setting up my laptop and stuff, so I'm going to hit the hay a bit earlier tonight. We have to wake up pretty early tomorrow as well for the shoot.

Quick update

The past few days have went pretty well. I don't know exactly how much I'm up from the last two days but I'm going to get back to not viewing my results until the end of the month. I play much better overall when I'm doing this.

Last night, I nearly got into a ridiculous $10/20 NL game that had a fish with a $13k stack but I fell asleep while waiting to get on the table... oh well. I'm sure none of the other players at the table (all regs) were going to leave before the fish anyways, so I probably didn't miss out on much.

The weather the past few days has been pretty crappy. A lot of rain and somewhat cool temperatures have put a damper on a lot of the stuff I like to do outdoors during the summer. It's really relaxing just to go hit a bucket of golf balls at the driving range between poker sessions but I haven't been able to do much of it lately due to the weather. My Dad, brother and I were going to shoot our first week of sporting clays league today but once we got out to the range it started raining. Hopefully the weather clears up soon and we finally start getting some sunny and decent weather.

Doomswitched

Well, after having one really good day I followed that up with a pretty frustrating day on Sunday. Things just simply weren't going my way. I think I played fine, but the short term luck factor of the game got the best of me today. Oh well, what can ya do.

Here are a few hands that contributed to the mayhem.


The villain in this hand was really bad. Terrible turn card obviously... I actually think I felt him on a blank turn.

This was annoying but just bad luck.

This hand pissed me off, mainly because the villain used to be a professional shortstacker but now he apparently buys in from anywhere between 20bbs to 30bbs and doesn't leave after doubling up. He just sticks around now.

A few other standard losses, like my AK vs QQ losing AIPF... my QQ vs AQ losing AIPF, etc.


I'm looking forward to a fresh week.

Back to $5/10 NL !!!

So, I have a massive bankroll online for $5/10 NL now and have moved back up. Honestly, I really should have kept playing $5/10 NL over the past few months but a few things (buying a house, paying taxes, staking three poker players, etc.) put dents into my online bankroll to the point where I felt spread a bit too thin to play $5/10 NL.

So FINALLY, I have returned! I feel like my play is actually improved over the last time I treaded in the 1k NL waters. My first day back was very swingy and I'm not even sure how I ended up on the day. If I had to guess I'd say I broke even. I do remember getting coolered a ton though. Today went much better as I ended up winning 5 buyins in total. This was quite the accomplishment since I got coolered a few times today as well.


Here's a golden hand from today. Villain is a MASSIVE fish.

I also lost KK vs AA today, and the hand played out in a way that it was a pretty standard cooler.

This one happened yesterday, but is definitely blogworthy. Villain in this hand was also terrible.

I played this hand yesterday as well... total WTF hand. I couldn't see him taking this line on such a wet board with 4X... plus it didn't make any sense that the 2 on the river could have helped him (I see a lot of big donks just open shove the river OOP when the river card somehow hits them in the face).


Overall, I feel that I've played quite well over the first 4,300 hands back at $5/10 NL. I am spewing a little bit in medium pots and I need to try and minimize this. Also, I need to make sure I'm paying attention to table dynamics and how I'm perceived by my opponents... this will help me make perfect pre-flop decisions.

Another good day

I played well today. Only big hands I really lost were pre-flop coolers.... AK vs KK, etc. I'm feeling really comfortable with my play.

I finally got a few pictures up in my bedroom after staring at a blank wall for a few months. I have two pretty cool pictures I got in Las Vegas above my computers. One of the pics is just a large, wide screen photo of the Strip that was taken from a helicopter or something. The other picture is actually better referred to as artwork. It is a picture of a few Las Vegas casinos, but the cool about it is that it was made 100% by using spray paint cans. There are a group of artists on the strip that make the artwork in front of everyone. The outcome of their work is extremely impressive and the fact that they are using spray paint to produce this makes it even more cool.

I ordered a new laptop computer from DELL a few days ago. It's pretty sweet and has a 17'' screen. I'll post some pics when I get it. Hopefully I'll get the computer before I head out to Vegas at the end of the month.

I'm pretty tired so I'm going to get some sleep. I'm definitely going to sleep in a bit tomorrow, because I haven't been getting enough sleep over the past few days.

Lesson with Nute = I start crushing again

It never fails. Normally, right after I take a lesson from Nutedawg I get back to playing great and absolutely crushing the game. I had a lesson with Tim on Tuesday and pretty much every session since then I've played extremely well. We talked a bit about the mental game and certain frames of mind that are really bad to be in when you're playing poker. I definitely had a few mental game leaks for sure.

I also realized that I was being far too stat-reliant when playing. A few weeks ago I tried playing with only a 3-stat HUD but I quickly switched back to my normal HUD. That was a mistake. I'm now using a HUD with VPIP/PFR/3-bet/# Hands. This is helping prevent me from using stats too frequently. Now, I seem to be only looking at the other stats in the pop-up when I need something to help me break a tie. That is the way it should be. I need to be putting players on a range every single street of every single hand, pay attention to betting patterns/sizing, board textures, timing tells, and all other sorts of important things before I start to use random postflop stats to help me make a decision during a hand.

Today, I totally crushed and played about 6.5 hours total. I felt like seeing how I did so I checked and here's the graph of the day. I went on a nice little heater at the beginning of the day and then just grinded away from there.


Also, just as a comparison... the graph of the month so far... you can see exactly where my lesson with Nute was, lol. I'm not even exaggerating. I figured out exactly when I played my first hand after the lesson with Nute and it was Hand # 5439. So everything before that hand, is before my lesson with Tim and the hands after #5439 were played post-lesson.



It's so crazy how easy it is to stray away from perfect play after a few weeks of just grinding it out. I think a lot of it is due to a subconcious shift to auto-pilot type play + occassionally having too many tables up. Of course, this is a small sample so the swongs could easily be just do to variance but I don't think it's too much of a coincidence that my graph skyrockets after I got some guidance.

In other news, my Intramural inline hockey team played in two playoff games this past Monday. We played the semi-final game and won 8-7. Then, in the Championship, we fell behind 2-7 early on on the game... but battled back to make it a nail-biter. However, we ended up short by one goal and lost 10-11.

Poor start to the month & Frisbee golfin'

So I took the first of the month off and didn't play a single hand of poker. I played a bit over the past few days and didn't run all that well, which resulted in some losses. I think I'm going to put a bit more effort into table selection this month, and make sure that there's always at least one pretty bad player at my table. I've been getting kinda lazy with table selection lately.

I had a fun weekend though. I ended up going frisbee golfing (aka frolfing) for the first time ever. It was a lot of fun. It's a fun and cheap way to get outside and do something active. I'm sure I'll be going again sometime soon. I do like regular golf a lot better, however. It's just a lot more complex and the course itself is a lot more scenic than a frisbee golf course.

Solid Month

April was much better to me than February or March. I managed to get back into my winning ways, booking a five figure month. Granted, months are just arbitrary measures of time so poker results over that arbitrary amount of time shouldn't be extremely important. However, we have to keep track somehow and I like to keep track monthly. It gives me a clean slate to look forward to at the beginning of each month.

I have a lot of motivation moving forward. I outlined a few short-term goals in my last blog post and I really want to achieve those goals. It's not going to be a cakewalk either, as I'm going to have to play some pretty darn good poker in May.

I need to make sure that I continue to try and avoid lamenting about daily results. Being results orientated over such an extremely short term time frame is very destructive to my overall results. I will do my best to not even peek at the cashier or HEM $ won or lost stat until the end of the month. This is probably one of the worst habits an online poker player can get in to... if you are just starting out, do yourself a favor and don't look at the damn Cashier! lol

In other news, I have a lot of little things to take care of in my non-poker life over the next couple of days. I have to send in a big check to the IRS sometime before the 15th. Our county got a one month automatic extension on filing taxes due to the area being busy preventing flooding. So I'm going to go over to my accountant tomorrow and painfully write the check out. That's one thing that sucks about being a professional poker player... taxes are not automatically deducted from your paycheck like in normal jobs so you end up paying it out of your pocket in big chunks.

I also have to find another roommate for my house. It's a four bedroom house and only three of the bedrooms are being used right now. I don't really mind having only two roommates but a third roommate would be nice as far as splitting up bills. I took some pictures of the house today and I'll probably just post it on Facebook or something and give some of my friends first crack at it. It's a pretty nice house and I'll probably post the pics on here as well for everyone to see what it looks like.

I'm going to do my best to churn out a D2K newsletter tomorrow, as the week has flown by and I forgot to write one up earlier in the week. I'll likely continue with the new *Take a line series*. I'm probably going to outline a new OOP move that I was pleased to find one of my students discover by himself today during his lesson!

That's it for now. Everyone have a fun weekend.