Another honest day's work

Played a ton today. Feels great to grind a bunch. I'm not going to list any specific hands I won or lost since I'm working really hard at not being results oriented.

I plan on playing a bunch tomorrow afternoon as well. Adam is going to come over to the house I'm staying at and play as well.

That's all for now folks, I'm going to sleep.

Work day

I finally got a solid day of poker playing in today. Being in a different city is so distracting... it's tough to get much done. It's really important to optimize time, as there are so many different things to do... especially on the weekends.

I ended up playing a few sessions next to my buddy Adam, while in the house I'm staying at. We had a few good discussions on some hands and Chris aka "Sparks" helped us analyze a few hands we weren't sure about.

I ended up playing pretty well overall and was happy with my play. I still need to pay closer attention to dynamics when deciding whether or not to 4-bet bluff. I had pretty poor timing on about 3 or 4 of my 4-bet bluffs and needless to say, they didn't work out.

I'm going to get some sleep now and try and wake up around noon so I can get another solid day of poker playing in tomorrow.

LA is awesome!

I ended up flying to LA last Thursday to visit some friends and I'm staying until March 1st. Five other pro poker players ended up moving into this ridiculous mansion in the Hollywood Hills. This house is by far the most amazing house I've ever been inside of. It's borderline ridiculous.

The house is basically as far up the hill as possible... there are only 2 or 3 houses that are higher up on the street. The view is spectacular and I think I can see China from the balcony, lol. The house itself is also very cool.

So far, we've gone out drinking downtown both Thursday night and Friday night and it's been a great time. In LA, the clubs are pretty exclusive so we ended up getting bottle service both nights. One of the guys' friends who went out to eat with us one night had a baller Aston Martin. Had to shoot a few pics of it... such a slick ride.

After the weekend is over, I'm going to meet up with my friend Adam who lives here as well as some of the Absolute poker/ UB players. They are all in town for the Los Angeles Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino. So that should be fun, as I've played with many of them online.

Here are some pics of the house, the view from the house, and the Aston Martin their friend drives.

Chicago apartment pictures

So yesterday I finally ended up getting the last two pieces of furniture in my apartment... I got my TV stand and my bed frame. I ended up taking some pics of the inside, so take a look if you want.

Personal assistant pays off

So today was basically the first time since we got the office that I actually used our personal assistant to help me table select. Wow, I was amazed with how well it actually worked. Before, I was playing a lot on Cake poker where it's much tougher to locate fish due to no statistics, etc. so our personal assistant was just helping Tim table select.

Basically, I probably got in about 3 hours worth of quality playing in about 2 hours. It was so nice to be reminded that I was sitting at a table with a bunch of regs right away, instead of sticking around for 4-5 orbits like I would normally do before I realized it. Also, it was refreshing to have at least one fish at each of my tables... which is not extremely easy to do when I'm table selecting by myself.

I'm looking forward to continue playing in much juicer games in the future and I think this will have a very positive effect on my winrate.

Weekends in Chicago = guaranteed fun

Another awesome weekend has passed by.

The only thing bad about weekends in a big city, is that you can really get carried away and go out so late that it almost wastes the entire next day's afternoon. I didn't get much poker playing in at all this weekend... just ended up playing a few sessions of cash games and played the Sunday Million today.

I ended up busting out of the Sunday Million in 1,782 place out of 8,341... so I finished about 500 places out of the money. The hand I busted on was pretty standard. I shoved about 10 big blinds from the CO with A7o and got snap-called by the SB's KK and it was game over for me.

I'm going to the office tomorrow afternoon and going to get my grind on. My focus of each session from here on out is to improve as a player and play my best, results be damned. No more looking at results. I have said it a million times before but I always end up peeking due to curiosity... well curiosity killed the cat and it's killing my win-rate as well.

I'm going to borrow a sweet poker mantra from a fellow blogger. I visit his blog sometimes and he seems to have a great grasp on the mental game. Here's the link to his blog. Well said, sir.

His "poker mantra"

"We are owed only one thing as poker players: the opportunity to make the best possible decision at each junction in every hand that we play."

Well said, sir.

going out in Chicago

I went out tonight with my new friend, Fielden and I must admit I had an absolute blast. We ended up starting the night off at my place while downing Jack Daniels and Coke... then ended up going to Bull and Bear Bar, which is a pretty cool bar that has interesting tables that actually have beer taps coming out from the tables.

After that, we went to Rhino which is a late night club/bar and met up with a few of Fieldens' friends, including a big time promoter in Chicago. All in all it was a great night and I definitely had my fair share of alcohol for the night, lol. The bars/clubs in Chicago are 10xs more fun than anything in North Dakota. There's really no comparison.

Crazy day

So I put in a lot of hands today and ended up playing for nearly 8 hours. Overall, I finished down about $600 for the day but it was actually a massive victory for me as I was down over 7 buy-ins at one point.

I really tanked at the beginning of the session, just getting coolered left and right and running a bit poorly. I also did the worst thing ever for my game, which was fire up more than 4 tables after getting a bit frustrated. It just never seems to work out when I do that... I need to actually slap myself if I catch myself playing more than 4 tables at once again because I just can't crush when I'm doing it.

So yea, I switched to 4 tables and won most of my loss back for the day. I played a ton better in my final two-hour session of the day and it was nice to run OK as well. Back to the office tomorrow hopefully to replicate many sessions like the final one I played today.

Another fun weekend

Had a blast again this weekend hanging out with three really great friends. One of them was visiting Chicago from Michigan, so I don't get to see him all that often. I ended up going out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night and definitely won't be drinking until next weekend. I need a break, lol.

Today is nearly an American holiday it seems, as the Superbowl is occurring. I won't be watching it because I really need to put my nose to the grindstone and start getting in some hands and turn my game around so I'm consistently winning. The past few months have been very mediocre and I just need to find my groove.

I'm going to go grab some lunch and then play poker from my apartment today, since Tim won't be going to the office due to the stupidbowl. I'm signed up for the Sunday Million so hopefully I can lucksack a final table appearance there. One time!

Played well, but ran poorly

I put in a few sessions today at the office. Tim didn't make it in, so I was working alone. I played quite well overall, but basically just got raped by shitty situations.

I kept my head high and kept on plugging, but couldn't overcome the coolers and beats. Ran KK into AA for 125bbs, lost with top two pair to a very trickily played flush, lost AA vs QQ 125bbs deep, lost AK vs AA, and many more annoying spots. I didn't really get frustrated, since I've been trying to keep the "right view" mindset Tommy Angelo speaks of in some of his vids. I'm nearly finished with the first vid in one of his series.

I really wish I could just start running well and have my solid play begin to be rewarded in the short term. It seems like the past 3 weeks or so have been pure hell. I've just been unable to get anything going, and it's super frustrating.

This chat by a fish brightened up my day a bit though, lol. He was talking about razorbacker and how razor never checks.

Amazing weekend!

So my weekend actually started out on Thursday night, where I ended up going out with Tim "Nutedawg", Thomas "Brystmar", Taylor, and Andrew (two founders and owners of Cardrunners.com). We ended up taking off from the office at around 7 and launched the beginning to a fun night.

First of all, we ended up going to eat at some type of Persian food place. The food was great, but I ended up losing the credit card roulette and paid the whole bill. I am running poorly in credit card roulette, since I've ended up losing the last 5 of 6 times or so that I've done it, lol. After that, we went to a bar called HopLeaf and I ended up trying a few different kinds of unique beer. Thomas knew all about the different kinds and I actually learned a few cool things about beer that I never was aware of.

After Tim took off, and Taylor, Andrew, Thomas, and I ended up going out to some random bar where there were a group of crazy girls dressed up in 80's outfits for some reason. We ended up talking to them for a bit and then Taylor & Andrew ended up leaving after awhile. Then Thomas and I hit up a few more bars around the area and grabbed some pizza.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I had a few friends from out of town visiting so I ended up chilling with them mostly. We went to a few cool club type places and I now have discovered some new places to go out and have fun. I didn't end up playing much poker at all, however.

I'm not quite sure how I did in January. I'll have to take some time tomorrow to calculate it out, but I'm guessing it's going to be roughly break-even.