2K HANDS, SECOND TIME EVER

Today was the second time I played over 2K hands in one day. I was down $600 at one point but came back to book a nice win. I made some dumbass plays during the first part of the day but thankfully got back on track.

HEADS UP IS OK

I have played just over 550 hands of HU and like it. I think that it will help my 6 max game and break up the monotony of only playing one game. I have started off good and hope that I will continue to run hot, and find weak competition. People seem to have the same problem that I do, not adjusting to the villains play anywhere near enough. This will help me focus on how to exploit people and their specific weaknesses.

I checked my hourly rate today and found hat I am earning over $50.00 hr. I am very happy about this since that is just a bit more than I was making bar tending.

MONTH TO DATE RESULTS

NUTEDAWG'S RATE

is $500

BACK FROM TAHOE

Took three days and spent them with Pops at Lake Tahoe. Played a little live which was cake and had a good time doing almost nothing.

REALITY CHECK

Had a lesson tonight and it went well, made some money and learned a lot. One hand that I would have lost otherwise actually paid for the lesson.

I got to thinking the other day that a HU lesson would be really cool and would be a great opportunity to learn in some marginal situations. I brought it up with Nute and he said it would be fine.

We also talked about the amount of money I need to pull out of my BR each month, the amount I can expect to make at 1/2, and what I need to move up to 2/4 safely. At the rate I am currently going it will take almost a year to build enough to move up. I could of course, take shots earlier, but with poker as my only income and the seriousness of my financial obligations I don't think that would be wise. If it did not go well it could take a lot out of me emotionally and could cost me more than just the loss of a session. I remember talking to cntgetmedown about his BR requirements a few months or so ago and thinking what a BR nit he was. My bad.

I AIMed The Girl after Nute and I talked about this stuff and explained the situation I was in to her. She agreed to help me reach my goal by helping me cut my food costs and understanding that I will have to play poker quite a bit. She really is great.

GEEZUS

I was up $900 at one point tonight but gave it all back. It is safe to say that I ran like shit during the second half of these hands.

PLAYED EHH TONIGHT

I made some bad river calls with OK hands tonight. I also got outdrawn a lot and ran into quads. I do not want to wait to download the pic but I lost 3 buy ins and play around 1K hands.

PLAYED LIKE A DONK, BUT GOT IT BACK

I lost like 3 buy ins in 60 hands cause I played like shit. I came back to be +3 for the day due to some donktastic play on the beautiful AP. I have a new focus which will be improving my turn play and going to showdown more and lighter. It's late, I'm off to bed.

Oh, and I will be hitting the forums more I have been slacking quite a bit

ANOTHER GOOD DAY

Feeling really good about my game. I think that I have an edge over 90% of the other 1/2 players at this point. I am not going to take it easy either. I will continue to improve my game through posting, answering HH's and taking lessons. At this point I am no longer worried about going bankrupt which is a huge load of my mind. To go from making 60K+ from my job and not that much at poker to poker as a sole source of income in less than a month, without planning on it, and making it, is great.

AHH

And we have a winner! It is nice to book a win after a few losing days. My play is imporoving but still needs work, I did play the situation a little bit tonight though. I called out of the bb in a blind war and the flop came 883 2 tone, he bet, I called, turn 4 off suit, he bet, I raise 3.5x his bet, he folds. I used to just give up here the reasoning being I want to stay out of trouble and git it in when I have something, although I make stupid ass bluffs sometimes. I spent 2 hours going over PT and posting some stuff before playing as well and plan on hitting it hard tomorrow if the girl permits. Balance right?

HAD THE LESSON

Lesson was great and I have something to work on for the next week. I need to play the player and not my cards. This will include floating and bluff raising while making sure I am telling a story that is believable and understood by the villain. When I realized that this is what I had to do my gut reaction was "fuck me" and at the same time "I thought I was doing this". I realize now that I play my cards much more than I thought and it will be very hard to get to this next level. I have to identify the type of player that I am playing against, more so than "he's a fish" or "aggro". Then I need to come up with plans to exploit there weaknesses in reoccurring situations. I did have a VPIP breakthrough though and am able to play a looser style. The style does not have certain hands that I open from here or there but instead is what the table will tolerate.

Well the play overall today as very good and would have been the first day in the green for 3 days but I lost a $660 pot as a 70% favorite for the last hand of the night. I am still up 2K since turning pro and have a winrate of 3PTBB now. On DODGYKEN'S advice I will be going through PT and trying to put villains on hands to improve my skills. I also have like 13 hands to post, so lots to do.

Though this whole thing my girl has been more supportive than I ever thought possible. I tell other people and they go "Oh, thats great." then like two sentences later they say "So you going to try to get a job here?" etcetera, etcetera. It is very nice to have someone that believes wholeheartedly in me and what I am trying to do. She is very constant with it too, she does not waiver. So thank you Jordan it means allot.

BLA

Make some stupid plays today and got caught bluffing a few times. I have a lesson tomorrow and feel it will do me good.

Totals since being fired, 9 days in.

CAME BACK FOR A WINNING DAY

So this is still the same day as my last post. I turned it around and booked a decent win, it all started with me sucking out for a big pot and then everything started to click. From -$600 to +$350 feels very nice.

DOWN 3 BUY INS TODAY

I played well today but did not get any action on my hands, my bluffs on the other hand were another story. watched a video blog entry from The Bryce at Stoxpoker and it made me realize that while I have been putting more effort then normal in, it is not even close to what some people do. I will be responding to every post on the high and mid stakes forums from now on. I will continue to post my hands and review PT. I am also going to make videos of my play and try to find areas of weakness through that approach.

MAN

I get home from the live game (I won a buy in) and decide to play. Before I know it I am down $800 and just thinking what the fuck happened. Had some coolers, ran trips in to 4 of a kind unfortunately the river bricked or I would be writing a much happier blog entry. The great thing about tonight is that I played on, my A game, even though I was down 4 buy ins. I stuck it out knowing that this is a job now, this is how I earn my money. Bad beats, bad timing, bad players, and bad plays, I got through it all tonight. When I had worked my way to -$200 (for the third time or so) I realized I really liked what I was doing. I felt that I had an edge on some regs tonight and knew my studying was really paying off. I played 1200 hands , stuck till the last 10, and I played good.

UNEMPLOYED 1 WEEK

I am running well and committed to playing a better game and it shows in my results. I can't imagine how I would feel if I was losing right out of the gate, but this feels great. Besides what the graph says I am up $375 in rake and more in bonuses.

Going to a live game that I hope to crush tonight. Buyin is $100 but it will be nice for a change.

CR POSTS

I have received complaints about the amount of posts that I have been putting up. I find it kind of amusing and was expecting it. Allot of the hands I post are not that interesting or exciting, some may even be "standard". The fact is though I have two mortgages, and two second mortgages, and NO JOB. I can not exactly go out with my 8th grade diploma and land a job that is going to pay my bills. Also, in this real estate market I would be hard pressed to sell one. What I am saying is unless they limit the amount of posts you are allowed to make in a month, charge me per post, or people stop answering them altogether, I will continue to post. To everyone that has been answering them, even the boring ones, thanks.

GOOD NIGHT TONIGHT

I played pretty well tonight although I did not get into situations where I tend to donk off all my money. One pic is tonight and one is for the month.

I am glad that poker is going well for me out of the gate since I would have to get a job at Starbucks otherwise. It's funny, I tell people I got fired and I play poker now and they say something like "That's great, I'm sure you'll do great. So you going to try to get a job at Restaurant X or Y?" Fuckers.

I talked to Nutedawg my coach and I should be having another lesson soon. I am looking forward to it since I have put more into improving at this game in the last week than I have in the last year. During this process I am sure to make mistakes and head the wrong direction at some point and I am very glad to have someone to help me stay on path.

DOWN 2.5 BUYINS TODAY

I came back to win around 4 though. I made very bad calls and shoves again to start the night. I did improve towards the end of the session. It is hard to believe that I did not know what I was doing before someone at CR told me. I get a fight response when I have an OK hand and someone applies pressure. I call down and raise without much thought. Sometimes I even make calls knowing I am beat, but I call anyway, out of a sense of pride I guess. I will ask my coach if he can help me with this somehow.

The games were great tonight, someone with a VPIP of 50+ was on each of my tables. For this reason I will not be posting hands tonight but will have to do it tomorrow. I have ten that I noted as needing to talk about and will post some big winners and losers as well. On top of that I will have to answer some so I don't feel like I am abusing the forum. I feel I am posting a ton but this guy "DODGYKEN" puts me to shame. He also delivers a higher quality of response and a level of insight that I can not offer. He is quickly becoming my role model for posting and dedication at CR.

DOWN 1/2 BUY IN

Played pretty good but made some bad calls at the end of a session. I am still defaulting to aggression in marginal spots which is killing my wins. Also I have lost like $800 with JJ and ran it into AA like 4 times in the last 2 days. I should have gotten away cheaper than I did though.

TWO GREAT COMMENTS FROM CR GUYS

From reading/responding to some of your posts I think you should be slowing down on some of your marginal situation aggression (speeeew) without better reads. You could also try and control the size of the pot more in these spots.

Ive noticed in the last 2 hands you posted that you like to lead with your draws, but then you have second thoughts about betting them once the get there.

BAD DAY

Took some beats and played overconfidently today. Called down lite and continued to have to much aggression in marginal spots. I lost back almost all my winnings from yesterday. I have stopped for the night however and will hit it up again tomorrow. My girl sent me this when I told her how I did... "you shouldn't let one day bring you down though, b/c there will probably be days when this happens, i'm sure pros have the same thing happen, it's just they didn't stop trying and they worked very hard at it. and here you are learning from a very good teacher, working harder, and dedicating more time. it will take time, but i think you'll be great. i really do and if i was worried or concerned in anyway i would tell you." That helped.

GAME IS IMPROVING, BUT STILL NEEDS WORK

Two pics tonight one is for the month and one is just the 5th.

I am running very well still, and playing better than I ever have. I am running at 19/15 which is not where I want to be. I am trying to open up to around 20/17 but it is not happening. I am very happy with my coach and what I have learned so far and am looking forward to the next lesson. I think he will be happy with the direction my game is headed and I should be able to open up more with him watching.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my last post but I have been reviewing my sessions in PT and it is helping a ton. I also take notes on hands that I have questions on during my session so that I don't have to search through to find a small obscure pot I played.

I am still really nervous about poker as a job. I feel that with hard work, dedication, and the support of my friends, girl, and family, I can make this work. It is nice not to have to be fake anymore either. Pretending I'm happy to see people that I could care less about gets old after ten years. Now everyone that I come into contact with I like and am happy to see, there is no more faking it.

GETTING REEMED ON CR

I am in the process of booking another winning day. I started off down a buy in and a half but came back to be up over a buy in. I will be playing more tonight and I assume the weekend games are crazy. Just realized that I will be playing in some free rolls from now on, sweet!

I am posting allot of hands on CR and am catching shit from other posters. It turns out I might suck at poker since the guys giving me shit are solid players. I will be posting more tonight and am sure I will learn allot.

I entered into a 90 day trial of Quicken Business and Home to get a grasp of what I need to make playing poker. It is a sweet program and I might just have to buy the damn thing.

STUDYING THE GAME

I have been taking a much more serious approach to poker. I am looking over sessions in PT and posting hands on CR. I am falling short on answering but will make an effort to balance my studies in the future.

I AM A PRO POKER PLAYER NOW...

I got fired today.

I am going to try and play poker for a living. This will involve allot more commitment than I have previously given to poker. I will need to be a winner at 2/4 to make enough money. I do have a good amount of savings to get me to that point.

I need to earn 6K a month to break even on all my expenses and not starve to death. I think I will be getting unemployment and that will come to about 2K, so I need 4K from poker.

I would like anyone who reads this and has ever seen me play to provide an opinion on the state of my game. Honesty is paramount. I would also like any general opinions on the quality of my posts on CR, and thoughts on if I exhibit enough intelligence to beat 2/4 for a decent rate given time and dedication.

Also, I will be having more time to sweat and be sweated and would happy to discuss hands on AIM and so on. Please contact me if you have interest in anything like this.

PT DATABASE GONE

I recently rebooted my computer and lost the last 100K hands I hand in PT. With the older ones and stats left I decided to go for a fresh start and delete everything. Before this I was down $800 or so for the month but I will be disregarding that and am starting over completely.

I had a 3 1/2hr lesson with my coach. I sweated him since I was having issues with my computer. He ran bad and still booked a nice win at 2/4 on FTP. A couple things I learned; I am not giving people credit when they bet scare cards, I can slow down in pots where I don't hit my flop but my hand still has showdown value, 4 betting frequent 3 betters pf and how to put the pressure back on them, I need to pay attention to the table dynamic and my image more.

PROBLEMS

1. I am calling reraises with QKs and other marginal crap.
2. I default to FPS to get value, this does not work.
3. I am not reevaluating ranges on the turn and river when new information is presented.
4. I need to work on when I double barrel, and how often I need to do it.
5. I need to realize when I am playing someone that does not fold, I have no fold equity.
6. I am continuing to lose.

I TILTED TONIGHT

I ended the month down $800 and have a bad start on this one. I played poorly tonight and went on tilt for the first time in a while. I have a lesson tomorrow and hope to have a strong month.