The Poker Punk

First legal trip to a 21+ card club

2012-01-09T05:41:00.000-08:00

Tonight I turned 21, so I headed over to the local card club which is about 5 minutes away from my house. My girlfriend and I were discussing if there would be anyone there, since it was midnight on Sunday. I tried to call to see if they had any 1-2 games going on, but I only got an automated voice on the line. So I drove there to check it out, excited to flash my shiny new ID card.

It was fucking packed. And it wasn't in the best neighborhood. There is a security guard infested parking lot though, which is nice. Although, to be honest, the security guards were rather informally dressed and were kinda sketchy in their own right. I walked in to the club. No ID. I go and buy chips (100 bucks worth), thanks to gifts from my brother and girlie. No ID. I sit at the table and start playing. No ID.

Two spots to my left is a rock n' roll looking dude with a beard, lots of chips, and a big mouth. After watching a couple hands that he was playing, it was clear he was literally raising any hand no matter what. He went all in preflop with some internet looking kid for 200 bucks with 53unsuited. He flopped the straight, and the whole table heard about it for quite some time. He started belittling people, trash talking into peoples ears, and mocking people.

My strategy was very simple. Wait for great hands and then play big pots with him. First hand I got AK, and re-raised him to about 40 bucks preflop. He called. Flop was something like 10-5-2. I thought for a second and then checked, hoping to induce a bluff and call him off. He jammed all in as planned, and I thought for a second. I was about to call when he said "pick a card", meaning that he was going to let me see one of his cards. I flipped one and saw it was a two. Well, he has me beat at this point but I still have two overs. I thought for a little bit, and then decided it was too likely that he had A2 and I was drawing pretty slim, and folded. My stacked was pretty crippled and it was clear from that moment that if I was going to play a hand with someone I was going to have to mean it. I played tight, waiting for good hands. I was very patient and folded almost every hand, watching "Mike", who plays in a jam rock band called locomotive something, splash the pot with little to no holdings again and again.

I picked up pocket queens and limped in. Mike had been raising 99 percent of hands, no matter what position he was in, so I figured it was a OK play. Shockingly, he also limped. Flop was 2-2-9- and we both checked. Turn is a 6. He bet, I called, hoping he had air and would spew off more on the river. He bet all in on the river and I called, it was a pretty easy call. Turns out he had a deuce and I was left with no chips.

I weighed my options. I know I'm a better player than Mike, and he was playing a very exploitable style, so I decided to rebuy for another 100. I patiently folded all my hands, weighting to catch Mike with a big one. I got pocket six's and limped it, then called Mike's obligatory raise. The flop had another six on it, so I checked to Mike to let him bluff away. He bet, I reraised, he called with some garbage and I was up to 200 bucks.

I returned to my patient style of fold fold fold until I picked up pocket queens again and limped again. Mike raised this time, as planned, and I reraised all in. This should have been a relatively obvious strong hand, but Mike snap called because he had. . .KJoffsuit. Lolz. The board ran out and I ended up with a queen high flush. There were several people in the pot before the flop and they had left plenty of dead money in there, so my stack had now risen to 450 bucks.

Sweet deal.

Mike bluffed off the rest of his stack and started to lose his temper. Throwing cards, increasing his frequency of name calling and mocking of other players. I felt kinda bad for him.
He busted out, then came back with another 100 bucks. He busted out again and was obviously tilted as hell. It was kinda gross to watch. He was very clearly addicted to gambling and it made the whole thing just seem predatory and lame.

Mike left, and I played a hand with this old Asian lady, who was a pretty good player from what I could tell. The hand involved me trying to bluff her and not succeeding. I check raised her on an ace high board, and she was very close to folding but after thinking, called and checked it down the rest of the way. I didn't have the guts to fire a second barrel, which would have probably worked. She ended up having KK. I put her on a weak ace, like a-7 or something, which is basically the same thing. I was trying to rep a bigger ace, and I would have most likely taken the pot down but just couldn't pull the trigger on a turn bet. I lost about 70 bucks that hand.

The game broke, and I was moved to a new table. This is where I lost my stack. A young Asian dude who plays heads up online straddled to four dollars. That means he put out extra money before his cards were dealt. I had been folding every hand for a couple hours, and thought I had a very tight image. I was on the button and raised it up to 15 bucks. I had A9 of spades. He thought, and then repopped it to 49 bucks. I thought he was just trying to defend his straddle, and figured that since I looked like an internet player, my range on the button was pretty loose. I called, with a plan to bluff him later in the hand. The flop came out realllly dry, like 9-5-2 all different suits. He donk bet the max (100), and I reraised all in. He had about 150 left in his stack and he insta-called. The turn and river ran out really dry and he flipped over AJ. Since the board was low, his Ace high beat my ace high. Blah. My stack was crippled. I only had 30ish bucks left.

He later told me he felt he had no fold equity. I suppose that is true, but I thought my tight image and aggressive reraise would have lead him to believe I had a strong hand. At least stronger than AJoff suit. So yeah. Kinda a weird play by him I felt, but the right one. To me, I would think the bottom of my range in that spot is like AQs. I had raised a hand before that one, and he had been in the other game where I had only shown monsters. I guess I overestimated the effect my image would play, and also didn't properly weigh the chance of him making a math based call down with two overs.
Soon after that I got it all in with my short stack. This time I had AJoff and the Asian guy had K9. 9 rolled off on the river and it was time for me to pack up and head home.

I had a good time. I think I learned a lot. Not really about cards, but I learned a lot. Poker has a really disgusting detrimental effect on a lot of people, and i'ts easier to see face to face. Behind the computer screen, it's hard to tell if someone is addicted to gambling. Face to face, that shit is obvious. It makes me wonder if poker is actually morally wrong. I know that's a hard question, but it's one that I found myself asking after visiting my local card club.

I always used to joke around about losers on the internet. I would take $1,000 dollars off of them in a night, behind the safety of a computer screen, and high five my little brother. I would laugh, calling them donks and other bad names [to myself, I never typed it into the chat box]. But now I start to think about what those people are like, and what losing that money means to them, and I get kinda bummed.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have very much money to lose. In fact, tonight was a real bummer in the way that it means I'll be taking less money with me on my Vegas trip, but that's not my point. My point is that for some of the people at the club tonight, they can't help but lose their money. They also have no future, and they see cards as their one way ticket into the BALLA life. It's a very glaring example of addiction and poverty.

It's also really weird to see someone's stack rise so high, and their emotions with it, only to see it go crumbling down. Their faces become so fucking vacant its creepy. It's like their life is based on how many chips they have in front of them. A lot of chips, happy camper. No chips, and they're close to tears. I wonder if that's because they have nothing else? Or are they just in mature. I know that when I used to feel more like that, with my emotions going on the roller coaster rides of a poker swing, it was definitely an issue of maturity (I was 17-19), but come on, these guys are like 40. Don't they have a wife to go home and kiss? kids? a career? ambitions?

Is poker all they have? And if so, why aren't they better at it!? Geez. I think back to the times I was just fucking broken up about a poker outcome, and my reason for being upset was always that I was upset that I didn't meet some goal I set for myself. Or I was sad because I felt the loss would get in the way of some ambitions I had in the poker world. Or that people close to me would judge me. Or I felt I let myself down, and I could have done better. I'm very over the whole tilting emotion roller coaster thing. My emotions remain level and balanced throughout poker sessions. I always treat other people with respect and kindness, even when I'm losing.

I wish I didn't lose 200 bucks tonight. I wish I would have made a couple different decisions, but geez, it's just a game.

Sorry for the somewhat long post, but tonight really opened my eyes to some things. I never really understood why people gave me so much shit for playing poker, but now I kinda get it. They don't want me to end up like those people. I've never been worried about that. I'm still not worried about it, but I think I have a better understanding of it. I think I equated the level of addiction related to poker as to something like reality TV or watching baseball, or something like that. Tonight made me realize that it can turn you into a straight up meth head.

The look on this guys face when he came back from the ATM really was a picture worth a thousand words. He couldn't help it. He played every hand like his life depended on the outcome. Every sense of strategy, theory, and patience gone. Long gone. The table, myself included, waited for him to dump his money to us -- which he did. It reminded me of the lions and hyenas on a Netflix documentary I recently watched. He was the dead carcass, and we were the pack of animals just surrounding him hoping to get our fair share. It was kinda gross, but also kinda "just nature". He was the weak one, so we took him out. After he was gone, we turned on each other. Hungry, not for meat, but for chips.

I felt out of place. I was there to test my skills. To engage in a battle of wits. To overcome my opponents. Not to just kick someone when they're down. But then I thought about it more, and perhaps that's not why I was there. Maybe I was there for the same reason as everyone else around me, but I had convinced myself otherwise. I started to analysis my poker playing peers, not for their tells, betting patterns, or style, but for their overall being. I compared myself to them. I thought about what Mike was feeling when he re-bought and what was going through his head, and then I thought about how I felt and what I was thinking when I re-bought. I found that about 6/10 of the people around me were most likely dumber, less complete, and more helpless than I am. And I don't mean uneducated type of dumb, I mean common sense type of dumb. Like, I honestly believe I might be a much smarter, and overall better person than them.

I wondered if it was my upbringing that just led me to believe I was better than these people. Is it just me being a snotty nosed brat from the suburbs? Am I actually smart at all? Or am I just educated because my parents have money. Those questions are kind of hard to answer, but my gut leads me to believe the 40+ year old missing teeth and dressed like a pirate doesn't have anything inside that head of his that is better than what I have inside. I've met people before who didn't complete high school who I really believe are not only extremely bright, but also very good inside. So I really find it hard to believe that upbringing and schooling was the only thing that was making these people the way they are. . .Perhaps I'm looking too deeply into a crowd of people who are at a card club on a Monday morning. Maybe they all started off like me -- hopeful and ambitious. But something happened to them somewhere in their lives and now they are broken. Tossed to the side. No one loves them, or cares about them, and they're left with nothing but "a chip and a chair." Is that going to happen to me? Is life going to break my spirit and leave me in the dust?

I want to be a journalist. I don't feel like anything or anyone is going to stop me from doing that. But maybe they all felt that way about something at one point too. Maybe I'm ignorant to life's curve balls. I think I'm starting to understand why some old people are so shitty -- they've been shit on. At the same time though, I know some old people who have had horrible things happen to them but continue to be resilient and strong willed, remaining good and happy(ish).

While playing I started to think about the things I have in life that others don't. Not including material things. They started piling up really quick, and it made my $450 stack seem smaller. That's a good thing, because its important in poker to not feel too attached to money and not to be results oriented.

At the end of the day I had a good time. I should have fire 2 or 3 barrels against that old Asian lady, and I should have folded preflop to the Asian dudes 3 bet straddle raise. I am happy that I had the confidence to bluff. Sometimes that's hard in a live game when there is so much more money than I'm used too and everyone can look at you. Oh yeah, I begged a security guard to ID me. He wasn't amused.

I'm Not Going To Be Staked

2011-12-20T17:48:00.000-08:00

Change of plans. The people staking me got cold feet last second because they already have 3 guys doing HUSNG's at that level. What a joke. I've spent the last couple days practing and adjusting my HUD. It fucking sucks. My plan is ruined.

I will be 21 soon. I can play live. Stupid USA. I'm going to focus on my zine and other things for now.

I'm Going To Be Staked

2011-12-14T03:15:00.000-08:00

In two days, when finals are over, the newest adventure in my poker career will begin. I am in contact with a group of backers who are considering staking me to play HUSNG's [heads up sit n' gos], my strongest game. The leaders of the group play high stakes HUSNG's, and the main guy wrote several books about the game. So, I'll be in good hands.

The deal is a rather simple, but important one. The backers will give me a bankroll. I play HUSNG's, and once a week we split profits. That's the easy side of things.

On the other hand. I lose. In this case I go into whats called "makeup", which is basically a sugar coated name for debt. I would then continue to play with their money, but all profits go to them until I recoup my losses for them. If I continue to lose and lose . . . and lose, then they would cut me from the backing and I don't owe them anything. However, if they think I can make it back, and keep me under their staking, I have to continue to play and give them the profits. Kinda like a slave.

I'm confident I will do really well, crush the stakes they start me at, move up in stakes quickly with their help. I think this is going to work out very well. Why? Because, in the past, the game I have been a consistent winner in is HUSNG's. Remember when I made my first 500 bucks playing 2 dollar HUSNG's.

I believe I've matured as a poker player quite a bit. I've created something from nothing. I've won large sums of money. I've lost large sums of money. I've crushed, and been crushed. These are the things that I believe will make this new arrangement the perfect jumping off point for me.

Where am I jumping off to? Let me explain.

Right now, I'm a broke college student. But in a couple days, I'll be given money to use as a bankroll for online poker. Through out the next 26 days, I will use that money to create a small bankroll to take to the live casino on Jan. 9th when I turn 21. At that time, I will turn my small live bankroll into a regular sized live bankroll for 1-2nl, about 5k. Then, thats when the real magic happens.

Online poker gets legalized. I've got 5k in my pocket and deposit it into the flashy new US friendly site being heavily advertised on Sunday Night Football. With the much softer field, and more experience, I do better than I did in the past.

Or. . . I lose it all and some weird dude from the internet hunts me down and breaks my kneecaps.

We'll see.

Busted My Baby Roll

2011-12-02T03:32:00.001-08:00

The 20 bucks is gone. Not too worried about it. I'm glad I decided to play a bit, it was worth it. The practice will go a long way when I sit down for 200+ bucks in a live game. Can't wait!

ZP recordings are back and they sound great. Pumped. Hardcore record of 2012.

First Major Downswing

2011-11-28T23:39:00.001-08:00

I lost almost my entire bankroll playing 10nl and MTT's today. I hit a streak of really poor luck, and wasn't able to overcome it. Besides losing to a lot of draws and other 70/30 type of situations, I had a couple particularly bad beats. I lost all in preflop my AKs vs 54off. I also lost top set to middle set when he rivered quads, and I also ran my AK in AA two times. Bummer. Oh well. I fell like I played pretty well, and my risk of ruin was always high playing with such a small bankroll. I still have about 20 bucks left in my account, which is what I put in originally. Sometime I will try to build it back up again. Its great great practice. I feel very comfortable with poker right now, and look forward to playing live.

First mixes of the new ZP record should be in tomorrow!

Good News and Bad News

2011-11-28T01:22:00.001-08:00

What do you want first? The good news or the bad news? Well, this is a blog format, SO IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU WANT!

. . .I played that tournament, and another 11 dollar one. I lost both. I played well, and went deep in both, but didn't cash. That's the bad news. The good news is that I played 10nl full ring the whole time I played them, and for a little while afterwords. I skyped with my little gangsta bro for a while, just like old times. I played well, and I'm really finding my old game again. I'm aggressive, but controlled. I bluff in the right spots and I'm snapping off some of my opponents big bluffs. Of course I still make plenty of mistakes, but poker is all about maximizing returns and minimizing risks, and I have done well in that regard so far, other than my lack of bankroll management requirements.

I am still sick so I've been drinking a lot of water -- as instructed by my personal in home nurse. I had to end my session just now because I feel like my urge to piss was effecting my ability to think clearly. I ended up with a bankroll of $107.80. I'm very happy with that, so I'm going to go watch the worst drama on TV, The Walking Dead.

Dusting Off My Full Ring Game

2011-11-27T13:53:00.001-08:00

I have been very sick lately, so I've been playing a little bit of poker to pass the time. I've been focusing on my full ring game, since that it what I'll be playing live. Full ring requires more patience than heads up or 6 max games, so it hasn't been an easy adjustment. After losing a decent amount of my bankroll during the first 1-2 hours as I got back into the swing of things, I was about to make some profit. I ended my sessions with a bankroll of $69.09. Although this format of poker is not the most interesting, I am going to continue to play it. I want to feel comfortable with the gameflow dynamics of a full ring game when I start to play live.

I'm going to play an 11 dollar buy in tournament today. It's been a very long time since I've played a MTT that was over 10 bucks. I used to be pretty good at them, but they are always kinda a crapshoot. I will probably 3 table some full ring games while playing the tournament.

My band, Zero Progress, recorded our 2nd 7inch yesterday. I am hella sick, so it was really hard for me, but I think it turned out really good. Can't wait to hear the final mix.

Chapter Two

2011-11-24T00:06:00.001-08:00

You know that feeling where you need to pee on a long car ride, and as you get closer to your destination the urge to pee becomes stronger and stronger? Well, I'm almost 21, and the urge to play some live poker (legally) is getting pretty intense. After the downfall of online poker I have not been playing much poker, but that is about to change. The Oak Card Club is an 8 minute drive away from my new Apt. and on Jan. 9, 2012, I will be legally allowed to sit down with a bunch of old degenerate scumbags and smile as I rake in pot after pot of their social security money.

Earlier today the urge got a little bit to much and I decided to pee in a bottle instead of waiting for the car to pull over. I deposited 20 dollars on the Carbon Poker, one of the last sites still accepting US players, and played for a couple hours. I wouldn't suggest playing online right now, and would not be surprised if I never saw that 20 dollars again, but I needed to practice. Just like a UFC fighter develops ring rust, a poker player who strays from the table for too long starts to lose some of his abilities. In the first hour of my first session on Carbon, the signs of ring rust were obvious. I was having trouble spotting my opponents weaknesses and my bluff timing was off. My bankroll sagged to around 12 bucks before I started to get back into the flow of things. Pretty soon I found my footing and hit a streak of cards, ending the session with a bankroll of 44 greenbacks.

I will use my Carbon bankroll to sharpen my skills before I turn 21 and crush some live donks. I feel like I'm more mature than I was in the past, and have high expectations for my future in poker. Chapter two of my poker life is about to begin.

Played poker for the first time in forever

2011-04-30T22:20:00.001-07:00

I won an old parlay tonight and had 60 bucks in my bodog account. Decided to fire up a table of 25nl HU. Lost my whole roll in about 3 minutes haha. First I flopped top pair top kicker and lost to a turned second pair all in. Then I flopped top two pair in a limp pot and lost to top set. Bummer. Oh well, played all the hands well, prob wouldnt be able to get my money off the site anyways hahah so it was fun to play. Picked 7 fights right over the last 3 months.

day 4 of no online poker

2011-04-19T04:10:00.000-07:00

ugh. Want to crush some donks. I was playing so well right before the blackout... I wish there was local live games that were lower stakes. I did some light reading on stocks after class today. There are some websites that still allow US players to play poker online but i'm going wait a bit to watch the dust settle and see if the coast is clear before depositing anywhere.

People ask me alot about how much i win/lose. Went through bank statements and old databases/poker blogs. It seems as if I have won around 8,000 dollars. Paid about 4-5 in rake. And withdrawn/banked 3-4 thousand dollars in TOTAL live and online winnings. Compared to the time I put it thats not much, which is one of the reason I am sad online poker is gone. I'm not satisfied with my results. I know i can do better. But, the money I did win has helped me so much with my band and day to day expenses.

etc etc.

Some fun memories

-winning 1k in a night at 50 dollar tables!
-losing 1.5k in a day at 400-1000 dollar tables!
-getting 42nd for ~1500 dollars in miniFTOPS main event.
-winning big at the casino for the first time
-getting owned my first time at the casino
-crushing home games
-running bad for 6 months
-running hot for 3 and spinning up a huge bankroll

Punks not dead, but online poker is

2011-04-18T03:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to sum up what happened because a quick google search will tell you that. But online poker is no more for those in the states. My entire bankroll is locked up on FTP and i just have to sit here and hope they give it back to me as the DOJ freezes all their bank accounts blah blah blah. Its extremely depressing and means i can't fund my tour and cant have a cool reef tank next year. yup. sucks. Oh well.
I've started a minecraft server, if you play you can join it at 76.103.9.16.

I'm thinking about playing around with stocks. Obv I know close to nothing about trading stocks and don't have a bankroll to get started etc etc etc all signs say its a bad idea etc etc etc. But......i dunno I bet i could be a break even/smaller winner in 1-2 years, maybe more, maybe less. Stocks seem to be more gambling than poker which makes me a bit nervous but one of the guys in my home game told me he trades stocks as a full time job and that trading the volatility is pretty easy and didn't require much of a learning curve. Of course learning to trade stocks is not at all going to be a short term way of making money like poker was so i'm not exactly sure what to do about that. I have a little bit saved up and I could sell off some stuff before tour i suppose.

In poker the rake comes out of every pot so if you deposit 5 dollars you can play a 5 dollar game and pay 1 dollar IF you win. In stocks you pay 5 dollars per trade. So, 5 dollars to buy a stock and 5 dollars to sell it no matter how much you buy. So you are going to get raked 10 bucks for a buy/sell no matter how much of the stock you buy. Sooooo the more you buy the less you get raked in proportion to your buy, so more money is better. Alas, i have no monies and no knowledge. So i will likely lose in long run and the short run.

oh well, maybe not i guess cause if i deposit 50 bucks i'd have to pay 10 dollars for one complete trade so that would be a 20percent increase just to cover costs so I'd have to hit it big in the start so that i could start actually spreading out and shit. Perhaps i could buy 2 different stocks and put 20 on each, wait a long time, like 6 months, and then if i have a huge increase I could sell off and then cover the rake, etc etc. Who cares.

Maybe i'll just play minecraft and watch movies :]

-37 bucks

2011-04-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

Bubbled a bunch of 1-11 dollar rush MTT's. Playing alot of minecraft. Started my own server. The IP for that is 76.103.9.16, come play.

Won a 4 dollar rush tournament today

2011-04-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

woot woot. Bagged 180 dollars for first! Pretty nice little score for me. Brings my bankroll up to 400 bucks, which is great. Only 100 dollars away from my tour target. Really good progress for the amount of time and amount of money I've risked. I've also worked out the last couple days and take some fancy vitamins now so I will feel better for Zero Progress's 35 day US tour. boom!

Blah, good day/bad day

2011-04-08T00:51:00.000-07:00

I got 4th in a 4 dollar rush tourny, bagged $111. I lost 3 all in coin flips at that final table but I played well. Just got 7th in a 1 dollar rush tourny for a measly $11. First in that one was 100 bucks so that was a bummer. These tournys are extremely fishy and most players have huge glaring holes in their games. So my bankroll is up to $268. Good progress.

10th.... :[

2011-04-07T01:49:00.000-07:00

Full Tilt Poker Game #29695299581: $10,000 Rush Guar (Rebuy) (230622826), Table 23 - 14000/28000 Ante 3500 - No Limit Hold'em - 04:47:35 ET - 2011/04/07
Seat 1: seegaard (2,220,183)
Seat 2: dedBanch (4,835,627)
Seat 3: ItghtyouhadKK (769,794)
Seat 4: xThePokerPunkx (599,682)
seegaard antes 3,500
dedBanch antes 3,500
ItghtyouhadKK antes 3,500
xThePokerPunkx antes 3,500
dedBanch posts the small blind of 14,000
ItghtyouhadKK posts the big blind of 28,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to xThePokerPunkx [4c Tc]
xThePokerPunkx raises to 84,000
seegaard folds
dedBanch raises to 168,000
ItghtyouhadKK folds
xThePokerPunkx calls 84,000
*** FLOP *** [Jh 4h Ts]
dedBanch checks
xThePokerPunkx bets 140,000
dedBanch raises to 392,000
xThePokerPunkx raises to 428,182, and is all in
dedBanch calls 36,182
xThePokerPunkx shows [4c Tc]
dedBanch shows [Kd Kh]
*** TURN *** [Jh 4h Ts] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 4h Ts 7h] [6h]
xThePokerPunkx shows two pair, Tens and Fours
dedBanch shows a flush, King high
dedBanch wins the pot (1,234,364) with a flush, King high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,234,364 | Rake 0
Board: [Jh 4h Ts 7h 6h]
Seat 1: seegaard (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: dedBanch (small blind) showed [Kd Kh] and won (1,234,364) with a flush, King high
Seat 3: ItghtyouhadKK (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: xThePokerPunkx showed [4c Tc] and lost with two pair, Tens and Fours
Seat 5: MasterAmir folded before the Flop
Seat 6: dedBanch folded before the Flop
Seat 7: ponyboygreek24 collected (167,500), mucked

Lost to a runner runner flush. Man that stings. Won 100 bucks but it was not worth it. Damn I was so close.... bubbled the final table and everything. He had me preflop but all the money went in with me ahead... er. I was a 64 percent favorite to win the hand. That one hand would have made such a big difference in the money I made. So sad to get so close. 13,000 entrants [including rebuys] and I get 10th. bummmmmmer. Bankroll up to 180. Which is great because I only put in 10 bucks yesterday but theres is no way to be happy when I could have binked this tourny, won 2700 and had hella money to tour the US. Fiddle sticks!

oh well.

1 dollar buy in to 100 bucks. Played for like 6 hours or some shit. 7-8 actually.

man. That type of opportunity only comes up once in a blue moon, such a bummer to blow it. So hard to not think about the 2700 that was 10 spots away and the impact it would have had on my summer. Gotta get some rest. I did more than double my bankroll today by only risking 1 dollar, and I am making great progress towards my goal, but that was just a sickening experience.

Break Time

2011-04-07T00:55:00.002-07:00

Overall this 55 minute period went great. Although at the end I got rivered and lost a coin flip. I'm up to 1.2 million with the avg chipstack at 900,000. I was up to 1.8million but like I said I hit some rough spots. Also forced to fold a couple big hands in spots I thought I was beat. I'm currently 4th out of 23 left. Very slow structure with lower blinds than most tournys which should give me and has been giving me, and advantage. It allows there to be more post flop play which requires more poker know-how.

dang

2011-04-07T00:55:00.001-07:00

Full Tilt Poker Game #29694705415: $10,000 Rush Guar (Rebuy) (230622826), Table 509 - 8000/16000 Ante 2000 - No Limit Hold'em - 03:54:13 ET - 2011/04/07
Seat 1: thedeadsea (348,304)
Seat 2: xThePokerPunkx (1,414,465)
Seat 3: SelvinZ (1,453,396)
Seat 4: tarcisi1 (661,261)
Seat 5: maroon21 (131,772)
Seat 6: MasterAmir (523,711)
Seat 7: dedBanch (702,484)
Seat 8: chirindingas (1,045,655)
thedeadsea antes 2,000
xThePokerPunkx antes 2,000
SelvinZ antes 2,000
tarcisi1 antes 2,000
maroon21 antes 2,000
MasterAmir antes 2,000
dedBanch antes 2,000
chirindingas antes 2,000
xThePokerPunkx posts the small blind of 8,000
SelvinZ posts the big blind of 16,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to xThePokerPunkx [2c Tc]
tarcisi1 folds
maroon21 folds
MasterAmir raises to 40,000
dedBanch folds
chirindingas folds
thedeadsea folds
xThePokerPunkx folds
SelvinZ folds
Uncalled bet of 24,000 returned to MasterAmir
MasterAmir mucks
MasterAmir wins the pot (56,000)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 56,000 | Rake 0
Seat 1: thedeadsea (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: xThePokerPunkx (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: SelvinZ (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: tarcisi1 folded before the Flop
Seat 5: maroon21 folded before the Flop
Seat 6: MasterAmir collected (56,000), mucked
Seat 7: dedBanch folded before the Flop
Seat 8: chirindingas folded before the Flop

ugh

2011-04-07T00:53:00.001-07:00

Full Tilt Poker Game #29694674469: $10,000 Rush Guar (Rebuy) (230622826), Table 48 - 8000/16000 Ante 2000 - No Limit Hold'em - 03:51:38 ET - 2011/04/07
Seat 1: DACANES29 (1,302,600)
Seat 2: ponyboygreek24 (808,514)
Seat 3: dedBanch (456,484)
Seat 4: xThePokerPunkx (1,636,465)
Seat 5: ItghtyouhadKK (859,678)
Seat 6: seegaard (2,662,829)
Seat 7: maroon21 (242,228)
Seat 8: thedeadsea (899,760)
DACANES29 antes 2,000
ponyboygreek24 antes 2,000
dedBanch antes 2,000
xThePokerPunkx antes 2,000
ItghtyouhadKK antes 2,000
seegaard antes 2,000
maroon21 antes 2,000
thedeadsea antes 2,000
ponyboygreek24 posts the small blind of 8,000
dedBanch posts the big blind of 16,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to xThePokerPunkx [Ad Kh]
xThePokerPunkx raises to 48,000
ItghtyouhadKK folds
seegaard folds
maroon21 folds
thedeadsea has 15 seconds left to act
thedeadsea folds
DACANES29 folds
ponyboygreek24 has 15 seconds left to act
ponyboygreek24 has timed out
ponyboygreek24 folds
dedBanch has 15 seconds left to act
dedBanch calls 32,000
*** FLOP *** [Qs Th 4c]
dedBanch checks
xThePokerPunkx checks
*** TURN *** [Qs Th 4c] [Ac]
dedBanch checks
xThePokerPunkx bets 80,000
dedBanch has 15 seconds left to act
dedBanch calls 80,000
*** RIVER *** [Qs Th 4c Ac] [2h]
dedBanch has 15 seconds left to act
dedBanch bets 112,000
xThePokerPunkx calls 112,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
dedBanch shows [As 2s] two pair, Aces and Twos
xThePokerPunkx mucks
dedBanch wins the pot (504,000) with two pair, Aces and Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 504,000 | Rake 0
Board: [Qs Th 4c Ac 2h]
Seat 1: DACANES29 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: ponyboygreek24 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: dedBanch (big blind) showed [As 2s] and won (504,000) with two pair, Aces and Twos
Seat 4: xThePokerPunkx mucked [Ad Kh] - a pair of Aces
Seat 5: ItghtyouhadKK folded before the Flop
Seat 6: seegaard folded before the Flop
Seat 7: maroon21 folded before the Flop
Seat 8: thedeadsea folded before the Flop

folded 3 of a kind. Good fold i think.

2011-04-07T00:48:00.001-07:00

Full Tilt Poker Game #29694611403: $10,000 Rush Guar (Rebuy) (230622826), Table 95 - 6000/12000 Ante 1500 - No Limit Hold'em - 03:46:31 ET - 2011/04/07
Seat 1: tarcisi1 (580,261)
Seat 2: chirindingas (828,499)
Seat 3: xThePokerPunkx (1,679,965)
Seat 4: seegaard (2,382,829)
Seat 5: dedBanch (335,242)
Seat 6: MasterAmir (787,712)
Seat 7: SelvinZ (1,361,396)
Seat 8: Dirty Dano65 (1,588,866)
tarcisi1 antes 1,500
chirindingas antes 1,500
xThePokerPunkx antes 1,500
seegaard antes 1,500
dedBanch antes 1,500
MasterAmir antes 1,500
SelvinZ antes 1,500
Dirty Dano65 antes 1,500
chirindingas posts the small blind of 6,000
xThePokerPunkx posts the big blind of 12,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to xThePokerPunkx [Jh Ts]
seegaard folds
dedBanch folds
MasterAmir folds
SelvinZ has 8 seconds left to act
SelvinZ folds
Dirty Dano65 folds
tarcisi1 folds
chirindingas calls 6,000
xThePokerPunkx checks
*** FLOP *** [Js 7c 9c]
chirindingas bets 36,000
xThePokerPunkx calls 36,000
*** TURN *** [Js 7c 9c] [5c]
chirindingas checks
xThePokerPunkx bets 48,000
chirindingas raises to 96,000
xThePokerPunkx calls 48,000
*** RIVER *** [Js 7c 9c 5c] [Jd]
chirindingas bets 682,999, and is all in
xThePokerPunkx has 15 seconds left to act
xThePokerPunkx has requested TIME
xThePokerPunkx: ?
xThePokerPunkx: what do you have
xThePokerPunkx: give me a clue
xThePokerPunkx folds
Uncalled bet of 682,999 returned to chirindingas
chirindingas mucks
chirindingas wins the pot (300,000)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 300,000 | Rake 0
Board: [Js 7c 9c 5c Jd]
Seat 1: tarcisi1 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: chirindingas (small blind) collected (300,000), mucked
Seat 3: xThePokerPunkx (big blind) folded on the River
Seat 4: seegaard folded before the Flop
Seat 5: dedBanch folded before the Flop
Seat 6: MasterAmir folded before the Flop
Seat 7: SelvinZ folded before the Flop
Seat 8: Dirty Dano65 folded before the Flop

Boom goes the dynamite!

2011-04-07T00:42:00.000-07:00

Full Tilt Poker Game #29694555345: $10,000 Rush Guar (Rebuy) (230622826), Table 24 - 6000/12000 Ante 1500 - No Limit Hold'em - 03:41:48 ET - 2011/04/07
Seat 1: ponyboygreek24 (501,358)
Seat 2: seegaard (2,398,829)
Seat 3: ItghtyouhadKK (635,178)
Seat 4: ropeDoper (389,895)
Seat 5: H_larSSon24 (803,811), is sitting out
Seat 6: xThePokerPunkx (1,411,813)
Seat 7: Timid_Tom (463,176)
Seat 8: Allen Varghese (1,070,639)
ponyboygreek24 antes 1,500
seegaard antes 1,500
ItghtyouhadKK antes 1,500
ropeDoper antes 1,500
H_larSSon24 antes 1,500
xThePokerPunkx antes 1,500
Timid_Tom antes 1,500
Allen Varghese antes 1,500
seegaard posts the small blind of 6,000
ItghtyouhadKK posts the big blind of 12,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to xThePokerPunkx [Kd Ks]
ropeDoper has 8 seconds left to act
ropeDoper raises to 42,000
H_larSSon24 folds
xThePokerPunkx raises to 108,000
Timid_Tom folds
Allen Varghese folds
ponyboygreek24 folds
seegaard folds
ItghtyouhadKK folds
ropeDoper raises to 354,000
xThePokerPunkx calls 246,000
*** FLOP *** [Ac Jc 5s]
ropeDoper bets 34,395, and is all in
xThePokerPunkx calls 34,395
ropeDoper shows [Qd Qc]
xThePokerPunkx shows [Kd Ks]
*** TURN *** [Ac Jc 5s] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [Ac Jc 5s 9h] [7s]
ropeDoper shows a pair of Queens
xThePokerPunkx shows a pair of Kings
xThePokerPunkx wins the pot (806,790) with a pair of Kings
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 806,790 | Rake 0
Board: [Ac Jc 5s 9h 7s]
Seat 1: ponyboygreek24 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: seegaard (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: ItghtyouhadKK (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: ropeDoper showed [Qd Qc] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 5: H_larSSon24 folded before the Flop
Seat 6: xThePokerPunkx showed [Kd Ks] and won (806,790) with a pair of Kings
Seat 7: Timid_Tom folded before the Flop
Seat 8: Allen Varghese folded before the Flop

2nd out of 24 currently!!!

Boom!!

2011-04-07T00:22:00.001-07:00

Full Tilt Poker Game #29694316034: $10,000 Rush Guar (Rebuy) (230622826), Table 39 - 5000/10000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 03:20:56 ET - 2011/04/07
Seat 1: jallajalla12 (297,464), is sitting out
Seat 2: xThePokerPunkx (825,888)
Seat 3: chitlinfever (304,941)
Seat 4: phillywanderer (269,596)
Seat 5: I_will_not_fold (224,556)
Seat 6: pokerdiva62 (193,991)
Seat 7: elizzabethers (208,208)
Seat 8: ropeDoper (614,595)
Seat 9: chirindingas (318,018), is sitting out
jallajalla12 antes 1,000
xThePokerPunkx antes 1,000
chitlinfever antes 1,000
phillywanderer antes 1,000
I_will_not_fold antes 1,000
pokerdiva62 antes 1,000
elizzabethers antes 1,000
ropeDoper antes 1,000
chirindingas antes 1,000
xThePokerPunkx posts the small blind of 5,000
chitlinfever posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to xThePokerPunkx [2c 3c]
phillywanderer folds
I_will_not_fold folds
pokerdiva62 calls 10,000
elizzabethers folds
ropeDoper folds
chirindingas has 8 seconds left to act
chirindingas folds
jallajalla12 folds
xThePokerPunkx calls 5,000
chitlinfever checks
*** FLOP *** [3h 2d Kh]
xThePokerPunkx checks
chitlinfever checks
pokerdiva62 bets 39,000
xThePokerPunkx raises to 156,000
chitlinfever folds
pokerdiva62 raises to 182,991, and is all in
xThePokerPunkx calls 26,991
pokerdiva62 shows [Js Ks]
xThePokerPunkx shows [2c 3c]
*** TURN *** [3h 2d Kh] [4d]
*** RIVER *** [3h 2d Kh 4d] [Ah]
pokerdiva62 shows a pair of Kings
xThePokerPunkx shows two pair, Threes and Twos
xThePokerPunkx wins the pot (404,982) with two pair, Threes and Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 404,982 | Rake 0
Board: [3h 2d Kh 4d Ah]
Seat 1: jallajalla12 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: xThePokerPunkx (small blind) showed [2c 3c] and won (404,982) with two pair, Threes and Twos
Seat 3: chitlinfever (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: phillywanderer folded before the Flop
Seat 5: I_will_not_fold folded before the Flop
Seat 6: pokerdiva62 showed [Js Ks] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 7: elizzabethers folded before the Flop
Seat 8: ropeDoper folded before the Flop
Seat 9: chirindingas folded before the Flop

6th out of 36th!!

Big Hand!!!

2011-04-07T00:14:00.001-07:00

still going, check this hand out, woot woot!

Full Tilt Poker Game #29694207490: $10,000 Rush Guar (Rebuy) (230622826), Table 50 - 4000/8000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 03:11:47 ET - 2011/04/07
Seat 1: I_will_not_fold (509,000)
Seat 2: xThePokerPunkx (358,444)
Seat 3: chirindingas (363,018)
Seat 4: Dirty Dano65 (844,387)
Seat 5: feelinachange (166,611)
Seat 6: dedBanch (898,214)
Seat 7: chitlinfever (274,941)
Seat 8: phillywanderer (383,596)
Seat 9: 3kasanova (102,790)
I_will_not_fold antes 1,000
xThePokerPunkx antes 1,000
chirindingas antes 1,000
Dirty Dano65 antes 1,000
feelinachange antes 1,000
dedBanch antes 1,000
chitlinfever antes 1,000
phillywanderer antes 1,000
3kasanova antes 1,000
xThePokerPunkx posts the small blind of 4,000
chirindingas posts the big blind of 8,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to xThePokerPunkx [Qh Kd]
Dirty Dano65 folds
feelinachange folds
dedBanch folds
chitlinfever has 8 seconds left to act
chitlinfever has timed out
chitlinfever folds
phillywanderer folds
3kasanova folds
I_will_not_fold has 8 seconds left to act
I_will_not_fold raises to 16,000
xThePokerPunkx calls 12,000
chirindingas has 15 seconds left to act
chirindingas calls 8,000
*** FLOP *** [Qs Qc Kc]
xThePokerPunkx checks
chirindingas checks
I_will_not_fold checks
*** TURN *** [Qs Qc Kc] [5c]
xThePokerPunkx checks
chirindingas checks
I_will_not_fold bets 24,000
xThePokerPunkx calls 24,000
chirindingas folds
*** RIVER *** [Qs Qc Kc 5c] [2c]
xThePokerPunkx checks
I_will_not_fold bets 105,000
xThePokerPunkx raises to 317,444, and is all in
I_will_not_fold calls 212,444
*** SHOW DOWN ***
xThePokerPunkx shows [Qh Kd] a full house, Queens full of Kings
I_will_not_fold mucks
xThePokerPunkx wins the pot (739,888) with a full house, Queens full of Kings
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 739,888 | Rake 0
Board: [Qs Qc Kc 5c 2c]
Seat 1: I_will_not_fold (button) mucked [Ks Ac] - a flush, Ace high
Seat 2: xThePokerPunkx (small blind) showed [Qh Kd] and won (739,888) with a full house, Queens full of Kings
Seat 3: chirindingas (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 4: Dirty Dano65 folded before the Flop
Seat 5: feelinachange folded before the Flop
Seat 6: dedBanch folded before the Flop
Seat 7: chitlinfever folded before the Flop
Seat 8: phillywanderer folded before the Flop
Seat 9: 3kasanova folded before the Flop

7th out of 42 currently!!!!

Still in it, but not going great

2011-04-06T23:55:00.001-07:00

Full Tilt Poker Game #29693994079: $10,000 Rush Guar (Rebuy) (230622826), Table 57 - 3000/6000 Ante 750 - No Limit Hold'em - 02:52:35 ET - 2011/04/07
Seat 1: phillywanderer (565,657)
Seat 2: HSuiram (186,103)
Seat 3: 3kasanova (227,181)
Seat 4: real_dealieo (80,805)
Seat 5: xThePokerPunkx (474,254)
Seat 6: thedeadsea (530,757)
Seat 7: SelvinZ (694,962)
Seat 8: newcccp (219,560)
Seat 9: mateogalvan (205,208)
phillywanderer antes 750
HSuiram antes 750
3kasanova antes 750
real_dealieo antes 750
xThePokerPunkx antes 750
thedeadsea antes 750
SelvinZ antes 750
newcccp antes 750
mateogalvan antes 750
HSuiram posts the small blind of 3,000
3kasanova posts the big blind of 6,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to xThePokerPunkx [Qs Qh]
real_dealieo folds
xThePokerPunkx raises to 18,000
thedeadsea calls 18,000
SelvinZ folds
newcccp raises to 218,810, and is all in
mateogalvan folds
phillywanderer folds
HSuiram folds
3kasanova folds
xThePokerPunkx calls 200,810
thedeadsea raises to 530,007, and is all in
xThePokerPunkx has 15 seconds left to act
xThePokerPunkx folds
thedeadsea shows [As Ah]
newcccp shows [Jd Jh]
Uncalled bet of 311,197 returned to thedeadsea
*** FLOP *** [4d Ad Jc]
*** TURN *** [4d Ad Jc] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [4d Ad Jc 2h] [9s]
thedeadsea shows three of a kind, Aces
newcccp shows three of a kind, Jacks
thedeadsea wins the pot (672,180) with three of a kind, Aces
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 672,180 | Rake 0
Board: [4d Ad Jc 2h 9s]
Seat 5: xThePokerPunkx folded before the Flop

I was really playing great this 55 minute period, and then this hand came up. The way the first person jammed all in I put him on 77-TT so I called but when the third guy over jams after me its almost always pocket aces or kings. Blah. Horrible spot, and I think I might have been getting pot odds to call and hit a queen but I knew I was a beat and decided to try to play the tourny out with a smaller stack and rebuild. Pretty annoying to have to fold there and it sucks cause I was in 17th place now i'm in 38th out of the 54 left. Oh well, I can still make a comeback, plenty of chips. 5 minute break, then i gotta beat 54 peeps, no big deal.

Chipstack at 223,000. Average chipstack at 378,000.

Deep run in 1 dollar tourny

2011-04-06T22:57:00.000-07:00

$13,502 in the prize pool
$2,700 for first
$1,700 for second
$1,200 for third

Currently in 41st out of 112 left. 3000 players started. 10000 rebuys. I didn't rebuy or addon. Average chipstack is 186,000. I'm at 219,000. Lets do this thang!

Session one

2011-04-05T22:52:00.001-07:00

Won a tourny, 1st out of 350. One dollar buy in. Bankroll up to 88 dollars. Good start if I do say so myself.

$10 ----> $500

2011-04-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

Think I can do it? I deposited 10 bucks onto full tilt. I want to turn it into 500 and withdraw to help fund my bands summer US tour. DO I HAVE WHAT IT TAKEEEESS!?!

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

2011-03-22T03:23:00.000-07:00

So i had a bankroll of 1500 not to long ago. I lost it all besides 50 bucks. I am, and have been very sick and I mentally I lost focus and played to high of stakes. I played well, but that isn't the only thing that matters when you dont use bank roll management. Anyways. I'm not upset, Its my fault ultimately but instead of worries about it I have other things to worry about. I have midterms and I have to get better physically and mentally in order to do well in those. I have a new plan. I'm going to go back to dedication and 1 dollar HUSNGs. Perhaps I can climb my way back up the proper way. I think it would be cool if I went from 50 to 500 and used the money for tour. Like 50 to 500 by summer goal, sounds like fun. I might go for that. I min cashed two big tourneys today. ooooooh well. Sometimes you are the windshield and sometimes you are the bug.

played 50nl HU

2011-03-15T20:07:00.001-07:00

ran really shitty blew all my winnings bankroll down to 160 instead of 460. Lol oh well. Gotta go take my antibiotics, they are the same ones for people with TB or anthrax poisoning.

bad final table

2011-03-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

got deep in a 22 dollar tourny [ i said fuck br management i'm sick and dont care]. I ran well to get to the final table but at the FT I ran horrible AK < AJ and A8s < Q10 and i'm out in 6th for 360ish. What a bummer. 1st is 1400 and I would have won had those hands gone my way. Oh well.

blah

2011-03-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

been hella sick, in the hospital and shit. First day back at show. played a satty and just bubbled it, took an unlucky card on the river right in the ass, just like my latest shot of antibiotics.

weird

2011-03-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

Won a five dollar tourny into a 109 dollar toury. I wanted to just sell the ticket but it automatically put me in the tournament. I ended up losing most my chips with top pair king kicker against a set. Bad play by me kinda I guess. Then I lost a coin flip for the rest. oh well.

FUCK!

2011-03-08T18:13:00.000-08:00

just got 10th in a satellite to the nightly hundred grand [163 dollar tourny]. 9 and up get seats.

close again

2011-03-08T15:43:00.001-08:00

82nd out of 1200

poop

2011-03-08T15:13:00.001-08:00

28th out of 180

rrrr

2011-03-08T13:34:00.001-08:00

145th out of 9.9k people, top pair vs flush, fuck.

not my time

2011-03-07T21:35:00.001-08:00

Went deep in a bunch of tournys, took bad beats for ~30th place with the pots being for number 1 chip position. Also QQ < J9 on jack high flop for a huge pot in another tourny deep. No run good. Bummerzzz.

darn

2011-03-04T03:38:00.001-08:00

another bad beat deep in a tourny with 800 dollar first place. Fiddle stick. Running bad in HUSNGs as well.

Thinking about what to do. With 150 left in da bankroll and 250 left invested in horses. I'm just going to take a break/cash it all out/play 1/2/6/ dollar games but i dont really feel like playing anymore. I've been running very bad, but not tilting which is nice but its not helping. I don't know what i'm going to do. I feel crappy but at the same time dont care. I dunno. I'm questioning if i'm that good at poker anymore. I think I am and that I keep getting unlucky but its hard to tell sometimes. Maybe I should try a new game. Maybe I should stop playing poker all together. Maybe I should try harder. Maybe I should play more. Maybe I should take a break. Maybe I should cash out. Who knows? Other stuff in my life is really good so i'm very happy in general so I haven't beat myself up about this to much. And really, I have nothing to beat myself up about at all. I've bubbled hella Final Tables and shit. I've gotten bad beats on huge final hand of SNG pots. I've ran baaaaaaad. I've 2nd placed hella tournys. Everything has fallen the wrong way for me when it comes to poker.

I should prob just take a break and then go back to 1 dollar games when I come back. I go to 1500 before by doing that, whos to say I can't do it again? Wouldn't that be some discipline hahaha. Going up then down then back up without busting. Thats a good goal. I'll shoot for that.

I still have 250 in horses. They are good horses, maybe they will take first after a close photo finish? lol. Night Night.

Yo whats up?!

2011-03-03T01:21:00.001-08:00

my name is matt and I'm running 500 under ev in the last 2 weeks! Thats not including EV of deep run Final table bubbling of tournaments! My bankroll is in shatters and I'm moving down to 6 dollar games, woot woot! FML.

blah

2011-03-02T23:06:00.000-08:00

Bubbled a final table 99 < K7s. Running bad. Having a hard time staying positive.

Bad Night

2011-03-02T03:59:00.000-08:00

SNG's were blocked out tonight because of some server reschedule so I jumped on some cash tables and lost a bunch of money. I played a bit higher than I should have, but I played great. Ran bad, and lost 100-200 bucks. I guess prob around 200. It was a silly move by me, and I prob should have just not played once I found out my normal games were not running tonight. Oh well. I have a bankroll of about 600 now, but 250 of it is invested in horses so I really only have 350. This is a huge drop off from my old roll, and I'm pretty disappointed in my results. Hopefully I can turn it around soon. Good news is I never tilted which is always a good feeling.

Thinking alot about the games

2011-03-01T05:19:00.000-08:00

Online poker right now is in pretty bad shape. Well, horrible shape in comparison to 2006 etc etc for several reasons. Fish think its illegal to play online and dont want to jump through all the hoops to deposit money onto the sites. So most of the people playing are relatively good winning players, or pros. Don't get me wrong there are still fish, but its just a really hard field of players in general. Hopefully when the economy kicks up, or when poker becomes offically legal, there will be another boom and I will have sharpened my skill set enough to cash in. Until then, I'll be chomping away.

But I've been thinking alot about my HU game and how I play to basic of a winning style. Aggressive in position, cbets, 3bets, etc etc. I'm thinking about becoming more sneaky and deceptive and adapting and creating a weird new style that will catch people off guard. I'm also thinking about not playing 11's and playing 23's instead but only playing 2 tables and really focusing intensely and trying to get better. I dunno. We will see.

Downswing, but not giving up.

2011-02-28T04:35:00.000-08:00

My downswing has continued to destroy my bankroll. I've bubbled so many tournaments its disgusting. So many huge pots for 1st place with the best of it and my hands wont hold up. Some of my horses did good, some horses did bad. All in all, i'm down to a bankroll of 760. Its about half what I used to have. But you know what? I'm not upset about it. Instead, i'm going to take it as a learning experience. I've downloaded a new HUD for my poker tracking program that should help me use my information on my opponents more correctly, and I'm a goldstar this month, so lets do this thing! I'm going to grind this shit hardcore. I'm going to grind 11's again until I get back to 23's and then I'll make my big jump to 50nl HU cash, lol. One day i'll be back there and I'm going to do it right this time. Here we go!

close

2011-02-25T01:07:00.000-08:00

30/780 in a 16 buck MTT. Lost all in A8s < Q7s, it sucked. Was really close to taking down a big one. Down 150 or so bucks today, will update when im done since im still playing.

-update Went really deep in another tourny and busted before the big money. Extremely frustrating. Lost 200 dollars. Played a little bit of 2-7 triple draw to try to learn a new game. Bank roll down to 700 but I have about 160 out invested in different people. I made goldstar on pokerstars, which is good. Will help increase my rakeback next month.

Rough Day

2011-02-22T00:48:00.000-08:00

Decided to grind MTT's for a while today. I was down to 700 bucks. Bought in to a bunch of 12 dollar 180 and 45 man tourneys. Bubbled 6 of them, 3 times for the first place pot where I had the best of it. Just got second for 400 bucks. My straight got beat by a better straight. Sucks to come in second, especially when Im supposed to have the edge heads up and its happened twice. ah, oh well. Better getting 400 bucks and having my bankroll back up to 950. 12$ tourneys are pretty soft, might grind them some more on other days.

Bad day

2011-02-21T19:27:00.000-08:00

Brutal, disgusting, and discouraging EV downswing. Lost most flips, and took a ton of beats. My bankroll is down to 730. I am now moving down in stakes to 11 dollar SNGs because Im not longer rolled for 23s. Bummer. But I think this is the best course of action. Going to take a break, prob hit the tables late tonight.

2011-02-20T16:03:00.000-08:00

My EV downswing continues. Outside forces in my life are making me want to punch my computer so I'm going to stop playing because It is probably effecting my game. I'm down to a bankroll of 916, but I have some horses and a bunch off rewards and FPPs so its more like 1k. Either way its frustrating and I need to take a couple days off to get myself back in a better poker playing mindset. I've learned this lesson the hard way plenty of times. I'll update when I play again.

Out!

2011-02-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

Got it all in preflop with JJ and lost to KQoff. Bummer. I was already shortstacked so I cant tell if I was playing bad or just getting dealt a cold deck. I had a couple coolers where I was dealt a worse 3 of a kinds etc etc and I check raised bluffed big and it didn't work. Oh well. I won a satty in to the tournament so its not a big deal. I have to record a podcast soon so now I wont have to multitask that. Poker overall has been going well though, I'm up around 1200 bucks. Going to go play HUSNGs. Realistically speaking, I like going out early in tournaments if I'm not going to win, its less heartbreaking and less time consuming. Nothing is worse than playing for 7 hours and not getting anything for it.

First play period over

2011-02-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

On five minute break, lost 1700 chips during the first play period. Need to adjust to the different play styles at these higher stakes. I have a stack of 8,300 instead of 10,000 now, but that is plenty to play with. The blinds are at 50/100.

Won a ticket into the Sunday Million

2011-02-20T13:28:00.001-08:00

For those who don't know, its the biggest weekly tournament in online poker. I'm very excited and will be blogging my progress along the way.

Bummer.

2011-01-14T03:55:00.001-08:00

Worst session yet. Lost 120. A lot of bad beats and coolers. Kept my composure nicely. Wish I would have played less though because I'm pretty tired. Sometimes in poker you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug. Get em next time.

I'm working on correcting my graph, I think I found the problem, more on that later. Bankroll down to 900. No big deal, I'll make progress some other time.

Lockdown Session

2011-01-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

I want to play more poker. In order to encourage myself to do that today I did a "Lockdown" sesssion. For Xmas, my parents gave me a flip camera. So I recorded my session in an effort to learn more skills when it comes to videos, editing, uploading, hosting, etc etc since I will soon be launching a website that will host videos [punkspunkspunks.com]. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this insight into my glamorous life as a poker player.

click on "lockdown session" or "this" to watch the video on youtube.

-updated graph

Mile Marker Three

2011-01-06T16:37:00.001-08:00

I think I forgot to make a mile marker 2 post, I've been busy. I've been spending most of my time working on my upcoming zine, website, and podcast that all release on Jan 28th. I got some awesome punk d00ds to get involved, some that have been in hella documentaries and shit. I'm excited about how the site is coming along, but it takes soooooo long. I know nothing about website design or creation, but I have high standards whenever I dedicate myself to doing something so I have actually made the site 2 or 3 times over to make sure its the best I can do at this point in time. I also feel that first impressions are important and that I shouldn't release a site with a whole bunch of "coming soon" signs, cause that's lame.

Anyways, as you can see, my mind is clearly not in a poker mindset because I'm talking about punk stuff on my poker blog. So back to mile marker three. I crushed the 6 dollar games, and just started playing the 11.50 dollar games. Doing well. I'm happy with my rapid progression and controlled emotions. I hit a couple rough spots but always kept well composed, which is exciting.

The only bad news is that I haven't received any bonuses from the site, and at Full Tilt I had plenty of bonuses, so I dunno. Then I accidently withdrew 50 bucks from my account and negated one of my bonuses [which makes it feel like a scam]. Either way, I'm taking in a good amount of money so I guess its not a huge deal. But I think my poker tracking software isn't calculating things right. At least not EV. There have been a couple of times I have gotten 1 outtered for 24 bucks and the software says I'm running above EV, it also seems to say I win games that I dont and lose games that I dont so I need to fix that soon. So keep in mind that this graph is not 100 percent accurate.

Oh, I also got 2nd in a 180 person tournament and won 110 bucks. I got rivered in the final hand of the match to lose, but that's OK.

So at the end of the day, 2 months ago I deposited 100 dollars. As of the writing of this blog my bankroll is at 720 dollar. I've played 66 hours and won about 16 dollars an hour. I have payed over 100 dollars in rake, and withdrawn 50 bucks [oops]. Here is my somewhat accurate graph. I mean I dunno, maybe its more accurate than I think and I'm just getting raked a lot or something. The straight shot upwards on the graph is the 100 dollar tourny win.

In other news, I have lost 20 bucks to my little brother playing EA sports MMA, i'm not good at starcraft anymore, my older brother and I put out the Beat Guts tape, i got accused of more jerkbooth posting I didn't do, the dcoi so cal weekend is pushed back to feb, chris leben lost, frankie edgar has HART, brian stann is my hero [FRANKIE!], and wells fargo thought someone had stolen my credit card because I ordered a volkmann fight.

-xmattx

So Far So Good

2010-11-29T05:36:00.000-08:00

I've yet to run into any real hiccups in my plan to pwn nubz and crush donks. Here's a graph that proves I'm good at poker and have been getting lucky at the same time. There were no 4 dollar games so I played 6's. It went well and I'm on my way to working myself up to 12 dollar games.

Well, that was weird

2010-11-19T01:30:00.000-08:00

Today I played poker for 4 or so hours. End result? +2 dollars. I went up 20, down 50, then back to even. Weird stuff. It was my first rough patch and I think that I held it together well, which makes me happy. Anyways, the only thing that happened interesting today, besides some chemical threat at my school campus was this hand I just played.
WTF? is he serious? I mean I guess he has ten nine, right? During the hand I thought he had something like a4s or a5s. What a fucking weird play. It was a 24 dollar deciding hand, I guess I care more about 24 bucks than he does. He only had to pay 400 to win a 4000chip pot? If he had any pair I think at that point he needs to call. If not, why the hell is he calling off all of his chips like that on the turn with only a straight draw? weird stuff.

Mile Marker One

2010-11-16T18:14:00.000-08:00

Well, so far so good. I have made it to a 200 dollar bankroll, granting myself access to some of the highest stakes on the internet...4 dollar games. dun dun dunnnnn. I'm living the high stakes lifestyle, baby!

My mom and pop decided to give me food money along with the rent money they give me, so thats awesome. Now I can potentially use poker profits to fund some zero progress activity instead of just eating it.

I have yet to actually play any 4 dollar games because I just broke the 200 dollar mark and I'm tired of playing for now, been doing it for a couple hours. Listened to this song hella, gets me pumped. It reminds me of being in a band and playing poker all at the same time! Up the poker punks!

Speaking of punks, I'm going to make a website for my zine, which has been going well, and branch it out into other Punks!Punks!Punks! projects that should change the world in a very drastic way. After the launch of my site there will only be the "Pre-PunksPunksPunks.com" era and the "Post-PunksPunksPunks.com" era. Part of the reason it has taken me 2 weeks to make 50 buy ins, even though thats alot, is the fact that I've been splitting my time between poker and learning more about my newly stolen software, Adobe Flash. It should help me with some aspects of my website which I'm not talking about yet cause they are epic as fukkkkkk.

Anyways, here's my stats.

Winnings: +134
$/hr: 8.64
Games played: 98

Back at it, new outlook

2010-11-11T02:01:00.000-08:00

After a break from poker, I realized that it was all that was keeping me from having to get a job. I don't want to get a job. Quick fix? Play poker!

Anyways, I have a new outlook on poker. I feel a supreme confidence in my ability to control my emotions, and think that will be what helps me rise up. As far as poker goes, I'm ready to take it head on, I want to be a better player, I want to crush others and take their stacks, I want to pwn scrub nubz.

I am more patient, confident, and emotionally cool. I also believe that my life is more well rounded now, and poker will not play a role in my mood [as much, if any].

I used to jump stakes, take on the world, fight an uphill battle, prove to myself I could beat better players. Now I'm playing to make money. Boom. I want to fight easy battles, and rake in da dough. My biggest opponent this time around will be myself, and my discipline.

I've gone back and forth on the idea of even blogging this time around. When you win people get jealous and act like you won money on a scratcher, and when you lose people tell you that you are a gambling addict [I bet you i'm not one]. But I decided for my own personal record, and for the dedicated fans [noah and chris], I will continue to blog. So here's what's happened so far.

I deposited about a week ago. 100 big ones. I'm only playing 2 dollar games. 50 buy in bankroll is playing it ridiculously safe, which should help me keep my cool. So far I've played 70 or so games and have made 10$/hr. Getting raked feels about the same as getting raped, so I don't have all my winnings to keep for myself, but so far i'm up about 80 bucks. Heres my graph so far.

as you can see i've been playing well, and running well. But I feel confident that I can handle the run bad better this time around. Soon I will be able to make my first jump up in stakes to a whopping.......4 dollar buy in! woot woot!

until next time,

-the poker PUNK

UFC 119 Bets

2010-09-24T02:52:00.001-07:00

I'm going to record some of my gambling on this blog. Here's what going down.

Date placed:
Sep 21, 2010 2:37p Single #186270595 (Placed by Web)
Mixed Martial Arts (Game) Moneyline
September 25th, 2010 -Ultimate Fighting Championships 119 -Conseco Field House in Indianapolis, Indiana
Both must fight for action.
(106) Frank Mir -275 Sat@8:55p
Competitor:(107) Mirko Filipovic
Risk US$ 9.00 to win US$ 3.27

Personally, I think this is an easy pick. The price I paid [risking nine to win 3] is pretty steep but I'm still confident that Mir is going to win so I'm ok with it. Mir has been working a lot on his boxing, and shown huge improvements, knocking out the likes of cheick kongo [k1 striker] and big nog [pro boxer]. I think that this will be sufficient enough to have it be a stalemate standing up.

But that's not how I see this fight happening. My guess is Mir stands for a bit, gets Crocop thinking about punches etc etc, and takes him down. A little ground and pound and cropcop taps to some submission.

Crocop has an injured eye, possibly nerve damage in his right arm, and took the fight on short notice. He is old and slow.

I love crocop, I want him to win, but he wont. Mir via sub in round 2.
Date placed:
Sep 21, 2010 2:56a Single #186245549 (Placed by Web)
Mixed Martial Arts (Game) Moneyline
September 25th, 2010 - Ultimate Fighting Championships 119 - Conseco Field House in Indianapolis, Indiana
Both must fight for action.
(186) Matt "The Terror" Serra +110 Sat@7:10p
Competitor:(187) Chris "Lights Out" Lytle
Risk US$ 5.00 to win US$ 5.50

This is basically a toss up. They fought before and Serra edged out a decision victory. Lytle has progressed a lot since that fight, but so has Serra. Serra has more power in his fist, but it may not matter because Lytle is a fucking beast, and never gets finished. It could go either way, but I think that Serra's punching power, along with the fact I got him as a slight underdog makes him the right bet here.
Date placed:
Sep 21, 2010 2:16a Single #186245426 (Placed by Web)
Mixed Martial Arts (Game) Moneyline
September 25th, 2010 - Ultimate Fighting Championships 119 - Conseco Field House in Indianapolis, Indiana
Both must fight for action.
(184) Ryan "Darth" Bader -165 Sat@7:40p
Competitor:(185) Antonio Rogerio "Minotoro" Nogueira
Risk US$ 8.25 to win US$ 5.00

"oh come on man, little nog man, hes so good, pride and shit." Yeah whatever, fuck off. Little Nog sucks at wrestling, Bader is an all american wrestler from ASU. Bader is going to take him down and ground and pound the shit outta him. TKO.

Bader says he is not afraid of standing, which is pretty dumb, but whatever. Maybe he will get rocked on his fight just enough to realize he needs to go for the takedown.

Little Nog, psssst. I mean did you see what Jason Brilz, the untrained fire fighter, did to little nog? That shit was embarrassing. Pride days are over my friend.
Date placed:
Sep 21, 2010 1:33a Single #186245283 (Placed by Web)
Mixed Martial Arts (Game) Moneyline
September 25th, 2010 - Ultimate Fighting Championships 119 - Conseco Field House in Indianapolis, Indiana
Both must fight for action.
(198) TJ Grant -150 Sat@4:15p
Competitor:(199) Julio Paulino
Risk US$ 2.00 to win US$ 1.33

Funny story behind this one. I know nothing about either fighter, but I played starcraft with a guy recently and we got to talking about UFC. He told me that TJ Grant was his friend from highschool and said he is knows BJJ and Muay Tai, those are two of my favorite styles, so I put a bet on him. Starcraft rules!
Date placed:
Sep 21, 2010 1:33a Single #186245280 (Placed by Web)
Mixed Martial Arts (Game) Moneyline
September 25th, 2010 - Ultimate Fighting Championships 119 - Conseco Field House in Indianapolis, Indiana
Both must fight for action.
(194) Matt "Meat" Mitrione -145 Sat@4:15p
Competitor:(195) Joey "Mexicutioner" Beltran
Risk US$ 5.00 to win US$ 3.45

Matt Mitrione by ground and pound. I think that Matt Mitrione is going to start moving up in the ranks if he keeps improving, which he seems to have been doing a lot lately.

My role in the poker world

2010-09-15T04:24:00.000-07:00

I have been playing poker almost everyday for about 2 weeks. I made ZERO PROGRESS hahaha. Literally never won never lost. Always stayed breakeven. I got sick of it and sat at the 50nl tables heads up. I played great. Lost a 150 dollar pot when I had 2 pair and my opponent spiked a better 2 pair on the river after the all in on turn. I laughed. I took my big shot and I got rivered. It really doesn't matter. I have lost my passion to play poker, along with much of my skill set that is needed to win. I looked at my all time stats. I'm up about 2k still. lolz. I have been losing for a year and still haven't become an all time loser. I'm going on hiatus, but that doesn't really matter because I wasn't doing much anyways. I'm getting better at starcraft which is fun.

I'm going to take a minimum 30 day break before I even think about online poker again, and even at that point, I doubt I'll be back. I dunno why, just moved on I guess.

I'm not all that great of a player anymore and I don't have a strong enough drive to get better.

Right now I feel like this may be a serious turning point as far as poker goes. The only thing I could see making me want to play again is if it is made legal, since there would be alot of fish then. We will see. Until then, I will return to this blog when I feel like it, which will prob be a while. see ya!

the good and the bad

2010-08-24T14:19:00.001-07:00

good news: I have a new monitor for grinding 10+ tables of the micro limits. Played for about an hour, did great.

bad news: my apt's internet connection is unbearably bad. I need to wire it or something. I can't play like that anymore.

New Roll

2010-08-12T02:31:00.000-07:00

100 dollar bankroll deposited today. Got 9th outta 135. Got unlucky 2 times in the row for the last two hands to be eliminated. Oh well. I broke even on the night, so not too bad.

My band, Zero Progress, has a record out, and we are going on tour. See ya in a week!

Also, I applied for some poker jobs with this article, I was denied, so enjoy!

The shadow of a short stack

Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, the most recognizable professional poker player to make the November Nine in this year's World Series Of Poker "Main Event", will be seventh in chips when play resumes November 7th. Overcoming a massive field of 7,319 players is no easy task, as any multi-table tournament player will tell you, but this is not the first time that Mizrachi has accomplished such a feat at this year's World Series Of Poker.

In the WSOP's $50,000 buy-in "Players Championship" Michael Mizrachi finished first, bringing home a prize of $1,559,046. Amazingly, Michael was not the only Mizrachi to make the final table at that particular tournament. Michael's brother, Robert, who is also a proficient poker player, took fifth after battling on the felt with his own flesh and blood, Michael Mizrachi. This is the first time in history that anyone has made the final table of both the WSOP's "Players Championship" and the "Main Event" in the same year.

With Mizrachi racking up the final tables and making poker headlines world wide, the 8 other players have seemed to fade into the shadows. Jonathan Duhamel, the 23 year old with a lifetime WSOP and circuit earnings of only $43,000, is currently in first place with a monster stack of 65,975,000 in chips. Mizrachi only has 14,450,000 in chips and he is the one casting the shadow over Duhamel's big stack.

It's one thing to be the star of the table, but can Mizrachi accomplish what Phil Ivey, who is generally accepted as the world's greatest poker player, could not?

Last year it was Phil Ivey who was the one coming into the final table as the well known professional who was seventh place in chips. He was the one the poker community was pulling for, the one that the media was interviewing and interested in. This year all that weight is put on the shoulders of Michael Mizrachi. Will he crumble under the pressure, or will he soar into poker history by shipping that $8,944,138 first place prize?

In November, we find out.
- The Poker Punk

Downhill

2010-07-22T05:27:00.000-07:00

I continue to stumble downhill when it comes to poker. I would say at this point it is somewhere like 60-80 percent bad luck and the rest is me playing bad since I'm off my game since I keep getting unlucky. I'm not quite sure what to do, but for now, its nothing. As my poker roll has dwindled into nothingness, and I don't quite feel like starting from scratch.

It's kinda sad. I feel like this downswing is too overwhelming and all encompassing to push through. Poker has become part of my identity, so it sucks when I fail. I don't like losing when I give it my all. It was so much fun when I went on my 38 dollar to 5k hotstreak. hahah. Oh well. I need to learn to spend my time in different ways, as all my money for playing poker is gone. Maybe I will deposit 20 or 40 bucks and try to stick to 1 dollar games. Who knows? Not me.

I have like 450 ish invested into my record label, which is really where alot of the money went. The rest was spent on food and entertainment. It has been nice not having to ask my parents for money when I want to eat something this year.

I've been planning to sell my car back to my mom to pay for my bands tour. Hopefully that will provide some more liquidity that can keep me afloat.

Tonight I lost 200 in a home game. That sucked. I can beat the game, but had some poor luck. I wish things would start turning my way, but that's out of my control.

I know I can turn 38 bucks into 500 in a month. Maybe I should try that again. then again. then play 50nl heads up. I dunno, sounds like alot of work and dedication. Actually. Fuck it. Why not? I bet I can make 8 bucks an hour pretty easy hahaha. I should probably do that.

I'll take a little break maybe, and then go back to my roots. That's the new speculative plan.

Professional Coin Flipper

2010-07-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

I reached step 4 [75 bucks] played a cash pay out 45 man tourny. Busted out in 15th place when my AK lost to JJ all in preflop. I was pretty close to winning a min of 150, max of 1,200. I seem to be losing most coinflips recently. Oh well.

My band has a show so I cant play my homegame tomorrow.

Its silly how bad my poker is going. I'm happy to keep my misfortune in that area of my life, since everything else is going great.

20 bucks left in the account, but that's cause I cashed out most a couple days ago.

No Use

2010-07-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

Well folk, I am still on a big downswing. Kinda wondering if I pissed on an Indian grave or something on accident. I personally don't believe that certain people are lucky and others are not, but I do believe that things happen in streaks when it comes to poker, and this is my bad streak.

I decided to play step tournaments. Got 100 bucks worth of tickets. Realised you can't refund them for money. Had to keep playing. Got to step 4 [75 bucks]. I got consisently and brutally unlucky. I don't feel like recalling the exact hands but alot of them were a 1 in ~400 chance of happening. Lost in a lot of the tournaments.

Only have a step 3 and step 2 ticket left. What a joke.

Its kinda funny that the worst downswing in my life came when I stopped using my poker tracker. So I don't know exactly how bad it is, but if I had to guess I would say online I'm about -650 ev and offline I'm somewhat even because I have ran decent in my homegame. But did lost a 1k pot 1010>AA. So maybe -100 or -200 ev. I dunno. Just silly. Its a frustrating game sometime. I'm not sure if I'm going to use my last ticket. Maybe for a rush SNG. I'm playing a home game weds and maybe that will go well.

Sometimes You're The Windshield

2010-07-04T07:23:00.001-07:00

And sometimes you're the bug. That's life. I've been on a unfortunate, but very real downswing. Murphy s law has been in full effect when its come to cards lately, but that's OK. My girlfriend and I are celebrating 4 years and my band is about to go on tour. I'm a happy camper, just not such a lucky one. But we all have our days and if there is one thing I've learned from poker is not to let these things get to you.

I withdrew all my funds from my FTP account leaving only 100 bucks. I need the money for comfort room in my real life account. I also won a couple hundo in sportsbetting which I will be withdrawing as soon I get through the stupid entangled process that is getting your money from scummy bookies.

I have a live home game on weds. Hopefully I can get something going there. If not, whatever.

hmm

2010-06-27T06:24:00.001-07:00

Lost 50 bucks playing poker today. I ran extremely bad, but also made some bad plays. I'm sad that I can't manage to get any sort of upswing going, but I'm keeping a cool head, and keeping my roll alive so that I at least have a chance. Hope it goes better on later days.

Although my poker life is kinda in the shitter, my real life has been really fun lately. My band played a show on TV, My girlfriend might be able to live with me, and I'm having alot of fun hanging out with friends and family during the summer time.

wow

2010-06-22T04:07:00.000-07:00

Played really well tonight. I almost always got my money in good, and pulled off alot of bluffs. I lost 150 bucks. Feels shitty. I can't fault my plays though. I also used good bankroll management. I did everything right and just had a horrible run of luck. I'm starting to get sick of online poker, I like live more. But I don't know.

I'm sad because my girlfriend is moving out, and I'm not making alot of money. Oh well.

Maybe things will turn around. I picked almost all winners at the last UFC. Won 40 or so bucks.

My MMA Picks

2010-06-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

Check it out. I'll update with wins/losses after the fights tonight.

erg..

2010-06-19T05:50:00.000-07:00

I played the MSOP event 35. 100 buck buy in heads up tourny. I bubbled it. FML. I then played two 44 dollar sng's. caught some bad luck. FML. down to a bankroll of 500 bucks. Feel like an idiot. I hate doing shit like that.

I'm good at poker, I'm not good at grinding.

I won 300 at my home game.

my computer is fucked up and needs to get repaired some I'm not going to be able to play for a while. I wish I didn't get unlucky in that MSOP event. One hand away from 366 dollar pay day min.

Fuck dude. I would rather be lucky than good. Don't really believe in luck tho. Who cares.

Go Hamill!

The Good, The Bad, And The Foreign Players

2010-06-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

I run really bad sometimes. I hate losing consistently when I get it in with the best hand. Sucks. But today I played so fucking good it didn't matter! Although I should have won more, I'm up almost a hundred bucks, and after looking at my hold 'em manager I have swore myself off the drug that is 22 dollar HUSNG's. 11's all day long baby!

Here is a graph of only my 11's. I would put up a 22 one, but you can just flip this one upside down if you want to see that shit...fml.
Anyways, check it out!

In other news, I have been getting a lot of attitude at the tables lately, and having funny convos since I'm the only american still awake playing 11's. This one guy was really nice tonight and said some funny stuff. I played him a couple of times and beat him every time I think, not sure.

"Amadeus7778: u are one of the best heads up players i ve ever had"

Yeah that's right! That shit should be on my front page, like a review! And you also read right when you read that hes "had" me. Amadeus7778 and my night was magical in case you were wondering.

But they aren't all nice.

Dealer: xThePokerPunkx wins the pot (1,160) with a pair of Kings
Dealer: greekmaf86 finishes in 4th place
xThePokerPunkx: gg
greekmaf86: @#$! u

Ever wonder what it feels like to talk to yourself?

Dealer: ZoLa6 wins the pot (1,660) with three of a kind, Twos
xThePokerPunkx: kinda funny
xThePokerPunkx: i was thinking how i have been dodging alot of outs lately
xThePokerPunkx: and how if a 2 came on river it would make sense
...ZoLa6: je parle pas ta langue

And one of the funniest was one I unfortunately didn't get the chance to copy, but it went something like this.

[xthepokerpunkx wins the final pot of the match cause he is a balla poker genius]
Xthepokerpunkx: GG
11dollarBJ's: GG? what good? You play lotto. You play j7 off suit like AA. You are me fish. You fish to me.
Xthepokerpunkx: wanna play 50nl heads up?
11dollarBJ's: Not with fish like you.
Xthepokerpunkx: Why wouldn't you want to play a fish heads up?
11dollarBJ's: No play fish like you. Fucking pandafish!

It was amazing! He called me a pandafish! hahahahaha!

Back on track

2010-06-09T18:29:00.001-07:00

Got all that silly shit out of my system. Rededicated and crushing. Bankroll up to 630 and looking forward to grinding some more.

Fucking Shit

2010-06-09T02:01:00.000-07:00

Ran bad, played bad, jumped to 22's, played better, ran worse.

Down two something on the day. Bankroll at 520 and spirits crushed. Going to go watch hot tub time machine.

----Update----

Played some more 22's, played good, ran bad. Sunk down to 400 before rededicating myself to 11's. Back up to 550. I'm feeling alot better and convinced I can grind out a profit at 11's.....Fuck, just saying that makes me cringe. Oh well. I have to beat this level to get to the next one. One day! Soon you will see a post saying "Boom baby! I'm up to 1k and going to play 22's" hahaha. We will see.

Day 2

2010-06-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of grinding 11 dollar HU SNG's. I'm up 200 bucks total, bringing my bankroll to 800. Above are my stats so far. Even though this is a laughable small sample size, when you weigh into consideration my performance at other heads up games, I think this graph still shows a reasonable trend.

Thanks to bonuses from to deposits I'm up to 200 bucks, but I have only made about 140 or so after rake was taken out. So weirdly enough I probably made close to 200, had some taken, then had some given back. But the bonuses run out soon, but then my rakeback kicks in. Rakeback is only 27 percent, but it will still help. I hate rake.

I had a major itch to play higher today, but instead of actually doing it I used it as a motivator mentally to say "Make it to 1k Matt, then you can play 22's". It worked well.

In other news, Phil laak has been playing poker for 111 hours last time I checked. He has slept or left the table for more than 5 minutes the whole time. Intense.

Chugging Along

2010-06-06T03:01:00.001-07:00

And at a good pace I might add. I'm up 130 dollars today after about 2-3 hours of work. I feel great, I'm playing great. I'm not just playing shootouts anymore, I also just playing 1v1 11 dollar heads up SNG's. I found that I save time because I don't have to wait for the other match to be over.

I'm running decent, and making good moves. I'm happy with some of the adjustments I've made to my game. Card runners has been good, but not great. I watch the videos and learn cool stuff, but not stuff I can apply to much to my level of play. Infact, I think that higher level thinking has really been my downfall as of late. I just figured out that every single person that plays 11 dollar SNG's is mentally handicapped and doesn't think about shit besides their cards and the cards on the board. The higher level stuff really was losing me money. I was trying to bluff players who didn't understand what hands I was representing etc etc.

I'm playing a really transparent, straight forwardish, yet still confusing, style. I call it donk buster mode.

Anyways. I have dug myself into quite a whole, but my spirits are high, and I plan on slowly grinding these 11 dollar games until I'm up to about 1k, then moving onto 22's. That's a crazy large bankroll for those games, but that's the point.

I have 100 percent stuck to 11 dollar games, and I think this has helped. I'm trying to increase my discipline.

Preparing

2010-06-05T05:25:00.001-07:00

Vegas was fun, I played underage at the Sahara. I played really well but lost 200 bucks. No big deal, I got my money in good and thats all you can do.

I have a free week of card runners and I'm studying heads up tactics to take down the weak competition at the 11 dollar level. I just got done experimenting with a new style and it was working really well. Im down 35 bucks because I ran bad, but thats ok.

Hopefully I can really get better at poker. I want to crush 11 dollar sngs. It shouldn't be too hard. I'll update on my progress.

Off to Vegas!

2010-06-01T03:50:00.000-07:00

Sadly, I won't be playing in any WSOP events since im too young, I also won't be playing poker. So... yeah. But it should be tons of fun to hang with my girlfriend and her family. I deposited 600 on FTP today. Im down 60 bucks so far, but I feel confident that I can do well.

I lost every MMA bet I made besides rashad over rampage. If diego sanchez wasn't such a fucking bum then I would be a rich man. -18 or so dollars total on sports betting.

Crushing Live Poker

2010-05-28T05:55:00.000-07:00

**Red text indicates political ranting, skip if you want.

I have not had a losing session of live poker since my very first one when I turned 18 and didn't know much about poker. I just won 400 at a local home game. It's a lot of fun to play live and feel the cards and the chips, look at people's faces, etc etc. Last night I got fairly lucky and caught cards when I got caught bluffing, but I still think I played great by staying aggressive and using position to my advantage. I played one hand really well by checking quads on every street and with a little acting convinced the whole table I didn't have a hand.

I started my live roll at 300 and its now around 800, and after I go to Vegas and see if I can sneak my way into some cash games, I will be depositing on FTP to play heads up cash games. I hope that come June 1st when online poker deposits and withdraws are regulated by banks I can still get my money on and off the sites. What a joke. Yay for invasive government intervention into peoples lives, right? What's the point? Do they think it will help stop addicted gamblers? Addicts will drive to Indian casinos and blow their social security it doesn't matter if you block their deposits onto poker sites, all it does it make the games less fishy, and keeps normal people from having a good time playing America's card game of choice. Fuck you.

Also, why the hell do I have to be 21 to play poker? Wtf? Its a card game, I'm 18, let me in. I mean I know there is alcohol at the tables but who gives a shit. Who in this country is still pretending 18 year old's don't drink because laws stop them? haha. I don't drink anyways, because it turns you into a word slurring, stumbling, bad decision making moron. You may take that as "haha this kid thinks he is above drinking", well guess what, I am. You know why? Because drinking is what weak people do at the end of the day in their shitty lives so they can deal with how much the rich and powerful people fuck them in the ass day in and day out. Marx probably had some wine after he was done writing that "religion was the opium of the masses". But why do we have to be 21 to drink anyways? I'm old enough to get a uniform and fight, but I'm not old enough to drink?

I'm sick of the government stopping me from doing things I enjoy. I'm also sick of giving them 5 bucks when I buy video games, why do they deserve that anyways? I guess they build the roads that let me get to the store and all that good stuff, but they just seem to fuck everything up for me and I hate seeing the tax I pay on everything.

That's one of the reasons I never understood why my fellow punk rockers are all pro big government institutions. They always fuck up, why give them more to fuck up with?

You may argue that we need them bigger so they can stop the big companies from fucking up, but when you make the government bigger its the same stupid assholes from the companies, or at least their buddies. So aren't they going to fuck it up anyways.

/rant

Sorry. Back to what this blog is about. . .

BETTING ON MMA!

haha. I have been really good at picking fights, but then I always blow the money I make on the stupid casino games/bad bank roll management on soft poker game. So I decided that I'm going to make a sports betting account, and only use it for that, and I'm not going to overextend myself. I'm going to use poker styled bankroll management on sportsbetting.

So here are my picks for the fights on Saturday, and why I picked them.

I Bet $5.00 to win $26.39 on a 3 team parlay with Mike Russow beating Todd Dufee, Antonio "Little Nog" Nogueira beating Jason Brilz, and Diego Sanchez beating John Hathaway.

Why?
Well, Todd Duffee is a young up and coming guy who has knocked out all of his opponents in the first round. Normally I like to bet for that kind of guy, but the odds are very bad for his side. Russow has a huge experience advantage, and has a better ground game and ju jitsu and wrestling base. I think that this will lead to Russow winning by submission in round 2 after Duffee runs of gas when he gets winded from charging out of the gates in round one. Although I have no reason to think Duffee doesn't have a good gas tank, I don't have any reason to think he does, and Russow was a huge underdog with good odds, and its easy to bet on him with his experience advantage. I almost called off the bet when I heard that Duffee is out of Couture's camp, but then I decided to just hope he wasn't paying enough attention while Couture was explaining how to control fighters by using the cage.

Little Nog and Diego Sanchez are easy picks to win their fights. I wanted to just parlay the both of them, but then my 5 dollars only wins 3.80 more. That's pretty lame. So I made it a bit more exciting by adding on Russow, who I think can pull this one off.

I bet $3.00 to win $38.34 that M.Russow wins in round 2

Why?
Why the hell? Shit look at those odds. hahaha, no I had some reasoning to this one too. I think that Duffee might get tired and Russow will make him tap in round 2. I also predict a north south choke!

I bet $5.00 to win $11.00 that T.Duffee wins in round 1

Why?
Well, at least this way if Duffee just steam rolls Russow I can jump out of my seat with excitement and win some money. I think this is a plus expected value way of hedging my bets, but I'm not sure since I'm new to sports betting. If someone wants to let me know if this is a horrible bet let me know, but I think it seems good.

I bet $5.00 to win $7.75 that Dan Miller beats Michael Bisping

Why?
Kinda because I want to root for bisping to lose, and kinda because I think miller has good value as an underdog. He seems well rounded. This fight should be a close one. I don't think Bisping has dynamite in his hands or anything, and Miller has a better ground game. I'm thinking Miller makes a boring 3 round decision victory.

I bet $2.00 to win $35.00 that D.Miller wins in round 3

Why?
I did this bet for a very specific reason actually. I'm thinking that this can come out of only a couple situations. The main one is that Miller feels he can stand up with Bisping, so he does for the first round. He does and loses round one. He tries to go to the ground in round 2, it works, but Bisping makes it out of the round tired on his back. Now it's round three and both fighters think it's close, and no one wants it to go to the cards. Bisping opens up his game and throws some wild punches that lead to takedowns. Take downs lead to submissions. BOOM! Or Bisping rocks Miller and when he smells blood and goes for the kill throwing wild standing punches to a downed Miller, Miller catches an arm or something.

I bet $10.00 to win $9.09 that Rashad Evans beats Quinton "Rampage" Jackson

Why?
This is the main event of the night. I was really pumped to be able to bet on Evans at around even money. I think that he is a big favorite to win this fight. Rampage is going to have ring rust. He has been dodging this fight for some time. Rampage may have less endurance after doing an A-team movie, and not training as hard. He may have put on more silly muscle to look good for the movie that isn't good for fighting. He is old as fuck, and may just be looking for a pay check.

A lot of the online betting sites are saying "Bet Rampage!". I dunno. I think they do that so that people bet rampage and then they get better odds on Evans. haha. Anyways, I like my side of this bet, and feel that Evans is going to win. The ten dollar bet may look small, but when you think about me trying to be conservative and using bankroll management, I'm willing to put 20 percent of my sportbetting account on Evans for the win because I'm confident he has an edge. I'm not saying its going to be a shoe in or anything, but I think win or lose this is a good bet.

And I also bet $1.00 to win $10.75 that R.Evans wins in round 2

Why?
Shit man, 10 to 1? That means its a good bet if it happens ten percent of the time right? If there are 3 rounds then the fight ends randomly 33 percent of the time in the second round. But that's the math side, what about the fight dynamic side?

I could see the first round being some light feeling out and counter punching for a good 2:30, with action after that. Rashad out boxes/maneuvers Rampage the rest of the time. Rampage is a old out of shape actor who is winded in round two and gets his bitch ass knocked out!

haha shit, I should up my bet on this one.

In total I am risking $31.00 to win $138.32. But I can't actually win that much since I bet agaisnt myself a couple times. I can probably win a maximum of 120 or so.

Well, those are all my bets. I may do a couple parlays on under card fights for fun, but not sure. I will post how I did after the fights.

End of the Road

2010-05-23T02:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I have busted yet another bankroll. I'm having a streak of bad luck and its definitely effecting my confidence in my game. Although I'm down 600 dollars, I don't feel that bad. I really did play good most of the time, although I did play beyond my bankroll. Nothing too crazy though, highest was 44 dollar shootouts, no roll on the table stuff until the end.

I got invited to a poker game on Wednesday and I'm hoping to make some good money. I have a live roll of 450 and I'm hoping to double that and then make a 1k deposit to play 50nl heads up after watching some Cardrunner videos. If I lose that, then I might just enjoy the summer playing video games.

I have made a decent amount of money this year in my spare time away from my school work that has allowed me to live a pretty cool lifestyle while in college. But, I have been spending more than I'm making at poker, and in poker you need money to make money, so inevitability I will at one point be broke and have to rely on my parents for da cash. I'm hoping to prolong/prevent that from happening but in the end it wouldn't be the end of the world. Most college students are like that, or they have minimum wage jobs.

I hope I don't have to do either of those things, so here's my last ditch effort to prolong that from happening.

- Win on weds, hopefully around 500 [haha] turning my bankroll from 450 to 950.
- Use my one week of free cardrunner videos to watch videos none stop of heads up cash game, fine tuning my game.
- Use the 1k on FTP to beat 50nl HU

This is a very optimistic plan, that is going to have to invlove me not getting very unlucky, but hopefully it all works out. It would be really sweet if it did!

If not, I'm going to go back to the days of 2 dollar poker just for shits and giggles, perhaps making a repeat attempt at my 1 month 500. Actually, I'm for sure going to do that if I lose. If I lose on weds I'm going to deposit what I have left [if none then 50 bucks] and make 500 in a month, that sounds like a good plan. In fact that sounds like a great plan. So here is the finalized version.

Plan A:
- Win on weds, hopefully around 500 [haha] turning my bankroll from 450 to 950.
- Use my one week of free cardrunner videos to watch videos none stop of heads up cash game, fine tuning my game.
- Use the 1k on FTP to beat 50nl HU

===In the event of a losing session Wednesday===
Plan B:
- deposit left of bankroll onto FTP
- play STRICTLY, swear on my grandmas life 4 dollar shootouts.
- repeat 1 month 5 hundred
- perhaps 2 months in a row?
- use 1k to play 50nl heads up

BOOM!

that's the plan folks, either way I'm at 50nlheads up cash games. Plan A I'm there in a week, Plan B I'm there in 2-3 months.

lose lose lose

2010-05-22T14:49:00.001-07:00

back down to 250.

argh

2010-05-22T05:34:00.001-07:00

I just played great, but lost a bunch of money, hate it when that happens. I thought I was over running bad for a while, guess not. Down to a bankroll of 345. Was at 430. fuck my LIFE dude. Oh well.

Grinding it back

2010-05-22T02:39:00.000-07:00

After a late night session I have grinded my way back to only being down 170. Its a big improvement, and I did it playing 11 dollar heads up shootouts. I will be playing these from now on. The competition is just as soft as 6, and it keeps my attention more.

I also won 15 dollars playing Celo. It is by far my 2nd favorite form of gambling. Meh, maybe third, second being betting MMA. Its just a really fun game to play with some friends and low stakes. There is no skill/strategy, but its fun.

down 320

2010-05-21T13:30:00.001-07:00

cant win.

down 250

2010-05-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

woot woot fuck my life

Down 127

2010-05-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

good start to the summer, right?

hey

2010-05-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

grinded a bit today. Up 34 bucks.

Started Grinding 6 dollar shootouts

2010-05-19T02:02:00.000-07:00

I'm going to grind my bankroll from 600 to somewhere around 1k on 6 dollar shootouts. I'm trying this new method of having 100 buy ins, so it doesn't matter how shitty I run. Speaking of which, I'm off to a rough start only making 12 dollars today. I'll update pretty frequently since after my last final, the grind is on!

Summer time baby

2010-05-18T23:06:00.000-07:00

I deposited a fresh 600 into my account today. I'm going to grind hardcore this summer. One more final, and then I'm going to make the mo mo baby.

Bubble Boy

2010-05-14T02:36:00.000-07:00

I just played 3 tournaments, and bubbled two of them, with a semi deep run in the third. I didn't cash for anything, and got very unlucky. It fucking sucks. I came so close to big money, errrrr. I don't understand what it is but I just can't break free of this slump lately.

I have 200 dollar left in my FTP account. I decided to cash it out. I don't know. That way I have all of my orginal 500 back. Tomorrow I should get a little rakeback, and I'll just grind micro stakes for a while or someshit. I'm just pissed that I can't rise above the crowd.

I kept losing with the best hand, and that gets frustrating. I hope one day I can run as hot as I did when I turned my 38 dollar deposit into 5k. All my hands used to hold up, it fucking ruled. Now its like I'm breaking even cause of this bad streak. I don't know what else to try, so I'm going to try the ol' reset button.

I started to feel like the 200 I had in my account was nothing, and whenver I feel like that I usually blow it. I could have just stopped playing for the night, but its easier to do that when there is nothing in there. I guess its stupid, but this makes it easy to not get frustrated. I have all my money back, I didn't lose anything. I'm a profitable poker player life time, but I just can't quite seem to make any real profit lately. I can always redeposit.

16th place when 15 get paid and first is 1,000 dollars hurts really bad.

Glass Ceiling

2010-05-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is, but I just really haven't been able to break through as of late. I don't get many bad beats anymore, just really bad coolers. I feel like I really can't break through the ceiling and play higher limits, since I always get crushed by coolers or bad beats when tons of money is on the line. I don't make many bad moves in poker anymore, my game is very solid, yet my results are super mediocre and disappointing. Hopefully I can break through this glass ceiling one day. I'm going to play one more tourny and then call it quits for the night.

FTP roll down to 230. Whatever.

I think it's because I don't grind anymore, I just play short sessions at higher limits. I guess I should go back to grinding out profits. I don't know.

I played stud for the first time today, I'm pretty good at it I think. I made 20 bucks.

----Update----

Fucking shit! Hella annoying to get my K7 called by J9 all in and him spike a nine and win. Oh well, maybe another day I can do better. I got 40th place, that sucks.

5th place in rush tourny

2010-05-11T23:43:00.000-07:00

I only cashed for 111. Buy in was 11. Bummer since If I won my bustout hand I would be a shoe in for 1st or 2nd. Here's what went down folks.

I raise, big blind calls. Flop is J108 2 hearts. Big blind leads out for 20,000. I have 60,000. I shove over him. He thinks for a while and calls with A9. We both had open ended straight draws, but mine was better. He had ace high, and when the turn and river both came 8's, he won. Damn that sucked.

Mini Roll on Bodog BUSTED

2010-05-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

bummer. I played well but got really unlucky a couple of times, and didn't have the roll to handle the swings. Oh well. I feel a bit stupid because now I can't sports bet, and I make money on sportsbetting, but then again I make money on poker too. Oh well, WHO GIVES A SHIT, right? hahaha.

I played and ran well on FTP and my roll there is up to 475. Boom baby!

Played a little bit of po po

2010-05-10T02:17:00.000-07:00

Running extremely bad, none of my hands seem to hold, they are getting sucked out on alot. Oh well. You win some and lose some.

I played on bodog, where the players are very soft. But the rake is ridicoulously high, and I'm not sure if its mathmatically right to play there.

I'm playing a 24 dollar rush tourny and then calling it quits for the night.

My roll on FTP is down to 250. Bummer.

Bodog up to 150.

Live is at 450.

Don't Care

2010-05-09T11:12:00.001-07:00

Bored with poker. Can't get into it as of late. I won 80 bucks betting on UFC.

Playing the miniftops event number 8 today. Its a heads up shootout tourny. That's all I will play today and maybe a couple days after that, or at least until I get back my desire to play.

Home Game Trip Report and Upcoming Fight

2010-05-08T03:41:00.000-07:00

So I went to that home game in the city. It was a ton of fun, and the guys were cool. I picked up some big hands, hit cards, and played well. I shot up 300, then went to -100, and then finished up 180. It was a good night, and I'm excited to have a group that wants to play semi frequently near by. Live poker is something I don't get the chance to do very much of for real sums of money, since I'm so young. But the guys at the game said I should try my chances at the local clubs since they have never seen anyone get carded.

I might do that, but then again, whats the need if I have the home game now?

So after withdrawing 300 dollars from my bank account, and winning 180, I have a live bankroll of 450 [I bought some pizza and stuff]. Its neat to have a live roll, I haven't ever had one. Sure, its only 4.5 buy in's, but I run pretty good at live poker and am not to worried about losing it. I have 500 in my FTP account, and 300 in the mail [just ordered another 100].

I just deposited 50 bodog [a poker and sports betting site]. I thought I was just going to use for sportsbetting, but then decided to use it for poker too. I'm fore sure not playing any of the casino games, hahaha. But anyways. I put about 29 dollars on different fights, and lost 21 in a heads up game. Losing money playing poker doesn't mean anything, and I'm never ashamed of it. I sit down and have an edge, there is nothing bad about that. When I lose money playing blackjack I feel like a total moron. Thats why I don't play blackjack hahaha.

I put 15 on shogun to win agaisnt the champ machida. If he does I get 22 dollars, plus my 15 back, so I get 37 bucks. I also put a 5 dollar bet on a huge underdog that has been undervalued by the betting lines. Also put a 5 dollar 2 team parlay on 2 favorites. Hopefully I can win it all and get 50 or so bucks for the next event.

I only have 29 dollars riding on the whole event, since I lost 21 at the poker tables.

One funny thing I did was place a 1 dollar bet on 9 team parlay bet on all of the underdogs. That means if every underdog wins in some crazy freak of nature way, I win 43,000 dollars. HAHA. I don't know. 43k is a lot of money, and 1 dollar isn't. It has to be better odds than the lotto, right? 9 matches isn't that many, if you think about how quick matches can end in upsetting fashion. I'm not saying its going to happen, but it CAN.

More 12 dollar Rush Tournaments

2010-05-04T15:09:00.001-07:00

I got 5th in another one. Bad luck at the end, missed out on a big payday. Won 111 bucks though. Bankroll up to 500. I'm playing really well in these tournaments and the fields are very small and easy, and the tournies go by very fast. I'll be playing large amounts of these in the future I think.

I also just jumped on a 50nl cash table and crushed some donk who left after one buy in. I won all his money but with the ridiculous rake that FTP charges for micro heads up games, I only won 44 dollars.

Winning alot of money, but missing out on alot of value. My shitty tourny experiance last night combined with a so so finish today, I could have made a lot more. Oh well, those tournies are so soft. For my poker playing readers, You heard it here first!

More 12 dollar Rush Tournaments

2010-05-04T15:09:00.000-07:00

Winning 283 dollars has never been so despressing

2010-05-04T02:31:00.000-07:00

I know there are problems with internet poker, but today I had the worst experience yet on FTP. I joined a 24+2 rush tourny on FTP. I played well and got lucky so i was in 9th place out of 9 left. Then when we moved to the tourny final table I was left with this screen.

I had a panic attack. What was I to do? I emailed full tilt support with "URGENT!" in the title, but got no response. I searched for another player who was at the final table and asked him if it was working for him. He said yes.\, and suggested that I restart FTP.

So I finally am playing again after restarting my FTP client, due to some sort of bug that didn't let me see the action or players when the game went from rush to non rush. I am now at around HALF my stack, due to blinds. great. I keep playing and get lucky and get into 3rd with 3 people left with evenish stacks.

44 vs A10 vs my AK. 2 players are all in. turn is a 10 and A10 scoops all the tournament chips in play. I got 3rd place money and the 44 guy got 2nd place money. Why? I thought in MTT where there was a 3 way bustout that you were guaranteed 2nd place tournament money.

Full Tilt Poker Game #20568872939: $24 + $2 Rush Tournament (158141766), Table 23 - 2000/4000 Ante 500 - No Limit Hold'em - 4:14:59 ET - 2010/05/04
Seat 1: xThePokerPunkx (34,040)
Seat 2: MTboy (46,840)
Seat 9: Scottyc88 (87,120)
xThePokerPunkx antes 500
MTboy antes 500
Scottyc88 antes 500
Scottyc88 posts the small blind of 2,000
xThePokerPunkx posts the big blind of 4,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to xThePokerPunkx [Ac Kd]
MTboy raises to 12,000
Scottyc88 raises to 41,500
xThePokerPunkx calls 29,540, and is all in
MTboy has 15 seconds left to act
MTboy has requested TIME
MTboy raises to 46,340, and is all in
Scottyc88 calls 4,840
MTboy shows [4c 4d]
Scottyc88 shows [As Th]
xThePokerPunkx shows [Ac Kd]
*** FLOP *** [9d 7s 9c]
*** TURN *** [9d 7s 9c] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [9d 7s 9c Ts] [Qd]
MTboy shows two pair, Nines and Fours
Scottyc88 shows two pair, Tens and Nines
Scottyc88 wins the side pot (25,600) with two pair, Tens and Nines
xThePokerPunkx shows a pair of Nines
Scottyc88 wins the main pot (102,120) with two pair, Tens and Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 127,720 Main pot 102,120. Side pot 25,600. | Rake 0
Board: [9d 7s 9c Ts Qd]
Seat 1: xThePokerPunkx (big blind) showed [Ac Kd] and lost with a pair of Nines
Seat 2: MTboy (button) showed [4c 4d] and lost with two pair, Nines and Fours
Seat 9: Scottyc88 (small blind) showed [As Th] and won (127,720) with two pair, Tens and Nines

I feel like I have been screwed out of huge amounts of EV. I learn later that since the other guy had more chips that he gets 2nd place money. blaaaaaah I fold and win 100 more bucks. Fucking shitty tournament.

FTP emails me back and asks if I was disconnected. No I wasn't you fucktards, your shitty program has a bug.

Fucking internet poker.

Whatever. I have a 450 dollar online roll now, and 200 in the mail. I withdrew a little bit to play in that homegame that is now moved to weds.

Ship it!

2010-05-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

I played a 12 dollar rush poker tournament. 135 entrants, and I came in first! Woot woot, won $420. I am pretty good at rush tournaments, It allows me to be very patient and always get my money in good, and it also lets me exploit blinds without it being obvious. I had fun and will prob be playing this kinda of tournament again, on a different day of course, I'm too tired now.

That home game is happening tomorrow. Lets do it!

I got a 29 dollar rakeback payment today.

2010-05-01T02:34:00.000-07:00

I was pretty pumped up to have some money to play with, haha. Anyways, I crushed some donks in shootouts and ran it up to 109 dollars. Fun stuff. I'm going to keep playing shootouts and making money. I'm back in da game baby!

Also, I'm going to deposit a little money on pokerstars to play in the SCOOP [spring championship of online poker]. Prob only about 25 or so bucks. If I do they pay for a 11 dollar ticket to another scoop event. Maybe I can ship one, win big bucks, and a SCOOP bracelet. Wouldn't that be cool if I was a champion of something? Other than the blogging world, of course.

Annnnnnnnd that home game is coming together! Either this sunday monday or weds night I will be playing with some dudes in the Marina district of SF in a 1$/3$ game. Hopefully its an easier group, or I can manage to pick up some of their leaks early and show a profit. Live poker is kind of silly because I could play that game everyday for a month and lose every day and it really could just be bad luck, since the sample size is so small. Online it is easier to void the luck factor.

So I hope I get lucky.

10 dollar tourny

2010-04-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

I was bored late at night. I decided to play a ten dollar MTT on FTP, my first serious poker session in a while. Not really a session, just one tourny. But anyways, I decided I was going to give it 100 percent attention and play it smart. Sometimes I get lazy in MTT's and make bad moves. But this time I was going to play it smart.

The tourny started really late, 3am. But I was in the mood to play, it had been a while. I put 10 dollars into my account [haha] and registered. I know MTT's are kinda more luck oriented but I thought it would be fun for 10 bucks to play some poker.

I played great. The only bad thing I did was put it all in with Queens agaisnt Aces in an early level. Luckily I spiked a queen. But that was in some of the first levels.

Very late into the tourny, with only 165 out of the 750 people left I picked up AA under the gun. I limped, with plans on picking off someones attempt to steal blinds, or calling someones all in shove with something like A10 or AJ. So I limp, couple of folds, and a raise to 600. The bottom smooth calls the 600, and both blinds fold back to me. I wait for a good 30 or 40 seconds, trying to make it look like I'm about to steal on what I perceive as weakness. Then I make it 2400 to go. I only had about 5,000 chips left, so I was pot committed of course. Original raiser folds. And the button quickly calls. Flop is 789. This is a really safe looking flop, but it really doesn't matter what the flop is, I'm putting the rest of my stack in on literally ANY flop. There is NO flop I'm folding. I shove my 2,500 in and get snap called by J10 off suit.

What the fuck?

Who puts in 1/2 of the chips with J10 off without control on the pot?

Oh well, I put most my money in as an 82.5 percent favorite to win. I really like the fact that he called preflop, that is exactly what I want him to do. Call or shove with weak hands. It is just a bummer I got so unlucky. It was a REALLY weak field of players and I'm sure I could have had a deep run if I didn't get that beat.

Anywho, I guess its fitting to lose like my first game back? Who knows. Poker is a silly game sometimes. Recently it was officially considered a mind sport. http://www.ifpoker.org/news/official---poker-now-a-mind-sport

I was hoping that tonight I would just ship this donk tourny, and go on a hot streak again. I have been running so poorly, I feel like I can't break it, and that's not a good feeling. So I'm going to wait some more before I really deposit.

Break Smake

2010-04-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

My days are pretty boring without poker, and also less productive. I like the idea of not focusing on poker as much, but cutting it out all together is just silly. I'm going to enjoy a week or so of stress free video game life, then I'm going to jump back into the game!

muahahahaha

more info to come.

The Poker Punk

First legal trip to a 21+ card club

I'm Not Going To Be Staked

I'm Going To Be Staked

Busted My Baby Roll

First Major Downswing

Good News and Bad News

Dusting Off My Full Ring Game

Chapter Two

Played poker for the first time in forever

day 4 of no online poker

Punks not dead, but online poker is

-37 bucks

Won a 4 dollar rush tournament today

Blah, good day/bad day

10th.... :[

Break Time

dang

ugh

folded 3 of a kind. Good fold i think.

Boom goes the dynamite!

Boom!!

Big Hand!!!

Still in it, but not going great

Deep run in 1 dollar tourny

Session one

$10 ----> $500

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

played 50nl HU

bad final table

blah

weird

FUCK!

close again

poop

rrrr

not my time

darn

Yo whats up?!

blah

Bad Night

Thinking alot about the games

Downswing, but not giving up.

close

Rough Day

Bad day

Out!

First play period over

Won a ticket into the Sunday Million

Bummer.

Lockdown Session

Mile Marker Three

So Far So Good

Well, that was weird

Mile Marker One

Back at it, new outlook

UFC 119 Bets

My role in the poker world

the good and the bad

New Roll

Downhill

Professional Coin Flipper

No Use

Sometimes You're The Windshield

hmm

wow

My MMA Picks

erg..

The Good, The Bad, And The Foreign Players

Dealer: xThePokerPunkx wins the pot (1,160) with a pair of KingsDealer: greekmaf86 finishes in 4th placexThePokerPunkx: gggreekmaf86: @#$! uEver wonder what it feels like to talk to yourself?

Dealer: ZoLa6 wins the pot (1,660) with three of a kind, TwosxThePokerPunkx: kinda funnyxThePokerPunkx: i was thinking how i have been dodging alot of outs latelyxThePokerPunkx: and how if a 2 came on river it would make sense...ZoLa6: je parle pas ta langue

Back on track

Fucking Shit

Day 2

Chugging Along

Preparing

Off to Vegas!

Crushing Live Poker

End of the Road

lose lose lose

Dealer: xThePokerPunkx wins the pot (1,160) with a pair of Kings
Dealer: greekmaf86 finishes in 4th place
xThePokerPunkx: gg
greekmaf86: @#$! u

Ever wonder what it feels like to talk to yourself?

Dealer: ZoLa6 wins the pot (1,660) with three of a kind, Twos
xThePokerPunkx: kinda funny
xThePokerPunkx: i was thinking how i have been dodging alot of outs lately
xThePokerPunkx: and how if a 2 came on river it would make sense
...ZoLa6: je parle pas ta langue