temper temper

whooo, I almost lost a 1000 today, that would have been most upsetting.

I finally worked my br two nights ago to 2050. Come Sunday morning, I play for a few hours and lose a few hundred. How upsetting. I then played some pool w/my friend and lost 40-60 to him and that got me upset. Stubbornly, I sat down at my laptop and decided to make back at least that 60.

I definitely didn't want to play limit so I played NL. hour goes by and I think I lost several more hundred, leaving me w/400 in liquid cash. So I sat down at a short handed 400nl game, which soon became heads up, hit a set and doubled up. Yayyy. But now I needed to make that 60! So I took a break, returned, played some more 200 and 400 nl, pulled a few moves and made back the 60.

Boy am I irresponsible. A part of me today wanted to go broke, wishing I had a job where I could easily rack up 2-5k so I could play some no limit. I really need to control myself =/ That's why I think it's a good idea to have a 2nd bankroll that u wouldn't mind playing from incase you ever pull a stupid stunt like me and go broke. I do have to say though, despite my idiocy, I was really proud of the way I played. For the most part, I didn't play like someone afraid to lose his/her money. I played aggressively and practically fearlessly. The last hand that I played at the 400nl, it was heads up between me and the small blind, and I felt he was making a move since he suddenly showed such aggression.

I had 8,10suited and the flop was 6 8 5. I bet 45 into a $60 pot and he quickly raised it to 118, which i called. The turn was a 3d (all rainbow) and I pushed all in for my remaining $300. I have no idea what he had but I felt he definitely couldn't call me with top pair and would def. have trouble calling me even with pocket aces. Plus, I thought about it, and the way I played the hand was pretty weird, calling flop raise and going all in on the turn? Depending on your mood and understanding of how I play, that could easily be perceived as a power play. But who wants to donk off an extra $300 on a guess? Good thing he didn't :D

Poker is brutal guys. Which reminds me, remember Mike Cunningham? For those of you who don't know, he's this 30? year old track coach who quit to pursue the life of a poker player. From what I understand, he had this confidence from beating his home poker game on a consistent basis. I really did not like Mike at all. I never met the man and he may be a friendly cool guy but from what I've read in his blog, I grew to dislike him more and more and I'll give my reasons.

1) He quit being a coach to pursue poker? Why couldn't he just take a sabatical/semester off to give it a shot?
2) Did he really think all Vegas players wouldn't be better than the guys he played in his home game?
3) Did he really have to move to Vegas? Why couldn't have he tried it online first? It makes so much more sense economically.
4) This one hit me the hardest. He would donk around the 1/2 no limit games and I think the 2/4 limit game? For someone who hadn't proven himself, I found that arrogance and recklessness to be highly annoying.

I can understand that it's easy to get carried away, I get carried away as well, but you can't treat money like it's nothing, at least if you don't have that much in the first place! Oh well, he went broke and I truly wish him the best in finding a job and living a life he'll be happy with.

Man poker is brutal. Come on variance! Lemme win 2k! Gimme the chance to play 3/6 short handed games again!

Downswing?

I pray that what I'm going through right now is a long downswing of variance.

I put in a 5.5 hour session today. I started off really well, I was up $200, also got some great hands that held up, AA and the sort. Then as time passed my stacks on all three tables slowly dwindled. I ended the session $-40. Funny enough I still made big profit due to rakeback. 270 in rake - 40 = 230 profit for the day. yay!

I average about $35 per hour in rake so 35x5 = 175. Where did the extra 60 come from? I took a shot at short handed 3/6 today. I didn't join any specific 5man tables there but if a game became short handed, I stuck with it. I did this because earlier this week I re-read SSHE and reviewed my hold'em game and I believe it's improved to the point where I can hold my own in a short handed game. When this one particular table went 3 handed, man did I dominate. My reads were just on and my image won me a lot of pots.

It was on the full ring tables where I lost the majority of my profit, weird, I thought it was supposed to be easier to make $$$ there? I feel like my game has improved to the point where I should definitely be a winning player. So what's going on? I have no clue. I can only hope that it's a long downswing.

I want to multi-table the short handed games but I dont' have a 500 bb br for it. I could always 3table the 2/4 short handed since I have just about enough for that but...oh well. I guess i'll try 2/4 short handed tomorrow. It actually makes $300 more a month in rake than 3tabling 3/6 @ fullring.

Ouch

perhaps I've overrated myself? Probably so. For the past few days I'd be down 25-50bbs and then i'd work it off and break even (profit w/rake though).

Well today i took a hit, and a hit, and another hit, and am down $800. I'm not really sure what's happening. I know the 1st 25bbs I got juked by variance, AA 3x losing and KK losing a few times, blah blah blah blah

Funny, I used to have 4.4k and now it's all gone. I guess that makes me a biggggggg loser eh.

I'm not broke yet, I've still got about 200bbs left but man, I am feeling down. I guess it doesn't help that outside of poker I've been a little unhappy with the way things are going. Oh well, we move on.

SWINGS 2! And....The Bet.

ok
so this week i had a

-200bb hit in 5 hours
-50 bb in 1hr hit
-50bb in 20 mins hit

i somehow tilted in the 5 hours to the point where I can't exactly remember what happened.
don't recall the 1hr hit, all I know is I recovered safely.


And imagine my frustration today, I finally pulled my broll to the 1k mark, then I decide to put in some more hours and BOOM, -50bbs in 20 mins. Boy was I pissed. After these losing sessions, I've been expecting some kinda big rush. Oh well.

I want this rush to hit next week though :)

why?


My buddy nick, who makes his money from playing SNG's (he 12 tables now), made a bet with me. I always told him cash game is the way to go, especially limit for low stakes, and so he keeps trying to prove that he can make more playing SnG's. He probably does make more than me 12 tabling $20 sng's than I do 4 tabling 3/6 - although right now i can only 3 table =/ Oh well.

The bet

first one to make 10k + the broll we have now wins.
my br: 1844.32
nick's: 2.1k (he chose the #)

wager

Dinner @ Spicy City in San Diego and $1,000


how confident am I? I'm actually kind of thankful that I took the 200bb hit and the 2 50bb hits. Why? Those hit me very very hard. I'm taking this super seriously and I'm more focused than ever. I believe I can definitely grind it out and make 2k a week. I just recovered from a -200bb hit fellas! I'm also going to be playing the $215 pokerstars tourney so one nice win there takes down the bet (but I won't tell him if I make more than 10k there cuz I believe I can beat him playing limit as well - I'll only show it if the race gets close =). I'm so confident and so motivated to play. I'm going to finish my SSHE book (re-reading it) and possibly might take a look at sklansky's other advanced hold'em book. And before I play the pokerstars mtt's, I'm gonna take a look at the vids I have of raymer and zeejustin playing. Gotta make sure I don't have any holes in my game!

I know one of my friends would definitely tell me I'm a dumbshit for taking this bet. That frustrates me so. 1 for lack of faith and 2 for not being understanding. He thinks i'm an idiot for taking up poker and blah blah blah blah. There's just no convincing him.

Anyhow, I'm a firm believer in putting your money where your mouth is. Ask anyone. If I think someone is wrong, I'm willing to place a bet on the outcome/answer. The few bets my friend, the same friend, took - he lost! haha. One time we bet $5 that Nickel City was open (it was 11pm). I won that one, hahaha, what a funny bet. Anyhow, a real man doesn't back down from his statement. He can be wrong and apologize but as much shame as there is in being wrong, there's so much more in being a hypocrite. How dare you say something and not back it up. I'm not a fan of those types of people. Have something to say? Want to criticize all the time? Then prove your worth. Don't try to hide your insecurities by verbally abusing others.

It's time for bed guys.

Gnight friends.
I'm fired up.
Yours,
Mikey Song

I HATE SWINGS.

Ok so yesterday I took a -50bb hit at the begging of my session. After playing for 5 hours, I finally made back like 48 of it. Then today I play, for an hour or two I'm struggling and make like 8 big bets, normal right?

Well, I took a break and am playing again. This is ridiculous. In 20 mins, I lost 50 big bets. I really don't know how much more I can take. This is extremely, extremely, extremely frustrating. JJ vs KK, JJ vs AK, 99 vs QQ, AQ vs AK. bam bam bam.

ugh. what a horrible hopeless feeling to put up with. But with rakeback, I'm still up for the week, yay, i feel so happy. yes. very. not really =/ I'm stunned and shocked and irritated that I can't do anything about it.

So what am I doing? More hold'em. Telling myself to play tight because even if I play tight, I'll still get coolered, so I might as well cut my losses by not playing as many hands, get it?

Fun.

-200bb @ limit hold'em...in one day!

ok so in the course of like 4 or 5 hours I somehow managed to drop 200bb @ 3/6 limit hold'em just 3 tabling...First of all, some of this is definitely attributed to variance. Before today, I only got to play about like 3 hours of poker this week and during that short stint, I made about 35bbs and had a mad rush of cards. I saw AA like 5x, AK 5x, 10s 5x, Js 5x, and the list goes on. It was pretty sick. Then...today I started out well, first hand AA and after that things just went downhill.

2nd fault - I definitely got caught up in the wind. The beats were getting so painful that really the session just flew by like a blur. I keep telling myself hours and not results but what good is that when u're going apeshit? :(

Anyhow. BR was super low, but I decided I was gonna see how long I could it going so at least I could get some more rake back. Well, there were only two full ring 3/6 games going on post 9pm pst so I joined a 200 NL table!

UH OH

I bought in for 40. Went all in, guy called me w/a like a8o.
rebought 50 - all in - I came out on top. Then I get AKsuited, i go all in he calls with AJ suited. J on turn. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoo
rebought 200 - punk leaves but there are a few at the table. I take someone's 150 roll when I hit the straight on the turn (he had KK). Then picked up a few more pots.

So...I really do like NL. I can't wait to build the bankroll to be able to play NL but I don't think that'll happen til the end of August =/ Unless I can put in a hell of a lot more hours per week.

I know guys, my br management is really dumb and bad. But I still learned a lesson. Before I make the move to NL, I'm definitely going to make that extra 2k back and put it back in my fidelity account and load up on some stocks again - another project I'd love to learn and do in the near future. I figure when I hit 5k, I'll try some full ring 5/10 limit - hopefully I can break even to get more rake! When I hit 10k, I'm going to stop and play 400nl.

Rough times man, rough rough rough. This is my only source of income. Gonna keep on fighting!

br - 916ish + Rakeback 540ish = up $100 this week =/ wtfff. I'm for sure putting in more hours. I want like 1.5k in rakeback and I better freaking grind it out better at 3/6 from now on. I re-read some Sklansky's SMALL STAKES HOLD'EM and actually I felt like I played a little better tonight, hah.

gnight.

Gambling = Ruin!

So, I've been getting destroyed at absolute poker in the short handed games. Personally i don't think my limit game is bad but the stats say it is so and since I've had multiple huge losses, I've decided to go back to full ring.

Oh, I skipped a lot of things though.

I got so frustrated with -100bb sessions I blew 1.1k at blackjack. My last 1.1k from poker actually. Oh man, I did get really unlucky in those bj hands, double down - dealer 21. Split, bet, dealer gets 21. NOO!!!

Well, I learned a valuable lesson, or did I? I gotta tell myself to stay away from blackjack foreverrrr but I know I won't.

So technically I went broke.

But...I had 2k in stocks @ sony so...sold it all, and am gonna rebuild as fast as possible. I'm actually glad I went broke. I've opened my eyes more and came up with a plan.

Play at World Poker Exchange and take advantage of the 100% rakeback.
3 tables there - 6bb per hour in rake average! And I'm playing full ring again and my confidence is back dudes. Full ring is how I built my original 500 stack into 4.4k sooooo gonna do it at 3/6.

Plan:
30 hours a week at Wpex - $1080 in rake. And if I'm a 2bb/100 winner - that means I should be making $36 an hour on my own. Potentially I can make 2k a week if I can play 30 hours.

Summer school is raping me and taking off a lot of hours though =/ But I want this badly and I'm glad I lost that money. I was getting really cocky, really really cocky. But I won't be so glad if I do go broke though ^^

Goal:
5k playing 3/6 (and I may try some 5/10 when I hit 3k). Once I hit 5k, I'm going to try multi-tabling 200nl at wpex. It really depends though. I have to be making more playing NL than limit + rake.

I'm excited. Oh, and lesson learned. I'm definitely going to keep back up rolls. I'm going to make that 2k back and put it back in stocks. And as time goes on, I'm going to keep adding money into there so that if I'm ever stupid and gamble away the rest of my br again, I'll have enough to rebuild fast.

Sick. Gambling is so sick. laterrr

p.s. If I am making 1k a week, I'm going to play in those million dollar tourneys at pokerstars and partypoker. Go super $$$!!!

Been awhile

I'VE BEEN TAKING TOO LONG OF A BREAK FROM SERIOUS POKER.


Yes. I'm very sick of playing only one or two hours a day. I want to be able to play 8 hours a day like I planned in the beginning of summer. Screw the swings, I've got rakeback to comfort me. Play 8 hours a day of 3/6 Short Handed, 7 days a week, and at 30% rakeback you can get $5900 back. Yes. You could make more than a teacher just by being a break even player. I don't even need to be a winning player, how sick is that? At 5/10 it's like 6.8k. I want to be doing this. I'm getting an apartment next year for sure so I can have a place to drink, relax, and play cards.

Last wednesday my buddy came down from LA and wanted to go to the card room. Personally, I like playing live limit hold'em but I also hate it for a few reasons. Gas - it's like a $20 trip, gas is expensive now! $55 for a full tank :( RAKE - they take $4 from every pot, yuck! ONE TABLE! I wanna see 4 tables, and it's a full ring, meaning I have to be even more patient.

So what do I do? I pray that I find a live table where everyone's chatting so I can join in on the conversation. And that's exactly what happened. One punk joked that I play w/student loan money. I was kind of offended by that. I worked up my broll from $500 - although right now it's not very much. Around the 2k mark. Sigh...I need to build, and build fast. 10k goal? Must hit by first week of September.

While my buddy went to go play some NL, I stuck w/my roots ( mainly because I didn't have $600/2buy ins to gamble away at the NL game) so I played some 4/8 limit. If we look at past stats for my 4/8 game, I haven't busted out a big profit. I don't know why. Maybe I'm just bad at limit, but if I'm bad, those players are HORRIBLE. Too much passiveness, too much LAG play from certain people. I can easily spot holes in everyone's game. I haven't met any limit players there that I'm afraid of.

So
I
Crushed
That
Game
Badly.

4/8 kill pot. I'm finally up $100 and I look down to see AKspades. I raise (now it's 16), one person 3bets me so I cap it saying "GAMBLE."

Flop is something like 8 6 5 rainbow - 1 spade. He bets and I raised him (these people are afraid of BIG pots without nuts) so he calls.

Turn - Spade - I now have 15 outs (cards)to win - A,K, or Spade
He checks...I should've bet. I feel like I should've definitely bet here. Wouldn't JJ or higher bet here? Oh well. I checked the free card.

River - Spade. Gin, flush, baby! He checks, I bet $16, he calls. I take down a monster pot. Somewhere along that kill pot there was another guy who went all in with who knows what.

And for the next 5 or 6 hands, I ruled the table with fearless aggression. I just made good reads to call down with a pair or make people fold. At one point, the big blind completed and since it was just me and him, and I had A6 suited, rather than just check like what most of the players at my table would've done, I raised and stole that away.

I ended up tipping the dealer like $20 in total. In 10 minutes, I had made 25 big bets - $200. Sickkkkkkkkkkkkk. But really, at least at Barona casino, the people playing 3/6 and 4/8 are no one to be afraid of. They just don't know what Aggression is and how you can use it to your advantage.

Summer school starts tomorrow, actually today since it's monday 3am and I AM NOT STOKED ladies and gentleman. Oh wellllll. I hope to hit 6k this month. There's a $300 tournament this Saturday with 100k guaranteed in prize money. I hope I can take down a nice piece of that pie.

Gnight ladies and gents.
Mikey Song