UPDATE GAHLJDSKFDS:JK:LFDSF

Freaking...I wrote a good post and then it got booshed. I hit publish and the blogger.com base went down :(

Btw, someone needs to write a hand history converter PROGRAM rather than website. I use neildewhurst.com/hand-converter as I rarely have conversion problems there...instead the site likes to fall apart! grrrrrrrrrrr

I have two hands that I wanted to post. I guess I'll post them later.

*updated*
Limit Holdem Ring gameLimit: $3/$66 players

Pre-flop: (6 players) MikeySong is SB with as ah UTG calls, UTG+1 raises, Button folds, MikeySong 3-bets, BB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls.

Flop: 4s :10d 3s (12SB, 5 players)MikeySong bets, BB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: :10h (8BB, 5 players)MikeySong bets, BB folds, UTG calls.

River: 6s (10BB, 3 players)MikeySong bets, UTG calls.

Results: Final pot: 12BB ($72)
MikeySong Shows As Ah
UTG Shows 5d 7h - for the Straight - WTF?! DIE

Limit Holdem Ring game Limit: $3/$66 players

Pre-flop: (6 players) MikeySong is SB with :10d :10s UTG calls, 3 folds, MikeySong raises, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: 9h :10h jh (6SB, 3 players)MikeySong bets, BB calls, UTG calls.

Turn: 6d (4.5BB, 3 players)MikeySong bets, BB calls, UTG calls.

River: 8h (7.5BB, 3 players)MikeySong checks, BB checks, UTG bets, MikeySong folds, BB calls.

Results:Final pot: 9.5BB
UTG Shows Ah 9c

I'm happy about this hand because I'm finally more willing to fold these hands whereas before I'll make these crying calls in hope of a bluff. That and I didn't waste a bet. I played it the best I could and I got PUNKD :(

My confidence is rising as I'm killing these games. I played for a few hours today, 5tabling, and made a nice 50bbs - $70 of that coming from bonuses. I've read forum posts here and there stating that 3/6 tends to be the hardest low/mid-limit, which I can kind of agree with since I have played some 5/10, but man, if that's true I'm pretty set! The only time I've been afraid of people was on WPX but @ AP and FullTilt, pretty easy, especially when I get into my groove. Rawrrrrrr

But seriously tho, I haven't been impressed with the play @ 3/6. Some players I find to be pretty transparent, others are kind of meh but I find that a lot of them have some bad holes. They're small but it adds up. Raising 87s from mp1, peeling the flop on what I would consider a pretty loose peel, these bets add up and bite you in the butt! But keep doing it! FEED ME :D

Something I realized today is that you shouldn't be paranoid about math. Screw it. Don't think about the BEST stats to have etc. Just consider these basic concepts:
If I make fewer mistakes than my opponents, I profit in the long run.
If I play tighter than my opponents (i.e. better cards), I profit in the long run

You're set to make money!

I'm going to continue to 5 table this week, and then if I'm feeling comfortable, I'll move up to 6 tables next week. I'm not really in a rush to jump limits anymore, and I'm glad that paranoia/urge has left me, or at least for now. Before I wanted to jump up the stakes as fast as possible, blahblah blah, but if u're beating the games right now for a good amount, what's the rush? Put in the hands, make sure you are a winning player, experiment and adjust your game, and then move up. The games will always be there, BUT WILL YOU?

dun dun dun......

If I can 6 table 3/6 6max for 2bb/100 - which is the goal damnit, then I'll be making:

540 hands per hour * $12 = $62.
Bonus at this rate clears at about = $30
Rakeback = $54 per hour ($9 per table)

Total: $146/hr. Erm, if I can do that...wow. Sick. Right now I'm running at 1.41bb/100 - altho I think this number is escewed a bit since WPX raped me bad.

That puts me at:
5 tables (450 hands) * 8.46 = $38.07 NOOOOOOOOOO :( - still good but!! come on!!
bonus at this rate clears at about = $25ish
rakeback = $45
total = $108

still good! I wanna buy some fun presents. Gogogogogogog!

-Mike

o ya, broll about 3.1 w/out rakeback (3.8ish w/)

Bloggy Bloggy

I haven't been updating much. Then again, I haven't really been posting anything poker-intensive. So I guess I'll start to. Before I didn't want to because I wanted my friends to enjoy this as well, and I figure if it's all poker talk, they'll just tune out and ignore it. But...the people who play cards read this more often than they do :) So...

uh, i just tried to paste a hand in here and it was too gobbledyblah. Help? =/

Eventually I'll post my thoughts on how to play short handed limit but I don't think I'm really qualified to do that until I'm beating 5/10+

I'm done w/WPX for now. It killed my bb rate, swings too high, and too much stress - i.e. prone to tilting.

I'm working on 5tabling, and my eventual goal is to 8 table. Someone on teh FCP forums claims he knows a 2p2er who can 8 table 20/40 short handed limit and make 2.8bb/100. Sick.

Gambling Vices

Ugh

I dropped $600 @ blackjack.

BUT HOW? WHY?

A few days ago I hit a -50bb swing @ one of hte poker sites. I was playing poorly but also losing Set vs straight and then set to a 1card flush on the river is pretty damn annoying. So I loaded up BJ and woohoo, won $300.

Next day -100bb swing. A little tiltage but also just stupid cards. So I thought, we can do it again! And this is how I've been approaching BlackJack:

I load up:
http://www.blackjackinfo.com/bjbse.php?numdecks=8+decks&soft17=s17&dbl=all&das=no&surr=es&peek=yes

and play by those rules. And I used the martingale system. Basically, bet in multiple of 20s (start at 300), if I lose that 20, bet 40, and double until I'm broke or back where I've started.

Well you can see where this goes right? For an hour I was fine, then suddenly BAM, 300 gone - i'm thinking, no way! 200, gone, 200 gone, gone gone, I got lucky and quit 600 loser.

Bankroll: was 2200 but now it's 2700 without rakeback :D

Time to put some honest hours into poker.

http://www.beaches.com/general/included.cfm - my goal Turks & Caicos. I wanna vacation this year at somewhere nice.

-mike

I GOT A PS3

I GOT A PS3

BUT NO ONE WANTS TO BUY IT. THE PRICES DROPPED SO FAST :(

Oh well, it was an experience I enjoyed and will never do again! Let me try to recap here:

Thursday. My friend and I get a room at the Marriott Hotel @ the Copley mall in Boston. We got a double for about $250. We met up at 6ish and went over to Cheesecake Factory to grab some food. I had a crabcake sandwich w/fries, a mango smoothie type drink, and an oreo cheesecake, yummy. We head back up and I play some cards on the comp for awhile, and then I take a nap at 10:30pm. No one is allowed to line up inside the mall, the guards won't let them. They don't want loiterers. I take a nap around 10:30pm and wake up 1 hour later to find that 2 more people are in the room. There are now 5 of us in total. They're all Shawn's friends, I only know one of them cuz he was shawn's roommate last year. The only girl there decides she wants to leave. She got scared? Afraid that she'd get hit in the face? And this is someone who played field hockey before! Pansy! Well she left and it was just the 4 of us.

I then hear that people are actually lined up outside of the hotel. Shawn's worried but I'm not. Those guys aren't allowed to camp inside the hotel because they're not guests, we still have the closest spots. Oh ya, it's raining outside, I feel kind of bad for the campers. THey're not going to get a ps3 and they're soaking wet. Well, I can't sleep so Shawn's friend teaches us Chinese Poker (I don't think it's really Chinese Poker but it's interesting). You deal out all the cards and then the person w/the 3 of diamonds starts the game. He can put down a single card, a pair, or a straight/flush hand. So you have to put down 1, 2, or 5 cards. THe next person, if he wants to put down a card, has to put down teh same # of higher value or he can pass. Goal is to get rid of all ur cards, oh and 2 is the highest card. It was a lot of fun, well I thought so, I kept winning the majority of games, haha.

5am - I forgot to mention that earlier that day Shawn met someone at the Sony store who had a connection with one of hte guards. I guess they live in the same building? Or he's a cousin of his friends? Anyhow Shawn gets his # and the kid says he'll hook us up. We send Joel to go with the kid so at 5am they meet up. 10 mins later we get a call back, sounds like the guard ditched them! He took the money, ran out, and shut the door behind him so now they're waiting in the dark. wth? It's 5:25am now and we go downstairs to line up. Oh god there's lots of people. Thanh and I (pronounce his name Tang) wait in the lobby and there's at least 100 people there. THey're all pushing towards the escalator while the guard is standing there telling us that none of us are allowed to go up - the mall is connected through the second floor. Shawn decides he'll go around to one of hte other entrances and hopes its closer.

Chaos. Something happens and I see people running past the guard, one by one people are cramming towards the escalator. I run back and hop on the elevator to the 2nd floor. It's too late though, there's about 50 people in front of me. I call Shawn and tell him the news, he then tells me that Joel and the guy are in the mall! They're first in line! what? Time to adapt, I tell him I'm gonna go meet him there cuz there's no way I can get in from the hotel. Thanh and I go around the mall and we see that Au Bon Pain is open and there are people inside. The manager lets us in and we go through to the mall to the SONY STORE! There's already 40 people there, what the hell? How did they all get in? We line up and man the people behind us are making a ruckus. See, the people behind us are the same people from the hotel lobby. Outfoxed! That could've been me on the other side of the gate! I'm worried though, as I hear people say that there are 40-100 ps3s. I hope there's more than 40, nothing I can do but stand around now.

The Police.
Uh oh, this is dumb. The police are in teh building yelling at everyone with their megaphone. "EVERYONE GET OUT NOW, THERE IS NO LINE, GO OUTSIDE NOW". Actually it's one big fat man who can be found here:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/11/18/playstation_3_hopefuls_overwhelm_mall/

I'm pretty bitter. Everyone laughs cuz htey think it's a joke but then the line starts to fall apart and people start leaving. I'm standing behind trying to ask the police why they're pushing people out. No one was doing anything wrong, we were actually pretty organized. That guy in the picture, the same stupid fat man who I'd like to punch in the face really hard because he can't do anything in life except eat donuts so he has to assert himself through a megaphone walks up to me and yells at me to get out. One of the police man pushes me and threatens to cuff me if I resist so I start walking out. THe police continue to yell at everyone to get out of hte lobby of the hotel. Either we wait outside or wait in our rooms, if we refuse then they'll kick us out whether we're a guest or not. Did they follow through? I don't know but I go back up to my room and try to think about what we can do.

Shawn's frustrated. He's about to go to bed, it's 7am. He gets a phone call from Joel - somehow the kid was allowed to stay and he got a bracelet! That bracelet means he has a ps3 on reserve. It's his! We have one! Wow. I sitll want one though and I'm trying ot figure out what to do. Well the mall is open and I go in from the other entrance and hang around up top to take a look at the sony store. Fast forward it's 8am and i'm walking past the store. I see a group of people being led by the guard and I quickly stop and start to trail behind. They all enter the store and I'm about to walk in until one of the guards stops me "hey, is he in too?" NO! WHY DID YOU SAY SOMETHING. I get stopped and I'm not allowed in. I was so close =/ That's 2 slick moves denied.

So we got a ps3...at an expensive cost. Remember how Joel and the guy were left in the dark? Well teh guard thought he heard policeman come by so he ran out. But eventually he came back and got them to the line. When the police kicked everyone out, he told them that they were with him so they got to stay.

That service cost us $200.
We also paid Joel $200 for going through it all and getting us a ps3.
Hotel Room: $250
PS3 - $600
total spent: $1400.

Did we sell the ps3? Nope. Prices dropped under 2k so we're holding onto it now and seeing what happens. It's frustrating that it fell and that at this moment we're losing money but...I'm not too mad. It was an interesting experience, and a sad/shocking one. Some people there definitely lost some of their sanity. You could feel the animalistic side of humanity in that room. People just controlled by some invisible force that pushes them forward to grab one of these machines. I never want to be in that state where I'm just lost. That mob attitude, it's sick.

Poker, don't fail me now. I never want to be hungry.

On that note, I've motivated myself. Sometime this year, I want to take a $1,000 vacation and go enjoy a trip in the Caribbean. I'm starting to put in big hours again. The goal is working, I'm back :)

bankroll: 3.3+

Chillingggggggggg

yep, that's all.

So San Diego is fun. I've enjoyed my stay here but I'm flying back later today. My LHE game is good, at least live it is. I went to the casino fri. night and played NL from 1am-6am - +197, i was down 350ish too :)

saturday night: LHE from 1am-5am. I made one questionable fold where I had AK flop was Ad 10h 3h - 3ppl in pot turn 4h - I bet and get check-raised. I actually folded my hand here because I "FELT" that the guy was strong and that at best I had 2 outs (Kh no good) to improve. Online I would very rarely make that fold but online b&m people are weak and scared. You don't see very many tricky aggros postflop. Later on I noticed the same guy was very very tight and raised flop w/his flush draws + overs so something tells me that my fold was good. I dunno, live play it's just so easy. I felt I played perfectly until the end, then I gambled some money away but ya, I wish i could play like that online. I really felt my card play was near perfection yesterday. Good folds, good bets, nothing wasted.

haha, I was chatting it up at the table and the girl next to me is like 'why don't u straddle' so I said fine, this one time I'll straddle. like 5 callers, and it comes back to me and I don't look at my cards 'more money!' so I raise it one more bet. And then I said "let's check it down, I won't look at my cards"
Flop Q 10 2 check check, turn 2, check check check, river J, check check check

I had the best hand! 9,10o. :D:D:D

LHE that night +16.

___________________________________________________________________________________

I'm thankful for poker. It helps me with my discipline *at times*. I'm better at controlling my emotions and also at looking at a situation from different perspectives. Rather than getting angry, I try to understand what's going on with the situation and figure out the best move. It sucks when you don't get your way and I definitely am leaving down this trip but at least things worked out in the best way possible, I think.

A lesson learned:
You can't predict the future with much accuracy based on information on the past and the present when it comes to people. We're too random, we change too much. But does this mean there's no truth, no constant that always remains true? I think so, I think unless you're God there's never going to be a true unchanging constant factor. But, there is truth. An action that happens in that moment, you can judge it to be completely true or not, and if you do, keep in mind for that moment it really is true and cherish it; but remember that in the future, it could change, it can be out of your control and there's nothing you can do about it. Try your best and chin up. There's no point in dillydallying.

Back to the 3/6 grind

-Mikey Song

THE PLAN

I'm not gonna go back and read my post but I may have been vague about what my plans are.

I cashed out 32 or 3300 and am going to invest it all w/my friend into ps3s. We're paying people $50-100 to camp out with us to get ps3s and we hope to sell these for $1,000 profit. I'm excited and worried but I hope it all works out. But Mike, why don't these kids buy a ps3 and sell it themselves on ebay?

Wellllllllll

because not everyone can afford to charge $600 onto their credit card and wait a few weeks to sell these babies. Beauty eh? Now the problem is getting a hold of 5-10. Also, if I get 5ppl to do this, my other friend and I have a bet of $500. He thinks I can't get at least 5, I say I can so hopefully I can get this done, ya? ya.

So a few days ago I left $1000 on my AP account and went BUSTO D: God, it was a combo of tilt/bad run. I do blame it on self control tho. There was definitely a time when I was at $600 and I should've just stopped playing because I wasn't in the right sense of mood to play. Not good not good, discipline is the most important thing to have.

So, new plan/goal:
I'm going to play 3/6 for the rest of this month. Something tells me I'll stray from that :p but that's not good! I want to play 3/6. If I put in 200 hours at 3/6 and I make 2bb per hour, I'llmake over 8k. So why do I want to make this jump to 5/10? I need to chill out. And that's the plan. chill out and enjoy the limit. I don't want to jump limits until I put at least 12,000 hands (if u 4 table 3/6 for 40 hours u get a little more than 12k hands). It's a small sample size but at least it'll stop me from jumping up as soon as I have the money, heh like I did a few days ago.

Grind, poker is a grind and I'm going to enjoy the freedoms that come with this game. I'm going to buy what I want, do what I want, and the best part is, it's all about ME ME ME ME ME ME ME :p

It's just a way to live my life and it's tough but it's something I've come to love and want to pursue.

have a good weekend everyone :)

Where to Start.....

So I HAD a bankroll of 4300 but I just lost $1000 of that today playing 5/10 shorthanded games. So I guess it's back to 3/6 for me. The rest of my money has been cashed out. My friend and I are going to try to buy as many PS3s as we can and sell them. I hope it works out well. If it does, I'd like to put 5,000 back online and play 5/10 again.

Slump - I'm definitely in a slump. I definitely just tilted and kept playing when I shouldn't have. I'll get over it. ;laksksljfas;dljfads;l

Tillerman.net
check out this guy's blog. He used to be a top warcraft III player and then quit to play poker. I found it to be quite motivating:

January - Mid Febuary: I am playing crazy amounts of poker during my initial months, all 200+ hour months. So a combination of skill+brute force is winning me a lot of money for the limits I am playing. I am playing 5 tables on one CRT monitor at 1024*800 resolution with lots of overlapping windows. I have cashed out around $20,000 by the end of Febuary and am now playing $200NL Hold 'em tables with blinds of $1 and $2 dollars.

I want to do that. I want to bust out 10s and thousands of dollars a month. It takes time and dedication. I can do it. I feel broke tho, what a weird feeling, seriously. It's kind of nerve-wrecking actually. Oh well.

moral of lesson: stop tilting, put forth an honest effort and work your hours.

Emocoaster

ohhhhhhhhhh man

I threw my mouse against the wall yesterday (Saturday). I'm still pretty annoyed but for the most part I'm over it. I played 4 tables of 5/10 and boom, in 30 mins I was up 60big bets. $600! SO fast!!! And then BAM! 30 minutes later, I lost 100 big bets! -$1000 !!!! You can see why I threw my mouse against the wall, ya?

I learned that I gotta work on my mentality. I can't even handle an upswing rush. What the hell? I was so excited I was shaking and I couldn't think straight.

But wait, the idiot in me didn't stop there.

I got so pissed I went on my AP account and played blackjack. Yeah, at one point I had 900 on the table. Talk about lucky, I lost $600 and then won it all back. These are major leaks, it's not good. What happens later on when I have 20k, lose 5k and gamble away 10k? What a waste that would be. These acts of degeneracy are not good and I have to find a more effective way of dealing with them. Gambling is fun but one should never lose self-control over it. What happens when you have a girlfriend, or a family and you're still gambling and you do dumb stuff like this? It's just not good and really potentially dangerous. I honestly don't know how to fix it. I guess I need to lighten up? Haha.

Oh

but then I loaded up 3 tables @ 5/10 yesterday and made back the $400 + some change. Heh. I'm pretty confident in my limit game. I gotta work on my play from the blinds. It's tough and I don't quite have a grip on it. Zach from FCP wrote a funny statement in his post:
http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-forum/index.php?showtopic=79546
"You gay bet the flop, AND the turn. I hate the way you play. If I played against you, I'd probably want to stab you."

Haha, that's good tho. It's feedback and it makes me more confident in my game. I do nothing unethical, but my style is one that disrupts the flow of the game, thus making it harder for you to get in your groove.

What's my plan this week?
I'm going to strictly 2 table 5/10 for just 1 week. Or 4 table 3/6 but I'm in the mood to 2 table.
1) my bankroll is kinda low, $4200 (you're supposed to have $5,000 minimum altho i'm told those #s are just guidelines to help noobies, dunno)
2) Maybe I can take my game to the next level. I can at least experiment and work on my play from teh blinds and heads up.
3) it'll be nice to only concentrate on two tables, takes some stress off etc.

So yeah, I hope to make $800 this week and hit the 5k mark. $3800 away from my goal from making $4k this month :D heh

Cheers

Yum Yums

DAMN DID I EAT A LOT YESTERDAY.

You ever have those cravings, those weird feelings where you just feel incredibly...scrunched? Like you just have all this energy inside that needs to be let out somehow? Ya, that happened to me except I took it out on food, and a little nutbar as well. Egads! And I'm dieting too! D:

I ate:
omelette in morning, then about 8 hours later I had garlic beef and curry beef, then I had two donuts, followed by toffee hazelnut frapuccino - omg awesome - oreo ice cream, another donut, 2 sushi rolls, then 1 more donut. Sigh ~ At 5'4" I weigh 150.5 Oh well, I'll get in shape some day *shakes fist*

Halloween -

Started off nutbarring at no limit. Not the best place to do it. I lost $25 at the .05/.1 tables, heh. I thought it'd be funny so I sat down with a few thousand at that table. It was a cap game so I could only push for $3 max. I had so much gamble in me, had to find a way to get it all out.

But ya, HALLOWEEN WAS EXCELLENT. Games were so juicy! Actually, at first I thought the sharks came out because there was a lot more aggression at the tables than I was used to. At 3/6, this usually means that they're bluffing with air, and sure enough, I figured out who was an aggro-donk and adjusted my game. I took a few really fun hits at teh beginning:
Boat over boat D:
Flopped nut straight - villain turns boat
AA loses to something dumb
Same with KK twice

So I immediately started out 30bb loser. And as time progressed, I was down $400!! UGH, I hate being down. So what did I do? Bum bum bum, I told myself to FOCUS and I loaded up two more tables as well, haha...

I play pretty damn well on my instincts. I think you definitely do develop a personal 'system/approach' to this game as you play but I was definitely relying more on instinct than I was stats while 6 tabling. So grind grind grind, before I know it, I'm CRUSHING. At one point I had $500 at a table :D I played for 4 hours 40 mins and made I think approx $300 in this session (with bonuses $415). But I'm happy I came back from a 50bb hit to a +50. I was up 600 but took a few hits. Oh well oh well.

bankroll: 3740ish
6,000 hands @ 3/6 6max, 1.76bb/100

I'm considering 2 tabling some 5/10 action today. Soon as I hit 4,000 I wanna take a shot at 5/10 and 4 table there.

*EDIT*

Nov 1st - I don't feel like playing at all today. Just gonna relax, watch a movie, and play some video games. poker poker poker tomorrow!