Operation: Beefhammer

Greetings to all of you crazy FTR kids. Allow myself to introduce... myself. I was kingnat's college roommate for two years, and we've been good friends for the past twelve or so years. We've competed with each other over that time in video games, board games, live poker games and fantasy football and baseball leagues. About two years ago (I believe it was April of '06), he told me he'd been having fun playing poker online and asked me if I had ever considered playing. At first I was skeptical about playing for a bunch of money against anonymous people on a server in some offshore country. However I was also intrigued at the chance to put our strong math and game theory skills to use to make some real money. After a couple weeks of prodding and answering my dozens of questions, he convinced me that the big online sites were legit and offered to get me started by loaning me part of his bankroll to clear a bonus on Party with it. He was gracious enough to let me keep the bonus to begin my own bankroll. All I had to deposit was $10 to open a Neteller account and I suddenly had $110 to work with.

And so I started out, probably the same as a lot of you. Grinding my way up through $5 SNGs on Stars. kingnat pointed me to this website for some strategy advice and I began lurking and reading. I learned the "tight is right" early and loosen up on the bubble approach and somehow cashed in 17 of my first 21 SNGs. I plateaued out after that but kept winning steadily. By August I had over $300 and moved up to the $10 SNGs. After treading water for the next six weeks, I hit a major heater from mid-September all the way through October and was absolutely crushing the game for a huge ROI over that stretch. I managed to get the BR over $1300 and began taking shots at the $20 SNGs. This is when I hit the dreaded downswing, losing in 22 out of 24. I decided I was getting burned out on SNGs and wanted to try something different. kingnat recommended low stakes full ring games. Again I began reading strategy posts and we started discussing hands and situations via email. I slowly turned into a winning player at the $10NL and $25NL cash games. I purchased Poker Tracker and PAHUD and started taking notes on any unusual plays by opponents. I was having fun playing poker again, but life got in the way of that for most of 2007. I had to withdraw 70% of my BR to put towards a house downpayment and didn't play for about four months due to moving and doing projects around the new house. Once summer hit and it was too hot to do stuff outside, I started rebuilding my depleted roll at $10NL, and sprinkled in a few $4.40s for variety. Then football season hit and I lost interest in poker again until late December.

For a few glorious days before Christmas, kingnat and I were basically free of obligations and we went on a cash game and $4.40 binge which has relit the fire under my ass to try to win some serious money online in 2008. Numerous times over the past couple of years, kingnat has encouraged me to register and start posting on FTR. But I didn't feel ready to become a contributing member of this community until I was sure poker would be a longterm continual undertaking for me. I think I'm finally ready for that now. So to help me stick with it and continue to improve and expand my poker horizons, I'm creating my own Operation thread. My biggest goal is to make a couple thousand dollars by July. My wife and I are planning a two week trip to Ireland/UK and winnings from online would help us get there. Currently I'm 6-8 tabling $25NL during the week when I can and 4-6 tabling $50NL on the weekends when the games are softer. I have logged over 100k hands in PT and have a modest winrate at all levels. There is definitely room for improvement. Ideally I want to become a winning player at $100NL this year, but that seems a ways off. I'm just now figuring out how to beat the $50NL game and the learning curve appears quite steep to me. A secondary goal is to improve my tournament play in $4.40s, VIP freerolls and some of the $10 or less daily/weekly big guarantee tournaments. And lastly, I'd like to become a winning player at $25PLO. I started playing $10PLO earlier this month and enjoy the game. It is beginning to click for me, but I often feel lost in many situations postflop such as when trying to determine if my two pair or set is ahead or not.

So, um... yeah. That was a lot of words. Thanks for reading and I'll do my best to give something back to you guys in exchange for all the great pearls of poker wisdom you've provided me.

gl and welcome to the site

For the sake of completeness, I'm going to go back and rehash the first three weeks of January to begin the blog. I hope to make updates once or twice a week as time allows.

2008 Starting BR: $980

Week 1:
Didn't get to play much, spent half the week on vacation in San Jose, CA. On Sunday the 6th, I got coolered a few times on $50NL and was down about $80. Dropped down to $25NL and ended up +$25 for the day. Played .01/.02 PLO for the first time on the 7th. Won around $6 from some truly horrible players.

BR: $995

Originally Posted by bode

gl and welcome to the site

Thanks.

Week 2:
My final table futility in $4.40s came to an end on the 8th of January as I took one down for a nice score. Previously I had never finished better than sixth place in a handful of tries at the FT. Usually because of stupid plays like shoving medium pocket pairs from EP and losing coinflips or running into an overpair. This time however, I didn't force anything unnecessary and just waited for good situations. The table was set up perfectly for me with small to medium stacked nits to the left of me for blind stealing and loose big stack players to the right of me for position plays. I was never lower than fourth place in chips after we got down to around 20 players, and I never ended up in a situation where I was dominated. I largely attribute my good play in this tournament to learning PLO the previous couple of days. It put me back in the frame of mind where I was continually observing the play of my opponents and trying to figure out their likely holdings and how to bet them out of hands or trap them. I had great reads on every single player at the FT and played against them accordingly. Also going from PLO back to NLHE made me much less afraid of people hitting their draws, which enabled me to ratchet up the aggression factor.

During the middle of the week I won a couple buyins at $10PLO and failed to cash in two $5 SNGs. Every once in a while I go back and play a couple out of sheer boredom and quickly remember how much I hate them. I also failed to cash in a handful of $4.40s. On Saturday I only had time for about a 45 minute session of $50NL. But it was one of those magical runs where everything hits and you get paid off. I managed to win around $120 for less than an hour's worth of work! Overall this was easily my most profitable week ever. I hit Silverstar with half the month to go.

BR: $1310

Week 3:
Things got off to a bad start. I only cashed in 1 of 7 $4.40s and donked out in 19th place in one thanks to another mid-pair shove that ran into a higher pair. Bubble-icious. Had a horrible run of luck in AA vs KK battles over the next three days including a crushing set over set. Combined I lost about $70 at NL and won around $15 at PLO. Thankfully things turned around on Saturday and I caught a massive card rush over a few hours of 6-tabling $50NL. Managed to win $165 despite a few tough beats.

BR: $1400

I've been playing around with the AHK scripts this week since they seem to be all the rage. They are pretty nice. Here's a breakdown of the ones I've used so far and my thoughts on them.

ChipReloader: Worked great the first time I tried it. Hotkey for reloading all active tables is F9. Reloading the active table only is F10. F9 takes a little longer to complete on 8 tables than I'd like, but it's still a nice feature. Sometimes makes a little beep noise when it's finished going through all the tables. About once in every 10 tries it leaves one of the OK dialog boxes up on the screen and you have to clear it out manually. Not a big deal. The second time I ran this script was in conjunction with the StarsPlanner and BetPot scripts. For some reason, the F10 reload stopped working even after reloading all the scripts. Maybe that key was bound to something else in one of the other scripts or something. Will need to investigate.

Keyboard Redirect: Works pretty good. Basically prevents tables from stealing focus away from you when typing in notes windows, IMs, etc. My only complaint is that it turns capital letters into lowercase when that happens. I'm going to try tweaking the script to fix that.

StarsPlanner: Nice script that does a lot. Allows you to save layouts so tables always open up in the same order on your screen. Getting the right table number in the right slot was difficult because any overlap with another slot screwed the placement up. Not a huge deal since it's a one time thing. Minor annoyance appears to be that you can't move the lobby window around your screen when this script is running. You can try dragging it elsewhere but it will just go right back to where it was. Enabling Re-Size and Arrange Tables lets you drag and drop tables into whatever predefined slots you want. Has a "sit out on all tables" check-box. I haven't tried this because I generally wait for the blinds to come around before leaving tables. Enable Keep Lobby is a nifty feature as well. When turned on, the main lobby pops right back up after joining tables. Very handy when you're trying to join multiple tables quickly. You must uncheck this box to be able to minimize the lobby. Enable Automatic Buy In When Seated is pimp. All you have to do is click on an open seat at a table and it buys you in full. This also makes it so you can click the dealer chips on the table, hit the add chips button and it rebuys you in full. You can dismiss open-folds and block popups with this script as well. Sometimes it blocks popups that you might not want blocked however, such as help windows, tournament placement finish dialog boxes, you've been moved to another table notifications, etc.

BetPot: Makes it so you can scroll up or down on the mouse wheel to increase/decrease bet sizes. You can click in the mouse wheel to register a pot sized bet. Adds support for joysticks and keypads. I wasn't terribly impressed with this script on Stars. I guess I'm just used to the slider bar.

StarsUrgentTable: Does what it says, but it was annoying to me. Couldn't get used to the mouse auto-movement and it made me really uncomfortable using it while 8 tabling. The red highlight windows were more of a distraction than a help.

So what scripts do you guys use? Got any highly recommended ones that I failed to mention?

Nice work man... I'm not sure how strong my math/game theory skills are these days, but it sure has been great having somebody to chat with while playing. Definitely has helped me think about my play a lot more.

Week 4:
This was a very up and down week. Part of playing against incredibly bad players is that they'll sometimes hit the most ridiculous crap against you. But you just have to remember that you're crushing them in the long run. Tuesday night I was able to overcome a few bad beats to put up a nice $90 session. Thursday was just awful, I lost with a set 3 times (2 were outdrawn, 1 was to a higher set). I also had a two pair hand get counterfeited twice and ended up losing about $55 on the night.

Friday night I mixed things up with some $10 PLO and quickly got up $35. So I decided to take my first shot at $25PLO. I played pretty well but my sets and three pairs never seemed to fill up to beat their draws. The only hand I regret was shoving a set of nines on a 935TA board (he had 42 for the wheel). He did not play it like a set and I thought it was pretty unlikely that he had the 42 to complete the only straight on the board, but I was wrong. My short experiment at $25PLO wiped out the night's earlier winnings and then some. I switched to NLHE and promptly won everything back from the Friday night idiots plus a little extra.

Saturday was a great session in which I hit tons of sets and found lots of good tables. Profit of about $100. Overall I think I lost three stacks with KK vs AA this week, and twice it was against the same LAGtard in less than an hour on Sunday! Really annoying when they've shown that they'll call two other people's full stack all ins with 77 preflop, but when they call you they just happen to have bullets. Also had an especially painful loss with AA vs AT on a 55T5T board (we got it all in before the river T). Still, it's been a great month nonetheless and I can only hope to continue this pace over the next few. I'm about 600 VPPs from Goldstar with three days left to play in January, so barring something unforeseen I should get there.

Tonight I went to the bookstore and read Lyle Berman's PLO High section in Super System 2. Sadly it was the only PLO High material they had in the entire store, but at least I learned a thing or two about the game. One of these days I hope to run across Sam Farha's new Omaha book so I can check it out. I'm also eagerly awaiting Harrington's first cash game book which comes out in March.

BR: $1560

Now that I have 10 posts, I can show you a couple of interesting hands from the week using the FTR converter.

Thursday was the second time in my life that I'd seen this scenario. I call it "The Dream Hand".

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (7 handed)

Button ($14.05)
SB ($12.10)
BB ($18.20)
UTG ($7.30)
MP1 ($21.25)
MP2 ($13.35)
Hero ($34.95)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K, K.
UTG calls $0.25, MP1 calls $0.25, MP2 calls $0.25, Hero raises to $2, 3 folds, UTG folds, MP1 calls $1.75, MP2 folds.

Flop: ($4.95) K, 8, K (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($4.95) A (2 players)
MP1 bets $4.75, Hero calls $4.75.

River: ($14.45) 3 (2 players)
MP1 bets $14.5 (All-In), Hero calls $14.50.

Final Pot: $43.45

Results in white below:
MP1 has 8d 8c (full house, eights full of kings).
Hero has Kd Kc (four of a kind, kings).
Outcome: Hero wins $43.45.

The other time it happened I flopped aces full vs quad nines. At least that time I had one out left in the deck.

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PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha High, $0.10 BB (5 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

Button ($8.20)
SB ($5.20)
BB ($10.85)
UTG ($10.50)
Hero ($42.65)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q, 8, A, 8.
UTG calls $0.10, Hero calls $0.10, 1 fold, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: ($0.40) 9, T, J (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $0.2, SB folds, BB calls $0.20, UTG folds.

Turn: ($0.80) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.5, BB raises to $1, Hero raises to $1.5, BB calls $0.50.

River: ($3.80) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $3.65, BB calls $3.65.

Final Pot: $11.10

Results in white below:
BB has 3h 3d 2s Ks (a flush, king high).
Hero has Qs 8s Ad 8c (a straight flush, queen high).
Outcome: Hero wins $11.10.

Flopped straight flush is pretty good, right?

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PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver Cards)

Hero ($52.45)
UTG ($34.85)
MP ($6.65)
CO ($36.05)
Button ($6.30)
SB ($16.90)

Preflop: Hero is BB with , .
2 folds, CO calls $0.25, 2 folds, Hero checks.

Flop: ($0.60) , , (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks.

Turn: ($0.60) (2 players)
Hero bets $0.5, CO raises to $1, Hero raises to $2, CO raises to $3, Hero raises to $53.7, CO calls $32.80 (All-In).

River: ($72.20) (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $72.20

Results in white below:
CO has Ac 6c (a straight, deuce to six).
Hero has 6h 8d (a straight, four to eight).
Outcome: Hero wins $72.20.

Just a sick beat for the villain. Going to the river, the odds were 73% for a tie, 20% for him to hit a club and scoop, and 7% for me to hit a non-club 7 FTW. :P

Week 5:
Well I finished January strong, taking down my second $4.40 180-man tournament of the month on Wednesday. It was an amazingly weak-passive final table, so all I had to do was sit back and wait for some hands and get paid. Then on Thursday I was able to grind out the last 300 or so VPPs to get to Goldstar. Heading into February my BR was all the way up to $1830, nearly double what I had started the year with.

Alas, it was all downhill from there for the rest of the week. I cashed in 1 out of 10 MTTs and got coolered with a ton of really good second best hands on Friday. Then on Saturday everyone drew out against me like crazy. Admittedly, I made it even worse by trying to trap people for bigger pots and of course they would end up rivering their 4 outer or whatever. It was probably the most frustrated I've ever been playing online. When I got stacked with AA vs 65s all in preflop it was time to quit. A couple days off will do me some good.

BR: $1660

Week 6:
I took four days off from playing after my crappy weekend and feel much better now. Played a lot of Burnout Paradise instead, that game is pimp. Thursday I played a short session and won a little. I'm working on putting opps on ranges and trying to call down some bluffs and aggressive draws without becoming a total calling station. Sunday I played for a couple hours at $50NL and won three buyins. I started out getting coolered with a set over set but won nearly all the big pots after that. Towards the end I had an overset against a nit and won his stack. Ah, sweet justice.

This week I'll be back to grinding more. I'd like to get some $4.40s in and even try to satellite my way into the Turbo Takedown. 10K FPPs is way more than I want to spend to get into a big MTT but if I can make it for 1K or less that would be nice.

BR: $1840

Week 7:
Had a great couple of days at $50NL to start out the week and won nearly 6 buyins. Saturday was a frustrating day with nits three-betting me preflop every time I raised with a mid-pair, but I still managed to eek out a little profit. Sunday I felt like crap and played bad. I quit pretty quickly after losing a little more than a buyin. All of my lost money on the day can be attributed to three hands that I played poorly. Namely I paid off obvious made hands on the river because I rushed through things and didn't analyze the situations enough.

In my MTTs this week I did not stick to my limit of spending only 1K FPPs to try to satellite into the Turbo Takedown. I think I blew around 4,500 on a some of the 1250, 400 and 75R FPP tournaments. Never even got close to the bubble. I took that as a sign that it would be -EV for me to buy my way into the main TT and decided not to play. It's tough to pass up a chance at a life-changing amount of money for essentially no cost out of my BR, but my tourney game is not where it needs to be for me to try that yet. This week I'm going to play in some $3Rs and $8.80s or lower whenever I get a chance so I can work on this aspect of my game.

BR: $2050

gl with this operation this thread deserves more respect imo

Originally Posted by hawgfarmer

gl with this operation this thread deserves more respect imo

Thanks! So far I've won money every week this year. Let's hope I can keep up that streak for a while. I'm already halfway to my goal for the Ireland trip this summer.

Tonight I donked out in two of my five tournament attempts by shoving AK into AA preflop. Pretty bad luck but I'm not going to let it get me down.

Week 8:
I did not run well in cash games this week. At all. Most of my big hands ended up being traps or draws that hit for the other guy. After Tuesday I was already down $100 for the week. When things suck at full ring I like to play tournaments and PLO to switch it up a little and get back on my feet after a rough cash session. I have determined that the $3 and $5 rebuys suit me the best of all the low stakes large field MTTs. My patient TAGG style plays terrible in turbos, so deeper stacked tournaments with people willing to shove draws and 2nd pair into me are much more preferable.

I have yet to cash in a rebuy, but came pretty close in a $5R on Tuesday. With about 200 players left before the bubble, I shoved KdKc on a Q-high all diamond flop against the table's big stack. A double up would have given me an above average stack and a great shot to cash. I figured to be safely ahead of nearly everything in villain's range, but it ended up being a coinflip because he was stronger than I thought with AdQs. Another queen hit on the turn and that was it for me.

Redemption came on Friday as I placed 3rd in a 180 man. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get at least 2nd because it was clear I had an advantage over the other two players. All I had to do was wait for two pair or TPTK and they would have paid me off. After about 20 minutes of playing three handed and getting cold-decked, I flopped trips with a crappy kicker and lost to a better kicker. Pretty much impossible to get away from so it was just unfortunate luck. Saturday was also a good day as I managed to finish in the top 150 out of nearly 5300 players in the 100K monthly VIP freeroll. I ran like God in the first hour and about 30 minutes in we had 4 players sitting out at the table. So I was able to use my big stack to steal the blinds 2 or 3 times every orbit and accumulate over 10,000 chips by the first break. From there I maintained an above average stack for the next three hours until I was well into the money. It looks like my next goal will be to cash in a big rebuy MTT!

BR: $2200

Week 9:
Hot streak! I'm up about 10 buyins over the past 9 days. It can mostly be attributed to running g00t cards-wise but I'm also making the right laydowns when I know I'm beat. The 50NL games have actually been fishier on weeknights lately. Or maybe they've always been that way and I've just figured it out recently. :P Didn't get to play any over the weekend due to visiting my parents, but I wasn't feeling all that great anyhow. I hit Goldstar again with a couple days to spare, so looks like I'll have some more VIP freeroll tournaments to play on weekends when I'm not busy. I'm going to continue to put in as many hands as I can before the weather gets nice in about a month. Smack out!

Stats are from 2/24 - 3/3


BR: $2625

Up $315 tonight. WHEEEEEEEEEEE!


<-- Smacktard
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<-- Running Hot
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<-- Running Good

Week 10:
The bankroll hasn't budged much since my awesome session on Tuesday. I lost $15 on PLO the next day. Most of it was due to a stupid call with a 13 out straight draw vs an obvious set on the flop. The turn paired the board and I stuck what little was left of my stack in anyway. Just dumb. Later that afternoon I had a good chance to chip up early in the $5R but made a questionable call with JJ against a preflop shove by the table's second largest stack. He had shown down some pretty weak hands previously but this time he showed up with KK and I was out soon after that. Winning that hand would have given me a 22k stack about 40 minutes into the tournament. I donked out of three other tourneys that afternoon without getting much of anything going.

Thursday was another really frustrating day where I got outkicked by one card several times in cash games. Or I was outkicking them but then they would hit their second pair on the river. At one point I was down almost $120 but rallied back to only lose $20 for the day. Friday was one of those strange sessions where I was breaking even or losing on 8 tables and just destroying the 9th one. Eventually I closed out of all the crappy tables and continued raking in the money on the good one. Profit of about $70 for the day. For the second weekend in a row I didn't get a chance to play. I spent a lot of time doing chores and yardwork and just getting caught up on things that had been piling up. Also got our tax returns done. Feels good to have all of that mundane stuff out of the way so I can get back to grinding again next week. The $3K mark is right around the corner!

BR: $2950

Week 11:
I played almost no poker at all this week, so not much to report. The weather was nice for a few more days so I raked up most of the leaves in the back yard and planted some new grass seed. Thursday night after having several beers during our online fantasy baseball draft I decided to try some drunken 5 card draw. I guess I got dealt some pretty good cards because I won $35. Came back to try 5CD again sober a couple days later and lost $25. The lesson is... always play drunk, obv. Sample size, schmample size.

BR: $2960

Week 12:
Was able to sandwich 3 fairly uneventful cash game sessions around my 30th birthday party this weekend. A friend flew in to visit and we had people drinking and playing Rock Band until 3:30am. It doesn't look like I'm going to hit goldstar this month with all my other non-poker stuff going on, but that's ok. I'm still a good month or two ahead of the pace to get to $3500 by June. If I can get a few hundred dollars more then that's just icing on the cake. I'm in no rush to move up to $100NL until I put in the time at $50NL or perhaps I'll take a shot if I'm able to hit $4K before my trip. Next Saturday is the monthly 100K VIP freeroll, so hopefully I can duplicate or improve on my result from the last one.

BR: $3000

Bonus post! Here's a painfully tragic hand from last week. Sometimes you just have to shake your head and laugh.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver Cards)

Hero ($50)
CO ($82.65)
Button ($9.20)
SB ($45)
BB ($64.10)
UTG ($46.05)
UTG+1 ($49.75)
MP1 ($51.55)
MP2 ($23.35)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with , .
UTG calls $0.50, 2 folds, MP2 raises to $1, Hero calls $1, 1 fold, Button calls $1, 1 fold, BB calls $0.50, UTG raises to $1.5, MP2 calls $0.50, Hero calls $0.50, Button calls $0.50, BB calls $0.50.

Flop: ($7.75) , , (5 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, MP2 bets $3, Hero raises to $9, Button folds, BB folds, UTG folds, MP2 raises to $21.85, Hero calls $12.85.

Turn: ($51.45) (2 players)

River: ($51.45) (2 players)

Final Pot: $51.45

Results in white below:
MP2 has Ac Td (four of a kind, aces).
Hero has 2d 2c (full house, aces full of twos).
Outcome: MP2 wins $51.45.

Week 13:
I got my teeth kicked in this week on back to back sessions. Both times I lost a couple buyins at 50NL and dropped down to 25NL where I lost another buyin. I'd say 70% of it was negative variance and 30% was poor play. Most of it was stuff like me hitting a really good hand but my opponent hit an even bigger one and slowplayed it so I pretty much had to pay them off. A couple times I shoved overpairs on rag flops and lost to higher overpairs. Stuff like that I can usually get away from when I'm running/playing well, but not this week. I'm going to stay down at 25NL until I can win a few buyins back and regain some confidence. In the weekly VIP freeroll I squeaked into the money for a whopping $6 cash. In the 100K monthly I came up about 30 minutes short of making the money.

BR: $2720

So I guess it's been a while, huh. I took about five weeks off from poker due to burn out, the losing streak, and the need to get a whole bunch of yard work and chores done that had been piling up over the winter. When poker stops being fun and seems like a job to me, I stop playing for a while and just do other stuff. This is perfectly normal for me and I've gone through this process many times. It won't be the last. I realize that I don't have the dedication and the drive of the full time grinders and that's fine with me. Playing for a living has never appealed to me anyway. But this week I am back on the poker bandwagon. So far I've cashed in two out of five tournaments including my first time in a big rebuy. Even though I barely made it into the money at least the monkey is off my back now. Maybe things are beginning to turn around.

Week 19:
I 6 tabled some $25NL on Tuesday and felt completely lost. Not sure whether I was playing bad or my tables were just playing different than what I was used to. So I decided to just play tournaments the rest of the week. My best cash was 2nd place in an $11 27-man tournament on Wednesday. Suffered a particularly crushing defeat in the $5.50 big MTT on Saturday afternoon. I had built my stack up nicely and was cruising along until I ran into a horrible trap hand (3rd flush vs nuts) only 50 or so places away from the money. Barf. In $4.40s I only cashed once out of seven tries, bubbling out twice. Made the final table in my cash and got my money in as a 70% favorite on the flop but they hit their straight and I was out in 8th place. Ce la vie. All in all it was a break-even week for me, but it was nice to get back on the horse. More tournaments coming up for me this week, and I'll probably take another shot at the cash games at some point.

BR: $2640

Week 20:
Another break-even week, how exciting. It was all MTTs and I actually feel like I played quite well for the most part. I was getting my money in ahead nearly every time, but couldn't catch the one or two big breaks I needed to get into the big money. I had aces lose to 66, AT and KT deep in three tournaments and that really stung. On Tuesday night I fired up 3 $4.40s and managed to cash in all three at the same time. Unfortunately 10th place in two of them was the highest I was able to get. Stars now has regular speed $11 180-mans, which is pretty much the perfect format for me. It's exciting that I can move up a smaller step now from the $4.40s and continue to take shots here and there at the $22s when I feel like I'm playing well. The only drawback of the $11s is they fill up really slowly because I don't think a lot of the players are aware of them yet. Hopefully I get to play several more of them this week. I'd like to take down at least 1 or 2 of them before beginning to play the $22s more regularly.

$4.40s: 3 cashes out of 3 (0 FTs)
$11s: 1 cash out of 5 (1 FT)
$22s: 0 cashes out of 1 (0 FTs)

BR: $2640

Week 21:
I played a lot this past week. Most of it was tournaments but I did squeeze in three fairly short cash sessions also. In the $50 cash games I ended up ahead half a buyin. It would have been more if not for my kings running into aces twice. That always stings. I played in seven big MTTs, and actually cashed in two of them. I'm getting closer, but still not quite breaking through to the big money yet. The first was a $3 rebuy, I had my best finish yet with 165/2880. The second was also my best finish in the $5.50 tournament with 3000 starting chips. I ended up 139/2487. I also got a fifth place cash in an $11 27-man, but failed to cash in an $11 18-man. The 180-mans were my big loser this week, and cost me a little bankroll as I went 0/7. Today I was really bored and even tried four $11 SNGs for old time's sake. I took first place in one and suffered horrible beats in the other ones (KK < AA, set of kings losing to runner runner flush, etc). Net profit for those was $1 and afterwards I wanted to kill myself. I don't think it was worth it.

BR: $2580

Nice operation thread smacktard. I really like your bankroll management and dedication towards playing this game the right way.

Keep up the good work! And that bankroll keeps moving up... gj

Some hands of note from this week.

Hand 1:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t2000 (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

BB (t25655)
UTG (t21438)
UTG+1 (t28550)
Hero (t21431)
MP2 (t64513)
CO (t79154)
Button (t70766)
SB (t34906)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A, T.
2 folds, Hero raises to t21231, 4 folds, BB calls t19231.

Flop: (t41862) Q, J, T (2 players)

Turn: (t41862) 6 (2 players)

River: (t41862) 4 (2 players)

Final Pot: t41862

Results in white below:
BB has 6h 6c (three of a kind, sixes).
Hero has As Tc (one pair, tens).
Outcome: BB wins t41862.


Hand 2:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

MP2 (t5660)
MP3 (t3660)
CO (t6890)
Button (t5275)
SB (t2365)
BB (t6940)
UTG (t13624)
Hero (t1375)
MP1 (t8430)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 9, 9.
1 fold, Hero raises to t1375, 6 folds, BB calls t1175.

Flop: (t2850) 8, 6, 3 (2 players)

Turn: (t2850) J (2 players)

River: (t2850) 2 (2 players)

Final Pot: t2850

Results in white below:
BB has 4d Ad (flush, ace high).
Hero has 9h 9d (one pair, nines).
Outcome: BB wins t2850.


Hand 3:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

Button (t10510)
SB (t15657)
BB (t13371)
UTG (t9991)
UTG+1 (t3110)
MP1 (t9675)
MP2 (t49908)
MP3 (t23620)
Hero (t10230)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 9, 9.
UTG raises to t1200, 4 folds, Hero calls t1200, 3 folds.

Flop: (t2800) 9, 3, T (2 players)
UTG bets t1600, Hero calls t1600.

Turn: (t6000) 8 (2 players)
UTG bets t4000, Hero raises to t7380, UTG calls t3141 (All-In).

River: (t20521) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t20282

Results in white below:
UTG has Qd Qh (straight, queen high).
Hero has 9s 9h (three of a kind, nines).
Outcome: UTG wins t20282.


Hand 4:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

CO ($33.45)
Button ($10.20)
Hero ($82.80)
BB ($31.05)
UTG ($55.70)
UTG+1 ($44.60)
MP1 ($32.25)
MP2 ($15.75)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, A.
UTG calls $0.50, 1 fold, MP1 calls $0.50, 3 folds, Hero raises to $2.5, 1 fold, UTG calls $2, MP1 raises to $4.5, Hero raises to $10, UTG folds, MP1 raises to $19.5, Hero raises to $90.3, MP1 calls $16.75 (All-In).

Flop: ($75.50) Q, 5, T (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($75.50) A (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($75.50) 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $75.50

Results in white below:
MP1 doesn't show.
Hero has Kh Ac (one pair, aces).
Outcome: Hero wins $129.55.


Comments:

There are few things that piss me off more than when these idiots get rewarded for making stupid calls in a tournament. Hand 1 I figure there is about a 40% chance I'm dominating them with an overpair, a 40% chance we're flipping and a 20% chance they're dominating me with a higher pair. To me that is a stupid call for your tournament life. Hand 2 is not as bad given the stack and blind sizes, but it is still not a call I would make without a good read. My image at the table is uber-tight, chances are I have 55-KK or an Ax better than A4. Either way I'm a 2:1 favorite, so again this is a really loose and risky call. Hand 3 = barf. 6 outers FTL, LOL Documents. Hand 4 villain was a 71/34 drunken moron that decided to shove in his stack with Q2o. Table selection is nice.

Originally Posted by BankItDrew

Nice operation thread smacktard. I really like your bankroll management and dedication towards playing this game the right way.

Keep up the good work! And that bankroll keeps moving up... gj

Thanks Drew, same to you buddy.

Week 22:
These big MTTs are stunting the growth of my bankroll. I added up all of the $11 180-mans, 5.50 deepstacks, $3Rs, etc and I'm down about $245 in those for the year. I know it can take dozens and even hundreds of times before getting that one big score, but right now I need to try to increase my bankroll as the withdraw date for the trip next month nears. The good news is that I won't need a full $2000 withdraw thanks to an unexpected quarterly bonus at work. So my short-term goal is grind as many hands at $50NL as possible while I still have a comfortable roll to do it with. Last night I put in nearly 2000 hands and it was a rollercoaster session as I bounced back and forth between -2 and +1 buyins. Yes I know many people on here scoff at a 3 buyin swing at $50NL, but $150 is still a lot to me. My biggest goal was to increase my aggressiveness in late position, particularly in unopened or one limper pots. I'd have to say it was pretty successful as my attempt to steal was 38.5% for the session. That was a major reason I only lost one buyin overall as I ran into some pretty awful luck with set over sets. Anyhow, I'll post a few hands below and see what you guys think.

BR: $2580

Hand 1:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

Hero ($58)
CO ($62.40)
Button ($27.40)
SB ($49.50)
BB ($46.65)
UTG ($59.30)
UTG+1 ($13.75)
MP1 ($16.15)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 2, 2.
2 folds, MP1 calls $0.50, Hero calls $0.50, 2 folds, SB raises to $3, 1 fold, MP1 calls $2.50, Hero calls $2.50.

Flop: ($9.50) 4, 2, 8 (3 players)
SB bets $6, MP1 folds, Hero raises to $18, SB raises to $30, Hero raises to $55, SB calls $16.50 (All-In).

Turn: ($102.50) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($102.50) A (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $102.50

Results in white below:
Hero has 2h 2d (three of a kind, twos).
SB has Ah Ac (three of a kind, aces).
Outcome: SB wins $102.50.


Hand 2:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

MP3 ($78.40)
Hero ($50)
Button ($71.95)
SB ($49.50)
BB ($65.95)
UTG ($50.75)
UTG+1 ($48.45)
MP1 ($20.40)
MP2 ($45.80)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 3, 3.
3 folds, MP2 raises to $1, 1 fold, Hero calls $1, 3 folds.

Flop: ($2.75) 4, 9, 3 (2 players)
MP2 checks, Hero bets $1.5, MP2 calls $1.50.

Turn: ($5.75) T (2 players)
MP2 bets $6.5, Hero raises to $20, MP2 raises to $43.3, Hero calls $23.30.

River: ($92.35) 7 (2 players)

Final Pot: $92.35

Results in white below:
MP2 has 9d 9h (three of a kind, nines).
Hero has 3h 3s (three of a kind, threes).
Outcome: MP2 wins $92.35.


Hand 3: Finally one of these goes my way.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

Hero ($51.40)
MP1 ($24.20)
MP2 ($29.55)
MP3 ($54.10)
CO ($50.80)
Button ($40.50)
SB ($20.90)
BB ($44.65)
UTG ($84.15)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 5, 5.
UTG calls $0.50, Hero calls $0.50, MP1 calls $0.50, MP2 calls $0.50, 1 fold, CO calls $0.50, 1 fold, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: ($3.50) 2, 8, 5 (7 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $2.5, MP1 folds, MP2 calls $2.50, CO folds, SB folds, BB raises to $9.5, UTG folds, Hero raises to $25, MP2 folds, BB raises to $44, Hero raises to $73.4, BB calls $0.14 (All-In).

Turn: ($94.30) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($94.30) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $94.30

Results in white below:
BB has 2c 2h (three of a kind, twos).
Hero has 5s 5d (three of a kind, fives).
Outcome: Hero wins $123.55.


Hand 4:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

BB ($53.65)
UTG ($53.90)
UTG+1 ($53.95)
MP1 ($53.80)
MP2 ($19.55)
Hero ($59.95)
Button ($67.65)
SB ($16.15)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K, K.
4 folds, Hero raises to $2, 1 fold, SB calls $1.75, 1 fold.

Flop: ($4.50) J, 2, Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3.5, SB calls $3.50.

Turn: ($11.50) 5 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $11, SB calls $10.65 (All-In).

River: ($32.80) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $32.80

Results in white below:
Hero has Kh Ks (two pair, kings and twos).
SB has Qc Qs (full house, queens full of twos).
Outcome: SB wins $32.80.


Hand 5: Revenge for hand #1.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG+1 ($47.60)
MP1 ($30)
MP2 ($48.75)
MP3 ($55.25)
CO ($61.65)
Button ($81)
Hero ($60.90)
BB ($7.50)
UTG ($34.10)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, A.
2 folds, MP1 raises to $2.5, 4 folds, Hero raises to $7, 1 fold, MP1 calls $4.50.

Flop: ($14.50) J, 2, Q (2 players)
Hero bets $9.5, MP1 raises to $19, Hero raises to $28.5, MP1 calls $4 (All-In).

Turn: ($60.50) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($60.50) A (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $60.50

Results in white below:
Hero has Ac Ad (three of a kind, aces).
UTG doesn't show.
MP1 mucked Qc Qh.
Outcome: Hero wins $66.


Hand 6: JJ-TT is pretty much my cutoff area for calling 20-30 BB nitty small stack shoves preflop, depending on reads/stats. Obviously the fewer BBs they have, the more I will open up my calling range.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

CO ($15)
Button ($12.50)
SB ($49.50)
BB ($10)
UTG ($14.25)
UTG+1 ($30.05)
Hero ($59.75)
MP2 ($33.40)
MP3 ($27.50)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with J, J.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.50, Hero raises to $2.5, 3 folds, Button raises to $12.5, 2 folds, UTG+1 folds, Hero calls $10.

Flop: ($26.25) 6, 4, A (2 players)

Turn: ($26.25) 3 (2 players)

River: ($26.25) K (2 players)

Final Pot: $26.25

Results in white below:
Hero has Jh Js (one pair, jacks).
Button has Qh As (one pair, aces).
Outcome: Button wins $26.25.


Hand 7:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

SB ($17.05)
BB ($10)
UTG ($10)
Hero ($50.50)
CO ($31.75)
Button ($54.10)

Preflop: Hero is MP with J, K.
1 fold, Hero raises to $2, CO calls $2, 1 fold, SB calls $1.75, 1 fold.

Flop: ($6.50) 2, 3, 6 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3, CO folds, SB calls $3.

Turn: ($12.50) 8 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks.

River: ($12.50) 9 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $6, SB raises to $12, Hero raises to $18, SB calls $0.05 (All-In).

Final Pot: $36.60

Results in white below:
SB has Jc Ac (flush, ace high).
Hero has Js Kc (flush, king high).
Outcome: SB wins $36.60.


Hand 8:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

SB ($30.25)
BB ($7.75)
UTG ($15.30)
UTG+1 ($50.50)
MP1 ($38.35)
Hero ($50.75)
CO ($27.65)
Button ($50)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 3, 3.
3 folds, Hero raises to $2, CO calls $2, 2 folds, BB calls $1.50.

Flop: ($6.25) 2, Q, 3 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.5, CO raises to $5, BB raises to $5.75, Hero raises to $15, CO folds.

Turn: ($32) T (2 players)

River: ($32) 6 (2 players)

Final Pot: $22.75

Results in white below:
BB has Qd Qc (three of a kind, queens).
Hero has 3s 3h (three of a kind, threes).
Outcome: BB wins $22.75.


Hand 9:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (7 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG ($30.25)
MP1 ($21.40)
MP2 ($51)
CO ($38.35)
Hero ($51)
SB ($19.65)
BB ($50)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 3, A.
4 folds, Hero raises to $2, 1 fold, BB calls $1.50.

Flop: ($4.25) A, 3, 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB calls $2.

Turn: ($8.25) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $6, BB calls $6.

River: ($20.25) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

Final Pot: $20.25

Results in white below:
Hero has 3s As (two pair, aces and sixes).
BB has Qh Ac (two pair, aces and sixes).
Outcome: BB wins $20.25.


Hand 10:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG+1 ($29.80)
MP1 ($14.40)
MP2 ($21.65)
MP3 ($30.20)
CO ($51.20)
Button ($35.60)
Hero ($50.25)
BB ($19.25)
UTG ($14.50)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, K.
2 folds, MP1 raises to $2, MP2 raises to $3.5, 3 folds, Hero raises to $12, 1 fold, MP1 folds, MP2 raises to $21.65, Hero calls $9.65.

Flop: ($45.80) 4, 6, 3 (2 players)

Turn: ($45.80) J (2 players)

River: ($45.80) T (2 players)

Final Pot: $45.80

Results in white below:
Hero has Ks Kc (one pair, kings).
MP2 has As Ad (one pair, aces).
Outcome: MP2 wins $45.80.


Hand 11:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG+1 ($12.25)
MP1 ($17.25)
Hero ($51.80)
MP3 ($44)
CO ($19.30)
Button ($50.30)
SB ($15.50)
BB ($62.30)
UTG ($49.05)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K, K.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $1, 1 fold, Hero raises to $3.5, 5 folds, UTG+1 calls $2.50.

Flop: ($7.75) 7, 6, Q (2 players)
UTG+1 bets $8.75 (All-In), Hero calls $8.75.

Turn: ($0) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($0) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $25.25

Results in white below:
UTG+1 has 7c 6c (two pair, sevens and sixes).
Hero has Kc Kd (one pair, kings).
Outcome: UTG+1 wins $25.25.


Hand 12: Ok, so my luck wasn't all bad last night.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

MP2 ($24.90)
Hero ($58.20)
Button ($16.75)
SB ($49)
BB ($56.10)
UTG ($47.90)
UTG+1 ($49.50)
MP1 ($52.60)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K, K.
UTG raises to $1.5, 2 folds, MP2 calls $1.50, Hero raises to $8, 3 folds, UTG raises to $47.9, MP2 folds, Hero calls $39.90.

Flop: ($98.05) 7, 3, 4 (2 players)

Turn: ($98.05) 7 (2 players)

River: ($98.05) K (2 players)

Final Pot: $98.05

Results in white below:
UTG has Ah As (two pair, aces and sevens).
Hero has Kc Kh (full house, kings full of sevens).
Outcome: Hero wins $98.05.

Bonus PLO hand from earlier in the week: BARF

PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha High, $0.10 BB (6 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

CO ($14.60)
Button ($8.70)
Hero ($10)
BB ($28.20)
UTG ($10)
MP ($10)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9, J, 6, 7.
UTG calls $0.10, MP calls $0.10, CO calls $0.10, 1 fold, Hero completes, BB checks.

Flop: ($0.50) 7, 3, 7 (5 players)
Hero bets $0.5, BB raises to $1, UTG calls $1, MP folds, CO calls $1, Hero calls $0.50.

Turn: ($4.50) 9 (4 players)
Hero bets $4.3, BB raises to $8.6, UTG folds, CO folds, Hero raises to $8.9, BB calls $0.30.

River: ($22.30) 3 (2 players)

Final Pot: $22.30

Results in white below:
Hero has 9s Jd 6c 7h (full house, sevens full of nines).
BB has 3c Jh 3h 8d (four of a kind, threes).
Outcome: BB wins $22.30.

Weeks 23 & 24:
Well I was lazy and didn't update this last week. But I did play quite a bit. Also been reading a lot of strategy. After running bad yet again at $50NL and going 0/7 in MTTs, I decided to switch it up and try learning some 7 card stud. I read pretty much every 7S post on the Every Which Poker forum and started playing. It seemed ok, but not terribly interesting. Also very difficult to multi-table while trying to remember folded cards, but practice does help. After a couple days I gave 7 card stud 8 or better a try. Now this was an intriguing game. I read the split game sections in both SS1 and SS2 and started 2-tabling the $1/$2 limit game on Stars. It's a real blast, and I'm still adapting my game and starting hand requirements. There seems to be a ton of strategy involved, yet at the same time it is quite mechanical and requires a lot of patience. These are all strong points of mine. Hopefully I can continue to improve and enjoy this interesting game in the future. It's definitely much less frustrating and has lower variance than the horribly swingy PLO. Next week, it's back to the $25NLHE grind for me, plus a little more 7S8 when I feel like mixing it up. Also hope to finish reading the second half of Harrington on Cash.

BR: $1350 ($1100 withdrawn for trip)

Week 25:
For the first time in ages I had a great week at the tables. Some of you will admonish me (and rightfully so), but I decided to take an under-rolled shot at $5/$10 7S8. There weren't any $2/$4 or $3/$6 tables going and I didn't feel like playing $1/$2. I wanted to see what the competition was like at the higher level and figured to only get to the $10 betting rounds on 5th street or later with really strong hands. I set a session loss limit of $100. The first day I just played really tight and hit a few nice scoop draws to win about $105. A lot of it came against a $30/$60 regular. So of course I was encouraged to come back and try again the next day. Unfortunately it didn't go nearly as well this time as I just couldn't get much of anything going and bricked on a few draws. Very quickly I was down $70 and on the ropes. Sure enough, a few hands later more bricks and I lose $40 to the table donkey playing one-way hands. The good news was that I did follow my guideline and quit at that point. Some people might chase their losses but I really can't stand losing $100 in a session. It still bugs me. So to try winning it back I switched to some $25NL. Things went well and I played a very sharp game for about 3 hours to win $140 and finish with a profit on the day. I went on to post a couple more winning sessions at $3/$6 S78 over the weekend and suddenly my bankroll is starting to get back to a respectable level. All in all, a nice week. Read about 50 more pages of HOC1 and got my withdrawal check from Stars in the mail yesterday. More $3/$6 for me coming up this week. I really like the low antes and bring-in ratio to the small bet at that level. You can completely nit it up and it doesn't cost you much.

BR: $1610

Week 26:
Another week, another rollercoaster ride. I was stuck over $200 early on thanks to more crappy cards at 7S8. I purchased Ray Zee's book on split poker but so far I haven't learned much of anything new and I'm already halfway through the 7S8 section. Hopefully it gets a little more in-depth and starts teaching some expert plays and theory. After switching back to $25NL I was up nearly 10 buyins on Sunday at one point before finishing up 8. I love all the horrible weekend players. Yesterday I lost 2 buyins thanks to a bad run of trap hands and having aces cracked twice. Played in my first FTR event last night and got knocked out in the second level of the 300 by djbruxism. GG sir. The year is halfway over but I'm fairly pleased with my poker accomplishments thus far. I've gotten over the disappointment of my downswing and realized that a $1700 profit in six months isn't too shabby for a mostly $25NL and $4.40 tournament player. This week I'll be grinding out double VPPs at $25 and $50NL, trying to keep my goldstar status for July despite being on vacation for a couple of weeks. Leaving for Europe next Tuesday!

BR: $1580

Week 27:
Short post this week. Double VPP week got off to a horrible start and I dropped $250 on the first day. It was probably the worst session ever for me. The killer was I knew I should have quit about halfway through, but I stubbornly continued. The good news was that I won it all back over the next two days with some nice solid play. Got a couple other lengthy sessions in after that but overall lost money on the week. I'd say I played around 20,000 hands and was able to rack up around 2300 VPPs. Not bad for only a week into the month. Weeks 28 and 29 will be spent across the pond on vacation, so no poker for a while. We leave the house in about five hours.

BR: $1490

Week 30:
I'm back and it was a wonderful vacation. Absolutely loved the Scottish highlands. I came back refreshed and knocked out a couple things on my to-do list around the house/yard. Now I can begin focusing on poker once again. My quest to maintain Goldstar status continued this week. Currently I'm sitting on 3500 VPPs for the month with 2 days left. I think I should be able to make it. Had a couple minimum cashes in big MTTs over the weekend, but not much else. Dropped some more money in 7S8 and won most of it back at NLHE. Bubbled out of a 7S8 tournament this morning. Today I went on a pretty good run at 50NL and was up about $320 on the day at one point. Then I hit a couple rough hands and donked away about $70. Pretty standard, I just need to take more time and think these things through. Had a sick read with kings calling an all in from queens on the river with a jack high board, which was nice. My next big poker goal is to get to 62,000 FPPs so I can get a $1000 gift certificate to onecall.com and purchase a 40" HDTV. Right now I have around 46,000 FPPs, so I'm thinking this is doable by the end of September as long as I keep Goldstar and don't get derailed watching football too much. We'll see.

BR: $1680

Week 31:
Well I made Goldstar on the last day of the month. The grinding has burned me out for a bit so I've taken the last couple days off from playing. I feel like I've kind of hit a wall at 50NL. The stakes are now comfortable for me, but I just can't seem to put together a winning streak over a few days. It's been -$80, +$45, -$8, +$60 the last four sessions. I feel like the cards I've been getting are about average, although my AKs seem to be missing the flop an awful lot recently. My game continues to evolve thanks to some ideas I picked up in the Harrington on Cash books that I finished over vacation. I've been incorporating more suited and unsuited connectors and one-gappers into my game when I'm in position. It's a fine line between playing them just enough to disguise my other hands and going overboard draw-crazy. On Friday I fired up 9 $4.40 180-mans, hoping to go deep in a couple. I only managed to make the money in one and the following hand occurred: I make the standard raise from EP with QQ, MP guy reraises to steal, I shove over him and he calls with... K4o. I guess he thought he was pot committed after the reraise, personally I would have let it go as it was only about 35% of his chips. Of course the king hits the river and instead of having an above average chipcount with 16 players left I ship away 90% of my stack and am out shortly thereafter. Losing a hand like that in a situation like that makes me want to quit playing MTTs for a very long time. Why would any sane person subject themselves to 3+ hours of accumulating chips only to lose them thanks to such an idiotic play? I honestly don't know how the best MTT grinders do it.

BR: $1660

Week 32:
I played a lot this past week and once again it was up and down with no really big swings. One day I had aces cracked four times but still managed to finish ahead for the session so I must have been doing something right. I'm already over halfway to Goldstar for the month and have reached 52K FPPs. Only 10K more to go! Did a little messing around with my Stars Planner layout to squeeze a few more tables onto my 22" monitor. I now have 12 on the same screen with a little bit of overlap on each. Overall not too bad and it's still relatively easy to play. I finished the S78 section of Ray Zee's High/Lo Split Poker book, but I still seem to lose money at the game. I think I make too many crying calls on 7th with crappy 2 pair hands. That and I brick out a lot.

BR: $1580

Week 33:
Good week, despite not getting to play much due to work and chores around the house. I only played one short session of PLO on Wednesday and two long ones at NLHE over the weekend. I have to admit, PLO has lost its luster for me. For whatever reason, it's just not as fun as when I first began playing it. Maybe after a few months I'll come back and be able to rediscover the magic.

My $50 cash game is beginning to show signs of improvement. The first few weeks after moving up for good, it was a real fight to break even and adjust to the new regs and general style of play. Now I think I'm starting to get a pretty good feel for this level and have had three good winning sessions in a row. Learning how to counter increased three-betting and working on different ways to disguise my hand strength have been the biggest keys in the development of my game. "Small hand, small pot" and "don't pay off a nit's shove" are words of wisdom that keep me out of trouble. Don't play as many speculative hands out of position, even if you're getting a lot of them. It can be difficult to fold several of these in a row, but the situation has to be right in order to play them.

In the coming weeks, I'd like to improve my note-taking on other players. Currently I make notes on opening/limping/3-betting ranges from which positions, how large of bets they'll call down with 2nd/3rd pair or a draw, if they're a frequent 3-better/blind stealer, shoving ranges for short stacks, if they'll stack off w/TPGK, things like that. It's difficult to learn new ways to analyze plays all by myself, many times I can pick up more ideas by seeing examples from other people. So what are some additional types of notes that you guys find most helpful against other players? What types of plays do you think are the most telling about a person's style and/or general grasp of the game? I'm looking for less obvious stuff here that can't necessarily be deduced simply by looking at someone's HUD stats.

BR: $1800

Week 34:
I finished Ray Zee's Split Poker book and had a short session of Omaha 8 or Better afterwards. It was pretty fun and I ended up winning about $10. That game will probably be added to my "play every once in a while rotation". Also it's one less HORSE game that I'm clueless playing now. I only got in one good session of 50NL this week and pretty much ended even after being up about a buyin most of the time. I was going to play this weekend but I had to get my appendix removed Saturday and I've been recovering from that ever since. Not sure when I'll feel up to playing again. At least I'm already goldstar for this month so there's no real rush to hurry back. With fantasy football stuff coming up this weekend there probably won't be much to report next week either.

BR: $1810

Week 35:
No poker this week, I spent most of my time recovering from the surgery. Watched lots of movies while laying on the couch. Also drafted my two fantasy football teams over the weekend. Let the season begin!

BR: $1810

Week 36:
Another slow week. I only played one session on Saturday and got freerolled for a stack. We got it in with AK vs AKs broadway straights on the turn and he flushed my money down the drain on the river. In football news, I lost Tom Brady for the year, but still managed to lay the smack down on kingnat's fantasy squad for the third straight season opener. This is starting to be like playing the annual homecoming cupcake team for me.

BR: $1790

Week 37:
I finally felt like putting in a few sessions this past week and good old variance showed up for a visit. After winning four buyins early and building my bankroll over the $2K mark, I lost them back today in less than two hours of playing. It was a vicious string of boat over boat, flush over flush, set over set ugliness. People seemed very aggressive and I was definitely not playing my best. I'm taking at least a day off to regroup, maybe read some strategy posts and try some new ideas. I currently have over 57K FPPs but will need to play a lot to make Goldstar again this month as I am about a week behind the pace.

BR: $1780

Week 38:
Downswing. So I got hit with some wicked trap hands last week and dropped about 6 buyins. Then I decided to switch it up and play some 3/6 7S8. That didn't go any better as I got squeezed out of a low in a huge 3 way pot for about a $65 loss. Note to self: do not play above 1/2 7S8 anymore, it is a leak! On Friday I took a break from cash games to try some donkaments. Ended up ITM 1/7 with one bubble out and lost a little more money for my trouble. I made a decent comeback on Saturday, 9-tabling 50NL and picking up 3 buyins. At least it wasn't a total beating this week. I'm up to 58.5K FPPs, but I just noticed they raised the FPP prices for stuff on Stars. So now the required number is 62.5K. I blame the crappy value of the dollar.

BR: $1710

Week 39:
I guess this is now week 7 of my fight to get out of the 17 and 1800s. Pretty much more of the same. I didn't play any between last Tuesday and yesterday. Lots of hanging out with friends over the weekend. Last night I hopped on during the 2nd half of Monday night football and won a little over 3 buyins thanks to a ton of aces. Today I ended up down a buyin but racked up a lot of FPPs. I should finally have enough to get the $1K gift certificate sometime in the next week. Another milestone is approaching as I have played nearly 75,000 hands at the 50NL level. I made myself play over 100K hands at 25NL before moving up, so it looks like by the time I finally get properly rolled for 100NL I'll have plenty of experience. My self discipline is pretty high, so if I can get up to about $2500 I'll take a shot at the next level with a 5 buyin stop loss limit. The frustrating part is that could happen in two weeks if I run hot, or it might take several more months if I keep spinning my wheels where I'm at. All good things come to those who wait.

BR: $1820

Week 40:
In the words of Les "Worm" Murphy, I caught a frozen wave of cards like you f---ing read about. Things went pretty good Thursday night and I was once again right up near $1900. But Friday kicked me square in the junk. I lost 6 buyins over three different sessions thanks mainly to KK < AA once and AA < KK twice. That's right, twice in one day for a full stack each time. 4 buyin swing right there. At the end of the day I wasn't even mad or frustrated. Nobody could have possibly won with the cards I got. It was just one of those depressing days. Saturday I had a couple fairly deep cashes in MTTs and a 3/27 in a $11 SNG to win a little bit back. Today I tried some of those double or nothing SNGs where 5 people win and 5 lose. I won 2 and lost 3. They're really not that much fun, but it was interesting to try something new I suppose. The $1k gift card is now a done deal, only three days after my estimated finishing date. So at least something good happened last week. I need to shift my focus from FPP grinding back to profit. Whether that's playing less tables at a time or dropping back down to 25NL or playing low level donkaments where I have an edge. I really want to get back over $2k by the end of the year so I'll have a good starting point for next year.

BR: $1650

Week 41:
I may need a vacation from poker pretty soon. I'm putting too much pressure on myself to make the bankroll go up and not spending enough time evaluating and improving my own play. My cash game seems like it's getting worse. I no longer feel profitable at 50NL. It's also possible that I'm running bad and/or the tables are getting tougher in general. But it's more likely that I have some serious leaks. When my wife starts taking a night class again in January I am going to strongly consider signing up for a training website and studying some videos while she's in class. That is, if I still feel like it's worth going through the grind at that point.

I dropped down to 25NL and won a few buyins over the past couple days, so at least I can still win at that level. Today I also played in 8 tournaments but my only cash was a 3rd place in a 45 man to break even overall. During the weekend, Onecall had a sale and the 46" 1080p LCD I've been looking at was $100 off so I went ahead and ordered one. It's scheduled to be delivered Friday afternoon. My next longterm financial goal is to save/win enough money to pay off half of my second mortgage. I figure there's no way my investments will be earning 8% in the next couple of years, so might as well pay off the loan while the market is going down.

BR: $1710

Week 42:
Only two sessions last week, but I won a little both times. I'm considering being content to just pwn 25NL for a while and see how much I can grind up. It doesn't seem terribly unrealistic to put in 200 sessions over the next year and average +1 buyin each time. Winning $5000 in a year would be a pretty nice accomplishment for me, given that I'm just a part time low stakes player. I feel comfortable playing 12 tables at a time now, so I guess my next step is to get up to 15. The secret to winning long term is to play as many hands as possible when you have an edge.

In other news, my 46" TV was delivered on Friday and it's ginormous. It took me a full day to rearrange/clean my entertainment center and move my old TV and game consoles around, but it was worth it. On Saturday I went to the local Beerfest and sampled about 30 different brews. Any of you other KC area FTR guys make it out there to Legends? Good times. This week we have a friend staying at our house so probably not much poker for me.

BR: $1750

Week 43:
Poker vacation. Been enjoying my new 46" TV and playing lots of Diablo 2. It's amazing how awesome that game still is 7 years later. Also joined a gym nearby and have started playing racketball to get back in better shape over the winter. Maybe I'll get the urge to put in a few hands sometime this week, but I'm not going to force it if I don't.

BR: $1750

Week 44:
See week 43. It's been a nice couple of weeks off.

Week 45:
Raking the yard and more Diablo 2. Maybe I should start a blog for that? Seriously though, I'm starting to get the itch to play a little poker again. A little hunger to pwn the fish and improve my game is what I need at this point to get me going again. Odds are pretty good that I'll be firing up a few tables either tomorrow or over the weekend.

It's time for me to wrap up this blog. I just don't feel like playing poker these days. I played a short session a little over a week ago and it was the complete opposite of fun. To be honest, it felt a lot like a joyless second job. So it is time to take a long break until next year sometime. I'm not withdrawing any money from the site, so it'll be waiting for me when I get that itch to play again. For the sake of closure I will list my brags and achievements for the year so I can look back later and try to build on them in the future.

-Earned $1850 in the 8 months that I actually played this year.
-Cashed in FPPs for a $1000 gift card, which I used to buy an awesome TV.
-Won two $4.40 180 man tournaments.
-Moved from 25NL up to 50NL, but was basically break-even at that level.
-Had deep cashes in three VIP tournaments.
-Cashed in a big MTT rebuy and a HORSE tournament.
-Learned how to play PLO, Omaha 8/b and 7 Stud 8/b.
-Learned that I suck at these games and they're not as easy as they look at first.
-Began using Auto Hotkey scripts. Not sure how I was able to play without them.
-Was able to go from 8-tabling to 12-tabling, thanks largely to the AHK scripts.
-Read Super System 2, Harrington on Cash 1 & 2 and Ray Zee's Hi/Lo Split Poker books.

Thanks to everyone who read this and followed me along my poker journey the past few months.