End of month

Well, my poker playing for November has come to an end.

Profit from HU - 4.2k

Other SNG's - about even

Tournaments - ($215) I tried the sunday HU tourney once. Won my first match, lost the next

FPP profit - $430

Total profit - about 4.4k

I guess I also made 2 trips to the casino to play blackjack and lost $100 each time(we won't count that though, ha)

I guess all in all I am a little bit dissaponted in the month. It's actually by 3rd worst in my now 12 pro months( 1 yr now baby! woot woot). It's all good though I can deal with it. I ended up playing somthing like 500 HU games which is well short of my 650 game goal for the month. If I had gotten those 150 in that would have helped some.

I did venture into the $230's this month, but just a very small amount, about the same as the last couple months. I played 29 of them and went 18-11 which is promising. I'd really like to play more of them, I'm pretty sure I have the skill to beat them, and I def have the bankroll, I think I'm just lacking psychologically. At the $115's losing $500 a day happens and losing $1,000 has happened more than a couple times also. So, I'm guessing a shit day in the $230's would mean losing over $2,000. I guess it's just above my psychological bankroll still. I'm getting better, but I'll have to keep easing myself into them, lol. It doesn't effect my play while I'm playing them or anything, I'm just having a hard time making myself put in consistent volume at that level.

I also have problems with overemphasizng winning sessions and trying to "protect" a win sometimes. For example if I'm 15 games into a session and find myself up $500 I'm way more likely to keep playing the $115's for the day. But if i find myself even or maybe down like $200 or $300 then I'm cool playing a few $230's. It's just stupid, I've tried to make myself change this behavior, but I think it's just the way my mind works. I like recording winning sessions. It affects me more in the way that if I play 10 games and go 9-1 and am up about $800 I am way way way more likely to quit playing for the day then if i went say 5-5. This is even more bad and just costs me money(and probably contributes to my not making volume goals). I was way worse in that dept about 8 months ago, i've gotten better. I mean if my long term expectation is $12/game then after I've played 10 games I've basically made $120 because that is my long term expectation. Enough volume has to be put in to let the good/bad swings like that even out. This is something I've known for a long long time but have to remind my self of alot.

OK, my goal for DEC is to play 650 SNG's again. This can be a combo of any SNG(mostly HU obv). We'll see if I make it, it's a good # to shoot for nonetheless. I think I may try to play some $230's also. It won't be alot but I'll try to play some of them. I should be able to achieve supernova in the last week of Dec which I'm happy about. Time to end 2008 with a bang kiddies!!!!

OK Vikings playing Bears tonight boys and girls. I really like the Vikings in this game, I just have a feeling we are going to win and win big. Big game for both teams for sure.

Prediction: Vikings 27 Bears 7


On a side note I opened an account on sportsbook.com and deposited $500 for a sports betting bankroll. Over the last year or so I've lost about $300 on Bodog sportsbetting(2 seperate $150 deposits, one time I actually turned the $150 into like $750 before losing it). I don't really plan on making any money doing this, it's just fun to bet on sports. However, I've decided that if I lose this $500, or more realistically when I lose it there will be no more sportsbetting for this guy. So this is my last shot at sportsbetting glory you could say. Here are my bets fuckers!!!

Vikings(-3.5) against the bears - $20 to win $20

2 team parlay: Raiders over chiefs, Jets over Broncos, just took moneyline on both - $10 to win $10.78

then I made a little mini bet on the over of the cheifs/raiders game I think the over was like 42 or something - $5.50 to win $5

So if all goes right i could win a cool $35.78. Go picks!

One of those days.....

Well I'm glad to see my prediction come through for the Vikes(4-0 in blog predictions now, lol). The score was a little off but all that matters is the W. This victory combined with the Bears win and Packers loss sets up what will be a very fun game to watch this coming Sunday night between the Vikings and Bears. The winner will be all alone in first place in the division. I'm not gonna make any predictions yet, but I do think the Vikes should take this one. It's going to be a battle though for sure.

After making my blog entry on Sunday I had a little time before kickoff so I decided to play a quick 5 games(massive volume) and went 5-0, the first 4 being $115's and the 5th one being a $230, so that put me up a sweet $630 for the day(and helped soften the blow for what happened on the shit day to follow).

Yesterday was one of those poker days that kinda makes me wanna throw up in my mouth a little. Started off the day losing my first 6 games and ended up finishing the day down about $900. I was down around $1,100 and won a very small portion of it back in my last couple games. It's not like I've never had a day like this before, but it always sucks when they happen. They are an inevitable part of a game with such high variance however. I didn't tilt or anything, if I did it was just a little. It was one of those days where it felt like I was getting outplayed in alot of my games, but I think alot of it was just being stone cold card dead. Not all of it, but alot of it. I'd have to go back and study the hand histories a bit to see if I was playing more badly than I thought. Always frustrating when this happens though. I will play today and am feeling confident I won't let this turn into a downswing(cards willing). We'll see what happens I guess.

I'm hitting up a Nine Inch Nails concert tonight and am PUMPED for that. This show was originally supposed to happen like 4 damn months ago but got delayed because reznor got sick or some shit like that, so a long time waiting for this.

Adios

Back

After taking Thurs. and Fri off i got back into the poker groove yesterday. I pumped out like 25 games and ended up finishing ahead about $200. Eh whatever, can't complain, I'll take it to the bank. Pain in my wrist has subsided more but it's still annoying me. I think I have to work on moving the position of my arm and wrist and shit when I'm playing. Put too much strain on it maybe, fuck I don't know, ridiculous for it to start hurting like that though. I tried to go left handed for a little while to switch it up, but apparently I'm not even close to being ambidextrous. I might as well use my left ear, It'd be the same for me.

It's the best day of the week, NFL Sunday baby. I don't know what I do during the NFL's off season. It's just the perfect day to be a useless piece of garbage and watch football all day. Goddamn I do love it. Vikes are at Jaguars today. I don't know I guess I pick the Jags, I don't want to, but fuck. I love the Vikes but they are the most pathetic franchise I swear. Every year they underperform it seems. EVERY FUCKING YEAR. If everyone said they'd only win one game the whole year they would find a way to go 0-16, I really believe that. But oh well, bring the pain. I actually do think this will be a very close game, within 7 points. Oh the hell with it, I'm going to be optimistic with my prediction this week.

Prediction: Vikings 16 Jaguars 10

Kaboom!!!!

Disabled List

I think I suffered an online poker injury the other day, lol. On Tuesday I was feeling some slight pain in my right wrist(mouse wrist) nothing serious just a little annoying. Then yesterday I put in a 7 hour playing day and noticed the pain was a bit more bothersome, especially if I moved my wrist but nothing too bad figured it should be gone in the morning. I go to bed but wake up about 4 hours later and my wrist is in extreme pain. It literally felt like somebody smashed it with a hammer while I was sleeping, it was fucking BAD. I got up, iced it,popped some aspirin, and a few hours later fell back asleep for a tad longer. Now the pain has subsided some, but it still hurts. Annoying.

I hope this is just a little flukey thing and is nothing serious. Maybe I hold my wrist in an awkward position while I'm playing, I'm not sure. In an average week i probably play about 25-30 hours which isn't a whole lot. I mean at my last job I worked 40 hrs a week and sometimes it was alot of mouse clicking and data entry on the 10 key. I don't recall every having any problems from that. Maybe I need to start doing some kind of hand stretching exercies after every hour or two of playing. Anyone out there do that? Anyways my brother is coming to visit for the next day or two so it'll be a good time to take some time off. It was about time to take a little break anyways.

Since my last update things have been going all right. I'm up around 3.7k for the month right now so I can deal with that. Hopefully I can finish strong.

Here is a somewhat interesting/funny hand I played yesterday:

PokerStars Game #22170117056: Tournament #121498947, $110+$5 Hold'em No
Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/11/19 2:39:47 ET
Table '121498947 1' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: bartchalker (1800 in chips)
Seat 2: Villain (1200 in chips)
bartchalker: posts small blind 15
Villain: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bartchalker [5d Qc]
bartchalker: calls 15
: Villain checks
*** FLOP *** [6c Ac 7c]
Villain: checks
bartchalker: bets 60
Villain: calls 60
*** TURN *** [6c Ac 7c] [Kh]
Villain: checks
bartchalker: bets 120
Villain: calls 120
*** RIVER *** [6c Ac 7c Kh] [Ad]
Villain: checks
bartchalker: bets 270
Villain: calls 270
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bartchalker: shows [5d Qc] (a pair of Aces)
Villain: mucks hand
bartchalker collected 960 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 960 Rake 0
Board [6c Ac 7c Kh Ad]
Seat 1: bartchalker (button) (small blind) showed [5d Qc] and won (960) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: Villain (big blind) mucked [Jd 8c]


My read on villain at the time told me he'd fold to this river bet the vast majority of the time. I am beating most of his drawing hands that he was calling with at this point, so I'm betting here to make the 6 or 7 fold , but also to make a hand like Q8-QJ fold if he was chasing a small flush with the 8, 9, 10, or J of clubs, which this guy would have done. Honestly at the time the only hand I thought I'd get called by was if he had the K of clubs in his hand, and hit the K on turn.(or of course if he has the A or a slowplayed monster) Obv my read was way, way off. Funny though.

Till next time, see ya

Halfway point of month

Well the month of November has gone pretty decent up to this point, I really have nothing to complain about. It seems the month has been incredibly streaky so far with a couple nice winning streaks and a few losing streaks also. I've played about 250 heads up games, which obviously puts me on pace to come up short of my 650 game goal. I've also put in 16 other sngs which means i'm not on pace to make my 50 game goal in the dept either. It'll to tough to recover and play enough games to make my volume goals before the end of the month rolls around, but I'm not too worried about it. I don't know if i really expected to make those volume goals or not, but I will come close and it keeps me motivated to keep grinding to try to come as close as possible. As far as the goals to not tilt and to get exercise, I've managed to not tilt much at all this month but getting the exercise has been another story, lol.

Mid November #'s

Profit from Heads up- $2,410

Profit from other sngs - $235

FPP profit - $430

If I can keep this pace going and finish the month with a profit of 6k+ I will be happy with that.

After some thought I've decided to officially quit playing on Full Tilt 100%. I cashed out everything but $1,000 the other day and will let my girlfriend take over the account. She has played here and there over the last couple years and has always been a pretty good player and made money. It seems her best game is def the 9 person sng. She has also done well in the $10 and $20 matrix tourneys which were recently added by FT. Good luck!!!

Well the Vikings have a big game against Tampa Bay today that I'm kinda pumped for. Last I saw i think Tampa was like a 4 point favorite. I think this will be a very close game and if it was at the Metrodome I would give the nod to the Vikings for sure. It seems you can never feel comfortable with any Vikes lead because of their shitty special teams who have already allowed an eye popping 6 TD's this year. Talk about frustrating to watch.

Optimistic prediction - Vikings 20 Buccaneers 17

Realistic prediction - Vikings 13 Buccaneers 24

Let's go Vikes prove me wrong!!!!!!

Another big NFC North game Bears Vs Packers. If the vikes can win and bears lose we'll be all alone in first place baby!!! It's not too often I'll root for the cheeseheads but this is one. I think the Packers have the edge in this game especially being at home.

Prediction: Packers 28 Bears 13

Time to roll out

Hola

Well first thing, I have to say I am severely dissapointed in the finalization of the UIGEA(Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act). I don't know what exactly this is going to mean for the future of online poker in the United States, but it certainly can't help anything. Here are a couple links to stories that explain this story better and more in depth than I can:

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/article/5511/uigea-is-finalized-rules-can-be-implemented-by-dec-2009

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Bush-Administration-Moves-Forward-Midnight/story.aspx?guid=%7B7EE30DB7-50FF-4B48-B0B8-01EE19BE3800%7D

It just really really makes me sick that this has gone as far as it has. As if the Bush administration hasn't caused enough problems already, they seem hell bent on causing a few more. As if the original bill wasn't bullshit enough(being attached to the port security bill) now they are wanting to get this in before the Obama adminstration takes over. Ugh. With the combination of this and what's going on in Kentucky right now(the attempted seizure of internet domain names related to online gaming) it seems online poker is being attacked right now. Hopefully the new adminstration can get this wonderful game legalized, taxed, and regulated in the US. It would generate a ton of extra tax money for our gov't if this happened. Obviously I'm a little bias in my views since I play this game for a living, but even if you've never played a hand of online poker in your life this really should piss you off. I mean honestly, you're telling me that in the United States of America somebody shouldn't be allowed to come home after a hard day at work and maybe unwind with a little online poker if they choose?? They should not be allowed to spend THEIR hard earned money that THEY worked all day for the way THEY see fit? I hate the argument about protecting children or protecting the compulsive gamblers, it's all bullshit really. If an overweight person goes to fucking Burger King for the 2nd time in one day should our gov't go ahead and block that transaction also? How about when a compulsive shopper spends x% of their salary in the shopping mall in a given month? Maybe block those transactions? Hell, let's bring prohibition back, it worked so well the first time around. People have to realize that making somthing illegal alot of the time does not stop it, it just makes it unsafe. If this goes any further the financial institutions are going to have to hire more employees just so they can stop transfers to internet gambling sites. Oh. obviously there are carveouts for placing bets online for fantasy sports, lotteries, and horse racing. Lol, what a hypocritical shame of a fucking joke.

Meh, I guess I kind of went off there. A little rant for y'all. Hope you enjoyed it, lol.
Who knows, maybe this will have very little impact on anything, but the fact that a ridiculous bill like this can go this far is rather scary.

Well, as far as my poker life goes.....it's been pretty good since my last update. I've been playing and running rather good and am up about 3.3k for the month right now. I've been dabbling just a tad in the $230's so far. I have an 11-5 record in those so that has helped both my profit and my confidence. I also played in a 45 person $60 sng for the first time in quite a while and won it for like $750 so ship that shit. Speaking of confidence it's somthing I've been playing with an awful lot of since my last post. When I'm confident at the poker table I am more decisive and make great decisions so I want to keep this going. That's what they call poker swagger baby!! Eh, I'm out I'll update at the halfway point of the month again.

See ya.

update

Well the month started off good enough with a +$1600 day on Monday, but in the days that followed I've lost about $600 making me up about an even grand this first week. Although I have played far from perfect poker I am really annoyed by some of the shit that keeps happening. It really really pisses me off, just the standard AA into K4 on K47 flop or AK against A9 on the A92, or 8 10 against J9 on the 7 8 10 flop. fucking puke. Then the fact i'm not playing my A game doesn't help so I have to fix that ASAP. You would think after playing almost a year professionally i could let this bullshit roll of my back but I just have a hard time doing it. But whatever it could be alot worse and still have 3 weeks left in the month. I typed my original goal for the month as 7.5k but that might have been wishful thinking. I've averaged this year about 6k/month, so although I've hit 7.5k and up a few times it's not very realistic to make it a goal right now. We'll see what happens.

I've almost abandoned playing on Full Tilt completely now. Up until about a month or so ago I used to play about 2/3 of my games on Full Tilt. When I had originally signed up with Full Tilt back in the day i had no idea about rakeback so didn't sign up through an affiliate to get it. They had told me no way I could get it on existing account, then I hear about some other peeps getting it on existing accounts. What the fuck? i exchange some emails over the next few months and they keep telling me the same crap, i'm on some list be patient blah blah blah. I finally said the hell with it typed them an email saying I was quitting the site an dplaying at pokerstars, boom next day I get email saying i get get 27% rakeback, lol. Is that all it takes? But after taking a closer look i realized pokerstars players club absolutely BLOWS full tilt out of the water. On FT i was saving up for the 50 inch plasma which was 515,000 points. for every $115 turbo i played in i got 35 points/game. plus i could get some iron man medeals which equated to about 16-18 thousand points extra/month. Pokerstars as supernova i can get 87.5 points/game AND they have a 60 inch plasma that is just 270,000 points. so i earn way more points/game + the merchandise is cheaper. Hmmmmmm, i wish I would have looked at this shit closer at an earlier date, some pro i am lol. on top of that my $/game is better on stars and if i use there points to enter sunday million satalites it comes down to about 30% rakeback anyways when i reach supernova(which I will in December).

Ok, hoping this next week is a sweeeetttt week with lotsa $$$. gotta make it happen. Probably won't play much sunday with the football games on. Big game Vikings vs Packers, hoping vikes can pull it off.

Prediction: Vikings 23 Packers 20 Vikes on last second field goal

Ok good luck to anyone grinding, I'm out.

GRRRRRRR

Well, after telling myself I wasn't gonna follow up my awesome day with a shitty one I start the day losing 7 straight + a 9 man $60. Semi recovered to finish down a tad over $500. Sigh.

Good luck

Rolling

Well maybe I should have started this blog thing awhile back! Absolutely dominated, tore apart, pwnd,(whatever you wanna call it) the $110's yesterday. Combined 18-2, after starting off 3-2 i won 15 in a row which is my longest streak ever. I will see if I can keep that streak going for a while today. It's unbelievable when you are on a streak like that, I'd like to chalk it all up to awesome play, but of course to win 15 in a row a little good fortune needs to come your way.

This is where I need to be careful not to tilt. Most players think of someone on tilt as someone who's just dumped 15 buyins and is now playing like a moron, but I feel I sometimes tilt in a way after doing really good. I think it's a feeling of invincibility and being a little overconfident, which culminates in making sub optimal decisions at the table(being too fancy, maybe trying to many crazy bluffs, feeling you're running good and you can chase without proper odds). Most of the done I don't even realize how bad I'm playing, but when I think back to the hands or look back at the histories I see the mistakes I was making. BAAAAADDDDDDDD.

I've read in many many places that poker should be thought of as one long session, so you should never get to high or too low after one session. I don't know how many out there can adapt that mindset but I sure as fk can't. After a session like yesterday I feel ecstatic and pumped up, if it had been the opposite and i'd gone 2-18, I'd have been pissed off (My biggest enemy at the poker table, and I'm sure I'm not the only one out there, is tilt and not letting it affect my game, or taking a break when I start to feel it creep in). I am extremely competitive when I play and I want to win every game and sometimes get pissed when I can't(which is soooo ridiculous, like a MLB player getting pissed he can't hit .500). However as much as I love to win, I will never love winning as much as I HATE losing. Ok, enough about he ugly subject of tilt....

All right here are my goals for November:

-Play 650 Heads up SNG's(mostly $115's, maybe with a few $230's thrown in)

-Play 50 9-10 person SNG's(between $60 and $114)

-Don't tilt!(last month I feel I was on tilt for like a week straight, and my bottom line probably suffered because of it)

-Make $7,500 this month(this isn't so much a goal, just hoping it happens, I don't like setting goals like this in poker because sometimes you have no control over if you achieve them)

-Get some fkn exercise! I've been horrible lately with getting in the exercise room. I'm not a fat man or anything however getting exercise makes me feel better and makes me play better poker.

Good luck

First blog entry ever

Well, I've decided to start my own poker blog(it seems like the cool thing to do these days amongst professional players). I have to admit just typing this now feels a bit awkward, as I've never blogged before and never thought it would be something I'd ever be inclined to do. I think this will be a good place to make my poker goals, and just typing them out where people can read them(even if it's only a few random people who happen upon this blog) will give me a little extra motivation to achieve them. Also it might be a good place to type out some of the frustrations and stresses that come with the territory of being a professional player(at the very least it may decrease the poker bitching my girlfriend will have to hear when I am running bad). Not that anyone wants to hear bad beat stories(except you sickos who get some kind of enjoyment out of others' poker misery, like myself I guess), but in a blog at least you can just skip it. I will try to make entries at least once per week. However I also guess there is the possibility I get bored with this fast and quit within the month, but we'll see.

I have been playing for a living since Dec 1, 2007(almost a year now!). I started like many playing low stakes SNG's. For me it was on PartyPoker playing the $5 + $1 ten person sng's, eventually moving up to the $11 and $22 sng's. Then of course PartyPoker shut down to US customers(UIGEA makes me angry every time I think about it) and I got accounts on Full Tilt and Pokerstars where I got into Heads Up Sng's(I now play about 90% of my games on Stars) which I found was by far the game I was the most naturally skilled at, I worked my way up to the $57.50 HU Turbos rather quickly and started tracking my stats more closely and realized my $ per hour was much higher than at my accounting job, so that was that. I now play the $115's the vast majority of the time, every once in a while jumping to the $230's(sometimes cuz i'm feeling on top of my game and sometimes cuz I'm tilting like shit). Eventually I may move into the $230's on a more permanent basis, but for now I am happy with where I'm at and am in no hurry.

Like I typed earlier I will try to make posts at least once a week, hopefully this is like the movie "She's all that"(I have no idea why I've seen this movie) where the ugly girl turns beautiful in the end. I want my blog to be beautiful!