Wow! It's like the first 3 weeks of last month me and online poker got into a big fight. Then we made up and the last 10 days have been the make up sex. I ended November really strong and have started off December even stronger. I've put in 115 games so far this month and have recorded a semi ridiculous 78-37 record. Most of this has come on Full Tilt where over my last 40 games on the site I'm 34-6. I think this is prob the best I've ever done over a 5 day stretch, it's pretty incredible actually when it seems I've won like every flip, hit every time I'm all in with a draw, have had my opponents miss every time they're all in with a draw, etc etc this month. I'll take it! I was kinda due in my opinion.
In December of 2008 I bested my previous best 9.1k month with a 9.5k month. Can Dec of 09 yield the same result? My best month is 19k, so I should have a real shot at it. We will see. It would be a nice way to finish off the year for sure. Just gotta keep playing as good as I am and hopefully run avg the rest of the month.
I guess I don't have much else to say. I'm pretty damn tired right now, think I'm just gonna chill the rest of the day.
I'm finished playing poker for Nov. Wow, this was a frustrating month. It's quite possible I've never been as frustrated playing poker as I was this month. Alot of it was bad luck and running bad and obviously a decent part of it was just not playing up to my potential. Thankfully in the final week I did not have a losing day and managed to semi turn the month around. For a while it was looking like it could end up being a losing month if I kept on the track I was on. I escaped though and turned a profit I am happy with, despite it being my 2nd worst month of the year.
This all adds up to about $6,300. The way the month started I'll take that!
I tried playing a few more $570's this month and did end up playing 10 of them. I went 5-5 overall. I wouldn't mind getting a few more of those in but I don't know if I'm really 100% comfortable with the notion of being able to drop 2k+ in just 4 games. It'll probably be a slow process kinda like the jump from $115 to 230/345 was. It will probably be even slower because I'm pretty happy with the games I'm playing now and don't really want the added stress right now.
I wish some of those $115 wins could be transferred into the $345 column. Kind of annoying to run good there and run like trash in the higher stake.
I made an account on Cake and played a handful of games at the $208 and $105 which I put in the $230 and $115 columns above respectively. I didn't do to well, but only played like 10 games. My screen name there is "bartchalker1" in case anyone wants to know. Not sure if I'm really going to put much volume in or not, the games fill pretty slow sometimes.
I'll finish this post off in style with my Heads Up graphs for the month. Pokerstars & Full Tilt in that order.....
As you can see I actually did really well on Stars this month, but hit a bad downswing on Full Tilt, but managed to recover in the end. A few months ago it was the opposite though.
Yippee, I'm actually making $$$$ again the last couple days. Sweet little change from the 3 weeks prior to it. That kinda shit happens though, and man it can be tough to deal with. Poker is a tough business, no doubt about it.
I know I said in my last post I was thinking about taking the weekend off but I was playing like 1 hour after I posted that, lol. I can't seem to help myself sometimes, I should really give myself more days off. Sometimes the mind needs a rest from poker. However since my last post I've gone a combined 64-42 in the 230/345 combo. I also mixed in a handful of 115/570. Just one 570 actually, which I lost. On top of running better it feels like I'm starting to play good again too. I don't know, it's such a thin line sometimes that it's hard to tell how much of a downswing is due to just getting unlucky, and how much of it is due to making bad decisions. The 2 can kinda get blurred together over the short term.
Getting ready to go see "Ninja Assassin" in a bit. I hope it's an action packed ass kicking good time because that would make me a happy boy. Happier than that time I thought I had eaten the last brownie but there was still one left. Yum.
I am running awful this month. Real awful. It has made me play pretty awful in a few spots too. I'm not sure if I've ever run this bad in a month before. I didn't have a lot of time to play on Thurs, but I managed to get in a quick 13 games on FT and went 10-3 for a +$1,400 day. I really felt like I could feel the tide turning, but yesterday I got slapped in the face by a -2k day.
Poker can feel like a fucking cancer sometimes, I swear. I think this game could literally drive a person insane. I know it does to me sometimes. I know this is a game of high variance and small edges. I know that in the short term(which can be a lot longer in poker than people think) bad players can win and good players can lose. I know that one can be rewarded for making bad plays and punished for making good plays. These are not just things I know, but things I've known and understood for quite some time. However I'm not sure if I accept this all the time. If I truly accepted it I probably would not become angry and upset when the bad beats and set ups occur. I don't really mind the fact that I can get mega pissed when I play, I don't think I'd want to be an emotionless robot when playing, but when it starts infecting my game with bad play that's when I need to take a step back. I need to start taking breaks when I lose a few games in a row. I was getting pretty good about doing that for a while. Even if I don't bother getting up from the computer, just reading an aricle on MSN for 10 minutes or something usually makes a pretty big difference.
I've also become so used to having these +12k months I think that I got spoiled. There has only been 1 month in the last 7 that I didn't hit 12k. I think when it hit the halfway point of this month and I was still about even I knew I probably wouldn't make another 12k month. Once again though, I would not accept it. I think there were too many days this month when I kept playing after I was worn out or tired or just didn't really feel like playing. I kept playing because I was looking to score some of those days where I bank like 2k so I could get back on pace for my typical month. Those 2k days can't be forced though. You can't force the poker gods to be on your side. It will drive you mad if you try. Any time you make 2k in 30 games at 230/345 it's going to take a little running good to do that.
I haven't really decided if I'm going to play any poker this weekend. I might just take a day or two off and come back refreshed. There are still 9 days left in the month so maybe I can at least finish up a couple grand.
The difference between my #'s on Full Tilt and Stars this month are like night and day. I've done quite well on Stars....all my running bad has happened on FT. I'm down like 5k on FT but I'm up over 5k on stars.
Nov Profit - $640
2009 Profit(all that matters) - 112k
If I want to look at this optimistically, being up $640 in Nov after how bad I feel I've run/played isn't that bad. I'm still ahead $$$$$$, it's not like I'm -5k or some shit.
If at the beginning of 09 I had been told that on Nov 21, I'd be up 112k I would have happily taken it considering my 09 goal was 100k.
Whenever I start to feel the tide turning this month, it just decides to crap on me instead. I have not played my best poker in Nov either. I can tell. It just seems everything that I do is wrong. I have not been able to properly read my opponents hands. When I call a big river bet with a hand that can only beat a bluff I have been wrong the vast majority of the time. In a sense part of that is just running bad too, because they will flip up a very unlikely backdoor straight draw, or a low pocket pair that rivered a set, or just something else weird. It's always against the super laggy villains also.
Yesterday I dropped 1.6k after going a combined 7-13, cutting me down to under 1k in profit for the month. A big part of it was a series of $230 matches I played against a single opponent where I went 4-9. They were not good, but that did not seem to matter. I made 2 really bad plays where villain took a line of check/calling my flop cbet, then check/raising turn. I stacked off both times, once with 2 pair and another time with top pair. My hand isn't really the point though, this player would 100% not take that line without a monster. Both times he had turned straights. Folding in these spots to some opponents might be dumb, but against this guy it should have been a couple easy laydowns for me. I found ways to convince myself I was good with flawed poker thinking.
I'm not going to get to down though, I've played like garbage in a few spots but most of it has just been me getting very unlucky. I felt good when I woke up today and was all ready to get a few games in, but here's what happens the first game I play.
Then the 2nd game I play.........guy goes ape shit after I raise a few buttons.....
I stage a bit of a comeback then.....
This same shit has been happening for 2 weeks.....just standard bad beats, but I haven't posted any in a while so there you go! Pity me please! Plus I wanted to try to get video replays of a few hands on my blog. It worked!
It's amazing how impossible poker can feel sometimes. 2 weeks of losing seems like an eternity. Hell, I'm not even losing, I'm just breaking even, lol. Sometimes I wonder how I ever win at this game while other times when I'm running hot I wonder how I ever lose. Crazy.
I've been mega lazy with my blog this month so far! What kind of example am I setting for all the children out there!! I don't know what I'm talking about.
I guess I probably haven't felt like updating because this month has been a pile of shit. A big pile of tilt inducing dung. I have been unable to do anything this month for the most part, and managed to lose most of my FT roll after going on a vicious 2 day downswing immediately after cashing out. It wasn't super horrible though being that I don't roll with that huge of a roll on that site anyways, still sucked though. I just managed to pull outta the red a couple days ago for the month. Fuck I run like shit sometimes. Then I make it worse by tilting away a game or 3 before calling it quits for the day. There was one day this month I dropped like 2.5 or 3k, can't remember for sure, but I must have played my last 10 games playing my D game at best. My mouse was both verbally and physically abused by me during that stretch. My neighbors probably think I'm beating up my GF over here, lol. The cops are gonna show up one day and I'm gonna have to explain I am just scitzing(however you'd spell that) out over online poker. It's gonna drive me to drink!!
Today has gone pretty good. I've played nothing but 230's and am 10-6. I'll take it! Oh my fucking god, I'll fucking take it. My prayer to the poker gods......Please let me not run good the rest of the month, just normal!! Please, I promise if you do that for me I will not strike my mouse in frustration anymore. That is all.
I found something else that kinda annoys me about online poker. I'm not sure why, but when 2 people are about to play a game it annoys me when this happens. I mean if one person types "gl" and the other person types "u2" or "ty" whatever, it's cool. But what is up with people typing "glglglglglglglgl" and the other person typing "tytytytytyttyty". Seriously, does that just show how unbelievably excited you are to be wishing them good luck?
Also, the use of the words "epic" and "baller" really needs to be watched. I mean every once in a while cool, but jesus christ. Pretty soon we're gonna hear about someone eating an "epic" breakfast, then following that up by taking a "baller" shit.
One more....the use of "aments" as a suffix. Example - "downswingaments" instead of just the standard downswing. Just stop. Seriously, lol. STOP.
That's it!! I'm done, will not wait 2 weeks to update again!
The month of October has come to an end, and my profits for this month are very consistent with my profits in Aug and Sept.....not more than $500 separates the differences in profit those 3 months.
Oct Profits below.....
Heads Up - $9,875 Rakeback/FPP's - $2,751 Other SNG's $211
Total Profit - $12,837
I ended up playing 628 games this month which is more than I've played in quite a while. There were quite a few days when I grinded pretty hard and I'm happy where it got me. I won 55% of my games this month and I feel like it should have been higher. The last 3 months now I've won between 55-56% of my matches, when I'm used to winning closer to 57-58%. I'm not sure if I've been playing just a little worse thsese last couple months or running just a tad more on the bad side. It only takes losing 1 extra game out of every 100 to have this happen so it's so tough to see what's causing it. Maybe the games are getting a bit tougher? Who knows....random variance.
I finished below what I'm used to in the 230, but ran well in the 345 to make up for it. However I get there I guess.
Finally, my Pokerstars/Full Tilt Heads up graphs for the month....
I would like to put in this kind of volume again in November, hopefully with a little higher winning % which will mean a little extra $$$. I won't complain if I finish +12k again though.
Sadly, this is a different record. My worst losing day ever. I finished down around $2,600 yesterday after going a combined 10-17. I got really unlucky in too many key spots, and when I'm playing alot of 345 these things are gonna happen when I have days like that. Towards the middle of my session I played a $570 for the first time this month and lost also. I got all my chips in with 57hh on a 462hh and my opponent had 44 for one of the worst hands I could be up against. He filled up on the turn. Ugh. I'm only down $1,500 on the day if I had won that.
I gotta start thinking of losses like this in terms of buy ins instead of actual dollars lost. I mean 10-17 is only 7 buy ins+rake. It really means nothing. I got a little frustrated towards the end of my session, but overall handled it quite well. I will try to end month on a good note :)
Yesterday was a great poker day....played 34 games in the 230/345. I went 24-10 which was good for +3,460, a new daily profit record for me. Pretty exciting. It's fun to run hot. :) I managed to earn another $960 today on top of that.
I've been putting in some pretty high volume for my standards this month....542 HU games thus far!! Last month I only put in 446 total HU games. That was a lazy month for me. I just might be able to pump out over 700 games this month. I've had a handful of days where I've played almost 40 games which I never do.....little too exhausting.
I've recovered from that little 4k downswing the last few days. The day after that post I ripped off a 2.4k day, only to follow it up with a 1k loss on Sunday. However the last 2 days I've made back another 3k. I really played well yesterday, my mind was in the game and I was feeling super confident. I ran super hot too which felt nice. Man, I know I've prob said it enough in this blog but soooooo much of this game is about self confidence. When I'm on a hot streak and feeling confident and making all the right moves it just kinda builds upon itself. I seem to pick up on all the little things my opponent is doing, but more importantly have the confidence to pull the trigger on the moves to exploit these things. Yesterday I was even able to pick up a timing tell on an opponent that helped me lay down a big hand and call down with a weak one. Sometimes when running bad I play bad and lose my confidence for a while and kinda fall into the mindset "why try that, it's not gonna work anyways" or some similar line of thinking. STAY CONFIDENT
I think I've made over 200k in my poker career now. My sharkscope for stars/ft is at around 188k total and I know it missed about a 5k upswing I had a couple months ago, plus I know I've made about 10k back in the day on random poker sites like Party, Bodog, Pacific, Noble. I guess it's kinda a cool milestone to hit.
I don't think it's an issue, but I hope I don't come off as being real braggy when I type shit like above, or when I'm typing my monthly profits. I feel a little weird typing it at times, but being that it's a poker blog it would be kinda odd not to include it. Besides there are a ton of players who have made more and are far more successful in this game than I am....and are far better players too. When I'm adding up my profits I mostly think of it as more points then money....kinda like a way of keeping score you know??? Just figured I'd throw this little paragraph in here.
Here's the deciding hand I played in a game against Gavin Smith a while back that I meant to post but forgot.
Full Tilt Poker Game #15287608048: $220 + $10 Heads Up Sit & Go (112092656), Table 1 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 10:39:13 ET - 2009/10/12
Seat 1: bartchalker (1,665)
Seat 2: Gavin Smith (1,335)
Gavin Smith posts the small blind of 25
bartchalker posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bartchalker [Qs Qc]
Gavin Smith raises to 1,335, and is all in
bartchalker calls 1,285
Gavin Smith shows [5s 8s]
bartchalker shows [Qs Qc]
*** FLOP *** [Ac Qd 2s]
*** TURN *** [Ac Qd 2s] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [Ac Qd 2s 2c] [Kd]
Gavin Smith shows a pair of Twos
bartchalker shows a full house, Queens full of Twos
bartchalker wins the pot (2,670) with a full house, Queens full of Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,670 | Rake 0
Board: [Ac Qd 2s 2c Kd]
Seat 1: bartchalker (big blind) showed [Qs Qc] and won (2,670) with a full house, Queens full of Twos
Seat 2: Gavin Smith (small blind) showed [5s 8s] and lost with a pair of Twos
Not exactly the most interesting hand to post and I'm sure in this case Gavin was just fucking around/drunk(although he was playing OK the first 2 levels) I just find it amazing that every sponsored pro I ever play is never that good. Obviously HU is not their main game, usually MTT's/cash games are and they have prob made more $$$$ than I ever will, but wow, you would think those skills would somewhat transfer over to HU and other SNG's. I mean Gavin Smith is down like 177k on scope...wtf??!! I really feel like the top online players whether it be in MTT's, cash games, whatever are better players and understand the game alot more than alot of the TV Pros. They should have some of the top 6max sng players online play on Poker After Dark against those guys. Those TV Pros would get killed.
The last 3 days have not been the most fun to deal with losses of $2,300, $300, and $1,150. The 2.3k loss on Wed has been my worse day in a while....played 22 games that day and only won 6 of them. As usual, it's the double combo of running and playing like fucking trash that made all this beauty possible. I'm only up like 1.1k in HU this month now.....luckily I've done pretty well in the rakeback dept making 1.5k or so. I actually just had an 11 game winning streak end in the 5400 point sunday million qualifiers....that's kinda sick.
That means I'm still up 2.6k overall which is not nearly a disaster. I'm sure I'll get it turned around the next few days and hopefully end +10k for Oct, although that may take a little luck now.
I've been a bit too spewy with my chips lately. That's gonna have to stop.
I am pretty happy with my start to Oct being up around 3.9k, particularly since I've taken basically 4 days off. I'm not sure what my deal has been the last month or so.....I just can't seem to find my grind switch. There have been so many days when I just don't feel like playing, and when that happens I usually just don't play. I hate forcing myself to play if I don't feel like it because I get frustrated easier and tilt faster. However after taking the 6th, 7th, and 10th off I feel I am ready to get back into grind mode again!! Yesterday I actually got in 27 games which is quite a bit for me. Too bad it resulted in my first losing day of the month....I dropped $450. I was down close to $1,400 so it actually kind of felt like a victorious day.
I lost 3 or 4 in a row to some donk on FT and I think for the first time ever declined a rematch against a sharkscope fishbowl. I could just feel my blood boiling and had to quit.....it's amazing how someone so bad can actually start to outplay you once they've won a few in a row. It feels that way anyways. Confidence is so huge in this game. After I took a little break I came back and played well. I don't think a year or two ago I would have ever quit playing such a bad player even though it was obvious I was tilting and playing badly. My ego just would not have let me do it.....as if declining a rematch was admitting I was the inferior player.
I remember about 2 1/2 yrs ago, before I was playing full time, I was just making my way into the 115's on FT. My online bankroll was only about $3,000 at this time so I wasn't quite properly rolled for the 115's but would take random shots. Well this night I got sat my a player in a 115 who was by no means a donk, but a breakeven/slightly winning player. Back then I had a style that was alot more passive.....effective just less aggressive. This player was quite aggressive and loose. They raised 100% of their buttons and cbet 100% of the flops for a 3/4 to full pot bet. At this time in my poker career I probably called out of the BB way too much(probably a bad habit from the lower levels where I was able to outplay people out of position more often). Well the first 3 matches I got owned by constantly calling out of the BB and check/folding the flop. After the 3rd game I started mixing in some 3bets preflop and check/raises on the flop. It was like he could see my cards, every time I c/r a flop with garbage I got shoved on, every time I 3bet pf with a mediocre hand he jammed. On the rare occasions I hit the flop he'd fold to my c/r. I kept accepting rematch after rematch, in each match playing worse then the previous one, not wanting to decline and accept defeat. Well, if I remember right I lost 8 in a row, or 9 of 10 and he took me for over $900. This wouldn't be devastating much at all now, but then that was 1/3 of my roll, and my main game was the $57.50 HU turbo, so losing $900 in the 115 in such a short amount of time(the matches were prob only last 5 min on avg, lol) was crushing. How could I let myself get so out of control? Why did I keep rematching somebody who was outplaying me when I was on tilt on top of it? Why in the fuck did I basically GIVE AWAY 3 or 4 of those games?
I got burned badly that day and I learned alot from it. Not to say I've NEVER let my emotions take over since then, but I never let it get to the point where I'm dropping 8 or 9 buyins to the same person when I'm on foam from the mouth tilt. There have def been some close calls, but I always stop and take a break after losing 4 or 5 in succession. It's kinda ironic how I didn't want to admit to being the inferior player by quitting, when the fact that I kept playing when on my F-game was what made me the inferior player.
Now I hardly ever let my ego get in the way. An ego in poker can be a good thing, but too much of it can put your lights out. Now even if I lose one game to a breakeven or winning player I usually decline because I know that there are better spots and I don't let my ego get in the way. I've had players ask me "are you scared to play me" or some other bullshit. They apparently get off on the notion that "they are not scared to play anybody". Ummmmm......no I am not fucking scared to play you. What on earth would I be scared of??? It's a FUCKING CARD GAME, not a life or death war. Give me a break. I just don't give a shit about dick measuring contests. I give a shit about making $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. That's all I have to say about that, kinda rambled a bit :)
OMG, OMG OMG.........The Twins/Tigers one game tiebreaker was the most exciting, gut-wrenching, nerve racking game I've ever seen. If you're a baseball fan and missed that game I feel sorry for you, just a wonderful game that the Twins came out on top in!!! The Yankees awaited the Twins and pounded us 3-0 for the sweep. Game 2 was absolutely devastating being that the Twins had a 2 run lead in the 9th only to watch Nathan blow it......sigh. Twins went 0-10 vs Yankees combined reg and post season this year. I guess it's safe to say they own us.
Vikings over Rams 38-10.......5-0 baby!!!!!! Bring on the Ravens!!!!
I surpassed my 100k goal for 2009!! Chilling at about 101k right now and it feels awesome to not only make my goal I set at the beginning of the yr, but to do it with just under 3 months left in 2009. It's looking like I should end up in the 130-150k range, assuming I don't jinx the shit outta myself by typing something like that. When I set that goal at the start of 09 I remember saying I might have been being a bit optimistic, but it turns out I didn't give myself enough credit. However I was still playing the 115 as my main game then and didn't make the permanent move up to 230+ until a few months into the year. It feels awesome to hit this goal so early in the year though, I'm pumped!!
I was just watching Livb playing on uber fucking monkey tilt. Holy fucking shit, how can someone who is so good revert to being such a tilting ass donk??? He musta lost like 10 straight but towards the end I was seeing him 3bet at 15/30 with 62 then call a shove, then he was freaking out and shoving like every hand preflop, just wild stuff. I saw he won the borgata poker open for like 900k a week or 2 ago. Just a sick all around player minus his tilt sessions.
Well the Vikings got the Packers tonight on MNF. Favre has a shot to beat his old team and I think the Vikes are gonna do it. 27-13 will be the score!! I've been looking forward to this matchup for a while. Can't wait.
Then we have the Twins who I had given up on long ago. However with 7 games left in the season we were 2 games back of Detroit with 4 to play against Detroit and 3 vs Kansas city. Naturally I figured if we wanted a shot at the division we'd have to beat Detroit 3/4 to tie us up with 3 games to go. However we split with them leaving us 2 games back with 3 to play meaning if we wanted a shot at forcing a one game playoff we'd either have to sweep Kansas City with them losing 2 of 3 to the dirty chisox, or we'd have to take 2 of 3 from K.C. and have them get swept by the dirty chisox. Or we could obviously win if we swept and they got swept. Boom!! We sweep K.C.'s absoulutely pathetic excuse for a professional sports franchise and the Tigers choke it away at home against a team that had nothing to play for.
What this means is a one game playoff against Detroit to see who goes to the playoffs. I like the Twins' shot, especially since it's at the Metrodome where we've won 7 of 9 vs them this year. Thank fucking God they fixed the rule and the Twins got homefield in this game. Last year amazingly enough we had a tie at the end of yr with the dirty chisox and even though the Twins had won the season series the white sox got homefield in the game based on the flip of a fucking coin. Twins lost that game 1-0. I still think we could have won at the Dome where it should have been.
The winner of this game will have the opportunity of playing the Yankees in the first round. If there is a team I hate worse then the dirty chisox it is the skanky fucking yankees and their bloated ass 974903174 billion dollar payroll, and I swear if Joe Mauer ends up with the Yankees at any point in his career I am never watching baseball again. The yankees are evil people, every time they open their checkbook and sign away a star from a small market team they are laughing......A-roid wipes his ass with $100 dollar bills......in front of starving children......he is evil. The Twins will beat Detroit and one time, just one time we are gonna punish New York. Be prepared.
My poker month for Sept was a success in terms of profit, however in terms of volume was kinda a failure. My goal for this month was to play 500 games at the bare minimum, however I only managed to play 446 HU games. There were 6 days this month that I took off completely from poker, and another 3 days where I played less then an hour. That's 9 total days of playing 0-1 hours which is quite rare for me. I guess I just didn't feel like playing as much as I normally do. I don't feel I played my A-game this month either for the most part. I think made quite a few questionable/tilty plays.
I finished up about 9.3k in the heads up arena, and made about 3.2k of FPP rakeback(2k was a milestone bonus). I also made a smallish $100 or so in other random SNG's. My overall Sept profit wound up at right around 12.6k which I am happy with. I will be 100% happy if I can keep booking 12k months the rest of the year.
Here is my HU breakdown for Sept
$115: 10-11 $230: 156-128 $345: 84-55 $570: 0-2
All of that combines for about a 56% win rate. If I had avoided the dumbass plays it prob could have been 57% and would have made me an extra couple grand in profit. I'm sure almost everyone can look back and say that at the end of the month though.....
Here are my Sept heads up graphs......first one is Full Tilt, 2nd one PokerStars. They are about $800 too low because I lost most of my chops this month.
I pretty much split my time pretty evenly between the two sites this month and that will probably continue the rest of the year as it has been working out quite well. My numbers in HU were actually a little better at FT this month then Stars. It makes it so much easier to spread my playing across 2 sites instead of forcing myself to play all the time on Stars. I'm even semi thinking about adding a 3rd site, maybe Cake or Cereus?? Does anybody out there have any experience with those 2 sites?? What's the traffic like at the $100-$500 HU games? Are the games soft?
The only problem with doing this is I'm not going to reach my 300k VPP milestone bonus of 3k on stars like I was on pace too. However I think the extra games I get in by being more flexible with where I'm playing will make it worth it. I also get 27% rakeback on FT, while I'm making over 31% on Stars. The games are faster on FT too, which is prob what results in my $/game being less there. All of this added together is going to start making me count each game on FT as just .7 games which will force me to play a few more games.
I'm looking forward to another solid month in Oct.
What's up everyone? In the 6 days since my last post things have been going decent. I've banked another 3.6k in profit, however 2k of that was my 200k VPP milestone bonus that I hit a couple days ago. That means 1.6k from SNG's which is nothing to throw a party over, but at the same time is nothing to really bitch about either.
Both Aug and Sept have been a bit crazy in the fact that I've ran super hot in the 345 but have done quite mediocre in the 230. In Aug I made about $5/game in the 230, and in sept it's an even worse $1.38. The 345 has been quite awesome though with $74/game last month and $68/game so far this month. Can you say $345 HU luckbox for the last 2 months? This coming after losing 7k in that game in May/June. It's kinda a strange feeling to basically breakeven in the 230 then make great $$$ in the 345 because alot of times it feels like I shouldn't make as much as I am because I'll have 50% win percentage days and finish up money, when the exact opposite seemed to be true in May/June. It was particularly true in May(worst month this yr) when I killed the 230 for $32/game and make 10k, but got demolished in the 345 losing $91/game for 6k. I'm always amazed at all the different random swingy shit that can happen in this game. It can be so sick sometimes.
However, regardless of how I'm doing in each specific game the only thing that matters is overall profit and I'm doing good in that dept at +10.1k.
I've also taken two 570 shots this month......0-2.
Heading out to Kansas City tomorrow with a buddy to go to Kauffman stadium and watch the Twins hopefully beat up on the royals Fri & Sat night. Should be a good time. Twins trailing Detroit by 2.5 games. We got 6 against royals and 4 against detroit before end of yr....it's been a sick comeback for the Twins who have won 9 of 10 games. I'm not sure where this fire was the rest of the year.
At the beginning of the year I bet $150 on the twins to go over 83 wins. A week ago I thought I was kinda screwed but now it looks like it could easily happen. Twins have 79 wins with 10 to play so they just gotta go 5-5 the rest of the way for me to win, which means they would have to go 3-7 for me to lose since if they go 4-6 I'll push. Go Twinkies!!!!!!
I also made a $50 bet on Francisco Liriano to go over 12.5 wins, which didn't come close to happening.
Yippee, stopped my losing streak before it could actually turn into something shitty. Went 8-5 in the 230 and 3-0 in the 345 today and finished up around 1.4k. I wanted to get a little more volume in then that but whatever.
Something I've noticed is when I play someone in a 230 or whatever and they are a pretty decent winner in the lower stakes they still suck ass. They usually have an avg buyin of say $20 and an roi of like 10%, but oh my god they play like such fucking shit. I wonder how horrible the competition has to be down there for these people to turn such a profit playing the way they do. I suppose they are probably on tilt or something since they are playing 10x their normal buyin so that could have a lot to do with it. It's just kinda shocking to me how many of them seem to have no clue. This is not a bad thing though.......little fuckers.
Here's a sweet little hand that happened today. Nice to have a setup in my favor after the last 2 days. It could be one of the worst coolers I've ever seen.
PokerStars Game #32955261912: Tournament #196238031, $220+$10 USD Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2009/09/17 13:16:49 CT [2009/09/17 14:16:49 ET] Table '196238031 1' 2-max Seat #2 is the button Seat 1: villain (1540 in chips) Seat 2: bartchalker (1460 in chips) bartchalker: posts small blind 10 villain: posts big blind 20 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to bartchalker [7d 7s] bartchalker: raises 40 to 60 villain: calls 40 *** FLOP *** [Js 7h 7c] villain: checks bartchalker: bets 60 villain: calls 60 *** TURN *** [Js 7h 7c] [6h] villain: checks bartchalker: checks *** RIVER *** [Js 7h 7c 6h] [6d] villain: bets 520 bartchalker: raises 820 to 1340 and is all-in villain: calls 820 *** SHOW DOWN *** bartchalker: shows [7d 7s] (four of a kind, Sevens) villain: shows [6s 6c] (four of a kind, Sixes) bartchalker collected 2920 from pot *** SUMMARY *** Total pot 2920 | Rake 0 Board [Js 7h 7c 6h 6d] Seat 1: villain (big blind) showed [6s 6c] and lost with four of a kind, Sixes Seat 2: bartchalker (button) (small blind) showed [7d 7s] and won (2920) with four of a kind, Sevens
This guy was down to 80 chips and actually came back and even took the chip lead I think. I still managed to fend him off in the end though.
What a day. I grinded pretty hard and put in 35 HU games which is pretty decent volume for me. I ended up going 18-17 overall in a combo of 230/345 and finished ahead $105. Kinda depressing to put in that time and not see much for profit, but I still finished in the black which is always something to be thankful for. In 4 separate games I got my overpair cracked by an underpair for huge pots. Basically game deciding. I'm not sure if I've had that happen before. They were all pretty close together too. No broken mouse surprisingly :). I felt him sweating knowing he could be demolished but for some reason it didn't put me in a destructive mood. He'll get his medicine next time.
I played a ton of my games on Full Tilt today. Gonna try to grind a little more on stars in the coming days. I'm oh so close to the 2k cash credit. That'll be a nice little boost to the month.
Hopefully I'll fuck shit up and actually win a little $$$$ tomorrow. We will see.
Sept profit - a little over 5k.......hoping for another 10k month. 2k bonus should make it attainable.
I finished down close to 1k today....eeewwwwww. I started out bad and was in a 1k hole, worked my way back to even, then lost 5 of 6 to some pot betting, spewy, lagtard fish who was potting the flop every other hand and the turn half the time also. I usually love playing against those players, but got fucked up today. I guess that happens sometimes......still up 5k on month. I'll rebound tomorrow.
Got back to playing today after taking basically 4 straight days off. It put me in the mood to grind, so that's what I did.....sort of. I played 16 HU games and was able to bank about 1k in my return to the tables. I only went 8-8 but was 5-1 in the 345 + made about $300 in a couple 6 & 9 mans. Despite going 8-8 I feel I played quite well which is all I can ask for......along with my losses being in the 115 and wins being in the 345 :)
VIKINGS 1-0........BLOW IT OUT YOUR ASS CLEVELAND
Next the Lions get their medicine.
Time to watch some Monday Night Football suckas!
Here's a hand....I haven't posted one in like forever so here ya go!!
Some say calling station, some say genius........:)
Full Tilt Poker Game #14696435637: $330 + $15 Heads Up Sit & Go (107940244), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:02:29 ET - 2009/09/14 Seat 1: bartchalker (1,470) Seat 2: villain (1,530) bartchalker posts the small blind of 15 villain posts the big blind of 30 The button is in seat #1 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to bartchalker [Kd 3c] bartchalker calls 15 villain has 15 seconds left to act villain checks *** FLOP *** [2s 7s Kc] villain checks bartchalker bets 30 villain calls 30 *** TURN *** [2s 7s Kc] [Ks] villain checks bartchalker bets 60 villain raises to 180 bartchalker calls 120 *** RIVER *** [2s 7s Kc Ks] [Qs] villain bets 300 bartchalker has 15 seconds left to act bartchalker calls 300 *** SHOW DOWN *** villain shows [4c 9c] a pair of Kings bartchalker shows [Kd 3c] three of a kind, Kings bartchalker wins the pot (1,080) with three of a kind, Kings *** SUMMARY *** Total pot 1,080 | Rake 0 Board: [2s 7s Kc Ks Qs] Seat 1: bartchalker (small blind) showed [Kd 3c] and won (1,080) with three of a kind, Kings Seat 2: villain (big blind) showed [4c 9c] and lost with a pair of Kings
I'm quite happy with the way Sept is going. After breaking even the first few days I've put together some solid profit and have eased any frustrations before they can start. The day after my last post I had a absolutely horrendous start to the day losing my first 7 games I played and was quickly stuck $1,700. The most discouraging part was that 6 of the losses were to the same 2 people. I was feeling kinda tilty, but after taking a break i hit the tables hard the rest of the day and managed to finish ahead $400 which definitely felt like a major victory.
I have not played much poker laterly. The last time I played was Thursday morning. I only played 5 games before visiting my mom for her B-day and didn't feel much like playing after that. On Fri I woke up and sat down on my computer, opened up my poker stuff, and just kinda stared at the screen and wasn't really feeling it. When I feel like that it's better to just not play so I didn't. Yesterday I went fishing and although it seems like such a lazy activity it always zaps my energy, thus I didn't feel like putting in the effort to play cards. Today I'm heading out to watch Vikes at bud's house, and will prob put in some solid football watching the whole day. Poker may or may not happen. Monday I will 100% play some more. I will be ready to grind. I love grinding.
I haven't updated in a while, just kinda lazy with it. As I stated in my last post, I completely turned Aug around after a frustrating start and some very unfortunate luck and managed to bank about 12.4k which I was not expecting at all. I did pretty bad overall in the $230 almost the whole month, but got hot at the end to at least finish in the black, going 204-178 which ended up being good for about $5/game. Thankfully I did quite well in the $345 which kinda saved my month. I went 66-38 in the $345 which is about a 63.5% winrate and good for about $74/game. I obv did not run bad in those games :) I didn't take a single shot in the $570 in Aug. I just didn't feel it, maybe I'll get a few in this month.
Sept started off a bit slow and I was breaking even up till yesterday when I scored a 2.4k day, so hopefully I bust out for a few more of those suckers and have another solid month.
I feel like I had more to type, but can't really think of it right now.
I was semi thinking of playing the $530 heads up event in the WCOOP, but it's probably not likely. Those things just run out too long for me. Deep stacks and long levels are great, but I think I might end up getting a bit impatient. We'll see, I may still play in it. I'll give it a 20% chance.
Also, I have $215 W$ if anyone wants to play in a WCOOP event or something. I'll sell it for $200 so let me know if you are interested.
After a subpar beginning to the month I have completely turned Aug around. I had a big +2.4k day yesterday and the days leading up to that I was scoring consistent profit. This puts me ahead 10k for Aug which is more then I really expected after the first week and half.
It had been kinda cool seeing my name in the top half of some of the leadboards on sharkscope, but I'm starting to see that it really will be quite tough to keep my name up there while playing across 2 sites. This month, half my profit has come on Full Tilt. Like I've said previously, I don't really care but I noticed I shot down quite a few spots despite making 10k this month.
I try to play as much on pokerstars as I can since my rakeback works out to be a little higher there, and on top of that I'd like to make 300k VPP's to score the 3k bonus. However I seem to have been doing quite well on Full Tilt since I started playing there again. Sharkscope shows me at about $24/game on a $222 avg stake, however after one of FTP's updates they missed tracking for about 2-3 days straight which happened to be during my biggest run on there, so it should be even higher. The last 2 days have been especially good. On top of that sometimes the lobbies on Stars get so fucking jam packed with regs that it's just too hard/annoying to get a game. I'll wait for like 10 min just for the lobby to open up, and then BAM!! me and another reg snap join each other. That's really not as much of a problem on FTP so when the lobbies are packed with regs on Stars I've just been saying fuck it and playing there instead. It's been working out good though, so no complaints.
On a side note the Vikings are going to win the Superbowl.
I've been a little lazy with the updates, looks like it's been over a week since my last one. I didn't want to make another running bad post, thus I didn't post anything. My month has been gradually taking a turn for the better over the last few days however. In the past 4 days I've had 2 days of winning over 1k. Over my stretch of running horrific the first 2 weeks of the month one thing did go my way........I have been winning about 60% of my $345's, so it would have been way worse had I ran as bad in them as the $230's.
I seem to have turned my month around a bit, so hopefully I start to get some good variance and not so much of the bullshit. I'm + $3,400 on the month or so now with about 10 days to play so I still have a decent shot at a nice month. I'm hoping for something in the 7-8k range. Nothing is guaranteed though, I could start running like shit again and my last 10 days could be a repeat of my first 10 days of Aug. Let's hope not though :) Wish me luck!!!!
I have not had a day this month where I have ran good. I've had days where I haven't run that bad, but that's about it. It is beginning to test my sanity a bit. The last 2 days have been a bit better with days of +$640 and $530. The problem is I've still gotten so unlucky in so many games that I could have made 2k each day. Just one of those things. One day I lost 4 basically game deciding all in pots in 4 straight games being a favorite of 80%, 80%, 65%, and 70% in each hand. Talk about something that will make your head explode. It's so sick how it almost seems Pokerstars and FTP are fucking with me, haha. For example, so many times also if I'm all in preflop with say QJ vs A3 the flop comes JQ4 and I do a little premature fist pump. The turn comes K and I yell "Don't you fucking do that!", and like a slap in the damn face the 10 falls on the river. I then stare blankly at the screen for a few secs debating if my mouse deserves to live for being such a traitor. No, it does not deserve life, it is destroyed. Fuck you mouse.
But yeah, despite my subpar month thus far I obviously still have all the confidence of the world in my game. That is rarely shaken. I've just been frustrated, and prob need to stay more positive when running bad, but it is soooooooo hard when it's been soooooooooo brutal. Hopefully the last 2 days are a precursor of things to come and I'll start ripping off some big days. I am at least in the black for August so, as always, it could be worse.
I've kinda been running bad this month. Yesterday if I had ran good I prob woulda made 2500, and if I had ran normal prob 1500. Instead I ran like trash but still managed to finish up 500, so I guess things could have been worse. It was probably the most frustrating +500 day I've ever had. Just getting donked. The typical game would do down with me wearing them down to 600-900 chips, getting it in as a slight fav/slight dog/coin flip and losing. I would then repeat that step one more time, then blinds would rise to 50/100 and I'd look down at a never ending barrage of 72, 59, 64, 82, J5, 104. Gut wrenching. I feel my surge coming though.....bring it on.
Things that make me LOL in online poker.......
People who type in GL at the start of the match, but go ballistic when I actually have some good luck
People who type in GG every time they win a match, but nothing when they lose. I think this is some sort of attempt at a needle. I'm probably guilty of this one every once in a while, but not every time.
People who type LOL every time they get the slightest bit unlucky. For example they limp with KJ, I check K4 flop 937 checked, turn Q checked, river 4 checked. "LOL"
First hand of a HU game, I fold my button they show me 72, or some other junk hand.
10/20 blinds i check J3 from BB flop 47Q i check they bet 20 i fold they show me the well timed mega bluff with 82 for the 40 chip pot.
I raise 67 from button flop 458 and I win a sizeable pot. Opponent: "OMFG you made a raise with 7 high? You are fucking awful."
blinds 75/150, effec stax <10 bb's. I am pretty consistently shoving my button. Opponent: "All you donkeys want to do is play all in preflop poker. Are you scared to play postflop?" Opponent is obv folding to all my shoves and limp folds his button off a 5 bb stack.
Feel free to share something that makes you LOL or maybe slightly annoys you. I'm sure I missed a few. Good times.
I am incredibly happy with my July #'s and it ended up being my 2nd best month ever. It started out decent but got a little shaky on the 5th & 6th with losing days of $1500 and $1100 respectively, leaving me about breakeven after the first week. I rebounded immediately with 3 big days of +1800, +1900, and +1200. I never looked back after that. Here are my final July #'s....
Heads Up - $14,793.60 Other SNG's - ($983.16) FPP's/Rakeback/Bonus - $2,223.09
Total July Profit - $16,033.53
I obviously will not be complaining during this post. Super happy with my July Profit. I didn't have much luck in the other random SNG's I played, but it hardly matters.
I just missed my 600 game HU goal by playing 583. Close enough I guess, I probably could have made it but I packed it in kinda early the last 3 days of July when I could have played more.
I've also managed to get a 2,000 game sample in the 230 on Pokerstars now, and it's promising that my #'s are looking just as good as after the 1,000 game sample. Here's the graph/#'s.
Games Played - 2,149 Avg ROI - 10% Avg Profit - $23.27 Total Profit $50,010
I think i should have made the jump into the 230 sooner then I did. I may have fucked around in the 115 a bit too long, but at least I was more than ready to make the jump.
I am pretty happy right now with playing the random assortment of HU 115/230/345/570 that I am right now. I will probably keep this up for a while with my main game continuing to be the 230. It seems to be working out pretty good right now, not much need to change anything.
I'm gonna set my Aug goal at 600 games again. That is what I will shoot for but I will settle for 500. 500 will be the bare minimum I want to put in, but I will try my best to get the 600 in. I feel I played A game poker almost the whole month of July so I'd like to keep that little streak going also.
I have gotten some games in already this month and have a few hundred $$$ in profit. I just lost 5 of 6 to some super laggy dude who was luckboxing it hard against me. I had to quit him after the 6th game cause I could feel the tilt setting in. It's been an hour so I'm probably ready to get back in the ring now.
HAHA, Twins finished off a 3 game sweep of the dirty chisox last night and are now creeping up on 1st place in the central. I have to say that Buehrle was quite impressive in the fact that the start after throwing a perfect game he went out on Tue and brought a perfect game into the 6th inning before the Twins broke it up. He set a new record with 45 straight batters retired or something. I can respect that I suppose. I wonder if the Tigers can feel the Twins breathing down their necks yet?
So, I am on a zany lil sleep schedule the last 2 days so I'm up right now at like 4:00 AM and kinda feeling like doing some grinding and I see that both Pokerstars and Full Tilt have maintenance at the same time. Come on. Now what am I gonna do, maybe find a fucking slap chop infomercial and watch it? Stop having a boring life, stop having a boring tuna.........ship it.
The last 2 days have been a little annoying pokerwise. I've still managed to scrape together about $500 in profit, but I've had very nice starts each day only to see it come crashing down a bit towards the end. If that's the most I have to complain about I'm doing pretty good though. I definitely can't complain about profit. It is looking like this will end up being my 2nd best month ever so I am very happy about that. I also noticed that i'm only a couple grand away from matching my profit from 2008 and I still have 5 months left in 2009. I smashed my 40k goal in 08 by making 74k, so hopefully I can smash my 100k 2009 goal also, although I highly doubt I will "smash" that goal it is looking highly likely that I will beat it by a decent amount. It has been a pretty successful 2009 thus far.
I will update at the end of the month with my final July #'s.
I had another pretty big day on Wed finishing + 2.4k. Yesterday was a bit of a struggle as I went back and forth the whole day before ending it with a string of losses on Full Tilt against a pretty bad player. I think he beat my like 5 of 6 or something. He had an ROI of like -2% and I really do not understand how it wasn't much much worse than that. I kinda berated him a bit in the chatbox towards the later matches which I hardly ever do, but got kinda frustrated. I think it was actually making him play even worse though, so maybe it wasn't that bad of an idea. Is there anything wrong with berating somebody if you know it'll make them play worse? I guess it would kinda be an asshole move, but there is nothing really illegal about it. I know when I watch adonis/livb play he seems to always be berating/talking shit to players and I wonder if it doesn't make them play just a bit worse against him. Not that I'm gonna start doing it or anything, just got me thinking.
I'm kinda getting to the point now where I'm used to losing 1k+ on a bad day. I don't think the swings of the 230/345 really bother me much anymore unless I drop like 2.5k in a day or something. The only thing that really bothers me is the actual losing of the matches. Losing sucks. I probably don't get much more angry about losing 4 straight 345's as I do from losing 4 straight 115's. It's just the losing that kinda irks me. However it's easier to deal with losing 1k when you're already up 14k on the month.....it's hard to get to pissed.
I sat a 570 the other day and caught a fish. He wore me down to 800 pretty quickly but I rebounded to 1200 the doubled up when I limp called a minraise at 15/30 with J6 and hit a J69 flop. He had 10 7 and did the ole bet/call my raise, then bet turn/call my shove and I doubled. It's nice when they make it so easy! I'm now 6-1 in the 570 which is pretty fucking awesome.
I'm hoping today to get out of my my 2 day losing funk(lost the grand yesterday and about $200 the day before) if I decide to play. I'll try not to slack on my play the last week of this month. We'll see what happens!
Yesterday I completely destroyed peeps, going 21-5 in HU which was good for +$3,226 besting my previous best day of $3,036. I was outplaying my opponents rather consistently and also won a few games I had no business winning by being a complete luckbox. Not gonna apologize for it though. It was my time to shine I guess. I also managed to rip off a 13 match winning steak which is an amazing feeling. I think my best is 15 so I had a shot but couldn't come through. It's like a drug to run that good, you just want more.
I've continued my hot run into today with an 11-5 record so far. Not gonna slow down fuckers.
I noticed my star on sharkscope turned into a gold star. I came shortly thereafter. ......OK not really but it was kinda cool to see. I got up to #5 in the $101-$300 HU leaderboard. Now that I am mixing in some games on Full Tilt not sure if I'll be able to keep it up there....prob not. Not a big deal though. I'm not a glory hound.
I made an entry awhile back about MN trying to block the ISP's to gaming sites.....in case you didn't know they dropped that retarded thing about a month back. Jesus, mind your own business gov't. At least they realized they weren't going to get anything done and stopped. Fucking nazi dicks.
I find it absolutely amazing that Phil Ivey was able to not only win 2 bracelets at the WSOP but also FT the 10K ME. I think he's a bot. I hope he wins it. I wish I had the stomach to play tournies but I just hate the variance of them. I bet taking down a big MTT is one of the best feelings in poker, even if it's not for hundreds of thousands.
I am playing some above the rim poker right now so my goal for the rest of the month is to try to keep it going as long as possible. I'll also keep my fingers crossed that I don't run into some crappy bad variance.
I was getting a little frustrated with HU today, down only $200 though, but decided to switch it up for a bit and 6 table some other random SNG's. I played 3 single table SNG's and 3 18 person sng's and went 0 for 6 in cashing. Ran QQ into AA, ran QQ into KK, lost JJ to A10 pre, lost AQ to AJ on A48 board, couldn't win a flip.......ARGHHHHHHHH I'M GONNA SNAP.
No more of that shit, how the fuck do people play 16 of those SNG's at once?? I thought my fucking head was gonna explode just doing 6 of them. So much for my mini foray into 6 tabling SNG's. How do you go 0 for 6??? It was only like $300 in buy ins, but oh my god it kinda tilted me.
Down about 500 today, but still up about 6500 for month, so still in pretty good shape. I'm feeling kinda tired/frustrated, prob gonna take the rest of the day off. I will def be in bed by 8 tonight. I will come back strong next time I play.
Anyone who plays poker or who just wants the gov't to stay out of your business should sign this. If you play poker with any degree of seriousness put your signature on it, there is no excuse not to do so. It's basically all done for you, so don't be lazy. I'm sure many of you have already signed it. It's up to over 300,000 signatures and will be presented to President Obama on July 22.
It's pretty much the halfway point of the month and I am happy with my results thus far. The 12th was a big day for me at +2300, but other than that it's been about breakeven for me since my last post. Today was a bit frustrating as I put in a pretty good chunk of volume but still ended up down about $500. I lost like 1800 on stars but ran hot on Full Tilt going 8-1 in the 230 there. Early this morning I totally crushed this dude in 5 straight games. Fucking owned.....it's amazing watching someone transform from a weak tight fish into an uber aggressive SOB as the games go on. Apparently Full Tilt tracking on sharkscope is not back to 100% coverage like they said. They missed 4 of my games today. All wins obviously. I played badly in one or two games towards the end of my day. Kinda dissapointing. I got a little burnt out I think. One was in a 9 person SNG where I went broke with QQ on a AKx flop......ugh, don't even ask. Not my most glorious moment. Then some -20% -$12,000 fish mocks me and the fact that I'm a supernova, lol. I obv must lose alot of money. Fuck off POS donk. Just kidding. Just please keep playing poker.
I also played 2 games in the $570 since the other lobbies were jammed I figured why not? Some mega bad player sat me.....he beat me the first game. In the 2nd game I beat him but needed 66 to beat 77 all in pre at 50/100 to do it. Phew. He declined after that. I woulda played him all night if I had the chance, or until i dropped 4 or 5 buy ins because being down 2500 may tilt me. Woulda been tough to do that against that guy though. 5-1 in the 570 this month.
In the 2nd half of the month I'm looking to just keep playing good poker and hopefully play another 300 games or so to reach my 600 goal. Hopefully the profits come along with that.
I ended up not playing any poker on Friday at all.....took the day off and went to the Twins game and watched them beat the Chixox 6-4. Danks walked the first 4 batters he faced in the game. Twins ended up scoring 4 in the 1st. I don't think I've ever seen a pitcher walk the first 4 batters he faced.
I am playing some really good poker right now. The last 3 days I played were all 1k+ days. It's an amazing cure for poker frustration. Early into my playing on Thu I even flipped for stacks 3 straight games and won each time.....holy shit, call security, something is wrong here. That doesn't happen!!!! But even when I'm not just getting it in preflop and winning flips I truly am playing pretty damn good. Keep it up!
I've played 183 HU games this month so I think that puts me a little off pace for my 600 goal, but still time to make up for it. I'm 21-17 in the 345 this month which is great after dropping 6k in that game last month. I've also taken 3 shots in the 570 and am 3-0.....take shots and run good, that's how I roll.
My goal the rest of the month is to still get 600 HU games in but only if I'm sure I'll be playing my A game or at least somewhere close to it.
I was off to such a sweet start by the 4th but in the 2 days to follow the 4th i dropped the 2600 i was ahead and it was ridiculous, prob wasn't playing all that great but oh man the beats! I coulda had nightmares, nothing I did those 2 days worked, absolutely nothing.
However it appears the poker gods decided to stop torturing me after that and I'm back in the winning column and +2.8k so I'll take that but I could do without these fucking swings, it's gonna give me a stroke or something. Frustrating.
I'm getting in some pretty decent volume so far this month and I'll try to keep that up and hopefully the profits will just take care of themselves. They always do I guess.
July has started with a nice bang for me. I lost $575 on the 1st but since then it's been nothing but goodness. Yummy goodness. Yesterday was a big +1900 day and today I put in a little mini session of 5 games and went 4-1. Now it's time to get my 4th of July on.
The last few days of June as well as these first 4 days of July I've been playing my A game again. I haven't been running like shit and I'm back to making good decisions. I think I got a little off my game for a week or 2 in June. I was just getting too frustrated with the game and how nothing was working. I guess over the course of a year you'll have a few weeks like that though, no biggie I guess.
It feels good to put June behind me, I don't think I've ever got so stressed out during a month of poker. It started off badly and I was quickly down a few grand, but I went on a nice run before my 5 day vacation to Vegas to get back to even. After coming back from Vegas it was so back and forth for about 10 days. If I won 1500 one day, I'd lose 1300 the next day. I was running badly, and even worse I was playing nowhere near my A game and it hurt me in some spots. However, during the last week of the month I felt like I was back on my game. 3 of the last 4 days have been 1k+ and I am happy with where I ended up after a bad first 3 weeks. Below are my June #'s.....
Heads Up - $3,975.50 Other SNG - $114.50 Rakeback/Bonuses - $1,175.00
Total June Profit - $5,265.00
It's my worst month this year but I am 100% happy with it considering my shit start and the 8 total days this month I did not play at all.
I played 460 HU games this month just 15 short of the 475 goal I set before the month started. I went 199-135 in the $230 good for 10.7k, however in the $345 nothing would go right and I went 25-40, good for a 6k loss. It was so frustrating that it seemed every time I played a 345 I would lose. If I could have just broken even in those games I would have finished +10k. I broke about even in the 115 with a 28-26 record, and I also took 7 shots in the 570 going 3-4.
I also played 36 games on Full Tilt this month, even though I didn't think I'd really ever be playing there again. They gave me a $100 bonus and I figured working it off would be equivalent to 41% rakeback, so it got me playing there again......crafty bastards. I had good success those games I played though making about 1.4k. I think I may begin playing on Full Tilt again now. When the games get packed on stars I can just move over to Full Tilt and find a game. Also when running bad on one site, it's kinda nice to just look at a little different layout for a little while. I'll still be playing the vast majority of my games on stars, just not all of them. I like pokerstars players club way better then Full Tilt, but whether I play a few games on FT or not I'm going to end up with about 300k-375k VPP's on Stars regardless, which will still be good for the 2k & 3k VPP bonuses anyway......+ I still get 27% rakeback on FT, so it's prob worth playing some there instead of staring at my computer screen waiting for a lobby to open up on stars.
It's also the halfway point of the year........and I'm happy to see I am on pace to make my 100k goal I set at the beginning of the year. +57.7K, so on pace for about 115k......I'd love to see it happen.
I'm going to try to get in 600 HU games this month and hopefully end with 10k profits.
Below are my Pokerstars & Full Tilt graphs for June(Stars is off a few hundred)
Also here is a my graph for lifetime 345 which made me feel kinda sick when I looked.....ouch.
