Solid Day

Over the last week or two I've been playing a mixture of 115s and 230s and mixing in some 2 tabling as well. Today I decided to just go back to what I'd been doing most of 08 which is one tabling the 115s. This little break even streak I'm on was getting to my head so I just wanted to take the pressure off a bit. It worked out pretty well, I played 21 games posting a 14-7 record despite a couple brutal beats the first few games(one which I posted in my last post earlier today). It's nice just to have a solid day where I feel I played my A-game in all my matches. Plus it's always nice to outdraw and cooler people every once in a while. See below.....


PokerStars Game #24346728767: Tournament #136880312, $110+$5 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2009/01/27 20:57:35 ET
Table '136880312 1' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: villain (1650 in chips)
Seat 2: bartchalker (1350 in chips)
bartchalker: posts small blind 10
villain: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bartchalker [6c 6d]
bartchalker: calls 10
villain: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ad 6h 4s]
villain: checks
bartchalker: bets 20
villain: calls 20
*** TURN *** [Ad 6h 4s] [6s]
villain: checks
bartchalker: bets 40
villain: calls 40
*** RIVER *** [Ad 6h 4s 6s] [Ks]
villain: checks
bartchalker: bets 100
villain: raises 100 to 200
bartchalker: raises 1070 to 1270 and is all-in
villain: calls 1070
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bartchalker: shows [6c 6d] (four of a kind, Sixes)
villain: shows [4h 4d] (a full house, Fours full of Sixes)
bartchalker collected 2700 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2700 Rake 0
Board [Ad 6h 4s 6s Ks]
Seat 1: villain (big blind) showed [4h 4d] and lost with a full house, Fours full of Sixes
Seat 2: bartchalker (button) (small blind) showed [6c 6d] and won (2700) with four of a kind, Sixes



PokerStars Game #24347791337: Tournament #136883894, $110+$5 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level V (75/150) - 2009/01/27 21:34:01 ET
Table '136883894 1' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: villain (830 in chips)
Seat 2: bartchalker (2170 in chips)
villain: posts small blind 75
bartchalker: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bartchalker [Kh Jh]
villain: calls 75
bartchalker: raises 2020 to 2170 and is all-in
villain: calls 680 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1340) returned to bartchalker
*** FLOP *** [Js 9h Jc]
*** TURN *** [Js 9h Jc] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [Js 9h Jc Th] [2c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bartchalker: shows [Kh Jh] (three of a kind, Jacks)
villain: shows [Ah Ad] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
bartchalker collected 1660 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1660 Rake 0
Board [Js 9h Jc Th 2c]
Seat 1: villain (button) (small blind) showed [Ah Ad] and lost with two pair, Aces and Jacks
Seat 2: bartchalker (big blind) showed [Kh Jh] and won (1660) with three of a kind, Jacks


Not too often in heads up play do you see set over set, usually because pairs are played aggressively preflop, but when the blinds are low it can happen. I prob raise this hand preflop 90% of the time, switched it up a bit this time. We both made passive preflop plays and I hit a beautiful flop it turns out. When he min check raised the river I knew he had prob flopped a set or backed into a flush because he played all his monsters tricky like that, so jamming was an easy choice

The 2nd one I actually had to think twice before jamming there because his play looked so suspicious, since he'd been jamming all the time when under 9 or so bb's. But I don't think checking is even an option with stacks this shallow, I'm prob not getting away if i flop top pair anyways when villain doesn't even have 4 bb's behind. Nice to get lucky though.

Profit for month at about 4.1k. For how god awful I feel I've ran this month it's nice to see I'm still up this much. I would be very happy with a 5k month at this point. Hopefully I can get there, got a few days left.

The timberwolves have the best record in the NBA since the new year. Who in the hell would have expected that.......maybe they can stay hot and sneak into the 7 or 8 spot and get smoked by the Lakers or Spurs in first round. GO GO GO!!!!

WOW

It's nice to know people let their pet monkey play under their account.......



PokerStars Game #24321819609: Tournament #136732807, $110+$5 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2009/01/27 4:19:53 ET
Table '136732807 1' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: bartchalker (1440 in chips)
Seat 2: villain (1560 in chips)
villain: posts small blind 10
bartchalker: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bartchalker [Jd 8c]
villain: raises 40 to 60
bartchalker: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [Jc 8d Ac]
bartchalker: checks
villain: bets 80
bartchalker: raises 160 to 240
villain: calls 160
*** TURN *** [Jc 8d Ac] [5d]
bartchalker: bets 480
villain: calls 480
*** RIVER *** [Jc 8d Ac 5d] [Kd]
bartchalker: bets 660 and is all-in
villain: calls 660
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bartchalker: shows [Jd 8c] (two pair, Jacks and Eights)
villain: shows [7d 2d] (a flush, King high)
villain collected 2880 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2880 Rake 0
Board [Jc 8d Ac 5d Kd]
Seat 1: bartchalker (big blind) showed [Jd 8c] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Eights
Seat 2: villain (button) (small blind) showed [7d 2d] and won (2880) with a flush, King high

This was just 2nd hand of match, but villain was a donk. Figured if he had Ace I could get his stack for sure. I have to improve my hand reading skills, I didn't even put 27 diamonds in his range........haha. Rematch please!!!!!!

Huge Day

+17.50 on the day. Yippee. Pretty much breaking even over last 2 weeks. Still running like fuck fuck fucking shit. Sometimes playing like fuck fuck fucking shit. Retards are pwning me hard. Getting annoyed.

Poker sucks sometimes.

Swingy day, but bank $600

Above is my graph for my playing today. Another swingy day but I came out in the black. My first few games saw some more ridiculous shit happen against me and it was looking like it was going to be a bad day pokerwise. It was nice to turn it around my last 15 games or so and finish on a hot run. I was playing a random combo of $115 and $230 HU as well as $52 and $104 double or nothings. I may start playing a few more double or nothings, my lifetime stats in them are horrible over a short sample size, but they seem very beatable.

I made a trip to the casino to play some blackjack with my bro and dropped $200 in about 45 min. It seems over the last 2 yrs I lose like every fricken time I play that game, but it's so damn fun. Just write it off as entertainment expense I guess, ha.

Watched the T-wolves beat the hornets tonight in a good game. Look out NBA here come the Timberwolves!!!!!

Jan profit now at 3.7k, hopefully keep it heading in the right direction. Hold please.

bartchalker!

ugh

This whole month has been kind of frustrating for me. I have not been playing my best poker(which is surprising me since I was so pumped about the new year) and I am running like shit the whole month and it's starting to wear on me. The barage of bad beats/coolers/card deadness I've had to endure this month is prob the main reason I'm also not playing well. I have put in some decent volume so far and despite the shittiness I am ahead about 2.7k for month. To make my 100k goal for 09 I'll have to avg about $8,250/month so it sucks to fall behind pace already, but it is way early. The important thing to remember in poker is that no matter how crappy things seem to be going it could always be worse, no doubt about it. Ironically, my worst poker month(full time) was Jan of last year when I finished month ahead 2.6k. That month I was up over 4k at the midpoint of the month then things fell apart the 2nd half. This game is nuts though, I could go on a hot run the last week or I could run like worse shit and finish down, who knows. Will try to keep my head on straight and play some A+ poker.

The day after my last post I lost back about $650 followed by another +1k day followed by a day where I was down 1.3k at one point but semi recoved to finish day down about $660. In a short session today I finished up about $100. It's been so goddamn swingy like that all month, it's fucking with my brain, lol.

I guess that's it, not much else to whine about.

Later

+1.2k day

Yesterday, I played poker for 7.5 hrs and scraped together a little over 1.2k in profit. Over the last 4 or 5 days I've went on a 1.5k downswing so this was def nice. I played mostly $115's but did play 3 $230's going 3-0 which was a very big help. After losing 4 of my last 5 days I figured it was time for a change and switched the pokerstars lobby & table image from "black" theme to "classic" theme before I started playing yesterday. So obv that was the reason for my turnaround, rookie mistake not realizing that sooner, haha.

My brain seemed a bit fried when I quit playing for the night(anytime I play more than 6 hrs or so that happens, there can be a lot of thinking in this game sometimes). Because of this I was going to just take today off of playing and enjoy the NFC/AFC championship games. I might go back on my word and get a few games in before the games start, or maybe after they are over.

My picks in the divisional playoffs had Ravens and Steelers winning in the AFC which was right, but my NFC picks were both wrong. However that is not going to scare me away from making some updated fearless predictions. I'll have to go with Steelers Vs Eagles in super bowl. I feel like these games are going to be close though and would not be surprised at all if either team gets upset. I might have to make some moneyline wagers on the underdogs before the games start, or pick the underdogs against the spread.

Good Luck Fuckas!!

Halfway through Jan

Above is my sharkscope graph for the first half of Jan(excluding FPP rakeback games, also it should be $230 lower being that it missed one of my $230 losses). Below are my #'s:

• Games Played: 313
• Avg Profit: $4.96
• Avg Stake: $136
• Avg ROI: 9%
• Profit: $1,551

• FPP Rakeback: $215
• Cash games: $166

• Total Profit: $1,932

What has really made this month frustrating is the fact that I have an Avg ROI of 9% but am only maintaining an Avg profit of around $5. This is basically because I've doing doing pretty well in the $115's but bad in the $230's. I have a 136-97 record which is good for a 12% roi and $13.41/game in the $115's. In the $230's I have a 34-39 record and am down about 1.8k. I am 1-1 in the $345's.

There have def been games where I've made bad decisions and not played well, I'm fully capable of admitting that but if I had to put a # out there I would say its been 90% because of bad luck. It's such a small portion of games that I shouldn't really get worked up over it but I can't really help it, it's just sooooo frustrating that every $230 I play this month I run into some shit luck. When I think about it though, last month I did incredibly good and ran far above expectation in the $230's, just evening out I guess.

I am constantly amazed by how swingy this came can be. One week you are on top of the poker world, and the next week the poker gods are using you as a toilet, lol. It's really amazing. It's the nature of the game that makes it profitable though, even the most horrific of players have prob had days where they have won 10+ buyins and it's those days that keep them coming back to donate their money. Sometimes the long term can be ridiculously long it seems, lol. I am starting to realize more and more as each month passes that a very large portion of this game is a mental battle. When 2 very highly skilled players are playing each other, but one of them is on a losing streak and tilting, he might as well be a -15% roi fish.

In Barry Greeinstein's book Ace on the River he lists 25 "Traits of Winning poker players" and I think it's no coincidence what he lists at #1. Here they are as he lists them in ascending order of importance:

• 25. The ones with a sense of humor
• 24. Prideful
• 23. Generous
• 22. Outgoing
• 21. Insensitive
• 20. Optimistic
• 19. Independent
• 18. Manipulative
• 17. Greedy
• 16. Persistent
• 15. Self-centered
• 14. Trustworthy
• 13. Aggressive
• 12. Competitive
• 11. Survivors
• 10. Empathic
• 9. Fearless
• 8. Able to think under pressure
• 7. Attentive to detail
• 6. Motivated
• 5. The ones with the best memories
• 4. In control of their emotions
• 3. Intelligent
• 2. Honest with themselves
• 1. Psychologically tough

#'s 1 and 2 are so important in my opinion but often overlooked. I think alot of the top players would consider themselves psychologically tough. Maybe after getting beat down at the table all day you felt a little psychologically fragile, but the best players always turn it around, and always get their A-game back. Maybe they let it affect them that day, but they never would allow it to go on for days or weeks or even months at let it destroy their bankroll.

I also think it is so true that the best players are prob honest with themselves. They are able to admit when they were running like shit, but more importantly when they were playing like shit. Bad beats are def the cause of losing in the short term, but will never cause a person to lose over the long run. I think you see this alot online with losing players, claiming the online poker rooms are rigged(apparently just against them) and not taking responsibility for their own mistakes at the table. It's far easier to blame something else then to really look at and dissect your own game from the inside out. It hurts too much to admit that you play badly or at least have been recently. It's also amazing to me how almost everybody wins in live cash games. Everybody thinks they are a pro, lol. In reality many of them prob don't keep accurate records and alot of them are heavy losers but trick themselves into believing what they want to believe.

I think another important trait many winning players possess is intensity. While scanning through a few of my poker books the other day I came across this little tidbit:

"Intensity is hard to measure, but critically important. In fact, if other things are equal, the more intense competitor will usually win. He will work harder, remain more focused, and do whatever it takes to win."

That tidbit is from "Your Worst Poker Enemy" by Alan Schoonmaker. I have read quite a few books on poker psychology because I believe it to be the weakest part of my game at times. I could not agree more with the quote. I have always been pretty intense while playing poker, maybe a little bit too intense sometimes(a few mouses have fallen casualty to this intensity when I am losing, lol). I believe my intensity is able to make up for the times when I play sub optimally because of tilt, and at the same time is probably the reason for my tilt sometimes. I do not believe that passive people can win at this game, and my intensity helps me keep my edge. I would be willing to guess that most winning players would consider themselves to be on the intense side while playing.

Ummmm, when I first started typing this entry I just wanted to type in my progess the first half of Jan, haha. Kinda went off on a bit of a seperate tangent there. Oh well, that happens. Time to rock n roll and have a good 2nd half of Jan!! Good luck grinders!

bartchalker