July wrap up+Aug 1st half

Well, it's been a little while. About a month since my last update. Things have been going pretty smoothly as far as poker goes. I was busy moving into my new place towards the end of July and didn't play any poker at all from the 22nd through the 27th. I got back into it the last few days of the month. I was still able to finish July up a solid 12k despite the one week break. My final record combining all buy ins was 432-367, good for a 5% ROI and about $12/game. The more ST's I mix in the more that $/game number is gonna drop. Pretty unrealistic to expect $18+/game playing a lot of $200 ST's. Here's my July graph. I really put in a high volume on FT this month. I'd kinda like to change that. I still think the Pokerstars players club is much better and the rakeback comes out higher, but for whatever reason I've decided to roll on FT lately.



Aug has been going very well thus far. Got off to a super hot start the first 8 days before running into a vicious day on the 9th where I dropped about $3,100. However since then I've been hot again and even had a +$3,800 day yesterday. I think I'm up right around 10k for Aug right now.

I don't spend a lot of time on the poker forums, not typing on them at least. I do like to troll around them a bit and see what people are saying every once in a while. I just bring it up because of all the stuff I keep seeing about these EV calculators, or all in EV or luck calculators, or whatever the fuck they are called. They tell you how above or below EV you've been running, basically if you've been getting unlucky or not based on hands you get all in with. I think anyways? I'm not real up on what they are all about because I don't use them, but good lord. Seriously. It's like it turns into a contest about who can post the worst graph. A contest of who is more unlucky. Wah wah wah, look how far below EV i've run. Jesus. I guess it's comforting to know you've been getting unlucky after getting your ass kicked for a few sessions? I don't know, it's just a phenomenon that's popped up recently. Kinda funny how nobody posts graphs of how far above EV they've ran, but there are ones everywhere about how below EV people are running. Besides, what if your calculator shows you way below EV, but you've also won tons of matches by hitting coolers. Couldn't it appear you've been unlucky from an all in EV standpoint when in reality you've actually been lucky from a card distribution standpoint? I saw Jhub3000 touch on this subject a tad in one of his blog entries a month or so ago. It's probably something I'll never get into that much, I don't see too much of a benefit in it. Besides, if I've been losing I know it's because I've been getting unlucky. I don't need some dumb fucking calculator to show me that. ;) Just kinda joking.

I also have to laugh when I see people talk about prolonged downswings that stretch out for months. If you are having downswings that stretch out for months it's because you're playing badly, or your edge was not that big to start with. Either that or you are not putting in nearly enough volume monthly. When someone tries to tell them so much, they obviously get super defensive and spout off some shit about how it must be nice to never run bad, to run like god, blah blah blah. Sorry, get better or find another job. Quit bitching so much because in reality nobody gives a fuck about your downswing. Nobody with a 7%+ roi who is on their A game is going to lose money over several thousand games. I mean it's not 100% impossible or anything, but neither is tossing a coin and having it land on heads 40 times in a row. It's just highly highly highly unlikely. Shit like that just kinda cracks me up is all.

Not much else to say for now.

Till next time

bartchalker

Mid July

Actually, it's a little past mid July, but close enough. Since my last post I've been alternating winning and losing days with my winning days being quite a bit larger than the losing ones. I was up over 11k going into yesterday, but got wrecked pretty good towards the end of my session yesterday. I lost 14 of my last 15 games. They were all super turbos. Those fucking things man, I tell you. They will make you a man. Put hair on your chest. I ended up finishing down close to 3k on the day, but the month is still going great other than that little road bump. Gonna get back into it today, but might stay away from the ST's for a day or two. Maybe. They kinda gave me a poker concussion.

My girlfriend and I will be closing on a house this week, so with the moving and trying to buy shit for the house and everything I might not get as much volume in as I'd like the last week or so of the month. A little time off will probably be a good thing though. I'm hoping when I start playing in my new office it's a little more +EV than playing in the living room of our one bedroom apt. I'm thinking I'll be able to concentrate better and get better use of my time when I have a place to go that I know is just for grinding and money making. I'll know when I sit down in my office it's time to work. Not that I make bad use of my time now or anything, I'm just thinking it will make it a little easier.

A.L. Central gonna be a close 3 way race between Twins, Tigers, Chisox. I smell another strong 2nd half of a season for the Twins and another Central title! More than likely followed by us getting owned by the Yankees in the 1st round of the playoffs :(

July Profit - $8,362

July going smoothly

What's up everyone?

July is going pretty good so far. Friday was a real big day, actually the biggest of my career as I finished up $4,150(which included a $400 rakeback payment). Never had a 4k day before, it felt pretty good.

All the games but 1 were played on FT, so here's that graph.



I'd say about 2/3 of the games were prob super turbos. I've been putting in some decent volume in the $102/$203.50 ST's and it's been going decently well. I still def prefer the somewhat slower structure of the normal turbos, but if those aren't filling very fast what can you do? A lot of the donks seem to love the structure of these ST's, and I can see why. It gives them more of a chance to just get the chips in the middle and get lucky.

Although a turbo usually progresses fairly quickly into a game with effective stacks of <25 bb's(once blinds hit 30/60 this is the case no matter what) the thing I hate about the ST's is that you're going into these short stack situations completely cold if you don't have any notes on the opponent. At least in a normal turbo say if blinds get to 30/60, you've been playing for 9 minutes and prob played 20-30 hands. In this amount of time at least you can have some sort of reads on your opponent and have some sort of table image to work with yourself. Not quite the case in ST's, but regardless they are still profitable, just way more variance.

I've put in about 250 ST's this month and have a profit in them of about $2,000, so not that bad at all. I'll def be making these a part of my volume from now on, but do not want to play them exclusively. I'll still be playing turbos most of the time I think.

I've been grinding pretty hard each day this month. Putting in some pretty solid 6-8 hour sessions and seem to be reaping the rewards. If the games would fill quicker I could have better volume for my time. So tilting to have to wait 20 min between games sometimes.

I saw the WSOP main event got the 2nd largest amount of entrants ever. I think that's a good sign that poker is still going strong. First place like 8 million. So sick.

July Profit - $7,018

bartchalker

Solid month +14.3k

I'm pretty happy with how June went, even though I became extremely frustrated at some points of the month. Looking back through the month I'm not really sure why I became so frustrated either. I didn't have any prolonged losing stretches, never even had 3 consecutive losing days. It's usually when I've been losing for more than 4 or 5 days in a row that I start to get a little pissy. I might have just been getting burnt out a bit? Not sure, feeling good now though.

I had a good time in the $345 this month making $30/game and finishing up 6.9k in that department. It was def a nice change from what's been happening to me in that game so far this year. I also spent some time giving the $203.50 super turbos on FT more of a try this month. I ended up going 73-64 there which was good for almost $10/game, which is pretty decent for super turbos I think. I really have no idea what would be a good winrate in that game long term or even what would be considered a good sample size. I'm thinking $10 a match long term would be very profitable though. There is just so much fucking variance in those things it can make you twitch. It's not uncommon at all obv to get all in within the first 5 or 6 hands. But in the end it's really not much different than playing a turbo once the blinds hit 25/50 and up. The effective stack sizes are uually under 25 bb's at that point also. It's just nice to have that little amount of extra time to outplay your opponent and win or at least be the one with the chip lead when blinds hit a crucial level. I might mix these in more though in the coming months as I think they are def beatable and are a good thing to play while waiting for other games.

The end of June is not just the end of the month, but also the midway point of the year. I am having a pretty successful year, and am about right on pace for 150k profit which was my goal at the beginning of the year. At the end of June I was on pace for 151k. I feel like the 2nd half of 2010 can be even better though. I feel like I've ran pretty bad in the $345 this whole year and if that can turn around I can have a bigger 2nd half of the year.

July has gotten off to kind of a "meh" start, but it's obv super early, so no worries there. I'm down about 2k right now for July.

Look for updates during July, I'll be putting up weekly posts. Even if I don't have much to say I'll throw up a couple paragraph update. I've been lazy maintaining the blog the last few months. Gonna change that this month.

bartchalker

May is finished, +$9,500

"It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner." Vince Lombardi


Ugh. The 2nd half of the May turned into a bitch for me. After my last update I had a few good days pushing my profit to around 12k, but then I had a 3 day stretch where I dropped around $5,400 and spent the rest of the month recovering from that. I guess I did recover, but just to the point of getting back to where I was at the halfway point of the month. So I guess I just broke even the last 2 weeks. It probably wouldn't have been quite so bad if I hadn't tilted off a couple buy ins in a few sessions I played. I played really bad in a few of my games during the last 2 weeks, was just getting frustrated with the shit. I also had a dumb rematching session against some guy in the $345's on FTP. I played him like 35 games stretching out for more than 4 hours. I should have quit after about game 10. It was late night/early morning and I was getting tired and didn't really feel like playing, but for some reason I got stubborn with it and just kept accepting rematches. I eventually quit after losing like 6 of my last 7 games to him and being real spewy in the process. By the time it was over he had taken a few buy ins off me for about $2,500. I thought I had an edge on him so kept playing, but after game 10 or so it was definitely a mistake to keep playing. Just too tired and frustrated to think clearly and make good plays. It doesn't seem I'm ever real good in long battles with multiple rematches unless I'm winning. Even if we're splitting the matches 50/50 I start to lose a little something. I'm guessing that's the case for a lot of people though.

Anywayssssssss, it's not like May was a disaster, not by any means. While having a 2 week breakeven stretch doesn't happen often to me and is discouraging, it's just something that's gonna happen a few times each year.

I've noticed that so far this year I'm really getting the shit end of variance in the $345. It's kind of annoying. I'm doing about what I expect in the $230 with a winning percentage of 56.6% and $19/game. The $345 this year has been a different story with a winning percentage of 53.3% and about $6.50/game. I guess I can't bitch about it much cause that's the price of playing multiple buy in levels. It just seems ridic to be making more money in the $230 then the $345 so far this year. I've played about 2,500 $345 games across stars and FTP in my career with a $17/game avg. I think long term I could hit the $25-$28 range, but I'm not sure. I mean 2,500 games is a pretty decent sample size, but I don't think it's out of the question to run a little bad over that kind of stretch. Lifetime across both sites in the $230 I'm at $18/game and it would seem kinda weird that the competition is that much tougher at the $345 compared to the $230 that I would have the same $/game. I sure don't seem to notice that the players are that much better overall. There doesn't seem to be much skill difference between the two levels. I guess the nosebleed players tend to sit a 345 more than a 230. I've been sat my livb and other players who normally play $500-$5,000 stakes before at the 345, but not so much at the 230. I don't think that kind of stuff can make a huge difference unless it's happening a lot though. I guess only time will tell.

May was quite a success from a volume standpoint as I put in about 670 games which is definitely the most I have done in a long time. I'm hoping in June to have another 600 game month! Bring on June!!

bartchalker

1st half of May recap

I'm pretty happy with how May is shaping up thus far. I've put in some pretty decent volume(300 games) and have gotten some good results. I took yesterday completely off of poker after a frustrating prior 2 days where I put in 35 games in each day, only to lose money each day. Now I feel refreshed and ready to do a bit of grinding again. Prior to those 2 losing days however I had 10 straight winning days. Streaks like that are always nice but seem to so seldom happen to me anymore. Bitchy variance. Even having 5 winning days in a row is kind of tough. It's not like the $115's where it seemed I always had streaks like that. I guess it's just a testament to the slightly higher competition at my current levels. It increases variance a bit.

My May HU stats so far:

Games Played: 298
Avg Stake: $269
Avg Profit: $28.29
Total Profit: $8,430

With everything else added in my total profit comes out to about $9,700 so far.

I'm gonna try to put in about the same amount of volume, hopefully with the same sort of results. Bring on the 20k month!

OK, change of subject.

I really hate the term "professional gambler" and I find I'm somewhat annoyed when someone refers to me as one. I usually find myself correcting them and saying that I'm not a professional gambler, I'm a professional poker player, followed by me trying to explain why I don't consider what I do gambling, usually followed by puzzled looks or a response of "well it takes skill but you still need to be pretty lucky don't you?". It's impossible to try to explain to people that nobody is lucky or unlucky, at least not in the long term. Luck is something that can only be talked about in the past tense. If you get you're chips in the middle and are 40% to win, you are going to win an average of 40% of the time no matter who you are. But I don't think a lot of people really understand this. So many people think that there are actually "lucky" and "unlucky" people. It blows my mind. Sure if somebody wins the lottery you can say, "Wow, they got lucky!", and you would be right. However like I said, it can only be used in the past tense. If they buy another lottery ticket the odds of them winning again are the same as any other person. To actually say that the laws of probability do not apply to a particular person is beyond ridiculous. It would be like saying the law of gravity does not apply to a particular person.

"Holy shit! Look at that! That dude is just floating through the air!"

"Yeah, the law of gravity doesn't apply to him."

Saying that a person wins more than their share of coin flips, or hits more flush draws or straight draws than somebody else in the long term is really just as ridiculous as the above mini conversation.

This brings me back to the reason I dislike the "professional gambler" term. I'm not sure how anything can be considered gambling when you have a long term positive expectation in the game. The definition of gamble is "to play at any game of chance for money or other stakes". For the professional poker player, poker is not a game of chance. I mean do the short term swings the pro goes through make what he does gambling? Even if they have shown positive results month after month, year after year? I don't think so because the pro knows how to use proper bankroll management and keeps his ego in check enough to stop him from playing higher then he should based on his bankroll. This is how he combats the short term swings that come with our game.

I realize though that it is probably a good thing that many people group poker in with games of chance like slots, roulette, craps, etc. It makes people think of it as a gambling game and many people treat it just like that when they play. I will say for many people it is gambling. For most people they treat it like any other form of gambling and are just as better off playing slots as they are poker. They have a negative expectation in both games.

Besides, to say a particular person is "lucky" and that's the reason they win at poker would be to insinuate that they could play games like roulette or slot machines and win long term. They are basically saying that me, or any other pro player could just sit at a slot machine 40 hours a week and win money long term. Sorry, doesn't quite work like that. Let me know when you find a professional slot machine player, or a professional roulette player. Although, you probably would get about the same reaction from a lot of people if you said you were a professional slot machine player, as you would a professional poker player.

I also realize that a lot of people don't really believe the stuff they spout off. It's just that many people have played poker themselves and tried to take it seriously but just didn't have what it took to beat the game. It's so much easier for people to say they were unlucky as opposed to not good enough.

I guess the main reason I dislike the "professional gambler" term, other than it being a complete oxymoron, is that it almost feels like a way to put down full time players. A way to say that someone is just lucky, and how nice it must be, and not giving them credit for the incredible amount of discipline, dedication, study, and intelligence it takes to play a game like this for a living. I never hear anyone refer to what the stock market players, day traders, or swing traders do as "gambling". Nope, that's not gambling is it? What they do is called "investing", when really the day to day swings, although I can't say for sure, are probably just as, if not more brutal than that of what a full time poker player goes through. Using the term "investing" makes it sound more legit and smart, while using the term "gambling" carries a negative connotation that makes it sound dirty and unintelligent.

IMO!!!!!

I understand that people who know nothing about poker are always going to group it in with other forms of gambling. They are all played for money and involve an element of chance. I just felt like spouting off a bit.

Kinda went off on a tangent a bit there. I'm out!!!

bartchalker

April recap+first week of May

Once again, it's taken me awhile to throw up an update. I guess I just kinda go in streaks where I feel like posting and streaks where I don't feel like posting. I know a lot of poker bloggers tend to not post as much when they are on a bad run, but I'm just as unlikely to post on a good run as a bad run I think. And for whatever reason I have not felt like posting the last 3 weeks. I think it's time though, so here goes!!

After being up 10k at the halfway point of April, I had a decent finish to the month. Nothing spectacular, but definitely nothing worth complaining about. Towards the end of the month I went on a week long breakeven stretch, which started to test my patience a bit.

189-160 in the $230

131-104 in the $345

17-9 in the $570

After everything I ended up finishing up right around 14k. The 26 games I played in the $570 was the most I've ever played in a month, and the 17-9 record was pretty solid. It helped pad my profit a little bit for sure. I seem to be getting more comfortable playing at that level, but I'm still not really anticipating trying to play many more games than that a month at the $500's. I'm a week into May now and haven't played a single one, so it's just kinda one of those things I gotta be in the right mindset for. I'm just so comfortable playing at the $200 and $300 level, and making money so consistently there, that it's pretty hard to push myself to deal with even worse variance than I deal with now.

I had been semi planning on playing some the HU SCOOP events but ended up saying fuck it. Those things just stretch out too damn long for me. I hate potentially having to sit at my computer for 12 straight hrs. It would obviously be worth it to win one of the events, but to play for like 10 hours to get a deep but disappointing finish where I only double or triple my buyin is far too tilting for me. Maybe one of these times I'll suck it up and do it.

As for May thus far....it's going pretty good. I'm actually off to pretty hot start this first week, and am quickly up over $5,500. We'll see how it goes the last 3 weeks. I'll take another 14k month. I won't complain a bit.

That's all I have right now. Further updates to come folks.

bartchalker