Halfway through Feb

I've been doing pretty well since my last post and I've recovered rather nicely from my breakeven/losing streak from the first 8 or 9 days of Feb. Since my last post I've only had 1 losing day of $650, the rest were winning days with a couple of them being 1k+. My Feb profit is at about 3.9k. I kinda got myself worked up over nothing with the slow start to the month. I always do that shit for some reason. If I lose or breakeven for a couple days I'm fine but once it stretches into a week or so I kinda get stupid. Just the way I am though I think, next time it happens I'll prob be the same way.

I played the $215 HU tourney today for the 4th time in my life and am now 0/4 as far as cashing in it goes. I was lucky enough to get a 1st round bye into the round of 256. I won my first match mainly because of a tough all in I called to pick off a bluff. Then in my 2nd match I was lucky enough to be paired with a player who wasn't very good. I worked them down to about 900 before getting it in preflop with JJ vs 55 and thought I was on my way to my first ever cash in the tourney, but a 5 on the turn dashed those hopes. I was down to 800 after a check raise bluff went wrong and got it in with A9 vs 77 and watched him hit another 7 on the flop to end me. Ugh.

Other than that tourney everything else today went very well and i finished up about 1.1k. The biggest reason was 2 shots I took in the $345. I was able to win them both. The 2nd game I even got crippled to 120 at 50/100, but came back to win it. It always feels nice when you kinda write a game off as a loss mentally then end up winning it. It's been awhile since I've done that to somebody, seems I've been on the receiving end of those the last few times.

Saw the Friday the 13th remake the night it opened. I think they did a pretty decent job of remaking it. Nothing incredibly special, but I would recommend it to anyone who likes horror movies. I watched Casino today and that movie just gets better every time I watch it. A classic. It's amazing how many F bombs can get dropped in 180 min too, haha.

Below is my graph for the month so far(off by $200)

Big day......finally

I said I was going to take monday off and I kinda did.....I played for like an hour and lost $100 or something. Tuesday I busted out for a big day of +$1,506 which was just what the doctor ordered. Maybe that day off did my mind some good? I felt I was playing very sharply and my reads were good. I bluffed off my stack in about 3 matches, which always kind of makes me feel like a moron, but I think they were good plays(for the most part) and at the time had reason to believe they would work. It sure was nice in some of my games when I have them down to 750 or so at 25/50 and get it in with 33 vs A8 or a simalar situation and acutally win to end the match and not have to start over with even stacks. Very nice. Let's get some positive variance up in this bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!

+$500, back to even for Feb

I ended up finishing ahead exactly $500 yesterday making me down a whopping $9.90 for Feb. Basically even. It feels really good to be back to even and hopefully my stats start going in the right direction. UP! I finished with 3 straight W's in the 230's to pull me out of the hole. Earlier in the day I took a crack at a $345 and won that as well which was helpful. Towards the end of my session, I had a brutal misclick in a 9 man $60 where I 3bet to 900 preflop with 7 10 after villain 3x to 450 from MP. Villain smooth called and I jammed my last 400 on Jxx flop and villain had JQ, lol. I run so bad with misclicks. I remember one a while back in a 9 handed game where I limp AA UTG off a 15 BB stack or so, another guy limps behind and button shoves all in, folds to me so obv I fold. HA.

I decided to take today off of playing. I've been putting in quite a few hours playing the last few days and I can feel the burnout coming. I'll get back into the swing tomorrow being even on the month and be ready to grind. It's time for a little break anyways, I've had such horrible luck this last week that it's getting to the point where every little thing that goes wrong in each game just pisses me off too much. It's hard to play good poker when you are pissed off like that. It seemed like yesterday I'd even get mad if I checked down K high and lost to A high in an unraised pot. Ridiculous. Usually just taking a single day off can make a world of difference for my attitude, maybe I should have done this a little sooner.

I feel I've been putting too much pressure on myself to make money since 09 started. I think the reason for this is that 100k goal I made. I am putting way too much emphasis on this monetary target. There is still a good chance I can reach that goal, it's so early in the year but if I don't get there I don't care. I'll be more than happy with another 75k year. Even if I make less than that, that's all right. The 100k is def still my goal, but I'm not going to put so much pressure on myself to get there that it makes it no fun to play. The reason I originally started doing this for a living is because I could make more money than my other job, but also because I really love playing and enjoy the freedom it gives me. This is the best job I've ever had and I love everything about it. The competition, the rush, the mental stimulation, hell even the occasional chatbox smack talk. There is no telling if poker will be nearly as profitable an occupation in 5 yrs so I might as well enjoy it, and not get so obsessed with how much money I am making/not making. The truth is that even if I was offered a "normal" job that would pay me 200k/yr in 09 I would not take it because I like what I do now too much.

That's that, no more pressure on myself to make x amount of dollars/month. Just play my A game at all times and enjoy the game, the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of it.

up and down day

Yesterday was kind of a nutty day. I ended up putting in about 7 hrs of playing, which is quite a bit for me in a single day. I'm just trying to get out of this funk. I was up as much as $500 for the day and down as much as $700 at one point but ended the day with a profit of about $50, so pretty much breaking even. I'll say I played OK, started off playing my A game but overall probably about a B game. Played pretty badly in one or two for sure. I hate to keep preaching about these bad beats I'm taking, but it's getting ridiculous. I've had streaks of breaking even/losing money like this obv but not with the amount of just crazy beats. I lost one yesterday where I had 33 on a 853 rainbow board against villains 89. Turn 8 river 5. I've never lost so many hands in such a short period of time where I am a 80% or higher favorite when the chips go in. Also, quite a few where I'm like 90% and up, just crazy.

However I know streaks like this will be offset by streaks where I run very well.....hopefully one of those streaks will come along soon.

Happy grinding peeps

Brownies are great

No, for real though. They are awesome.

Trying to grind back to even

Well since my last post i'm up about 1k making me -$500 for Feb, so getting close to even. I've def had streaks like this before but I think it being at the beg of the month has made it more bothersome to me, and it shouldn't matter. It's just another 5 day period, it just so happens the downswing is hitting in the beginning of the month. Today I experienced some more brutal beats, the following being the funniest:

PokerStars Game #24658434706: Tournament #138979782, $220+$10 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2009/02/06 14:26:32 ET
Table '138979782 1' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: bartchalker (1190 in chips)
Seat 2: villain (1810 in chips)
villain: posts small blind 10
bartchalker: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bartchalker [Th Td]
villain: calls 10
bartchalker: raises 80 to 100
villain: calls 80
*** FLOP *** [6s 2s 4c]
bartchalker: bets 200
villain: calls 200
*** TURN *** [6s 2s 4c] [6h]
bartchalker: bets 500
villain: raises 1010 to 1510 and is all-in
bartchalker: calls 390 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (620) returned to fonda1
*** RIVER *** [6s 2s 4c 6h] [Ad]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bartchalker: shows [Th Td] (two pair, Tens and Sixes)
villain: shows [Tc As] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
villain collected 2380 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2380 | Rake 0
Board [6s 2s 4c 6h Ad]
Seat 1: bartchalker (big blind) showed [Th Td] and lost with two pair, Tens and Sixes
Seat 2: villain (button) (small blind) showed [Tc As] and won (2380) with two pair, Aces and Sixes

Villain was a massive massive calling station so i raised big and bet for value the whole way and it worked, result was def not what I was looking for though. Seems alot of the $200's have been like that for me this month, crushing beats. This next one is quite funny also from a 100 double or nothing:

PokerStars Game #24661120476: Tournament #138986906, $100+$4 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2009/02/06 15:55:36 ET
Table '138986906 1' 10-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: aaja99 (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: bigwagner (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: PMK2MJD (1470 in chips)
Seat 4: pokerprolabs (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: Fordy1979 (1510 in chips)
Seat 6: bartchalker (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: grosjeangros (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: SirSpewsALot (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: PowellJam (1500 in chips)
Seat 10: dgray75 (1530 in chips)
Fordy1979: posts small blind 10
bartchalker: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bartchalker [Ad As]
grosjeangros: calls 20
SirSpewsALot: folds
PowellJam: folds
dgray75: calls 20
aaja99: folds
bigwagner: folds
PMK2MJD: folds
pokerprolabs: calls 20
Fordy1979: folds
bartchalker: raises 140 to 160
grosjeangros: calls 140
dgray75: calls 140
pokerprolabs: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kh 8h Ts]
bartchalker: bets 550
grosjeangros: calls 550
dgray75: folds
*** TURN *** [Kh 8h Ts] [5d]
bartchalker: bets 790 and is all-in
grosjeangros: calls 790 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [Kh 8h Ts 5d] [Tc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bartchalker: shows [Ad As] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
grosjeangros: shows [9d Th] (three of a kind, Tens)
grosjeangros collected 3190 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3190 | Rake 0
Board [Kh 8h Ts 5d Tc]
Seat 1: aaja99 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: bigwagner folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: PMK2MJD folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: pokerprolabs (button) folded before Flop
Seat 5: Fordy1979 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: bartchalker (big blind) showed [Ad As] and lost with two pair, Aces and Tens
Seat 7: grosjeangros showed [9d Th] and won (3190) with three of a kind, Tens
Seat 8: SirSpewsALot folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: PowellJam folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 10: dgray75 folded on the Flop

Once again, morons at the table so I raise big for value and to discourage set miners, shitty river, lol. But today was different in that I experienced a few "good" beats also. I don't wanna go looking for the HH but the ones that come to mind are JJ beating QQ all in pre, 66 on a 336Jx baord against J3, 64 of spades flopping a flush on a Q7x board against Q7......and holding!!! Nice!!! So hopefully the tide is starting to turn and maybe in the next day or two I can be back in the black baby.

I had some dude who was a very slight winner try to lecture me about how badly I play small pairs or some shit after I spanked him. Spanked that fucker right on his ass I did. Beat it buddy or I'll come spank your whole goddamn family. HA. I love it when people with a 3% ROI feel the need to lecture me on how badly I play, it's even better though when it comes from a total fishbowl, that always cracks me up. I like to ask them how much they charge for lessons, and if they can teach me to play as well as them.

Annnnyyyyywaaaayyyssss, I'm out this biatch.

Mr Baller bartchalker

sigh, just won't stop

Blah, down about 1.5k in Feb


PokerStars Game #24616868439: Tournament #138714443, $220+$10 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level III (25/50) - 2009/02/05 9:59:22 ET
Table '138714443 1' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: bartchalker (1355 in chips)
Seat 2: villain (1645 in chips)
bartchalker: posts small blind 25
villain: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bartchalker [As Jd]
bartchalker: raises 100 to 150
villain: calls 100
*** FLOP *** [Jh 9s 9d]
villain: checks
bartchalker: bets 200
villain: calls 200
*** TURN *** [Jh 9s 9d] [Th]
villain: checks
bartchalker: bets 1005 and is all-in
villain: calls 1005
*** RIVER *** [Jh 9s 9d Th] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
villain: shows [4d 4s] (a full house, Fours full of Nines)
bartchalker: shows [As Jd] (two pair, Jacks and Nines)
villain collected 2710 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2710 | Rake 0
Board [Jh 9s 9d Th 4c]
Seat 1: bartchalker (button) (small blind) showed [As Jd] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Nines
Seat 2: villain (big blind) showed [4d 4s] and won (2710) with a full house, Fours full of Nines



PokerStars Game #24617335382: Tournament #138719507, $220+$10 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2009/02/05 10:19:18 ET
Table '138719507 1' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: villain (1420 in chips)
Seat 2: bartchalker (1580 in chips)
bartchalker: posts small blind 10
villain: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bartchalker [As 9d]
bartchalker: raises 40 to 60
villain: raises 40 to 100
bartchalker: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [2c 9c 3h]
villain: bets 100
bartchalker: raises 260 to 360
villain: calls 260
*** TURN *** [2c 9c 3h] [5h]
villain: checks
bartchalker: bets 560
villain: calls 560
*** RIVER *** [2c 9c 3h 5h] [Ah]
villain: checks
bartchalker: bets 560 and is all-in
villain: calls 400 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (160) returned to bartchalker
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bartchalker: shows [As 9d] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
villain: shows [9h Kh] (a flush, Ace high)
villain collected 2840 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2840 | Rake 0
Board [2c 9c 3h 5h Ah]
Seat 1: villain (big blind) showed [9h Kh] and won (2840) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 2: bartchalker (button) (small blind) showed [As 9d] and lost with two pair, Aces and Nines