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

Halfway through April

April has been going really well so far. I've been pretty much playing every day, getting in between 15-25 games daily. I'm really happy with how I've played this month and have really just felt in complete control of most of my matches. I'm actually really happy with how I've played this whole year, and my results are showing it. I'm on pace to make my 150k goal. If I keep going along the way I am now I should have no problem achieving that goal.

I really feel I've improved as a player since this time in 2009, just like in 2009 I improved from 2008, and in 2008 improving from 2007. The main reason is just putting in the games, day after day, week after week, month after month. Just grinding is what improves my game so much. And for the most part it doesn't even feel like a grind, just because I enjoy playing this game so much. The downswings can be a bitch, but they just make the upswings that much more sweet. I've played about 20,000 heads up sng's in my lifetime now. After that kind of volume not only do I feel confident against almost anyone I play, but I've been though the inevitable downswings so many times that I think I'm getting way better at controlling tilt then I ever have before. I think the one stat that really shows how much I've controlled my tilt in 2010 is 0. 0 as in 0 broken mouses this year. It might not seem like that big of a deal, but in 2008 & 2009 I prob wrecked a total of close to 20 goddamn mouses. I mean that's almost a mouse a fucking month I go through. It prob sounds crazy to anyone who doesn't play a lot of poker, but I think anyone who plays poker on a regular basis can understand how totally frustrating it can be. But here I am midway through April, still using the same mouse I was on Jan 1. Overall I just feel so much more calm after taking a bad beat/cooler, or after getting owned in 6 straight games by some dipshit. I mean, I still cuss up a storm like it's nobody's business sometimes, just no mouse slamming.

Ok, enough of that BOLOGNA. Like I said earlier in this post, April is going quite well. Not quite as well as March, but good nonetheless. I've played 325 HU games booking about $29/game. My April profit is right around 10k. The last 2 months have just been too much fun. I'm really not looking forward to that next downswing when it comes creeping on me.

Twins are off to a hot 8-3 start. Best record in the AL baby!!! I got $300 on them to finish over 83 1/2 wins. They look like a really solid team this year. I'm hoping for 90+ wins.

I think that's all I got!

bartchalker

First week of April

I've had a decent first week of the month. There just doesn't seem to be a whole lot to report other than having a +3k day today. The rest of the week has been real back and forth. I've been treading water a bit as far as my results go. Today wasn't the best day I've ever had, but in terms of profit to volume it was pretty good. I just put in 18 games and smashed out a 14-4 record. Also got wild in a 18 handed sng and took it down which kind of padded the HU profit.

Early in the month I played a couple of $570's. I don't play them that often so I'm not quite used to those kinda swings. And I have to admit taking bad beats in those stings just a little bit more. Just a little precursor to the hands I'm about to post. The first two are just bad beats that happened in a pair of $570's I played. A little boring maybe, but share in my pain if you like. The last is quite possibly the strangest fucking play I've ever seen in my life. Just mind boggling, lol.

This first one was a setup in my favor that went all wrong on the river. I still actually had plenty of chips and was only at a slight chip disadvantage after the hand. I made a hero call down with 4th pair to lose it a few hands later though. Possibly a questionable call. That hand will not be posted because I don't like to post hands where I get OWNED.



This following one was against some fish who was a real cocky motherfucker who had taken a few buy ins off me at $230/$345 earlier in the day. Took a shot vs him in a $570. This one tickled a bit.



Like I said earlier, this one is just weird. I guess a few hands earlier i fired a cbet with A high on flop then bet again on turn after he check/called and spiked an Ace on the river to win the pot. So he maybe thought I was really bluffy? I guess he could have put me on 35 or something. Or maybe he just likes the rush of playing with his eyes closed? Whichever it was it prob wins the award for strangest call down I've ever seen.




I guess I'm just gonna keep this post short. Not a whole lot to report and nothing is really coming to my mind to type about.

Good Luck!

bartchalker

Sooner or later, gotta cut you down

March was such an awesome month for me. I ended up breaking my record month which was 21.3k in Dec 2009. Here's a quick little rundown of the month.

$115 HU...11-8...+$235
$230 HU...186-114...+$12,840
$315 HU...170-132...+$8,010
$570 HU...7-2...$+2,570

I lost about $600 in random sng's/tourney's and made about 2.5k in rakeback/bonuses. All in all my overall profit for March comes to $25,458. As you can see I really wrecked the $230 this month for a 62% winrate and $43/game.

I kept saying I wanted to hit 700 games this month, but I got kinda lazy towards the end and really slacked off on my volume. I ended up with 630 games played and had an avg profit of about $37.50/game.

It really feels great to dominate so hard in March after having sub par months in Jan and Feb. In Jan and Feb(Feb particularly) I got kinda worked up when things weren't going my way, like I tend to always do when the shit piles on. However this just proves to me once again how hard I can kill these games when I go on a hot run myself and the cards are all falling my way. There is just no need to get pissed off during bad stretches, because I can more than make up for it during my good stretches. In the end, after all the games have been played and variance has had time to even itself out, the stats show the true skill. There is no luck.

Ok, that puts an end to my bragging. I have to put this month behind me and obviously will not expect a repeat performance in April. I played good this month, but man, I ran hot. The first couple weeks especially, everything seemed to go my way. It's not too often you get positive variance for a stretch like that, so this kind of shit just doesn't happen often. It sure is fun when it does though. To me, winning at poker is like what crack is to a junkie. I can't get enough and I just want more. Actually that's prob not the best comparison......close enough though, fuck it.

I guess for April I'll just try to hit 600 games, maybe a little more. I just want to keep playing good.

Here's my graphs for March, Pokerstars followed by Full Tilt





I actually played more games on FT then Stars this month. I'm kinda shocked at how much more too. I didn't really realize it until just now looking at them. Probably the first time I've ever done that. I'm going to try to up my volume on stars a bit to make sure I can at least get the 200k VPP bonus by year's end.

I don't think I have much more to say. Bring on April and the 2nd Quarter of 2010!!!

bartchalker

Watch these fuckers jump when I get loose

Not a whole lot to report since my last update. I've had one good day of +2k and the other days have been smallish losses offsetting that one day. Breaking even basically. No complaints though, it was still a very successful first half of March, in both profit and volume. I've already put in 360 games which is a lot for me. I'm still on pace for 700 games and will try to get there. I'm not feeling burnt out or anything, but it's hard to feel burnt out when the DOLLAZ are rolling in at a steady clip. BALLA DOLLAZ.

Now I'd like to take a little time to talk about the acronyms people use in the chat. I've never been a person to use these too much. I remember when I first started playing online poker I had to go type stuff like "gl", "gg" into google to find out what the hell people were saying to me. I only knew the basic ones, like "lol" and shit. At first I thought they were retarded but of course eventually started using them. The first time somebody typed "mbn" I didn't know what the fuck was going on. I didn't know if I was being insulted or complimented and it took a while to find out it was "must be nice". I've never been a fan of this one myself but I've noticed some players are quite fond of that little gem whenever the slightest thing goes wrong. They run AQ into my AK and there it is. "MBN". I'm just like, yeah man it's real nice. Like, what the fuck? Of course it's nice. It's fucking great. I want more more more. MORE.

Then there are the other classics like "rofl" "lmao" and the very awesome "lmfao" I've personally become a fan of the "rofl" over the years. Roll on floor laughing. I mean, boom. You're play is so fucking horrendous that I am literally rolling around all the fucking floor, laughing at your stupid ass. LSHIJPAPMFP. That's gonna be my new one. It's "laughing so hard I just pissed and pooped my fucking pants." Watch for it.

However my all time favorite is the "wp" when used sarcastically. I open JJ from button, villain shoves 40 bb's back with A3 and spikes A on flop. It's a perfect time to bust out the "wp". I mean, I guess "mbn" could be used here as well, or maybe even a combo of the two. However i think "wp" gets the point across well. Sometimes villain responds the ole "ty" and I'm never quite sure if they are needling me, or are really that dumb and think I'm sincerely telling them they played the hand well. You never know with these people, I"m telling you.

Oh man, I know I'm missing some of the other nice ones. Anyways reason I got on this acronym thing is because I've begun to see people start typing "y" for yes. That's ridiculous. Just stop. The first time somebody typed "y" after I asked them a question I thought it was short for "why" and some confusion ensued. I mean, seriously fellas , that's just fucking lazy. Just type the -es at the end. It takes another half a second. I can understand the "u2" or "b4" to a certain degree, you are saving a few extra keystrokes there, but just typing "y"? Knock it off!

Ok, enough of that. I figured I'd go off on a tangent being that my last few poker days seemed to be kinda uneventful and I didn't have much to type. I'll update again in a few days and maybe try to put some interesting hands up or something. Later.

March Profit-$14,127

bartchalker