Last Try

I have 6 weeks of unemployment left, so I have 6 weeks of trying left. After that, poker will be down graded to a hobby.

I have learned alot in the last couple of months to sharpen my game. The most important one being, I learned to lose or give up. My opponents aren't all idiots, and even if they are, they mostly re raise or check raise when they have a monster hand. Although this is not true Live. I folded twice and the idiots were true idiots and I folded the best hand.


I cured myself of my chronic fatigue by watching House MD and confirming it with Web MD. One of his patients had chronic fatigue and they said it was from low potassium due to drinking excessive water. My doctor put me on diuretics which caused me to drink large amounts of water, flushing out potassium. More commonly known as an electrolyte. I started taking more vitamins with great results. I also lost a little confidence in my Doctor.

Lastly, I am doing a new hit and run strategy for live games. 2 hrs and I am off to a different casino. Once I hit $200 up of down, I am done for the day. More then that I get bored and start making mistakes. I blame this on multi tabling. I know this is weak but I have to build my bank roll. So bank roll management takes precedence over maximizing profits for now.

Can't Give it Up

I am still playing and still treading water. My live play is making me just enough to get by and my internet play is sinking.

I feel that I reached a new understanding and comfort level of the game but the results don't show it. I have a superiority complex along with greed and a desire to win every pot I enter. I am finding my self trying to run over games with marginal hands and going all in when my gut is telling me I am beat.

I am going to slow it down and look at it from a different point of view. I am going to respect my opponents play and think of the hand as a puzzle. I will think before I push the button and trust my instinct. If I fold the best hand, so be it. I know I can play better and I am determined to prove it with results.

I am starting from the bottom so up is the only way I can go.

Amazing Night

My December results were saved last night in 4 hours. That is how long it took me to bust the big stack at the table and a lady that knew very little about poker but kept rebuying.

Most of the fun and money came from the lady. She would call any preflop raise and call to the river to see who won. She called two all ins preflop and won with a pair of sevens when AK struck out. I would then swoop in and bust her in a hand or two.

The big stack was just frustrated. He was running good catching cards and building a big stack. His rush was over by the time I sat down. He tried to bluff me in a big pot and chased many small pots throughout the session. The final hand was just tilt. I made the Ace high straight on the river and bet 8 into a small pot. It was raised to 20 by the guy to my left and the big stack called. I bumped it to 60 and the guy to my left folded. The big stack announces he is behind and pushes all-in. I figured we had the same hand and called. He never showed and I took down, the now, big pot.

My rush started to slow down after 4 hours. My flush lost to a rivered full house and I started to get really garbage hands. Then a very good and aggressive player sat down and I started to fear for my stack. I tightened up but was also getting tired. I learned the hard way that playing scared and tired is the way to go bust, so I racked up a once in a six month session.

Day Off for Evaluation

It has been bad in every way. I played bad, ran bad, felt bad, and almost lost it all. I needed a day off.

I should have taken a day off sooner and saved alot of money, but until you hit bottom there is no reason. I hit bottom today and came to the conclusion I need a job. I will wait until next year but I will start looking with more vigor. I will continue playing since I won't get a job right away. I just don't think I am able to make a go of it. I still need time to develop my game without the pressure of going broke and homeless if I don't. I don't have the money or skill behind me to make it work.

I will keep up the drive until I get a job and continue blogging when I do. I won't get a job right away, so there is still a small chance it will work. I just feel the pressure is off now that I made the decision to get a job.

In the end I found myself taking risks because I needed to win. I learned the hard way that you can't control the cards. You have to except you can't win this hand and move on to the next one.

Coming to an End

My game has improved by leaps and bounds but it still may not be enough. My time is running out and I am starting to think more about getting a jjjjob. That was hard to say.

I still have two months left so I plan to make the most of them. I plan on ten tabling all day and then going to the casino all night. I don't want to play until the sun comes up because it takes to long to recover afterwards. I think it is more profitable to get sleep and play rested.

My last big leak is paying off sets with big pairs. I feel like I am playing weak if I don't commit but I lose more often then not. So money is winning over ego. This is reversed live. I folded a few time live only to find out that I would have doubled up. It is very player dependant and I have to size them up faster and more accurate. All I can do in the mean time is to compensate the swings with more hands.

I should have better results this month as I put everything I learned together. Already I made the list of top winners for the day at Poker Table Ratings.com. Granted it was at 2am but I was in the top half.

Best Made Goals

Running bad, playing bad, miss all goals. Need I say more.

I was humming along winning steady and then nothing seemed to work anymore. I was getting beat and loosing money. I slowed it down but I am still scratching my head at what went wrong.

Some leaks are easy to find but hard to plug. I counted 6 really bad plays one day that cost me alot of money. I told myself to never to that again but I watched myself do it 3 times the next day. I guess it is an improvement but what am I thinking. I am embarrassed to describe the plays they are that bad. If it wasn't for rakeback I would be down twice as much. Fulltilt threw in a bonus to boot.

On the positive side, I bought a new computer for my birthday and Christmas present. I must have been good because the computer is great. I was using a laptop with an external monitor and it couldn't keep up all the time. The new one doesn't break a sweat.

I am able to use my bigger monitors and 10 table, my graphics card is better and doesn't crash, and with dual processors things pop up instantly. 10 tables really improve the hands per hour, rakeback and points. To early to tell if it helps my win rate.(right now, no)

I am stubborn, so I am still plugging away. This downswing is normal and I am still getting use to my new set up. I hope.

Last Half of Oct. and Monthly Summary

Do to travel and self pity doing my taxes, I only played 8 days in the last two weeks of Oct. My online play is coming together mustering up $333.53 with rake back. Live I made $1,214. This includes a a bad session in the last days of the month.

Looking back over the month the money I made on the Internet was very promising. Not only the amount, but the fact that I am making money. My hard work is starting to pay off.

Live, I think I just ran into a run of bad cards. I made some moves that didn't work and not recognizing the differences from online play. I would feel great after a winning session on the Internet and play the same way live. I would get killed not adjusting to the change in players. You have to show down the best hand live. They won't fold if they have a 1% chance of winning.

My goals for November: Reach bankroll goal and start taking shots at .5/1. Make list of top winners at .25/.5 on Poker Table Ratings.com. This may be only up to half the month because I expect to start taking shots at .5/1 by the 16th. Lastly, play more hands. I should be able to get 2k to 4k hands per day depending on which days I play live.

My casino goals are just to play disciplined show down poker. Value betting my made hands and folding long shot draws. Doing these things well and the money will come.

The end of the week brings in a WSOP circuit event to Tahoe. There should be lots of action that I may miss out on due to my bankroll or lack of. I have 5 days to build it up but action will be hard to find.

Doing all of these things this month will mean I only play poker. I have nothing else to do so I just need to not wast time.