Finally I found a small amount of time...

Well sorry for the lack of post as of late I have been lucky to get 2 or 3 posts a week.

As for my full detailed stats post that is going to have to wait. I think I am going to wait until I hit 250 games. A bigger sample size so the stats will be closer to being real.

I treated myself to a 180 man last night and managed to finish 4th. It was very happy to finish fourth. The $50+ payday padded my roll a bit more as well....

Not sure I mentioned it before but I will be traveling to the USA on Oct 15th and will be staying there until the 3rd or 4th of November. This should mean that I get to play 3 bloggerments in a row... I also plan to do the ultimate blogging experiment...

On either the first or second saturday I am in the states. I am going to stock up on food and beer. Then I am going to attempt a marathon of poker... 18 hours str8.. I am going to write about it all in a word document while I play and then post it when I am done.

Ok this post has been a little incoherent so I am taking off... Be back real soon...

100 games in... 900 to go...

Well I finished my first 100 games last night... I was happy that I made it to 100, but I lost the last three games so it was a bit of a blow... I decided to not to play anymore last night. I made a bad play or two. and compound that with a couple mean ass coolers. I thinkI have still performed well though...

Full post and detailed stats tomorrow...

Why do we continue...

Got to thinking this morning around 4am when I was awakened by an ambulance sitting outside of my neighbors house. With nothing really to go do for a couple hours and such I decided it would be a good time to fit in a game or maybe even two.

Now this weekend was a perfect example of the roller coaster of playing poker online. I started it off with a bang. I finished 3rd in a 180 man, and won my first two SnG's I played. What a great start. Then I donked off prob 30 dollars trying to recreate the 180 man. I did very good getting a chip stack but would make a risky move that truly did not need to be made at the time I made it. I had some devasting coolers, and some gut wrenching runner-runners. At one point I had to turn off my computer. However I knew this would just be temporary, and I would sooner or later by back in front of my computer. Watching the pixelated playing cards cause me to want to poke needles through my eyes. My family cringes whenever I play a 180 man game because the rarely end with me in a cheerful mood.

The question is what is with us people... That we continually go back for more. I am pretty sure I know why I do it. I think I can beat the game. I don't have delusions of grandour or anything, but I am not playing big stakes either. I truly believe if I play my best that I can honestly beat these games. the problem is the luck factor. No place else in poker is luck more a factor then in Micro Limit Games. I still think they are beatable. You just need a stronger stomach...

The other reason I continue. Is I do anything I do 100%... This tends to be an obsessive compulsive tendacy of mine. I tend to do everything I do in extreme proportions...

So I determined my competive spirit and addictive obessive nature are why I continue to play through the bad spells...

Why do you play...

A good start to the weekend

Well my weekend has started off with a BANG!!! I won two 3.40 SnG's and placed 3rd in my only 180 man played thus far...

Unfortunately I should have placed first. However the final five took forever. I swear in 80 hands not one person went out but there tons of all in show downs. Most of the time the short stack was behind but came back to stay alive. I managed to hold on to my 100k in chips until three handed when a guy raised me preflop repopped all in with AQ, he calls with K10 and hit his ten. That left me with 45k. I tried to survive by pushing JJ but was called by AK and ended up going out in third. It is tough not being disappointed but I know I played well and the mistakes I did make were not in critical hands.

Well hopefully the rest of the weekend continues to go well...

Finally maybe I am coming out of my down swing...

After three losing days, I finally won a game last night, and finished third in one this morning. Overall I have not lost much from whereI was at my highest profit for this challenge. At best my NET winnings were $104.00, now they are at 89.00. So not a big drop in profit however a huge drop in ROI since I was at 104 when I was at 40 games. After that I lost a few huge hands on the bubble, went on tilt and lost three more games in a since then I have been bouncing back and forth from +$75 to + $90. Unfortunately now I have played 70 games. so my ROI has dropped considerably. I am hoping to play 30 SnG's this weekend.

If I accomplish this I will be building a big report for my next post detailing my first 100 games. I am going to review each session and then break it down in sections of 25.

I am still happy with my play there are 10 games where I know I made poor decisions. 6 of those I was out in the first few hands...

Anyways thanks for everyone reading I will do better next week I swear...

Sorry I sucked this week...

Well I have been extremely chaotically busy... I have played a decent amount of SnG's but I am in a decent downswing. I lost four str8 twice each time going out several times on the bubble with a big pair.

Not sure if there is anything I could have done. I know in a few of them I just made bad plays because I was tilting. FOrtunately I still am showing a profit in these...
I am going to play a few tonight and see if my record improves...

Amazing amount of poker played...

Well as you all know form the last post my weekend started off early due to Typhoon NARI. I took advantage of this early star to the weekend to play a lot of poker. The first thing you'll notice is I managed to play 30 games in my 1k 3.40 challenge. Unfortunately I also played 6 180 man games and only cashed in one. I also tried my luck at some MTT's and failed to cash.

The 1k $3.40 challenge is going well I did not like to see my ROI drop below 60%, but I went on a dry spell were I honestly should not even have been playing. I have to find out how to control the tilt monster when it appears. It normally takes 3 - 4 SnG's before I realize oh yeah A10 is not a good hand to call an all in bet with on the 2nd hand.

I did try two tabling quite a bit this weekend. At first I had difficulty. Not because there was too much going on, but I encountered what I dubbed as the "superman complex" I would take borderline EV spots simply because I had another table to fall back on. I started to get over this and then started playing some freerolls/micro MTTs on one table and the 3.40 game on the other. The other problem I had was when or if I was in two bubbles at once. I try to pay really close attention at the bubbles and found it hard when ever my other window would pop up in front.

All in all it was a fun/good poker weekend I did not go broke and I played an assload(which is just under a shit ton) of poker this weekend.

Now that I have given you an update of my weekend. I would like to talk about a couple things that I read this weekend that got me thinking.

The first thing I want to touch on is This little tidbit from Mark over at Plan3t Gong. You can also visit Mark at Sit and Go Planet In this post Mark the following quote.

We humans are the victims of an asymmetry in the perception of random events. We attribute our success to our skills, and our failures to external events outside our control, namely to randomness. We feel responsible for the good stuff, but not for the bad. This causes us to think that we are better than others at whatever we do for a living. Ninety-four percent of Swedes believe that their driving skills put them in the top 50 percent of Swedish drivers; 84 percent of Frenchmen feel that their lovemaking abilities put them in the top half of French lovers

Mark goes on to ask as poker players how would we answer the following question.

In terms of skill in online poker are you....

- Far Below Average?
- A Little Below Average?
- Average?
- Above Average?
- Far Above Average?

This got me thinking about my own play and were would I rate myself. I would like to think that I am above average, but know that I have a lot to learn. As I become a more and more serious student of the game I get a little better.

When I started playing I was "far below average"
Then when I began this blog i was "a little below average"
Today I would say I am "average if not slightly above average"

Now along these lines is this article by no other then
Hdouble himself. Here is my shameless plug of Hdouble If you have not read his blog all the way through go there now.

Now I have put in tons hours learning this game. I hope to continue improving as well. If you want to improve head on over to RTR and join the forums and start talking about your poker play. It took me awhile to trust these guys because of experience I had with other forums. Especially 2+2, or pocket fives. Generally any new comer gets belittled with every question, or even worse. If someone, especially a new comer gives a suggestion that one of the "regular" posters do not agree with. I feel lucky to have found RTR as they welcomed me and every other donkey that needs help improving your game. They will even come rail you if you ask.

As always if your more into the solitary approach to learning poker check out Sit and Go Planet. Mark puts up some great articles there. I always feel like I learned something every time I visit.

This just in go over to Burnleymic's poker blog, and congratulate hime in winning bloggerment 26. Great Job Mic. While you are congratulating him head over to Kenns blog and congratulate him for his recent cashes.

Another typhoon is barreling toward us...

Lets get started with this image...



So it looks like I get to spend another weekend holed up in my home as the forces of mother nature wage war against the brillant construction of Okinawa. I should be able to play plenty of poker. i will probably play some micro level MTTS as I will be stuck in my house for a day or so and have plenty of time to play them.

Last night I felt completey like a pile of shit. I was sick, and had a migraine. I still managed played 3 games. My heart just was not in them. Somehow though I eeked my way into 3rd in two of them. Unfortunately I went out in fifth in the third game. Oh well I can't make it to the money all the time.

I am really happy with my play so far in this 1k 3.40 challenge. I am hoping to get in quite a few of these games in this weekend. I am still rebuilding my bankroll but onceI get it to a more comfortable level I will start playing more then 1 SnG at a time. I might try to two table this weekend to see how that goes.

Thats poker LMAO!!!

Well any reader for any amount of time is greatly aware that the 180 Man SnG on Stars is elusive for me. I fixed a big leak I had with these and since then was able to perform better. The leak I discovered was I primarily played the 180 man game after suffering some bad beats, or when I just wasnot playing well in other games. Which is "brilliant" let me tell you. Anyways I try to play the 180 man games only in the right frame of mind now. Yet I never had one of those "MTT" moments. You know one of those moments where everything aligns early on and you get such a chip stack that it is like you could coast to the FT. I had my moment for a split second last night and the poker gods crushed my dreams.

So I started the game pretty good. First hand I raised from the Hi-jack with AcQc the flop gave me TPTK with the nut flush draw. BB Raises to 1/2 the pot I push all in. he shows 6c3c and I double up. 8 hands later I double again with AA vs AQ, AJ, and I am really starting to think this 180 man is going to work out for me. So 9 hands in I am at 8k in chips. On the 23 hand I get dealt KK UTG goes all in for 1k I have a big stack sitting in the cut off behind me so I move all in to isolate the short stack. Then it happens. four more people move all in including the bigstack that has me covered by 400 chips. So what hands am I against well A7,A9, AQ, and K6. So I am like well there is one Ace out there I should be able to avoid.

Well I guess I did something to truly anger the poker gods as the A hit and I was out. My great feeling squashed in an instant. Such as poker I guess.

On a brighter note I did pretty good in the games I played for my 1k 3.40 Sng challenge. Progress at the right side of the blog. I know that ROI is not something I can maintain but it is helping to pad my bankroll... Hopefully I am a little further away from any down swings.

Thanks to everyone that reads my blog... And thanks for the comments...

More changes... Some live poker...

Well I made a few more changes to the blog's design. I am pretty happy about finally figuring out how to edit the XML blogger uses for their code. I was feeling pretty lame. I mean the military pays me to design web applications and I was having issues redesigning my blog. Oh well, I like how it came out. I am still planning on changing the titles on the side bars to images but I am not sure of the design for those yet.

Last night was my live game I play on Tuesday's. As I have stated before this is a shootout tournament. I started off well and played very aggressively and built a large stack winning small to medium pots. It was the table of my dreams. I was the the chip leader with 6 ppl left with blinds at 300-600 and I had about 6k in chips. i was the big blind and the small stack with about 1.5k went all in UTG. I figured he was suited and probably had a face card. However it was not much more for me to call and so I did with Jd9d. he flipped over his cards and he showed Jh8h. PERFECT I was going to add to my chip lead. My opponent was already standing up when he hit trip 8's on the flop. I softly rap the table and say "nice hand". Three hands later I am holding 1010 and another small stack is almost all in on the big blind I raise all in from the cut off trying to isolate him. Everyone folds he calls for 1400 and flips over As9s. I remember saying he only has three outs... Oh, look there's one of them... As they dealt the turn and the river I was using one of my chips to try to slit my wrists... Well now i am down to about 4800 and I am in the big blind.

I ended up short stacked after hitting two pair but having to fold to a guy who pushed allin after he obviously hit his str8 draw.

On a bright note I won 2 out of the 3 SnG's I played yesterday. If you have not noticed I am trying once again to accomplish my challenge of 1k 3.40 turbo SnG's.
I am not doing as extensively this time, but I play enough poker I will definitely get there.

Again let me know what all of you guys think with my additions... Also, i am going to go through my blog roll. And aside from Hdouble(who is the reason I started this humble little corner of the blogging community.) I will be removing anyone that has not updated in the last month. I am not trying to be rude but the blogging community does alot to help people learn this game when they first start out. I feel it is a disservice to any new readers not to keep my blog roll up to date.

On that note if you have a blog and would like it added to my blog roll. Let me know and we can exchange links.

A fresh new look...

Well as you can see I have updated the design of my blog. When I first started this blog I truly was not sure if I was going to keep up with it, or even ever update it again. So I made a very simple format. That format was changely slightly several times. This however marks the first time I completely changed the look of the blog.

As comments are what drive a blog, I want as many as you can muster. On whether or not you like the new design. Also, did I even come close to my goal.

My goal was to give my blog the look and feel of the "hyper-simple" theme on Poker Stars.

I am currently in the midst of a bankroll recovery so hopefully I will have plenty to talk about real soon.

Sorry for the delay...

I know I said I was redesigning my blog, but it is taking me longer the expected to make a custom template.

I am still working on figureing out the best way to build a bank roll after tilting mine away. Tried a few things but I thik the 2.20 Sats to the Sunday hundred grand seem to be the best. We will see how it goes over the next day or so. I will come out with a bigger post once I finish redesigning my blog...

I feel kind of honored, well humbled maybe the better word...

"Phil Hellmuth's blog was pimped by Iggy yesterday. And as we all know, you haven't arrived on the scene until Iggy pimps it."
Wil Wheaton

After several days of agonizingly depressing blogposts, I have to reoprt some good luck on the blog front. Iggy the blogfather himself pimped my blog. I am honored, but at the same time nervous to mentioned in his blog along side of the of the best bloggers on the internet.

Also I was looking around and noticed that someone random reader had acutaullt taken the the time to add my blog to A-Class blogs. You can read the entry here. I also have noticed a decent amount of increase in traffic. I attribute this to the Iggy Pimping and myfriends atRTR. SO I am pretty excited right now. I hope that I live up to the hype. I am planning a little redesign of my site. It wont be anything drastic just a little fall cleaning.

And the a quick update. As many of my readers know I play a weekly game with 120+ ppl. What most of you dont know is I am actually the tournament director as well. I thought I would include a pic of my set up.



And just to brag a bit a picture of me at the final table of the week I won the whole thing. I am the one with the pokerstars hat. Also look close at my chipstack. Check out my Yoda figure I was using as a card protector.

Day 1 of the 1.20 Challenge, and some randome thoughts...

First off a shout out to the gang at RTR for their comments. They were much kinder then they had to be talking about my play in the bloggerment. The bloggerment happens weekly at pokerstars under the private tab. Visit RTR for full details. If you want test your skills against some real players without risking a lot of money check it out.

I took a short hiatus from poker to reflect on what I call "black labor day weekend". It was such a bad event that I might compare it to bloody diarrhea caused by shitting out shredded glass bits. I really let it get to me and It did affect my play some but I still suffered a disproportionate amount of brutal turns, and homicidal rivers. It got to the point that if someone was taking a long time to call my bet and the time started counting down. I would imagine the person on the other side had the nuts but was actually involved in some grizzly murder the second before they could hit the call button... Then I would think "that would be nice". I guess that is what bothers me the most. There is no reason a few pixelated cards should have me in the corner of my home rocking back and forth sucking on my thumbs. Yet I was almost there though and that bothers me. I thought about it and I hope that I am in abetter spot now. I am hoping the cards start to fall my way or at least statistically correct. We will see how it goes. I am playing the first game of my 1k 1.20 games today. I am going to concentrate and play one at a time until I get better situated to the play at this level. Then I will start playing two tables then four. Don't know if I will go beyond that.

Naked and Bruised...

Thats how I feel right now... I have been bent over the table and have begged for a reach around... Alas pokerstars did not bother helping me out. The beats have been horrendous... My play today was spot on I even went back to check I bubbles so many 3.25 and 6.60 6 man games that i think my wife was ready to cry when my flopped set of eights go beat by runner runner 6 to give the guy quads... Although that was the worst beat by the statistics... It as not the most devastating to my morale... that came late into the day... Way after I had taken a break, and about an hour and a half into a 180 man I was 8th in chips with 43 people left. A short stack at the table pushed all in. I called with AKs he showed J8o and flopped and 8. Two hands later same guy raises 6x I push all in with AKo he called with the MIGHTY K10 and spiked a 10 on the river...now I am half the average... I get dealt QQ and call an all in end up against 66... he turned a six and my hopes and dreams of recovering from my weekend of torture was over...

Needless to say I failed the 6 man challenge. I have not the BR to continue on... I am moving back down to the 1.20 STT games... I feel very vulnerable poker wise right now... lets see how it goes...

Bloggerment 24-

Well I just played in my first bloggerment... The play was much better then your average 5 dollar game. I went out in tenth when I made a play against holding 10Js and ran into QQ... which kinda sucked, but I was pretty happy with my play...

My challenge is not going good right now... Hoping it will turn around today... The card have just been falling badly. I have flopped the nut str8 4 times only to get all in with a gut shot draw to a higher str8 and lose... My KK got beat by Ax 3 times and by 73 once. My AA got beat by AK, K10, AQ all of which pulled a str8. All of the following hands happened at the bubble of my 6 man games. So just two of these going my way would prob put me in profit.

I have been handling it prety well but It is starting to feel like I am continuly getting beat up here...

OH THE HUMANITY...

I knew my bragging about my bankroll was a bit premature... The weekend started off innocently enough when I placed 17th in a 180 man game. I did not get a top 15 hand the whole game and never made it above 5k in chips i was a real cock roach of a performance. Then the next day brought me getting DEEP in a $3 MTT with 1015 entrants I finished 25th... With 25 people left I was 4th in chips and got involved in a three way all in with AK... Unfortunately one of my opponents had QQ, and the other had KK. That knocked me down to a little below average stack. Next hand I had AK once again and the BIG stack of the tournament bet 3x bb I pushed he called with 66 and I did not improve. I was not upset about either play I made. I truly think had either time my hand improved and I won the hand I would have been on my way to a final table and a big cash.

After that it went down hill I had some horrible beats... I am not one to whine and cry about my beats so all I am going to say is they were sic... I went on UBER UBER TILT and played two games WAY!!! out of my bankroll. Fortunately I came around before I was broke. Unfortunately I only have halfish of my riches. I am down to 95 dollars.

I was reading on RTR about some of the other bloggers having NL cash challenges, and considered doing one my self. Unfortunately ring games is not my forte. I wish Yorkshire best of luck though...VIVA la FRANCE!!! Anyways I have decided to go back to my bread and butter and grind out a bt of a bankroll again. This time I have came up with a unique challenge to do so...

I call it the 6 stepping to 1k...

Here are the rules or idea... I will play what I feel is my best game.. The 6 max SnG... Here is the twist I want the chance to make some decent money. So the rule is pretty simple.

If I get 1st I move up 1 lvl...
If I get 2nd I stay on the same lvl...
If I get 3rd I move down 1 lvl...
If I get 4th through 6th I start back over at the 3.25 lvl...

My ultimate goal is to play 1,500 Sit an Go without having to reload... I will of course play at least 1 mtt a week but will focus on this challenge more. This is a good time for me to be starting the challenge as I still have some time off and should be able to get in a lot of play before I go back to work...