August Recap:

If I ever become something important in poker I am probably going to view August as the start of when I finally got my act together. I created a floor to build upon I hope. My 5NL stats for august are as follows

27,000 hands
5.75PTBB/100
2.10/hr
22BB/hr
Hours:71
Profit:143.00
Pokerstars bonus:20.00 - Silverstar member
Bankroll % increase:30%
Total profit:163.00
Bankroll: 704

I am very encouraged by this first month- mainly because I did so much experimenting early on. I did everything from 20 tabling, to only limping, new software, and those are experiments and not including how weak my leaks were and some of the improvments to my game.

The plan for Sept. is to stay at 5NL - I am heading for a 50.00 bonus plus another VPP bonus. If I can keep my winrate anywhere near the same that should be a 200 dollar month. Steady Steady is my goal here. Plus I am taking a week off in Sept with my girlfriend. So i'd rather stay grinding right now then having to worry about finding a table balance and dealing with new Regs.

Oct 1st is the day to move to 10NL - its a Friday with a whole weekend to grind out some of the variance (hopefully)

Moving on up!

I am trying to sit back and think about the best way to move up levels. I have been reading a lot of different ways to go about it. From the ultra conservative of having 100 buy-in's -- to a system of people who grind 4 buy-ins - then move up - if you lose 3 buy-ins - go back down and grind again and repeat.

To me- the most important part is being able to establish that you can beat a level. Once that has been established over 25 thousand hands (Min.) you can plan your growth from there. At the same time, I don't want to be playing 5NL forever and I believe grinding up 100BI is a bit excessive at this level. To counter that, the most important thing is to establish a win rate at the next level. To do that you need time at the next level. If you run bad, you can be knocked down 3 Buy in's in one sessions, or you maybe start playing different if you fall behind one or two.

So I think a more balanced approach is in order. I am thinking of grinding up 8 buy-in's -- then retreating back when I loose six to regrind back to 8. I think its important to be able to play and establish at the next level and I feel six buy-in's is a solid measure. You need to be able to get in volume to deal with variance and also to tweak your game for the next level.

Now - Techincally I am up 8BI to move to 10NL- but I am not gonna do that until I reach a min.of 25 thousand hands to make my win rate is a bit more established.

Reboot--

I have been grinding 5NL basically trying to get my way back into being fully committed to the game of poker. I have basically decided to do a reboot of the way I was going about playing poker. Focusing on volume as much as anything. I have been doing pretty successful this first month as i've been able to 8 Table 5NL at a 6.0PTBB/100 hands - averaging about 2.20 an hour over 13K hands. This was actually really much more then I thought I would be able to make playing penny poker.

I am trying to push myself with more tables -- but found myself struggling a bit with 12. Might be I just have to get used to it, as I struggled with 8 early on. Or maybe I need to come up with a new setup.

Either way - as stated - I wanted to start a reboot on my approach to poker. I feel that I was all over the place. Cash games to tourney's, 5NL to 10NL to 25NL and back again anytime I ran bad. I felt that it was very important to establish a base. a ground floor if you will. The plan is to finish out the month with at least 25 thousand hands. From there I will have to decide if the best course of action is to increase my buy-in at 5NL (which is an usual option of being able to buy in for more 100BB)

I guess the only way to find out is to try them both and see which is more profitable. The super easy 5NL or the higher 10NL. Though I believe trying 10NL first- as you also have to include Pokerstar bonus's and eventually I want to challenge myself to move up.

Take Care-
Tarheelfan

AK 4 handed

Tough situation came last night. I was playing in a 27 man Sit N Go -- I had been playing pretty well but took a couple of bad beats. I managed to build my stack up to about 6,000 chips when we were down to 4 handed. Chip leader had about 17,000, second had 9,000, I was in third, and 4th place had 1800.

Blinds were 200/400 with a 25 ante-- The chip leader had built his stack by becoming an extremley agressive 3 better -- coming over the top of what are standard weak raises and playing the gap between money wins very well. He has actually played very tight until we got short handed, so he was able to blow me off some pots he probably shouldn't have. To add some more details -- the short stack had just lost 80% of his chips on the previous hand.

I pick up AKo UTG and make my standard raise of 3x BB -- with the blinds so big, and having such a strong hand. 2nd place folds, and I am just begging that the short stack (SB) picks up a weak ace that he feels he will be forced to push. He folds-- and of course the big aggressive stack 3 bets me all in. I wanted to fold. I did. But this is just a terrible fold against htis range. The only justification is playing for 3rd place money. This range at this point is any pair, any broadway, and a lot of much weaker suited aces. AK is a huge equity.

Of course I bring this up because I called - and lost a race to 88 and lost a good bit of money (relative) from 4th place to 3rd. Though the fold is easily the correct play there. If I win the race, I am the chipleader so I put myself in a good position to win the top prize. but more important to this situation is if I fold - I lose my 1200 I put into the pot which brings me down to 4800 -- and im in the blinds next-- bringing me to 4150 after the blinds. and each round is costing me 700 chips - 1/6th of my stack each round. So yes, this is an obvious call, but I just wanted to demonstrate how bad a fold it is. My girlfriend was watching me play, and she was like "Fold Fold Fold" and then when I lost, she said "I told you so"

Real money from touraments come from 1st and second.

Heads up:

I am terrible at heads up play. Just awful. It reared its ugly head again last night. I think I am just going to have to bite the bullet and practice some heads up sit-n-go's. Even though at this stage its basically throwing money away. Last night, before bed I decided to get in a single table Sit N go on stars. I played very well counter punching. We had a maniac on the table, but I was able to avoid any big confrontations with him/her once I was able to get a lot of chips.

The first big key hand came on the second level. I had about 1700 in chips. Blinds are low. player makes a second position raise for 4xBB. (these are estimates, I will pull the hand and post it later) This player didn't seem to be out of line, so I have to put him on a solid top starting hand. The SB calls, and im in the big blind with 87s. Against two players with relative deep stacks, this is an easy call here to try and hit a home run.

Flop comes: 986 Rainbow-

I've hit middle pair with an up and down straight draw. SB checks, and I check as well. I've put the raiser on a big hand, and I don't want to be check raised out of the pot if he has an overpair. The raiser bets 300 into a 400 chip pot. So this seems to be a big hand, that he is trying to protect. Though I think he would still make this Bet with AK a good percentage of the time. So there is 700 in pot, it costs me 300 to call- and I have about 1500 in front of me. I've got 8 outs to my straight, and 2 outs to my 8-- which I believe to be winners that I can win a nice pot. A 7 maybe a winner, but I think it would kill action against all be the weakest of players. (TT is in his Range- so a 7 would br my stack)

A funny thing happened on the way to all these calculations. The SB calls the 300- now making it 300 to me with 1000 in the pot. Before the SB got involved, this was a borderline call, but one I will make early in a tourney as I believe I can play my shortstack well enough, and when I hit my hand I will win enough chips to put myself in position to win.

The SB call makes some things interesting. One, the pot is now big enough that Im happy to take it down. So thats the first question, can I take the pot down now? I don't think so, the only way I win the pot is if the initial raiser has AK and the SB has JT- and even then I think the SB would call because there is so much money in the pot, and he is probably even a favorite. So with Raising out of the question- the question becomes weather to call or fold. For that we need to see what the SB is playing and if any of my outs are forfeit. Lists of hands that he is playing here are JT, A9, A7, 97s-- A set is a possiblity, but I would suspect he would raise here with that. Epsically if he reads the raiser as stong as I have. But a set doesn't really affect me any, it just means if I hit, I can stack my oppt.

For all the calculations, i've come to the decision that if I hit my draw, at worse im splitting the raisers chips-and at best, im stacking both players. Just too much money out there, I make the call.

Turn: 5 - completing the rainbow - I think a Ten is probably a better card for me - as TT and JJ are both in raisers range- and JT is high probablity for the for SB-- that would give them both huge draws and overpair-topair or top set. in which case all the money is going in the pot. The 5 is obviously not a bad card- and with only 1100 in front of me, and 1000 in the pot-- I am only concerned about getting the most out of this hand. There is no play that either player could make that would make me fold.

SB checks- I decide to check here as well-- I will let the raiser make the play here- With so much money in the pot- it will be hard for him to not take a stab at the pot with an overpair when his two oppt both show weakness. The Raisers goes all in for his last 1000 or so-- and the SB instantly calls- Makes me think that my straight is shared- but a set or A9 are still possibilities. I of course call-

Raiser - JJ and SB - A9 -- and I win a massive pot and knock out two players -- and I am a big chip leader with six players left to go.

Now I think that both the raiser and the SB played the turn very bad. Basically doing my job for me. For the Raiser- he has two oppt who played there hands like a draw. and a card that makes the draw hit- Against two oppt. there is a good chance you are drawing dead. even if I had JT and the SB has A9 - (a perfect situation) there are still 13 outs - and you are going to lose the tourney 25% of the time.

The SB - if you are going to call an all-in raise on the turn, you might as well raise on the flop. if you were behind on the flop- your behind on the turn. and now a draw card has hit. These kind of plays are what you count on from weak players. The A9 only beats air here.

With a big chip stack - I was able to basically bully the table from there on out. At one point 4 handed I had over 10,500 chips (there are only 13,500 at the table) So how did I lose? we'll. I am terrible heads up. I may go ahead and post the heads up portion of this sit n go and ask for some advice. I think I will look to see if I can find some good heads up books. Its worth the investment because the difference between the 2nd place and 1st place is the huge.

playing playing playing

Sorry for the long delay, I've actually written 4 or 5 blogs but I never had time to finish them due to other issues. My game has really picked up recently due to my forced aggression. I played a 45 man Sit-N-Go last night. I finished 3rd (Top 7 money) and was really happy with the way I played. One of the main reason is that I lost two big races, and called an all-in for about 20% of my stack with AT, when another played had AJ (I felt at this point he was pushing with any pair, and any Broadway and some much weaker hands.

I was able to lose these hands and build my stack back almost immediately. I honestly don't think I made a bad read all night. (Though there were a couple of lay downs I will never know for sure) Incase you were wondering why I didn't win, I got all my chips in with 88 vs.. K5s when I picked up a hand against an aggressive player. Board came QJ7JQ-- defaulting my 8's.

The best stats of the night for me was

Saw the flop: 32 times
Pots won at showdown: 6 of 8
Pots won without showdown 26

Anytime you are winning as many pots as you see the flop, I think you are putting yourself in a good position. The only problem was I stayed up too late playing as usual and am going off of 4 hours of sleep. Tis the life of a wanna be poker player. Take care.

On a side note: I am branching out into other types of ways to improve my overall game. I have been playing the 50BB Min cash game as a way to improve my deep stack play. (as well as playing the Stars deep stack) I've also been considering playing some heads up sit n go's to work on my heads up game. Its on of those things where I will probably have ot take a loss for awhile until I can master my game. Does any know any good heads up books that I could read? I prefer books avail on Kindle but I will actually buy a book if it is worthwhile.

Good Sessions:

Been playing much better as of late. Actually had my best invididual session moneywise last night. Mostly this was because I had monster after monster, but poker is not just about hands and flops, but also about extraction. When I sit down at the table there is a very loose aggressive player who is raising 4 out of 5 pots. to my immediate right is a very loose passive player who is calling 6 out of 10 pots with anything suited in any position. Though she (I say she becuase her icon is a cute kitty, and in my mind, its a she) has a short stack. Everyone else at the table is filled with short stacks, and seems to play pretty standard. I have everyone at the table covered except for the big raiser, so I immediatly start to think how I can get his chips.

I fold a few rounds trying to really study the players and hope I can pick up something before the raiser and the flopper give there chips to someone else. Speaking if which, I pick up QQ -- on the button.. and guess who my Big Blind is. The aggressive raiser. I raise 4x the big blind as only our limper has come in before me. Big Blind calls - and the flop seeker has folded.

Heads up - Flop -- Q88 -- What more could I ask for? I make three pretty nice sized bets, and he calls me all the way down to the river -- and I take a really nice pot as i've won half my buy in-- He writes in chat that he had a 8-- which pokertracker confirms that he had A8. I am not wondering how I didn't felt this guy. I replay the hand 3 different times, wondering how I could have played it differently to get more money. Should I have let him take the lead? Bet bigger. This bugs me. I left chips on the table. Chips he was going to give to someone, might as well be me.

As i'm folding and replaying my QQ -- some interesting developments happen. Our Flop seeker has gone on a massive heater. Dealing bad beat after bad beat. she has increased her stack size 5x in the past little bit. Including calling all of her chips on a flop of KQ4 - with 99. She was up against a set of Q's, only to hit runner runner for a back door flush. Flop Seeker now almost has as many chips as I do -- Also in these last couple of rounds -- The aggressive player has gone broke and left the table and I sulk at wondering how I could have gotten those chips. (Its easier when you know the player has trips. Good play by him)

Two more people buy-in to the table and I see that no one beside flop-seeker even has 20% of the chips that we have. I consider leaving the table with all the short stacks, but Flop seekers large chip stack convinces me to stay.

We end up battling a few times, where I usually came out ahead, including getting a few extra bets in when I flopped quads. It all came to a head when I got KK, and isolated-- I flopped top set-- figured Flop seeker was on a flush draw and took 75% of her chips overbetting the pot. Free Money.

Good Time.

Aggresion

I have been struggling recently no doubt. So I have been spending a lot of my time studying my hands and trying to figure out some holes in my game. The biggest one I found was my utter lack of aggression. Especially post flop, where I find that I check far too after and am often willing to just call down to the river. Normally at the micro limits, ABC poker is quite effective and I understand that my reason run is due some bad timing. I've had the nut flush run into a full house, Nut Straight run into a full house, Blind Battle where I had QQ vs KK against a short stack. Throw in a few actual bad beats and it has been a rough couple of weeks, but again my main issue is getting the money in with the worst hand which I did on all of these hands. Now I didn't get stacked on all of these, but I still lost a good bit of BB.

I am to the point where my level the buy in is relatively unimportant to me. It is less then 2% of my bankroll. I need to use this to my advantage and to be aggressive. In cash games I have no problems with bad beats. A bad beat means I did something right. Last night I ended up playing some good aggressive poker. I finished down almost half a buy-in for the session, but I took a beat when a flopped a flush and a player went all-in with a nut-flush semi bluff and hit.

I still feel I was too passive post flop though. I am going to go thru and review these hands as I feel I missed a pretty big opp. to continue to bet on the flop. At these levels you get a lot of multiway pots which normally I like to wait and get more information. I still feel that I should have been more aggressive post flop against 1 or 2 oppt. I felt a stole a few post-flop pots that I didn't have the best hand. My post flop aggression needs a LOT of work though.

Pre-flop on the other hand I think I played rather well. Maybe a little too loose with my calls of some aggressive players. When the table started I was table captain, coming in early and often. Then two players came and sat down to my immediate right. Both of these players were very aggressive, Popping pots with consistency. I struggle against players like this, especially two of them. I just feel like I commit too much money pre-flop with marginal hands. Yeah, its great to look down and find two bullets against an aggressive player, but more often then not you'll end up being run over.

Fortunately I was able to call a continuation bet, and a river bluff with middle pair. I called with 76s pre-flop and hit a 7 with an inside straight draw. I know calling goes against what I said about pre-flop aggression, but calling accomplishes a few things here. One, It shows that I am not going to blow over to continuation bets, two, it shows that when I feel I have the best hand. I could call or raise. So he can't just continuation bet, and if he gets re-raised drop out. Lastly, what it confirms is information, that he is indeed raising with trash. (K4o) was the hand he raised in middle position.

Overall I felt a played rather well, even though I finished down. When the money went into the pot, I usually had the best hand. I have a 4 day weekend I should be able to really try out my aggressive theory.

Struggles

Had a terrible night last night in short term talking. Playing 10NL about 15 min. into my session I raise on the button first in with KJs -- BB calls:

Flop: A 9c T - one club -- Both Check.

Turn - Ac -- nice Drawing card -- Both Check.

River - 7c -- Made the nut flush --

Of course my Oppt had pocket 99 and I was drawing to the Qc on the turn. So 20 min. in I am already down a buy in. I know these things happen, that doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that I was stacked.

River better -- he made a smallish pot sized bet, I re-raised to 2 dollars -- he hollywooded -- and went all in. I called instantly. Stupid. I should have thought about it, and I prolly could have gotten off the hand. I didn't have enough hands to see how he would have played this. its nut flush vs. full house, at this level he could have easily made this raise with a lower flush. its easy to say now, and even if I would have called. I would have liked to STOP, pause. and think about everything. its something I must work on. Just dumb dumb dumb.

Played a 5.50 sit n go (27 man) as it was the only thing going. Best hand I got in 120 hands was AQ twice. I was fortunate enough to win with both of them including a double up against pocket 77. I ended up finishing in 9th. I thought I played really well considering I was not dealt a single pair and only 3 Broadway hands.

I ended up down 13.50 for the night, its hard number to get used too as just last week my bankroll was 130. It is not over 700, so less then 2% for an off night. This "downswing" has hit me pretty hard, but I'm still a winning cash game player and winning tourney player...just barely...

One last note, I'll be playing in the WBCOOP on stars on Saturday and Sunday. Sat is the prelim, and Sunday the main event. Should be a nice little free-roll.

Beats are part of the game.

Took a brutal beat in the Pokerstars deep stack tourney. About 4 hours in, we are down to just over 400. I am playing fairly tight as this slow pace really fits my style of play. To that point in the tourney I had made one big mistake, but was able to recover from it. I linked the said hand, where at one point I was a 95.5% favorite.. I don't want this blog to become a story of my bad beat, I want it to be about discussion. But I thought I would post this one. At least I was playing really well.

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Cash Games: Tourney Struggles

Sorry for the long delay, I have been slammed at work and haven't had time to write. That doesn't mean I haven't had time to play though. My tournament drought has hit a bit of a spell, which is not too surprising as I normally play big multitable tourney's and I have already had some good finishes. Law of averages and such.

Cash games have been a good focus of mine as I believe to be a pro you cannot just play tournaments. (you can, its just much more difficult) I think there is too much variation, too different, and much harder to grind. I moved up limits to .2/.5 no limit. So far so good with 500 hands I have a 14BB/100 hands and have made a couple of buy-ins. Especially considering my first session I fell down 3.00.

I did have a dream hand I played. I am in first position with 99- I limp in. The reason I limp in is that the table has been playing pretty tight and I had been raising a lot of pots. Limping stops me from committing a good bit of money, out of position, especially if I am re-raised.

And that is just what happens as a very tight player puts in a big raise one off. All folds around to me, and first thing I check...Can I win a big pot if I hit.
Check. He has almost equal number of chips to me. So my implied odds are worth a call, even if 7 out of 8 times I am going to muck-fold. I put this player on AA or KK-- nothing less.

Flop: 993 --

Flop Quads against a huge over pair. I check.

Player puts in a big bet -- I call, Turn: 4 - I check
Player puts in another nice size bet -- I call: River: 8

Now... I could risk checking one last time as this player might put me on JJ, QQ and try to get another bet out of me. I think either way I get his money, but that is a big gamble. I ask myself, if I bet the rest of my stack, can he fold. I start doing all the calculations, there is more money in the pot, then left in his stack, but its close. about 60/40. I just don't think he can lay down the aces.

I bet the last of his chips. He calls instantly and flips over AA -- Nice pot.

Its not often these things happen, flopping quads against pocket aces, but the good thing was how I played the hand from start to finish. Yes, the majority of the time all the money is going in the pot regardless post flop. The key to the whole hand is the limp in first position.

Lets say I raise 4x bb from first position. (.20 cents) I have been picking up blinds a lot, and the raise would have been a least that big. now, when I limped, the raiser raised 5xbb (.25 cents) so I think he at least doubles that. So now its 50 cents back to me... Which means I will have to commit .70 cents, (12% of my stack) out of position against a hand that I am sure I am beat with... Instead of committing .30 cents (5% of my stack) which makes it an easy call. Also, .50 cents is the Minimum he would re-raise me... It could very well have been .60 to a dollar. pricing me well out of a call.

Quality Time:

Didn't get to play as much as I have wanted this week. Work has been rather tough, though I have played about seven hours, so I can still hit 20 hours in the next 3 days. Though it is NFL Wildcard weekend, I plan play a really good amount. Though it is not that I haven't been playing, I have had a couple of really good cash game sessions the other day. I am up 3 buy in's currently and I hope to hit the 1000 hand mark this weekend and I will post a review once I hit that. (thats 1000 cash game hands)

I did have an interesting experiminet last night, I was getting in an hour of poker before the national championship game. I left my laptop on and my girlfriend starting playing some .25 cent 90 man sit n go on my account. She busts out in the 40's somewhere and she starts another one. By this time, the game as become a blowout and I go over and just start watching her play.

It was very facinating to just watch someone else play. Now, my Girlfriend knows the rules, but an aspiring pro she's not. She makes some mistakes and lays down a lot of hands. So I thought it would be a nice experiment to guide her through from a hands off sort of approach. When she had tough decisions, she could ask me and i'd give her my read on the hand. We ended up doing really well, and she finished in second and won my account 4.50! She laid down some hands that I would have kept going. She even wanted to lay down a set of 9's against an all in raise at the final table. I pleaded with her to call, TRUST ME, I said. She did, and the guy had AQ for top pair top kicker and was drawing virtually dead. She was at the final table of a tournament, and now the chip leader.

It was a really cool experience to not just watch over someone's shoulders, but to see what kind of things she picked up on. To view her reads and what she was thinking. very cool.

Cash Game:

I am no longer losing at micro limit cash games. It took a few hours to make up for my bad beat, and donkey bluff I made. Finally I am back in the black and up to a 10bb/100 rate. I had a really nice 90 min. session last night. I end up joining a table where a few of my tight passive players are hanging out. From the start the action is fast between a few of the "maniacs" I saw one player bluff with nothing (9 high) into a board of T, J, A, 4, Q -- only to be called with A2! wow. thats either a good read, or someone really likes top pair. Either way, im ready.

I fold away the majority of the hands, as both maniacs are playing 80% of the hands and show a willingness to call pre-flop raises and post flop raises. Eventually I pick up Kings in middle position as both Maniacs have limped in. I make it 5x the BB expecting the both to call, but wanting them to pay for it.

only one makes the call, which is fine with me. Flop comes 6, 7, 8 rainbow. not the best flop for playing against a guy who could have any card. if he has a draw, he shall pay for another card. he checks: I bet about 60% of the pot. He calls.

Turn: 7 - I am not sure if this is a bad card or not. My guess is its safe - but A7 is surely a hand he'd be playing now. Maniac has more chips then I do, so if he does out draw me, it could be costly. Math says its the right play.

Maniac checks: I again bet about 65% of the pot -- Maniac calls:

River: 7 - Love the card. The only cards that beat me are the lone 7, (what are you going to do) AA (again, what are you going to do) and 88 -- meh.

Player now makes a bet of about half the pot. Player makes a lot of moves, he was bluffing with nothing and I am huge at this point but i'm not nuts. Lets look at some options:

Fold: no chance
Call: against a tighter oppt. probably. This was played like a trap, call, call, bet. -- 88's would be a def. possibility.
Raise: There is a lot of money in the pot, but the abnormal thing is that both of our stacks have even more money. Normally at this point one of us would be pot committed. -- So now its not just raise, but how much?

Lets keep it simple. I am pretty sure I have the best hand so we raise. I raise it up a little over 200% of his raise -- a nice stiff bet, but if he has a boat he has to call.

He calls and flips over 55 -- and I win a really nice pot. Though the Maniac didn't really play this hand like a maniac.

My other big pot came against the same oppt. who hasn't reloaded and is low on cash. This came about 10 hands after our KK v 55 encouter. Player has been playing wildly going all-in on a few occasions (he still has over 200x the bb) Other maniac limps in and I pick up 99 -- I put in a nice raise of 4x BB only to have Maniac raise me 6x times the BB:

This is all about perception and if any other player had made this raise my 99's would have hit the muck before his chips hit the table. one thing immediatly go thru my head right now. one, he didn't go all-in, which makes me think he actually does have a hand. So I want to slow it down on a dangerous flop.

Flop: 7 5 2 Rainbow:

Can't ask for much more with 99: Player immeditatly goes all-in: he only has about 150% of the pot. and could be pushing in with anything. I call: Player flips of AQo -- and I avoid the six outer and pick up another nice pot. Maniac immed. leaves the table and I feel lucky I was the one able to get his chips and avoid the suckouts.

I left the table shortly after to do a 90 man sit n go (finished 26th OTM) just could never get into the right groove. Though I went to bed at about 2:00am knowing i've been playing some of my best cash game sessions. It all matters, even at the penny table.

Bankroll Update:

A little bankroll update: I started with 50 bucks on 12/15 -- though I was only playing a few hours that week. I really started playing around Christmas eve. I put in less then 10 hours from 12/15-12/27 -- Though from 12/27-1/3 I have put in 25 hours. That is more in line of what I am trying to do, between 20-30 hours a week.

So I've turned that 50 dollar into 93.40 -- not bad considering I'm playing .1/.2 cash games and max buy-in tourney's for 2.20. Especially considering my cash game is in the negative. down a whopping .39 cents. Tourney's as usual have been much better, up over 43.00 in 16 tournaments. Increase of 90% in a little over 2 weeks.

Tonight the game plan is 3 hours of cash games -- followed by a late night tourney till bed time. The only way to succeed is to put in the work.

Cash Game Struggles:

I know my cash game needs a lot of work. but. that's what I'm doing, I'm working on it. I lost over the weekend on 2 different guys drawing and hitting a inside straight draw on me. which hurt, as I lost a bunch of chips. I know in the long run, this are high quality plays, I was however able to make a bunch of those loses back this morning when I picked up KK in early pos. Made a nice raise with 2 callers.

Flop:

K 8 2 - rainbow:

What a flop: but normally don't get a lot of action from these. BB checks, so i make a half the pot continuation size bet. Other calls, BB folds. Woo, some action!

turn:

9d

Turn brings two diamonds, but not really concerned. I bet about half the size of the pot again. -- He min. re-raises: Joy! two things: one, he is buying my continuation bets and thinks he can take the pot from me. I haven't seen this player making a lot of moves, but its possible. Second: he hit 2 pair, or a set of 9's. Either way, I should be getting paid here. I move in the rest of my chips and he instantly calls.

He flips over 99 -- and I avoid the one outer on the river: bit of luck on my side there, as set vs set is going to cost someone chips. Fortunately I had the higher the set this time :) player didn't have too many more chips, so I wasn't able to double up, but I was able to get back about 80% of what I lost over the holiday weekend on that one hand. Grind, Grind, Grind.

In tourney play, last night I joined the 2.20 1000 promised: 1000 capped: 3000 chips to start. Played pretty well, trying to keep the pots small, and not risk too much unless I have the nuts early. In these types of tourney's there is usually enough chips flying that if I make a hand I can get paid. I was able to build my 3000 into about 9800 when I get moved to another table. As I'm watching (not even dealt a hand yet) I see a player named shark, go all- in with about 11,000 chips into a pot of about 800. hmmm.

about 10 hand later I pick up two red bullets. I make a good raise and "shark" calls from the blind.

Flop:

8d Qd 4d - over pair and the nut flush draw. and immediately "shark" goes all-in -- now, would I have folded if I didn't see him go all-in earlier? probably not, but it made the decision to call virtually instantaneous -- He flips over J8 -- He hits a jack on the river. Fortunately for me its the J of diamonds and I am now 4th in chips with about 600 left with almost 20,000.

unfortunately it wasn't roses from there, I ended up going card dead, i was able to build my stack to about 27,000 at one point. I lost a chance to head back into the top 5 when my QQ lost to AKs and a donkey who called with KQ -- I lost, was able to double up again when the same donkey called my 99 with 77 -- Eventually I went out with my AQ vs. AK -- this was my mistake -- blinds were high and I made up my mind to go all in before I really watched what was going on. I ended up finishing 58th out of a 1000 -- money was 126th. could have been a lot better though.