Predator314's Poker Journal

Yesterday started out well. I played 3 different shortened sessions at the $3/6 6 max tables. The first session was during my lunch break at work. They flipped the win switch on for me. All my hands were holding up as I took in almost $200 in the short session.

After work, I 3 tabled the $3/6 6 max games. This was the first time that I 3 tabled the 6 max games in QUITE a while. Surprisingly, I didn't have any problems with it. I lost on 2 of the tables, but completely dominated on the 3rd to make a small profit.

Late last night, I fired up Empire again and ended up losing about 1/2 of my winnings for the day. No biggy. I just wasn't getting too many playable hands. My flushes weren't hitting. It's also been quite a while since I remember hitting trips off my middle pocket pairs. QQ has been losing me quite a bit of money the past 2 days as well. I know it was 0 for 3 last night.

Real life will probably stand in the way of playing poker tonight. I will be leaving work early today to go sign insurance papers and then I will officially be a home owner. It feels good to say that. I couldn't have done it without the help of online poker.

Also tonight is the big Princeton Tigers vs. Bluefield Beavers high school football game. I'm a Princeton alumnus. Bluefield has always been our big rival and they usually beat our ass, but this year, they don't stand a chance. Also my 10 year class reunion is this weekend. Everyone is meeting at the ballgame tonight.

I've been telling all my old schoolmates that they are old. Me, personally, I'm not old enough to have a 10 year reunion (yeah right). I was talking to a friend the other day. We were discussing going to the reunion's "Big Event". Initially I was going to go just for the entertainment factor. My graduating class was filled with some very talented and smart people. The funny thing is that after graduation, they expected their grades to carry them through life. Now, a lot of these smart people are still in school. It's been 10 years for Pete's sake! Get a job!

I'm just jealous though. I wish I was still in college. This real life shit is for the birds. Anyway, I was talking to my friend. He graduated with me. They decided the big event (which is really just a big dinner at a local resort) would be semi-formal. Which pretty much means suit and tie. Fuck that shit. I have to wear a tie all week. I'm not going to wear a tie just to impress some old people I graduated with. During our conversation, I realized that all the people I looked forward to seeing, I already see on a fairly regular basis. I've maintained contact with all my old friends. We still hang out. Not as much as we used to because real life gets in the way.

So, I've decided to just go to the ballgame and talk to some of the folks I haven't seen in a while. I'll probably get a kick out of their "I'm going to be a lawyer as soon as I pass the Bar...3rd time is a charm!" stories. True story: One of the members of my class actually went to law school and cannot pass the bar. He's selling toilet paper and napkins right now. Another friend of mine met him and actually went out with this guy one time. He told her that he was a lawyer.

I have nothing to prove to anyone. I have a good life. I have good friends, a good family, a good (paying) job. The only hardships I'm having are 1.) paying $3.29/gallon for gas to drive to work every day and 2.) finding a decent woman to put up with my gambling degenerate lifestyle.

Speaking of finding a decent woman. Those are the only stories that make me jealous anymore. The people finding a good signifigant other and having a nice family. I've found 2 woman in the past 2 years. Woman #1 was a degenerate like myself. It was fun for about 3 months as we partied every week together, then I found out she had more stamina than me. I got burnt out on the partying, she didn't. Woman #2 was a much more suitable person. Very nice, very laid back, but very fucking warped in the head about certain things. Oh well.

My goal tonight is to find me a good woman for the night and throw some Jagermeister down her throat. Seriously, there are a couple people that I want to meet. We might go out to a club or something afterwards.

One last non-poker related subject. As I was typing this post, I overheard my boss talking about profit sharing for this year. We have a decent profit sharing program here at my job. I'll be getting around 15% of my gross salary towards whatever investment I want to put it towards. This is my first year that I'm eligible for the profit sharing, so I'm not sure where to invest my money.

I'm thinking of getting a Roth IRA. However, a traditional IRA sounds good to me as well since I can write off the money I put into a traditional IRA on my taxes. Maybe I'll just get him to deposit it to my Neteller account and let it ride on the $30/60 tables :)

I didn't play a lot of poker yesterday, but the little bit I did play was pretty profitable. I still haven't experienced that nice rush that I've been expecting. I checked poker tracker it showed me making 3.05BB/100 last week which is fine by me if I can keep it up in the long run. That would be approximately $73/hour plus rakeback at the $3/6 6 max tables. That's a lot more than my job pays.

The reason I didn't play a lot yesterday was because Wednesday night was my bowling league. I have just enough time to change clothes when I get home from work, then I have to head out to get there about 10 minutes before we start. This gives me time to get my balls out (heh) and put my shoes on and maybe thrown a practice ball or 2. We won 6 out of a possible 8 points yesterday. We have done that all 4 weeks. That puts us in 2nd place.

Once I finished bowling, I grabbed a bite to eat and headed home for some poker goodness. Bah! I was getting beat to death at the beginning. Then I had to sit and fold forever because I was getting absolutely zero playable cards. The good hands I did get I usually had to fold including JJ, QQ twice, and KK. One other time, I got impatient and check called JJ all the way down on a A,K,x board and hit a J on the river for a nice suckout. It was against a LAG, so I could justify the calldown, but he did have the goods that time (AQ I think).

I guess I outlasted the variance monster, because after a while, I went on a mad rush to end the session up somewhere around 25BBs.

Tonight, I'm back on the $3/6 tables. I think I'm going to go to 3 tabling them since I've got a bit of a cushion in my Empire account right now. I won't have to make a deposit if things go bad.

I'm going to try to get a lot of hands played tonight. This might be the last chance for a week or 2 because I'm moving next week.

It's the end of the month and getting ready to be the start of my first full month since my comeback to online poker. Also September 1 marks the 1 year anniversary of my old blog which got deleted. For those of you that are new, let me fill you in:

On September 1 of 2004, I was sitting here at work admiring some notebook computers on the Internet when I come up with a brilliant Idea. It was payday. I was going to take $200 and turn it into the $2000 I needed for a new notebook computer. My goal was to do it by the end of the year.

Previously, I had played quite a bit of online poker, but I would make a deposit, play for a while and cash out all my winnings and buy something. Sometimes I would just lose my deposit. I used the Party Poker transaction history feature to keep track of what I won and lost. However, I had no concept of bankroll management.

So I start out with the $200 and start playing $1/2 tables with 100BBs. This was not enough as I hit a bit of a losing streak right off the bat and just about busted out. As I was about to give up on my dream of having that new notebook computer, I said "To Hell with it" and started 4 tabling the .50/1.00 tables. This got me back to even.

Then I started reading up on bankroll management and I started abiding by the 300BB rule of thumb. So I quickly 4 tabled my way through the .5/1, 1/2, and 2/4 levels. I also had some decent tournament showings that really helped the bankroll. Including a $500 final table cashing on a $5+1 MTT on Party with an insane amount of players.

So there I am less than 2 months into my quest with a bankroll big enough to buy my computer. However, I was no longer interested in the notebook. I saw how much money I was making online and thirsted for the higher levels.

Towards the end of October, I hit the $3/6 tables wide open and I'm making a killing. Loving life.

Then on election day 2004 I called in sick for work. I went to go vote. When I came back, I laid down for a few minutes, then decided I could play some poker. I fired up 4 tables on the $3/6 bad beat jackpot tables on Party Poker. I played for about 30 minutes and was just crushing them when this hand came up and changed my life:

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with T, T.
UTG raises, UTG+1 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, MP3 calls, CO folds, Button folds, Hero calls, BB folds.

Flop: (7 SB) 8, T, T (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets, MP3 calls, Hero calls.

Turn: (5 BB) 9 (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets, MP3 calls, Hero raises, UTG 3-bets, MP3 folds, Hero caps, UTG calls.

River: (14 BB) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets, UTG calls $3 (All-In).

Final Pot: 15.50 BB
Main Pot: 15 BB, between UTG and Hero. > Pot won by Hero (15 BB).
Pot 2: 0.50 BB, returned to Hero.

Results:
Hero has Td Ts (four of a kind, tens).
UTG has 9c 9h (four of a kind, nines).
Outcome: Hero wins 15.50 BB.

This hand triggered the bad beat jackpot. For dealing the winning blow, I won $14,587.98. Now I have enough for 7 or 8 notebook computers.

2 weeks later the following hand came along:

Party Poker 5/10 Hold'em (9 handed)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 8, 5. CO posts a blind of $5.
UTG raises, UTG+1 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, Hero folds, CO (poster) folds, Button calls, SB folds, BB calls.

Flop: (7.40 SB) 7, 2, T (3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets, Button folds, BB calls.

Turn: (4.70 BB) J (2 players)
BB checks, UTG bets, BB raises, UTG 3-bets, BB caps, UTG calls.

River: (12.70 BB) Q (2 players)

Final Pot: 12.70 BB
Main Pot: 12.70 BB, between BB and UTG. > Pot won by UTG (12.70 BB).

Results in white below:
BB has 9c 8c (straight flush, queen high).
UTG has Kc Ac (straight flush, ace high).
Outcome: UTG wins 12.70 BB.

Add another $5000 to my winnings for November. I was afraid to go outside because I figured I'd get struck by lightning.

So now my $3000 bankroll was up to $23,000. However, I decided to not do anything foolish with the money. I just cashed out all my jackpot winnings and paid off my car, 4 wheeler, and most of my truck. Debt freedom was in sight.

Over the next few months, I took shots at the $5/10 6 max games (no 3/6 6 max at the time) and failed miserably. Each time, I'd have to drop back and re-establish the bankroll. Finally around February after a 2 month breakeven streak, the bankroll moved in the right direction again.

Around April of 2004 I had a $9000 bankroll after establishing a payday routine. I was taking half my profits for the month and cashing them out. I can't really recall the exact figures, but in 8 months, I had taken $200 and turned it into somewhere in the vicinity of $35,000.

During this 8 month period, I experienced a couple bouts with variance including a month of January where it seemed every time I looked at my computer, I lost money. However, due to good bankroll management, I survived without too many scars.

Towards the end of my 8 month stretch of poker, I had visions of actually turning pro and made many posts mentioning that fact in my old blog. However, I had set some guidelines before I was going to attempt it. They included a huge bankroll for the $15/30 game, paying off all my debts and then buying a home.

In preparation for the criteria I had laid out to become a pro, I played more and more poker. Then when the sun started to come out, my brain got baked with online poker. I had burnt myself out. It was spring time. Time to put away the mouse and pick up a golf club and a fishing rod. I needed the summer off.

During this past summer, I cashed out all of my bankroll except for $300. I was using the money for a down payment on a house. When a couple deals fell through, I put the money to the side. I've just bought a home and I'm using my poker bankroll to help with the purchase. However, I had set $1500 to the side for a rainy day.

Last month, I decided to get back to it and build my way back up to a healthy bankroll. However, I was bored. The .50/1.00 games just didn't excite me after being used to playing $5/10 6 max and a couple bouts of $10/20 6 max. So I figured I could make more off that $1500 than the 3% interest it was collecting in my savings account. So I've put it to good use online.

This brings me to the next year. Where do I wanna go with poker? I'm not entirely sure. All I know is that I want to get in the bigger games and make bigger money. I'd like to build up a very healthy bankroll and take a shot at the $10/20 6 max LAGfest.

In the meantime, I want to make enough to pay my mortgage and all my bills every month. This way, I can save my real paycheck for a rainy day. At the $3/6 level where I'm at right now, I'd say I can do it. I think it would be a lot easier at the $10/20 level assuming I can post similar win rates. We'll see how things go.

I've played a limited amount at the $10/20 6 max games and it's a different beast. The aggression is pretty high. However, with good table selection, it can be a donkfest.

I'm just going to take my time and have fun with it.

I played about 800 hands yesterday and turned a pretty small profit. However, things seem to be turning around for me these days. I'm still getting hit by quite a few runner runner hands and people hitting their 3 outters.

A couple other things I've decided to work on so I can take my game to the next level:

1.) Quit being so results oriented.

I used to have a spreadsheet that I kept track of on a daily basis. It had my balances for all my accounts and I could see the fluctuations in my bankroll. The problem is that it drove me crazy to see the total decrease for a few days. I've decided to scrap that thing.

2.) Think about the whole situation before acting.

Sounds simple enough huh? My brain goes on autopilot too easily. I get caught up and sometimes lose big hands or allow free draws and it costs me money in the long run. Now I'm going to start making myself stop for a second or 2 and evaluate the whole hand from beginning to end before making a decision. Sure, this will probably decrease the number of hands per hour I can play, but only by maybe 2 or 3.

Hopefully with the list of improvements I need to make to my game, my bankroll will swell to astronomical proportions.

Also, I've been using my buddy list to chase a couple fish around the pond. There is one guy in particular that I've sit with a few times. I've witness him drop over $1000 with some of the worst play I've ever seen. Really nice guy that always shows his cards and says "nh" every time he gets beat. I need a whole list full of guys like that.

Also, I got this email from Pokerroom.com:

LABOR DAY SPECIAL

Work your way to the top!

Score points from playing Single-Table Tournaments during September 3-5 and earn your place in a $20,000 Added SnG!

Join in as we reward hard work and skill! For each real money SnG tournament played between September 3 and 5, points will be awarded to the top finishers:

10-Handed Win: 30 Points
10-Handed Runner-up: 10 Points
5-Handed Win: 15 Points

Note: The point distribution is equivalent for all buy-ins.

At a leaderboard (will be available when the promotion is running) you will be able to follow your own score as well as the top ten scores. The leader-board will be continously updated and you must be logged in to view it.

At the end of the promotion the Top 10 players that have earned the most points during the three days will be awarded tickets to a $20,000 added Single-Table Tournament. All Top 100 finishers will receive a PokerRoom.com Beanie. Make sure that you have updated your postal address!

$20,000 Single Table Freeroll Payout Structure:

1. $5,000
2. $3,000
3. $2,300
4. $1,900
5. $1,700
6. $1,500
7. $1,300
8. $1,200
9. $1,100
10. $1,000

I think I'm gonna give this a go if at all possible. It depends on how the moving goes this weekend.

I expect to spend a good portion of this evening playing poker. I hope to get about 1000 hands in this evening. I'll probably watch the WSOP of ESPN as well.

In other news, I'm itching to play some live poker.

Goals for September:

August has been a bumpy month. Looking back, I think I just tried to do too much. I tried to just jump in the 3/6 6 max game when I wasn't mentally prepared for it. Now things have settled down and my bankroll is still fairly healthy. Now it's time to set some goals for September.

1.) Play 15,000 hands of poker during the month. I figure if I can play 15,000 hands and stay around 2BB/100 at $3/6, I will make about $1800. This will really help with the new home. I would shoot for more hands, but I figure I'll spend a lot of time getting shit organized at the new place. I'll probably also be without internet for a few days.

2.) Practice better table selection. I'm gonna explore some alternative software to help with my table selection. I'm currently using GameTime+, but I'm going to try Playerview as well. However, PokerAce seems to be the way to go. I'll probably start testing it this evening.

3.) Set aside time for Poker Tracker. I don't use this tool as much as I need to. I'm going to set aside time to study my hands in Poker Tracker. Hopefully this will help take my game to the next level.

September might be a little tough to play a lot of poker. But I'm looking forward to having a good month.

Holy shit what a weekend:

Man o man. It's gonna take a few days to recover from that one. It all started on Friday evening about 4:40, my ride shows up at the office. I've got 20 more minutes! This was going to be a long 20 minutes. After what seemed like an eternity, it was then 4:45. Fuck it! I'm leaving now.

So off we go towards the wedding. We had no clue where we were going. I've lived in this state all my life and never heard of this place. Miraculously, we never get lost. My Magellan skills were once again right on target.

About the time we arrived to the church, they were getting ready to start the rehearsal. The groom to be met us outside and told us to come on in. They were going to run through everything twice and then hit the road. We pulled up a pew and checked out the activities. The only exciting thing was me pointing out the camel toe in the corner and me wanting to whip the shit out of a couple kids because their parents were too sorry to do it.

Once the rehearsal was over, it was party time. The wedding wasn't until Saturday at 4:30pm, so we had a decent little get together with the few people that were there. Beer started flowing around 8 or 9pm. Around that time, a couple WVU grads showed up. These guys are fucking pros when it comes to partying.

We kept things pretty laid back on Friday night. Everyone was staying in a cabins at a local campground. Our cabin was the largest and had about 20 beds. We hung out on the porch there and pretty much just drank and talked the night away. There was a TV with a digital cable box (not sure if it worked). The time on it said 9:45. A couple people said they were going to bed. I'm like what the fuck?! It's not even 10:00 yet? I was informed that it was 3:30am. Shit.

That night I hit the sack. These beds sucked. They had metal frames and were VERY small. My feet hung over the end and I fell out one time just trying to turn over. Someone got up in the middle of the night and turned the fucking heat on. I could have killed them. I woke up about 7:00am in a pool of sweat. Fuck it, I crawled out of bed.

Surprisingly some of the girls were already up getting things ready for the wedding. I went to the couch and talked to them for a while. Next thing I knew, I dozed off on the couch and woke back up at around 9:30.

We ate some scrumptions cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then the first order of business was to get the kegs. The groom to be and I hop in the truck and head to the store. We stop at a gas station. This is where we are getting the kegs. I've never heard of such shit.

You would not believe the looks you get when you're carrying to kegs out of the store at 10:30 in the morning. We took the kegs back to the reception hall at the camp. There was another cookout thing going on at the time with a different group of people. I had to fight off the beer vultures with a stick on the way in.

We spent the rest of the day nursing hangovers and helping get things ready for the wedding and reception. I had a deck of cards and couldn't talk any of those punks into a heads up freezout.

We made our way to the chuch. This church is in the sticks. We had to get on a gravel road and then drive another 5 miles to get to the church. I was looking at the attendance board for the past 2 weeks. Last week's attendance: 3, week before: 5. Wow. The other 2 people must have gotten lost on the way home last week.

The wedding went well. Nobody objected. The bride and groom kissed. Shit it's party time again.

Back to the reception hall we went. Upon arrival we were told that we had to leave at 12:00am because there were other cabins and people were trying to sleep. We figured we could just take the kegs back to the cabin when they made us leave.

A couple hours later, there was no need to carry the kegs back. However, there was a need to go on a beer run. We found 1 sober person out of about the 60 people remaining to go to the store. Party on!

Around 11:30 pm, I notice a state trooper at the reception. People were getting nervous. Upon further inspection, he was a guy from our home town and a friend with a couple guys at the reception. Party still on!

Also at 11:30, the DJ announce that he had to pack his shit and get out before 12:00. Bullshit, he was paid till 12:00. A quick rub of his head in a girls boob's and the music started backup.

Around 1:00am, we decide to vacate the building and head towards the pool. Of course the gate was locked to the pool. That didn't stop us. I can't go into all the details because I want to protect the guilty. However, I'll leave you with a few keywords. Tits, Ass, Beer, Tits, Ass.

During the swimming session, the state trooper left and decided to scare the shit out of some people. He hit his lights and siren as he drove by the pool. It was priceless to see the look on everyone's face as they made a mad dash towards their clothes.

So after some bitching about the water being too cold, we take the party back to the cabin. Where we spent the rest of the night cussing, smoking, drinking, etc.

I can honestly say this weekend was one of the best times I've had in quite a while. I just turned 28 last week. The past weekend made me feel like I was 17 again. It was a hellacious good time. I met some very nice people too. Most of them were WVU grads which put them higher on my list to begin with. One of them had the quote of the weekend, but I'm sure he doesn't remember saying it:

"I've been a lot of places and seen a lot of things, but I've never seen what I think we're getting ready to see without paying for it."