Predator314's Poker Journal

Payback is a motherfucker:

I'm not proud of the following hand. I just wanted to show you that I can donk it up with the best of them. Let's start it out with this jewel:

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (6 max, 5 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ad, As. MP =#A500AF(donkey)/ posts a blind of $4.

1 fold, MP =#A500AF(donkey)/ (poster) checks, 2 folds, Hero raises, MP =#A500AF(donkey)/ calls.

Flop: (4.66 SB) Kh, 7c, 9h (2 players)

Hero bets, donkey calls.

Turn: (3.33 BB) 4s (2 players)

Hero bets, donkey calls.

River: (5.33 BB) 8c (2 players)

Hero bets, donkey raises, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 9.33 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ad As (one pair, aces).

donkey has 6d Td (straight, ten high).

Outcome: donkey wins 9.33 BB.

M'kay... this was the reason that I was sitting at this table.

Now, time for payback:

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (6 max, 5 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP with 9c, Qc.

1 fold, Hero raises, 1 fold, SB =#A500AF(donkey)/ calls, 1 fold.

Flop: (5 SB) Ac, Ad, 4s (2 players)

donkey checks, Hero bets, donkey raises, Hero 3-bets, donkey caps, Hero calls.

Turn: (6.50 BB) 8c (2 players)

donkey bets, Hero calls.

River: (8.50 BB) Tc (2 players)

donkey bets, Hero raises, donkey 3-bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 14.50 BB

Results in white below:

donkey has As 5s (three of a kind, aces).

Hero has 9c Qc (flush, ace high).

Outcome: Hero wins 14.50 BB.

Initially, when I was check-raised, I had the feeling I was being bluffed. I've seen this happen before all the time. I'll re-raise when I actually have the ace and they'll fold. That's what I was hoping for. So then once I saw the turn bring me 9 possible outs, I had a 1 in 4.5 possibility of catching my flush. I was getting 7.5 to 1 on my money, so I called. What do ya know. I caught my flush. I was afraid of capping because of the paired board though.

Once again, I'm not proud of this hand. But yet, I'm proud that I was on the giving end of a bad beat.

Let's examine who the bigger donkey is though:

Hand #1:

Preflop:

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=1237866
pokenum -h ad as - 6d td
Holdem Hi: 1712304 enumerated boards
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
As Ad 1401728 81.86 303490 17.72 7086 0.41 0.821
Td 6d 303490 17.72 1401728 81.86 7086 0.41 0.179

I'm a 4.5 to 1 favorite pre-flop

Flop:

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=1237869
pokenum -h ad as - 6d td -- kh 7c 9h
Holdem Hi: 990 enumerated boards containing 7c Kh 9h
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
As Ad 789 79.70 201 20.30 0 0.00 0.797
Td 6d 201 20.30 789 79.70 0 0.00 0.203

Still 4 to 1 favorite

Turn:

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=1237871
pokenum -h ad as - 6d td -- kh 7c 9h 4s
Holdem Hi: 44 enumerated boards containing 4s 7c Kh 9h
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
As Ad 40 90.91 4 9.09 0 0.00 0.909
Td 6d 4 9.09 40 90.91 0 0.00 0.091

Now I'm a 10 to 1 favorite before the suckout.

Hand #2

Preflop:

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=1237876
pokenum -h qc 9c - as 5s
Holdem Hi: 1712304 enumerated boards
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc 9c 737415 43.07 966560 56.45 8329 0.49 0.433
As 5s 966560 56.45 737415 43.07 8329 0.49 0.567

Just a small dog here... I win

Flop:

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=1237883
pokenum -h qc 9c - as 5s -- ac ad 4s
Holdem Hi: 990 enumerated boards containing 4s Ac Ad
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc 9c 28 2.83 962 97.17 0 0.00 0.028
As 5s 962 97.17 28 2.83 0 0.00 0.972

Ummm...ok... he wins?

Turn:

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=1237889
pokenum -h qc 9c - as 5s -- ac ad 4s 8c
Holdem Hi: 44 enumerated boards containing 4s Ac 8c Ad
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc 9c 7 15.91 37 84.09 0 0.00 0.159
As 5s 37 84.09 7 15.91 0 0.00 0.841

Only 5 to 1 dog now getting 7.5 to 1 on my money

OK...it's a close race on the biggest donkey. I was only a huge dog after the flop. And then just a pretty big dog after the turn. So basically, on Hand 1, he was a big dog before teh flop, after the flop, and a huge dog after the turn. Hand 2, I was a small dog before the flop, huge dog after the flop, big dog after the turn. I think I win by a small margin.

Ok, enough defending myself. I SUCKOUT G00T!

Another losing night for me last night. I played somewhere between 700 and 800 hands. I just ended up losing like $30 though. My friend came over again before he headed down to North Carolina to start his new job. He wanted to watch me play poker again. I was just getting my tables set up when he walked in the house.

One thing I really hate is someone talking to me while I'm playing poker because I just can't concentrate on both things at once. Another thing I hate is just someone staring over my shoulder.

I won some big hands last night, and lost some huge hands. The runner runner straights did me in for the 2nd night in a row. I also made some misclicks and some just bad call downs because I wasn't 100% focused on what I was doing. Lesson Learned.

Tonight I'm not sure what the plan is. Part of me wants to hang out with friends. Part of me wants to veg out at the house and play poker and watch TV. I'll probably do a combination.

I've been reading Pauly's Blog to keep up with the goings on at the WPT Borgata tournament. It looks like John D'agastino or however you spell his damn name is 2nd in chips going into the final table. I'm pulling for this guy. He's one of my favorite "young guns". I just like him because he's not a complete prick like most of the other younger poker players.

Once again, I didn't get to play much poker yesterday. The little bit I did get to play was pretty miserable.

I played a bit at lunch and pretty much broke even, although I haven't loaded my hands into my poker tracker database yet to see the final result.

After work, I had my bowling league. We played an excellent team which has the best player in the league on it. We ended up winning 6 out of 8 possible points against them. I bowled a 566 series. That's an excellent series for me, but it should have been more. My first game, I bowled a 225, 2nd game a miserable 142, 3rd game was a 199. The 2nd game was horrible. However, the 3rd game should have been much better. I through a couple tanks that left the 10 pin and in the 10th frame, I through a monster ball that shattered the pins and left a stone 7 pin. My bowling is really coming around lately. I've moved away from playing the gutter to bowling more across the middle. I'm much more consistent with this shot.

After bowling, I went home and met up with my friend. He's the guy I bought my home from. They had some more stuff that needed to be moved. So as of this morning, I no longer have any porch furniture :(

He wanted to watch me play poker. I fired up 4 tables on Empire and 2 on Party and played about 500 hands. I ended up losing about 45BBs during that session. I had some big hands lose on the river. I know of at least 4 times where my trips got beat by a straight on the river. There were probably more.

Tonight, I'm gonna eat dinner with my parents after work. After that I'm free to do what I want. I will probably end up playing a bunch of poker this evening. I'm in the mood for a tournament too.

Yesterday was a trying day personally. I woke up feeling pretty good. I had a decent night's sleep, so things started well. I got showered and ready for work. I go to my car and the battery is dead. That's aggravating. So I'm stuck taking my truck to work. This costs me somewhere between $20 and $25/day to take my truck to work.

Once I got to work, I had to train some people. I hate training. The only good thing about training is that it makes the day pass by faster. Not yesterday. Slow day + training.

I finally got home from work and decided to go ahead and fix my car. I pop the hood and have to take the damn windshield washer fluid reservoir off to even get to the battery. This is a VERY ignorant design. What if I'm stranded in a parking lot with NO FUCKING TOOLS and need a jump?!? So I took the reservoir off and jumped the car. I head to Advance Auto and get the battery checked. Sure enough... broke... imagine that.

So I drop $75 on a new battery. The guy was nice enough to put it in for me. Although I think that's their job. He was very appreciative of me leaving the reservoir off the car so his job would be a whole lot easier. Evidently he's changed batteries on these cars before.

I had planned on cooking some dinner, but by this time, it was getting late. So off to KFC for a Twister combo I go. I love Twister combos, but this one sucked ass. Oh well.

I got home and washed some dishes and did a little cleaning. By the time I got done with everything, there wasn't much time for poker. I missed the WPBT tournament. Although, I wasn't sure about signing up for Titan Poker to play 1 tournament.

I did get to play about 250 hands of $2/4 in a short time period. I was way up at one point, but my last few hands drained me a bit, and I ended my session up 21.5 BBs.

Tonight I have bowling directly after work. After that I plan on going home and playing some muhfuckin poker.

OK, somebody needs to smack me for the prior post. 50,000 hands is a lot of hands for a working man to pull off in one month. I would need to play nearly 1,700 hands a day to make that goal. I just don't have the time. Plus if I'm winning at a rate of 3BB/100, it would be stupid to stick around the $2/4 for that much longer.

So, I'm going to adjust the goal to 1/2 of initial goal. 25,000 hands by October 20th and hopefully a 3.0 BB/100 win rate. That's about 850 hands/day. I have been playing just over 1000 hands a day. If I can maintain a 3 BB/100 win rate, that will still be a $3000 shot to the bankroll. However, I'm looking for more.

I also stated in my last post that I wanted to play all the hands at $2/4. That's stupid. I'll probably move up and play some $3/6 too about 1/2 way through the challenge. I'll just scout for the good games.

Also, the rake return I get on Empire has really been a great shot in the bankroll. I'm making enough with just rake rebate to pay a lot of my bills every month. This money helps me grow my bankroll and pay bills at the same time.

I spent another portion of the day 6 tabling the $2/4 tables. I'm doing really well at these tables even with the additional 2 tables. Since I've been 6 tabling (2 days), I've played 2100 hands. I'm winning at a rate of 5.84 BB/100. Obviously, I'm running pretty well, but I figure $2/4 can be beatable for 3 BB/100 fairly easily.

It's really taking no time to play 1000 hands now. I figure I can crank out 1000 hands/night in my spare time. I'll try for a while, but I'm not going to over exert myself and burn myself out.

I'm going to go watch some TV now and chill out until work tomorrow. I'm thinking of quitting my Monday night league in bowling. We are having troubles getting people to show. It gets aggravating when you get off work 15 minutes early so you can make it on time and then people that don't have any schedule to work around cannot show up. Plus it's additional money every week that I can save.

So I'm debating going to bowling tomorrow night. If not, then I'll probably be grinding my way around the $2/4 tables. I figure I'll put about 50,000 hands or so at it. If I can sustain a 3BB/100 rate, that would be a $6000 boost to my bankroll. This will leave me plenty of options to move up. I can 6 table the 3/6 or 5/10 full or play a combination. I can also play $3/6 6 max without having to worry about the swings either.

That all being said, I'm going to start a quest. My quest is to play 50,000 hands by the middle of October. Lets say Oct 20th. That's a lot of poker. I think I can pull it off. I'll play all my hands at $2/4 and my goal is to sustain a 3 BB/100 win rate.

Until next time.