Predator314's Poker Journal

New Website!

I've moved this blog to a different web host. The new address is:

http://blog.bankrollhelper.com

If you have my site linked, please update your links.

Snow snow snow. We got a few more inches of snow last night. I was really hoping we'd have a whole winter without this shit. It just makes bad drivers worse. So instead of braving the roads today, I decided to phone in to work. Fuck a bunch of work and snow and Monday.

So instead of work, I clocked into my other job. I fired up 4 tables on Party and proceeded to donate. I decided to move up after getting my bankroll back to healthier levels this weekend. I have a really healthy bankroll for $3/6 and even marginally healthy for $5/10, so there really isn't any other reason for me to play $2/4. I think I just felt more comfortable with the stakes.

Anyway, I had to do some research to find some decent $3/6 tables. I was able to find 3 juicy games and one decent one. I proceeded to destroy one table and then get destroyed on the other 3. Nothing really of interest, just one horrible hand I played. I'm not sure I would have made the mistake at $2/4, but I sure as hell did here:

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

Preflop: Hero is SB with Qs, Qd.

UTG raises, 3 folds, MP3 calls, CO calls, Button calls, Hero 3-bets, 1 fold, UTG calls, MP3 calls, CO calls, Button calls.

Flop: (16 SB) Kh, 2d, 6h (5 players)

Hero bets, UTG folds, MP3 calls, CO folds, Button calls.

Turn: (9.50 BB) 3c (3 players)

Hero checks, MP3 checks, Button checks.

River: (9.50 BB) Ah (3 players)

Hero checks, MP3 bets, Button folds, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 11.50 BB

Results in white below:

MP3 has Qh Ac (one pair, aces).

Hero has Qs Qd (one pair, queens).

Outcome: MP3 wins 11.50 BB.

Would someone please help me pull my skirt up and bet that turn? Also, the river call was horrible too. I just felt sick in my stomach about that whole hand. It was at that point, I decided, if I wasn't going to play right, then just quit right now. So I got in the groove and ended up breaking even for the session after being stuck a bit.

I'll be playing some more throught the day. I'm datamining the tables right now looking for some fresh fish. I always thought table selection was over-rated, but I'm starting to change my tune.

In other news, this could possibly be my last update at this address. I am moving my blog over to my own domain (for the new project). I'll post a re-director link on this page sending you in the right direction. I'm waiting for the DNS servers to update right now.

I'm going to just leak a little info on my new project. It's going to be a poker community/hangout type site. Some things I plan to do:

- Offer rakeback/bonus/bankroll help plans for various sites
- Poker Chat Room
- Message Boards
- Blog Hosting
- Full Blog Roll with a blog of the month each month
- Articles

I have a lot of work ahead of me before launching the site. I want everything to be as "automated" as possible. So, it will be awhile before it is launched. However, I'm going to go ahead and move my blog over there. You also might have to bear with me as I learn the WordPress application.

I played a couple more hundred hands this afternoon and ran well. I just wanted to post an update with a couple "interesting" hands.

Hand #1: I got a bit lost on this one and really didn't expect to win the pot. I figured the BB had JJ. Make sure you check what the villians were holding on this one.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with Kd, Kc.

4 folds, Hero raises, 1 fold, Button calls, SB 3-bets, 1 fold, Hero caps, Button calls, SB calls.

Flop: (13 SB) 5h, 8d, Jh (3 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, Button calls, SB 3-bets, Hero caps, Button calls, SB calls.

Turn: (12.50 BB) 7c (3 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, Button calls, SB 3-bets, Hero calls, Button calls.

River: (21.50 BB) 4s (3 players)

SB checks, Hero checks, Button checks.

Final Pot: 21.50 BB

Results in white below:

SB has Qh Td (high card, queen).

Hero has Kd Kc (one pair, kings).

Button has Kh Ts (high card, king).

Outcome: Hero wins 21.50 BB.

These next 2 hands were against the same retard. The first hand was my first run-in with the guy, so I was a bit lost. The limp-reraise is what had me playing so careful:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9c, 9d.

1 fold, UTG+1 calls, 4 folds, Hero raises, 2 folds, UTG+1 3-bets, Hero caps, UTG+1 calls.

Flop: (9.50 SB) 3s, As, Ks (2 players)

UTG+1 checks, Hero bets, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: (5.75 BB) 8c (2 players)

UTG+1 checks, Hero checks.

River: (5.75 BB) Jd (2 players)

UTG+1 bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 7.75 BB

Results in white below:

UTG+1 has Tc 8h (one pair, eights).

Hero has 9c 9d (one pair, nines).

Outcome: Hero wins 7.75 BB.

This second hand, I should have capped pre-flop in hindsight. However, I decided, no matter what cards I had, I was just going to check-call down unimproved against this guy:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 8h, 8d.

5 folds, Hero raises, 3 folds, BB 3-bets, Hero calls.

Flop: (6.50 SB) Tc, 2s, Kd (2 players)

BB bets, Hero calls.

Turn: (4.25 BB) 6s (2 players)

BB checks, Hero checks.

River: (4.25 BB) 9d (2 players)

BB bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 6.25 BB

Results in white below:

BB has 5c 6d (one pair, sixes).

Hero has 8h 8d (one pair, eights).

Outcome: Hero wins 6.25 BB.

Here's my graph for the weekend so far:

Well, another 500 hands this morning. Although, not the results I was looking for, I still had a winning session. I was stuck big right off the bat. In the first 50 hands, I had kings cracked 3 times and Jacks cracked once. That's not a good way to start.

However, those hands don't bother me that bad. I even laid my kings down on the turn on one hand with a Jack high board. Nothing really brilliant, I just knew I was beat. One dude called down and I was right, dude had a straight.

I've been working on selecting better tables lately. I took some advice from TeddyFBI that I read in his blog (http://www.zbasic.com/pokerblog.html). He claims his 3.5 BB/100 win rate over hundreds of thousands of hands are due to good table selection and making good laydowns. If you haven't checked his blog, please do so. It's one of the best out there.

Some interesting hands from today.

Hand #1. How not to play pocket kings:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5h, 3c.

UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, 2 folds, MP3 calls, 2 folds, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: (6 SB) 4h, 2d, Ad (6 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, MP3 folds, SB folds.

Turn: (5 BB) 7s (4 players)

Hero bets, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls $2 (All-In).

River: (8.50 BB) 2c (4 players, 1 all-in)

Hero bets, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls.

Final Pot: 10.50 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has 5h 3c (straight, five high).

UTG+1 has Tc As (two pair, aces and twos).

UTG+2 has Ks Kh (two pair, kings and twos).

Outcome: Hero wins 10.50 BB.

I had to double check to make sure I had a stright there. That hasn't happened in months it seems.

Here's a hand where I was totally lost and played like a fuckin 6 year old girl:
Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ac, Kc.

2 folds, MP1 calls, 3 folds, Button calls, SB raises, Hero 3-bets, MP1 folds, Button calls, SB calls.

Flop: (10 SB) As, 3s, Js (3 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, Button calls, SB calls.

Turn: (8 BB) 6d (3 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, Button folds, SB 3-bets, Hero calls.

River: (14 BB) 6s (2 players)

SB bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 16 BB

Results in white below:

SB has 6c Ah (full house, sixes full of aces).

Hero has Ac Kc (two pair, aces and sixes).

Outcome: SB wins 16 BB.

Shoot me now. I know I should have saved at least 2 bets on that one.

I'm not sure if I could have done anything better on this hand. It's just one of those things. Villian was a total lagtard. His stats were 50 VP$IP/30%PFR/~3 AF:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Kh, Kd.

Hero raises, UTG+1 3-bets, 3 folds, CO caps, 2 folds, BB calls, Hero calls, UTG+1 calls.

Flop: (16.50 SB) 6d, 3s, 7h (4 players)

BB bets, Hero raises, UTG+1 folds, CO calls, BB calls.

Turn: (11.25 BB) 2c (3 players)

BB bets, Hero raises, CO calls, BB 3-bets, Hero caps, CO folds, BB calls.

River: (21.25 BB) 3h (2 players)

BB bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 23.25 BB

Results in white below:

BB has 7d 7s (full house, sevens full of threes).

Hero has Kh Kd (two pair, kings and threes).

Outcome: BB wins 23.25 BB.

Overplayed??? Against any other opponent I'd say yes. Against this guy, I figured him for A7 or something like that. Guess I was wrong.

That's enough hand histories for today. I'm going to go watch some bowling. I'm supposed to be sitting in that audience today on ESPN, but snow kept me away. Fuck a bunch of snow.

After bowling, I'm going to wash some clothes, play some poker, and work on my side project. Speaking of the side project, I'm going to try to have a full blog roll. So if any of you reading have a blog, then email it to me (leonardw@gmail.com).

Until then, don't let your meat loaf.

Challenge graph so far:

Here you go folks... an up-beat post. I actually had a good day on the tables. It's been awhile. I've forgotten the feeling. It sure is nice putting 75BBs back in the wallet though.

As you can probably tell, I've fell in love with this Poker Patterns software. It really helps on a downswing. You can pull up a graph of all hands and see the ever-rising slope as the line moves right. And that downswing? Well, it doesn't look so big in the scheme of things.

Here's my graph and stats so far for this challenge:

Hands: 10,453
Pace: -4,547 (ugh)
Winrate: -0.34

This game is mean as hell. Up, down, Up, down. I'm really starting to loathe it.

Here's my graph for yesterday and this morning. This is typical of most of my sessions this month. Steady rise, then lose a couple huge pots on the river, then up, then lose big pots.

Yep... this is ulgy:

I'm about to wave the white flag. Over 1000 hands yesterday and another 90 big bets down the shitter. Hi, my name is Wes, and I'm the biggest fish on Party Poker.

Here's the hand of the day:

I get AK in middle position. Folded to me and I raise. BB is the only caller. He's a loose aggressive nut.

Flop comes 663 (suits unimportant).

He checks, I bet, he check-raises, I re-raise, he caps.

Turn comes a 2

He checks, I bet, he calls

River comes a Q

He checks, I check.

He turns over AQ and takes down a nice pot.

Now, I'm not saying I played this hand great or anything, but I made a decent read based on this donkey's past play. And there's my reward. This is the way it has constantly been since early December and it's really starting to take a toll on my brain and my bankroll.

It looks like there might be some good news on the horizon. Evidently Party Poker has bought Empire Poker. Now I have an account on Empire worthy of 27% rakeback. It would be oh so sweet to see the Empire tables rejoin the Party network and me get my rakeback.

I came to a realization today. Maybe I haven't been running as bad as I think. I was thinking about my play today and going over some hands. I realized one big thing. I'm giving these donkies way too much credit.

I'm just now going back to the full ring game world after spending over a year playing only short handed poker. I don't think I've fully shifted gears. It all comes down to the fact that I'm making horrible call downs. There's a small... teensy weensy ... maybe even non-existant percentage of players at these low limits with the ability to pull off turn check raise bluffs and river raise bluffs.

My problem. It seems so many times, I'm getting raised on the river. Especially during this run where my dominating hands are getting dominated. For instance:

Let's say I'm on the button with AK. Middle position raises and I 3 bet and we get heads up going to the flop. The flop comes A-x-x. He bets, I raise, or he checks, I bet, then he calls or raises. Flop action doesn't matter. I'm taking control of this hand regardless. Now the turn comes a blank. The action goes check, bet, call. I'm feeling good about my hand. The river comes a Jack. The action goes, check, bet, check-raise. Uh oh. Now we've got a good size pot here. I'm about 99.9% certain I'm beat here. Now I'm about 100% certain, I'm making a crying call here. But honestly, what do I beat other than a bluff? I still think it would be a mistake to fold here just because of the pot size and the odds it is laying you.

Now, let's change the action again. Same hand as above except this time I get check raised on the turn... now it gets interesting. Again, what do I beat here? I have TPTK, but the average and even above average $2/4 players just don't have the balls to check raise me on the turn with just TPGK. I think I should be laying these hands down. The problem is that I'm calling them down, which will cost me 2 more bets just to "be sure". A huge percentage of the time, I was right and just wasted at least 2 bets. Occasionally, I will luck out against them.

I guess it's all situational and depends who you are up against. All I know is that I'm calling down too much when I KNOW I'm beat. What good is working on your reads if you never trust them?

I'm going to work on trusting my reads and not calling down so much.

Yesterday was a decent day. I did decent bowling (shot a 221 in my 2nd game), we took 6 of 8 points to remain in first. I only played a couple hundred hands of poker where I won about 15 BBs.

Some bad news came yesterday. Party shut down my rakeback account. They had closed both accounts and I was told that I could tell them to close the old account. They had none of that nonsense. My only option was to close the new account. So, as the rakeback nazi says, "NO RAKEBACK FOR YOU!".

Tonight, I'll get back on track. I don't have any plans other than poker. I'll also get you an update on this trainwreck of a challenge I have going on.

No poker content today. I didn't play any at all yesterday. I took a much needed break.

Yesterday was a simple, but decent day. I worked (actually a calm day where nobody bothered me), went to my mother's house and ate dinner, went home and watched That 70's Show and then American Idol (can I have that hour of my life back?), then popped in the movie, Go, and fell asleep watching it.

Lazy days...

I hope everyone noticed the free $50 post from yesterday. I'm gonna keep this blog as spam free as possible. I just wanted to get word out.

I'm actually starting up a side project to hopefully help both my bankroll and those struggling poker players out there who need a boost to their bankroll. This project is still in the design phase, but will be rolled out soon. I'll make an announcement here when it's ready.

I got an email from Belle Rock Casino about my cashout. Turns out I had already wagered like $975 or something like that, so I had exceeded the necessary wagering requirement for a cashout. All I had to do to make it official was deposit $50. So I deposited $50 and immediately cashed out almost $450. Kickass. I hope that doesn't turn me into a slots junkie. Whatever it is, it helped recoup 100 BBs back into my bankroll.

Tonight is my bowling night. So, I'll be tied up with that until around 9:00 or so. Then I'm going to try to get in a few hands of poker. I probably won't get the desired number of hands in because I'll be washing clothes at the same time. I think every piece of laundry I own is dirty. One more day and I'll either have to start re-using dirty underwear or go commando.

Peace out.

Offer for people that do not currently have a Full Tilt Poker account:

If you do not currently have a Full Tilt account, I will give you $50 if you sign up under my account.

To get your free $50, you must follow these steps:

1.) Click on the banner at the top of the page and download the software
2.) Sign up for a new account
3.) Make a minimum $50 deposit
4.) Aquire 100 Full Tilt Points (can be done in as little as an hour)
5.) Email me with your Full Tilt screen name

or if you would rather have 20% rakeback instead of the $50 free dollars, you can email me.

Another day, another loss. I had every intention of not playing any yesterday. I just wanted to take a break and clear my head. That didn't happen. I held off until I watched High Stakes Poker on GSN. Then I got that urge. So I fired up Party Poker and proceeded to donk off another 30BBs.

I started off slow, not really getting any cards. I was down 25BBs in about 100 hands. Then I hit a few good pots all in a row and got back to even. I thought I was going to go on a run, but it was just a tease. I got beat to death. It's not really bad beats technically. It's just crap like my Queens getting out flopped by KQ. Or, I'll flop 2 pair and my opponent flops a set, or I'll flop a set and it get counterfeited by 4 to a flush or straight. Just hands where I can lose the maximum amount of money. I'm just cold-decked as hell.

I also tried to bonus whore me some bankroll money yesterday. I deposited $90 into Intercasion to take advantage of their 100% deposit bonus. I tried to work it off playing blackjack. Well, I can only remember the dealer busting twice. So, I busted out there before even working off 10% of the bonus.

However, I also signed up for River Belle casion to take advantage of their free $25. I've run it up to almost $400 playing the Big Kahuna slots. I think I still have to deposit $50 and play some more to be able to cash that money out. Their terms aren't very clear, so I'm waiting on a response from their customer service team to see what is required there. The way my luck is going, I'll never be able to claim that money.

The highlight of my evening was watching High Stakes Poker on GSN. I feel for ya Danny boy. His run of cards is about as bad as mine. I also learned that "Farha" is Lebanese for "Luckbox". I love the show and I have newfound respect for Todd Brunson. His comment on that Sheik fucker was priceless. Something along the lines of "Sheik is an idiot and I think he will lose all his money". Jerry Buss has no business in that game. He's not going to ever get paid off unless he runs into a monster vs. monster hand. I think Jen, Todd, Daniel, and Eli are just waiting on Farha's luck to run out. Sheik's got the best seat in the house, sitting to the left of Farha, but he's not good enough to take advantage.

Tonight, I'm just going to grind out some hands. That's really all I can do. Sooner or later, these cards are going to turn around and allow me to win.

... with visions of bad beats running through his head.

I've never had a real problem with going on tilt. I get steamed once in a while when the cards are not running right for me, but it's usually short term. And always when I close out my tables and go off to do my own thing, I never think about my bad session again. Not yesterday though. I'm not sure what happened to me. I guess it's just a combination of the insane bad run of cards I had and running bad for a month and a half. There was really nothing I could have done yesterday other than not play.

I played somewhere around 900 hands before I finally gave up. During those 900 hands there were two separate "mouse chunking" incidents. Wireless mice and online poker do not go together. In my computer room, I have a Scarface picture on the wall that I won at a fair. On one hand, I lost a HUGE pot to a runner runner flush and I went off taking my mouse and actually aiming for my Scarface picture. Luckily I missed and my mouse hit the wall just below. Also, my mouse luckily didn't break. Good thing I'm not John Smoltz.

I let yesterday's session get too me too much. It carried over to when I bowled in a tournament last night. I just couldn't focus. All I could think of was the bad cards. Then when I got home, I played some more (like a dumbass), and more of the same happened. That carried over and affected my sleep. I had the hardest time getting to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, one of those hideous hands started streaming through my head. Once I finally got to sleep, I woke up 3 or 4 times to the tune of a bad beat dream.

I'm not so sure why yesterday bothered me so bad. I've had worse days. I was down almost 100BBs at one point. I did get it back to only lose 70BBs for the day though. I guess it's a combination of the pressure of this challenge, the month and a half long bad run, lack of sleep, and who knows what else.

I feel much better today after a good 3 hours sleep. I had told myself to take the day off today from poker. However, for some damn reason, I'm in the mood to play again. I'm not sure why either. I figured this challenge would burn me out on poker for a while. However, it's just fueled my craving to play even more.

There was some good that came out of yesterday though. In my ever advancing old age, I have been trying to keep a positive outlook on life and not let things bother me. If I do poorly in something, at least try to learn something.

For instance, on Saturday, in my big bowling tournament, I had such high hopes of winning some good money. I bowled good in the first 2 games, but just didnt' have any pin carry and didn't score well. However, on the 3-6 games, all the oil had burnt out on the lanes and I just haven't bowled those conditions very often. My scores dipped way down in games 3,4, and 5. However, in game 6, I went seeking some advice from a pro. The dry lanes were destroying me mentally. He noted how good I was throwing the ball, but just wasn't getting it over on the right side of the lane to give it a chance to break into the pocket. After a few pointers, I went out and bowled my best game of the tournament and it felt good.

So what good did I find in the yesterday's poker session? On the tough hands, where I got beat at the showdown or had to lay the hand down, I was 100% correct on my reads. These are just hands that I can confirm what my opponent had (whether he showed, or went to showdown with another opponent or something like that). It was scary. 100 fucking percent I knew what my opponent was holding. You'd think that would translate into a winning session? In all honesty it did. Making those reads saved me so many bets. So a 70BB losing session could have easily been 100 or even more.

I haven't decided whether I'm going to play tonight or not. If you would have asked me last night, it would have been an emphatic NO! However, I'm in the mood right now. Who knows how I'll feel this evening when I get home from work. I'm going to eat with my parents when I get off work, then I'm going home. I'll just "wing it" from there. I know I'll be tuned into GSN at 9:00 though to watch the High Stakes Poker. I love that shit.

Ever have one of those days when you feel "lost" at the tables? So far, it's been one of those weeks. I couldn't do anything right today.

I'm not going to bore you with details... I'll just say it was the donks' day to win. Let's just show you stats so far for the challange:

Hands: 7,128
Pace: -1,872
Winrate: +0.03 BB/100 (Yeah!)
Days Remaining: 21

Fuck, what a horrible day on the tables. I got beat to death. I can't say I'm not on tilt right now because I just busted my mouse into a few pieces. Bad cards, Bad Beats, and Bad flops. That sums up this challenge so far.

I played another 400+ hands after my last update. Here are my stats so far:

Hands: 6,178 (23,822 remaining)
Pace: -1,822
Win Rate: 1.09 BB/100
Days Remaining: 22

I played 1,249 hands tonight. I still feel like I'm running bad, but I won at a rate of 1.98 BB/100 tonight. Not that great. I just keep losing some huge pots when my sets run into 4 to a flush and shit like that. Oh well. I'm off to bed to get some rest for the tournament tomorrow.

Stats:
Hands: 5,746 (24,254 remaining)
Pace: -2,254 hands
Win Rate: 1.29 BB/100
Days Remaining: 22

I'm going to move up in limits for real this time. I'll wait until after my challenge is over. My bankroll can really withstand playing $5/10 right now, but I'm overhauling my game and paying bills with poker money at the same time, so that's why I've been slumming it at the $2/4 tables.

The problem with $2/4 is that I can make enough money to pay all my bills, but my bankroll just isn't growing. Now that I'm back on the rakeback wagon and playing good poker and getting a bunch of hands in, I'll have plenty saved up to go to the $3/6 games.

One other reason, I've been playing $2/4 instead of $3/6 is because table selection is much easier. Good tables are more difficult to come by in the $3/6 level. However, there are plenty of retards in this world, so I'm sure I can find some decent ones.

I'm going to stick with the full ring game tables for right now. I'm burnt out on short handed play and the swings I endure. I was looking at my stats for $3/6 (full) last year. I had over 110,000 hands at that limit with a 2.87 BB/100 win rate. That's $18,000+. I need to quit cashing out and buying guitars and homes and shit.

So, I'm not going to make any cashouts unless it is an emergency. I want my bankroll to grow so I can play the higher stakes.... where they respect my raises (sarcasm for the humor impaired). I don't know if the $15/30 games are as juicy as they once were, but I want to give them a shot. That's a long way off though and I've got points in my game that still need work.

Here's a long term plan to summarize things:

1.) Finish my 30K in 30 days challenge
2.) Move up to $3/6 and play at least 100,000 hands
3.) Move up to $5/10 (probably 6 max) and take shots at the $15/30.

Right now I'm focusing on figuring out how to squeeze in 25,000+ hands by the end of this month.

This evening, I'm going to hit the tables as soon as I get home from work. I can get at least 2 hours of play in before I hit The Club for some musical goodness. I probably won't get to play any afterwards because I want to get a good night's rest for tomorrow's big bowling tournament. It all depends on how long it takes me to get fed up with the drunks. I'm too old for bars anymore. The only time I go is when there is some good live music.

Speaking of music, I want to plug these guys: JC/BC. They are an acoustical, classic rock cover band. However, some of the members are also part of the rock band, A Noted Author. There are some songs to listen to on the "A Noted Author" page and also on the lead singer, Bob Campion's page.

Way behind pace, but I had a decent day today. I got in about 730 hands today to the tune of 5.22 BB/100. I really felt like I ran bad today, but I guess I did OK.

I'm playing under my new Party Poker name. The identity will be kept secret. The good thing about this account is .... RAKEBACK! This will help the bankroll big time. I haven't had a good rakeback payout since Party split from the skins. I get 24% on this account. I figure I'll have a really good rakeback payment for February with this challenge.

Here are my stats so far in this quest:

Hands: 4,497 (25,503 remaining)
Pace: -2503 hands
Winrate: 1.09 BB/100

One thing I realized during this quest. 30,000 hands is quite a bit for me. If I were playing full time, this would be a breeze. I could probably swing 50,000 hands.

I'm going to have to buckle down and try to catch up. I'm going to try to double up on my hands tomorrow night. It's going to be tough because there's a band playing tomorrow night at The Club that I'm gonna go watch. Then Saturday night, I'll probably get a shitload of hands played. I'm bowling in a tournament Saturday, but I don't have plans that night and I'll be too tired to want to do anything else.

Quick update. I'm way behind on the challenge now. However, I have been spending every free moment I have playing poker. But there's already been 2 days in the stretch where I haven't played a single hand and then another where I only got in about 650 hands.

I'm still running poorly. But the games are good and hopefully soon the numbers will turn in my favor. I'm jamming a shitload of money in the middle when I got the best hand just get outdrawn on the turn or river. It happens.

Fuck me. I didn't play a single hand of poker last night. I had a monsterous headache when I got home and all I wanted to do was sleep. So, I'll just have to make up for the extra hands by playing more hands in the upcoming days.

I knew when I set this challenge for myself that there was no way I could sit down for 30 days in a row and play exactly 1000 hands a day. I just need to get some 2000 hand days in on the weekends and maybe sneak in 1500 hands here and there. So, I'm behind pace, but only by about 800 hands or so. I don't have the exact stats here at work.

I did watch the High Stakes Poker on GSN last night. That is probably the best piece of poker TV on right now. It kicks the shit out of any tournament poker I've seen on TV. Plus Gabe Kaplan is actually a good host.

Some notes of intrest from last nights shows (I watched the re-run of last week too):

- Daniel Negreanu is the man. His reading skills are excellent. I'm not talking about the 9-2 hand either (that was scary), but in particular the way he played the 3-7 offsuit hand and the way he played the K9 suited hand where Barry Greenstein rivered him.

- Jerry Buss is weak tighty. No way he can be a winning player.

- That Shiek guy is in dire need of an ass whoopin'. How the hell does this guy have enough bankroll to be playing that game anyway?

- I think the Dr. guy is one of the fish at the table.

- When Sammy Farha sits down, he creates action. But let's be honest, this guy played like a donkey last night. It's just a matter of time before he gets busted.

- Doyle is a sourpuss. I also have a feeling he's become somewhat of a fish in his old age.

- I think Jen Harman is slightly "out classed" at this table playing No Limit. Don't get me wrong, she's an excellent player, but if they were playing limit games, she would be back even with the field or slightly above the rest.

I really like the cash game on TV thing. I wish they would just stick a camera over table #1 at the Bellagio and let us watch the "Big Game". I would rather see their regular game than just a no limit holdem game. Especially the 2-7 triple draw which I've fell in love with at UB, but try to stay away from it.

I also wish they would give us some more info on the prop bets that are going on.

Got a few hands in at lunch and won a little bit. This hand was my favorite:

Full Tilt Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $3/$6
3 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (3 players) Hero is BB with :kc :8c
Button raises, SB folds, Hero calls.

Flop: :6d :2c :tc (4.33SB, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero raises, Button calls.

Turn: :qh (4.17BB, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls.

River: :ts (6.17BB, 2 players)
Hero bets, Button folds.
Uncalled bets: 1BB returned to Hero.

Results:
Final pot: 6.17BB


This was my last hand:

Full Tilt Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $3/$6
4 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is UTG with :kd :qd
Hero raises, Button 3-bets, SB Caps, BB folds, Hero calls, Button calls.

Flop: :2s :3d :7d (13SB, 3 players)
SB bets, Hero calls, Button calls.

Turn: :6c (8BB, 3 players)
SB bets, Hero calls, Button calls.

River: :9d (11BB, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, Button folds, SB calls.

Results:
Final pot: 13BB
Hero showed Kd Qd
SB mucks Ac Tc

Normally, the KQ would have been mucked facing 2 more bets before the flop, but the SB was a total LAGtard and was raising EVERY hand.

Today, the real test begins with this challenge. This will be the first day of the challenge where my job gets in the way. I don't really forsee any problems tonight because I have no plans other than eating dinner with the folks. However, when I get home, I'll fire up Party Poker and get to work.

There are a couple speed bumps in the next 30 days which might make it difficult to get my hand quota in. I have a bowling tournament next Saturday. I think I'll be OK on that one, because I can just play late into the night. I usually do that anyway. Then the week after, I'll be in Parkersburg, WV for the Denny's PBA event. I'll be there Saturday and Sunday. You can look for me on ESPN at 12:30pm Eastern on February 12th. I'll probably be the guy being escorted out by security.

I just need to stay ahead of the game and get extra hands played on the days where I have time. It really doesn't take a long time to play 1000 hands when you're 4 or 5 tabling.

I've got the DVR scheduled to record the High Stakes Poker on GSN tonight too. I caught the tail end of the premier. Then I forgot about it last week. Finally, I got around to plugging it into my DVR to record it. For those of you that haven't seen it, it is a high stakes cash game shown on TV. The week I watched, I saw Negreanu with a million dollar stack. I think it comes on at 9:00pm Eastern.

Lastly, here's an interesting stat from my challenge:

Winrate for my first 158 hands: -20.49 BB/100
Winrate for my last 3002 hands: 2.40 BB/100
Put them together and you get: 1.25 BB/100

Boo yah! Practice and determination finally paid off tonight. I've been saying all week how 2nd place wasn't good enough. I wanted to win that bowling tournament.

I started out slow in the qualifying tonight, throwing 3 splits in the first 5 frames. It was looking grim. Finally, I kept my composure and threw some strikes to finish with a 174. In the 2nd game, I bowled a 220. Good game. I kept a clean sheet in that one. The last game of qualifying... well... I had no ball reaction and bowled a 145...bleh. However, with my handicap, I was able to qualify 4th and made it to match play.

My first match was a good one. I had a few pins handicap on the guy. I started off throwing 2 tanks which left ringing 10 pins. I went a little on tilt. Finally, I strung together some strikes late to come back and bowl a 202. The other guy bowled a 203, but with my handicap, I won.

In the semi-finals, I had to bowl my good friend and teamate. That was a bad beat. I started off strong and finished poorly, throwing a 188. It was good enough to win though as my friend bowled a 171.

In the finals, I got a kid that had beat me before. We were close to even on the handicap. I started off with a split...wait... the 5 pin fell just before the pinsetter came down, leaving just the 7. I then threw a 5 bagger and stayed clean up to the 10th, which I opened after leaving a 10 pin and missing it. I finished with a 203, forcing my opponent to strike out to beat me. He didn't and I am the new king of the hill.

Hopefully, I can carry this momentum into next Saturday's tournament and take home that $1500 prize. Wish me luck.

Stats update:

Hands: 3,160
Pace: +160
Win Rate: +1.25 BB/100
Days Remaining: 28

It's been a pretty good day. I've managed to get myself out of the red and actually have a decent win rate for this challenge. So far today, I'm running like 6.8 BB/100 or something like that. My aces are still getting cracked all over the place. Usually by some donk that will cap the turn with an open ended straight draw.

I'm off to bowl. Wish me luck.

I've played an additional 502 hands since my last post. And, happily, I've continued my winning ways. I was way up during this session, but then I had aces get cracked twice within 5 minutes. Both to runner runner flushes.

My heart skipped a beat on one hand though. I was playing the bad beat jackpot tables when this hand came up:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Ad, Jd.

UTG raises, 1 fold, Hero calls, 2 folds, CO calls, 1 fold, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: (10 SB) Kd, Qd, Td (5 players)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets, Hero calls, CO calls, SB folds, BB folds.

Turn: (6.50 BB) 6d (3 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets, CO calls, UTG calls.

River: (9.50 BB) Qc (3 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets, CO folds, UTG raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG caps, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 17.50 BB

Results in white below:

UTG has Ks Kh (full house, kings full of queens).

Hero has Ad Jd (straight flush, ace high).

Outcome: Hero wins 17.50 BB.

I'm not entirely happy with the way I played the hand. In hindsight, I guess I should have 3 bet before the flop. Had it been AJ offsuit, I would have folded. AJ suited is one of those in-betweener hands to me. However, this guy turned out to be a LAG with a good hand, so I could have gotten more out of it. Anyway, I was so excited to see that river card, especially when we went into a raising war. I was screaming at the top of my lungs "QUEENS QUEENS QUEENS". The BBJ wasn't that high, but I would have received about $12,000 if he would have turned over quad queens.

Anyway, I'm gonna go shower and watch some bowling. Then I'll be back on the tables this afternoon. I gotta get my hands in early today because I have a bowling tournament tonight. Last week I got 2nd in the tournament. This week, I'm wanting first badly. Wish me luck.

Stats:

Hands: 2,819 (27,181 remaining)
Pace: +819
Win Rate: +0.69 BB/100
Days Remaining: 28

Today has been "testy" to say the least. I've played around 1000 hands today. For the first 600-700, I did nothing. I took some hideous beats of the runner runner variety, hit set over set hands, two pair to set, things like that. However, I hit some good pots to offset that run. Then all of the sudden, it's like a switch flipped and I started winning.

Here are some interesting hands today:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ks, 4s.

1 fold, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, 3 folds, CO calls, Button calls, 1 fold, Hero checks.

Flop: (5.50 SB) 2s, 4h, 4c (5 players)

Hero bets, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 folds, CO folds, Button folds.

Turn: (3.75 BB) 2d (2 players)

Hero bets, UTG+1 calls.

River: (5.75 BB) 8d (2 players)

Hero bets, UTG+1 raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG+1 caps, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 13.75 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ks 4s (full house, fours full of twos).

UTG+1 has 2c Ac (full house, twos full of fours).

Outcome: Hero wins 13.75 BB.

right...

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is CO with 6h, 6d.

UTG calls, 1 fold, MP1 raises, 2 folds, Hero calls, 2 folds, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: (8.50 SB) 2c, 8h, 8d (4 players)

BB checks, UTG checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets, BB calls, UTG calls $1.50 (All-In), MP1 calls $3.50 (All-In), Hero raises, BB calls.

Turn: (8.25 BB) 5s (4 players, 2 all-in)

BB checks, Hero bets, BB folds.

River: (9.25 BB) Ts (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 9.25 BB

Results in white below:

UTG has 7h Qh (one pair, eights).

MP1 has Qd Js (one pair, eights).

Hero has 6h 6d (two pair, eights and sixes).

Outcome: Hero wins 9.25 BB.

I love when people get low and just give the rest of it away.

Here are 4 hands that I got consecutively on one table:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (8 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ah, Jd.

3 folds, MP2 calls, CO calls, Button calls, SB completes, Hero raises, MP2 calls, CO calls, Button calls, SB calls.

Flop: (10 SB) Ac, Ad, Qs (5 players)

SB folds, Hero bets, MP2 calls, CO folds, Button folds.

Turn: (6 BB) 4s (2 players)

Hero bets, MP2 calls.

River: (8 BB) 5s (2 players)

Hero bets, MP2 calls.

Final Pot: 10 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ah Jd (three of a kind, aces).

MP2 has 4d Ks (two pair, aces and fours).

Outcome: Hero wins 10 BB.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (8 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ah, Kh.

2 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, CO raises, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets, BB calls, MP1 folds, MP2 calls, CO calls.

Flop: (13 SB) Kd, Ac, 2c (4 players)

Hero bets, BB calls, MP2 folds, CO folds.

Turn: (7.50 BB) Th (2 players)

Hero bets, BB calls.

River: (9.50 BB) Qd (2 players)

Hero checks, BB bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 11.50 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ah Kh (two pair, aces and kings).

BB has Jh Ad (straight, ace high).

Outcome: BB wins 11.50 BB.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is Button with Qd, Ah. CO posts a blind of $2.

1 fold, UTG+1 calls, 3 folds, CO (poster) checks, Hero raises, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls, CO folds.

Flop: (6.50 SB) Ts, Ad, Kc (2 players)

UTG+1 bets, Hero raises, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: (5.25 BB) Qc (2 players)

UTG+1 bets, Hero raises, UTG+1 calls.

River: (9.25 BB) 5h (2 players)

UTG+1 checks, Hero bets, UTG+1 calls.

Final Pot: 11.25 BB

Results in white below:

UTG+1 has Th Kd (two pair, kings and tens).

Hero has Qd Ah (two pair, aces and queens).

Outcome: Hero wins 11.25 BB.

and the next hand was the pocket 6's hand above.

I'm off to watch a bit of TV and relax. I'll probably be back on here in a bit to get a few more hands in.

Stats so far:

Hands: 2,317 (27,683)
Pace: +317
Win Rate: -0.73 BB/100
Days Remaining 29

I'm playing so good right now, it's unbelievable. I'm still losing, but there's not much that I can do about it. I'm saving so many bets on these losing hands, so the losses could be worse. I have got a bit back from my 60BB slide last night, but it will come if I stay focused like I have been the past 16 or so hours.

I played about 700 hands this morning. The tables were unbelievable for early morning. I plan on trying to play at least 2000 hands today, so I can get a jumpstart on this challenge.

Here are my stats through 11:30am:

Hands: 1,710 (28,290 remaining)
Pace: +710 hands
Win Rate: -3.50 BB/100

Hands that are losing me the most money so far: KQo, JJ, AJo, QJs. Honorable mentions go to AJs and ATs.

Well, there's good news and bad news. First the good news.

1.) I'm ahead of pace for my 30K in 30 days. I played about 1050 hands this evening. It didn't take that long either. This might be easier than I thought, but I reserve judgement.

2.) There are still TONS of donkeys out there willing to put A LOT of money in the middle with very bad hands.

Now the bad news:

1.) Man did I run bad today. I got kicked in the balls right and left. I won't bore you with the details. I made a small comeback, but still lost about 60BBs tonight. If I'm gonna run 2 BB/100, I need 600 BBs.

I played very well tonight. Probably the best poker I've played in a long time. I made good reads all night long. I also stayed off tilt for the most part, although there was one hand where I almost slung my mouse across the room. I stayed out of "auto-pilot" mode too. If I keep playing like this, I should be very happy in 29,000 more hands.

I might play a little bit more here in a few, but for right now, I'm gonna go relax a bit. Here are my stats so far:

Hands: 1,033 (28,967 remaining)
Pace: +33 hands
Win Rate: -5.90 BB/100

And so it begins....

In about 7 hours, I begin my quest to average 1000 hands a day for 30 days.

I've been limbering up. I've got the doctor on speed dial in case I need emergency carpal tunnel surgery. It's on now bitches.

When I accomplish this challenge, it will be the most hands I've ever played in one month. It will also be a great boost the bankroll. I'll have $2400 extra money to play with plus rakeback. This will put the bankroll up there where I can comfortably play $3/6 6 max and take occasional shots at $5/10.

Best hand ever...

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (5 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP with 5c, 5h.

UTG calls, Hero raises, 2 folds, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: (6.50 SB) 9d, 4c, 9s (3 players)

BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets, BB calls, UTG calls.

Turn: (4.75 BB) 5s (3 players)

BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets, BB folds, UTG raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG calls.

River: (10.75 BB) 7s (2 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG calls.

Final Pot: 12.75 BB

Results in white below:

UTG has 8c Kc (one pair, nines).

Hero has 5c 5h (full house, fives full of nines).

Outcome: Hero wins 12.75 BB.

This guy sucked out on me 23523523525 times yesterday. I got his ass back today. Although, he got me a few times, I busted him in the end.

I had to deal with some asshole talking shit to my fish though. Here's the sequence of events. First the hand:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (5 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP with 5c, Ac.

UTG calls, Hero raises, 1 fold, SB calls, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: (8 SB) 9s, 4d, 5d (4 players)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets, Hero raises, SB folds, BB folds, UTG calls.

Turn: (6 BB) 3h (2 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG calls.

River: (8 BB) 6d (2 players)

UTG bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 10 BB

Results in white below:

UTG has 3d 7h (straight, seven high).

Hero has 5c Ac (one pair, fives).

Outcome: UTG wins 10 BB.

The the chat (names changed to protect my fishies):

Fuckstick: Hey [donkey], if you have money to waste, just transfer it to me... you suck a**!

2 hands later, my money man sitting directly to my right logs off.

Me: Hey [fuckstick], how does it feel to be a dipshit?

Readers of this blog, take note! From this point forward, if I catch you berating my fish, I will unleash my vengence on you. Just ask some of my close friends what kind of vengence I can unleash. No information is 100% secure in this world. Don't be surprised to have a Gay Man-whore show up to your office and tell you (in front of your co-workers) that you should get yourself to the clinic ASAP.

That is all.

SO...well... in other news, I'm moving back in tonight. I got the carpets cleaned yesterday and everything in the house looks great. All I have to do tonight is put my bed back together and I'm in business.

Also, I'm starting the challenge tomorrow evening. I've have no plans for tomorrow evening except to play some mf'n poker. So, at 7:00 pm, on Friday, January 27, the 30,000 hands in 30 days with a 2 BB/100 winrate challenge begins.

30K in 30 Days Challenge Countdown:
Hands Remaining: 30,000
Days Remaining: 30
Win Rate: 0.00 BB/100

How to transfer online funds from one poker site to the next without using Neteller: First, you need to log onto PokerStars and have a good +40BB or better session. Then you quit and try to sleep.

Now here is the tricky part. You must be battling a case of insomnia while trying to sleep in a strange bed. So, get up to get a glass of milk and check out the action on Full Tilt poker. Witness the biggest fish you've seen in a long time sitting at your limit. Then decide to join. Play 50 hands and lose 60BBs to that fish. Go to bed.

Next morning, wake up and log back into PokerStars, then win another 25+BB's.

When all is said and done, you gain a few BB's and a couple extra bucks in rake rebate and a good deal of FPPs.

Next lesson: How to survive a 375BB losing streak without blowing a gasket.

Things are finally starting to turn around on the poker tables. I got a decent session in this evening, playing 534 hands and winning about 40 BB's. It was a disappointing win though. I was a fucking card rack today. However, like usual, I was getting runner runnered to death.

The games on Poker Stars are fantastic right now. I'm having a hard time playing anywhere else, including sites where I get rakeback.

Here are some highlights from the evening:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (5 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ac, 5c. MP posts a blind of $2.

1 fold, MP (poster) checks, Button calls, Hero completes, BB checks.

Flop: (4 SB) Tc, 2c, 5s (4 players)

Hero checks, BB bets, MP calls, Button folds, Hero raises, BB calls, MP calls.

Turn: (5 BB) 4c (3 players)

Hero bets, BB raises, MP folds, Hero 3-bets, BB caps, Hero calls.

River: (13 BB) Kh (2 players)

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

Final Pot: 19 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ac 5c (flush, ace high).

BB has Ah 3h (straight, five high).

Outcome: Hero wins 19 BB.

Stone cold nuts bitches.

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is CO with Kd, Qd.

1 fold, MP calls, Hero raises, 1 fold, SB 3-bets, 1 fold, MP calls, Hero calls.

Flop: (10 SB) Td, 2d, Ks (3 players)

SB bets, MP calls, Hero raises, SB calls, MP calls.

Turn: (8 BB) Qs (3 players)

SB checks, MP checks, Hero bets, SB raises, MP folds, Hero calls.

River: (12 BB) 4d (2 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, SB calls.

Final Pot: 16 BB

Results in white below:

SB has Qh Kc (two pair, kings and queens).

Hero has Kd Qd (flush, king high).

Outcome: Hero wins 16 BB.

I do get lucky once in a while. I was scared to 3 bet on the turn because it was getting beat to death at the time and the guy was playing fairly straight forward, so I had him on QQ.

And now, the not so pretty:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ac, Ad.

UTG raises, 2 folds, Button 3-bets, 1 fold, Hero caps, UTG calls, Button calls.

Flop: (12.50 SB) Ts, 9h, 6s (3 players)

Hero bets, UTG calls, Button raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG folds, Button calls.

Turn: (9.75 BB) 6h (2 players)

Hero bets, Button calls.

River: (11.75 BB) 8h (2 players)

Hero bets, Button raises, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 15.75 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ac Ad (two pair, aces and sixes).

Button has Kh Ah (flush, ace high).

Outcome: Button wins 15.75 BB.

I damn near folded to that river raise, but ... well, I didn't

and finally... my favorite hand of the evening. This guy was beating me to death early, but then I finally started taking every dime he had. This was the nail in the coffin:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is Button with Kd, Tc.

2 folds, CO calls, Hero raises, 2 folds, CO calls.

Flop: (5.50 SB) 8s, 3s, 8d (2 players)

CO checks, Hero bets, CO calls.

Turn: (3.75 BB) 8c (2 players)

CO checks, Hero checks.

River: (3.75 BB) 4c (2 players)

CO bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 5.75 BB

Results in white below:

CO has 5c 9c (three of a kind, eights).

Hero has Kd Tc (three of a kind, eights).

Outcome: Hero wins 5.75 BB.

LOL, then I got a nice lesson on poker in the chat window. I just told him that I stared into his soul. Actually I just insta-called, because I knew he was gonna bluff at it.

So, I have some cleaning up to do tomorrow and then on Friday, I need to rent a shampoo'er for my carpet and it looks like Saturday is the official day for the start of my challenge. Maybe Sunday depending on if everything is moved back to its normal place.

I went to the house yesterday to check on the status of the repairs. Everything was almost looking normal. So I should be moved back in maybe tomorrow or Thursday. I just have to shampoo the carpets and move the furniture back.

Hopefully this means that I can start my 30,000 hand challenge Thursday or Friday. I have played a little bit today. Maybe 75-100 hands. Just donking around at lunch time. I did win some good pots though.

This evening, I'm in search of a carpet cleaner. Then I'll probably clean things up and hit the sack early. I haven't slept well the past couple nights.

Ok, one more post for the day and it's poker related! Yay!

Every now and then, usually on a monthly basis, I will post my goals for the month and/or year. However, I normally set these goals too high. Now I have become accustomed to not reaching my goals and it does not bother me like it used to.

So this post is to not state a goal, but a challenge. Some sort of motivation for me to play.

My challenge is going to be for the next 30 days, play 30,000 hands of poker. That's an average of 1,000 hands per day for those of you that can't divide. Not only do I challenge myself to get in all these hands, but I'm going to shoot for a 2.0BB/100 win-rate in the process. All of these hands will be played at the $2/4 limit. More than likely short handed.

I wanted to add the 2.0BB/100 stipulation, because I'm trying to actually improve my game and stay out of "autopilot" mode while I play.

Now let's work the numbers:

Goals:
30,000 Hands
2.0 BB/100 Hands

Results if the goal is obtained: +$2400 to the bankroll not counting rakeback.

The extra $2400 plus rakeback will be an awesome shot into the arm of my bankroll. It will also allow for me to move up, and I'll have a since of accomplishment. I won about that much in both October and November, but I was running extremely hot those 2 months and didn't get nowhere near 30,000 played hands for either month.

There's only 1 drawback. I'm not starting the challenge right now. It will probably start sometime this week. I have to get moved back in before I can start.

I just need to start playing more. My motivation is back to play, however, I'm just not making the time to play. I also need to get my brain used to playing 1000+ hands a day. I used to do it all the time, but now it just seems like I'm having difficulties. However, if I want to meet my yearly goal of poker winnings exceeding my salary, I'm going to have to play A LOT more.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I don't intend to cash out any of my winnings this year unless it is for an emergency? That's not a goal or a challenge, just an intention.

2 for 1 special today:

Post #1: This was supposed to go up Friday, but I got tied up before I could post it

Well, I finally had a winning session of poker and now I'm ready to make a run as a pro. There's a bit of sarcasm in that statement, but also a bit of truth in it as well. I'm capping off a hellish week.

First, on Monday, I have a water line bust in the wall and fuck up my home. That really has nothing to do with work, but it was just an omen for how my week would go. So on Tuesday, I have to go to Richmond, VA. Now, I've been through Richmond and around Richmond, but never actually IN Richmond. Let me tell you something, people make fun of WV, but it's thousands times better than Richmond, VA. That is the biggest scum hole on the fucking planet. Worse than DC (except for the traffic). The business I had to work out closed at 4:00pm just so they could get out of there before the sun went down. In the 3 days I was there, I had about 10 different people trying to bum money, I had some retard at a bus stop jump up and down repeatedly and sing to me, and while I was eating lunch, I got to see the police bash some idiot's skull against the trunk of their car. Superb place, this Richmond, VA.

Also the people I was working with were a bit high strung to say the least. The main woman that I was training was .... let me try to put this politely as to not offend.... A FUCKING BITCH!

I came straight home and hit Monster.com. I actually had a job offer this week, but turned it down. It was a sys admin job for some rocket center about 5 hours away.

Anyway, after having a shit week, I escaped into a little online poker. Even when I was way down at one point, I was at peace. Nothing was bothering me. It's bad when losing insane amounts of money is more relaxing that your job. I guess my tranquility prevailed in the end and I ended up having 2 winning sessions yesterday. Both after being down close to 50BBs in each session.

So, I've been playing without direction or motivation lately. Even though the motivation is rapidly returning, I'm still without any goals to shoot for. So here's the long term goal: win more money this year than my gross salary for my job. It should be fairly easy if I stay motivated. Even after month long losing streak and dropping down to limits less than half what I was playing last year, my overall hourly rate is better than my approximate hourly rate at work (I'm a salaried employee, so I just guestimated the rate). Also, it's not like I'll be stuck at $2/4 forever. Eventually, I'll get moved back up to the $5/10 or even $15/30 games and making some good money.

That goal is a long way off money-wise, but not that far away time-wise. Some obstacles that I see are 1. burnout and 2. summer. I usually don't play that much during the summer, but if I want to achieve my goal, I will need to play regularly all year long, especially now that I'm scraping bottom at the $2/4 games.

Post #2 for today
I played a little bit of poker yesterday despite being fairly busy. I won just a little bit. A win is a win and I'm trying to focus on long term results (hard to do when you're stuck 300BBs). Anyway, I'm quite a bit of poker played the 2nd half of this month. I'm just going to keep plugging until I start winning again or lose it all. I'm still a good ways off from losing my bankroll though. However, I think the poker gods owe me at least one huge winning day soon.

I got the bill for my water damage. $1200. Normally I could just pay for it out of my poker money, but ... well you know... poker sucks these days. So, I had to take it out of my savings account. The good news is that I'll probably get moved back in to my place this week. I have been going over there to play poker because my monitor kicks ass and my parents' monitor sucks ass.

Some personal life tidbits (Felicia, you can stop reading now).

- I got 2nd place in the bowling tournament last night. My highest finish ever. I'm making some adjustments in my game and my consistency is off, but my game is improving rapidly. This time last year, I was averaging below 150. My average now is 181 and rising.

I'm really really into bowling right now and I'm getting un-official coaching from 2 PBA members and a house pro. Usually every time I go to practice, one of these 3 are available to me and I'd like to thank Daniel, Dwayne, and Jason for all their free help. It's starting to pay off.

- Those of you that know me personally, know that I'm a fairly conservative person. I think of myself as more middle of the road that most conservatives, however, there are a bunch of uber-liberal nuts out there that just turn my stomach. The majority of these nuts can be found in Academia, pushing their rhetoric on un-suspecting college students that are there to 1.) Learn and 2.) Drink beer. I heard this story on the radio this morning and it brought a smile to my face. It might be old, but I'm passing it onto my readers anyway:

A Marine was attending a college course between missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The professor, an avowed atheist, shocked the class one day when he walked in, looked toward the ceiling, and said loudly, "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform.

I'll give you exactly 15 minutes."The lecture room fell silent and the professor began his lecture.

Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, "Here I am God - still waiting."

It got down to the last minute when the Marine stood up, walked toward the professor and threw his best punch knocking him off the platform and out cold.

The Marine went back to his seat and sat down The other students were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence.

The professor came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, "What the hell is the matter with you? Why did you did that?"

The Marine calmly replied, "God is busy today protecting America's soldiers who are protecting your right to behave like an idiot and say stupid shit. So He sent me."


That story really hits home with me. Although, more than likely fiction, I had to put up with this shit for 4 years. I was even un-fairly failed in class because of my political views when I was a freshman. It's becoming and epidemic in this nation and its unfair.

The problem is that most high school students really don't have any political views when the go to college. The professors know this and like a bunch of vultures, use this as an opportunity to push their beliefs onto the students. I experienced it day in and day out during my years.

In my English 101 class, I had the pleasure of getting a femenist as a professor. Every piece of literature we had to read was about feminism or some sort of babbling about how the male species sucked. Every lecture dealt with the same issues. Finally one day, I got fed up and had a meeting with the professor.

In the meeting, I told her that I felt the class was a load of shit and asked her if she ever intended to let the class view the other side of the spectrum. She basically blew me off as some punk kid that didn't know what I was talking about, so I just laid it out for her. I was going to to do the assigned work, but I was not going to attend any more of her lectures because 1.) She was full of shit, and 2.) I had better things to do with my time. She said that would be fine. Normally, dropping the class would be the correct play here, but it was beyond the drop-date, so this my only chance.

I wrote every paper assigned in the class. I read every piece of bullshit she assigned. Everything was done on time. The only thing I didn't do was sit in her class and and soak up the BS she was putting out. Suprise Surprise, come grade time, I get a big fat F. So then, I went through the whole process of getting my papers re-graded by an un-biased party and filing a complaint with the dean. Long story short, nobody on the faculty would take my side, so next semester, it was English 101 all over with a better professor.

I got a good story about another dipshit professor, but I'll save that for another time. Until, then, peace out.

I played a decent amount of poker yesterday and today. Overall, I got almost 2000 hands in. All of them at $2/4 6 max. I could have just not played and been in the same place. I started out by losing about 50BBs in the first 800 hands, then I won them all back in the next 200. Then lost another 50BBs, then won them all back again. Break even poker. Good enough for January I guess.

I feel like I should just be racking up. However, I'm still getting rivered right and left. I'm also flopping 2 pairs against sets and shit like that. It's killing me right now. I was dealt Aces 8 times today. I'm getting some good starting hands and they do really well on the flop and/or turn. I can't complain though, I'm playing better and better every day. I've been just a bit gunshy, but I'm starting to get those ever important extra value bets in there on my winning hands.

And to those of you that say that the games are drying up. Well, I got one word for you......HAHAHHAHAHHA. I've seen so much donk action today. The games are good.

Here was my highlight hand of the day. I missed 2 small bets by just calling in the big blind, but it's something I sometimes do to disguise my hand. I also hate AJ, but this one worked out:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ac, Js.

3 folds, Button calls, SB raises, Hero calls, Button calls.

Flop: (6 SB) Jh, Kh, Ad (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, Button calls, SB calls.

Turn: (4.50 BB) Ah (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, Button raises, SB calls, Hero 3-bets, Button caps, SB calls, Hero calls.

River: (16.50 BB) 4h (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, Button calls, SB folds.

Final Pot: 18.50 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ac Js (full house, aces full of jacks).

Button has 2h 7h (flush, ace high).

Outcome: Hero wins 18.50 BB.

Well, life dealt me a bad beat on Monday. I came home and could hear water rushing. Bad news. A supply line to my washer busted and made a mess. So now I have to replace part of my bedroom floor and part of the laundry room floor. It's just been that kind of month for me.

On a good note, I actually won at poker today. I was way up, then way down, then ended up 25BBs. Here's the hand of the day:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ad, 6d.

3 folds, Button raises, Hero 3-bets, BB calls, Button calls.

Flop: (9 SB) Js, Qd, 3d (3 players)

Hero bets, BB raises, Button folds, Hero 3-bets, BB calls.

Turn: (7.50 BB) 9d (2 players)

Hero bets, BB raises, Hero 3-bets, BB caps, Hero calls.

River: (15.50 BB) Tc (2 players)

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

Final Pot: 21.50 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ad 6d (flush, ace high).

BB has Th Ks (straight, king high).

Outcome: Hero wins 21.50 BB.

It has been too long since I had one of those.

Everywhere I go people annoy the shit out of me. It always seems like everyone is looking out for #1 and piss on the rest of the world. It's all about me me me. Did I miss the memo that says you have to be an asshole these days?

The majority of the annoying people I see are on the road. I spend a lot of time driving. I have about a 90-100 mile per day round trip commute with my job. I also travel a bit due to my job. So many drivers are certified pricks out there. I'm usually filled with road rage on a daily basis. The ones that really get on my nerves are the assholes that can't decide whether they want to drive 90mph or 50mph. They are usually on a cell phone paying no attention to the world outside their vehicle. I'm a cruise control guy. I set my cruise on 75mph. So I'm going a constant rate of speed regardless of whether it's uphill or downhill.

The other drivers that I wish I had a license to kill are the ones that think just because the sign says "Right lane closed 500 feet" means they got another 499.999 feet to pass cars. Because heaven forbid they lose those precious 3 seconds stuck behind us lowly safe drivers.

I could go on and on about drivers being dick heads, but you've all been there. Just heed my advice, use your cruise control on the interstate. If you want to haul ass down the road, go ahead, but for the love of God, be consistent! If you're going to drive slow, keep your ass in the right hand lane. The left lane is for passing, not for getting in my fucking way.

Another place that people get on my nerves is the shopping centers. Now, that I'm bacheloring it up on my own, I go grocery shopping about once every week or 2. My frequency has died down lately because of my hatred for putting up with the hassle of shopping. Old ladies are the worst. They have to look through every carton of milk to find the one with the ultimate expiration date, therefore making you wait. Keep your nasty paws off my milk please.

Another group of shoppers that annoy me are the people that decide to congregate in the middle of an aisle and discuss the fuckin' weather, politics, or the old chick with the nice ass bent over checking all the milk expiration dates. It gets horrible around Christmas time. If you're gonna chit chat, at least move to an open part of the store. Get out of my damn way.

I can't remember the last time I went 24 hours without another person irritating the shit out of me. This list is endless:

o The chick at the drive-thru that decides she's going to order $60 worth of food (usually buying lunch for the office)

o The people at the bowling alley that go outside to smoke and stand directly in the doorway so everyone has to walk around them

o The high maintenance customer that feels for whatever reason that they are more special than the rest even though they paid the same amount of money as another customer which never calls.

o Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd

o The whiney brat at the poker table who is so superb at poker that this was the first bad beat he's had in his life

o The 14 year old girls at the mall that dress like hookers and smoke just to be cool (at least inhale)

o Telemarketers and spammers

o The nosey neighbors

o The cocksuckers at the restaraunts who can't go 30 minutes without talking on the cell phone

o TV Journalists that pretend like they care (i.e. Katie Kourek and Matt Louer...sp?)

o The people that will hold up traffic and wait for 5 minutes for the other car to pull out of the parking spot, just so they don't have to walk that extra 20 feet.

o The COCKSUCKING MOTHERFUCKING SUPPOSED MILLIONAIRE THAT OWES ME $425, but calls me wanting to sell me a cell phone. People close to me know who I'm talking about. Fuck you!

If I sit here and think about it, I could probably make a list a mile long of people that irritate me. It's a shame too. I'm not sure if I'm just getting old or what, but it seems to get worse every year. Everyone is all caught up in themselves. I try to take at least a few minutes out of my day to think about others. It's a good habit to get into. Also, have respect for other people. You'll find, you get treated better by those same people in the long run. When you go into a public place, turn off your cell phone. If someone says "Excuse me", take the hint and get the fuck out of the way. For long time assholes that want to convert to being good folk, follow these tips and you'll be ok. 1.) Take at least 1 shower every day and brush your teeth, 2.) Learn the terms "Excuse Me", "Please", and "Thank you". That's it. The world would be 10 times better if everyone would follow those 2 simple rules.

It's getting so bad, in fact, that I just avoid places where I have to interact with other people. Some may think I'm a social misfit or something like that. This isn't true. I have plenty of good friends and most of them feel the same way I do. Those who don't, still respect my opinion and I respect theirs. This is how the world should be folks. Slow down, yet move at a steady pace.

Just some insight into my brain.

VARIANCE IS HIGH.... I REPEAT... VARIANCE IS HIGH.

or

I just suck at poker. Played 541 hands today for a loss of $64. I was winning big early in the session. Everything was hitting for me and I thought this was going to be the day. However, about mid-way through the session, Lee Jones stuck it in my cornhole and pushed the doom button on me.

I've been using Poker Tracker to find out where I'm leaking money during this worst losing streak of my life (well over 300BBs at this point). It looks like my biggest losses are coming from beats that I'm taking where I have the villian dominated. My AK hands are losing to KJ, AQ losing to KQ and things like that. So that's good news. There are some other things I need to clear up, but everything looks mostly kosher as far as the way I'm playing. I feel good about my game and my spirits are still high. Unfortunately, the bankroll isn't. Such is life in the short-handed world though.

I've achieved my Silver Star status in the VIP club on Stars, but for some reason, I was thinking the iPod Nano was only 8000 FPPs. I went to buy it and noticed that it was 16,000 FPPs. I'm not sure if it changed from the first time I looked or if I'm just and idiot. Probably the latter. So I still got a ways to go for that.

I also think I'm going to start playing some more full table poker. Maybe a change in the games will spark the poker gods to shine on me for a while. I'll probably go to Party for the full table games.

Some interesting stats from 12/1 through today:

The following long term winning hands for me are losing money during this horrendous streak: AK suited, AQ offsuit, AT suited, QQ, JJ, TT, 88, 77 (big time), and 66. However, over the last 100,000 hands here are the stats for the same starting hands:

AK suited: +0.74 BB/Hand
AQ off: +0.39 BB/Hand
AT suited: +0.43 BB/Hand
QQ: +1.24 BB/Hand
JJ: +1.22 BB/Hand
TT: +0.87 BB/Hand
88: +0.50 BB/Hand
77: +0.12 BB/Hand
66: +0.20 BB/Hand

The above numbers include hands during my losing streak. I couldn't figure out how to get the 100,000 prior to the beginning of the downswing.

Another stat: Over the last 100,000 hands, suited connectors are a net winner for me (+0.12 BB/Hand). During the downswing they are actually still winning (+0.07 BB/Hand) which is surprising to me.

I would really like to know how my numbers stand compared to the others that read this blog and have poker tracker. I would post the numbers on 2+2, but that would be like comparing apples to oranges. Most 2+2'ers play a different style than me. I'm about 5-10% looser on my VP$IP than the average 2+2'er. My VP$IP hangs around 29% and my PF Raise is around 18.5%. The average 2+2'er stays around 21-24% in short handed games, which I think can surely be winning, but not optimal. I rely on position and aggression to win money. I try to squeeze as many bets as I can when I have a winning hand. From reading the Short handed forums on 2+2, they seem to be too quick to go into call-down mode.

Also, I'm talking about the typical 2+2'er. There are a select few posters in the group that play more loose and more aggressive, and make good reads all at the same time. Their bankrolls show it too. These are the guys that I like to read. However, they spend too much time in the OOT forum and not enough time giving me some insight into their games ;)

Lastly, I really need a faster computer. My laptop is fairly fast, but Poker Tracker brings it to its knees. Especially when using the Filters feature using all my recorded hands. I tried installing the Postgresql to convert to that, but something keeps going wrong in the conversion. There's a problem with my database and it takes MS Access to fix it. I don't have Access, but I think we have one somewhere at work. I just need to find it.

Holy shit, I actually have a LITTLE bit of poker content today. I was going to play some poker last night, but fell asleep very early. As a result, I was wide awake at 7:00am. So I fired up Stars and Full Tilt. I played about 300 hands and lost again. However, I played as well as I could. I just didn't get a lot of hands... again. I only lost like $24.

I started using TiltBlocker again. I'm not sure why I quit using it in the first place. It's amazing how something so simple can help so much in keeping your head on straight. I actually thought I had a big losing session.

I'm going to try to get at least another 700 hands in today. My DVR cable box broke....again, so I have a 4 hour window where I have to be here today. If they are going to have the house call people working on Saturday, why not open the main office, so I can just go there and exchange the box personally, when it suits my schedule? Cable providers, telephone providers, banks, and the post office are all retarded in my book. But that's another post for another day.

Today's poker music: Damn Yankees

Well, I need to rename my blog I guess. Predator314's Poker Journal is too misleading considering I haven't played more than 2000 hands in the past month and a half. Most of my recent posts have been about my personal life anyway. This one will be no different.

Yesterday was a good day for me. I got plenty of sleep the night before. Also, I did something Tuesday evening that I'm very proud of, yet I can't really tell anyone about it. Let's just say it was was for the good of all mankind. Only a select few very close friends know what I did and they are very proud. The only reason I'm keeping it a secret is because of the fallout that will/could possibly ensue as a result of what I did.

Last night was league bowling night too. I bowled decent the first 2 games, but sucked the last game. My scores were 181, 194, 147. The 181 was actually a crappy game because I had 3 strikes in the first 3 frames, then a 9-spare, then another strike, then I sucked the rest of the game. It should have been a huge score. Oh well, our team took all 8 points and we are a perfect 16-0 this quarter.

I'm attempting to try to make myself somewhat interested in college basketball since it is the only thing on TV these days. I watched parts of the WVU game while I was bowling last night. Then when I got home, I watched some of the Duke/Maryland game. However, it wasn't very interesting and even though I've seen it 298937 times, Meet the Fockers got most of the viewing time.

Tonight, I'm just going to chill out around the house and hopefully get to bed early. I have to go to Mocksville, NC tomorrow for work. I think it's only about 2 hours away from my house. Plus I don't have to spend the night or anything, just down and back. Hopefully my installation will go well and I can get home early.

I really cannot stand basketball. I do go to a few of the local high school games every year. But that's just because it's my alma mater and I really go to hang out with friends.

Last year was a little different though. WVU faired very well in the NCAA Tournament. Hopefully this year will be much of the same. WVU handed Villanova their first loss of the season.



I'm actually looking forward to March Madness this year.

Is it Friday yet? It's been a bad week so far. Last week, I didn't go to work any. I was seriously sick all week long with a nasty stomach virus. So when I get to work this week, I gotta hear about missing the entire week and how it affects the company. I know how it affects the company. I don't want to hear about it everytime I am sick and don't feel like being at work.

So I'm at a crossroads here. Where do I want to go in life? Fucked if I know. It's really depressing too. The only thing I know is that honestly hate my job.

Reasons for hating my job

o My boss is a prick. He's not ingorant and he's a pretty damn good salesman. However, I just cannot stand him. He has no sense of humor. He expects nothing in your personal life to affect you going to work. He cannot handle pressure at all and it's embarrassing to be on-site with him when he starts to flake out. Worst of all, he is condescending to others, especially people that work jobs like fast food. I refuse to order with him for fear of getting a loogey burger.

o I have to wear a tie. This really isn't a big deal, but it irks the shit out of me because there is no good reason for it. I can understand being dressed up when going to a customer's location, but we do not have customers here. The only people that come into our office throughout the course of the day are the UPS Man, Fed Ex Man, and an occassional salesman.

o My job is mind numbing work. It's not demanding. Some of my responsibilities include setting up new Windows 2003 and SCO Unix servers for new or upgrading customers, coding enhancements, bug fixes, etc to our software package, technical support, on-site training for new customers, and on-site installation of new servers for new or upgrading customers. It's just mind numbing work now that I've been here for 5+ years and know everything really well. The days pass by VERY slow.

o I dread going to work every day. It's literally work making myself go to work anymore. I don't miss a lot of work, but I do use every personal day and vacation day available to me. I've never had a job where I dreaded going in so bad. I need a job where I actually enjoy going in or at least don't mind it.

o The employees. We are a small company and there are only a couple of employees. I'm the newest, yet I've been here for close to 6 years. The other employees here are good people, just not my type of people. There's no chit chat or anything like that. I'm the only one without kids, and if there is any non-work discussion between us, it's usually about their kids. I need someone I can tell a dirty joke to every now and again to break the tension.

o Travel. When I took this job, I figured the travel would be a nice change of pace. We have customers in various states from Illinois to Florida and most states in between. Most of my customers are in the 5-6 hour driving range. Some of the places I've been to are nice, some are scum holes. I live in a rural community and love it. People put down West Virginia, but I think it's a great state to live in. Hardly any traffic, beautful scenery, and it's just a laid back state. However, with that comes some disadvantages. We don't have any major sports teams and there's not much to choose from as far as concerts/shows go. When I go to Atlanta, I'd like to watch a Braves game or a Falcons game. Not with this job. We work from the time we get there, to the time we leave. We are even expected to work on enhancements in the motel rooms at night.

Good Points of my Job

o I don't have to deal with the general public.
o It's an easy job
o Pays good (not great)
o Free health insurance
o Profit sharing

I'm not sure what I want to do with my life. I do know what I don't want to do. I don't want to work here forever. I'm also not sure of what will become of the company once my boss retires. I'd say he is probably close to 60 years old right now. I've been to his house and seen his toys. The guy is loaded. He doesn't finance anything, so he's liquid too. I'm sure he will be retiring soon. One of these days I'm going to ask him what will become of the company when he retires.

Now that I've been out of school for a while, I have a better perspective on what is important. When I was in school, it was all about the money. So that's what I went for and look at me now. Updating this stupid blog, bitching to the entire world about how much I hate my job.

So if it's not money I'm going for, what do I want in a job?

I want to work doing something that I enjoy. I used to enjoy working with computers, but I've grown out of it. If I am to work in a team atmosphere, I'd like to do it with people more like me. At least someone with a good sense of humor and doesn't always have some sort of drama going on.

I'm not all caught up in "making a difference" in the world. I just want to do something that is fun and I get paid for it.

OK, so now that I've pretty much narrowed it down to something fun, let's take a look at my hobbies and how I can maybe/maybe not make a career out of them.

Hobbies

o Poker (of course)
o Shooting Pool
o Bowling
o Video Games
o Golf
o Music
o Movies/Television

Lets start with poker since this is supposed to be a poker blog. I just don't know if I have what it takes to become a professional poker player mentally. I don't think I'd have any trouble making the money to live life. I have a good winrate. I've survived the ups and downs. But how will I react if I have a losing month and my mortgage payment depends on my poker winnings? How long can I do it for a living? I'm 28 now. What will the poker industry be like in 10 years?

I don't have the writing talent of Otis or Dr. Pauly to become a professional poker blogger/writer. These guys have a very special skill that makes their writing stand out. So if I'm to make a living in the poker industry, it would have to be by playing the game.

Shooting pool, bowling, golf: I don't have the talent in any of these sports to play them professionally. I guess the closest would be pool. However, the life of a professional pool player is not a decent one. Sure, you've got the lucky few who thrive on TV and have big time sponsorships. Most other ones make their money by gambling. Pool has also become a "chemical" sport. I'd venture to say that at least 75% of the pool players that make a living at it are also hopped up on cocaine. I had a well known professional tell me one time that when he was on coke, he could spot God the 8.

Golf is fun to play. But again, I don't have the talent. The guys you see on TV are fucking amazing. A couple years ago, I was playing 3 to 5 times a week and was rapidly moving towards becoming a scratch golfer. It was amazing how much my game progressed from the beginning of the year to the end. Of course that will happen when you play over 200 rounds of golf in a year. As far as working for the golf industry, I'm not sure what I would do. I'm sure there are various office type jobs working for the PGA, USGA, etc. I am qualfied to be a greens keeper :)

Bowling: see Golf. Not good enough.

Video games are intriguing. Development of video games is something that I'm perhaps qualified to do. However, I've looked into it and everything I read is pretty much the same thing. You have deadlines to meet, you've always got someone over your shoulder telling you about the deadline and you work very long days. That's not for me.

The music industry is something that I haven't really looked into a whole lot. I love music. I play guitar, but not well. So don't expect to see me on stage rocking out with Ozzy or anything. However, the industry is so huge, there's gotta be a crap load of stuff I could do. One really fulfilling thing would be to help some up and coming bands/artists break through into the industry. I've listened to a lot of local bands. We got some quality talent in this area. Better than 95% of the shit you will hear on the radio. They can write their own songs, play their own instruments, and actually sing. Seems like a winning combo to me. I'm sure there's a lot of politics in the music industry, but I'm gonna check into careers in the music industry anyway.

Getting work in the movie/television industry would more than likely require moving to L.A. Not a chance. I'm sure L.A. is nice for some people. A country hick like me wouldn't last a month.

One job that interests me that doesn't really fit into any category I've mentioned above is teaching. I'm not good with children, but I wouldn't mind teaching high school students or college students. The college professor route really intrigues me. In my college experience, many professors did their job very poorly. All too many times, they ended up pushing their political and personal opinions on your rather than just teaching the damn class. I'm not sure what the deal is, but from the people I've talked to, it's an epidemic across the nation. I have in-depth knowledge of computers, programming, networking, etc. I currently train customers. Why can't I teach a bunch of hippies how to set up a TCP/IP network?

I apologize for the size of the post. I just needed to get some things out of my head. I'm just going polish my resume and get my name out there and see what becomes of it. Sitting here and bitching about it isn't going to help anything.