01/31/07 - $3.30 Donkament

Not much action today. Got deep in a $3 multi. 41st out of 1100 or so for a grand win of $9+. Weeee. My cash game is helping me out tremendously in tourneys now. I think I will start playing more of them since I have good luck lately. I've been right on with my reads.

I had a Royal today!!! 3rd one so far. Guy went all in too. I will post hand later when I find it in poker tracker. Classic.

Final hand of tourney. Blinds 1000/2000. I have AQ sooted on button. UTG 3 bets, guy goes all-in in MP for 15,000. I had about 13,000 and knew I should have folded. WTF I call and see 77 and JJ. 2 overs and I don't hit. Shoulda folded, but I had only a few hands left.

01/30/06 - Now I remember......

Now I remember how I won all my money. Full Ring NL Holdem. The last 2 sessions I posted some nice wins and it feels good. That was my game of choice last year before I switched to 6-man NL. It's fun to play now applying LAG style in LP.

Hand of the day:

99: http://www.pokerhand.org/?781490

Here's a hand where I pulled off a bluff on the turn to represent AK. I put him on a 10 or flush draw obviously. I thought his turn bet looked weak so I attacked. I didn't want to put him all-in on river so I bet $25 of his $28. I think donks call all-in bets faster than value bets.

I will continue my experiment at full ring. So far it's clearing FPP's at a rate of 0.305 fpps per hand. 235 hands per hour = full ring FAST tables (4-tabling). About 71 fpps per hour. 17 more hours of 4 tabling to clear $150 bonus. LOL. Maybe its time to 8 or 9 table????? I'm sick.

01/29/07 - Back to hating poker

Streak ended. Blew thru $68 playing limit donk game. QQ cracked twice, 10-10 cracked, and 8-6 sooted when I flop a flush and guy boats me on river.

And then I tried $3 rebuy tourney on stars and pissed thru another $15. Go out of tourney with AK sooted vs A-5. Guy limps, I make it 1000 and he limp calls. Flop is Q-X-5 rainbow. He bets 1000. I reraise all in. He calls with A-5. Shouda pushed preflop.

01/28/06 - AA vs KK vs QQ - Odds?

Check out this hand from my Donkament today:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?774814 . I can't believe I won!! WoW.

So I played a $1.20 45-man Sng today while I was processing paperwork for my businesses. Guess what??? I won it! $14 win for a buck. Weee.

WTF??? I need to play the Sunday $215 on stars with the heater I am on with the tourneys and SNGS. Now I remember how I built my roll from $80 to $7500. I think I need to mix in some sngs and tourneys in the cash game grind. My tens of thousands of hands is really helping me when I play a tourney now. I can tell a difference.

01/27/07 - 24 hour luck sack

So coming off the win in the live game last nite, I fired up a $22 SNG this afternoon with Erbo. I take it down for first. Weeee.

After checking email and doing business paperwork tonite, I fire up Pokerstars to update my spreadsheets. I wanted to play something, so I looked on tilt for some NL cash and none of the tables looked good. So I decided to play $3/6 limit on stars, 1 table. I was up $68 from before, so I was freerolling a few bad hands if they came. The opposite happened. I got hit in the head with the deck.

I had Q-9 sooted on button. Flop open ended straight flush draw. Guy bets, I raise for free card trick. I hit on turn, we 3 bet it. He hit 2 pair on turn and I got full value for my flush. He typed "nh micro." He must have hands on me because I play low limit on stars. I don't know.

Few hands later, I get QQ on button again. I smooth call raise from EP. Flop is Q-7-x. He bets, I call waiting for turn to hammer. Turn is 7. I boat up. He bets. I raise. He calls. River he checks and I do the long pause bet routine. He calls with A-10. WTF. Weee.

So with SNG win and my hit and run at 3/6 I won $141 today. Nice. Almost back to where I was before Sprial Donkward #2.

01/27/07 - Live Game Win

Played in Donkament. I went in to situation keeping my mouth shut and not letting them know I play. Just sit back and observe and not talk too much.

Lost 1st tourney with KJ sooted vs 9-4??? She called my all-in with 9-4. LOL.

2nd SNG, 9 handed, I won 1st place for $90. I didn't play hand for the first 3 levels. Everyone limping and 6-7 people seeing flops. We started with 700 chips and blinds at 5/10. I fold, fold, fold, fold. Then I decide I'm gonna play a hand in position, so I'm not a nit. Table was starting to make comments about me folding.

So in the cutoff, I get 10-2 sooted thinking Im gonna make a play postflop in position. LOL. I limped and button goes all in for 55 more. There goes my plan. We all call and flop is 10 high with 2 of my suit. Drunk Girl ahead of me goes all in for like 250. I still had about 700. I insta call. Im up against KJ and AK. I turn flush and win pot. Girl who was a poker player kinda aped me and said nice call. I said, what am i gonna do? Lay down top pair and flush draw with 2 to come? She shut her trap.

Then I heat up. Switched gears and got good cards all at same time. Limp fest, I made it 500 to go with AK clubs. They all fold. People getting pissed I'm raising a lot of hands. Very next hand KK. I make same bet. Guy behind calls this time. Flop is rags with 2 clubs. Pot is like 500. I go all in with about 750. He insta calls. I'm like oh shit, he has set. He turns over AK clubs. I was ready to go home, since I lose those flips like 80% of the time. NO CLUB! My hand held and I doubled thru and new chip leader. He was steaming. Everyone starting to realize I know what I'm doing.

Girl at table I know pipes up and asks me how often we play our live game at my house. My cover was blown. I proceed to take out short stacks with ace-rag, QJ sooted, etc when I'm in blind for like 200 and their all-in bets are like 350.

3 handed, I'm huge leader, there are 2 medium stacks left. I get Q-10 in SB and complete. We all see flop which is 10 high. Drunk guy bets out of turn when I'm first to act. I was planning a check raise on these shorties, but after seeing that I wasn't so sure. I saw the Drunk guy earlier in the night, do same thing with AA, so I checked to him and he bets minimum of 200 into 600 pot. Other guy in pot folds and I call. Turn is rag, I check call his min bet. River is rag, and he says "check" out of turn again! Dealer corrects him and says it's my action. What would you do???? Yep, I move all in and he calls with pocket 4's and loses. WOW.

Heads up the guy was brutal. He'd look at cards in BB and make a face like, "wow, I got crap!" Raise!!!! He'd fold. He'd complete SB and I'd raise. He'd fold. He'd 2 bet preflop, I'd call and float him on flop. He'd fold. I got him all in with K-8 clubs vs. J-8 spades. Brilliant.

I liked poker last nite. Odds held how they were supposed to, unlike Online Donkouts. LOL.

01/26/07 - Live Game tonite - DONKS???

I have an ivite to a live game tonite that's not my normal crew. 16 people are gonna be there for a small $20 tourney. It's run by my friend's girlfriend, and its all her friends from work playing. I know it's gonna be a huge limp/donkfest. My AK is gonna be getting called by Q-3 sooteds and K-9 offsuits.

I run our game, and its gonna be hard biting my tongue when they do stupid shit like pay top 2 out of 16 and give you 200 chips to start with. Plus I'm spoiled playing with my rockstar chips on my rockstar table, with rockstar playing cards, with my rockstar buddies, with the game run by my laptop software. (long sentence?)

It's gonna be one of those nights where I have to pretend I don't play online poker or know what I'm doing. If they only knew I played about 25,000 hands since 12/01/06. Muh Ha. Ha. Haaaaa.

01/26/07 - 8 tabling $1/2 Limit

Ok, I admit. I'm a little sick at times playing poker. Today I 8-tabled $1/2 on Stars and cleared 500 fpps in a little over 2 hours. I was surprised how I was able to keep up. Besides, Limit is a lot of folding.

I cleared bonus today. LOL. I was down over $50. Then I got to even with 20 fpps to clear bonus, and I started unchecking the Post Blind button and shutting down tables. Of course I managed to blow thru $35 on bad beats, etc. So with first $120 bonus, I managed to lose about $50 clearing it, so I netted +$70 or so.

Limit is such a brutal game. It's probably because of the level I am playing, but the bad beats are awful. $1/2 is the best game to clear bonus by far. The risk is the smallest and the clear rates are averaging 0.355 fpps/hand over about 2000 hands.

Next bonus is 1500 fpps for $150, so this one should take me longer than 2.5 days to clear. Let's see how we do on this one.

01/25/07 - BREAK - Limit Part 2

So I continue my Bonus Clearing at stars. Played $2/4 Limit today. It clears about the same amount of FPP's at that level as the $1/2 level. At 1/2, the rake has to hit 40 cents to get 1 point. At 2/4, the rake has to hit $1.

I lost about $27. Halfway to 1st $120 bonus. Should be cleared in next 2-3 days.

01/24/07 - BREAK - Played Limit today!!

Taking a break from NL $50 for a few days. I went over to pokerstars and played 4 tables of $1/2 limit. I cleared about 200 fpps in a little over an hour. I also won about $18. I was down over $50 at one point getting my QQ, KK, JJ cracked by rags. Wow, what a different game limit is. I basically play by a hand chart Sklansky has in his book. It's kind of no brainer play, playing position, and raising for free cards, etc. It's all math and donk ness.

I have 3 bonuses saved up there for $120, $120, and $150, plus I have another $150 on my other account. I figure I can clear the 3 bonuses in about 24 hours of play, so it will be a nice infusion to my bankroll hopefully if the donk outs don't happen too much. Playing limit has always helped my post flop play.

It's a good mixup to the grind. Once I get comfortable, I'll move up to $2/4. I always play $3/6 and $4/8 in Vegas/Scottsdale/Palm Springs when I go and always post nice profits on vacation.

When I was at Bellagio last spring, I was in a $4/8 game and got dealt Pocket 4's on button. Live game Limit is a limp fest, so I limped with 6 people seeing flop and hit my set. EP bet, call, call, call, I raise and they all call. Turn card brings another J, and I have a boat. So board is 4-x-J-J. I hope to god one of these donks has a J. Sure enough EP bets again, I raise, he reraises, etc., and we cap it going to the river after all the other donks fold. Guess what hits on river??? Another 4. I have quads and shart myself. There's a rule at Bellagio, that once it's heads up in limit, you can raise unlimited number of times. I'm trying to think how to get this guy to give me his stack. He bets, I sit and think, I raise, He reraises. I tell him I will go to end if he wants. I reraise. He flat calls. Turns over Jack all pround.

Get it fixed Donk, I got Quads. It was huge pot. Like 3 or 4 scoops from the dealer. After I turn over quads, he points his finger at me and yells: "FUCK YOU! I always get rivered!" I was in seat next to dealer and dealer whispers to me, "you had him the whole time." The donk didn't even know I had his trips beat with my boat on the turn, and kept muttering crap about the hand, and staring me down. Finally I say to him, "Hey buddy, thanks to you, I'm ordering the big filet tonite at the Prime Steakhouse. Which is like $58. He smiled and left. I liked poker that day.

DAY 42 - 01/23/07 - Downward Spiral #2

Today: -151.95
To date: -79.45
To go: $975.45
Bankroll: $1524.55

883 hands *** 2.60 hours *** 19.25/12.80 ***

Well, I'm down 5 buy-ins in 2 days. I'm really getting sick of this shit. I watch all these GD videos and play by the numbers, play position and keep getting fucked. Set over set, All-in with the best and constantly drawn out. I've played 19,000 hands at this freaking donk level and I'm not going anywhere. I'm down. WTF do I have to do. Fucking assholes.

Here's some fun fucking hands:

QQ: http://www.pokerhand.org/?762241 . Nice freakin mini raise donk preflop. Screamed aces. Nope.

Nut flush: http://www.pokerhand.org/?762253 . Another limp-call donk from EP. He comes out firing. I call for odds and hit best card to bust him. Nope.

Other great hands were flopping 2 pair from BB or SB and getting a donk to put all his chips in with top pair, and to have him suck out on river.

Fuck this game for a while. I'm taking more days off to dream what it's like to fucking win at this fucking donk game again. Maybe I'll go back to full ring. Maybe I'll go back to donk it (limit). So long for now.

DAY 41 - 01/22/07 - Welcome back Idiot.

Today: -101.15
To date: +$72.50
To go: $823.50
Bankroll: $1676.50

1015 hands *** 3.03 hours *** 17.44/11.82 ***

Got aces cracked twice and JJ cracked once.

AA: http://www.pokerhand.org/?760033 .

AA: http://www.pokerhand.org/?760039 .

JJ: http://www.pokerhand.org/?760043 . This hand I thought I played bad. I shoulda reraised out of SB with JJ. I check raised flop and he mini raised 3 bet. I knew I was dead. I check raise the turn hoping like a donk to hit my club. No luck.

Both of the AA hands have the same pattern. Limp in EP by donk. Then they call my raise. They call my C-bet and Mini-raise me on turn. Both times I push seeing they are short stacked and pot committed, and I keep running into their monsters. Every effing time the effing mini raise. I got to lay down to that at this level.

J9s: http://www.pokerhand.org/?760044 . I can't believe this donk calls my bet with J-10. Of course I miss the ton of my outs. He even types good bet and effin calls. WTF.

Another hand is where I had pocket 4's and turned a gutshot straight. I bet 75% pot and donk calls and hits his 3rd heart to flush me. Of course he checks it to me, so I'm not betting for value. I typed: good check. Donks.

For losing $170 on those four hands, I was happy to be only down 2 buyins. I hate coming off a 3 or 4 day break and posting a losing session. I was playing great again overall, that's why I didn't stop after getting hammered. I got dealt AK seven times and won 7 for 7. WOW.

Blah.

01/21/07 - Break Over

Had a busy weekend with some friends coming into town, so not much poker was played. My wife's friend is an acupuncturist and chiropractor, so it was weird getting "pinned" this weekend. At one point I had about 15 pins in me. The only one that hurt like a MF was one in my baby toe.

The other thing pretty exciting and being from Chicago is:

SUPER BOWL......SUPER BEARS!!!

I got a ton of poker lined up this week, so the break will be a nice little refresher to the upcoming donk sessions.

01/18/07 - Live Game

I didn't play online today. Took a break. I blew my IronMan Gold for the month, but oh well. The grind gets to you sometimes.

I held a live game at my house. I run a game about every two weeks and we have a solid crew of 8-12 showing up every time. I built my own tables and splurged on awesome chip set, so I spoiled the crew. Check out my chips at www.buypokerchips.com . They are the modern clay ones. Awesome chips!!! They are worth the money.

As far as the game stakes, it's nothing fancy, usually $20 sngs or $10 rebuys and addon. We did a rebuy last nite and built the pot up to $400 for 12 people. It's a good time joking and laughing, so our hands per hour is like 15. Ha. I got 2nd for $120.

I'm trying to introduce NL cash after our SNG, but we've only done it 2 times. With the exception of a few people in our crew who play online, everyone else seems nervous and uncomfortable playing cash game. I love it.

DAY 40 - 01/17/07 - Huge Day! HUGE!

Today: +1.45
To date: +$173.65
To go: $722.35
Bankroll: $1777.65

360 hands *** 1.38 hours *** 18.06/14.44 ***

OK, my title is a bit sarcastic. I basically Broke even today. Nothing too eventful. I learned my lesson today to not try and bluff and fire 2nd barrels at calling stations. One hand had AK, raised after a ton of limpers and c-bet. Guy only had $8 left on turn and I put him in. He calls with KK. (He limped and called my raise.) Why do donks do that, limp-call with their huge hands and raise K-7 off UTG to $3? LOL. Another hand later with same donk, I flop open ender, c-bet when I miss flop and he calls my bluff on river with 10-10 with 2 overs? LOL.

Other than that QQ got cracked by 8-9 for short stack.

Here was my good hand:

10-8 sooted:: http://www.pokerhand.org/?747942 . I bet $10 on turn knowing I'm going to the felt, thinking he'll go all in and pot commit himself. Instead donk calls and I hit perfect river to bust him.

DAY 39 - 01/16/07 - So, So

Today: +14.55
To date: +$172.20
To go: $723.80
Bankroll: $1776.20

448 hands *** 1.47 hours *** 17.41/12.28 ***

Today was an ok day. Had a few cooler hands. Don't get crazy in unraised pots. I flopped middle 2 pair in BB and SB flopped higher 2 pair. I think I lost the minimum though. I was up about $35 at one point and had a few bad hands where I got hammered back down to +15 or so for the day.

I tried to play a little tighter tonite and it was working. LAG style at these limits doesn't work too well against donk style. They don't understand what you are doing.

DAY 38 - 01/15/07 - Donk Switch was turned off!

Today: +44.65
To date: +$157.65
To go: $738.35
Bankroll: $1761.65

109 hands *** 0.43 hours *** 20.18/14.68 ***

I continued trying out SpadeIt today. Found 4 donk tables and played a short session to get my Full Tilt Ironman points to 100.00 for the day. I had a balance from last nite's play bleed over into today, so I only needed about 20 points to get to the 100 mark.

Well folks, the donk bad beat switch was turned off today. Made a quick buy-in after I finally hit a flush draw. I flopped like 2 or 3 sets too. I won a medium pot on 1 set hand.

AQ: http://www.pokerhand.org/?742701 . EP limps. I make standard raise with AQ. Get lots of callers so I wasn't happy about that. Flopped a flush draw and I tried raising for free card, but I chose to mini raise to represent strength. I never do the mini raise. I think it's a terrible play. It kinda backfired when villian doesn't even mini raise back. He made it $9 after my $6 bet. So it was time to call and hopefully hit my flush draw. Turn was a blank and my blood started to raise in temperature after last nite flashed thru my head. Donk bets out $5 into $27 pot and I instacalled the 5:1 for my draw. River was beautiful club. Now how much can I bet to get paid??? Little less than 1/2 the pot fished him in. Nh sir!!

QJ: http://www.pokerhand.org/?742722 . Guy wakes up on flop. I called to see one more and I hit my 2 pair. His all-in overbet screamed draw to me. I called and if that damn club hit again, I was going to smash something. Oh...my hand held. I kinda like this game again!

It felt good to hit some hands tonite after getting murdered last nite. Keep grinding. I thought a lot about last nite's losing session. I really felt good about how I played. It was just bad luck. I have to learn how to deal with the downswings emotionally. I feel that I'm playing great poker with very few mistakes. I think my game has improved tremendously since the start of this challenge, and finally I will start to see some results.

01/15/07 - Table Selection Part 2

Ok, I think I recovered from my Tilt session last nite.....I even had a dream I played 40/80 Limit holdem at the Bellagio. I won in my dream with quad 10's, so I guess it wasn't real. Oh yeah, the table was filled with hookers too.

Yesterday I discovered SpadeIt or SpadeEye. It's similar to Sixth Sense I believe. I downloaded the trial version of it and it's a pretty cool program. It works in conjunction with Pokertracker. Basically you fire up Full Tilt, turn on SpadeEye and it will list all the available tables at a particular limit you select. Then you scan the tables and it averages the VPIP and PF raise % for the players at the table and color codes it. I can see where you have a huge data mined pokertracker database where this will work out awesome. My databases only recognized about 40% of the players, so I will continue to datamine Full Tilt.

It also has a built-in datamining program that is pretty good. I don't see a need for IdleMiner if you have this program. You can open up to 16 tables at once and customize it to datamine only tables >4 people, etc. Then you can start/stop all tables in once click, etc.

The other advantage is SpadeEye is a one time registration fee, where Sixth Sense is a monthly fee. I haven't tried the trial of Sixth Sense yet, but it's coming soon.....

So yesterday, I was firing up tables where it recognized maybe 4 out of 6 players or higher. I was sitting at tables where VPIP averages were over 30 and PF raises were 10 or under. Fish tables, ya know. People were handing me money, and then as you can see from last blog entry, I was getting donked like you wouldn't believe. Unreal. This method makes you table hop a lot. When the fish leave or get busted, time to find another table.

So, is that a good strategy?? To play at these donk filled tables with fish who draw out and never lay down bottom pairs, etc? Odds and variance should work it out to huge wins if you have the best hand, right? Instead of sitting at shark tables with 20/15's or under?

DAY 37 - 01/14/07 - Un EFFING Believable TILT

Today: -159.05
To date: +$113.00
To go: $783.00
Bankroll: $1717.00

1130 hands *** 3.65 hours *** 19.47/13.45 ***

I can't even tell you how many times I got outdrawn tonite, bad beated, donked, missed draws, mother effers. WTF!! GD. SMD. Can't a freakin hand hold up to these awful donks???? Geeeez. TILT TILT TILT!

Here's all my donk hands I lost huge on today:

Heres a $150 effin donk: http://www.pokerhand.org/?740207 . 75-25 on flop and yep, freaking diamond on turn for the donk. Mother F. Award these fish donk F'ers.

Another $150 miss: http://www.pokerhand.org/?740210 . I call out of positon with AK. Perfect flop and this fish hits on turn. Oh yeah, he called my $4 to $22 bet with his effin garbage. Of course I call his mini raise all in pot commited, and miss another effin draw with the nut flush. WTF.

J-10 Sooted = MISS AGAIN!!!!: http://www.pokerhand.org/?740211 . Perfect flop. About 50/50. Hit trips and flush draw on turn, get it all in. Yep... miss again. Award the donk calling raise with KJ. NH sir.

Another cooler. That's what I get for not raising: http://www.pokerhand.org/?740218 . Miracle flop for this donk. Lucky he was short. Can I fill up with my set? No. Of course not.

I got aces cracked by 66, too.

This effin day easily could have been +250. I can't play any effin' better. Can you tell how fed up I am with this? I had all these donks picked out at every table and nothing ever goes my way for once. The thing is I played awesome tonite. I stuck it out because my tables were good and it just got worse and worse. So much for my rakeback and tourney win. I keep getting hammered back down. When the F am I going to be able to move up in this effin game? 1.5 months of donks and break even stalled poker.

Good nite.

01/13/07 - Ironman Gold Donkament

Today: +30.00
To date: +$272.05
To go: $623.95
Bankroll: $1876.05

So, do you guys want easy money? Qualify for the Ironman freerolls on Full Tilt. The turnout was awful. There were some stacks at my table that didn't even show up and they made the money! I worked stack up to about 4000 and blinds got up to push/fold stage. There was a huge donk at my table just playing awful.

I get AJ and decide to push against him in BB: http://www.pokerhand.org/?736760 . Idiot wakes up with a hand. I hit miracle on turn and then he redonks me on river. Check out my chat. I'll take the $30.

I also caught a mistake in my stats today. The "To Go:" stat has been fixed. $2500 is my next level when I move up to NL $100. Everything should make sense now.

01/12/07 - Day Off - More Rakeback!!

Today: +$53.00 rakeback.

I didn't even play today and I came out ahead. I got my 2nd installment for my December's rakeback. $53 + $76 yesterday = $129 for December. Not bad for 4-tabling $50 NL for about 1 hour per day. The rakeback site I use redeemed itself today.

Decided to take a day off from poker. Been battling a cold and I think you need to take a break every once in a while or the grind will get to you. Tomorrow is the Iron Man Gold Freeroll. There are only about 1061 people in it and 360 get paid, so it's good odds for me to make some free money....if I don't get donked in the donkament. 34% chance.

I'll see how the tourney goes, but I like the idea of bonus medals instead of the freeroll. 150 medals gets you 5000 points. Not bad. It gives you a chance to rack up some points and get some good electronics, etc. Maybe a new IPOD or that cool Full Tilt Poker table for like 200k points. LOL.

DAY 36 - 01/11/07 - I love AA & Rakeback

Today: +41.95 + $76.00 rakeback = +$117.95
To date: +$189.05
To go: $706.95
Bankroll: $1793.05
359 hands *** 1.08 hours *** 17.27/12.26 ***

Played pretty good today. Had a very loose image at the start of session. I was averaging 22/18 or so. I started not to get any respect, so I tightened way up. I stacked a guy then and was tired and logged off to take nice win. I'm sick yet again.

Hands of the day:

AA vs AK: http://www.pokerhand.org/?731446 . Shart factor 9.6 on turn when 3 clubs were out there. I was yelling NO CLUB!!!!!!!!! Rockets held and I chuckled. I think going all in with AK for a stack is -EV play. I still don't know how to play AK when I get resistance, if I were in his shoes.
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KQ sooted: http://www.pokerhand.org/?731461 . Called in position with KQs. Flop was awesome. Turn was not. I paid him off.
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UPDATE: Got rakeback payment today= $76. It's short by like $50, so I don't know wtf is going on. The site I signed up was rakerecovery.com, which was good because they were taking existing FTP accounts for rakeback right after they passed the gaming bill. The site was buggy for a long time, but now it's finally updating rakeback stats almost daily. Now this is my first monthly payment and it's way short. People on pocketfives.com are posting same issue. We'll see what happens. Rakeback is a nice little bonus, if it works right. I got like $540 in bonus stacked up at Pokerstars accounts that I need to start thinking about clearing, but I like FTP way too much now and it will be a hard change.

DAY 35 - 01/10/06 - Table Selection

Today: +13.65
To date: +$71.10
To go: $824.90
Bankroll: $1675.10

359 hands *** 1.13 hours *** 19.22/14.21 ***

I am continuing my table selection idea. Firing up 15 tables, observe hands for like an hour, come back and sit and "fishy" tables. So far its going good. Like I said before, the bad beats come to take away profits, because players are so bad. Was up over $35 at one point, then got donked in a few hands.

Hands of the day:

AQ in position: http://www.pokerhand.org/?728813 . I sometimes call in position with a hand. I didn't like the button calling. Flop was terrible, since it hit many hands. I went runner-runner perfectly to crack his str8, which he hit on river. Only hand I was scared of was AK. I'm glad button folded after I re-raise on river.
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AK: http://www.pokerhand.org/?728824 . I hate getting re-raised with AK. I bet pot sized bet on flop to take out 2 players at once. Only one fish took his chance with 2 outs.
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10-9 off: http://www.pokerhand.org/?728836 . I love LAG style. Made a nice position raise on button and got called by SB. He played QQ like a donk. I hit miracle on turn to take his small stack. I love cracking big pairs when donks slow play.
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A8 sooted: http://www.pokerhand.org/?728846 . Bad luck hand? She came out firing on turn, and I said A3 out loud before I called. Why do I hit call button sometimes? Nice preflop limp-call with A-3 fish. Idiots. Plus she thinks her 3 kicker is good on flop. Love 'em and hate 'em.
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DAY 34 - 01/09/07 - Solid Win

Today: +35.95
To date: +$57.45
To go: $755.55
Bankroll: $1661.45

507 hands *** 1.72 hours *** 18.74/13.61 ***

Had a nice solid win today. Used PokerAce HUD to find some tables. Fired up 12 tables for a 1/2 hour and came back to select my fish tables. It seems to work. Every table that was over 30 VPIP and <10 PF raise % I was winning. The trouble with playing these tables is they are filled with donks. The good thing about these tables, is that they are filled with donks. LOL. Double edged sword. I had one table that fell to 20/15ish and it was filled with solid players and rocks. I was hovering at even at that table, so I left. My pokertracker numbers were good today. Yesterday I was a nit. My position stats today were good too.

Hands of the day:

AQ: http://www.pokerhand.org/?726401 . This guy was brutal. He was a 40/25. I like to repop maniacs when I have a decent hand. I reraised him preflop. Flop was Ace High, all hearts. I figure my top pair and 3rd nut flush draw was good and went with it against this maniac. He bet out $10 on flop and I reraised. The only hand I didn't want to see was AK with him having 1 heart. His 2 outer didn't hit today and I was happy.
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Interesting hand: QJ sooted in positon: http://www.pokerhand.org/?726413 . I reraised his c-bet. He check calls turn. Then he went All-in on river being 1st to act. Kinda confused me. I folded, but it didn't make sense. His mini-raise preflop was awful. He was quick calling me down, so either he was drawing at flush or had AQ whole time and I was dead either way.
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SB with A5s: http://www.pokerhand.org/?726426 . The slowplay on flop saved me some money I think. I should have gotten away from his river re-raise. Dumb call. I should have folded this rag hand in SB, but it was sooted and I was getting 4:1. I called river expecting to see KJ. Nope.
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I got dealt AK 9 times. I won about $30 with non-eventful hands and was 7 of 9 in wins. A couple where short stack donks went all in when A or K flopped and I had them dominated.

DAY 33 - 01/08/07 - If there wasn't luck involved......

Today: -86.35
To date: +$21.50
To go: $791.50
Bankroll: $1625.50

525 hands *** 1.80 hours *** 16.60/11.60 ***

I can't play any better. I got 2 outered and 3 outered for most of my losses today.

77 vs. AA : http://www.pokerhand.org/?724832 . Called in Position with pocket 7's. Didn't believe his c-bet and got really lucky on turn. I put him in on turn and he calls and hits 2 outer. WTF do I have to do to post a win in the GD game? I don't know if I call there with AA.

AJ vs. A9: http://www.pokerhand.org/?724833 . His mini raise on the flop was awful with a flush draw out of positon. Playing this hand, I put him exactly on his hand, Ax of hearts. When he checked turn, I shoulda bet. Of course he hits his miracle non-heart on riv and I pay off his value bet.

Awful hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?724835 . I don't know why I do this sometimes. Don't put my opponent on limping with 4-2 offsuit??

DAY 32 - 01/07/07 - Poker AceHUD

So, today I played around and set up my Poker AceHUD. After messing with all the boxes for about an hour, I finally figured out a "Combined Player Stat" all in one line, which I like. I set up displayed stats to show VPIP, PF raise%, Fold to Cont Bet %, and Total hands. I also set up Table Averages VP$, PFR, and Average pot. After observing a table for about an hour, I jumped on to test out my layout. I won $14 in about 9 hands. I actually used my newly found "edge" to my advantage after I got into a pot with 2 players whose Fold to Cont. Bet %'s were way below 50, and decided to check it down in positon to win a nice pot with AQs when they both had A8 on a board where we hit nothing.

I also set up both of my Pokertracker databases as PostgreSQL. I have one database for my stats, and a separate database for Observed hands. It's all coming together.

At dinner time, I opened up 10 tables and let pokertracker churn for a while. I came back a few hours later and used my PokerAce HUD table list to narrow down tables to VPIP > 30 and PFR < 10. Kinda used my own "6th sense." I didn't play, but this will be my process in the future before I get other "tools." Tables looked juicy. Before when I would play, I would just fire up any table with 5/6 players at them and go to work. I think this is going to enable me to post better profits. We shall see......table selection is the key in my game i've been missing.

DAY 31 - 01/05/07 - Is this what it feels like?

Today: +$83.55
To date: +$93.70
To go: $719.30
Bankroll: $1697.70

138 hands *** 0.48 hours *** 21.74/14.49 ***

Nice sweet session today. Short and to the point. My hands were hitting like crazy! Was up over a hundo at one point and lost about $20 and logged off when my phone started ringing. Damn tenants. They are like donks of real estate investing, you love them for growing your wealth and hate them for bugging you and not paying.

Hands of the day:
JJ: http://www.pokerhand.org/?717326 . Thought I'd call out of position with JJ and see what danger flop brought. I went for the check raise on flop. Turn bet I was committed and way ahead.
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AK: http://www.pokerhand.org/?717333 . Raising AK on button standard play. Getting popped to $7 from SB makes hand interesting. Do I push? Do I call? I flat call and see nice K hit. His all-in out of position bet made me think a few secs, since I've seen that patter with aces before on a flop like that. I went with my donk instinct and called. I sharted on turn when he had open ender.
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J9-sooted: http://www.pokerhand.org/?717337 . I call on button in position to very active big stack. He was 56/23. He had over 3 buy-ins and I thought this was perfect hand for a call. Flop was nice. Flopped a pair with 4 flush. Here's where I think if I played hand differently, I would have had a tough decision. A lot of people would raise his c-bet there, but I chose to flat call. If he 3-bet me, I'd either 4-bet all-in or fold. I figure I had 14 outs. 51.2% with two to come, so it's a positve EV play to push here. It's probably a better play.

So anyway, I call and a rag hits and I start to bitch to myself why I can't hit my draws. He bets $10 into $12 which was a good bet and I no longer had right odds to call. It was right on the edge. Call with 15 outs, fold with 14 outs. I thought about it and his "big stackness" convinced me to calling station it again to river. When the 9 hit, I was upset I didn't hit my flush. When he checked, I knew I was good and value bet my 2 pair on river. The flush didn't scare me.
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Might take tomorrow off due to family stuff, but who knows? I'm sick and have to get my play in. Over and out.

DAY 30 - 01/04/07 - I love Donks & I hate Donks

Today: $-6.70
To date: +$10.15
To go: $802.85
Bankroll: $1614.15

433 hands *** 1.22 hours *** 19.64/14.09 ***

Donks really make my blood boil when they call to the end with nothing or bottom pair and make miracles on rivers. I really love donks when they give you their money. Love/Hate.

Love: http://www.pokerhand.org/?714505 When the board paired on river, the only thing I was really worried about is if he had QQ, KK, or AA. His awful mini-raise from the small blind did convince me it was an easy call on the river. When I saw what he had, I was dumbfounded. Why does he call turn?

Hate: http://www.pokerhand.org/?714513 My check raise on flop was correct. Nice $1 bet into $5 donk. I lead out on turn. The $5 was maybe a little weak into $10. He calls. When the ace hit on the river, I knew I was in trouble. I check, he bets $4 into $20, and I call for information. Does he think his 10 is good on flop and turn? Sometimes I don't get the donk logic. They need to write a book and I would buy it. Title: "Bottom Pair Calling Station" or "I Love AJ"
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Still stalled with progress. My numbers still look good. 20/15, or 19/14 average.
Position VPIP$ stats good:
Button: 27.02
Cutoff: 22.08
MP: 14.83
UTG: 10.75
BB: 11.02
SB: 25.02

Comparing my stats to HyperAggrDonk's help session, my only position stat a little light is the cutoff. Should be around 24 or 25 VPIP. My attempt to steal blinds is 31, so my button play is making up for it. Went to SD% pretty good at 23.15 with 54.70 won money at SD. I thinks it's just poker donkings and random number generator determining my results. I'm still happy with my play and excited to log on still. I'll let you know when this changes. LOL.

DAY 29 - 01/03/07 - Not much Poker

Today: +$2.35
To date: +$16.85
To go: $796.15
Bankroll: $1620.85

28 hands *** 0.40 hours *** 32.14/25.00 ***

Not much poker today. I spent most of my "poker time" setting up Poker AceHUD and GameTime+ to figure out which one is better. I only played about 28 hands and won like $2.35.

I like GameTime+ stats all in one line, but it is not customizable to where you can see items like "fold to continuation bet" etc. The positive is that its free. The "one-line" stats easily fit on Full Tilt's screen with no overlap.

Poker AceHud is custom. Anything you want on the screen you can get. Moving all the little boxes on the layout is a little time consuming. Just when I get it right, I play a few hands and see that some of the boxes overlap the slider bar, or fold button, etc. I don't like the hole cards flashing on the screen too when a pot goes to showdown. I know some people might think its a positive, so you don't have to look at hand history to see what he had, but I think its corny and gets in the way.

Still on the fence. What do you think?

DAY 28 - 01/02/07 - Fresh Start = 2 stackings

To day: -$68.05
To date: +$14.50
To go: $798.50
Bankroll: $1618.50

670 hands *** 2.13 hours *** 18.06/13.43 ***

So, I was gonna take a break today, and I ended up playing 2 hourse due to being excited about my new 2007 goals and talking poker with Erbo. I got stacked twice:

QQ vs KK: The $1 button bet and then 3-bet to $12 should have set off warning bells. Of couse I'm a donk and flop over pair with open ender and call his all-in. I felt lucky.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?710243
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AA vs AQs: This guy re-raises me with air on flop and goes runner-runner and I pay him off. Felt like a set but made my blood boil when I saw what he had and how he floated me. I think I played this hand like a donk. I know hind sight is 20/20 but a flop 3 bet woulda been proper. I don't think he's folding a 4-flush on the turn:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?710248
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KQs vs K5s (Erbo's hand): I make standard bet with KQs LP. Get called in Blind. C-bet and get called. Check call turn when K hit was terrible. I was trying to get fancy/control pot size and I got gut-shotted on river. Just terrible:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?710254
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AKs vs QQ: Here was another play where I'm getting too fancy on turn. Why do I check call turn with made hand? Check-raise there is proper play I think. I put him on QQ, KK, AA and river counterfeited me. He checked which was nice, but I yelled out the F-word nice and loud and my dog barked at me. Then my wife yelled, huh?? Like I was callin out to her. LOL:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?710263

Not a good start to the year. I think I might take tomorrow off. I was planning on "restarting" since I played a lot of poker in December. Later.

2006 Review - On to 2007!!

Challenge update since December 1st, 2006:

To date: -37.45 + 120.00 bonus = $+82.55

To go: $730.45

Bankroll: $1686.55

11,966 hands *** 36.25 hours *** -0.30 PTbb/100 *** 19.27/12.99 ***

Challenge isn't going so good. I am almost exactly where I was when I started a month ago. I started off playing bad, but had my "A-ha" moment on December 13th when game adjustments were made. I'm about $500 below where I should be on the challenge so I have a lot to make up. I'm running +4.02BB/100 since the 13th, so that is keeping me happy. The PokerGraph looks has an upward trend since bottoming out on the 12th.

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My short term goal is still to reach the NL $100 level at about a $2500 bankroll level. I think I can achieve that goal by Feb 1st. I played about 12,000 hands in December and if I run at 5.00BB/100, I should post a $600 profit. I have about $125 in rakeback coming, so that should put me right there. I have about $540 of bonus sitting at Pokerstars accounts, so I might move there for a month to clear all bonus and infuse bankroll. I will wait to hit NL $100 before I do that though, so it clears faster. Or I can take a break and 6 table 1/2 limit and clear it in a few days.

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Projecting my mid term goal: If I run at average of 4.0BB/100, I should be playing $200 NL by June 1st with a $6400 bankroll and $400 NL by October with 14,000 bankroll. That leaves me 2 months of playing at $2/4 level. Backing down to 3BB/100 profit leaves me about $20,000 by end of year. So, I guess I have determined my long term 2007 goal to be $20,000 bankroll by December 31st. That's a lot of poker to play and lets hope my mind and emotions can handle it, and that nothing will change with the online poker scene. We'll see what happens. Good luck me.