Poker

Just busted bullet 2 of the main after playing for about 20 minutes. I should probably have about 7500 left of the 20K SS but couldn't find the hero fold. I certainly should have given more thought to the spot but I think even if I had tanked forever I would've felt too sick folding a winner in this spot and probably would have called anyway.

The spot: One of the crazy aggro NJ online regs opens to 400 at 75/150, older live reg Mickey Woll flats HJ. I have TT in the SB and like 19K to start the hand. I would estimate that of the 9 hands dealt so far 6 or 7 have seen 3b's preflop. There are no antes! I feel pretty content sitting and waiting for premiums and then just picking off the madness. Since we're over 100BBs deep I elect to flat TT in the SB and I don't have to purely setmine since I expect the opener to go nuts from time to time and I can c/c down some run outs.

Flop comes KcTc6d and it checks through. Turn is the 3d. From what I have seen playing live this week, it so so so rarely checks through on the turn after flop checks through. This might just be a small sample size but I think people just feel obligated to bet when it checks to them a 2nd time. I check, preflop raiser bets 700, Mickey makes it 1800. I think Mickey has some sets, some Kx (which should probably flat but I think a lot of live players raise here), and a ton of different flush draws (though I think diamonds might be slightly more likely than clubs since he checked flop). I think no matter what I do it looks strong; flatting might look like some draws but I think I'm sometimes going to 3b hands like QJcc QJdd Q9cc Q9dd 98cc 98dd etc here. Meh probably just flatting them really but with how aggressive the table has been I wouldn't be surprised if Mickey assumes I 3 betting some of these draws. I guess the more relevant info is that if Mickey has 66 or 33 I want this money getting in now before a flush hits the river to prevent him from putting more money in. I also want to put more money in for the times that he, or the opener, have a draw to just get max value now. I raise to 5200, original raiser folds, and Mickey tanks a while. I take a few glances at his face while he's thinking and at one point he starts to stare back but then quickly looks back down. I'm definitely going to start looking at people when action is on them more often. I doubt I'll get any real reads but I think it makes people more uncomfortable and on the defensive when they know you're looking at them. It's like I'm saying this is my pot and if you want to win it I am going to make you as uncomfortable as possible while doing so.

Anyway, after tanking for a while Mickey flats, bring the pot to 11K while I have about 13.5K back. River is 2h (KcTc6d3d2h) I think for a bit before betting 6500. I could probably go bigger to get max value from a king that wants to put me on a missed draw but I think the size is okay. Mickey snap says all in, sits back and takes a drink from his beer. I've talked to a couple good players who have both said oi, have to get it in, if he has it he has it just live with it. I pretty much lose to exactly 54dd and 54cc (the latter often bets flop though). I beat 66 and 33 but I don't know if he plays these hands this way on turn, or if he shoves them on river. But I really do have the best hand I can possibly have, and it comes down to whether or not I can make a highly exploitative fold to save 7500 chips in a spot where I'm getting better than 4:1 with the 3rd nuts. So I'm not gonna beat myself up. He had 54dd and that was that.

The feeling of devastation I used to get when busting live tournaments has basically gone away this week, which is a huge step as far as the overall poker career goes. Busting tournaments, especially the bigger buy ins that you really want to do well in, sucks, but is also just an integral part of what being a professional is. There's just nothing you can do about it sometimes. So to let your emotions ride with results will just eat you alive if you do it too much. Just gonna keep my head up after this week and keep on plugging. Think the plan now is to go home and relax today and then put in a good Sunday session tomorrow.

Running

I still feel a little pain in my calf but I'm walking completely fine now. I'm still going to give it until Monday but I'm really afraid I'm gonna go on the run Monday, feel okay during it, and wake up Tuesday with it feeling terrible again. I don't want to take more than a week off but I also don't want to aggravate the injury before it's fully healed. Being able to run when poker isn't going well is such an amazing outlet and I miss it so I'm probably going to just go for it Monday and hope for the best. I'll just do an easy 3 miles and evaluate afterwards. I'm proud of the fitness level I built up to over the 9 weeks of running I did and I really don't want that to all go for nothing.

No way you can fold given those odds unless he flips his hand over. All you need is for him to spaz with 1/6 of his sets. Sucks that he got there though :/

Yeah for sure. I feel like psychologically I would've felt better about it if he just shrug jammed it in on turn and we turned our hands over and I got to say I got it in good . The more interesting spot would've been if the river completed a flush and I had to decide how to proceed. I wasn't totally sure what I was going to do and the way he was tanking on turn I sort of expected him to fold so when he flatted I was just praying for a brick and no tough decisions. I got a brick and it was gg haha

You played it right, thats all that matters. still sick, because that card looks like a huge brick. Check 2nd top set just because were losing to 45ss? I dont think I can. Check to induce from missed draws that are bluffing? Then jam over? However we play it I am basically going for max value and never check calling or bet folding, its check jam and bet call.

Dan, against a polarized range, when ur line show tons of strength but he still push, doesn't matter u have too set or second set, most live player or even online player will not push for smaller set or trying to bluff on the river, when you think through all these, you can make better decisions.
I saw john juanda fold top set at very similar situation, you can call he is a nit but he is a very accomplished player as well


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Woohoo!

Cashed all the 50Ks today and made the last one count:



Original payouts were $10000, $6800, and $4950. I had about 1.2M of the 2M in play, 2nd had 500K, 3rd had 300K, at 25Kbb. They wanted to chop so I figured I'd take a look but probably not accept. Party shows chip chop rather than ICM. Chip chop favors the big stacks so I told them I'd take chip chop but couldn't do anything else (I did have a pretty dreamy spot to put max pressure on both of them trying to ladder to 2nd). They both snap agreed and the deal was made. I plugged ICM numbers in after and my stack was worth $8400 so I made out with over $500 more than ICM so that's pretty sweet. I actually busted the WSOP 50K in 16th while I was chopping the Party 50K, and busted 17th in the Stars 50K earlier. I wasn't focused on how much I was in for or how much I could be up or any of that irrelevant stuff. Similar to what I was doing while playing live this week, I managed to focus completely on chipping up rather than surviving and laddering. I of course ran incredibly well (I lost a flip to drop to 60K at 10K/20K and had 1.2M the next level!) and this is really cool to have happen right after the close but not quite week at Harrah's. Feels good man! Think I've been playing some of my best poker in the last few weeks and I'll look to continue that the rest of this week.

LOL big ? other lol

Dan nice finish to the week.

Thanks Doug. Wish I coulda done more with the package/main for investors but from a personal standpoint this was a really nice way to wrap up a week where the results weren't going my way.

Poker

Pretty uneventful $400 losing day yesterday. Ran very hot early then cooled down late. I think I have been flopping a ton of good hands lately and it's part of what has been making me feel confident. As I've said before, the amount of variance that we don't notice is poker is incredible and I think this is one of those thing that people very rarely pick up on. The game is so much more fun and enjoyable when your postflop decisions are "should I c-bet for value or check to trap? Should I flat this donk bet with the nuts or try to get it in now? Now that I've turned my flush how do I get max value?" It can get frustrating when all of your decisions are "I've missed the flop yet again and this guy rarely folds to c-bet, should I just triple barrel and try to get it through with brute force? If I float flop with air here does he give up often enough on the turn? I missed my straight but the flush got there, should I bet big to rep it?" It feels really good when your plays are working when you're missing your hands, but when the combination of missing your hands and your bluffs aren't working starts to occur, it's easy to get frustrated, tilt, lose confidence, and feel like you're a bad player.

Luckily for me I haven't had that problem in a while of going on long stretches where I don't make hands. I went back and looked at all the hands I VPIP'ed in the 50K I won. I won the first EIGHTEEN hands I VPIP'ed!!! That is an absurd, absurd number. While I did get a few bluffs through, most of them were simply me making a better hand or holding when all in. I really like to acknowledge when I've run good in a tournament. After all, anyone who thinks they won any sort of a tournament strictly by outplaying everyone is delusional. But there shouldn't be any negative feelings associated with realizing that winning a tournament is the product of running good. This is why I simply have to put the volume in. The reason I "earned" the win is not because I outplayed everyone in that one given tournament (which I didn't). It is because I played a lot of tournaments that got close but did not provide the breakthrough. I deserve to win because I work hard, I play well, and for every one tournament that goes my way like that one there are dozens that end in a bad beat or a cooler or me making a mistake or whatever reason that leads to me not finishing with the result I want. The one big bink I hit is a culmination of all the hard work that led up to it. In this case, I played live every day for a week, lost $1300 of my own money in the live arena and won $1400 online, making 6 days of grinding good for a whopping $100. Then on day #7 I win $8500. That's just how tournament poker works.

Running

Finally get to put an entry in this section again! Went out and ran 1.5 miles yesterday. I was pretty nervous to be honest since my leg was still bothering me a little bit on Sunday but I took the week off as I planned and then went on a short one to see if I was okay. My calf didn't bother me at all during the run but my foot and knee felt slightly off. I think I might have been stepping different or something subconsciously to avoid putting stress on the calf. When I run today I'll try to run normally and if that leads to pain in the calf, so be it, but I don't want to injure anything else. Hopefully I'll be able to start making the comeback properly without any setbacks.

Heater



Really happy with where my head was while playing today. Of course it helps to have an $8500 Sunday to fall back on, but some pretty nasty stuff happened in the middle of the session and I didn't let it bother me en route to not only saving what could've easily been a 4 figure losing day, but bringing it back to a nice winning day. Had some real stacks in all 3 10Ks and in the $250 Super Tuesday. Lost AK to AJ as soon as the bubble burst in the Stars 10K to get crippled and busted shortly after. Lost AK to AT very close to the bubble in the WSOP 10K then 88 to KJs 5 from the money to bust. Then I played this hand in the Super Tuesday:

PokerStars Hand #167408777414: Tournament #1571598989, $233+$17 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XV (1200/2400) - 2017/03/21 22:14:22 ET
Table '1571598989 2' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: monkeyman067 (89033 in chips)
Seat 2: loxonbagel (59148 in chips)
Seat 3: ADMSnackBar (192872 in chips)
Seat 4: rosseg (250016 in chips)
Seat 5: R@zzleDazz1e (42527 in chips)
Seat 6: GiantGeniu$ (48328 in chips)
Seat 7: Play4autism (12280 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: FunkyJesus (27249 in chips)
Seat 9: AJSuited88 (32189 in chips)
monkeyman067: posts the ante 240
loxonbagel: posts the ante 240
ADMSnackBar: posts the ante 240
rosseg: posts the ante 240
R@zzleDazz1e: posts the ante 240
GiantGeniu$: posts the ante 240
Play4autism: posts the ante 240
FunkyJesus: posts the ante 240
AJSuited88: posts the ante 240
AJSuited88: posts small blind 1200
monkeyman067: posts big blind 2400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to monkeyman067 [Ac Ts]
loxonbagel: folds
ADMSnackBar: raises 3600 to 6000
rosseg: folds
R@zzleDazz1e: folds
GiantGeniu$: folds
Play4autism: folds
FunkyJesus: folds
AJSuited88: folds
monkeyman067: calls 3600
*** FLOP *** [Qh Th 3s]
monkeyman067: checks
ADMSnackBar: bets 6608
monkeyman067: calls 6608
*** TURN *** [Qh Th 3s] [5d]
monkeyman067: checks
ADMSnackBar: bets 19200
monkeyman067: calls 19200
*** RIVER *** [Qh Th 3s 5d] [Qs]
monkeyman067: checks
ADMSnackBar: bets 160824 and is all-in
monkeyman067: calls 56985 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (103839) returned to ADMSnackBar
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ADMSnackBar: shows [5s 5c] (a full house, Fives full of Queens)
monkeyman067: shows [Ac Ts] (two pair, Queens and Tens)
ADMSnackBar collected 180946 from pot
monkeyman067 finished the tournament in 34th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 180946 | Rake 0
Board [Qh Th 3s 5d Qs]
Seat 1: monkeyman067 (big blind) showed [Ac Ts] and lost with two pair, Queens and Tens
Seat 2: loxonbagel folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: ADMSnackBar showed [5s 5c] and won (180946) with a full house, Fives full of Queens
Seat 4: rosseg folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: R@zzleDazz1e folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: GiantGeniu$ folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Play4autism folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: FunkyJesus (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: AJSuited88 (small blind) folded before Flop

I didn't regret my line during the hand, didn't regret it after the hand, and don't regret it now. Before getting into my thought process on the hand, I want to try to describe the way I felt about being willing to put the chips in here. I don't know what the right word for it is, but I am happy, and almost, I don't know, giddy(??), that I'm playing big pots when I feel it is right to. I was not doing this until very recently, maybe even as recently as a month ago, and I'm seeing myself getting deep in tournaments with big chip stacks. I mean, in the last month, I've finished in the final 4 of all 3 of the sites' Sunday 50Ks. I have a lot of 10K FTs. I'm up a lot of money.

I know I'm not always going to run as well as I am now. But the way I'm playing is allowing me to run bad late and STILL WIN. With 12 left in the Party 10K today I was top 3 in chips (might've actually been chip leader) with 133K at 1K/2K. In the span of literally 2 minutes 12 seconds (I'm looking at HEM right now, 1st hand at 11:18:08, 2nd hand at 11:19:44, 3rd hand at 11:20:20) I lost 3 standard but pretty nasty hands to drop to 46K. First hand get 77 in vs AJs and get the 9964J runout to drop to 109K in a 55K pot. Second hand get AK in vs KQ and lose on the KQ53J runout to drop to 90K, then literally the next hand get TT in vs the guy I doubled the hand before, this time TT vs AQ runs 5463A and I have 46K and am 12/12 in the tournament. Old Dan would not have tilted in the sense that he wouldn't have punted the stack away. But old Dan would not have found spots, continued to battle, and found a way back to chop the tournament 3 handed. I also feel it's possible I would have played worse in the other tourney I won today, which was running the same time as the 10K, and I could've easily made $3K less than I did today. The mental game is important!! It's also important to run good; I won QT>AJs at the final table to get the comeback started. But I also jammed K6o bvb for 15BBs before that, I folded QQ on the river in a spot it would've been easy to pay what was almost always going to be a better hand and just shrug it off as unlucky, I paid attention to ICM even though it's tempting to "play for the win" after having all the chips earlier in the tourney. I feel like I am playing very well right now.

So anyway, the AT hand I busted the Super Tuesday with for all the chips. Subscriber to this thread Norm opens in EP, very active, not afraid to play big pots, etc. Defending the AcTs pre seems pretty standard. Maaaybe can use this as a 3b bluff sometimes so that I can 3b my nutted hands in BB without it being obvious but I think I'd rather take ATs when we're this deep then ATo. Flop comes QhTh3s and again we have a pretty no brainer c/c. Turn is 5d and maybe now is where we can start talking about potential different lines. Norm bets 19K into 28K. He might be betting big to really price out draws. He might also be barreling draws himself. I decide to call and make Norm empty the clip if he wants to win this pot without a made hand. I might fold some rivers that complete flushes and straights. I might even fold some brick rivers if I decide that he isn't bluffing often enough on them. River is Qs and Norm shoves. Everything has missed. Whether or not I call off probably depends on how deeply I think Norm is thinking about this hand. If Norm has missed hearts then he probably should not be shoving from a GTO perspective. Norm having missed hearts blocks ME from having missed hearts, making those combos bad bluffs. KJ/J9/AJ/AK might be okay bluffs if they don't contain hearts, with AK not being great since that beats a lot of my missed draws but could make me fold A3hh K3hh J3hh.

I also thought of what value hands Norm could have. The Q on the river makes is really perfect for my exact hand. It's very hard to value shove AA or KK now. I block AQ and it's much less likely he has Qx now that there are 2 on the board. I also block TT. So it's like 6 combos of AQ, 1 combo of TT, 3 combos of 33, and 3 combos of 55, though 55 probably shouldn't 100% be c-betting flop so we can discount that a little bit. There's also 4 combos of QT (2 of which are offsuit and might fold pre), 8 combos of KQ and 8 combos of QJ. And I think all of the Qx checks back turn a non-zero percentage of the time.

I think I also have one of the better hands I can possibly end up with here. I definitely have a lot of Qx, maybe enough that I should only call off with those. But AT is about the best hand I can possibly have after the Q2s I sometimes peel. I also have 3 combos each of 33 and 55, but 55 sometimes folds flop, and 33 sometimes makes an aggressive action before river.

So in conclusion, Norm's exact hand (55) is a really easy and obvious triple barrel (once we bet flop anyway), especially since I can have all the Qx that he doesn't block. But I don't think there are many very other combos that can triple for value. The hand probably comes down to whether or not Norm will triple heart draws, KJ/J9/AJ/AK types of hands (AK probably the least likely to be tripled of the 4), and any other random hands. I think I'm okay with my decisions throughout and find it to be a very interesting spot.

I'm also glad I didn't let this hand get in my head too much as I played through the rest of my session. I didn't let the bad beats in all 3 of the 10Ks bother me, instead grinding the 45K back at 1K/2K to over 500K and another chip chop with the chip lead gaining me some EV since it's more than ICM lol.

I might take tomorrow off. Was sorta planning on it but with how good I feel about my game right now it probably makes sense to ride it out as long as I can and take off when I'm not feeling it. I'm up over $10,000 in the last 3 days. After ending February with a 2nd in the 50K on Sunday and 1st and 2nd places in 2 different 10Ks the next Tuesday, I've now won the 50K this past Sunday and won another 10K this Tuesday. Being on the heater feels good!

Running

Went 2 miles today and the slight pain I felt in my heel and knee went away after about 2 minutes. My first mile was 6:52 and mostly uphill which was sort of surprising. My 2nd mile was 6:35 which is probably too fast. It was a beautiful day and it felt good to be running again but I should probably be taking it easy coming back. I was out of breath with my heart beating fast enough at the end of the run that I almost felt like throwing up, which happened yesterday too. I think there's a chance this is happening because Harrah's put me in a smoking room all week even though I'd booked a non-smoking room. I have some allergies that get me really bad so hopefully I'm just still clearing that out of my lungs or whatever. I'm sure I'll be fine once I get back into it. I feel fine while I'm running but when I stop it feels like I'm gonna die. Back at it again tomorrow to try a 3 miler!

No worries sir. We are still +ROI with packages to date. You are also +EV so I will continue to purchase whenever you offer.

Poker

I fired $700 into the $100r today on Stars that they have for this mini-series celebrating the 1 year anniversary of them returning to New Jersey. With 84 runners, 11th would get $665 while 12th got 0. I got 13th . I also finished 17th with 12 paying in the Party 10K. For perspective on how I'm running lately, I still made 4 figures on the day.

I am playing in a zone I never have before. The overwhelming fear of losing and making mistakes that used to consume me has completely been replaced by the desire to win every chip, the willingness to gamble for the chip lead, and the fearlessness required to take my game to the next level. I'm completely trusting me reads, I'm exploiting weaker players repeatedly instead of justifying passiveness with thoughts of them "catching on" to me, and I'm combining all of this with all of the knowledge I already had but was to afraid to use in the past. I'm okay with everything when I get it in bad because I know I've really thought through the decision and come up with what I thought was best. I'm not upset when I get unlucky because I'm confident in my abilities and truly understand what variance is. I just feel like I'm thinking on a higher level right now. I'm also aware to what degree this streak has been affected by luck. I recognize when I'm running good but don't feel bad about it and don't overthink it.

I know that ripping a $215 turbo with 12BBs today was extremely high variance and that chopping it heads up for $1360 is very lucky. Especially when my opponent has a 2:1 chip lead to start heads up and offers a 50/50 split! But I'm also aware that running up a top 5 stack in a $100r with over $5K up top and a $650 mincash only to run several big hands into bigger hands to bubble is unlucky. If you were watching Chris Moneymaker's stream I was on his direct left and played a few pots with him, including 3b shoving JTdd vs his BB defend and c/r on KQ7dd. He somehow had A6dd and I did not win. And I'm aware that winning JJ vs KK early in a $100 tourney on Stars allowed me to eventually finish 2nd for $1100! But I also think that my ability allowed me to make the most of that lucky beat and many others would not have finished 2nd. At the end of the day, I'm aware I'm running above EV but I'm not focusing too much on it, instead staying grounded and focusing on ALWAYS making the best decisions.

After losing $1400 in January I've made over $20K online in February and March. I'm up $12K in the last 6 days, which includes only playing 1 tournament and losing $200 on Wednesday and Thursday combined. I've withdrawn most of this and have a good amount of money in the bank again. I'm not splurging, instead just making sure I buy everything I want at the grocery store, paying my bills, putting 1/3 of everything I withdraw away into savings for taxes, and planning on what number I'll feel satisfied with being in checking before everything I withdraw goes immediately into savings so I can start putting more money into my IRA and investing properly. I'm thrilled by this upswing and am even more thrilled that I feel I will handle the next downswing very well. Through the first 14 days of March I was down $4000 and there wasn't really any panic going on in my mind. This was due to withdrawing the money I'd made in February, which gave me peace of mind that even if the downswing continued through April I'd have plenty of money in the bank. I also got that peace of mind from being confident in my ability and feeling sure that as long as I played 5 days a week and played the way I know I am capable of, I would inevitably hop out of the downswing before long. I am exactly where I want to be right now and I am excited about it!

Running

I am also excited about running, but it is a much more cautious excitement than poker right now. I ran for the 4th time in the last 5 days today, after taking last week off to let my leg heal. There hasn't been any pain in my right calf, which was what was injured, but there has been some in my right knee and heel, and I'm hoping that's not a result of me overcompensating while running. That being said, it often goes away halfway through the run, so I think it's okay. The leg often gives me a random pain when walking sometimes, but I THINK the injury has completely healed itself and I am good to go again. It's really cool to see my fitness level has not gone away; my brother told me it takes 2 weeks to lose fitness and it appears he was right. During my 3 miler yesterday I ran 6:58--6:40--6:16 splits to break 20:00 for 3 miles. I knew I was running faster at the end but it wasn't labored or strained; it just felt good. Today I went 3.2 and made sure not to get too crazy with it. Ended up splitting 6:58--6:53--6:50 and felt good. The weather has been finally getting warm again and it's been amazing to run under the sun in shorts and a t-shirt without feeling really cold.

Tomorrow I'll probably try to go 4 in the early afternoon and then head to Asbury Park for a friend's going away party. I'm gonna try to make sure not to get too crazy there so I don't wake up hungover and groggy for the Sunday session, which is gonna be a big one. I've already won the ticket for the $320 $100K on Party, there's a $400 $50K on Stars, and WSOP will have its standard major along with the $500 that ends each month. I could end up being in for a lottt of money but haven't decided yet specifically which tourneys I will and won't play. I'm for sure in the $320 and the $400 as well as WSOP's $200 but might skip the WSOP $500. I'll probably also try to satty into the $1060 $50K on Party. Sunday is the last day for Party's week long Garden State Super Series as well as the last day for Pokerstars' NJ City Series, which is why there are a bunch of extra non-standard MTTs. I'm excited with how things are going and with how I'm playing. I feel grounded and right where I'm supposed to be. A big day Sunday would probably put me at my peak net worth ever, which obviously isn't important but is sort of a cool thing to reflect on. I feel like I'm handling my money properly and have finally found a system that allows me to feel the most comfortable both while upswinging and downswinging. Life is good!

Just got to Foxwoods, on line waiting to register flight 1C of $400 $250k. Lost about $700 yesterday, happy with how I played, mincashed the $320 100k on Party but that was it. Found a way to only be in once in every major so was only in for like $1400 on the day, which dropped to $1100 since the $320 was a free entry due to last weeks win. Glad to get out of the house again to play live and I'll be here til Thursday.


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Foxwoods $400 $250K

I got to Foxwoods about 32 hours ago. I've spent 18 of those hours trying to find a bag in this stupid tournament and was unable to do so. I spun bullet 1 up to over 80K from 20K starting stack, dropped to about 45K and ripped 33 in hijack at 2K/4K and ran into BB's 88. I covered and was left with 2 BBs, folded a hand, found AJ and lost to 88 again. This tournament plays day 1 down until there is 12% of the field remaining, at which point everyone bags and is in the money. 16 were to bag in that flight and I busted in 25th.

Bullet 2 went very poorly and I busted before late reg closed and hopped right in to bullet 3. Bullet 3 went better, I peaked at 40K but couldn't get going from there. Had back to back spots where I had to make absurdly tight folds. I have 30K at 1K/2K, MP limps 2K, HJ raises to 8K, and I have AJs on the button. I don't really know how to explain the typical player at Foxwoods other than I don't ever see him having AT here and I know he's going to overlimp more pocket pairs than he should. I fold, the limper backshoves, the 8K guy calls with KK and holds. Next hand is one of the tighter folds I've ever made and might be bad but I think it was correct. UTG opens to 7K with 20K to start and has been playing very tight. Folds to CO on my direct right who is an older guy who asks if it's on him (he's in the 1 seat and can't see the 9 seat) and when told yes, immediately verbalizes 20K. I have JJ. I seriously don't think the 3 bettor ever has TT when acting this quickly and in the way he did. I also think AQs is either calling or at least taking some more time to 3b. So if he has QQ+ and AK I don't think I have proper equity. We also have to worry about the guy who just 3.5x'ed UTG with 10BBs to start. I fold and somehow UTG folds as well. I tell the guy next to me I folded a big hand and he pretty quickly claims AK and gives a bunch of reasons for why he did what he did and I'd be really surprised if he was lying. It's frustrating to hear he had that hand since I just put my money in if I know he has exactly that, but I literally think AK is the bottom of his range there.

Bullet 4 was very strange. I got KK twice at the 400bb level, got flatted by 1 player each time I opened, flop came A high each time I opened, villain had an ace each time I opened. Should have found a fold vs a river bet on the first one, did find a fold on turn bet vs the 2nd one and was shown A7ss (he also flopped a flush draw). I was down to 10K before doubling AQs>JJ, and then lost AK to same guy's A6 to drop back down to 15K or so. Proceeded to grind really hard for the next few hours before losing back to back pots in the blinds right before our table was broken to drop to 17K as the level went up to 2400bb. I come to the next table UTG1 and get a shove with AKs through, next hand get AQo and get a shove through to get back to 30K. Next hand folds to the SB who puts me all in, I call with KQs and lose to ATo.

So I busted 4 bullets and am just physically exhausted right now. I do not feel anywhere near the amount of disappointment I usually do and think I have just about gotten to the point where if I'm playing tournaments I'm rolled for and I have money in the bank, I'm just stress free about winning and losing. I do feel bad that a couple guys invested and one of the guys has only invested in me before for the Harrah's circuit which lost money, but they know the deal and how poker works. I still have one bullet left that I sold for and the $400 6 max starts tomorrow so I'll play that and try to save the trip.

Foxwoods is a beautiful casino but I just wish they charged reasonable room rates. $400 per night on a weeknight is not reasonable. Luckily I have a friend who had a hookup so I'm staying in the casino itself at a reasonable rate. I felt confident and positive throughout all of these draining bullets in this draining tournament and I'm glad I don't feel upset about losing. I think I played my best and just did not win in the spots you need to win in these things. If KQ beats AT we're back over 25BBs again! But that's just how the game works.

I think in the future I'm going to want to start doing actual trip reports whenever I go to a casino for a series. I think this thread has gotten a bit boring and stale since I've gotten used to the online grind and the occasional live series and I've run out of "exciting" things to talk about. So I'll try in the future to snap more pics, remember more non-poker interesting things that happen at each place, and spice this thread up a bit. I wish this tournament had gone better but I'm still quite happy with where I am overall right now.

Venting Time

Ran pretty good early in tonight's session and then got ****ed very hard in the big money spots. Played a total of 5 tournaments, busted the Party 10K and 3K pretty early and was left with the Stars 10K, $250 thrill, and WSOP 10K. Had the chip lead in both the thrill and the Stars 10K early on. I think I mentioned in an earlier post (maybe not) that the same reg got me QQ to AA and AA to TT almost simultaneously in 2 $200s on Sunday. Today I 3b him in the thrill with JT, he peeled in a spot I felt confident he'd shove or fold, flop came AJT and he had KQ. A few minutes later we got a ton of chips in against each other in the 10K my JJ to his AJ and after a clean flop the turn was an ace. Both pots were huge and I had CL entering both hands. Hung tough in both and managed to start spinning my stack up in each again.

In the meantime I spun it up to 50K in the WSOP 10K (4K SS, 4K rebuys, 8K add on) before 3x'ing the SB with 95o against a player who was incredibly tight. He called and flop came A95. I bet quite big assuming he would often have an ace and never be capable of folding it; he called. Turn 6 I bet big again he shoves for a ton of chips I call he has A7 river 7. No cash there. A few minutes later the same reg from above opens button, I shove 15BBs in SB with A8o, BB iso's with AKhh, flop T86hh turn 9h and I bust about 7 from money. That leaves me with just the Thrill which I lost a flip for a ton of chips to drop to 12/12. I found a way to spin that back up and hit the money on the shorter side but still at 20-30bbs. When we got to 4 handed I was in 4th but still over 30bbs. Got some light 3b's through, didn't get dealt too many hands but stayed relaxed and looked for proper spots. Then got dealt two really really stupid hands and that was the tournament.

First hand I'm dealt QQ on the button and open min, BB peels, flop is A66ss, check check. Turn Qx he leads 2bbs I decide to flat to allow flushes to get there, 6x is gonna get it in on river anyway, and he might level himself into calling a raise on river with an ace anyway since it'd chop with a lot of Ax. River is a 6 and he bets pot. I tanked for a pretty long time and decided it was a flat. Ax should go smaller, and Ax is the only hand paying off a raise. He 3b's a lot of his big Ax pre, which granted still leaves a decent amount of Ax he can get to this point with, but I just don't think they go this big that often. He'd be targeting a queen and I think you have to go smaller against that. So he's bluffing or has a 6, and raising only loses me chips. I call and he shows me K6o.

A few hands later I jam AKs for 13bbs, BB calls with AJo, flop 842 turn J river J see ya. After an incredibly frustrating series at Foxwoods it looked like I was going to find some heat tonight with big stacks in 3 different pretty good tournaments, but got sucked out in all of them for massive stacks. Just realized I didn't update Foxwoods 6 max; made it to dinner break with about 40K coming back to 1600bb and 40 minute levels. There were 28 remaining of 107 entries with 10K up top. Folded every hand for 20 minutes coming back then 3b shoved AJ into 99 and lost the flip for 60K+ pot. Played a pretty good amount of poker every day for the last 5 days and ran below EV every day. I know it's all part of the game but after putting in a lot of work the last few days and then seemingly getting rewarded early in the session to set up a big day, I got ****ed a lot of times in a row, especially considering I only had 3 MTTs going. Lots of big opportunities this week but will have to settle for a $2000+ losing week.

Given how good I've ran the past couple weeks I'm sure I shouldn't complain but losing sucks no matter when it happens, especially when you're playing well and put yourself in good positions over and over again. I watched the 21 year old kid who I should've folded river to in the last post with my KK on an ace high board go on to take 2nd in the tourney for $41K. Sometimes I wonder what it would've been like if I just binked something live right from the start. Would it have set me up financially and led to me striving hard to get back on that stage again? Or would I never have learned to respect the grind and ended up lazy and broke?

I'll take the next 2 days off and then try to put myself in good positions again on Sunday. I ran 3 miles today after not running the last 4 days and it felt good. I felt small twinges in my calf the last few days and am hoping all the off days means the leg is completely healed. Time will tell.

Night Off

Did absolutely nothing today and it felt great. Not gonna get in the habit of doing that too often but the amount of live poker I played this week combined with the 5+ total hours of driving to and from Foxwoods had me feeling exhausted this morning. Add in that it rained all day and not only did I not leave the house, I only left my room to get food. I played a couple $25 spins and while I was doing so I noticed that my brain is just continuing to view poker differently than I used to. To be down over $2000 since Sunday and to still feel the confidence I have been feeling is something that has never really happened for me before. I fully expect it to continue until I hit a downswing that I haven't seen before, and even then I think I might be able to keep it together. I just feel like I am playing the game the way it is meant to be played, I have rationale for every decision I make, and the fear of losing has been completely replaced by the drive to get every chip on the table no matter what it takes.

So I played these spins, and when I had regs on the table I acknowledged that I wouldn't make as much money long term in those specific spins even though I assume I'm still a winner, and when I had rec players on my table I was just so tuned in to every mistake they were making and how to capitalize on them. I think I lost my first 10 $25 spins and, despite saying "wtf is going on" a few times out loud, just kept playing because I was somehow enjoying thinking about the game despite losing. I played enough to earn 400VPPs and unlock another $16 bonus before the end of the month, and I ended up winning $275 or so from about 40 spins, including the first 10 bricks.

When I realized I wasn't going to go out tonight I fired up the Stars 10K pretty late, mainly to make sure I'd unlock the $16 bonus. I late regged around 9:45 with reg closing at 10:00. At around 11:00 I had a stack and realized that if I made it past midnight they might count those VPPs towards April so I played 4 more spins while still in the 10K. I ran good early in the 10K and pushed the issue whenever I thought it made sense. Gone are the days of old Dan where I was afraid to bust and afraid of not laddering. Now are the days of new Dan where, while still being ICM aware, I don't allow myself to play tight just for moving up's sake. I look for the people who clearly want to move up and attack them when possible. I stay patient against the players who are trying to win every pot. And I play solid against the regs who have a clue but still look for those who are folding their BB too often, or folding to 3b's to often, or look to float those who c-bet too much. I'm constantly looking for ways to chip up instead of finding excuses for why to wait for a better spot. I finished 3rd for $1200+ to end my day off up $1400.

It's nice to actually have a bankroll that is separate from the money I need for real life. For a while I had my bankroll and didn't have much money in the bank outside of savings. I'd know that I was going to withdraw money at the end of the month from the bankroll, but then is that money even really part of the bankroll at all? I think this put stress on me and since I didn't realize that was what was stressing me out, I'd get upset when I was losing even though I figured I was properly rolled for all the swings. Now with money for a few months of rent and bills I don't get upset when the bankroll dips. I know it will come back and in a market like New Jersey's, it's hard to have a downswing that extends over a very long period of time, so long as you're actually putting in the work and playing five days a week. In ROW poker you have massive fields that makes variance huge. In New Jersey you can win 2 tournaments in a night without it being that big of a deal. So I know that as long as I play when I should be I don't care how my bankroll swings. The cash tonight brings the roll from under $22K to over $24K, so a 4 figure Sunday would allow me to withdraw once again. There will come a time when I start to try to build that bankroll rather than continuing to withdraw, making my max buy in go up a little bit, but for now I'll just keep squirreling money away to ensure I can handle any downswing I hit in the future.

I might go to the city early tomorrow to hang out with my friends and then try to take it easy at night. I don't think drinking is the issue for me, but rather the staying out all night part that makes me groggy on Sunday. Last week I made sure not to drink too much Saturday night but since I ended up at a friend's place where everyone else crashed I didn't really have a choice but to stay up with everyone, meaning I didn't fall asleep until well after 5AM. So tomorrow I think the plan will be to go out and have a good time but make sure I catch a train back to New Jersey before they stop running and try to get to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour.

Looking Back to Last Year

Last night I was thinking back to last year and how well it started and how badly it stalled out near the middle. This thread is amazing to allow me to go back and see exactly what was going on at any point over the last two years or so. I checked out June and July to see how I lost a bunch of money both those months. There were a few things I took away from rereading everything.

1) I was so much more emotionally attached to my results

I could tell through what I was writing but I could also just remember how I felt about winning and losing. I was desperate to write down a positive number at the end of every session. It was really important to me to have winning months. I felt like I was reading the thread of a much younger me, not a me that existed less than a year ago. I care so little now about having a 5 figure result but back then it was consuming me. More than the money, I wanted everyone to consider me a good poker player and to validate what I was doing for a living.

While I was looking back I thought of a metaphor to compare me now to back then. Back then it was like I was trying to fill a big bucket of water, and I wanted nothing more than that bucket to be completely full. Every time I had some success in poker, whether it be a big session, a winning month, an article written about me, etc, the bucket would fill a little higher. I was desperate to get that thing to the top. Any type of downswing or losing session or frustration in my life was like someone putting a hole in that bucket. The bucket would start to drain, and I would panic and desperately try to plug up the hole. Every minute that went by with the bucket draining I felt more and more anxious. I desperately wanted that bucket to be full, and here I was not only not adding to it, but watching it drain away! When something good happened I was able to put a patch on the hole, but now I was worried that patch might open up, and my desperation to fill the bucket got more and more severe.

Today I feel like my poker career can be compared to a tree. It started small and has since continued to grow. When bad things happen, leaves fall off, but there is no panic in me because I know they will grow back. When I hit really bad stretches there might even be some branches getting hacked off, but as long as my tree is alive I know that it can take any hit and will continue to grow nonetheless. As long as this tree isn't ever chopped down completely, it will continue to grow as time goes on, despite any hits it takes to its leaves or branches. There will even be times when winter comes and knocks off all of the leaves, and it's going to take some time for them to come back. But they always will and there is no concern that they won't.

2) My mindset is so much better now than it was then, but I still want the thread to be interesting.

While this emotional roller coaster I was on on a pretty consistent basis was not good for my mental health, I think it did make the thread more entertaining. Living and dying with every result led to me writing some funny ****. I think recently I've had a more bland "that's poker" approach to everything going on. But back then I was fired up about everything, gave detailed reports about all my trips to casinos, went off once in a while about running bad online, etc. I want to keep this thread interesting but don't plan on going back to being a nut. So I think I'm going to work harder on this in the future. I want to give some more detailed reports about any trips to casinos I take, including more pictures and stories. I found that to be the most interesting thing I read about when rereading. I also noticed that reading about how bad I was running was so annoying. It was way more entertaining to read about me running good, and I wish I hadn't dwelled so much on the bad because it was just obnoxious to read my rants. I'm not perfect so I'm sure there will come a day when I start moaning about everything again but I'm going to do my best not to.

So in the future I'm going to try to add more pictures and make this more entertaining. That might lead to less posts but I think less posts with more detail and more entertainment will be so much better than what I'm doing right now. To end, I'll post a picture of our dog trying his hardest to listen to my stay command in my dirty room while I wrote this post up:

Last thing, while reading all the posts from June-August I stumbled upon multiple Mike Dentale references which I found really funny given the recent grudge match.

First from a bad troll who went ham in my thread for a while:

Q5, K6, Mikey really likes those off suit 6 gappers

And second my experience with Mike late in a Parx main:

First off, I just want to point out, despite being a math major, you're a really fantastic writer.

I definitely connect with the bucket/tree analogy. Especially in poker, there's just so much ebbs and flows. It really is difficult to crush this game, even the best have losing months.

Also LOL at the Dentale posts.

Op. Are you honestly leaving that poor dog alone while you go outside running? He would enjoy it.

you aren't seriously implying he's mistreating the dog by not taking him on his super long/fast runs? I'm sure they take the dog for lots of walks. Depending on the dog it also very likely may not be possible for him to run without stopping/slowing if the dog comes with him.

Dogs are some of the best long distance runners. Wild dogs chase game down for miles until the game gives up. Whereas a lion is only a stealth sprinter. Dogs love endorphins too.

I meant because a lot of dogs enjoy stopping and smelling things or pulling after squirrels or whatever else. So it could interfere with his running because of the dog getting distracted by other things. But either way I'm sure the dog gets plenty of exercise and he's not mistreating the dog by going on runs without him.

I'm not agreeing because running > walking ainec.