Thanks for the analysis Cuse. I like the idea of the shove and it really depends on what I am gonna do on the various turn cards that are gonna come out. Since my move is made to get value the idea of shoving also seems good as it throws flush draws into my range. Basically you confirmed the fact that it is a weird hand with many options. F these tough spots!


54.5/300


Anyways, I've only logged 6.5 hours this week. A bit disappointed with this, but if I can get my ass in gear here over the next two days I can get back on track. Down half a buy-in overall so it's time to turn it around. Weekend grind time!

Thanks Pure! Hope everything is going well for ya these first couple weeks of the WSOP. We still need to find time to grab a bite so we can chat.


12.75/300

Once again, I'm Really struggling with volume so far this week, but hopefully I can close out strong over the next 3 days. I had a good session last night but still got tangled up and made a bluff where I was struggling to analyze the board/pot size due to being nervous. It worked thankfully, however, I'm not sure if it was correct or not so that was a bit frustrating. I went with my gut and with hand played, experience is gained so that's one way to look at it as a positive. On this note, I think that staying at 1/2 or 1/3 is probably best for me right now. It's amazing how nervous I get on the big hands or big bluffs considering the amount of hours logged. All that can be done is too keep working on this and once I feel comfortable make the jump. My bankroll isn't really where it needs to be either IMO so that is a factor is my decision. Pretty weak...I know...but I will no doubt get there.

The plan for today is to head over to PH and play some cash while sweating Donkey and Varx in their tourney. Got my TWoods weekend red out again today and am hoping to own. Legggooo!

68/300

Got in an early evening session at Mirage and then hit up PH to play with thenorcaljew and amusedlol. It was great to meet these fellas as I've been following their random trip reports for quite sometime. I played with Julian on the same table for most of the session and ended up ~a buy-in and was pretty happy with my play. I made one mistake against a thinking player where I had a great opportunity to trap him for his whole stack in a 3 bet pot. He still may not have called or bet the river but it was a perfect scenario.

Just woke up about an hour ago and will definitely be back at it today. The plan is to watch some of the NBA finals then head out. I'm not really sure where I want to play yet, but that's becoming pretty standard...

**Just realized I messed up the hours on my last post. That was supposed to be 60.75/300**

Good meeting /playing with you man!!

Same to you sir!

69/300

Well, last night's RIO session went about as well as it could have considering how disappointed I was. I doubled up early over the course of like 4 hands in 30 minutes. People were calling me everywhere so the game was good. However, I believe I missed value on a 9 high board with KK when a guy that turned out to be a calling station said he had JJ and would have called an all in. I had like 3/4 PSB for the river in position and bet 75 into 240 for value. He called and I am indeed happy about that but it's an obvious shove. This is a value betting mistake that I have made at least 3 times in the last week and triggered me to continue thinking about the hand for the next 30 minutes which pisses me off because I need to just file it away for later and keep playing. Especially when at a good table. Since I was deep with a couple players and not in the right mindset I just got up and left. I even tried taking a 10-15 minute walk but couldn't shake it. This seems to be one of my biggest leaks at table, however, I am definitely glad that I decided to get up and leave when my mind clearly wasn't right. If this is the biggest problem so far that is fine by me. It still needs to be corrected, and I am confident it will be with the more big pots played. Let's hope so.

Chilled with Donkey, Kentucky, and friend of theirs from back home then came back to my spot and watched some Kung Fu to round out the night.

Back at it again today.

good luck man play at ph a bunch (bills or seattle hat) don't think we ever played together though

^^^I wear a UNC hat a lot in there which I'm sure you would have said something about. I plan on playing there more even though the promo is over so I'm sure we'll meetup.

71.5/300

Well week 2 was a disaster volume wise but my hourly was actually higher than week 1 which is good. I've been running good lately but am making some river value mistakes. So for week 3 I've definitely got some work to do with my game.

To make matters worse I woke up this morning rather sick. Sore throat, fever, and just general full body aching are what I have been blessed with and it sucks. I don't get sick much which is a relief. Also, I needed to get my car registered today but will have to push that back to tomorrow with how I'm feeling. I got my insurance taken care of over the phone (way higher than Indy wtf???), but didn't feel like taking on the 105 degree heat with a fever. So tomorrow it is hopefully.

Another night of staying in and resting. Felt terrible again today but ran Donkey to the airport and did a couple minor chores. He is a cool dude and I am glad that I was able to meetup and talk poker with him over the last couple weeks. I need to get a smog check and get my car registered tomorrow then I'm hoping to get a session in during the evening. I'm still feeling a bit rough tonight, however, I really need to get hours in. This is my job now and there is no excuse for slacking. Either way...my last ~71 hours of poker have been very productive and I am very happy with where my game is at the current point. Hope it continues...

Haha...yup...I'm a UNC and Pacers fan...not been wearing the Pacers hat at all since our recent pussy display...I'm embarrassed about it really.

The best thing about our job is that it's flexible!

I don't take this advice myself because I'm stubborn but be 100% before you get back on the felt. A-GAME ALL DAY EVERY DAY.

get well soon!

^^^Funny you write this...I was just texting a friend a couple minutes ago that the best part of playing cards for a living is the fact that I am at my place right now relaxing and resting up trying to get better. If I was back home and working I would have undoubtedly dragged myself in the last 3 days and been unproductive anyways. Glad I have Netflix to pull me through.

BTW glad you found the thread and nice meetin you the other night amused. I'm sure we'll be seein some more of each other as the series continues. Run Good!

79/300

Made my Ali-like return to the ring last night in the great words of Joey Knish. After 4 days of laying around and watching netflix I finally got in a solid 7.5 hours. This included 2 early, short sessions at the RIO followed by a late night session at PH. I played pretty well in most pots and didn't make any really big mistakes. I'm still making stabs at pots I shouldn't every once in a while which is frustrating but will hopefully iron itself out. Heading back over to the RIO now for an afternoon session.

80.75/300

Got in a nice small session in at the RIO this afternoon and made a bit. Got in a somewhat interesting spot with AA where I didn't really know what to do on the turn and river so I want to post that tonight/tomorrow. The Spurs/Heat game was a bit uneventful in the second half, but what a joy it was to watch the Spurs. I don't really hate the Heat unless the Pacers are playing them but what I do enjoy is good basketball. Popovich is an incredible coach and what they have achieved with their team the past two years is amazing. Congrats to their whole organization. Enough of the nuthugging... For now it's off to the V to play some 1/2 and meetup with Tipdrill and his buddy. From his blog post it looks like he is already up a buy-in and his buddy just cashed in a tourney so I'm gonna have some catching up to do...

94.75/300



A bit cliche. Especially considering the stakes I play. However...

As I sit here in the DMV, a state of depression continues. Partially because of the long lines and crazy people but more importantly because of what happened last night. After having a fun night out with some fellow 2p2ers including TipDrill, his buddy Matt, NorcalJew, Amusedlol, and 4chainz I was rather exhausted when I woke up yesterday morning. Since I have cut my drinking back quite a bit I now feel pretty much worthless the day following when I do decide to let loose a bit.

Nothing was different yesterday, but I was happy to wake up just in time for the US Soccer game. I had planned to just lay around and rest up for the week.This changed as a beautiful US win had me feeling a bit inspired it seems. “If I don’t plan on playing why not get some hours in and play the worthless $100 PH tourney I have a ticket for,” I thought to myself. This seemed like a rather daunting task, but I honestly figured my demise would be quick and I could return home. This didn’t affect my play, as I still planned to do my best and possibly get lucky. Get lucky I did indeed, being all in for my tournament life 4-5 times while behind and winning every one. It was feeling like this was my tourney to win as I was playing pretty well despite getting it in behind in these spots. My online tourney past was definitely helping me feel comfortable and I fell right into form with punishing people with napkins from late position. As chip leader with 7 left I made a huge bluff on the second most aggressive player at the table in position. I regret it because I could have coasted to a possible 4k which would have put my roll into a nice position to begin taking shots at 2/5 and could have massively increased my summer profit. Instead I ended up with a measly $415 profit and a 7th place finish out of 164 entrants. I cannot put into words how bad I felt following this. Knowing that I was running hotter than the sun and that this was a big chance for me means I screwed up badly. I’m still currently beating myself up for it, which is why I decided to go take care of some of these BS errands right when I got out of bed without even eating breakfast. “Punishing myself” is how I viewed it in my mind when I woke up. I highly doubt that I’ll be playing today. I have also decided to throw my tourney hours into my 300 hour challenge, because frankly, I’m slacking massively at this point and I was sick for a 3-4 days last week so I need the boosted volume. Also these 4 total tourneys that I will be playing with tickets will obviously take up time where I could be playing cash so it only seems natural.

All in all it was a fun 12 hours, but the end couldn’t have been any worse. I would have much rather eaten a 1 outer on the river for all the chips. The feeling of making a huge mistake that I know better than to make has got to be one of the worst feelings one can feel in the world of poker. On a positive note, my 2/5 days are still going to require a lot of work to get to. It’s a chance to prove to myself that I do indeed want to make my dream a reality. Although my piece of mind is slowly returning, one thing still remains cluttered in my brain, “How in the world do the live tourney pros deal with this kind of stuff day in and day out.” Although I know the answer it seems easier said than done.

102.75/300

Welp....ate my first KK vs AA today. I am still thinking about it and the guy that 3 bets had never done it and I was at a really tight table playing really conservative. So it seems pretty obvious that he has AA, however, with the more I mull it over comes more the realization that there is really nothing that could be done. I raise 15 he repops for 45 and i repop to 120. He then shoves. We are 280 effective for the hand so after my repop I need to call 160 into ~400 after rake. This means I need to be less than ~40% equity to call and I have at least 20% with KK vs AA so it really is a no brainer I guess. IDK...maybe not...**** sucks. At least this is only the first time it has happened to me. I have been running pretty solid IMO so this seems like it is necessary to happen.

In other news...not all is bad. I had a chance to meat DHCG and UNCfan11 the last couple days. Both were really chill guys. Dane was great to hang with and talk to about the various levels of NL and what to expect and there was a funny story with Unc. We were sitting at the table for a couple hours when I got up and asked him if he was on 2p2. I could tell he was a very good player a couple orbits after I sat down but had no idea he would be a 2p2er who posted in my thread. Very random haha. Sorry I didn't grab your number or anything man....I was honestly a bit shell shocked when you told me who u were. He was asking me about PH tourneys and what not so he was probably laughing inside when I was retelling all these stories which he has read. Nice meeting you man! Nasty beat you ate with AA on that KKJ board, but you obviously are a beast and handled it like one. Keep doin what you're doin!

Well....time to relax off this cooler with some netflix...I've been killing the Asian movie genre lately as they are some of my favorites so I'm gonna try and find a nice Kung-Fu piece to fall asleep to. Amazingly I'm feeling better than ever after eating the cooler....one thing is for sure....it is indeed way easier to accept than the other night after bluffing off my stack in the tourney! Progress lil one....Progress

107/300

Got in a decent early evening session at RIO. Played well and was at a good table but couldn't make a hand. Seems like it's one of those weeks as I just am not opening or even playing many pots. I blame it on my substantial rungood in the tourney lol. I then headed over to PH to get in another session but was reminded that the PH $300 tourney is tomorrow. There is only one more left next Saturday, however, a good friend of mine is coming in town next weekend so I need to use the ticket tomorrow. GL to all those grinding the at PH, Venetian, and the 1500 WSOP tourneys tomorrow. One time!!!

Don't feel too bad about bluffing off chips in the tournament - better than calling them off, at least you applied pressure. Sometimes as cash game players we forget that 50+ BB is really deep in a tournament since you can open raise like 2.2x and get respect and steal blinds, and that also means 30-50 BB is a solid stack and 20-30 is one you don't need to make moves with.

I know when I don't play tournaments for a while and get back into them, I have to really restrain myself from making a move in those areas that I wouldn't otherwise make. Once I settle into a tournament rhythm it's not an issue anymore.

114.75/300

Been waiting to use this gem.




The week of card deadness and folding finally came to and end last night. This game is so hilarious and I've had various discussions with poker players the last couple days about how funny it can be. 4 nights straight I'm folding and barely opening any pots. Then....all of the sudden I limp pocket pairs two separate times...flop a set and proceed to get value on all 3 streets from flush draws that hit on rivers which subsequently give me the boat and this happens...



In for 300. Almost had the 3x3 red cube constructed! Indeed my biggest night since arriving in Vegas and a very welcome one to get me back into the black for the week after my KK vs. AA debacle.

I was then able to go chill with Pure_Agression and eat some earls following the session which was incredible as always. That place never seems to disappoint really. It get's a lot of love and deserves every ounce. We then kicked it for a bit and talked about various poker/life topics. I'm always trying to be a sponge when talking to these guys that have been doing this for a while as it is great to hear their trials and tribulations associated with the life of a card player. I told him this last night but his level of "Zen" as I will call it is so refreshing. The ability to be even kiel is still something I lack and the thing I respect most of the pros that have made it out here. Sorry for talking your head off last night man...lol...I could barely contain my excitement after the big session.

As for today, I just woke up from a decent sized nap following the US Soccer game. What a match as it had everything and was a real roller coaster. I let out a screeching yell when Dempsey scored a goal with a literal dick slap that probably made my neighbors below me **** their pants. The win would be lost, however, when Ronaldo made a simply amazing cross into the middle. It literally left me speechless when I saw it. I guess it's easy to destroy hopes and dreams when you are one of the best. I saw it with my own eyes. All in all though a tie is great. If we can play tough vs Germany then we have a real legitimate shot at moving onto the next stage which would be simply amazing.




Thanks for the kind words Cuse. The bolded really hit home and was definitely perhaps some of what I was experiencing. This coupled with playing for 12 hours straight had me in fits!!! No excuses though. Leggggooo!


Also, I forgot to document one of my recent dope amazon purchases that was a welcome recommendation from a friend back home. It's hot...I have a car...everyone needs a sunshade!



I now feel that the force is with me. Your boy's gonna be killing it with the ladies when the Cosplayers come to town!

Update?

Woops...had not been wanting to update the thread until I get my volume back on track as it's now rather apparent that I'm not going to even be close to reaching my 300 hours. Well, realistically I knew this last week so who am I kidding? It's unfortunate but not the end of the world. The more depressing thing though is since I've been out to Vegas all that I have really proven is that I have a serious laziness problem. Sure I've been struggling with some things card related such as not always maximizing my river value, however, the thing that I am most worried/disappointed about is the lack of play.

So, why is this happening? I love the game and enjoy playing although I will admit it gets a bit stressful at times. I am also a proven winner at a solid rate since arriving in Vegas. (even more solid since recently since my first 50 or so hours were spent getting back into the game and relearning what spots to avoid, proper raise sizing, etc..). So it simply boils down to laziness. I have a couple ideas on how to fix this and the main one is definitely play longer sessions. So this is what I will focus on first. It's important to take it slow, but this is what I am going to work on first.

Even with this depressing news...not all is bad in the desert. I had a friend from back home come in last weekend and we had an absolute blast. It was fun to get out and see the town and just be a normal partier on the weekends for once. I should mention that the fact that I literally hardly ever go out is one thing that is a major positive. Since being out here, my spending on various unnecessary things is that which I have controlled the most. I'm so happy about this and it has completely negated the fact that my volume is low. If this can continue, and I can indeed fix these volume problems then the sky is the limit. So many grinders, some of which I have already met, struggle with spending habits the most. They are poker crushers, but fail to manage their life expenses properly. Vegas ends up taking its hold and swallowing them up. I am determined not to be another one of these stories!


**Edit**Forgot some more positive news. June was my biggest month in terms of profit since arriving!

Good post. Get that volume up though man! Lol save the best news for last, congrats on your biggest month. We need to crush July!

I played the last of my PH tournaments on Friday and Saturday. I busted the 200 on Friday in 60/260 and ended up like 320/940 in the 560 yesterday. My play was rather solid, but I just wasn't ever able to get anything going in either. This was a bit disappointing but not the end of the world. Although I would have liked to at least cash, there is a bit of relief as I know there are no looming tourneys on the horizon for me. What a ****in grind they are. I think I played roughly 12-13 hours combined for the 2 with nothing to show for it. Overall...1/4 cashes in PH tourneys for a profit of $415. When doing the math, my hourly over these 4 tourneys was almost exactly equal to my overall hourly at 1/2 so I'll take it. Speaking of 1/2...I'll be back on the cash grind tomorrow focusing on lengthening my sessions while attempting to continue playing my A game. Hopefully I can iron out some more leaks and continue to play well.

Quick little story:

Following my bustout in the 560 yesterday I went to Hooters to watch the UFC fights and consume some fried goodies. Every fight was pretty action packed. There were some awesome bouts including two belts up for grabs and the wings were on point as per usual. I found an open bar seat and it turned out to be a pretty good one. Although the view wasn't the absolute best, I was seated next to a couple older locals who turned out to be really nice guys. We yucked it up the whole time, however, one of the older gentleman was a bit perturbed when they ran out of coors lights (running out of coors light bottles in a sports bar on Saturday night during the UFC...wtf??). Anyways, I had 3 bottles of coors light left in my bucket so upon finding out that this was all he drank I obviously offered them up to him. They ended up buying a bud light bucket and we just traded off as I really can't tell a ton of difference between the two. I'm still in my college boy days where if you put a beer in front of my face...I'll drink that **** no matter what the label. Apparently, he appreciated the gesture as he quickly grabbed my tab when the waitress bought it. "Thanks for the Coors Lights," he uttered, as he and his buddy peaced out into the desert heat. Who says they aren't nice and laid back on the West Coast!

Cool Story Bro good karma right there.

Congrats on the excellent June!

Have yet to fix my problems, however, my results for the beginning of this month are sick. I am running hotter than the sun while also trying to learn to enjoy these sick runs, rather than be scared ****less of each session following. This is another major problem of mine that I must work to get over. One positive thing that I have noticed is that the money is meaning less to me with each and every session. With this being said I am now trying to not revert back the other way too hard and start spewing as I know this is a thin line to tow. What a mental battle this game is day in day out.

With all that being said, for whatever reason I'm having a lot of trouble sleeping over the last two or so weeks. This is starting to worry me a bit so I might try and turn back the times and start reading again before I knod off. I have 4 or so good books already in my bedroom lined up to read and this used to work perfectly in college with regards to putting my mind to ease late night. Too many damn thoughts running through my head when it hits the pillow!! Working out on a regular basis would also help this so that is in the near future. Simply put....


Back at it tomorrow.

Well I got in 3 shorter sessions yesterday and feel like I'm finally getting back on the horse. My mentality is clearing up and I'm hoping this is the week where I right the ship. Despite getting off to good start wrt hours played, I lost all 3 sessions yesterday. This was too be expected as I was running really hot last week, however, I was looking back through my charts and this is a real rarity for me. At least they were small losses.

I Just woke up, had breakfast, and am ready to crush tonight. Let's hope the cards agree.