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An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro

08-09-2015 , 03:04 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drrr.Gonzo
Is the parx $550 the buyin or guarantee?.... also you mentioned you were rolled for the levels you play like the $200bi ...... for your time and money why not play cash games? also why not include $50 SNGs HU/6man/9man lower V and not as time consuming... I only ask because iv been playing low stake stt/mtts looking to grind a roll for Live SSNL and you seem to already have that roll and im certain your playing tougher opponents than those at a casino, idk maybe your sacraficing a higher win rate for a higher variance format idk just wondering your thoughts
Hey thanks for the comment a lot of great questions in there I'll answer them the best I can.

The Parx Big Stax is a tournament series consisting of 3 "main" events and a few side events. The main events have buy ins of $330, $550, and $1100 and have probably the best structure of any tournament in the world with buy ins that low. So $550 is in fact the buy in. There is no guarantee but it gets amazing numbers so it doesn't really need one; when I made day 3 of it in February 1st place was over 100K!

Cash games are a different beast than tournaments. I did dabble with cash for a while but at 200NL on WSOP 2 of my regular opponents were Greg Merson and Thomas Cannuli. Merson won the main event in 2012 and Cannuli is currently one of the November 9. The competition wasn't exactly soft. I also love the competition of tournaments. Cash is fun but the only ultimate goal is to make a lot of money. There's really no way to "win"; you can only be consistently successful. I might have to transition to this in the future since I'm considering myself a professional so I need to just follow the money, but for now tournaments are for me. There's a goal: to get all the chips! And there's much more strategy imo between the early, middle, and late stages and everything in between. It gets my competitive juices flowing much more than any cash game could. There's also a very high ceiling. You'll never turn $550 into 100K in a cash game, but the potential is always there in a tournament. It makes it a bit more exciting for me.

I actually love sit n gos! Before Black Friday I used to really grind FTP super turbos and Stars 180s. Check out my 180s graph on Sharkscope (RedsoxNets5 on Pokerstars). It's pretty flat and even negative for a pretty long spurt and then suddenly just starts rising at a pretty consistent rate. It's cool to see that at some point I started figuring them out. Unfortunately in NJ the sngs just don't run that often! I grind them when I can but those are the same; the exact same 2 people are in almost every sng! And while they might not be the best players in the world they are at least very good and competent. Fortunately the other players often are very bad which makes it profitable for all of us, but when every 6 man (none of the larger sngs run) has bballwiz and phatdaddy in it, it is difficult to feel motivated to grind them.

As far as playing cash at casinos, I totally agree. Since not a lot of stuff runs during the day online in NJ, I have considered going to Parx to play 1/3. From my 21st bday in 2012 until NJ online started in November 2013 I grinded live poker a bit. I ended up turning about $1500 into 5 figures just playing 1/2 and small tourneys. The BRM was probably horrible but I didn't really have any choice but to give it a shot. I actually really enjoy playing live so I should definitely start up at Parx again on days when I have nothing going on during the mornings/early afternoons.

Great questions thanks for taking the time to ask them!

My gf just yelled at me on the phone because I suggested not running today after I just told her a few days ago that you can never take 2 days off in a row. I didn't run yesterday and I realized she was right but I got a bit drunk last night and just had eaten McDonald's AND needed to start my session so I really wasn't feeling it. However when she told me I had to go I knew she was right and begrudgingly got out there. After what felt like a pretty relaxed 3 miles I looked at my watch to see splits of 7:06, 6:49, and 6:34! 20:29 for 3 miles is very encouraging right now, especially since there was no type of kick or urgency at any point in the run; it was all relaxed and in control. I think my goal for whenever I decide to run a 5K (maybe next weekend?) should be to break 19:00. We'll have to see. For now it is time to start the Sunday session. There are 2 different $50 MTTs that started at 2:00 with 2 hours of late reg. The 2 Sunday majors are $200 WSOP $30K Guarantee at 4:00 (2.5 hours late reg) and $200 Party Poker $50K Guarantee at 5:00 (~3 hours of late reg). I'll also throw the few $100s they have in there and if I'm feeling good later on I'll play the $200 888 $10K Guarantee at 9:00. That one runs late though so when I'm tired or the day has gone poorly I'll often skip it. I've really been in grind mode lately though so I have a feeling I'll be playing. After the session I might post my entire schedule just so everyone can get a feel for what my Sunday is like. Good luck me!
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-10-2015 , 12:56 AM
So my run in the biggest tourney of the week comes to an end when I 3b shove 140K at 10K BB with AJ over a min and get called by 22...had 12 outs going to the river but bricked. I finished 6th of 237 for $2850. I went A4>JJ to stay alive with 12 left so I cannot whine about luck by any means and feel like I played tough. My gut reaction is to whine about being so close and how the flip woulda put me 4/6 with like 40 bigs but my logical side has been doing a better job with shrugging it off and simply evaluating if I played well or not. There was one spot where the massive CL 3b OTB and I had 77 in the SB. His 3b was very large, almost 3x the original open, and I had about 20BBs (he had 6 already committed). He had been crushing the table but had not been 3 betting very much, and his sizing felt strong to me. I decided to focus on ICM since I was close with several other stacks and I folded, but a shove might have been best there. In any case, I've never felt as confident as I did all tournament and really all of today. Below I will attach my schedule that I played today. This is a bigger schedule than I usually play but I plan on really putting big days in on Sundays from here on out.

Today's results, which include MTTs and sngs--Buy ins: $1599.95 (randomly worked out to a nickel shy of 1600), Returns: $3897.23, Profit: $2297.28

After today we are down $260.26 since returning from Europe which is a huge relief since it was over $4K just 3 days ago!! However, winning over 4 grand in 3 days will do that for you. I've had 4 winning days since June 25 and Friday Saturday and Sunday are 3 of them! That is the nature of tournament poker though; a lot of bad can get washed out by one good run. The big needle on this one though is that moving up one spot would have me up since vacation, and the top prize would have locked up my first 5 figure score ever!! Focusing on the ifs and buts serves no purpose in poker though except to drive yourself crazy, so for now I will simply count my blessings and focus on the fact that I won $2850 in that MTT and not the $950 I would have won if my A4 had lost to JJ with 12 left!

I'll be getting some sleep now. My girlfriend and I are going to AC tomorrow and coming back Wednesday. I get 2 comped rooms at Harrahs (but the scam artists still find a way to charge $55 in fees) so we'll be hanging out there and at the beach. If you're in the area and wanna say hi let me know!

Below is a screen shot of my session summary for today:

An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-10-2015 , 09:03 PM
I'm enjoying this thread, Dan. I don't mind the longer messages and the psychological/personal components you've added to them make them more interesting.

I'm a nobody so view my opinion with due skepticism, but I think I'd probably fold (on the river) in the hand you posted. The CO's stats suggest that he's at least a semi-competent player, though a bit nitty/passive, who probably plays relatively straightforwardly. His limp after the HJ limps indicates to me the same thing that it did to you: that he very possibly has either a small pocket pair (<77) or some suited connectors from like 45 up to 9T that he'd rather sneak into the pot with. Maybe there are some suited aces or broadway cards in there as well, as you noted. 3/4 pot bet is pretty large on the flop. The 2/3 pot bet on the turn is interesting in so far as, on 888 and WSOP, I believe you have to manually enter non 1/2, 3/4 and full pot sized bets. So he chose to not use the given options but instead took the time to type out the wager. That could be read either way...I'm not sure how I view it. I'd be interested in knowing how quickly he went all-in on the river. I guess the bottom line for me is: how often does a 19/13/5.4 guy triple barrel there with those (rather significantly) sized bets, putting his entire tournament on the line (leaving only .8k left), without having it? And he's betting into a BB three times, a BB that could have all sorts of stuff that hits that board. I think if I called river I'd expect to see 78 sometimes but also lots of 44-66...I guess possibly A3hh as well. Maybe A7-A9hh as bluffs...

As I look at it again, I wonder if it's crazy to consider even folding on the turn? I guess I just assign this guy a really strong range once he bets rather significantly two times at that board, especially given the types of hands he probably limped with, and with those type of stats (19/13/5.4). With someone like that I just assume they have it until it's shown otherwise, and then I reevaluate from there. You (and a bunch of others) probably know better than I, though.
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-11-2015 , 06:46 PM
@FastBF hey man thanks for the long and thoughtful response! You say that I probably know better than you but I think you have a way better grasp on this hand than I did! The thoughts that I posted in this thread were what was going through my head in game; looking back I think I botched this hand and pretty much everything you said was spot on. I'm not sure about folding the turn with a hand like top pair and a flush draw; there are 0 hands in the deck that have us drawing dead. However if we assigned him a strong range like you have (and it's probably a more accurate range than I assumed in game) and then do the math, it might be a fold! As is, he did indeed have 87ss and my chance at having a really big Saturday ended when I dumped a big stack in that tourney. I was surprised to see him bet so big with the nuts on the flop but he managed to get my stack when I only had top pair so maybe it's a line I need to think about using next time I flop a straight!
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-12-2015 , 12:57 AM
Fold river in the hand you described. People who are decent/reasonable just have it a ton more than they just blast off with k7s there. Also, you yourself said his range smashes that board and that he checks most pairs on the river, so there isn't too much else left for him to mash with.

Also, if you were running that easily for 3 miles, the you should be able to run under 19 on race day with all the adrenaline.
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-12-2015 , 04:30 AM
Ever run at the bowl in Holmdel park? You'd love it
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-12-2015 , 04:01 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by yesman123
Fold river in the hand you described. People who are decent/reasonable just have it a ton more than they just blast off with k7s there. Also, you yourself said his range smashes that board and that he checks most pairs on the river, so there isn't too much else left for him to mash with.

Also, if you were running that easily for 3 miles, the you should be able to run under 19 on race day with all the adrenaline.
Yeah I should certainly have found a fold.

My best 5K time is 16:22 from my freshman year of college on the track so it is interesting to try to get back into it now and swallow my pride about sub 19 being "fast" for me right now. I ran 4 miles in Brigantine on Monday when my gf and I were in AC, and did it in 26:40 without even trying to run it fast so that was pretty exciting. I think sub 19 will be very doable whenever I decide to get back out for a 5K.

Quote:
Originally Posted by daaabatman
Ever run at the bowl in Holmdel park? You'd love it
Yeah I think I ran well there once in my life; every other time (probably 10 other times I've ran there) I seemed to just be awful. Obviously times will be a little slower with the difficulty of the course but mine was always nowhere near what I should have been running. I ran 18:14 there once and every other time was over 19; not sure what the mental block was!!
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-12-2015 , 11:11 PM
Really disappointed in myself right now. I thought I had turned a corner when it comes to a positive mindset and staying composed through the worst of things but I fell back into old habits tonight. I think it has something to do with being tired and being away from the game for a few days, but whatever the reasons, I am just so tired of being negative whenever I face a tiny bit of adversity. After a bad session with the normal coolers and bad beats I lost my cool. To be quite fair, I did not play well tonight. I think that after a few hands didn’t go my way I started to get negative, which already is a bad sign when in the middle of the session. After busting the biggest tourney of the night with AA vs 62s (villain defended BB, bet/called 854 flop for the double gutter, then led huge into 3 turn to get my stack) I knew that my head was in an awful place as I really just wanted my last two tournaments to be over. I had had my 3K starting stack in the $50 5K guarantee on Party up to 8K and was now down to 2500, eventually getting it in good and losing to drop to 250 chips at 200BB. Somehow that got ran back up to the 3K starting stack before I got 33 in vs a shorty’s A2 and lost, and then eventually called off my 9BBs with A8 vs the button’s 13BB shove. The BB tanked then called with AJ, the button had A4, the board ran KT28Q to bust me. I was ready to lose it but hung on another few seconds to see the button shove 14BBs in my last game. I had AJ and 12BBs in the SB which is an obvious call off, but against this particular villain I knew there was a pretty good chance he’d have a better hand. Add to this the fact that there were 12 left in this tourney, 10 cashed, and I was probably 7th at the time, and the result was my chucking my mouse at the ground when he showed JJ. He held and my session was over and my mouse was also busto.

I’m really fed up with myself for having this reaction during frustrating sessions. Why can’t I just shrug these off? Why do I take things SO personally when I bust tournaments?? Losing one day in poker means nothing. Playing bad in one day of poker means something, but not that much; those mistakes can be fixed. But acting like a 7 year old and throwing a tantrum when you have a bad session that results in you losing less than 2% of your bankroll?? This is the kind of thing that really worries me about making it as a pro. I was really proud of how I handled myself through my downswing. I kept my head up, and aside from one day where I did sort of lose my mind, I stayed very positive through it all. Fast forward to now, after I had 3 really great days (in terms of results) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then a wonderful 2 days away with my girlfriend on Monday and Tuesday, and I’m breaking a mouse on Wednesday??? It’s really inexcusable. There are plenty of excuses that I’ve heard my peers make over the years: “Yeah but you have no idea how bad I ran today.” “It wouldn’t be so frustrating if the hand wasn’t against HIM” “I just thought things were finally going well and then THIS happens.” And the list goes on. But when it comes down to it, there’s no excuse. If you want to be a professional you are simply going to face adversity very often, if not every day. And when I react like this instinctually it really concerns me. However, I’ve had some very meaningful conversations with my girlfriend concerning both of our lives, and it’s really cool how often I can relate something I’m experiencing to her. What I told her recently is that just because you have one bad day where you revert to behaviors that you thought you had fixed does not mean you have become that person you were in the past again. It simply means you had a bad day, and the next day you just need to work even harder to be the person you want to be. The steps you have taken to improve have not been erased; you’ve simply taken a step backwards and now you need to take two steps forward the next day. That is what I will aim to do tomorrow.

In any case it’s been a couple days since I’ve posted a real update so I’ll quickly go through my last few days. Monday I played 1 MTT and 1 sng in the morning before I left for Atlantic City with my girlfriend for a little vacation. I busted the MTT and won the sng for like $40 profit. On Monday we drove to Brigantine (the island town next to AC) and went on a run. I ran 2 miles out and 2 miles back and with the combination of cool weather, a flat surface, and consistent training all month, I ran the fastest I have in a very long time. Splits of 6:47-6:33-6:35-6:45 led to a 26:40 (6:40/mile) 4 mile run. We went back to Harrah’s which has been giving me comps, and relaxed a bit. The next day we drove to Bally’s and walked the boardwalk a bit, having some fun at the arcades and playing some slots. When we got back to Harrah’s we decided to go to the hot tub by the pool and then run on the treadmills instead of battling the rain outside. The hot tub was really relaxing and I ran a very comfortable 27:51 for 4 miles on the treadmill after. We played some blackjack later that night and I ended up dumping about $200. I don’t do that very often and I really ran about the worst you’re ever going to see someone run in blackjack lol but $200 was the stop loss so even though it occurred faster than you’d ever imagine it could betting $10 a hand, that was the end of that. Side note: because I play so much on wsop.com online in NJ, I’ve been awarded platinum status at the Total Rewards casinos so I get a few comped weekday rooms and free parking. Small but nice perks that come with the job.

The next day (today) we drove back to my house, got some lunch, and then my gf went home to north Jersey on the train. It’s tough living pretty far from her but we’ve done a pretty amazing job (in my opinion anyway) of handling the distance. When I got home I went on the longest run I’ve gone on in a long long time (excluding the 7.7 mile leg of the River to Sea relay in which I had to walk after 6 miles). I decided I would run to a park that is 2 miles from my house and then run around the park for 2 miles before coming home for a total of 6. The first 2 or 3 miles I really had to force myself to stay in control and not run fast enough to the point that I would feel miserable on the last few miles. I ended up splitting 7:34-7:20-7:23-7:18-7:10-6:55 for a total run of 43:40 (7:17/mile). It was 82 degrees and the sun was beating down on me the entire time, but luckily since I got used to running in the 90 degree weather we had the last couple weeks it wasn’t too bad. I’ve noticed that all of my runs have been following this pattern of going out at a certain pace and then speeding up each mile (called “splitting negatives” in the running world). I conserve myself a little bit early and then really focus on my form (pumping the arms, lifting the knees, etc) as I get more and more tired. So there isn’t a point where I consciously try to get faster, I simply know I’m closer to home and don’t have to keep preserving myself. This is way better than starting fast and fading late so I am very encouraged by how running is going. The key is to just keep doing it every day. There is a run in Princeton on Saturday I might do; looking at results from last year it appears that 3rd place ran 18:57 for 5K (6:05/mile). I think that’s very doable for me right now and could be a good goal. That’s enough about running though for this poker blog.

Tomorrow I will drive to Parx and play their $175 Big Stax “turbo” day 1D at 11:15AM. I put the turbo part in quotes because it is basically the same structure as a Borgata standard tournament. I love seeing them call it a turbo though because Borgata’s tourneys go way too fast in my opinion for them to advertise them as these nice, long structures. Tomorrow players receive a 20K starting stack and the blinds increase every 25 minutes. Each starting flight will play to the conclusion of level 14 (1500/3000) before bagging for Saturday’s day 2. Late registration and re-entry is open until the end of level 10 (600/1200) and since I am rolled for this tourney I will probably just keep firing as much as it takes if I bust before re-entry. The 1E flight is at 6:15 so if I don’t bag on 1D I’ll hang out at Parx and play some cash before trying that one. This seems like a fun tourney to try to get the live monkey off my back; I’ve never final tabled a non-daily/weekly type tourney live before. I have an 11th in a Borgata $400 and a 9th in a Borgata deep stack. Somehow with 11 left in that, the other table lost a player as I was shoving all in UTG with 88. The big stack iso’d, a shorter stack called for less, and the big stack’s AK made a wheel against me and the shorty’s KK. Since I covered the KK guy I got credit for 9th without making the final table. Go figure.

So anyway cliffs for today:

--I’m disappointed in myself for having a mini meltdown tonight but I need to simply make sure it doesn’t happen again, or happens as little as possible since I know I am not perfect and acknowledge that I might mess up in the future.
--Tomorrow is a new day that will be filled with live poker and I hope that goes well.
--And running is still going great and I hope I can keep that up too!
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-13-2015 , 02:16 AM
Pretty cool thread, I'm enjoying following along. I'm also playing flight 1D tomorrow at Parx so hopefully we both bag! GLGL
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-13-2015 , 10:12 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by hailtopitt
Pretty cool thread, I'm enjoying following along. I'm also playing flight 1D tomorrow at Parx so hopefully we both bag! GLGL
Thanks I appreciate that! I'll post what table I'm at in case you want to say hi.

This is also a good time to post a couple of the articles I meant to post recently. Both have my picture in them but unfortunately it's the same picture lol. But in any case it'll be easier to recognize me now.

This past weekend's NJ MTT review on Pocketfives:
http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/...0-2015-591181/

My interview with Pocketfives (Note: This was published September 3, 2014 and states that at the time I had $94K in tracked online results. As of today, less than a year later, I have $211K in earnings. The grind is real!):
http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/...xnets5-589972/

Also after browsing through that interview again I realized I gave a shout out to Joe McKeehen about halfway down the page. Anyone know what he's been up to lately?
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-13-2015 , 02:35 PM
Small field for this $175 at parx. Currently have 29K from 20K, built to 40K pretty quietly then went JJ<44 for 10K each first hand back from break at 600BB. Naturally hailtopitt and I have been at the same table all day lol and he's playing well and coolering the pants off of everyone! Really nice guy too. The plan is to play until the end of level 14 (1500/3000) but with only 21 left in this flight in level 7 (300/600) I wonder what will happen down the stretch. Hope I'm there to find out!
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-13-2015 , 04:08 PM
Hailtopitt busted me! We got it in on 864ccc, his 88 vs my 5c5x. I re bought, spun it up to 40K and got it in with AQ on A53 vs A3. Turn 7 River 7 so I have 80K starting 1600BB with 4 levels left in the day. There's 16 left in this flight so if we get down to 5 players we will end the day. I'll update this probably after my online session tonight.
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-14-2015 , 01:36 AM
Poker day just wrapped up and we have quite a bit to talk about! I’ll try to not run on too long with it. First of all how did Parx finish up? Well the guy who beat my JJ with his 44 got me again taking another 25K off me with KJ vs my A7 in a button vs SB confrontation, chopping me down to about 50K. From there I didn’t get much going and when we made the “final table” (this flight had maybe 40 entries so when we got down to 10 we played 1 table, going through the 1500/3000 level unless we got down to 5 players in which case we would stop) I still had around 40-45K at 2K BB. I took my spots when I had them but there weren’t many with a few guys going nuts and dishing out some of the craziest poker “knowledge” I’ve ever heard. Add to that the fact that a Jewish man claimed that the poker staff misinformed him about when day 2 was, and since it was in fact on Saturday he would not be able to play because of the Sabbath, and now we have this wild card with a ton of chips playing every hand like it’s his last. Eventually he jammed AK in for 100K into a maybe 20K pot on a 466K board and the other maniac at the table with the same stack casually calls and turns over 66. So that was the end of his day.

With 8 players left the guy who now has 200K in front of him (from a 20K SS remember and there were only 40 entries tops today) opens the button to 11K at 3KBB. SB folds and I find AT in the BB and jam my last 39K and he SNAP calls. Welp, good game me, I ask if he has aces and he nods no and says “Once I make it 11K I can’t fold now” and turns over Q4o. Flop is a somewhat scary 357 and turn is a Q. Good game. No wait hold on river was an ace so now I have 80K! I think I actually would have taken the beat pretty well as I literally shrugged and smiled when the Q hit the turn. It would have just been irritating to have to come back tomorrow to try again. There were only 5 hands left in the day after that hand and I raised 2 of the last 4; a button steal got through with A6 and I opened AJ the next hand, got flatted by button, c-bet KQ4 and shut down when he called. So I’ll come back on Saturday with 71K at 2K/4K/500. It’s a turbo but with 30 minute levels and no levels being skipped I think I have a reasonable chance to spin it up.

I came home around 6:30 and was very torn between running or not today. For a variety of reasons I decided to make today my off day. I called my girlfriend, got some Chinese Food and eventually started my online session at 8PM. I decided to only play 4 games today as I am still annoyed with myself for getting so frustrated yesterday, and I think sometimes a lot of volume leads me to get more angry than I should. So I played the 4 majors MTT NJ offers (in my opinion anyway, 4 of the better ones that all start close together): On WSOP, the $30r 10K guarantee and the $100 2.5K guarantee and on Party the $100 10K guarantee and the $50 5K guarantee. I ran up stacks in all of them and eventually busted the 5K first short of the money. 43 players were in the $100 2.5K so 8 were paying and with 10 left we played for probably over a half hour. At one point I was the shortest stack; later I was the biggest stack; and going to the final table I was one of the shortest again. Flippaments. 8th gets $210 in that, 6th gets like $350, and 1st gets $1300, so the mincash is huge since it’s 1/6 of a win and once you secure it you can really play for the win since the payouts are so flat until the top 3. I snuck into the money and actually had a shot with 4 left but lost a flip and that was that, 4 of 43 for $424.41.

The Party 10K was really frustrating. 10K starting stack and I had about 60K with 18 left. 15 of the 110 or so to play would get paid and when we got to hand for hand I opened JJ, called a 35K shove (2500BB at the time I think) and lost to AK. This left me with <10BBs as we approached the stone bubble. I folded for a while since there were similarly sized stacks and eventually got 55 in for my last 8 BBs in a spot I could probably fold, but with $2200 up top I really hate folding decent spots just to try to mincash. I was up against AK again and lost again and ended up the bubble boy. This left just the WSOP 10K in which I had a decent stack. I decided to fire another $100 tourney that starts later at night to have running while I played the 10K and busted that pretty quickly. I played pretty well in my opinion in the 10K and eventually won a flip with 14 left to bust an aggressive opponent who had won that same 10K twice last week alone! From 13 down to 6 I lost 3 straight flips to go from a big stack to a small stack which was really frustrating because I felt I was really seizing control of the table and could have continued to run it over had I won any of those flips. But I still had chips.

I get into one last flip with 6 left and find a way to win it! The dynamic with 4 left was really ridiculous; the 2 chip leaders were 3x’ing every time it was on them and both going head to head almost every hand. With payouts of 4th--$800, 3rd--$1000, 2nd--$1800, 1st--$3200 and me and the other short stack virtually tied, I would have been more than happy to see one of those 2 knock each other out and then battle the shorty to ladder up to 2nd place money. As it was though I just sat there and nut peddled and won a big pot whenever I found a hand. I just folded a ton of buttons I wouldn’t normally fold in favor of waiting for bigger hands and better spots, and did get fortunate enough to make 2 straights after lots of folding. It didn’t seem to matter that I folded a lot to these villains though as they just kept mashing the half pot and full pot buttons, so I pretty much just clicked call twice then jammed river to which they’d fold. When I got heads up with the craziest one of the bunch we were virtually even. I made 2 river calls that would’ve been hero-ish against anyone else but against this villain I think were standard (Q9 on AJ4AJ (he had 22) and TT on AQJ46 (he had K5)). Eventually he opened button, I flatted A3, it came A53cc, I c/r’ed and he ripped for heaps with K8cc and I held! $3243.24 for 1st of 144!

What an exciting day for me. Counting the live bullet that did not get through (and disregarding the one that is still in play since I don’t know if I’ve cashed yet or not) I made a shade over $3000 today on $600 in buy ins. It’s a great feeling and I felt so controlled throughout the tournament today, even when only having 250K of the 2.2M in play 4 handed. There was never any tilt and I feel like I really picked my spots well all the way from the final 25 down to heads up. I had a really interesting table with 25 left in the sense that 3 of the most aggressive NJ regs were at it, which led to me finding a few spots to 3b light and one spot where I could comfortably 4b jam 66. It was fun to play some real preflop poker again, pre BF style! My bankroll is now the biggest it has ever been, despite the fact that the downswing that was messing with my head STARTED less than one month ago! It’s amazing how quickly things can change in tournament poker. It just shows the importance of keeping your head up and focusing on what matters during the downtimes: Am I playing well and if not, what can I do to fix it? The downswing I encountered when I first declared I was playing professionally in March (it wasn’t a very serious declaration but I decided I would start putting in more volume back then) and the downswing I had this past month have been so important in sculpting me as a professional. I handled the one in March TERRIBLY and then one tabled the WSOP 10K and won it for >$4K to wipe out the downswing right then and there. This downswing in July I learned from that downswing and kept my head on straight and continued to play the best I could and, wouldn’t you know, it did eventually end.

I’m encouraged also because I think I lucked out with these downswings. A 3 week downswing is pretty short in relative terms for a poker player. They could have gone on much longer but I lucked out and they did not. However I think I will be better prepared for when a downswing does go longer than 3 weeks, and it’s all thanks to building off of the 2 downswings I’ve faced thusfar as a “pro.” It’s cliché but very true for my situation: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I’ve learned a lot and become a better poker player and person due to the adversity I have faced so far.

An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-14-2015 , 04:58 AM
Gonna be playing in NJ starting in November so looking forward to following. Glgl. Not sure I can get past the tilting thread title grammar
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-14-2015 , 05:11 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by AbAdTrip
Gonna be playing in NJ starting in November so looking forward to following. Glgl. Not sure I can get past the tilting thread title grammar
Look forward to seeing you here.

Only thing I can think of is you're reading it as "An New Jersey..."? Whereas when I read it to myself I read "An En Jay Grinder's..."

Let me know what you mean lol
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-14-2015 , 09:58 AM
Haha ya "an NJ" destroying my brain best of luck mate
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-14-2015 , 10:31 AM
Great thread so far! Best of luck and continued success. Funny how the guy who posted in the thread busted you but you still ran it back up!
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-15-2015 , 12:33 AM
Got a 4 miler in today, it was a bit hot out and for the first time I had a mile that was more than a few seconds slower than a previous one, but nothing tragic; I ended up splitting 7:06-6:59-7:16-6:55 for the 4 miler in a little under 28:20. Got home and started a session, deciding to put in a smaller amount of volume again. Mincashed a $55 MTT on 888 for $220 after coming 5th of 27, mincashed the Party $10K after the most ludicrous bubble I've ever seen. I started hand for hand with 35K at 2K BB and by the time it was over had 8.8K at 4K BB. We had one guy stalling during the entirety of hand for hand (12 were paying of the original 89, and with the overlay the mincash was almost 3x the buy in). Since the mincash was $295 it felt like ICM suicide to let one of the 4K stacks sneak in, so I folded in some spots I'd shove without those implications. However, you know how it goes; ridiculous hand after ridiculous hand saw the shorties hang around. I watched a 2.5x jam get through, a guy with less than a big blind somehow find JJ, somehow run into AA, and somehow hit the jack anyway, the list goes on. I cashed with 2 bigs, got my A3 in vs AQ and AJ and the board came a trolly 367Q2 to bust me 11th of 89 for $295.

Regged the Party $5K very late and got a quick double before opening TT and getting it in on a 9 high flop vs the BB who defended 99 to bust that. Ran super pure in the WSOP 10K (same tourney I won last night) until near the bubble where I lost 2 flips, one of which would have gotten me to 100K and given me a chance to go back to back. The 2nd flip crippled me and I finished 28th with 25 paying. Ended up cashing for $515 on $546.90 worth of buy ins for a small loss.

It appears that 47 total players have bagged for day 2 of the turbo tomorrow of the original 250ish buy ins. Average stack will be just over 100K at 4K BB so a double from our 71K would really get things moving. 26 will be paid with the winner getting around $9500. Payouts for this are smaller than the 50K I final tabled online this past weekend so the pressure is off and I will most likely play for the win since it seems to be very top heavy. The tournament restarts at 12:15 tomorrow afternoon and the action will be followed on the blog, which I will post a link for. The $1200 Big Stax event will be running day 1B simultaneously so I'm not sure how much love the turbo will get, but I assume there will be a mention here and there so when I run really good and have the chip lead by 8K BB you guys can check it out here

http://parxpokerbigstax.blogspot.com/
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-15-2015 , 12:36 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by tellypl
Great thread so far! Best of luck and continued success. Funny how the guy who posted in the thread busted you but you still ran it back up!
Thanks a lot! The coincidences just got crazier when I learned the hailtopitt is in fact my old neighbor from the house where I was born. I lived there until I was 9 (he's a year younger than me) and we hung out a bunch back then. It's been 15 years since we've seen each other so we didn't recognize one another, but when I got home I saw his full name and realized it was him. Very surreal lol
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-15-2015 , 03:08 AM
Subbed buddy! Good reads so far. Tilt goes away with experience. (Ask me how I know) Though it may never fully go away, it will get better. IF you wanna talk tilt and psychology game shoot me a PM.
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-15-2015 , 11:46 AM
Good to hear that you bagged the Parx tourney. My day got significantly worse after I busted you haha. In about 1.5 orbits I busted a 65 bb stack. Ran QQ into KK for about 25 bigs AIPF, then KK into AA for another 23 bbs again AIPF, then stuck the rest in with 77 against a button open who ended up having TT. And out the door I went. GL today, sending all my rungood to you, Dan.
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-15-2015 , 01:27 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by hailtopitt
Good to hear that you bagged the Parx tourney. My day got significantly worse after I busted you haha. In about 1.5 orbits I busted a 65 bb stack. Ran QQ into KK for about 25 bigs AIPF, then KK into AA for another 23 bbs again AIPF, then stuck the rest in with 77 against a button open who ended up having TT. And out the door I went. GL today, sending all my rungood to you, Dan.
Sheesh brutal. My day 2 was efficient in the sense that I did not waste my time before getting my chips in! 3b jammed QQ first hand of the day and got a fold from a 3x'er so I had 90K at 4KBB then our table broke a few hands later. It was funny because the 3x'er was the same exact guy who went 44>JJ and KJ>A7 on me day 1, and there was a dead BB, so I figured he was stealing, especially with his sizing. I probably could have 3b smaller but it just feels too obvious to me sometimes to make it anything other than all in when I have <20BBs. However, vs this guy I think he could have leveled himself into thinking I was restealing and shipped it in kinda light. He made a whole speech before turning A9o face up and folding, and I think if I make it 30K he would've peeled! (as crazy as that sounds) In any case I don't hate taking the lower variance play when the field is so soft. Got to new table and watched a kid open J3 and KO an old guy after flop came J43. The next hand I was the BB with no SB since guy just busted, CO opens 10K, I look at KQ and get ready to jam but before I can button 3b's to 25K. I have like 85K total and while I think I might rip this in online, it feels less optimal when I'm readless. They both looked like they were in their early 30s but I knew nothing else about them so I folded. CO ends up 4b'ing to 50K and button folds. Pretty interesting to see a 3b/f in a live tourney but I assume button has a 3b light range now.

Two hands later I am button and CO (the guy who 3b/folded earlier) opens to 10K, I find A8o and decide to jam my 77K in. With a soft field this doesn't have to be a jam, but I've been finding lots of success by really trying to chip up at every stage of the tourney and not just trying to survive, so I stuck with this strategy and ripped it in. If this guy has a 3b/f range he has to have a r/f range from the CO. Unfortunately he had AK, and after a small sweat on the 974J board, the river was a 5 and that was good game. To be honest though, for me anyway, it feels so much better to bust like that then to whittle down to 10 bigs and hope to find a double.

The good thing about getting KO'ed early is now I can put in an online session, since Saturday's have a couple early tourneys worth playing. I am conflicted right now though since the $50r starts at 2:00 and needs 8 people registered by then to run. I want to go out on a run, but I will be back after 2:00 if I do that. Also it's 90 degrees and I'm really dreading it right now. If 8 people register the field always gets to 30-40 people, but there have been plenty of weeks where the tourney doesn't run because only 7 are regged at start time. I guess the play might be to register now, sacrifice some chips in the early going (probably only like 300 of my 4K, and I'd be able to rebuy anyway) and hope that 8 people are there at start time. In any case it's time to run good! (awful pun intended)
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-15-2015 , 03:28 PM
Went out on a 5 mile loop but after cramping a bit in the 88 degree heat I decided to cut it short to 4.25 and walk the last 3/4 mile home. Don't get me wrong, I felt good most of the way, but I really don't want to push myself too hard in this first month of coming back. When I've done that in the past I've become too tired and lost motivation to keep doing it every day.

I find myself having to repeat over and over in my head "keep it slow, keep it slow, stay relaxed, don't push" for my first few miles because for some reason my body always wants to take over and push harder than I should. I still ended up at 7:13 for the 1st mile, followed by 6:56 for the 2nd, 6:55 for the 3rd, and 6:57 for the 4th. The last 1/4 mile came through in 1:40 (it was all downhill) to finish my 4.25 miler in 29:40 for an average mile of 6:59. I'm trying not to worry at all about speed right now, but if I was I'd be happy about that on a normal day. So with it being 88 degrees outside right now with no shade or clouds to block the sun, I'm REALLY happy with that time. Again though, I'm trying not to focus on it too much.

I signed up for a race next Saturday. Last year I ran it with my dad and I really hadn't done any training up to that point (maybe a week or two of inconsistent running tops beforehand). When I saw there were only 60-70 runners in the field I looked at my dad and told him I wished I was in shape because the race seemed winnable. I went out slow and when I looked up a half mile into the race I realized there was only 1 guy in front of me! I caught him before the mile mark and went on to win the race in 19:34. So if I won that race when I wasn't really in shape I think it might be fun to try to dominate it this year when I'm at least in a little shape. It is moving from Hamilton to Princeton though so there might be better runners there this year. Regardless of how everyone else does my goal will just be to break 19:00.

I thought I'd post a summary of my August runs so far this month for any of you poker players out there who are actually interested in running. I tweeted today that Parx was having a 5K in October and instantly got about 5 tweets asking when and what the details were. I realized I had led on that they were running a $5000 buy in when reality I just meant a road race. Whoops! Anyway here's my August runs thus far:

An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-16-2015 , 02:52 AM
I played a lot of poker today. Good lawd! This has to be one of the longest true grinds I've put in in a very long time. The sngs ran at a decent rate so I just kept firing and at one point had 9 games running, many of which were down to heads up or 3 handed, so it got a bit hectic. I grinded the hell out of my last tourney, the $35 1500 guarantee at 9:45PM, and just closed it out now (2:49AM). 2nd place in that would not have gotten me a profit on the day, so I'm pretty pumped to win it after it being the only table I had up since around 12:30. I'm too tired to go into crazy detail about the session so I'll just include the numbers and a pic of my session summary. (Buy ins include the $175 bullet I fired on Thursday but did not have a result for until today)

Buy Ins: $1489.40 Returns: $1758.49 Profit: $269.09

An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote
08-16-2015 , 10:56 PM
I slept late today (woke up after noon) after the really really long session yesterday. Eventually got out to run at 2:00 and it was 90 degrees. First mile 7:17, I was really scared because my foot started hurting pretty badly after it was sore yesterday and it feels like an injury I had back in college. I’ll really have to keep my eye on it; I recently got new shoes and I’d gotten orthotics for my old pair so I might have to go get another set of those. The pain went away after a mile though and then 2nd mile came through in 7:00. On the 3rd mile the heat really started getting to me and I slowed it down to make sure I’d still finish the run. The 3rd was 7:25 and the 4th was 7:38, with me really having to push myself through that last one since I was really feeling dehydrated and exhausted to the point of wanting to stop. 29:20 overall for 4 miles though (7:20/mile) so still not too bad. I think I really need to start eating better as I’ve cramped a few times the last couple of runs.

Session started good today, played some sngs and won small, then played the 2 $50 MTTs offered early. Bad beat on one, 3 way chop on the other since we were all 50BBs deep and the difference between 1st and 3rd was a really small $200 due to Party Poker having no idea how to set up a payout structure. 49 people, 8 pay with 8th getting $150, 5th getting $200, and 1st getting $520. Might as well play it like a satty when mincash is 3 buy ins and the win is 10. I busted both of the majors really quickly, flopping top pair with JT in one and leveling myself into thinking it could be good. I probably made multiple mistakes in that hand so I was a bit frustrated with myself. The other major I 3b shoved KT on a 237 flop after opening button and getting flatted by BB. He c/minraised flop, something that happened against me probably 10 times today. I’m not sure what it is but the minraise on the flop seems to be so popular now in NJ, especially on Sundays. I couldn’t think of one hand he could rep with that, especially since I had 18BBs to start the hand so most of his value stuff should’ve just been a shove pre. He snapped with 55 and held lol oh well.

With 2 tournaments left in the day I was in for $450 if I was to bust both, but both were $100 MTTs so there was still a pretty good chance of turning a profit. In the first I watched a guy limp 80, EP raise to 270, and I 3b to 800 from the SB with AA. The limper folded, and the raiser is someone I had some words with on PocketFives. Nothing too hostile, but he bumped an old thread which discussed something that had been argued over for a while and had finally been settled. It started the debate back up again and it really aggravated me because the only reason he bumped it was to brag about winning a tournament. With that being said, he jams 3600 effective with 77 and the flop comes 7 high to KO me. Down to 1 tourney, the $100 10K on Party, and I’ve got 70K from 10K SS. I lose a few pots and end up with 50K with 25 players left and 18 getting paid. I’m right around average at 1500BB and the HJ opens to 4500. I 3b QQ from the SB to 12K since his fold to 3b was very low and he flats. Flop is 982 I bet 11K to set up a turn jam he flats, turn is an 8 I shove he has 99 good game me. So I end up with a pretty frustrating day but obviously the most important thing is focusing on how I played. I definitely made a few mistakes that I will need to clean up in the future, especially in the $200 MTTs. The JT hand was really bad (I r/c’ed button when I should prob fold to 3b, I flatted J54 and then called a pot size shove on 6 turn, convinced this villain could do this light. He had KJ, which makes me feel a little better that his 3b wasn’t with a nutted hand, but I think I still should just fold pre and then as played, fold turn), and I’m sure there were other mistakes throughout.

Tomorrow I will go see my girlfriend again and I think it’s perfect timing; a little break from the game always helps me to recharge my batteries. There is a $280 $100K guarantee at SugarHouse, a casino in Philadelphia, that starts on Thursday and has several starting flights. I’ve never been to that poker room but this week will probably be the first time. Playing more live tournaments now that my bankroll is growing is something I think I should really be trying; the tourneys are so soft and offer a bigger top prize than anything you’ll see on NJ sites. It feels a bit like playing the lottery with these big fields, but I’ve been really confident lately and I’ve also seen a pretty absurdly high number of my friends hit big scores in live MTTs. Why not me? Also the experience will help a lot in the future when I start playing the bigger stuff. The live tournaments are super soft and I’ve noticed that playing live helps my online game and vice versa. When you play live you really try to soak in every possible detail around you since you can literally take 5 minutes to make a decision if you feel like it. Live is more about keying in on everything happening in order to really narrow your opponent’s range more than you are able to online. That’s why guys like Negreanu make these ridiculous reads that seem impossible to an online player when the villain’s range could be wider; it is the result of a ton of experience confidence that allows them to know that only this one specific hand makes complete sense. So when I come home to play online after playing live, I notice that I don’t make any quick, gut-instinct reactions and I really think through every decision, which is vital to having success in any form of poker. On the flip side, when I play live I feel more comfortable 3b jamming 17BBs light vs a guy who I know is opening everything. When playing live sometimes shoving 75K over a 10K open feels like so many chips (since there are literally a lot of chips in front of you) but in reality it is just the standard most optimal play. Online helps my live game in that sense.

In all likelihood I will take off Monday and Tuesday from online again and come back ready to go on Wednesday. I’ll continue running each day, maybe taking a day off this week for the last time before actually committing to running every single day. I might try to put an interval workout in once this week too before the 5K, something like 6x800 at 6:00 pace so as to get ready to run that fast in the 5K itself. I’ll finish off this post with summary of today. Hope everyone had a happy and profitable Sunday!

Buy ins: $1350.20 Returns: $866.53 Profit: -$483.67
An NJ Grinder's Journey as a Pro Quote

      
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