Yesterday's Online Results

I was feeling pretty tired after driving to and from Parx yesterday so I decided to play just the majors and see what happened with those before deciding whether or not to register anything else. I busted the WSOP major pretty quickly, losing a flip for my last 2700 (5K SS) at 100/200. I decided to late reg the $50r satty to the $500 MTT on the last Sunday of the month and ended up running good to get the seat, going KJs>AA with 9 left to basically lock it up since 5 got it. That left me with the Party 50K which I decided to 1 table the rest of the day. It's funny how I feel my brain working slightly differently after playing live; there's more patience but I feel like I'm really looking for every spot I can take advantage of. And with hands being dealt more quickly online I feel like I played better.

36 cashed and I was in 5th place when we made it there. I hovered around 150K (10K SS) for quite some time and couldn't really find any spots to continue chipping up. We got down to the final 15 and I was down to 100K. At around 12:45 I remember checking my HEM to see if I was playing really nitty or if I was really as card dead as I felt. From the 12:00-12:45 time period I'd been dealt 33 at 12:01 and that was my only pocket pair; the best hands I got aside from that were AT A9 and A6, once each. With a 10-20BB stack at an aggro table there just isn't really much that can be done in that situation. I finally got my last 56K in at 8K BB with 44 and got called by Q8. The 442 flop was pretty nice and I was back over 100K. Down to 11 players and there were 2 or 3 stacks similar to my 100K. It folds to the SB who jams for my 100K effective at 8K BB, so 12.5 bigs. I get to snap off with AT, he has A8, the flop comes 8 high and I am eliminated in 11th for a little over $1000. The winner received over $10K.

So my frustrations in live tournaments and Sunday majors continued yesterday in both arenas. But the really positive thing to take from it is that I did not really feel the same sort of frustration I often have in the past. I don't feel like I won't win the 50K anymore. I don't feel like I'll never final table a Parx tournament. My confidence is where it should be. My game is getting better. I'm aware of the variance and how lucky I needed to get to be in the position to make a run in each of those tournaments, and I'm also aware of how much more lucky I'd need to get to continue those runs. Yesterday I wasn't lucky enough to continue them but I still made money due to the luck from earlier in the MTTs. At the end of the day it's all moot; the important thing is to focus on the things you can control, and I think I did well with all of that. Eventually I'll run pure throughout the 50K and win it, eventually I'll win all my flips in a live tournament. Until then the grind continues!

Good Day!

Played 14 MTTs, cashed 4, 2 were small mincashes, another was a 3rd in the $100 high roller on WSOP for $528. I was 1/3 for a little while but wasn't able to close. But then I won a bunch of flips and **** in the Party 10K!

At one point I was down to 50K at 5KBB with 10 left...we played hand for hand with 10 left for a solid 30-45 minutes. I managed to spin it back up and when we got to 3 handed I personally knew one of my opponents, and the other was a solid reg. The guy I knew asked if we'd like to chop, and stacks at that point were something like him--600K, reg--500K, me--450K. I told him I wanted to officially finish 1st for the P5s points so if that opportunity ever arose then I'd be down to chop. Sure enough, I won a decent pot off of him shortly after to put myself in the lead, and both players took the chip chop deal! So I technically finish 1st of 155 and cash for $2700 after the chop. With a $15,500 prize pool I'll get about 125 points for this win which will move me that much closer to that #1 NJ spot. I know it's really not a big deal but it's a goal I want to achieve, just to have tangible proof of the hard work I've put in. To be able to show all my non poker friends and family, "look, you might have no clue what I'm talking about when I relive hand histories or talk to you about equities, and I'll never be able to write up a proof for you that shows you I can get away with doing this for a living and I'm not addicted to gambling, but I can absolutely 100% show you that at this moment in time, this poker site has deemed me the best at what I do in my entire state." It's a simple thing with no cash value attached and a flexible ranking system that could see me move out of that top spot just a week later, but to just have it for at least some amount of time would be really meaningful to me.

Anyway, +$2600 on the day after a +$1000 online day yesterday (not including the Parx $700 mincash) bumps the monthly total up and over +$5K. I sort of want to play the Parx $550 but the idea of driving all the way there again with the tolls and gas and money to spend on meals and time away from home (and money lost not grinding online), I'm not sure if it's really worth it. Maybe I'll just go next week and play the 6 max, a format I really love live. That way I'd be guaranteed to only need to be there that day, and wouldn't have to drive there multiple times.

I haven't ran in forever but after we had an arctic blast over the weekend (it was single digits in the middle of the day and even got below 0 overnight--that's -18 celcius), we got snow today as the weather was WARMING UP! It was really weird, I took the recyclables out in shorts and didn't even feel cold, despite the fact it was snowing, since I was used to that 10 degree weather and now it was back up to high 20s with no wind. I mention all of this because the snow is now turning to rain and while it should still be raining tomorrow afternoon, it's supposed to get up to 55!! Anyway, point is, I need to start running again! I've been worried about getting sick in this frigid weather and I just truly do not enjoy running in it. But when it's nice outside those runs make me feel really good. Hopefully I can start getting back on track with that again soon. Alright, bedtime now, Party $535 tomorrow night leggo!

Awesome stuff bro. Stay on that grind. GL

Thanks man! Sorry bout the suck out this morning. Managed to put em to good use though. Always fun playing with ya!

All good bro. That's poker. One of my goals for Feb is to ship that tournament. Still got 11 days to accomplish it. lol

Since Last Time...

Since the nice session on Monday:

--Tuesday: -$550
--Wednesday: -$75
--Thursday: +$500

Friday and Saturday off. On Saturday I went to NYC for a "brunch" (read: $25 for a meal and limitless margaritas and sangria) with a bunch of my college buddies. Kelsey came too and brought her friend, and it ended up being a great time. It's really cool when we can find stuff to do that both my friends and my girlfriend enjoy. Since I'm unavailable Sunday-Thursday nights, my time for hanging out with people is pretty limited, so when I can get that two-for-one in there with hanging with both friends and girlfriend it's really great. I had a fun time and got back to Fair Lawn around 9PM. Kelsey and I just relaxed after that and I was really happy.

Sunday morning we got up and considered going on a run but decided just to get some food before I took Kelsey back to her house. It was about 2PM when I got back from dropping her off and I decided the weather was just too good to not go on a run. At one point it hit 60 degrees, and considering just last weekend it dipped below 0, it felt like Spring. I ran 4 miles in under 28 minutes! I'll admit that I had to put a lot more effort into it than when I was in shape, but I wasn't sprinting or anything, and getting under 7:00 pace just like that was a really great feeling. I felt really good going into the poker session.

Unfortunately that session did not go well! I felt tired while playing, which led to me just playing a few tables and relaxing. However, I don't think feeling tired and losing are correlated. In the past I would have thought that the running might have been why I did poorly, rather than really objectively looking at what led to the bad session. The running definitely led to me not sitting down and playing 8 tables, but as for the game play itself I can really only recall one hand where I was confident my play wasn't great. Basically, I just ran really bad. Got it in good in a spot that would have almost guaranteed a cash in the WSOP major and lost, and still had chips left 20 from the money before busting in a standard spot. Busted the 1st bullet in the Party 50K playing bad but got very unlucky to bust bullet 2, got really unlucky to bust the Party 10K, and I thought I was about to save the day in the $215 turbo before really getting teased in that one too. With 7 left there was a cluster in 1st-4th, each around 20BBs (I was one of them) and the bottom 3 each had about 10BBs. Four were paying with the mincash at $800 and the win at $2400. I got AQ in vs one of the shorty's 22. If I win the hand there's a very high chance I cash (for $800 or more), and the tease came in the form of and A35 flop. Turn was a 4 and I was down to 10BBs. I later get QT in and the BB wakes up with AQ, flop comes T42, turn A, gg me. I ended the day a $1200 loser.

But some good things to take from yesterday:

I won a pot near the bubble of a $55 MTT (which ended up being the only tourney I cashed in, for the min) where I got it in for like 10BBs with QJ vs AK. Board ran A72KT and multiple people at the table started commenting on what a luckbox I am. Yesterday was possibly the worst I've ran since the new year began. However, the positive to take from this is I didn't respond. Old me makes sure to educate everybody that I don't actually always run that good, or that I'm down 4 figures on the day, or whatever it might be. But I think I've finally realized it's pointless. Let them think I just run better than everyone else, and let them think the reason they don't win is because they don't run good. It's not like saying anything is going to change something, and I don't know why I care about anyone's opinion anymore anyway. I was happy with how I handled that, especially since people talking about how due you are after you win a small pot in your smallest buy in of a really bad day can be quite tilting.

I went to sell 50% of the upcoming Parx $1080 6 max at 1.11 mark up and 2.5 hours later it was sold out! It's encouraging to know that people see my results and want to take pieces of me. I also feel I am in a totally different mentality than when I sold packages in the past; there was this fear of losing back then, of trying desperately to not make any mistakes. On Thursday I will be playing to win and will not be afraid of busting or looking dumb. I used to think "people are giving you x amount of dollars to play, don't mess it up for them!" Now the mentality is "people are BUYING the right to have some of my equity, it's a fair trade, and just doing your best to succeed is giving them the product they paid for, regardless of whether you win or lose." Not to mention I own the biggest piece of myself! Of course I'm going to play to the best of my ability, and if I make a mistake, well that's just part of the investment. But I of course play perfect poker so there's nothing to worry about on that front .

I went on another run before writing up this post. Another 4 miles, this time at 28:11 (7:03/mile). The 2nd and 4th miles were both under 7 while the 1st and 3rd were a bit over. Definitely not worried about the time after the break I took but it is good to see that I haven't lost a ton of my fitness. I have to admit, I really hate running in the cold, and today being near 50 degrees again made it so much easier to get out there and do it. I just checked my phone; it's currently 52 degrees, and when I scanned the hourly thing on the weather app, it says that in 24 hours there is a 90% chance of snow. So I probably won't be running tomorrow. It does confuse me how it can snow when it's supposed to be 39 degrees outside, but that's a bit off topic. It looks like only 3 of the next 10 days have a high of over 50, so I'll try to make sure I run those days, and I probably won't run the rest. It's nice having the freedom to pick and choose when I run. I want to stay healthy and active but I'm just really not about that cold weather running. It always leaves me feeling sick. Maybe I'll run some of the days it gets into the mid 40s as well. I'll have to play it by ear.

After yesterday, my monthly results dip a shade below 4K of profit. I'll play online the next 3 nights and then head to Parx on Thursday for the 6 max. Friday I will hopefully be in day 2 of the 6 max, but if not it'll be an off day as well as Saturday. And then Sunday begins the Garden State Super Series (GSSS) on Party! Sunday has 5 events, 2x$55s, 2x$109s, and a $215. It's pretty much the same schedule as most Sundays but the guarantees are higher. But then the rest of the schedule is cool because there are bigger guarantees throughout the week and different mixed game MTTs and stuff like that. They're running a competition on PocketFives that I'm hopping in and it should be a lot of fun. But I'll get to more on that later.

I'll end this post with the WSOP POY leaderboard. I feel like I haven't been grinding the way I should be but I'm still right in the thick of things. Time to get back to the grind tonight!

Monday

Monday's session was a frustrating one. Mincashed the WSOP 10K, finished 6th after coming into the final table with a big chip lead in the WSOP high roller (I don't think I played very well in that either, though I did lose a few flips and coolers as well), and ended the night with an 11th in a $35 MTT with 1K up top where I ran very poorly from 15 players until I busted. Had the chip lead for a while in that one too. Had a lot of chances but ended up cashing 4 of the 16 MTTs I played for a $240 loss on $880 of buy ins.

Another WSOP 10K Win!

Feeling a little frustrated with the past 2 days I decided to take it easy last night. I watched Jeopardy at 7 (which has pretty much been part of my routine for the past month or so), and then decided to play ping pong with the roommates rather than start the session. It was a nice way to relax, and when we were done I fired up the WSOP 10K, the Party 10K, and the WSOP high roller on my laptop downstairs while watching TV with them. Ran bad in the high roller, bluffed it off in the Party 10K (though I didn't mind my line), and was left 1 tabling the WSOP 10K at 10:00. At 11:00 roommates went to bed so I headed upstairs, and 3 hours later I was heads up with a reg I know. I went on Skype to see if he was interested in making a deal; after I took the chip lead we decided to chip chop it up. WSOP doesn't facilitate deals so we decided whoever won would pay the other the difference, and we'd play it out. I won, so while it was officially a $3400 score, I'll pick up $2800 for it in reality. Three MTTs, under $300 in buy ins, and a $2800 score is a pretty sweet deal. It's pretty wild how often those impromptu relaxed, low volume sessions seem to turn into a solid win. I'm not sure if that's just coincidence or me focusing on the one table helps. It could also be me feeling more relaxed leads to me playing better. I'm leaning towards it just being random coincidence but it's definitely something to think about.

Mental Game

So this morning I thought about how yesterday morning my confidence was swaying just a bit. After losing $1300 in the previous 2 days I was feeling a bit down. Then I wake up this morning after winning one tournament and feel like I'm a great player again. I don't think there's anything wrong with feeling like you're great after you win, especially if you are aware of and acknowledge the fact that you most likely ran well to get the win. But feeling a lack of confidence due to a lack of results is silly, but it seems to creep up in me whenever I start losing. So this morning I wrote a note to my downswinging future self. I outlined all of the big swing hands I played during the 10K last night. I pointed out how I feel I played just about all of them correctly, but I also pointed out how so many of those hands could have so easily gone the other way. I had 27K in chips UTG at 2500/5000 at one point in this tourney. I jammed K7s and it got through. I like taking that spot to avoid being helpless in the BB, but I should bust there a high % of the time. The next hand I got 44 in the BB and got it in vs a button opener who had K9, and won the flip. Again, busto often there, but now I've got 16BBs and a shot.

The biggest hand was probably the most standard one, where it folds to my SB at 7K/14K and I shove for the BB's 190K effective with A7o. BB is a reg who plays solid and raise/folding and raise/calling both really aren't great. The jam is just profitable and unexploitable and I think it's best against a reg, whereas against a nitty random I might prefer raise/folding, and against some I may even limp. BB woke up with ATs and I flopped a 7. And that's MTT poker in a nutshell! Both players made incredibly standard plays and someone has to lose. I feel fortunate to win the hand but definitely don't feel bad or even really like I sucked out; it's more of a cooler. When I busted the 50K last weekend in 11th AT<A8 bvb, I was annoyed but it didn't really feel like a bad beat, almost more like losing a flip since his shove was so standard as was my call. Same situation here. But one of the best players left who was on my direct left is now out and I have a lot of chips.

Win those spots in tournaments and play well late and you're gonna do well. But if I lose any of those spots mentioned, it doesn't mean my confidence should go down! This will be my goal for the future; working on keeping that confidence high even when I'm losing. A healthy focus on improving but not overly stressing about it will be key. As long as I am trying to improve and playing my best, I can't let downswings convince me I'm doing something wrong. Fortunately this year, I haven't really had to deal with much in the way of losing

Tomorrow is the $1080 6 max at Parx and I am excited. I will go in with confidence and play my best. I'm interested to see what sort of a turn out it gets. In any case I will get some more experience in both the live arena, 4 figure buy ins, and 6 max, all of which will help me grow as a poker player. Let's get it!!

So the 6 max did not go well, I was out before dinner. Think I did very well to lose the minimum over and over but in poker you must make the best hand sometimes to win! I folded a straight in a bizarre hand which might have been terrible by me and may have been great. I gave it a long think and decided to fold but I really really am not sure about it. It was a rare spot in which I think I'm calling to chop and it was very villain dependent. The hand:

UTG (6 max remember) opens to 525 at 100/200/25. Button calls, SB calls, I complete Jh8c (we're like 30K or so deep). Flop comes T97hh (yahtzee). SB checks, I check, UTG checks, button bets 800, SB calls, I raise to 3500, UTG folds, button calls, SB calls. There's about 13K going to turn turn which is an offsuit jack (T97hhJx board). I bet 7K, button flats, SB jams 24K. Pretty frustrating to flop the nuts and now get a call on this turn, which I'd imagine must be quite strong, and then someone jamming over the top of it anyway. Some notes on the shover: I've seen him at Parx before, he's clearly comfortable playing, has iPad out watching a movie, etc. Since we're playing 6 max I've already seen him play quite a few hands. He has no problem taking flops, and no problem c/f'ing to c-bets. He's been quite passive and makes his sizings big when he has it. I really get the vibe that he is clicking call a lot unless he has the goods, in which case he tries to get the money in ASAP.

Based on those reads, I can't think of a hand I beat. MAYBE he can show up with Qx of hearts here but that's about it. I think almost always he has a straight, and I block the 8. KQhh or possibly any KQ combo makes some sense. Q8 is harder but possible. And of course he can have plenty of 8x stuff. The math was hard to do at the table but I guess I can try to figure it out now. 13K in the middle and we all 7K apiece in on turn. His shove is an additional 16K, so 50K in the middle and 16K for me to call. Now, if my read is right that I am calling to try to chop because he doesn't have almost any sets or combo draws here, it's 16 to try to win 25. That means I need 39%, meaning if he has just an 8 here 39% of the time or more, I should be calling. If he has Q8 or KQ 61% of the time or more, I should fold. I think we can adjust those numbers a shade as well since he has some 8xhh combos in which he's freerolling me. So I'll estimate I need to be shown 8x about 42% of the time. Based on all that math and analysis, I think it has to be a call and my fold was way too nitty. That being said, there is still a player behind who can easily be flatting with the nuts here. It was a strange and tricky spot and my fold was quite nitty. Interested in what others think.

I waited for my spots later and they simply didn't come. Whenever I peeled BBs I whiffed, I had a tough time winning when I opened, and the few times I made pairs I got shown better. Finally, down to 9K from 30K starting, I squeeze KK on the button at 600BB. I decide to min to 1200, SB flats, flop comes A high, we check to river where I call a 1600 chip bet and get shown AT. A2 goes in next hand for last 6K from the CO and SB wakes up with AQ to bust me. I felt pretty good about how I played (aside from feeling pretty blah about the J8) and think my mindset was very very good. It was cool for me to be honest about how everyone was running and realize some people with 100K in front of them were getting smacked by the deck, and I wasn't, and that was okay and I needed to just continue playing optimally rather than feeling there was something more I could do. I'm letting the game come to me now.

GSSS starts today. I'm part of a team competition where 40 players have put up $150 each and been drafted into 5 different teams. Think my team should be the favorite based on the value we got. #1 NJer is not in competition; we have #2 #3 and #4. Plenty of guys are playing who can easily be argued are better than 2, 3, and 4, but the 3 of us have been putting a lot of volume in and running good (pretty much all it takes to be up there), and that's what it takes to win these competitions. 4 of our other members are all very solid regs in NJ, and we only have 1 random, who apparently is going to put in a big schedule anyway. So I am optimistic. Five events today; 2x$55s, 2x$109s, and the $215. All have good guarantees for NJ. I'll also be playing the $500 end of month MTT on WSOP, and the rest of the tourneys I'd normally play. Gonna be a big day so let's get it! Good luck to all on their Sunday grinds.

I've Cracked the Podium!

So despite not having a winning day the week leading up to ranking changes on Wednesday , I've moved up to the 3rd ranked player in New Jersey! I won the 10K on WSOP last Tuesday, so it didn't count for the next day's update and therefore got counted towards the rankings yesterday, bumping me up to 3rd. I'm very close behind 2nd but Yong, who I used to play in the Ramapo home game with, is far ahead in 1st after winning the 50K last Sunday. The top 4 still has a bit of a gap on 5th. Here's a link to the start-of-month rankings article: http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/...nkings-592031/

The Garden State Super Series

So the GSSS has begun. I've played all 15 events so far and have one cash . That being said, I do have a 4th of 233 in a $109 for $1800. That was on Tuesday, and unfortunately I only made $31 that day due to firing twice in the $535 (which they made a GSSS event) and bricking both. That being said, losing $1070 in 1 MTT in NJ and not losing money on the day is pretty amazing. I managed my first real winning day in a week last night, albeit a small one, about +$300. I bricked the GSSS events but managed a 3rd and a 4th in smaller WSOP events, followed by a 3rd in the $100 high roller on WSOP $584. What a crazy MTT that was. I had a stack early, whittled down a bit as we approached the FT/money bubble (9 paid), and lost a flip with 11 left to drop to 1.5BBs. I folded the next hand and won my pot in the SB, which also busted a player to leave me with 5BBs on the stone bubble, and someone at the other table busted the next hand. I proceeded to run like god to spin that stack up and have a pretty overwhelming chip lead with 5 or 6 left, 180K at 6500BB while everyone else had right around 75K. With 4 left, 2 players had about 70K while I had 220K still and John Hinds, aka guy who got completely screwed by variance with 20 left in the main to hand his huge stack over to Blumenfield, had about 150K to my direct left. Solid player shoves 70K, I reshove KK on button, BB calls off his 70K. Raiser has AQ, BB has QQ, and now we just need to hold for a 2.5:1 lead heads up! Flop gives the QQ a flush draw, turn brick, river case queen!! That's just one of those spots though where it's a cooler no matter how you look at it; to call that a bad beat is ridiculous since if we switched any of our hands everyone would have done the same thing. I chipped down 3 handed and eventually 3b stuffed T8s over a button open for 110K at 8KBB, got called by A7, and got a TxxAx runout which had me a bitttttttt heated. Such is life.

February Results

So after $17270 in buy ins in January (I said $17145 in earlier post but realized I had played a few sngs I missed), I finished February with $17263. That's a $7 difference on over $17K in buy ins! Wasn't intentional at all, just a funny coincidence I noticed after totaling results. Now while January was $19K in profit, we took it down a bit in February, only netting $3785.40. It was looking like another pretty big month until the last week or so. In the last 9 days of the month, 3 of which I essentially did not play, I lost $1378. Not a big deal until you consider the fact that there was a $10K win in there for $2800! So outside of that tourney I was down over $4K in 6 days of play! However, this is just going to happen sometimes when you're playing the bigger buy ins. A few $500 shells here, a few $215s there, and $4K can be reached pretty quickly. If I ever get to the point where I feel those swings are too large, I'll just cut out the $500s. But odds are I will continue to rip the big stuff throughout the GSSS

That being said, there is a decent chance I miss the last Sunday of GSSS, which is the big one. While that does suck, I don't feel bad about it at all due to why I'll be missing. Without getting into too many details since it's a bit of a personal matter, I need to be with my family that day, and poker takes a back seat, no matter what, when it comes to my family. That being said, there is still a chance I am able to late register some of the tournaments that night. It's just going to come down to the timing of it all.

That's it for now, time to go get some lunch. The plan for the rest of the week is to go visit Kelsey today, put in a session tonight, take off tomorrow and go the NYC with some friends. My buddy who lives in New York won an open bar and invited a few of us down. In the past anyone he brings normally gets half priced drinks so I imagine that'll be the case again tomorrow. Saturday I'll have a nice day with Kelsey before getting ready for the big Sunday GSSS grind. Along with all the normal big stuff they're putting a 100K guarantee on the $215, and they have a $535. I'll be in all dat. I think my 5 figure score is coming very soon; I'm getting a bit tired of not having one.

**Last Note, Please Read!!!*

I feel like I am getting repetitive with only talking about my sessions and how I'm doing and just putting up walls of text. Does anyone have any advice on how to spice this blog up a bit? Or what I could talk about to make it more interesting? Or is it doing well and you enjoy it as is? I'd love some feedback if you're reading this because I think one of the most enjoyable aspects of it for me is interacting with other people and it's been a while since I've had any feedback. Thanks in advance!!

I really like the recent addition of pictures to each post, it makes me interested enough to go through each blog post. One improvement could be to break up each paragraph with an intermission image. Could be a funny meme or thread saver. Many people won't bother to read a mulyiparagraph post when they first set eye on it.

An alternative is to shorten the paragraphs to 2-3 sentences and make then entertaining. For hand history, use the HH format instead of as text in your paragraphs. Color or bold interesting statements could help as well for those of us that like to skim.

Just be like jdawg and talk about hookers and blow . Actually I really like your posts. We used to talk way back when and its cool to see where you are now. Congrats on the success.

These are all really good ideas that I will try to incorporate in the future, thanks!!

I 100% remember your screenname but am not sure what it's from. You'll have to remind me. Were you a member of Surfers Poker years ago? If not that's a funny coincidence because I used to belong to a poker forum with that name when I first started playing maybe 7 or 8 years ago, and jdawg was a member there. He still lived in the States and played small stakes stuff. He might literally be the first person I ever vocaled with on a Skype call, and he was the one who patched me in with dude904, another member on Surfers. It appears we've all decided to pursue poker and have had very different paths with it and VERY different levels of success lol. I talked to jdawg a few months ago on Skype and hearing the amounts of money he plays for on the reg in those hypers is mind boggling. I don't know if I'd have the stomach for it.

But anyway, remind me what I know you from and thanks for the kind words!

Downswing in Full Effect

Has not been a pleasant couple of weeks. I've entered one of those phases where you feel like you just can't win. That being said, I'm handling it 10 times better than I ever have in the past. Having the type of January I had helps in more than one way. The obvious: I have more money than I had in the past, which makes the financial hit I'm taking a little less painful. The less obvious reason: After experiencing positive variance like that you get some perspective. I don't have this "doomswitched" feeling where "nothing ever goes right for me and when will I ever catch a break??" Instead, I know the type of luck it takes to string a few MTT wins together, and I can pretty easily see that the luck I'm having now is abnormal. The good news is that the upswing was over 5x greater than the current downswing. The bad news is that it is still a significant amount of money to lose and it doesn't feel great. Since winning the 10K on February 23, I am down over $4400, including a $1700 loss last night.

Some Good News

I've been running again and have found some great trails that allow me to avoid the crazy traffic of Bergen County. I ran 4 on Monday and 4 yesterday. Monday I went 27:25 and yesterday 27:17, for 6:51 and 6:49 pace respectively. I am really happy that I can run that pace despite the amount of time I've taken off! That being said, it took way way more effort than it would have in the past and if I tried to run even 1 more mile at that speed it would have been very difficult. I've ran 8 miles in the last 2 days at an average pace of 6:50.

I've fallen back to #4 in NJ on P5s, and the gap is now between 3rd and 4th. The top 3 all had very good weeks and I only recorded 1 score that improved my point total, and it wasn't a big one. The rest of the pack has caught me quickly as well, with a lot of top players recording some wins in the GSSS, which is worth more points with the bigger fields. The good news though: 2 of the 3 ahead of me on the NJ P5s leaderboard are on my team for the GSSS competition, and the other 1 is not in the contest. We're currently in 3rd of 5 teams but are in striking distance, and if I can find a way to break out of this slump we'll have a good chance of taking it down.

The weather has also been amazing here in New Jersey. It's currently 76 degrees!!! The warm weather makes me feel so much better. I know in general it makes everyone feel better, but I legitimately feel happier, like my soul is lighter or something, when I can go outside and just feel good.

I'm not going to be able to play GSSS Friday or Saturday, and there's a good chance I'm not able to play Sunday. Sunday is when all of the big main events are and it would be a great chance to pop out of this slump (or make it that much worse I guess ). Obviously there isn't much that would make me miss a Sunday like that, but without going into too much detail, family always comes first. There's nothing I wouldn't do for my loved ones and Sunday is one of those days I've gotta be there. That being said, if we get things done before too late, I can still put my session in from my parents' house in Hamilton, so there's still a chance I do indeed get to play. As important as playing the last day of the GSSS is to me, family comes before EVERYTHING, so there is a chance I will not be able to play poker this Sunday.

I tried some of fast11375's suggestions for this post; don't really have any pics I can include here but they'll come later when applicable; thanks for the tips sir! Hopefully my next update will contain some good news.

Much better Good luck in the GSSS I'm sure you are gonna crush it!


Also heres a signature Aesah tldr post. Maybe you'll find it useful.


http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=2928

Hey man, nice thread. You're doing really well this year, so keep it up. I think that playing some live cash games at the casino would be a smart move for you (in order to get some easier, more consistent money).

Thanks for the help and the good luck wishes. I was down heaps in GSSS and thought there was a pretty high chance I would not get to play any more events due to obligations I had over the weekend. Weekend results to follow below.

Hey I appreciate that. I used to play a lot at Parx when it was a half hour drive from me; now with the nearest poker room being a 90 minute drive away that will be more difficult. But it definitely is a good idea and I'll certainly play cash some time in the near future.

The Weekend

On Friday a loved one had surgery done that we knew would require a lot of time to recover from. On Saturday I went to visit; the operation was done in New York City. I was there for several hours before returning home; Kelsey was with me the whole time because she's an angel. Sunday (yesterday) I drove to New York City and had it in my head that I would not be playing online poker that day. At first it looked like we were going to stay another night, but after a few hours it swung back to leaving that day. The trip home went well and we were back by 7:30PM. I decided to play 5 GSSS events only, and registered them one at a time since I wasn't sure I even wanted to play that many. Once you realize what is really important in life, it's easy to put things in perspective and not take the game too seriously. I cashed 2 events, eventually busting from the main event ($215 buy in, $150K guarantee) in 29th of 744 for $690. The second tournament went better:



The day was a freeroll for me since I didn't expect to play in the first place. The fact that I threw up over 200 points for my team in the GSSS competition was such a huge bonus. But the whole day was a huge success because of what happened before poker. It's amazing the perspective you can get on things when the health of your loved ones is at stake. I'm just so grateful that everything worked out on that front. The GSSS win was just gravy.

I'll write up a summary of all things GSSS some time tomorrow. I'm 99% sure my team won the competition which will be an extra $750 in my pocket which is pretty sweet. I'm also 99% sure I'll move up into the top 1000 in the world on P5s, but don't think I'll move up from my #4 spot (there's even a chance I move down). In any case, great weekend, Stars soft launch in 2 days!

Lots to discuss! First of all, Pokerstars is back baby!!! The soft launch began yesterday at 4PM. It took me about an hour to get it all started, between the software taking a long time to install and then connect, and then me being denied my previous screen name, and then deciding to just make a new one, and finally getting a deposit through when the software wouldn't accept my deposit when I listed my new address. As soon as I changed to my former address though we were good to go. Probably the most exciting thing that happened on day 1 for me was playing a $5 spin and hitting a $125 prize pool. Unfortunately, after getting AJ in vs AT I could not fade the river! And yes, there it is, my first bad beat whine about Pokerstars . All told I played a bunch of spins and ended the day down about $30.

Garden State Super Series Wrap Up

Events Played: 43 out of the 62 that ran
Tournaments Cashed: 5 of 43 (plus a $40 bounty in an MTT I did not cash)
Total Buy Ins: $7346
Total Winnings: $8502.20
Total Profit: $1156.20

Given I went into the last day of the series down $3700, I'm pretty content with booking a win. My team also kicked ass the last day of the series to win the team competition, giving me a $750 return ($600 profit) on that. Timbeybeef on Party (donnysack on P5s) ravaged Sunday, winning the 1K and taking 4th in the main for a ton of points (and dollars!). Here's a link to the final standings of that competition: http://www.pocketfives.com/contests/...test-mar-2016/

Things are going well at home and it's back to NYC for another check up tomorrow. I don't think my family member would mind me talking about it but I'd still rather ask before posting any details publicly.

I've got some fun bets going on the NCAA tournament, including a Calcutta draft. If you haven't heard of that, google it, it's a very cool and fun concept in which you can end up in for tons of money or none at all; it's all about finding which teams are best value on the fly. Lots of fun. I ended up in for the most (this was among friends rather than poker players so no CRAZY amounts of money flying around), being in for $206 of the $1098 that ended up in the prize pool. I think I should make money on that one having picked up UNC, Xavier, Villanova, and a few other solid teams. Teams that win 1 game get $8, 2 games is $21, up to the champ getting $220ish.

Pokerstars soft launch continued at 4:00 so I can fire up some of that now! So excited to have Stars back!!

Do you think spin n go's will be a viable alternative to grind on PSNJ compared to tournies?

This is a good question. I've put a decent amount of volume at the $10s so far (this is the highest they offer right now) and people are playing very very bad. I'm definitely running bad to start so I'm not reaping the benefits quite yet but like people are raise/calling off 12 bigs with 76s and stuff like that. I also see quite a bit when someone doubles the 1st hand, they just jam for my 500 at 10/20 the next 3 or 4 hands and when I've found spots to call they have K6o and stuff. It should be profitable but I'm not sure how the rake works with all that and would have to do research on ROW spins to find out just how profitable they can be.

Slacking with this blog, guy!

So as Norm mentioned I've been slacking with the blog, but this time it's for reasons unrelated to poker! I didn't yet get to ask my dad if he'd be okay with me writing this here, but since just about all of our close friends and family already know, and since it's incredibly unlikely anyone he'd rather not know would happen to stumble upon this blog, and since I know he'd say it was fine if I told him that writing about it is therapeutic for me, I'm going to go ahead and write the basics down here.

The Last Few Real Life Weeks

My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer back in November. He and my mom came home on Friday the 13th as I was watching the breaking news about the attacks in Paris. I'd been there with my dad and brother just 4 months prior and I was feeling pretty devastated to see what was happening. My mom and dad walked in, I pointed to the TV and asked if they'd heard, he told me yes and then told me the doctor had told him he had cancer. That was not one of my best days and, while I'm still not superstitious, I'm definitely going to feel a bit uneasy the next time Friday the 13th rolls around.

As terrible as it is to hear that someone you love has cancer, we got about as lucky as you can given the circumstances. Prostate cancer only leads to death in about 10% of cases. The doctors felt they had caught it early and laid out some options. Men normally get this when they are much older, so my dad not yet being 60 would actually work to his benefit since it would be easier for his body to handle it. And the most amazing piece of good news: it hadn't spread to other parts of the body.

My parents decided the best option would be surgery, which comes with risks of its own. The surgery took place Friday, March 11 at an excellent cancer facility in New York City. I drove from my house in Bergen county to NYC on Saturday to visit, drove back, and then drove back to the hospital on Sunday to pick my parents up. Some complications Sunday looked like we might be staying until Monday, but eventually it was decided we should leave that day. We made it home just in time for me to fire up a couple of the big tourneys on the last day of GSSS, and I won one to make just under $5000 that day.

I would spend the next 2 weeks at home with my parents. My mom stayed by my dad's side pretty much 24/7, which is a pretty incredible thing for a son to see. My being there did allow her to run out and do anything she needed to sometimes and I think that helped. I also was the designated driver to go from the Trenton area into New York City. We would end up returning Friday the 18th, Wednesday the 23rd, and today, Monday the 28th. The hope was that today all of the extra stuff that comes with recovering from surgery would be done with, but unfortunately my dad wasn't feeling great so they decided it would be best to keep him there for a few days.

Our appointment was at 1:00 and by the time they'd finally taken him to run some actual tests in the main hospital it was 3:00. My parents agreed I should go home and my mom would stay with my dad until they were ready to release him, at which point I will go back and take them home. It has been a stressful ordeal but it's been amazing to be able to actually help my family in a time of need. I'm not sure that my mom would have been able to drive to the city on her own--it is an INCREDIBLY stressful 80 mile drive each way--and taking the train would have just been a really uncomfortable and potentially impossible journey for my dad. So while the total miles I've driven to and from this hospital is now approaching 1000, the feeling of being able to give back something to the people I owe everything to has been incredibly rewarding.

Poker

When someone you love needs you, your job often gets put on hold. Luckily for me, my services were needed mostly during the day which allowed me to play some at night. I've noticed I have a tougher time focusing at home, and I really have come to the conclusion that moving out actually has had a significant impact on the volume I put in and the level at which I play. It's no fault of my parents, but when I'm home I almost feel like there is an obligation for me to be spending time with the fam, or that I'm some sort of degenerate off on his computer who could be spending quality time with loved ones but instead wastes all his time on a game. When I'm at my new place I feel like someone who knows what his goals are and is working hard at achieving them and reaching complete financial stability. I guess in short, at my parents' house I feel like a kid, and at my house I feel like an adult.

Despite all of that, I've found a way to drive this month's profit over $8000, which includes the beginning of the month when I was at the tail end of my biggest downswing ever. I won the $109 on the 13th for 5K, won the WSOP high roller on the 17th for $1150, 2nd in the Party 10K on the 21st for $2400, and finished 5th in the Party 50K yesterday for $3500. I'm still not sure if I'm more happy or frustrated by that 5th; I'll have to check the numbers but I think that is the 6th time I've final tabled the Party 50K or WSOP 30K and I have still yet to finish in the top 4. Add in 3 more finishes of 10th or 11th and it's just so much money to be missing out on. That being said, earlier on I don't think I went for the win enough and just tried too hard to ladder. Yesterday I went for it and it showed, but I just couldn't win enough of the spots you need to win to win that MTT.

That'll do it for today; I'll probably have more updates in the near future about everything. I'm currently 15/17 in the Party 10K with 15 paying; I have 9BBs, 16th has 7BBs, and 17th has 2BBs. I've been watching the other table and 17th is folding every single hand. Every time there's a bubble there's a guy with 2 bigs who REFUSES to go all in before he's blinded out, and with hand for hand starting 2 before the money, it gets exhausting. I just got a shove through to get to 11BBs for some breathing room on 16th. In the past I would fold too much in these situations, thinking I was butchering ICM if I busted before the 2BB stack. But when he is willing to fold the next 18 hands until he is auto all in, I'm just totally sabotaging any chance I have of winning the MTT if I fold down with him. So I think it's proper to just go for it and let him have his mincash if he really won't put the money in. He just folded his BB and now has 3004 chips at 3KBB. His SB has been posted and now he has 1504. Let's see if he gets it in here or folds to leave himself with a shade over 4 antes...he folded. It is INSANE the way these guys do this to themselves. I guess he could be sitting out? Party doesn't let you know, you just sort of have to guess based on the insta fold every time, but he might just have the fold button autoclicked. Stupid ****ing software. Alright no more ranting, good night!

Sorry to hear about your father's condition, sending healing vibes. My mother is a breast cancer survivor.

Nice hits in the MTTs, keep it up.

I really appreciate that, I'm glad your mother survived. I am sure my dad will be fine but it's hard to see someone who is so strong have to struggle. The way he's handled it all has only deepened my respect for him. One of my biggest worries was that he might be resistant to letting us help him as much as we knew we would need to since he is a very do-it-yourself kind of guy. Instead, he's really allowed us to do our part while simultaneously working his ass off to do what he needs to do to help himself recover. I've realized through this that of all the situations I've seen my dad go through and handle the right way, I've never really seen him at much of a low point. This is one of those low points, and he's just handled it exactly the way someone should. He doesn't try to pretend like it doesn't affect him, but he doesn't let it defeat him.

I was thinking today about that idea that there comes a time when you get old enough where you start to realize that your parents aren't the perfect, infallible figures that you think they are when you're a child. I feel like I'm still waiting to see that chink in the armor from them. They just seem to deal with every situation the way it should be dealt with. They truly care about everyone they meet, even strangers. There's just so many qualities about the two of them that I took for granted growing up as a kid because there was no way for me to know any better; after all, it only makes sense to assume that everyone's parents are like your own. But the older I get the MORE these people seem those perfect figures. I'm starting to understand the stresses off adulthood, from job security to financial difficulties to paying the mortgage to having a marriage and children. It just seems like they've always done things the way they should be done. I get emotional thinking about it. I just really, really, REALLY hit the jackpot with how I was born and raised. It's why I know I'm just never going to be fully content with only being a poker player; I'm going to HAVE to do something that gives back to the world in some shape or form along with playing this silly game.

Keeping your dad in my prayers! Glad the outlook looks good.

Thanks a lot Jerrad that means a lot. Saw you've had some nice results on Stars recently keep it up!!