gl with the wsop series! should def ponder makin a trip to hammond/chitown even if you dont wanna grind tournies, the 2/5-5/10 going on will be insane@ the shoe during the series there and should make for a very profitable trip for you

If you want it to last more than a season get 1x4 cedar the pine isn't really suitable for exteriors. Would probably cost you just a few bucks more. Make sure you paint it also

Awesome thread. Looking forward to the next challenge. Subbed!

Thanks. I'm hoping to get off to a gd start in the first 2 events at HSI. If I go bust, then will prob hang it up until the main. Gonna try to grind a lot cash during his time too. Hammond will depend on the first 2 weeks of October. If it goes gd; then I may make the trip up for a couple days. If I do, I think I just will do the main there and no cash. Hammond main is like the super bowl for the circuit grinders. It's always the biggest field out of all the stops.
October is a crucial month. If I have any chance at this $60k goal, this will b the month that determines my fate.
Gd luck to u during these times.

Gd advice, but the pine is already framed up. I will b storing it away when not in use if that will help.
Tried the tarp screen today, and it wasn't going to gd. I had a hard time attaching without wrinkles and flare ups.
It was a little frustrating, and also second guessing the size. 10'x20' may b too big. It's getting hard to maneuver, and a bit of a hassle.
This may b scratch or I may just start over.

Thanks man. Appreciate it. I been tossing around some ideas for next year, but nothing set in stone.
Welcome to the thread and b ready for a vlog next week. Lame vlogs I must say.
If u all have any ideas. lmk.

BS, just wanted to share this hand with you.

Every Thursday, Sunday and Monday at the Commerce they pick one football game out of the lineup and split the tables in two for each team. FG for your team = $20 splash pot, TD = $50 splash pot. Yesterday was the KC vs GB game, and I was on a KC table. Most people are trying to get to GB tables because they score more, but I decided to stay at my table because I had a decent feel for most of the players there and didn't want to ruin that for 1-2 extra shots at a promo. Is this a punt? or should I always be just auto-switching to the highest EV team?

So I'm sitting there grinding it out at a NL40 table (1/2 games here are $40 max buy-in. second punt, I know but I was just kinda chillin having fun on my day off), planning on leaving after the game, down about $100 at this point, (busted flush draw on one hand costing me around $100 and losing KK to A5o on another costing me $40) and KC scores with a little under 2 minutes to go! Yahtzee!

I'm in the BB this splash, and see KQ. UTG makes it $6, and the whole table calls. I also call (possible 3rd punt, I was thinking I should just be shoving here, $98 pot at this point and I have about 60-80 behind).

Flop comes A68, and I think OK, pretty good flop. UTG shoves for $24 more, UTG+2 calls for his last $16~ or so and HJ calls for his last $20~ which would make the pot around $134 at this point, and I call since I only need to get there around 18%~ of the time to make it worth it. (I think? Not sure if I'm doing the math on this type of stuff right.) I also think someone else might have called because I remember the pot being closer to $200ish but I can't really remember right now and could be dead wrong.

Turn comes K, which is potentially good for us, but one of them probably has an A, but then the river comes the most beautiful 4 I've seen, and UTG proudly flips over his J as fast as he can, others muck and I show my K which makes UTG storm off in anger for some reason.

Anyway, sorry for the long post was just a fun story I wanted to share since it was my first experience with a splash the pot promo and I enjoyed your splash the pot stories so much!

First off, i like the fact that you stayed at the table u feel most comfortable with. Gd play imo. A poker player will see about 35 hands on average/hr, so 1 or 2 hands more that u may pick up on a splash pot promo i don't think is worth it. Although, it is a relatively big splash compared to the game...$50 splash w $40 max buy ins.
Tough decision here, but i like where your head is, and wanting to grind out against the players u feel comfortable w. Gd play.

Secondly, i may just try to make a play pre w $70 that u have, and pick up some of the dead money. If everyone folds, which is doubtful because of short stacks most likely will get it in bad, but if folded....$6x9=$54 + $50splash = $104.
I feel if i can get past the utg initial raiser, then i may be able to get the play through. I sense that no one is super strong because no 3 bets, and utg prob not that strong either since only $6. Usually big hands won't mess around on the free money splashes, and will raise bigger than 3x to take down the splash or get 2 or 3 handed going to flops. But again, with a lot of short stacks at the table, it looks like u are getting called in a few spots. Which isn't terrible at all for u.
The shorties that call u, no biggie... i think u cd b a favorite against some, and slight 60/40 dogs to some, or flipping to pps. All cases not a bad scenario. So u weed out a few players, and get to see the flop short handed, and getting a gd price.
I never think u r crushed in this instance w someone holding AQ, AK, AA, KK.

Last. As played, easy call for u after shorties go all in otf.

congrats on picking up this pot, and best of luck in your next session.


__________________________________________________

I have been made aware through the grapevine that a few people have shared my poker journey and vlogs on other sites. For that, i just wanted to say Thank You, and it was quite a pleasant surprise to me.

-@Tswpoker1 who shared it on Reddit.

-@lifeofavgjoe who shared my vlogs on
AverageJoetube.com
http://www.averagejoetube.com/#!rayzrayl/c1j2y
Pretty cool site u have there Average Joe, and thanks for the nice surprise.

-and a couple others who have shared my thread on other forums. Appreciate it.

I started this thread to motivate me to do better, and it has done that and more.

Big ups to all who have ever posted, or just following along. This has been something that I'm glad I started, and hope it's inspires everyone to be better poker players.

Thank u.

Today:
+$618 playing 1/2nl on 1hr 59mins
+63 playing 1/2/5nl on 1hr 53mins
Didn't get to play yesterday. Well I got there, played 5 mins and had to head out to take care of my gf who was lockout of her car at work. Didn't feel like heading back after that, and just chilled w my girl the rest of the day.

Monthly updates and new Vlog coming tomorrow.

I had a poker buddy who passed along your videos, and thoroughly enjoy watching them while I'm at work . Now I just have to go back to the beginning of this thread, and get caught up.
Keep up the hard work.

Thanks for the feedback! Glad to see my reasoning for staying at the table was sound. GL on the grind!

Thanks @weswag and no problem @arew

September wasn't too bad for the 2 weeks I grinded. +$2,513 this month w a nice hourly. No tourneys this month.


Sept Cash Stats:




Current Bankroll Pic: +$35,777




Current Overall Graph:




No 2015 goals were completed in the month of September. They remain the same.

MY 10 POKER GOALS FOR 2015.

1). -Be up 6 stacks of high society by the end of 2015 playing 1/2nl up to 10/20nl. $60,000.
2). -No Losing Months. (*April lost -$2,528).
3). -Log an average of 25/hrs a week.
4). -Come in top 3 in the WSOP League Finale. Getting top 3 will win me a Las Vegas tourney package. (WSOP Packages are: $11k, $4k, $1,500. Finale is April 11, 2015). (*ended up getting 5th in Finale )
5). -Log 1,000+ hours at Horseshoe Southern Indiana's poker room. This feat will take me from platinum to diamond card. (*Diamond card achieve in July).
6). -Log 200 hrs in Jan and get the $400 promotional bonus HSI is offering. (HSI rake back promotion for Jan rewards a player $2 x hrs logged. 200+hrs requirement). (*Logged 202 hrs in Jan)
7). -Have a $10k winning month. (*January +$10,151 Overall)
8). -Have a $5k winning session playing 2/5nl or higher.
9). -Have a $2k winning session playing 1/2nl. (*+$2,236 on June 26th at HSI. +$2,709 on July 10 at HSI
10). -Play a 24hr session (*May 18/19th at HCO+$1,059)

All 2015 goals will b posted in blue. If I complete a goal, I will move it from blue to green. If a goal fails, I will move it from blue to red.

#FULLTRANSPARENCY. I will keep everything I earn in the form of poker chips. At the end of every month I will post pictures of my monthly stats, monthly graphs, and a picture of running total earned with poker chips. For example, if I'm up a total of $15k at the end of April; then I will post a pic of $15,000 in poker chips.

Q). If I'm keeping my poker earnings, then how will I pay for living expenses?
A). I clear about $2k/ a month from my rentals, and plan to use that money to pay my bills, entertainment, and also use for other expenses. If I need to dip into my savings for living expenses I will, BUT ALL THE MONEY I make from poker (in 2015) will b kept separate in my safety deposit box. For this challenge, I have acquired a safety deposit box at my bank where ALL my poker earnings will be kept in the FORM OF POKER CHIPS. I will color up along the way. Hopefully at the end of the year, I will have at least 12 gray beauties in my box (gray is a HSI poker chip worth $5k).
I will also keep poker chips from other surrounding casinos within 5hr drive. *Poker earnings from casinos outside a 5hr drive will be cashed out, and that money will also be put in the safety deposit box. It will all be transparent along the way, and I will keep everyone informed throughout 2015.

I take pride that all my stats/data in this thread have been very precise and accurate. Thus, I will continue to be ultra-precise in 2015, and continue to provide as much proof/transparency as possible along the way. Pictures and occasional videos will further help the authenticity of this thread.

Thanks in advance for following, and keeping me motivated to achieving these goals. 2015 will be a year of great determination, and I look forward to facing these new challenges. No matter how bad it gets, I promise to give every ounce of fiber in my mind, body, and soul to not give up. I'm going hard this year, focusing at the task at hand, and leaving nothing behind in accomplishing these goals.

@RayzRayl

New lame poker vid, get your popcorn ready.

https://youtu.be/DLOWaVwLxSc

WARNING: 9 mins u won't ever get back

nice video, but please get rid of the blurrs!!!!!!!!

Good Luck today in the opening event of the wsop circuit! Play YOUR game!!!

Excellent Vlog. It is evident that you put a lot of time & thought into them.

I'm still a rookie when it comes to these Vlogs, and had no clue what misclick I made to make it blurr out the faces. My bad, it's wasn't on purpose. Warned u that these vids r lame. .

Today was a total face plant on all levels.
Busted event 1 after 3 hours of play, and never got above starting stack.
Then Played 2/5/10+nl and get set over set otf within 15 mins of sitting down to dub up V. Then, made a play against someone who flopped quad Aces. Next, ran my Kings into a flopped straight. This pattern continued for most of the night.
I pretty much ran like car w 4 flat tires, and had impeccable timing on every play I tried to make. #sarcasm

Lost -$365 event 1
Lost -$2714 playing 2/5/10nl on 6hrs 45mins against a soft line up.

To add a little salt in the wound...
It's 11p at night, and I'm driving home from the horrible session only to get a text from one of my tenants as I pulling into my driveway. The text reads, "Can u please unlock my door, I am locked out of my apartment?"
THIS IS NOT THE NIGHT TO BE LOCKED OUT OF YOUR APARTMENT!! But of course I didn't say that, and replied back w, "I'll be there in 15 mins".

At least I get $25 penalty fee (per lease agreement) for having to unlock the tenant. . Just need someone to get locked out about 125 more times tonight, and I shd recoup my losses.

#pokerlife

sorry today was crappy, "tomorrow is another day" tho ray. regarding your vlog i liked it as i did the other 1 i saw. i too used to get stuck early in alotta live sessions being a little too aggro early on, most days id still wind up positive but i wonder how much i knocked off my hourly before i corrected this. you should def tighten up and observe more early if this is a reoccurring thing for you at the tables. no need to try and run em over right away, can always do that later at the right times but let them make mistakes into you(like most live players eventually will anyways) before you have solid reads on em. GL the rest of the month

#NoOneCares
I cracked up about that hashtag you said a few videos ago when you said # thegamble in this video.
The clown fish's identity needed to be protected from the viewing of the poker community along with the poker fam

I don't know if you're playing Event 2 today or tomorrow, but I want to offer a thought. Don't make a move. I know alot of your play is mathematical mixed with soul reading, but every now and then you make moves that show profit in your graph for cash. But it seems like when you make those moves in tournies they cost you so much of your tourney life. I'm picturing last year's MSPT where you made a move and Hahn had Kings and boom you were out along with your move yesterday making you short. I know it's alot of luck along with making some crazy moves to win a poker tourney, but going deep can happen with your solid play. So for Event 2 just play solid poker and when you think of making a move, just don't . I don't want you to live by this advice, I just want you to try it for one tourney! Andy always reminds me you can't win a tourney on Day 1, so don't force it.

I will be there tomorrow for 2B.

I think I'm going to touch the Horseshoe. This past year has shown me how much I really do need luck to go along with heart, so I think I'm going for it!

@4get2pwnedo and @hello7027 thanks for the advice, and will be putting those words to gd use.

Got a hand that I played about as horrible as possible in level 4 of event 2 wsop. I ended up losing half my stack in this hand.
On a scale from 1 to 10 how bad was it? I guess there is a fold in there somewhere, but never did.
U can see it here:
http://mysmp.me/h_edr

After this hand, I got down low and finally 3bet shoved A♠️K♠️ W 15bigs and pockets 10s made the call. Heads up, and No love otf for anther busto. Dunzo w tourneys until the main.

Recouped some of yesterday's losses in 2/5/10 +$800ish, but still down royally in October... -$2500ish

i dont like your open size this early when you and your opponents are this deep especially in a live donkament. i woulda made it 400-450, obv you want action with AA but minraising UTG youre gonna get a slew of callers almost everytime which ofc makes AA alot less stronger. probaly many will disagree with me but if youre gonna min raise pre in this exact spot id prefer to limp as opposed to that and hope some1 behind pops it because minraising is gonna invite every1 and their mother in. im opening everytime tho to the amount i previously said unless i know theres maniacs behind me who are gonna raise no matter what. all that said even@3x villain still may call anyways but when you make it that cheap for others to call in early/mid pos and they do your pricing in people in late pos with almost any2

any info/ history with villain? as played when he bets the flop as weak as he does(less than 1/3rd the pot) then calls your check raise it almost always screams extreme strength. think you coulda check raised a little bit more here which woulda probaly helped ya check fold the turn(or river if villain checks behind turn) and not pay off 2 more bets.

dont like your lead on the river but youre lucky villain made it cheap and let ya off the hook and left ya with what he did, if youre not folding youre better off just check calling and getting to showdown as cheaply as possible. i dont like your check raise on the flop, youre almost essentially turning the type of hand you have face up to any good/thinking player and by the river if they dont know what you have then theyre just not competent at all, lol luckily for you this villain wasnt or was just being charitable with his raise size on river.


nice job in the cash game, why i said you should hit up the shoe in chitown/hammond for their series and just grind cash, 2/5-5/10 action should be plentiful&juicy. interested to hear your thought process on the hand

I'm not a tournament grinder so take this with a grain of salt. I would have opened bigger preflop, probably 500 or 550. I just wouldn't want to play a multiway pot out of position with AA. It might have not made any difference. Who knows?
I most likely would have bet the flop. Check/call turn and river. I don't think I would ever check/raise on that flop. If I checked to underrep my hand. I would just check/call 3 streets. It's really hard for you to have trips or a boat on that flop after raising utg. The check/raise allows him to play perfect against you. It makes him be cautious the times he has an over pair and it helps him to play a bigger pot when he has trips or better. That line represents a hand like you have. If you check call the flop he hardly ever puts AA in your range. You would get max value from smaller over pairs and lose the minimum when he has trips or better. There's not many hands that you might lose value against except for maybe KK or QQ.
After check/raising the flop and check calling the turn, I'm never leading the river.

I agree w both, and hate the how I played this hand. I had some reasonings for my play, but it all pretty much back fired.

V was 3 betting a lot pre, and when I say a lot, I mean so much it was looking suspicious. So w V otb, and me having AA I was really hoping he wd 3bet my min raise. Then I cd 4bet pre or flat and take a different line on streets. Hence, my pre bet size opening the door to V 3bet...back fired.

The flop: when it checks to him otb, it pretty much screams for him to bet a wide range of hands. It just so happened he actually had a nut hand.
I raise his bet because I thought I had the best hand.

When he calls my raise otf, I decided to ch/call ott.

The River: I bet 1100 instead of check/calling because I figured it I check, I wd have to call 4000+. It was a bit of a blocker. When he raised my river bet as small as he did, I felt I had to call. I think my line on the river may have saved me a little, instead of ch/calling a bigger bet.

V is a gd thinking tourney player, and I felt he cd either have it or not. I was wrong in calling. Can I ever fold the turn?

All this said, I hate everything about how this hand played out. I screwed it up, and embarrassed for even sharing. But, #full transparency

I'm gonna learn from this hand, and open bigger utg w big hands in the future.
No more tourneys until main.
It's all on the line.

Hey Ray I'm going to journey down to HSI this Wednesday and Thursday for some sweet circuit action. Hope to see you there, if I do I'll say hello!

Sounds gd @smblad. best of luck at the shoe. Hope u sink the boat!


Today: played 2 sessions. Lost a few hundred in the first session, then took the kiddos to their dentist appt, and came back to win a few hundred. Pretty much a break even day unless I factor in that my 12yr old needs braces. = a big losing day $$$

Shout out to @blufforbbluffed for cashing in the 6max yesterday! Gd job buddy.

This month has been like running through mud in flip flops. Yes, that really does some up how I been running lately. Stuck a few thousand first week of the month, and getting no traction for any type of rungd.
My focus starts now for this main event Friday. I'll take some run bad now, for some run gd on Friday.

It's super frustrating playing all week, and not seeing any positive results. #poker
Even on my way home from the poker room, I still can't catch a break. I pulled into the gas station for what I thought we b quick fill up. Wrong! I guess the run bad is hovering over me like a fly at the dinner table. I get slow rolled by the one customer in the store who wants to scratch off his purchased lottery tickets right there at the counter. Of course, he wins on one of them, and then the dreaded words creep out of his mouth..."give me another one". This time, not only does he want another Bingo card, but he goes through a whole speel of mumble jumble that sounds a lot like a QB going through his cadence.
Scratch off guy is pointing and barking out the orders, "2 Lucks Deluxe, Double Play on right, Spicy Seven, 3 Emerald Greens, 12"
I silently said "Hike" while standing behind him.

All I want is $40 on pump 6.

shout out to @smbland. I was thinking when I sat down to play some 1/2nl today that seat 2 was the one I'll have to watch out for. Wdnt u know it was @smbland in seat 2.
U played well, and I hope your session ended as gd as it started.
Nice to meet ya!

+$564 on 1/2nl on 3hrs 27mins
+$436 in 2/5/10nl on 1hr 12mins. A bit of a hit n run in the game, but I have a Cubs party to attend.
+$1000 overall on the nose. . Much needed.


Go Cubs Go!!!!

Drinking to the Cubs...
Cheers!

In free fall...this is the best part for the haters.

I don't believe you have any haters.