@elindino thanks and gd questions
Answer 1.) My poker play is situational based on the table and players. Yesterday in my cash sesh I was playing a lot more hands than usual. I realized pretty quickly i had a huge advantage post flop with these players. So i was trying to see a lot of flops, and using my position. Position is so vital, and that's why my hand range opens up more in late position. I hate playing against someone out of position, so I make sure I have better holdings in ep. To answer your question of hands/hr
-in ep (utg,utg+1) an estimated avg of playing 20% of hands dealt.
-in mp an estimated avg of playing 30% of hands dealt
-in lp (hj,co,button) an estimated avg of playing 50% of hands dealt.
To answer your question of do I limp much?
I love to see flops just because I believe I play post flop so well. I raise a lot more in lp than I do in ep. I def raise all premium hands in any position, but something like J10 in mp i wd prob just limp and hope it doesnt get raised. If it is raised to $7, then calling is ok becuase you know 6 others will call, and will very seldom get 3 bet. A lot of people who limp for $2 are going to call a raise to $7. So if I want to raise to isolate I make it $15+.
To answer your question on image at table?
I mix it up according to who I playing with (situational).
To answer your question do others think Im tight? I doubt it.
Answer 2.) No im not taking any casino comps into account.

I have church on Saturday evenings, so I'm getting ready for some spiritual uplifting. May hit the poker room up afterwards. I noticed yesterday that the satellites are looking super soft. May give them a try, along w playing some cash. Thanks for everyone following my journey, and nice meeting some of you in person.

Are you playing the MRPC main event?

Wasn't event 1 only $250+20=$270? That's what I paid atleast

No biggie, but it'll save you $100 towards your goals, unless they charged you more!

Yes
@Hello7027 Thanks for pointing it out, for I had to double check to see if it was entered wrong in my Poker Journal App. I noticed I entered correctly ($270) in my poker journal app, which is always the first thing i do when i sit down in a tourney, or cash (enter buy in). But when I got home that night, and typing in the forum, my head must of still been in Chicago where event 1 was $350. Ima idiot. As u can see, it can get confusing at times with playing both multible tourneys and cash same day. This is why im keeping my cash and tournament totals separate when doing my "formal" end of month updates. Please know all the #s are correct in my poker journal app, for which I use to give all my accurate running total updates at every half-month, and end of the month. Thanks again @hello7027 and best of luck to u in your poker grind!

Side note: Gonna have to take the next 2 days off from poker for my other work. I had a tenant move out Saturday, so now I have to clean and paint the unit. My gd buddy wants to rent it, and im trying to get it "move in ready" for him. Be back to the felt Wednesday.

Keep it up. I might drive down for the Midwest main. Hope to see you there. Enjoy reading the updates.

Subscribed! Gl in the challenge! I definitely think its achievable...the 1-2 games are insane at HSI as we both know...best of luck except in pots against me!!!

@emptinpockets appreciate the kind words. Congrats on shipping the limit event.
Tournaments - I love them & I hate them. Right now tourneys are getting on my nerves. When will I break through w a nice score? I have had a couple $20k scores, but that was in 2008 and 2009. I dont play a lot events each year, but i still feel long overdue. It would be nice to get a decent score in MRPC, so I can play the HPT main event later this month. My goal in tourneys is just to stay above even until I hit the "big one". If I can stay above water, then I won't have to pull from my cash results. But right now I'm $900 in the gutter on Ts. Cash has been going extremely well! I won 9 out of last 10 sessions.
Playing the $760 main event this weekend, I'm projecting around 200 players, so first shd be $40k(ish). One time. One time. One time. One love.

I have to question if you are going to accomplish your goal considering you left that game last night when one of the biggest fish to ever grace the 1-2 tables had between 1500-1800 in front of him. He ended up putting his last $800 in after he opens for $100 utg in an unstraddled pot with KQ. One of the tighter players at the table ships it with AA and dude snap calls before its even his turn to act.

Other then medical emergency a "professional poker player" should never ever leave that table until that fish leaves.

I agree with this assessment on the guy occupying the 6 seat....he was a true maniac....was wondering why u left the game as well....had an interesting hand come up after u left and would like your opinion on it....$5 straddle from the 7 seat...utg limps...2 seat limps...I limp 6c7c....4 of us to the flop of Kc10c3c....im thinking yahtzee! Well the action goes leadout $25 from the 7 seat and a flat from the 7 seat...I make it $115...everyone auto folds back to the 7 seat who surprisingly snaps all in for $360ish....what range of hands do u put him on here...the guy was relatively new to the table as he hadn't been their for a full orbit....he was a 50ish yr old guy whom I had never played with and only hand he played in his 1st orbit was KK and he played them pretty straight forward....what do u do in my spot?

Took the trip to HSI for a couple nights in January. Only got 18 hours of play in, and due to a couple coolers actually ended up down ~$150, but I think it's definitely beatable for more than the typical 1/2 game. Between the straddle in any position for any amount, being able to buy-in for half the biggest stack and what appeared to be a decent amount of action players, $20+ seems very attainable for a good player like yourself. Good luck, sir. I'll be sure to continue to follow your thread.

My back was killing me from laying floors at my apartment prior to grinding. I just couldn't sit anymore, but I know whatcha mean about the fish. I think he called everyone of my raises!
The hand in question- perhaps a set of 3s/10s, higher flush, Ac10x, Ac3x. If u think he has set, or drawing w Ace of clubs; then for sure call (hero 66-68% fav against both possible hands). Im sure u know the +50 year old rule at $1/$2. Someone who raises and +50yrs old usually have the goods. Nothing worse than drawing dead. So w/ $245 more to call I would need to be at the tables for more meta game info to decide what u wd do. I don't think fold is that bad of a play though to this particular player.

Yeah I sheepishly fold and he shows Ac3x....I didn't think the average 50+ guy had those moves in their arsenal...after playing with him awhile I realized im calling against this shove 100% of the time against him....he loved his draws like "All State" loves his Budweiser....oh well...just shows how far getting a few hands in with the ppl ur playing against goes to feel them out.

Another tournament and another donut. Killin it in cash, and getting killed in tourneys. I am 0 for 4

"Well the action goes leadout $25 from the 7 seat and a flat from the 7 seat..." Didn't know the 7 seat could lead out and then flat call

My bad for the typo...7 seat leads 2 seat flats

Back home from grinding & the cash games have been going extremely well for me. Haven't had a losing session until the my nemesis took me for all my marbles in one sick hand (-$760 pg.8 post#107). It took me a couple of days to shake that one off. But since that "turning point" hand, Ive been crushing the cash games. I have more momentum than a fat kid running down a hill.
Good News: This has been my first $3k (cash game) week in a long time
Bad News: I dumped $1k of the $3k in tourneys that ended up donuts for me. = $2k gross profit week
Week isn't Over: Playing the MRCP main event tournament ($780 buy-n) on Saturday, and that may take the total dump to -$1780 in tourneys this week = +$1220gross profit week. Or it can...............

Side note: I been wanting to mention this for awhile, but keep forgetting. I want to apologize in advance for the abundance of typos, grammar, spell, etc in all my posts. I dont spell/grammar check anything I post on here, so please dont cringe too bad (or is it "badly" lol) at all my mistakes. I was a math major, not an English major. Also, my brain sometimes gets moving faster than my typing, which creates more errors. I noticed a few of them when I reread past posts. Again sorry to all the "grammar heads" out there.

I won't be able to make it tomorrow, so keep up your twitter an let me know how you are doing in the big one. Gl

U still in the main? I busted like 30th....

Why Do I Choose Such a Sick Life?
The night before the Main…So I thought it would be wise to take yesterday off to gear up for today's Main Event. So I relaxed a bit, paid some bills, did some laundry, hit up Planet Fitness, had stomach curling food at El Nopal w fam, and ended up snoozing to a lame Breaking Dawn movie. Then today, I wake up to the sun blinding my eyes, and my first thought of the day was “today is the day”. .. The Main Event! #Onetime #breakthrough.
The day starts off with bacon and eggs on the Griddle, and a half cap/ half coffee. Once the food settled, I went for a little run to clear my head. The Pandora shuffle during my jog consisted of: Ben Harper, Christian Contemporary, Avett Bros, Phish, and Whiskeytown. Took a shower, did some more laundry (laundry is everyday all day at my house), and then headed down the deadly road of Hwy 111 to the main event.
First Observations- tough table draw, tough field, one loud guy who likes his Budweiser more than life itself-aka “Allstate” (pg.4 post#48), and a lot of people wearing UK gear. The UK game received a lot of attention, and I was glad to see them win. March Madness just isnt the same w/o them. A couple hours later my Cardinals won which earned them coBig East Champs. The day was going good, I was playing close to the best, making some gd plays, and chipping up. At the first break of the tourney, I met a couple 2+2ers. @Hello7027 who played great all day, and just pure classy. Another guy, @onceharby, who I only got to meet for a quick minute, but “the read” I got on him was - cool, funny, respectful.
Made it to Dinner Break of Main- Ate dinner w @emptinpockets, and talked a lil strategy. This guy I met a few weeks ago, and have great respect for his game. He has been crushing the MRPC. After dinner, I went to my car to get some gum so I could defend the onion breath. 50ish players left from 157.
When play resumed, ...players started busting very quickly! Tables were breaking like glass… 6 tables, 5 tables,… 4 tables left. At this time, I started thinking-“finish line time”! The next hand is dealt... I raise 2.5x in ep w AQ, short stack pushes 10big blinds (bbs) w A8o. Everyone but myself folds. And 3bricks on flop, brick on turn, and boom the “Lindsay Lohan 8ball” on the river! So that hurt, but it wasn’t pain staking like the storm ahead...
The Storm- I was hovering around 40k for 4 levels of play. Didn’t have any opportunities to run it up, and was playing cautiously. Many players were 3 betting pre almost every hand, and w my slightly below avg stack I had to tighten up my hand range. After blah for awhile, I was getting anted and blinded to death, and dwindled down to 18bbs with 30ish players left. Positive thinking reminds me that I’m just one “double up” away from an average stack. So no sweat- get it in good, and double up. That’s was plan, and this the hand… I have AdJd in utg+1 with the mindset of limping & may 3 bet shove. Under the gun limps, I limp, Middle position raises 3x. Folded to utg who calls, and I’m thinking this is perfect. If I can dodge the initial raiser, then my shove shd take it down. So I 3bet shove, initial raiser folds, and utg (also overall chip leader) mulls it over for a gd minute. I tell him, “I want a call” as I fig he had something like A10, KQ, or small pairs. I was pretty confident I had best hand, or racing at worse. He calls hesistantly, and tables A9. Here we go 70% favorite to dub up! I like my chances! Im thinking Im going to double up, and then go after that final table. The flop was beautiful 10 high rainbow. The turn gave villain a flush draw. UH OH! At this point, Im trying not to see the storm on the horizon... And in slow motion the 3 of hearts gracefully touches the felt as my forehead moves towards the soft bumper rail. Another river card for all the marbles! These storms are messing with my head.
So I take the walk of shame, and my brain is not letting me forget about the 3 hearts all the way home. My 9yr old calls, and Im trying to act interested in her cheerful story about what an awesome night she had w mom & sis at a Charity Benefit. But my head is elsewhere thinking of red hearts. The more she talked though, I realized how lucky I have it. Realizing there's no need to be upset… my time will come…keep showing up...dont sweat the small stuff. All of this led me to a verse in the bible. 1Thes5:16 Praise God in ALL circumstances,…
I still hate all Rivers this month,
Ray
Update as of 3/9/13 Cash games = $8,113 on 294 hrs. = $27.6/hr Tourney = -$1790

Nice run bad luck. You've had a few bloody rivers lately. Keep playing just the way you are, and keep the focus. Don't be discouraged by the tournaments. you still had a good week! The great week of cash really bumped up your hourly. Are you planning on playing anymore tournaments? Gl op

Had the same luck in the main as you...can't complain though....I ran pretty good all week...thanks for the praises....let me know if you go to Belterra for the HPT

Thanks for the kind words! I have to admit, it put a nice touch to following your challenge on here knowing you're a super polite, nice dude!
If it's any consolation, to myself, the guy who put me out around 48th is the gentleman who ended up winning the tournament.

Keep up the solid play, it's more rewarding in cash so you're going to do great!

Keep the grinding going!!

Thinking about just trying a satty for a main seat. Not sure if I want to do a single table, or a qualifier tho. Prob head there next Thurs or Fri. Ship one for the gd guys if u play.

Ditto! He chattered my chances as well. He was chip leader for a long time in that tourney. He was absolutely crushing the boards, and getting paid off. I guess if your the chip leader you can call 18 bbs w A9. I'm glad he did, but hated the results. Always stings a lil more when i find out that person wins it! I was just starting to get over it too. Btw nice vlog on labrum.

@elohim87 thanks
Todays update. +$142 cash & won $100 from a promotional "pick a random player". Any and All promos WILL be counted towards earned income and be applied towards the $40k challenge = $242 @ 5hop.

Bad luck with the tourney ButterflySymmetry. I've read through your thread several days ago, and saved the link to keep track of your progress as you continue this challenge. It's the type of thing I'm looking to do in about a year or so.. gonna spend the next year saving up money so I can have a bankroll (as well as some savings to live off of for a few months). Then take a shot at playing live poker (as well as a bit of online) for a living.

I've got a question for you though, since you seem to be doing nicely at NL200 live cash.. How do you play at the live $1/2 tables? Do you play a fairly standard TAG/LAG style? Do you limp a lot of hands, knowing you'll probably be able to win some big pots when you hit big? Just curious what works best at this level live.. Sorry if you talked about this earlier. It's been several days since I've gone through this thread and I can't remember if you said anything about it.

Just wondering how the larger raise sizes affect the TAG game, and if limping/calling might be a better way to make money at this level live... I've been doing the latter more, but don't have a big sample size to determine if it's a good longer-term strategy. It just seems to be a good way to find situations to exploit the weaker players... Curious how you play...