We took rt 70 through Kansas instead of going on rt 80 through Nebraska, because driving through Nebraska just sucks. Did 18 hours straight of driving from Cuse and stopped in Kansas City and got some of the best BBQ in the world, then stayed overnight and grabbed some beers in Lawrence which is a great little college town in the middle of nowhere. Then we did another 18 hour drive from there to Vegas. Went through Denver and up through the Rockies which was really really cool. Then its like 500 miles of absolutely nothing, but at least the speed limit is 80 so you can do about 100 the whole time. If you are going to take a road trip to Vegas its not a bad route to take.

September 27 - "I can see inside you, the sickness is rising. / Don't try to deny what you feel."

I didn't take any notes on this session, but I quickly fell under the weather again. I recall getting it in pre with KK and holding against a tilted up grinder, and also flopping a pair and flush draw 2-3 times and bricking out. After a few hours, I just wasn't healthy enough to keep playing, thus beginning my long week of rest.

Results: -$572 in 3 hours, 9 minutes ($9 in tips)

September Recap and October Goals – “Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t.”

It's that time again... Time to recognize my achievements and shortcomings, and learn from both. The numbers never lie. NOTE – I’m going to do a post on the Cuse vs. Duke prop bet stats to date separately within the next day or so.

Live Cash Results in September (1/2 1/3): -$383 (4 hours)
Live Cash Results in September (2/5): +$9,616 (75 hours)
Live Cash Results in September (Total): +$9,233 (78.6 hours)

September Live Hourly (1/2): -$26.40/hr
September Live Hourly (1/3): -$604/hr
September Live Hourly (2/5): $128.57/hr
September Live Hourly (Total): $117.42/hr

Bankroll: $25,500

Charts

August (Total)


Year to Date (Total)


Original Big Goals:

[X] Goal #1: Bankroll at $4,000 on 1/23

[X] Goal #2: Bankroll at 8,000 by March 31

[X] Goal #3: Winrate of $30/hr over first 300 hours at ½

[ ] Goal #4: Bankroll at $50,000 by 12/31

[X] Goal #5: Play a WSOP Event in 2014.*

[X]Goal #6: Satellite into the WSOP Main Event (I’ll allot a thousand or two to this if things are going well)

I'm now 24.5K short of my big goal. If I average $50 an hour, I need 490 hours over three months. That's 163.33 per month. I’m right on pace, and expect to surpass those goals..

Best Pictures From September









Best Hands From September

September 8 - Hand No. 2

A tight player with his chips in a rack limps UTG and it folds to my button. I decide I’m basically raising any two cards, because he’s in a rack and probably won’t want to lose on his last hand. I peek at the 93 and decide that since I was, in fact, dealt two cards, I raise. I make it $25. The limper calls.

Flop ($51): T99

Time to change our plan. He checks, I bet $30, he calls.

Turn ($111): 9

He checks, I bet $75, he calls.

River ($261): 8

He checks and has about $360 left. I cover him and move all in and he goes into the tank. He’s talking to himself and starts talking to me. I decide he needs assistance in paying me off, and I’m here to help.

Him: “That’s a terrible board.”
Me: “For what?”
Him: “For my hand.”
Me: “What do you have?”
Him: “Do you have a 10?”

I go back to staring at the board. I peek at my cards and put the 3 on top so I know which is which. He keeps mumbling to himself and thinks for probably like 2-3 minutes.

Him: “I can’t even beat a 10… If I fold, will you show me a 10?”

I instantly turn over the 3.

Him: “What the f***? Are you serious? What the f***? How do you have a 3?”

He goes deep into the tank for like a minute, mumbling incoherently.

Him: “I limp, you raise to $25… With 93? T3? Seriously?”

I chuckle on the inside that it’s extra sick that I’m showing a spade and the 9 is on the board, so I can’t even be suited.

Him: “Did you raise to $25?”

I look at him and blink.

Him: “I’m trying to remember, seriously, I limped and you made it $25???”

I nod. He thinks for another minute or so and finally someone calls the clock on him. He waits about 30 seconds and flips a white in and says, “I call.”

I flip my cards over and he shakes his head in disbelief.

September 10 – Hand No. 2

It folds to my button and I make it $20 with 63. The BB calls. He's a good player who's been calling like 80% of my raises, so he probably thinks he can outplay me. Bring it on.

Flop ($42): 552

He checks, I bet $25, he makes it $75. I call.

Turn ($192): K

He bets $130. I move all-in for $390. He thinks for about five seconds and folds.

September 11 – Hand No. 2

The CO raises to $15 and I’m in the BB with A9. I make it $50. He 4-bets to $115. Something feels amiss. I call.

Flop ($231): 944

I check, he bets $125. I call.

Turn ($481): Q

I check, he jams for $269. I tank and call.

River ($1019): 6

He shows a 6, I table my hand, and he mucks.

September 13 – Hand No. 5

There are a couple of limps and I limp A9. The BB (Commerce guy) raises to $20 and there are two calls and I call.

Flop ($80): A67

The PFR bets $20 and there are two calls. I raise to $150. The PFR calls.

Turn ($420): 8

He checks, I check.

River ($420): 5

He bets $200 with about $630 behind. I tank, debating between a raise to try to get AK-AJ to hero off, or a minraise to give him room to rebluff. I feel like his range has way more missed flush draws than big Ax hands based on his line and bet sizing. He's run some big bluffs already. Thus, I minraise. He tanks a bit and shoves.

Me: "Well, if you've got 9T this is the one runout that gets you paid. I call."

Him: "What do you have?"

Me: "I called you."

Him: "An Ace is good."

I table, and scoop a $2,080 pot.

September Goals

Poker in blue, health in green, life balance in red.*

[79/200] Play 200 Hours of Poker

I all but guaranteed that I’d hit this one, but came up way, way short. Being sick cost me about a week of volume, so that hurt a lot.

[250] Weight at 230

Still struggling here. We’ll get there eventually. I bought a hot plate so that I can pre-cook some stuff and re-heat it in the hotel room. That should help me eat healthier on the road. Ending my insanely early morning work soon will help too.

October Goals

Poker in blue, health in green, life balance in red.*

[ ] Play 200 Hours of Poker

So far I haven’t gone over 200 hours in a month yet, and my record is 134… In fact, that’s my only time over 100. I’m 0/6 on monthly volume goals so far this year. Thus, I need some extra motivation, so I’d consider booking a prop bet on this if anyone is interested and wants to lay me some odds. I work until 10/14, so I’ll be able to grind hard about half the month. I will also be playing some tournaments, which will not count – it’ll be cash hours only.

My schedule has 18 days available for cash play, so I’d need to average 11.11 hours per day. If I bust a tournament early, that could add a day or two. If I ship a tournament, I’ll probably be unmotivated to hit this goal.

[ ] Weight at 230

I feel more and more confident I can get this going.

I could also book a parlay of 200+ hours of cash games and my weight at 230 or less, but I’d obviously need really good odds on it.

Overall Thoughts

My health is paramount right now, and I’m almost over this cold. Next comes maintaining as much rest as possible between now and when my job ends so that I’m a little less exhausted when I’m able to start grinding legit hours. Big things are ahead!

Cuse vs. Duke Prop Bet Update



Here are my stats so far - they're adjusted for tips, but not for stakes (we had agreed to adjust for 1/2 for the added rake). So this number will actually be a little higher.

Hours Played: 261.72
BB Won: 5,383.5
BB Tipped: 261.17
Gross BB Won: 5,644.67

BB/Hour: 21.57

As far as I know, Duke is around 18 big blinds/hour through about 390 hours.

My current buyout offer is $490...

If anyone wants action on my October props let me know, my playing month starts tomorrow afternoon.

Congratulations on the hard work and good results so far this year. Definitely looking forward to see how much you progress as a live poker pro in the coming year.

Thanks! I appreciate it... I can't wait to see how quickly I progress once I'm devoting the majority of my time to poker.

3-1 odds on the 200 hours + 230lbs?

gotta get my monies back from the Duke debacle

I'd need way better odds... I'm 0 for the thread on volume goals and weight loss goals! Plus I won't have time to work out until the last half of the month, but I'll be playing all my poker then too! I figured the volume bet alone was 3 to 1 and the parlay is like 12 to 1...

I'll accept a freeroll. GL with the October goals. Seems a bit much while you're still working though.

No free rolls haha! Thanks... I do always set really aggressive goals.

How to Doomswitch Yourself in 6 Easy Steps

1. Decide to turn pro full-time
2. Quit your job
3. Begin planning future travel and a trip to the WSOP
4. Plan to play your first 1K+ buyin live MTT
5. Contemplate buying a car
6. Print up really cool, gold metallic business cards to give to prospective students that call you a Poker Pro and Coach

Since 9/17, I have won two pots over 30bb. One was when I got it in with KK preflop for like $200 each and the other one was when I made that insane hero call with the 89 in a $1,700 pot. Good thing I made that call, too… This 2.3K downswing would be approaching 4K if not.

I’m also 99% sure I haven’t flopped a set since 9/17.

All told, this isn’t really a big downswing, it’s just massively annoying to go more than two weeks winning only one big pot and never making any hands. At least I should get a lot more volume this month so I can grind through this faster.

Huh? Didn't you win at $120 an hour in September playing 2-5?

Yeah that was in spite of a late month downswing that carried into October...

Cuse makes $100+ an hour at 2-5 when running bad. That's just how he rolls.

Can't argue with that!

The key to the riddle is low volume. Four straight losing sessions, so only enough to lose about 25% of my heater winnings.

I'm going to crush it today... I can feel it, listen. Total obliteration of the competition, their minds don't have enough ammunition for this game that's a war of attrition. They can't match my ambition, so at the end of the night, my towers of chips are gonna glisten as my plans come to fruition.

UTG (tag) r20 tag fish calls tag calls tag fish calls I'm SB with 9c5s. R115. All fold. They say 9 to 5 is how you survive... i ain't trying to survive, I'm trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot.

October 3 – “Yeah, they say he down, down. Yeah, they say he down, no no. Cause I'm back on my grind. Money back on my mind. Ye' and killa Cam', the world is mine.”

There’s not much to write about yesterday’s session, I was totally card dead and lost two flips… One with JJ to AKo preflop, and the other with an overpair to the nut flush draw on the flop. I also turned top two pair against a turned gutshot and lost a $580 pot that way. I was slow rolled twice, so that was fun.

Results: -$1,000 in 5 hrs, 1 minute ($13 in tips)

October 4 – "When it all, all falls down. And when it falls down, who you gonna call now?"

I picked up a new hat the other day... I've been looking for this one for a little while. The throwback Phillies hat, black on black, with white trim. It goes well with one of my grinding outfits.



I was fired up for the beginning of today’s session and ready to snap out of this downswing, and actually got a little run good early on in the session. I barreled TT on a K78ss flop and Ax turn against a reg who saw me check-fold or cbet the flop and give up on the turn a ton yesterday when I was card dead. He called, so obviously I was beat, but I hit my set on the river and got paid off. That got me going… and I figured it was time to start upswinging.

Maybe I’m a Degenerate?

Later, I 3bet AKo and got flatted by the aforementioned reg, then the original raiser made a huge 4bet shove, and I felt like I was good and re-shoved to try to force out a likely TT-QQ range for the reg. He folded, and I chopped with another AKo. The guy on my left then goes, “AK! Wow! You guys should call that gambler’s hotline on the billboards. 1-800-Gambler.”

Me: “Do they have a poker strategy hotline? Maybe we need that.”
Him: “You sure do… Wow!”

It goes without saying, but this guy is a tagfish reg who probably beats 2/5 for like $20 an hour just be not being completely braindead and playing a very tight preflop range.

After stacking up my chips I say, this was the plan, and close my eyes and start sliding my stack forward. That gets a laugh out of him and he stops trying to teach us how to play AK.

Hand No. 1

EP raises to $20 and there are three calls. I call the button with Q9:clucb: and we end up going six ways to the flop.

Flop ($119): JT3

It checks to me and I debate peeling one, but the table has been yielding to my aggression a lot so I bet $75. The BB snap calls, which surprises me a lot. I put him on clubs. An MP player raises to $375 with like $200 behind. I’m about a thousand percent sure based on a physical read that he does not have a made hand. He’s bluffed a lot, so his range is straight draws, flush draws, and utter bulls***. However, I don’t think I have fold equity to re-shove for $200 more, which I cover, because even with a gutshot or A high he might stick it in now.

If I’m up against just a flush draw, I have 12 outs because my pairs are good. That’s 24% turn equity and I’m putting in 32% of the pot, but I may often get a free river too since he has no fold equity and he may also spaz sometimes when I hit, plus the player behind may call. I call. The player behind shoves for $422 total, and the EP player thinks and calls, and I call.

Turn ($1,385): J

MP checks. I’m a million percent sure he’s got nothing, and I think he’d ship most of his good draws at this point too, but bluffing a dry side pot does me no good

River ($1,385): 7

As soon as the card hits, the all-in player tosses his cards into the muck. MP checks. He only has about $130 left, but I pretty much have to go for it since the all-in player mucked and I am 99.9% sure MP doesn’t have a pair. I can rep boats, 89, Jx… I move all-in and he INSTA SUPER DUPER SNAP CALLS with AK.

Sick way to lose a $1,600 pot. It’s one of those spots where having the perfect read and knowing exactly when he’s full of it does you no good. I don’t think he folds if I ship the flop, since he has a gutshot…

Heroing To Chop

The very next hand I hero a fish on all three streets with A5 on a 26T7T board. I put him on a flush draw the whole way and it never hit. He says nice call and tables A4 and we chop. Very annoying.

Does it feel hollow?

This same guy and I get into another pot. He’s calling all of my raises because I’m like 5-for-5 against him. I’ve bluffed him off top pair 3 times, but he doesn’t know it. I’ve made hands and been paid twice. He wants to beat me bad. He's mentioned a few times out loud to the table that he has to beat me a pot. I have A5 and steal in LP and he calls from the blinds.

Flop: J73

He checks, I bet about 2/3 pot, he calls.

Turn: 8

He checks. I’m pretty sure he has spades, so I check behind to keep the pot small and hero him if it bricks.

River: 8

He checks, I think about 20 seconds and checks and he groans and tables Q8. Then he gets a big smile because he finally beat me, and he’s mock fist pumping.

“Does it feel a little hollow though, since I checked behind?” I ask him.

Everyone starts cracking up… “Yeah, if I’m being honest, it is definitely hollow,” he says.

“Yeah… I knew you made trips on the end, I had aces!”

His eyes pop out of his head for a second, and then he realizes I’m joking.

Result: -$1,017 in 7 hours, 4 minutes ($27 in tips) at 2/5. +$19 in 9 minutes at 1/2 ($1 in tips)

Downswing

This is now my second biggest downswing in terms of dollars, and it’s almost 7 buyins. Not catastrophic, but no fun either. For playing as high variance of a style as I do, I really haven’t had too many big downswings, though. I’m having more variance schedule wise, which is annoying. It looks like I won’t be able to play on Monday and my sleep schedule may be even more disrupted than usual. Good thing I didn’t get any action on that prop bet.

October 14 cannot get here soon enough.

I think Hand No. 1 looks pretty spewy. I generally just find myself getting into crappy spots with hands like Q9o in raised multi-way pots, and don't make hands worth playing big pots with often enough to justify it.

YUP

I went 12-2 in the Borgata pick em contest. The tiebreaker is points in MNF and I was off by 2. Usually one loss gets it... But two losses one time for 20K?

Also I'm still furious with Andy Reid. How do you send 12 men out on a field goal block with the game on the line?????

Sad for me to say but he's done worse with the game on the line countless times

I think given that it goes multiway it's not too bad, but a fold preflop would be fine too obviously.

No doubt... Hope this one didn't cost me 20K! We find out in about 3 hours...