Have you been able to deposit on Global recently? Do you feel comfortable depositing with them again? If so, then $100 should be fine as long as you're willing to drop down after losing 4 buy-ins or so. If not, I would wait until $150 or $200 even.

I noticed you mentioned the $0.11 $500 MTT that goes off nightly. Don't forget about the Daily Hundo and Daily Five Hundo. To qualify for those, you have to play 25 gold coin ring game hands during the day. The Daily Five Hundo is probably out of your BRM, as it's a $5 + $0 (both tourneys are no rake)...but it does guarantee $1,250 paid out and they only get ~100-120 runners a night. The Daily Hundo has the same type of overlay, $400 gtd with top 13 getting paid, but it gets about 150-170 runners a night. Both tourneys very top heavy, with top 2 (for $5) and top 3 (for $1) getting 100x their buy-in.

Nope, no redeposit for me. I just left $25 on there following my withdraw. I don't anticipate that I will ever be able to deposit on Global again unless something changes with their options. What you stated above is pretty much on par with my thinking. Move up to 10nl at $100, and move back down to 4nl at $60-$70.

Thank you for the reminder on the one & five hundo's. You are right that the five hundo is a bit out of reach for me at the moment considering my bankroll, but the one hundo is definitly a nice opportunity for a shot in the arm to move me up levels. I hadn't had much success in the $0.11 $500 gtd through about 10-12 of them, but finally made it to about 50-60th the other night for a...wah wah $1.35 or so. However, the tournament plays fast and the play is beyond abysmal for the most part, as you are probably aware. I went ahead and got qualified for the one hundo after reading your post and give it a try tomorrow evening.

I posted up the 4 hour target that I had for yesterday. It was a really up and down day. I made, what I remember to be my first Royal Flush using both of my hole cards, and the person that I was in the pot with even x/r me ott. I lost to a couple of weird hands and made a couple of lite calls where my opponent was super polarized otr and had the top of their range each time. Ended up being a slightly better than break even day.

9/19
Time played: 4 hours
Ending Bankroll: $83.27

A few hand history's:

Hand 1: (my 3rd hand at the table, no player reads)
utg- 3.96
mp- 4.05
co- 2.77
hero(button)(78)- 3.94
sb- 8.97
bb- 1.14

utg limps, mp calls, co calls, hero raises to .24. Only utg calls.
pot: .62
flop: 639

utg bets .04, hero raises to .40, utg calls.
pot: 1.42
turn: 3

utg bets .04, hero raises to 1.00, utg calls.
pot: 3.42
river: T

utg bets .04, hero raises all-in to 2.30, and utg calls.



Hand 2: (4 handed)
button player I have marked as a weaker opponent. Does a fair amount of opening, and throwing out small blocker type bets.
utg- 5.54
button-6.25
sb- 6.92
hero (bb)(JT)- 5.64

utg raises to .12 and all players call.
pot: .48
flop: Q9J

All players check to the button who bets .04. sb calls, hero calls, utg folds.
pot: .60
turn: 8

checks to button who bets .04. sb and hero call.
pot: .72
river: K

checks around.



Hand 3: (4 handed)
bb is loose preflop, opening wide, and splashes around postflop.
utg- 5.36
hero (button)(55)- 6.13
sb- 5.36
bb- 5.21

utg limps, hero raises to .18, sb folds, bb calls, and utg calls.
pot: .56
flop: 999

bb and utg check, hero bets .32. bb and utg call.
pot: 1.52
turn: 7

checks around.
pot: 1.52
river: 4

checks to hero. hero bets .42, bb folds, utg goes all-in 4.44 and hero calls.


A snapshot of what my garden is still producing:



The okra is out of frame, but is coming in steadily. I also had a second round of tomatoes that are still ripening due to a nice late summer stretch of rain. Today I am going to set the mark at 3 hours of play. I have a lot planned for today, so it might be a grind to hit the mark.

Despite having a lot of irons in the fire yesterday, I was able to get to 3 hours of play. I made a couple more lite calls that went the other way, but I was also able to hold in a couple of spots that helped the bankroll inch upward. I wasn't able to play the $0.11 $500gtd or the Daily Hundo that was mentioned in a previous post, but I am qualified for them both today and the plan is to be in them this evening.

9/20
Time Played: 3 hours
Ending Bankroll: $87.62

In other news, I got some new exercise equipment. Well, a weight bench and some dumbbells, to accompany the spartan setup that I already had. I much rather have my own setup and pay a one time cost than pay a monthly gym membership, which I did for about 5 years. Although, my understanding of exercise probably allows me the comfortablity going this route. For probably 90% of the participants, a gym membership is one of the larger wastes of money in their budget, from my experience working in a gym for 3 years and being around them a good portion of my adult life.

Today I am looking to put in 4 hours.

0 for 1 in the Daily Hundo
0 for 1 in the Daily $500 Bonanza

Although, this is to be expected. Both are very quickly structured tournaments. I probably won't report on results in these tournaments moving forward, unless I happen to make some money in one of them. I was able to get to my time goal for the day. Today I am shooting for 3 hours of play.

9/21
Time Played: 4 hours
Ending Bankroll: $93.44

I didn't hit my 3 hour goal for yesterday, and only squeezed in 1 hour late in the day. That Oklahoma State collapse really took it out of me yesterday. Well, that wasn't really the reason for my missing out on hitting the 3 hours that I wanted, there was just a lot on my plate yesterday. I need to 2 hours today to get to the 20 hours that I set out as my goal for the week. Hitting the 20 hour mark is the real priority for today. Despite only getting 1 hours yesterday, I was on two tables filled with action and saw an uptick. On to today.

9/22
Time Played: 1 hour
Ending Bankroll: $99.76

Hand 1: Not a massive fan of the iso raise preflop. I think this is fine when we're deeper and at a higher staked table, but when we're less than 100bb effective we should want to keep the pot and SPRs smaller, as our hand plays better with deeper SPRs. Our hand also doesn't play too bad multiway.

Hand 2: We may be able to raise the flop after the BTN min bets and SB bets. This board is fairly wet. If BTN had something worth protecting, he'd probably bet larger than a min bet. SB could have Qx, but even that is going to be difficult to hold onto against a triple barrel. Calling isn't bad since we're getting such a good price, but this pot just seems like dead money waiting for us to pick it up.

After the flop, you have to bet somewhere. Or raise somewhere. After a min bet on flop and turn, I'm not that inspired that BTN is going to come out and blast the pot, if he bets at all. Even if you bet or raise something small, like $0.24, that's an extra 6bb added to your WR and BR.

Hand 3: I might size up on the flop. I actually discussed a hand quite similar to this in my PGC thread a few weeks ago, where I had raised a limper with TT, got 2 callers, and got a 222 flop. I thought that the better adjustment for me was to bet larger with my bluffs and more vulnerable hands, and have a de-escalating bet sizing scale as my hand got stronger. I wouldn't put 55 in the strong category, so I'd bet something like $0.44. This is a good flop for our range, and we can attack it with this vulnerable hand as such.

Once we get two callers and this run out, I'd just take a showdown. We don't want to accidentally value own ourselves against 66 or 7x or 9x, and players just don't call down with A-hi enough. It's a spot where we aren't getting better to fold, and only rarely are we getting worse to call. We contrast that with the flop where hands with two overcards will call a bet and we have no reason to believe there is a hand better than ours out there.

I'd also fold to the shove. Our hand just isn't good enough and players aren't going to bluff this board enough, especially check/raise jamming river, for us to be good. And either BB or UTG could have 9x and take this line, expecting you to bet the river.

Week 38:
[6/7] Meditate for a minimum of 5 minutes each day
[5/7] Exercise a minimum of 4 days each week. (minimum of 25 minute workout)
[7/7] Feed the wolf of love, starve the wolf of hate
[0 hours] 600 hours of live poker 140:30
[21:45 hours] 400 hours of online poker 549:40
[5/7, 0/3] No more than 3 alcoholic drinks in a day.

I cam right up against reaching the mark in all of the categories that I laid out for the past week. I fell short in meditation by one day. I missed the mark with exercise by one day. I didn't play a live session. I over-imbibed by a hair. However, I did make it to 20 hours online. I'm not going to lay out any specific goals for this week. I have a trip to Lubbock to visit a buddy planned for the end of the week, and I am not sure what I can feasible expect to accomplish. Check that, I am going sober each night before I leave town to prepare my internal organs for the onslaught.

9/23
Time Played: 3:45
Ending Bankroll: $106.77

$20k bankroll chase: $6,235

Very true. Probably even more so considering I am just getting started on this table and don't have any specific reads on opponents. Since you mention this hand playing well multi-way, do you limp behind here?

I was not a fan of anything that I did in this hand. Most of the time I am actually just folding preflop. Do you think folding preflop in this sort of situation is a big leak, or?

Otr I missed out on some value for sure. Just a dreadfully played hand by me.

I do remember the discussion of the TT hand, very similar situation here. Very poor decision to value bet this river. I wish that I could remember exactly what it was that I was thinking, maybe it was just that, I could get an A high to make the call. When they shove back at me, I am almost certain this is some sort of bluff, based on this specific opponent. The x/r shove where they aren't really repping much other than a 9, imo. A check back otr is definitely in order here.

I found it amusing that an obviously terrible decision to bet gets rewarded by our opponent blasting off for no reason.

Whoops, I typed the above before I saw your closing comment. I don't know, other than a 9, or AA-QQ, I don't see my opponent doing something like this. When I really drilled into my thoughts, I think that each of those hands leads the river due to the turn checking around. The feeling that I got, after my opponent took a second before acting on my bet, was that they were thinking that I was weak and trying to move them off the hand. With that in mind, I believed that my opponent saw an opportunity where they thought that I wouldn't have big enough to call an over-bet shove.

As always, thanks for the feedback. If you have any follow-up thoughts to any of my remarks I would be pleased for you to share. Thanks again!

Only got 1 hour in the books yesterday, which included an 0 for in the $500 $0.11 tourney. Looking to put in 2 or more hours today. Also, I got the first of 3 sober nights in. As I have said before, sobriety is not hard for me. The boredom that accompanies sobriety is.

9/24
Time Played: 1 hour
Ending Bankroll: $107.68

I don't think the raise is awful with hand 1 in a vacuum. And in fact sometimes I would iso raise with it. But out of the vacuum, the 100bb stacks and stake level (the lower stakes you go, the less fold equity you have) would err me towards a call.

Something I have been messing around with recently has been less iso raising multiway from BTN or CO and more limping. Now this is more applicable to live games, but can be useful online at low stakes. We keep the pot smaller with a more speculative hand, keep SPRs high (which favors the in position player), and have the skill advantage. We just have to be willing to attack more pots than normal.

WRT playing JTo, I think its fine as a complete. We're getting a price and closing the action. It can never be a huge mistake to call preflop getting 5 to 1 and closing the action.

I like the approach that you are suggesting w/ the sc, smaller pp(I am assuming), maybe A smal suited type(again, assuming) type hands. I may try to incorporate this into my game more for a time and see how it feels it is playing.

All good points, and perspectives to consider. Thanks for all of your thoughtful, insights.

I didn't get to my 2 hour goal for yesterday. Push mowing too largish lawns really took it out of me, and more importantly, evaporated a lot of the hours in the day. Two hours will once again be the goal for today. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I have my semi-annual trip to Lubbock planned to kick off tomorrow. I may also find myself in Riudoso and was wondering if anyone out there has hit up the Inn of the Mountain Gods poker room before?

9/25
Time Played: 1 hour 15 minutes
Ending Bankroll: $112.32

Not sure why, but I've found the garden progress pics to be really interesting.
OP, will you grow berries of any kind?

I've been out on the road lately. Some lodging and poker at Inn of the Mountain Gods, some hiking at Grind Stone Lake in Ruidoso, and other random shenanigans.















Too many great photo's to share. I felt beyond invigorated from the hike. Hiking is going to be something that look at getting into more regularly. The Inn of the Mountain Gods has a pretty nice poker room setup. I played 2 hours but there wasn't much that happened during the brief session.

I've certainly enjoyed starting, and growing a garden over the past 3 years. I've thought about beginning blueberries and/or strawberries on a couple of different occasions, but then decided that I was already pretty committed to the vegetables that I have been growing and wasn't sure that I wanted to invest in learning any new gardening disciplines at the time. I'll try to include a bit more of the gardening grind in case anyone else may be interested.

Week 39
[2/7] Meditate for a minimum of 5 minutes each day
[3/7] Exercise a minimum of 4 days each week. (minimum of 25 minute workout)
[7/7] Feed the wolf of love, starve the wolf of hate
[2 hours] 600 hours of live poker 142:30
[3:20 hours] 400 hours of online poker 553
[3/7, 3/3] No more than 3 alcoholic drinks in a day.


I hit my primary goal for last week, which was 3 sober nights to start the week. I was very below average in every other metric for the week however. I can chalk most of my lackluster results to being on the road and out of town for a majority of the time. This week I will be getting back on track with my efforts and will shoot for some specific goals of:
6 days of meditation
5 days of exercise
No days with more than 3 alcoholic drinks
1 live poker session (minimum of 6 hours)
20 hours of online play

9/26-9/29 (online)
Time Played: 3:15
Ending Bankroll: $113.01

$20k Bankroll Chase: $6,117

I made a decent run in the $500 daily to 20th place for a staggering ~$2. I had some early success in the Daily Hundo, but crapped out around 50th place or so, w/ top 13 getting paid and the top 1-3 getting the bulk of the prize pool. I reached the 4 hour mark that I had set for the day, got back to basics with a vigorous workout, and had a centering 15 minute meditation. The goal poker wise is another 4 hours today.

Also, I have some freeplay, buffet offers, and two free nights stay, for both October and November, at one of the casino's that I, once upon a time, played poker at. I am looking at the best times to utilize these offers and maximize my hours in the cardoom. The free food and comped hotel stays give me so much more motivation to play live as the lengthy, late nights drives get taken out of play somewhat.

10/2
Time Played: 4 hours
Ending Bankroll: $120.83

I was able to reach the 4 hour goal that I set for yesterday. I almost wrapped things up at 3 hours last night, but then I did a little self talk and got through the last hour that I needed. I know that it doesn't sound like much, only 4 hours a day and stretching myself to 1 more hour on the day. To be honest, I could and should put in more hours than I do. What I would like to acknowledge though, is that I almost failed to get to the measly goal that I had set, and instead of quitting early for the day, I pushed through to get to the goal that I had set. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I think that no mater how minuscule the goal, it is vital to continually empty what is in the clip at that the time, every time. Determination and discipline, as has been said voluminously, is like a muscle. It doesn't make a difference how many times you fail. What makes the difference is a continual effort in a positive direction. Start a new streak.

Here's a picture that has some of the late season tomato's that are popping up, along with the salsa that I put together with the produce from the garden:



10/3
Time Played: 4 hours
Ending Bankroll: $133.28

Didn't get much volume in yesterday, but I was able to pad the roll. Yesterday was the first time, in the current iteration of this challenge, to play 10nl. I was able to catch a nice 100bb punt w/ AA when a player otb 3b/flat my 4b w/ QJo and we get ai otf of QxTc8c. The board runs out 9xKx. There probably aren't as many spots at 10nl, but I am sure there are spots none the less. I will be mixing in some 10nl considering where my bankroll is currently at.

10/4
Time Played: 1.5 hours
Ending Bankroll: $145.52

Played a little over a 4 hour session last night and dropped -$401. Two hands set the tone for the night, AK<TT aipf for ~$100, and 99<A6s aipf for $128 in a 4b pot. There where also a ton of mistakes on my part, my rust definitly showed. I was impatient, had a brief stint with some tilt, and missed a bet or two. Online I played 1 hours earlier in the day and took a small loss there as well. lost 100bb with Q9ss otb when the flush comes ott and the Sb has ATss. Lost 60bb w/ 77 on a KcTc7x5c2x board v. QJcc. The goal is to get in 4 hours today.

10/5
Time Played: 1 hour
Ending Bankroll: $140.17

I cracked the top 13 in the daily hundo to cash for $10, I got ai w/ A8 and got out flopped and couldn't improve v. A2. That hand would have given me a stack that would have been pretty healthy and possible propelled me to the top 3 for a $100 cash, but you never know. I surpassed my 4 hour goal. The plan today is to reach 3 hours, and play in the weekly $5k.

10/6
Time Played: 5 hours
Ending Bankroll: $154.66

Week 40:
[5/7] Meditate for a minimum of 5 minutes each day
[5/7] Exercise a minimum of 4 days each week. (minimum of 25 minute workout)
[7/7] Feed the wolf of love, starve the wolf of hate
[4 hours] 600 hours of live poker 146:30
[18:30 hours] 400 hours of online poker 571:30
[5/7, 1/3] No more than 3 alcoholic drinks in a day.

There was progress made on some goals, but overall a lot of falling short. I started off the week strong, but as the weekend rolled in, my efforts really faded. My travels home from Lubbock basically removed one day from my week, so what I was able to accomplish was pretty decent with a short week. The goals for this week are going to stay the same as last week, and this time around I am going to try and meet each of them. I want to keep the goals the same, and reach each one of them before I try to ramp things up.

10/7
Time Played: 3 hours
Ending Bankroll: $154.96

Took a few licks last night at 10nl. I hadn't really had roughing up like that in awhile. Twice JJ went in otf of under cards, once against AA & another time against KK. I got taken to value town by QT on a Q2267r board w/ my A high. There were some other hands that I could mention, but overall I didn't play too well. I could have lost about $15 less than I did, but that's just how it went yesterday, and I have learned a few things about a few opponents that I think that I will be in the game against in the future. The goal is 4 hours today.

10/8
Time Played: 3 hours
Ending Bankroll: $119.94

Was not feeling the pokerz at all yesterday. I did get some exercise in, as well as a meditation. Spent some time researching some of the local political candidates and states questions. Spent some time in the evening at a county democrats meeting. Overall, it was a grind to get an hour in and I fell well short of the 4 hour goal that I had set, but I still spent a majority of the day being productive. Today I am going to set a goal of 3 hours of play.

10/9
Time Played: 1 hour
Ending Bankroll: $117.56

I shattered my goal of 3 hours of play, with 4.5 hours yesterday. I was able to come up a bit as well. Not much interesting happening in the way of hand history's. It's 4nl, so pretty much playing straight forward poker, and waiting on players to punt to me. I did want to include a couple of pics of some brews in this post, since that hasn't happened in awhile. The draconian liquor laws recently changed here in Indian Territory, and like my former college baseball coach once said of drug testing our team, "it couldn't come at a better time." Well, anytime would have actually been fine with me, as I have grown accustomed to drinking low point beer, and going to the liquor store for my craft, but the new convenience created by the relaxed alcohol laws is nice.

This beer pic is not only included because I find the can impossibly sexy, but also I find the taste amazing for the price point and availability. I am sure that everyone out there that has a modicum of exposure to some beer drinking has delved into these suds before, but anyway it's a near favorite beer of mine:



This next beer is an Oklahoma staple, and nationally recognized (the brewery more so than this particular beer). Here is a link to the beer on Beer Advocate for a more apt description than my crude palate can produce. My only difference from the description, however, is that The Prairie Standard differs from the 4 or 5 others saison style beers that I have had from the past, in that it is much less tart.



10/10
Time Played: 4.5 hours
Ending Bankroll: $128.44

There was no update for Thursday, as I played live. I only played 2.5 hours, but was struck by how mind numbing this exercise was. I am not sure that I can continue to play live poker with any frequency. Not that I had been putting in any real volume as it is. At one point I was texting two buddies in a group message asking them "when did poker become so boring?" I am not sure boring accurately completes the picture though, as many of the players and the environment contributed to a pretty loathsome experience, and this has seemed to be the rule rather than the exception of late. I don't mean to grouse, and my issues with live poker are probably more a manifestation of something personal, but I was just over it in the moment on Thursday night and that feeling has dissipated in the interim to present. I am sure that I will continue to get SOME live play in, as I don't find the same issues with tournaments and have the urge to play on occasion.

I think that I missed a day of reporting some of my online play some where between my last post and today. That doesn't leave much room to have missed, but the bankroll from my last post to present doesn't seem to accurately reflect what I recall. Anyway, I put in a decent amount of volume yesterday with some mixed results.

10/12
Time Played: 6 hours
Ending Bankroll: $123.67