Quality not Quantity

I learned an important lesson this past weekend in regards to online poker. As soon as I stop respecting other players at the table, a losing session will follow. Up to this weekend, I had enjoyed success with my bankroll slowly climbing to my goal of 1000 dollars by Christmas. I was confident and felt that my goal was attainable. On Saturday I played quite a bit, and came out two dollars ahead. On Sunday I felt that another long day would surely lead me towards the $500 mark and possibly beyond. Instead I was humbled and went down to $390. I was disgusted with myself and when I look back at hand histories and game selection I am hugely disappointed. I need to do more then just 'show up' to the table to win. If I am the best player at the table great, but I need to prove it each time if I want the money.

Instead of trying to play as many games as possible, I should be trying to win each game I play. If that is one game in a day or thirty games in a day, it doesn't matter. Last night I was focused and identified some mistakes I had been making. I re-read some posts from early on and recognised that game selection is a big aspect of my success. Instead of playing single table, 18 and 45 man SnG's, I should be concentrating on one. I have chosen to solely play the 18 man turbos. They allow for tight play early and more time to pick your spots. Plus, they only take about ten to fifteen minutes longer then a single table yet award almost first place money from a single table to the third place finisher. I can do well at this level and if I continue to play them, my game will only get stronger, much as it did at the 5.50 SnG's and the 6.50 turbo SnG's.

I played five of the 18 man last night and got a first and a second. Nothing monumental but encouraging. Here's to hoping.

Pokerstars balance - $435.97

Hourly Rate - Ouch

Well I played a ton of SnG's today. An absolute ton. I played turbos mainly, a lot of the 18 seat ones. I started well and got up to 470 or so but then variance kicked into high gear and I was getting kicked left and right. (see hand history below for a quick flavor) I took a break and read some Sklansky, showered and hoped to redeem myself. I ended up winning an turbo 18 man SnG to take my balance to $449.42. I played all that time and won 2 dollars. Profit is profit, I suppose.

One extremely positive aspect from playing the sheer volume of games I did today, I picked up numerous negative tendencies in my game that I believe if I can curb, will help in the future. I also picked up on a valuable move that I used to great success today. I will not put it on this blog as I play against many of the players who read it, but I picked up a lot of chips today from one simple move and I can't believe I never saw it before.

Night all. I am wrecked.

My Day in One Hand

Was up to 467 earlier in the day. Lets just say I am not close to that now.


PokerStars Game #6801830065: Tournament #34643132, $6.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2006/10/28 - 12:36:18 (ET)
Table '34643132 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: Leifcake (2340 in chips)
Seat 2: offalyrover (2025 in chips)
Seat 3: ser13769 (2065 in chips)
Seat 4: Knightsridge (1470 in chips)
Seat 6: Shortstack75 (1470 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 7: Andrehehe (1225 in chips)
Seat 8: anipoh (1455 in chips)
Seat 9: crackdoghead (1450 in chips)
crackdoghead: posts small blind 15
Leifcake: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Knightsridge [As Ac]
offalyrover: folds
Andrehehe said, "fck"
ser13769: calls 30
Andrehehe said, "idiot"
Knightsridge: raises 120 to 150
Shortstack75: folds
offalyrover said, "ty"
Andrehehe: raises 1075 to 1225 and is all-in
anipoh: folds
crackdoghead: folds
Leifcake: folds
ser13769: folds
Knightsridge: calls 1075
*** FLOP *** [Td Kh 9d]
Andrehehe said, "lol"
*** TURN *** [Td Kh 9d] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [Td Kh 9d Jd] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Knightsridge: shows [As Ac] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
Andrehehe: shows [Qh Qc] (a straight, Nine to King)
Andrehehe said, "thatcool"
Knightsridge said, "right"
Andrehehe collected 2525 from pot
offalyrover said, "hehe"

These things happen I know, just frustrating when they happen all at once.

Mixing It Up

Yesterday I had a few hours to play as the girlfriend stayed late at work. I started out playing some 6.50 turbos and I didnt fair very well, quickly losing two of them. Rather then sign up for more, I was in the mood for an MTT of sorts, so I started playing some 5.50 two and three table SnG's. One aspect I had not thought of for these tables, which is both good practice yet terribly annoying, is the fact that each time I got to the final table, there would be an absolute monster stack of around 10,000 chips while the rest of the table was near 2500-3500. Plus the blinds were relatively small so it made it difficult to bully as the players at this level call raises with KQ and AT. Plus both times the chipleader was on my immediate left making it difficult for me to steal blinds. But as I said, good practice to work on short stack play.

After giving the multi table SnG's at the 5.50 level, I tried the 2 table 6.50 turbos. Wow, I played two and won both. $13 to play, $86.40 back. They are great as in the beginning you can play tight, as in, super tight. Then wait for the blinds to raise. As soon as it gets difficult ie five handed on each, the final table starts and the blinds rise so fast that stealing can result in a 40% increase to your stack but you won't be called without a hand as it would mean 75% of their stack. These tourneys are a bit of a crapshoot late, yes, and if you go card dead it would be difficult. But being aggressive and attacking medium stacks along with not calling without a hand will result in making some profit.



Here is a hand from a 5.50 18 player SnG. I know straight flushes happen quite frequently online, but I believe this is my third. I know the preflop call is loose, but in an 18 man SnG, I like to try and get the big stack by hitting hands like this. If the eight of spade had not hit on the river I would have doubled up as I am pretty sure he had two pair.

Pokerstars Balance - $447.98

Upcoming Poker - Bankroll Decision

Well last night's SnG's did not go as well as I had hoped. I was unlucky a few times and after I played five I knew it was not my night as far as luck goes. However, I was playing good poker. Therefore I delved into a 5.25 heads up match so as to play a slow game seeing a lot of flops. I ended up winning for a little less then five dollar profit. I finished the night with two more turbo SnG's. To make a long story short, I lost three dollars, not a big amount, but not where I wanted to go. Tonight is another night, and with my girlfriend staying late at work for a parents evening I should be able to fit quite a few in.

Tomorrow night I was toying with the idea of playing the end of month tourney at the Cincinnati Club. At £75 though, it is quite steep. And with my poker bankroll not yet five times that, I have decided to give it a miss. It is too much to place on one night of poker. I will play next weeks game when it returns to its regular £25 night.

That being said, I definitely plan on playing online tomorrow night. My girlfriend is going out with friends, and since I think dancing and drinking in clubs rates somewhere between being stabbed with a dull knife and having my kneecaps broken with a baseball bat, pokerstars looks good. I also think that my first MTT on pokerstars would be a good idea and something to look forward to to replace the tourney at the club. Some 180 man SnG's may also tempt me from the depths that are turbo SnG's. Here's to hoping.

Pokerstars Balance - $398.94

The Rivercard Balance - $97.50

Calling Range

Last night I played in a SnG and was dealt KK the very first hand. I was UTG (under the gun) meaning I was the first to act as the BB was to my direct right. I thought about my options. I could flat call and hope for a raise from somewhere else where I could re-pop them and put them all in. I could min raise and hope for a reraise so I could re-pop them. I could raise big to maybe 200 or so hoping for 1 or 2 callers and going all in on any non ace flop, or I could simply go all in right away and look like an idiot gambler hoping from a call from a weak ace or a pocket pair who thinks he is ahead. I chose to go all in for the 1500. The only hand that is ahead of me is AA and if I am called by AA then unlucky me. When I have KK I am not folding it and no matter if I raise or flat call, with AA also at the table the money is going in preflop. Any other caller I am ahead of.

So this brings about the question. What would you people call with if another player went all in on the first hand of a SnG?

PS It was folded around to the BB who called with 99. The flop gave came 9 high and I was out. Just unlucky for me, I am pleased with the way I played the hand. If I had raised or flat called and then went all in on the flop, I would have been behind, as it stands I will take an 80%-20% hand all in preflop anyday.

New Plateau

Played only two SnG's last night, but managed to win one and get second in the other. Unfortunate in the second one as I had AA v Q7 all in on a T 7 3 board. Turn 7. River Q. Not complaining as I got lucky a few times along the way, just would have been nice to take down both of them.

But anyways, last night I hit the four hundred dollar level and my pokerstars balance is now at $401.54. With 61 days to go before Christmas I am approximately six hundred dollars away from my goal.

I am a little ahead of where I need to be so hopefully 1000 dollars by Christmas is still in the cards (so to speak).

Poker Books

I thought it would be a cool idea to show a picture of my poker books in the hope it forces me to keep up reading them and to remind myself to always keep learning and thinking about the game rather then just playing. When I had money online I ran through it pretty quick and basically went back to only reading and playing freerolls. Now with my bankroll steadily growing with proper management and game choice, I am neglecting my reading.

To anyone that enjoys reading about poker, here are my favorite books that I felt helped my game the most. In no particular order:

1. Harrington on Hold'em - Dan Harrington - I am counting these as one even though there are three of them. These books are absolutely fantastic. They are well written and easy to follow. I especially liked part three with options for the reader to choose throughout hands.

2. The Making of a Poker Player - Matt Matros - This book was great to read as it was written as a story as well an instructional book. It was neat to read about his introduction into poker all the way to the final table of the WPT Championship event. Very well written. (strangely enough this is not in the picture as a friend is borrowing it)

3. The Theory of Poker - David Sklansky - This is the most important book ever written on poker. I have heard arguments for and against Sklansky, but as far as I am concerned I learned more about the game of poker (not just hold'em) from this book more then any other. (Even though it reads like the most boring book in the world, if you stay focused it is well worth it)

4. Making the Final Table - Eric Lindgren - This book was well written and had a lot of valuable facts within it. A great aspect of this book was an appendix written by Matros called Poker Math which discussed odds, percentages, and equity.

5. The Man Behind the Shades - Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson - The biography of Stu 'the Kid' Ungar. It is amazing and depressing at the same time. A poker player and a non-poker player would both enjoy this.

6. Super System - Doyle Brunson - Any book written over thirty years ago and still mentioned as a poker guide today has to be in any list about good poker books.

I also own a book on game theory. It is incredibly basic yet I lose my place frequently when reading it. However, with players like Chris Ferguson and Bill Chen I think it is an interesting avenue to read on. Anyone who enjoys reading and would like to read about something a little off topic should read a book on game theory. If you don't feel it helps, it is still really cool to read about the problems and games wihtin the game theory realm.

Housekeeping and the Future

Well, my parents left for Canada this morning after a ten day visit. It was great to have them over although I think I gained about ten pounds in that time. Whatever. On to poker.

I started playing a few SnG's on Saturday morning, but instead of playing the 6.50 turbos, I wanted to ease back in so I took a step down and played two 3.40 turbos. Just as I suspected my mind was not as sharp as it should have been and I called an all in reraise with QK. Silly. The other one though, I won. On Sunday I played my normal 6.50 turbos and fired up two rather then four as it seems I always end up throwing one of the four away. I got lucky in one of them and ended up winning both. Thanks very much I'll take $41 profit in forty minutes. That night I played another two and made a silly mistake in one on the bubble when I was chip leader and got unlucky in the other. In the mistake I made, the table was quite fast getting down to four handed quickly, so the blinds were still at 100-200 but I was playing my bubble poker. Suited for a 200-400 table. I ran A6 into the second chip leader's AK. I managed to scrape back to a medium stack but fell in love with KJ after the chipleader flat called. Again, silly. I will need a little more time to work out some kinks, but I think I am back on the road to '$1000 by Christmas'.

Here's to hoping

Pokerstars Balance - $371.54

PS I think I will be playing on Friday at the Cincinnati Club for their end of the month tourney. £75 buy in, starting stacks are 15,000 with blinds starting at 25-50 and the levels lasting half an hour. Tremendous amount of play and it suits my game well.

Lack of Poker

I must apologise to any faithful readers I may have picked up during the first little while of my blogging days. I have played almost no poker since last Thursday.

My parents have travelled over from Canada and are visiting me in Scotland as well as visiting my girlfriend's parents in Ireland where I am currently. If you hadn't guessed I am Canadian and I had not seen my parents since April last year. It has been great seeing them and I am very glad to have them over her, but poker has suffered immensely.

I played one set of four last Friday night and I managed to win one of the four giving me a profit of one dollar for the session. Hooray! But then I played a turbo and ran into a monster when I tried stealing.

Pokerstars Balance - $321.54

Gulp

Well the day after a pleasing performance in a 180 man SnG that helped my confidence, how do I respond? Why finishing out of the money in my first 12 SnG's of course. I know, terrible. I had bad beat after bad beat that I know is just variance rearing it's ugly head, but still, it is terrible for a player to endure. Everytime I had KK I would raise and an ace would fall. If I went all in with TT or better, I was being eaten alive by three outers. And AA, why A3, 77, 8T, and 22 were too much. I know, I checked my hand histories. So I took a break and composed myself. I read some Sklansky and calmed myself. I took a shower and then put on my favorite hoodie with my ipod blaring. I told myself I would play one more set of four and to make it count as they were the last games for the day. I managed two firsts, a third, and an outdraw (which is fine as I outdrew a few people as well). I was quite pleased and it made me determined for tomorrow.

Here's to hoping

Pokerstars Balance - $326.54 (Yes I went down, but I finished strong which is what I am choosing to take from the day)

Pokerstars 180 Player SnG

I played a few SnG's and did fairly well, winning 2 of my first four. I kind of got tired of playing though and I was in the mood for an MTT. At the same time, I did not want to break the bank nor did I want to be playing for over six hours. The $4.40 180 player SnG was perfect.

I got off to a good start with a BB special courtesy of Q3 diamonds. The flop came Q high with 2 baby diamonds. I bet and was flat called. The turn was a 3 giving me 2 pair. I bet he raises I go all in and he calls with KK. River was a blank and there was no looking back. After the first hour, I was tourney chip leader.


The second hour this continued and I was still chip leader at the second break. The third hour I just picked up some blinds and avoided the mine field that is short stacks pushing. I played smart and avoided playing large pots with other big stacks, this kept up until the final table where I hit a set against an all in player and then another player bet into the side pot. I put him all in and he called with a pair of fours. He had been playing for over three hours and went out on a hand he had no business in. Oh well, I'll take it. When four handed rolled around I was chipleader.



This is where things went south. I put a shortstack all in with top pair K kicker and he called for his life on a gutshot. I said 'no 8' and I immediately covered my mouth as it seems whenever I do that, the poker gods don't like it. Sure enough the turn was an 8, and just to make sure I saw it, the river was another 8. Damn. I then lost a big pot with AK where I raised big preflop and was called by the BB. The flop was 8 high and I did a continuation bet and he went all in. I had to fold and he showed a set of 8's. After these two hands I was pretty low and I pushed with A4s and was called by A8. No help, gg me.



I enjoyed the tourney and it was fun to play an MTT rather then a SnG. The payday was alright, $85 for 4 dollar investment, can't complain. I will hopefully be playing another one in the near future.

Pokerstars Balance - $384.54

Trout Blogs

I was searching for some poker blogs to read the other day and stumbled across a site called Trout Blogs. It is a database of poker blogs; some good some not so good. However, if you are looking for some poker related material to read (after having read all mine of course) check it out.

Cincinnati Club Festival

Just read on the Blonde Poker Forum (similar to 2+2 but better) that my club here in Glasgow, The Cincinnati Club, is putting on a Festival at the beginning of December. It will last 4 days starting on a Thursday and run through to Sunday.

The Thursday night is a team event. Five players per team £200 per team registration. Friday night is a £75 NL 10,000 chip tourney with half hour blinds. (Should be a great tourney). The Saturday night is a £50 pound with 2 rebuys or a rebuy and top up. I am a little undecided about this one as the Stanley Casino is running their monthly officepoker.net tourney the same night (I played in it this past Saturday scroll down for tournament report), so we'll see. The Sunday is the main event and starts around two in the afternoon. A £200 freezeout with hour blinds, which should go through the night. That is a lot of money for one tourney so depending on how I do in the others, I may enter.

That is a lot of poker for one weekend so I told my girlfriend last night I would pay for a flight for her to go home and see her family. I know that sounds silly, but I wouldn't be able to play all the events if she was home without feeling guilty. (Let it be known she is fantastic about me playing and would never stop me from playing, at the same time she is human and spending the weekend 'alone' and seeing me for a few hours at a time would not be her idea of fun.)

To see the complete Blonde Fourm click here, to view the post about the festival click here

SnG Progress

I have played a lot of SnG's these last few days, all in sets of four, totaling somewhere around 32-36 SnG's. Incredibly in that time, I am up about ten dollars. It seems that every time I start up a set, I am eliminated in one on a bad beat, then I may get 2nd or 3rd, then bubble, then concentrate solely on the last one and get either 1st or 2nd. I may start only playing two for a little while to see if it ups my profits.

The people are still playing with bad stack management as the bubble nears (calling an allin with a draw when they are not pot committed, and folding blinds or cold calling raises and folding to a bet on the flop when the blinds represent a large percentage of their stack) I think I am just around the corner from a solid day when everything falls in line.

Pokerstars Balance - $251.54

The Rivercard - $97.24 (going to start playing only 5 dollar extended SnG's. The speed ones are attractive but dont reward the best player.)

Live Tourney at Stanley Casino

Last night I played in the officepoker.net tourney at the Stanley Casino on Sauchiehall Street here in Glasgow. £50 buy in, 10,000 chips, 20 minute blind levels until 500-1000 and then it is half hour levels, 27 players.

I started out card dead and that pretty much continued for the rest of the night. I had QQ once and AK twice. After that 88 twice, 66, 44 and AT. Nothing really. Anyways, I was quickly whittled down to 5500 chips. Blinds were taking me down and I paid off a value bet with a pair of aces on a 3 club board. I knew he had it and I still paid it. Silly play. As the blinds rose, I took some blinds and stayed afloat. Before I knew it, it was the final table. By this time the blinds were 700-1500 and the average was 27,000 but because there were 2 big stacks, the majority of players were nearer to 20,000. Needless to say not much postflop play occurred. I had AK hold against QK all in preflop, and on the cash bubble (5th place was dinner for 2) I moved in with 88 UTG and was called by TT. Window card was an 8, and I sucked out to basically double up (I had her outchipped by about 10,000) to 63,000. Four handed saw another player from the Blonde Poker Forum, Teacake, (a strong player) get it all in with AT v AQ from 'Div' another Blonde poster. The AQ held up and shortly after I hit another set of 8's to take out a shortstacked Teacake. Three handed we talked about a deal. I had 80,000, Div had about 70,000 and the big stack from the beginning had 120,000. We discussed but in the end I wanted to keep playing. I went up and became chipleader at around 140,000. I then tried a bluff from the button when I knew the other guy had little. He ended up calling me down with second pair no kicker. It was the right call, but one I would not have made. Upon reflection and after talking to Div and Teacake, I should have reraised him more on the flop setting up a large bet on the turn. I will know for next time. In the end we did a deal and I got £340, Div got £340, and the other guy took £535 and the trophy. Not a bad night and though I was disappointed with my final hand, I thought I played position excellent and was greatly pleased at my ability to come back from a shortstack.

£340 (minus: £50 entry, £2 registration fee, £10 dealers tip, £1 tip to front desk for calling taxi, £5 taxi) = £272

Live Poker = £386 profit

Turbo Land (My Living Room)

Got home from work early (I teach history and politics at a high school) and my girlfriend wasn't going to be home till late. This means a lot of poker.

I started 4 tabling the $6.50 turbos and I think I did alright. Nothing outstanding but definitely manageable. I played a grand total of 27 SnG's placing in the money 15 times. I was quite pleased with these results. I know I can handle 4 tabling and the flow of the game is starting to come to me. My last 2 sets of four that I played I had two 1sts and two 3rds and then one 1st two 3rds and a bubble. Very encouraging.

1st - 5
2nd - 3
3rd - 7

I would like my thirds to be not as numerous but 3 handed I try to accumulate chips aggressively and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. That's poker

Pokerstars balance - $241.54 (80 dollar profit in one night...damn straight)

Change of Plan Folks

I have given this decision a lot of thought, but I have decided to change my plan a little bit. I am no longer going to play the $5.50 SnG's on pokerstars to reach my target of 1000 dollars by Christmas. Instead I will be playing the $6.50 turbos. Let me explain my decision.

The $5.50 SnG's make for a great game of poker. Plenty of play, good structure, plenty of fish etc. However, most of the games I was playing were taking an hour to finish, I even had a few approach an hour and a half. That is a long time to play when the top prize is only $22.50, with $17 being profit. Plus, I find that my ability to multi-table is made more difficult by the fact that the blinds are still relatively low (ie not all in every hand) when the play is four and five handed (75-150 and 100-200). This is where the game is won and lost and most times I can come out of this period as chip leader and go on to finish well, but only on one table. I find myself time and time again, gambling with a short stack during an SnG at inopportune times to either double up or get eliminated so I can fully concentrate on the SnG where I have lots of chips.

The $6.50 turbos have the same structure, the only difference being they have 5 minule levels. I won two last night and had a few bad beats in others, but something I found incredible was the terrible, I repeat TERRIBLE, stack management of some players. (Folding in the BB when the BB represented 40-50% of their stack.) I also realised that heads up was played at the 200-400 level and maybe a hand or two at the 300-600 level. This is not as bad as I expected. Yes there is an element of luck involved, it's poker, of course there is. But I can fold a BB of 600 when I have a stack around 6000-8000, and still win the thing. I expected blinds of 1000-2000 when I first started and it being a crap shoot four handed. But this was not the case. I was usually by far the most aggressive and this was key as people were hanging on for third and second place money. This is another benefit to these tourneys. Instead of a $22.50 first prize as in the $5.50 SnG's, it is $27.00. Not a big difference I know, but an extra $4.50 profit represents more than 25% of the profit in the $5.50 SnG's. Another benefit is that when it gets to 4 handed, all in is the most popular move as the blinds are usually 100-200 w 25 ante or 150-300 w 25 ante. This means that I can fire up more then one table and be confident in my abilities to win as aggressiveness usually means all in around at this time in a SnG. Every time I take the blinds uncontested I grow substantially and they lose substantially. They should be calling with a wider range of hands but they don't. In the $5.50 SnG's they could fold and wait for a monster and punish me, but because the blinds are one step ahead in the turbos, one or two folds and they are extremely short stacked, leaving them with little fold equity (to push others off a hand as the raise is too much to call therefore not getting the proper odds to call with any two).

Mike (getupkid), you were right, the turbos are good value as they increase my hourly rate without taking too much skill out of the game. Here's to hoping.

Pokerstars balance - 162.54 (For all this talk about 6.50 SnG's I had bad beats galore last night)

The Rivercard - 108.62 (I lost 60 dollars in 2 days. I tried playing the $10 SnG's stupidly, and lost a few, then registered for what I thought was a $5.50 SnG and turned out to be a $22 SnG. I am only going to play $5 there from now on as well. I am getting action points there and I hope to play some freeroll tournies tonight)

Live poker - £132 - (Going to play a big tourney on Saturday I think at the Stanley casino on Sauchiehall Street. Officepoker.net tourney. A 10,000 chip with slow levels. I love these 10,000 chip tournies. I will update when I am sure if I am going.)

Hell Yeah

Sunday night I played the freeroll on The Rivercard and made $25 for second place.

Now I have $162.45 in my account.

God love The Rivercard

The Rivercard...who needs Pokerstars?

Well after playing on pokerstars for the past little while, my game is shaped around it's structure and type of players; which are usually, quite solid. After playing a few times on The Rivercard however, wow, I think I could get used to it. Though I have only played twice, I am 2 for 2 in the $5.50 6 player SnG. I know I know, this is nothing to get excited about, but the fact is, the games take about half the time as pokerstars, and a win is only 3 dollars less. Not bad eh? I will update later if I play anymore, but needless to say I am excited.

Heres to hoping for more screen shots like these!!!!

PS I am CincinsKid on The Rivercard...not Knightsridge

Money for nothing...is there a better statement in poker?

Well as I promised to do in my first post, I would play only 5.50 SnG's on stars but I would play freerolls on other sites hoping to make a roll to kind of 'unwind', if you will, from the stars' structure.

Last night I played in a freeroll tourney on The Rivercard, a site on the same network as Doyles Room and Paddy. It is a great little tourney and I was fortunate enough to get 2nd place and the $25 to go with it. I cannot wait to start playing some little SnG's on there to build up the roll. I like the graphics and the dark background on The Rivercard, and for whatever reason I am confident playing there; last night was no exception. I never had AA,KK,QQ or AK the entire tourney yet I was taking down major pots with well timed bluffs. It was so much fun, and although I was not a popular person in the chatbox, I will get over it.

I will still be concentrating on Pokerstars primarily, but a change of venue I think will help in the long run. Here's to hoping.

Fact of the day

I was just looking at how many days I have until Christmas and trying to figure out how much I need to average each day until then. Then I realised that Mike sent me the 25 dollars I started with on Saturday September 14th. Exactly 100 days before Christmas. Weird. So for you math whizz's out there, 100 days to make 1000 dollars...10 dollars per day. After 14 days I am a little ahead of schedule. Not bad I guess. While I am typing this I just won another one so I am back ahead of 5 days ago by 5 dollars. Wow. Approx 12 hours of work for $5. Sounds awesome.

Where are all the puppy dogs and butterflies?

Well after progressing nicely these past few weeks with my roll slowing building, the past few days saw an end to that. I have played 14 SnG's since Thursday and in those, I have managed 2 firsts and a second. I know it isn't catastrophic or anything, but still, it hurts. My decline is a combination of 2 things, bad luck and bad play. My bad play however is a direct result of loss of confidence. My loss of confidence is a direct result of bad luck. I am waiting patiently for it to leave. Hurry up bad luck.....LEAVE!!!! NOW!!!

I am not going to sit here and go on about my bad beats because they are part of poker and I know that. That doesn't make them hurt any less but still they are a part of the game all players must deal with.

Anyways, I have started reading some old books again just to refresh my knowledge and to build up my confidence again. Here's hoping it works.

Pokerstars balance - $156.54 (not emergency or anything, but still, my first recorded loss, not cool)