Poker and my current life situation

It's been over a month since I've blogged. I've taken a long break from poker. Strangely, I have no urge to play poker but I still aspire to beat $200 nlhe sh. It's still a very distant dream of mine.

I have signed up for a 6 month subscription at Lego Poker. I haven't watched a full video because the videos I downloaded got corrupted. It cuts me off about 15 minutes into each video, some I can't even watch. I need to delete them and download them again. I also need to review about 20k PT hands and make a post about it. I don't know when that will happen because I'm really busy right now.

I think I'm at a crossroad with my life. I don't want to get into too many personal details but my brother and I just bought a house! It's a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom house. There's a den that can easily be made into a 4th bedroom. My younger brother is graduating college on May 25th. He plans to move back in with us. We'll probably make a 5th bedroom downstairs because the basement is huge.

I've been procrastinating with getting into grad school. Hopefully, if I blog about it. It will get my butt started. Fill out the graduate school application. I would need 3 letters of recommendation. Fill out the financial aid application and see if I can get any free $ or low interest loans. Luckily, this school doesn't require me to take the GRE, which makes my life easier. I hope to get into St Mary's in Minneapolis in Fall, 2008. Earn a Masters in Counseling Psychology and become a therapist. It's a huge commitment for me but it will pay off in the long run.

I can really see myself being a therapist. I could listen to people's sob stories all day and not go nuts. I find the whole human experience interesting, the good and the bad.

What a heart breaking loss for Memphis

The championship game between Memphis & Kansas was heart breaking Everything had to go perfect for Kansas and everything had to go wrong for Memphis in order for Kansas to send it to overtime and win. Such a bad beat, I feel so bad for Memphis. They should had won that game.

Memphis Coach John Calipari said that he's still numb from that game and it will hit him like a ton of bricks tomorrow. He'll probably have nightmares about this game for a very long time until he wins one.

NCAA Championship Game tonight Memphis vs Kansas & Samoleus podcast

I joined my brother's NCAA Mens Basketball bracket pool (buy in = $10) with his co-workers. First pays 70%, 2nd pays 20% and 3rd pays 10%. There were a total of 19 people, so if I win I will get $133.

I'm currently in 1st place and have a lock for at least 2nd place because my brother has Kansas winning. If Kansas wins, my brother gets 1st and I get 2nd place. I really do believe Memphis will win because of superior athletic ability (Derek Rose & Chris Douglas-Roberts etc.).

I'm going to post up my March totals soon. It's so ugly that I don't even want to add up the numbers. I want to review it before I post it up. Just not in the mood yet.

Oh yeah, check out this podcast of Samoleus (High stakes cash game player 10/20-25/50 NLHE @ PSTARS). This guy use to post alot at 2plus2 but I think he stopped posting. He plays under punkety at PStars and is a great poker player. I need to listen to this podcast again because he discusses interesting/complex poker topics. Check it out at Pokerroad

Haven't been playing much

I've been studying more than playing because of a sick downswing. I've been reading Professional No Limit HE and The Poker Mindset. I plan to finish both books this month and write a post about it. Maybe we can discuss a few things from both books because I doubt I will understand everything in it.

I've also been watching alot of CR and deuces crack videos. I'm thinking about joining Lego Poker because Ian, Jason, and Dodgy highly recommended it. I already canceled deuces and CR and will probably join Lego in April. I probably need a new perspective and by joining Lego, it will allow me to see how other great players think about poker.

I think I'm keeping a good balance with life and poker. I def think it's healthy to not play so much when running/playing bad. This will be good long term move because I doubt I'll be playing my A game.

I also need to review March again and see what I did wrong. I know I ran bad but I bet there were alot of spots where I could had lost less or won more.

Crazy 2/4 HU NLHE Match

Hand 1)
I bought in for $200 and took a shot. This is the first hand. I knew this guy liked to call preflop and bluff when check to because of data mine/hands I observed.

Hand 2)
Typical style that he would play. He would lead pot and shut down on turn and river with air. I limped BTN because this villain was aggro pre and never really folded.

Hand 3)
Villain leads pot on flop. I call and don't want to play a big pot. All I have is a bluff catcher. Turn is check check. Villain pots river and I call hoping to catch a bluff.

Hand 4)
I limp/call BTN because this guy is so aggro. I'm trying to play small pots. Villain lead pots and I shove. Villain calls and I lose with TPWK vs his overpair 99. I reload and take one final shot. I have a solid read on him but he's just holding the deck over me.

Hand 5)
I defend with 98o. I c/r mini and take a stand with a gutshot str8 and two overs. Villain bet/min 3 bet and I call. I hit my tpgk on the turn and intend to c/r shove but he checks. I check again hoping to induce a river bluff but he checks behind with 2nd pair.

Hand 6)
Hero Call on the River. I'm giving this guy no credit when he checks the flop and turn.

Hand 7)
Another Hero Call. I didn't want to play a big pot when the K high 2 flush flop. K hits turn and it goes check check. I don't think he does this with trips. He pots river and I make the call thinking he's betting the miss flush draw or Jack.

Hand 8)
I limp BTN to keep pot small IP. I 3x raise his flop lead with trips and call his 3 bet. I think I'm ahead when he checks the turn and calls. Ugly river card and I just check because the flush really hit's his flop leading range.

Hand 9)
I open raise BTN pock 6. I call villain pot lead on a AA5 2 flush flop. I don't think he does this with trip Aces. Possibly a flush draw, pair of 5 or random air. Villain checks and I make a reverse blocker bet. River goes check check and Villain wins with his turn pair. Pretty brutal.

Hand 10)
Limp pot. I'm on the BB. I c/r my flop top and bottom two pair. I don't think this guy ever folds his flush draw. Turn bet for value. River bet my FB for value and villain mini r and I shove. Villain had total air and could not call. I'm pretty sure he calls with a turn King.

Hand 11)
I try to stack him with pock 2 on a 998 flop. Dame, he has a Q8o.

Hand 12)
Flop the nuts but lose to the back door flush. This one def put me on tilt because I thought I was going to stack him.

Hand 13)
Preflop:
I open r 910o BTN and call his 3 bet. We're deep so I defend hoping to flop two pair or better and stack him.

Flop:
Villain lead pots on the A76 2 flush flop. I call and hope to catch the 8 or take it away if check to on the turn. Villain could be leading with anything.

Turn:
Once villain checks, I don't think he has an Ace, K or flush because he would bet it. I decide to bluff at it and take it away with a 3/4 pot bet. Villain calls and I'm praying to god he doesn't shove the river.

River:
Once he checks the river, I have no choice but to shove because 10 high is no good. I vowed that if he folded, I would quit this session. My prayers were answered and he folded without hitting time request. Villain said he had pock Q. Thank god he gave me credit for a hand because I hadn't been caught bluffing too much in this session.


This guy was crazy and I couldn't really put him on a hand. Once he started giving me credit toward the end of the session I opened up my game. I would never try to bluff this guy in the beginning in med/big pots because he never folded post flop. I would make standard c bets but wouldn't really double or triple barrel this guy. He couldn't fold draws or a pair. If I had a bigger bankroll, I would play this guy all day.

We played for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. I won $243.40 over 227 hands. This was a very high variance match. I could of easily lost 1-2 bi and hurt my BR. I don't mind my shot but I have to wonder if it is worth the risk? It could put me on perma tilt and make me play my B-C game for the next few thousand hands.

Smart Buddy = Great Table Selection = Easier $

I found a crazy donkey who was sitting at a 2/4 NLHE HU Table. I had him on Smart Buddy and knew he played terribly at the $50 NLHE SH tables. I watched him a bit at the 2/4 NLHE HU table and also looked at all his hand history.

I found that he liked to bet pot on the flop and shut down on the turn and river unless he had a hand. I also knew he liked to bluff the river once in awhile. With that read and railing about 50 hands of his HU match, I took a shot at his table. I was up about $500 on him but dropped about $250 of it back and called it quits. I def think I got an edge on him but I just didn't want to lose my profits. I'll post some of the crazy hands when I wake up. Really tired right now but excited that Smart Buddy has already turned me a profit.

Smart Buddy is Awesome

I just bought Smart Buddy because Kevin (Moniker) recommended it. It's a sick program where it let's you add buddies from various poker sites that you want to play against. This is totally going to make my life easier because I won't have to go searching for them. Smart Buddy will let me know who is online and where they are sitting. All I have to do is click on their tables and get on the waiting list. I went through my PT database and cherry picked tight/loose passive players who I want to play against. I've gotten over 312 players and there is usually around 10-20 buddies on. This is going to be sweet.

I also converted my PT database to PostgreSQL. I had two databases over 500k hands and it took over 6 hours to convert. From what I understand, I'll be able to store way more hands than the Access version. Now I just have to run and play better.