Can't just post when things are good.

So, I'm hitting a bit of a downswing. Luckily though I feel like I'm better prepared to handle it. Shrug.

I got pretty impatient with my play today and don't think I played my A game. Taking a break and unregistering from a few upcoming tournaments helped settle me down and refocus, and I played pretty well afterwards. Had a small $100-something cash earlier but still finished the day in the red.

Its becoming increasingly easier imo to make it deep into events. But really I think the weakest part of my game has got to be 1) folding to 3bets and 2) actually making good 3bets versus the correct villains. I gotta get this down somehow.

Live has been ok. I play in a weekly league and took 2nd/15 or 16 this past game so that was nice.

Not much else to report on really.Hope y'alls Sundays went better than mine! Gotta shake it off though and obv I'll be back tomorrow.

Final Tabled $20r, Final Two Tabled 17k

I got home super late and decided I wasn't going to play poker and just hang out with my roommates and play video games. There is this really interesting game on the PS3 called WarHawk that my roommate plays a ton and I'm starting to enjoy. Its easy to learn I guess (just a standard third-person shooter) but difficult to master (different weapons, ground vehicles, air vehicles). Its gonna take forever to learn and be somewhat decent -- so until then it sucks. I didn't last very long lol and after a few hours retreated to play poker.

I signed up for 3 events and went super deep in 2 of the 3. Fwiw, in the third one, I got coolered getting KK in versus AA on a dry flop.

But I managed to Final Table the $20r w/ $11k Guarantee as well as reach the final two tables of the $24 $17k. In total I made about $1.6k on the night.

I'm really tired to recap the night. I don't understand how professional poker players who blog do this. Maybe doing once a day is a bit too much tbh. We'll see if I reduce things to every other day or third day or week idk.

I really feel like my tournament game is just clicking right now. There is still so much I need to learn though which is really motivating for me.

For example, I had another +cEV but -$EV decision today. This was the bust hand of the Final Table.

I had 77 in SB and 3bet really aggressive guy OTB, who set me all in. Meh. Its probably +cEV but not +$EV seeing how the BB had like 10BB and was probably a few hands from busting, and also noting that differece between 3rd and 2nd was like $500 extra dollars. But I ended up calling and not being able to hold versus his ATcc.

Learn something new everyday. Its crazy looking back at myself as a player and seeing how much I've developed, even just month after month.

Hopefully things continue to run really well for me until FTOPs.

FTOPS Schedule set; 2 deep runs today.

I got home late and got caught up in stuff when I did get home so I didn't get to play my normal routine of tournaments. While I was waiting for some to start though, I decided to play some random $75 Mixed Hold 'Em Satellite to FTOPS Event #10. I don't know anything about LHE and my preconception is that I'd hate it.

I managed to piss off severly the person to my immediate left by openraising Q9s during limit play OTB. I feel like this is standard? Anyways, I realized he was just trying to get me riled up which I found laughable. He started showing down some really horrible hands and I realized that he was just out to get me.

There was a pretty hilarious hand where I raised pre with 55 and he called IP. Flop came xxK and I check/raised him. He called. I led the 8 on the turn, he called. River was a beautiful 5, lol. I bet, he raised, I reraised, he rereraised, I called. He showed K5 lol. Yeah, I one-outtered him lol. He was crippled.

We couldn't talk since it was ITM of the final table of a satllite idk. So, this is how he let me know how much he hated me:

AM_A_DONK is feeling angry

So, I retaliated with this:

Show da Scrilla is feeling happy
Show da Scrilla is feeling normal
Show da Scrilla is feeling happy
Show da Scrilla is feeling normal
Show da Scrilla is feeling happy
Show da Scrilla is feeling normal
Show da Scrilla is feeling happy

.. and proceeded to KO him. Ship the $322 seat.

Anyways, I don't play LHE lol so I unregistered. I had like 900 or so T$ so I decided to go ahead and register for all the FTOPS events I wanted to be in.

Here is my FTOPS Schedule:

Event #1, $200+16 NLHE 6-Max w/ $1,000,000 Guarantee
Wednesday, November 5th at 8:00 PM

Event #8, $240+16 NLHE Knockout 6-Max w/ $600,000 Guarantee
Sunday, November 9th at 1:00 PM

Event #9, $300+22 NLHE w/ $1,500,000 Guarantee
Sunday, November 9th at 5:00 PM

Event #14, $200+16 NLHE Turbo w/ $500,000 Guarantee
Tuesday, November 11th at 8:00 PM

Event #19, $200+16 NLHE w/ $400,000 Guarantee
Friday, November 14th at 1:00 PM

Event #24, $120+9 NLHE Knockout w/ $500,000 Guarantee
Sunday, November 16th at 1:00 PM

This covers every non-shootout NLHE event not including the ME. I'm going to try to satellite into the ME this week and then debate doing the two shootout events. I'm still uncertain how I feel about those shootouts haha.

I had two deep runs today, in the $24+2, 28k Gtd and the $10r, 15k Gtd. I don't remember what place I got in each but I made like $100 something from the 28k and like $80 something from the 15k so about $200 total. Meh. And I really thought it was gonna be a gooooood night.

Bankroll is at $5024, factoring in T$ and tournaments I'm registered for. $3516 not counting T$.

Ship the $9k Guarantee for $2,150!

Ah, I'm on such a high right now. Took down a 6-max $5rebuy today on Tilt for $2150 dollars. I mentioned in yesterday's blog about my routine of unregistering from later tournaments if I get tilted/tired. Well, today I told myself I wouldn't do that and played through about 8 tournaments or so. My computer was limping along though and I was playing super well and running deep in all the events I was in, so in the end I actually had to unregister from some of the tournaments that were starting because my computer just wasn't going to be able to keep up. It worked out though because I was able to focus on the $9 solely once it got to the final 3 tables.

I was pretty shortstacked when we got down to 18 players and lost a major hand to cripple me to like 5BBs when we were 5 handed at my table. I got super lucky and managed to find AJo and stole the blinds, then 99 immediately after and stole the blinds. These two back-to-back hands put me up to about 10BBs. That is when the following major hand came up.

Full Tilt Poker Game #8479877107: $9,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) (64391435), Table 71 - 4000/8000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:01:22 ET - 2008/10/13
Seat 1: wirtlein (131,522)
Seat 2: Stinky Budz (138,428)
Seat 3: mallemark1 (261,903)
Seat 4: Show da Scrilla (86,888)
Seat 5: I got that Beat (115,796)
Seat 6: heins300 (230,631)
wirtlein antes 1,000
Stinky Budz antes 1,000
mallemark1 antes 1,000
Show da Scrilla antes 1,000
I got that Beat antes 1,000
heins300 antes 1,000
Stinky Budz posts the small blind of 4,000
mallemark1 posts the big blind of 8,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Show da Scrilla [2c 2d]
Show da Scrilla has 15 seconds left to act
Show da Scrilla raises to 85,888, and is all in
I got that Beat raises to 114,796, and is all in
heins300 raises to 163,776
wirtlein folds
Stinky Budz folds
mallemark1 folds
heins300 shows [9h 9c]
Show da Scrilla shows [2c 2d]
I got that Beat shows [Ad Kd]
Uncalled bet of 48,980 returned to heins300
*** FLOP *** [Ts 2h Ac]
*** TURN *** [Ts 2h Ac] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [Ts 2h Ac 6d] [6h]
heins300 shows two pair, Nines and Sixes
I got that Beat shows two pair, Aces and Sixes
I got that Beat wins the side pot (57,816) with two pair, Aces and Sixes
Show da Scrilla shows a full house, Twos full of Sixes
Show da Scrilla wins the main pot (275,664) with a full house, Twos full of Sixes
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 333,480 Main pot 275,664. Side pot 57,816. | Rake 0
Board: [Ts 2h Ac 6d 6h]
Seat 1: wirtlein (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Stinky Budz (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: mallemark1 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Show da Scrilla showed [2c 2d] and won (275,664) with a full house, Twos full of Sixes
Seat 5: I got that Beat showed [Ad Kd] and won (57,816) with two pair, Aces and Sixes
Seat 6: heins300 showed [9h 9c] and lost with two pair, Nines and Sixes

That monster hand propelled me from just 80k in chips to nearly 280k in chips. I went from 15th to 3rd with 16 to go in just one hand.

The final table bubble was really annoying and there was a super aggressive player at my table named Stinky Budz. He'd been reshoving over many players pretty frequently and was keeping his head above the water. Before this hand though, he'd been relatively quite and was slowly chipping down. He had the perfect stacksize for a resteal and I told myself if I was raising this hand, I was calling a shove from him. Sure enough... he shoved...

Full Tilt Poker Game #8480000810: $9,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) (64391435), Table 71 - 5000/10000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:10:41 ET - 2008/10/13
Seat 2: Stinky Budz (152,245)
Seat 3: mallemark1 (437,425)
Seat 4: Show da Scrilla (274,663)
Seat 5: jabronimatt (331,327)
Seat 6: benjamin118 (266,138)
Stinky Budz antes 1,000
mallemark1 antes 1,000
Show da Scrilla antes 1,000
jabronimatt antes 1,000
benjamin118 antes 1,000
Stinky Budz posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Show da Scrilla [3s 3h]
mallemark1 folds
mallemark1: gg
Show da Scrilla raises to 25,000
jabronimatt folds
benjamin118 folds
Stinky Budz raises to 151,245, and is all in
Show da Scrilla calls 126,245
Stinky Budz shows [Ad 8s]
Show da Scrilla shows [3s 3h]
*** FLOP *** [Jd Kh 9s]
*** TURN *** [Jd Kh 9s] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [Jd Kh 9s 5s] [Td]
Stinky Budz shows Ace King high
Show da Scrilla shows a pair of Threes
Show da Scrilla wins the pot (307,490) with a pair of Threes
Stinky Budz stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 307,490 | Rake 0
Board: [Jd Kh 9s 5s Td]
Seat 2: Stinky Budz (big blind) showed [Ad 8s] and lost with Ace King high
Seat 3: mallemark1 folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Show da Scrilla showed [3s 3h] and won (307,490) with a pair of Threes
Seat 5: jabronimatt folded before the Flop
Seat 6: benjamin118 (button) folded before the Flop

What a sick hold.

The final table was pretty easy for the most part as there was a massive donkey to my left that kept raise/folding to everyone and was playing like 42/31 or something like that. I kept restealing off of him and that was a pretty steady source of chips haha. He somehow managed to win a few flips and it got to HU versus him. He was really aggressive and raising nearly every button. I was reraising him with pretty much and pocketpair, any ace, and any suited king and was doing fairly well. The final hand was sick, and you can tell by what he showdowns how loose of a player he was. I barely had him covered to start the hand. We were essentially tied.

Full Tilt Poker Game #8480932391: $9,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) (64391435), Table 22 - 20000/40000 Ante 5000 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:22:48 ET - 2008/10/14
Seat 2: Downwithdanuts (1,568,172)
Seat 3: Show da Scrilla (1,572,328)
Downwithdanuts antes 5,000
Show da Scrilla antes 5,000
Downwithdanuts posts the small blind of 20,000
Show da Scrilla posts the big blind of 40,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Show da Scrilla [5s 5d]
Downwithdanuts raises to 120,000
Show da Scrilla has 15 seconds left to act
Show da Scrilla raises to 400,000
Downwithdanuts calls 280,000
*** FLOP *** [5c Td 8c]
Show da Scrilla has 15 seconds left to act
Show da Scrilla checks
Downwithdanuts has 15 seconds left to act
Downwithdanuts bets 80,000
Show da Scrilla has 15 seconds left to act
Show da Scrilla raises to 200,000
Downwithdanuts raises to 640,000
Show da Scrilla raises to 1,167,328, and is all in
Downwithdanuts calls 523,172, and is all in
Show da Scrilla shows [5s 5d]
Downwithdanuts shows [Th 8h]
Uncalled bet of 4,156 returned to Show da Scrilla
*** TURN *** [5c Td 8c] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [5c Td 8c Jc] [Ah]
Show da Scrilla shows three of a kind, Fives
Downwithdanuts shows two pair, Tens and Eights
Show da Scrilla wins the pot (3,136,344) with three of a kind, Fives
Downwithdanuts stands up
Show da Scrilla stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,136,344 | Rake 0
Board: [5c Td 8c Jc Ah]
Seat 2: Downwithdanuts (small blind) showed [Th 8h] and lost with two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 3: Show da Scrilla (big blind) showed [5s 5d] and won (3,136,344) with three of a kind, Fives

SO, all in all, good day. I'm glad I stuck to it and grinded!

Sundayments: a swing and a miss.

I have this routine of waking up in the mornings and being really excited about playing poker and end up registering for like a dozen or so tournaments for the evening. After the first few bad beats or so, I get pretty discouraged lol and the idea of grinding the rest of the day sounds better and better the later into the night it gets. I end up unregistering from the later events.

I really need to get over this and learn to grind, regardless of previous results. I should be making optimal play after optimal play and not worry about the rest. Eventually I'll find myself at a final table.

I think a way to avoid the mundane grind sessions is to just put some music on and maybe take my eyes off from the tables when I'm not involved in hands. Especially during the first 2 hours or so of the tournament when stealing/restealing is less important and I play hands mostly for value. Playing a sudoku or some online game could help me from becoming burnt out as the day wears on.

I get off work at 2 today so hopefully I can get over my fatigue and just grind the entire day. I gotta be able to grind if I wanna make it.

Played well, ran deep, but didn't make much today.

Its 2:30 AM so I'll be brief as I'm borderline-dead and going to church in the morning.

Early in the my roommate and I were watching the OU-Texas game while I decided to play a few satellites. Being in the living room as opposed to my quiet desk and having football on really distracted me I think because I didn't do as well as I think I could have in these games.

So, in the evening, I decided to lock myself in my room (or "poker cave" as my roommate called it) and grind. I played 4 events and cashed in 3, busting from only the $3k HU Shootout.

All were for mediocre scores:

63rd/1104 in $21k Guarantee the $58.29
61st/645 in the $3r for $27.56
38th/1402 in the $32k for $80.76

I was really bummed about the busting in the 32k because its the biggest $24+2 that Tilt runs and therefore the softest. The field is just so large though and the structure a bit unfriendly which makes cashing constantly quite difficult. Oh well, I'm glad I made it.

I'm playing well and ready for Sunday. I'll be playing the $750k for the third consecutive week. Hopefully I'll be able to best my 200th finish of last week and my 90-something-th finish of the previous week.

Live Series

I played my weekly live game tonight. This is how it works:

• $20+5 buyin. $20 for that night's prize pool, $5 for the championship game's prize pool. There are 13 weeks played, plus the championship game
  
• The better you place every week, the more points you get. Points are accumulated all throughout the series.
• Top 20 players make it to championship game. Stack sizes are based on how many points were accumulated throughout the series. There is going to be an additional $20 add-on the day of the championship.

So anyways, I took 3rd/15 last week for like $60 in cash and placed in 5th/16 tonight for $0. I played pretty well for the most part and did what I had to do. I lost about half my starting stack the first hand I played when I held KK and lost to a set. I was able to grind back by shoving all in and getting lucky against many people. I won QJo versus AQs all-in pre, T8o versus T9s all-in pre, and ATs versus QQ all-in pre. I ran like the sun there but feel comfortable with the majority of my shoves there. I was shortstacked and there wasn't much to do.

Anyways, the 2 people that finished ahead of me last week busted before me this week so hopefully I don't fall too behind in the standings. I'll add them later to this post I guess when they get emailed to me.

I'm ending the night with the $17k Guarantee on Full Tilt... would be nice to stop sucking. =]

Shipped $750k seat and Coaching

I didn't play much today poker today. I woke up around 9 and quickly played a $69+6, 9-handed SNG that was dishing out 3 seats to Sunday's $750k. I find that these SNGs are extremely easy. I mean finish Top 3 of 9, seriously? I managed to tilt someone early in the match although I don't remember how or what I did to do so. I eventually ended up hating him too because he just wouldn't shut the hell up. I doubled up through him a few times and then decided that I didn't want him to get a seat. Once we were 4-handed, I raised every single BB he posted with any two cards. Unfortunately he still got a seat.

I'm going to try to play some Shoot-Out tournaments in the next few days. I don't think any big guarantees run but just a $24 event will do. I've met a lot of success playing winner-take-all SNGs and I think I'd like to see how that transitions in a tourney. Not to mention, FTOPS has a x3 Shootout event and a x4 Shootout event which both sound like fun.

I've got $2050 in my roll and about $648 T$s. Not to mention I'm registered for the $750k this weekend ($216), and next month's FTOPS Event #1 ($216) and Event #9 ($322). All in all, I've got about $1402 in T$s. That's sick haha. Fwiw I can convert these T$s to real money but at a 5% commission rate. It's plain retardedto do that unless you want to withdraw or unless you're a cash player, because to a tournament player T$s are just as good as real money. So, all in all I've got about $3.5k in my roll. For now I'm trying to save those T$s though because I may wanna use them for FTOPS events. (I can afford the $535 Main Event now!)

In another news, someone on 2+2 posted about wanting Sunday coaching. He'll be playing the 750k and Mulligan on Tilt. I jokingly sent him a message saying I'd coach him and if he was interested to just take a look at my OfficialPokerRankings.com stats or my PokerDB stats. Well apparently he did and was impressed? Haha, he's offereing me $20/hr to rail and chat with him this Sunday. We'll both be playing the $750k and I'm debating tryint to sat into the Mulligan so I can play with him in that event as well.

Tomorrow I don't think I'm playing at all. I work 8-4, supposedly hanging out with friends from 4-7 (although maybe I'll play at this time if things fall through lol), then playing a live league I joined at 8. Its a pretty interesting live series which I'll blog more about tomorrow. Afterward I'll be meeting up with a few friends for drinks.

0-for-life in MTTs; burned money @ NL50

I have never run worse in my life, haha. What a rough day.

I skipped breakfast which caused me to feel like crap for the rest of the day. I didn't feel like playing earlier in the day but for some reason when I got home from worked I changed opinions and decided to play. I don't think I played my A game but at the same time, I've never got so unlucky in my life.

I didn't last past the first like half hour of any tournament I played in. I repeatedly got it in with overpairs only to be dead-to-2-outs against flopped sets. I'd stick it in with midpair in a 3-bet pot only to find out that J9o decided to not only stay in the hand preflop but also commit his entire stack post flop. Sick sick day.

So since MTTs sucked I switched over to cash games, which sucked a little less-hard but still cost me money.

Its going to be interesting to see how I bounce back. Luckily for me however I won't be playing for the next 2 nights so hopefully on Friday I'll be back with a clear and confident mindset.

Meh.

Won some more FTOPS seats; Cashed in 30k Gtd.

Early in the morning I played a couple of FTOPS Satellites and won another seat into Event #1, giving me just another $216 TDs since I already won the seat. The satellites were all winner-take-all 6max SNGs and I managed to get HU in both I played. Its an interesting concept when its winner-take-all and I feel like they have a different strategy to them.

The evening was a little more eventful. I had a full list of tournaments for the night but got tired/lazy and decided to just unregister from everything that started after 10.

I played a $75 MTT that was giving out seats to FTOPS Event #9. 18 played and top 4 cashed with 4th getting cash and 3 receiving seats worth $322. It was tough and I had to sweat a few coinflips but in the end I managed to secure a seat. I did some really stupid thigs 4-handed though. At one point I had accumulated over 13,000 chips and there were 27,000 chips in play all together. So, I had nearly 1/2 of the chips in play once we were 4 handed. So, I honestly could have closed my computer and made the money. But, I got stupid and doubled 2 people up pretty quickly, which of course meant me actually having to be careful and sweat getting the seat. Luckily I didn't pay for my mistakes. Lesson learned. So, I shipped the $322 seat to FTOPS Event #9.

$322 is a big deal for a $3k roll, so I'm still undecided if I'm going to go ahead and play the event or just withdraw and take the Tournament Dollars. We'll see, but for what its worth Event #9 is on Sunday November 9th.

I also satellited into a nightly $109 which is a $30k Guaranteed. It plays 6-handed so its a little different. 36 played and I busted somewhere in the 20's for $210. Nothing really out of the ordinary I guess. I'm learning to fold monster pairs preflop which is interesting. I see myself becoming a tighter player as the days go on.

Anyways, ok night I guess. My bankroll is at $3377. Sick that it was at exactly $80 last week. I run good at this new house.

Decent Sunday: Deep in $750k, Top 8 in $3k HU.

I satt'd into the $750k again yesterday. Its horrible bankroll management to play a $216 major event on a $3k roll but I try to justify that by saying that the satellite that I played in did fit under proper bankroll management rules.

Last week, I played the $750k and I turned my $14 satellite seat into a ~99th finish and $900 dollars. This week, as the tournament was seating, I told my roommate that the odds of running deep on consecutive weekends were sick and that I wasn't expecting much.

Of course after saying that I promptly run my 3k Starting Stack to 12k by the first break. I've never stacked so many people in my life. Sets crushed pairs. Hell, I'd even somehow manage to get middle pairs to stick it in versus me. It was nice.

I went card-dead around the bubble and was probably playing a bit too tight in my opinion because I just wasn't ever getting any action when I did decide to riase. I made some nice 3-bet shoves to stay affloat and was pretty happy with the way I managed my stack deep in the event whenever I had under 25BBs.

Actually, I take that back, because I busted with a 25BB stack.

I had AKo UTG and had already raised the previous hands and took down the blinds. This time though I get 3bet from someone in MP. (Later I find out its a 2+2er) So, after much much deliberation, I decide to shove it in. He snapcalls with AA and I can't catch up. I made $500 bucks.

I think this hand finally made me understand the difference between +cEV (positive chip expected value) and +$EV (positive money expected value). My 4bet might be the correct play there, but when you factor in that just 200 people separate me and life-changing money, I actually think that makes this AK a fold rather than the 4-bet shove I decided to go with. Interesting concept.

Anyways, it was a decent Sunday. Actually got 2 seats to the $750k so I have an extra $216 TDs waiting for me to use. I may break them up to use in my regular weekday tournaments or I may just save it and use it for the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). Speaking of the FTOPS, I already qualified for Event #1, which is sometime in early November. I may use the $216 TDs I have now for other Event #19 which I believe is also $216.

Yesterday I also played in a fun $3k Gtd HU Shoot-Out. It was a $24 buy-in and since I'm trying to put in as much volume as possible per day, I decided to play it. I generally am horrible HU but I'm really proud of how I played. I won my first 4 matches and made it into the round of 8, where I finally was eliminated and took $200-something for me efforts. I had a lot of fun playing it though so I think I'm gonna start mixing in more of those.

So all in all I think I made like a few hundo yesterday. Meh. I'll take that for a Sunday.

I read a post by Bond18 about grinding and it really inspired me to just play as much as possible. Yeah, playing 8 tables can get really frustrating, but as a poker player I've just gotta step my game up and get that done. I have to be able to just grind out dozens of tournaments per week.

Anyways, this got a lot longer than I'd meant for it to be. Thanks for reading.