Grinding it out

Moving Blog Sites

2010-03-02T23:15:00.000-08:00

So, because I only have a couple of readers on here, I've decided to stop blogging here and switch over to the Card Runners blog network. That way, I get more views which may or may not be a good thing, but w/e.

Here we go...

blogs.cardrunners.com/little-punish

UGGHHHHHHH!!!

2010-02-22T23:40:00.001-08:00

I'm going to try and make this quick, as it's almost midnight, and I have to be up at 6:30 tomorrow morning and am trying to get some rest.

After an amazing first couple weeks to the month, I have hit the wall with back to back 3+ BI losing sessions.

As you can see, I have slid back a decent amount after being up over $600 for the month. A few days ago, I decided to mix it up and join some 200NL tables, and things went...well. Through the 574 hands that I've played at that limit, I am up $890, while only up $112 now at 100NL this month through 13k hands :-(

Today I really shouldn't have played. I always tell myself how much I hate playing when given a short period of time. I got back from the gym today around 7:30 and had to be over at Rachel's by 9 for 24. So I joined 11 tables and proceeded to butcher this one right out of the gate:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5211786
No reads on this guy, but I figured it was a good time to 3b iso his min raise. I have no idea what to make of a random's min-opening raise from LP but apparently it includes 88. Didn't really want to flat his min raise on the flop because there are so many bad turn cards. Guess I should have found a fold. But w/e...TP2K in a 3b pot...meh.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5211791 lol 3rd place

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5211793 Again pretty laughable. At least he didn't have more chips

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5211795 This was from yesterday's sesh. Pretty much a cooler. I was fortunate that he didn't just jam p/f because I get a good flop, and he spazzes out. NFI what he is doing.

Overall, up about 1k on the month + $300 in rback. It's been a great year so far, and I will give more details about my future and what I plan on doing poker-wise for the short term.

Here's a graph of my year thus far. This is most of my hands, though they are only ones I have played on my desktop. There are a few from my laptop.

Gotta go to bed!

God bless,

JG

12 Tabling + Joel is Working Again???

2010-01-30T14:04:00.000-08:00

It's been a fun little month. It's nice to look back at my last post and realize that, after the pretty sick downswing, I have pulled myself out and, poker-wise, things have been going very nicely. I didn't set any hands goals for this month but kinda wish I could have, as I played slightly over 22k hands, winning slightly over $1300 plus what is going to be around $350 in rakeback.

After going through the downswing, I decided to mix it up and 6 table 50NL 6-max for a little while. Things went pretty well for a couple weeks, and then I decided to get to work on my 22" monitor. Typically I would fire up 9 tables for an hour or so, but I was getting bored, so I added 3 more which fit perfectly on my computer. It has allowed me to put in more volume while increasing my hourly rate which is a good combination.

One of the reasons for my success this month has been due to an improvement in focus. I have played only when I have truly felt like playing, but it's obv a lot easier to put in hands when you're winning. In addition to this, I have decided to just check my ego at the door when I fire up tables. I have let the 30/25 agro's pound on me while I wait to find a good spot to play back or until I actually have a hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5137804 This is a result of this. This guy for whatever reason decided to just 3bet me relentlessly. I know he is a thinking player, so I know he's going to expect me to 4bet him soon, and, because we were effectively 200bb's deep, this was a perfect spot. I decide to c-bet the same amount i 3bet to try and get him to spew, which he does. I was very happy with this result obviously.

Aside from poker, I have been working out 5+ days of the week. I've been slacking on doing a ton of cardio, but I have been lifting primarily and can feel myself getting stronger which is cool. Rachel had been trying to get me to do hot yoga for a long time, and I had continued to say that I would never do it. Well, I decided to just put an end to it and flip a coin. Heads I would do the 5 day trial; tails I would never do yoga, and she could never bug me about it again. Well, it ended up heads, and I went to hot yoga for the first time yesterday. It was quite an experience.

I have never sweated so much in my life. It was harder than I thought it would be. It is basically doing pretty tough yoga positions for 90 minutes in a 107 degree room. Not something I would include on my list of interests.

Anyways, that was yesterday. Today, we both got lazy and decided against doing it, but I will be back on the train tomorrow :/

Also, I started working at Loomis Trail Bar and Grill. Yes, Joel is working in a grill - cooking, taking orders, serving drinks - EVERYTHING. Running the show. It's kind of a joke as I am the most clumsy person I know and have already ruined 3 pairs of pants from grease spills. But I was sick of not working, and the opportunity was presented to me, so I obliged. So far, so good.

Anyways, I am heading down to Seattle tonight for Katie's bday which should be fun. Gotta go get in a quick workout.

God Bless,

JG

Slaughtered

2009-12-27T14:46:00.001-08:00

Went over to Derek's today for the start of the 10am football games and fired up some tables. I got in a couple of deep stack tourneys on UB just planning on playing those and sweating fantasy. Well, Derek came over and wanted to do props online, which meant that we would have to get in at 6 tables.

So I jumped in a couple 100NL tables, a 2/4 limit game, a 5/10 limit game and a 200NL table. Things got ugly real quickly, and in the end, it was my biggest losing day in recent memory, maybe of my life.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5020193

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5020201

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5020208

In addition to this, I busted all the tournies and got killed in props with Nate and Derek. All in all, I was down nearly $600 in cash games + $70 in tourney fees + about $60 in props.

Hurts to have a day like this, but I was somewhat happy that I just decided to quit. I'm happy that I'm not going to let this ruin my day or anything. It's part of the business, and I just have to accept it. With rakeback and live games, I am up around $1000 on the month which is a nice way to end the year.

My plan is to put in maybe one or two more sessions before the end of the year then withdrawing some money, leaving around $1800 in my acct to grind 100NL.

I had an awesome Christmas. I got the new HTC Droid phone: http://www.htc.com/us/products/droid-eris-verizon

Also got Rock Band and Assassin's Creed II which should be keeping me busy for a while!

Hope all my followers (Petar) have an awesome New Year. I will probably have a blog post soon about my 2010 goals.

God Bless,

JG

SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP

2009-12-16T09:26:00.001-08:00

I HAVE HIJACKED THIS BLOG!!

- peeitauer

Nice Sesh

2009-11-27T18:23:00.000-08:00

Just played a good 800+ hand session, winning a little over $500. The games were so good that I only really recognized one reg, and he's not even a consistent reg. Oh, it also helps that I got the best of him in a couple of pots.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4927741 - I decide to flat here with the AKdd just simply because I think it nicely disguises my hand, I'm not fond of playing AK in a 3-bet pot oop and I don't want to fold out the hands I dominate, like AQ, AJ, KQ, etc. Anyways, I decide to c/call, lead which I think is a cool line to take on this board. It helps me get a couple more streets of value vs. hands that would check back the turn like AQ which is what he had. Not sure what he's doing on the river, but I'll take it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4927754 - Not much to say here cept that I get the best of that guy HIIIIIIIIIGH again which is cool. This was actually 20 mins before the above hand, and after that hand, he went off in the chat box.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4927758 - I flat QQ behind, which is something I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan of. Suck and re-suck, and I get the $$$

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4927760 - Sick, sick bvb hand. Keep the coolers coming!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4927763 - Pretty cool hand. This guy was playing 39/17 with a pretty high steal percentage. I def like this 3b against a normal 3x or 3.5x raise. Seems to me, though, that min-raisers don't like to fold to 3b's. So I made it a little more than pot, and he called. I decided to just c/call flop then check/reevaluate turn. I honestly think these types of fisher players' ranges are so polarized when they do 3 barrel that I felt compelled to pay off the river, esp considering everything missed.

There were really no significant lost pots. Good session overall, and I hope that the games are always this good.

I'm going to the Apple Cup tomorrow in which should be a pretty ugly game. Should be fun though.

Until then,

JG

First in the Silly 1.5k gtd

2009-11-25T04:41:00.000-08:00

Just took down the 11pm $10 1.5k gtd tourney on UB for like $750 or something silly. The whole situation was so so so ridiculous that I am sitting here laughing to myself. The past three days, I have been at home being extremely unproductive and playing a ton of poker. I had been down a decent amount playing in a 2-20 spread game at the Silver Dollar. I went deep in a FTP tourney last night only to essentially bubble the FT which obv sucks.

Then today we had happy day with the crew which started out at a new Hooters Casino in Renton. I insta dropped $100 in the pit and the four of us successfully busted with no cash in the one table TURRnament. So I'm pissed off, but w/e we decide to go back to the SD to play some more 2-20 spread. I successfully lose another $100. We had been drinking since about 11, and I am worried that if I continue to drink beer, I will become very sleepy soon, and I'm not that drunk, and it's 4pm. So I decide to start drinking some hard stuff (probly not a good decision). Anyways, we take some shots and then go to Roxy's to play in their 6:30 TURRnament. I go busto in that, and then decide to take whatever I have left to the pit and drop about another $100 or so there. So I'm in super depressed/drunk mode.

We leave there and head home, and I decide that I have the decision to go to bed or play in the 11pm TURRnament. I click register and proceed to cruise through the field en route to the first place finish. That cash is actually pretty big for me just in terms of overall confidence. Losing sucks, and I'm happy that I was able to bounce back from the rough last couple of days. I know that it's not a ton of money obv, but it's fun to know that, after all of the events in the last 72 hours, I'm actually showing a slight profit!

Anyways, it's almost 5am, and I need to go to sleep. REAL Thanksgiving soon!

God Bless,

JG

Long Sesh

2009-10-15T16:34:00.000-07:00

I am terrible at blogging.

This will essentially be my first post since graduation and the first one of the summer, which is pretty sad. A lot has happened this summer, and it's been a good one to say the least. I went to Vegas in early July. I broke even in the cash games but ended up chopping 7 ways in a $120 Caesar's tourney for ~$2100, which was nice. I really wish I would have made a post immediately following that tourney as there were a lot of cool hands and spots that came up that I would like to not forget.

I have continued working out at the golf course and it has been a good time. I started working in the pro shop, which is nice for the simple fact that I can watch TV for 8 hours and get paid for it. That job will be ending soon, and I am now halfheartedly looking for a job starting in November.

I took the LSAT's 2.5 weeks ago after studying for them for over 3 weeks. I don't think I did great on them and am waiting to hear back about the results, which should come next weekend. The plan is to attend law school (who knows where) next fall.

As far as the poker side of things, since Vegas not much has happened. I am up a small amount of money and have not put in as many hands as I would have liked. I am going to try and get back in the swing of things when the weather starts to get crappy, and there aren't too many things to do outside.

That being said, I did just put in a healthy session of 1500 hands where I ended up losing a whopping $8. I feel like I played okay but got coolered in two big spots:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4790421 - not much to say here. Didn't want to flat p/f and see a flop three handed oop, so I squeezed. Either way, the hand plays itself.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4790449 - similar spot, was lucky not to go completely broke.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4790454 - This guy was playing tight at 14/9. Not sure if I can fold the turn, as this guy had seen me show down a few bluffs and I probably had a loose image. Additionally, I think a fd is a decently large part of his range. I think my river bet is just waaaaaay too thin in retrospect. He could be c/calling an 8 as well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4790461 - The more I think about this hand, the more I am liking my fold. This guy is 20/4 through 50 hands. I think my flop check is fine, as I hate getting c/r'd on this wet of flop when I think it hits a ton of his limp/calling range, especially given that he is only 100 bb's deep. My only issue with the river is that I am pretty vulnerable to a bluff raise because I can hardly ever have a flush the way that I played it. Oh well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4790482 - This was a fun one, but I'm still not too sure what I think of my play. My turn raise is definitely as a bluff even though I have a good amount of equity vs. his range. I am in a really shitty position if he ships turn even though I don't think that he can ship it in too often unless he just gets real stubborn with an over pair. The reason I didn't continue on the river is that he called my raise so quickly on the turn that I just had a bad feeling about getting looked up on the river.

There weren't a whole lot of big ones, so I was extremely happy to break even in this session. I was happy to bounce back after getting coolered for 2 full BI's early in the sesh and not winning too many huge pots. I am hoping to continue playing a decent amount like I said and am happy about the way that I'm playing right now.

I have also been degen sports betting quite a bit lately, which is always a ton of fun. For those concerned, I only bet what I can afford and know that it is a leak of mine blah blah blah but I get enjoyment from it, so Derek and I put some money on Bodog and not have fun sweats every day!

We have done well in NFL but not so well in CFB and MLB. We are up a small amount of money and have USF +3, as well as under 49 in that game and then the Phils and the over tonight. GL us!

God Bless all,

JG

I will pay for beer for tailgating Sunday...

2009-10-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

...if someone sees this post and texts me "i love poka" by Sunday.

Haven't posted since June, so the odds of that are probably about 38/1.

1st in UB 10pm for ~2k! (oh, and I'm graduating tomorrow)

2009-06-13T03:04:00.000-07:00

Yaaaaaaa BABY!!!!! Just took down the UB $30 5.5k gtd. 6-max tourney for almost 2k. It is 3am, and I have to get up in about 4 hours for graduation.

I am really excited about this, and it is a great way to kick off the summer. I will promptly be withdrawing around 3.5-4k for Vegas and other things, and I can't wait.

I am going to bed.

Good Night.

Killed

2009-06-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Absolutely worst session of the year. I'm really not sure what to say. I lost $400 in 380 hands and just played terrible. Especially after this hand happened about 5 mins into the session:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/701177

Idk, maybe I can sometimes find a fold? Really not sure. No hands on this guy, so really not sure. I guess he could have QQ sometimes and AK but KK a TON.

I don't really feel like posting the other hands. It was just miserable from the get go. I haven't been playing at all really in the last few weeks. Just been busy with school and stuff. But today I kinda felt like I should put in some hands, which probably isn't the right mindset. Lately I have been thinking a ton about how much I am up or down constantly throughout the sesh which isn't good. If I'm up, I just keep thinking that I should quit and when I'm down, I just try to play damage control and not lose too much. I guess I should just go in with the mindset that I am going to play for a certain amount of time or a certain amount of hands.

In other news, I am graduating in one week. It is pretty cool. I already have an A secured in one class and have a dece chance at a 4.0. I only have one paper left (12-14 pages) and one test, and that is it. I am pretty excited to be done tbh.

Well it's Friday night and I am exhausted. Not sure if I'm going to go out or what but I will be in the comp lab a ton this weekend, so maybe I should go do something fun...

God Bless,

JG

< 3 Weeks Til Graduation!

2009-05-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast this quarter is going. On my first round of midterms, I got clean A's on all 3 tests, which is nice. I do have a ton of work to do between now and June 13th, but it's nice to know how close I am.

I have essentially made the decision to stay in Bellingham this summer and continue working at Semiahmoo. I am really enjoying it, and, although it is a bitch of a drive, the free golf is really nice. The plan right now is to take it easy for about a month after I graduate, continue working, go to Vegas from July 1 through the 8th then start looking for jobs - probably in the Seattle area. I will then most likely be working down there and will start preparing for grad school exams next Spring.

Speaking of grad school, I am really proud of myself for pulling my GPA up this year and not slacking. I think that my upward trend will likely make me more appealing to schools. My GPA kind of suffered from having to take GUR's, which are b.s. required general classes that everyone has to take to graduate. I just never really took them seriously and didn't apply myself in them at all. But once I got into my major and started becoming proficient at it, I started working harder because I could see the progress that I was making. I will probably talk about this in my applications to grad schools.

Right now I am not even sure what exactly I want to be studying. I think I would be a pretty good fit for law school, but it's def gonna take a year of maturing and "growing up" before I am prepared to do that. I think doing some sort of corporate law would be interesting. I have also considered MBA or doing a Masters program, probably in Economics.

Whereas part of me wishes that I had applied to grad schools for this upcoming fall, I just didn't want to get burned out, and I just was not super motivated to enter the real world just yet. I am really really looking forward to this summer and playing tons of golf and building a bigger roll.

Speaking of that, this month has been going pretty well. I withdrew around $3300 at the end of April to live off of for a while, and am up around $1100 this month online. For some reason, hold 'em manager did not collect hands from a couple sessions I had at some 100NL with antes table, which I ran extremely hot at. Last Sunday I made over $600 at this table, and the other day I made over $300, and HEM says I am up $220 for the month.

I just got finished playing a session in which I felt I played extremely well. I have lately been trying to focus really hard on playing my best by eliminating some other distractions. I typically play on the couch, and, although the TV is usually on, I put on my Bose headphones and listen to Pandora while trying to focus and take notes, etc. It has really been helping, and I have been playing, what I would consider, optimally.

Today there weren't many FR games going, so I jumped in a couple 6-max games to see if I still had the magic. The games were pretty aggressive with at least 2-3 regs at each table playing a pretty similar style - 3-betting a lot, occasionally 4-betting light, iso-raising, c-betting, etc.

Here are a couple of the hands from this sesh:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/695118
I kinda like my line that I take here. This guy was 19/11, and I have been experimenting with the real small bet that a CR pro, David Benefield, likes to take. I tried my best to rep a big hand, and the river, I think I get folds from any PP under KK. I had him somewhat scared I guess as he played AJ slowly.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/695120
This hand was toward the end of the sesh and really sucked. I have played with this guy before back in my prime 6-max days. Earlier, I had called a UTG raise with 88, and there was another caller, then he squeezed, and I flatted and raised his c-bet on a A 6 5, and he started chatting, blah blah blah, so I thought he might try to come after me or w/e. I was trying my best to get him to spaz out and raise me with pretty small bets, but he obv just calls twice and rivers gin. I don't think I should be folding this river, given the history and the fact that my line looks pretty weak.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/695122
This was this guy's first hand at the table. I go back and forth between 3-betting JJ and QQ, but I am trying to 3-bet more, and I prefer to 3-bet 3x raises as opposed to 3.5x raises as the deep stacks are still intact. I think my river call is marginal at best. I just don't think he is doing this with worse very often unless he was turning his small PP into a bluff, but I don't think so that often. The mouse was over the fold button, but then I convinced myself that he would probably want to jam/get it in with a f/d, so I paid it off. Not good.

Now to some of the good ones:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/695125
I have nfi what this guy was doing. He butchered this hand so bad and it's not even funny. A lot of these players take pot control lines in spots where they lose just a ton of value. Anyways, my plan was to CRAI on the turn, but he checked behind and I took him to value town.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/695126
Real standard hand against a monkey.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/695127
Suck then re-suck against the same player. I am never folding flop, as he is shoving in his entire (very wide) range.

Overall, I ended up making $90. The KK hand sucked, but not much I could do I don't think. I'm going to continue grinding until end of June at which point I will withdraw a healthy amount of money for Vegas. I cannot wait.

I am going golfing today. I have been playing a ton and am still waiting for a breakthrough round. We'll see if that happens today.

Between now and June 13th, I will be taking 3 tests, writing 2 papers, and doing a presentation.

Wish me luck!

JG

Meh

2009-05-08T23:10:00.001-07:00

Just wrapped up a 1,000 hand sesh and things didn't go great. Right before I got into my bed to load up some tables, I got a feeling in my stomach like, I really don't want to lose money this session, and that's all that I was thinking about. I couldn't get it out of my head. But it is Friday night, and the games are obv very good. Idk, it was kinda weird, but it sure as hell translated to sub-par results.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4210299
I don't know how I feel about p/f. Calling a 40bb stack's open with KQs is borderline at best. The hand plays itself on the flop. I felt the cooler coming, but I was never folding.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4210310
This one also sucked. I think my turn play is fine, as I don't want to bet/fold, and I don't like cr'ing because I'm never getting called by worse. Worst river in the deck obv.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4210320
I couldn't believe it when this guy turned over his hand. He called so quickly, I thought it had to be AA.

I was also playing in the 9pm bounty...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4210333
I was building a stack until this unfortunate hand happened. Not sure what this guy is doing. I busted in like 42nd place when I shipped QJo over a HJ raiser for 4k (150/300). He made it 775, I moved in, and he called with ATdd, and I missed. Still like my play.

I also played in the DS tourney today at 11 and finished 6 spots out of the money. I really like my tourney game right now, and I know that my cash game results have had a good impact on that. I am seeing and feeling things that I never did before. It's pretty cool.

Overall, today I made 120 in an earlier sesh and lost about 120 in this one, so even on the day minus $80 in tourney entries. Oh well.

My weekend is essentially laid out for me unfortunately. Tomorrow I work a split shift at the golf course, which means I work from 10-2 and 5-close with a 3 hour break in between. Kinda sucks, but at least I can go hit balls and try to figure my shitty swing out. I also work 12-close on Sunday.

Something funny/cool happened this week. On Tuesday, I was talking to my Dad, and he said congratulations for getting a 4.0 last quarter. Apparently they got a letter in the mail saying I was on the President's list and got a 4.0 or something. I told him that I got 4 A's and 1 B+ last quarter. Later that evening, I went online to double check my last quarter's grades, and my B+ got changed to an A. Ship it!! I'm pretty proud of my accomplishments even though it was somewhat anticlimactic.

Well I am going to go to bed.

God Bless,

JG

Why I Love Playing Deep Stack Poker...

2009-05-02T23:30:00.000-07:00

Because you can play hands this way...

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/682687

My read on this guy was based on a 10 hand sample, but I got the sense that he was quite spewy. Anyway, this is not really something I would have imagined doing a few months ago. I don't really know what happened last month, but something really clicked in my poker game, and I am feeling better than ever.

Here are some of the other hands from today's 700 hand sesh:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/682688
I am really proud of my read in this particular spot. I though it was equally as likely that this player had 77-99 as it is he had JJ or QQ, so I flipped a coin and jammed. It is a really really really terrible play by this guy to pot the turn ($25) with $55 behind and not have a plan when I ship it in. But players at 100NL consistently do this, and I am starting to pick up on it and putting in some turn bluff-raises. Unfortunately, I couldn't hold in this hand.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/682689
I am absolutely in love with the line that I take here. Unfortunately I lose another big one on the river.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/682690
gotta love the 3-bet cold-caller with QJo

Overall I ran really bad in this session but ended up winning a little over $100 which is cool. My EV was $279 but w/e. I am playing really well right now and am enjoying it.

I decided to play some live poker last night, so I went to play 2-4NL at Nooksack Casino. It was a pretty typical game - 7 stations, 1 rock, and me. Literally 4-5 limpers every hand. However, the avg stack was probably around $150, so I really couldn't get too out of line. I couldn't do too much isolating, light 3-betting, or squeezing. But I did take down a ton of small pots and ran well in this big pots and ended up making $315.

In my last orbit, a somewhat interesting hand came up when I isolated a pretty terrible, nutty Asian with J9dd making it $16 to go p/f after he limped. We were HU to a Js 9c 6c flop. He checked, and I decided to weak lead $15 into the $38 pot. He looked extremely weak, looking back at his hand, but he threw in the $15. The turn was the 6s. He checked quickly, and I again underbet the pot, betting $25. He waited 3 full seconds before saying "Awww Eeeeen" for like $100 more. I took off my hat, sunglasses, iPod, etc. and started replaying the hand in my head as well as thinking about the other hands I had seen him play.

I saw him bet/3-bet AI with 97 on a 754Q9. With the little time that he wasted in shipping it in, I was fairly certain that he wasn't bluffing. And on this board, there is no hand that I beat if he isn't bluffing. He is never doing this with just one J or a 9 + f/d or something like that. So I opted to muck, and I am pretty happy about it.

I ended up not putting in any hands the last week of April, but finished up $1818 playing cash through 16.5k hands. I came up a little bit short of my goal of 20k hands, and I obv could have easily accomplished that, but after the 2nd place tourney finish, I decided to just take a break and hang out with friends more, which was nice. Including my session last night and a few live sessions over the month plus online plus rakeback, I would estimate that I made around $4600 last month, which is pretty big for me. I don't intend on setting a hands goal this month but will play when I feel like it and when the games are good (AKA when I feel like it lol).

Last week I started my job working at the golf course. I am starting out working outdoors, washing clubs and carts, picking the range, and doing other random stuff. If I were my co-workers I would find it so entertaining watching me. I am a pretty uncoordinated as it is, but with these little mindless tasks that seem easy, I find ways to screw them up. I'm sure this is true for a lot of people, but there were a couple things that I did the first two days that made my co-workers just laugh at me because the things that I was doing seemed so easy and simple that I didn't want to ask specifically how to do them!

I really love being around the game of golf, even though I am playing terrible right now. There's just something about the aura of a golf course that just makes me happy. I am not going to stop looking for a summer job/internship, but, at this point, I am pretty made up that I will be going to grad school in Fall 2010, and I wouldn't feel too lazy or unaccomplished if I don't find a "real" job right now, especially in this economy.

That being said, I have to work tomorrow at 9am (YUCK), so I need to get some rest. Big test on Tuesday but that's all about it for this week.

God Bless,

JG

2nd in 9k Gtd.

2009-04-22T00:02:00.000-07:00

I just took 2nd in the $25 9k gtd. on UB for $1,700. I ran like hell heads up which is extremely frustrating, but lucky for me Derek gave me insurance so I essentially won $1,925. It is still a nice payday, but the guy that I was playing HU against was absolutely terrible, and I had him down to 7 bb's and got it in a few times but just couldn't close the deal. Such is poker.

This cash will cap off an amazing month for me overall. Cash games-wise, I was at a peak of $2,200 for the month but am currently up $1600 through 15k hands after a bit of a downswing. I wasn't really playing my best poker due to the fact that I had been playing a bit too much, and I recognized that. I was talking to Pete yesterday and told him that cash hadn't been that great and that I was probably gonna take today off. Fortunately, I can't resist the 6:20 tourney, and I did the run good.

I will probably withdraw about 3k for living expenses for a little while and leave around 3k in my account, which I will set to build up again next month. As great as this month has been and stuff, trying to play solely to hit a quota of hands put in for the month just doesn't really do it for me. I am still enjoying trying to get better and stuff, but I might need to take a few more days off during the month.

In other news, I will be starting working later this week at Semiahmoo Country Club in Blaine. I am actually pretty excited about this. While I'm still in school, it will probably just be a 2-day a week job with playing privileges, free range balls, etc. My swing is absolutely terrible right now, and I am all f***ed up in the head, so it will be a work in progress.

Shout out to Buffman for his wife giving birth to Seattle's Buffest Child. I wish the child great health and I really hope that his life really isn't over.

God Bless,

JG

Bad Sesh

2009-04-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

I woke up today and decided to jump into some games. There were only 3 full ring games, so I made the mistake of sitting with a guy who was sitting alone at 3 tables. I really got owned pretty bad.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/670353
This one sucked pretty bad. This was like 5 hands into the session.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/670352
This one was about 10 mins later and absolutely set me off. I should have left after the first fiasco.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/670358
I think this one was pretty bad also. I'm really not beating much on this river besides super random bluffs. I do this frequently where I pay people off because my hand is so underrepresented that I convince myself that they could be value betting worse, etc.

There were a few other spots where I was just owned. It's kinda disheartening to think that these are the kind of players that I will be playing against if I decide to move up in stakes - knowledgeable, thinking players. My HU game really is not very good. I have okay fundamentals, but the meta-game, psychological aspects are quite unfamiliar to me. I have said that I want to improve that aspect of my game but just haven't really done so. I am crushing the full ring games right now and just am not interested in messing with that.

Overall, I lost about $320 to Pokerqualle but got about $85 back playing FR. Just gotta have better HU discipline I guess when starting tables.

I have one more class then I'm heading home for the weekend.

God Bless,

JG

Heating Up

2009-04-09T00:28:00.000-07:00

I am off to a great start this month. Through 6200 hands, I am up $1,360, running at 21 bb/100 which is pretty sweet. The thing is, I am basically running at EV but just feel like I am maximizing value in every hand. It is really a great feeling. Two days ago, I played an extremely fun pot against a guy:

http://www.cardschat.com/hand/

Hopefully this converter works. I still believe that the strongest line that these players take is check/call flop then check/min-raise turn. It is the easiest thing in the world to play against because you know that opponents typically are never bluffing. In this particular spot, I got c/r'd on the turn and called Grant over. I decided to flat turn and jam river. It didn't hit me until that night that I had a 2-outer for the loser's share of the bad beat, which was around $140k at the time. $50k or whatever would have been pretty nice.

I just got back from hanging out with the gf and am in bed now. I was about to put in some hands and just before I was about to post at my first table, I decided that I was too tired and that it would not be optimal for me to play. This is one of the things that I am really going to try hard to work on - having better discipline and only playing when I really feel like playing. But with things going so well right now, I want to play as much as possible. I earned like $350 in rakeback last month, and am hoping to earn around $500 this month if I put in around 25k hands which is what I'm on pace for.

Time to go to bed. The Masters starts tomorrow, and I am tilting because stupid ESPN coverage is from 1-4:30, and I have class from 12-4!

My four players in our Masters pool are:

1. Geoff Ogilvy (STEAL at #5)
2. Zach Johnson
3. Nick Watney
4. Stewart Cink

I really like my team. Watney is playing incredible, and a lot of experts think Ogilvy's game fits Augusta well. I guess someone's gonna have to break the streak of no Australians winning. Why not him?

God Bless,

JG

Griiiiiindin

2009-04-06T18:21:00.000-07:00

Hopefully those that read my last blog actually scrolled down to see that it was a joke. I had a pretty good weekend. On Thursday, Buffman and Derek came up, and we went to the Pitch were I consumed quite a few pitchers of beer. I apparently was the only one drinking at the end before we headed down to the bars. I remember very few interactions with people. We went to the Nightlight for 80's night, and the bouncer asked for my wrist, and I apparently showed him my elbow, so he let me in but told me to go drink water. It was a great night.

The rest of the weekend was kind of lazy. Saturday we watched the basketball games, and I scooped $10 off Grant with him giving me Michigan St. and the points against UConn. We went to a new Sonic drive-in that they put in up in Ferndale. It was quite disappointing. One of my lifelong dreams was to go to a Sonic drive in to partake in what appeared to be heaven on earth according to the commercials. Not so.

Yesterday and today, I have played a good amount of online with a big session earlier today. Here are some of the hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4079250
Standard isolate p/f against this 38/3/1.0 fish. Flop bet is standard, and I fold out a lot of 10's and 22-55, 77-99 with my turn bet. But he obviously turned TPTK and was never folding. Glad that I pulled the trigger on the river, as it's very hard for him to call without a K or Q.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4079257
This one is interesting. This player is pretty spewy but we played a hand earlier where she min-raised 88 and c,called on a 8 6 4 then potted 6 turn. She takes the same line here, and I decide to call turn/fold river. I think she has JJ a lot here, flush a decent amount and AdJx sometimes. I've realized that I've done this too often as of late where I will call a LPP's flop bet or turn bet in spots where they are hardly ever bluffing just hoping that they shut down on the turn/river, and they always just pot it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4079271
Always fun to get in spots like these.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4079277
I was really proud of this one. This guy is a good, thinking player, so I knew that I could rep AK if I committed myself to it. As soon as he quickly called my flop bet, I put my head in my pillow and was like, "he's never folding aces". But I tried to put myself in his shoes and I know that a $72 turn bet when he had like $140 behind would have to look like I'm never folding to a shove. I was obviously bet/folding the turn and would have c/folded river if he had called. Ironically, the rabbit cam brought an 8 on the river hehe.

There were a couple other cool ones, but these should keep all my readers busy. Yesterday I played 1243 hands and finished down $93, but today I put in 1291 hands, finishing up $391. I am slightly ahead of pace for 20k hands this month, with 4500 hands, up $482 and 10.68 bb/100 which is good.

I did some good lifting last week and went running today around Lake Padden. I may be getting a job at Semiahmoo Golf Course for this quarter, which would be sweet - if for nothing else, for free golf.

God Bless,

JG

Busto on Ultimate Bet

2009-04-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a really embarassing blog post. I am ashamed and devastated at what went down late last night. I don't even really want to get into too much detail, but I will say that this blog probably won't be much about poker anymore. Again, my drunken state got the best of me. I came back from the bars late and decided to sit with this guy at a 1/2NL table. To start the day, I had around 3k in my account. I buy in 400, and he has around 600 to start. About the 3rd hand, I raise AK on the button to 6, he makes it 18, and I make it 44, and he calls oop. Flop comes A55, and he c/calls, and we get it in on the 2 turn, and he shows 55.

So $400 down the drain, and I can't believe it. Instead of just sucking it up and going to bed, I decide to go sit with a guy at a 2/4NL HU table. We battled it out for a while with no real memorable pots until I flatted his button raise with 44 from the bb. We were both full, and the flop comes Ax 4d 3d. I check, he leads 15, I make it 40, he makes it 105. I ship it in, and he calls with Ad5d. Turn x, river Kd giving him the scoop.

So I am down to 1800 and decide to take 500 to blackjack. I get down to 100 and decide to rebuy my entire account. I was betting about $50 on average and got my account back to about $2900 and decided to place just a couple more bets. I then went on a huge decline and was down to $300. I decided to bet $150. I got 8-3 against a 6 and doubled down for my entire account. I got an 8. The dealer obv went 5, K, and here I am.

I honestly don't know what to say. Perhaps this will be a good thing for me in that it will allow me to focus on other things in my life. I really don't have any motivation to try and deposit or borrow from friends and try to rebuild right now. I am really sick to my stomach. I couldn't sleep at all last night and skipped class today because I wanted to throw up all day. I don't need anyone to tell me how stupid I was or whatever but would just like for people to tell me that they're there for me and stuff. Alcohol is the worst thing in the world, and I think that this should confirm this fact to anyone that reads this.

HAHAHAHAHAHA! APRIL FOOOOOOOLS!!!!

Lol, I hope that people don't think that I would ever ever do something like that :-)

Okay but seriously, today is April 1st and marks the beginning of what will def be a great month. I have set a goal to play 20k hands this month and think that that will not be very difficult. I put in a 1200 hand session today in nearly 3 hours after class. I finished up $170 and got in some pretty interesting spots.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4056737
This guy was playing 52/21, so I decided to raise to 4.5x from the BB. I had been playing somewhat aggressively, and we were short-handed so I knew he was capable of spazzing out. I decide to bet/call the flop because we were both deep. I guess I would have folded river if he bet any meaningful amount. Fortunately he didn't.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4056757
I don't really even know why I'm posting this one. It's extremely standard, and I think calling this river is a complete leak. I almost talked myself into him min-raising a straight or a set or 2-pair, but then I caught myself and thought that a guy playing 40/7/1 is just not capable of doing anything like that.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4056769
I'm still not entirely sure about this hand. He was 41/14 and seemed kind of like a suspicious player based on some previous hands. I wanted to lead a little less on this flop to induce a monkey spew. I'm 100% certain I have/had the best hand on the flop. Turn is slightly interesting, but I didn't think I was gonna get two streets of value vs. a worse 2-pair, so I check it back for pot control. River he used about 1/4 of his time bank and potted it. For me to have him beat he had to be bluff-raising the flop because he is never doing this with a worse two-pair I don't think unless he is turning his hand into a bluff which would be weird. I just find that they have it a lot on this river because my hand I think looks like an overpair. Oh well, comments on this would be appreciated.

I just got back from eating Mexican and was meaning to go work out, but I have fantasy draft in an hour and a half, so I'm just gonna do some research and postpone lifting. Not a good start to the month.

Thanks for reading.

God Bless,

JG

Back in Bellingham

2009-03-29T23:00:00.001-07:00

DISCLAIMER: This will probably be a long blog. I have a lot of stuff on my mind and haven't updated this thing in a while, so if you are busy with lots of time-consuming projects at work (Petar), you might want to wait til you get home.

Since I last blogged, I took a trip to Phoenix/Tempe and Vegas, returned home and had a relaxing spring break, and am now back in Bellingham where I will be starting the final quarter of my undergrad career (hopefully) on Tuesday.

I got my grades back from last quarter, and I ended with 5 A's and 1 B+ for a 3.91 GPA, very close to the holy 4.0. Oh well, still good for the best quarter of my college career. I raised my cum GPA from a 3.49 to a 3.53 which is meh. I am extremely happy with this result, and I really feel like I am conceptually understanding economics and that my degree will not just be a title on a resume but I will be able to back this up with the many skills I have learned while at college.

This quarter will not be too bad. I am taking taxation, international finance, and behavioral economics for a total of 12 credits plus a b.s. 2 credit management information systems class to meet the 180 credit graduation requirement. I am going to shoot for a 3.75 this quarter, but I am going to be honest - school is not going to dominate my life this quarter. Not that it has in the past, and not that I'm not going to try, but it is my last quarter, and my priorities will be finding a job, getting healthy, hanging out with friends, and putting in a good amount of hands.

I am going to briefly recap the time that I spent on vacation, but no one blog post could possibly describe the amount of fun that I had on these vacations. While in Phoenix, we did a lot of lounging by the pool, eating at an amazing fast food place called Whataburger, and boozing quite heavily. One of the nights, we ended up at a sports/karaoke bar where I eventually sang JoJo's "Too Little Too Late" after about 10 green bud lights (St. Patrick's Day) which was a hit if I can remember in my drunken state.

We played golf one day in Tucson, which was amazing, and we also attended a Mariners game, although we were bummed that Griffey wasn't playing. A foul ball came our way, and I almost got a finger on it but pulled back at the last second before my buddy John picked it up as it fell underneath our seat. I will never again bad mouth somebody that doesn't have the balls to barehand a foul ball. That thing is coming in hot!

It was a great time in AZ, but I was ready to get to Vegas. I got in on Thursday at about 3:00, dropped off my bags and headed down to the Venetian Poker Room for some 1/2NL. Very first hand, an older Asian raises to $15 utg and there is a caller to me. I look down at AA and make it $45 to go. Both call, and we see a 9d 8d 4x flop. Checks to me, and I lead $80 of my $155 to try and get someone to spazz out jam. Asian folded, second guy calls, and we get it in on an x turn,a nd I hold. A nice little start to the weekend.

Ironically, that was the first time I saw AA the entire weekend! That night, a group of us went out to Tao at the Venetian which was actually pretty cool. Cover was $20 for us guys and drinks cost $12. At one point, I bumped into a girl, and her drink spilled over. She requested that I buy her a drink which I politely declined.

The next day I went to play in a $60 tourney at the Mirage. The format was kind of neat early, and antes kicked in early. In the first two levels, I lost with KK, QQ, and JJ but somehow managed to get through the first hour with 3x the starting stack. When the antes kicked in, I continually raped blinds. I tried to run a bluff against this idiot who c/called turn and river with AK high on a QT97x. I guess he soul read me? Anyways, I eventually busted when the blinds went from 400/800 to 800/1600 lol. UTG limps for 1600 with T9o, and I jam the A9cc for 12k, and he felt he had to call when it mucked to him hehe.

Later that night, I headed over to Caesars to get the night started before Pete and Derek arrived. When they did arrive around 9:30, we immediately began getting serious about drinking. We got a sweet waitress named Reggie (female) who allowed us to purchase a beer and a shot each round. We shipped the white russians and the washington apples for about 5 rounds. Pete got in with 74o against Ax on the turn of A799 and rivered a 7 in a $400+ pot. He then stacked that same player the next hand with KK. Quite a large swing.

We got the HORSE game going that night, and I vaguely remember opening 73hh utg and snapping Derek's AA. I don't think I made it to the omaha round. Peter got lost in Caesars for an hour and kept trying to put his key in a room there. The hotel security guard continually told him that his room was at the Monte Carlo, not at Caesars. But Pete's body was telling him he had to find a bed ASAP. Both he and Derek made it home safely that night.

Saturday was even more ridiculous. To keep it short, Pete started drinking Bud Light at 10am and was the most social I have ever seen anyone. We had an entertaining dinner at Outback before heading to the Mirage where our plan was to chop all winnings in a $70 sng. Derek got the money in drawing dead, and Pete got coolered when he ran KK into A6o AIPF where we saw a fun flop of AA6. I ended up chopping the SNG to scoop about a $20 profit for all three of us.

We again went back to Caesars where we quickly got a 4/8 HORSE game going. This is where I enjoyed unlimited HU raising when I had 44 against QJ on a QQ432. We put in 5 bets on the river for quite a large 4/8 pots hehe. The night ended with quite a memorable walk back to the Monte Carlo that involved social Pete and a football referee flag. I really wish we had gotten more video footage of Pete during this weekend. It was the funniest thing ever.

I did pretty well sports betting while down there. On Friday, I accidentally made a $10 4-team parlay betting the spreads and was perfect through 3, so I hedged the last game and scooped $50. I bet a couple games on Saturday and was convinced by Derek to bet $75 on Japan vs. the US in the semi-finals of the WBC, which they won.

It was sad to leave Vegas for sure, but I really enjoyed my time there and look forward to our return trip in June.

The highlight of this week since I returned from Vegas was going snowboarding for the first time ever on Thursday. My buddy Steven took me up there, and he is really good at it. I opted to attend the lesson which helped me get the fundamentals down before hitting the actual slopes. My first couple runs were a little bit painful, but I finally got the hang of it, and my third run down I actually felt like I could get down without falling too badly. I did have quite a painful fall at one point where I caught my front edge and was flung straight on my face. I felt like I was in a wrestling match the next day with how sore I was, but it was a great time. I bought a 3-day pass, so I will be going back in two weekends to try it again.

On my drive back up to Bellingham, I realized that this was my last quarter in Bellingham and that I would need to find a job soon to fill the void for most likely a year before I probably will attend graduate school. For some reason though, this doesn't scare me at all. I am not going to just slack off this quarter and not seek out job opportunities for this summer and beyond, but I am going to try and enjoy my time here in Bellingham and take care of some personal things while I prepare for the future. For some reason, I am really looking forward to this quarter and feel that I am going to accomplish a lot of things as long as I set my mind to it.

Here are some random, specific goals for the quarter:

- As stated, receive a 3.75 GPA or higher

- Contact at least 3 employers per week about job/internship opportunities - this could be just e-mailing them inquiring about a position or sending in my resume.

- Lift weights 5 times a week mostly after class

- Run 3 times a week in preparation for a half marathon in June

- Eat healthier - I'm not sure how specific I want to be with this. In general, I want to get in better shape, but I'm not sure if I am going to go on a specific diet or what. I guess I need to do some more research into this.

- Finish The Power of Positive Thinking. I started reading this a few months ago but only got a few chapters in. I felt impacted by it and would like to finish it this quarter.

- I would also like to put in 20,000 hands during the month of April. I'm pretty sure that this is quite attainable. I just recently purchased Hold 'em Manager which is a data-mining program that is better than Poker Tracker. Seeing stats and trying to increase my hourly rate is something that gets my juices running. I may step up the amount of hands I want to put in for May, but I am going to try and really set aside a few hours each day to put in a nice sesh.

Overall, I am really happy with things right now. I could not have asked for a better spring break. The weather is starting to get better which means lots more golfing, and I am really looking forward to soaking up my last quarter as an undergrad. I will hopefully have frequent session reviews in the coming weeks as well as some updates on my exercise/dietary goals.

Thanks for reading. Hope this wasn't too long.

God Bless,

JG

Done with Finals + In Tempe

2009-03-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

I just arrived at a Sheraton in Tempe and am about to go meet a few of my friends for a night of drinks out on Mill Ave, which is apparently the place to be in Tempe - directly across from ASU.

I will be here until Thursday when I will leave for Las Vegas through Monday. It will be an amazing trip undoubtedly.

I finished up finals today (I only had one) but it feels very very good. I would have had two finals today, but they were optional, and I have A's in both classes which is great. I have a pretty good shot at about a 3.8 which would be great considering the tough class schedule I had.

I will probably update this sometime this week once I arrived in LV. I am going to go get fucked up now.

JG

Screwed this one up pretty badly

2009-03-01T18:47:00.001-08:00

I meant to post this blog a few days ago but never got around to it until now.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3927008

I put in about 800 hands today at 100NL and ended up slightly but whiffed two 200k sats and went deep but didn't cash in the 6.5k. I felt like I played okay all day but not spectacular. I forgot my power chord when I went home this weekend, so I had to play on my desktop which I just don't like. There are a number of things that I hate about both my setup and my desktop that I am just not motivated enough to fix:

- I am borrowing Heather's monitor, which is pretty small, and I can't play more than 4 tables without them overlapping.

- The level of my desk is slightly high, so it can be a big uncomfortable. Also, it is positioned in a way that I can't get super close to my desk, so I have to extend my hand out far which sucks.

- Finally, there are a number of issues with some software programs. When I run PokerAce HUD, my comp runs extremely slow and I get tilted very fast, so I have to shut it off which doesn't help.

There are some other things that just really annoy me. I would like to have a baller setup, but that would require me to get motivated enough to either buy a new desk or alter my current one as well as buy new monitors and figure out wtf is up with PA Hud.

Anyways, I posted a hand at the top, which really bothered me, so I wanted to talk about how badly I screwed it up. I felt like this guy was playing like a monkey, even though I guess he was only playing 24/20. We had played a couple pots where I bombed the river with one pair, and he looked me up light both times. He had also 3-bet me at least 3 times, and I 4-bet once and he called and I won the pot post flop. I also had a note on him saying that he called a 3-bt with K7s.

So, that being said, p/f is standard, and I like my sizing. I am not uncomfortable playing deep, but didn't want to get in a variance war with another reg. Anyways, on the flop, the stacks were awkward, so I didn't want to bet and get jammed on by his one-pair hands. So I decided to CRAI (check raise all in). But when he checked behind, I wanted to puke. I was involved in another pot, so I decided to just bet $70 on the turn. This is not bad in and of itself but when making this bet, I absolutely have to have a plan as to what to do if he jams. When he shoved, I was getting like 2.6:1. I would have to run some poker stove stuff but I honestly felt like he might sometimes just spaz out and jam AQ or w/e. Anyways, I talked myself into a call and lost. In retrospect, I don't HATE my flop check but my turn play is spewy at best. I think a turn bet just looks so bluffy. I guess I should have just c/fold if he bets like 2/3 pot and c/called if he 1/2 pots it or something. I'm not sure. Just kinda sucks that he checked back the flop because I think it would have been a cool spot to CRAI. Either way I play it, I go broke, but I just felt like by him checking behind on the flop, I don't have a chance to get it in when my equity is high vs. his range.

Oh well, I actually still ended up on the session about $80, but it could have been much better. On the day, I am down like $50 or something.

I have two more weeks of school, and I just have to finish a take-home quiz and a hw assignment for Tuesday and then I really only have 3 finals. It should be managable.

In two weeks, I am running in a 4ish-mile St. Patricks Day Fun Run. I have been running 2.6 miles 3-4 times a week and have made a ton of progress. My only issue right now is that on days when I don't run, I typically eat not great, and weekends of drinking take it out of me. On Mondays it is usually a struggle getting through the run, but by Friday I am feeling like I am in great shape. I also haven't lifted in about 2 weeks as I have been more focusing on cardio. I don't know what I am going to do about that.

This weekend was an absolute blast. On Friday night, we went out for Buffman's birthday to this pub where we threw down some beers and played some pool. On the final game of the night, Derek had about a 5 ball lead in 8-ball, and we had $10 on it I believe. He then gave Buffman and Pete 5/1 on me winning, and we all scooped when he scratched on the 8 ball. It is very rare that we get the best of Derek in props, so we like to rub it in whenever it happens.

After that we headed to wizards where I somehow managed to run like Derek and win about $300. We had at least 4-5 rounds of jaeger bomb + beer on top of about 5-6 beers, so the night was a bit blurry.

Saturday was pretty low key. I went to a wedding then just took it easy for the night. Sunday went as mentioned above.

Getting back to my running progress, I ran about 2 miles on Saturday and 2.6 on Sunday, took Monday off then ran another 2.6 yesterday, and this morning (Wednesday) I somehow managed to lucksack my way into a 4 mile run without dying. I actually felt really fine, but I do have two issues: 1) my shoes apparently suck, and I get shin splints real easily and 2) I absolutely suck running uphill. I was doing great for about the first mile and a half until we hit this nasty hill where I almost lost it.

As far as the rest of my week looks, I have a Dodgeball playoff game tonight at 8:30 that has me quite excited. Our team isn't that great, but we played pretty well in our last game, and I feel that I am peaking right now. ONE TIME PLZZZZ!!!

Other than that, Saturday is the always exciting Western v. Central basketball game. We are having a pre-funking party at our apartment starting at 3 even though the game doesn't start til 7. Should be quite an adventure.

Well that is all I have. I am down to one more HW assignment and 3 more tests before Phoenix + Vegas for Spring Break!

God Bless,

JG

1st in 6.5k!

2009-02-22T16:27:00.000-08:00

I just finished first in the 11am $6.5k gtd. tourney on UB for $1,690. I am extremely excited about this and it was good to finally score a win instead of continuing the string of 2nd place finishes.

I'm not going to do a complete tourney recap, but I will say that I played quite knitty throughout the entire team and got hit with the deck a couple times early to get up to 18k at 75/150. I arrived at the FT like 4th of 9 and lost a big race with AK vs. QQ to dribble down to 30k at 1500/3000. I eventually shoved the button with AJ and got called by the SB's A2 and held to get above 100k 4-handed.

When we got down to 3, I had around 200k of the total 500k-ish chips in play. The other two were playing extremely aggressive which took me a little while to adjust appropriately. With the blinds at 4k/8k and the BB having like 50k in chips, I was dealt AJss in the SB. The button potted to 30k, and I started asking Grant what he thought. I had the button covered slightly but not by much. I didn't really want to call, so it was fold or jam. I opted to jam, and the button snap-called with AKdd, and the board ran out QQ8Jx to knock him out.

In retrospect, I think it was probably a fold, albeit a tight one. The button hadn't opened that many buttons, and I don't think he is stealing with air very much with the BB being so short and the pay jumps, etc. Grant wanted a fold, and I probably should have just folded, but idk I run good.

When we got HU, I had around 380k to my opponent's 60k. He doubled up with K3 vs. my 55, which I really didn't want to do. I feel confident in my HU game, but it is really tricky maneuvering when your opponent has between 10-15bb's. I never know what hands I should be shoving, raise/folding, raise/calling, etc. I should really look into this.

Anyway the HU match lasted a long time. At his peak, he had me down to about 150k, and I was just trying to slow the action down. But with the blinds at 6k/12k with 500k total chips in play, it wasn't that easy. I eventually doubled up when I min-raised AJo from the button, and he defended with 76o, and we got AI on a AA7 flop.

He then fought back and we were even again, and he even took the chiplead. I eventually went on a mini heater and grinded him down to 100k. He then shoved the button with A4, and I called with AQs and held for the win.

I feel very good about this, and every time during the tournament that I got slightly discouraged, I would just say positive things to myself and it seemed to help.

I am not quite sure what my plans are as far as online moneys goes. I know that for spring break, I am taking a trip to Arizona and Las Vegas, so this will definitely help.

This week won't be too bad. I have a debate on Tuesday and a presentation on Thursday but no other tests or quizzes.

That is all.

God bless,

JG

LOL

2009-02-22T12:01:00.000-08:00

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3895797

Life Update/ EDIT: Crew Members Coming to BHAM This Weekend!

2009-02-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

It's been well over a week since I last posted. I am regretful that I didn't do a recap of CWOF but it definitely did not disappoint. As it turns out, just Paul, Bubs and Pete ended up coming up on Friday. We had one of the best dinners of my life when we went to Kyoto Japanese Steakhouse. We were definitely rowdy.

That night we ended up at the Pitch and we didn't get too out of line afaik (AS FAR AS I KNOW).

The next day Paul and Bubs left early, and Pete, Grant, and I went golfing. It was a terrible, terrible round. I lost 7 balls in the first 3 holes and ended up getting the dredded shanks. It was absolutely miserable, but I had as much fun as I could have all things considered. That night we went over to the Pitch where we met "sober" Derek. We played for a bit then took a break to see the movie Taken which was very good imo.

We went back to the Pitch where we all binge drank until Derek got kicked out for calling this guy a fat (explitive). We ended up downtown at the Up and Up where Derek again got kicked out and continued to try and get back in using whatever sort of disguises he could find. He even offered to pay one of my lady friends $100 to walk in and flash everyon, yelling "I LOVE HOT WINGS" which would allow him to sneak in past security. This did not happen.

Derek somehow made it home, and we retired for the night. The next day was the Superbowl which was rather uneventful. The worst situation possible happened to me as I had $40 on Steelers (-7) against Derek and (-5) against Grant (FISH!!!). The Steelers won but didn't cover to put me on extreme tilt. Other than that we devoured a Port of Subs party platter which was delicious.

All in all it was a very memorable weekend and one that will hopefully happen again very very soon.

This last week was pretty cool. I worked out 4 of the 5 week days and had a very difficult test on Friday which i studied for like 15 hours for and I am pretty sure I did very well on it. Then the weekend happened and I went home and hung out with Derek on Friday and didn't do much on Saturday and went out to dinner for my Dad's birthday on Sunday at Mizu (sp?) Japanese Steakhouse which is always delish.

On Sunday I went to Barnes and Noble to get my dad a book. On one of the tables, I saw a book called The Power of Positive Thinking

I decided to purchase it and read a chapter last night and this morning. I got a really weird feeling when I bought the book like it was something I was supposed to have. I have heard people talk about the book before and have mentioned that it is quite moving, and I just kinda shrugged it off. It is not that I am a super negative person, but it's just that I feel like I could benefit from being more positive and optimistic about various areas in my life and in my demeanor in general. Anyways, after reading the first two chapters, I have found myself thinking more positively about even very small things. Today I was waiting in line for the bus and a couple people cut and I missed the bus. Normally I would let this small occurrence put me on a mini life tilt for a few minutes. But today I just didn't let it affect me. It was a very weird thing.

Anyways, it has been a very good day. I woke up at 7:30 and ran 2.5 miles around Lake Padden which surprisingly made me feel very good. The goal is to do this on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and hopefully be able to run a half marathon in June which shouldn't be out of the realm of possibility.

Other than that, I feel like a complete degen because I have been in the AIC building on campus since 1:30 and it is 6 now. I just completed a 4 hour session where I ended up losing a pretty small figure. Here are two hands that I decided to copy and paste to discuss:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3837671 - This guy was a shark. I obv don't have stats on him because I'm on campus and didn't have PT running. I had seen him iso raise a guy with 65s, and I am trying to play a ton of hands on the button, so I decided to flat call. Flop is pretty standard, and I was planning on betting a ton of turns if checked to. When he led 11.25 on the turn, I felt like he could easily show up with a J, KQ, or random air. I decided to flat again. On the river, he didn't waste too much time and potted it. I feel like this is a marginal spot at best. I just don't see what he can be potting here that doesn't have me beat. Nut FD is one possible hand, but I honestly see players like this leading a little bit less on this board. I think he has KJ or JT a ton. That being said, I'm really not sure what I beat so I just decided to muck.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3837568 - I was pretty proud of this one. This guy was playing extremely loose, so I had a standard 3bet with the 99. When it went check, check on the flop and the turn paired the board, I decided to check again as I can't rep much and not sure I'm getting called by worse much or folding out better. On the river, I typed in 13 but then decided that my line doesn't make sense and he might look me up pretty light. So I went for 2/3 pot and when he tank/called, I knew I was good. VALUE TOWWWWWWWNNNNNNN

My left hand has been asleep for at least an hour and a half which concerns me. I am going to go lift some weights then head home for the evening. 24 tonight! OHOHOHOHO

God Bless,

JG

EDIT: Buffman, Nate, and John Finn will be in Bellingham this weekend. It will be epic. We will try to get kicked out of any establishment we drink in as per usual.

Bad Session + 1 day til CWOF

2009-01-29T19:00:00.000-08:00

I am absolutely ashamed of the session that I just played. I played < 200 hands and don't even know why I played. I was really just bored waiting for laundry to finish drying, so I fired up some tables and got insta-stacked in this pot:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3786564 - p/f is standard then I go for the gay flop bet and get flatted and then I decided to check the turn with no plan. If I was paying more attention, I would have realized that the effective stacks were like 95 bb's to start the pot, so my turn call would have left a pot size river bet which I didn't really think about. Anyways, I decided to c/call turn, c/call river as a bluff catcher. Didn't work. I play bad.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3786532 - then this hand happened which ended my sesh. I had already 3-bet this guy once and didn't know he would perceive another one as strength or whether I was just trying to run over him. Anyways, I got cute and flatted, and we saw this pretty flop. I opted to check the flop to disguise my hand, but once the button potted it, I was just saying in my head, please please don't flat because you have JJ. He flatted, and I wanted to puke but knew I was never going to hero fold, so I just flatted as well. Then when he fired the turn, I was like, maybe he has QQ or TT or something random. If I was playing my A game, I would find a fold on the turn or at least c/r flop so that his hand might be more transparent. Just playing bad bad poker

Overall I dropped 2.5 BI's so I am about even since I started playing the full ring games earlier this week. I am not all that upset and feel better now that I have diagnosed these hands and realize that I really butchered them. I guess I just shouldn't have played.

Oh well, tonight = the bars and tomorrow = start of CWOF (Crew Weekend of Fun). AFAIK, Peter, Paul, Bubs, and Nate will be arriving at different points tomorrow. Derek and Doms will either be arriving late tomorrow night or early Saturday and people are leaving at different times. Overall it will be a great weekend filled with an incredible amount of Chinese, Slo Pitch, binge drinking, and Peter (and the rest of the crew) getting kicked out of every drinking establishment we attend. It should be a blast.

Well I am going to go shower and start the weekend festivities alright...with a Bud Light Lime.

God Bless,

JG

Sesh Review

2009-01-27T19:04:00.000-08:00

I am on quite a bit of tilt because Poker Tracker 2 is not functioning right and I cannot pull up hands from the session I just played. It went pretty well though. I put in ~500 hands 4-tabling the full ring 100NL games. I ended up a little over 2 BI's which makes up for yesterday's fiasco.

I felt that I played pretty well. I sort of had an epiphany during my session. Watching CR's vids, the main premise that every video has in common is the importance of position. I have always felt that I understood this idea but have just recently began to conceptualize the number of things that you can do postflop when in position. You can isolate limpers p/f, take pot control lines to get the optimal number of streets of value, barrel scare cards and maximize value.

CR pro David Benefield plays something like 50-60% of his button hands and 3-bets very liberally because of the advantage he feels that he has. Now a lot of this is not too applicable to 100NL full-ring games where there is invariably 2-3 limpers every hand and not too many people are raising light in middle-late position, but I decided to start trying raising like 50% of my buttons if there were limpers to me. I decided to raise most suited cards, any connectors 5-6+ and obviously any pair, A8+, KT+. Throughout the session, there were a lot of people who sat down for 2 rounds and left, so maybe people never realized what I was doing as I didn't get played back at too much, but I did start to realize how amazing it is to raise slightly over the pot p/f and get HU with a fish and take down a ridiculous amount of pots post flop.

Anyways, I have a busy few days ahead of me in trying to get things crossed off the list before this weekend. Oh ya, this weekend is Crew Weekend in Bellingham. I have already declared it Happy Weekend.

God Bless,

JG

Tilt

2009-01-26T15:01:00.000-08:00

I got done with class today at 1pm and decided to go to the AIC building to 6-table some full ring 100NL games. Things started off okay until I got in with A7ss vs. 3s3h on a 7x 5s 4s for a 90bb pot and lost. I then iso'd a JTo limper with AKo and we got all in on a AKQ flop.

But the thing that capped it off was that I was trying to raise to $5 at another table but accidentally raised 65o UTG at another table. I got called twice and the flop came 9 6 5dd. I led 10 into 15 and was flatted by a decent reg behind. The turn was the Ac, and I led $25 into a $37ish pot, and he made it 65. Pretty marginal spot but I felt like he probably had nut fd enough, and I could easilly be repping the A with my whole range. I shoveled it in, and he called with AKdd, and the river was a 9. It was a 240bb pot which sucks.

This is the 4th or 5th memorable spot in the last few months that I have misclicked then flopped the apparent nuts only to get stacked. It's like the UB gods are punishing my misclick by rigging the deck. Oh well, kinda sucks.

I made $300 playing the full ring games yesterday but lost $200 today. The full ring games are a ton different from the 6-max games. When I subscribed to CR's, I really wanted to get good at 6-max so those were the only vids that I watched. I have noticed however that the full ring 100NL games do not have the amount of regs that the 6-max games do. The thing that I don't like so much about them is that there are so many short stackers which makes it tricky to play and really handcuffs me in a lot of spots.

For example, today I had 87s in the BB and there was a MP raise who was 100bb's deep, a c/o call who was also deep and a button call who had like 35bb's. Without the button, this would be a pretty sweet spot to squeeze and collect some dead money. But I can't really do that very easily because the short stack is a fish and will probably be glad to get it in with an overlay.

That being said, the players just simply are that much worse. While I am currently underrolled to play those games with my online money, I think that the variance is low enough where I can make a steady stream of income 4-6 tabling these games.

I had a great weekend and I won't go into too many details, but Friday night we had a home game at our place which was a blast. Then Saturday we had a little party. It sucked cleaning up both days, but it was well worth it.

I got my first 397 test back today and got a 97% which is cool. I still haven't kicked things into gear quite yet but will do that soon.

5 days until the Crew comes and takes a shit on the city of Bellingham. I keep trying to come up with adjectives to describe this weekend but don't want to overuse the words epic and mayhem. It will be one for the ages.

I am going to go work out then go to Anthony's for dinner then 24!

God Bless,

JG

Nate on his way to 10k

2009-01-23T02:55:00.000-08:00

So Nate has been on a tear as of late. After apparently drawing inspiration from my blog, he played in a freeroll and won something like $1 (maybe a little more, maybe a little less). He then proceeded to turn that into $50 then FT a couple tournies then win a couple tournies and I'm pretty sure he's close to or at $400. I am proud of him and hope that he can continue this and reach 10k within the next few months.

It is late, and I recently returned from the bars and now must get up at 8:30 to cram/study for an Econ test and then it's the weekend where I will undoubtedly FT a big tourney or something. Feeling goood.

7 days til Crew weekend in BHAM.

God Bless,

JG

Blah

2009-01-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

I have had a very nice relaxing weekend. I just got back from the gym where I played two games of basketball and am extremely worn out. I hadn't played a pick up game since the start of the school year and it probably showed. I didn't really play that bad and didn't have many turnovers but just played below average defense and wasn't really a factor on offense. That being said, it is a really good workout and is much more fun than just running. I am going to try to go to the rec just to play basketball a couple times a week.

This weekend has been a bit of a blur, and if I tried really hard I could probably describe some of the things that we did, but it would be a bit difficult. Thursday night we went out and now have a pretty dece crew to go out with regularly, so it's pretty fun.

Friday night Grant and I weren't doing much so we decided to go to the Slo Pitch where we had a blast. The game was so good*. Grant ended up $4, and I ended up down around $15. But we consumed like 5 pitchers and took jaeger bombs and shots of tequila (yikes), so I would say it was a successful trip. After that we headed downtown to meet up with some people before going to the Royal and then heading home.

*this saying "the game is good" takes on a different meaning at the slo pitch. The games are always what would be considered "good" (aka easy to win in) but when I say good, I mean the people in the game are entertaining. We had Doug, Louie, Sang (this new Vietnamese guy who ironically sings), and others.

Saturday was really lazy. I played a couple MTT's with no cashes then Grant and I went to the SPU/Western basketball game which we lost by 2 which sucked. After that we came back and there wasn't much going on, so I decided to fire up some tables. I finally downloaded a patch for PokerAce HUD which is my heads up display which shows poker tracker stats on the screen. It caused everything to run extremely slow which immediately put me on tilt. That combined with the fact that I got insta-stuck did not make for a good combination. I ended up quitting about 45 minutes into the sesh because I was obv not playing my A game. More like my D- game.

Since Ultimate Bet merged with Absolute to create the Cereus poker network or whatever they call it (whenever I think of that, I think of Heath Ledger as the Joker saying, "Why so serious?"), I have had a ton of trouble data mining through PT and even more time with PokerAce. They have had to make like 4 new patches that I have had to look up and download by myself in order to get it to function properly. My next cashout, I will be purchasing Hold 'em Manager which simplifies things and makes it a lot better.

Yesterday (Sunday) I woke up at 8am to go to church with Heather. She hadn't been to church in a long long time, and I had been meaning to take her for a while but it just has never really worked out. After that I went and got in a good workout and was back in time for the NFC Championship. It was not a normal weekend day.

I then watched the Cardinals hold on to beat the Eagles to advance to the Super Bowl which makes me somewhat bitter but w/e, it makes a good story blah blah blah. Grant and I then headed down to Bob's to watch the AFC Championship. We ordered a couple pitchers, but by the end of the first, I was lying down in the booth and was taking a brief nap lol. We ended up just staying in and watching What Happens in Vegas last night which gave me the itch to go back very very soon.

Congrats to Derek who has been on an absolute tear, crushing the 100NL full-ring games on UB. He finally had a couple losing days but was able to cash out a good amount and will probably start crushing as soon as he starts up again.

Well I am going to go shower then play in the 6k bounty then maybe the 6:20 tourney knowing that 24 is at 9pm and that if I am playing during 24 it means good things financially.

In 2 weekends, the Crew will once again grace the city of Bellingham with its presence in what will no doubt be an epic weekend. That is all I am going to say about that for now.

I have a basic stats quiz tomorrow that I need to study for also so add that to the evening agenda.

God Bless,

JG

2nd in mini UBOC # 6 (aka PLO8)

2009-01-13T01:49:00.000-08:00

I got home today around 5:20 and decided to fire up some tables. At 5:32, I thought there might be a UBOC tourney going on, so I go into the tourney lobby and see that there is a PLO8 Doublestack Mini UBOC tourney accepting late registration. I mulled it over in my head and decided to sign up for the fun of it. 7 hours later, I was HU with nearly a 2:1 chiplead.

I didn't really know how to play that much and was actually watching CR videos on break. Luckily for me, Buff Man logged on and started railing, so we chatted the whole time and he gave some pretty good advice in a lot of tricky spots. Whereas the deck saved me numerous times, I probably wouldn't have taken 2nd without his help.

When we got HU, the 2nd or 3rd hand, I got AI against him with 2nd pair, a wrap, and a low draw against his TP/FD and missed everything. Buff Man looked it up, and I was a 42% to scoop vs. his like 20ish% and was 76% to win the low. Oh well, I can't complain too much as I got smacked in the face several times with the deck on numerous occasions.

I earned $960ish for my efforts which is pretty cool. Nothing too life-changing, but it will surely help with finances. I also made like $200 playing 100NL so it was a pretty good day.

I am planning on withdrawing like $1400 and either playing underrolled $100NL or grind out the 50NL for a little while. I am feeling good, and this was one of the funnest tournaments I can ever remember playing. I think I am def -EV vs. the field in that game, but I learned a lot and perhaps will dabble in some PLO or PLO8 in the future.

That being said, it's 2am and I just took a shot of NyQuil and will be passing out in T-minus 5 minutes.

God Bless,

JG

Quick Update

2009-01-10T22:37:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try to make this quick as we have company coming over soon and need to clean, but since I last posted, I started classes and am quickly understanding that this is going to be a very tough quarter. I may not be able to get away with the typical Joel Graves don't do anything for 3 weeks until first round of midterms and then peak during dead week, lol.

This weekend has been a blast. On Thursday, we had a bunch of people over and watched Florida beat Oklahoma. I obv got the best of it against Derek and Grant with them giving me OK +6, but I couldn't hold and lost $35. After that, we took a couple of our recently-turned-21 friends out to the bars. After having about 5 or 6 beers during the game, we went to Jalapenos and ordered the obligatory Big Mama which is a margarita with like 5-6 shots of tequila in it. After this, I bought one of my friends a jaeger bomb which 3 of us consumed and then we headed out. We did some bar hopping, going to the Up and Up, the Royal (sketchy) and then to Uisce (pronounced ishka's). Grant got extremely drunk which was entertaining watching him at the Up just handing out pitchers of beer hehe.

Anyways, the next day, Bubs graced the city of Bellingham with his presence which was awesome. We started off playing some Chinese with Grant and Bubs which went pretty well for me and then we headed out to the Pitch. I started off playing pretty good, and Bubs hit quad 8's for $260 (split 3 ways hehe) but alcohol eventually got the best of me, and I specifically remember playing 80% of the hands for my last two rounds and ended up down $30 total. Oh, Derek also pulled off a clever slow roll that night and we headed back out to the Up and Up after the pitch. Probably the highlight of the night was when Derek bought a pepperoni pizza for us, and we were sitting there about to eat it. Bubs' wife Carla brought her friend Ellie there, and, for some reason, Derek assumed this girl was a vegetarian and offered a bet that she would not eat the pizza. He then offered it to her, and she politely refused saying she was, in fact, a vegetarian.

Derek and I apparently walked home together, and Derek peed on the side of the road before giving away our full pepperoni pizza. When we got back, I decided to play some drunken HU and continued with my 2nd straight winning drunk session (not good!). Derek then sat on me and I heard a crack on my computer chair and looked down to see a wheel had broken off. Derek, I love you, but you are nutzzz when you are drunk!

Yesterday (Saturday), I woke up and fired up some tables. I busted in the 2nd mini UBOC tourney running KK into AA early, and nothing else went very well. I didn't really feel comfortable playing tournies, and have found the transition from 6-max cash games to 9-max tournies a little bit difficult. I can't help but think that, I can run at 7-8 bb/100 at 100NL which is a much larger winrate than MTT's. But it is just too tempting to look at the FT payouts and imagine myself winning one. Oh well.

I decided to play in the $50 UBOC #3 HU tourney just for fun knowing that my HU game was not very good. I got a bye on the first round and then got got pitted against a pretty good, aggresive player named pkrpimp I think. It was a very good match, and I ended up coolering him pretty bad with 55 against his 94cc on a Q53ccc3x2x.

The next match was against a SLAP player which was a pretty good draw. He all of a sudden started 3-betting like 50% of the time from the BB, and I folded like the first 8 times that he did it. I then decided to 4-bet 65dd from the button, and, to my surprise, he flat called. The flop came a gross Jc Ts 4c. He checked, and, with 4500 behind and 4600 in the pot, I decided to check and hope for a fun card to come off. The turn was the Qs, and he checked again. I opted to try and rep AK and bet 1600. He then started typing and folded what he said was AJ. I went on to bust him when we got AIPF in a 5-bet pot with AQs vs. his AT.

In the 4th round, we started with 16k in chips at 40/80. I made a couple moves early and was seemingly instantly down to 12k. I then raised the button with AsKc, and he potted, and I 4-bet and he called then potted a Ts 4s 3s flop. I obv knew we were getting it in, and I shipped and he called with KTdd and I bricked.

I did in fact cash for $130 which was okay, as I never really expected to do well. I've said it a lot, but my HU game really isn't that good. I feel like it would be pretty easy to game select at lower stakes and consistently profit, but I just haven't done it too much. Maybe this tourney will inspire me to get better.

Anyways, after all that Grant, Heather, my friend Rachel, and I watched the Office and it was fun to take a night "off".

Today I struggled out of bed at 11:20 and signed up for the UBOC #4 $50 DS tourney. I survived until 150/300 (25) before re-shipping TT for 3300 and running into JJ.

While playing in that, I finally got my PokerAce HUD to work and was excited, so I fired up a few 50NL tables. The play was atrocious and boring, so I decided to exit those and get in 3 more 100NL tables. I ran very well and ended up $380 through ~600 hands. Pretty much all of the hands were pretty standard, but I want to touch on a couple:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3701571 - I usually 3-bet in this spot but opted to just flat because I felt like under-repping my hand. On the flop, I typically prefer just folding to the pot bet as I find that these types of players like to mash the pot button 3 times with a large part of their range. Anyways, I just decided to call to see what happens, and when he pots the turn, I was somewhat confused. This was at a turbo table, so I had to make up my mind fast. I decided to turn my hand into a bluff knowing that it would be v tough for him to call with an overpair, and I wasn't sure he would pot AJ here. Worked out though.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3701606 - This one was weird. My flop and turn bets are fine, and when he min-raises I think he has QT or 44 a large percentage of the time. I don't really know why I called the turn if I was going to fold to his smallish river bet, but his line is so strong that I just felt like maybe we had the same hand, but idk. I just don't like it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3701625 - this hand played itself but was fun.

Overall it was a pretty good sesh. Idk what I'm gonna do for the rest of the day. I might play the 4pm, 5pm, 6:20, but might just take it easy and play cash later. I have no desire to do homework right now, so I will continue to put that off.

24 premiere is tonight which has me excited.

This blog turned out longer than anticipated.

God Bless,

JG

2nd place in $1k Gtd.

2008-12-30T16:50:00.001-08:00

lol, may have been a waste of my time, but I actually tried to play well and was able to take 2nd. When I got HU I was like a 4/1 dog and the busto hand, villain maniac limps for 2400, and I check J7o, and it comes AJ3, and I c/call his pot bet then CRAI on the 3 turn because I didn't see many aces in his limping range, and there was a f/d on the flop. He snapped with AKo and won. Oh well, first was like $420, and I received $256 for my efforts hehe. I am going to go play some 4/8 at the Silver Dollar with Henry. At least I paid for my BI there.

God Bless,

JG

Oh ya...

2008-12-26T01:21:00.000-08:00

Poker is fun...especially when you get action like this. Man I love playing a couple hands super monkey aggressive and imprinting that image in my opponents' minds. I had 3-bet quite a bit but hadn't really 4-bet very much, so, whereas I really like this guys' balls, I think this is atrocious. And of course UB couldn't turn him dead - had to jack up my heart rate. Without further ado...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3633161

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

p.s. Why do I always make a post then do a run-good session then add another post that day. I need to work on that. Hope you all enjoy.

Merry Christmas + 2nd in $8k

2008-12-25T16:10:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! (all 2-3 of you) I hope all of you are enjoying being lazy, eating/drinking too much and getting fat just in time to declare that next year will be the time to get in shape (maybe that's just me).

It's been 2+ weeks since I posted. Since then, I finished finals which weren't too difficult, and my final grades turned out to be below EV :( Either way, I pulled a 3.5 and didn't work all that hard. My cume GPA is a 3.49, so I don't think I raised that at all. I am going to try and work hard and get a 3.7 next quarter which might be tough because I am taking my first 400 level class as well as econometrics which is going to suck.

Some highlights from the past two weeks include partying with my Italian friend Francesco on his last two days in Bellingham before he heads back to Italy (exchange student), hanging out with my old high school friends Ross, John, and Greg, seeing The Day the Earth Stood Still in IMAX which was meh, our friend Carl's bachelor party and tailgating for the Hawks game.

Last weekend on Friday, I went to dinner with John, Greg, and their/our friend Jason at Azteca. I opted to pass on food and stuck with chips/salsa and two very large Coors Lights. After that the night took us across the street to Wizards where we had to obtain the obligatory Matchplay coupon from the Cashier Cage for $25. Basically this means that if you place one $25 bet and you win, they pay you $50. I obv wanted to punish the house and pay for the night of debauchery so I went straight to the Pai Gow table. I pushed my first 2 hands then woke up with Kings and Tens which is probably a win 65% of the time, a push 25% of the time and a loss 10% of the time. I held the two pair and was elated.

John was going to play blackjack as is his game of choice, but I convinced him to play Pais. He had never played before, and I taught him my rituals as I learned from my mentors. These include taking the top card off the deck and putting it horizontally in front of you then taking the bottom card and placing it symmetrically vertical on top of the other card. This is then followed by looking at the first card, and if it is a J+, you show your friends and get excited. You then slowly (and I mean very slowly) pinch the other 4 cards. You then pick up the vertical card followed by the horizontal card. Anyways, John pushed his first 3 hands I believe and then found a pair of 3's and KT up, which is not good. Somehow the dealer rolled out a pai gow, and John also won. While at our Wizards stop, I think I had 4 beers served by our favorite waitress Barbara, who could/should be my grandma.

After that we went downstairs and played pool where I was most definitely on the downward end of my drunken bell curve in terms of being able to play these types of games. I don't think I won a game, and we retired the night around midnight.

The next day was Carl's bachelor party which started off at Carl's house followed by Red Robin, which was fun, and then back to his friend Todd's house. While we were caravaning from RR to his house, we sort of got lost and ended up playing in the snow for a while. The worst part of this was when Derek said, "hey everybody, let's tackle Joel" and I knew I was in trouble.

After that, we played a game of poker at Todd's which was a blast. We came up with several drinking games, and the first player eliminated had to chug a beer, run around the house twice (in 25 degree weather + snow) then chug another beer. Our friend Anthony was the unfortunate one to get knocked out first when he had 87 against his brother's A7 and my 10-8 when we got all in on the turn of a A J 8 8, and the river was a T to give me the scoop. I ended up running well and got down to heads up with Carl, the bachelor. Everyone was rooting for Carl to win as was I, and Derek ended up rigging the deck giving me AK against his 33 AIPF on a board of xxxK3 for a fun little sweat LMAO!

We then obviously went to the nearest casino, the Silver Dollar where all of us lost but had a good time. Derek drove us home, and we set our alarms for 5:25 the next morning to go tailgate. We struggled out of bed and got everything ready only to have Derek's car get stuck in the snow just out of his driveway. We tried shoveling the snow out from around the tires but still couldn't get it going. We tried putting wooden boards on each wheel which also didn't work. We eventually moved it to the bottom of the hill and were able to lucksack our way out of there. We arrived downtown around 7:30 and proceeded to put down about 60-70 beers between like 8 of us while playing the most fun/addicting game in the world - bean bag toss. For those of you who have never played and think that it sounds lame, I feel for you. You really don't know what you're missing out on.

The game was pretty fun. When we arrived to our bleacher seats, they were all covered in snow, so we had a good time digging through the snow to find our seats. After having probably 8 beers, Derek apparently went to a bar and had 4 shots and another beer. Needless to say, when he entered the stadium halfway through the 2nd quarter, he was quite sloppy. The highlight of the game, besides the Hawks winning, was Derek getting kicked out for throwing snow and then proceeding to walk down the steps and pick up a huge snow ball and hold it over his head yelling and then throwing it on the side of the bleachers.

Anyways, besides these few events, break has been a ton of sitting in front of the TV watching Pete play College Football '09, going between the kitchen and back, and grinding out hands. Things hadn't been going that great until Tuesday. I played in the 6:20 $8k gtd. tourney. I decided to really knit it up and wait for good spots to accumulate. The field was surprisingly weak, and I was able to double up on a few occasions and was chipleader with 70 left with 45 paying. I coasted into the money with ease and, tbh, never 3-bet anyone light but was just raising in position, picking up the blinds and antes enough to stay afloat.

With 18 left, I decided to post on my facebook status that there were 18 left. Within 5 mins, there were about 15 responses from people which made me feel good that I had like 3 railbirds for such a small tourney.

I made it to the FT 3rd in chips of the 9 and was able to get to 100k before we went on break with 6 left. The first hand back from the break, I picked up JJ, and the chipleader who started the hand with ~280k made it 15k at 2500/5k. I had a marginal shove for like 90k, and he called with AQ and I somehow held to get up to 200k.

From there, I went on to lose like 3 pots in a row and somehow lost half my stack. I stayed around here and we got down to 4 when I had around 80k at 4k/8k, the guy in 3rd had like 90k, the guy in second had like 200k, and the chipleader had ~300k. Then a really weird pot came up. UTG potted to like 30k, the SB (2nd in chips) flat called, and I had a trival shove for 80k with 99. The UTG, with 50k left tanked. I couldn't believe he could raise/fold, but he ended up calling, and the SB somehow folded getting like 4:1. Amazingly, the UTG player had 98s!!!! I was ecstatic and was a 7:1 fav. to nearly triple up. I held, and we were down to three. Simultaneously the two big stacks got all in and the chipleader won, so I found myself HU with a 4:1 chip disadvantage.

This guy had been playing like a monkey, so I really tried to slow the action down and find good spots to re-ship. The blinds started off at 5k/10k, and I had like 160k to his 600k. I started limping a lot of buttons, and he kept 5x'ing it from the BB, and I would fold. I guess I should have switched gears and start re-shipping light, but idk, I just didn't really have any great spots. I doubled up twice, but just wasn't able to adjust to the high blind levels and ended up shipping 77 into his KK and lost.

I took down $1480 for my efforts which is cool and I am excited about this. It hopefully will be the start to a good upswing. I have been watching tons of CardRunner cash vids and it has actually helped my tourney game. I am thinking on higher levels and am really progressing.

Anyways, it is Christmas, and I am sitting with my brothers watching South Park, so I am going to stop this blog before it gets too out of hand.

Happy New Year and God Bless,

JG

Session Recap

2008-12-10T23:32:00.000-08:00

Wow...I can't believe that I am writing a 2nd post in the same day! But I did just put in a good 900 hand session at $100 NL and ended up $350ish. I felt that I played very very well and never monkey spewed or anything which was good. Here are some of the losers:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3569987 - I'd have to look back at the hands, but this was at least the 3rd or 4th time this guy had 3-bet me, so I assumed he was picking up on the fact that I was isolating by 3 betting. This was probably not the time nor the hand to make this move, but I felt that it might be a profitable play long term. I never would have even considered making this move before watching CR's, lol

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3569992 - This one was really interesting. It turns out this guy was drunk which explains things. But this was the 2nd or 3rd time I 3-bet him, which I thought might actually give me some more respect. But I guess I am just leveling and maybe he wasn't thinking that deep. Anyways, I actually really like my sizing and I think my turn bet is +EV because he is probably folding 77-TT, and I'm not sure if JJ+ is a big part of his range, but a J or a T might be good also. Oh well, he owned me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3569998 - In this one, I get owned by the guy calling 3-bets with J2s. Not too much to say about this one.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3570001 - This one happened just as Grant was walking in, and I was pretty confused on the river. I felt like he either had a 7, a flush, or a missed f/d. His turn check is weird, but I guess I can't fold this river too often with no reads.

Now to the good ones

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3569984 - This was kind of cool. I decided to squeeze and got flatted in two spots which I didn't like too much. I opted to check the flop because AK is a huge part of their range, and I also wanted to disguise my hand. I maybe could have gotten more value, but I think the only other way I do is to either bet the turn or bet more on the river. Oh well, at least I got money from the guy monkeying with KJo

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3570013 - This was a product of my image being pretty loose. I have heard CR pros debating as to whether this is a fold or a call. I don't think a 3-bet is good very much. I can't stress the importance of making one goofy play early on in a session. It gets you action like this.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3570019 - This one I was also proud of. I didn't think this guy's flop lead was very strong, and I thought I could rep a bunch of turns. When the player called behind, I didn't know what to put him on. On the turn, the flop better tanked then checked, so I opted to lead like 2/3. He then tank/called, and I was like 90% sure he was on JT. So I opted to go just over 1/2 pot on river to make it look like I was value owning him.

Over all, it was a very good sesh, and I am proud of the way that I played and also encouraged. I have a 8am final which I will have to get up at like 6:30 for, so I need to do a little more studying then go to bed.

God Bless,

JG

Attention: Joel finally updated his blog!

2008-12-10T14:48:00.001-08:00

Wow. It has been a while. I can't count how many times one of my 3-4 readers has told me that they wish I updated this thing more often. So, rather than studying for my last final tomorrow, I opt to write on my blog and share some thoughts.

Things have been pretty good lately, life-wise. This last weekend, my brother Pete came up, and we had some Bellingham adventures including him getting kicked out of a bar (obv) for stealing some guy's ID. We did, however, go to the Slo Pitch on Friday night and actually played sober. I felt like I played amazing but went 3+ hours without winning a pot when I moved to the main table :(

Saturday we drove back down and hung out at Paul and Ramie's, watching football and drinking a lot of beer. Derek and Bubs also arrived, and we busted out two fresh decks of cards and played Chinese. Every 10 minutes or so, someone would come up with a new rule that would basically just increase the stakes. I was up a decent amount when we decided to take a break and go to Sushi Land.

Then Derek and Bubs decided to buy dice and implement them into our game. This is where things get bad.

While walking back to Paul's place, I mentioned that I was running pretty hot and knew that a downswing was coming. When we got back, Bubs and I couldn't win. It was like the Chinese gods took a dump on our cards while Derek rolled the dice every other hand. What really killed was when I implemented a special quads and a special straight flush which would allow that person to roll double the dice. Derek and Bubs each hit that once, which meant 4 rolls each at $5 a point.

The thing that broke the bank was the very last hand, where I looked down at a spade straight flush, which was the jackpot suit. I became elated, as this might be my chance to get a good chunk of change back. I set my hand with glee, then Derek showed me his hand, and he had aces full, which meant that I was going to get bad beated. He was debating not playing aces full and instead play like flush, straight, ace high up. But because our game puts so much emphasis on the side action rather than who actually wins, he played Aces full, and I immediately went ballistic.

I lost an unspeakable amount of money, especially given the fact that I don't have a job right now and haven't luck-sacked a donkament win in a while. Not good. It is good, however, that Derek is nice enough to not put any pressure on me and even took 6 points off ($30 value) for getting him a burger and a pop at the Seahawks game (I paid like $11). It's cool to have nice friends who rape you for a ridiculous amount of money and then are caring enough to let you shave points off by buying them whatever they want.

After that, we went to play poker at a casino called Goldie's. Paul said I was on his tab, which was cool, but I obviously went cold again and couldn't win. I wasn't that drunk but just wasn't playing very well - limping then calling a raise with A9 and calling down on a A 4 3 x x in a spot where he had to have AK. I then called a UTG+1 raise from the SB with AJo (spewy) and paid off 3 bets on a J x x x x, and he had KK.

Derek and I left early and didn't get to see Pete run over the table while slow-rolling every single pot and subsequently getting kicked out. HAHA! His record of getting kicked out of gambling/drinking establishments is top notch.

Anyways, on the way home, I was feeling emotionally down because it seemed like things weren't going very well. I told Derek that I was so fucking sick of the highs and the lows of gambling and playing poker. It is so much fun to play when you win a tourney and are feeling good and stuff, but playing poker knowing that you need to win to have enough money to pay bills and stuff just isn't fun. He told me that he had been there before back in the day and that I have it better than most other college students. I told him that, if I could be in my current financial situation without gambling, I would feel good. But because I feel the need to grow my bankroll so I can be a baller and stuff just doesn't translate to good results.

Luckily I have people around me that want the best for me and that are there for me when things are good and when things are bad. I know that I have tremendous skill at playing poker and am just sorta in a dry spell. It is so tough to put in the amount of hands that it takes to show a large enough sample size when you are in college and when there are social things happening every night - not to mention school and finals and stuff. I am looking forward to break to be able to just relax and play whenever I want.

All that being said, I did subscribe to Cardrunners a couple of days ago and have been watching a ton of videos trying to absorb as much information as possible. Something that I have definitely improved on and have been thinking about just in the past few days is focusing on game flow. David Benefield had a video where he mentioned that he doesn't use Poker Tracker because it turns you into a robot and you don't focus on the players and game flow. I put in a session of 4-tabling .5/1 NL and didn't have poker tracker running and wasn't really looking players up but was just trying to concentrate on the table dynamics. What I mean by that is trying to:

A) Identify weaker players at the table and implement tactics to isolate and get heads up with them.
B) Look for spots to profitably re-steal. I have never really mixed in light 3-betting into my game, but it is something that has definitely evolved to become the norm in online live games these days.
C) Start with a strategy and wait until players start to react and adjust to my strategy before switching gears. I cannot even mention the importance of this. I do not know my poker stats from yesterday but I would imagine that I was playing something like 24/20 with a 3-betting percentage of like 7-9%. This is much more aggressive than I am used to but really started to pick up on the fact that, when you are changing gears as soon as the table starts to pick up on your aggression, this can be so profitable. I was able to 4-bet light a couple times the third or fourth time that a player 3-bet me, and I knew they were 3-betting me light because it was like the 5th straight button I had opened.

I can already start seeing improvements in my game, and, although I ended up losing like $80 yesterday, I over-played 2 big hands and played a $240 pot against a player probably playing 90/0 when I had 6 2 on a 3d 4d 5x 9x Ad board where I bet/3-bet the flop, then 3/4'd the turn then puked when I saw the river but decided to go for thin value only to get min-raised and pay it off. But at least these are things that I can tangibly improve on, which is exciting to me.

I just finished a paper for my history class and now have one remaining final in Environmental Economics tomorrow which shouldn't be too bad. After that, the plan is to hang around here in Bellingham for a few days and try to get back in the grinding mode before heading down to Seattle for break. I am really looking forward to it.

That's all.

God Bless,

JG

Bad Sunday

2008-11-16T23:20:00.000-08:00

This weekend was pretty fun. On Friday night a group of us went out to Red Robin to celebrate a friend of our's birthday. It was fun, and I won an earlier bet against Grant so he had to pick up my tab. I didn't punish him as hard as I could have but nonetheless had a couple beers and a long island iced tea.

After that we went and picked up some beer and headed to a party at the house of this girl whose birthday it was. It was a lot of fun as we mostly just played a lot of pool and beer pong and binge drank.

Saturday was also pretty laid back. Grant's car unfortunately died but we decided to go and play some golf. We headed over to Padden and I started off miserably. I hit a decent tee shot on one but blocked my 9-iron approach shot at least 30 degrees right of target. I just sat there looking at it then looking back and Grant and then back at where the ball ended up. I couldn't believe it. I was like +6 through 6 but then parred out to salvage a little confidence.

After that we came home, and I went to church with a couple good friends. We then headed out to another party after church. My friends Steven, Rob, and I then got the urge for some dumplings. The plan was to catch a bus, but they apparently stopped running, so we were sad. It was probably a mile and a half walk, so we unsuccessfully tried to call a cab. We eventually settled on hitchiking with a 10 dollar bill in our hand. Someone in a geo-metro like car with already 3 people in it stopped. We piled in, me sitting on Steven's lap, and drove down to get dumplings. To this day, this will be known as a top-10 best use of a $10 bill.

Today I tried to wake up at 10 but simply couldn't find it in me, sleeping in 'til 11. I opted not to attend the Hawks game today as I was tired and didn't feel like driving 100 miles to see the Hawks get embarassed at home. Turned out to be a good decision as the Hawks lost by 6, even though they were severilly outplayed the entire game.

I signed up for a ton of tourneys and was looking to do something. I whiffed on 2 or 3 satellites for bigger tournaments including taking 6th in a $200k qualifier with 4 spots paying the entry and 5th winning $40. I was chipleader with 6 left which was even more disappointing.

Everything else was just kinda bad. I just wasn't in the right mood or zone to do well. I am starting to think that I don't like playing on my laptop. There is just something about the size of the screen and the fact that it runs extremely slow when I have PokerAce HUD running. Well, as if a sign from God, I hit my laptop pretty hard after busting from the final 3 tournies of the day within 2 minutes. It then froze and I am unable to start it now. OOPS.

Anyways, Grant and I then went to see Role Models which actually surprised and was pretty funny. I didn't think it was rated R and was quite shocked with the language, lol. Anyways, we got back a couple of hours ago and I haven't really done anything too productive. I did happen to wander to thepokerdb.com, and they are apparently having a free trial weekend where all of their exclusive data that is only seen to paying members is available to everyone. I decided to check out my stats on UB since 2006, and here they are:

Tournies played: 858
Winnings: $40,094.95
Buy-ins: $22,167.46
Rake: $1,902.40
Profit: $16,025.09
ROI: 61.1%

I went to compare these stats to some online pros, and I struggled to find many that were even near this ROI. Now I understand that the average buy-in of my tournaments is much lower and, thus, the quality of play is going to be worse, but it is still encouraging to know that, over a large sample size, I am still a profitable player. My ROI on FTP was actually negative through 106 tournaments, which was to be expected. I haven't done anything on there for whatever reason. I just don't feel very confident, whether it be the software or the look/feel. I do love the volume and payouts of their tourney and maybe it is just a matter of having some success on there to enjoy it, but that hasn't really happened thus far.

I had a shallow cash in the $12.5k gtd. tourney on there today but that was sadly my only cash of the day. I am not too demoralized or anything, but it does sting to have a day completely devoted to online with no success. I am going to try to put in some tourneys at least two weekdays this week but it may be tough with school stuff and tests/quizzes coming up.

That being said, my brother Pete sent me a text earlier this week saying he was contemplating coming up on Wednesday which would be amazing. I can only hope that this unemployment thing happens through the end of the year so as to not interfere with Pete and Joel's month of fun (PAJMOF) :)

God Bless,

JG

Florida Recap

2008-11-12T22:31:00.000-08:00

I just got back up to Bellingham after spending the last 5+ days in Florida. It was a very memorable trip and was kinda tough going from 80+ degree weather to cold rain and flood warnings. But I guess that's the price you pay. Anyways, my brother Paul got married, and we also did a little vacationing to Orlando which was really cool.

Our flight on Friday was scheduled for 11:30pm, so we did the whole red eye thing, and I made the poor, poor decision of taking a benodryl before the flight assuming I would be able to sleep on the plane. This was not the case. I ended up not sleeping for more than 30 minutes, as I apparently cannot sleep in any seat except the window.

We arrived in Orlando at around 8, but this wasn't even the funniest part. Derek took a flight on Friday at 3pm, flew to Utah then to LA, and there was a 3 hour delay there because the bathrooms on the plane wouldn't shot! So he arrived in Tampa about 1 hour before us despite him leaving over 8 hours before us.

When we got there, my body told me it was Friday night but it was apparently Saturday. We went over to Paul's fiancee Ramie's mom's house for an open house which was pretty cool despite the fact that we didn't see any aligators :(

That night we had rehearsal then went to a very nice dinner. The wedding itself was on Sunday and was absolutely amazing despite the Hawks losing. The sick part about the Hawks losing was the following gamecast updates that I received on my phone in the 4th quarter:

19-21 (after a Hawks TD): Mike Wahle, holding 5 yd penalty on 2 point conversion
19-21: pass complete to Carlson (2 pt conversion good)
19-21: Chad Pennington is sacked and fumble is recovered by Rocky Bernard
19-21: Ricky Williams rush for 14 yards

So apparently the 2 point conversion was no good, and so I thought we were tied and then recovered a fumble which also was apparently misreported. Oh well, apparently we played well and we are getting Matt back this week so maybe we can start to get better in prep for next season.

Anyways, Monday we headed over to Orlando, and our 100 mile trip took 4+ hours for some reason. We did stop by a cool white-sand beach but we also made like 4 unnecessary stops for some reason. For lunch we saw a sign for Quizno's and decided to stop. When we were pulling off the exti, I saw a Sonic drive in and immediately became happy. It has been one of my life-long dreams to eat there as the commercials make the food/desserts look so good and there are no Sonics in Washington to my knowledge.

When I walked over to check out the menu, no food looked good, and so I opted in favor of a Quizno's Honey Bourbon Chicken sandwich. I did however purchase a Sonic Blast for dessert which was good haha.

That night we went to play putt putt at a place called Congo River. There was actually an alligator pit with baby alligators. I was tempted to take one home. Derek and I decided to wager $20 on stroke play and $20 on match play with a sweeping bonus of all-you-can-eat crab. I knew I had to be at least a -125, so I obliged. I got out to a 3 stroke/hole lead through 4 but saw it slip away when I decided to go for a big gamble on the 16th with the match on the line.

I then opted for double or nothing knowing he couldn't lucksack a win again. I won that one, and we were off for the night. The first night was at an all-you-can-eat Chinese Buffet which advertised a crab buffet. We sat down and learned that each buffet cost $35. I was hesitant but went with it, and we ate a ridiculous amount of crab and threw down some beers.

We then headed to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch MNF. We each had 3 very tall Coors Lights, while we played Chinese. Derek passed me a royal, and I ended up 14 points for $70, hehe.

I'm not going to go into the rest of the events that took place that evening but if you are curious, I may just tell you privately.

The next day we woke up and went to Disneyworld. We hit up the most important rides first (Splash, space, thunder mtn, pirates, which sucked, and the haunted mansion). We settled on Splash as easily the most enjoyable ride and rode it 8 times before running out of daylight.

On the flight home, Pete and I opened up the cards and played an enjoyable .5 a point Chinese. Pete declined to do jackpots/bad beats, and would have scooped a ton off me, as he had like 3 straight flushes and lost with Aces full. I ended up scooping $1.50 - good for a cheap plate at Sushi Land.

Overall it was a very enjoyable vacation and it was fun to get away from the daily grind of school to hang out with family and get to know the other side of the family better also. I did, however, lose my iPod somehow and am quite sad. I figure I was a -200 to lose something worth over $100 on the vacation, so I'm not too surprised.

We arrived in Seattle today around 11:30, and I made it up to Bellingham a little after 7pm. I played in the FTP $24k and the $15k rebuy on UB. I busted in the 2nd hour in the FTP when I lost a big race with JJ vs. AK on a x x x x A. In the UB one, I decided to only be in $90 max and was down to 900 after the first hour. Then the option to add-on popped up (or so I thought), so I double added on for $60, only it first gave me the option to rebuy for 1500 chips/$30. So I spent $60 there for 3000 chips instead of declining and just adding on for $60 and receiving 6000 chips. So I was then "forced" to single add on and was in $120 with $90 worth of chips :(

I played actually really well and doubled up in an interesting pot. I raised A8o from the HJ to 400 (75/150). The BB who was a maniac called, and we saw a 7c 4c 4s flop. He checked, and I led 525, which he called. The turn was the interesting 8d. He checked, and I decided to lead 1525 of my 3500 chip stack and go with the hand. He again flatted, and the river was the Ks. The pot was over 7k, and I had 2k behind, but he foolishly put me in and I called, and he showed A9cc.

That got me up to over 11k, and not too much happened for a while. I slowly chipped up and reached my peak of 24k at 400/800. With 22 left and 20 paying, I raised a pot and got moved in and mucked which had me down to 17k at 800/1600. The very next hand I was dealt 77, and unfortunately had to shove my 10+bb stack. A LPP called with TT and I bricked. This was eerily similar to the $120 tourney that I played this summer where I fought my ass off and ended up shoving 66 for around 10 bb's and was called by TT on the bubble.

I wasn't all that disappointed about the tournament. If I had finished 20th I would have received $150 for a $30 profit, so I was obviously eyeing the FT. I played pretty patient and was just defeated by the poor UB structure late. I am actually happy that I did not get all that upset as maybe I am maturing as a poker player and as a person. I will not be playing poker tomorrow or Friday I don't think but will probably hit it hard on Saturday and Sunday and try to make something magical happen :)

That being said, it is 11:15pm, but my body says it's 2am so I am going to bed. BTW, Peter mentioned on the trip that I am meant to live on the east coast which is probably the case. I love staying up late and sleeping in, and, when you're on the east coast, MNF doesn't start until 8:30 and goes past midnight. Hmmmm...something to think about.

God Bless,

JG

Nothing Too Exciting

2008-11-05T20:42:00.000-08:00

So I just attended a fun little thing called Viking Jam that is basically like a prep rally type thing for Western basketball. It was kinda cool despite the fact that I had two prizes thrown into the audience go right between my fingertips. I did, however, manage to snag a gold chocolate coin and a miniature snickers. YAY.

Not too much has been going on lately. I'm pwning school right now. I'm on a sick run akin to my latest poker hot streak. It might just be that my schedule really isn't all that hard this quarter, but I am taking 3 econ classes and have been dominating. I really feel like things are clicking right now and I am actually enjoying the college life. I intentionally decided to not get involved in too many things this year and not work so that I can enjoy a social life, which has been fun. It has even cut into my poker playing which is kinda neat as I haven't gotten into the rhythm of going home and playing poker every single day.

Speaking of poker, I haven't played too much as of late. Last weekend was Halloween, and, as my last blog touched on (I think), I had a little too much too drink. I was somehow able to fade the throw up which was nice, and the Top Ramen that I eventually made had to have been the top 5 best things I have ever eaten. Then on Saturday I went home and saw Zack and Miri make a porno with Derek and Pete, which actually surprised me. Darryl from the Office was awesome, and I expect him to get pretty popular really soon.

Sunday Derek and I went to the Hawks game. We went to Safeway the night before and got a pack of beef cubes. We then went home and marinated them in this really awesome/spicy sauce that Derek came up with. We then aggressively set our alarms for 6:30am, picked up a 24 pack of Coors Light and ice and actually made it down to the tailgating spot by 7:45.

We then got absolutely played by a couple of bums. We had drinken our fair share of beer when two bums approached us. One of them was from Australia (I could get into talking about what I thought this guy's life story was and how he made it to America, homeless, but I will save that for another day). Derek and I were playing Chinese (I was up a modest amount), and the guy asked if we wanted to see a magic trick. Of course we obliged. He then said that if he could pick out our card from a pile, we owed him a beer. I said okay, and he did his thing and picked out our card. I then reached for the cooler and got him a beer. He then apparently put the beer in his pocket while we weren't paying attention, and then he proceeded to tell us how he did the trick. When he was finished, and we were all laughing, he said, "alright, now you have to give me a beer". I was like, "I already gave you one", and he said, "no you didn't". Derek was drunk and said, "I'm pretty sure you didn't", and so I gave him another, lol. SOUL OWNED!

Anyways, the game sucked as usual. Koren Robinson scored a 90 yd. TD on the first offensive play from scrimmage, and we didn't score again. The season is over, and it's really really depressing. I'm not going to dwell on that.

Then Monday, I played some online, going deep in the 4pm $5r and the 5pm $6k Sniper. I bubbled the $6k then was down to 20 in the 5r. I was extremely in control, raising up front pretty light in situations because no one was 3-betting light. This made it extremely fun. Everyone else was potting their p/f raises, coming in for 4.2x+.

I then made a really silly mistake in a weird hand. There was a UTG station limper at 3k/6k, to me in the HJ with AKo. I made it 26k trying to price him out of the pot. Mucked back to him, and he called. I had him covered by 22k. The flop came 9c 4x 2c, and he leads min (6k). This is a f/d like 75% of the time and 33, 55-88 the rest of the time. To bet the pot would have been like 83k, and he had like 90ish behind, so I just went ahead and moved him in, assuming he'd fold a f/d and most other hands he could have. He thought for 3 FULL seconds and called with J8cc. I wasn't too happy, and he had me down to 4 outs when the Jh peeled on the turn, and I missed.

Looking back at the hand, I did get it in with like 50% equity, so it's not TOO bad, but a call on the flop probably would have been more warranted probably only because the table was so bad, and I could have made it into the top 3 with little resistance by continuing my game of abusing their blinds. Oh well, just kinda sucks.

Last night, I fired up all 8 tables that were running at $100NL and felt that the games were probably the best I have ever seen. I would have played longer but it was like 12:30, and Conan was about to come on.

I have been thinking about how I can get better at 6-max $100NL, and it really comes down to just getting a feel for each table and adjusting accordingly. I had at least 3 tables last night with at least 3-fish/stations at each according to poker-edge.com, and so I had to iso-raise probably the top 25% of the hands from the button, c/o behind their limps. This is extremely profitable, but is something that you simply can't do in more agro games.

Another thing that I have been struggling with is trying to avoid spewing in spots where I don't go with my read. This is an area that I can and should improve greatly in. So many situations come up where I will pay off huge river bets against players that are simply never making a move. I tell myself before I press call that I am beat, but my right index finger gets the best of me. I really feel that, when I am playing my best, I am paying attention and picking up on things that other people simply aren't, and acting accordingly, regardless of the strength of my hand.

Well I have to go study for a test tomorrow then I have a test on Friday, and then it's off to Florida for 5 days for Paul's wedding/mini-vacation. I am really really excited for it, and am contemplating trying to find some time to squeeze in a round of golf. We'll see if that happens.

God Bless,

JG

I'm Hungry

2008-11-01T02:40:00.000-07:00

Peter told me to start blogging today. I am extremely hungry. It's almost 3am, and I haven't consumed anything since 4pm except Top Ramen (which was damn fine). I have had a night out which was pretty awesome. We started out at a friend's house then went downtown to watch about 50 people perform the Thriller Dance. I made it down there in time but couldn't really see everything going on. Oh ya, I drank 1/2 a fifth before we went down, so I was "slightly" buzzed before we went down.

I apologize for not separating my topics into paragraphs. This happens when I drink. I decided to 8 table some $100 NL today. I was stuck a little less than a buy-in when the following hand came up:

Not too complicated. I had AKo and raised from 2nd pos. 3rd pos. potted to $15, and we had an interesting cold caller from the BB. Back to me I decided to tilt-raised to $50 and go with the hand. OR mucked (yaaaaaaaaay) and OC somehow found a call with $30 behind. I almost jumped out of my chair, but the flop came K 6 2, and I felt happy inside. He checked, and I moved him in for the $30 he had behind completely ignorant of his current range. He called and the board rolled out "banana, banana" and I win against his KQhh. TY for calling my 4-bet with K high!!! Weeeee....as I like to talk about, it is good that people like this are still using their own money to play online poker.

I came back tonight, extremely drunk, I might add, and shortstacked some $1-2 PLO as I might have said. I managed to run good and made a little over $100 which is fun. Not too many fun hands. I am deciding what to do in the future. If I want, I could probably manage my way through paying bills and rent if I devoted enough time to MTT's. But I typically have plans every day of the week which makes things difficult. I am going to have to make a sacrifice soon.

I love my friends and family and am drunk right now. I can't wait to go to Florida next weekend!

Hope this was a decent life update, Pete. Love you!

Joel

Meh.........

2008-10-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend was pretty fun. On Friday, Grant, Heather, our friend Brett, and I started the evening out at a Mexican restaurant called Jalapenos. I had heard good/dangerous things about a drink called the Big Mama, which was a margarita with like 5 shots of tequila in it :/

After that we went bowling and threw down some more beer. I bowled an embarassing 83 with no ability for redemption as we only bowled one game. We met up with some other cool people including an exchange student from Italy who is hilarious. The plan was to go bar hopping but we decided to just go to this temple bar and hang out there for a while. It was nice...maybe a little too nice. I told Grant the next day that I am a fan of bars with TV's, which this bar did not have. I cannot ignore my roots.

Anyways, Saturday I was supposed to go to a campaign rally for Dino Rossi but completely forgot about it and decided instead to go the way of online poker. I had a pretty good day on Saturday. I qualified for the Sunday $200 and took 2nd in a $10 no guaranteed tourney on FTP. LMAO!! I love it because I can't do anything on that site except for going deep in these small tourneys. Might be a correlation. Anyways, it was rigged because I had AK against K8 on a K 8 3 against an idiot heads up. I won a little over $400 for my efforts. Boooooooooooo!!!!

I decided to get a little revenge on the hardwood on Saturday as Grant and I returned to Century 21 lanes. I really feel like I should be getting better at bowling - primarily because it is a non-major sport, and my last name is Graves. My first game I bowled an impressive 155ish. I beat Grant by like 35 pins in the line-setting game and I def. got the worst of it when I gave him 20 pins on accident :'( I obviously bowled like a 112 in the second game and got destroyed by Grant "the hustler" Landram.

Anyways, we had a pitcher or two there then I was getting the itch so we headed to the Pitch. In a bizarre turn of events, Grant did not hit a jackpot. I anticipated casually drinking a pitcher or two, but my friend Louie bought me 3 random shots to which I obliged. Probably the worst thing for me is to continue my winning streak at the Pitch when I am lit. I remember learning something in psychology about false atribution where you falsely correlate two events, and this may be the case. I undoubtedly do not play as sharp when I am drunk, but who knows? I was horsing Grant, and combined we made $70 which was cool. I think the only hand I remember was limping in with 55, and Grant told me he mucked one. The door card was a 5, and I won a nice sized pot.

Sunday didn't go very well. I woke up kinda early and played in the $5k sniper - the one that I chopped last week. I was short and reshipped AJ and was called by K9dd and lost. In the $200, I played a little bit sloppy early on. I definitely had a very weak table and was trying to splash around. I was paying really good attention to players and trying to figure out areas that I could exploit. I was taking notes on nearly every showdown pot but things just didn't really work out. I ended up getting down to 1600 at 75/150 and raising TT from the SB unopened. The BB flatted with AJ, and I shipped in on a K J x. I slammed my laptop before I even saw the turn.

The rest of the night was not memorable. I played some $100NL and lost about $160 and whiffed the 9pm $8k about 10 minutes in when I had 54cc against an EP limper/maniac who had 9-5o on a 9 5 4 flop, hehe.

Today I had class at 10 and was pleased to find that I will be able to take my Wednesday test on Friday which I may do. If I muster up the courage to take it on Wednesday, I will be able to go out on Thursday after another test on Thursday. I got some studying done then went to the gym. The plan was to ride the bike then do some abs and some bi's and tri's. I started shooting hoops then just opted to go home and play some online feeling no motivation to work out which is not good.

I got home and immediately fired up 8 tables, the most that I have played in a while. I felt pretty comfortable and in control playing $100NL. I played pretty sloppy but also didn't run very great and ended up losing a little over 2 BI's. I have been playing on my desktop which I don't have Poker Tracker on which is frustrating. I have to label everyone via poker-edge before every session which gets annoying. Also, on my laptop, when I minimize UB tables, the stats from my PokerAce HUD don't shrink, so I am tilted that I either have to leave the tables at their default size or turn it off and pull it up whenever I get in a pot with someone.

Anyways, today I also played in the 5pm $6k which I busted in a little over an hour in. I made it to the 600/1200 level in the FTP $32k but shoved J6o for 7 bb's unopened from the c/o and the button had JJ. I was thinking about this shove and really don't think it was correct. I should be shoving the top 30-35% of hands there but I don't think J6 should be in my shoving range. Oh well. I watched some Poker X Factor videos of AJKHoosier1 and learned a lot which is cool. I then played in the 9pm and whiffed at 75/150 when I shoved for 1400 with KQo and was called by 88 and QQ and missed.

I haven't been all that disappointed these last couple days with the lack of success. I still feel very confident and comfortable in my abilities and hope that this can translate to some success on FTP soon. I cannot explain the thrill of FT'ing one of those tournaments and the background changes to where there are lights and cameras and stuff. It's pretty cool.

Anyways, I feel quite lazy after about 3 straight unproductive, lazy weekends but feel that I need to take full advantage of these times before next year when I am expected to get a job and w/e comes along with that. I am going to cherish these days where I go to class for an hour and a half then come home and grind for 6 or 7 hours.

Oh ya, the Hawks won yesterday, and I think we need to get to 8-8 in order to have a shot in the division. All can change this week if we beat Philly, although we opened at 7 point dogs.

Well it's time for me to go to bed. I'm not sure if I will have a whole lot of time for online this week but, if I do, I will be a slight dog to win a tourney. Feeling good right now.

God Bless,

JG

Chopped for 1st in UB $8k!

2008-10-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

Alright, now we are rolling. After the win on Wednesday, I took Thursday off because I had to write a paper and had a test on Friday. I got the paper done and the test was alright. I tried to clear my weekend in preparation for the UBOC, but apparently I am an idiot, and the UBOC is actually in January, lol!

Oh well, I wasn't going to let that stop me. Friday night was pretty cool. No drinking or anything just MTT's. I signed up for the 4pm $5r. I'm not going to detail too many hands, but I managed to come to the FT 10th in chips. I chipped up and was chip-leader with 7 left. I lost a big race with 66 against AJ and then came the bust hand. With around 400k in chips, I raised to 60k at 12/24k I believe, with 88. I got flatted by the button. The flop came K 4 3r. I decided to check with no plan. The guy bet 65k, less than 1/2 pot. The only hand with a K in it that he could have was KQ. So I decided to go with it and jammed for 340k. He insta-called with KQ and held.

So I got like $300 in that. I was also deep in the 6:20 $7.5k. I ended up finishing in 12th in that which was kinda depressing. Overall, a pretty good day though.

Yesterday (Saturday), Pete came up, and we planned on giving into our vices to that max. We went to Sudden Valley to play some golf. I started off par-birdie-birdie. Then I missed a 3-footer on 4 for par. I parred 6 and birdied 7 and 8 before I bogeyed 9 from middle of the fairway with a 9-iron. Overall, 4 birdies, 3 bogeys. Oh well.

After that we got some port of subs and I picked up some crickets for Samantha, my pet scorpion. We started throwing down some Coors Lights and I played one table of $1-$2NL. It was kinda a roller coaster. I bought in $200, was up to $300 then down to $60 after I ran AQ into a limped QQ on a Q x x A x board :(

I ended up stacking this maniac when I iso-raised his limp with K9dd. HU we saw a 4 3 2ddd flop. He checked and I bet like $8 into a $23. He bet pot, and I flat called. The turn was an offsuit A, and he moved in. I called and the pot was shipped to me when he showed 10-7ss. WEEEEE!!!!!!!

After about 6-7 beers each we taxied it to the Pitch to play some 4-8 and drink pitchers. Not that I got super drunk but I don't really remember a ton of the hands. I DO remember raising the turn against this super nitty asian woman with K8 on a K 7 6 8. She just called my raise with 10-9. The river was a K, and she bet out again and called me raise hehe.

That was a fun night that included Grant stopping by the bank on the way back, and Peter hijacked the car and drove around the block, risking both of our lives lol :/ We made it home safely thank God.

Today I woke up around 9:30, set my fantasy lineup, and immediately started signing up for $200k qualifiers. I whiffed about 4 of them but was going deep in the 11am which is a $30 sniper, $5k guaranteed.

There weren't too many interesting hands other than me winning a big race with JJ against AQ for pretty much all of my stack in a 10k pot at 150/300. I cruised to the FT 4th in chips with like 40k in chips at 1k/2k. I chipped up relatively easy at the table, and there were not really any players that were 3-betting me light p/f.

I knocked out 2 players when I found KK in the SB, and AQ and 77 moved in, and I held. That got me up around 100k with like 4 or 5 players left. I continued my hyper-aggression 4-handed and got HU with a slight chip-lead against this player who had been playing really tight.

The blinds moved up to 5/10k with like 360k chips in play, so when he offered to chop, I obliged. With $2150 left in the prize pool, we decided to each take $1,000 and play for the remaining $150. I did this because of the huge pay jumps on UB. Anyways, I didn't really adjust to the fast structure and ended up losing in a silly bust hand. He limped the button, and I checked J2. The flop came 5 6 7. Check, check. Turn J, and I led 14k into a 22. He called. River the stupid 2x. I was a little bit suspicious but decided to try and get some value if he had a J. I led 24k into a 50k. He "tanked" and moved me in, and I said "nh" and called, and he showed 8-4. Oh well, at least we made a deal.

I am trying to hurry up and finish this blog because the Hawks are playing on Sunday night against the Bucs. I just wanted to reiterate how silly life and poker is. When I started playing today, I just sat there thinking how incredibly confident I was that I was going to go deep in one of the tourneys I was playing. Ahh, the power of positive thinking. But seriously, things feel good and I am really liking the way that I'm playing. Despite seemingly not making a FT all summer, I have made 3 in the past 4 days including 1 1/2 wins. Man, feels good.

Anyways, it's 5pm. I haven't showered and the Hawks are about to start, so it's time to go do work.

LET'S GO HAWKS!!!!!!

JG

8k Recap + UBOC This Weekend

2008-10-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

So I have been looking forward to writing this post since last night. Whereas I was very happy when I went to bed last night, I had a hard time falling asleep and ended up watching half of Fun with Dick and Jane. First for a tourney recap:

Early on at 15/30, a player shoved for 900 with T6o, and I found AA and called, which got me up to 3k from the 2k starting stack. A few hands later, at 20/40, I iso-raised a station with AKo, raising to 160. He decided to ship in for like 1200 total, and I thought about it and called, and he showed 77 and held. That had me down to 1400.

At 30/60, I picked up 88 in the SB. EP big stack who I had already noted had 4-bet 66 min-raised. Player called behind, and I decided to 3-bet and go with the hand. I made it 450 to go, leaving myself 800 behind. The OR 4-bet AI, and I called, and he showed AQ. We saw a fun board of Q x x x 8 to give me some life, back at 2500 at the 1st break.

There weren't a whole lot of memorable hands in the 2nd hour, except that I tilt-raised 86hh after I had lost a pot to 750 (150/300, 25 ante). The BB called, and we saw a 10d 8d 4x flop. The pot was at like 1900, and the effective stacks were 3500 after the p/f action (I had him covered by about 700 chips). After he checked, I decided to lead 925 with the intention of going with the hand. I got c/r'd AI and called, and he showed a sick K7dd. I somehow managed to fade that flip to get up to a little over 10k.

After dropping down to about 8k at 200/400, a very interesting hand came up that tourned the tourney around for me. I had A3dd in the c/o, and there was a very bad UTG limper. It mucked to me and I decided to limp because the blinds were also not very good. 4-handed, we saw a 9s 8s 3x flop. With 2400 in the pot, SB led for 600. It mucked to me with Grant behind me watching. I felt quite strongly that he was either on a draw or perhaps a weak 9 or 8. I decided to raise to 1600, hoping to pick the pot up cheaply. The player called very quickly, and the turn was the beautiful 3h. He led for 1k really fast, and, at this point, I was fairly certain that he was on a draw. It just didn't make sense for him to have a 9 here with this line and his bet-sizing. Instead of moving him in, I decided to milk it and raise to 2500. He insta-called, and the river was the gross 9h. I said I was going to puke if he moved in. He of course moved in for 2400, which was my chip stack. Looking at the board, I was confused but was actually contemplating a fold. Grant said that he couldn't see how I could press fold. The odd thing was that my hand has to look like a 9. I, however, pressed call, and he showed KQss, pushing my stack up to 15k. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

As the field got narrowed to 3 tables, I was not above the chip average for very long. It was actually a pretty mundane tournament for the most part. At one point, I was 20th of 23 with 20 spots paying. I managed to steal enough b's and a's to stay afloat as I made my way into the money with 11k at 500/1k blinds.

When we got down to 2 tables, things got pretty fun/funny. Based on my recent tournament drought with the exception of the $2r, I did not have high expectations for the tournament, even though I was 20 spots away from 2.3k. I kept stealing the blinds and antes with very little resistance and felt good about not having to jam my 9-10bb stack.

Anyways, with 2 tables left, my friend Heather arrived, just getting back from the bars. We actually got into a pretty awesome, deep conversation that I really enjoyed, while not really even concentrating on my table. It was actually really ironic. This whole summer, I had been really trying to force things to happen, perhaps thinking about things too much without putting things on cruise control and letting my natural skills and abilities take over. Of course, it also helps when you get QQ and KK within 2 orbits and get in against AJ and AT respectively and hold, hehe.

After those hands, I found myself with 35k in chips. Like I said, I hardly re-stole at all without the nuts. I was talking with Grant about this, but I felt like the field was pretty weak and, with the exception of a few people, no one was really raising/re-raising light. Because of this, I didn't really feel like open-shoving marginal hands from EP-MP for 9-11bb's. I felt like, because the players weren't adjusting to light shoves, their calling range would be smaller, and I could afford to wait until I was down to 7-8bb's to shove light. Interesting concept that really allowed me to chip up with little resistance.

I made it to the FT in 5th place with 35k in chips at 1k/2k. (btw, I apologize, Pete, for using "k" instead of thousand. I hope that you are now numb to it. If you want me to stop using "k", you will have to change your text message ringer). Not a whole lot happened at the FT tbh. A good TAG player was seated 2 seats to my left and raised 3 out of the first 6 hands, winning the blinds and antes each time. But he was eliminated when he got in with AKo against 88 in a huge pot and lost. I got a little antsy and raised J10o from 3rd pos. at 1200/2400 to 6000. The BB re-shipped, and I folded. I was down to 24k at this point.

This is when people just started getting eliminated. I raised a couple hands in position and stole the blinds and antes and maintained a 10-15bb stack for a while. Without getting into too much detail, I managed to get down to 5-handed. Still at 1200/2400, I moved in for 19k from the c/o with AKo. Button re-ships with AJo, and we see a board of KQxxJ to double me up to like 44k. I hung around this stack for a while, while a big stack SLAP continued to eliminate players. Before I knew it, we were 4-handed, and then we were 3-handed, and I was guaranteed like 900. The first hand that we played 3-handed, I was at 33k at 1500/3000. The other two players had 180k and 150k each. The button idiot opts to move in for 180k. The BB tanks, and I am obv rooting for a call. He ends up calling with AJo agains the button's A9o. I was estatic but also didn't really like the AJ call, given he had 50bb's and could easily find a better place to get it in, especially with me sitting with 30k. Oh well, he did get it in as a 3/1 fav. but lost when A9 flopped a 9.

Suddenly I found myself HU and guaranteted $1,300. I was so pumped and ready to just get the money in and be done with it. I jokingly asked him if he wanted to chop, as he had a 12:1 chip advantage on me. He didn't respond and began open-shoving seemingly any 2 on the button. I limped KK on the button at 1500/3000 with 22k behind (HAHA!!) and got all in against his J2 on a J 10 8 flop and held. That got me up to 50ish. After slipping back to 40k, I got it AI with him with KQ against his A5 p/f and flopped a K to double. A couple hands later I checked J5 from the BB after he limped. The flop came QJ5ddd. I led for 5k, and he potted. I moved in, and he called with KK no diamond. I held that and, all of the sudden, I had 150k, and he had 180k.

He then offered to chop, and I was really contemplating chopping, as the difference between 2nd and 1st was almost 1k. I then asked if he wanted to, and he said, "lol". He apparently was joking. This made me so happy inside and now, I felt, karma was on my side.

I then called a raise with A8o from the BB, and we saw a A J 9 flop. I checked, and he insta-bet pot at 26k. I typed in "gl me" to buffman in AIM and moved in. He snap called with QT. The turn was a T, and the river bricked, and I was now in a commanding chip position with 260k to his 60k. The very next hand I limp AKo on the button expecting him to move in. He instead checks, and I win the pot on a A Q 8 flop. I believe 2 hands later, I pick up AA in the BB. He moves in for 65k at 2k/4k. I snap call and stand up, he shows 87ss. The flop comes a beautiful QJ4 no spade. I yelled for the turn to not give him any outs, and the turn peeled off a seemingly innocent 9. I said, "YES" before I realized he turned a gutter. The river was a T to teach me a lesson about celebrating early, and he was back to 130k to my 200k.

A couple hands later, I was in the BB with KJcc. He limped for 4k, and I made it 14k. He called. Flop came K 9 7s. I decided to do the cute-lead for 10k. He bet pot, and I moved in. He called and showed a beautiful J9ss. The turn was the 6s for a fun UB sweat, and the river bricked for me to win the tournament.

Before I got a chance to type anything in AIM or on facebook, I told Grant we're going to McDonald's to maximize our monopoly-winning potential. After two large Big Mac meals, the night was probably perfect.

It is amazing to me how weird life is. My last post before last night was entitled "Life Tilt". I am now as pumped as ever about poker. I felt that I played an amazing tournament and cannot recall a overly poor decision that I made. Everything just sort of came together, and I won enough races to win a tournament. I am going to withdraw a decent amount to live off of for a month or two and keep around 2,000 in my account.

That being said, the UBOC starts tomorrow, and I am incredibly excited. I will be playing pretty much all of the mini-tournaments, which range from $10r's to $50 tourneys. The lineups look pretty sick. Saturday, there is a $50 HU tournament that will be fun. Grant and I are doing a bet to see who can profit the most amount of money from these tournaments. The winner gets to choose the loser's Halloween costume. I would greatly appreciate some suggestions!

Well, me going deep in last night's tournament means that I didn't study for my test tomorrow, nor the quiz today, nor did I finish/start a paper that is due on Tuesday. So my weekend is pretty set for me, and I am really looking forward to it.

I will try to update my blog after every UBOC tournament for all of my loyal readers :)

God Bless,

JG

Won the 9pm!!!

2008-10-16T01:57:00.000-07:00

WOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! I just won the $8k on UB for $2.3kish. This couldn't have come at a better time. It is 2am here and I have 10am class, so I'm going to go to bed and recap the tourney when I get a chance tomorrow. I will say that I floated between 10-20bb's for the entire FT, and, when we got down to 6-handed, people just started dropping. I got HU with a 12:1 chip disadvantage and somehow managed to win.

Complete recap to follow tomorrow. I am going to sleep really really well tonight.

God Bless,

JG

Life Tilt

2008-10-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

Before this weekend started, I probably wouldn't have thought that the title of this blog would be "life tilt". It was so promising, and yet, here I am.

Friday night, Grant, me, and our friend Colin started the festivities off by going bowling and throwing down a pitcher or two. My first two games, I averaged 150ish and then obviously show up with a 112 when Grant and I decide to put some money down. Funny how it works like that. After bowling, we headed down to Bob's Burgers to drink and watch the ALCS game. Boy was this a fun way to kill 3+ hours. I regrettably let Grant choose who he wanted in the game, and he took Tampa, so I was forced to root for the Red Sox. As it turned out, the Sox won, and I was up $10. However...

There were a few more prop bets throughout the evening, and I will list some of the ones that I remember:

o/u 26 1/2 years of our waitress' age (I lost, setting in awful line...she was actually 22 :/)
o/u 1/2 homerun for the game (this was set in the 4th inning, and somehow no one hit a homerun - unfortunate for me)
o/u 1 month that a couple in front of us had been together (Grant took the over, and we found out they had been together for 3 months. Pretty bad line considering he ordered the largest mushroom burger I had ever seen)
o/u the amount of time it would take this lady to finish her drink. Okay, this one was stupid. She ordered the beer at approximately 6:25, and I set the line at 6:47. She finished at approximately 6:53. IT'S ONE BEER!!!
o/u 1 alcoholic drink ordered by this one couple. This was also stupid but an awful line. There was some drama, however, when only the lady ordered a beer, and the guy ordered a diet pepsi. Unfortunately, after her 30 minute beer, they proceeded to order several rounds of shots. TILT
I then finally got the best of a line giving Grant 12.5:1 on Daisuke throwing a no-hitter in the 7th inning.

There were several others, but these were the significant ones. Overall, I was down a modest $11.50 overall. Not too shabby. After that, we went to a friend's party and had a good time.

Saturday I woke up and drove down south for the Battle in Seattle. I don't go to Western football games, so I figured I would need some alcohol in my system to enjoy it. We went to the Pyramid Brewery before the game and threw down some drinks. Our friend Heather then got us into the Western party in a bar inside the stadium which was pretty cool. Again I got the best of Grant giving him Western and 14 points as well as the over. Saturday was fun, but then came Sunday.

Derek and I were planning on tailgating before the Hawks game, but he forgot to set his alarm, and we didn't wake up until about 8am which is far too late to aggressively tailgate. We should have just stayed home probably.

We got down there and went to a cool bar called the Hawk's Nest. It's funny how, after 2 nights of drinking, you just kinda wanna take it easy and not go at it too hard. But that wouldn't be right before a Hawks game. Derek and I had 12 Coors Lights, two touchdown shots, and 4 "red-headed slut" shots. After a $90 bar tab, we headed into the game nice and toasty. The highlight of the afternoon was Derek paying me $100 to go get him Garlic Fries, which meant I was off his list. WEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

The game was pretty ugly. Hasselbeck was out, so we had a pathetic Charlie Frye in at QB. Our offense was lethargic. After 3 quarters, we had a total of 28 passing yards. This is coming from the same team that was such a successful passing team just one year ago. What a difference a year makes. We left halfway through the 4th quarter after Frye threw a pick, and we were down 24-10. This is the primary reason for my sadness.

I'm not sure who in the world could have predicted a 1-4 start. We have lost our top 6 receivers, our quarterback for a game, and our defense is playing completely uninspired football. I'm not really sure what else to say about it. I am real sick of going to every home game and getting up for my team for 60 minutes and then watch a very talented team play without a sense of urgency. It's like they expect to walk into the playoffs. At one point during the game, GB was driving, and I just sat there with my head in my lap, knowing that it was out of my control. As someone that considers themself a true, die-hard fan, I am sad to say that it came to that today. I don't see the Hawks getting out of this hole. I think that this was a must-win game if we had any plans on making it to the playoffs. We now must try and focus on getting better every week and see what happens. This could get ugly really fast. 1-7 may be on the horizon for this team.

Enough of that. After the game, I drove up and made a stop at Tulalip to play a session to kill time and to sulk. I decided to sit back and wait to cooler someone and double through them. 2nd orbit, I pick up 33 on the button in an unraised pot, and like 6 of us saw a 8 5 3 flop. SB leads $6 with 2 callers, and I decide to milk, making it $18. All 3 call. Turn a 5, and it checks to this woman station who leads $20. I was pretty sure she had a 5, so I tank-called, hoping to get overcalled behind me. They both muck. The river was a K. She led $20 again, and, at this point, I was fairly certain she had a 5 and would call a shove. I moved in for $103, and she somehow finds a fold. Not really sure what she had, but I didn't bother to ask.

After this hand not a whole lot happened. I stayed afloat and eventually cashed out up $70. This will help with paying 2 people off who I bet the Hawks against.

Since my last post, I FINALLY final tabled a tournament, coming in the prestigious $2r on UB. I cruised pretty easily with Peter railing and, at my highest point, got to like 1.5m chips 3-handed. I eventually busted in 3rd after getting kinda cute with AA and losing to a flush. I got $345 for this which was okay. I was actually really happy with the tournament and felt like it could be a step toward getting back on track.

My power chord on my laptop just decided to stop working, so I am having to play on my desktop which is meh. I am using an lcd monitor and can't quite seem to get the resolution right, so everything is a little bit weird. Oh well. I got a steal of a price on a power chord on EBay, so it shouldn't be too long before I'm playing in bed while watching TV.

This week might suck. I have homework due on Wednesday, which is a rarity, and I have a quiz on Thursday, a test on Friday, and a paper due next Tuesday. Hopefully I can find some time to get all this done and play some poker.

It's 10pm and I am exhausted. So, as weird as it sounds, I am going to go to bed.

God Bless,

JG

Long Time No Blog

2008-09-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while, and I thought that I would update this thing for all of my loyal reader(s) (thanks Pete).

I just played in the $7.5k guaranteed on UB and managed to run my stack up to 8k at 75/150 when I managed to run KK into KK and AA, the AA being the only player at my table who had me covered. Autobust but incredibly frustrating.

While I haven't played very many MTT's as of late due to my dabbing in 4-tabling $50NL with some success, I haven't had any success. I don't remember FT'ing a tourney all summer when I was playing a lot and probably haven't FT'd anything in about 4-5 months which is absolutely incredible. I can't even fathom this, as it seemed as though a year ago, it was a FT every 2 or 3 days.

I am really starting to question how I had so much success in MTT's before this summer. Did I just run way above EV for a year? I'm not convinced. I used to have a cruise control level where I was never questioning any part of my game and felt as though I was always making correct, +EV decisions. I just don't have that right now. I have been watching some Poker X Factor videos but nothing has been breakthrough. I watched all of PearlJammed's 2nd place finish in the Sunday Million and learned some pretty cool concepts but nothing that blew my mind away. I have been wanting to do a leakfinder sesh with a couple of my good online friends, but haven't had the chance. I really think the only thing that I'm lacking is a larger sample size.

The very few MTT's that I play, I tend to question myself when I go bust even in unavoidable situations. The other day, I had 88 unopened on the button at 75/150 with 2400 chips and had already open mucked a button. I made it 400, and the BB moved. I knew I had to call, believing I owned his range, and he showed KQ, and I lost. If I had won this hand, I never would have been questioning the play even though it was +EV obv.

I don't really know what to do right now. On my $50NL run, I made 8 BI's in my first session and have basically broken even since then. It seemed so easy in the beginning but then I was just not able to have very much success, probably playing too agro in those limp-fest games.

My bank account is low, and I really can't go another month without withdrawing at least $500 from my UB acct. I really wanted to run my acct. up but just either haven't had the time or, oh ya, haven't had a big score in FOREVER!

It is so frustrating, but I may have to start looking for a p/t job soon. I didn't really want to, but, unless I can really get down and dirty into this whole grinding thing or can find some sort of success in MTT's soon, I may have no other choice.

Oh ya, school started, and it's okay. Four 4-credit classes with 3 ECON classes. My worst class is history of Latin America which I have to take. BLAH!

My friends and I are starting a flag football team which I am super pumped about. We went out and played some 3 on 3 today and it was a blast.

I have been working out pretty consistently during the week but then ofc, I cannot maintain this through the weekend :/ 2 steps fwd, 1 step back ain't too bad I guess.

That's all I got. Hopefully I can manage to run good one time this month.

God Bless,

JG

Vegas Wrapup/Other Stuff

2008-09-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

Well I am back to reality. I remembered when we started the countdown to my 21st, it was around 900 days. Now that time has passed, and I am legally able to drink and gamble at any establishment in the state of Washington. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Last Thursday, the day before Vegas, I played in a golf tournament with Paul and two of our good friends, Henry and Bubs who both also came to Vegas with us. It was a scramble tourney for our high school that I have played in for the past 8ish years. We struggled on the front, turning in -5. We were about 40 yards out on 9, which is a par 5 and couldn't get up and down with 4 people. It was pretty sad.

The back 9, Bubs' putter started heating up, and he drained a 25-foot snake on 11 for birdie and a 35 footer for birdie on 12. We then eagled 14 and were back in the hunt until 17, a 150 yard uphill par-3. We all put our shots in the sand and again failed to get up and down to card an embarassing bogey. A meaningless eagle on 18 meant we were -11, good for nothing. Oh well, the whole day was just talking about Vegas and how excited we all were.

The next day, we woke up at 5:30, drove to the airport, and immediately headed to a bar to play some Chinese with the 8 of us. 40 oz. of beer and a jaeger bomb later, and we were good to go for our flight. The flight was ridiculously fun also. Derek bought our entire row bud lights and then proceeded to steal more BL's when the flight attendants were not in the back area. HEHE.

Sadly our buzz was almost gone when we got off the flight, but that didn't stop us. We checked in, and me, Derek, Grant, Nate, and Paul headed to Caesar's for an oh-so-fun session of 1-3NL. I ended up making around $50 before heading to dinner at Outback. This was even more ridiculous. Apparently we weren't the other ones binge drinking before dinner, as most everyone showed up pretty intoxicated, including my brother Pete who was nearly passed out the entire time. With the 12-13 of us and a couple trips to the bar to take shots, we wounded up with a $440 bill. Good thing we weren't doing credit card roulette.

After dinner, we headed over to the Mirage where we stayed for the rest of the night. I apparently played in a $70 sng which I vaguely remember running amazingly well in and chopping for first for $300. When the night was over, I was up $300 somehow which I was happy about.

The next day, we woke up at around 10, and I was called down to Harrah's to play Triple Shot with the Vander Pol's and my brothers. This was a blast. Every time one of us would sweep, that person would yell, "that's good for another Seahawks...FIRST DOWN!" It was quite awesome, and we were drinking the entire time.

After that, we went over to the Mirage where I think 8 out of 10 of us sat down at a 3-6 table. I won a little bit then moved to a 1-2NL game where I was up a modest amount. That is where things went somewhat downhill.

I went and played Roulette and lost $90. I then went to Caesar's and bluffed off $150 playing 1-3. I then decided it would be a good idea to sign up for a $160 tournament that they had going on. I busted in the 3rd level when I raised 10-8hh up front. BB Indian dude flatted, and we were heads up to a Ah Jx 7x flop. He led 400, and, if I were sober, I would have re-contemplated my actions. I started the hand with around 4600. If we were deeper, I would have been able to play this more creatively, as this guy looked extremely weak. I decided to raise to 1400, leaving myself 2800, and he snap-called. Turn Jh, and he led 1400. I had 2800 behind and really wanted to get my money in with almost 0 FE (DAMN DRUNKENNESS!!). He made a speech then called with A4o and I bricked.

After that, I realized I was stuck, and my drunk instincts told me I had to make a return to the Triple Shot table. I ended up losing over $200 there then went and played Roulette, where I'm not sure how I did. After that I went to play Texas Shootout and lost around $100.

After this, I wasn't sure how much I was down but decided to head back to the room, which was the best decision of the night. Somehow, I was down to a little over $300. I was trying to do some drunk math to figure out how I had lost so much, but it just wasn't happening. Vegas is a cruel beast, and I would imagine that this happens to a lot of people. After sulking in my room and thinking about calling it a night, I decided that I couldn't let some bad luck ruin this highly anticipated Vegas trip. So I decided to meet up with the guys.

We went to O'Shea's to try and play some beer pong, but it was packed, and we couldn't get into a game. Then we met up with Pete, Bubs, and John. Pete was absolutely hilarious. He had a referee flag that he would throw at people walking on the strip. He would then approach them, get up close and call either "encroachment" or "holding". I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. Us 4 ended up at Margaritaville where we took taquila shots and danced with multiple late-30's, not-so-good-looking females. It is tough to not look that good even after taking taquila shots. But we didn't care. It was a blast.

When we got back to our room, I wanted to sleep in Bubs and Pete's room. Bubs then ordered me a cot, and I spent the night in there. It was so much fun. I can't even describe it.

And then came Sunday.

Sunday was probably the worst possible ending for a great weekend. I'm not going to get into much, but the Hawks got absolutely destroyed at Buffalo, and we lost our #1 WR Nate Burleson for the season. It was not pretty.

All in all it was an unforgettable weekend. I'm not sure if any future vegas trip will live up to this one with every member of the crew either getting married or close. Oh well.

In other news, I am back in Bellingham for the time being mostly because all of my friends are working back at home, and I was bored. I have to wait for the comcast guy to come on Saturday and put in cable/internet, which we haven't had for the 3 weeks that we've been here.

The last two nights, I have put in a couple mini-sessions of .5/1 on UB with meh results. In 1,040 hands, I am up an awesome $185!!! Almost 2 full BI's!!!

I didn't play too many interesting hands, but I would like to go over a couple:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3175503
This guy was playing 40/9, so it was an easy iso with A10. When he potted the flop, I wasn't really sure what to do. I didn't really have any reads on the player but felt that the easiest way to stack off would be for me to flat. He obv peels gin and bets 2/3 pot. I again opt to flat with the intentions of going with the hand. I didn't like the river, but decided to lead $25 into a 66ish pot. He almost snap-min-raised me, and I wanted to puke. I was really convinced that he couldn't show up with a 6, but I felt that I had to press call given his stack, his stats, and the fact that maybe sometime he shows up with a random ace? Maybe not, but I'm not sure. Not sure if I played it correctly but just kinda sucked.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3175514
Got some revenge with the ol' A10. This kind of stuff is just fun.

Everything else was pretty standard. I have been stealing internet from our neighbors, so it hasn't been that fast which has sucked. I only have around $1200 in UB so I am playing under-rolled. But if I can practice disciplined game selection, I feel that my risk is quite minimal. I am hoping to go on a nice little run soon.

I got nothing else.

God Bless,

JG

I don't know what to title this

2008-08-29T03:39:00.001-07:00

I am sitting here in my new Bellingham apartment, and it is 3:40 in the morning. Since moving in to our new place on Monday, I have done very little, and it has been everything I thought it could be. I really feel like Peter from Office Space. All I want to do is have nothing obligatory to do. Today, I woke up around 1, worked on unpacking a little, went on tilt because the directTV guy came and didn't realize we had an apartment, so he couldn't install a dish and now we can't get Comcast until September 13th. I then unpacked my things for a little while, went and put in a well-needed workout, went out to dinner with Grant and Heather, came back, played in about 10 sng's, then stayed up for another 3-4 hours playing Chinese with Grant.

It was the most amazing day.

I feel like I would probably get sick of doing this every day, but right now I am really enjoying it and know that in about 5 years when I am working, I will look back at this summer and be quite envious. But for now, I am going to continue to be on a 4am-2pm sleeping schedule.

Vegas is in one week, and I can hardly believe it. I remember starting the countdown to this weekend at about 900ish, and we are down to single digits. I can't really think of how this weekend could go wrong so that it wouldn't be the best weekend of my life. All the ingredients are there - my best friends, vegas, binge drinking, and, oh ya, gambooooooooooing.

It should be a blast. As far as poker lately, things have been meh, but I am actually getting a ton of confidence back. Two nights ago, I went deep in the $5r on UB but got 21st when I re-shipped QJhh bvb against J10ss for a top-3 stack and lost. Grant was railing me for a while and I really can't think of a bad decision that I made. I was never all in once after the rebuy. I picked my spots perfectly and made great reads.

On that note, I want to talk about something that I have mulled over my head ever since I started to take poker semi-seriously. When I started playing poker, I played tons of freerolls and didn't really have a grasp on much of it. I remember being shocked when someone told me to only play A10+ UTG. I then started reading books and was essentially mentored by Derek to play ultra-tight.

As soon as I felt like I was capable of playing flops better than most people, I started to loosen up my starting hand requirements quite a bit. I felt that my ability to play flops with people was well worth opening up my game. I saw all of these top pros like Negreanu and Ivey who would play any two, and I found myself torn between playing ultra-tight as I had been and playing very loose-aggressive. With today's breed of online pros being loose-aggressive, I felt that that is how I needed to play.

But when someone would ask me what my playing style was, I really didn't know what to say. I wanted to say TAG, but knew that it would impress them more if I said that I liked to see lots of flops cause I have amazing post-flop play :)

I would go through periods, especially being away at college, where I would play tons of online and my play was getting pretty loose. I would then play with Derek and he would comment on how loose I had become, and I then got embarassed and went back to playing tight. I hadn't found my playing style.

Just recently it occurred to me that my playing style is and should be adaptive to the circumstances at hand. You hear everyone say that there is a time and place to play tight and a time and place to play loose. It is identifying these spots and situations that separates good players from great players.

I might brag in this paragraph so be warned. In the past few days, I have noticed that I am very good at recognizing situations and knowing when to put on the pedal and when to put on the brakes. In general, I play tight-aggressive, but I pride myself on my ability to pick my spots and how to get maximum value from my hands. This is essential in online poker and poker in general.

There was a particular hand that happened in the $5r that had me thinking about this. With like 25 people left, I had 42k at 1.5k/3k with J9o on the button. It mucked to the c/o who raised to 9k, as he had done a couple of times. I decided to move in, and he folded. Grant asked me to explain it to him, and I realized that the explanation wasn't all that simple. It was a lot about feel:

1) It was a late pos. raise which means a wider range.
2) The fact that he raised 3x didn't mean much as I had seem him raise 3x from LP twice earlier.
3) I hadn't re-shipped at this table and had a fairly solid image
4) I had a perfect re-ship stack as it wasn't really an overbet but was still enough to where he wouldn't be getting more than like 1.8-1.

It sort of took me a little while to state all of these things, but they were all put together without me even thinking about them. This just shows that I have improved a lot as a poker player over the past couple of years. I am really excited about this and hope that my ramblings have made a little bit of sense.

Right now I am going to finish up an episode of the 5th season of 24 and call it a day/morning/night/I don't know what.

God Bless,

JG

Enjoying Summer

2008-08-22T00:47:00.001-07:00

Yes, that's right. For the last couple weeks since school has been done, I have actually been having an absolutely blast doing just about whatever I want. A week and a half ago, Derek and I decided to make a little 3-day trip up to Bellingham which was a blast. Here is a vague schedule of what we did:

Tuesday
- Get into Bellingham at 6pm, to the Pitch by 6pm, out of there by 8:30 in time for the 9pm's on UB and FTP...whiffed :(
- 11:00pm-6:00am: play Chinese poker
Wednesday
- Wake up at 2, head to Sudden Valley to play 9
- Get home at 5, play Chinese until 3am (most of it just me and Derek, but Grant got in for like 1 hand)
Thursday
- Wake up at 1pm, head to the Pitch, go back down South at 10pm

Needless to say, it was a blurrrr of a 3-day stretch. During the 10 hour sesh that D and I had playing Chinese, we really just sat in chairs and watched the olympics for 10 straight hours! Grant, who had lost like $240 the previous night, decided to get in on one hand before he went out. When we play Chinese, we play with royalties (quads are better) which are 3 points (we were playing $5 a point), and if you lose with aces full, it is a bad beat, and the winner pays the loser $30. We always like to slow roll everything also, so it adds a pretty fun dynamic. On the one hand that Grant played, he and Derek went back and forth lying about their bottom hand. Derek eventually rolled over quad 7's, and Grant threw his cards in the muck and yelled. We picked up his hand to reveal quad 8's!!!

It was completely brutal, and I honestly felt bad, as there had been 4 bad beats over our sessions, and Grant was on the winning end of all of them for a loss of $120. I didn't feel too bad though, as Derek obv ran like Durrr and took $280 from Grant and $260 from me. I just can't explain it, but I have never had one winning session against Derek in Chinese - not 1, besides maybe a 4 or 5 hand sesh before we get into a poker game. Lifetime I am stuck close to $800 to him which is silly. After I lose and lose, I take about a month or 2-month break then decide that my luck will turn around and just want to punish him for like $1k, so I sit with him and lose my ass again. Maybe I have a gambling problem.

Other than that, today I worked my 2nd day in shoe care at the Boeing Classic at Snoqualmie Ridge. I decided to volunteer there because I worked there last summer and love it. We are getting paid ~$125 a day, which is cool, and we all got like 5 really sweet polos for free. I am working that through Sunday then heading straight up to Bellingham to move :(

Pokerwise I have not really played many MTT's lately but have focused mainly on $20 SNG's over the past week or so. I was stuck $390 to Derek and paid him back in 3 nights playing SNG's which feels good. The last 2 nights, I have played 4 SNG's, placing 5th in one and 1st in the other 3 for a cool little profit.

One of the SNG's I played tonight, which I ended up winning, I played a real goofy hand against a LAA player:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3082740

This was the first hand I had opened, and it was in the 3rd level, so I decided to come in with 10-7cc. This guy had been pretty active, so I felt there was a decent chance I was going to be c/r'd on a this paired board. He decided to flat call p/f with KK then flat my flop bet and weak-lead the turn. I really felt pretty strongly that I had the best hand, beating 66-88 and sometimes I thought he shows up with AJ-AK. I didn't really consider an overpair, but he played it goofy and owned me. Yay for the 2 subsequent double ups!

I got my FTP check in the mail, so I am no longer broke ass poor. I think that played a huge part in me having a bad summer financially. I had gotten in the routine of spending so much money, and, when I realized that my roll was diminishing a little bit, I just tried to hard to hit it big and wasn't in the right mindset. For the first time in the while, I actually feel confident in my poker game and am ready to crush as soon as all my obligations are over and I have about a month of nothing.

That said, Vegas is in 15 days, and I couldn't be more excited. I am playing in a golf tournament the day before with Paul, Henry, and Bubs, and it will most definitely be the best weekend of my life tbh.

Well I gotta get up early tomorrow and go watch some 50+ golfers play better than I ever will.

God Bless,

JG

Withdrew from FTP

2008-08-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

I just withdrew all of my $1700 from FTP after busting in the 9pm $75 KO. I was planning on doing this soon anyways, but I'm pretty sure it was a sign that I needed to do this when I got it in on the flop in a 3-bet p/f pot with 99 against 76ss on a K 6 4 K 6 board.

I then went busto in the UB 9pm and am sitting here in a precarious situation. It has been an absolutely shitty summer in terms of poker. I have played in 84 FTP tournies with my highest cash being $275.60 despite me finishing in 35/100 on average. I have exactly one final table on that site and am just happy that I don't have to go through the fucking bullshit every night where I play awesome poker for 5 hours then get in auto-bust spots or can't win a race.

I always hate listening to people whine about how they can't run good late, and I truly do understand that this is such a small sample size that I have nothing to worry about. But it is just frustrating to seemingly go through the same routine every night with the same results. I guess I am just expecting money to come easy as it has for the first couple years in my poker career. It just sucks to go through a run like this when it is the summer and all I want to do is try and build my roll because I know I am not going to have enough time to play a whole lot once school starts.

I really don't know what my plan is from here. I have a little under a grand on UB with which I plan on trying to build. But I am really starting to doubt my poker skills and it has been a while since I have been complemented on my game because I haven't won $10k in an online poker tournament in my life and haven't had a big score in a while. I'm not saying that my psyche is so fragile that I need someone to tell me that I am awesome at poker, but I think it is just so stupid that no one has said how sick I am at MTT's solely because I haven't had success as of late.

After reading a bunch of the cardrunners' blogs, I am starting to realize that I might not have a significant edge in MTT's. I think that I play really well and pick my spots optimally most of the time, but I am starting to think that I just ran well above EV for a while and thought that I could make a living playing $25-$50 MTT's. I'm not sure if this is the case, but I am not sure if I am emotionally ready to commit myself to playing a lot of cash games. It is a really odd situation that I am in, and I am considering just going back and playing $20 sng's to build my roll.

I withdrew my FTP money because my bank account was getting low, and I need some money to live off of for Vegas and for the rest of the summer. The thing that I absolutely hate about poker for me personally is that I never seem to have success when I really need it. This would definitely be the most annoying thing about being a tourney pro.

Anyways, I am up in Bellingham and Derek is also up here. We will probably be playing poker the next couple of nights even though I really hate the idea of trying to play under-rolled 4-8 at the Slo Pitch or going deep in a MTT only to bubble the final table. Hopefully things turn around soon and I can do some bragging, which is what I have wanted to write about for the past 3 months.

That is all I got.

God Bless,

JG

Playing Right Now

2008-08-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a ridiculous hand that I just played against a nutso.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3018745

I like to do a lot of button limping in spots like this where the blinds are deep and don't play very well. Especially this BB who was playing like a monkey, but this hand is just unfathomable. I also think this is a pretty sweet flop to go ahead and put in a bluff raise on the weak min-bet. When he snap-called, I was like 99% sure he was on 7-6 (I was obv. wrong) and was going to press the pot button on the turn. He obv does the same stupid min. bet again, and I ship in, and he beats me in the pot.

I would just like get some sort of insight into the mind of this guy. I know it's tough to misread your hand online, but I just can't explain it any other way. Just kinda funny, but it's nice to know that these players are still depositing money online somehow.

Anyways, I'm done with classes and pretty pumped about it. Right now I am just hanging out, watching the Hawks 2nd-string players stomp all over the Vikes and playing some online. I am 0 for 3 thus far but have a pretty nice stack in the 6:20 on UB.

Well, gotta get back to the tables.

God Bless,

JG

Meeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhh...

2008-08-06T10:47:00.001-07:00

Well...things haven't been going great at all poker-wise. I have been a little bit busy with these 4-week classes that I'm taking, so I haven't had a whole lot of time/desire to grind it out. I am at the part of my poker career right now where I just expect to have consistent big scores weekly with little to no effort which is how I swear it used to be. But they're just not coming.

I had to make a withdrawl from UB last week to help pay for Seahawks season tickets (WHOOOO!!!) which I was pretty pumped about. Derek and I will be splitting two tickets in the Hawks nest, which is my favorite place and sweetest atmosphere in the stadium. They are only 4 rows up from the main concourse for $1400, which was quite a steal IMO.

Since then I have actually been a little tight financially since I haven't had any big scores in the past couple months. After spending the $700 on Hawks tickets, my checking account was dangerously low while waiting for my UB check to come. Right now I have about $2kish on FTP and a little over $1k on UB. I am really contemplating withdrawing like $1500 on FTP to live off of for the rest of the summer and then just going back to grinding out some lower BI MTT's for a while once school rolls around.

It is sad to think that I may not be able to get through another year of college without working and just playing poker. With the stakes that I am playing, I would have to devote a good 25-30 hours a week to poker, and that is something that I just simply do not have the time for, nor do I think I am dedicated enough to do. It's not like my confidence is all gone, but I am just putting an unhealthy amount of pressure on myself that it is hard to have success.

Last night was quite silly. After a presentation and filming a movie, I went and played golf with Grant which was awesome. I have made a ton of swing changes lately that I hope will eventually get me to where I was late in HS. I feel like I am close but just haven't been able to put together a solid 18 holes yet.

After golf, we came back home and hung out for a while. Then Grant and Heather went out, so I decided to hop on and play some SNG's on FT. I bought in for a $30 9-seat and a $30 18-seat. In the 18-seat, I completed AJss from the SB with like 4 limpers. Flop came 7s 3s 3x. I checked, and it checked to the c/o limper who bet 80 into a 150. I decided to raise to 220. EP limper flatted, better mucked. Turn 8s, and I lead 300 into a 750. He flats, and I am now suspicious of 77733 or 3333 but can't really do anything. River 6s and I ship in 900 into a 1200, and he snaps with 3333 :( Not really sure if there is much I can do in that hand. He could easily show up with a dry 3 or a lower flush, but meh, whatever.

I then just lost it and raised A10hh from the button in the 9-seat behind a c/o limper. Flop came 9s 5h 3h, and he moves in for 1k into a 500 and without thinking I snap call and he shows A5dd, and I brick. I'm not sure what happened there, but it was evident that I let the other hand get to me psychologically.

I then decided to sit down at a .5/1 HU Deep table and lost $200 after 3 people sat in and tag-teamed me LAWL!

Oh well, it didn't really phase me that bad which is probably a bad thing. I am getting a little bit careless with my depleting roll. I will try to get in the right psychological state Friday once classes are over and I have nothing else to think about.

Until then, gl to everyone.

God Bless,

JG

One Time Plzzzzzz!!!

2008-07-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

So these last few weeks have been incredibly frustrating, and last night sent everything over the edge. I am not even in the red and I have actually seen a profit since returning from Vegas, but have just been flirting and (to make a sexual/baseball reference) getting to second with a guy on third then the cleanup hitter hits a screaming line drive into the gap, and the guy on third tags instead of just running, and the left fielder gets to it quickly, and I have to stop so as to not pass the idiot who was tagging up on a ball that simply could not have been caught, and I get thrown out at the plate by like 10 feet.

Maybe it isn't the most perfect analogy, but that is the best I could come up with. The thing that makes me the most sick is that people keep telling me that if I continue to get in +EV spots in MTT's, I am eventually going to have a big score. It's like, duh, but it absolutely sucks in the short term when you play in a FTP guaranteed with 1200+ players, play for 4 hours and get it in as a 3/1 fav. just into the money and can't hold. I guess it's a decent quandry to be in, as my cashing percentage has been pretty high over the past couple weeks, but I have been lacking a big score and am losing confidence in my late tournament game even though I feel like I have such an edge when we get down to 2-3 tables and have to play short-handed.

Last night seemed to set me off way more than normal. I signed up for the $75 $23k guaranteed KO tourney on FTP which started at 9pm. I had class the next day at 9am, so I was hoping that, if I indeed stayed up late, it would mean good things financially.

I doubled up early when I limped Q9hh from the SB behind one MP limper. BB checked, and we saw a pretty awesome 10h 7h 5h flop. I opted to lead 80 into a 120 because I am obsessed with building pots, especially when the stack to blind ratio is huge. BB mucks, limper makes it 280. As said, I love building pots, especially with the 3rd nuts, so I make it 800 to go. He tank/ships it in, and I snap call and have his Jh8h drawing dead.

I was up to an above avg stack of 25kish when we got in the money. 45 spots paid, and first paid over 5k, so I was eyeing that. Anyways, with about 3 tables left, I raised 77 from MP to 4200 at 800/1600. Button flats, BB defends, and we see a magical Ax Qx 7x flop. SB (maniac) checks, and I opt to check to the LAA button. He checks. Turn 5. BB leads 6k. I flat, and button makes it 20k. BB mucks, and I do my time bank thing then shove it in, and he calls with AQ. Sick cooler for him, awesome for me as I am now above 100k.

I was around 100k, and we were down to 14 when things started to go wrong. I decided to get pretty agro and raised K6o from the c/o. The SB who was SLAP and had already called like 4 of my raises calls. HU, we see a Q J 5 flop. He checks, I lead half pot, he calls. Turn x, check check. River x. He checks, and, with the pot at 37k, I type in 22k with Grant railing. With my time running down, I was about to click bet but then just decided that really the only hand that calls the flop that I can bluff off is K10, as I was pretty sure he was calling with a Q or a J given the other hands that we had played. I checked, and he obv shows K10 and takes the pot.

This sorta sent me off, and the next hand I called a min. raise from the BB with A6o and c/raise the button on a Q 10 5 flop then just give up. So I was down to 50k and told Grant that I was blowing up.

I then raise Q9hh from c/o, and the same SLAP calls from the SB; flop Ad Jd xd. He checks, and I almost press check but decide to lead 10k of my remaining 35k. He obviously "tanks" then moves me in and I insta-fold.

Few hands later, I'm in the SB with 20k at 2k/4k, and I have a trivial shove with K6o. BB snap calls with QJ. Board 6 3 2 A J, sending me to the rail in 14th place, good for like $220.

I was so p/o'd that I had spewed off 50 bb's before anyone else got knocked out that I threw my laptop onto the table and knocked over some stuff. I was even money to do some seriousl damage to my laptop and probably would have if Grant weren't there.

I have gone back and forth between cash games and MTT's with more success in MTT's, but lately I just haven't been able to break through. The most frustrating thing is that I continue to put pressure on myself because Derek had a 20k last month and a half, and Grant has had some dece scores, and every time that I sit down, I am trying so hard to do the same so that I can tell everyone that I know that I rock at MTT's.

I know that this is a terrible mindset, and I am super happy for the other guys when they do well. But the result is that I constantly play tournaments and put pressure on myself to go deep and do not let the action come to me. When I look back at my poker career, I have had the most amount of success when I haven't wanted it really bad or when I haven't needed it really bad.

I know that I am super close to breaking through on full tilt, and I am hoping that my next blog post will be me celebrating a win in the 50/50. But for now, I am super bummed and couldn't sleep very well last night after playing so well for so long and then blowing up and getting rewarded very little.

In other news, today is Grant's 21st birthday, and I wish him the best. Tonight we are going out to dinner, and I also have to do some studying for a test tomorrow. This weekend, I am going home again and going out to Grant's on Saturday night for a party. Then Sunday, my family is going on a yacht in Tacoma which should be fun.

Until then, I will continue to sulk and be unhappy about the last couple weeks. But at least I know that I am ready to turn the corner.

God Bless all,

JG

3rd in UB $10k

2008-07-12T02:38:00.001-07:00

I finished 3rd tonight in the $50 $10k guaranteed on Ultimate Bet. The day started off with me 2-tabling some $1-$2 in which I managed to drop $300 in less than an hour. So I started to feel pretty miserable before I left home and came up to Bellingham.

I got up here around 8 and decided to sign up for the 9pm on UB and the 9pm on FTP. I whiffed the FTP and managed to eek my way into the UB money. With 30 left, I had around 8k at the recently added 500/1k level. I chipped up and then re-shipped on back-to-back hands with no callers which sent my stack up to 24k. I had two fairly aggressive players to my direct left that sort of handcuffed me while we were on the FT bubble. I decided to knit it up a little bit and actually managed to get up to 50k. With 11 left, I called a SB shove from the BB with AJ. He showed 10-8o on a board of 9 7 X 8 X. That got me down to 30k, but a player was knocked out of the other table simultaneously.

The first hand of the FT, I raised KQhh from MP to 6200 at 1200/2400. It mucked around to the big stack in the BB, and he flat called with AK even though I had like 12 bb's behind! Anyways, flop came 10xx, and he checked and I fired, and he mucked, lol.

Another hand came up when I found AA in 2nd position at 1200/2400. I raised to 6200 with about 50ish behind, and the same chipleader called from the BB; flop came Ax5h4h. He checked, and I considered betting, but with 40k behind and around 18k in the pot, I felt a check was safe. The turn was the 10s, and he led for 8k. I tank/called. River Qx, and he led 15k even though I had 30k behind. I shipped it in, and he tanked for a while before folding. The fact that he had to posture led me to believe that he didn't know what he was doing. A sure sign of a bad player is betting on the river in a hand like that and then having no plan at all if the opponent moves in or something.

Anyways, that got me up to about 80k when another interesting spot came up. I had 85ss on the button at 2500/5k when it mucked around to the c/o who limped in with just 30k behind. This player had been very aggressive but not very good, and so I didn't read that as strength whatsoever. The blinds had only 25k and 30k behind. I pondered it over and decided that, with around 15k in the pot, it would be a decent opportunity to move in and attempt to take that money. I felt that as long as I could avoid the blinds picking up a hand, I would be able to take the pot. The BB snap called and showed AK. I was fortunate when the board rolled out xxxx5 to give me the pot and move me over 100k with 5 left.

From there, the other big stacks knocked out the two shorties, and we were 3-handed. at 3k/6k I decided to play some small-ball with caution and do a lot of button/sb limping type things. I was grinded down to about 80k when the button (the player I played the other two big pots with) opened for 18k. I decided to ship in the A8hh, and he mucked. The very next round in the same spot, he bet pot at 22k, and I found AJo. I told Grant on IM that I was moving and I expected he was getting frustrated and would call me light. I did just that, and he called with QJo LMAO. I kinda had a sick feeling though, and it came Qxx10x to send me to the rail.

I took home $1100ish for my efforts. Although I was not extremely pleased with the way things ended, I was happy to fight the short stack and make a decent run. I feel very very comfortable right now with my MTT game and hope that this is a sign of a big run for me in the coming weeks/months.

God Bless,

JG

Vegas Recap

2008-07-11T02:35:00.001-07:00

I had been meaning to keep everyone (well really no one cuz no one reads this blog) updated on a daily basis, but I just never got around to it. I ended up staying in Vegas for a total of 9ish days, which was a bit much for my first ever Vegas trip.

I only got ID'd a handful of times and never had a problem using my brother's ID (thanks Paul!). The day that I got down there, I pulled off a pretty sikkkk slowroll, and Derek was completely oblivious. We hung out by the pool for about 2 hours, ordered a couple pina coladas, and I babbled on about how lucky I was that poker had afforded me the opportunity to make a trip like this.

The second day (Tuesday), we headed over to the Ultimate Bet barracks at the Palms, checked Derek in, got some gear, and then played some pool and had some free drinks. It was a blast, and I was able to scoop $40 off Derek in a couple games. Later that night, we headed back to the Palms and attended the UB party, which was quite an experience. I felt like I was living in someone else's body. It was located on the 32nd floor of the Palms in a $25k/night suite. The indoor had two stories with a separate room with a sushi bar as well as a chocolate fountain, an open bar, and some pretty good-looking dancers. I obv worked my game and got a few pictures including one where I got some cheek-kissing action :) The outside part of the suite had an amazing view of the strip and one of those pools that extends over the edge. For those of you who have seen that Girls Next Door episode, yes - it was just like that.

After quite a few rum and cokes and a jag bomb to top it off, we headed over to the Rio to sweat Phil Hellmuth in his attempt at an astonishing 12th bracelet in the $1500 HORSE event. When we got there, they were 4-handed, and I recognized one of the players who was a young asian kid. I remember railing him at a small, local casino near my hometown in a $15-$25 limit game. In my intoxicated state, I started to become rowdy, telling him that I remember him from Midway. Somehow Derek and I managed our way back to the roped-off area where we hung out with JC Tran, Nam Le, Amnon Filipe, Victor Ramden, and Shawn Rice. We talked to JC, and I told him that I picked him in the 2nd round on my WSOP fantasy pool and that Derek had passed him up. This did not make him happy (lol) but he nonetheless ordered all of his drinks, and we obliged and drank them. FWIW, Phil took 3rd, and our Asian "friend" ran horribly heads up and took 2nd.

While we were railing, apparently Derek got in a conversation with Victor Ramden. Somehow Derek got Victor's number, and we made plans to play 4-8 HORSE at Caesars the next night. Derek texted Victor when we got the game going. We didn't receive a response that night, but the next morning, Victor amazingly texted Derek back and told him that he was sorry he couldn't make it, but he had taken a mini-vacation with his family to L.A. Victor was a very very nice guy, and he is making a nice little run in the main event. I wish him the best, and, although we never got the 4-8 game going, I am pulling hard for him to take this one down.

Another one of the highlights of the vacation was getting to meet a guy named Eric from Sweden. The first night there, we played some drunken (obv.) 4-8 HORSE at Caesars. One of the guys there was a guy named Eric, wearing capri pants and a poker stars track jacket. Eric was very loud, and we quickly became acquainted. It is hard to describe the hillarity of this guy, but I can honestly say that I have never laughed that hard in my entire life for that long. The following are a couple of his quotes (just visualize it in a Swedish accent):

"This douche from Texas capped it heads up with me in Razz with 15 kings"

"How unlucky am I to be human. I wish I was a cat...just eat, sleep, and s*** all day"

"My uncle changed his name to Jack Daniels at the age of 65...65!!"

He said that he would try to make it back to Vegas for our September trip, and I really hope he can make it. He also gave us an invitation to come visit him in Sweden, which I would seriously contemplate doing.

Derek's fiance game down on Wednesday night, and we all had fun hanging out. On Saturday, we went to the Cirque de Soleil Beatles show at the Mirage which was fantastic. The 4th of July was actually kind of awful, as we didn't even get a chance to see any fireworks for whatever reason.

As far as poker goes, I actually ended up playing almost every day. I had a couple bad sessions toward the end and probably ended down around $600, which I was totally okay with. We got to hang out with Don Cheadle, who eventually took my seat to play in our 4-8 HORSE game. He is also a really nice guy. Derek had an incredible slow-roll on a guy that was borderline evil. In Stud/8, Derek and this Australian guy were heads up, and, on the river, Derek raised, and the guy made an obvious crying call. Derek said that he had a low, and other guy flipped over 555. Derek had obviously been drinking and so he slowly flipped his cards up. He revealed something like 8-8-6-3-A-x and his last card was face down. The dealer told him he only had a 4-card low. He then flipped up a river-caught 8 for trip 8's to scoop. I am shocked that the other guy didn't throw punches, but he said he didn't mind because we were all having fun, and the pot wasn't very big.

I was also quite excited for my friend Adam who was down there and chopped for 1st in a Venetian DS tourney for 38k! Adam is a sick player who I have tons of respect for, and he completely deserves every dollar of that tournament. It is just a shame that the tournament ended the Monday after the 4th day one of the main event, or else he would have played in that.

As far as Derek goes, he survived a grueling day 1 where he was up to as high as 36k before ending the night with a below-average 23k. At one point, he had Dan Shak to his immediate left and a maniacal Layne Flack a couple seats to his left. He was super nervous in the first couple levels. The 3rd hand of the tournament, he raised QQ up front to 350 (100/200), cold-caller to his left, and then a guy made it 1300. Derek decided to muck, and the guy later told him he had 99 :/

I then decided to move my flight back and stay to watch Derek in day 2, which was Wednesday. Derek was extremely card dead the whole day, only picking up AK and 99 in about 5 hours of play. He never saw AA the entire tournament (over 15 hours!!). His bust hand, he moved in with A2 from the BB for 12bb's when only the SB limped, and he snapped him off with 10-10. Overall, he felt that it was a great experience and did not seem bitter at all. I have a feeling he will be back next year and in years to come.

I have rambled quite a bit in this blog, but I had an amazing experience in Vegas, and I am very glad that I went. Even though it might take some of the excitement away from our September trip, I think it will still be an epic weekend, as everyone and their mom will be in Las Vegas which will make it even more spectacular.

Today I played some online MTT's and bubbled 3 final tables!! The most heartbreaking was the $28k on FTP. There were 10 left with 1st place receiving $7k+. 5-handed, I ran QQ into KK for a 30bb pot against a super agro player. Oh well.

I decided to do the test drive on cardrunners.com, which is an excellent instructional site which allows members to watch videos and commentary from some of the world's top internet pros. Today I watched a few videos and am already thinking at a much higher level. I have sort of struggled with my confidence in online cash games, but I now feel more confident than ever and am hoping to do the whole move-up-in-limits things soon which would be super awesome.

I am heading up to Bellingham tomorrow and start classes on Monday :/

I am on a Vegas sleeping schedule (go to bed at 4am, wake up at 3pm), so it is almost my bedtime at 3:20.

Goodnight to all and God bless,

JG

I'm Going to Vegas!!!!!

2008-06-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

I didn't think I would be saying that this early in the summer, but I am in SeaTac Airport getting ready to board my Southwest Airlines plane and fly first to Reno then to Vegas.

I mulled this decision over in my head for a while, deciding if it would take away from the trip on my 21st in September. Overall, my brothers and fellow crew members were probably not ecstatic that I was going, but it was my decision, and I want to go down there to hang out with Derek and rail him in the 39th annual World Series of Poker.

Because our September trip will be filled with primarily binge drinking and degenerate gambling, I figured that this trip would be more of a vacation. Therefore, the plan is to hang out by the pool, enjoy the sights, play some golf, and try to avoid dying of heat stroke. Right now it is 99-degrees and should remain in the low 100's for the rest of the week :/

I didn't play any poker this weekend, which was nice, and I am not sure if I will be playing any poker while in Vegas (okay maybe I could put my brother's ID into use somehow). I am also really looking forward to seeing the pros down there, as it will be my first time obviously seeing some of my favorite players.

Oh ya, Derek doesn't know that I am coming so it should be a nice little surprise for him. The plan for tonight is probably to have some drinks, hang out at the sports book and then I would like to see Rafael Furcal, Andruw Jones, and Nomar Garciaparra on their rehab assignments at the 51's.

Well, on that note, I purchased this stupid $9 wi-fi thing and managed to dump almost $100 playing .5/1!! TILLLLLLLLT

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

JG

Back in Bellingham

2008-06-22T01:04:00.000-07:00

I had a nice little week+ at home. I didn't really get a lot done. Just played some golf and quite a bit of poker. I also played a lot with my dogs and my cat and got a chance to meet up with my old friend Trevor and Pat. I don't think you can beat just being at home with absolutely nothing to worry about school or work-related. I hung out with Derek quite a bit, and we had some fun.

The only bad thing about being home is that I always eat out a lot and never ever work out. I started feeling pretty bad about myself toward the end of that week and was determined to get back up here and work out. So far so good.

I got up here on Thursday night and put it good workouts yesterday and today. On Friday, I basically jogged a mile and was nearly dead after that so that was embarassing. Today was quite a bit better as I took it a little easier. I also went to the store today and spent $96+ on some necessities and some healthy food actually, which might equal the most I have ever spent with my own money at a grocery store.

Besides that, my roommate moved out on Friday, and I have just been playing some online. Yesterday I logged on to play in some MTT's, and a few minutes into my sesh, a table popped up that said something about it being a comp tournament. I clicked on the tourney lobby, and apparently it was a freeroll into the 50-seat qualifier which took place today. Because UB sucks at customer service, they had to make up for their lack of notice for the previous freerolls by adding another freeroll which about 5% of the players actually showed up for (no notice was given AGAIN). Oh well, at my starting table, it was me and 2 other players sitting in with 7 black seats. I wasn't sure what the correct strategy was at this point. With the blinds being 5/10, I didn't want to go crazy trying to steal blinds, but the reality was there was only 3 people at a 10-handed table. It was really weird, but I eventually felted those guys and it was just me and 9 black seats LMAO!! I clicked the call button for the rest of the hour until they were all gone, then it was time to play against some actual opponents.

Later on in the tourney, I had chipped up to 140k. The only player who covered me had about 200k and was crazy monkey agro. Then this pot came up: with the blinds at 400/800, there was a limper up front and said villain bet pot at 5kish. I was in the SB with AQ and was weary of 3-betting him because I obv didn't want to play a huge pot with the one player who had me covered given the nature of the tourney. But I figured I had to let my presence be felt, and he was unspeakably active, so I raised to 20k. To my dismay, he called, and we were heads up to a K 10 2 flop. Check, check. Turn 6, which brought a backdoor FD. I bet 32k. He insta-called. River K, and I checked, very frustrated. He almost immediately bet pot to put me AI. I had 70k left and decided to go through the hand before I mucked. I ruled out a K completely, as he would have potted the flop. I would have heard from a 10 earlier, and I was pretty sure he would have done some gay min. raise on the turn with 666 or 222. All in all, it was probably a poor call, given that I was still above average, and only 10 spots paid the entry with about 200 players left. Anyways, I pressed the call button, and he showed AJ. WOOHOOO for the hero call!

So I qualified for that, but I was already qualified, so I scooped the 530 tourney dollars. In addition to that yesterday, I final tabled the 6:20 bounty, and took 5th for $480. While this was going on, I was deep in a FTP 6-handed tourney. There were 20 left, and I was around average when the gross hand came up. With 32k in chips, I raised 66 UTG. The button min-raised (I cannot recall what the blinds were, but I am obv calling the min-3-bet). He had 22k behind to start the hand. The flop came a beautiful Jx 7d 6d. I check/called a 4500 bet because I thought he might have had air. Turn 4d, and I decided on the pot-bet AI. He called and tabled black QQ. River Qh :'-( Very next hand I get in for the rest of my chips with A10 against J8 on a KQxx8 board.

Woke up today, went to work out as I said, then came home to play in the WSOP 50-seat qualifier. I was pretty active early getting up to 3200 from the 2500 starting stack. But then I limped 79ss on the button behind a limper at 20/40, and 4 of us saw a As 6s 5h flop. Checked to me, and I bet 140 into 200. SB called. Turn the interesting Js. He checked, and I decided to check behind for pot control and to get river value. River x, and villain bet 350. I settled on a call, and he showed 10-8ss. Oh well. That put me down to 2400 and I was never able to get anything going and moved in for 1100 (50/100) with 10-10 from MP and SB called with AA.

I then played in the $20k guaranteed DS tourney at 5pm. I doubled up early when a donk open shoved with AK, and I called with KK and held. I was up to as much as 44k but lost a few all in pots and was down to 18k at 1k/2k with 22 left (20 getting paid). I moved in with 77, and BB woke up with KK, making me nearly the exact bubble boy for something like the 4th time in that tourney with 0 cashes!!! Here is the chat between me and Derek:

XxAEstud05xX (9:09:55 PM): 77

XxAEstud05xX (9:09:56 PM): again

afroderek (9:10:33 PM): ugh

afroderek (9:10:35 PM): sorry bro

XxAEstud05xX (9:10:43 PM): FUCK THIAZ GFAGOISJDCFIPONAEWK

XxAEstud05xX (9:10:45 PM): aewdfqefhoqerwocadsfadqf[

XxAEstud05xX (9:10:46 PM): a

XxAEstud05xX (9:10:47 PM): sdfads;faj;dsfkjak;ldsc

XxAEstud05xX (9:10:51 PM): fuking hate thies fuking shit

XxAEstud05xX (9:10:55 PM): fwefkljaewfk;ljadsklfcjak;lsd;ckajds;cas;lkdjck;l

XxAEstud05xX (9:10:57 PM): jalsdkfjas

XxAEstud05xX (9:10:58 PM): dcaskldcs;ldkjcak;lsdfk;lanewdfnqew'fmc

XxAEstud05xX (9:10:59 PM): ac

XxAEstud05xX (9:11:07 PM): fuking bubble

XxAEstud05xX (9:11:14 PM): im AWFUL I WANT TO HANG MYSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yes, I may have been slightly tilted, but what do you expect? I feel like I am playing the best poker of my life and continue to knock on the door in big tournies but have had like almost no success. I feel it's coming soon though, and I am playing in the $200k tomorrow on UB.

Anyways, after that I went and got some dumplings (comfort food) then came back and was itching yet again. I decided to sit down at some 1/2 NL 6-max tables because it's Saturday night.
I played about 500 hands, winning $373 which was nice. Here are some of the cool ones:

It was meh until this hand came up. I love free money:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2790275

I then got lucky to flop bottom set in a big pot against a guy who would ejaculate with TPTK:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2790329

I didn't really get unlucky all that much but felt that the games were very weak. I go through phases where I hate then love live games, but I would really like to do the whole move up levels thing like all the other online pros. Tournies are fun, but it definitely got me thinking today how silly it is to play for so long and get absolutely nothing. I'm sure I will be saying how much I hate live games in the next couple weeks, but hopefully not.

Anyways, Grant and his dad are coming up tomorrow to help Grant move in, so I gotta go to bed so I can get up and put in a good workout again before they get here!

God Bless,

JG

Done with School + Online Tournies

2008-06-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

The plan yesterday after I finished my last final was to come home and sleep for a while, but I couldn't resist the itch and decided to play a ton of satellites and play in some of the big daily tournaments. The day started off pretty average until I luck-boxed my way into the $500 WSOP 50-seat guaranteed satellite next Saturday. One spot paid, and it was a turbo so I was shipping and re-shipping almost every hand. On the final hand, my opponent min-raised on the button, and I decided I had some FE with 9-5ss, so I put him in, and he called with K7dd. Final board of Kx 5h 4d 5d X. That was fun. While that was going on, I satted into the $200 $80k guaranteed tournament.

I couldn't really get a lot going in that one and found myself down to 1400 chips at 75/150. I moved in from 2nd position behind a UTG limper with 22. The limper snap called with AdKx, and the board came Qd Xd Xd X X. I chipped up to 15k at 300/600 when I found AKss unopened on the button. The BB had about 30k and was unspeakably aggressive. I told my roommate that the stack sizes made for a perfect 4-bet. I made it 1700, and he obv raised to 4400. I "tank" shoved, and he called with Q8o. I had him drawing dead on a K44J board.

While this was going on, I found myself HU in a FTP 90-person SNG which I eventually won to get above the red on that site. I was also going deep in the UB $7.5k guaranteed. 3-handed in that one, I raised KK on the button to 7500 (1500/3000) with 120k-ish to start the hand. The SB who was awful and covered me called, and the BB moved in for 60k. I called, and he showed 66. Flop 665 (lmao) and I was down to 45k. I later 4-bet AI from the button with AJdd and was called by 22 and whiffed. 3rd place was good for $800.

Back to the $200, I was really dead from 3-tables on. I found myself with 17k (1k/2k) and made a mistake by moving in with no FE behind a tight raiser up front with AJ, and he called with AQ. Board XXXJX, and I doubled through to 40k. First place was $20k, so I was really trying to play my best. A few hands later, with 18 players remaining, it mucked to an aggressive SB player who had me covered. He raised to 5500, and I found A10hh for an easy 3-bet AI for 38k total. He tank/called with AJ, and I missed. GG me. The flop was AK4, so either way I play it I am going bust. I felt like this was quite a cooler all things considered. The amount of luck that you have to have to win one of these things is unfathomable. I was lucky to get that far but was still itching to FT and cash big. I won $600 in that one, so overall I put together a dece day.

It was good to get some experience playing in a big-buyin online tournament, which, as mentioned in previous blogs, was something that I was going to try and do more of this summer. At one point, I was at the same table as FCP members "whatarunAA" and "MJ_Grinder" and Jon "PearlJammed" Turner (I'm pretty sure this was JT). It is quite a different game when less than 50% of the players spew chips and do not 3-bet light p/f. At one point, I raised 3 consecutive pots on the bubble and got 3-bet AI every time. This is something that you simply don't experience in lower BI tournaments and something that I need to adjust to.

Today is a beautiful day in the city of Bellingham. I woke up and played in a FTP tourney and a UB tourney, which I had no luck in. After that I gathered up the courage to go to the gym and put in a nice solid workout. I started off shooting hoops and I can honestly say I have lost my Graves shooting touch. I was absolutely awful, but I will get it back! I then did some ab stuff and finished with some bi's and tri's which felt good. I just got done cleaning up our apartment and waiting for my brother Pete and my good friend Nate to come over here for a night of drinking watching the NBA game/U.S. Open and maybe dabble in some online tournaments.

The plan for now is basically to just hang out for a little while until classes start back up in a month (summer sesh). I am going home tomorrow for an indefinite period of time and am still debating going down to Vegas to sweat Derek in the ME. I guess I have to make my mind up shortly.

God Bless,

JG

School's Almost Out...

2008-06-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

And I couldn't be more excited about that. This quarter has been absolutely brutal, and I am very happy that I put my head down and fought through it. I got an A- in my 385 class, meaning I don't have to take the final which is awesome. Right now I have a B+ in my 307 class including a D on a test, and the final is optional and can't hurt my grade so if I can manage a B, I should be able to scoop an A in that one too! In my 306 class, I am still waiting to hear what I got on my second test. I got an A on the first one, so if I got an A on the second one, I also wouldn't have to take the final which would be awesome.

So if things go well in the next couple of days, I should be able to pull somewhere around a 3.6-3.7 which would actually raise my cum. GPA. This was completely unexpected but something that I have really worked hard to accomplish. I have learned so much about economics this quarter that it is amazing. When I look back at how I struggled through intro to micro and macro and now to see where I am at now, it is quite amazing. Now that I got 3 core classes done, I will only have one more major theory class left, econometrics (which will suck).

As far as poker goes, I obviously have not been playing as much as I would like. Being a MTT player makes it really hard to try and squeeze some play in between studying. It is so hard to turn down such equity, knowing that I can probably make somewhere between 15-20/hour simply playing $20-$30 MTT's, knowing my ROI. As soon as this week is over, however, I will have about a month off until my summer session starts with little to nothing major to do.

I am going to try and get in somewhat of a healthy routine over the next month, which might be tough. My goal is going to be to wake up every day and hit the gym before I play online. With good tournies starting at 11 and 12, I may have to try and get on a normal sleeping schedule which is close to impossible during the summer imo. I would like to build up my online roll enough to be able to comfortably play $100 MTT's, meaning I would have to keep about $5k in my account. I currently have about $3k in there after withdrawing $600 on Friday.

Speaking of Friday, I went home on Thursday night and hung out with Derek that night. The next day I went home and hung out with my mom for the afternoon which was pleasant. We took our two dogs to a place called Soggy Doggy in Des Moines, which is a self-service dog-washing place. I was given Riley (the smaller one), and he hated the idea of being bathed so much that he jumped out of the tub and was hanging by the leash that he was on. In a very motherly-manner, my mom rescued him and put him back in the tub.

Later that day, I played in the $30 deep stack on UB. I got lucky early when I ran AK into KK for a big pot on a final board of xxxAx. I cruised to the final table, then got HU and obv ran KK into AA (lmao!). I can vaguely remember one other time that I ran KK into AA hu in a sng, but for it to happen at the FT of a MTT is just sick. I took second for like $350 which was okay.

That night, Derek and I went to Wizards to play in their $5-$40 spread game, which they obv never got going. So instead I decided to dump $160 playing 4-8 then $25 more at the pai gow tables on the way out. We decided to go back to his place and play some late-night MTT's. I ft'd the $50 $10k guaranteed but was unfortunate to re-ship A9 behind the super agro chipleader's raise, and he woke up with AA, good enough for 7th place and $450 :( I also ft'd the 10pm $20 6-seat but played absolutely awful there and took 5th for like $150.

I have found myself tilting a little bit more as of late, especially when I multi-table. In a FTP tourney the other day, I had over 100k in chips with 12 left and was like 2nd in chips. I got re-raised a couple times and lost a couple small pots then just blew up and ended up finishing in 12th. It is stupid because I am aware that I am doing it when it happens, and I tell my friends who are railing that I am blowing up, but I do not do anything about it. I am going to try super hard to try and stay focused, especially when I am late in MTT's, as going off in one has adverse effects on other tables as well.

This blog has gone really long, but I would like to say congrats to my friend Grant who ft' d the Sunday 200 on UB last week, good for $8500. It has been really fun to watch him get better and use extremely good br management to grind his way up to over $1k. He then got in on for $20 via a satellite and played really well during the tournament.

On that note, I have some studying to do for my macro test tomorrow, so hopefully I go do the whole pwn thing and get an A in the class.

More blog posts to come in the future!

God Bless,

JG

The Bracelets Keep Coming/ Tilt Post

2008-05-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

Overall things have been good poker-wise the last few days. School-wise, however, this has been BY FAR the toughest quarter of my life. I am taking 4 Econ classes, one of which is supposed to be the toughest class in the economics department (thank goodness I have a very good/easy professor). I have really worked my butt off and it has paid off. I am hoping to pull off somewhere around a 3.3-3.4, and I will be extremely happy!

I somehow have managed to put together a pretty good quarter of poker as well. Wednesday was sort of an odd day. It started off with me playing in the STUPIDEST satellite tournament ever. I signed up because it was a $20 rebuy to get into the $200 $80k guaranteed later that night. I didn't realize that it was a super short stack/turbo tournament. This meant that each player started off with 100 chips with a normal/quick blind structure. I should have cut my losses after I busted on the first hand but I decided that I was already stuck and had to win the entry. $140 later, I was basically tied for the chip lead (1300 at 150/300) with 4 left. I then shoved the button with K5hh, which I am pretty sure is correct, and the BB (only person that barely had me covered) called with 88, and I lost. This pissed me off quite a bit as I felt like I had pissed away $140 to start off the day.

I did not tilt and spew thankfully, as i amassed a huge chipcount in the $15 rebuy (no guaranteed). With about 80k in chips and about 14 left (20 paid), I accidentally knocked my brother out when I got it in with QQ against his JJ on a J 9 8 flop; turn X, river 10. OOOOPS!!!
After that, it was basically mine to lose. I ran very well at the final table. But then I got heads up and got a bit too ancy. After doubling my opponent up twice after grinding him down playing small ball, position poker, I realized that I probably had a very loose image. I decided to slow things down a little bit after the break. On the final hand, my opponent min-raised to 12000 on the button, and I defended with 67o. Flop came K 4 2. I checked, and villain bet 6000, the min. bet. I decided to make a move, raising it to 21k. He quickly called, at which point I was left with a decision on the 5 turn. The pot was around 80k, while my opponent had about 95k in chips. I felt that he might have flatted my raise with 66-1010 with a small chance of him having a K. If I moved him in and lost, he would take a slight chip-lead. If I made a normal half-size pot bet, I would be in an awkward spot if he raised, a spot that I did not want to be in. I decided to check and to my surprise my opponent bet min. again!! At this point I had no idea what he had but was probably not going to put any money unless the river was a . . . 8!! NUTS! I moved him in, and he snap-called with a very poorly played KQ.

So that was cool. While playing, I also qualified for the $100 $40k sniper the next day (Thursday). So Derek came up, and I played while he railed. The tourney started at 6, and we had plans to see Indiana Jones at 10, so I was trying to run my stack up or bust obv. I made a border-line 3-bet AI with AA on a flop of Jh 8s 4s when it went check, I bet 350, cold call, and BB made it 1450. I moved, and he called with 7s-9s and I held as a 53% fav. I ran my stack up to as high as 13000 from the 2500 starting stack when things started going poorly.

I lost a few pots and was down to 9000. While on the phone with a friend, I went to check the tournament lobby when the screen froze. I tried to CTL ALT DELETE, but it just slowed things down more, and I was forced to manually shut her down :( Probably more than 5 mins. later, I was back and was down to 6500ish chips at 300/600. First hand I pick up JJ and ship behind a limper with no callers. Then, for whatever reason, Joel's stupid little brain decided it would be a good idea to go back into the tournament lobby to find the payouts. What do you think happened? FROZE AGAIN!!! At this point I can not repeat the profanities that came out of my mouth but I was not happy. I then came back to about 5k in chips at 400/800. I survived until there were 22 left with 20 getting paid, and I moved in with 99 from EP for 5500 (400/800). Guy behind comes over the top and I start to close my laptop. He finds 88, and I yell for it to hold. 8xxxx, and I throw my laptop off our deck on to Lincoln St.

Not really but I gave it a good toss into the couch. After getting up to 13k, things probably could not have gotten any worse. Earlier in my poker career, this would be too much to handle and I would probably be tempted to getting in some big live games and spew. Although I was probably the most upset I had ever been as a result of poker, it only took me a few minutes to realize that this is what you sign up for when you take up poker as a hobby. Even though I haven't had that much success in bigger buy-in tournaments (try almost no success), I feel like I am +EV in these fields. As I mentioned in the last blog, I am looking forward to expanding my bankroll and playing in these tournaments regularly.

After the tournament, we went and saw Indiana Jones and it was quite awful - probably the worst movie I have seen in theaters this decade. DO NOT SEE IT.

Oh ya, I almost forgot. I started writing this blog yesterday, and I just got done playing in the 11pm UB $30 tourney and (brag) I won again! It was good for 585/2 because I apparently made a deal with Derek to give him half (oh well). I am running so well right now and wish I could play every day. But with a 8-12 page paper due on Wednesday and finals coming up, I will only be able to play sparingly.

Oh well, gotta change the name of this blog from "Yet Another Bracelet/ Tilt Post" to "The Bracelets Keep Coming/ Tilt Post".

God Bless,

JG

Big Day Online

2008-05-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

No class on Tuesdays/Thursdays means either being very productive with homework and reading and stuff or just playing a lot of online. Monday night I played some $.5/$1 NL and was less than successful, losing 4 buy-ins.

But I woke up yesterday (Tuesday) and was itchy to play the slate of scheduled tournaments. I had intentions of getting some stuff done (working out, hitting balls, and doing some reading) but actually never made it out of my apartment all day, LOL! I played in the 12pm $10k guaranteed and ran my 5000 starting stack up to 15000 but lost a big pot against an absolutely awful player when he limp/called half his stack with A-10 when I held KK, and he flopped a A. Like two hands later I got KK AIPF against QQ and lost. I bled and bled and eventually busted.

I also played in some $50 sng's, which is something I have been doing pretty regularly lately, as it is less than 2% of my online BR and the play is not a whole lot better than the $20's and $30's. If I remember correctly, I cashed in 4 of 6, winning 2 with one 2nd and one 3rd for a nice little profit.

I continued to play MTT's and had a trend of accumulating a lot of chips and then falling short of any significant paydays. I played in the $30 deep stack (which I have won before) and absolutely pwned. I got 3-handed with around 45k with the chipleader to my right with around 50k. I then went on to win approximately 7 pots in a row with no showdown until the big hand came up. I raised on the button with AA, SB (at this point I had him slightly covered) called. Flop came Q 6 4 rainbow, and he checked. I led 2/3 pot and he min-raised. I then made it like 20k more, and he insta-4-bet with QJ. I held and then won the tourney the very next hand when my A8 held against villain's KQ.

I also signed up for the 5pm $10 $10k guaranteed, a great tournament as there were only 730 entrants (= lots of overlay). I ran super hot when I played a pot with this absolute donk. I had around 5k in chips to start the hand and had a pretty solid image. There were two limpers (100/200), and I decided to raise A8o from the button to 925. I got one caller, the station to my right. The flop came Q J 10, rainbow. Check, check. Turn 5, he checked again and I led 1200ish into a 2400. He called. River 8, and he again checked (having me covered). I decided that my hand may have looked like AK and that an AI bet might be able to move him off a J or a 10. I was pretty sure he didn't have a Q. I decided to move in, and he called pretty quickly. I was about to close the table when he tabled A5o!!! Weeeeeeeeeee.......

A couple hands later, I had J10cc in the BB; The only player at the table who had me covered limped from the button. I checked, flop came 9s 8s 7c. I checked, he bet pot at 500, and I made it 1400. He snap called. The turn was the Qc, and I bet 2200 into a 3300, and he min-raised. I "tanked" then shipped it, and he called with Q6ss. The river bricked out, and I was up to like 22k. I steadily chipped up until we got down to 2 tables and I could not get anything going. The blinds were a ridiculous 3k/6k. I lost a 120k pot with QQ against KJ AIPF and found myself down to 45k. I then moved in from the SB with A9, and the BB called with AJcc. Flop came Kc 10c x, turn x, river 9d!!

I entered the FT 5th in chips with 105k. I steadily chipped up until we got 4-handed when I re-shipped 10-10 for 120k into a min-raise who somehow found KK. Board came 10xxxx, and I won. Then, 3-handed, the bust-hand came up. I had 220k with the other stacks being around 400k each. The button was a maniac who I had played several big pots with up until that point. He/she min-raised the button to 20k, and I called from the BB with A4o. Flop came AsKxQs. I checked, he bet 19k, and I opted to just call trying to control the pot. The turn was the interesting 4s. At this point, I am going to stack off here every time against this player. I checked again, and he bet pot at 60ishk, and I moved in for my last 120k, and he snap called with Ks-6x. The river was the gross 5s, and I was sent to the rail in 3rd for a grand total of...$900 or so.

Overall, I ended up around $1600 for the day, which was a nice score. I feel very confident playing the mid-buyin MTT's and will continue to do so until my bankroll is big enough to consistently play the $100 MTT's. I played in two of them today with no success. I got it in once with KK against AK against J10 in a big pot and lost. Overall, I feel like I haven't played enough of them to get an accurate feel for my EV in these. But the play is definitely a lot better as there is usually only 1 or 2 players that will spew at any given table as opposed to about 3 or 4 in the lower BI tourneys. I hope to have more success in the upcoming months and hopefully have a big score sometime soon. I feel so confident in my tourney game right now that it would be stupid of me to ignore the bigger buy-in tourneys.

That is all that I have. I probably won't be playing very much for the rest of the week and into the weekend. I have a test on Friday and am going down to Seattle on Saturday to play golf with a friend and then Sunday I will be coming back up to play golf with another friend who is prepping for the high school state tournament next week.

That said, I gotta go do some quality studying (maybe I will get the itch later tonight but no promises).

God Bless,

JG

February-March Recap

2008-03-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

Again, it has been too long since I have last posted, but I'm bored at work, so I decided to start blogging again.

This last month and a half has been rather productive, as far as poker goes. There has been a theme this year in my poker playing in that I will win a big tournament then slowly bleed and bleed and lose confidence, then win another big tournament then follow the same pattern. Even though this is quite profitable, and I understand that it is impossible to avoid fluctuation in poker, I would like to work on grinding it out a little bit more, whether it be through live game or sng's. Either way, here is a recap on my last month and a half:

The first two weeks of February were not very memorable. I didn't really have any big scores and may have made only a couple of final tables.

The second weekend of February, Derek, Nate, Grant, and myself decided to make a little venture across the border (North) to a big casino/resort up there called RiverRock. It was kind of ironic because we made the exact same trip with the same guys at the same time last year (see earlier post where I seemingly did not lose a pot over three 8-hour sessions). But this time, my brother Paul decided to pull off a sikkkkkkkk slow roll to be the 5th guy.

We got up there on Friday night at around 10pm and decided to kick the night off with some old friends Captain Morgan and Jack Daniels. Some nice pots and waaaaaaay too many drinks later, and I was a $350 winner for the first night. When you consider that the waitress brought around either a Bud Light or a Corona just about every round at about $6 a pop, I was quite happy with this profit.

The second day/night did not go as well. I played some good, quality, sober poker for a very long time and just tried to grind out some profit, but I just could not win that key pot to get over the hump. I ended up losing $100 on the night but made the very poor decision of wandering downstairs to the casino (note to self: drunken roulette theory is not the best idea). After food, drinks, and hotel costs, I saw a very small profit, which I was okay with.

But when you consider that my friend Derek made $2000 in that same $1-$2 NL game that I could not win it, it makes ME look like a donkey. Honestly...who makes $2000 in a $1-$2 game?? He won 2 $1200+ pots and played the best poker I have ever seen him play. He had a perfect image set up by some shown bluffs and obviously had a few great situations, but I was quite amazed.

Derek is known in the crew as a grinder - a guy who usually always wins but does not go crazy outside of his bankroll. He is a very methodical player, but his reading ability is uncanny. But this does not give him credit at all. His knowledge of the game and his willingness to discuss certain hands and to learn from players that have more knowledge than him is why he has gotten to where he is at. I know that he has all of the talent and capabilities in the world to do some special special things. I owe much of my poker success to him.

ANYWAYS......

So the weekend ended in a most bizarre fashion involving Nate, a married girl that he met playing poker, and a disgusting smell in our hotel room (I'll let the reader use his/her imagination). We ended up checking out at around 3:30am and driving home.

The next day, I had to work the desk from 1pm-10pm (a.k.a. play tons of online poker). I signed up for the 1:00pm $50 $6k guaranteed tournament, which I had one before. 3 1/2 hours later, I had significantly bumped up my minimum hourly wage working the desk here when I won the tourney for around $1700. This, again, was huge in boosting my confidence, and this theme just continues to rear its ugly (or beautiful) head. Two weekends later, I won the 12:00pm $15 bounty tournament for around $1000, also while working the desk.

Instead of just cashing out like I normally would, I decided to leave some money in my account to see if I could win playing some 6-handed NL live game. I started off on a tear, and, over a 3+ day stretch, I had netted over a $800 profit playing $.50-$1. I found the games to be incredibly profitable and decided to make a run at $1-$2.

It has been well known that, over the past few years, with all of the online poker prohibition, the $1-$2 NL game is what the old $5-$10 games used to be (or so I've been told). This is due to the fact that money is more tough to put online, and so most of the people playing are winners. This became evident to me, as I noticed a significant jump from $.50-$1 to $1-$2. I ended up breaking about even for the first couple sessions but then netting a $400 loss where I completely blew up. I then realized that I may have been playing outside of my bankroll slightly and that I would continue to grind out the $.50-$1 NL, $20 and $30 sng's, and the MTT's on Ultimate Bet.

Since winning those tournaments and dominating the $.50-$1 game, I am down around $800 with no significant cashes to speak of. This, however, does not worry me at all, as I am still quite confident in my ability to weed through large fields in MTT's, which is where I feel I am most profitable.

As far as upcoming plans on the horizon, I have quite a bit of studying to do for my two finals next week, and, after that, I will have almost 2 weeks off to sweat the NCAA games, play some golf, relax, and play some online poker.

I am really looking forward to the Spring and the Summer and maybe Aruba...

God Bless,

JG

P.S. Congratulations to Derek on winning our race to $5k $100 bet. :-(

Advice to Beginning Poker Players

2008-02-01T00:43:00.000-08:00

I am 20 years old now and have been playing poker for a ~6 years. I am going to give a brief recap on how I got started in poker and why I believe that my beginnings and my mentality can help those who are just beginning.

When I was 13, my brother Paul would always ask me if I wanted to play "No limit texas hold 'em". This sounded like a foreign language to me and I said no and continued playing Tony Hawk.

When I was 14, I started playing online poker. I specifically remember playing for free money on Ultimate Bet first and then switching over to Poker Stars when I found a guy who would by free chips for real money (to this day I have no idea why).

At the age of 15, my friend Nate decided to make a deposit on Ultimatebet.com. we decided to go into together with a preliminary deposit of $25. We started off playing $5 sng's which I now realize were quite outside of our bankroll. I don't remember how many deposits it took but after about 2 or 3, we were actually starting to make some money. Playing undisciplined $5-$10 6-person sng's, we ran quite well running our account up to near $1,000. Eventually variance caught up with us and we began to slide, going down to $500.

This is where I believe that a healthy fear of going broke allowed me to get out of this situation profitably. I was convinced that we had better withdraw now with some profit than just continuing to slide and eventually going broke. We withdrew and it was actually fun to see some real money after playing with what seemed to be fake money for so long.

Getting out of that situation with a profit felt like a bonus. I soon realized that I had no concept of the game. That's when I started talking to people close to me about proper strategy. I read Phil Hellmuth's "Play Poker Like the Pros" but I did not have anyone there to give me advice on specific hands.

When I saw that my friend Derek was doing well playing cards, I started talking to him about proper strategy. He immediately told me to tighten up my starting hand requirements to that point that I was folding AJ suited to a single raise in limit hold 'em. This was the start to me becoming a winning poker player.

I guess that I sort of rambled during this post, but I want to make a couple of points of advice towards those seriously considering playing winning poker:

1) A healthy fear of going bust - If you are genuinely concerned about losing any money playing poker, you will never do well. But if you understand that smart bankroll management combined with a proper strategy will almost eliminate the possibility of going broke, you will eventually make money.

2) Find a mentor - Find someone that is knowledgeable about the game and is genuinely interested in helping you learned. I feel like I was groomed to be a winning player, and that is something that I wish for other people. Along with this comes two benefits: a) you will hopefully get better at the game and b) maybe your mentor will eventually bankroll you, eliminating your risk in certain games.

3) Start out playing low stake limit hold 'em. Those who understand how to beat the local $2-4 or $3-6 limit game at their local casino will have a great foundation with which to begin their poker career. The key to these games is to understand that nearly all winning hands need to be shown down. This means that tight starting hand selection is of the up-most importance. If you significantly decrease your starting range, you will be able to not only beat local card room games but also online limit games. If you can beat these games, you can move into no limit tournaments effortlessly and be profitable.

Wow this is a long post. I just got done from a night of drinking so I hope I have minimized my mistakes and actually made coherent sense.

God Bless,

JG

Pwned by Scammer

2008-01-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

So in my last blog, I mentioned that I was trying to pwn some scalper on Craigs List offering $100 a piece for Hawks playoff tickets. I regrettably followed up on it. The person by the name of "John Taylor" said that he was from the UK but was trying to sell them for his boss who lives in the U.S. but would not be able to attend the game.

*********WARNING SIGN #1**********

I told him that I would like to meet up with him to verify that the tickets were legitimate. He told me that he and his boss would not be able to meet me on short notice (I first got in contact with him on Monday before the Saturday game)

*********WARNING SIGN #2**********

He said that we would do the transaction through a company called Square Trade, who would act as a 3rd party in the transaction

*********WARNING SIGN #3**********

I gave him my information and he "CONTACTED SQUARE TRADE". Square Trade then contacted me with a very official-looking e-mail saying that I would need to go to a Western Union location and transfer John Taylor $400. I would then contact "SQUARE TRADE" with all of the WU information. They would then contact "John Taylor" telling him that I had made the transaction. JT would then ship the "tickets".

I decided to go to the Square Trade website to see if it was legitimate. I looked at it briefly after realizing that it was an actual company (should have looked at what this company actually did *DOH*)

Needless to say, the next day I went and pissed away $432 at Western Union.

The following day, when the tickets were supposed to arrive, I went to Square Trade's website and realized that they only offered warranties on online purchases. I then called them, and they said that they do not act as a 3rd party in online transactions. I then went to google and typed in Square Trade, and many sites came up talking about how people use "Square Trade" as a way to scam people.

To make things worse, the same day that I realized I was stuck $432, I received a PC phone that I bought on ebay. When I tried to activate it with Qwest, they said that the phone could not be activated because the previous owner had an outstanding balance of over $1,000.

I then began to go over the last 10 years of my life to figure out a reason why I could get screwed so bad TWICE in basically one day, lol.

I didn't come up with anything, but I did get reimbursed for the phone, which was okay. FYI Ebay > Craig's List.

I have learned my lesson now, albeit the hard way, and will never again just transfer some random person $400 because I think they are stupid enough to sell tickets worth about $600 a piece for $100.
____________________________________________________________________
Poker-wise, not a lot has happened since my $6k tourney. I took a couple of days off after I had been playing too much and had started to get sloppy. That helped quite a bit, and I am starting to play up to 6 $20 sng's at a time with profitable results.

I played in 9 sng's yesterday with the following results:

-1 9th place finish
-1 4th place finish
-1 3rd place finish
-4 2nd place finishes
-2 1st place finishes

9 sng's: $198
Return: $480
Profit: $282

Pretty good day. I ran really bad heads up, so I'm not too worried about my 4 2nd place finishes.

That being said, I am already in 4 sng's, so got to run.

God bless,

JG

-

1st in $50 $6k guaranteed!!!

2007-12-30T20:12:00.000-08:00

Woohoo!!! So very very excited. After getting waaaaay too drunk last night and not doing very well online, I regrettably signed up for the tournament - the same one that I took 4th place in a couple of days ago for $410. But, since it was Sunday, Ultimate Bet guaranteed $6k which was cool.

There weren't a lot of really cool hands that I can remember. I just ran very very well, especially at the final table. I was 2nd in chips going in and absolutely cruised. I was super aggressive p/f and just never really got played back at. With about 93k in chips and the chipleader in the BB at about 115k, I picked up AK on the button, knowing that the chipleader was about to make a stand with a wide range of hands. I raised my standard 2.5x the BB from the button to 5k, and, as expected, he made it 17k. I shortly paused and moved in for my 93k. He quickly called with AQ, and I held as a 3/1. After that, I had a huge chip lead on the other three and got heads up with 210k against a 20k stack. I was a little bit nervous when he doubled through me and had it up to 60k at one point. On the final hand, I raised 77 from the button, and he bet pot to around 20k. I decided to call hoping for a ragged flop. Flop came 4h 3h 3x. He moved in for around 40k, and I called. He showed A9o and I faded the 6 outer twice.

I made $2100ish for my efforts and am officially on fire since the beginning of November. After that I treated Nate to Mizu, a very good Japanese steakhouse. Hibachi steak and shrimp: the mortal nuts.

Well right now I am watching Tiger Week on the Golf Channel and playing in the 7:30 bounty tournament. I'm shortstacked though after one hour so I'll need to strike up some magic.

Hawks play the Redskins this weekend in the wildcard round of the playoffs, and I am trying to pwn some craiglist seller trying to sell 4 tickets for $100 a piece 2 rows back on like the 35 yd. line. We'll see if they are legit.

God Bless,

JG

Playing...A LOT

2007-12-07T22:20:00.000-08:00

I have been playing TONS of poker lately, mostly online. I am not a stats freak and I have not really tracked the amount of hours that I have logged, but what I do know is that I have played pretty much every day for the past like three months and just recently had some big scores.

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, I had the best day online I think I have ever had. First I qualified for the Sunday $200k and withdrew that and took the $215 tournament dollars. Then I basically chopped for first in the $15 bounty tournament for $750. Then, to top it off, I took 3rd in the $35 bounty tournament for $900, including like 8 $5 bounties. Needless to say, I was happy but obviously not satisfied. Going that deep twice and not winning is tough to swallow. But with a $1800 day, I think it was something I could handle. 3-handed in the $35 bounty and the first hand back from I woke up with KK in the BB. Me and the SB each had about 100k in chips and the button had 200k. The SB found JJ and bet pot as had been standard. Obviously, if I come over the top PF I double through and would fine myself heads up and even in chips. But I couldn't know he had JJ and decided to just call. Anyways, the flop came AK5 and all that I got was a pot-sized flop bet. Later on I eventually doubled that guy up and busted in 3rd. Sigh.

My desire for a MTT win did not have to wait long. The following Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, I won that very same tournament for $1900. I hung around the chip average for most of the FT, playing very knitty. But when we got down to 4-handed, it was all over. I severely outplayed my opponents and was able to accumulate chips, playing very few big pots. I got heads up as a 2-1 dog and punished the guy. Man, that felt good and was big for my bankroll.

Because I haven't really separated my poker bankroll from my other money, paying rent and bills every month put a limit on my bankroll. That is why I have been playing so much online. I have finals coming up and need to set apart some studying time, but how can I turn down such high EV playing MTT's on Ultimate Bet? And especially when I am running well and feel like I'm going to win every tournament that I sign up for.

Well, I am currently 35th out of 99 remaining players in the 9pm $7500 guaranteed, so hopefully I win that and get to post another blog with some fun hands. I have already doubled through QQ with JJ, my favorite hand. That was fun.

Take care,

JG

Update

2007-04-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

As usual, it's been a while since I last posted. I would like to get in the habit of posting a couple of times a week, but I actually have been without a computer for about three weeks as my laptop has been in the shop. I will be getting that this weekend and am pretty excited about it. There is something about not having something that makes you take it for granted, blah, blah, blah. But really, I haven't had much time to play much online poker and will be able to do so this weekend.

So the last time that I posted was probably over two months ago. Since then, I made a trip up to Canada to RiverRock Casino in Richland, B.C. My very good friends Nate, Derek, Grant, and I made the trip one weekend, intending on staying there for two nights in what was a very luxurious hotel. It turned out to be a very profitable trip, as I played for about 23 hours over 3 sessions with a profit of $1,500. Take away $100 for hotel expenses, about $100 on drinks/food, and $100 for a tournament on Saturday which I busted in, and my total profit was around $1,200. The others didn't fair very well, but I ran incredibly well, only playing $1-$2 NL. The biggest pot that I had won before this trip was about a $450 in a 4/8 game on a 8/16 kill pot in which I rivered a 2-outer. On this trip, I raked in a $500 AIPF with KK against QQ on a final board of J10497. My heartbeat must have been like 150 bpm when he turned an open-ender. The next large pot that I won was on the final day when I was stuck almost $300. There was a maniac in the game who dumped $2,500 in the $1-$2 NL game in less than 2 hours which was incredible. He was blind-raising to $75. I decided to put all my chips in against him with A5hh, but his 33 held. I had just won a pretty sizable pot against him with KK, and was only stuck about $120. I then look down at KK again. I raise, and, to my delight, the fairly loose player to my left announces re-raise. It mucked around to the maniac, and he cold-calls the $30 re-raise. It mucked back around to me, and I made it $100 even, leaving myself about $175 behind. Both players called, and we took the flop of 10-10-9. I obviously knew that the player to my left wasn't capable of a 10, and wasn't going to give the other player a chance to draw out with KQ or KJ. I was first to act and hesitated before moving all-in. The player to my left called, and the other guy thought about it for literally 2 minutes before dumping J6!!!!! I jumped out of my chair when my opponent asked if I had KK. I clapped my hands as he rolled over QQ. I faded the 2-outer and raked in the largest pot of my life: over $600. Needless to say I am itching to get back up there and am trying to clear my schedule perhaps this Saturday night to make a trip.

I have also been doing pretty well playing live, up around $1000 in the past month. My bankroll is increasing and every day that summer approaches, I get more and more ancy. I hope to be working 2-3 days a week at a golf course, play golf during the days, and play poker at night.

I have been continually mulling with myself inside my head just thinking about the possibilities of me playing poker semi-professionally or even professionally. As of right now, I have no intentions of doing so. Poker is one of my big interests right now, and it's nice because I have become pretty successful at it and can make a pretty big profit at it. Whether or not I could do that at a higher limit is another story. After I graduate, if I have larger than a $25,000 bankroll, I may consider taking a few months or even a year off to see what I can do. This is a long way off, and my $4,000 bankroll needs to grow before any of this could happen. These are just my thoughts.

Well I am working the front desk here in Nash Hall right now, and it's time to start sorting mail.

God bless,

JG

A Big Night

2007-02-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

It had seemed like months since I had had big session, and finally, last night, it happened. Grant and I decided to go to Slo Pitch, and anticipation built the entire day. I was really excited, and was just focusing the entire day on making good decisions when I sit down. We arrived around 8:30 when the second game was just starting, which was nice. I started out playing very tight, and won a few pots early. I won quite a nice pot when a loose-passive player limped in from UTG+1 with J-9s, and I limped with J-10 with a flop of J-J-8. The turn was an A, and the river brought a low card, so my kicker played.

We played in the second game short-handed for a little while, and I was able to get up to around $400 from my original buy-in of $150. When I was called to the main game, I was very excited, as a few of my favorite fish were in the game. I was fortunate to win a big pot with AA in a multi-way pot, in which one of the players had 33 with a final board of Ks-9-3-As-5s. The action was a little bit odd, as a player bet in the dark p/f with three callers. I raised, and they all called. On the turn, it checked to the player with 33, and he bet out. I just called, and the others mucked. On the river, the only hand that I couldn't beat would have been something like a QJ, Q10, J10 of spades. The player bet out, I raised, and he immediately re-raised. I legitimately felt I was probably beat, and made a crying call. I was excited when he asked me if I had a flushed, and I turned my hand over and raked in a monster.

There were several other big hands that I had, and I could talk about them for hours. Needless to say, I am very excited about this night. I ended up playing to 3:30am, so, in total, an 8-hour session, cashing out $653 for a profit of $503. This was actually a big boost to my bankroll, but, more importantly, a big boost to my confidence. I probably mis-played a couple of hands, and missed some bets, which is too be expected. I also was playing pretty loose, but felt like it was a pretty safe game to do so. Needless to say, I was pretty gitty when we got back, and told everyone the next day. I normally wouldn't do this when I'm in a groove, but it has been a while since I've had a night where I felt like I couldn't miss.

On a related note, I don't know if I've mentioned this, but both my online accounts on UltimatBet.com got shut down because a friend of a friend had some security issues on Bodog.com, and, apparently they share the same database. Consequently, anyone who has played from the same IP address as him got their accounts shut down. My account, Little Punish got shut down about a month and a half ago. I have written probably seven or eight e-mails to Ultimate Bet letting them know of the situation, but haven't heard anything back. Not a single e-mail. I mean I've seen some sites with some bad customer service, but this is by far the worst. My other screen name The Youngest got shut down, I assume, because I made a new username, and they probably shut down anyone linked to those accounts. I was able to transfer $350 to my brother's account, which was reopened, so I will probably be able to get some money off of there.

Anyways, it's time for me to get some stuff done. Take care,

JG

A Fresh Start

2007-01-17T16:37:00.001-08:00

Last night's blog inspired me a little bit. I had been needing to vent and talk out my frustrations for quite some time, but just never did. I kept on thinking things would eventually turn around if I kept on playing with the same mentality that I had.

After I wrote the blog last night, I decided to go and make a new name on Ultimate Bet, something that would hopefully represent a new, fresh start on 2007 and me as a poker player. I made an account and made a $100 deposit, earning 100% my deposit in bonus dollars, which can be converted to cash, which was pretty sweet. I didn't play any last night, but played in one $10 SNG when I got done with classes. I played very solid, only making one major mistake, which was actually a good play, even in retrospect, but a guy made a good call on me.

With the blinds at 10/20, I called an UTG raise of 70 with 10-10 from middle position. The button called as did one or two of the blinds. The flop came Js 10s 3h. A perfect flop for me, but a dangerous one with the flush draw, straight draw out there. One of the blinds came out and bet about half the pot. The raiser called, and I raised 4x the bet to around 400. To my delight, the button re-raised essentially all-in. The other two mucked, and I called, and he rolls over AsJh, needing two runners. I was somewhat caught by surprised when my hand held as a 95% favorite, just the way things have been running for me lately.

I won a few races and was chip-leader for the entire way until a hand with 4 people left. In SNG's, only 3 people cash, so my strategy is to play extremely tight early and aggressive late, especially when I have a chip-lead. I was raising probably 50% of the hands, as the others did not want to get involved with the huge chip-leader until they got in the money. I knocked the 4th guy out when I was forced to call with KQ against his AQ, but I won on a board of QQ9K2. The person in 3rd place was down to about 5 big blinds, so I wanted to put pressure on the guy in 2nd until the 3rd place guy went out.

I raised with A2 spades in the SB, and the BB called. The flop came K-4-3 rainbow. I bet out half the pot (600), and he raised the min. to 1200, leaving 2200 behind. I considered folding, but felt as though he could have been on a stone cold bluff or had like a King-rag, which would be tough for him to call all-in with. I went ahead and stuck it in, and he paused before making the call with K2. So he doubled through me to 8k, and I was left with 5k. After that, I knocked out the shortstack with A9 against A7, and battled hard heads up, but sort of went card-dead. I got my money in good with AQ clubs vs A4 spades, but he made a flush, and I finished 2nd for $30.

Overall, I was pleased with my play. I got a little bit of confidence back and have the feeling that I will be making good on my $100 investment. I might be going to the Slo Pitch Pub and Casino tonight with Grant to play some 3/6 or 4/8. This SNG cash helped my confidence so much. It has been a long time since I had the feeling that I was going to win when I sat down at a poker table (whether it be a virtual one or a real one) :)

That's it for me, time to do some homework before working the front desk from 6-8.

JG

Crying for help

2007-01-17T02:35:00.000-08:00

I have posted in quite some time, and thought that I would give it a try one more time. I'm going to try and make it a regular thing, but just haven't gotten around to it with so many other things going on.

Wow, how things have changed since the last time that I posted. I am no longer dominating the SNG's on Ultimate Bet, nor am I doing very well in the casinos either. I am currently at the lowest point in my short poker career. I am struggling with confidence, and, although I try not to let it affect my play, playing discouraged poker is not playing winning poker.

To give a recap on my last month of playing, I got out for winter break in the middle of December, and played almost every day over break. I started off pretty hot with a few winning sessions, but then just got ran over. The highest point of my break was chopping for first in a $20 MTT on Ultimate Bet for just shy of $600. Since then, everything has been downhill. My bankroll is slowly depleting, and I feel as though there is nothing that I can do right. My Ultimate Bet account has been cancelled, leaving me with the belief that I will never again see the $300+ that was in there. I have had about 7 or 8 losing sessions in a row, and am probably down about $400 in the new year.

I keep telling myself to stay patient and things will turn around, but it is tough. I feel like I should take a break from poker, but it is so hard with the convenience of online poker and the fact that my buddy Grant wants to go to the casino pretty much every night. All I need is one break, and I will be on the rebound, but that seems like such a far sight from where I'm at right now. I can't imagine the struggling poker professionals and the highs and lows endured by them. Let's just say I do not empathize with them.

The good news is, it's not the end of the world. It is only poker, and I may be making a bigger deal out of it than it is, but I am just trying to put my frustrations down on paper. I appreciate anyone that reads these blogs, and I hope that it gives you a glimpse into the life of a poker player living at college.

God Bless,
JG

Back to the blogs...

2006-04-20T23:51:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted. In fact, I made three points the first day that I created this blog and haven't posted one yet. Anyways, I've taken a few beats tonight playing on Ultimate Bet, and I needed a way to vent. So far I've played in 4 $20 SNG's on the day, have taken first in one, 3rd in another, took 10th in another, and am short-stacked in another. At a glance, I have profitted $74 of the 3 SNG's that I have played not including the one that I am currently in. But here are just two of the beats I have taken.

First hand of a 10-person $20 SNG, I pick up 55 under the gun and decide to limp in, just calling the BB. A player two seats to my left raises it to 60, three times the BB. Here is my thinking: although I do not have a read on this individual player, I knew that he must have had a big pair (AA, KK, or QQ). I gathered this based on the fact that he was in early position and did not bet the pot which would have been 90 and he did not raise the minimum to 40. It was more of a feel thing, but I was 75% sure that he had a big pair. Everyone mucked back to me, and I called, knowing that if I could flop a set, I could double up on the first hand. The flop came J-10-5 - a perfect flop. I decided to disguise my hand by betting about 2/3 of the pot into him. Sure enough he raised the pot. I could have re-raised all-in here, but decided to make sure that I got all of his chips, so I just called. The turn was a 2, and I checked. He immediately pushed all-in, and I immediately called. Just as expected, he turns over AA. But, wouldn't you know it, the river brings an Ace - one of the only two cards in the deck that would have eliminated me. *Sigh*

The second beat wasn't as bad, considering that I was already in the money. We were down to three players when I picked up AA in the BB. I was about tied for the chip lead with the player to my left, while the other player had about 2/3 the amount that we had. The button raised the minimum to 400. I decided not to slow-play, as I had picked up on the fact that he was a calling station. I made it 1100 to go, and he called. The flop came 7-4-3 rainbow. I bet out, and he called. The turn was an 8, and I checked (with the intent of check-raising). He bet the minimum, which was kind of disappointing, but I decided to make a stand right there and put it all in for another 2000. He hesitated and called with... KK!!!! I couldn't believe it and was ecstatic that I was going to double up...unless the river brought a K!!!! *dogh*

That was very disappointing, but I have learned that those are the things that suck about poker. Because of the short-term bad luck, it is hard to see the fact that, in the long-term, those beats will even out. I believe that people DO go through long periods where bad beats reoccur over and over, and that is where being a smart player is the most important. Not going on tilt and increasing your limits is important in insuring that you maintain a bankroll. And when you're a college kid grinding out the low-limits, a long bad streak can be hard to take, but I don't believe that it is necessarilly the beats that hurt the bankroll so much as how you deal with those beats. Anyways, I'm sure that no one reads this blog, but it's just my way of writing down my thoughts.

Peace.

ITM Percentages

2006-03-30T00:42:00.000-08:00

One of the things that I have been meaning to keep track of during the past couple weeks is the ITM% or the "In the money" percentage. Playing mostly $20 10-person SNG's, I have found that, not only do you have to have a ITM% above 30%, but you should be taking 1st or 2nd in at least half of those tournaments that you cash in in order to be a profitable player. This is somewhat ridiculous, but, in the past week, I have logged my ITM% for all my SNG's. The results are as follows:

I have played in 54 10-person SNG's, almost exclusively $20+2 buy-ins.
In these 54 SNG's, my ITM% is 43%

I have finished 1st 16 times (30%)
I have finished 2nd 7 times (13%)
I have finished 3rd 10 times (19%)

In total, assuming that all of the SNG's were $20+2, my total profit would be $1,232! Needless to say, I am in a nice little groove right now. One thing that this data tells me is that my heads-up game is pretty good, as, when I get heads up, I take first more than twice as much as I finish second. I would, however, like to improve on not just being satisfied with finishing in the money but working hard on winning every SNG I play. Cashing is nice, but if you are finishing 3rd every time, you are only doubling your money and paying for the buy-in of the next tournament. Anyways, I would encourage any and all aspiring poker players to keep track of their ITM% to learn more about their progress as a tournament player.

My Poker History

2006-03-30T00:15:00.000-08:00

When I turned 18 more than six months ago, I was ecstatic to be able to go to many of the local casinos, many of which ran daily tournaments. In fact, my birthday consisted of a tournament stop at Midway Casino, a tournament stop at Cascade Casino, and a late-night 4 hour 3/6 session back at Midway.

After curing my itch to play in the tournaments (with a very successful record) and finding live game to be somewhat boring and uneventful, I have come to the realization that I am going to have to build my bankroll playing online poker. This is where I feel I can make the most money consistently, and that is what I have focused on for the past 3 months. My poker buddy Nate transferred be $80 that he owed me to my Ultimate Bet account, and, since then, I am up nearly $2,000. With the exception of a 2nd place finish in a $3o Multi-Table Tournament, which profitted $700, I have stayed consistent in playing $20 10-person SNG's. My tournament game is as good as it has ever been, and my strategy has reaped very profittable outcomes.

I will get at some more specific aspects in later blogs, but I just wanted to give a background of myself and my short poker career thus far.

About Me

2006-03-29T23:37:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

My name is Joel, and I am an 18-year old college student from Bellingham, Washington, which is about 100 miles North of Seattle.

About three years ago, I became interested in poker, especially No Limit Texas Hold 'em. As soon as I turned 18, I found out that I had developed a talent, and that I could make some money while doing something that I like. With the help of some of my close friends, I have taken my game to the next level. I currently am unemployed, and have earned close to $8,000 since September playing poker. I hope that this blog will be a chance for me to become a more open, successful player, and I hope that you all enjoy.