Discontent and excitement.

So it wasnt a bad month, to be honest it was great financially as more then half my hands were played at 2/4 this month. To be honest I am super stoked on making a semi-smooth transition to 400NL and looking forward to keeping the ball rolling. I am discontent at the number of hands played though. I could list a number of excuses but who fucking cares? Lets be honest if you want to be a great poker player you have to play. Every year the Yankess have a championship team on paper but they still have to play to win. The reason for my excitement is I have made a deal with the devil(myself) that if I reach 40K hands this month I will buy myself a new bicycle. Yeah I said it a BICYCLE, what?

Hopefully I will keep a running tab here of my progress as I will also be doing all I can to avoid looking at my monthly totals in PT. In order to do so I will log my daily hand total here with some other BS as well.

Lastly, I wanted to thank Btimm for always commenting on my blogs and being so encouraging with his words.

How not to win at poker.

I am so fucking pissed at myself right now. I had a test this morning and was just feeling meh when I got home. I wasnt going to play any poker till I did some work. Then I decide to check the tables. What do you know I see a huge fish with a huge stack. WHO FUCKING CARES! Seriously if you arent in the right mind frame to play dont. I wasnt ready to play poker. I shouldnt even be in front of my computer. Anyways of course I take the seat and start grinding. What do you know cooler fucking city. I played this hand tits too.

Absolute Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (4 handed) Hand History converter, Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Button ($870.30)
SB ($420.50)
BB ($302.30)
Hero ($438)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 7c, 7s.
Hero raises to $16, Button calls $16, SB calls $14, 1 fold.

Flop: ($52) Ac, 7h, As (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $36, Button folds, SB raises to $70, Hero calls $36.

Turn: ($194) Qs (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks.

River: ($194) 6h (2 players)
SB bets $140, Hero raises to $350 (All-In), SB calls $192.50 (All-In).

Final Pot: $876.50

Results below:
SB has Ad Qd (full house, aces full of queens).
Hero has 7c 7s (full house, sevens full of aces).
Outcome: SB wins $859. Hero wins $17.50.


What happens next? The fish leaves. So now I am stuckl a BI kinda steamed and without fish. What should I do? Quit. Seriously though I wasnt playing bad. I decide to stay and play and then these two spots happen.


I dont iknow how i feel about this hand. Villain was 33/18 with a super high att to steal. When he flats OOP I guess I could simply shut down and hope to show it down cheap putting him on AQs+ and JJ+. But I am not so sure of that. This hand may have been spewy.
Absolute Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (4 handed) Hand History converter, Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Hero ($636.03)
SB ($988)
BB ($294)
UTG ($253.68)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Ts, Th.
UTG raises to $16, Hero raises to $48, 2 folds, UTG calls $32.

Flop: ($102) 6d, 3s, 5h (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $72, UTG raises to $172, Hero raises to $244, UTG calls $33.68 (All-In).

Turn: ($551.68) 9s (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($551.68) Kh (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $551.68

Results below:
Hero has Ts Th (one pair, tens).
UTG has Ad As (one pair, aces).
Outcome: UTG wins $513.36. Hero wins $38.32.

Then this hand. Can I play this any different? i was readless against this villain. I guess I am hoping for AQ or a split at best. Honestly though TPTK in a 3bet pot. GG.

Absolute Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter, Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Button ($510.96)
Hero ($447.35)
BB ($974)
UTG ($455.10)
MP ($282)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ad, Kc. UTG posts a blind of $4.
UTG (poster) raises to $16, 2 folds, Hero raises to $52, 1 fold, UTG calls $36.

Flop: ($108) Jh, 7d, Ah (2 players)
Hero bets $72, UTG raises to $180, Hero raises to $395.35 (All-In), UTG calls $215.35.

Turn: ($898.70) 2d (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($898.70) Kh (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $898.70

Results below:
Hero has Ad Kc (two pair, aces and kings).
UTG has Jc Jd (three of a kind, jacks).
Outcome: UTG wins $898.70.


To sum it up I am so fucking pissed at myself. I should never have ever sat. I pride myself on discipline. This was a display of a lack of discipline and it resulted in me dropping 3BIs. Dont sit dont lose. Quit when the fish quits lose less. I think never sitting is best. For me I play best when I plan to play. This involves a cup of tea or coffeee some datamining and some mental preparation.

My goal is to be a winning 5000NLer by years end.

Currently I am playing 200 and 400NL. I am working at making 400 my main game. This month I have logged the majority of my hands at 400NL on AP where the majority of my roll is. I also have a small roll on FTP which I am grinding at 200NL to attempt to build a 15BI roll for 400NL.

Current stake=400NL
400->1000->2000->5000NL
Desired stake=5000NL


In the past I have prefered to grind no less then 50K hands at each stake as I move up and I plan on sticking to this. Currently I have put in 8K hands at 400Nl which means I have a minimum of 42K hands to play before I stab at the next stake or roughly a months time. Ideally I would like to move up confidently and this means beating each stake with great success. Therefore i will not be rushing any one leap. That being said I wont be stabbing at 1000Nl till I feel comfortable both bankroll wise and skill wise.

Road to 5000NL.

Feb-March: 400NL
April: 400NL with stabs at 1000NL
May-June: 1000NL
June:1000NL with stabs at 2000NL
July-August:1000NL &2000NL
Sept-October:2000NL stabbing 5000NL
Nov-Dec:2000NL&5000NL

Lets get real.

I started this poker thing seriously last year right about this time and have successfully moved up from 25NL to 200NL with my BR and level of play ready for 400NL. That being said I have moved up 3-4 levels in 1 years time. As crazy as it sounds I think the learning curve is steeper now then it was at micro. I feel my game can progress much faster now that I have a solid core of poker heads to discuss the game with and the mental strength to deal with variance which I lacked heavily in the past. I am actually on my way out to enjoy a quick round of golf on a beatiful sunny day in California but i wanted to put a goal or two in writing before I did.

When I started my poker journey I had no major goal like I want to beat this stake or anyhting of that nature. My goal was to simply play winning poker and pay my bills while doing so. April will be one year of strictly supporting myself off of poker and nothing else. Quite the accomplishment if you ask me. With that said I have the confidence in my game that I feel poker will be a viable source of income while I work my way through college. Therefore I feel it is time to narrow my goal to beating a stake in said time. My goal is to be a winning 5000NLer by years end. This isnt going to be easy by any means, though I honestly feel that it is achievable. My next blog will outline my plan for success at my new goal.

I am a spewtard!

If you are reading this I apologize. I am writing this to remind myself not to be a fucking idiot. My game is improving big time but I take it to far sometimes. When a maniac is on my table I get stupid sometimes and start making retarded ass plays. This is a few of those plays.

Villain in these hands is running 43/37/5.8 over 434 hands. 1st time I 3bet him he 4bet me. Then he stacks me with AJs vs my QQ when he jams a FD and hits.
Then this hand happens, not sure if my play is correct or not.

Absolute Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter, Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Button ($586.05)
SB ($568.98)
BB ($370.10)
Hero ($466.75)
MP ($848)
CO ($806)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Td, Th.
Hero raises to $16, 1 fold, CO raises to $48, 3 folds, Hero raises to $120, CO raises to $776, Hero calls $346.75 (All-In).


After our history at 1st I liked my call but after second thought in all honesty it might be a fold. He has only seen QQ from me so I think he will be less likely to 5 bet bluff here.

Flop: ($1248.75) 2c, 9s, 7c (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($1248.75) 2h (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($1248.75) 9h (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $1248.75

Results below:
Hero has Td Th (two pair, tens and nines).
CO has Qc Qh (two pair, queens and nines).
Outcome: CO wins $1248.75.


Then he takes me to value town. Oh wait I mean I fucking spew. I wanted to fold then decided I might actually still have some FE and if not maybe I can suck out. Again I think this guy was erasing all moves from his arsenal against me. Funny thing is I dont get it in that bad.

Absolute Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (4 handed) Hand History converter, Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Button ($1912.45)
Hero ($474)
BB ($1258.80)
UTG ($954.80)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Qc, Jd.
UTG raises to $12, 1 fold, Hero calls $10, 1 fold.

Flop: ($28) 6c, Ac, Ts (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $24, Hero raises to $76, UTG raises to $152, Hero raises to $462 (All-In), UTG calls $258.

Turn: ($900) 8s (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($900) As (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $900

Results below:
Hero has Qc Jd (one pair, aces).
UTG has 4c Tc (two pair, aces and tens).
Outcome: UTG wins $900.


The there was this guy who was 3betting me all day. I honestly again am not so sure just how bad my play is. I mean calling with QJo OOP is marginal but I had to take a stand against this guy.


Absolute Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter, Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Button ($951.30)
Hero ($443.30)
BB ($984.30)
UTG ($951)
MP ($991.10)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Jc, Qd.
3 folds, Hero raises to $16, BB raises to $46, Hero calls $30.

Flop: ($92) 7d, 4h, Qh (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $65, Hero raises to $206, BB raises to $271, Hero calls $191.30 (All-In).

Turn: ($760.30) Ts (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($760.30) 9h (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $760.30

Results below:
Hero has Jc Qd (one pair, queens).
BB has Kh Qc (one pair, queens).
Outcome: BB wins $760.30.


So basically I am a spewtard when I know guys are playing back light. 400NL has been fun so far and I know I will beat the game this month. Just need to keep my head on and go with what I set as my goal. I actually added a table at 400NL which is just stupid. The aggression levels are fucking crazy. I honestly think you could play like some stupid limp call game and just kill all the TAG tards. That being said I am going to stick to my solid play and 2-3 table when the games look good. If it wasnt for these really spewy spots I would be doing quite well even though I have had like an insane number of coolers already.