decent run

sunday, monday and tuesday i played a total of 18 games. out of those 18 games, i cashed in 11. so far a decent little run and puts me up this month so far. long way still to go, but feel good. my room mate and some guys at the bar we watched the chiefs game at were watching me play during the game and were amazed at the number of cashes especially since i was pretty card dead. my roommate said that i earned every one of those cashes the hard way - by playing my ass off. felt good. i decided to play a game at the $16 level tonight to see what the competition was like at that level. i totally won it. very cool. and i was my normal card dead, so when my bank roll reaches the next level again (which should be soon) i think im ready to give the $12 games another try.

watched the wsop final table tonight. in all honesty, i was a little disappointed in espn and the lack of actual hands shown. i think in two hours there was maybe 20 - 25 hands shown. seemed to be a whole lot of fluff about the players they were able to fit in tho. congrats to the guy who won. its an amazing feat no matter how you look at it. im hoping to win a satellite into it next summer - and would love to cash. we'll see.

the company that laid me off in may went through it again. in may they let about 90 -100 people go. word on the street is that another 300 hit the bricks tuesday. its a crazy time we are living in and my timing for trying this whole thing out couldn't be better (hope you caught the sarcasm in that statement) i am actually nervous about the economy. i have finally applied for unemployment and will be looking for work while im continuing to build my poker skills. since everyone else is looking for work too, it is going to be a tough environment. from what i understand, lots of the folks that were laid off with me still haven't found work. im seriously considering taking money out of my ever shrinking 401k to pay off student loans and my one cc so that i can have more flexibility in salary while looking for a job. the best of all worlds would be that i make this poker thing happen and dont need to get a job, but realistically, i better look now while i still have some flexibility.

keep those fingers crossed.
peace and love and happiness to all
k-

been sick so havent played much this week.

i did manage to play 33 games with 10 cashes and am down $1.40 for the week. not a great start to the month, but not horrible either.

hope everyone has a good weekend. bundle up - since its supposed to get cold.

peace and love and happiness to all.
k-

october was mixed but positive

happy November everyone - holy crap! can't believe its November already. as i was so nicely informed recently, only 7 more weeks to Xmas.

October results were a mixed bag. i ended the month up after taking a decent dive into the negative category, but never really felt like i got a rhythm going.

i felt that i took a step backwards in my playing for a while since a couple of leaks that i thought i had filled came out to play (like calling a value bet a few times when the only thing my hand beats was a bluff)

on the other hand - according to sharkscope there are a lot players out there who aren't in the black and I'm one of the few in the black no matter how little it is, so believe it or not that is one of the things that has actually re instilled my confidence level. those negative variance days really mess with my mind sometimes and after looking up a few players, i see that many are way worse off than i am - and that gives me hope that there really are a lot of fish out there. one guy has played over 11,000 games and is down. ($516) which isnt that much for that many games, but at the $6.50 level, its going to take him a lot of games to make up that difference.

last night i downloaded a sng wizard to help me analyze my game and the decisions i am making. i can download a games hand history into the software and whenever i have a decision when my chips stack is around 10 big blinds or if I'm in a hand with an opponent which has 10 bb or less, it analyzes my decision making. you can assign loose, aggressive etc to you opponent and it will tell you if you made decisions based on the correct math. the theory being that a majority of the most important decisions come then and it should help me identify and plug a leak faster.

i played around with it last night after downloading it and already know one thing about my game. there is a point when theoretically you should push with literally any two cards to try and steal the blinds and Ive always decided that ill push with any two cards that have some showdown potential. but really i have seen players get caught with 23o but they've stolen a lot of pots before that with crap and may not have made it as far if they weren't.

it will be interesting to see if my cash rate goes up after using this for awhile.

oh well - time to hit the tables.
peace and love an happiness to all.
k-

bar poker

ive spent years playing bar poker and i think its a great environment to get started in. yesterday we had our quarterly tournament. i was pleased with my play overall. i was patient, thoughtful and didn't get out of line more than once during the tourney. going to the final table i was second in chips, although the chip leader had me almost doubled. the final table was pretty tight and i was able to win a few pots uncontested and going into heads up i had the chip lead by a tiny margin which changed on the first hand. i called a one bump raise to 8000 with Q9, missed the flop and had to lay down my hand when the other player went all in. i found out after the tourney that he had AA. we went back and forsth for awhile, but on the last hand he raised nd i reraised all in with A3. he called with 99 and flopped trips and ended with a boat. i felt good about adding $100 to my bankroll for coming in second. the man i lost tois a great friend of mine and a good player in his own rights as he won last quarters tourney as well.

i think it may be one of my last if not my very last bar tourney as im not making it out to play as often as i used to since i am trying to play seriously. one thing that bar poker is good for is trying out new strategies and learning to understand peoples thinking behind specific moves since there is a lot of open information being passed about the table, so i will play occasionally.

october is almost over and as of today - im up more than i was in september which is the right direction, eh?

peace and love and happiness
k-

roller coaster riding

maybe the cure for my poker blues was to just bitch about it on my blog, because as soon as i started playing today, it was off to the races.

i played 15 games today and came in first 6 times. (FINALLY!!) and cashed in 2 more at 2nd, so 8 cashes overall is good and my month has totally turned around just that quick. im almost up to my high for the beginning of the month. they are right when they say this is a hard way to make an easy living. the emotional toll it takes when you lose a few is crazy. im so glad im tracking my games - it helps me calm down when i can quantify things. my roi since moving back to this level after today is back up to 15.33% and im cashing in 42.37% of the games since moving back down. still feeling good about the move down and am going to concentrate on getting playing time in every day to maximize my edge.

i have wondered what was considered a good rate, and everything ive read says if you can cash in about 40% of the games you are playing in, then you are considered a winning player, so i feel really good about that!

ttyl
peace and love and happiness
k-

still up and down

october has been a rough month. started the month up and currently am down about $20. i have made up some of the ground i lost when i was playing the $12 games, but not much. plenty of time to turn it around and as a matter of fact, my cash rate at the 6.50 game is back to around 40%, the problem im having right now is that im not getting first very often. most of my cashes are coming at 2nd or 3rd place. that is affecting the roi and i am working hard to increase my first places. not getting that extra money for first is making a big difference in profit.

not much else going on - i had a roommate move in last week, so we've been spending time getting to know each other. he seems to be a good guy and we are both making efforts to be pretty considerate, so its going well.

talk to you soon.
peace and love and happiness to all
k-

life outside the poker table is busy

its been a crazy week. as you know i went to columbia this past weekend. then a friend and i went to see tina turner on wed night and last night a friend got tickets for her bday for the john legend concert, so we went and saw him. both concerts were fabulous. seeing an icon like tina turner was awesome and john legend has such a smooth beautiful voice and such energy on stage. it was great to see them both. tomorrow im going to be doing a pub crawl in westport and downtown kc for cancer. then things should slow down for me.

poker is going a bit better since ive moved back down to the 6.50 level. my ROI is 14% for the time ive been back down - so i feel good about it. i played two tables today at the same time and was able to make good decisions while playing two tables, so i think i will start doing that more often.

hope everyone has a good weekend
peace and love and happiness
k-

evaluating this level

i feel like i am bleeding my bankroll $12 at a time. after 30 games at this level, i am cashing in only 25% and actually have a negative ROI of 25% which means im losing $25 for every $100 i put in play. that is not good. i am going to move back to the 6.50 game since it seems i was able to play very profitably at that level. i can always start adding tables and play two or three tables at a time at the 6.50 level to increase the profitability as well. i will eventually move up to the $12 level again, but better to cut my losses and move back down than to bleed dry my bankroll.

im bummed but its the right decision.

i will let you know when i move back up.
til next time.
peace and love and happiness
k-

had a fun weekend.

friday night i went out to the american royal bbq - one of the biggest competitive bbqs in the country to sample the fixins my friends were entering. from my opinion it was great, but the judges didn't think so because they didn't win... oh well there is always next year.

then on saturday, a few of us drove to columbia to visit a younger sister who was just turning 21. that was good time even if it was in mizzou country.

got back sunday tired and really wishing i didn't have to play softball - but i did. and we stank it up. most of the men on our team are the same who were bbqing all weekend, so they were exhausted and i was exhausted and we actually got run ruled on the second game - which on the bright side meant i got to go home and get some sleep earlier than i expected

lets see poker at the new level has been interesting. i'm down right now just a bit but am feeling good about how i am playing. i had an interesting hand that was set up from an earlier hand. on our first encounter - i was in the big blind with something playable, but not great and a person three seats in makes a standard raise. everyone folds to me and i decide i don't want to play my cards out of position with my chip stack dwindling, so i fold and the raiser shows AA. good fold me.

two hands later when im next to the dealer button in the cutoff seat, the same player limps in first position. and it folds to me. i've got A6 hearts. when he limped i immediately thought he had a big hand and he was mad his AA didn't get paid off, so he was going to make sure that this hand did. i'm putting him on KK, QQ, JJ only. i don't think hes limping with AQ or AK. big blind checks. the flop comes out 8A9. big blind checks, limper checks and i put out what i know looks like a weak position bet of about 1/3 of the pot to see if i can induce a raise. sure enough he bumps me. so i come over the top of him for all his chips and he calls and sure enough he shows KK and he is out of the tournament. he basically trapped himself. since he couldn't get away from the hand even tho i gave him every chance. i like the play to limp with a big hand occasionally, but you still have to be able to lay it down. something im still working on myself sometimes.

oh well. off to the tables..
peace and love and happiness
k-

im moving up

i knew i was close to moving up yesterday - but i wasn't sure how the next few days were going to go. looks like today went well enough to move me to the next level.

moving through level 1 took 304 games and i ended the level with a 13.92% ROI and a cash rate of 38.16% and a little more than a month's time.

moving through level 2 took 125 games and i ended the level with a 24.28% ROI and a cash rate of 43.20% and a little more than a few weeks time. looking forward to level 3!!


i did get hit by the deck in the first game this morning (which i won) - and that was fun. the most lucrative hand was calling a one bump raise in late position with pocket 66 and hoping to see a 6 on the flop. there were three other people in the hand (including both blinds) and the flop came out 6TJ. the small blind bets out for 270, the big blind raises to 540 the third player calls the 540 and i call the 540 trying to trap everyone. the turn comes out a 9 the small blind checks, the big blind pushes all in and the other player pushes all in and although i have bottom set, i still think im ahead here so i call the all ins. small blind folds, big blind had AJ and other player had KK. the river is a 6 to quad me up and just like that we are two players shorter.

a little while later, some one limped when i was in the big blind and holding T4spades. the flop came out KTT. i bet out and he raised me. it is possible for him to have limped with KK or KT, so i probably have the best hand, but decide to proceed cautiously and just call instead of reraise. the turn is a 3. i bet out again a little bit and he smooth calls me. at this point i think he thinks i either have a pocket pair or an A in my hand and he thinks im unwilling to believe that he has anything on the board. or he thinks we are splitting the pot and that i have a K too. im pretty sure he doesn't put me on the Ten. any way the river is the case T to give me quads again. this time i check hoping he will bet and i can check raise him. personally i think it screams quads, but ive come to realize there aren't very many people paying attention on here, so you can make the obvious plays a lot and get paid off. anyway - after i check, instead of making a value bet, he pushes all in. well of course im going to call him and now we are down another player.

one other fun hand in that game was when i had decided to call a raise in position with JT. there are 4 of us in the hand with the big blind all in and 300 in a side pot (which means that the all in player can't win the side pot, but those of us still with chips can.) the flop was beautiful. 89Q. i flopped the nuts. it checks to me and i check. the turn was an A. i check again and there was one player behind me and he bet out 270 trying to win the side pot. the third player called the 270 and i raised to 540. original bettor calls the 270 and other player folds. river is a 4 and the original bettor bets about a third of his chips. i reraise to put him all in and he calls showing 2 pair but that doesn't beat my straight and two more players are out.

i honestly think i started getting a headache from where the deck kept slapping me in the head. (LOL!!) oh well. it was fun while it lasted. if poker was always like that, id already be wealthy instead of trying to grind it out every day.

enough about the game - times a wasting -back to the tables!!
peace and love and happiness to all.
k-

a fabulous start to October

i played 20 games today, over a 12 hour period and cashed in 12 of them for a nice 60% cash rate and a really good day for the bankroll. as a matter of fact i cleared 96.80 today and am not that far from moving up to the next level. i should be able to move up to the next level within the next week or so if not sooner.

my ROI in this level is a little above 20% after today and my overall cashrate is up to 42.5%. the last few days have felt really good and i hope to continue on this path.

the most memorable hand for me happened at the end of the evening. i had pocket 99 in late position and there were already several people that had limped for 30 including me. both of the blinds came too. the flop came out 45Ten with two diamonds. the small blind bets out 2/3 of the pot. everyone folds to me - and i decide to smooth call. im not convinced he has the Ten and nothing else beats me. the turn is another small diamond. he bets out 225 and i call. on the river is a Q. he bets out 225 again and something tells me it is a defensive bet and he is afraid, so i raise him to 600. it looks like a value bet for someone that has the flush. or someone that has been calling with an overpair all the way. lucky for me, he either wasn't that strong, or is actually one of those people that can lay a hand down or i read it right and picked the right amount to gt him off his hand, but he folded to my raise. felt really good about that.

ive been fighting a sore throat all week, so im going to go gargle and head to bed.
felt good to have a successful day.
peace and love and happiness to all.
k-

closing out September

wow this month went pretty fast. im ending the month in the black again - and even higher than last month. (actually almost 2.5 times more) woo woo. that is exactly the kind of traction I'm looking for to keep me moving in the direction towards poker as a means of support.

level two has been a little more challenging than level one which i guess is the way its supposed to be. although im cashing at about the same rate, (39% this level vs 38.16% 1st level) the cashes are evenly spread throughout 1st, 2nd and third instead of being weighted in first. this means my roi is good, just isn't quite as robust (9.66% now vs. 13.16% then)

enough about the numbers. i made some great calls today - i was in the zone and the logic of the players i was up against was so clear it was almost like they were playing with their cards face up. actually it was because the players were over betting when they were scared. i made 3 great calls today using this information and was able to win 2 of them. in all three instances, the calls i was ahead of the other players and they were hoping the big bets were scary to me. the even better news for me was that i was not superbly strong when i made these calls, i just knew i was ahead of them based on their bets.

that's about it. hope things are well for all of you.
peace and love and happiness -
k-

live by the donkey play - die by it

i had built a little bit of a chip lead up and got pocket JJ with 8 players remaining.

of course i raised, as i do most of the time. someone a couple of spots behind me reraises. i considered what they had - AK, AQ, AA, KK, QQ, TT. I'm ahead of half and behind half. i could lay down - but no, ive forgotten my lessons about pocket jj and need to relive the torture again. of course i call and they have pocket AA and it holds up. im not out, but my stack is down to 220 chips. time to buckle down and pick my spots to see how far i can go...

buckle down i did, when the game was over, i had 13,500 chips and found a way to come back and win the game.

of course it only lasted for a minute... then i made a donkey call early in the next game. limped with pocket 44 on the button with several others. flop comes out 9 high with two clubs and the pot is 180. the blinds check and the person in first bets 40 chips. i have no idea what he is betting, but it could be A high at this point or he could have caught a pair. i call the 40 chips and everyone else folds. turn is 6h and the river is a 4c. he checks to me and i put out a value bet and he raises me all in. of course i called and of course he had the flush and of course i saw it but didn't believe him.

the funniest thing about this is i was just talking to a friend at dinner about the over bet and watching people fall for it. the thing is if i hadn't tripped up, i think i could have gotten away from my hand -it was that i caught it and then didn't get away from it. now i need to learn to get away from it even when i get the trips.

sigh.

then i cashed in the next game at second.

up and down. if i would lay a damn hand down - then maybe it would be up and up...

lets hope.

talk to you soon.
peace and love and happiness
k-

to quote a good friend....

poker is a stupid game. tell me again why we play it?

my sentiments exactly.

im not sure if it makes me feel better or not that a lot of my losses come when im getting in ahead. had an up and down day today, which means i started up and ended down. (just a few dollars, but not the direction i want to go.)

we were talking last night about how you have to play an almost perfect game and then it still doesn't guarantee a win. with the chip stacks that we start with, if you chase one flush or straight and miss it, you are playing the rest of the game short stacked - which makes your decisions easy, but it means you are playing even tighter than you might have been.

i had a good friend watching me play all day and we often saw the suckout coming from a mile away. for example: i have pocket QQ and a person raises to 210 in front of me. i reraise 740 and he calls. the flop was Jxx. he bets and i made a pot sized raise - although my friend can attest that i actually thought - he probably has AJ, but he might have pocket JJ. well i got my wish and he had AJ and went over the top of me for all his chips which put me all in. i called and the the turn puts me out of misery right away with the A. on one hand im happy that they dont stop to think that two reraises means they might be beat, but on the other hand AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH. fold a damn hand, wouldya?!!!

sigh..

why do we play this game again? that is just a sample of how the day seemed to go. well, thats not completely true. the first game had me winning all the coin flips i was in - so i knew the rest of the day was going to be tough and felt like i didn't win too many of them after that.

hope everyone had a good weekend, i sure did. we celebrated a friends birthday last night by playing beach volleyball and having a rowdy time. it was really fun.

off to softball.
peace and love and happiness to all.
k-

variance variance variance

wednesday was good. thrursday was bad. friday was good again.... that is variance.

i played 5 games this afternoon before getting ready to go out with some friends, and cashed in all 5 - (won 3, 1-2nd and 1- 3rd) that sure makes the bankroll look healthy and at its highest point. i found a site that allows you to look up your user name for poker sites and it tells me that my most profitable days of the week are wed and fri, and that my losing days are tuesday and sunday. the other days are profitable, but not to the extreme of wed and fri. as i get more games under my belt, i may use this info to design my schedule - for now - if im home, im usually playing, i figure thats the fastest way to build it up.

thats it for now - on my way out the door.
hope everyone has a good weekend.
peace and love and happiness always.
k-

discipline is key

should have been out of the tourney on the second hand, but discipline helped me stay in.

i had KT of spades on the button and the flop came K2K. Everyone checks to me and i make a pot sized bet of 150 knowing it looks like a steal. i get two callers. one is the small blind - i put him probably on the 2 or a couple of clubs since there were two clubs on the board.

the other caller probably has the other K. the turn is a 4. everyone checks including me.

the river is an A. small blind checks, 2nd player bets 390 into 600 chip pot. which could look like he was chasing an A high hand and is betting it on the river. however, there was no preflop raising, so its hard for me to put him on an A (although i want that to be what he has). i still think he has the other K, and i'm a little worried about how big his kicker is. its possible he limped with KQ or KJ which would both beat me. now, normally i would raise all in here to value bet what i usually think is the best hand, but instead i smooth call because i'm feeling like i may be beat here, but i have to call since i have 3kings and if there is a chance im not beat, the amount is worth it.

honestly, i think he bet that amount to try and entice me to come over the top since he knew i had the 4th K and he knows he is ahead. i smooth call and he shows K4 for a full house. while aggression is very important in poker, sometimes caution wins the day. there was definitely a time in my game where i would have shoved everything, im pleased to know that at least today is not one of those days.

back to the felt.
peace and love and happiness
k-

i'm movin' on up - to a deeeluxe apt. in the skyyy

woo woo!!

today i finally surpassed my first goal of moving up to the next level. then - after moving up, i played 8 games at the 6.50 level and cashed in 4 of them with three of the cashes being 1sts. the payout for first at this level is $27 whereas it was only $9 at the other level, so i'm hoping it will move a little faster at this level. i'm already up $45 at this level - now only $150 to go to move up to the next level. although i would love to knock out nearly 20% of the difference each day - i expect i will have a few losing days too, but hope that within a month i can keep moving up that pay grade.

too early to tell if there are differences between the players at this level and the 2.25 level. time will tell.

let's see - i ended the first level with an overall ROI of 13.92% and i've played 304 games since 8/12. my strongest finishes are still first and second place with 54 and 37 respectively and 116 cashes overall for a 38.16% cash rate. i don't know what is considered normal - but i feel pretty good about a nearly 40% cash rate especially since that allows me to show a profit.

well - it was a good day. i started the day off with a win and ended the day with one - so after 22 games, i'm going to call it a night.

peace and love and happiness to all.

ps.. went and saw the journey concert on Monday night, and it was fabulous. they rocked all their old songs and the crowd was really into it and i was surprised that i didn't leave with my voice hoarse. definitely a show i would recommend.

nite all
k-

reading skills

i love that my reading skills are getting better in this game. with time comes experience and that is why i am loving working my way up through the ranks. here is a hand stands out for me -

i had pocket 66 from the big blind with the small blind in and one other person who had limped. im willing to see a cheap flop, so i check preflop since there was no raise. the flop comes 975. small blind checks, i check, planning to raise if the third player bets - cuz I'm figuring its probably a position bet based on that board - and he does bet about the size of the pot. so i bump him a little and he goes all in over the top of my bump for another 505 chips. truthfully he could have a 9 or a 7 and have me beat, but it smells like high cards to me and i think he thinks im just representing the flop and doesn't know i actually have something or maybe he has a draw of some type, so i call his all in (i had him covered, so i wasn't at risk for going out) and sure enough, he has j10 for an inside straight draw with two over cards to my pair and he wanted the chance to see all 5 cards and figure he could either get me to fold a winning hand, or maybe out draw me. unfortunately for him, he didn't have enough chips to push me out of the pot. my 66 holds up and just like that he is out and im chipping up.

i also made a fairly easy and correct call with pocket KK to someones over the top shove on a board with no Aces only to see him catch one on the river to take me out. he typed in something like - whatever it takes to win. i told him i was ok with his move and i would take that call from him all day. and truth is, i would. he had A5 in his hand, so with only one over, he was drawing to at most 3 outs unless the board got tricky and straighted for him. i guarantee you, 9 out of 10 times, I will win that match up, so i would take it all day long. in the long run - i will make money from a player like that, and his reckless play suits me just fine.

my favorite hand though was when i had pocket 88. i raised preflop from early position, and the big blind came along. the flop came out A610 with two spades. he checks the flop and i check the flop. turn is an A of clubs and he bets. im 80% positive he doesn't have the A. there is a chance he slow played me, but more than likely he thinks i don't have anything, or he is betting the spade draw and thinks i will fold. i go all in over the top of him to make him pay maximum price for his draw and i was right, he has 23 of spades for the spade draw. lucky for me, no spade on the river - but for me to bet my eights and feel as confident as i did that he didn't actually have an Ace made me feel pretty good. obviously he didn't think i had an Ace there either - or if he did, he decided he was willing to pay as much as needed to get that last spade.

one last thing - i have a love/hate relationship with the continuation bet. (for those that don't know, if you show strength before the flop and raise, you are supposed to bet on the flop most of the time as a continuation of your strength, many times regardless of the cards that come) a lot of times the c-bet wins me the pot even if i haven't hit - but when i get in trouble is when i c-bet, haven't hit anything and someone pushes over the top of me. im much better about laying my hand down but there are times when i think they are just playing the odds that i didn't hit anything and sometimes i think they haven't hit either. maybe i should call a few times while im in the micro levels to see what they have. i guess it would either make a believer out of me or reinforce my reading skills. i need to give it some thought, right now im folding hands to a reraise most of the time if i didn't hit the board unless im just convinced somehow that they are full of crap...

onward and upward...

peace and love and happiness -
k-

Friday was good

i'm really excited... september is going well over all.. - my guess was that i would be moving up to the next level around mid month. im definitely on track to make that happen. as a matter of fact im only $10 short of my first goal and about $20 higher than my previous entry about how high my bankroll has gotten. i could easily accomplish this goal over the weekend. (right on time!) its exciting for me and i'm feeling pretty good about how im playing right now.

i did get lucky in a couple of games and saw pocket aces way more than i should have - and better yet they held up - but that doesn't account for all my success. its true there is a small amount of luck involved when you both have your money all in and its down to who catches their card to win the pot, but there are pots that i win because i can sometimes tell what the person is betting with and i can get them to fold or put more chips in the pot when they are behind or there are times that i bet position and win unexpected small pots. im really liking my aggressive nature and tightening my game up early has really helped me -

im curious to experience the skills at the next level.

well - i'm off to bed.
peace and love and happiness to all
k-

my bankroll is at highest point

i realized i hadn't written in awhile - so what better time than when my bankroll is at its highest point. started the day today pretty card dead and ended up losing in 4 games in a row. then the end of my session, something happened and i won 3 in a row - and that was fun - after the third win, my bankroll topped its previous high.

i did have an interesting hand happen to me. i had been against a specific opponent a couple of times in one game where he was limping in on my big blind and we were heads up - on three different occasions, we would check the flop, i would bet the turn, usually with nothing or second pair, and he would call and then bet the river after i checked and i would fold. knowing this, i had KJ in the big blind and this same person and another limped on my blind so i checked to see what would happen.

the flop came out J8T,i checked and they checked. the turn was a J, so i bet 160 into a pot of 480, and they both called. the river is a K , so i have a full house. they both have less chips than me and i think that if i check, i can get at least one. if not both of them, to go all in. so i checked and the one who had been betting each time, went all in and the other one went over the top of him and i called them both. i had the full house, the first bettor had T8 and had flopped two pair and the other had K8 and had rivered a bigger two pair. even without the K, i would have gotten all their money. it was a huge pot and it was cool to use my knowledge about how they were perceiving my previous bets against them.

til next time
peace and love and happiness to all.
k-

variance can be good too

today was a good day on the felt. took my laptop over to some friends who also play poker online and we spent the day playing and talking about poker. we got so dorky the husband even brought out a vga cord and tv, and hooked one of our monitors up so we could see all the games in one centralized place. it was fun. and what made it even more fun was that i brought my month back into the black. (not that i was very far down - its just good to see the recovery this fast). i played 12 games today and cashed in 7 of them for 58% cash rate. with 4 of the 7 cashes being 1st. i'll take that most any day.

no really exciting hands to discuss. i did have KK against AA and flopped quads... that was fun. in another game, i made a really good call for all my chips when we were 4 handed with pocket nines after raising and being reraised. i did consider laying them down because the shortstack might have gone out soon, but i also play to win, not just play to cash and laying them down there didn't feel right. went on to win that tournament and think the extra chips there helped out.

thats about it. i don't know about anyone else, but im already cold and we haven't even gotten to winter yet.
til l8r
peace and love and happiness
k-

getting in ahead

today was an interesting one. i had some errands to run and some computer maintenance to do, so ive only had a chance to play 4 games so far. actually feel like i played well in all of them, but i was out in the first hand on one and the second hand on another. came in second on one and won one.

i don't feel bad about going out early in the two tourneys where it happened. i was cautious, didn't over play and got my chips in while i was ahead of both players.

game 1: pocket AA on the second hand. im in fourth position, and the guy in third position was taking a long time to decide to play his hand. he came in for a limp at 30 chips and i make a standard pot sized raise to 135 chips. one of the blinds calls, and the person in third position (after thinking again for a bit) calls as well. the flop comes 8 6 3, all different suits. the blind checks and the person in third position bets 150 into the pot. i have him on either big cards taking a stab or something like A8, A6, or 89,78 etc. i think hes hit the board, but don't think he has tripped up. i make a pot size raise while i think i have the best hand to 900 chips. other person folds and third position guy pushes all in for the remainder of his chips. (remember how ive talked about people over playing their top pair hands - this is a prime example). of course i call. he turns over K8 (which wasn't even in my range for him honestly) and ive got him crushed until the river bails out his bad play and shows a K to give him two pair - and just like that, I'm out. its ok - he keeps overplaying like that - someone will eventually get his chips.

game 2 - i came in 2nd - no exciting hands to share that i remember - so i'll spare you.

game 3 - pocket JJ on the 1st hand. im in middle position at the table again - so i make a standard pot sized raise and the dealer bumps it to 420. ok, what does this mean he probably has - his range from the button is a little broader, but not much and most people dont get too out of line on the first hand of a tourney, so i have to give him credit for a good hand with showdown value - i think he has this range - AA,KK, QQ, JJ, and maybe TT also any AK, AQ, AJ and maybe AT. so i decide to smooth call his hand and see what the flop brings. right now im leaning toward him having AK or AQ. the flop comes out T high and i make a pot sized bet for 800 since i have an overpair to the board and no scare cards came. im feeling certain i have the best hand. he pushes in for the last 305 chips and i call - just as i suspected he had AK and i got him to commit all his chips when he is drawing only to 6 cards (any of the remaining three aces or three kings). good news for him is he hit the A on the turn card and out drew me. oh well. you remember what they say about pocket jacks. three ways to play them and they are all wrong.

game 4: won this one. one interesting hand when i had AK of diamonds i will share. once again early in the tournament and i make a standard raise. once again the button (different player this time) pops it up. i decide to smooth call and see what happens. flop comes out with a Q 9 6 rainbow. i check and for some reason when he bets, i think he is betting position and hasn't really hit the Q, so i smooth call his bet for 700 planning to bet later. the turn is another Q and i check again giving him a chance to bluff again and if he doesn't, i'll probably bet the river. he does bet his remaining 505 chips. i have him covered by around 200, but if i call and am wrong, i will be shortstacked in the game. i still dont think the Q hit him and honestly its even less likely now that he has it and i don't think he has the 9 or the 6 either, so i call his all in with AK high and he was bluffing with KJ. (which wasn't in my range for the reraise either) i would very rarely call that down like that - and if im wrong, i look like a donkey, but if im right its a helluva call and im pretty proud of it.

one other interesting thing that happened in this game was when we got down to 5 players, one player went into shut down mode and decided to fold his way into the money - after a few orbits 5 handed, i figured out he was sitting out and started raising almost every time he was on the big blind. i managed to steal a lot of dead money in the pots by playing this way - the even funnier thing is that he DID make the money. i must have been the only one that figured it out, because when we were 4 handed, i folded a bad hand when the absentee player was on the big blind, giving the small blind a chance to raise and steal the blind and he didn't - he folded his hand to an absent player and was busted out a couple of hands later when he was blinded out. THEN on the first hand of the three handed game with the absentee player to my left and an active player to my right (i have about 10,000) in chips at this point, the active player pushes all in from the small blind for about 2500. (keep in mind the absentee player only had about 220 chips, and all the active player had to do was fold or check and make second - but no, he put his tournament at risk by moving all in - i had KQ and called - he showed 9T and i hit a K and knocked him out in third. what an idiot. if he folds that one hand he moves up in the money to second instead of cashing third. needless to say - it was easy to win over the absentee player and i had my first win of the day. definitely the weirdest game in a while.

gotta hop in the shower to get ready to go out
peace and love and happiness to all
k-

the evils of variance

variance is the word poker players use to account for the ups and downs of their career. and thursday was definitely a down day in the variance realm. i played 23 tournaments and only cashed in 6 of them. it actually pushed me below even for the month so i have to get up tomorrow and start back in. the good news is that this is an expected part of poker and this is why you have to have an appropriate sized bankroll to withstand days like this. some pros have talked about how they have a losing session for an entire month or an entire year. lets hope it doesn't last that long.

no real bad beat stories or anything that i can point to as the culprit of the day - just seemed to be the way of the tables. i did manage to string three of those cashes together for a nice little run, but that was about it.

in order to be successful, i have to be able to handle these types of days - so im chalking this one up to variance and calling it a night.

peace and love and happiness to all
k-

fall is in the air

happy september everyone. hope it is a good month for everyone. i had a great weekend. i did not end up playing in the tourney on sunday, as i had plans to go to santa caligon days in independence to see our favorite band, trampled under foot. we had a blast. got to get up and dance with several gents and engaged in more than a little bit of fun and frivolity.

ive been playing on fulltilt a lot lately, keeping tabs on a couple of friends over there. i will probably spread my time between the two - when they are online, i'll play over there, and when they aren't i'll play at poker stars. for the longest time i couldn't even money over there, and have spent the last couple of weeks working through that. my theory is that if you are a good player, you should be able to win where ever you are playing. i've finally proven to myself that i can win there too, and that feels good. i think the change in my game has contributed to that a lot.

i won the first tournament of the month that i played yesterday, which i hope bodes well for the month. i'm 2/3rds of the way to moving up to the next level and fairly certain it will happen this month which as you know is my goal for september (mid month is my prediction).

well back to the felt - i just won another and am ready to play some more.
peace and love and happiness to all.
kk

closing out august strong

well - i'm finished playing 1 table games for august and focusing on just that one game has really shown dividends already. here are my final numbers for those that want to take a look at my play. i was playing two table games before 8/12, so these numbers only represent all the single table tournaments for the month (although i'm ahead in the money for all games this month too)

out of 156 games
61 top 3 finishes - 39.10% (these are the cashes)
49 middle 3 finishes - 31.41%
46 bottom 3 or 4 finishes - 29.49%

27 1sts - 17.31%
19 2nds - 12.18%
15 3rds - 9.62%
19 4ths - 12.18%
17 5ths - 10.90%
13 6ths - 8.33%
16 7ths - 10.26%
16 8ths - 10.26%
10 9ths - 6.41%
4 10ths - 2.56%

my roi is 14.80% for this game at this level, which has me really stoked. that is really great and i look forward to continuing to build my skill level and my bankroll.

i can't even begin to explain the transformation my game has taken on in the last two weeks. i may be playing a little too tight early on, but i can't tell you how often i see people call off their chips preflop with very marginal hands. 1. because they are overplaying them and 2. because they are playing them out of position. they aren't stopping to think about what they could be calling against when someone puts them all in.

i have been guilty of this in the past and have tried to plug this leak in my game. i have made a couple of lay downs (i.e. folds) that surprise even me. here's one from today. second hand of one game i had AQ of diamonds and made a pot sized raise preflop. there was an early limper that came along for the ride. flop came out A97 all hearts. the caller checks to me and i put a bet out for about 2/3rds of the pot. the limper pushes all in on me. that was unexpected - so they checkraised me with what? AK AA or any two hearts like KQ etc... heck they might have had somethink like A9 for two pair and are scared of the hearts (which is more likely - usually if someone flops the nuts, they slow play to extract as many chips as possible vs. trying to scare their prey away) although AQ is strong, i decided it was early and plenty of time to make chips back up so i laid it down. i still don't know what the person had, but i went on to cash in that tournament (and he didn't) and probably wouln't have if i had called there.

the other thing ive done to shore up my game is play positon a lot more and stop limping as much as possible. i've been coming in for a raise in most every hand i play - i'm amazed how many blinds i steal without any confrontation that way. its nice.

i do have a cash game with friends tomorrow and i've signed up to play a tourney on Sunday for $11 with a guaranteed prize pool of over $200k spread out over 600+ players. at last count there were over 3600 entrants. i'm not overly optimistic - i think i have even chances of making the money. i'm anzious to see if my new found tight/position strategy will pay off in a tourney this big.

hope everyone has a safe holiday weekend.
peace and love and happiness to all
k-

pocket AA

pocket aces aren't being very friendly to me today so far. ive played three tournaments and they have been involved in my early demise all three times.

1st tournament i had them in the big blind and reraised the limpers a decent amount. one guy calls. flop comes QJx. i bet out, the caller reraises me all in. i think he has AQ or KQ and i think he thinks i have AK was making a continuation bet and doesn't realize how strong i was and this is a good time to double up. i dont have him on two pair, trips or a straight draw although trips might be possible. i call (of course) and he has KQ. turn is a blank and river is a Q, and just like that i'm out in 10th. i got exactly what i wanted here which was to have someone over play their top pair decent kicker. he got lucky,but if i keep getting in good ot pays off in the end.

2nd tournament i was shortstacked after my trip 7s had a straight rivered on them by a 45 who was chasing his flush. i had built my stack up from 145 back to 7xx and got pocket 99. since i had less than 10x the blind, i pushed to try and get the blinds from the table. i guy calls my push and another guy pushes all in over the top, and original caller, calls off his chips. one has AQ and the other has AA. the AA holds up and we are both out, me in 8th. honestly nothing i could do here. i can't fold 99 preflop when im in middle position and less than 10x the big blind. i got unlucky to run into a big hand, and at least i had a chance to bust his aces by being in the pot.

3rd tournament i had AA in small blind, with blinds at 100/200. big blind is shortstacked and im pretty sure he is going all in with this hand on any two cards. one player raises to 400, all else fold to me and i bump it to 800, big blind calls off all his chips and is all in other player calls. flop comes Kxx with two clubs. i check, other player checks. turn card is a club. i check, player bets, so i push over the top thinking he hit the K and doesn't want me drawing to a flush for free if i have a club. he did hit the K, but didn't have AK/KQ. this time he had KK and tripped up on the flop. i'm not sure how i can get away from this hand unless i think he has the flush. went out 6th in this one.

im not tilting, just thought it was interesting that all these early exits had AA as a starring role. the good news is, it should be about my turn for AA to hold up.

back to the felt.
peace and love and happiness to all.
kk

ps. Mom, i hope you feel better soon. love you!

wednesday was a good day

started the day playing well and cruised all day that way. i played 17 games in 9 hours today on full tilt. cashed in 10 of the 17. it felt really great. i moved my roi to 11.50% and have officially placed first in more games than any other spot. (22 1sts out of 122 games with 44 total cashes overall and a 36% cash rate overall) i am still very encouraged by the progress so quickly toward my goal of moving up to the next level and am setting my goal for September to be able to accomplish that by the end of the month.

until tomorrow.
peace and love and happiness to all
kk

saw Dark Knight yesterday

wow - what a great flick. i can't say anything that hasn't already been said about heath ledgers performance and truly the cast as a whole did well, i thought. over the weekend went to the drive-in and saw tropic thunder and step brothers. i understand the controversy around tropic thunder and still thought it was funny. im a huge robert downey jr fan, and he did well, of course. step brother on the other hand wasn't just funny, it was freaking hilarious. not a kids movie by any stretch of the imagination. if you get a chance to see it, and you like some of will ferrell's other movies, this is a must for you.

today i've played 5 games so far and cashed in 4 of them, so off to a good start. feeling good and taking my tight approach very seriously. i just laid down pocket jj on a flop with a k on it after early preflop limper smooth called my preflop raise and then reraised me on the flop. screamed AK to me. decided it was better to lay down then over play a vulnerable hand. i maybe learning this game after all. also - had a moment when i called two of the players hands completely accurately before showdown. really feeling on my game today.

peace and love and happiness to all
kk

got the spreadsheet going

fun stuff. i've entered all my 1 table 9&10 handed tourneys and so far this month ive played 97 of those types. something exciting that pops up at me immediately is that i do have a positive roi, although it is less than 10%, but at least its in the positive, right.

also - i've cashed in exactly 30 of the 97 with 50% of my cashes coming at 1st place (15) and then 9 at second and 6 at third. then i have 30 more finishes in 4th and 5th, and the last 37 spread from 6th - 10th. what this information tells me is that i am playing aggressive and playing to win vs. just playing to cash and is very exciting for me to see something concrete reinforcing what i was thinking about my play.

also, i checked out the pokerxfactor.com website and watched a couple of videos showing the pros hands as they play a tournament, both a sit-n-go and multiple table tourney. that was pretty informative. also, on pokerstars, they will replay the final table from the most recent big tourney with all players hole cards exposed, so you can see what people are doing. i watched a couple of those for a while last night and i think that will be about as instructive as anything else.

its fun to uncover new resources and im really excited about these video options. the pokerxfactor has commentary from the pros as well, so it will be interesting to hear their thoughts on certain plays and not just watch it and wonder why they did something. all this together should really help accelerate my game.

til later,
peace and love and happiness to all
kk

a little on tilt right now

i'm taking a break today for awhile, because i'm tilting a bit, and its never good to play while tilting. when i get done updating the blog, ill make some lunch and watch a little tv or something before i play a few more games and then go to softball tonight.

here's why im tilting... just played against a guy who employs the theory that once you have 200 in the pot in the big blind, its ok to call the rest of your 2500 chips off with any two cards -(like T6 off suit) cuz hey, they might win. and hes right they might and they did several times against me when i had the best hand going in. very hard to play that type of player because no matter how tight you play if they aren't using any kind of logic and are relying on luck, then you are basically relying on luck too. all you can do is get it in ahead and trust that eventually variance will eat away at this guys bankroll. still very frustrating tho. AAARRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok. that's out of the system.

had a great conversation with a friend of mine who also plays poker, about the how to determine when to move up in game size. there is a formula called the kelly criterion that basically says you need to have an roi of at least 10% at the level you are currently playing and build your bankroll up to 36x the buy in of the next level up. if you do that, your risk of ruin (i.e. going broke) is around 10%. any time risk of ruin is low then your bankroll is at a lot less risk. there are more rules about when to move back down and i need to look into that part a little to better understand, but seems good.

i had some nebulous goals in mind as ive been thinking about how to know when its time to move up, but this was great for helping me bring some clarity and definition to the goals. so... ive set up the old trusty spreadsheet to track roi and bankroll 4 me. those that really know me, know how much i love spreadsheets (i really do!!) so this is a fun project 4 me. this will help guide me up through the ranks until i get to the level that will allow me to pay the bills etc... i am already tracking all games i play, but this will be in a different format. pretty exciting stuff for a dork like me.

he also suggested that i move over from the 9/10 person tables and focus on the 6 person tables. his theory is that even tho they both pay 30% of the entrants, there are fewer players to beat in the 6 person. im going to give it a try, but i think the players in the 9/10 are less experienced and easier to beat, so i am going to play and track both and see where my margin is better.

lastly - for you poker theory fiends here's a good one for you. i was watching a friend play a tourney and she was on the bubble for making the money, and second or third in chip stack size with the player who is 4th in chips only having about 480 and blinds were 100/200. she looks down at pocket jj in the small blind. the chip leader who is splashing a little, but not a lot, makes a decent size raise from the cut off which accounts for about half of her chips. smaller chips stack folded from the button.

Q1 - do you shove the rest of your chips in over the top, do you smooth call and see a flop OR do you fold the JJ since you are on the bubble for the money and wait until the small chip stack gets knocked out since you are at risk here?

Q2 - would your answer change if the third place money were $100,000 instead of $6?

well my friend pushed and the chip leader had KK and took her out in 4th and the short stack made the money. several of us had this discussion most of last night. theoretically it could be right to fold them there, but we all decided that we weren't quite good enough players yet since the chip leader could be raising with a lot there, we would rather try and get it in good and double up and most of the time he isn't going to have AA,KK or QQ. on the other hand, most of the time he will have at least 1 over card and there is a 30% chance that it will hit the board and take you out anyway... so what do you guys think?

love to hear your thoughts on this.
til next time -
peace and love and happiness to all
kk

decent day on the felt

day was up and down, ended the day feeling like ive definitely found the niche and level i should be playing at for right now. i tried playing a handful of games at the 6.50 level and stunk it up, so for now im sticking with the 3.40 games. but i will continue to give the higher games a try every now and then. i just want to make sure i dont give back my profits when i do.

off to bed.
until manyana (sp?)
peace and love and happiness to all
kk

back in the saddle

well even tho i felt thrown off yesterday, i am up and at em again. just finished my first of the day and took 1st and currently in the chip lead ( 2x anyone else stack right now) of my second although still 7 players left. lets hope yesterday was an anomoly.

til l8r
peace and love and happiness
kk

ps - won the second one too, although i did have to make a bit of a comeback at the end!!

in shock

i played all day and into the night tonight and have hardly cashed in a game which really sucks coming off the high from last night. im analyzing my play and i know there have been a few mistakes, but mostly, im just getting sucked out on.

for instance - flop top two pair with a9. person to my right min bets for 150, i raise to 300. get bet into for 150 on turn and raise 4 times their bet to 600. the turn gives a straight and flush draw and i want them out. river comes a 10. player bets minimum again for third time. this time i smooth call. player had a10 for two pair on river. at least i was raising while i was ahead and stopped when i was behind.

or how about this one. i have pocket 99 with a medium sized stack of chips. one player makes a min raise in front of me and another smooth calls, so i go all in to isolate one of the players. one person behind me calls with kj, original raiser calls with aj and original caller calls with kq. how can i get into a 4 way pot - ahead no less - when they each have the others outs and lose to a jack on the turn.

or theres this one .... pocket 77. two limpers in front of me, so i raise the blind 5x the size of the blind. both come along. flop is 8h 4h 2c. 1st limper bets 60, second limper calls and i raise all in to get them off their draws. both call. 1st has 75h the other is aqh. i fade the hearts, but the river is a 6c, and the guy with the 75 who was behind both of the other of us gets the whole pot with the suck out straight.

or when i raised with pocket AA only to be reraised all in by someone with QQ who hit a q on the turn

the only thing that is keeping me sane right now is that i know the other players are making mistakes and next time it should fall my way. don't get me wrong bad beats are part of the game, but usually in the mid stages - people are still able to lay down their hands. i myself have sucked out on people too, so no one is immune, it just seemed a lot today.

ok enuf bad beat stories.

i just won a tourney with pocket AA after being really shortstacked, and i put a couple of bad beats on folks myself yo get there.

on the plus side, i saw two people get royal flushes today. both were very improbable - but hey it happens.

porqchop and coolio - can you send me a text or call me with your cell phone numbers? i lost my phone this weekend and lost all my contacts. i have a new phone with the same number - so give me a holla.

peace and love and happiness to all
kk

that was fun

got home from going to hear my favorite blues band about 12 and decided i felt like tearing it up on the felt. between 12 and 1:30, i played 5 games. and most of that time i was playing two tables at once. (no i hadn't been drinking - just felt like trying it again). for some reason this time everything clicked. there were a couple of times i had tough decisions on both tables, but not too often. and i found that if i stagger the start times, then one table is usually early in the game when i play tighter, and the other is later where i need more attention to my aggression. the great thing was this was my best session so far. not only was i multi tasking (which will eventually help my win rate), but i placed first in 3 of the 5, just missed the money in one at 4th and made a donkey call with pocket 8s for 8th in the other. 3 wins out of 5 was very fun and first basically pays 5x your buy in, so two of the wins were pure profit. : )

heading to bed now, but back on the felt tomorrow to hopefully continue to extend a good august
peace and love and happiness to all
kk

donkey test

oh btw... for those of you out there that are poker fiends. heard about a website called
donkeytest.com. you answer 50 questions and they rate your poker iq. it was a hard test and id say im defintely not a genius yet. above average i hope, but my score wasn't above 100, so who knows. also if you want to get an analysis of your game based on how you answered the questions, its 9.95. i took the test and will probably go back out and buy the analysis. i figure it never hurts to have an analysis of my logic and thought processes. spending $10 now may earn me thousands later.

peace and love everyone.
kk

aug is still running well

im convinced its because i moved down to a lower buyin. i actually dropped all the way to the $3.40 games. im cashing much more often (so far today in about 50% 0f my games) and most of my cashes are coming at 1st or second place. also when i dont make the money usually im on the bubble in 4th or 5th (the 9 and 10 person tourneys only pay 3 spots). i have come to realize that sometimes there is just nothing you can do to get a person off their hand. especially at these smaller levels, but ive also been surprised at some of the folds ive seen. there are def. a few sharks in these levels too. i just finished reading a sit-n-go strategy book. id say i already knew and am hopefully executing about 90% fairly well already. there were a couple of things that made me go hhmm, thats the last 10% i'll be trying to keep in mind while im playing. the great thing about single table tourneys is that they pay 33% of the field, while in other tourneys they only pay 10% usually and you can finish them relatively quickly.

i love the end of the tourney when it gets really aggressive. short handed play is the strongest part of my game, i think. also, ive gotten heads up and come from a decent sized deficit a couple of times to win and thats always a good boost. interestingly enough, you can get a sense of who is better and who is worse than you. and its helpful to pick on the ones that you think are a worse player than you.

some other great news on the personal front. the police have arrested the man who attacked my friend and feel good about getting a conviction. she is amazingly strong and is doing great. ty for the thoughts and prayers.

gotta run im second in chips and we're down to 5.
peace and love and happiness to all
kk
ps. just finished tourney and won it!! feels good to be on track. i am aware that it could be normal variance accounting for the good month, but im winning more and i still feel card dead, so that has to account a little for skill right? til next time.

move down is working

dropping down to the smaller limits and playing more 1 table sit n gos is working better. i'm still ahead in august - although still not a ton, but my patience early in the tourneys and reading are paying off. monday felt like i was sucked out on a million times, and my first game this morning i was crazy card dead, but thats a part of the game. my first goal is to make at least $1 profit in aug. that would be a nice little turn around from july and june. even though i didn't lose a lot in those months, i need to see that i am moving toward positive expectations or i will need to start looking at other options.

if i finish aug up by 1, then i will sit a daily goal in sept of $x (tbd). if not then it will be time to start looking at some other options.

back to the felt.
peace and love and happiness to all
kk

back in action

thanks for the kind thoughts. one of my close friends here in kc was the victim of a violent crime and i spent most of the week with her. she is hanging in there and went back to work today. i don't want to go into any details here, but needless to say it has shaken all of us a little bit.

lets see - for aug, i think i mentioned that i would be dropping down to the 6.50 games, and that seems to have been a good decision. i've cashed about 20-25% of the time and have ended all but one session this month in the green. (not a lot in the green, but its better than in the red!) so aug seems to be going fairly decently. still not close to making enough to pay my bills, but heading in the right direction.

peace and love and happiness to all
kk

not much poker this week

sorry guys - its been a tough week for me outside of poker and so i didn't have too much of a chance to play this week (as in none). hope to be back on the felt next week.

congrats porqchop for the first win of your online career. that's awesome!!

have a good weekend, hug your loved ones and be safe.

peace and love and happiness to all.
kk

new day, new month, new attitude

what a difference a day makes. yesterday i felt like i wasn't doing anything right at the tables and today i'm feeling very good about my game.

after having dinner last night with my personal life coach and sage, i realized that i needed to step down in buy-ins. i was playing with people of about the same caliber as myself, which was making the competition tough and a lot harder to cash. today i've played only 6.50 tourneys and feel a lot better about my game. there are a few sharks swimming in these waters, but im hoping to be one of them.

just played in a tourney with a guy that basically employed the all-in strategy. wish i had seen him from beginning of the tourney to see how he got the chips, but once he got to my table he was already chip leader, and almost every time he went into a hand, he went all-in pre-flop and made everyone else call him. it was quite an effective strategy, as i laid down hands that i probably wouldn't have since i didn't want to play them for all my chips. the pros say this style is most effective for people who really have no post flop game. it basically evens out the playing field against better players.

doubt that i will adopt it, but it does make for an interesting exercise in strategic thinking for how to counter it.

off to run a few errands.
peace and love and happiness to all
kk

identifying leaks

i haven't posted anything in awhile because frankly, not much has changed; this month is still about break even give or take a $100 and i'm mainly sticking to small buy-in shorthanded tourneys, as that is where i feel i play the strongest right now. that being said, i have identified a huge leak in my game - i thought it was just that i was going through a period where i was calling a lot - not quite calling station level, but more than i probably should. this would be a big enough leak, but last night i identified why i was calling so much.

i played in a small live tourney before a friend of mine goes away for a month. i limped for 50 on the button in an unopened pot with Q9 offsuit. small blind completed and big blind looks at his cards... thinks for a second and announces raise. he makes it 250 to go. my first mistake in this hand was calling the raise, but i figured i had position, and i hadn't played a hand yet, so maybe i could get a little credit for a decent hand - and i basically thought that the blind could be raising the weak plays with a pretty wide range because i have begun to do it a lot more in my own arsenal online. also, he and i have talked strategy before and this play comes up from time to time.

flop comes j94 rainbow. small blind checks, big blind bets out 400, which was the exact amount i had in my mind if it got checked to me that i was going to bet, so i called. small blind folds.

turn is a Q. big blind bets out 800. i raise to 1600 with my two pair, and after a moment thinking, he raises all in for another 950. if i call, im left with 225. i feel pot committed, as im getting good odds (950 to win 5600) but think i can get away from it if i think im beat which im not sure of yet.

i try to put him on a range of hands that makes sense with the betting. i immediately discount the straight. i just didn't see him making the raise from the blind with that hand, and if he had the straight, it was just stupid lucky that he made it. (not to say that doesn't happen sometimes, but i just didn't see him with k10 or 10/8 this time). he could have two pair as well and while i don't see him raising with k10, i do see him raising with aj,kj,j10,qj and j9. i'm ahead of all those hands but qj. the other possibility is that he has tripped up. maybe he raised with a pocket pair and hit it hard. in my mind i land on aj as making sense mostly because i wanted to believe i was ahead. it wasn't curiosity that made me call, it was that i think he has the capability to make a move on me and it seems the more respect i have for a player, the more likely i am to call.

because i immediately discounted his raise at the beginning of the hand, i was less likely to put him on a good hand, and this colored how i viewed the hand all the way through i did land on a somewhat decent hand when i decide he had something like aj, but couldn't go all the way and give him credit for a pocket pair. btw, he had pocket jj and had tripped up on the flop.

if i had made my raise on the river, i could have gotten him to lay it down as a 10 came and my raise would have looked like a value bet - but i would have been unintentionally bluffing, because i thought i had the best hand when the turn came and his bet did little to dissuade me, even though his betting was telling me otherwise. now, if this was an isolated incident, i wouldn't call it a leak, but i have noticed that i have a tendency to discount people who are raising out of the button or the big blind.

i had a similar situation happen online recently. only this time i was in the big blind. it folded around to the button who had been min raising the button each time it got to him. this was probably 4th or 5th time around the table in a small tourney. small blind folds and i find ak off, so i triple his raise. he calls.

flop comes out j82. i put in a continuation bet of about 2/3 of the pot. he raises me. now while its possible that he had a j in his hand, i didn't think he did. i thought he was playing my continuation bet and raising with position. so i reraised all in and of course he called or i wouldn't be writing about this hand in my blog. i was right, he didn't have a j in his hand. nope he had pocket 8s. and i was out just like that.

now in some ways this is a completely different situation, but not at the crux. at the core, my thinking was flawed in that since i didn't give them credit for an actual hand, i overplayed the hands i had. how do i keep from assuming that they have nothing, but also keep from assuming they have the nuts everytime too? it honestly just seems to be when people are playing out of these two positions that i discount everything.

heres another example... works out good for me, but i still discounted what turned out to be a very strong hand.

4 of us limped in, early in a tourney for 20 and the big blind raised to 100. 1 guy called ahead of me and i called, and one guy behind me called. i had 97 spades. last time around the table, the guy in the big blind had raised his big blind when every one limped and everyone had folded, so that is one reason i called, plus once i had a caller ahead of me, i was getting better odds and i had later position and could see much of the action ahead of me.

flop came out 57a. big blind puts in a continuation bet and guy in front of me folds, i think its possible he has an ace, but could just be making a continuation bet, so i call with second pair to see what he does on the turn. guy behind me folds.

turn is a 9. he bets out again about 2/3 of the pot. now im pretty sure he has an ace - probably with a decent kicker. slightly worried about a9 or a7, but not horribly. i think im ahead. i call and we see the river.

river is a 6. while there is a straight possibility out there, no way i have him on the 8 unless he has exactly a8. he checks to me. now im pretty sure i have best hand. i bet enough to put him all in. he uses his time bank and finally decides to call and shows ak for top pair top kicker and gets beat by my two pair. while this hand worked out in my favor, i still didn't give him credit for a hand until part of the way through the board. my first thought is that he is trying to get the weak limping plays out of the pot. which i guess was true since he had ak, but i tend to put players on a very wide range here and maybe i shouldn't. anyway - im noticing the pattern of discounting hands from those positions, but i don't want to go to the other extreme and assume they have the nuts either.

any suggestions?

peace and love and happiness to all
kk

fresh off the river

well.. im back from southern missouri and rafting on the elk river. had a GREAT time, but good to be back. we were on the river chilling out by 2 or so Friday afternoon and didn't get out until about 7. got up semi early sat, made bfast and battened down the camp and were in our rafts by 10, and didn't make it back to camp until about 6:30, so it was a good long day on the river. that was our first time down the elk, next year we will probably stop more often. got a little sunburned, but not too bad. sad thing was, most of us were exhausted, and we had to come home and play two softball games last night. needless to say, neither went great, although i did catch a pop foul ball for an out while i was catching.

got up this morning and i tell you what, i was ready to play some poker. started the day off right too and cashed in my first tourney of the day. ended up winning a couple today and cashing in a few more. i also finally got off my rear (thanks for the push JB) and found some poker tracking software that i can download my hands and my opponents hands into. its supposed to download automatically for me while im playing but it was frustratingly intermittent. funnily enough, it only worked in some of the tourneys i didn't cash in and none of the ones i did and even then it didn't catch the full history of the tourneys it did work in. i have a free trial for 60 days, so we will see if it gets better over time. im keeping my fingers crossed.

thats about it. good to be back on the felt.
until next time..
peace and love and happiness to all
kk

running well

hi mom. sorry its been a few days since my last entry.
last Thursday was my best day of cashes so far, then i got up Friday in a bad mood and played (and lost) 3 tourneys fairly quickly. wasn't concentrating etc, so i didn't play the rest of the day. i agree with common wisdom, if you aren't in the frame of mind to play then don't put your money on the table, because you will just be throwing it away. i'm lucky to have figured it out after only $35 in buyins instead of 100's.

went and saw coolio's band on sat. nite. that was fun and they rocked it.

been playing better this week and in a better frame of mind, as a matter of fact, today ive already won one and ive only played two.

i had been looking at my tracking sheet thinking i wasn't doing that well until i filtered out those two big buyin tourneys when i was trying to win a seat to the main event. now i feel like im moving in the right direction and im cashing more often than i was at the beginning. definitely a morale booster. when i filter those two tourneys out, i'm right near even (within $50) for the year in tourneys. as i continue to play, i should see that number go above as the frequency with which i cash continues to go up.

im leaving friday morning to go on a rafting trip, but hope to continue to get some playing time in before then.

ive been playing a lot of daytime tourneys and that seems to be a lot of international players. havent determined what the difference is yet between american and european players, but there is something. maybe they aren't as aggressive, not quite sure what it is.

oh well, back to the felt.
peace and love and happiness to all
kk

well...

cash game didn't go bad, but it didn't go great either. i'll need more time in them before i can make an educated decision on which is better for me. right now i'm sticking more to tourneys and will plan on mixing in a few hours of cash games here and there. it may be a case of i play them better in person than online.

think im going to try low limit cash games online

ive decided tomorrow when i log in and play, im going to play low limit cash games for awhile. maybe .25/.50 blinds. i really enjoy the competition and strategy of tournament play, but i like the discipline and card reading ability of cash games. seems to me like tourneys are a preflop game at the limits i like to play, and cash games are a post flop environment. id like to work on my post flop game a little bit

last night i was playing with my friends in the league and just played like horse crap. seems like i got bet off with the best hand and called when i had the worst. couldn't hardly do anything right. (which is an exaggeration - the three hands that are most memorable are what im bitching about, i did win a few big pots, but it only takes one hand to end your game) that being said, i came home and logged in and played a couple of 2 table tourneys to see if i could get the taste of my bad play out of my mouth. ended up winning the second one, so that was nice. as much as i like playing live with my friends, im starting to really see betting patterns online and understand when someone is weak - ive definitely been doing abetter job of reading weakness and have made more plays in position against players regardless of my cards lately than i had before.

hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of july.
peace and love and happiness to all.
kk

calling with second pair

well im not sure if i was playing good today or not. im going to guess that i wasn't. i played 10 tourneys today and made 5 final tables and only cashed at 2nd once. i am playing aggressively, but i also was calling aggressively- on a couple of occasions i had second pair, or a pocket pair below top pair and after getting it checked to me i bet out only to be raised. based on preflop action in both instances, i didn't think the person had top pair, and the board would have been a weird holding for two pair, so i called. both times they had trips. so new lesson for me is to not forget about trips when im considering what they have. for the record though, i made a couple of calls with second pair and was right too, so the trick is knowing which is which. lets see - i played inconsistently today - but in 2/3 of the tables i was knocked out of, it was a case of getting in ahead and the person catching up to win. i guess thats good about the situation, but it got a little comical by the end of the day. it seemed like i could call for the card that would come on the turn or river to give them the win.

oh well, thats poker.
have a good 4th of july!!

peace and love and happiness to all
kk

back in the saddle

well its good to be playing again. ive spent the last few days mainly playing 2 table tourneys. buyins were between 6.50 and 16. cashed in a few, won one for 108 and am up. good way to start july. poker was pretty straight forward. got knocked out in a couple of tourneys after getting sucked out on and made the wrong read on a couple. overall still feeling good. tried my hand a couple of times at playing two tables at a time. wow. does keep you on your toes, but i can see how you can get into a rhythm. eventually i think ill need to be able to do that to really make money.

check back soon.
peace and love and happiness to all.
kk

I'm back!!

The trip was fun, and although i didn't get a chance to play any poker, i did read a book by gus hanson that gave tremendous insight into his game. it catalogs every hand he played during the aussie millions tourney that he won and his thought process behind all his decisions. it was nice to read a practical application of all the theory ive read over the years.

lets see.... the trip was good. in colorado springs there is a ton to do. we went to pikes peak on the cog railroad. we had a picnic next to a water fall and we went white water rafting. it was the best white water rafting in a long time as the river was the highest it had been in years.
we also went to santa land and rode a few rides, although i didn't go see the big guy, a couple of the other folks did and got their picture taken. also laid out by the pool a bit, and did a little shopping. overall a very good trip.

when we got back - i played in a small tourney and did horribly. we then played a cash game with 8 of us. i was the biggest winner taking home 150 off my 20 buyin, but it should have been a lot more. the drunker a couple of people got the more wild their bets were - and i made some donations i shouldn't have. i will tell you what, the logical process changes a lot when you are drunk and since i was sober i had a hard time following their logic at the end.

i am happy about how i played overall. i came into a lot of pots cheap and in position and was able to take a lot of them down. im getting better at reading when someone is taking a stab and when they have something. i reraised with nothing a few times and took the pots down. overall i felt i played pretty good (even with the late donk off)

ive played 2 sit n gos today so far, but haven't cashed yet, so im down $11 for the day. im getting ready to play some more, but wanted to update the blog before any more time went by.

good to be back.
more updates to come
peace and love and happiness to all.
kk

in colorado for the week

i will be out of touch until june 29. have a good week and i'll update with info from my trip when i get back.

talk to you all soon
peace and love and happiness to all.
kk

short handed games

today i played 6 handed tourneys. i really believe my strongest game is the shorthanded games. i cashed in all but one of the tourneys i played in today, so it was a really good day. even had someone on the last tourney tell me i seemed to know what i was doing unlike some of the other folks who they are playing, so that made me feel good. the one tourney i didn't cash in, i made a donkey move on the first hand and called off all my chips on the turn with an open ended straight draw, a king high flush draw and a straight flush draw. obviously didn't get there. other than that, i feel like i played really good poker today. i was calm about bad beats. i was able to be aggressive at my tables and could sense when people were getting tired of the aggression so i could change gears for awhile. made two great calls and a couple of really good lay downs as well. overall my best day so far and a good morale booster.

making a deposit online..

is actually fairly easy these days. the easiest way is just an echeck. click on cashier on your favorite site and click deposit and choose your method of deposit. with the echeck, the funds are instantly available in your account. you can also use visa/mc at some sites, which worked when i used my debit card. when i made my deposit, the bank called me and put a stop on my account here until i confirmed that it was me, so you may want to contact your bank and let them know you will be be doing something out of the ordinary. other than that, you can go to any site and read up on how to make deposits. good luck!!

18 player games

spent the day playing 2 table sngs at various buy in levels from $3 per game up to $27 per game. i like these two table games as well. made final table in all but one game and was able to cash too. i like the buy in games the best in the range of 11 - 16. the micro buyins just dont have a big enough pay off to spend an hour playing them - so i will probably play this range for a while.

good news is i think i finally cured my habit of reraising with jj. had jj in middle position with the person just to my right raising to 150 when blinds were 25/50. i smooth called and so did 3 other people. flop was AK7. checks around to button who bets and guy to my right calls. i fold of course. not the flop im looking for. button goes all in on turn and guy to my right calls. button had AK and guy to my right had AA for trip aces and took a huge pot. felt good about the restraint i showed in this hand.

until tomorrow
peace and love and happiness to all
kk

no main event seat

well - in all honesty i thought going into the events that i had as good a chance as anyone at winning a seat. and after playing both events i still feel that way. i played them both well until my demises, and was even 1st or second in chips at my tables for a majority of the time that i was in, but i was knocked out by my own stupidity in both events. that is what upsets me the most.

the poker stars event had 8076 people entered. we were 2h and 40 min into the tourney at the time i was knocked out. i was second in chips at the table in second position and i look down at pocket jacks. i put in a standard raise of 3x the big blind. everyone folds over to the cut off seat (the person just to the right of the button) and he shoves all in (just so happens to be the chip leader at the table) everyone else folds. he had bullied people who had raised a couple of times by making this move and most people had folded. he had been called and had shown a mid pocket pair once and over cards (AJ) once. i did think it was possible that he had one of the three hands i was behind, but more likely that he was playing something he didn't want a call with and that meant i should call him. well i do think i had the right read and he was playing something he didn't want a call with and that's pocket QQs. they held up and just like that, i was out.

i was really bummed about this, because i actually did consider folding here. it did cross my mind that i hadn't put that much out etc... i would still be in the tournament if i don't call, and if i do call and lose, I'm out - i honestly don't know what the right play was. do you lay down everytime someone comes over the top of you like that unless you have AA just to survive the tourney? that is a great theoretical question and one i will pose to my poker crew the next time i see them...

what say you porqchop and coolio? what do you do there? i ended knocked out at 3837. a long way from a seat.

but.... what this tourney showed me from a playing perspective is that i'm right there with everyone else. being one of the chip leaders at the table for most of the time validated how i'm feeling about my game. bad news is, in a tourney, one mis-step and that means your life.

in the full tilt event, i predicted 6k players, but there only ended up being 3385. i had already outlasted more than that in the poker stars event. which was good news, so i felt good going in.

my demise in this game happened over the course of two hands played back to back about 3hours in. in first position, i had pocket jjs again. (you know what they say about pocket jacks, three ways to play them and they are all wrong!) standard 3x big blind raise. one caller from the big blind. flop comes out 276 rainbow. big blind bets out about a pot size bet and i raise his bet by 3x. he takes a second but smooth calls me. turn is a 7. big blind checks, i check, (i should have bet here - ) river is a k. he checks - i check. we show and he has QQ against me. so i lost probably 2/3 of my stack in that hand was down to about 3800 in chips.

next hand i'm big blind with Q9. 2 callers preflop - no raise. flop comes out 7QA. i bet out and get one caller. don't think he's on the A since he didn't raise me on the flop, but he might be. he's been playing a lot of mid connectors, so he could be calling from just about anywhere so i decide if he is drawing i will make him pay to draw. turn comes a 4. i bet about 2/3 of the pot, and he calls. river is another A. i push all in (which is only about a pot size bet) since he missed his draw and the second A makes it even more unlikely that he has an A. he calls (and had me covered because of the previous hand) he turns over Q10 and im out in 1673rd place to a higher kicker.

i'm not sure what to think about how i played this hand - i think i royally f-ed it up in a couple of places.

for those reading who play poker - i would love to hear your thoughts. critique my thinking on the hands i discuss here - i would love feedback on how to get better and will do my best to be objective when retelling so you have all the facts of my thinking.

until next time
peace and love and happiness to all.
kk

sit n gos

yesterday i spent most of the afternoon playing $3 9 or 6 handed sngs on poker stars. didn't place in the first few, but by the time i stopped, i had ramped up and moneyed or won in a lot more than at the beginning. i also played a $3 -45 person sng and came in 5th for $12.

i really like the 6 handed game and will continue to play in it. in addition, i've got the big satellites tomorrow for the world series main event. i'm expecting 7-9k in this event on poker stars and 6k in the full tilt game. the full tilt game is a super stack tourney and if can survive and thrive n these big fields, it would be great experience in a large field game like the main event. the biggest field i've ever played in was a 2500 person $5 rebuy several years ago. i ended up winning that tourney, so i know i can go far. i'm excited about trying to get a seat. i'll report in after the tourneys.

peace and love and happiness to all
kk-

holy shitballs that's a big number

that's exactly what I said to myself at 4am this morning when i checked my checking account balance and had found that my severance pay had been credited overnight. it was exhilarating to see the number and at the same time, i felt the finality of the situation. i'm not too down in the mouth - it just reminded me that i haven't really been on vacation the last few weeks no matter how much more tan i look. but the good news is i now have my bankroll and am ready to start playing full time.

its funny - i had played a few times over the last few weeks - some of which has been chronicled here - but i took a couple of costly beats at the casinos and it already made me start to second guess my skills. as someone who is constantly evaluating my play - it will be hard for me not to be my worst enemy, but this is where that support system kicked in. a couple of friends just went to vegas and turned $100 bucks into nearly $1000 at the tables and when they came back they told me i could kill the $1-2 tables down there, which was nice to hear and i had dinner last night with my best friend of more than 20 yrs, and without even playing a hand of poker i felt better about my game after talking to her. Thanks guys - be prepared i'm sure i'll need you again.

that being said - i'm making a deposit online today so i can get to playing - and have plans for playing in a couple of main event qualifiers on Sunday. there will be a guaranteed 350 seats awarded between the two main sites on Sunday and i'm hoping i can have at least one of them. i will keep you posted.

i have a couple of other items to take care of as well. i want to track my play - so i'm currently researching some software that you can download to your computer to help you analyze your game (and those you are playing against online). from all i read, this is pretty standard item that pros use, so i want to try and get as close to par as possible.

i'm mentally prepared in case i start my career off with a few losing months, (which could easily happen if i'm playing at the micro and small levels at the start) and to make sure i'm analyzing the right data, ive been thinking about how to define success. an easy measurement of course is whether i'm paying my bills with the money i make from poker, but there are more things to think about as well. for instance - i actually think my game is very well suited for 1 table sit n gos. (these are just 1 table tourneys that go when 9 people are ready to sit and play instead of at a prearranged time) - but i need to know when i'm ready to move up to the next level. if i'm cashing in 40% of the sngs i play in at the $5 buy-in after a month, is that profitable and can i move up in levels? if i play two of these at a time, am i still profitable? what about after three or four? these are the things that i will be evaluating as i keep track of my play and will be vital to my decisions about moving up to more profitable levels. just because i have a bankroll that might allow me to play at higher levels doesn't mean i should start at them. i want to build up my experience the way many of the other pros did - by starting small.

although i haven't posted in a week, I've still been preparing to play. i've spent several days reading poker blogs, playing freerolls and finalizing my approach. i'm sure it will evolve over time, but i have to have somewhere to start.

until next time..
peace and love and happiness to all.
kk-