I Did It Again (March Review)

Sigh, once again I can't seem to learn from the procrastination mistakes that I made last month and had to scramble together a 6K hand session today in order to retain my SNE status for at least one more month. It wasn't quite as close to the final hour this time (made it by like 17 minutes last month) and I had secured my black stars with about 1.5 hours to spare!

So with 50K VPP's earned in March, I'm looking at enough FPP's to buy a $4K bonus and cash in on my $1200 100K VPP Stellar Rewards-not bad for putting in below average hours compared to last year's standards.

Overall, I feel like I ran pretty awful at the tables but I won't be able to prove anything in terms of EV since my HEM has been giving me trouble all month and won't import around 20% of my hands. I've been putting in no effort to fix the problem since I've actually found it quite nice not to be able to check my results until the end of my session...even if that means recording my results the old fashioned way by using a pen and paper! That said, I managed to win enough money to record another 5-figure month...so I won't be complaining anymore.

March

$5,653.81 Tournament + Table Winnings
$4,000 Cash Bonus
$1,200 Stellar Reward Bonus
$150 Reload Bonus
----------------------------------------------------------
$11,002.81 USD

Again, I'm satisfied with the results although it was ugly compared to last month. Also, because of HEM missing so many hands I don't have an accurate graph to post...I'll be sure to fix it before I play too many hands in April.

With all that said, I'm actually going to make a volume related goal for April for the first time all year. I'm going to try to earn 76K VPP's by the end of the month to reach 200K for the year and collect the first milestone bonus worth $2600. With some discipline, this goal should certainly be attainable. Hopefully I just run good...I feel like I played a whole lot better in March than I did in February but the results don't reflect this. I'm about $2K away from reaching $100K in profits according to ptr so this is a pretty exciting milestone that I hope to cross in April.


Away from the tables, March was alright. I worked out a lot and have been eating relatively healthy all year so that's definitely a plus. I had quite a few good nights out but a lot of the fun was overshadowed by drama. It's tough these days, being such a recognizable poker icon around the city, every girl that I meet has already read my blog and wants nothing to do with me. Alright, that might have only happened once and nobody knows who I am but you get my point. I also had to deal with some roommate drama amongst other minor things but life is good :)

Anyways, I might have some good karma coming my way because I donated a bit of money to the Japan Earthquake Relief tournament(s) on PokerStars. If anyone is interested in donating, click on the Tourney-Special tab and you'll see a wide range of purple-coloured tournaments labelled "Japan Earthquake Relief" ranging from a $1 buy-in to a $1000 buy-in. These aren't actually tournaments, you just register for whatever one you'd like to donate to and all of the money goes to the Japanese Red cross.

Hope you all had a good March and get it done in April.

gl at the tables!

Rollin' Along

March is beginning to shape up quite nicely at the poker tables despite the fact that most of my sessions have being incredibly frustrating. I managed to put in just over 6K hands on Saturday and booked an $800ish win but played pretty badly throughout the day. It was just one of those days where I was being way too much of a calling-station and would go against my read because the standard play would seemingly be to call. I think that I'm definitely capable of making huge laydowns a lot of the time in spots where most people would snap-call but I was totally off of my A-game today. That said, I was a little unlucky to be put in such tough spots but hey, that's the name of the game. I managed to run really hot in the last 1500 hands of the session getting lucky on more than one occasion, including 1-outing TYROMPER when I got it in with set under set with a flush draw out there and binked the river. The games were also very good so I was able to find a lot of spots where I could get my money in as a huge favorite and ultimately grind out a decent profit.

Here's an example of a hand that I'd like to have back from Saturday where I probably should have folded. This was against a reg and while his shove is pretty lol, there really aren't any other hands that he would likely do this with unless he was just tilting like crazy, I guess:

No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (8 handed)
MP2 ($420)
CO ($400)
Button ($400)
SB ($955.20)
BB ($451.70)
UTG ($469)
Hero (UTG+1) ($597)
MP1 ($414)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with K, K
UTG bets $12, Hero calls $12, 2 folds, CO raises $400 (All-In), 4 folds, Hero calls $388

Flop: ($818) 5, 7, 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($818) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($818) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $818

Results:
Hero had K, K (two pair, Kings and fives).
CO had A, A (two pair, Aces and fives).
Outcome: CO won $815

Annnnd here's a hand where I got lucky! This hand happened shortly after the hand posted above. I don't usually shove in these spots against randoms because while their hand is almost always face-up as a medium strength pocket pair, they almost always make the bad call anyways. They don't seem to care that they can't really represent anything of actual strength and are essentially guessing whether or not that they are crushed. It was a bad move on my part to even think that I had fold-equity but I was kinda steaming from the KK hand a few minutes prior:

No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (9 handed)
MP3 ($325.60)
CO ($237.95)
Hero (Button) ($400)
SB ($858.95)
BB ($523.40)
UTG ($412.20)
UTG+1 ($433.50)
MP1 ($529.20)
MP2 ($400)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, J
5 folds, CO calls $4, Hero bets $20, 2 folds, CO calls $16

Flop: ($46) 4, 7, 4 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $24, CO raises $52, Hero raises $356 (All-In), CO calls $165.95 (All-In)

Turn: ($481.90) J (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($481.90) A (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $481.90

Results:
Hero had A, J (two pair, Aces and Jacks).
CO had 8, 8 (two pair, eights and fours).
Outcome: Hero won $640.95

Finally, here's an example of getting my money in good risk-free!

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (8 handed)
Button ($117.85)
SB ($81.20)
Hero (BB) ($369.40)
UTG ($331.65)
UTG+1 ($180.60)
MP1 ($215.50)
MP2 ($301.15)
CO ($200)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 4, 10
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $2, 5 folds, Hero checks

Flop: ($5) 10, 4, 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $8, Hero raises $26, UTG+1 calls $18

Turn: ($57) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $42, UTG+1 raises $152.60 (All-In), Hero calls $110.60

River: ($362.20) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $362.20

Results:
Hero had 4, 10 (full house, fours over tens).
UTG+1 had J, 10 (two pair, tens and fours).
Outcome: Hero won $359.20

All in all, I think that I'm up around $5K at this point and will hopefully be able to close out the month strong. I'm looking at about $4-$6K in bonuses this month so another 5-figure month is in sight. I'm currently sitting at 42K VPP's for the month and will likely close around 50K-55K VPP's.

I've also been working on some training videos for PokerStars's Poker School Online. I've got to get two videos finished by the 31st and currently have the footage done for one and need to add the audio tomorrow. It's certainly going to be a busy next few days but hopefully I can get everything done and run alright to finish off March.

Away from the tables, life is good. The weather is finally getting nice outside and it looks like spring is finally here in Vancouver. I got to dust off the old sunglasses + football the other day and enjoy some time outdoors. I've been going out a reasonable amount as well this month and despite this blog almost ruining my chances for me to hang out with this girl that I met 2 weeks ago, she decided to give me a chance. Gotta love it when a simple google search can lead to how I will only talk to girls that are > 7/10 to go along with detailed write-ups of my nights out. I probably should have seen this coming but what can ya do.

gl at the tables.

Home Game Hilarity

Haha, I recently stumbled upon this thread on pocketfives.com that talks about funny home game experiences. This thread hit pretty close to home for me since when I first began playing poker with my friends I remember some ridiculous stuff occurring and we were definitely not playing by the proper rules of the game. We didn't know what the blinds were so we always used to just ante every hand, we would usually chop the pot if two players had a flush and an "A" was on board etc. I can't remember what other incorrect rulings happened on a nightly basis but looking back on it, I'm almost positive that we were playing our own version of Texas Holdem'. Here are some funny excerpts from the thread:

1. "It was a tournament $15 buy-in. only 5 people and not that im great but i was def the best one there. super super deep but with a time limit of only 4 hrs so it was gonna be all over at 12:30.

There was no timer they just wanted to go up when they felt like it. I.e first level lasted 2 hours. then on a hand i had the nuts i raised the host re-raise i go all in and she said that she was all in. i show her my hand and she said she was just kidding and keeps her chips.

The final thing before i just started to not care was there where 2 people in a pot one with 77 the other with 10 8 the board runs out A J J K K I tell them its a split pot and they argue back that well the one with the 7's is a better hand cause she started with a better hand. So i pretty much dumped my chips and left."

-Sean B

2. "Just after the Moneymaker boom, I was playing in a .25-.50 NL homegame. The hosts were adament that if you went all in or called all in, ALL of your chips were on the line (ie. Player A goes all in for $5 and Player B calls but has $20, Player A can win all of Player B's stack).

I argued that it was beyond retarded to do that, until I wised up and just kept reloading WAY short and started shipping in on everyone who had built up some pretty deep stacks... The hosts changed their "house rule" soon after that."

-m4ch1n3

3. "lol i played in a home cash game one time where there were no all ins... They argued that since people could rebuy and add on at ANY time that it was not possible to be all in ,since you could borrow, or leave if you wanted (according to their rules) to go get more money DURING a hand if you wanted to play a really big pot with a good hand. They also said that if someone put you all in and you didnt have enough chips to call, you had to fold....

none of it made sense so i drank some beers and left."

-MasturNate

4. "I played in a weak home game once where I was berated by a player because I shoved on a 4c6h9h board with 102 off on the button and the other player folded. I showed the bluff and the guy that folded went nuts. His argument was, "I had Ace Jack of hearts! I could have made a flush or hit and ace or a jack if you wern't playing like an idiot." I didn't even try to explain.

Later in the game I was holding 9c7s and another played called down with 8hjs on a 4 spade board and the guy that was running the tournament said it was a split pot because the ace of spades was on the board giving us both ace high flushes.

sighaments. Last time I ever played with those guys."

-pgasean

5. "I got an invite back in High School to play with a group of black kids from my class... tiny place, way too many people showed up, lots of conyac and weed.. when I arrived, they were playing a NLHE cash game 15 handed with 2 decks. I left.

I hear a story the next day that "Big Sen" flipped the table because he had 5 aces and lost to 2 royal flushes (chop pot)."

-bdubz9180

6. "Right after we started getting games together in HS after the boom we had a couple great hands.

#1 Dustin had the around the bend straight. QKA23.

#2 My all time favorite was Jon's full house..........

of suits! Guy didn't have a fucking pair and declared he had a full house."

-GeorgeMorris

7. "I played in a home game where the board came 10 J Q K 9 and both players flipped over A8. This was a problem because normally the winner went to the higher kicker (lol). So they ranked the suits club, diamond, heart, spade and if the kicker card from the straight didn't settle it, then the suit would settle it :)"

-CynicdarK

Lol so how about it, anyone else got some funny home game stories that they want to share??

gl at the tables!

Video: Micro Stakes Poker Strategy

So I've been meaning to get around to making another strategy video for all of you guys that have been following my blog for a while now and I finally got something done! I get a lot of emails from people that are still trying to build a bankroll for themselves and have been stuck playing the micros for a while now so I wanted to make something that would be relevant to you guys. Rather than dragging on for a couple of hours I tried to make this video short and sweet (just about 25 minutes), although I probably rambled on a lot, and touch on some basic yet complex poker theory.

The last poker strategy video that I made was about me 24-tabling 100nl (link found on the right of this blog under "links") and the focus of that video was centered around showing you how to play/keep up with playing 24 tables at a time, rather than going into great detail about strategy. I wouldn't call anything that I did in this new video mind-blowing but the emphasis this time was on strategy/theory instead of demonstrating how to multi-table effectively.

Anyways, this seems about as good a time as any to give something back to you guys seeing how this blog almost has 150 people following it, which is hard to imagine since I started it a little over 1 year ago thinking that I would be mainly talking to myself the whole time. I'm thankful for everyone's support and I plan on doing a lot more for you guys throughout the year, whether it be more videos, coaching, staking, whatever.

The video quality may be a little fuzzy...I recorded it on a wide monitor but then had to produce it at a lower resolution because it was too big. Oh well, the audio is the most important anyways. Here's a link to the Megavideo download:

<>http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DVY2LUKB

If you're interested in Mashup music then you might like the audio track that I used at the beginning and end of the video. DJ MattyB is a part-time DJ with a sick ear for music and makes some great stuff without any professional equipment:

<>http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0WCN2M1C

Anyways, take a look at the video and I'd love to hear any questions or comments!

Edit: If anyone is having problems playing the video, try downloading the VLC player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) and it should work with the .avi file.

gl at the tables!

Keeping Busy

What up. I hope everyone is doing well and keeping busy, I certainly have. Here's how things have shaped up for me as of late on and off of the poker tables:

Friday + Saturday

After having a slow start to the month, mostly due to being a bit burnt out after putting in heavy volume at the end of February to retain my SNE status, I decided that I would have to stay in and work for the majority of the weekend. Unfortunately, that meant skipping a trip over to Victoria with a couple of friends and this put me in a bad mood on Friday.

My play was certainly reflected by my mood and I was playing like a complete spewtard. I was trying to make way too many things happen to compensate for missing out on having fun with my friends but obviously this only resulted in me losing money. I was pretty frustrated by the end of my session and finished down around $1K.

Saturday was much better. I came to the tables with a ton of discipline and focus and ran good enough to recover all of my loses in about half the time that I put in on Friday. I was playing really well and don't think that I made more than 1 or 2 minor mistakes the entire session. The good session put me in a much better mood and I decided to join three buddies for "stick and puck" that evening-basically drop in ice hockey with minimal equipment. I played ice hockey as a kid growing up and miss it a lot...it felt good to put on the skates again, despite being more than a little rusty lol. We went out for a few drinks afterwards but kept it pretty low key.

Sunday

Sunday was another day that I dedicated to poker. The session was extremely frustrating...I felt like I was playing very well for most of the session and was getting pretty unlucky. 80% of the session seemed to be taking beats or getting coolered and I was chasing losses for the entire day up until the last hour or so. Fortunately, I instantly caught fire with a good run of cards and recovered everything and then some before I quit at the end of the day.

Here's a hand that put me into the black near the end of my session. I didn't play it well-in fact I played it really bad. My bet sizing was awful and river call more than suspect. I actually checked the river for pot control because I was somewhat readless and figured JJ and QQ could easily be in his range. However, it was against a random opponent who I didn't trust and was playing pretty badly but it mostly just came down to me being sick and tired of folding/getting coolered all day. I literally said "f*ck you, I call" to my screen, lol.

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (7 handed) -
BB ($100)
UTG ($208.65)
MP1 ($294.55)
MP2 ($282)
CO ($200)
Button ($245)
Hero (SB) ($406.65)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, A
1 fold, MP1 bets $4, MP2 calls $4, 2 folds, Hero raises $20, 1 fold, MP1 calls $16, 1 fold

Flop: ($46) 4, 9, J (2 players)
Hero bets $26, MP1 calls $26

Turn: ($98) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $48, MP1 calls $48

River: ($194) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets $200.55 (All-In), Hero calls $200.55

Total pot: $595.10

Results:
Hero had Q, A (flush, Ace high).
MP1 had J, Q (two pair, Queens and Jacks).
Outcome: Hero won $592.10

Monday

After putting in long hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday I decided to take Monday off. I got in a good workout and met my mom for Japanese food for dinner before heading "home." I'm sure that most people know that Monday night was a big, big night...that's right, the season finale of "The Bachelor!" Haha, I don't really want to get into why I watch the show...it actually started as a big joke amongst my old roommates and I and we'd turn it into a drinking game or whatever. We watched some pretty suspect shows that's for sure but I guess I have to admit that I'm actually entertained by the Bach now seeing how I ended up watching the 2 hour finale + 1 hour after show with my mother. Hello ladies.

Tuesday

Tuesday seemed like a repeat of Sunday. I was playing alright, probably worse than I was on Sunday but I was running really badly for most of the session. I lost an $800+ pot with the 2nd nut flush against top set, got 1 outed for a $400 pot etc. etc. However, just like on Sunday I caught on fire near the end of the session and actually turned what was likely a -$1.5K session at one point into a +$1K session by the time it was all said and done.

Basically, I feel like I've been swimming against the current all month but am playing fairly well on the whole. The games have been very good and this month hasn't been terribly stressful...I don't think that I've been up or down more than $2K. Currently, I'm up a pretty meaningless $1K and am looking at $5K or $6K in bonuses by months end. Hopefully I can build on my small profit and turn this month into a pretty successful one by the 31st...it certainly has potential and I'm optimistic at this point in time.

Today

I decided to take today off and focus on the little things. I set my alarm for 10:30am and ended up rolling out of bed by 11am (been waking up around 2pm for most of the month so this was quit a feat). I had a good breakfast of eggs + fruit and hit the gym for over an hour. My laundry's in the dryer and this blog is almost done so things have been pretty productive for me. Reading this back I realize how sad this must seem to most people but yes, waking up before noon, eating, exercising and doing my laundry earns me a gold fking star in my books. Anyways, I'm going out tonight to get my drink on but will try to keep things under control.


gl at the tables!

Interview + Follow Me On Twitter?

Hey everyone, I just created a Twitter account (no I never had one before, lol) and will probably start using it frequently so if ya wanna follow please go right ahead:

http://twitter.com/#!/frosty012

On a similar note, I recently did an interview with poker media touching on my poker story, how my year went last year, etc. If you want to check it out, there's a link to it on my Twitter! Thanks guys.

Month Reset

Well, I haven't played a heck of a lot during March (8K VPP's) but I was steadily building a profit for the month until everything unravelled today in one horrific cash session to set me back to even. I wasn't playing fantastic but the coolers/beats that I suffered today were nothing short of amazing. I could post like 10 but I'll keep it to the worst two...the second is probably the biggest cooler that I've ever been on the wrong end of, especially dollar wise.

1. This was against some 41/27 random. I had stacked him a few hands earlier with 99 on a 98x flop when he couldn't get away from QQ. This river is just so sick, obviously with his playmaster limp-raise I'm putting him on a very narrow range weighted towards AA and KK and possibly AK. I call pre-flop because his bet-sizing is poor and I already know that he can't fold overpairs. You see how cautiously that I'm playing it...I check back the flop because it looks like he has AA and might not call with KK/QQ/XX if I bet. He leads the turns and again I just call because I'm still afraid of AA at this point and I don't think he'll call a raise with worse. When the river hits, I don't really have a choice but to change my read a bit. At this point, the chances of him having AK/KK are so much greater than AA so with only 1 hand that beats me (can pretty much safely assume he's never limp raising 77 or if he did he'd prob lead flop) there's pretty much no way I can't raise/call for value given the unlikelihood of him holding quads. Sweet.

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (7 handed)
SB ($205)
BB ($84.90)
UTG ($289.80)
MP1 ($214.35)
MP2 ($100)
CO ($226.95)
Hero (Button) ($433.40)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 4, 4
UTG calls $2, 3 folds, Hero bets $8, 2 folds, UTG raises $18, Hero calls $12

Flop: ($43) A, 4, 3 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($43) 7 (2 players)
UTG bets $16, Hero calls $16

River: ($75) A (2 players)
UTG bets $33, Hero raises $128, UTG raises $220.80 (All-In), Hero calls $125.80

Total pot: $582.60

Results:
Hero had 4, 4 (full house, fours over Aces).
UTG had A, A (four of a kind, Aces).
Outcome: UTG won $579.60


2. This sickest part about this hand is that it's against the table amateur and the table was just starting to close down as I picked up KK. It looked like I was going to finally get some money off the guy before everyone left. Seriously, fk off!!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (4 handed)
Hero (UTG) ($497.60)
Button ($1123.10)
SB ($400)
BB ($549.20)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with K, K
Hero bets $12, Button calls $12, SB calls $10, 1 fold

Flop: ($40) 6, 4, K (4 players, 1 all-in)
SB checks, Hero bets $24, Button calls $24, 1 fold

Turn: ($88) J (3 players, 1 all-in)
Hero bets $60, Button calls $60

River: ($208) 4 (3 players, 1 all-in)
Hero bets $176, Button raises to $576, Hero calls $225.60 (All-In)

Total pot: $835.20 Rake: $2

Results:
Button had 4, 4 (four of a kind, fours).
Hero mucked K, K (full house, Kings over fours).
Outcome: Button won $1009.20

It's too bad that I had such a bad session at the cash game tables because up until this point things were going pretty smoothly and I even had some extra profit coming in from some tournaments! Unfortunately, my run in the Sunday 5mill lasted all of about 18 minutes when I overplayed AK and ran into AA pre-flop, oh well. I ended up firing up a few more low stake tournaments later that night for fun while I watched the final few tables of the 5mill wind down and ended up shipping the $8 2R1A for $736!


I got in some good volume today so I'll probably take tomorrow off entirely and go out for some fun later on at night. It will be good to clear my head from today's nightmare and I'll be ready to get back to the grind Thursday!

gl at the tables!