November Review-Tournaments

So the second last month of the year has now come to a close and it's time to really start working towards those end of year goals for 2014. November ended up being a short month for me at the cash game tables due to a good chunk of time being devoted to the Micro Millions. I was happy with my play in both the MTT and cash game department for the most part but ultimately ended the month with a relatively small profit.

My Micro Millions leader board run ended painfully short of the top 100. Missing out on a Sunday Million ticket isn't really a big deal for me though, I was really aiming for a top 10 or bust finish so I'm not too heartbroken over finishing 110. Like I said, I think my play was pretty solid throughout the series and had I been able to play all of the events and caught a few breaks in some of the tourneys, I think a top 10 finish would be in the realm of possibility. Hopefully I can build on this run in the next series if I choose to participate in it again. Promo-wise, my last longer contests were a success again and I gave away 5 tickets to the Micro Millions Main Event. My social media numbers are up across the board and people seemed to enjoy the contest so thanks for that!

I was hoping my cash game winnings would have trended up over $2k but variance had other plans. I ended up running pretty ugly to close out the month (well, not in terms of EV!) and finished up around 8 buy-ins. All in all, the low volume at the cash game tables has resulted in a meager monthly profit of about $2,400. It might be time to graduate from the micros ;)

Looking ahead to the end of the year, December seems like it will have to be a high volume month for me. I'm sitting on about 250k VPPs and will not settle for missing the 300k milestone bonus! Last year, I ended things on a sour note by missing the 200k bonus due to "having to go on vacation" by a certain date. This year, again I have a vacation planned near the end of the month so I'll have to make sure that I plan my days out properly. I'll be looking to up the hours mostly at 100nl and plan on including more mid-stakes tables in my game selection if things are going decently well. Hopefully I can close out the year on a profitable note and roll over some momentum to 2015. I'll be aiming for nothing less than 6-figures next year.

How's everyone else's year shaping up? Gl with your end of year goals!

gl at the tables!

Micro Millions Update

So since the start of the series, I've been hitting the Micro Millions hard! I got the initial start date of the series wrong though ended up missing most of the tournaments on day 1. Also, I wasn't really mentally ready for the 11 day grind or even prepared in terms of having groceries or a cleared schedule. I quickly got things sorted out though and have been playing around the clock ever since.

Trying to do well on the overall leaderboard is a serious grind-both mentally and physically. I've been super impressed with myself in terms of my mental game this time around...I've been very patient and have played quite well by my own standards. When I've done this challenge in the past, I found myself making a lot of questionable plays just looking for a quick double up or sleep but this go-around has been much better in terms of not punting off stacks. The physical part of the challenge is still incredibly difficult though because you just get so tired that it gets to the point where you can either ignore your alarm or it just becomes easy to brush off events(for example I'll wake up and go to register on my phone and if it's a format that isn't mobile app compatible, I won't bother getting out of bed and will just skip it).

Anyways, at this point a top 10 finish is completely unrealistic but I'm hoping to finish inside the top 100 and not walk away empty-handed, so to speak. I've racked up quite a few cashes but missing more events than I cared to miss, combined with some unfortunate runbad in important spots has left me sitting just outside the top 100 at the moment. Still, I'd like to see some kind of rewards for my efforts and hey, a $215 ticket ain't too bad!:



I actually just wrapped up Event 071, where I made a pretty deep run and banked another 15 leaderboard points so I should actually be inside the top 100 at the moment. The bustout in this one was pretty unfortunate for me, as I got AA cracked by 33 all-in pre for more than double the average stack with 185 left! Pretty much a beat of 10+ leaderboard points and potentially a lot of money. Stuff like that really makes or brakes a leaderboard quest but that's obv the nature of MTTs so I don't let it bother me too much.

I've been running my last longer promotion out of my facebook page and it's been going well. The final last longer will be tomorrow and then I'll be doing the draw for the 5 Main Event ticket winners after it wraps up. Be sure to check it out if you want in on the action...

Unfortunately, I've been finding it much more difficult than expected to play cash games alongside the MM. The combination of being super tired and needing a nap as soon as I bust the MTT plus not being able to easily start/stop a cash game session has resulted in almost exclusively MTT play. Now that I've lowered the bar from top 10 to top 100, I might be able to skip the night events and play both during the day. Anyways, that's all for now.

Gl to all those that are also grinding it out during the MM, I've had several chats and twitter interactions with a lot of followers so keep it up.

gl at the tables!

I've Got Your Micro Millions 9 Main Event Tickets!

The Micro Millions is back and once again, I'm going to be playing a ton of events to try and do well on the overall leader board. The plan is to play cash games on the side and hopefully end up logging a lot of hours at both the cash and MTT tables. Anyways, enough about me...here's what you need to know if you're looking to bank a free ticket to the Micro Millions Main Event:

What I'm going to be doing for the series is bring back my popular Last Longer contest but with a bit of a twist this time. In the past, I've held a last longer for a specific event and simply whoever lasted the longest in the tournament out of all of the entrants would win the Main Event ticket. This time, it's going to be more about outlasting ME.

The contest will work in the following way: I will hold 5 different last longers events (max 1 per day spread out over the series but no set events/dates yet) and after all of the events have finished there will be a draw for 5 Main Event tickets. To get your name in for the draw, all you have to do is OUTLAST ME in any of the last longers. If you enter more than 1 last longer and outlast me in multiple events, you can earn more entries into the draw...so for example, if you end up entering all 5 of my last longers and outlast me in all 5, you'll get 5 entries into the draw for the ME tickets. Sound simple enough? Good. All of the last longers will be ran out of my facebook page and the way it will work in practice is that I will announce the last longer event ahead of time, everyone will sign up with their Stars ID in the comments and then I will make a new status update to begin the contest. It will be on YOU to leave a comment with your place of finish in this new status update. I'll scroll through the comments after I bust the tournament and record all of the screen names that finished better than I did and they will be entered into the draw.

Hopefully this will be a lot of fun and motivating for everyone...might I remind you that last year one last longer winner went on to make a super deep run in the Main Event and cashed for around $4,000! The bar is set pretty high but maybe another winner will make a deep run again this year...

gl at the tables!

Getting Better-October Review

Alright, October is officially in the books! The month went by super fast for me and was action packed due to Thanksgiving, my birthday, Team Pro Online week, YouTube video making (check out my channel for multiple HOTW vids as well as a strat video ft. Nanonoko), PSO coaching, as well as the usual off-table activities that are on my schedule. It ended up being a pretty low volume month at the tables for me...not exactly what I was intending or hoping for but all things considered I'm pleased with my effort. I also spent a ton of hours away from the tables working to improve my game and especially in that department, I'm very pleased with the progress that I made in October.

As far as improving my game goes, I'm mainly just trying to miss less spots that come up regularly-something that can be easy to do when you're playing a lot of tables. Also, I'm more focused on trying to determine the best play for my overall range in a given spot rather than just playing each hand in a vacuum-unless I'm up against a weaker or obviously exploitable player. All in all, I still want to keep getting better and I think it's important even for winning players to keep your mind sharp by trying to continually improve your game.
 
 Alright, here's the breakdown for October:

I ended up running pretty well (obviously well in terms of EV, although I could post a dozen hands where I was set under set etc.) so I'll take that, especially over a small sample size. You'll notice most of my volume was just at 100nl in October, where I posted what I would say is a largely unsustainable winrate of 5.64 bb/100.

October:

1,894 table winnings
439    FPP value
----------------------------

$2,333 USD

Add in a bit of salary/coaching and exchange and I banked around $3,300 CAD in October. Obviously that 100K goal is looking pretty far off at this point lol but I'm going to try and get as close as I can by the end of the year!

I'm expecting November to be a relatively high volume month for me as I'm determined to log more hours at the tables and my schedule is crystal clear, unlike October. The Micro Millions is coming up and once again I'm going to try and make a run for the top of the leaderboard...I always enjoy the challenge and even though it can be very gruelling after a few days, I still find it fun. Also, I will be doing some more last longer promotions for my followers (with a bit of a twist this time) so stay tuned for that! I can tell you that there will be more MM Main Event tickets up for grabs and might I remind you that one of my ticket winners last time cashed in the ME for around $4k lol. As mentioned, details coming soon...

I suited up (or suited down?) as Clark Kent last night for Halloween and headed downtown with my girlfriend and friends to celebrate Halloween. I hadn't been out to a club for the longest time and honestly, I really don't feel like I'm missing much. I'm not sure how single frosty used to put up with the crowds, the lines, the noise but I guess he was more of a campus bar type guy anyways. Nonetheless, I'm a big fan of costume parties no matter where they're at and managed to have a good time throwing some shapes and then knocked back a few after seeing Wonder Woman cheating on me with Spiderman on the dance floor. My actual gf was dressed as a boxer and at one point in the night she ran into some dude that was also dressed as a boxer and a mock fight broke out. People went crazy for it and started pulling out their phones to film it...I'm not really sure why everyone was so excited but they were. She was also forced to fist-pump everyone that made eye contact with her as they went by-I guess that's the price you pay when you have sweet boxing gloves as part of your costume.

Alright, that's all for now...enjoy the rest of the weekend and I'll catch some of you guys/gals in the Team Online Freeroll tomorrow.

gl at the tables!

Zoom Hour Winnings Giveaway!

Hey everyone, so I had my Zoom hour yesterday as part of Team Pro Online week and it was a lot of fun. I was told to play my A game and ended up crushing pretty hard, to the tune of 251 bb/100 lol! It wasn't due to any sick play, however, as players were highly incentivize to pile a lot of money into the pot and cash in on the 7x multiplier that they would get for showing  a profit off of me. Despite what the graph may describe, a lot of people did end up winning some nice pots against me-including the top winner banking almost $70 in bonuses plus the pot.

Anyways, what I've decided to do is give back all of my winnings won during Zoom hour to all of my followers! I've set up a Home Game Poker Club and created a play money tournament for everyone to join. The ID and PW is:

ID: 1955150
PW: freedollars

It will be today at 18:00 EST. If you open the tournament lobby, you'll see the payouts written down in the notes. Since there's not a ton of cash to spread around, I'll just be paying the Final Table. I'll be accepting members up until 16:50 and don't panic if you aren't accepted right away, I'll be checking throughout the day.

I'm also coaching the Sunday Special today for PokerSchoolOnline at 16:00 EST today. I'll be doing a hand review of some of the biggest pots that I've played in October...you can register for free here:

Alright, Looking forward to a fun day on and off of the tables!

gl at the tables!

Team Pro Online Week Twitter Contest-Road to the PCA!

Hey everyone! So I'm sure that by now you've heard about the twitter contests being held by all Team Pro Online members (we're also going by Team Pro Online now, instead of Team Online or Team Online Pro or whatever else you've been calling us ;) ) so I wanted to give you all the details about my contest, which will run from October 20th-24th.

First of all, for those of you that are still unaware, the prize for each twitter contest is one entry into a special 22-man tournament where the top 2 finishers will have a chance to take part in the Team Pro Online heads-up challenges on October 27,  and play for a a free PCA package. Even if you don't finish in the top 2 though, you're still guaranteed $50! Not bad if you're just starting out building a bankroll at the micros.

Now, to the details of my twitter contest. I'm keeping things very simple, as you only need to retweet the following tweet to be automatically entered into a draw that I will hold on October 25th! The winner will be chosen at random and announced via my twitter account, which can be found as @frosty012:

Want to win a @PokerStars #PCA package? Simply RT to enter a draw for a special @PSTeamOnline satellite! Details here:http://t.co/JTvfa08gfV
— Tyler Frost (@frosty012) October 20, 2014

I figure that this will be a nice way to cause a buzz for the Team Pro Online week promotion and allow everyone an equal opportunity to win entry into the special satellite! Have fun during the week-take advantage of all of the cool promos being offered and be sure to check out the other contests being held by Team Pro Online members for more chances to win.

How to Turn "Pro" Successfully

So you've decided that you want to give playing poker professionally a shot. Ok, now what? Before you stick it to the man and quit your day job there's a lot to consider...even though there's only so much you can control at the tables, you still need a solid plan in place to succeed. I want to offer my advice on how to make the transition from whatever you're currently doing to playing poker full-time. I'll draw upon my own experiences of how it all started and share how I've been able to make a living playing cards going on five years now...

1. Build up an adequate bankroll and do it by playing part-time. I know you are probably feeling hasty and eager to start playing poker full-time but building up a bankroll on the side of your regular job or studies can do a few great things to improve your success rate when turning pro. First and most importantly, you'll have some kind of idea about what to expect when you turn pro. You still won't know exactly how your results will turn out but you will have a fairly good idea of how you'll perform at the tables. You'll also gain the confidence to succeed knowing that you've been able to beat the limits that you want to play at a higher volume up to this point in time. Finally, it's fairly obvious but by starting out your career with an adequate bankroll (think 100 buy-ins for cash games), you're giving yourself a much better chance of surviving any negative variance that may come your way. Instead of just throwing a few thousand dollars online and not really knowing what you're getting yourself into, take the time to grow a bankroll after work or school and sharpen your skills along the way. Remember that there's no quick, easy way to be successful at poker in the long-term and it's going to take a lot of work so be patient.

I started playing cash games at the micro-stakes in the later years of my time at university and it really doesn't take that long to move up limits and be bankrolled for the games that you eventually want to play. I think that it only took a few months before I had moved up to 100nl, had my bankroll locked and loaded and was confident that I could beat the games with some consistency.

2. Plan for the worst case scenario. This has got to be my most important piece of advice because although you want to be full of enthusiasm and optimism, especially at the start of your career, you also need to be realistic and understand that no matter how skilled of player you are you're not bigger than the variance that comes along with the game in the short term. Even if you're adequately bankrolled for the limits that you want to play, you've never done this full-time before and you don't know how your results will be affected by numerous factors-including increased hours, tables, tilt, real life emergencies etc. You just want to have a backup plan in place and be honest enough with yourself that you consider the fact that failing is a possible outcome. I don't mean to scare anyone away or sound like I'm deterring them from turning pro...if anything planning for the worst case scenario had a tremendously positive affect on the start of my career. Once I had my backup plan in place, I was able to play with nothing holding me back! I didn't let the daily swings get to me as much and was really able to just go for it and if it didn't work out, well then it didn't work out and I'd be just fine.

To give you a clear example of what I'm talking about, for me, I had steadily built up a $10,000 bankroll while playing casually over my years at university and during the summer before my last semester at school I wanted to do a trial run of going pro. That bankroll was basically all of my money at the time, as my bank accounts usually got pretty dry by the end of the school year and I'd typically refill them over the summer by working a random summer job. Needing about $5,000 to cover my school expenses for my last semester, I decided that I'd give playing poker full time a shot but if my bankroll ever dropped to $5k I'd stop right there and quit, withdraw the money to use for school and re-evaluate poker at a later time.

3. Treat poker like a day job and set goals. Even though poker can offer you tremendous freedom and flexibility, you're not going to achieve financial success by playing a couple of hours a day (well, depending on your stakes I guess ;)). You probably need to plan on playing 4-8 hours a day at least to ensure that you're putting up consistent results. I would recommend setting VPP targets every month to keep you on track and take the emphasis off of results and back on things that you can control-the hours that you put in. Starting out with a year-long VPP target is a very good idea and that will let you know how many VPPs you're going to need to average monthly/daily/hourly etc. to hit the year-end number. Especially when you're just starting your career, having a bunch of smaller goals to supplement your year-long plan will be helpful to keep you on track and give you an idea of how much you should be playing.

When I started playing poker full-time, I was all-in and fully invested. I was playing tons of hours and hungry to succeed. Having an empty bank account will do that for you. My social life still existed but was largely scaled back...I was playing poker, thinking about poker and dreaming about poker at night. I was probably playing too much, as there's always a point where your play becomes much worse with increased volume but when you're that focused on succeeding it will bother you to not be playing. If I could go back and do it over again, I would just try to have more of an organized playing schedule in place but my hours would still be heavy.

Anyway, if you have the passion for the game and want to give turning "pro" a shot then hopefully you'll find my advice helpful and maybe I'll see you at the tables in the near future.
If you have any more questions, I'm always available on twitter (@frosty012), Facebook Tyler "frosty012" Frost), or right here on my blog.

gl at the tables!

September Review-Slow Progress

September wasn't exactly the most exciting month at the poker tables. I didn't experience any big swings but unfortunately, I couldn't get much going in terms of catching a heater to get the ball rolling upwards. It felt a lot like last month, where I felt that I was running fairly poorly overall but still playing alright and making money due to winning enough "gifted" pots. I did manage to book a small profit from the WCOOP at least, after cashing in a $320 event early on in the series. All in all, I booked a small winning month but have a long way to go if I want to reach my $100K profit goal!

There are a couple of positive things working in my favour to reach my $100K goal, despite booking a relatively small profit of around $3k in September. First, I was reviewing my monthly totals for the year and actually miscalculated my annual earnings thus far by $5k lol. Fortunately, it was a "good" mistake as I've actually earned $5k more than originally thought. Second, October has the potential to be a booming month with the chance of 5-figures worth of bonuses depending on my volume! Hopefully things pan out a bit better at the tables and I might have a slim shot after all. I have to adjust my volume target though...I think that 500K VPPs was unrealistic from the start and now it's going to take a lot of effort to make 400K but that will be the goal. To be clear, I'm not changing my profit target and the volume goal was never important in terms of having to reach it...it's just there to supplement THE goal of earning $100K.

So my ice hockey season is off to a completely opposite start to last year, where we pretty much lost every game by 5+ goals. Now we're in a lower division and are lighting it up! 6-0, 39 GOALS FOR and 6 AGAINST lol. It's been a fun ride but we're getting bumped up a div after the next game. You would think that moving up a division wouldn't be that bad since on paper it looks like we're an unstoppable force and it might not be...but I think that we look a lot better on paper then we actually are. Like the games have been weird-they'd be close for 1 or 2 periods, even tied and then the flood gates would just open up and we'd score 5 goals in the third. Also, one game was a forfeit and 2 wins came against the same team so yeah, we're definitely the best team in the division but I'm not so sure it's as clear cut as it seems. Regardless, we should at least be in a bunch of close games in the new division and hopefully win our fair share. I've personally been playing pretty well...it was a rusty first couple of games but I've made an adjustment in my wrist shot and have since scored 8 goals in the last 3 games and I'm in the top 2 point leaders on the team. The change in my shot was just starting to get my top hand more involved in the shot by pulling backwards and really flexing the stick. The power increase has been pretty dramatic and it feels like I'm firing darts out there!

October's going to be a pretty jammed packed month. On top of all the poker that I intent to play I've got the usual weekly hockey/workout stuff and then I've got my birthday, a couple of Thanksgiving dinners to attend and of course, Halloween. It should be busy but it should be a lot of fun too! The progress bar is updated and here's to hoping it moves a lot farther to the right when October's all said and done...

gl at the tables!

New HOTW-Turning a Made Hand Into a Bluff

Just wanted to do another quick post to upload my latest Hand of the Week to the blog if you missed it on my other social media outlets. As I mentioned in my brief intro in the video, the plan going forward for 2014 will be to release 2 HOTW vids and one special "Team Online Strategy Video," featuring a guest each month! I'll aim the get the TOSV posted around mid-month and flank those with the two HOTW videos on either side :)

Monthly review, including results will be coming up shortly at the end of September. Till then,

gl at the tables!

Team Online Strategy ft. DaWarsaw

Hey everyone, I just wanted to do a really quick post to share a recording that I made with DaWarsaw yesterday, in case you missed it on my other social media outlets. I want to keep these Team Online videos as a separate series from my "Hand of the Week" videos and plan on doing more of them over the rest of the year if you like them, so please let me know (all feedback appreciated).

In this particular strategy clip, Greg and I talk in great detail about 2 recent 100nl 6-max hands that I played recently. As per the description:

"Frosty and fellow PokerStars Team Online member Grzegorz "DaWarsaw" Mikielewicz engage in a lenghty discussion about 2 100nl 6-max cash game hands that were played by frosty earlier in the month.

Hand 1: Topics include how to play against aggressive opponents 3-betting from the BTN vs. the CO, what hands to 4-bet and call with, the merits of fast-playing vs. bluff-catching, what HUD stats should be considered when making our decisions...among others.

Hand 2 (34:48): Topics include the merits of 4-betting QQ from MP vs a specific villain on the BTN, flop/turn/river play OOP on the given run-out and also include relevant HUD stats to keep in mind."



Let me know how you feel about the duration and speed of everything, as I can shorten the videos in the future if people are losing focus, add more hands in the same length or even talk longer if that's what you'd all like to see. Here's a link to the first T.O. strat video ft. xflixx:


Cheers,

gl at the tables!

WCOOP 2014+A Coulpe of Hand Histories

So September's well underway and things have been a little frustrating at the tables so far. As per usual, I could always benefit from a bit more volume but aside from that I've been running pretty cold across the board. I'm out almost 7 buy-ins in EV but the coolers have been more of an annoyance...when it's all said and done though, I'm still up a few buy-ins, feel like I'm playing pretty well and a heater could be right around the corner because the games have been good!

I won't bore y'all with the bad beats or paste out all of what I consider to be "coolers" but here are a couple examples of what I'm talkin' about for the sake of showing some hands:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed)

MP ($122.24)
CO ($38.84)
Hero (Button) ($118.94)
SB ($105.62)
BB ($100)
UTG ($184.28)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, K
3 folds, Hero raises to $2.50, SB raises to $8.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $19, SB calls $10.50

Flop: ($39) 7, 6, 8 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $21, SB raises to $86.62 (All-In), Hero calls $65.62

Turn: ($212.24) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($212.24) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $212.24 | Rake: $2.80

Results below:
Hero had K, K (two pair, Kings and sevens).
SB had A, A (two pair, Aces and sevens).
Outcome: SB won $209.44

This flop spot is kinda weird/annoying because without specific reads or history involving this exact pre-flop action it's very tough to know what kind of 4bet/calling range we're up against. I think as a general population read though, we're looking at something like AJ+/KQ+/JT+/99+/67s+...you know, stuff that doesn't want to shove and get called but has enough playability and strength to not fold. I'm not confident in that range being an accurate representation of the average 4bet/call range because I think it varies a ton from player to player...some might call all pocket pairs for example, while others will be super tight and even mix in some slow played KK/AA, as we see here. I do assume that most players are probably tighter rather than looser and the 4b/c range is going to be heavily weighted towards hands that do well against the button's 4bet bluffing range and will be less likely to include super value (so hands like AQ, or hands that have decent playability against Axs bluffs like KQs or JTs). With that in mind, I still think we can be pretty happy about bet-calling this flop since most opponents can probably show up with 99-QQ, pair + draw type hands or quite possibly be even weaker. Even now that I've seen this villain show up with slowplayed aces, it's hard to know if I'm always just beat by this flop c/r or if villain would play 99-QQ the same way...sample size seems to be too small to know.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (8 handed)

Hero (UTG) ($100)
UTG+1 ($110.98)
MP1 ($80.04)
MP2 ($100)
CO ($96.34)
Button ($106.17)
SB ($132.58)
BB ($101.50)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 5, 5
Hero raises to $3, 2 folds, MP2 calls $3, CO calls $3, Button calls $3, 1 fold, BB calls $2

Flop: ($15.50) 6, 5, 10 (5 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $10, 2 folds, Button calls $10, 1 fold

Turn: ($35.50) J (2 players)
Hero bets $25, Button calls $25

River: ($85.50) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $62 (All-In), Button calls $62

Total pot: $209.50 | Rake: $2.80

Results below:
Button had 10, 10 (three of a kind, tens).
Hero had 5, 5 (three of a kind, fives).
Outcome: Button won $206.70

Here we have a bit of a loose open from EP but the BTN was a 51/33 weaker player so I wanted to get involved in some pots with them. I get an absolute dream run-out and I strongly consider going for a check-call on the river since our villain looks so draw-heavy but ultimatelyy decide against it for 2 reasons. Basically, I given that all draws missed I think that villain is almost always calling with Tx or wider...also, I have no idea what kind of bluffing frequency this player has. I wanted to go ahead and target the villain's calling range rather than risk a check-back from a weaker made hand, which would obviously be a disaster. I think our hand is a decent one to shove too since we don't block any potential pairs that our villain could have...if we had a hand like JT, I might be more interested in bluff-catching since now the villains range would probably be more draw-heavy. Anyways, I decided to shove and to start planning what to do with my new found $100. Bad idea.

Month so far:

I've been eyeing some WCOOP events to play and am tentatively planning on playing the following events:

19- $109 NLHE
20- $320 NLHE
43- $215 NLHE
47- $320 NLHE
48- $215 TKO
64- $215 8Max

Hopefully I can make a decent run in something :)

Other than poker, my days have consisted of family birthdays, ice hockey, crossfit, house renos and football! I won my first week fantasy matches in both of my leagues so that's off to a good start. I'm in some trouble in one of the league's though since I'm short on running backs to begin with and Tate went down with an injury on Sunday. In my other league my team is pretty ridiculous though...I have Moreno and Benjamin just sitting on my bench as well as having Josh Gordon stashed (looks like he's likely to play again this season based on recent reports).

My ice hockey season is off to a good start as well...we won our first game 6-1 and although I felt pretty rusty I think that I played pretty well. Things definitely seemed to start coming together more as the game went on and our line was pretty dominant throughout the entire game, although our team was just stronger overall. We won our second default by forfeit...super lame but after last season, we'll take all the wins we can get! I've got another game tomorrow so hopefully the other team shows up...I'm not sure how some of the other teams are in this division but my guess is that we'll likely get moved up at some point.

Alright, that's all for now...

gl at the tables!  

Bouncin' Back-August Review

August turned out to be a nice bounce back month from July. Since my last update, I managed to catch a heater that ended up lasting for only a single day but it was indeed a great day. The heat came on this past Saturday to the tune of 14 buy-ins at 100nl over almost 8,000 hands that I played straight without stoppage.

Unfortunately, those positive variance days were almost non-existent throughout August and I was battling through some runbad for most of the month. Nevertheless, all things considered I'm happy with my play, effort and overall bottom line when it's all said and done. The numbers keep me behind pace for my $100k goal by the end of the year but with increased volume and milestone bonuses on the horizon, I don't need to be earning equal amounts every month to ultimately make it.

Unintentionally, I ended up playing 100% of my volume at 100nl in August. I wasn't trying to be a 100nl hero but it just sort of worked out that way due to a combination of me wanting to hammer out some consistent winnings and not sit around waiting to get enough mid-stakes tables up and running. Through a mixture of full-ring and 6-max I was able to get 20+ tables up in a hurry and grind with relative confidence.

August

$1,139.15 FPP Value
$250         MTT cash (Quarterly FR) 
$2,648.16 Table Winnings
--------------------------------------------
$4,037.31 USD

After adding in a bit of salary and coaching and a favourable exchange rate, I ended up clearing close to $6.2K CAD in August to add to my annual total...bringing that up to just over $46K.

Biggest pot won: Not much to say, I decided to just shove rather than 4bet small since I thought that at least 1 villain would probably call (both fishy IIRC).

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)

BB ($130.69)
UTG ($143.06)
UTG+1 ($151.10)
MP1 ($43.28)
Hero (MP2) ($135.21)
MP3 ($101)
CO ($108)
Button ($98.50)
SB ($100.50)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A, A
3 folds, Hero raises to $3, 2 folds, Button raises to $9, 1 fold, BB raises to $15, Hero raises to $135.21 (All-In), Button calls $89.50 (All-In), BB calls $115.69 (All-In)

Flop: ($360.38) 7, 6, J (3 players, 3 all-in)

Turn: ($360.38) 9 (3 players, 3 all-in)

River: ($360.38) 2 (3 players, 3 all-in)

Total pot: $360.38 | Rake: $2.80

Results below:
Button had Q, Q (one pair, Queens).
BB had 8, K (high card, King).
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: Hero won $357.58

Biggest pot lost: This just happens to be a gross bad beat too but meh, it was the biggest pot lost so what can I do? ;) I overshove turn b/c I think that I had a read that the villain was strong and didn't think they'd fold exactly what they had.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (8 handed)

SB ($145.65)
Hero (BB) ($121.76)
UTG ($83.84)
UTG+1 ($103.21)
MP1 ($100.80)
MP2 ($100)
CO ($100)
Button ($183.66)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8, 8
4 folds, CO raises to $3, Button calls $3, 1 fold, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($9.50) 8, A, Q (3 players)
Hero checks, CO checks, Button bets $7, Hero raises to $27, 1 fold, Button calls $20

Turn: ($63.50) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $91.76 (All-In), Button calls $91.76

River: ($247.02) Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $247.02 | Rake: $2.80

Results below:
Button had Q, A (full house, Queens over Aces).
Hero had 8, 8 (full house, eights over Queens).
Outcome: Button won $244.22

Away from the tables, it's been handyman frosty around the apartment all month. The first order of business was installing blinds for all of my windows...I've lived here for over a year now and aside from the bedrooms, there have been no blinds anywhere. I have 11 windows and am surrounded by neighbouring apartment buildings-I can only image the things that they have seen over the past year :o. I originally took down the blinds that came with the place because they were dirty and ugly and I intended on replacing them soon. However, you know how it is, more "important" stuff kept coming up/I got lazy and kinda used to it and the next thing you know you're known as the guy without blinds at the building's summer BBQ. That all changed this month though because my girlfriend could get us a sweet deal from her work on some high quality blinds and in frosty fashion we managed to save a few coin by installing them ourselves. It was a pretty brutal 4-5 hour process of manually screwing in a lot of brackets but in the end it was mission accomplished. Here's the before and after pics:

Not bad eh? You can see we did a bit of painting too. Other than the blinds, the most recent project was replacing my bedroom closet with a brand new one. That turned out to be a slightly smaller cause of frustration and the biggest challenge was sawing the ends off of 2 metal bars to make them fit in the closet space...not a fun activity when you only have a small hack saw lying around and I wouldn't recommend it :/. Here's how the closet looks before and after though!

There was basically not much on the left side (my side) before, just a coat rack and some cramped shelf space above it. On the right side (her side), the space was all organized in a messy and frustrating way. Afterwards, we now have some shelves for towels/hats/belts/shoes/etc. and plenty of room to and all of our shirts/pants in an organized fashion. Yes, this is exciting...

I expect September to be a very busy month for me both on and off the tables. Aside from the continuous apartment renos, I'm also starting up my ice hockey league again this week and my fantasy football season. Combined with the usual crossfit training and weekend commitments, there will be little time to waste if I want to be as productive as I'd like to be at the tables this month. I'll be aiming for 50k-60k VPPs, so we'll see what's in store for me in September! Stay tuned for updates,

gl at the tables!