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
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$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!