The Part Where I Light a Fire Under my Ass

Siiiiigh I'm gonna ramble...and by ramble I mean bitch about stuff

First of all I'm sick with a cold. Getting sick is one of the things I absolutely hate, it's just so annoying as I basically have to put life on pause for like 5 or so days, although with poker dead now at least I'm not missing out on precious VPPs for supernova elite grinding.

I'm back in Iowa for those that actually follow my blog. California just didn't really work out for reasons I don't feel like going into, but mostly just me being homesick etc. I just moved into a new apartment with my old roommate on Thursday and then obviously Friday morning the shit hit the fan and I've lost pretty much my only way to make money. Also have 3/4ths of my net worth tied up online. I'm not even that annoyed about that though since it sounds like all US players aren't going to have a problem withdrawing there money. It mostly just sucks to lose out on all the future dollars I was going to earn. Also the timing is just real shitty since I just moved into this new place and now poker isn't really an option. I'm gonna be pretty tempted to leave the US if something isn't solved by the end of the summer (which seems highly unlikely it will be.)

Especially with being sick the last few days have been super boring. I'm sure a lot of you can relate but I really just don't have anything to do. At least the NBA playoffs just started which have been fun to watch. 

Go Lakers what what!

First my not so sexy graph:

So didn't run great, but didn't play all that great either. I've started playing some plo the last few days as a change of pace. I'm a little frustrated with NL right now. Like I know I have a lot of leaks but I'm not really sure what they are. I don't really think I'll be able to play plo as my main game though because i generally am not a fan of big swings and variance (probably why I nitzilla it up and 20 table full ring as my main game.) I do think my NL game has improved quite a bit this month but it's just frustrating to breakeven playing massive volume for an entire month. SNE is kind of up in the air at this point for me. I'm still planning on going for it, but I'm not setting it in stone or anything and I'm currently a bit behind pace right now due to basically not playing much at all the last week and all. Oh well at least I have fpps/rakeback to fall back on.

Here's to having a better Feb. then January

MP OUT

On the grind lately and feeling pretty good. I feel like I'm playing really well the past 3ish days/probably the best I ever have after having my roommate sweat me the other night. Changed up some of my ranges and it's going well. I'm still more or less breakeven at the tables this month over 134k hands, but that's alright. Sitting on 60k vpps which is ahead of SNE pace. 

I think one simple thing I need to keep in mind while playing this much volume is to stay aggressive and always fight for pots. The past few days I've ramped up the aggression which I think is a good thing and definitely helps keeping me off autopilot. 2/4 still confirmed unbeatable though.

Tried to semibluff Ronfar tonight and it didn't work :(

I was so excited and ready make a bunch of brag posts about stacking him even for 50bb, but the bluff failed.

Poker Stars $200.00 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players - View hand 1135313
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $91.35
SB: $40.95
BB: $101.70
UTG: $46.00
UTG+1: $100.00
MP: $100.00
Hero (CO): $122.50

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is CO with K K
2 folds, MP raises to $6, Hero raises to $18, 3 folds, MP raises to $100, Hero calls $82

Flop: ($203.00) A T 5(2 players)

Turn: ($203.00) 6(2 players)

River: ($203.00) K(2 players)

Final Pot: $203.00
MP shows A A
Hero shows K K
MP wins $200.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Also gonna link my roommates blog again in case people missed it. It contains some funny videos of him starting to lose his sanity while going for 3million vpps. Also I make a guest appearance at the Lakers game. I'm the boss with red hair in case it wasn't obvious.

http://www.sneme.blogspot.com/

-Matt OUT

God I'm running terrible and probably playing pretty mediocre. The hardest thing about SNE imo is not being able to quit when you're tilted. I used to just quit after 2 or 3 tilting hands happening in a row, but now that's not really an option which is definitely hurting my winrate (I think.) I've lost my last 6 sessions in a row which isn't helping the tilt. It's kind of embarrassing, but only 14 days in and I'm questioning if SNE is gonna be worth it. I just think it's damn hard to improve your game while mass tabling 6+ hours/day everyday. I kinda wanna try to hold out until the end of January though when Pokerstars announces the changes they're going to make to there cash games.

On Wednesday my roommate and I went over to the legendary Gomukyaself's mansion in Hollywood Hills. That was pretty sweet and inspirational to see how poker can really change your life. After a coaching session we all went to a really nice steak place. I got a bunch of shit for ordering my steak medium well (apparently a no-no at nice steak restaurants.) We credit card rouletted for the $250 bill and I thankfully dodged it. 

I think on Monday we're going to a Lakers game which I'm really excited for. Planning on meeting up with another legendary poker player there- ChicagoJoey of 50k hands in a day propbet fame.

Thats all for now,

Gl at the tables

Hello readers,

A ton of stuff has happened since my last post. I've successfully moved to LA and have started the Supernova Elite chase. I'm living with another poker player who's also going for SNE (here's a like to his blog which has some pretty entertaining vids http://www.sneme.blogspot.com/ .) My current plan is to play mainly 200nl full ring as trying to move up to midstakes is not going that well and kind of just stressing me out. It's also tough because my roommate plays midstakes and since we're on the same IP we can't play the same tables so we'd have to get on different sleep schedules etc.

So far this month I'm playing about 5.5hrs/day. I've played 91k hands and I think I'm up like 2.5k + a 4k bonus + some random stellar rewards.

Gonna continue this later as my friend just got here....

Just finished up a massive session to hit the 300k milestone. Felt like such a grind and I'm happy to be taking basically the rest of the month off from poker. I'm currently at my parents house while I wait until the 26th when I start making the drive to LA. I'm nervous and excited for next year since so many things are gonna be changing. New city, new roommate, supernova elite chase etc. but it should be sweet.

I saw Black Swan last night and highly recommend it. I think losing your grip on reality would be one of the worst things that could happen to you and that's kind of what the movie is about. I wanna see it again I enjoyed it so much.

Nothing much else to report. Poker's been pretty mediocre this much. At the beginning I was doing well and lately I've been breaking even/losing mostly. I'm having a pretty tough time breaking into midstakes which is a little frustrating. I definitely don't mind playing 1/2, but one huge benefit of midstakes is you get VPPs way faster which would be nice for next year. I don't really wanna be one of the guys that breaks even all year getting supernova elite though, so if I'm not able to beat midstakes I'd rather grind it out at 1/2 and take a little longer while actually making some dough.

That's all for now, hope everyone has a happy holiday

-Matt

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.....

Breakeven month + a 4k bonus so it's not all that bad.

November was kind of weird for me because there were a lot of semi-new things going on poker wise. It was my highest volume month and also a month were I played higher stakes then I have before. Looking at this by stakes I played 30k hands at 2/4 where I lost at 1ptbb which is pretty gross. I know I definitely made some bad stackoffs in 3bet pots vs regulars at 2/4 that I can remember. Won at .5ptbb at 1/2 over 60k hands which is obviously mediocre as well. 12k hands at .5/1 where I had a nice 3.5ptbb winrate. And then topped off by a few thousand hands at 3/6 and 5/10 where I won at 1ptbb but the sample's way too small to even care about. So overall pretty mediocre month, but I actually don't feel too bad about it, I mean I did still make almost 5k and the tables on stars this time of year are generally pretty terrible with lots of regulars chasing SNE and other milestone bonuses.. I also remember a few days in there where I decided I was just gonna play all 2/4 and 3/6 and not game select to challenge myself which I'm sure hurt my winrate and I don't plan on doing again anytime soon lol. 

December is gonna be pretty low volume as I have to finish up my classes and am also moving at the end of the month, so my main goal to just to hit the 300k vpp milestone bonus. 

Gl at the tables  

Hi all, this month has been pretty frustrating so far because I've put in almost 70k hands so far and am breakeven. I definitely haven't been on my a-game all month, but I think I'm going through a pretty good learning period. I'm also about to hit a 4k bonus so things could be worse.
 

Poker Stars $200.00 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 1030685
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

MP1: $100.00
MP2: $86.35
CO: $181.05
BTN: $200.00
Hero (SB): $200.00
BB: $228.25
UTG: $203.00
UTG+1: $204.95

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is SB with K K
2 folds, MP1 raises to $5, 2 folds, BTN raises to $15, Hero calls $14, 1 fold, MP1 calls $10

Flop: ($47.00) 4 J Q(3 players)
Hero checks, MP1 checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($47.00) 3(3 players)
Hero bets $28.00, MP1 folds, BTN calls $28

River: ($103.00) 8(2 players)
Hero bets $157.00, BTN folds

Final Pot: $103.00
Hero wins $100.00
(Rake: $3.00)

The original opener is a tight half stacking reg and then button is also a tight reg. Despite having Kings this spot actually kind of sucks because of the positions. I don't think it's a spot where the button is going to be 3betting that light and because of that I don't think he'll expect me to be 4betting that light either. Basically I think if I 4bet and get it in the specific player on the button probably isn't getting in anything worse then KK. I think I also have a fairly tight image which makes cold 4betting worse as well. The problem with cold calling though is that our range is basically super face up so it's kind of unlikely I'm gonna stack anyone postflop. I'm still not convinced my preflop play is best.

Once that flop comes and it checks around I think I have a pretty good spot to turn my hand into a bluff and try to get the button off exactly AA. QQ and JJ are basically the first hands that come to people's minds when you cold call a 3bet in full ring so it's not out the question at all that the button would check back AA on this flop. I also might be able to get value on the turn from the half stacking reg (although unlikely) but he might call once with AQ suited or something like that. But if the first reg folds and the button calls I think I can pretty much put him squarely on AA and bluff shove the river. I guess it's also possible he folded AcKx type hand. It's also nice that shoving KK here provides me with some balance for the times I do have QQ or JJ so that he doesn't just always autofold if this hand does end up getting to showdown.

that's all,

GL at the tables :)  

:disclaimer I by no means think I'm really accomplished or anything or even very good, I just thought it'd be fun to write this:

I remember in one of the DC threads at the start of this year my goal by the end of the year was to be taking shots at 5/10. A couple nights ago I mixed in two tables of 5/10 with my regular grind so this seems like kind of a good time to reflect on what I've gone through in poker so far. I'm also in a 50k hand breakeven stretch right now which is annoying so maybe this'll give me some perspective.  

So I started out a couple years ago with Colin Moshman's SNG book that a friend let me borrow. Deposited $100 on FTP and started 1 tabling the $2 SNGs. Pretty much had no idea what I was doing and while reading the book was always confused when Colin would write "T" for like QT (ten) lol. I pretty much lost at a really slow rate (obv 1 tabling) for a month or so. Then my friend that loaned me the book started sweating me and I started winning at least a little bit. I remember the day where I realized, "what a sec, I'm gonna try playing two SNGs at the same time!" It's funny that I 24 table now. After awhile longer of basically spinning my wheels I was talking to my friend from Denmark (Hi Rasmus) on AIM one day about how I was starting to play poker and he told me he had an account on SNGicons.com and I could use his password (shhhh don't tell anyone.) The vids on that site were super super helpful and I had what I guess you'd define as a "aha moment" in that if you got down to like 11bb or so in SNGs you should just open shove. And there are tons of spots to shove any two cards :O. With those videos I moved up to the $6.50s on Full tilt and pretty quickly ran my $100 up to $1000. I was also 16 tabling them. 

-aside for people just starting poker: I think SNGs are the way to go. The lowstakes ones are easy to beat and if you're winning at the beginning of your poker career that kinda hooks you.    

I played those $6.50s for awhile, but cash games were always really intriguing to me and I already had a subscription to Deucescracked and had been watching cash game videos. I'd try out playing 10nl awhile before, but couldn't seem to beat it as I really had no idea what I was doing. This time I decided to start at 25nl and I actually don't even remember how many hands I played there, but I think it was something like only 20 or 30k before I thought it'd be a good idea to get some coaching from Tubasteve (shoutout to Steve!) Steve helped me get from 25 to 100nl...oh and I was playing 6max at the time btw. It's funny I bought a 5 session package with him and I actually still have 1 session in the bank. I'M GONNA USE THAT ONE DAY STEVE! I think I probably had about 5k or so when I started trying out the 100nl games. I remember I ran super super hot when I first moved up and won like 30 buyins in not many hands. My 4bet bluffs would get peeled and I'd flop 2 pair, I could do no wrong!

This reminds me (and lol this is the gonna be the most hodge-podge hard to read blog post ever but I have to tell this story) around the time I first started playing those $2 SNGs I was moving out of my parents house and starting college. I got an apartment with a friend (The Mooniac for those that know the legend) and he was actually kind of the guy who got me into poker. I will never forget this hand. One night at like midnight we decide we should go to the closest casino (which is like 1hr drive) and pwn some nubs. Keep in mind at this point I'm a massive massive donk even more then I currently am. So we drive there and there are 2 tables of 1/2nl running (that's it.) We go up to the front desk or whatever and I ask my roommate how much I should buy in for, he's buying in for $70 so that's what I go with. Oh and at this point I thought my roommate was a total beast at poker, turns out he was terrible lol (sorry Clayton haha), and just to make him not feel like shit if he's reading this, he's now a solid MTT pro binking 20k scores on the regular.

 So anyways I sit down with my $70 and am nervous as shit with all the old truckers giving me the stare of death. First hand I play I raise 77 and a skinny older guy calls me (who I later found out to be a total degen legend at said casino.) Flop is Qxx rainbow and I bet, he calls, turn Q and I bet again cuz I have no idea wtf I'm doing. He calls again and I'm not feeling good about life. River 7 ball, I shove, he calls, I flip my hand while shaking and he yells about "these river monkeys." He then says he gonna throw up and at this point all I am thinking is "god I hope he's not serious" because I have a phobia of people throwing up. He eventually claims down and we quit soon after. I know I'm never gonna forget that hand.

So back to interweb pokers. I'm playing 100nl and crushing for like 30k hands. Then I proceed to go on a "long" (don't even how many hands probably wasn't even many) breakeven stretch/downswing because turns out I suck at poker. I remember this one night where I decided I was just gonna play 2 tables and record it so I could go over spots I thought I messed up. Ended up finding a massive fish and getting stacked like 2 or 3 times by him and being really frustrated at the end of that session. Then I was reading the FTP regs threads in the 2p2 small stakes 6max forum and some guys were like "hey we're sitting at the sickest table ever with a massive fish"

"o sweet you guys pwning him?"

"yep it's the massive fish, 3 regs, and then a spewing retard." 

I was clearly the spewing retard of the group. That definitely made me feel like shit at the time, but whatever those guys are all probably busto working at Mcdonalds now. And for the record I'm sure I was playing like a spewing retard.

After awhile longer of marginally winning, moving down to 50nl, winning there, moving back up to 100, breaking even/marginally winning etc. I decided to try out full ring. This was towards the end of last year and I think I probably had like a 7k roll. Nolan's movin' on up series was super helpful and I immediately started winning at 100nl full ring. I really liked how people's ranges were easier to define and at the time I felt like the regs were worse at full ring (no longer think this.) I also liked how full ring was an easier game to multitable. One hand that comes to mind and is a good example of ranges being easy to define in full ring is this one hand I played where it goes: fish opens UTG, 2 tight regs call, and I call in BB with 55. I lead T65r, fish calls, and one of the regs raises. At 100 fr most people's range in this spot is literally 66 and TT. So I fold, the fish stacks off toppair and the reg has 66. I guess that was kind of an "aha moment" as well. 

Towards the end of last year I got my roll to 10k through mass tabling 100 full ring which felt like a huge accomplishment. I remember looking at the 10k in my account and thinking it was the coolest thing since sliced bread. 

In Jan. of this year I got some coaching from GoMukYaSelf to help me move up to 200 full ring. That was probably the best investment I've made so far and I highly recommend the guy. I'm still a pretty big nit and misapply a decent amount of concepts, but he kinda opened me up from being just a masstabling set mining regfish, although I still kinda consider myself one haha. 

Since then I've dabbled quite a bit in both 6max and some HU, but still mostly play full ring with the majority of my volume being at 1/2 and 2/4, but playing the occasional soft 3/6 game and I guess technically 5/10 although I've play like <1k hands there and don't plan on playing more any time soon.

I remember last year thinking it would be the greatest ever if I could just beat 1/2 and grind out a solid income and I guess I've kind of accomplished that. It's funny how frustrated I was earlier today looking at my monthly graph and thinking about how much I suck at poker when past me would have been ecstatic to be where I am now. I guess I need to stop being such a mope :)

If anyone made it this far, hopefully it was at least marginally entertaining

GL at the tables      

also I don't feel like proofreading this so just fight through all the errors I likely made

Last few days have been swingy as hell. Basically everyday started out with my 1st session getting buried and losing like 1k and then my late night session winning it back. I guess I can't really complain too much since it could be way way worse. It's just hard to have fun playing poker when you're swinging around a ton. 

That said I'm doing really well this month volume wise. Already have 21k vpps and over 40k hands played so if I can keep that pace I should be able to hit the 300k vpp milestone no problem. Would be nice to stop spinning my wheels at the tables though. I think I might try out an experiment tonight where I only play 20-50bb tables at 2/4 and maybe some 3/6. In my experience lately it seems like those tables at those stakes are super fishy. And you can also start them pretty profitably because for whatever reason there aren't that many good regs that play them and the few that do don't really sit vs other regs HU. I'll post how it goes if I end up trying it out.