Slickity Says...

Like I'm pretty sure I've said before.  How often I post a blog is pretty well related to how much I've been playing online.  Well lately, I've played probably less then 20 tournies in the last month.  However I did hit AC twice and Vegas once, which isn't too shabby.  Overall, costs of trips, food, hotel, etc... I think I'm down like $250.  Thanks to an epic comeback in Vegas but also losing $600 in the pit when I know I shouldn't go there.  Stupid games.

As for the epic comeback though, I was down $1600 going into my final day of Vegas.  I played some 2/5 NLHE before meeting up with some friends and won $500 in 45 minutes.  Easy game.  After our party, I went back to 2/5, but couldn't get a good game.  It was a bunch of nits and grinding away stealing blinds at 2/5 is no fun.  So I jumped to 5/10.  I'm a little under rolled for such a game, but fuck it... it's Vegas.  I got put a really good table though.  I managed to build up to $2150 from $1k before leaving at 4am to catch my 620am flight.  That put me up just enough to pay for my taxi rides to get home.

The only really interesting hand a the 5/10 table though was AA.  There was a straddle to $20, I raised to $65 in the CO.  BTN who was pretty decent I guess, nothing special in either direction 3 bet to $235.  I decided TT, JJ, AK were the most likely holdings as I didn't think he'd 3bet so big w/ QQ+.  So I flat.  I ended up check / shoving the flop for $966 over a $300 bet and the guy folded JJ on a Q8x.  I was sure that if I just flat the flop it would look WAY strong and figured a check / shove could get some random spaz calls.  He did tank for a solid minute before folding though.

Now I'm back home and my computer crapped out.  Bought a new one today. And will hopefully be back to the grind soon.  Oh yeah.   32% ROI aorn in the 45 mans, I run good!

It's going to be a pretty sick next 3 weeks for me.  Borgata this weekend.  Then again, June 26-29.  Then Vegas July 1-5.  So stoked for this.  Overall cost of trips: $1100 ish.  Hopefully after all of that pokering I can run avg - good and freeroll the whole month.  Like I've done every other time I've done a live poker weekend / week.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS: anyone that's there during those times drop me a line.

I've been offering up free sweats at random times of my playing the 45s.

I'm pretty good at them IMO.  Sadly last time only a couple people looked in and a few asked questions on AIM.  Generally anytime I'm playing < 8 tables I check my emails / PMs and if someone wants in, all they have to do is ask.  All I ask is that you're not in the same tourney as me at that time.  I'm doing this for multiple reasons.  1st because I love teaching.  2nd because I believe that teaching is the highest level of understanding, and 3rd with someone watching over every move and asking the questions of suspect plays or even standard plays will help plug my own leaks faster.  honestly I don't see much of a threat of these games being taken over by regs.  Most of the regs that play these are WAY WAY WAY WAY too nitty and highly exploitable.  Which of course I'm willing to cover.  I'll probably only be offering this through June.  After that I may have to start charging, as I think i'll be helping too many people get good and it will probably start affecting my hourly a bit.  Which is currently ~ 1Bi an hour in non turbos at the $26s, probably closer to 1.5bis at the $11s and about .7bis at the $75s.

Anyway, I'm super happy w/ my game.  Very grateful for the coaching thus far, and if anyone is going to be in AC between June 26-29, or Vegas July 2-4 you should hit me up!

This is really weird for me.  I feel like I'm playing some of my best poker right now, just can't get the cards going.  Currently on a 60bi downswing in MTT.  20bi downswing in the 45/90 mans on FTP.  The only thing I can win is the $12/45s on stars but those wins are negligible compared to what I win in my regular games.  But a win is a win I guess.  But I digress....

Back to the awesome poker playing.  It seems like even though I've upped my tables from 4/5  to 7/9 I"m getting my money in good more often.  My bust outs are much more often coolers and suckouts instead of bad reads or bad plays leading to awkward stack sizes(something I've worked quite hard on).  Here is a sample HH from Sunday while 9 tabling:

Poker Stars No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t1000.00/t2000.00 Blinds - 8 players - View hand 711951
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: t77498.00 M = 25.83
Hero (BTN): t50238.00 M = 16.75
SB: t63385.00 M = 21.13
BB: t70158.00 M = 23.39
UTG: t48209.00 M = 16.07
UTG+1: t46667.00 M = 15.56
MP1: t43302.00 M = 14.43
MP2: t26536.00 M = 8.85

Pre Flop: (t3000) Hero is BTN with 8 8
5 folds, Hero raises to t5000, 1 fold, BB calls t3000

Flop: (t11000) 6 4 J (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t6250.00, BB raises to t12500, Hero raises to t45038, BB calls t32538

Turn: (t101076) 4 (2 players)

River: (t101076) T (2 players)

Final Pot: t101076
Hero shows 8 8
BB shows 6 9
Hero wins t102676.00
(Rake: t-1600)

Me and villain had recent history of aggression.  I'd say easily 2 -3 times in the last two orbits.  I knew he was check raising this flop pretty close to 100% w/ any piece and would at least flat w/ any overs.  Generally he was getting kinda creative w/ his raise sizes when he had something good.  On his min raise I was dead set on him having mid pair or bottom pair.  So it comes how to get the most?  Given stacks and how aggro our history I figured a shove would look pretty spewy/bluffy and he'd level himself in to the hero call.  It worked great.  The weird thing about this is that I was able to properly decipher the 2nd / 3rd level thinking of a $5 MTTer when I'm generally playing 26 - 55s.  This is also something that I've had to work on, just because the stars micro tournies are so soft and often times have great prize pools.  1st place in this one was $49xx.xx.  I finished 58/6171 w/ AK < AQ followed by AK < 66.  Which is the nature of the beast I suppose.

With the insane variance I've had through the MTTs even over a fairly small sample, I realize that 100-150 abi is NOT enough to sustain play through a downswing.  I'm going to challenge myself here to only play the 45/90 mans for at least the rest of the month, where I'm averaging 30%+ ROI and have seen my SNG graph go on a pretty much 45* line up.  Even though I'm pretty sure if I was playing cash games through this stretch I'd probably be up a considerable amount.  But playing 100bbs or 200bbs deep ALL THE TIME is pretty dull to me.

“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.” - Bruce "The Dragon" Lee

For the non military, that’s a quote to a running cadence basically just saying you’re crazy for re-enlisting, mocking the down sides of being in the military. Really though, I love the lifestyle.

So here’s what I get. $5k + a lot of training that will be HUGE in the future + stability. What I give: 56 extra months of service.

I’m pretty sure I won out on this deal.

FWIW, I think my posting in this thing is directly related to the amount of volume I get in. I have not been playing much at all, obviously. I was also downswinging, like 50bi. I’ve recovered from that! WOOOOOOOOO!!!! But still don’t really play all that much, my schedule got pretty full, and the g/f wanted more time w/ me. So much so that she game me an ultimatum. Which I hate. So that, on top of some other things caused me to re-eval our relationship and end it. I even unshared her from my google calender… pretty sick burn imo.

As always, my goals for this month were to get in a good amount of volume… basically anything > the last couple months is acceptable, and to profit! I’m on the profit side for now, but the volume is still lacking. Maybe playing the TLB Contest on 2p2 will motivate me. It’s been going for 5 days now and honestly not much has changed. We’ll see what happens.

The last month has by far been the busiest in a long time. My volume has been ridiculously low and I haven’t been running all that well. On top of it the g/f is on that “it’s all about the sex” kick, that always comes up in a relationship. So I heard all about that today. I just want a large pizza, cold beer, and some UFC.

On the plus side of things, I’ve started up at an MMA Gym where I’m taking Boxing, BJJ, Muay Thai, and MMA Conditioning throughout the week. It comes out to be 3-4 nights after work where I get to go let out my frustrations. I’ll probably only be putting in any sort of volume during the weekends now.

I’ve taken on 4 students at the pokers this month and have made progress in all their games and it’s definitely improved my game as well. I did this as a public service really for another poker community so for the four students over the last month we’ve had roughly 16 hours of coaching which with my hourly rate of playing has probably cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 assuming avg play / results. But I think the gains I’ve made in my game and the camaraderie with those I’ve been coaching has been well worth it.

I know this is all random but w/e. It had to come out.

Currently I’m on a really sucky downswing. As of my last post I had shipped 4th for $985 to pretty much break even for the week. Since then I went 20/~4k for $200, took 4th in a $75 45 man for $310, and had a deep run in the $11r on stars stopped by JJ < QJs to cash for $67. Other then that, I’m losing everything. It seems like everytime I shove any pair they have AA. If I shove any Ax hand they have a pocket pair that puts me as a 70/30 dog. And if I shove AK, I lose. Doesn’t matter if it’s vs a pair Ax, Kx, or ATC As of right now, it’s a 50bi downswing at the $26s which I’m sure is standard, but still sucks along the way.

I know there is no “fair” and “unfair” when it comes to the game, no matter what seems to be happening. Every hand, every situation, every tournament, EVERY DECISION is independent of another. Theoretically a hot streak or downswing can last forever. So don’t sweat the small stuff(whatever it is you’re going through is small compared to infinite). Play on, beat the game,……. PROFIT!!! That’s all I can say for how things are running poker playing wise.

I feel that I’ve had a HUGE gain from coaching. Not everything they’ve told me was new stuff, some of it was stuff I knew that I just need to be reminded of by someone else. Either way, it’s a great experience and I recommend it to anyone that is taking this game seriously.

As some of you may or may not know, I occasionally get my action backed by the FTP Forum. It’s a great group that I’ve been apart of for a very long time in the internet world. While they are definitely not atop the strategy world, they are on top when it comes to over all atmosphere imo. So I’m giving back to that community. To share my experience with coaching with them…

The Offer: I’m going to back and coach somebody to beat low level SNG / MTTs for one months time to start, offering up to 3 hours a week of my time for one on one coaching. Obviously I’d be available for HH review and chit chat along the way. I’m offering this for anyone that is serious about improving at the $6.5 level and below for starters. Maybe someone that’s playing the 11s on full tilt. I feel I’m qualified to coach at these levels as I’ve played them and won and won at the $26 level as well. If I could go higher as far as bankroll AND experience I would. But hey, we all have to start somewhere. It’s a 60/40 + MU deal, which to people being back at 50/50+MU seems steep, but I’m also giving up coaching time for this.

Why would I do this? Because I believe that teaching is the highest level of understanding. By taking my time to teach someone, even on the most basic level, I will increase my own knowledge and understanding of the game as well. Also, we all know that everyone plays the game different, and learning how others think about the game will improve how you can read and range the other players. Trust me, even at the highest buy ins, there’s still someone that plays with a micro limit mind set. Knowing that one extra micro move, or though process, could be difference in shipping an MTT or busting on the bubble.

As I’m slightly intoxicated and just finished watching Harry Potter, I’ll leave you with this:

“It does not due to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” – Albus Dumbledore

So I’ve been on a pretty big downer in the ways of poker and haven’t been very motivated to keep up with this. I think that’s a bad idea though and it’s hurting me in my growth as a player. I’ve decided that I’m going to lay out some goals.

- Build my roll
*As long as it’s going up I’ll be happy. Ideally I’ll be rolled for the $75 45 mans by the end of the month, but I think having a goal like that could lead to disappointment w/ fairly standard variance.

- Play more
*My volume has been pretty horrible lately, even though last week I only had to work 1 day because of the wicked snowstorm I didn’t play nearly as much as I could or should have, and I think my downswing had something to do with that.

- Study more
*Not just poker, but for work related stuff. I really should be advancing my actual career at the same time as crushing the pokers. From now on, I will be splitting my study time evenly between the two. Which will be an infinite increase as far as the work study goes.

Now that all that is out of the way, on to some pokers. Like I mentioned it was a rough week. Approximately 30% of my BR was depleted, then I shipped 4th in the $10k today. I was rather unfortunate at the final table. Went in 1/9, had QQ < AT with 6 left. Then with four left, AK < AQ for a 3:1 chip lead busted me. Win that, win the tournament. The players were really really poor and picked horrible spots to play back at me. I wasn’t 4betting light at all, but I did 3bet quite a bit and shoved a 98x flop in a one of those 3bet pots with KJ because I put the guy on a PP < 88 and was right. He called his stack off w/ 77 and I bricked out. C’est la vie.

I’ve been going it on my own as of exactly a week ago, and I’m happy to say that I have managed a 29% ROI despite the downswing and am showing a nice $831 profit.

Life has been awesome though. The gf and I are doing well, and V Day was +lifeEV. I hate the holiday and look at it as an excuse for the stores to make more money. Our date last night wasn’t actually for V day, it just happened to fit our schedule. That’s all I’m going to go into for now. Breaks over, back to the grind.

Slick out.

The story of my Sunday:

Poker Stars No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t75000.00/t150000.00 Blinds – 8 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: t2897220.00 M = 12.88
UTG+1: t3813596.00 M = 16.95
MP1: t2490348.00 M = 11.07
MP2: t4167920.00 M = 18.52
CO: t6686046.00 M = 29.72
Hero (BTN): t2777227.00 M = 12.34
SB: t3317422.00 M = 14.74
BB: t1611866.00 M = 7.16

Pre Flop: (t225000) Hero is BTN with A T
4 folds, CO raises to t352500, Hero raises to t2762227, 2 folds, CO calls t2409727

Flop: (t5749454) 8 4 Q (2 players)

Turn: (t5749454) J (2 players)

River: (t5749454) 2 (2 players)

Final Pot: t5749454
CO shows 2 A
Hero shows A T
CO wins t5869454.00
(Rake: t-120000)

Took 34 / 32919 in the 250k on stars today. 3 times I got it in with / against AT dominating and lost all three. That’s the only time I lost when I got it in ahead, was when that hand was involved. AQ < AT, AT < A7 and finally AT < A2. I’m not even going to go into how bad his call is in the first place, that’s obvious.

I also had a great AA vs KK vs AK hand, where I had AA and the K hit the turn during the double deuce. Tournies are so brutal.

Anyway, for the last two months I’ve been backed by the FTP forum to play my tournies. It will probably be ending here soon. I’m getting about 47% of my action and I really don’t think it’s in my best interest to keep it going. Sure the risk is pretty much nil, but the reward is about the same.

December: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AvSb0aaqGeYbdGlhbVB1UVVYZXB5TXo0aDlUMHM5Umc&hl=en

January – now: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AnLSMvLql3u2dFhHOU1FS3hBUDJyNnc0eFo0dVQ3b2c&hl=en

I’m open to other backing deals if anyone is interested, but terms would have to be negotiated. If not, I’ll just go it on my own.

I would actually have more content or something interesting in here, but I’m actually tilted for the first time from a beat in a really long time.

Slick out.

Hello there! Hopefully you’ve stumbled across this on purpose but either way, let’s get this thing going.

I’m Chris and you are?? I work full time in the US Army, and play part time as a SnG MTT Grinder. I know, I know, you already know, but where’s the content. This will be used to share my irl and poker experiences and maybe if you’re lucky some “other” stories.

I currently work 10-12 hr days for the military, and play anywhere from 2-8 hrs of poker a day. I grinded my way up to a $20k roll a few years ago, just to fall pray to someone wiping out my account, identity theft ftl. So I went from playing $1kNL down to 50nl and grinded it back up to a respectable number. Shipping 6th in a $330 at the Venetian last summer helped out as well. Now, I grind the $26s on Full Tilt most of the time, playing the occasional 6 max ring game up to 200nl and of course the Sunday majors every now and again.

Why Full Tilt $26s you ask? They’re non turbo, nittier, and have a higher rake % then stars you say? I say for a player that use to grind cash games and gets rakeback they’re a perfect fit. I have more time to use the post flop play that I’ve learned over the years and mix that with a pretty solid understanding of ICM and no fear, it’s a pretty dangerous combination.

What I do to further my understanding and knowledge of the game… I watch videos, participate in various forums, and coaching. I’ve had coaching from AMT and Bones and would recommend both of them.

On to Results!!!

Just shipped my first ~$5k month since starting the $26s, not bad for my 2nd month in. Included a 1/605 for $3775. That’s the easy way I suppose. And so far February is off to a ridiculously good start at 129% ROI for the first two days… LOL 20 games.

Until next time…