I just noticed the craziest trend

when looking over the last week I noticed an odd stat.

I have played 14 turbo stt's. Of the 14 I have 5 wins, 0 seconds, 0 3rds, and 9 losses. I guess I have a good end game or ran g00t...... of those I definetly started short in 3 of my wins. o well i hope i can keep it up.

I did manage to end week 1 with a 11.5 profit + rakeback. so i am not to pissed at myself for blowing my profit the last 2 days.

not much pokah today

final preparations are in order for my trip. I played jsut a little bit todat in between working a "split shift". my ouctome wasnt good, but no need to focus on that detail at this moment, besides we all know online black jack is rigged, and it was rigged to the tune of $20 for me....

I pulled an all nighter last night, waking up at noon on sunday, and staying up until 11 am today (monday). I left work and went home and slept for 3 hours, before waking up so that my wife could make a drs appt. I then proceeded to return to work tonight about 5:30 pm. The whole goal of this exercise is to get onto, or close, to aussie time. I think the only thing I have succeeded at is screwing up my sleep pattern completely. I am nearly exhausted, and feeling some mental handicap. Good times are ahead!

Today I recieved my passport, WOOHOO! I am now free to leave the country, and be accepted in foriegn lands. This will be the farthest I have ever travelled. In fact when I get off the plane in LAX, it will be the farthest I have travelled. In the past my journeys have only taken me as far west as Las vegas, and east (south east) to Daytona Beach. I am definelty looking forwardto the experience, even with the bit of apprehension involved with flying.

I picked up some more necessaties today, and with the exception of 3-4 things I am read to go. I still havent packed my bags, but hope to get that done tommorrow. I am also going to focus on getting some quality time in with the kids tommorrow before I leave.

using up all of my bad luck

blah,,, thats how todays play went.... unbelivable

I dropped ~5 buyins at 25nl

here is a great example... well i was going to post a handhistory, but ub and their retard ass shit prevented my pahud from grabbing it. The hand went like this. 6 max, i am on button with QQ, limp utg, raise under gun+1 to 2xbb. fold, i raise to $2. sb completes for $2, everyone else folds. flop 2x5x9y. checks, i bet pot he calls. now this guy is on a short stack of about $4, the pot has about $7-$9, turn is a rag, I bet out $4, he calls, river is nothing special. he shows 25o and takes the pot!

ugly day overall. BR is down to $542.25

additionally, I have been trying to get my computers set up so that I ca do video conferencing with my wife and kids while away. I have had nothing but problems getting it set up. In fact one of my laptops is just about killed, and might possibly catch a boot soon. its drving me out of my mind!!!

who woulda thunk...

that a free trip would cost so much :-p

Today I ran out and got some things that I will need for my trip, and other miscellaneous no trip related things. I took my wife out to a dinner, and let the kids visit with grandma and grandpa. It was a pretty relaxed day overall.

I wasnt home much at all today, but did manage to get in just a little time at the nl tables. basically while I was drinking my morning coffee and about 20 mins this evening.

Since I am adjusting my sleep schedule, I slept until just after noon today. It really doesnt seem right. I am genereally a person that gets up at 5-6 am during the week, and 7 on the weekends. Considering I was up until 6 last night, that wouldnt have been possible.

I am definetly feeling anxious about my trip now. Its coming up real soon, and it seems like I am not at all ready. I will be pretty busy leading up to my departure, and need to fit some time in to get things together. Fortunately I have a great wife, whom I suspect will help me get my things together and pack. I was talking to my wife today, and this will be the longest that we have been apart since we met, and by far the longest tiem I have been away from the kids. I have sent my oldest daughter to visit relatives, and to camp, but that was only about 5 day. I'm going to miss seeing all of them while I am gone.

I have a ton of things to get done for work too, so I think my poker time is going to be nearly non existint. In fact I will probably be workign on work things tonight until about 6 or 7 am. Its a good thing I have a solid stash of redbull at my disposal.

My stepdad loaned me his digital SLR, with a couple of lenses. I'm excited about having a nice camera with me while on my trip. Hopefully I will be able to capture some good shots to remember my trip.

As far as my poker recap for the day goes. I got in 527 hands(according to my poker grapher, sometimes this hasnt been accurate)and profitted $84.97 on the day. I think these #'s include my post midnight play since 12:01am saturday, so they are somewhat innaccurate representation. I definetly hit a profit though, and my bankroll is now at $659.95. So I will book today as a win. Sunday will be the end of my first week, and I hope to continue my upward momentum.

laughter always makes you feel better

ewww stinky

I had a bad run tonight in a MTT and a couple of STT's. Hitting blanks like it was my job. I ended up getting down a good amount, but managed to pull some profit back in my cash game. I did finish at about (-$40).

I'll contribute my losses to 2 things,

1) I played a $33 MTT, above my bankroll requirements but decided that since I am ahead of my weekly goal I would take a shot. I am going to allocate 30% of any weekly overage to taking a shot. and withdraw 30%, and leave the remaining 30% in my bankroll. As part of this tangent I will note that my bankroll is at $600 currently. I am still undecided about adding another lump of cash. I'm considering it, maybe adding enough to bring me to 1k.

2) The STT's I played in were 10 man turbos, these tournaments have high variance. Combined with optimal strategy of pushing with a short stack. I found myself on the wrong side of suckouts. No worries though, I was happy with my play and only have one hand that I would have played differently. The hand didn't bust me out, but caused me to lose my chip lead in one of the STT's.

Since I am down, I decided to take a break and do some other things around the house, maybe get some brownie points with the wife. I will probably hit the tables again in a little bit since I will likely be up for another 7 hours.... I think I am going to go to the gym about 5am since I will be up. Right now I'm jamming on some redbulls/monster.

My passport has been processed finally! Its in the mail, and should arrive on monday via fedex. I was also able to get my Australian Visa processed, and now its only a matter of time. Although I have not even began thinking about what to pack. I am going to go shopping tomorrow and pick up a couple of things, and ask my wife to iron some things for me :-)

Lots of drama going on in my family (not my wife/kids, rather my brothers and step brothers). Here is an interesting tidbit. I am the oldest of 5 brothers, I also have 1 half sister, 2 step sisters (1 deceased), and 4 step brothers. So of the twelve of us there are bound to be some dysfunction. I would say that we are at about 85% for dysfunction! It seems like crazy shit happens once a week. Too much drama to go into right now, but definitely stuff that is on my mind.

O boy staying up late!

I just finished busting out of a 6max MTT. rather small field of ~130ppl. top 12 paid. I went out 10th which is dissapointing b/c I had the chip lead for a while, but teh blind/antes were getting high to the point whoever picked up the blinds & antes became the chip leader. Even more dissapointing is the fact that 10-12th payed the same, and there was a 50% increase at 9th. the 9th place player busted out less than 3 seconds after me on the opposite table.

All together I played 4 MTT's tonight. I ended up getting KK vs AA in the second hour of one, and busting out. I honestly dont recall how I busted out of the other 2 at this point. I am kind of exhausted. I only slept 4 hours last night, and have been up for 20 hours now.

Over all I did finish in the black tonight adding about $17 to my bankroll. However all of this profit came from my cash game, and I had an $8.75 loss in my MTT buyins. I am pretty pleased with my results over the last few days. I have increased my bankroll by $138.37 Since January 1st (which is 27.7%). I guess I had better set out my cashout plan soon. :-) thats a good problem to have though.

It was fun though, and I have no complaints :-)

I also ran out and grabbed Eric Lindgren's Final Table book under actypers advice. I flipped through the first chapter and a couple other sections. It looks like there is a lot of fluff in it, but for the price I cant complain. I picked it up for $10, and if I pick up one thing out of it I am sure it will pay for itself 100x's over.

I am a debating infusing a little more cash into my bankroll, but am undecided. I have a little poker cash socked aside. I have been debating using it to buy a new laptop, adding it to my bankroll and hopefully using that to increase my poker earnings, or using it to buy my wife something she wants.

Well I am not thinking to clearly b/c of being so tired. I am going to sit back and watch a couple of videos and go to bed in about an hour or so. My wife isnt exactly happy with me switching my schedule around, but I tried to explain to her that it is about the easiest way to adjust to the time zone change. I am going to get up in the morning about 10 or so and go hit the gym before going into the office. I have some projects at work that need to be done, so will probably work on those over the weekend during the early morning hours.

Gearing up for Australia

I am working on conditioning myself for my trip. Since I am on EST, and Melbourne is 16 hours ahead of us I need to work on adjusting my body. Since I have ~6 days I am starting now. I am going to try and stay up a couple hours later each night, and sleep in accordingly. The plan is to be as close to Melbourne time as possible when I arrive, otherwise it will be like starting a 14 hour poker session at 8pm.

My job is kind of flexible, so it will work out, I will just be working later into the evening.

Since I am going to be up later, I am also going to take advantage of the alone time. I have started re watching some of the pokerxfactor video's. I havent played a ton of tournaments lately and there is definitely valuable info on some of those videos.

I've picked up a couple of books with my stars FPP's. I grabbed Ace on the river, Sklansky's No Limit Theory and practice, and Tournament poker for advanced player. I figured they would help pass the time during the ridiculously long flight. Early in my online poker days I read tons of poker books. but noticed the redundancy of play tight rhetoric. I think books can be useful to a beginning player, but that everyone needs to develop their own game, and nothing is better than experience. I will probably read more of the AOTR than either of the other books, just b/c I hear its not a theory type book.

I am also planning on ripping some of my favorite CD's and loading them onto my IPOD/mp3 player. I have a couple of mp3 players, and most of my music is stuff that I have encoded off of sirius. So thats a solid task to get done in the next few days.

Did I mention I dont have a passport or visa? I sent of an expedited application on friday to an agent. I ended up having to pay about an extra $300 b/c of the rush. New years day holiday and the federal observance day for president ford really cost me :-( It appears I will get my passport back on mon/tuesday, and I depart on wednesday. I need a passport # in order to apply for my visa/ETA which could take a couple of days if my name is similar to a person of interest. Fortunately (I am hopeful) my name is kinda unique and shouldnt match with anyone else. Although in high school I had a kid in my school whose first name was Jeremy and our last names were the same except for the first letter. So I just hope he isnt a person of interest :-p

I put in about 200 hands of NL tonight, and played 2 STT's. I didnt fare well in the STT's. Busting out early in both. In the second I had QQ, and ran into AA on a rag flop. The thing that killed me was that this guy limped utg with his AA, I was in bb and raised pf. he flat called. I bet pot on flop, he called. I bet 1/2 pot on turn (another rag) and he raised. I put him on top pair or a pp higher than the board and pushed on him. He showed me his AA, which coincidentally was the same hand he had the hand b4. Back 2 back A's and he was in good shape.

I did do well in the NL game though and won back my buyins plus an additional $20. So I am in good shape for my weekly target.

I havent had a chance to finish my draft posts, but will probably do it while staying up late these up coming days. I'm definitely getting excited, and anticipating all the fun I hope to have in Melbourne.

My progress will be blogged online, and I will provide a link here, and maybe recap my thoughts on my blog. I have decided to only share the blog link with any of my friends outside of blog world, and with my wife and parents. I dont want the attention, and if I do win a big prize I am a little apprehensive about how my friends might feel about it. I am more inclined to keep it private and feel out everything when I get home.

On a related note, I didnt want everyone at my office to find out why I was going on "vacation", but word has spread. I work for a small company <30ppl and told just 4 ppl. Friends of mine that I have played home games with, and a guy who works for me. Somehow the word spread and i think everyone (or close to everyone) knows. Its not that I'm not excited or "proud" of my accomplishment, I would just prefer to be a little more private, and rather everyone didnt know about my poker hobby. Obviously some ppl just consider poker gambling, and look at gamblers as degenerates. I dont want people I work with forming a negative opinion about my lifestyle. I dont feel like educating them, nor defending myself either.

I live in the "bible belt", and there are definitely extremely conservative ppl in my company. I like everyone I work with, and have a good relationship with all of them. So I would really like to keep it that way. This blog is my way of "discussing" and recording my thoughts on poker and life and that helps me to develop personally without having to share my life with my coworkers.

I only have 4 friends who I discuss poker with, 3 of which are players, 1 who is intrigued by the game and is trying to learn. Other than that I dont discuss poker with any of my friends b/c I dont want to look like I am bragging, or explain my swings to them.

Well that turned into an extended babble, I'm sure it is lacking direction, and a worthless read. Its real simple though, if you dont like it GTFO! Did I mention I got some xanax from my dr? I have never taken xanax, and plan on test driving them this weekend. I go them basically b/c I am a little apprehensive about my flight, and to help me sleep on the trip. I have an issue with flying. Its not too bad, but its more of a lack of control anxiety. The same thing happens sometimes when I ride in a car with bad drivers. If I am not in control of the situation I get nervous. I have never been able to sleep on flights or during long drives so hopefully they help. hell they might even help b4 the mainevent starts :-p

well thats all i have for now. I am going to hit up another pxf video and go to bed in about an hour or 2.

good luck at the tables, and thanks for wasting your time reading my blog!

starting the year off well

I didnt get muc hplay in today, about 150 hands of NL, and 5 $10+1 stt's. I finished up in the NL games by $3.20, and took 3 firsts in my stt's, one 4th, and 1 7th. I'm trying to figure out how to set up a spreadsheet to track cashgames, bankroll, and sitngo's/tournaments as well as the different sites.

At the end of the day I am up $120. I know its about as small of a sample size as I can get, but its a profit.

I also got some good news from the guys at poker.com today. I'm not going to elaborate as I think it should remain confidential, but I will say that once again those guys show that they are at the top of the pack when it comes to customer service.

I played the 20k Guarantee on poker.com yesterday. Big overlay ($8,450.00), I think once my bankroll is sufficent I will play it regularly. I didnt fare well, got my chips in with the best hand, but couldnt hold up. I was playing extremely aggro, basically b/c we had dinner plans with some friends and I didnt want to keep them waiting. I hope to have my schedule cleared the next time I play. I might even play it the sunday (monday) i am in Australia since I would be able to focus without distractions. I would likely pay for it out of my Oz mad $, rather than my bankroll.

My wife is fine after the accident. She is sore, and will probably feel even worse tommorrow. Apparently the accident was pretty bad though. Some kid (probably 23) ran through a red light, struck a young girl (about 16) and then he had a trajectory that had him going toward my wife. He turned his wheel and instead of hitting my wife head on caught the front passenger side of our Chrysler Town and Country. He then continued and landed about a foot from a large utility pole. If he hadnt of hit my wife he would have been in a lot worse shape, b/c she basically changed his direction and was the reason he didnt hit he pole.

Our vehicle suffered enough damage that it isnt drivable, but the impact was not severe enough to deploy the air bags. The car the kid was driving was totalled, and actually belonged to his mother. Apparently this is the second vehicle he totalled within a 24 hour period. The girl driving the other car sustained some lacerations to her head, but was otherwise ok from what my wife could gather. Her car was also totalled. Not the best way to start the new year.

Fortunatly we have excellent vehicle insurance, and shouldnt have any problems getting the van fixed in a timely manner. Its still an inconcience that we could have done without.

Happy New Year

With the start of the new year, I am going to begin my personal challenge. I guess I should finish up my draft post (hopefully this will take place by tomorrow) and finish outlining my goals.

We are having friends over tonight, so I don't think I will get it done before then.

Originally I had thought about starting with $100, then I said to hell with it, and cashed out everything, except $10 I had on Absolute. I have played on this the last few days, grinding it up to $25. but I was playing $0.02/$0.04 limit, but it hasn't been the most rewarding experience. I cashed everything out before I won my Aussie Millions trip, so that kind of changed things.

I was looking forward to playing some live poker at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, but upon further investigation I realized that they have a ridiculous rake. They charge 10% + an hourly rate. I'm not sure I am up to going that route now. I might mix it up a little, but not likely a ton. Besides I will be playing 14 hours a day while in the tournament, which is going to be exhausting since I am not really used to it.

So If I play while in Oz the majority of it will likely be online.

I have decided to use an initial bankroll of $500, and shoot for a weekly goal of +7%. At the end of the year I would have about a 20k bankroll. I am going to vow to always play inside my bankroll. And my initial limits will be $11 STT's, $3 MTT's, $0.50/$1 Limit, and $0.05/$0.1 No Limit.

I'm pretty certain I can achieve a 7% rate of growth, especially at the lower limits. I am going to come up with a positive withdraw plan too. I definitely plan on taking some of my profit, I am just not sure of the frequency at this point.

That's all I have to add right now, I just got a call from my wife and she was involved in a car accident. She is fine, but our vehicle didn't fare so well. I have to attend to this situation now.

Gl at the tables!