Poker Paradox

PokerStars PCA Final Table Live Feed!

2012-01-13T11:03:00.001-08:00

I would have really liked a full broadcast of the PCA week, but at least we get the final table of the Main Event, and the final table of the High Roller event.

You can email the announcers at nuts@pokerstars.tv Joe Stapleton and James Hartigan

A pleasant distraction to keep your mind fresh.

2012-01-06T01:33:00.000-08:00

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

One must balance one's life with a variety of activities. This caught my eye a couple months ago, and I decided to post it after a friend re-posted on Facebook.

Updates to my Poker Blog (among others), Live Poker, Vegas, Tournaments...

2012-01-03T00:39:00.000-08:00

First, PokerStars has cancelled their Twitter and Facebook leagues.

Update Regarding Facebook and Twitter Poker Leagues

Please be advised that we have cancelled all of these tournaments for the rest of the year and as such we ask that you remove any links pertaining to these league with immediate effect.

This probably has a LOT to do with Black Friday (when the major poker sites shutdown in the US market) but hopefully we'll see them re-emerge once PokerStars is back in the US. My predictions are within a year, give or take 6 months. Trust me, I'll be at the forefront of the pack as soon as they land, and you'll hear about it here!

I've updated my links, my banners for PokerStars, PokerStars.BE (Belgium), PokerStars.FR (France), and PokerStars.IT (Italy) ... Sign up through one of the links and I will soon be able to translate this blog into more lanuages.

I was on Vacation for over a week, which is an eternity to a workaholic like myself, so I got to play several degen sessions over the past week! I played just about every game spread except for Stud this week, with sessions of 14 hours, followed by 27 hours, followed by 23 hours. That's a lot of poker in just 3 sessions! But believe me, there may be worse degens out there ;) (but not by much apparently) Just because I CAN play for so many hours with a profit, it's TOTALLY not worth it, and I don't recommend it. Personally, I will be enforcing good habits of a break every 3 to 4 hours at least. Small sessions are often profitable, in my experience. Having just moved to Las Vegas on Nov 1, I'm still developing my live poker bankroll management, and general battle plan. Next up will be some Tournament scheduling....
I played at MGM, Tropicana, Aria, Bills, Planet Hollywood, Palms, and possibly other places if I dig through my memory enough ;)
Catching up on everything took a bit longer than expected, so I'll keep this short, and get into some detailed posts this week, if not crushed at work. Programming is starting to take a front seat, and I have quite a few ideas for apps that will interest Poker Players overall. :) See you all soon, whether it be virtually, or on the felts in Vegas!

Poker (and Life) Etiquette

2011-12-17T13:45:00.000-08:00

Lots of news coming, but I'm going to post this while it's fresh in my mind...I didn't get there in time to take @Pokerati's money or give him anything to post about, but there will definitely be another chance for that ;)

I was playing at the Palms last night, when a couple players sat down who can be described as Obnoxious. We'll call them Player X and Player Y, for professional reasons, and leave the Truth Speaking to @AsianSpa.

Player X was apparently an employee or family of one of the Casinos, but likes to talk like he's part of "The" family, the Mafia. Somewhat drunk, or under the influence of something, or a combination both, most likely. But definitely crossing more lines as the night goes on. At first, I was wondering if he was overacting to get the action he was seeking, because he was playing just fine, even as he got more rude, his poker playing habits seemed well honed. Our somewhat nitty table loosened up, and we even ended up getting almost everyone at the table a shot of something...

Player Y showed up with a young famous poker pro, whom is in the mega earnings category, and sat in obviously over-rolled for this $1/$3 game of NLHE. He was more amusing in his obnoxious behavior, and the game certainly changed dynamics by a huge margin. We suddenly went from nitty, mostly post flop play, to heavy preflop play with barely any flops seen. It was like we suddently entered a Single Table Tournament (STT) with sit n go type final table action....

Although both played well, and I enjoyed playing with them for a time, it quickly degraded into the floor being called several times, as Player X showed less and less observance of boundaries, and any politeness went out the window as he went into downright rude and threatening statements, and louder and louder volume. When Player X and Y started confronting each other, the real fireworks started, the action was crazy, with quite a few all ins. Even though Player X racked out up a buy in or two.. he was eventually asked to leave after several warnings from the dealers and the floor. Props to Floor, Stan, and the Dealers, for handling things professionally.

Player Y whom had been treading the line, but staying on this side of poker etiquette, degraded into what appeared to be a "doing this for attention" type of situation. I started thinking of all the young, rich poker players, and the disparity between the maturity of a certain generation of players. I certainly hope all the immature players will benefit from being friends with the class acts, so they learn how to act in public and why it's important to their career, and life in general. I started thinking about how I can get along with so many types of players, because I understand so much more about human nature now that I am "older and wiser", as opposed to when I was a young, foolish, genius who thought he knew everything. Perspective is a wonderful thing when you have it. For some it comes naturally, and for some, it comes from experience.

Even when you have no good influence friends, which I highly encourage everyone to choose, you will still see examples all around you if you just open your eyes. There's a whole world out there; learn from it.

WPBT, Vegas, Pokerati, Ftrain, TaoPauly, Epic, Palms, etc etc etc...

2011-12-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

Who has time to blog when so many friends are in town, so many poker activities, satellites, tournaments, cash games, meeting new friends, working in between long hours.....

But somewhere I've got to make the time, too much has been going on NOT to share. Now, however, is NOT the time... I've got to go try to knock out @AnnieDuke and @JoeUgly from an Epic poker satellite for their bootylicious bounties! Save me a seat @AlCantHang (boy he sure can HANG all night and day!)

topics in the near future:
Cash game notes
Donkadonk.org chat group and forums
FriendlyPoker.net chat group and forums
Pokerati game at the Palms Poker room (1 orbit NLHE and 1 orbit PLO, cycles)
WPBT and meeting "old friends" for the first time
Rio Final Table haze while being sick
Moving to Vegas and adjusting to my new home, and loving it (i have a social life again!)
Still loving my job and learning (business trip to Santa Monica on Monday)
Many new friends online and at the table from all over the globe
Merge online poker for US Players
Bodog breaking and fixing their issues
Poker Radio Shows ( have a lot of catch up here)
Balance and Moderation, the formula for Happiness

See you later, I'm off to aim for some bounties!

Resuming Live Play = Resuming Blogging and Moving to Vegas

2011-10-26T23:50:00.000-07:00

It has been far too long since I've blogged on a regular basis, but that is all about to change. I have been happily working at my day job, and will continue to be, but I am moving to Las Vegas this weekend.
Last weekend, I played a couple nights, booked some solid wins, looked at apartments, found a couple great ones, applied, put my deposits down from my winnings, and was approved before I got on my flight home.
This weekend, I'm moving. I had my doubts about moving to the desert, as I hate the heat. But after a year of living in San Francisco, where I'm always working and rarely outside, I've decided it won't be much different. And, after visiting, and finding I can breathe better, I have decided it'll be perfect for my needs. I'll still be working the majority of the time, as I have been, but when I have the time and energy to go play poker, I'll be just a few miles from the strip. I've always been a bit of a night owl, and will enjoy being able to work late, and then still find a decent meal in the middle of the night :)
Many of my friends are in Vegas, or travel to Vegas on a regular basis, including long time high school friends. I suspect I'll have a little bit better social life.
My brief stats from my 2 live poker sessions while I was there last week:

$535/$200 = +$335 first night I played at Planet Hollywood.. recognized one pro at table.
$665/$200 = +$465 .. or $800 total on the week. Not bad for $1/$2 (4buyins) .. think I played against ManderButt!

Edit: I had 2 more sessions after this that put me up to $2,000 up, but spent a fair amount on a REAL bed and move in costs, etc. I'll have to dig in twitter to find the exact totals.

WSOP announced changes, MEDIA must read!

2011-03-01T15:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.wsop.com/news/press.asp

Interesting changes from WSOP regarding media passes and rules...

I've got ok bankroll on PokerStars , 1/3 as much on UB and working on a bonus, and a few bucks on Full Tilt for misc tourneys, or a few mins of rush in downtime, which I always seem too busy for anymore!

Live tournament is tonight but not sure I'll have time to go, again. I haven't been in over 6 months I think! maybe longer... and i'm itching to go play some Live poker for a change! Lucky Chances and Artichoke Joes, Bay101 Shooting Stars is coming up.. I just missed the LAPC at the Commerce. Next week is the NAPT in LA as well.

But I love my job, lots to learn and grow with, business is starting to boom, can't complain.

Speaking of which, time to get back to work!

I'll catch up on stuff like Isildur1 showdowns, the winner of the $1,000,000 Turbo Takedown, and other cool things going on in the poker world.. it's been a busy month!

Session results from this weekend on PokerStars

2011-02-06T23:40:00.000-08:00

Posted some blogs over at www.friendlypoker.net where I hang out when chatting about poker, helping others, whining about my bad beats.. learning from people more consistent than myself, etc..

http://friendlyp.ning.com/profiles/blogs/good-couple-of-days
http://friendlyp.ning.com/profiles/blogs/more-fun-this-weekend

Played a large variety of from PSO tournaments, Shenanigans, Shanoobigans, and cash games, including 8game, HORSE, Mixed Hold'em, 10nl, 25nl, 50nl, and 100FL, full ring and 6max.
I think I have much more Zen approach to poker lately, as long as I don't play when I'm tired. How many times have I said in my own blog, let alone forums posts elsewhere, that I shouldn't play too tired? I actually play better drunk, than I do when too tired! Go figure. But knowing oneself is important in many areas of life.

follow the links to see graphs and stats in HEM... on the whole larger picture though, in the past week I am up 17% total, everything combined. Remove the playing too tired, and this could easily be up 300%. Food for thought. And on that note, time to retire before another long week of work, with a little more balanced hours as part of my goal.

Phil Helmuth playing in San Fran and I missed it!

2011-02-06T02:01:00.000-08:00

Prior to heading to Texas, Hellmuth had been competing in a high-stakes home game in California. He explained over Twitter, “Playing No Limit Hold’em in San Fran right now at @davidsacks house in my regular game + winning! No one will let me Tweet out their name!” He later updated his 58,000 rabid followers on his financial situation: “Yes! Finally booked a win in my home game, was down $27,000 after 4 plays playing w/Team Owners, Billionaires, + Celebs. Won $12,000 tonight.” Rough life.

I've got to find my way into this home game!! It's not like I'll see him on PokerStars anytime soon...
..or will we?

Isildur1 vs Dan Cates,

2011-01-26T22:39:00.000-08:00

http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/isildur1-to-face-dan-cates-in-pokerstars-superstar-showdown-17827/ from Poker News Daily
Isildur1 vs Dan "jungleman12" Cates... I think jungleman (aka "w00ki3z." on PokerStars ) will take Viktor to the cleaners! You heard it here first. Wookie love all the way!

<-- reminder to myself to buy some protectors for my phone!

What cool DROID apps do you poker players use?? I've been much too busy working to shop around :)

WBCOOP .. I scored an $11 SCOOP ticket and a ticket for the WBCOOP Main Event, but I will be spending the weekend with my kids for my daughters birthday. (my priorities are straight, are yours?)

Good luck to all who are in, especially Chris Parsley, someone who like myself, livestreams from www.friendlypoker.net (the community Chiren80 started...)

I missed the Twitter Poker League Main Event!

2011-01-23T18:28:00.000-08:00

Congrats to the winners in the Twitter Poker League today :) (my tweet got eaten by Twitter so reposting here)
#tpoker congrats to brokecope 3rd, G->C4 2nd, and koenten82 1st in the Twitter Poker League today.. maybe i'll have time to play in 2 weeks!

There was also a Twitter Poker League Main Event that I dont' see a reminder about in Email, and I missed it! It had been running about 3 hours when I logged on... oh well, always next season :)
Here are the top results for those who didn't miss it :)

Islidur1 Signed by PokerStars!

2011-01-22T20:53:00.000-08:00

PokerStars Signs Online Poker Icon ISILDUR1

Edit: It is in fact, Viktor Blom.

We are pleased to announce that one of the most mysterious online high-stakes players in the world “Isildur1” has joined Team PokerStars Pro. The enigmatic player, who has still yet to publicly reveal his identity, shot to fame in the poker world in 2009 when he took on and beat some of the biggest heads-up players in the game. But with a place on Team PokerStars Pro now confirmed, Isildur1’s real identity is set to be unveiled in the near future.

When asked what the deal means to him, Isildur1 said: “I chose to join PokerStars because it's the biggest site and it will be an exciting challenge. It means a great deal to be playing in a team alongside players such as Daniel Negreanu, Dario Minieri and Johnny Lodden. My goals now are to improve my live game for some upcoming events, continue to focus on heads-up no-limit Hold’em, but also try to develop my pot-limit Omaha game.”

In a bid to prove that Isildur1 is the best heads-up cash game player in the world, he will be playing a series of high stakes heads-up matches at PokerStars.com. The specially developed SuperStar Showdown format consists of a single session of 2,500 hands at stakes no lower than $50/$100. His first match will take place at 6pm ET on December 19, with the opponent to be named in the coming days. For more information please visit: http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/promotions/superstar-showdown/?source=PSP11498

Edit: The unveiling at the PCA was uneventual, anticlimatic if you will, no Phil Helmuth dramatics here. But hopefully the action on PokerStars will be fast and furious! I look forward to seeing what poker players will be brave enough to venture over to PokerStars for the showdowns.

About time for a revamp!

2011-01-22T20:04:00.000-08:00

It's about time I revamped both my poker playing, locations, hours, and my blog!

My last two sessions were my 2nd and 3rd worse in the history of my playing! Down 12.5 buyins and down 6 buyins respecitvely, at 10nl stakes. In both cases, I played late at night when my brain was already dead from working a lot, and this is probably one of the 'danger' times when I should avoid playing at all.

bwin Launches Real Money iPhone Poker App according to Poker News Daily. I recall Annie Duke being involved in some poker app going live for mobile phones... and I have played Zynga's app on my Droid. I think I heard or read that Full Tilt had Rush on the mobile market. I'll have to look into that. I haven't looked lately to see if PokerStars has made the jump yet. I'll be curious to see how secure these apps are in the reviews.

Also over at Poker News Daily is this interview with Verneer, regarding his Charity Grind, where he turns $200 bankroll into $10,000 and donates it to charity. I'm always behind anyone helping make the world a better place, and look forward to the positive effects this has on the poker world.

PokerStars launched the Home Games.. and it's about time! It's great when you have a group of friends that all want to join a tournament or cash game among mostly friends :) I'll post a review about that after I've had time to play more in the 3 Home Game clubs I belong to.

I don't have much time for a full update, but do have a backlog of posts. I shall do more spot posting between my busy work schedules.
Lynn Gilmartin having fun at the Aussie Millions, PCA stories to cover, WBCOOP is coming this week, Daleroxxu has started his adventure, Chiren80 has finally gotten to the project release date, and hopefully, we'll all be enlightened as to what he has been working on for so long! Good Luck to all, on the tables and off!

WSOP Final Table is TODAY! and I wish I was there!

2010-11-06T17:22:00.000-07:00

The November Nine is finally here, playing live since Noon PST (3pm EST) today.. (don't forget to set your clocks back for daylight savings time tonight!)
Already out is Soi Nguyen in 9th for $811,823 and Matthew Jarvis for $1,045,743 in 9th and 8th, respectively.
The vibe at the theater is Great this year.. this will be an action final table, and I predict shorter than a lot of people expect, certainly shorter than I expected. I had originally predicted Senti and Mizrachi in the top 3, but I'll have revise my prediction about Cheong and add him to the top 3 as well.. I just have this feeling when I see him on camera that he may end up in heads up reels for years to come...
I am certainly NOT rooting for Candio, he's just too wild.. and he may get paid off with that strategy, but it will not be as fun seeing someone win with a suckout, which is what I predict we'll see from him if he makes it to the top 3.
ESPN3 has a livefeed with 5 min delay, and no hole cards of course, with my favorite commentator from @PokerStars James Hartigan leading the commentary, and expect quite a few poker pro guest commentators..
I'm just going to make a short post for now.. I just watched Senti shove all in Blind vs Blind vs Cheong with K7o, obviously just making a move on the spot, and Cheong called with A9s (clubs). Nice call by Cheong.
Jason Senti's is the dog in a 35% to 65% race for his tournament life, the flop is Jd-6s-3, turn is Ad, and the crowd starts cheering as he has a backdoor flush draw with a diamond on the river, @matthewjarvis is close with his prediction of the 9diamonds, as the river is the 10d for the backdoor flush in Diamonds, and Senti doubles up through Cheong! This hand is a turning point for Senti ... mark my words!
The Twitter world is filled with live reporting of the action, espn.go.com is playing the livestream with a 5 min delay, and ESPN will air the broadcast with holecards on Monday or Tuesday evening.. good luck avoiding any spoilers during that time :)
A big shout out to all my friends live in Vegas, including BigFoot, as I wish I was there, but I started a great new job just last week.. see you at the next live event.
you can follow my tweets on the right of my blog or @thewookieway

First the Big Game, then The Million Dollar Challenge, and now the Big Game x2!

2010-10-17T17:16:00.000-07:00

I have qualified again for the Big Game! Time to make that video with the improved resume ;)

New post coming shortly along with my Big Game Video :)

The Winds of Change in Poker Media, Isildur1 vs Jungleman

2010-10-08T17:53:00.000-07:00

The winds of change seem to be blowing strong this month. @change100 and @writerjen have been let go from @pokernews . @kevmath meanwhile, has moved on from Pokerati to join Bluff
There are rumors of other changes in the poker media coming soon as well...

On Monday, Oct 4th, from approximately 3:30pm to 6:30ish pm, Isildur1 and Jungleman12 tangled for some 100/200 NLHE action, that few seemed to report about! well screw that, if someone else doesn't do the job right, do it yourself.
I caught the action, put it on livestream (one of the 6 tables) and you can watch it here "Isildur1 vs jungleman" Oct 4th, 2010 .. I left the music playing because I'd have to reset to fix my microphone and wasn't sure how long they would be playing (plus I was playing in a couple tournaments at the time)
I'll let Dan "jungleman" Cates sum up the session in his own tweet:
"good session vs isildur--+10 bis even while being stuck 10 at one point :) . Meanwhile nutsinho continues to own me on stars... 6:58 PM Oct 4th via web"
My own poker playing has benefited from the shift to MTT and SNG away from Cash. I still play enough cash grind up some FPP for VIP tourney needs and silverstar status at minimum, but overall, have not been grinding cash like in the past. Playing less often, more when I feel like playing it, has helped me avoid tilt almost entirely if I avoid playing when too tired. I've noticed I only realyl tilt when I'm home alone as well. I am fine in a live setting or with others around at home. Strange.

Stay tuned for more breaking news.

Aug21 Update 5 more cashes, 3 sats, and a few buys in Cash Grind

2010-08-22T06:04:00.000-07:00

Just brief update before I sleep..
Aug 19 MTT Cash   58th of 3041
Aug 20 MTT Cash   14th of 1797, 153.2 TLB points
2nd of 4 while sleeping! (thanks Pingu!)
              MTT Cash 328th of 2947 (NAPL?)
              1 Satellite
Aug 21 MTT Cash   250th of 2645, 43.98 TLB points
              MTT Cash   55th   of 393, 36.15 TLB points
              2 Satellites
And so far this week, in the Cash Grind: over 5k hands, I'm 30bb/100 at 2nl, 11bb/100 at 5nl, and 9.5bb/100 at 10nl, solid, and up about 4 buyins. Good recovery from the previous weeks downslope.
Playing more MTT and supplementing with Cash has been working well for me, instead of the other way around.

Aug MTT update on PokerStars

2010-08-18T00:13:00.000-07:00

ugh, i want my blog colors and setup but need to customize the format so i can change the width when i want to, but will have to spend some time doing that... -EV!!!

Since Aug 1, 2010, I have 46 emails from PokerStars support for MTT and Satellite winnings...the graph that doesn't fit below is TLB for the year.. and I have not yet begun to grind MTT like I can. I've only played enough to verify that I am going to spend the majority of my time on SNG and MTT, and minority on Cash games.
Highlights: 15 Sunday 1/4 mil sats, 22nd and 10th in Twitter Poker League, 1st and 2nd in Shanoobigans, cashes in NAPL and PokerCast League, 12th, 10th, and 2nd for sizable cashes in large mtt's (2000 to 4500 entrants), etc...
I was going to type in all 46 results, but decided I'd condense with a summary here, and paste the TLB points below, but will still need to fix my blog to accept wider entries.

Better posts tomorrow ... btw, 3200 more hands of Cash to get my Zombie badge on PTR, it's the little things in life :P

Not all of the above points may count toward weekly, monthly or annual Leader Board standings. Only the 10 best results will be counted for the weekly rankings, 20 best results for the monthly rankings, and 100 best results for the yearly rankings. For more complete details, please visit:

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/

Note: Ugly chart that doesn't fit my template will appear at bottom, will fix this later

Following in Boku87's tracks.. MTT and SnG successes on PokerStars

2010-08-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

Long ago, I should have accepted that I am much better at tournaments than cash games, and not been so stubborn about making sure I learn to master cash as well. It's been a grueling 6 months in Cash, with taking shots and failing, doing well then being crushed in 1/10th of the time it took me to do well, etc.. Less than stellar results.
Upon returning my focus to Multi-Table Tournaments, and Sit and Go's, I have been doing very well. My ITM% is up to 24% over the past 4 months. My full tracking OPR it has gone up from 13% to 17%. I have cashed 2 to 6 times a day every day in August.
I happily play 6 to 10 tournaments at a time, and it's much more entertaining than the mundane and annoying roller coaster of grinding cash tables!
I'm a lot closer to being able to grind a volume that makes it worthwhile, but for now, trying to grind out an hourly that is worth it, just doesn't compare to playing tournaments and sngs.
More later.. Lot of topics to cover about the differences between Cash and Tournaments, and why people are good at one or the other but usually not both.

Burnout on PokerStars...

2010-08-01T03:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a rough month in July. I started playing on Ultimate Bet, 4 tabling with great winrates. I played Rush week with no good results other than volume, but can play 1100 hands/hour there the easiest, so it's the best 'rakeback' farming spot. However, it feels more like a video game to me, than anywhere else becasue of my lack of stats on Rush players in Hold'em Manager. This will change as I get more info, but I'm not sure I'm collecting stats in hands where I quick fold, which will make my reliable stats grow more slowly than a Full Ring table where you always see the results. I started playing some Full Ring to fix my graph on PTR, as it'd be nice to have a current graph without past mistakes bogging it down.
I took a shot at UB.. took my $10 up to about $40, and then tried to Spin Up to a higher stake quickly. This involves risk and should be viewed as 'expendable' money, or similar to investing in volatile stocks. Only invest what you can afford to lose. It didn't work this time, but it will.
I took only my 3rd break from Poker in over 9 months. It was time, I was burning out.
The break was refreshing and I'm recharged and thinking more clearly, more "in the moment" which is necessary to play your A game.
I'll be checking out, and blogging about, the Poker School on PokerStars , and playing in the Twitter Poker League, along with Shenanigans and Shanoobigans tourneys from the 2+2 forums, and grinding cash on the #grindstream at Friendly Poker and my "TheWookieWay" livestream or Chiren80's on FP.

Come join me in any of these locations. See you on the felts.

Life is crazy~!! Running out of time to sleep, no room on my schedule ...

2010-07-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

I've been playing a bit on Ultimate Bet, and grinding out some serious winrates (more than 50bb/100 avg for the month so far...) I needed this because I was running so bad at PokerStars for so long that I was beginning to worry too much about my game. I played some RUSH during Rush Week and Full Tilt, but it drives me crazy because you almost have to play by a formula until you get enough data in your database to know how people play.. it's very difficult to get reads and actually play "poker" while playing rush. Though I was easily able to play 1,100 hands/hour on 4 tables a LOT more comfortably than playing on PokerStars with 18 - 24 tables!

I've got a new job coming up that will make me choose a path in the crossroads regarding Poker and the 'rat race'. It's a dream job though, as Head of IT and Developer Support, with a path into programming which is probably where my best skills will be the most useful. So I of course will choose the JOB for now, with Poker on the side. But if anything happens to not work out, I will be in that "you must sink or swim" poker role... not the best of situations, but I often work better under pressure, or at least I did when I was younger....

Blogs to maintain, volume to put in, reading and learning never ends in poker, never ends in the tech world where things change so fast... I really don't have time to sleep! I work all day, everyday, til it's time to sleep, get back up and repeat. Obviously playing Poker while too sleepy is a BAD idea for anyone, as things become less and less efficient, and it only takes 1 big mistake to really cut into or eat ALL of your profits on a given day/session, so a balance must be maintained.
I have usually been an all or nothing kind of guy often, so it will be interesting to see how my scheduling works out :) I feel like a medicine in the cabinet though as I get older .. "keep in a cool dry place, avoid direct sunlight"

Some interesting hands, and a question that comes up a lot..

2010-07-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

First, the big question... got in a long discussion with a friend about this, with no real math talk, which is part of my original question....
Here is a common situation, you bet for value on the river with a non nuts hand.. you get min reraised (2x your bet). Obviously people are losing value here by only min reraising if they have the nuts or near nuts, etc ... so my question is how does the math work out? Are they losing value like I think they are? What odds are they giving you by doing this? Where is the breaking point for those odds as you increase the bet size in relation to the pot? I see this every day while grinding and wonder if there aren't some people out teaching to do this, just min reraise to get calls...
Math guys welcomed to show the math in comments or direct us with a link to read about it.

Now, onto the interesting hands, 3 of these are winners, 1 is a loser, see if you can guess which is which?

Hand #1

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 796714

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG+2: $3.75
MP1: $4.03
MP2: $6.67
CO: $4.79
BTN: $11.75
SB: $3.40
BB: $15.89
Hero (UTG): $6.02
UTG+1: $5.19

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is UTG with 6 6
Hero calls $0.05, 1 fold, UTG+2 calls $0.05, 3 folds, BTN raises to $0.30, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.72) 7 T 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.90, Hero raises to $2.75, BTN raises to $11.45 all in, Hero calls $2.97 all in

Turn: ($12.16) Q (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($12.16) 5 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Hand #2
Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 796715
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $8.62
UTG: $6.77
UTG+1: $3.22
MP1: $2.39
MP2: $3.42
CO: $5.17
BTN: $7.43
Hero (SB): $5.00

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is SB with J A
5 folds, BTN raises to $0.15, Hero calls $0.13, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.35) 8 A T (2 players)
Hero bets $0.25, BTN calls $0.25

Turn: ($0.85) 9 (2 players)

Hero bets $0.40, BTN calls $0.40

River: ($1.65) 7 (2 players)

Hero bets $0.05, BTN raises to $0.80, Hero raises to $3, BTN calls $2.20

Hand #3

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 796716

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $5.22
BB: $11.06
UTG: $12.21
Hero (MP): $10.00
CO: $11.31
BTN: $9.60

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP with K K

UTG raises to $0.40, Hero raises to $0.80, 4 folds, UTG raises to $2.50, Hero raises to $10 all in, 1 fold

Hand #4

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players - View hand 796717

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $10.16
Hero (BB): $5.90
UTG: $2.73
UTG+1: $10.89
MP: $7.28
CO: $8.62
BTN: $5.07

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BB with 2 T

1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.05, 3 folds, SB calls $0.03, Hero checks

Flop: ($0.15) K 6 Q (3 players)

SB checks, Hero checks, UTG+1 checks

Turn: ($0.15) J (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.10, UTG+1 calls $0.10, SB calls $0.10

River: ($0.45) A (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.45, UTG+1 calls $0.45, SB folds

View all 4 hands

iCe (Whoever Psy Breaks Remix) by Whoever

2010-07-10T10:07:00.001-07:00

iCe (Whoever Psy Breaks Remix) by Whoever

New Job, New results from grinding, something has clicked in my head

2010-07-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

Some results from last nights epic session, I was running over 100bb/100 at 5nl for a while before falling gradually to 82bb/100 and 69bb/100 and finally dropping to 47bb/100 to end my session after 2 really foolish hands. This has been a trend that will stop as I learn to just avoid those situations.

I am happy with anything over 15bb/100 at 5nl, as it's my unluckiest stake, but will try to post a few more sessions like this for all to see ;)

I have a new job coming up that will severely restrict my playtime/grindtime at poker, but I think this will actually work to my advantage, as I will be more focused when I play, and the shorter sessions will actually help me to play more efficiently.

July 2 Update Million Dollar Challenge: Qualified!

2010-07-03T04:35:00.000-07:00

Earning    -$1,947        -0.97 BB/100
Hands    416,668

Stakes    Hands        Net    Winrate        Rake
2nl     164,920        $114    1.73BB/100    $270
5nl    88,365        -$212    -2.40        $274
10nl    115,542        -$277    -1.20        $629
25nl    37,373        -$1,269    -6.79        $605

BR =     $216.12
Stellar    1167
FPP=     209.54
VPP=     69.21 (11,167.97)
TLB =     2,342.09 (year)

4:28 AM 7/3/2010 Mostly tournaments, Razz, sats, $1 rebuy, and qualified for Million Dollar Challenge today!

Latest for #Grindstream #TheWookieWay on @PokerStars starting DAILY blog

2010-06-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

Tao of Poker ... Paul McGuire has a new book! click here
Love his writing style. Highly recommend it for the REALISTIC viewpoint of the side of poker that you don't see on TV.

I'm going to keep some daily stats on my blog from now on. (as close to daily as possible) This will help me keep my eye on the actual averages of my playing, and progress so far. I'll be keeping track of stakes, #of Hands, Net profit/loss, winrate in BB/100 (=2bb/100) , Rake paid; PTR stats for Earnings total, Total winrate, Total hands; BankRoll, Stellar Reward status, FPP's, VPP's,

Here are the totals for the past 2 days..
Stakes    Hands        Net    Winrate        Rake
2nl     159,970        $120    1.88BB/100    $262
5nl    85,374        -$205    -2.40        $265
10nl    115,008        -$281    -1.22        $626
25nl    37,367        -$1,271    -6.80        $605

PTR
Earning    -$1,939        -0.95 BB/100
Hands    408,187

BR =     $220.65
Stellar    931
FPP=     229.83
VPP=     848.53
10:32 AM 6/29/2010 Horrible day, -$4.64 on the day 2191 Hands, 4 hours playtime.

Stakes    Hands        Net    Winrate        Rake
2nl     162,783        $116    1.79BB/100    $267
5nl    87,229        -$204    -2.34        $270
10nl    115,325        -$283    -1.23        $627
25nl    37,367        -$1,271    -6.80        $605

PTR
Earning    -$1,945        -0.96 BB/100
Hands    413,172

BR =     $215.40
Stellar    1098
FPP=     105.50 (spent 375fpp on $6 micro reward)
VPP=     1015.36
8:09 PM 6/30/2010 Great session so far, +$15 mostly 2nl, 5bb/100 @ 5NL and 39bb/100 @ 2nl, 2018 hands, 3hrs

I will often be found at www.friendlypoker.net livestreaming on what I have dubbed the #grindstream
this month for July, they have MicroMania and VPP bonuses, as posted in my previous post on this blog, so expect to me grinding every waking hour that I am able to. I have a new job in the works, and some projects to work on as well, so it will be a struggle to balance the time.

PokerStars changes to Rake at micro stakes, and VPP changes for VIP program

2010-06-28T06:04:00.000-07:00

I have all kinds of things to report about 2nl, 5nl, 10nl, maybe even 25nl at PokerStars (full ring) and some Rush 5nl and 10nl at Full Tilt (full ring) but first...
We interrupt this very busy grinder (aka slave!) schedule to bring you info re: Interesting changes over at PokerStars. Here is the 2+2 forums post

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28/internet-poker/midyear-2010-pokerstars-vip-program-change-micromania-july-817248/

PokerStars would like to announce the following changes to VIP Reward Bonuses effective immediately:

There is a new $25 VIP Reward Bonus available to all players, including BronzeStar VIPs, for 2,500 FPPs

The $50 VIP Reward Bonus has been reduced in price from 5,000 FPPs to 4,500 FPPs.

The $285 VIP Reward Bonus is now a $300 VIP Reward Bonus, for the same price of 25,000 FPPs.

PokerStars does plan to make any major changes to the VIP Program at the start of each year when feasible, but these changes indisputably benefit players so they were able to be made midyear.

The above changes are all permanent. In addition, PokerStars will be running a 'MicroMania' promotion in July to benefit those who play the smallest stakes on the site. This promotion increases VIP Club benefits in two ways:

Each player can purchase one $6 instant cash credit from the VIP Store for 375 FPPs between now and the end of July.

NL and PL Cash games up to including stakes of $0.05/$0.10 will offer 10x VPPs in July. All new tables created starting over 12 hours ago have been awarding 10x (as opposed to the usual 5.5x or 6x) VPPs at NL/PL tables up to and including $0.05/$0.10 stakes. A server restart early this week will ensure that all of these types of tables are awarding 10x VPPs before July 1st. VPP earning at these tables will return to normal after July 31st.

Additional MicroMania promotions not focused on the VIP Club will be announced over the coming week.

NOTE: this just in ...
Yes, and for MTT players as well.

From July 1st - 31st, 50-man $1 + $0.10 'Super Sit & Go' tournaments will be offered. Every player who wins at least one of these tournaments during the month will receive a share of $100,000, divided equally amongst all Super Sit & Go winners in July.

There will also be four daily $1 MTTs from July 1st - 31st, each with $1,000 added, taking place at 10:20, 13:20, 19:20, and 22:20 ET.

Last but not least, there will be four special $1.10 MTTs, each with a major tournament package (live) or entry (WCOOP) added, as follows:

July 4th: LAPT Florianopolis
July 11th: NAPT Los Angeles
July 18th: EPT London
July 25th: WCOOP Main Event
NICE!!!!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Over on 2+2 or on Friendly Poker, looking for Rake info for 2nl hands at PokerStars and Full Tilt for comparison!
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/78/micro-stakes-full-ring/survey-looking-ps-ft-rake-data-10nl-below-541081/#post19879644

http://friendlyp.ning.com/forum/topics/pokerstars-changes-to-rake-at

------------------------------------------------------------
Turbo Takedown on June 27th, 2010
I didn't have 3000fpp to enter. I satellited in for 500fpp. Woot.
I cashed in Turbo Takedown, 1999 of 15,400 people, for $110.00
There is a promotion for consecutive cashes in TT's on PokerStars listed here:
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/promotions/turbo/?source=PSP11498
particulary this:

Audi TT for EVERY Turbo Takedown winner

The player that wins the Turbo Takedown each month will be rewarded with a brand-new Audi TT*.

Bonuses for repeat cashes

If you cash in consecutive Turbo Takedown tournaments, you'll get a bonus with a super-fast 5x clearance rate, based on how many times you make the money. Cash in two consecutive tournaments and you'll get a $100 bonus. Make the money the following month and you'll get a $200 bonus and so on, all the way up to a maximum of $1,000. So if you think you are good enough to string together a few cash finishes, make sure you play every month to keep your good run going!

Team PokerStars Pro bounties

Every time a member of Team PokerStars Pro plays the Turbo Takedown, they'll have a $100 bounty on their head. This means that not only do you get to play alongside the biggest names in poker, you get to earn cash when you bust them.
Please note: Bonuses and bounties will be credited within 48 hours of the tournament's completion.

Slave to the Grind

2010-06-13T00:40:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, we set goals for ourselves, that are not easy. Sometimes, we become so focused on those goals, we lose perspective. Sometimes, the only way through some obstacles in the way of what we want, is through lots of hard work. Life, is one of those things you just got to find a way to balance.

My current goals are many, lofty, inspiring to some, and should be quite fulfilling in the end. But for now, I am at a bottleneck. Until I overcome my current obstacles, or find a way around them, all else is out of reach. I am focused on overcoming any obstacles. I am dedicated to this path, and the work required. I will find the way.

It is a shame the world revolves around money. It is a shame that I must conquer these monetary goals now, as they are the gateway to allow me the resources and tools to apply my abilities in making the world a better place. But it is my reality right now, and there is nothing else to do but move forward.

Apparently, this is also a walk a must make alone, for now. So be it.

Upcoming posts: Redonkulous, smashing 2nl stakes, BIG GAME qualified!

2010-05-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

Upcoming posts... listed in title. Here are a couple hands from my session which I will comment on later..
But ACE ON THE RIVER says it all! LOL!

Hand #1

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players - View hand 712442

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $3.28

SB: $1.73

BB: $0.34

UTG: $1.64

UTG+1: $2.74

MP: $0.84

CO: $4.80

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BTN with 9 9

UTG calls $0.02, 1 fold, MP calls $0.02, CO raises to $0.06, Hero raises to $0.22, 4 folds, CO raises to $0.44, Hero calls $0.22

Flop: ($0.95) J 3 K (2 players)

CO bets $0.02, Hero calls $0.02

Turn: ($0.99) 9 (2 players)

CO bets $0.58, Hero raises to $2.08, CO raises to $3.58, Hero calls $0.74 all in

River: ($6.63) A (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $6.63

Hero shows 9 9 (three of a kind, Nines)

CO shows A A (three of a kind, Aces)

CO wins $6.33

(Rake: $0.30)

Hand #2

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 712443

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG+2: $2.90

MP1: $1.61

MP2: $1.90

CO: $4.84

BTN: $4.03

Hero (SB): $3.08

BB: $1.50

UTG: $0.65

UTG+1: $2.05

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB with J J

UTG calls $0.02, 1 fold, UTG+2 raises to $0.10, 4 folds, Hero raises to $0.32, 2 folds, UTG+2 calls $0.22

Flop: ($0.68) 6 6 6 (2 players)

Hero bets $0.50, UTG+2 calls $0.50

Turn: ($1.68) 9 (2 players)

Hero bets $1, UTG+2 raises to $2.08 all in, Hero calls $1.08

River: ($5.84) A (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $5.84

UTG+2 shows A K (a full house, Sixes full of Aces)

Hero shows J J (a full house, Sixes full of Jacks)

UTG+2 wins $5.59

(Rake: $0.25)

View all 2 hands

Poker relates to life so often.. but then maybe a lot of other things do, too?

2010-05-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

Before I start my grind on PokerStars I thought I'd share some thoughts that relate to every day life as much as to poker.

Making the right choices all of the time. Doing the right thing is worthwhile, even when you think no one cares or benefits from it. YOU benefit from making the right decisions even when you don't see it. The same is true in poker, where you will do best by making the right choices all of the time. There are of course, exceptions to every rule, and common sense will help you here, but in general, the more you make the right choices in poker, the less of a problem you will have with variance, which is already bad enough on its own, so no need to make it worse with a few wrong choices :)

Editorial.. Fish drvin' me crazy!

2010-05-15T19:16:00.000-07:00

Some rambling thoughts about poker..

I grind. Everyday. For hours. I play tournaments. Several a week. I cash in some, but haven't taken down anything sizable yet.

I get to deal with fish everyday. Especially at 2nl on PokerStars and it drives me nuts. Fish do crazy things, and get lucky. And you get to deal with higher variance. In the long run, you'll make more than the fish, but in the short term, certain fish can leave a big dent in your days profit. They can also lose some rediculous pots to you. It takes money to make money. But I usually have a more relaxed time when NOT playing fish. I prefer to play good players. Then it's more like a game of Chess, and less like a game of CRAPS! Crapshoots are not for me.

Software. I used to complain about PokerStars software, until I played on Full Tilt. I had an install bug with HEM where I could run Full Tilt once, but after that I would get an error, and could not get around it until I uninstalled and reinstalled the software. Finally after about a week of asking for help and uninstalling and reinstalling software, we finally got the HEM fix that stopped this bug from occuring.
However, when multitabling on Full Tilt, you cannot easily cycle through the tables. As you cycle forward or backwards, the z-order of the windows is changed! So you can't cycle back two tables to a table you were on, because the order changes, and it takes a while to find, and something else may take you away from that table when you find it, and start the process all over again! PokerStars, does not have this problem!
Why Full Tilt has not fixed this problem is beyond me. More people being able to multitable = more rake for Full Tilt, so it's in their best interest, as it increases happiness of their grinders as well. You can only play 16 cash tables max on Full Tilt, whereas on PokerStars you can play 24.

HEM is faster if you vacuum your database regularly (at least once a week as often as I play) but making the suggested buffer size changes in the advanced help, does the most good to avoid lag at more than 16 tables!

I wish TN would fix their set aside table slots. I'm tired of the bugs associate with that, where you move a table and then can't view it as it redraws scrambled, and you have to move it again to get it to redraw.

Good BankRoll management is a must for a poker pro, but watching your PTR too closely is not conducive to playing well. Play the best you can in the time allotted for as long as you are able to play your A game. Then stop. Take a break, mix in some reading, keep your mind healthy and alert. Don't play sick, while drinking, while heavily distracted, etc....

So often, the thing I help people with the most, is keeping a positive mindset in spite of fish sucking out and getting lucky ;) .... I have seen every kind of bad beat you can think of in the 300,000 hands i've played in the last 9 months.
Some people should play tournaments, some should play cash games, and very few will be good at both. My insistence to be good at both is part of my trouble, but I have goals and will meet them. Sometimes I have to do things the hard way before deciding the easy way is best, but such is life.

Review your hand histories. Talk to people about them. Read about poker offline where you have more time to think things through. Continue to work hard, as that is what it takes to be great these days at Poker.

May the flop be with you!

So much to cover, brief update: PokerStars, Full Tilt, Scoop, BankRoll, etc

2010-05-03T01:11:00.000-07:00

I have a list of things written down to cover, but it will take me all week to catch up probably.

First thing first: NBC HeadsUp Challenge.. after almost qualifiying to appear on TV, I hardly got to watch any of it :( I really need TIVO or to set up a DVR on my PC. Congrats to Annie Duke on taking down the victory!

Televised Poker: A whole lot of my friends and poker associates watch poker ONLINE. Pokerstars.tv which has EPT, NAPT, etc, Poker Channel ATDHE , justin.tv 247poker , or even live feeds from WPT, LA Poker Classic, Bay101 Shooting stars, or Livestreams like Chiren80 aka Athene and even TheWookieWay .
Note: I can't link Daleroxxu or he'll call me a fanboy...

Now NAPT was on ESPN, but I missed that. I have been watching for it to be aired again, but ESPN seems to think I'd rather watch the 2009 WSOP AGAIN! Give me a break! The only part of that I'd like to see again is the Final Table! GET A CLUE ESPN! I can't help but feel whoever is in charge of Poker on TV doesn't play much poker. Myself, I play every day. I talk to people who play almost as much as I do. I read several poker forums. I watch Poker After Dark and have for a couple years. And you know what is missing the most?
TIMELY broadcasting! Who wants to listen to old news??? Welcome to 2010, where I can retweet relevant news faster than any major site.
The leader in the future of Poker Broadcasting is going to be the one who can provide a timely turnaround on major productions, and LIVE event coverage like some of the links listed above. There is NO reason there can't be simulcast concerts, tournaments, meetings, parties, ... you name it, the technology is here NOW.
If the right person isn't listening/reading, then maybe I'll just have to take it upon myself to see it done right ;) I *did* have other plans though...

The Big Game is going to be the next big thing in High Stakes Poker type action, and I look forward to qualifying for this one, as it would be a HUGE boost to starting a career in poker :) Certainly much more rockstar'ish than grinding the micro stakes (shoot me now!)
PokerStars is going to provide a qualifier with $100,000 buy in for the Big Game, and any profit they make over the initial $100,000 (that I hear they have to return) they get to keep for themselves. I wonder how many people are going to get to experience playing with the pros on TV, let alone the chance to win a lot of money. Poker is a game with a lot of variance, so even the worst player could have a GREAT day! But it should make for good TV too.

I recently did well in a tourney, where I got well under 4BB, and made a nice comeback, to further add to the argument that you only need a chip and a chair to have a chance at victory. I had some hands marked for posting to illustrate this, but due to bankroll issues, my priorities changed, and this got pushed to the back burner. I will revisit this one likely soon, due to the SCOOP tournaments that started today.

Bankroll issues! Run Bad! Variance! Mistakes! LEAKS! Playing while too sick! Family problems. Frustration with a lack of consistency, etc etc etc ... quite a recipe for a bad beat story, eh?
Rather than waste time on a bad beat story, I'll focus on some of the leaks I found in my game.
LOOSE vs tight players, or TIGHT vs loose players. The biggest part of my problem with lack of progress has been this. When you play LOOSE tables (or fish with gamble-itis) you should be playing tigther, more premium hands. When you play TIGHT tables with a bunch of nit regs, you should be playing a little looser, albeit carefully and wisely. I was doing exactly the opposite. Tightening up on the nits, getting no where, and loosening up on the fish/gamblers, and experiencing HIGH VARIANCE. Nothing worse than playing well, and being 15+ buyins UNDER EV. This will truely test your patience and resolve when starting out in poker trying to build a bankroll.

I'll hopefully catch up with some detailed posts on certain subjects that a lot of beginners have been asking me, and that I am more than willing to share what I have learned so far. There is so much to know about poker overall, just pertaining to No Limit, let alone all the other variations. I feel like I have been studying in College for over a year now. And yet, I still have a baker's dozen books and magazines to catch up on, and plenty to think about and discuss with other poker players. See you next post.

Tournament Tip ..

2010-04-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder where you were in a tournament where 24 people earn a ticket, so everyone gets "1st" place?
If you request tournament history from PokerStars client, it will show you, as you see here, where everyone was when the tournament ended :)

PokerStars Tournament #261229050, No Limit Hold'em
Super Satellite
Buy-In: 10 FPP
161 players
$79.20 USD added to the prize pool by PokerStars
Total Prize Pool: $79.20 USD
Target Tournament #306010925 Buy-In: $3.00/0.30 USD
24 tickets to the target tournament

Tournament started 2010/04/16 15:13:00 PT [2010/04/16 18:13:00 ET]
Tournament finished 2010/04/16 16:34:49 PT [2010/04/16 19:34:49 ET]
1: tkmoore (Spartanburg), (qualified for the target tournament)
2: kbertrand (Sudbury), (qualified for the target tournament)
3: black baran (New Waterford), (qualified for the target tournament)
4: jaxdevils (Tlajomulco), (qualified for the target tournament)
5: AOthegreat8 (Bethesda), (qualified for the target tournament)
6: piggypercent (Dana Point), (qualified for the target tournament)
7: Nutrixxer (Newtownards), (qualified for the target tournament)
8: konrad59 (Aarwangen), (qualified for the target tournament)
9: EUROPOLAND 7 (PRZEMYŚL), (qualified for the target tournament)
10: BlackSwordy (Stamford), (qualified for the target tournament)
11: anthony19719 (cambridge), (qualified for the target tournament)
12: ZomBParadox (Pinole), (qualified for the target tournament)
13: c0ley (plymouth), (qualified for the target tournament)
14: Alex Newski (Wuppertal), (qualified for the target tournament)
15: sarice477 (Beroun 1), (qualified for the target tournament)
16: alybo (arrasate), (qualified for the target tournament)
17: Colorado Pk (Machico), (qualified for the target tournament)
18: anousone913 (TROYES), (qualified for the target tournament)
19: sailcortez (victoria), (qualified for the target tournament)
20: josete741 (salamanca), (qualified for the target tournament)
21: Alexandra560 (Atenas), (qualified for the target tournament)
22: teck1986 (Custoias), (qualified for the target tournament)
23: Moneyboy18 (Stegaurach), (qualified for the target tournament)
24: asaone290 (brugge), (qualified for the target tournament)
25: vclx (Lisboa),
26: TuckerTakALL (La Palma),
27: sawyer2591 (liverpool),

My cash game has been extremely rough. I have learned to never to try 'force' myself to play while sick. My bankroll is DECIMATED but I still have because of bankroll management. Tis better to regroup and play the micros again, than to go broke! I'll post more details later.

Busy Busy Busy!

2010-04-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

I've been really busy, but that's a good thing! I've been working on my game, and it sure does need it! Results have been less than stellar at the wrong times. I did so bad in January when I went busto, that it's taking some time to overcome that deficit, and not let it affect my game. But that is the nature of the beast, you must be able to perform when opportunity presents itself. So a good work ethic, and a lot of hard work, is a must to set things in the right direction. So back to work I go!

I'll leave you with this from Friendly Poker . net .. http://friendlyp.ning.com/forum/topics/friendly-poker-weekly-2
The Weekly tourneys are set up! Be back later today with a report.

22 hour work day. Focused. Efficient.

2010-03-30T01:26:00.000-07:00

It was a long birthday, but it was fulfilling. I've had to put a hold on helping others until my bankroll is healthier. I've shared a considerable portion so far, but this will have to be put on hold until I'm more secure.

We had the first annual Wookie's Bday Tourney for $1 over at Friendly Poker . Maybe by next year I'll have a freeroll! It was a lot of fun. We have been wanting to battle it out amongst our friends for a while. We'll be setting up some weekly tournaments starting this weekend, and mix those in with Chiren80's events and hopefully Chipstar1's as well. That should keep us entertained!

I'm a little impressed at how much every has improved since January. It's good to see everyone advancing their game, controlling their tilt, making progress, and enjoying da GAIMZ!! :D The tournament really brings out the competitive side in some more than others ;) I felt like I had a target on my back the whole time! Next time, I'll put a bounty on myself and make it official so there's no question!

I did more research than work today, but it'll pay off. I came close to advancing in 'the Big Game' today. Need to focus on that one tomorrow. Need a battle plan NOW for SCOOP (have 4 tickets to use so far), and for WSOP satellites! In addition, I need to solidly build my bankroll. Lots of work ahead.
I started playing some S&G's today.. 6 cashes out of 11 tourneys, two 3rd, two 2nd, and two 1st for 180 leaderboard points. need around 530 for first atm.. I think this is very doable in 20 tourneys. I will probably play enough for High Orbit too (100games) for both leader boards on the micro level ($1.20), and then move on to the $3, repeat, and then evaluate my progress and future plans for Cash Games or Sit & Gos.

I'm going to start listing those books that I recommend for all those asking me about what to read, aside from forums.

Just a quick report, as I've been up almost 24 hours and time for sleep. Sweet dreams.

VIP video for PokerStars

2010-03-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

I've been getting a lot of questions about the VIP program at PokerStars (aka rakeback) so here is a video!

I have some catching up to do!!

2010-03-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

PokerStars is talking about a Twitter Freeroll, Twitter League... stay tuned for further details. Sounds like fun!

Friendly Poker invaded a couple more freerolls this week... one was an ambitious $3 rebuy! I placed 37th for $153, Liam placed 28th, and 3j55 placed 12th for $441 !
We had hopes that 3 of us would make the final table for an epic story, but sometime soon, we'll manage this.

I have help almost 90 people start their bankrolls through the Friendly Poker Community, but now I am myself struggling with 25nl. Sometimes up, sometimes down, but on a downward trend this week. It's time to ship it, or move down!!

I have been helping new players, and did not plan on doing any coaching until my graph was impressive, and my bankroll had a bit more cushion, but I have been helping a couple people through those early speedbumps you encounter when you get started playing poker for money ;)

For now, I am concentrating on my game. I have played 75k hands so far this month, and should be far ahead of where I am now. I'm down 5 buyins since I moved up to 25nl, and if I drop 2 more, it's time to move back to 10nl for a while. It sucks for an aspiring pro, but it's the most important part of bankroll management.

I may actually get some coaching for the first time... just maybe!

Friendly Poker weekly tournaments, staking and Winners!

2010-03-13T16:43:00.000-08:00

Over at Friendly Poker where we hang out and chat about poker, and WoW occasionally, Chiren80 has started a weekly 'staking' tournament deal where the members of community who fit certain criteria get staked in one of the $1+Rebuy tournaments on PokerStars and I do my part to help those that don't meet these requirements.

Today was the first of those, and quite a few people cashed, including yours truly (zombparadox) and 1 person that I staked.
The big news, though, was Timon1044 took down the victory for $1500+ !! Not bad, eh? Expect to see more Friendly Poker people at cash tables and in tournaments like this one.

I will be organizing some tournaments myself, or similar staking deals. It is a great community and you should check it out if you have spare time ;) Nothing more fun that having a bunch of your online friends rail ya during a deep run :)

Chiren80, a PokerStars Online Pro, occasionally livestreams and is VERY entertaining here http://www.ustream.tv/channel/athene-poker
Feel free to come check it out, we are very new player friendly :)

10nl GRIND.. FriendlyPoker.net, Reading

2010-03-09T17:29:00.000-08:00

So I've been on this grind lately. Trying to get out of 10NL. I will be so happy when I finally move up. I would play longer sessions to get there sooner, but .. my winrate drops frequently the longer I play, and it definitely slows down when all the short stackers move in about 2 to 3am PST.
I hear Daylight Savings is on Mar14th. (tangent)

Lots of friends at www.friendlypoker.net and good to have people to chat with about poker. I have been helping others get started by loaning them $1.10 to get them started. $46 sent out so far. $7 refunded so far.

Reading, and more reading. Lots of CardPlayer and Bluff magazines to catch up on. Need to make a run to the bookstore, or order on Amazon, some new books to read.

Still working on GoldStar this month. Just bought my last $10 Stellar Reward, and working on the first $50 reward. Thank you PokerStars.

Just a brief update, and back to the grind...

PokerStars revised SCOOP, & my Slave to the Grind

2010-03-02T18:54:00.000-08:00

PokerStars Revised SCOOP schedule after input from players. Starts May 2nd, 2010.

I still have mega VPP to attain by Mar 7th, about 4600 or so left to go. So I am Slave the Grind until then.. with my Mother's Birthday on Saturday, that will cut into my time available.
I will not be able to clear all of my bonus or even most of it. At about 200vpp a day, i'll get about 1/4 of it cleared. Live and learn. PokerStars will be the death of me yet!

Been hanging out and chatting at the Friendly Poker community, which is beginner friendly ;) Stop by and say Hi, especially if you are thinking about getting into poker and haven't yet. Tell them Wookie sent ya!

Oh yea, I'll be sure to post some more this week, some strats, some BAD hands, what NOT to do, etc :) Hopefully, someone will find this helpful.

It's the small things in life.... and NAPT comments

2010-02-23T23:15:00.000-08:00

Listening to, and sometimes watching, the NAPT live commentary here: http://www.napt.com/tv/

Just watched Mercier put Moneymaker all in with KK vs AKcc .. and Moneymaker made a Royal Flush! Sometimes, you just KNOW a certain card is coming, call it out, and BAM, there it is!

PokerStars announces SCOOP schedule here: 2010 Spring Championship of Online Poker schedule

I currently have at least 3 tickets for this event, possibly 4, and will see how many more events I can afford by the time it gets here. It seems it was last year at this time when I REALLY got into playing poker, playing plenty of Hubbles freerolls, reading everything I could, like CardPlayer, Bluff, 2+2 Poker Forums, etc etc etc
What a year it's been!

I remember it like a year of college. Lots of studying and spending MONEY! I think it was as little cheaper, having only cost me 1 semesters worth of investment financially, but just as much time studying. I feel so much better to where I am now, and am happy with my choices for the most part. Some of the mistakes I had to learn the hard way, will serve me well later, when I have more to lose.

Last weekend, I had a horrible ride on the Variance train, to the tune of being down 15 buyins! It was so bad, I took a break for a couple days, even though I am on a tight schedule!

Today, I had a much better day, took some time out and little of my BR to invest in playing tournaments, which I am much better at than cash. And I CASHED in 4 tournaments (making 3 Final Tables), and just missed a 5th cash by 2 people. It seems easier NOT being the bubble boy even though you are 1 more spot away from cashing. But it was a good day after a good night of grinding followed by a good day of tournaments.

There was an interesting thing I noted today in the Freerolls. SOOO many people were playing SHOVE OR FOLD. Right from the start and throughout the tournament! Interesting. It's much harder to play against people playing like this, trying to force you into coin flips.
But, you can still pick your spots wisely, and use your patience to overcome their insistence on using luck, which is why playing poker is clearly a game of skill! Isn't it???
And doesn't that relate to so many areas of life? Contracts, Record Deals, Marketing, Relationship Decisions?
There are many relationships between Poker and Life. Maybe that's why the game is still around...

Variance is a ... what a week, 5500vpp in 2 weeks??

2010-02-20T21:40:00.000-08:00

Variance. Sucks. Ass.
I have been having a good and a bad week, all in the same week. Beating 10nl for 6-11bb/100 .. and then... -10bb/100 ... up and down sessions. I'm good at ignoring bad beats most of the time, but when you are down 7 buyins IN A ROW, it can get to you. If you let it.

To clear my deposit bonus, in 2 weeks, I have to clear 5500vpp!!! that's 15 hours a day at 10nl, even playing 650 hands/hour! I will be on a grinding marathon until I get back to 25nl. However, my Bankroll was up to 270, but is now back down to 160. That's 11 buyins total I'm down. Oy vey!

Friendly Poker has released FPCoach, to help beginners get up to speed in preparation for further levels of training for Poker. "It's all about da GAIMZ!"

"You are pro, or noob. That is life!" - Chiren80

Wednesday update, building BR, NBC HU final tomorrow

2010-02-17T18:17:00.000-08:00

On PokerStars, there is a nice qualifier for the NBC Heads Up challenge. I made it through the final. Winner of the final, tomorrow, gets to be on TV. That would be a real boost to the poker career ;)

I made it through a field of 8500 to qualify for the NAPT final (freeroll), and got 53rd of 508 there.

Was running decent in the Meet Joe Cada in Vegas final until the migraine set in. FAIL there, but did qualify for the NAPT final at the same time. Once again, ran better until I started adding more tournaments to keep busy. So easy to make a mistake when chatting to much in 1 tourney while big hand in another tourney. Though I am better at controlling this link, there is still room for improvement.

BR is building nicely. It was a hectic bad start of the year, but much improved since February as I started practicing BankRoll management like a religion, which it must be for anyone living off their bankroll.

EATING is -EV! Just like drinking, I need to wait 60 mins before trying to play after eating, or waking up. I didn't realize how huge this was until recently. All my bad sessions came from playing sleepy/too long, or from playing right after I eat.
Will change this to eat, then nap, then a WALK to wake up, THEN poker. I'll report back later on how this is going.

Staying away from negative people is like staying away from bad beats. It's not something you can control, but you can choose to not let it affect you. There will always be negative people that need to learn things in their own time. I wish them the best.

Helping out beginning players, up to Sponsored Pros!

2010-02-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

I was a beginner. I needed a bankroll. I didn't have any money to deposit.

In an effort to support the Friendly Poker community, I am staking players for $1 on days when I have winning seesions.

See this post on the forums there: http://friendlyp.ning.com/forum/topics/wookies-bankroll-management

It is always good to give back to the communities and/or people that helped you get where you are today. :) or places where you enjoy hanging out and don't want to see disappear!

Barry Greenstein is a very interesting person with some interesting things to say about what it takes and what it's like to be a sponsored poker pro playing live tournaments

Today is the last day of the 'day job'. No more 9 to 5. My bankroll IS NOT READY!
I had planned on having $2,000 by this date to be able to live off my bankroll. It's going to be a lean month!

Tomorrow I have the Meet Joe Cad in Vegas Final tournament. It'll be a cheap way to go to Vegas, see some friends, and build my bankroll! My uncle used to say, "There's more than one way to skin cat!"

Negativity and not letting it affect you...

2010-02-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

So my stats. They suck. Like, real bad. But, I know I'm a way better poker player than I was back when I had a good graph, when I was turning $50 into $450 live. When I came in 8th of 100 in my first ever live tournament.
It's not easy, to be insulated from the negative things people say when they view my PTR which shows a nice ski slope down to negative $1100. (linked here) It'll look like a ski jump for the next week with the little upswing at the end, but that's another story!

I guess it's natural for people to be "naysayers". Everyone who was successful at anything has come across them, whether they be family, friends, competitors, or the public at large. I was always taught if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. And it's been a healthy manner to learn. People do well under psoitive reinforcment. Most people. There are always exceptions to every rule. :)

However, Never EVER let that affect you. Be yourself. Find your own path. Only you can make the choices that are right for you. If you decide on a different path, you can always change it. We all have Freewill! (Rush - Freewill)

Are you strong enough to share your worst experiences along the way of your chosen path? It's not easy sometimes, but I do my best. I will show all my mistakes and stumbles along the way in the hopes that it helps those that need it, and entertains those that just want to follow the story. The story of our lives.
Hint: most of the lessons I have learned in Poker apply to Life as well. Feel free to use them as you wish.

For now, here is a better snapshot of recent HEM stats. (past 3 days, and first week in Feb)
I will follow this up with a complete FUGLY picture of my overall stats since last summer... WARNING: it's horrid and may have all but the most faithful become doubtful of my journey .. :D

WBCOOP Booby prize, aka runner up on Twitter

2010-02-04T06:52:00.000-08:00

TheWookieWay, aka ZomBParadox on PokerStars, aka THAT'S ME, was happy to view this :)
I missed it yesterday because I was working. Unlike last week when I was Working, Playing in WBCOOP, Tweetin about WBCOOP, and Bloggin! This week feels like a vacation in comparison. I now have much more respect for the blokes at PokerStars.tv, PokerStars Blog, and all the industry professionals who give us up to the minute or live reporting.

2010 WBCOOP GIVES CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE

alright then, back to work! no babes this time! .. well, maybe later...

Online Pro Chiren80 makes Unsolvable Riddle for Tourney Password

2010-02-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

Chiren80, otherwise known as Athene (the greatest paladin from WoW?), had a Freeroll for the poker community at FriendlyPoker It was invaded by about 600+ freeroll farmers.
So to make sure that didn't happen again, he made a very tough riddle to solve in order to the pass, and he would release clues until the day of the tourney before releasing the password. There is also a $50 bounty for the first person to register for the tournament. The prizepool is $1,337 (aka a LEET amount).

It's been 3 days and no one, out of over 200 + people, has figured out the password. There have been 7 hints now as well.
Feel free to try the riddle yourself. I suspect even you Mensa types will have your fairshare of trouble with this one. If you have known Athene for a long time, you may have an advantage, then again, that may be meaningless too. I wonder how many message boards this riddle has been already posted on?
http://friendlyp.ning.com/page/athenes-riddle

Many of the faithful members of this community believe this is just the BEST TROLL EVER! (that is apparently not the pass either... )
People have been so unsuccessful at this, that he's even made some humorous videos like this one about even Hitler not finding the password!

Will his community believe his pw is NOT lame as he says? or will they hold this against him for a long time to come? I guess we'll see...

WBCOOP Event 7 the Main Event 11.5 hours! +BABES

2010-01-31T23:43:00.001-08:00

Meet Sin. Watch out when Sin is in heat! This reminds me, since I missed PCA this year, I need a vacation!!
It was literally in the 11th hour, after an 11.5 hour marathon, BelaLany, from Munich, takes down the WBCOOP Main Event. Like all the other WBCOOP events, it was a mostly pleasant affair, with the majority of the people happy to playing and enjoying one anothers company while playing poker. As it should be!
I only cashed twice in these events my self, but I am +2 on @Daleroxxu for Last Longer prop bets. And I understand that because of MI_Turtle, I am entitled to my share of $1,000 from his lost prop bet.. somewhere in the range of a Buck Fifty! Thanks MI_Turtle :)
All the bloggers were getting rummy on the reporting towards the end, and I am now reaching that point myself. So without further ado, I big you GOODNIGHT!

WBCOOP Event 6 Final Results + new Babe :)

2010-01-30T20:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome a dear old friend Sin modeling above in a tropical locale. Oh yeah, and the WBCOOP Event 6 Final Results.. talk about a rollercoaster!

A picture is worth a thousand words, so there are the results.. however, the BIG news is MI_Turtle was SO sure of winning, that he said he would put up $1,000 USD for a Last Longer type bounty to be split between everyone who outlasts him in the Main Event tomorrow! He went out 19th, so look forward to him running deep and rewarding the top players with some extra CASH, provided he doesn't win it.
I, for one, will be gunning for this extra money and may even throw another last longer bet into the mix with a couple friends. Daleroxxu has supplemented my BankRoll twice recently ;)

See you all tomorrow, with more PICS! maybe we'll even find a video somewhere...

WBCOOP Event #5 FINAL Results & Babes!

2010-01-29T19:11:00.001-08:00

5:49 mins later, we have a winner! Congrats to maverick600 on taking down Event #5 8 Game Mixed. See you all tomorrow for No Limit Hold'em again at NOON PST (3pm EST server time)

Guess what? TanixSux on PokerStars has graciously assured me there will be more hot babes on my blog :P Now I need the girls to message me or comment who they'd like to see for a hot dude on the site, otherwise I will just have to let Tania decide...

WBCOOP Event #4 NL HE Results (short n sweet!)

2010-01-28T23:06:00.000-08:00

I'm going to cheat to make a fast and easy to read post:

#WBCOOP #Event 4 is done, and jewelknits.blogspot.com made it all the way up to 2nd before giving in to barrelproof7 who won after 5.5hrs

#WBCOOP GuiPon7 3rd, Stuart_Ungar 4th, and moondino 5th to round out the top 5. See you all tomorrow, blog post soon on Poker Paradox

@tricolor69 Grats on 11th

In other brief news over at Friendly Poker . net
Our beloved friend Maral is going to China to help people and do something rewarding. Nice example from a nice person :) We'll miss you but will keep in touch!
http://friendlyp.ning.com/profile/Maral

Chiren80, new PokerStars Online Pro, (with pretty green chat and hosting freerolls for several hundred friends and the russian mob..) went to PokerStars again, for an 'awkward' meeting .. things didn't quite go as planned... view here :)
http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/failed-pokerstars-joke

We'll have to make sure to link those "hot babes" tomorrow :P They seem to be pretty popular on poker blogs lately... maybe we'll throw in a guitar playin dude for the ladies as well ;)

Actually, I came across this gem, and have borrowed an image from PokerStars for good luck, Michelle Orpe :)

WBCOOP Event #3 results

2010-01-28T03:26:00.001-08:00

I slept through the last hour or two of the tourney (and then some!) but here are the final results:
1. skllzdatklls (Las Vegas)
2. jobuyunn (Viljandi)
3. Martish (Richmondhill)
4. romario612 (chimbote)
5. jacquesprado (ww.besserbier.com.br)
6. strike1 (Seattle)
7. pomppoker (Portsmouth)
8. bosta_de_boi (povoa de varzim)
9. AKSpark (Deland) (good run AK!)
10.BigFreddy73 (West Melbourne)

23. Goral (Warsaw) the only online Pro I saw in the tournament :) Maybe PokerStars needs to promote more bloggers to Online Pro! Just a thought.. *wink wink*

WBCOOP Event #3 short day of it! (Sleepwalking, Sleeptyping, Sleepbluffing)

2010-01-27T16:15:00.000-08:00

I missed the first 5 mins of the tourney, and then couldn't get a foothold, but did pull off a hand or two like this, which seem to be the only type of hands I won, (ie. made hands):

I tried to get it in good, in between yawns, but this was fatal mistake number one, between yawns and work distractions... did I already say I was falling asleep during this tourney? *yawn*

zzzzz... humfh? what what? I'm awake, is it time to go to work?? Oh. Right. Tourney. I'm not dreaming this like I was dreaming about the million dollars in my PokerStars account.
More of this:
Dealt to ZomBParadox [Kc 9c]
astaroth75: folds
skin1972: folds
05T05T: folds
jomue: folds
VZimber: folds
jomue said, "ty"
ZomBParadox said, "ul for me to get that there :p"
Juan Albiero: raises 30 to 60
ZomBParadox: calls 60
toksikoz: folds
rVTm: folds
*** FLOP *** [3s 4d Jd]
ZomBParadox said, "but that's poker!"
Juan Albiero: bets 330
ZomBParadox said, "you bluffin again juan?"
ZomBParadox: folds
Uncalled bet (330) returned to Juan Albiero
Juan Albiero collected 165 from pot

Things are not going well (card dead) when I try to feed the egos of the megalomaniac (did I really just quote Phil Helmuth??)
"ZomBParadox said, "so i've met my match with the only 2 people at my table not sitting out :P""

Bosses house for a BBQ last night, long commute, lack of sleep it taking it's toll.. where was I ? oh yean...

I win a hand with trip threes, win a hand with AQ unimproved,

The cry was heard ... "ZomBParadox said, "new dealer, new seat please!!",

Let's try not to get unlucky and run into another set, let's make a good read with our AJ on an A K x board...

I put him on a JJ+! I was right! Kind of. Just remember, sometimes when you are right, you will still lose! (that's your Poker tip of the day for playing Blogsnoozaments)

meanwhile AKSpark and skllzdatklls were swapping the lead, but Skllz has a resounding lead 145k to AK's 90K as they approach the money.

We'll see how short of a catnap I can take and check on them after.
-Rip Van Wookie .. hey, where did this beard come from???

(edit: I fixed spacing and will try a brighter hand converter, after my nap!)

100 hour work Weeks DURING WBCOOP. I want a medal!

2010-01-27T01:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, ok. Maybe I don't get a medal for this week unless I take down a win in WBCOOP or other major tourney this week, but it sure feels like a marathon to me! I'll be happy to finish, let alone WIN this marathon. Along with 40 hr work week, I have been spending all my free time learning, and playing, poker. Although very confident, and willing to play ANYONE in the world (yes, even Phil Ivey), I have been making sure I fill in all the little tidbits of info that might be missing or unclear or not automatic. When the "edge" you have over other players gets so small, every little bit counts.

I am finally home after an 8 day stretch, having cashed in the first two WBCOOP Events on PokerStars. I am relaxing, about to watch Poker After Dark that I haven't seen on a TELEVISION in weeks! I'm sure I'll fall asleep watching it but that's ok. It's a rereshing change and chance to recharge my batteries because I'm back at it tomorrow, working and playing WBCOOP Event #3.

Today was Event #2 which was Pot Limit Omaha! This is NOT my game, I've played a few freerolls last year, and played about 10 mins of cash games yesterday for a quick brush up. I'm quite pleased I was able to cash in PLO which is not my game ;) But it IS one I'm ready to tackle to add to my Poker Resume! The fact that I am working my dayjob for at LEAST the first 3 hours of these tourneys is unbelievably challenging ;) I even had to sit out for a meeting for 30 mins during the tourney!

I have been hanging out on Daleroxxu's blog as he has a livestream up during the tournaments. There are roughly 20 others there in the tourney and it's a good natured bunch with a lot of crap talkin and last longer prop bets, and a generally good time. It should be duely noted I won the the first prop bet in Event #1 :) I would have lost the prop bet in PLO, if we had one, but as he had recently worked on a PLO challenge, and I was working, I thought better of it this time.
We'll see what happens tomorrow!

I have also been hanging out on www.friendlypoker.net with the Chiren80 group of folks. I really dig that Chiren80 pic from the Bahamas with the "palm tree on his head" hairdo and goofy look.. just the kind of image to put people on tilt when you "stak dat djood!". Seriously. I might do this. Which reminds me, I need to track down one of those Tshirts!! Joanne!!!!!!????

Both of the above players have helped remind me how to have fun while playing poker. And I do SOO Much better when I have fun!

I have also been hanging out on 2+2, which is a tough crowd. I look forward to the day when the results do all the talkin. There are quite a few excellent players mixed in there, maybe more than any other forum or site I have come across. Almost any situation you can think of that comes up in poker will be dicussed there, proably multiple times, and you will get multiple views of how to look at a problem.

Pokerstars.TV has also had some great broadcasts from EPT Deauxville, and I always enjoy their broadcasts while working, though I do spend too much time emailing those NUTS!
(nuts@pokerstars.tv)

Ok, I've got to sleep! Over and out!! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

WBCOOP Event #1 Results

2010-01-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

After a mere 7 hours and 3 mins.. We finally have a winner for the first WBCOOP of 2010.
Congrats to DevlsBnkroll for takin it down ! Watch out for those ZomB'ies though in future events!

Results: for the top 10...

1. DevlsBnkroll (Casselberry)
2. kevin070 (Milford)
3. pincharrata1 (Zarate)
4. Zomb2e (Gyenesdiás) <- ZOMB NATION!!
5. angeloviana (viana do castelo)
6. Ty,DeShields (Concord)
7. themrx (Erfurt)
8. LRM)MaNiaTiC (Benidorm)
9. tafkaa (Freiburg)
10.Lutos87 (Gyenesdiás)

2nd through 9th got a $215 Scoop Ticket,
10th through 36th got a $33 Scoop Ticket,
37th through 63rd got a $16.50 Sccop Ticket,
and 64th through 153rd got an $11 Scoop Ticket. <- I cashed out 139th.

And, best of all, it was fun! Most good natured tournament I've ever been in. I hope it's like this all week!
Oh, and did I mention, that I had won my Last Longer prop bet with Daleroxxu? I wonder how many times he'll pay me off before he stops betting me? I wonder if I can get MI_Turtle on the bandwagon too?? :)
But seriously, it was a BRILLIANT tournament and I look forward to ... SLEEP!
Goodnight.

WBCOOP Event #1 NL Hold'em

2010-01-25T16:08:00.000-08:00

We are down to 300 players, I'm still alive with about 15 BigBlinds. I haven't had any cards for a while, able to make a play a couple times and take down a pot anyways. Waiting for that one good hand to climb out of the FunkyStack Land (or town) as Jim and Nick would put it! (quick shoutout to the "dudes" at Pokerstars.TV :)
Things aren't looking good though, getting down to 6 BB now. ... and just when I was about to hit the Enter key to post this .. I picked up a hand am back up to 12 BB :) Keep your fingers crossed, get out the VOODOO, it's going to be a bumpy ride!
(14bb and climbing!)

WBCOOP starts Today!

2010-01-25T10:39:00.000-08:00

With events covering the next 7 straight days, the WBCOOP Event #1 starts today at 5pm EST with No Limit Hold'em. There will be a Pot Limit Omaha for Event #2, and an 8 game mixed for Event #5, with the remainder of the events being NoLimit Hold'em.

I personally will be playing, though I am at work for the first 5 days! OI! I will certainly do my best to report here on my blog, and on Twitter, where you can follow if you like twitter.com/TheWookieWay

My screenname on PokerStars is ZomBParadox. I know some of the competition, and it should be a very interesting tourney. I should have studied the blind structure.. perhaps I should do that now?

Stay tuned for more!

If you'd like to join us and haven't yet, click on a PokerStars banner and come rail me!

Tip of the day: I mark everyone I play through the player notes, and it helps me to remember where I've seen them before and how they play. I color code the shortstackers in orange, the sharks in red, and the fish in blue! (maybe fish in light blue)
I use a code like this for the text " ? 80k f "
?= tournament, c= cash, 6m = 6max, f=freeroll, .02 =stake, etc

(Edited time)

Bad News on BR challenge...

2010-01-24T02:47:00.000-08:00

approx 2am, on todays date, ZomBParadox went BUSTO!

BR 220 approximately a week ago. Played up to 100nl goofin off, down to about 100.. then tried to play in earnest, and a few bad days, bounced between 80 and 120 .. played a friend heads up, went busto. Back up to 80 because of nice friends and someone buying my action. bounced around trying the 15 bb challenge and not having the usual luck I did in the first 3 levels, thought 'I can beat this!" and spent too much of my BR trying that.
THIS IS VERY COMMON for somone to NOT back down from a -EV challenge. Don't do this unless you can afford to. I could not. That's why I'm posting this. So you'll be all the wiser

so with my approximately $60 BR I was getting no where, bored, and joined friend at 50nl ! was just going to be for a few hands... ended up getting a couple fish to my right. Can't leave with a couple fish to your right, can ya?
while persuing said fish, and provign I could play at this level, i got BR up to $103!!
Nice eh?
Was about to leave anyway, and should have after that hand.. but 'friend' said "dude if you leave now..." so I stayed a round, lost a hand, got action, got AQ suited, lost a BIG 3 way pot with nut flush draw... swing and a miss! then took my $12 back up to $20 shoved with AA for my last hand, and said friend, hit a set of 8's :P busto!
BR = $1.49

Back to the 15BB challenge in Limit. Got the Joe Cada Final tournament on Feb13, got the WBCOOP coming up this week.

Talk about an interesting blog post.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMkth8FWno

But, I'm not tilted Got a few friends that can learn from this! I HOPE!

(as posted on 2+2 forums0

But life isn't about the perfect score, like I used to think. It's about drive and determination and how many times you get back up after falling down. And using that wisdom to avoid such things ;P

So back to square one with a better knowledge and understanding of what's required, and infinitely more ability.

Wish me luck!
May the flop be with ME for a change!!!

WBCOOP Approved!, Joe Cada Final Feb 13

2010-01-21T03:10:00.000-08:00

I qualified for 5 or 6 weekly semi-finals for the Meet Joe Cada in Vegas tournament by PokerStars. But on the 2nd one, I got into the final, so all those extra attempts will not be needed. Wish me luck on this one, which will be played on Feb 13.

Here's the official email from PokerStars about the upcoming Blogger Championship, for which I am signed up for. We'll see how well I do while bloggin and tweetin and playing in a tourney :P
If it's just one I should do fine, but one of my leaks when multi tabling tournaments is getting too distracted away from the tables.

Hello WBCOOP Players,

Congratulations, you've successfully registered to play in this year's World Blogger Championship Of Online Poker (WBCOOP)!

Your account has been credited with a ticket which is good for entry into any and all of the tournaments beginning on January 25th. To check that your account has been credited with the ticket, click 'Requests' > 'Tournament Tickets' in the PokerStars lobby. The ticket is named 'WBCOOP 2010’.

The qualifying tournament schedule is as follows:

The preliminary tournaments are free-to-enter and run daily from January 25-30, in a range of different games at the times listed below. You can find them listed in the PokerStars lobby, under ‘Tourney’ & ‘All’.

No Limit Hold’em January 25 17:00 ET
Pot Limit Omaha January 26 17:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em January 27 18:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em January 28 18:00 ET
8-Game Mix January 29 19:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em January 30 15:00 ET

Registration opens two hours before the start of each event.

Each of the preliminary events awards the following prizes:

PRIZE STRUCTURE:

1st Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $1,050,
2nd to 9th Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $215,
10th to 36th Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $33,
37th to 63rd Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $16.50,
64th to 153rd Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $11

The Final begins at 15:00 ET on Sunday 31st of January. The game will be No Limit Hold'em. The Final will award the following prizes:

1st Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $3,150,
2nd to 9th SCOOP Tickets to Value of $2,100,
10th to 36th SCOOP Tickets to Value of $215,
37th to 63rd Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $55,
64th to 153rd Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $22

SPOT PRIZES:
Best Tournament Blogger: SCOOP Tickets to Value of $425
Highly Commended Tournament Blogger (x3): SCOOP Tickets to Value of $33 Best Tournament Tweeter: SCOOP Tickets to Value of $425
Highly Commended Tournament Tweeter (x3): SCOOP Tickets to Value of $33

If you have any questions about the WBCOOP, check our website at:

http://www.pokerstars.com/blog_tournament/

or email bloggertournament@pokerstars.com at any time.

Good Luck!

Regards,
The PokerStars Team

VPP Rewards aka Rakeback on PokerStars

2010-01-15T05:12:00.000-08:00

If I
type
over
here, will
it be
viewable
or scrolled
out of
viewing area?
Think I
have it
about right.
Click Image
:)

Here we go.. VPP chart for PokerStars. Why being Supernova pays like it does. I'll have to find some comparison charts for FullTilt, UB, Doyle's, etc...

I had some more to post, but I'll come back and edit this post to add it. It's not like people are chomping at the bit to read my blog :P

Midweek update, PokerStars.tv, 2+2, BankRoll numbers

2010-01-14T12:16:00.001-08:00

I've been really enjoying watching PokerStars.tv live coverage of the PCA Main Event, World Cup and, today, the High Roller Event. I was so sad to hear Dario busted out before the final table :(
Watch live here: Pokerstars.tv Live
They even have a $2000 freeroll for all the viewers.

Since I have stopped using the HUD and HE manager, and Table Ninja, I have been doing better.
I have had bankroll swings from $135 down to $35 and back again. I am currently over $150 even after donating $1 for the Haiti cause, of which PokerStars is matching every penny that anyone dontates! You can enter a tourney or transfer fund to the account 'Haiti Fund; (without quotes).
BR = $154
VPP = 557
193VPP to Silver Star status and my first Stellar Reward of $10. I should hit another $10 of bonus clearing around that time as well, so hopefully a $20 boost to my bankroll. I'd be much happier if I was up around $500 by now, and $2000 by Valentines Day (minimum). The pressure is on.
My daughters birthday is at the end of the month, and I have until this Sunday to purchase the ticket to be safe.

I have a ticket for the Joe Cada weekly to win a trip to Vegas and I've run deep several times during the NAPT tournies! This I REALLY want to win, and is a precursor to winning spots for the WSOP.

Follow your dreams, avoid the naysayers. It's better to try and fail than to regret not trying. Live and Learn. :D

Here's a hilarious post on 2+2 : CLICK HERE

Back on track without bells and whistles..

2010-01-12T09:36:00.000-08:00

It seems that using HoldEm Manager, Table Ninja, etc.. was just slowing me down. Killing my Win Rate (WR). More distractions.

My BankRoll was all over the map. Up to $120, down to $24, and averaging around $65. It was getting very annoying.

I played a live tournament, took 2nd, and this helped boost my morale and my patience. I did well in some online tournaments as well, from Sit N Gos to big MTT's. Got about 457th out of 10,000 in an NAPT. Took one mistake while talking to someone to be eliminated. This has been a frequent problem in the past.. playing 2 tournaments online, I'm fine, but then I start talking with people, explaining what is going on, etc.. and I get distracted enough to make a bad decision. This is part of the reason why I play where there are the fewest distractions. A room with a door would be great. But such is life and being able to deal with the unexpected is all part of the game.

BR back up to $99.68 . Paying attention to the bottom line matters most, so I'll stick with that as long as I can put up the numbers, which I know I can.

I will also be sticking with 10NL or HIGHER only. Playing lower forces me to get used to an environment that is not productive for moving up. No matter where you play, live, online, micro, midstakes, high stakes, middle/micro, whatever... you have to adapt to the environment.
People will get used to this environment also, and adapt. Therefore I disagree with the philosophy of "beat this limit first, then move up." and "start at the bottom".
I say, if you want to play micros for whatever reason, start at micros and learn all you can. If you want to play 25NL, then start at 25NL. If you must play high stakes, get there as fast as you can.
When you first get to any level, you must learn, and learn quick! This *IS* Poker, and the name of the game is "get the most money". For the few purists out there, it is also "have fun doing it!" ;)
My problem with Micro stakes, is getting used to bad players. It's ruining my game. Well, technically *I'm* letting it ruin my game, by getting lazy. I never want to call or shove because I'm relying on the other player being a bad player more than 50% of the time. Look at the various Hand History discussions on 2+2 or various forums, and you'll see what I mean.
I also need to feel that the amount of profit I make justifies the time I spend making it. I can consistently make an avg of $4/hr at 2nl or 5nl, but this just doesn't cut it for me.

For me, for now, 25nl is where it's at. I prefer this level and look forward to moving up, but have a ways to go, since I'm overreaching my bankroll. My chances of going broke are increased as well, but this is the "bottom" for me.

Do what's right for you.

Amir Vahedi leaves behind a lot of touched people

2010-01-10T01:51:00.000-08:00

Amir Vahedi passed away today because of complications from diabetes. I did not have the pleasure of knowing him, other than some youtube videos and stories from friends in the poker world. It would appear over two dozen of my friends knew him and are tweeting about him, and will miss him greatly. By tomorrow that number may be well over 4 dozen.

Why am I blogging about someone I didn't know? Because he was a good human being. And I wish there were more people like him, to touch so many people in a positive way.

Here is a video I tweeted for those who knew him, and those who would like to have as well...
Check out this Gentleman video -- poker Amir Vahedi rio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsQtEr7OwVg

Remember, the little things count.

WBCOOP, Live Poker, Throwing out the books!

2010-01-08T03:59:00.000-08:00

WBCOOP! (Won't Bet Chips Out Of Position...) hehe, just kidding...

It's the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker :)

Sounds like it is going to be fun! Can't wait! I shall do my best to represent.

I played some Live Poker last night, about a dozen players, 3 places paid. I took 2nd. It was only $20 to enter, and I won $60 for my efforts, and ended up spending it on a motel room so I could get a good nights sleep ;) so a break even vacation? That works.
And I got it in good on the last hand which would have given me the lead...
Ace Queen vs Queen 10 ! He sucked out with a flush. It was either that, or 10 10, or runner runner runner runner :P I think I figured out later I was only about a 70 percent favorite. Thanks to whomever helped me on Twitter with that on the way home :)

I had to get away from thinking too much while playing, adding to my impatience, etc... No HE, no table ninja, no HUD, no books, no "play this way only" etc... and I did fine! Stop playing when I get tired, take a nap, etc... and everything will be just fine. I played a couple Sit N Goes too, and got a 2nd and a 3rd. If I'm going to play those, based on the time involved, I'm going to play a little larger ones.

I'll have to look into just how much *I* can make at SnG's... not someone else, but me. It's good to know these things.

It has been interesting to see how many people have resolutions for the New Year.

I am trying a new Bankroll Challenge to go with my current one. Racing with a couple others on Twitter, and you can follow with topic #bankrollcontest

That's it for now, more tomorrow.

Growing Pains... doing Better and Worse

2010-01-05T07:22:00.001-08:00

I entered a discussion on Facebook about PokerStars here: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=11918&post=73136&uid=24922647584#post73136

Some guy posted who is "sure" there is a boomswitch and doomswitch based on "stack size" that it favors the larger stack. For those who don't know, the term "boomswitch" is a belief by some people that after you win a certain amount, you are then UNABLE to win for a certain amount so the poker sites can get your money. Which is ludicrous, because they make more money the more you play, whether you are winning or not. Not to mention that if it did exist in the software, then players could exploit it, and the whole system would break down and they would lose a TON of players very quickly, and that would cost them WAY more than a "boomswitch" could ever hope to. So it's not logical even if they were unethical. The major sites take great measures to ensure everything is legit and post the proof on their site, which you can access on the main page by clicking at the link at the bottom that says "Integrity" (or click on it here to do directly there)

Back to me and my poor results. Well, let's explain that a little.

I have learned SO Much in the past 6 months, it's incredible. My playing overall is worth patting myself on the back. Instead of just being a good player by "feel" and instinct, I am a good player by theory and odds. I learned why I do what I do, and how often, etc... Stats are a great thing. I learned what my opponent does and why, and this helps you know better in sticky situations what to do. Or it helps I should say. Poker has so many variables and possible combinations, that each situation will be different. But knowing the "engine" inside and out can help you be a better "racer". So on any given situation, I am less likely to make a mistake, and more likely to capitalize on others mistakes. Which is the name of the game!

Let's call this progress 'Winning More Battles'. HOWEVER, as with so many things in life, we need to look at the 'Big Picture'. Let's call this 'Winning the War'.
Based on my results, which I have been tracking with software, close to 30,000 hands now, I am NOT winning the War! How can this be, if my playing is better than it has been in the past? Can both situations be true? YES, they can.

Even though I am playing better in most situations, and winning more hands overall, and having much better results more often... I am not winning the hands where it counts the most, or, I am making the biggest mistakes when there is more on the line.
I may win for 2 hours straight, winning several buyins, showing great progress. But in No Limit Hold'em, you have this ability to lose or gain very quickly. Many opportunities present themselves to "gamble". The infamous "coin-flip" where you and another player (or players) have roughly a 50/50 chance to win a hand, or close to it. Everytime you are in this spot, you must remember, you chose to be in this spot by your actions leading up to this. This is a good reminder that life is like this out of poker. You can also choose NOT to gamble like this. Your progress will be slower, but safer? Think of the tortoise and the hare!

If you play by the numbers, you will have to tolerate the natural variance that occurs. You will have more up and down variance. If this is fun for you, enjoy the ride, it should be entertaining! And stick to those numbers, so that your variance is balanced over time. Even though that might be more exciting in the short run, it seems more boring to me in the long run. However, if you accept this, you can apply the multitabling advantages of as many hands per hour as you are capable of playing profitably, and get where you are going with VOLUME playing.

If you play by "reads", instinct, feel, like a "Jedi", you will pick your battles based on different criteria. Very often, based on the info you know about your opponent. Or think you know! ;) Or what info you let out about yourself to influence your opponent. Or misinformation! Acting, faking, trapping, slowplaying, illusion, etc... I'm sure know what I'm talking about here.

Then there is the pure gambler. Who needs to think about all of the above when you can know just enough to be dangerous and force people into coin flips all the time? Technically, any two cards can win, and if you choose carefully, you can have a good run of luck often enough to get away with it! This will make for HUGE variance and is the least reliable method, but people DO win the lottery. Sometimes. But usually not consistently. And I don't recommend for anyone. Or do I? I would only recommend this for a casual player who can't play often and is approaching throwing a bunch of money away at the poker tables as "fun"... sometimes you will win big and have fun doing so. FUN, that you can afford to pay for, is the only reason I'd recommend this "gambling". But bring your rabbits foot, you are going to need it!

You will have to decide which combination of the above possible ways of playing, and more not listed, that you employ, and find that works for you! There is no ONE way to win at poker. Every situation is different and the best players will be able to play in all of the above manners and come out ahead.

So, there are several ways you can play poker. Several ways you can be a winning player. And as a professional poker player, I need to concentrate on Winning the War! I need to limit those mistakes in Key battles that are costing me performance in the long run. There are SOOOO many poker players out there, that are not winning players over time, because they fail to see and accept this point, and then fail do enough about it!

I will be glad when I fell I have absorbed enough info about poker, that I can stop "thinking" about it, and just play. But for now, I have to take this methodical approach, the safe way, because I cannot afford to throw away a lot of money learning quickly all the things I need to. I long to get it all behind me, and get back to enjoying the "meta" game, which I will post about later.

See you on the felts.

Graphs, Running Bad, Bad Beats, yet slowly coming back

2010-01-03T05:23:00.000-08:00

My graph. It's, well, UGLY! Like a trainwreck. You can't help but look. It was diving like a submarine hit by a torpedo. Slowly, anything but surely, it's been slowing it's descent and even "thinking" of heading up. Like a lumbering Titantic being brought up with tiny bubbles, it's slowly coming around this HUGE bend known as "Career Low!" and, hopefully, with all the faith we can muster, headed in the right direction. If you have any prayers or extra karma, and would like to lend a hand, there is this iceberg of a graph I would like ya to pray for!

Graph? It looks more like an EKG. You might think I'm kidding. But it really looks like an EKG that was recorded during an earthquake... on a trampoline. How does one suffer such a bad graph gracefully? I haven't figured that part out. I'll get back to ya. And no, not under circumstances, will I be posting this graph until it's Definitely on it's way back to the surface and beyond. It's not how many times you fall, but how many times you get back up that matters, right?

In other brief, but distracting from graph news, some guy won 3 tournaments in 1 day on PokerStars, the new VPP stuff seems pretty cool, and Daleroxxu's blog is pretty dam funny. Go check it out. This is not the graph you are looking for... Move along.

Bad Results, Thinking Positive, Growing despite obstacles

2009-12-31T13:25:00.000-08:00

My online challenge has been just that, a challenge. Thing are not going to well as I try to mess too much with my play, my stats, my tables, my stakes, etc... Focusing on VPP would be easy at a higher stake, but not so much at .05.
Bankroll Management needs to be respected though and is more important overall, so we'll just have to deal with that.
I'll post my dismal stats in a comment to the previous post.

But after all is said and done... I'll leave you with this. As I move forward.

BankRoll Challenge addition .. 100vpp less than 3 days.

2009-12-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

They seem to think I can't do this. Get 104vpp more by the 31st, so I get my Silverstar before January where it changes to only needing 750vpp. So it's on.
I'm going to do this. With a $23 bankroll. At 5NL. Starting now!

You can follow on www.twitter.com/thewookieway and I'm about to post a thread on 2+2 about it. I think people have performed greater feats. Not sure why this sounds so hard to some. But apparently people are already betting against me. Time for some Prop Bets.

Due to monitor restrictions (not on my home pc) I will have to do this 4 tabling. 6 at most but that will wear me down more. 6 screens won't fit :P

Wish me luck! Better yet, as always, wish me a clear mind and determination.

Can I catch KidPoker?

2009-12-26T20:47:00.000-08:00

From Daniel's Negreanu's blog:

"8. Get to the $3-$6 level in my bankroll challenge. Yes I'm still doing and I'm up to the $0.10-$0.25 games on PokerStars. My ultimate goal is $100,000 but the odds are heavily stacked against that. I'd see it as a triumph if I can get enough of a bankroll to ante up in the $3-$6 game. I'll need to $1500 before I can buy in to that game, and I'm currently sitting on about $180 and am currently playing. If I lose my entire bankroll at anytime, I'll give it up. To follow the progress of the challenge I update it after sessions in the original post at Daniel's Blog Forum "

I am currently back from $12 up to $65 at the moment and grinding back up. I hope to catch Daniel and either pace him, or outpace him! ;) I've got a little more time to devote to my challenge as he has other duties. Perhaps it will inspire him to finish it sooner. It will definitely help with with friendly rivalry and motivate me :)

2009-12-26T18:02:00.000-08:00

2009-12-26T08:08:00.000-08:00

How do I get this into Holdem Manager? my MTT stats for the TLB for the past year.

Dear ZomBParadox,

PokerStars Tournament Leader Points for the period from 2008/12/26 21:00 PT [2008/12/27 0:00 ET] to 2009/12/26 21:00 PT [2009/12/27 0:00 ET] requested by ZomBParadox (zombparadox@yahoo.com) on 2009/12/26:
Tournament Game Date/Time Buy-In Entrants Place Points
134677201 Stud 2009/01/18 18:22 PT freeroll 8000 390 18.02
134677335 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/01/22 19:42 PT freeroll 6703 464 15.12
146300077 Hold'em NL 2009/03/15 0:22 PT freeroll 9000 248 23.97
162030201 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/05/13 23:42 PT freeroll 3460 359 12.35
164456920 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/05/20 13:42 PT freeroll 7000 249 21.10
164456932 Hold'em NL 2009/05/20 21:42 PT freeroll 9000 15 97.47
164457011 Hold'em NL 2009/05/22 13:42 PT freeroll 9000 524 16.49
164457021 Hold'em NL 2009/05/22 20:22 PT freeroll 9000 525 16.48
163878919 Omaha PL 2009/05/24 11:00 PT freeroll 6585 797 11.44
166260261 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/05/25 21:42 PT freeroll 3985 42 38.76
166260287 Razz 2009/05/26 15:02 PT freeroll 5624 451 14.05
166260294 Hold'em NL 2009/05/26 19:02 PT freeroll 9000 941 12.31
166260380 Hold'em NL 2009/05/28 21:02 PT freeroll 9000 148 31.03
167619243 Hold'em NL 2009/05/29 11:18 PT USD 0.10 360 15 26.65
166260405 Razz 2009/05/29 13:02 PT freeroll 6312 861 10.77
166260406 Hold'em NL 2009/05/29 13:42 PT freeroll 9000 913 12.49
166260409 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/05/29 15:42 PT freeroll 6451 500 14.29
167730004 Hold'em NL 2009/05/29 19:39 PT USD 0.10 360 37 16.97
166260420 Razz 2009/05/29 23:02 PT freeroll 3104 71 26.31
167757495 Hold'em NL 2009/05/29 23:05 PT USD 0.01 990 78 14.78
166260424 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/05/30 1:42 PT freeroll 3747 229 16.10
167592637 Razz 2009/06/01 19:02 PT freeroll 4824 688 10.54
167592641 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/06/01 21:42 PT freeroll 3991 301 14.49
167592643 Hold'em NL 2009/06/01 23:02 PT freeroll 9000 1032 11.75
168173072 Hold'em NL 2009/06/02 15:05 PT 20FPP 3972 310 27.11
167592713 Hold'em NL 2009/06/03 21:42 PT freeroll 9000 1232 10.76
167592785 Hold'em NL 2009/06/05 17:02 PT freeroll 9000 999 11.94
167592790 Hold'em NL 2009/06/05 20:22 PT freeroll 9000 539 16.26
170078211 Hold'em NL 2009/06/07 17:42 PT USD 0.01 990 149 10.70
170117871 Hold'em NL 2009/06/07 22:04 PT USD 0.01 990 48 18.85
170137110 Hold'em NL 2009/06/08 1:32 PT USD 0.01 990 102 12.93
169719667 Omaha H/L NL 2009/06/12 1:02 PT freeroll 5458 473 13.52
169719705 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/06/13 1:42 PT freeroll 3788 67 29.92
171726768 Hold'em NL 2009/06/15 23:02 PT freeroll 9000 374 19.52
171726869 Hold'em NL 2009/06/18 18:22 PT freeroll 9000 335 20.63
171726916 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/06/20 1:42 PT freeroll 3878 426 12.01
173555470 Omaha PL 2009/06/21 21:42 PT freeroll 6297 160 24.96
173555491 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/06/22 11:42 PT freeroll 7000 664 12.92
173555494 Badugi PL 2009/06/22 13:42 PT freeroll 7637 1111 10.43
173555527 Stud H/L 2009/06/23 11:42 PT freeroll 8000 612 14.39
173555536 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/06/23 17:42 PT freeroll 7000 185 24.48
173555538 Hold'em NL 2009/06/23 19:02 PT freeroll 9000 687 14.40
173555543 Hold'em NL 2009/06/23 22:22 PT freeroll 9000 293 22.05
173555601 8-Game 2009/06/25 12:22 PT freeroll 6000 259 19.15
173555607 Stud 2009/06/25 16:22 PT freeroll 7496 377 17.74
173555620 Omaha H/L NL 2009/06/26 1:02 PT freeroll 5059 338 15.40
173555673 HORSE 2009/06/27 12:22 PT freeroll 8000 527 15.50
175255432 Hold'em NL 2009/06/29 23:02 PT freeroll 9000 1098 11.39
175255456 Razz 2009/06/30 15:02 PT freeroll 6128 811 10.94
175255492 Hold'em NL 2009/07/01 15:02 PT freeroll 9000 1217 10.82
175255577 Hold'em NL 2009/07/03 23:42 PT freeroll 9000 1229 10.77
176530195 Badugi PL 2009/07/07 9:42 PT freeroll 6497 145 26.64
176530237 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/07/08 13:42 PT freeroll 7000 430 16.06
176530274 HORSE 2009/07/09 14:22 PT freeroll 8000 1012 11.19
183615403 Badugi PL 2009/08/02 17:42 PT freeroll 5894 300 17.64
185661343 8-Game 2009/08/15 10:22 PT freeroll 6000 290 18.10
187167158 Razz 2009/08/21 23:02 PT freeroll 3344 257 14.35
187196820 Hold'em NL 2009/08/23 12:30 PT USD 10.00 27041 2535 65.67
190418548 Hold'em NL 2009/08/26 20:51 PT USD 0.25 45 1 46.89
189501288 Razz 2009/08/28 23:02 PT freeroll 3376 244 14.80
190733946 Hold'em NL 2009/08/29 13:00 PT USD 0.10 4537 166 28.44
188959555 Hold'em NL 2009/08/30 11:00 PT USD 10.00 7559 862 59.54
191375370 Hold'em NL 2009/08/30 20:22 PT freeroll 9000 976 12.08
191369501 Hold'em NL 2009/09/06 12:30 PT USD 10.00 27538 1107 100.29
193371966 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/09/07 21:42 PT freeroll 3975 83 27.54
193372145 Hold'em NL 2009/09/12 21:02 PT freeroll 9000 1235 10.74
193236131 Hold'em NL 2009/09/13 1:00 PT USD 3.00 3178 90 89.84
195154978 Hold'em 2009/09/20 2:22 PT freeroll 9000 689 14.38
197687399 Stud 2009/10/01 22:22 PT freeroll 4440 588 10.94
197687400 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/10/01 23:02 PT freeroll 3372 218 15.65
200618723 Hold'em NL 2009/10/03 12:06 PT USD 0.10 360 6 42.14
200559743 Badugi PL 2009/10/10 13:42 PT freeroll 7060 156 26.77
203047181 SingleDraw2-7 NL 2009/10/17 1:42 PT freeroll 3954 500 11.19
203047207 2009/10/17 19:02 PT freeroll 7408 487 15.52
203040003 Hold'em NL 2009/10/18 12:30 PT USD 10.00 28170 3274 58.98
208692513 Razz 2009/11/02 19:02 PT freeroll 4304 567 10.96
219010027 Hold'em NL 2009/11/14 21:00 PT USD 2.00 2330 342 35.29
229010073 Hold'em NL 2009/11/17 22:00 PT USD 3.00 2175 102 69.81
229010215 Hold'em NL 2009/11/20 3:00 PT USD 1.00 3737 4 335.28
229111155 Hold'em NL 2009/11/27 20:00 PT USD 2.00 3849 83 92.08
213977435 HORSE 2009/11/28 2:22 PT freeroll 4744 439 13.08
208985282 Hold'em NL 2009/11/28 19:40 PT 10FPP 3042 85 36.72
229110003 Hold'em NL 2009/11/29 12:30 PT USD 10.00 32487 2281 75.88
213973271 Hold'em NL 2009/11/29 13:20 PT USD 4.00 1000 85 55.85
234010025 Hold'em NL 2009/12/03 21:00 PT USD 2.00 1906 40 93.34
219273619 Hold'em NL 2009/12/08 22:20 PT USD 2.00 1419 111 48.35
219273936 Hold'em NL 2009/12/10 18:00 PT USD 4.00 1231 138 48.63
219273621 Hold'em NL 2009/12/10 22:20 PT USD 2.00 1472 92 54.09
220788128 Hold'em NL 2009/12/11 1:38 PT USD 4.00 180 25 43.69
237011027 Hold'em 2009/12/13 18:00 PT USD 4.00 282 11 82.45
239011011 Hold'em NL 2009/12/14 17:40 PT USD 8.00 2599 233 64.01
217410929 Hold'em NL 2009/12/20 11:05 PT 20FPP 5793 539 24.83
Total points: 2,882.94

Thank you for participating.

Easy being a pro! .. yeah right!! UGH!

2009-12-26T05:39:00.000-08:00

So far.. this transition into playing professional, is a BIG FAT FAILURE! This doesn't mean I will not succeed, but it does mean it will not be like winning the lottery. It will NOT be like getting a nice new fat paycheck with a career change.
It WILL be hard work. And lots of it! Hopefully that will get easier as I go, so I can enjoy this career, but hard work never hurt anyone. I just didn't imagine it would be this much hard work.
But as they say, anything worth doing is usually not easy.

And then this morning I am having a good session. But the bad sessions, they seem to be worse than the good sessions are good! we'll see what results, actual results, not impressions, turn up over the next couple of days. I've got about 6 weeks left? Time light the afterburners, and grind my life away to get a baseline. An accurate one.

Focused Drive in Poker, What really drives Me

2009-12-23T02:54:00.000-08:00

My daughter of all people, is driving me to succeed. Inspiring me to put in more time than I thought I was capable of. Sure, if I was on my own schedule, could work 36 hours straight, then sleep as long as I need to, and then continue, I could certainly put in some Supernova Elite hours! But try to do that with a 9 to 5 job and a long commute. IMPOSSIBLE! .. or is it?

You see, my wonderful daughter, wants something more than a present for Christmas. She wants to see me on her birthday! (end of January) I'm so proud of her. It will be her 8th birthday (my son is 9). My children live in Indiana with their new family, and have another brother and sister now, so there are 4 kids.
I have had to come to California for a job, and it's not ideal, but it was necessary at the time. I've had health problems to deal with, so it was fortunate I was able to get insurance in the nick of time and make it through a dark hour.

Now that things are clear for a career push, I have been focusing on "getting somewhere". Not just succeeding at a chosen career (peace of mind) but making enough at it that I can deal with the distance between myself and my children. Either making enough to visit them often enough and take them on vacation, or being able to afford to live closer. I hope to do both.

I have wanted to play poker professionally, for years. One of the main reasons was the freedom it would allow me to work on my own schedule, to write and record music, and work on my books that I have yet to write. And a few other interests including some inventions.
But, there is an underlying desire, that no matter what I do, at whatever level, that I do what I can to make the world a better place. Writing songs, writing books, just living my life by example, whatever I do, I hope I make a positive impact. Even if I do not, I will not have any regrets about trying. And I hope my children fully understand this and remember it long after I am gone.

That being said, I am driven right now. I am LIVING poker. I work, then I play poker, and get a few hours sleep, and repeat for most of the work week, and catch up on sleep about once a week. This is not too healthy nor recommended, but it's better to spend such time on something that motivates you, than squander it on something that just kills time and leaves you unsatisfied with where you spent your time. ;)

I'm surprised no one has come along and expressed concern that I might have a gambling problem (don't gamble, it's -EV and not worth the reward in the long run) or I am spending too much time trying to get where I want to go. It IS good advice to enjoy the ride, you only live once, and ESPECIALLY enjoy your children, they are only young once. But since I communicate well with those close to me, I think they understand. In fact, some are pleased and excited for me, and following my progress closely, cheering me on, even helping out with secretarial duties! ;) (You know who you are!)

To be quite honest, I simply do not have enough income from my job to go see my children for Christmas, or even by my daughters birthday. So I have to figure some other way. I can make more money than I make from my current job (or any previous job in fact) playing poker. And I have been on this path for years, and am just now getting to where I can actually realize my goals. But it is NOT as easy as one might thing. Not even close! But, for me, this is by far the best way to accomplish my goals. Other opportunities may present themselves, and I will have to evaluate each one wisely, but for now, with current conditions, this is my best bet.

Poker players are a LOT better than they were 10 years ago. There are a lot more of us in general, but the average level of the game is MUCH higher than it was years ago. It reminds me of trying to make it to the top in professional sports or the music business. The better everyone gets, the higher you need to be in the percentages to make it there. And we are talking about the top 99.99% in the choice careers. For every .01% that make it to the top, 99.99% don't. This just an example but gets you thinking on the right track.

So who does make it? Anyone CAN make it. I'm a firm believer that you can do whatever you set your mind to, and if you do what you love to do, you are 10 times more likely to succeed.
To quote Daniel Negreanu and many other top players.. the ones who make it are the ones who are willing to put in the time. And that's where I find myself while writing this, putting in the time. It's 3:30am, and I'm researching my chose craft, blogging about it, and setting aside the next 3 hours to grind, and hone that necessary discipline to make it to the top. I have had 3 hours sleep tonight, 2 hours last night, and don't expect much more in about another 16 hours before I can think about sleeping again. Is poker really that hard? Well, no, it doesn't need to be. But for the road and time schedule I am on, it needs to be, for now. If I was near my kids and could spend more time with them, I certainly would be choosing wisely what time I spent on my career, because they are my priority, especially in their formative years. (I was Mr Mom for 5 years, and went from making $70k/year doing what I love to having next to nothing, but I wouldn't trade the quality time I got to spend with my children for anything in the world.)

I'm posting this, in part to share, and in part to remind myself, why I am sticking to my discipline, why I have discipline and patience written down as part of my poker goals. I have squandered my time in the past. I have squandered careers trying to change for other people (never again!). I have squandered a couple bankrolls by not being discplined, playing when sick, not knowing my tilt limitations, etc... (still less than $1,000 total).
But I have a good reason not to squander my time. My daughter had me in tears because she wants to see for her Birthday more than she wants a present. And that makes me feel like I've done a good job as a parent. That motivates me.

That's why I play poker!

the updated promised stats...

2009-12-21T21:36:00.000-08:00

There ya go.. now I'm off to grind then report LATER so I am not spening my grinding time, posting and surfing and being distracted ;)

Turning it around..

2009-12-20T14:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, dropping down a level is not fun. Dropping down 3 levels was required for my mistakes. That's right, 3 levels! I went from .10/.25 to .01/.02 !

And it was a good move. I was taking a risk by playing at .25 and thinking I'd just redeposit if need be, and after 1 redeposit, I decided to stick to bankroll strategy and discipline. Not going broke is something that WILL be required, when I no longer have a "backup job". That day is coming soon, so it's time to sink or swim!

I was down all the way to $12 after some tourney entries. I won a limit tourney for $7.50 and used $5 of that for another tourney, but it's a fun regulars sort of thing, to socialize and keep those skills up to date. Other than that, I REALLY need to limit my tourney playing until I have time and bankroll to accomodate it.

I played from $12 up to $44 playing .05 today. I will remain at this level for a little bit before moving back up to .10

I'll post my improved graphs later.

Read 2+2 .. lots of good info there. Find the info that stands the test of time.

Bankrolls: 20 buyins, no more than 5% of bankroll in play. 1 buyin = 100 big blinds.
10 buy ins left = MOVE DOWN
40 buy ins left = MOVE UP

We'll stick to that with patience, discipline, and resisting temptation to quote grisped.com :)

2009-12-20T00:40:00.000-08:00

2009-12-19T18:20:00.001-08:00

2009-12-19T18:17:00.001-08:00

My life as a fish... sharks got to start somewhere...

2009-12-19T16:05:00.000-08:00

OMG. What a week. I guess, reluctantly, I will keep my promise to myself, to post all my results, great and small. Even Really Really ugly results. I am trying to reduce my prose to being entertainingly brief and to the point. So a picture is worth a thousand words. Ugh.

Which reminds me, I forgot what program I used to use to upload pics directly to my blog... was it Picasa? I shall have to do a quick search. Or upload to photobucket or something, If I can remember the password. ...oops. Entertainingly brief. Right.

Ok, they are posted on blog, you might have to click on pics to view them fully until I switch blog settings to allow oversize pics etc... or find a better way.

First couple are "the beginning" before I had a good hand sample size. I wasn't on a real heater, but had a few good hands and no really bad hands. Smart playing, like I "can" play. Now if I could just keep that consistent and improve upon that... but wait.......

THEN IT GETS REALLY UGLY! Ever wonder why they ask for 10k sample sizes for reports before asking for advice on 2+2? you are about to see why. I'm only around 6k hands, but you'll see how much it can vary.

How to concentrate when running deep but Shannon is distracting you!

2009-12-14T20:52:00.001-08:00

Here is the VIDEO of Shannon Elizabeth in response to Ben Stiller on TV or something.. where did all my chips go????

2009-12-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

Poker Talk... ocassionally I'll just paste a convo.. as it brings up more ideas and comments from readers as well...

ZomB: I airballed my last 3 big tournaments
ZomB: but I made $50 bucks in 30 mins last night in a .25 game!
ZomB: lol
ZomB: and I got 11th of 282 in a limit tourney, which I hate
ZomB: it's not how many times you fall or how hard, it's how many times you get back up and learn not to do it again
turnertim_2000: Right.
turnertim_2000: my online play was pretty solid this weekend though- some minor consolation there... I am only playing tournament and haven't yet become a profitable player. My bank was down to like 27 or so... and I hit 160 Sunday.
turnertim_2000: no huge cashes- two mediums and several smalls
ZomB: my tests indicate (and other collaborate) that the more reliable and steady income is the cash games, and the long shot is the tournaments. There are those that swear by sit n goes, but you need the TIME to dedicate to realize the larger variance and show the profit
ZomB: when i can spend 4 hours on a tourney and win 4x my money (but only talking 15 bucks here) and spend 30 mins and win 50 bucks... it's easy math hehe
ZomB: my average though is about $14-$20/hr with 4 tables
ZomB: I can run 9 tables on my monitor at home when I get that all done
turnertim_2000: over how many hands is that?
ZomB: 3 - 4 k?
turnertim_2000: I've been thinking VERY hard about making that switch.
ZomB: over weekend I didn't have holdem manager running
turnertim_2000: Also thnking about moving to stars a lot
ZomB: well i'm planning on doing both
ZomB: but while I NEED to build my bankroll, i'll be self disciplined about tournaments
ZomB: I've paid for the majority of my tournaments with my cash game winnings
turnertim_2000: and you are playing at what level?
ZomB: so I feel good about it, but i'm breaking even until I get a big win
ZomB: why do that when I can build my bankroll and then afford to play full time and have time for tournaments, it will be a break from the cash grind
ZomB: .10/.25
turnertim_2000: on Full Tilt?
ZomB: pokerstars
turnertim_2000: oh okay
ZomB: UB gave me 10 bucks.. I'm going to work that up to 100-200 at least
turnertim_2000: Stars is WAY THE HELL BIGGER than Full Tilt right?
ZomB: I'm going to take advantage of rake on UB, Doyles and FTP somehow
ZomB: stars is THE biggest
ZomB: FTP has been gaining but still about h alf as big I'd say
ZomB: stars has the TOUGHEST competition, but with so many people, still enough fish
ZomB: I keep hearing about how things are better for poker pros at FTP (lot of wanna bes from poker after dark ads, etc)
turnertim_2000: How much time/energy/analysis do you put into your table selection?
ZomB: and I know places like doyles, and other smaller sites will be softer at times and in certain areas
turnertim_2000: like, do you research the names of the players to find soft tables?
ZomB: enough so that it improves my bottom line, but not so much that it takes away from it
ZomB: it should be second nature, whether live or online
ZomB: i will do that as I use holdem manager.. I have been "marking" everyone I play on pokerstars for a while in NOTES
ZomB: C = cash, L=limit, ?=tourney, F=final tables, etc
ZomB: I h aven't figured out the table manager in holdem manager yet, and need to play at home AND at work too, so trying to figure out best way to transport and share data that way
turnertim_2000: I started the harringon on cash books and he is suggesting something that seems very counter to the style of play I am used to. Like, its not tight aggressive tournament play minus the meta game... its lots of "see cheap pots with hands like 97suited because nobody commits money without a monster so you need to have a hidden monster in order to win much"
ZomB: i would have to agree with that wholeheartedly
ZomB: I have been beat by people doing that often enough to learn to use it in my repetoire
ZomB: instead of losing with KK or AA, you start stealing wins from others playing them with your straight or flush, etc
ZomB: you can win more with a pair of 9's than with aces full sometimes.. based on how you play it
ZomB: i have greatly reduced the "i gotta pay to see" calls to when I'm 99%+ sure I've got the right read
ZomB: it's cheaper to let it go than be wrong too often
ZomB: i've got to read those books too.
turnertim_2000: I found in the SNG scene that there was a MASSIVE difference in the play at the 1, 2, and 5 dollar levels. I found it much easier to perform consistantly at the higher levels because there was some degree of "logic" behind most of the players.
turnertim_2000: I imagine that is true at the microstakes as well?
ZomB: yes
ZomB: though
ZomB: I do better against better players as well
ZomB: but...
ZomB: there is less difference between .02, .05, .10 and .25
ZomB: I'm expecting more of a difference up to .50 but one I will ENJOY
ZomB: 2 is tight, logical.. 5 is insane across the board, can be anything
ZomB: .10 is more logical tighter again.. with more variance than 2
ZomB: then .25 is a bit of a mix too, but looser than .10
ZomB: it makes no sense
ZomB: and this is for the times I play
ZomB: primetime and early day might be completely different
ZomB: most sites. and live play, as you go up in levels, you go up in competition and play ability as well
ZomB: it just isn't this way in the micros. and I suspect at every level there is a "least common fool" level where you get more fish than expected
ZomB: think of it as fish from all classes of life
ZomB: lower class, middle, and upper
ZomB: they are going to be playing at different limits
turnertim_2000: So are you going to make it this week???
Last message received on 12/14 at 1:09 PM
ZomB: should be short on cash tomorrow, but ok on wednesday
turnertim_2000: Awesome.
ZomB: I get my check deposited by wednesday morning, but that makes me short on tuesday
turnertim_2000: Tuesday is "Ken's game" and Wednesday is "my game" so I am more excited about building Wednesday anyway.
ZomB: I'll just have to catch caltrain and come back to work and stay
ZomB: easier than all the way home
ZomB: but I got to consider the time investment vs profit lost]
turnertim_2000: vs. live play experience
ZomB: it's a case of 'I got to run well enough to pay for the time missed"
ZomB: but I chalk it up to more live experience to keep my live skills sharp
Mind if I use your yahoo name on my blog?
ZomB: I've been editing the convo to not do so , so far.
ZomB: but it's more time consuming than just copy and paste
turnertim_2000: No I don't think I care. As long as context is included so when I ask an intelligent question and you give me a basic lecture- it doesn't look like I'm an idiot.
ZomB: LOL
ZomB: I'm talking for my benefit as well, sharing my thoughts, airing them, makes them more clear, shines a light on any weaknesses
ZomB: you'll ask questions about things that are weak or dont' make sense, etc

Sunday, some results and numbers

2009-12-14T00:18:00.000-08:00

While playing a limit tourney, $4.40, I got 12 of 282, for about 5 hours time.. made $11.00+

PokerStars Tournament #237011027, Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $4.00/$0.40 USD
282 players
Total Prize Pool: $1128.00 USD
Tournament started 2009/12/13 18:00:00 PT [2009/12/13 21:00:00 ET]

Dear ZomBParadox,

You finished the tournament in 11th place. A USD 15.79 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 82.45 tournament leader points in this tournament. For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/

Congratulations!

Thank you for participating.

So afterwards, I decided I was going to play some .10/.25 for an hour. But, after 30 mins, I quit feeling good where I was up $50. That's $100 an hour. nice ;) I was running "goot!" and had kings twice, quad 4's, but the rest were made hands or didn't go to showdown.
I was 4 tabling, fast tables where possible.
I'm starting to request daily hand histories to solve my multiple pc playing.
We'll sort it out later.

My PC is almost done, need a DVi video cable, then I can 9 table on my monitor. Can only really 4 table on this one. When my bankroll can manage it, i will buy a 2nd monitor to give me an easier 12 table or up to 18 tables. That should hold me fine for a long time to come :)

As you can see, I should keep to cash games for a while, despite the nice promotions for the leader boards.

I'll try to get a pic of my stats and graph posted tomorrow.
See you on the felts.

Selection, Selection, Selection

2009-12-11T13:41:00.000-08:00

I've got to catch up. I have gone through SEVERAL buy ins in recent times. Was up to about $280 with my initial buy in, but have since lost it all. Went on a donkspree when too tired, too distracted, etc... Following your intincts on whether you SHOULD play or not, is a good thing. Try not to get into a situation where you HAVE to play, but give it 110% if you do have to!

So although I've had some decent results, and they seem to come in flurries, in tournaments, I have to start focusing on Cash Games in order to build my bankroll. And choosing the right tournaments, the right cash tables, the right live games, etc... makes all the difference in the world.

I've got Hold'em Manager installed and working well. How do I use this info both at home and at work? What's the easiest way to transport/export the data?

I'll have some charts and graphs that show me going up, going down, going back up again ;) Soon.

Pasting discussions with friends...

2009-12-10T16:26:00.001-08:00

I am talking to poker players a bit more, so I am going to be pasting some of my poker converstations here, as they help improve our game. Everyone talking should be improving. Right?

" Did you start at the lowest stakes? How many move ups have you earned? or did you jump when you deposited more money? "

Last message received on 12/10 at 3:53 PM
ZomB: earned move ups? they are free, you move when you decide to
ZomB: I deposited 50 and moved to nl25 right away knowing the risk
ZomB: I could play 10k hands at nl5, then NL10 etc.. if I wish
ZomB: I actually was playing less levels when my cash was $250 ..
( I had about $100, and hit a MTT for $192 when i got 4th)
ZomB: would have been wiser if I stayed in my bankroll limitations, but I had to devise a plan, and test the boundaries
ZomB: Confidence is the only reason anyone needs 10k (or more) hands at a certain level to prove they are a winning player
(but if you feel you need, take as long as you wish, it's your life, time and money!) (nothing wrong with taking as much time as you need, and it's even advisable)
ZomB: if you are winning at nl2, you should be winning at NL200
(but you will usually find less fish at these levels. This not always the case. You should consider there will be pro quality players at EVERY level, even .01/.02)
ZomB: for me, I need to make sure I have the discipline to not play at certain times, to be patient during downswings, and to constantly fill my head with any little piece that is missing, or memorizing those "middle" odds.. not the top 15% or not the bottom 15% of hands, but knowing the territory in the middle by heart"

Most of my leaks come from playing when too tired, playing too many tables for the level of distraction at the time, not allotting the proper time for playing and sticking to it, not having my "warroom" set up optimally for the best play for the best amount of time available.

There is always room to learn more, in any game or endeavor. I should respect the fact that NL HL is one of the toughest games out there as far as total competition and spend more time on the other games that I am winning at, like Razz, Omaha8 (hi/lo), and Badugi! If I feel I must "conquer/master" NL HE first.. it may be a costly proposition.

I have always planned on playing multiple games, and hopefully winning multiple bracelets, and expect that NL will be the hardest to attain. If I ever attain any! The fields are MUCH larger these days, and it's possible to be a VERY successful player in cash games, and tournaments, and yet still not have attain a bracelet. I will NOT get too hung up on this goal. ;)

Edit: I have to add the following..

The only reason to take your time moving up is NOT confidence. It's ALSO becoming aware of the territory. The regulars, the sharks, the fish, who they are, where they are, WHEN they are playing, etc.... I find that sometimes when we make choices, the facts that turn up later, induce us to rethink those decisions, and in come cases, to make other choices. This might be one of them :)

Recent updates, Outlast the Pros, etc

2009-12-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

I think of all my best ideas for bloggin while travellin. I can't wait until I have a new battery for the laptop.

I did NOT win anything in the PCA Tournaments. No Bahamas the easy way for me! But it was fun. It doesn't look like I'll make it this winter, but you never know what might happen. It would be a blast.

I started using Hold'em Manager. Can't seem to get simple questions answered. Hate having to devote some of my limited time diggin through manuals and forums...

Like right now, I'm at 3 tables in tournaments, and the info from the HUD is blocking some of the cards. Annoying. I found the transparency, have it almost all the way down. But still times when the HUD seems lost, or TrYING to get in my way! Should be a quick switch to click it off when you don't wanna see it without having to turn the whole thing off!

The information is most useful AFTER a session. I've got to figure out how to post my stats, and WHICH ones to post beyond the basic stats screen and graph.

I've been playing anything from NL2 to NL25 .. .if .10/.25 is NL25.. then what is $10/$25 called? My bankroll says to play at nl5 for a while before NL10 and certainly a lot before NL25. But I am taking some risks, as I am in a hurry. Time is not on my side. Layoffs are coming, and while I job search, playing professionally is my backup if I don't land a new job! Sometimes, we do what we got to do.

Got a new home game to go to on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, to add to my regular monthly game. Gotta keep that live poker experience going.
And speaking of Live Poker.. I'm going to check out some of the casinos for jobs as a prop player. I can survive on that until I have my bankroll padded.

I have been planning on getting a small bankroll on EACH site, and at any casinos where I can trust the managment like at the Oaks. That way I can get a break from the regular routine, and be able to make money wherever I am, and take advantage of any opportunities that present themselves. Planning ahead.

I better get off here, I'm in 3 tournaments and just about on tilt because I gotta take a piss! :X

Arrgh. Dedicated but still FAILed.

2009-12-06T08:58:00.000-08:00

I was so worried about making sure I was well rested for the 3 PCA Freeroll Main Events today.. that I didn't even take home my new motherboard to finish building my PC. I might have stayed up too late trying to finish it. And just in case the 3rd tourney ran late, I went to work so I would already be there for Monday morning. Great plan, huh?

Real dedicated, giving up Saturday night, going out with friends, playing live, etc etc etc.. And guess what happened? I woke up with 30 mins left to sleep before I had to get up and get read, and hit snooze.

Didn't wake up until 2 hours later. 1800 or so in tournament from Blinding out. ACK!

3 Chances to win a Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure worth $15k and a badly needed vacation, to get to play with some of my Pokerstars friends in the Bahamas, and play in a tournament where I can win approx 3 Million? And I SLEPT through the first one???

Let's hope that the extra sleep I got serves me well in the next 2 tournaments. I look forward to the day when I can set my own schedule! I just might be a better player if I can SHOW up to the tournaments I'm entered in! Maybe.

Edit: I forgot to add that I did not put myself on Tilt because I let this happen. It's not the end of the world, and it is not affecting me. A simple conscious decision. I just file away the info and lesson learned for next time. Then I stamp "priority" because this has happened before! We need to learn from our mistakes in all areas of life, right? Especially Poker.

Reality. Acceptance. Change. Growth.

2009-12-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

to quote myself: TheWookieWay "#mtt #poker to go from 10% to 90% is easy... to go from 98% to 99% is monoumental. To work with what you got regardless, is priceless. 13 minutes ago from web"

My ambitions: To be both a great Live player, and a great online player. This one isn't TOO hard, but there are differences.
To be a great tournament player and a great cash game player. Few players are good at tournaments AND cash. Many more are much better at one or the other.

My reality: I am a much better player LIVE. Those innate poker skills, people reading skills, acting, mind over matter, etc... they are what got me interested in doing well at poker in the first place. If it was just mathematics, I'd figure out by formula whether it was worth it to me to play poker or not, and probably wouldn't. Just following a formula would be BORING and not hold my interest. So I have to accept, that I am doing much better LIVE.

My first live tournament at the Oaks, I got 12th. The only reason I got involved in that pot just before the bubble that knocked me out, was I thought I had the guy covered in chips, and could have folded my way through the bubble if needed. However, I was suprised to find when they wouldn't count his chips because they were all so sure he had ME covered, as he had a stack of purples behind his other stacks I didn't see. Newbie tournament mistake #1 that I will never forget. Yet another reason to keep track of every chip at your table, and in the whole tournament if you are capable.

My 2nd live tournament, I got 8th. Part home game, part pros, year long league with Player of they Year, etc... quite a few great playing friends.

Online, in Hubbles, the NL HE Freeroll on Pokerstars.. which I KNOW I can, I trained myself on this tournament for almost a year... the highest I got was 15th. Twice!! This is close enough to know you can do it. This came down to a point where, is it worth it to get a ticket to enter a $1500 Freeroll vs the time invested? If had no bankroll, and plenty of time, sure. But now that I can play for cash, it's NOT for me. I still enter occasionally just so I can say I won it once, but it really is -EV (Expected Value) for me to play.

I got to the point where my average expected finish was in the top 15%. Then top 10%. I am now in the 5% range. I have read that the minimum you should be able to do to break even is 1 in 55 wins for tournaments if you are following your bankroll limitations, and that you need to win more than that (on avg over time) to be able to make a living at it.

Online, I am better at tournaments and sit n goes, afraid to play no one. But my cash games are sucking BAD!. Well, not THAT bad, but no where close to my standards for the goals I wish to attain.

Live I am a little better at Cash games than I am at tournaments but this will change the more I play in tournaments I think. I am adding a couple home games to the casino tourneys for the experience. I am trying to nail down the facts for what is worth it and what isn't timewise for all of my games, Cash online and off, and Tournaments, online and off.

I welcome opinions on what software works best for online play, and does that same software work for live game tracking as well?
I was using Pokertracker 3 .. and the HUD.. but found that the HUD was getting in my way of playing, and lowering my EV. Is this normal for someone getting used to using it? Should I be like the jet pilot who uses every last bit of info (logical) or like Luke Skywalker and use the force? (many good players do not use this kind of help when playing, but I can't see how anything BAD can come of it, if you remain objective, and use the info at the right time)

So what is my playing reality? I am better live. I am better at tournaments. So if I want to change that, I need to work on it. Analyze. Accept. Change. Grow.

What is my BANKROLL reality? I need to stick to cash games, not tournaments due to the variance. I need to stick to Online instead of Live, because of my bankroll limitations.

Isn't that a paradox? My bankroll says stick with your weaker game, my skill says stick with what you are good at. Until I have a safe bankroll, it's a balancing act. It would seem, this is why so many have a hard time getting started.

Not being safe with your bankroll will bring you to a dead stop. Don't go there :)

Dividing / Spreading your attention... how far?

2009-12-03T23:00:00.001-08:00

Now there are some days where playing 1 table can drive me crazy.. but if it's an important enough tourney, I will give it my full attention. Not to miss a thing!

I prefer to play at least 2, usually 4 tables. I will not be playing more than that until my PC at home is built, which is much more robust than the ones I am using now. I have a 23" monitor with nice video card and at least 3 gig of ram. I will add a 2nd 23" monitor when I am able. This will make multi tabling a LOT easier to do :) I wont go blind!

So I've learned NOT to mix game types. Don't play a NL tourney with a cash game, with Razz game, with a HU game!
Distaster. You might play great until you suddenly have to pay attention to all 4 tables at the same time and at different paces. Not optimal. "yeah, i'll call .10 ... oops! I called 1.00 ??? ouch!"
etc

And what am I doing right now? Playing 2 cash games at low limit, and 2 tournaments... and bloggin, and headphones, and reading Twitter, and Email, etc. etc. etc. and I just went all in when short with A Q offsuit... Oops. In a tournament, where I was in 6th of 24 or so a little bit ago, at the start of this blog entry. 18 get paid. See what I mean? I hope you appreciate this sacrifice to make my point!
Kiss that $5 tourney goodbye with the $230 for 1st where I was running good. I was ahead on the All In btw, lost to K J (other guy had J 9) straight to the King.

So, I need to stop bloggin while playin. I may blog less, but OH WELL! Bloggin don't help my bankroll.

I also need to stop playing when I'm sleepy, too hyper, on tilt for any reason, distracted, daydreaming, etc...

I spent all that time making my "habits" good ones... it helps if you are disciplined to make good decisions when you get tired but before you have decided you are tooo tired, too drunk, or whatever. What are you doing drinking when playin anyways?? :)

Why am I here bloggin? *pooooof*

How Low is TOO Low? When to Push in Tournaments

2009-12-03T21:23:00.001-08:00

What is YOUR opinion on when to push in a tournament? I'm asking this question relative to Big Blinds (BB's) ... 20BB ? 10BB? 7 BB? 4BB? 1BB???

Obviously, you can come from behind with a single chip! The later in the tournament you do this, the more difficult it will be to accomplish.

It seems the average consensus with your average player is 10BB. It seems your good players will play all the way down to 3 or 4 BB. And some crazy players will push it all the way to a 0.5 BB! (usually when they are anted in with their last chip!)

I USED to play down to whatever it took. Then I started listening to those who seemed to know what they were talking about and pushing between 15 and 10 BB.

These days, I'm back to "situational". Depends on WHEN in the tournament, the cost to enter, the time it will take, etc... and whether I have any fold equity at all. Of course, I give away very little fold equity when there is a chance to knock someone out, and there is a chance that their range is pretty wide.

How many BB are you comfortable with before you start to worry??
In general, I'm comfortable with anything 20 BB or more.

I wonder what would happen if I was as patient in RAZZ as I am in NL HE?

I love Bankroll info.. good info is so scarce...

2009-12-03T18:10:00.000-08:00

Victoria Coren on a lesson in bankroll management posted on Pokerstars.com

She talks about deciding not to go play a tournament that didn't fit her bankroll after recent home improvements. Wise lady.

I, too, have had to make similar choices recently as well. It's a very necessary discipline for a Poker Pro. I can't stress this enough. The number one reason a lot of GREAT poker players never make it when going pro, is because they need to be great at poker AND be an investment manager for their own bankroll.

I had to start my bankroll with next to zero money. No windfall, no reserves, no credit card, etc... Flat Broke. But there is a great satisfaction that comes from being able to say "I did this on my own". It's time intensive almost exponentionally from the bottom to the top, but a worthwhile trip if you plan on standing the test of time.

I look forward to reviewing this post in a year.

Stolen (blatantly) from Daleroxxu you, I mean Borrowed

2009-12-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

10 Questions Not To Ask Me About Poker (because you won't like the answers)

For my non-poker friends and associates: (click above to see the original on Dale's site, hope he doesn't mind my stealing this to post here)

10 Questions Not To Ask Me About Poker (because you won't like the answers)

.. well just click on the link to go read it on his site ;)

My Thoughts in Isildur1 news.. OPINION only

2009-12-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

Over at Poker News Daily, I commented on THIS post :

Responses to “Isildur1 is not Viktor Blom (blom30)”

TheWookieWay Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:18 pm

Alright, I’m going to add my 2 cents, just a “possible” opinion.. no facts here!

Are we certain it is someone in Sweden? Of course not. Hacker 101 says “proxy, anyone?” Could be from anywhere in the world.

If it’s factual, then it’s got to be someone with a LOT of money. That narrows it down quite a bit. But still, not that much.. quite a few billionaires out there, and a plethora of millionaires.
Anyone who has that level of money SQUANDER away in a possible loss, has too much money on their hands. Takes “partying like a rockstar” to a whole new level… “partying like a billionaire?” … Wow.

If it’s “promotional”, that is someone with a good mind in marketing is generating traffic and/or interest in Full Tilt. This would have to be an insider. There’s a whole STABLE full of LIKELY possible players who could be Isildur1. Very Plausible.

Another very plausible idea, is someone is money laundering. All of the people supposedly involved playing against Isildur could be taking turns playing against each other. Anyone with that level of money to launder must be the type of person you’d like to avoid at the felt, in the alley, on the internet, etc… you won’t get me thinking too much more on that subject, just not safe. This would also be bad for poker in general, and is not something we need for it’s reputation right before a poker law reform.

It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. Doing something famous, and remaining anonymous, takes a certain dedication. It’s harder and harder to do in modern times. Just like bankroll discipline, does this person(s) have secret/communication discipline?

PS… if anyone is accepting applications for “token tax-shelter poker pro pawn” to help out, you can reach me via email.
See you at the felts, both virtual and real.

World Clock tool.. What time is it where YOU are?

2009-11-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

Since I talk to so many players around the world, I thought I'd post this useful page I use to keep track of what time it is in other parts of the world.

Qlock <- click here

It's also useful for showing me how much daylight I've used up by sleeping in! Warning: If you are on Vampire hours, this may be a sobering experience... ;)

Where's Darvin now?

2009-11-29T03:30:00.000-08:00

I'm finally watching the WSOP Main Event Final table on the internet.. while playing cash games. I was playing HORRIBLE earlier, knowing I should have gone to sleep. I was down almost 40% of my bankroll! I am now down only 20% now, with patience, no tilt, etc... I would have stopped playing if I couldn't keep my level of play up, and worried about it later.
The last thing I want to do, is feel I "need" to get even. I've seen so many people make that mistake and go broke after being ahead, or almost even, etc... If you are playing your A game, and not on tilt, your variance will not matter. It's NICE to always win, always be ahead, but it's not reality. So no need to stress about downswings, or overextend trying to "recoup" losses.

Speaking of playing my A game, I need to get some sleep! It's going to be a WAR tomorrow, and I look forward to it. Dream Job battlefront, Here I Come!

Weak Points Your Game - other category

2009-11-28T17:55:00.001-08:00

Breaks.
Just before breaks. How many times have you been knocked out of a tournament just before a break?
Just after breaks. How many times have you played not as well just after a break? If you play better just after a break, you are doing something right. If you play worse RIGHT after a break, change what you are doing. I have had both problems at various times. I watch for every little area to improve, and this was one of those that was a little elusive.

At home, I play where it is too COLD often. This actually affects my gameplay. And while I had more to say about this earlier, I don't now, so we'll save that for another time.

Blogging while I play. I should save that for an activity when I need downtime away from the game. Or when I am playing only 1 tournament. and not at all when I am playing Cash games.

Dream Job.. Final Tomrrow.. Really? I have a chance??

2009-11-28T15:08:00.000-08:00

It's starting to hit me.. I've got a 4th and 2 5th's in tournaments in the past week. I've won 3 tickets for the PCA final on Dec 6th. Win one of those 3, and I'm going to the Bahamas!

Tomorrow is the PokerStars Dream Job Final. currently about 404 players. I'm figuring around 500 by tomorrow, at most? I like those odds. It'll be some fierce competition I'm sure. But it'll be fun :)
The Winner gets $5,000 a month for the next year, and $40,000 in Live Tournament entry fees. Wow. That's the Dream Job for me! Throw in a Racing sponsorship and it couldn't get any better! Well, maybe a record deal as well, and then we have perfection. LOL!
But seriously, if I win this, I'll be able to afford being my own sponsor. And though it's going to be one of the most hotly contested contests on Pokerstars, I'm feeling good about it.

PCA Freeroll Fantasy Main Events (I paid to win my satellites, how does that make them Freerolls?) on Dec 6.
5am PT, 2811 players
11am PT, 2831 players
5pm PT, 5843 players. It pays to be the early bird! That's going to be a LONG day for me.. I am entered in all 3 tournaments. Top 9 of each win a package though! Isn't that generous of Pokerstars? It should be a blast in the Bahamas!

I am looking forward to what is after that to focus on. Meeting my goals as I go, but setting up my warroom for optimum play still the main priority right now. (poker priority)
Bay 101 Shooting Stars is in March, WSOP in next June/July, WCOOP next September, ..
In light of all this tournament fun, I will still be concentrating on my cash games and live play as well. I have a couple poker friends to talk to about things and help with that offline theory that is good for your game. I think I underrated it before, but am beginning to see the light.

If things keep going this well, I won't need to worry about backing or staking, I'll be able to write my own ticket. Thinking positive always helps, in all areas of life.

Distractions, Stamina, Satellites, etc.. and a Royal Flush!

2009-11-27T23:31:00.000-08:00

You know, I'd make a whole lot more posts if I stopped trying to make them while I'm playing :)
I was playing 4 tournaments earlier, and doing well in each for a while, but eventually, you'll make a small mistake here or there, or time out in this hand just before you click , etc...

I've had a goal of winning a seat in the Pokerstars Carribean Adventure in the Bahamas, and have been playing those satellites when I can. You can win up to *3* tickets for the PCA main tournaments on Dec 6, at 5am, 11am and 5pm (PST) So far, I have 2 tickets, so I'll be playing the 11am for sure, and have to figure out which of the other 2 will be best for me.. but if things go well, I'll win my 3rd ticket, and enter all 3! I had hoped to win 1, was glad to win 2, and am actually optimistic of winning a 3rd. Wouldn't have thought that a couple months ago.

I have won a few $109 seats for various tournaments, including the PokerStars Dream Job Final. It's on Nov 29th, at 4pm PST. The winner gets a $5k a month salary and $40k in tournament entries! For a year. Isn't that the perfect job for a new professional poker player?
Well, it is and it isn't. I would LOVE to take advantage of that opportunity. But just like winning the Lottery, it would allow for a different set of problems to be handled. Like becoming too lax, too loose, etc... Maybe earning your way there on your own would be more satisfying? More rewarding?
You wouldn't have to listen to the naysayers "oh he is just a pro because he WON a donkfest" etc.. But you will always get that sort of thing from at least SOME people. And you should never let it bother you. It's human nature that small minds will gossip. Most people grow out of it, eventually. Don't let it affect you, it can't unless you let it. Always remember that.

So I've been getting distracted from Bloggin. Had lots of stuff to write about, but have been too busy playing when I should be bloggin, and vice versa. Time to start writing stuff down.

It's only been about 6 hours of play time, but I'm getting tired, and know what happens when I try to play while too tired. I don't play my "A" game. And I should follow my own advice. Since I give it out so freely where it's not asked for ;)

Having the laptop fixed will allow me to write more while I commute, where I have plenty of time to think.

I better get back to building this bankroll. Been keeping ahead, even after paying for all my tournaments, etc.. Not even counting those $109 seats ;) ... Got a couple $215 ones to win for Sunday....
Until later.

Some Poker News, I have fun short live tourney, minor places in big tourneys online

2009-11-25T13:19:00.000-08:00

So, what's the latest? If only I had enough time to play like this guy, who set the world record for hands in a day? ( as far as we know, rumors have it others have hit this mark as well) .. from our friends at PokerstarsBlog

The Brunson 10 are up to things.. and you can follow them on Twitter @brunson10

I played in a live tournament against my better judgement last night, and my instincts were right. I had a good time, but played worse than I have in a while. Not really bad, just picked bad spots a couple times, and should have played a lot more conservatively. Fancy Poker Syndrome. I have learned to NOT play poker online, in tournament or cash games, if at all possible, when my instincts say not to. This was a once a month home game among some friends, so I went anyway.
At least I look like a total newb for next time ;)

It looks like this was stuck in draft folder for a while...

Winning Seats, and Ladies Tournaments

2009-11-21T17:44:00.000-08:00

I hear Carbon Poker has a Ladie's Only weekly, and that reminded me to post about Pokerstars Ladies Tournament at the PCA, qualifiers online, info HERE.

Feel free to sign up through my affiliate banners here if you haven't already :)

I almost posted this on my personal blog, and my personal blog post on here! How embarrassing! Y'all dont' really want to hear about my person life, do ya? That's ok, I'll stick to poker here ;)

It's about time to head out to play some live poker, but I have a $100,000 tourney tomorrow. So maybe I'll play online tonight and watch a movie and get some sleep. But I NEED to keep that live practice going, part of my regular poker diet :)

Do you show cards when playing for cash Online or Live?

2009-11-17T22:40:00.000-08:00

It seems to me, that few people these days are willing to show their cards, or their bluffs while playing online. Sometimes, they will live, a small percentage of the time more than online. It seems when everyone is having fun, people are more likely to show, AND more likely to have fun even when losing. This will keep people around longer, so it's good for your game, right? Yet, sadly, it's a rare sight online. I'd say 1 table in 15 or so might enjoy a good conversation, and maybe 1 table in 30 actually have a few people having fun! Here's to more fun if you see me at the felts, Live or Online :)
Why not have fun in everything you do in life? There are enough situations where you need to be serious, but even then, a positive attitude will go a long way to making things more bearable.

Now some will say they won't show, because it's better to keep them guessing. And I understand this philosophy, it's very logical and solid gameplay, for the most part. But if you are able to change gears, which is a must to play with the best, showing can be fun ;) Just make sure you don't outwit them so good that you forget where ya are in the hand!
Salute to "rocky144" on Pokerstars who I just won a big gamble against :)