Sorry for the lack of updates...

For some reason, when I went back to IE6 from the new one (IE7), I can no longer get into my account. I don't get computers, so bleh.

I'm at school right now, and have to get to class, but anyways, I'll be back when I get this all figured out.

Running ok for the last week or so, clearing a ton of RB, but not too too much at the tables. Enough though.

Anyways, I'll update more when I can, and I'm also thinking about maybe writing some articles as blogs on some aspects of LHE, if I feel ambitions, anyways, or we see some interest.

Anywho. I hate class.

Adios.

Downswinging...

Well, haven't posted in a few days, and well, it's because I've been losing money like crazy.

I guess we can call it the cash out curse.

Went back to AP, and had a rollercoast ride, went down a ton, then worked it back, then down, then back, and so on. Each time, over the last few days, that I sit at the tables, in about 5 minutes, I'm down $200 before I even get settled. My worst day was a -$500ish day on Thursday.

I'm losing runner runner everything, every flush draw, straight draw, 2 pair draw, etc is hitting on me, and I'm obviously missing every 15 outer I have.

I know, I know, we've all heard it before. That is why I haven't bothered to post a whine about it.

And I won't do that in this one either, well, anymore than I did above.

This should tell the story, anyways (click for full size image)

Anyways, standard stuff, like 8s7s on a board of 6s5x4s, turn 5, river 5, obv not the 5s, and he has AA for the boat, in a MONSTER pot that I oh so sexily built up by being awesome at playing my relative postion... oh well.

Another nice one, 4c6c in the BB. Flop 753r, dude donks, I raise, some EP limper calls, turn Q, same guy donks, I raise, both call again. River Q, he donks AGAIN, I just call, other guy calls. Donk shows Q5o, EP has AA...lol.

Or the more standard stuff, like KK on 8 high flops, where the guy donks the flop, and turn, and I raise on all of them, only to have the river be an Ace to pair him up.

Even worse is that my hands weren't being paid off. AQ on a flop of QQx, but the flush gets there on the turn, and villain donks it, so I really couldn't raise, but he shows KQ. A blank turn and I make a ton of bets.

Another one with 77, flop K76, I lead, LP calls, one of the blinds times out and uses his all in protection, with KQ, so I miss a bet on each street, at least from him. To make things worse, turn is a 6, and the other guy has J6, and I get like 3 BB out of him total. He raise/called the turn, and just called the river. :(

Anyways, I said I wouldn't complain, but I did. Whatever, lol.

My SH confidence is a bit shot these days, but I think I've been playing well, aside from making too many loose calldowns, which I think I corrected today, but we'll see how it works out.

I ended up making about $80 today with like $50 on the tables and $30 in bonus cleared. I probably made about $75 in RB in addition to that as well. SH just racks up the rakeback, I'm almost at exactly what I was at for all of December already, in terms of MGR.

Anyways, my Penguins play on TV tomorrow, which is rare, as I barely ever get to see them up here, so I'll be busy until like 5, but I will almost definitely play from 5 until 9ish tomorrow, and then I'm going to get drunk and party! It's been quite some time since I've been out, but I got my first withdrawal yesterday, paid off my buddy today, and bought my books, and have about $250 leftover, so I'll enjoy it. Been a while since I had some money to spend, outside of poker.

Finally, BR is up(down) to $1226.42 on AP entirely. That means I'm down about $400ish total since leaving VC, but I did drop about $350 there before getting the bonus, and of course that includes the AP bonuses cleared, overall the downswing was about $1000, roughly. Thank god for bonuses to keep me afloat. Also, I'm starting to feel a bit better now, and feel like things will turn around at the tables. I envision a nice quick 1000-1500 hands tomorrow, and a quick $300 or so profit, if all goes well. I do still feel like I'm playing well. Oh, and RB payment on Monday, w00t. That will boost the roll nicely, as I'm due about $600.

I'm off to bed, cheers.

- Zach

Good riddance Tribeca!

So, I finished off the weekend with another stressful, aggravating, infuriating day at VC trying to clear the bonus. For the first time since before Christmas, I'm posting a down day, although I did clear the bonus, and probably cleared enough of it today to actually cover my losses.

Ended up playing 2000-3000 hands (I have no idea as PT is taking forever to load my hands), and lost about $160 at the tables. It was incredibly annoying again, as my VC account started with $1314, went down to like $1100, then up to a peak of $1546, then back down to where it is now at $1154ish, so the last dip really bothers me, as I was doing well. Oh well, it is all one session, right? And I don't feel as if I played too bad. I'm still not 100 percent comfortable with SH though.

Anyways, I may do another one of the Tribeca bonuses, but it kinda depends on my mood. The play here reaaaaaally drives me insane for some reason, and I'm not very cool to be around. I think if I did it, I'd have to stick to full ring or something, to avoid me losing my mind. However, it would take some extra time, since traffic is small at FR, and the bonus clears faster at SH.

Anyways, I got the $500, and managed to make $154 in the process, so it's not all bad. Might as well look at it from a better point of view. I'd like to blame my poor winrate at VC on running bad, officially.

But, the news here is that we've reached phase one in the bankroll mission already.

With the $500, I've got $1653.98 in my VC account, and still $954.31 at AP, so we are at the total of $2608.29.

So, with that, we cash out $1k, for books, pay off my buddy, and a little bit of extra spending money, depending onthe cost of my books.

So, phase 2 begins Monday, with probably around $1500, depending on how much Neteller and VC screw me on exchange rates. Anyways, phase 2 goes from $1500 to $2500, hopefully, within a week, and then we cash out another $1k to pay off the Visa once and for all. My goal for that one, is to definitely have it done by Jan. 15th. Realistically, it won't be hard. I still have a RB payment of over $600, due to me on that day, so I really only need to win $400ish this week. Like I said, no problem.

Anyways, back to school for a full week tomorrow, ie 15 hours of class/week, and 16 hours of work/week, so I don't know how much poker I'll be getting in, but I'll try to get 800 hands in or something. Adios.

- Zach

Quick update

So, I ended up going back to VC to get in a few more SH hands, and work on my game a bit. I took it easy with 2 2/4 tables, and walked away with another $95 after 284 hands. Tables were a bit more predictable, which is a bit nice.

Updated totals:

AP: 954.31
VC: 1314.09
Total - 2268.40

Also, I'd like to add to my goals post from earlier, that I'd like AT LEAST a 75% in each class, in addition to my poker goals.

EDIT - Oh wait... I already did that, but said 70%. Whatever, aim for 75, lol.

- Zach

So tilted - with a happy ending

I was literally going insane tonight. The play on VC is sooooooo effing bad, that I don't even know if I can beat it. Well, obviously, I do know that the worse the play, the more exploitable it is, so that was more tongue-in-cheek than anything, but, WOW, it's amazing there. Today was ridiculous. I was literally tilted the entire day. Now whether or not that really affected my play, I don't know, but what I do know is that it is fricked high-variance there (click for a bigger pic):

Anyways, I somehow won like 4 massive pots in a row, and go to +$100 on the day, and decided to call it quits before I lost my sanity for good.

When is that goddamn Stress Star going to get here from Pokerstars!

While, I know I almost definitely misplayed a few hands due to tilt, and as much as I was tossing some stuff around the room, and furiously typing to Ahson and Dan, I think I controlled my tilt "ok". I did take a bit of a break, got some air, and went back at it.

Since the hand histories at Tribeca are ridiculous, I'm not gonna go into any hands, so, long story short: 1281 hands, +$129.87 according to PT, which is definitely wrong. I've been having a ton of trouble with PT and VC, as both are super lagging, and VC freezes a ton. And, like I said, VC is gay in the way of the hand history, so it probably missed something. Now that I think of it, it could have been when I slammed the lid down after AK <>

Anyways, BR update:

AP hasn't changed: $954.31
VC, at the top of the rollercoaster, for now: $1218.51

TOTAL: $2172.82

I may put a few hundred hands in at AP before bed, since I slept until 4 pm today, and I'm not tired yet, lol. I'll update that, if I do.

As always, leave comments, let me know that someone is reading :)

- Zach

Short post - rollercoaster day

So, had a weird day today. I was gonna play on VC, but there was no full ring going, so I jumped in a 3/6 SH game. I quickly made about $100, and then Abbaddabba tells me about the 5/10 full on AP, so I figure I'll go there instead.

And whoooooooooo!!! Finally I posted a winning session at 5/10! I made a grand total of $13 over 348 hands! I was down like 240 at the table at one point though, so it was nice to get up, even if it's barely 1 BB.

I also had 3 tables of 3/6 and 2/4 going, and while I was up and down a ton there as well, I managed to eek out a profit of $31. Small, I know, but meh. I also cleared $20 in bonus.

After those tables tightened up, aim786 finally dragged me back to the SH games at VC. I played a few hundred hands amongst the worst gameplay I had ever seen.... EVER.

I'm talking SEVERAL 90/60s at the same table. I didn't know what to do. Adjusting from 5/10 full on AP to 3/6 SH with monkeys is somewhat of a challenge I've never had to do before. I didn't adjust well, or ran poorly, or something, and dropped as much as $130 before winning some pots and getting up about $5, and quitting. I decided to sleep on it, and figure out how to adjust. It takes some force to keep me from c-betting AK all the time, lol.

All in all, I got in 1,595 hands between AP and VC and earned $154.91 at the tables, cleared $20 in bonus on AP, and approximately $40 worth on VC, although the VC bonus releases as a lump some when I clear all the points.

Anywho, updated BR totals:

Absolute - $954.31
Victor Chandler - $1,118.64
TOTALS - $2072.95

(Reminder to myself for tomorrow - post AJd semibluff hand, and 68d battle with Abba)

Aight, bed time.

More grinding tomorrow, almost definitely the entire time from 3:00 to 9:00 PM. :)

- Zach

Takin it easy...

Well, on Wednesday, I didn't play too much. I was feelin pretty sick, and had a bit of a fever, so I wasn't very sharp, but I managed to play a little bit, and make about $115. I don't think I played optimally, however. I made some really loose call downs that didn't work out, and spewed a little bit here and there. Meh.

I did have a couple fun hands though... 3 to be exact, at least that I can remember.


Absolute Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $3/$6
9 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is UTG with 6♦ 6♣
Hero calls, UTG+1 calls, 2 folds, MP3 calls, 2 folds, SB calls, BB checks.

Flop: 2♥ 6♠ 6♥ (5SB, 5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, UTG+1 raises, 3 folds, Hero calls.

Turn: 8♥ (4.5BB, 2 players)
Hero bets, UTG+1 raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG+1 folds.

Uncalled bets: 1BB returned to Hero.

Results:
Final pot: 8.5BB

Meh, about as much as I can make from that one. So that was Quads #1... now this...


Absolute Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $3/$6
9 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is UTG with 5♥ 5♠
Hero calls, 3 folds, MP3 raises, CO calls, 2 folds, BB calls, Hero calls.

Flop: 5♦ 5♣ 10♣ (8.67SB, 4 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, MP3 checks, CO bets, BB calls, Hero calls, MP3 calls.

Turn: J♥ (6.33BB, 4 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, MP3 checks, CO bets, BB folds, Hero raises, MP3 folds, CO calls.

River: J♦ (10.33BB, 2 players)
Hero bets, CO raises all-in $8, Hero calls.

Results:
Final pot: 13BB

Poor guy had AJ... Too bad he was all-in, or I'd have made another $16 there.

Ok, those two were pretty boring, but the next hand is probably the funniest hand I've seen in a while.

Poker Stars
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $3/$6
10 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is MP1 with Q♦ Q♠
UTG raises, 2 folds, Hero 3-bets, 6 folds, UTG calls.

Flop: Q♥ A♣ 7♠ (7.33SB, 2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG calls.

Turn: T♥ (4.67BB, 2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG calls.

River: Q♣ (6.67BB, 2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG caps, Hero calls.

Results:
Final pot: 14.67BB


Uh... yeah. I got hard just a bit when he raised the river, and full on when he capped it. Then, I almost fell out of my chair when I saw what he had.

I'm sure your first guess is KJ, but that would make too much sense.

Villain shows AA.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Nice one-outer, me. Funny thing is, that pot should have been capped pretty well every street.

As for today, I finally got my cashout from AP, and then had what I had in my Stars account refunded to Neteller for me, so I could start a deadly new bonus deal on a Tribeca site. Just a nice little 50% bonus up to $500 that clears at the rate equivalent to 80% rakeback.

So, I put my $1000 on there, and let me tell you. It was like Party Poker circa 2004. Just unreal. I'd raise UTG with AA, get 3 or 4 coldcallers. I was still in my AP mode, so I 3-bet like 88 or something, and I would get one or two players calling THREE cold every time. I definitely needed to adjust a bit to the games there.

I played two sessions, with a dinner break in between tonight. The first session started out a bit rough, but I ended up making about $143 or so at the tables. There isn't a ton of traffic at VC Poker, but there was one full-ring game going from 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, and 5/10. Admittedly, 4/8 and 5/10 are slightly out of the roll at this point, but these games looked, and were so soft. Interestingly though, I continue to get kicked in the balls every time I play 5/10. I only lost 13 BB there, but it seems that everytime I get into a 5/10 game, I get hammered, no matter how soft it is. For example, while I was still on the stake from Simo, I took a shot at the 5/10 full game on AP the one time I saw it going and lost like 45 BB or something gross like that, which, along with some 3/6 losses for the night made up about 1/4 of my BR at the time. Not fun.

Anyways, so I made some perogies, and by "made", I mean "heated", as ISACooking, and then got back into a 2nd session. By now the 5/10 game had died, so I fired up the 4/8, 3/6, 2/4 games and the figured I might as well play a 1/2 game to clear some of the bonus. Well, I didn't run so well in the 2nd half.

Let's just put it this way: AhAx < 72h on a [6h 5h 7c Qh 5s] board, AcAx < J9c on a [3c 5c 2s Tc Kd] board, and finally, AA < QTo on a [Js 3h 8c 9c 7h] board. Add to that, KK < AQ, and we have about a $130 loss for the 2nd session.

All in all, I end up about $13 on the good side. Good day.

Well, at that point, my GF came home from work, so I spent a little time with her, then came back and took a look at AP, and noticed a decent 3/6 full game going. There were actually ZERO full games going on VC at this point, which was like 2 am EST. Played a bit there, ended up making a bit.

The most exciting/stupid thing I did tonight though, was sit in a shorthanded game. Basically, as the story goes, I used to crush the SH games on Stars until I hit the old 400 BB downswing and completely killed my confidence and turned me off of LHE for a while. I figured I'd give it a shot though, since single-tabling is sooooo boring.

I started out down a cool $80 or so while reajusting, but ended up on a nice run and booking about a $100 win over the 3/6 SH game, and the FR game, which is ok for me.

Btw, I got 1,782 hands in over the last two days, which is probably a bit less than I should be doing. Tomorrow and Saturday, I will probably put in some marathon sessions though, and probably do 3 or 4k hands this weekend.

Oh yeah, I also cleared about $60 worth of the bonus on VC. There's a bunch of skins offering the same bonus, if I get my money there before 1/31, so hopefully I can do a couple of these and add a bunch of free money to the roll, while taking advantage of the hilariously soft games.

Ok, this is WAAAAAAAAAAY too long, and probably pretty boring, so I'll end it now.

As it stands, BR = $1904.04, between AP and VC.

As an aside, I'm new to blogging, and really haven't even read very many before, so if anyone has any ideas on how I can make this more interesting, feel free to leave comments, or anything like that. I know dannyg said to write about drinking, but I've been real-life broke lately, aka sober.

Anywho, I'm out.

- Zach