I had kind of an odd month, I broke out of my life nit ways and got a 52" tv along with a ps3 so that I could watch blu-rays. So far I've watched part 1, 2, & 3 of Planet Earth which I originally saw on tv on the discovery channel in sd. It's basically a documentary about the most amazing wild places on earth including the animal/plant life. Even if you hate documentaries about animals you're doing yourself a disservice if you have an hdtv and a br player not to watch this if for only the scenery. I also watched "The Golden Compass" which was pretty cool as well.

As far as poker goes it was a mixed bag. While I had my best poker month ever +$740 I was a huge coinflip in the stars $55/70k from going to the final table feeling like I was the best player there. I guess I run bad before the final table in $55 mtts. Out of 15 or so 55s I've cashed in 4 including a 17th, 13th, and the latest which was an 11th place finish. Essentially I raised AKs on the button BelowAbove shoved freakin 29bbs with 77 and of course I lose and bink I go from feeling like I was in control of the table and the rest of the field with a good stack to out for a $652 pay day. This was my 2nd best cash ever.

I followed the 11th place finish with a win in a 11/180 for $540 on my next session which is my 3rd best cash. This was easily the craziest ft I've ever played, I managed to play around 650 hands, I believe most of these 180s will finish around 450-500. When it started the average stack was 32bbs, there were 3 guys with more then 18bbs which included me. Me and the other big stacks essentially lost all our all ins vs small stacks. I went from up to 40bb->7bb->100bb->12bb to getting heads up with a 3:1 chip disadvantage to pwning the guy headsup and winning.

I guess even though I don't have great results I am up 1.8k for the year. Easily if I win a flip here or there I've got a 5 figure bank roll but whatever we can only control what happens once we put money in the pot. I continue to grow as a player as I put the work in which involves reviewing a couple of hhs per week, going over hh posts, watching vids, and of course playing as much as possible. I think a few big things that I've improved upon since the beginning of the year is playing a big stack more effectively, being more aggressive on the bubble, and playing post flop.

I know everyone has been waiting and waiting for me to post a blog /sarcasm. Not much has happened for me in the last month or so since I last posted poker wise. My MO has stayed the same as it has since February, pwn the smaller field mtts and get fucked in the larger ones with 5 figure guarantees. I haven’t made a ft with a 5 figure guarantee in months. I continue to post, review a couple of my mtts each week and feel I’m getting better. Since late February when I had my highest cash of 1.3k I’ve essentially done a little worse then BE as I’m down about $600 since then. I feel I’m somewhere between a spewy lag and a guy that is a smart/good lag. I guess there’s nothing I can do but keep my nose to the grindstone and keep playing/improving.

As far as what’s going on in my life I’ve decided to hold off on buying a house until I pay off my car. I really don’t want to be living paycheck to paycheck, being a bachelor I have only me to count on making mortgage payments. I’ll have to wait until after February to pay off my car.

I finally bought the big screen TV I’ve been wanting for years. I got a 52″ Sony Bravia KDL-52W4100 last Friday. I have yet to tweak the settings to get that perfect picture, but it looks fantastic. I spent more then most people would and that’s simply because I’m a bit of a videophile. I couldn’t settle for an off brand as I would notice poor black levels, artifacts, back lighting leakage, among other things often found with generic brand tvs. You can maybe live with a poorer quality lcd tv if it is less then 50 inches, anything bigger and those deficiencies are noticeable. I did get a good deal though, at most places online and b&m regular price is 3k, I got it for under 2.4k. Here is a link to the TV I bought: TV Link
Until next time, Later.

I’ve adjusted to my crazy schedule and doing the little things like going over my past mtts and watching pxf vids. In 35 mtts I’ve made 4 final tables, unfortunately none of them have been in a buy in bigger then $11 and the highest I finished was 6th. I went deep in the 3r and a ftp $26 16k where in order to knock out of the 16k I had to lose nearly 3 consecutive hands AK

The 3r I raised AA in ep, bb called on a Q64 board I bet a little more then half the pot as we both had around 55bbs and the bb seemed to be a pretty competent player. At that point I put him on a weak Q, a set, a middle pair, or some kinda of connector like 56, 54, 57. The turn was a 6, which is a really great card. Villain checked and I checked. I checked for a couple of reasons, 1 this player was good enough that if I 2 barrel he folds everything except AQ, maybe KQ and calls with hands that have me crushed. This way maybe I get value on a river bet against underpairs and and QJ type of hands. River was a blank and he fired out a psb. Usually that means they got a hand, I just thought AQ, KQ were definitely hands that this guy would bet along with monsters, so I snap called and he showed 67 for trips. I was very happy that I lost the minimum, but obviously not happy to lose 40% of my stack. Then I raised AcQc and a good player otb called and the good bb called from the bb. At this point I started the hand with about 27bbs. The flop was Tc4c2x, so short of flopping a pair this is a monster flop for my hand. Now I know the button was good so I fired out a slightly less then half psb if I remember right hoping that if I got raised I could jam and get maximum fe vs a good player with an under pair or weak tp. Well the button called my bet and raised the pot, bb folded and I jammed and missed everything vs T9.

Some things I’m doing much better after spending a little time looking over my game:

1. Being more aware of how I’m sitting stackwise and adding this to my criteria of if I want to risk making a big call, raise, or bluff. Essentially if I’m at an easy table and I have a very marginal hand and have to call a large chunk of my stack that will limit what I can do later I just fold.

2. Being more selective of who’s blinds I raise from lp.

3. Punishing limpers.

4. Making a few more cbets.

5. Defending my blind more often by calling pf vs opponents I think I can exploit.

6. Stop calling/shoving with horrible hands when someone raises my bb when I’m sitting on 6-10bbs.

7. Over betting big hands like ops vs donks who can’t fold. I did this 3 or 4 times in the 3r after the rebuy period. For example I raise with AA in mp, a very bad loose calling station calls from the bb. The flop is KTx. donk checks, I pot it he calls. Turn is a blank, donk checks and I shove 4x the pot and got called by QT.

8. Playing small ball with effective deep stacks.

Although I’m stuck almost 10% of my starting bank roll for the month, I’m super happy how I’m playing. It’s only a matter of time before I hit a big score.

I had a horrible May. I had my second worst month ever playing only half my normal volume. I can’t say I’m playing my A game as often as I did on my old schedule, but I’ve been getting unlucky over and over. I’m basically on about a -$900 swing in the last 8 weeks. To some that’s not a big deal but when that constitutes 1/3 of your bank roll it starts looking a bit serious. sngs have kind of been my variance “reducer” but not lately. I’ve ran super bad in those, having sessions where I cash in 1-7 while finishing 4th or 5th in the others.

Some things I’ve noticed that I haven’t been doing on my downswing are reviewing my play, watching videos, and posting on the forums. I used to load up a hh replayer and record that hh with pc recording software as I commented on my play, then watch the recording at least 2x afterwards. What this does is separate you from the mtt your playing, basically you act as an unbiased observer and really makes you think about how you play. I have really slacked off in watching videos on pxf, which I’m now looking for a new vid site as I just canceled pxf. I used to watch a minimum of 3 a week, I need to stop slacking. I also have stopped posting as often, this needs to change, even reading through a thread once a day is much better then what I’ve been doing.

I’ve made a decision to buy a house. For the last few years I’ve held back on this decision as I feel it cements the fact that I’ll never do anything in the computer programming world. I think I’m scared that I’m going to end up working for a company that treats it’s employees like shit in something that doesn’t even closely resemble my field which is Computer Information Systems for which I spent quite a bit of money to go to school for.

I think there is nothing wrong with buying a house and if I have to move out of the area, which I won’t be leaving for at least 2 years, I can sell my house and hopefully break even given the housing market. Quite frankly I’m tired of living in an apartment with no garage for my mustang and only 2 bedrooms. I want to have a computer room, a garage, a work out room, and a washer and dryer that is my own. I’ve only went as far as looking at houses online to see what I can get for what I want to pay. The next step is contacting a real estate agent

For those that don’t know, I got forced into a new schedule in the beginning of April. On this shift I work no more then 3 days of one shift in a row, the 3 shifts are 7am-3pm, 3pm-11pm, 11pm-7am, they rotate in that order. I thought I would play more mtts on this shift since I get some great opportunities to play during prime time on the 7-3 part of the rotation. What I’ve found is I feel like shit as far as trying to concentrate which is a big negative in poker. I also don’t feel like playing since I have no energy and anything I do other then watching tv/playing video games seems like a struggle. The thought of firing up my computer to do battle in a session of mtts for up to 5 hours doesn’t seem like the greatest choice for my leisure time when my brain is fried.

I’ve only played 24 mtts this month, I should have close to 40. I’ve stopped playing as much partly because I’ve been running bad, the new schedule, and I have to watch the spurs play in the playoffs. I’ve been playing a bit more full ring 25nl and I’m starting to become a big fan. I can pretty much run the table as most fr players are either weak/passive or super nitty. Over a small sample size (1k hands) I’m running at something like 17ptbb/100 playing 20/10. People just aren’t as aggressive, you can steal blinds much much easier and most players besides the few solid tags and the super nits are very passive post flop. I pretty much open atc in the last 2 seats at the table.

Boy oh boy, what a game coming up tonight. The spurs play in NO with the series tied 3-3. I think if the refs don’t give the home team the big advantage like it’s been all playoffs, I predict the spurs win by 6. Everything hinges on these major things:

1. Who’s role players are going to hit shots and/or play good.
2. Who will get in foul trouble, if Chandler goes to the bench early it’s going to be very hard for the hornets to win.
3. What are the refs going to do? Plain and simple the home team has gotten all of the marginal calls all series.
4. Will parker hit his medium range jumpers?
5. Can Duncan hit his layups with Chandler in his face?
6. How healthy is West? If he’s not hitting his jumpers that’s a big negative for the Hornets.