PokerStars Free Bonus Gifts
POKERSTARS MARKETING CODE   |    POKERSTARS BONUS CODE  |    POKER FORUM
What's a PokerWonk?

Poker Blogs by Popularity

Footer

Poker Blogs by Type

Footer

Poker Blogs by Wonk

Footer

Recent Blogs

Footer

Poker Articles by Blog

Footer
Write about Poker. Read about Life. PokerWonks, the Poker Blog Community.

3-2-1busto's Blog    Friends

Funny ass PLO extraction

Date: Thu, May 1, 2008 Professional Internet Live

He was spewy to begin with, and most certainly on tilt. I think my sale price on the turn was too good to resist.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2533268

Read Full Poker Blog Post

I <3 PLO (for the moment)

Date: Sun, Apr 27, 2008 Professional Internet Live

I guess since I wrote that title I should start off talking about pot limit omaha. I think the biggest reason I have such a history of tilting plo, is its hard to get used to the swings. It is just way more turbulent the playing NLHE, and its a real gambler's game (which is one of the reasons I like playing it so much). However, you need to expect to go up and down. A LOT. REALLY REALLY FAST. For instance, in 10/20 NLHE, even 6 tabling, its rare for me drop or win more than 5K in any 30 minute period, and its really stressful to lose like 8K (I usually would just quit if that happens). Meanwhile playing 10/20 PLO its common to be up or down $10K before you blink.

It used to be really hard for me to deal with this, and maybe I was playing too high at plo simply for the tilt factor. So on thursday night through friday morning I played a marathon 11 hour session of 2/4 and 3/6 plo, in which I was down 3K in the first hour, then hovered there for a couple hours, at about 2AM I was even, by 2:45 I was up $1620, by 3:20 I was down $800, and by 5AM up $5500. I had several more $2-3k swings til 7AM when I finished I was +$3473.

The main reason I am so happy (besides making my monthly withdraws right after the session), was that although I lost focus a few times, I didn't tilt the entire night, and I think I was playing very well the whole time.

Today, I'm having a really nice day with the fam. After Tony's gymnastics this morning we went shopping with the kids. Tony wanted a Lakers jersey for "Jersey Day" at school next week, and Elena picked up a "Los Lakers" jersey which she likes reppin' the LA Latinos. It was a big enough draw that she decided to buy a Kobe Jersey as it was the only one they had left. If you missed it, they wore them for "Latin Night" on easter sunday:

Speaking of this I'm watching the game right now, but am paying more attention to the nfl drat right now, as the lakers.

We also got cool family pictures taken dressed up in the old school english fashions. Actually, given my hat, it looks like I am in the 40s and about to order a hit after posing for the picture.

In other news, I think I have gotten fatter than I ever did before. I'm looking for some motivation as I am now married and do not need to attract partners for adult diversion . So if you are interested in making any sort of weight loss related prop bet with me over the next couple of months, get in touch with me. I was thinking on the order of $10K would provide sufficient motivation for me, and it would be fun to see me in vegas for much of the series actually tring to drop weight considering that I don't sleep when good games are going and generally eat like crap during the WSOP.

Oh, I almost forgot, I made a graph of my monster PLO session:

Read Full Poker Blog Post

A Rough Life

Date: Thu, Apr 24, 2008 Professional Internet Live

On the bright side, I've made $1400/hour this week, and on the brigher side, it has been only 2 hours of work so far :D

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Swings and swings, and mental toughness

Date: Thu, Apr 17, 2008 Professional Internet Live

The last few days have been great, and trying, and then ok, then crappy, then great, then annoying, and ended up pretty good. That last sentence sums up poker in general pretty well also.

Besides, the money and how the cards fell, there were also swings in how I was handling things. At my worst, on monday afternoon, I was super sick with a nasty cough and a bit of the flu, and I lost a big hand just as Elena was coming home early to take care of me. I lost it, I yelled, stomped, and basically threw a temper tantrum.

On the other end of the spectrum, this morning I played a challenging heads up match at 5/10 against hibatchi41 on stars. I felt like I had an edge, but he is definitely a good player. I was up over 2 buyins, then he wound up coming back and being up a buyin, then I came back, with the aid of one suck out, to finish up +3 buyins. I think my biggest edge was that when things went bad for me, I just sucked it up and played well, and when he lost a big pot, he had a noticible decline in his play.

At 5/10 you can usually find better games than this, but occasionally I like to play a match like this, because higher up, how my mentally control yourself, is the primary difference between beating the game or not.

Anyhow, here is the graph of my last few days:

Holdem:



plo:

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Weee upswings are fun

Date: Sun, Apr 13, 2008 Professional Internet Live

Just booked another good win today. This graph shows my last 8 days of playing starting with last Friday.

As you can see, my issue with being able to take a win are doing a little better :D.



I also just got $600 of rakeback in my busto fulltilt account, so I am going to celebrate this week by trying to gamble that into a reasonable roll on there. So I will probably start by playing 5/10 HU and moving up aggressively. My own little tournament. I will quit when I am bust or have 10K. FUN FUN FUN!!!

Read Full Poker Blog Post

"Do you have to go broke?"

Date: Thu, Apr 10, 2008 Professional Internet Live

I don't know how many times I've heard, since I've started playing poker seriously, that if you are a poker pro, you will eventually get broke at some point. However since the advent of the latest poker boom, there have been lots of internet players claiming that that is completely due to bad bankroll management, and that there is no reason to ever go broke. I have seen this time and time again, usually from people who have been playing poker professionally less than three years.

The fact is that there are very very few players out there who can mentally be strong enough to never go broke. Its just tough. Whether you like it or not, you are gambling for a living. That doesn't mean you don't have an edge, and can't make a reliable living doing this, but what it does mean is that it is hard to not fall off your A game for months at a time due to the psychological aspects of gambling. And when it happens, not matter how good your bankroll management strategy is, you will need to be incredibly disciplined and have very few "life leaks" (over spending when times are good, drugs, alcohol, etc) to not go broke during the bad times.

It is not that hard to be a winning poker player over a fairly short period of time, but it is much more difficult to always be a winning player and to always have an edge. Even when the games are really good.

Anyhow, maybe I'm just making excuses for the last few months, but seriously, I don't think I even ran that bad during this time period. I put most of the blame squarely on my shoulders.

That said, its nice to be winning again :D

Read Full Poker Blog Post

I couldn't sleep

Date: Thu, Apr 10, 2008 Professional Internet Live

Last night my kids were all over me in bed, and I couldn't sleep at all.

So, I got up at 5AM and played a short session.

I guess I can't complain:



Read Full Poker Blog Post

Defeating the gamble monster within

Date: Thu, Apr 10, 2008 Professional Internet Live

As I finally feel like myself playing poker, I'm trying to figure out what was going wrong this year. Before I get to that, however, today I finally made it into the black (or green if you are talking poker tracker) for 2008, for the first time since January 8th. The biggest difference about this week, is that I am feeling much less compulsive about playing than normal. It might actually be helping that I am a little under the weather, so I am monitoring how well I am focusing much better, and just quitting sessions if I am not playing well or focused, and going back to bed.

Another big help is that I haven't been dieing to play poker every day. This might sound counter intuitive, but it helps with the well roundedness of my life, if some days I just don't feel like playing.

Another thing that has helped is that I am building gambling time into my day. This usually involves playing a couple of sit and goes or some short handed limit game, and giving myself a $1000 to lose, but a good portion of the time winding up winning money. I just looked at it, and in these sessions for the month I'm down about $280, over a lot of sessions. I would guess I might even be better than break even at this, and it gives me a chance to gamble for live tournament entries and the like. I do a similar thing out in vegas, and if I am feeling too gambly, I take a break from poker and play black jack for a little while.

Anyhow, I won about $2800 today,and so far this month I'm making about a dollar a hand at about half 10/20 and half 5/10. It feels good to be back :D

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Defining Comeuppance

Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2008 Professional Internet Live

Comeuppance:

 comeuppance

Main Entry:
come·up·pance Listen to the pronunciation of comeuppance
Pronunciation:
\(ˌ)kəm-ˈə-pən(t)s\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
come up + -ance
Date:
1859

:a deserved rebuke or penalty :deserts




I've been really lazy about updating my blog, and in that time, I ran bad, broke my computer, ran good, took a vacation, and now have been on a nice little upswing. That about covers it.

I have also been getting what could best be described as my comeuppance as a professional gambler. After the last 6 months of moving up really fast and playing really well, I went on a three month losing spree where, I learned a lot about myself and how easy it can be to fall off your game, get desperate, and frankly not be a winning player even if you have the ability to be one. I read somewhere that until someone has been a professional for 3 years, they haven't really accomplished anything, and now I can understand it a little better.

Its also nice to be winning again. I've been playing very well since I took some forced time off, having my computer break while I was at my parents house for a week. When I came back I feel like I have slowed down and been playing very well, and making very good decisions.

Anyhow, I'm up about $10K for april so far, and I could really use a big month, so heres to hoping for the best.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Final Table

Date: Fri, Mar 7, 2008 Professional Internet Live

Most of the bigger entry tournaments are on the weekend, and between family time, and the fact that I don't play them too often, I never really have taken a shot at any of them. But last Friday, I wanted a change of pace and added some tournaments in with my normal cash games, and I did pretty well coming in second in a smallish one (out of four that I played). So Sunday afternoon, after I worked pretty hard around the house for most of the day, I asked Elena if she would mind if I disappeared for the rest for the day.

I played everything with a $200 buy-in or bigger on Stars and FullTilt from the time I got on (which was too late to play the biggest ones), and I final tabled the Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan. At the final table I think I played really well, and just didn't win my flips. At one point I got all in in the biggest pot of the tournament so far with AK against 88, and failed to improve. Had I won that I would have been the chip leader with 6 people remaining, but thats tournament poker (as is the fact that 1st in this event won $46,000 and I took $4500 in 6st).

I want to thank Russell from Poker Zion for sweating me from the bubble on. You are a great tournament player, and helped me a lot in some spots that were a little outside my comfort zone.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

My Horoscope

Date: Mon, Mar 3, 2008 Professional Internet Live

Elena just sent me the a link to my horoscope for today because she thought the first line was particularly relevant:

"Creative accounting" is one way to describe the effect innovative Uranus in your Pisces money house has on your checkbook.

Yep, that pretty much sums up my bankroll management :O.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Limit Holdem

Date: Thu, Feb 28, 2008 Professional Internet Live

Its funny, there are lots of No Limit Holdem players that act as if playing limit holdem is like watching paint dry. But in my opinion, playing high stakes short handed limit holdem is a very fun gambly game. Its much more about reading people moods, and perceptions, and hand ranges and then taking the appropriate response.

I don't get to play all that much, usually just after I finish playing for the day, I gamble a little bit at the limit holdem tables. When I first started I think I was a pretty big fish, but somewhere along the line, I got decent at the game. Its a game where much of the time no one has much of anyone, and its more important to save a bet when you have the worst hand, or to get one extra bet when you have the best hand.

But this leads to some fun situations where you bet a hand for value against a big part of a persons range, but then decide to bet for the sake of a bluff on another street without anything changing. For instance, in this hand that I'm going to show you, I re-raised preflop which I normally don't do with K9, but sometimes I like to change up whether I want to play the hand as the aggressor or not. I did this because I had won several pots and been showing down big hands, and this particular opponent had raised his button almost every time he was folded to. So I was pretty far ahead of his range.

On the flop and the turn on this board I was betting King high for value against numerous draw overcard combinations that exist on this board. On the river, I bet for a different more complex reason. I thought often I was ahead, but probably wouldn't get paid off by much that was behind, and likely I would bet and he would fold. However, if I checked, he was likely to bet only if I was behind, so I was going to pay off a bet whenever I was behind anyway, so it didn't cost me any more to bet. But there was a part of his range that was ahead of me that might fold to a bet, namely KQ, KJ, KT, and maybe maybe maybe a weak A high. When I got raised however I was getting 8-1 to call and see a showdown, so I need to be right just 1 in 9 times to make a profit by calling. So lets consider the villians range here that raises. It was probably either had a 6 or a hand that had no showdown value, but put me on a weak hand (correctly) and was bluffing. The much greater part of his range that beat me, a rivered small pair, or A or King high, most likely doesn't raise and just calls me. His range in general was so huge on this board in a button versus blind battle, but by him not raising the flop or the turn, the way we had been going at it, I found it very unlikely that he had a pair of 6s on either of these streets, as I think he would raise earlier for value hoping to get called down by Ace high and get an extra bet.

So basically getting 8-1 it was a clear call with K9 high.

Here's how it played out:











Read Full Poker Blog Post

Reflecting on some leaks

Date: Sun, Feb 24, 2008 Professional Internet Live

I've been playing a lot this week, and still winning. Its nice to see my account balance growing enough, and I'm no longer worried about being able to make my with draw this month. So I've been trying to figure out what I can learn about losing money over such a long period. One interesting thing, is that most of my really bad losing sessions, start off with me doing really well for a little bit. Strange right? Well really, often I get intoxicated with the idea of having a big big winning session, and no matter how much I've won for the session, I'm hungry to have a "really big win." This in and of itself isn't bad because it keeps me from quitting good games early and book small wins and big losses.

However, the problem is, if I lose a bunch back, and am down a little or only up a tiny bit, after being up a ton, thats when I have the biggest issues. Thats when I really start to gamble, and once that starts, thats when I have giant losses.

So once you identify leaks like this, its easy to think of bandaid solutions to alleviate the affects ("stop win" limits, if you win more than a certain amount than, lose any of it back quit, ect.), but the problem is that still doesn't address the root of the problem and it winds up manifesting on other ways. So I am going to do some reading and thinking about gambling and thinking about this some more.

A second thing I noticed is that at the beginning of Pot Limit Omaha sessions I would often pay off way to often and take too many unnecessary gambles, playing big pots with marginal hands. I have thought some more about where this one comes from. For one thing, I think that these leaks in general are common in PLO for NLHE players in general, so why at the beginning of my sessions, and not throughout? Well, I think it has to do with how I start off holdem sessions before I have reads.

A lot of players start off playing very tight and straight forward, and I do to an extent, but in general I do a couple of things that are someone unique to both my game and I think very suited to an aggressive shorthanded game NL Holdem game. If I have a close decision, I opt for the decision that establishes an aggressive, action image. Furthermore if there is a close situation in which I can call to see a showdown or fold and I don't have a good read, I generally call, because it gives me more information, and helps me develop and image as unbluffable. As you can guess, having an unbluffable action crazy gambler image, is a great image to have in shorthanded NLHE games where usually no one has much of anything.

However, if you know anything about PLO its a game where not only does usually someone have a hand, but often the nuts is out there. Furthermore, being a calling station in PLO is huge leak and having an image of being unbluffable, is not all that useful, as people don't bluff as much anyway.

I do adjust well in any type of poker game, but that sucks after being stuck a ton, then having to play a whole sesion to break even.

Oh here are my results for the last couple of hands in NLHE, I also put in about 5K hands of PLO and won about 2K.


Read Full Poker Blog Post

Poker Introspection

Date: Thu, Feb 21, 2008 Professional Internet Live

ugg, I wrote a huge post here, and was tweaking on last thing and somehow now it is gone. Oh well, just a little bad beat ;)

I guess the gist of it is that for the first time all year, I felt like I was playing my A++ game the couple of days. And that since my last little setback, instead of just moving down a level and being upset and playing bad before I either had to move down another level, or I could steady myself, and start winning, I decided to do something different. Usually the only other alternative is to take a break from poker. This is not a bad idea, and is usually pretty good advice, but I know that that just gnaws at me as well, and its difficult to really leave go of it.

So instead I moved down, and I decided to take this "time off" to work on my Pot Limit Omaha game. Now I have spend a good amount of time studying PLO and have paid for coaching to accelerate the process, but I don't think I was a very good consistent player. I had a decent A game, but my C game was absolutely horrible, and I'm not sure if I was actually a winning player in the high stakes games. It turns out the problem is, that I just had not spent enough time on the felt getting the experience necessary to be an expert at the game. The nice thing about internet poker, is that its possible to get experience fast if you are willing to work. I find that I can concentrate very well at up to 6 tables at once and not miss much, and you get about 3 times as many hands per hour at just one online table as you do live. So I probably played about 6 months worth of live poker last week. This combined with all the study I had already done, and all of a sudden I feel like a formidable Omaha player.

So i was really excited about poker and thinking about all the basics of the game in general, when I finally moved back to No Limit Holdem, and I was really really on my game last night. Then this morning, i had the best Omaha session I've ever had (not win wise, but how I played). Also, I've put my newfound passion for the game to good use, and recorded a small stakes video focusing my discussion around preflop decisions. More on that later.

I am also starting to learn all the lessons I need to from this dramatic downswing that I may be coming out of. Over the next couple days I will be writing about weird leaks that develop in your game that no one thinks about, and trying to figure out exactly what my theory of bankroll management is. As my wife said tonight, this last year has been one big experiment in finding out what works in our new business, and we need to figure out what worked and what didn't for the next iteration.

Before I forget, i wanted to post an interesting hand from my session the other night, where I made a move that worked because of the type of opponents (solid pretty straightforward 2/4NL multi-tablers) I was up against and the size of their stacks. It was because I was willing to take advantage of this type of play if it were to arise, that I thought I could call the re-raise with a small suited connector closing the action 3 handed. Here's the hand:






Read Full Poker Blog Post