New coaching site up!

So this was a big week for me for a couple of reasons. I played the main event and busted midway through day 1. I am ok w/ my bustout because I played well but could not overcome being 2nd best every hand. The WSOP was slightly disappointing for me because I cashed 3 times for about $27k in 25 events or so but ended up losing about $38k overall. That's the nature of tournaments though.

I will be back to my regular cash game grind, live version, going forward and will continue blogging. I will be doing so at my new site

http://www.stackemcoaching.com/

where I coach, make audio sessions for subscribers to listen to, and participate in the forums actively.

I'm looking to help others improve their games and I think at the cost we're selling our coaching, it's affordable for just about everybody. We have some great coaches including myself, Joe Tehan (who I've talked about before), Matt Affleck, and Jared Tendler (who's an awesome mental game coach and who's coached numerous poker players, including a bunch of successful guys). We'll also be adding new coaches, guys that we handpick so rest assured they'll know their stuff!

Again, I hope everybody checks it out, whether you decide to subscribe or not, and I'll continue blogging like usual but it will be over there. Here is the 1st blog I put up over there the other day...

http://www.stackemcoaching.com/blog/post/its-mental.html

WSOP Start

I just got home after busting the 1st event I played, the $1500 limit omaha 8 hi lo. I played 9.5 1 hr levels and busted during the last level of the day. I'm not that upset though for a couple of reasons. 1st is that I felt like I played really well, especially in a game which isn't my specialty. I know I'm +ev in this event but after playing today I feel like I'm hugely +ev in future limit om8 events up to a $5k buyin or so. This isn't to brag but to instill a self confidence in me going forward for this game. If there's one quality about me that has contributed to a lot of my longterm success, it's the ability to look at myself and assess w/ near certainty where I stand in relation to everybody else in poker.

When I reflect back on past om8 tournaments I play, I see the mistakes I made (just like I've done w/ other forms of poker)...this is a sign that I'm getting better and seeing what the right plays are. Today I felt like I played near perfect except for an obvious river value bet I missed (also compounded by not paying attention to my opponent's stack, so 2 missteps that led to 1 error). I might've made a couple of loose calls preflop but they weren't mistakes because they were situational and I felt the worse shape I could be was about even money.

I ran pretty bad during the last 2 levels, including losing 2 pots where I'm a big fav to scoop going into the river, instead had to settle for a chop when my opponents got there w/o much equity for half. I also folded some big hands including 2458 w/ 3 spades on a A77Q9 board where I turned a flush and just c/c'ed turn then c/f'ed river vs. an old guy where I'm close to 100% sure I'm beat; another hand where I c/f'ed to a 1 big bet w/ 3 big bets left on the turn w/ AJT2 on a J932 2 flush board vs another old guy and old lady (older people tend to "have it" a lot more in this game than other games), the old guy showed a set of 99s to scoop so I was right. My reads were spot on today and I took optimal lines whenever I played a hand so again I felt really happy w/ my play overall.

Anyway the 2nd reason I'm not upset for spending all day playing a tournament then busting late (like most others) is because I feel like I gain a little bit of experience every time I play, and the longer the better. Granted in nl tournaments I don't get that feeling much since I feel like I know almost everything I need to know (although picking up on tournament regs' playing styles and habits is valuable) but in other games I don't play as much I'm always observing and trying to gain that valuable experience.

As for the rest of the WSOP I'm planning on playing a lot of events and as long as I feel good mentally and physically I'm planning on playing pretty much every day. Since I'm a well rounded player I'll be playing in all sorts of events, mostly nl and pl hold'em but a lot of the mix game events as well. My ultimate goal is to win a bracelet or 2 (or more) and to know that I played the best that I can play.

I am sacrificing time that I could be playing the juicy cash games during the WSOP. I'm sure my hrly is higher playing cash games than tournaments but I just enjoy WSOP tournaments so much and I'm hungry for my 1st ever bracelet, so there's a lot of happiness and life ev associated w/ playing these WSOP events.

Also I posted in the CR forum but if I make a final table, anybody from here that come sweats me at a ft I will buy them dinner at my celebratory dinner (limited to $1k total for you guys, but not necessarily for the whole bill which will be bigger because of friends and family that will be there). Obviously I'll have to make a ft 1st which is not easy.

Other observations at the WSOP so far:

-Turnout so far doesn't seem affected by Black Friday. They had 128 for the $25k hu and a record # 925 entrants for today's $1500 om 8, granted it's only 3 events so far (other being employees' event which attracted a big # as well)...I'm sure the main event will be lower than years past though

-The featured table is a lot more elaborate...bigger and more eye catching....too bad only 3 events are supposed to be televised (WSOP rematches, $50k Players' Championship, and the $10k main event)



















-Very few patches being worn, especially after yesterday when James Bord confronted John Juanda about FTP and security guards had to be called in...after all Juanda was wearing a FTP patch and was an easy mark; note: I wore a CR patch today, more brownie pts due my way from the higher ups at CR, even more so when I win my bracelet w/ it on ;)

-Lots of cash games going on...biggest I saw was a $200/$500/$1k PLO game and it was almost full

-Lots of railbirds as usual

-Phil Ivey is suing FTP (for $150 mil) and is abstaining from this year's WSOP (he isn't really boycotting it..that's just the wrong choice of words)...as for my thoughts on this, good for him, and a noble act from him, but put me in the boat that wonders if he did it for us, or because that was the only option he had for numerous reasons, including keeping that indestructible and and almost mystifying image he's always had...other theories were running around as well, including wanting to get out of his no compete cause

-Met Gakn29, a fellow CR vid maker today, nice guy...saw Mement Mori but not sure if he noticed me (or even knows me!)

Finally it looks like I'm getting a little more recognition with the poker media because I saw that PokerNews was updating my chip counts (1st time ever). For those of you that want to sweat me, follow on PokerNews or better yet, follow me on twitter located to the right of this blog (I update every couple of hrs, including stack sizes, notables on table, interesting or amusing hands, etc.)...after all, you may get a free dinner out of it.

New Goal

In conjunction w/ my new video series over at Cardrunners I will try to win 100 buyins at $5/$10 nl online. This includes full ring, 6max, and hu. I expect most of my volume to be at 6max since most of the tables that run are at 6max. In the series I will try to capture some of my play and also talk about what it takes to beat these games on a consistent basis. I will also focus on non showdown winnings since everybody is always trying to improve that aspect of their games.

I'll admit I'm not the best when it comes to non showdown winnings but I have improved steadily over the years and I am still working on it and will relay some of my thoughts and ideas. Also $5/$10 is definitely not a limit where people are pushovers so it'll definitely be a challenge holding my own in regard to my red line. I expect to make some mistakes along the way but I expect myself to learn from them and that's the best way to get better.

Why $5/$10? Well that limit is considered the entry to high stakes online. I want to show that even in today's state of games that if you work hard enough you can succeed. Granted I have a ton of experience playing that stake and I'm a decent poker player but everybody knows $5/$10 is pretty tough nowadays. I'm not going to think I can achieve it easily...all I'm going to do is play the best I can and work hard at my game along the way.

I used to play $5/$10 on a regular basis, even 16 tabling 20-30hrs/wk (2 years ago) but I've slowed down and played stakes anywhere from $2/$4 to $5/$10 the last couple of years (for reasons mentioned in an earlier blog post). Now I'm not going to eschew the lower stakes because I'm still planning on multitabling and sometimes there are just not many $5/$10 games going.

As for time frame I'm not going to set one. The reason being that I've devoted some of my time to live play including playing some big buyin live events this year. Also the WSOP is right around the corner and I'm planning on playing a full schedule. This goal may take me 2-3 months or it may take me 1 year. Another reason I'm setting this goal is to push me to work hard at my game and put in the time that I've been lacking the last couple of years.

















The only thing I haven't done is think of a name for this series...if anybody has a good idea feel free to let me know.

So the 1st video in conjunction w/ this goal comes out today. I actually started playing in February and captured the 1st video during a session. Hope you guys like it and get something out of it. Expect more in the future and hopefully some of my new ideas and growth as a poker player helps those that watch them.

Oh, and I will post $5/$10 graphs from time to time to show my progress, starting w/ the hands I've played since I decided to do this....























Yeah, 97 buyins to go :)

2011 Goals

My biggest leak in poker has always been complacency and laziness. The 1st few years of my poker career that wasn't the case as I grinded 30-40hrs/week consistently. I guess most people like to play a lot early on because it's fun and seems like a good way to make money whenever you want (given that you're a winning player) and I was no different. Also I was starting to build my roll and net worth and support a family along the way (w/ help from my wife who also played poker) so I put in the volume to provide a good life for us and reach some goals.

Well once we had built up a good bankroll, accumulated a respectable net worth, started investing for our future including our retirement funds, and bought our 2nd house I started feeling like I could take time off whenever I wanted. I think I took that too far at times though. It might have been some cockiness on my part though, which is bad. I just felt like I can resume playing anytime and expect to win lots of money. That isn't always the case though because we all know how tough poker can be at times.

This is the main reason I've stayed at midstakes, primarily nl400 to nl1k the last 3-4 years. I played enough and won enough to maintain our standard of living but never played more to build my poker bankroll to take shots at higher stakes, even though I think I can do ok at the bigger games. The trade off is that I got to pursue my hobbies and spend some quality time w/ my family, but there were also lots of times where I wasted time watching tv, browsing the internet, etc. that could've been used to play poker.

Well no more! Wait, I tried this last year and set a monetary goal of $1 million dollars and failed to a degree. I ended up playing 15hrs/wk which is up from the 13hrs/wk from the previous year. Well I think I figured out a better way to motivate myself to play as much as I can and hopefully build my roll and take shots at bigger games. My game plan is to go after supernova elite on Pokerstars.

Now I know this is really difficult to do, especially for somebody like me w/ a family. There were a little over 300 people that achieved sne on 2010 so it's not impossible. I already calculated that I would need to avg about 30hrs/wk playing the games I am playing now to get it (less hrs at higher stakes and in limit games). That would be doubling my hrs from last year which on paper doesn't seem hard but irl is.

I'm also planning on playing a few more live tournaments, especially the ones in Las Vegas and possibly some in Los Angeles. I think I have what it takes to win a major live event and I'm going to give myself as many chances as I can afford (within my means of course). I will probably sell pieces of myself at a markup because we all know how expensive it gets playing a bunch of $5k and $10k events. For now I'm planning on going to Los Angeles in February to play in the LAPC events.

I am not going to set any monetary goal for this year because I don't think it helps and can actually be a detriment. I'm not really susceptible to it but I can see how somebody can feel pressured to win and play less than optimally under those conditions. I'm just going to focus on putting in the hrs and playing the best I can at all times (this should be the mindset for all professional poker players though). I will continue to post my monthly results because I know readers like to see that, and that allows me to be honest w/ myself (if I'm not doing well), plus let's admit it, I get a certain satisfaction when I make an x amount of money in a month and get to share it (who doesn't though). If I ever start making 7 figures on a consistent annual basis then I may stop posting but that is very unlikely.

I'm going to work on my game some as well. I'm definitely an advocate of always working on one's game and I want to make sure I'm at least staying w/ the curve of the new generation of poker players, and hopefully I'll be able to stay ahead of that curve. I don't want to get into how I work on my game but I will be working hard on getting better. I do want to improve my PLO game and have been dabbling in it this year. I'm planning on playing a lot more PLO this year. I feel like the games are softer than NL in general and I'm an advocate of learning as many games as possible. Specifically I've been working on 3betting ranges in PLO lately.

Also I want to contribute however I can to improve Cardrunners. I am an employee of the company and want to take my position seriously and make my bosses happy. I'm still working on my video making and narrative skills. It's definitely not easy to produce videos and I'm going to work on producing the best ones that I can.

Along the same lines I'm planning on cohosting CashPlays w/ Jeremiah Smith (broadcast on CR and PokerRoad). I really enjoy my gig there and I get to share my experiences and knowledge of poker on the show. I've gotten to know Jeremiah better over the months and he's a really good guy (goes w/o saying I guess w/ him having been a pastor...talk about a career change...pastor to poker player-poker host). Remember anybody is free to email us and ask us for potential guests or send in hand histories for us to break down.

Random PokerRoad story...few years ago Jeannie and I were in line buying a snack during the WSOP at the Rio, Barry G was standing behind Jeannie and started hitting on her (talking nicely and all to her, so I assume he was hitting on her) while he was oblivious to the fact that I was w/ her (as her husband..in his defense I'm sure he didn't even notice me). I guess I should take it as a compliment he was hitting on her? Also he owns PokerRoad so I hope there's no repercussions from me writing this, and if so, oh well . :)

I guess for poker that is it but I'll leave my mind open for whatever new may pop up. After all last year I was only shooting for $1million but ended up getting a cohosting poker gig and became an instructor at CR. As for coaching I'm not sure if I want to do it yet. My 2011 itinerary seems pretty full but again, we'll see.

Since this is the new year, I, like many others, want to get in good shape and maintain good health. I want to get to the gym at least 2x/wk (there's a really nice one that's part of my community right behind my house so it's even easier to get to one) and I want to try to eat healthier (much healthier...lol). This might actually be harder than my poker goals but might be an even more important goal.

Now I set all my poker goals but poker will never be my 1st commitment. That will be my family (and as a spiritual person, God). In a perfect world I'll achieve all my poker goals and get in great shape but more importantly make everybody around me happy. In 2011 I'm hoping to live in a perfect world. Gl to everybody in 2011!

2010 Recap

Before I get to my 2010 recap let me do a quick recap of December. I started the month off playing a $10k WPT event and cashing in it for $13,725. Unfortunately that capped off a weak month in mtts where I played a bunch of online mtts for once and only cash a couple of times. In cash games it was just as bad, if not worse...























I played 41hrs and ran pretty bad as evidenced by the graph. My all in ev lies at $6141 while my actual $ won was -$314. Overall after rakeback I made $1905...not exactly the way I wanted to finish 2010.

Now on to recap my 2010. I guess the best way to describe my year is underwhelming. It wasn't a disappointment because I did set a lofty monetary goal of $1million and got about 1/4th the way there. I thought I made more and recently said I made 1/3rd of my goal on my recent CashPlays podcast but I was estimating and I was off . For the year I made $264,500 in poker. The breakdown is on the right of the blog. Sure it wasn't close but hey let's not kid ourselves, that's a lot of money.

2010 Graph 1st...



2010 snapshot of my online NL cash game results for 2010...

A detailed breakdown on # of players...


I am ok w/ my overall winrate (in PTBB) at around 2.65 BB/100 for a few reasons. One being that the games are supposedly the toughest they've ever been. Also the fact that I play 15-16 tables at once and can maintain a 2.65BB/100 doing so is pretty good. Finally I was not very selective when it came to game selection and pretty much played on whatever tables were going. Sure I might have chosen a softer table when I had 2 options but for the most part really didn't seek out softer games. Also I played everybody when it came to hu and am proud of holding my own considering this was the 1st year I really started playing hu.

A couple of observations regarding my HEM...I went through all my hands at $5/$10 and felt like I ran bad and actually had my worst run of the year (in April) while playing $5/$10 only. Yes the games are tougher but I feel like I can win at 2+ BB/100 at $5/$10 w/ normal variance. I do think I will need to cut down on tables if I want to maximize my earning power at $5/$10+ since the games are tougher. I did not show my PLO HEM because I had minimal hands at the game. I played 2772 hands at PLO stakes ranging from $1/$2 to $3/$6 and won $2204 for a winrate of 24.5BB/100 which is obviously unsustainable. I will be looking forward to studying the game and getting better at it in 2011. I will talk about my 2011 goals and outlook next time.

Also I played 760 hrs and won at a rate of $253/hr, or $295/hr if I include rakeback. For sake of simplicity I will say my hrly for 2010 was $300 which I'm happy w/. Now let's talk about what I am disappointed w/ and most of that is the volume I put in. Sure I played 720k hands online and that is a lot but I really can and should be playing more than 15hrs/wk in cash games. Now I did play a bunch of tournaments and I'm not exactly sure how much time I invested in them but I really should be able to double my hrs/wk in cash games (maybe even triple them if I scale down on mtts and push myself). Again next time I'll go into how I'm going to approach 2011 and find a way to at least double my volume from last year.

W/ my results out of the way, I'm gonna mention some things that happened to me in 2010, mostly all positive. I did start my own blog and thank everybody that spent time reading it and followed my life/career in 2010. I also expanded my network in poker after having spent most of the past few years sitting behind my monitor grinding away w/o really trying to get to know others. I never felt alone though because I did have friends outside of online poker and I have my family that is always here w/ me. I do think it's important to have a good network of friends that understand poker and play it to the degree you play it.

I met a few guys over the summer that I play vs. online and it was cool to put faces on players I play vs. on a daily basis. Granted almost all of them were 10-15 years younger than me but that is the sign of the times I guess. Also I met Jeremiah Smith during the summer, at church of all places, and I duped him into thinking I can make a good cohost on his CashPlays podcast...actually he asked me but still a great dupe job on my part (probably had a lot to do w/ the extravagant lobster/crab/steak dinner we hosted for him, his wife, and a few of his friends).

A little bit later I pulled an even bigger dupe job by convincing Cardrunners management I knew how to teach poker and make nl videos. Seriously it was a big decision I made and I feel good about it. I had been holding back on joining an instructional site for a couple of years and finally decided to take the plunge. Why not w/ the biggest site and w/ guys that know what they're doing and do a great job putting out a great product (man I hope they're read this and I get brownie points for all the kiss ass here).

As a professional poker player I'm going to experience the ups and downs that come w/ this job and there are a lot more ups and downs in poker than in just about any other job. One of the early high points was being the biggest winner at $2/$4nl across all sites in January. I made about 100 buyins in January and PTR had an article of who the biggest winners were across all sites and they had me topping the $2/$4 games. Next I started grinding $3/$6 and $5/$10 and continued to do well, capped by a +$17k day (more like a sick 3 hour session) in March. Sidenote (and brag) I won $100k at $5/$10 back in March 2008 so that was another month I won 100 buyins in a month, but the games were a little softer back then. I guess March is annually a good month for me!

Well along w/ good runs comes bad runs and boy did I run bad in April. I went from $12k winner to $27k loser in 2 weeks but managed to lose only $12k for the month, which turned out to be my worst month of the year. I had a decent May and was ready for the WSOP.

I ended up going in w/ high aspirations, mostly because I felt like I was one of the favorites in every event I entered. Like every poker player I dreamed of winning a bracelet. Well I played 17 events and cashed in 5 including the main event, which isn't shabby but none of my cashes were very significant. My largest cash was in the main event for about $24k. I did show a profit at the WSOP which most poker players won't do. Actually this was the 4th of the past 6 years that I showed a profit just off WSOP events so I have a fairly good track record in the WSOP although the bracelet still eludes.

During this time I didn't play much online, but played some live, which is a great time for it. Anyway I resumed online poker in August and had a good month clearing $62k, helped by my best mtt score of the year when I won $25k (3rd place finish) in a $540 tournament at the Hard Rock of all places.

Well, as it happened the last 2 to 3 years, complacency took over the final 4 months of the year and I jogged, well more like walked, to the finish line. Part of that had to due w/ football season and the holidays but mostly it was my fault. I'm hoping to not get into that state of mind again...the scientific term for this condition is laziness. I did win about $25k the final 4 months but the volume was just not there.

In terms of life outside of poker it was mixed. The family was great and I really do have a great wife and kid and love the fact that they support me to the fullest (I guess it helps that I do well at poker so they can spend the money). I have a great core of friends that I hang out w/ and some of them did well in poker. For somebody that lives in Vegas, and "gambles" for a living, I'm blessed to have a good group of friends that are genuine.

The downer part outside of poker is that I was pretty bad when it came to my health, notably improving it. I started off the year w/ a bang, going to the gym 2-3x/week for 3-4 months then the WSOP came around and I fell off the wagon. I'm sure lots of you guys can relate w/ me, but it's hard keeping a routine every week when it comes to exercising. I'm hoping to get back into a regular exercise routine and also looking to eat healthier (more organic, drink lots of water, no sodas..well maybe diet only, more fish, vegetables, less shellfish...damn the Vegas buffets!).

Also I had a profitable year when it came to ventures outside of poker. I won in sportsbetting overall and did well in fantasy football. I lost in pit games, mostly craps, but it was minimal compared to what I made overall. I think I lost a little bit backing people in tournaments though, which is unusual because I tend to run really good when I buy pieces of people (I've won $50k, $25k, and $20k in the past taking pieces of people in single tournaments so all my poker playing friends think I'm good luck and ask me to buy pieces).

Finally I just want to say I write about poker in general and offer some advice from time to time, just so people know it's not all about how I am doing in poker. However poker does not encompass my entire life and it probably shouldn't encompass anybody's entire life. Also I like to think I lead a well balanced life where poker is a means of providing for my family and living a comfortable life and I really do believe that's the best way. Anyway I thank everybody that reads my blog and continue to do so and hope you guys learn from my mistakes, conquests, and experiences to possibly enhance your poker ventures or even your lives.

The chase for SNE?

I've been mulling goals to make myself for 2011. Given that I found reasons to do other things than play poker the last couple of months (mostly because of family staying w/ us and it being football season), one of the goals has to involve some kind of volume reached. Well I've been thinking of moving over to Stars from FTP for a few reasons and what better volume goal than trying to achieve supernova elite on Stars.

Besides sne, I think playing on Stars is more logical for me because there are slightly more games at mid to higher stakes and I multitable well so being able to play as many as 24 tables at once gives me an option should I choose to add even more tables than I currently play now (12-15). Also the rakeback, well the equivalent of it which is fpps that can be traded in for cash, will be much higher if and when I achieve sne. Also I've been hearing the new FTP rakeback system, black card, and FTP store sucks.

The only con I see is that I prefer the software on FTP vs Stars but I think I'm alright w/ mass tabling w/ the Stars software. I've been dabbling w/ cascading and stacking 20 tables (mostly nl400 so I don't make more expensive mistakes at the higher stakes) the last couple of days and it hasn't gone well at all. Well I made a couple of thousand dollars but I made numerous mistakes, some of it outside of my control (or maybe it's due to my inefficiency cascading 20 tables). I timed out numerous times when I didn't react in time to tables that were hidden behind the other tables (I won't have this problem when I'm tiling tables) and that also led me to acting too quickly w/o thinking which in turn led me to make bad decisions.


Full Tilt, $2/$4 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 9 Players

Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details

MP3: $914.10 (228.5 bb)

CO: $425.50 (106.4 bb)

BTN: $1,114.40 (278.6 bb)

SB: $107.50 (26.9 bb)

BB: $400 (100 bb)

UTG+1: $441.30 (110.3 bb)

Hero (UTG+2): $619.40 (154.9 bb)

MP1: $55.50 (13.9 bb)

MP2: $437 (109.3 bb)


Preflop: Hero is UTG+2 with 3 3

UTG+1 folds, Hero raises to $12, 3 folds, CO raises to $36, 3 folds, Hero calls $24

Flop: ($78) 3 5 4 (2 players)

Hero checks, CO bets $50, Hero folds

Results: $128 pot ($3 rake)

Final Board: 3 5 4

CO mucked and won $125 ($39 net)

Hero mucked 3 3 and lost (-$36 net)


Normally 33 is a fold preflop but there were reasons I called at the time, but in no way was I planning on folding on the flop...just timed out by accident. Another...


Full Tilt, $2/$4 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players

Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details

MP: $693.90 (173.5 bb)

CO: $455.60 (113.9 bb)

BTN: $594.40 (148.6 bb)

Hero (SB): $402 (100.5 bb)

BB: $845.60 (211.4 bb)

UTG: $348.40 (87.1 bb)


Preflop: Hero is SB with 8 Q

UTG calls $4, 3 folds, Hero completes, BB checks

Flop: ($12) Q 6 6 (3 players)

Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets $8, Hero calls $8, BB folds

Turn: ($28) 4 (2 players)

Hero checks, UTG bets $28, Hero calls $28

River: ($84) 7 (2 players)

Hero checks, UTG bets $308.40 and is all-in, Hero calls $308.40

Results: $700.80 pot ($3 rake)

Final Board: Q 6 6 4 7

Hero mucked 8 Q and lost (-$348.40 net)

UTG showed 4 4 and won $697.80 ($349.40 net)

Now this hand was even more of a disaster. W/ the tables cascaded and other tables awaiting my action I felt a need to act in haste and called pretty quickly w/o thinking much. This is almost always a fold at the river. When a limper (indicative of a less than avg. player at 6max) overshoves 3.5x at the river here a Q hi flush is almost never good.

Because of that I'm going to change my pc setup from 1 30" and 2 20" monitors to 2 30" monitors to see if I can play 20-24 tables tiled across the 2 monitors. I'm curious to hear from others that mass table and how you guys go about it.

Current set up...



















As you can see I can fit 15 tables tiled across but w/ 2 30"'s I should be able to fit 24 tables tiled across if I choose to.

I guess I should try to get to platinumstar before the start of the new year (currently a goldstar) so I can accumulate fpps faster. Maybe I won't need to play 20+ tables since I'll be playing nl400+. At these stakes it requires focus so it might not be the smartest thing to do to play so many tables. I don't want to hurt my overall earning power at the expense of trying to achieve sne. I will talk more about my actual gameplan and specific goals when the new year begins.

Finally I did check out Cardrunner's Ronfar's latest video where he discusses what it takes to go for sne and he gives some good pointers. In case anybody was also thinking about it, you might want to check it out.

Now off to the Boise St.-Utah bowl game at Boyd Stadium (Unlv's stadium). I took Utah +16 and I bought tickets on the Utah side so if anybody is watching the game it might be easy to spot me. I'll probably be the only asian guy among the Utah cheering section.

July Results

The 1st half of July was WSOP and the 2nd half was online cash games. I already talked about the WSOP and my disappointing bustout in the main event. I decided to log in a lot of hrs in cash games after the WSOP. So far I like my effort but my results have been frustrating. I put in about 80 hrs the last 2 weeks which is the most I ever put in for cash games in a 2 week span. I'm gonna start out w/ my (nice and clean) Pokerstars graph again...






















Now my (ugly and all over the place) FTP graph...






















Both graphs combined...






















HEM Snapshot for July...


















Again I managed to log in some good hrs and avg'ed $45/hr excluding rakeback. It's well below my historical average but if I ran at ev I would've avg'ed over $100/hr which isn't that bad, but still below my avg. I made $2540 in rakeback which is good. Well at least I found out I can win on FTP having booked a nice $4600 win today but unfortunately I lost $2200 on Stars. It will be nice when I have a day where I win on both sites.

Also I've been trying out a few things in my game but nothing that I want to talk about because I don't want to let my opponents know what they are. That could be a reason why my results have been disappointing. I do like the fact that I'm experimenting in trying to better my game. Also I'm gonna take a break from full ring games because I've been losing nearly every day in them and my results for the year are pretty lackluster for full ring. I'm thinking that I play way too many hands at full ring and sometimes try to outplay people a little too much. People show up w/ the nuts a lot more often at full ring than 6max or hu so it's hard to maneuver when your opponents hold the nuts. Maybe I'm running bad but idk so I'm just gonna focus on 6max and hu for the next couple of weeks.

For August I'm really going to try to get in 160 hrs in cash games. It may seem like a lot but it's what most Americans avg. working every month. I may be taking a 4-5 day vacation w/ my family sometime mid month so I'll have to try to make up the hrs somewhere. Also I hope to be playing 3/6 and 5/10 sometime this month. I guess I can play them now but I don't want to risk breaking my online rolls and having to liquidate some of my assets to fund my online rolls. I always like to be over rolled anyways. It allows me to play optimally and comfortably, although the drawback is that I'm probably costing myself money. I'm still trying to work out a few kinks in my game so the lower stakes is a good way to do that.

As for tournaments I lost $1113 in online mtts but won $7640 in the 2 WSOP events I played in July (factoring in cashes minus buyins w/ the shares I sold at a markup). I played in the $640 mil guarantee on FTP a couple of weeks ago and busted about 10 away from the money which would've paid around $900. I checkshoved w/ QdJd on a AdKdx flop and didn't get there vs AK. I could've folded and got into the $ but I like to play to win tournaments.

So for the month I made a total of $12757 which is ok although I felt like I ran horribly not to mention I busted myself out of the main event. Going forward I'm going to keep my goal of $1mil because I really want to push myself to give the best effort I can and need the motivation in doing so. Also I've been able to win 1 decent tournament annually and have not yet done so this year so maybe I'm due. The one big online tournament that eludes me is the Pokerstars Mil on Sunday. I've won the Partypoker Mil on a Sunday for $250k and the FTP $750k guarantee for $135k so winning the Stars Mil would complete the trifecta of major Sunday tournaments.

Anyway I've done enough blabbering about poker from my perspective. I'll show a couple of hands I played recently...not really instructional but somewhat interesting in a way...

Full Tilt, $2/$4, $0.75 ante No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details

Dirf: $1,114.60 (278.7 bb)
Kamdini: $1,171.10 (292.8 bb)
Hero: $617 (154.3 bb)
Vegas_Law: $941.35 (235.3 bb)
elves377: $1,213.35 (303.3 bb)
youngdrew28: $729.90 (182.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with 7 7
3 folds, Hero raises to $12, Vegas_Law calls $10, elves377 folds

Flop: ($32.50) 2 A 6 (2 players)
Vegas_Law checks, Hero bets $19, Vegas_Law calls $19

Turn: ($70.50) 4 (2 players)
Vegas_Law checks, Hero checks

River: ($70.50) 7 (2 players)
Vegas_Law bets $42, Hero raises to $170, Vegas_Law raises to $909.60 and is all-in, Hero calls $415.25 and is all-in

Results:

Spoiler:

$1,241 pot
Final Board: 2 A 6 4 7
Vegas_Law showed 3 5 and won $1,562.35 ($945.35 net)
Hero mucked 7 7 and lost (-$617 net)

Yeah what a bad parlay of events. 1st the guy has to call my button raise w/ 53o out of position, then call on the flop for the gutter, then get there on turn, then I have to hit my 2 outer on riv to stack me. At the river I have to raise because his hand looks like 2 pairs or a smaller set. He should never show up w/ AA or 85 here (AA would 3bet preflop and 85 would fold on the flop) so the only likely hand that beats me is 53 and I didn't think he'd call a raise oop w/ 53. Apparently I was wrong. Well played dude.

Now the next hand is hu and on paper looks pretty standard. The reason I'm showing it is because this guy didn't shove the river until a full 10-15 seconds later. Now I don't really let anything on the tables get to me and for the most part I take getting slowrolled better than most but I had to say nice slowroll in chat here, and he came back w/ that he was on the phone talking and got distracted. Ummm, if I'm on the phone and I'm holding the nuts and a guy bets into me at the riv I'm telling whoever I'm on the phone w/ to hold on I'm about to stack this guy. Also there is no excuse for timing down to get me to call because it's obvious that after I bet $176 w/ $151 left I'm bluffing and folding every time or calling w/ a made hand every time. Anyway I don't remember if he apologized but he did call me "mate" so I assume he's Australian. I've been to Australia and thought it was a beautiful and wonderful country but I may never go back after this slowroll.

Poker Stars, $2/$4 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 2 Players
Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details

DynamicScott: $775.50 (193.9 bb)
Hero: $439.50 (109.9 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5 2
DynamicScott raises to $8, Hero calls $4

Flop: ($16) J K T (2 players)
Hero checks, DynamicScott bets $12, Hero raises to $34, DynamicScott calls $22

Turn: ($84) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $70, DynamicScott calls $70

River: ($224) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $176, DynamicScott raises to $663.50 and is all-in, Hero calls $151.50 and is all-in

Results:

Spoiler:

$879 pot
Final Board: J K T 2 6
DynamicScott showed A 9 and won $1,214.50 ($775 net)
Hero showed 5 2 and lost (-$439.50 net)