New Start

For myself and my love and passion for poker I am going to resume the challenge again. I ran in to a bump but am determined to get back up again and work hard at this. I will be starting from scratch and working my way up by starting at the .01/.02 cent levels. Will try to put in good sessions every day that I can. Today I will start out with 5 tables at .01/.02 cent and play for about 1 hour. Just focus primarily on slowly increasing and staying away from large pots. Will update after this session.

Break

Not going to lie. Did not listen to myself and ended up spending my money. I will take a break and play when I can guarantee myself that I will only play by the rules I set. I ended up playing tournament after tournament and went on a very cold streak and am now out. Not good at all and something I obviously must work on. I will start over after some time off.

Tournament Day

Because of the ok success in my tournament play lately, today I am going to play in a few games today and update on how I do. I will try the 3.30 rebuy event again and hopefully have more success.I will also join the daily 30K event. Once these are over, I may join a few more but I will update on my progress as I go. Wish me luck.

The 30K event went well up to the break and I was playing really well. Not long after the break, I was sitting with 5500 or so and raised the action to 190 with AQ off from middle position. Got two callers, button and small blind. A93 on board with 2 clubs. Check to me, raise to 450, call by the button and a fold by the small blind. The turn is a 2 of diamonds. I wanted to push but only put half my stack in so I made it 1850. Got a call. The river was not a club so I seemed to be in good shape. It was a 3 putting a 4 card straight on board. I decided since I had so much invested I would push. He had the best hand the hand I knew he could have if he called and it was 2 clubs with the 5 of clubs hitting the straight on the river. Pretty unfortunate by my luck these last few days.

In the rebuy game, I am still in but have invested a lot with nothing going my way again. Around 18 minutes till break I will update you with my chip stack at the break.
I got a much needed triple up before the break and am now sitting with 12K. I have however invested a lot of money in to this game so anything short of making the money will be a big disappointment.

And who would have guessed. Went out in great fasion not to long after break with QQ. It is unbelievable. I raise to 700 with blinds at 100/200 and the big blind calls me. The board is JQK. He leads out with an 1800 bet and I am sitting with 11K. I decide to raise to 5.5K and he quickly pushes. This is just so sick but I make the call and he shows 9 10. Unfortunately I do not hit the full house and I am out. Not a good day, and very frustrating because I am now losing in ways that just make my stomach feel sick. Will play some more later, but need to get some wins going. After all of these events, I am down to 45 dollars. A big set back in my challenge and something I am not happy about.

One at a time

This morning I put in a lot of hands and played really well. Although the graph is still up and down, my last two sessions have been good and this morning I profited 6.30 after 500 hands of play. Playing consistent poker over many hands is a sign of good poker. Overall I have seen over 10,000 hands which is a lot but like I said before you are not going to be able to accomplish a task such as this over night. It requires a lot of patience and time and that is why I am keeping track so that I can follow my progress and keep myself in line. So far I feel it is a good way to go about it and need to keep the graph increasing linearly. (Is that a word?)

Instead of putting in some hands tonight, I am going to take a few bucks and play in the 3.30 rebuy game. So far I have doubled up without rebuying and would like to make it to the add on with zero rebuys. There I will add on and do the best I can. I will update you on how I do when I finish. Just taking a break from the cash game and entertaining myself with a tournament. Like the challenge tournaments require lots of mental stamina and I would love to do well in one of these big games. Wish me luck.

First update - Not so good.

Little more then half hour to go before the break and I am in for 18 dollars so far. And not because I am playing bad poker in fact I am playing great poker and getting f'ed by pokerstars and donkey players. In fact I am going to post both hands I lost my money on. And maybe I shouldn't play the flop the way I do but I don't see how else to play the hand. (Unless I push all in pre-flop with any good hand to prevent these situations.)







Just take a look at a few of hands and see if you feel my pain. I raised a lot in all the hands and had the best hand pre flop and even on the flop. Some of the outcomes you could just predict and others were so unbelievable. So after 18 dollars invested so far, I have finally reached the break thank god and hopefully I can get some luck back on my side. I am sitting with 5320 and will buy on another 3000 for 3 dollars. Nothing went my way during that hour and a half but I know I can get it back.

Not a successful tournament, but I did play the best I could. Ended up staying right around 8300, was up and down being as high as 9500 in chips before losing AK vs 99 vs 88 in 1500th place. Just could not find an A or K out there and lost but it was a needed push and would have got me going. Unfortunately I invested 21 dollars in to this game and not what I wanted but the cards did not fall my way. I have learned you will have those days. I will now play a freeroll tournament with 2K guaranteed becuase a cash in this game will give me a ticket to play in a tourney with a 300K prize pool at the end of the month. I have many oppurtunities to get this ticket and will try as often as I can. When I finish I will update how I did.

Did not make it far in the freeroll. Just did not get hand to play. So out of frustration, joined an 11 dollar game with 900 players. And did quite well. Finished in 66th place after 3 hours of play and doubled my money. For most of the game I was low in chips and just fighting. Got a key double up before the money and just waited and waited while the blinds caught up to me. I need to work on gathering chips during this time but I just couldn't gain control of the table and had to fold to others reraises. Ended up calling a raise with AJ and losing to AQ. It was a good run and I was satisfied with how I played for the most part. On the day, after my ring game of 6 profit, minus 24 in the rebuy game plus 10 in the final tournament I finished only 8 dollars down on the day. Tomorrow I will be back to cash action and looking to gain back my losses today.

Back at it

Took some time off. Busy with work and did quite a bit of golfing recently. Not the best golfer but I really enjoy the slow paced game. Very difficult to master which makes it quite fun to play for me. Since my last update, I have played some streaky poker but the good news is that I am still up a bunch and close to the 100 mark. I am currently playing right now, but let me update you on how I did in live poker over the weekend.

Decided to play some live poker on Sunday so my Dad and I drove to Keene, NH to join the freeroll tourney. Usually 50 or so people join the tourney, sometimes more sometimes less. There was around 5 tables so we had somewhere near 60 people in the game. It is always fun playing live poker especially with a bunch of people you don't know. Outsmarting these people is what makes poker so fun. So let me give you the rundown of the game I joined. It was a freeroll game meaning that to enter I did not need to invest anything. I sit down with 1000 in chips and blinds start at 25/50 increasing every 15 minutes and you can add on to your stack whenever you feel like it. I enjoy knowing I dont have to invest anything, but let me tell you I have never had the skill and luck enough to get my chips up so I am not forced to add on. Did well for awhile with my starting stack doubling up once but then once blinds got up I was forced all in and lost. Decided to rebuy for the maximum before break of 8000 in chips for $40. Played maybe one round and got up to about 9500 in chips before we went to break. During break you get an addon and I invested another 40 for 10,000 in chips with the blinds being 300/600 when we return to action with my chip stack at 19500. After break is where the real action starts and now it is time for real poker playing to start. And for me it started early. First to act I look at QQ. Thought about it for a minute and then threw in 2200 in chips. Pretty hefty raise but being at an aggressive table I wanted to make them pay to hit there cards. Instead the button pushes all in for a little more then 10, and then after a long time thinking the small blind calls the all in bet. She hesitated to call, and only called the 10000 which was a little less then half of her stack. She was sitting with maybe 3K more then I had. This was a very tough decision for me, but seeing that she was prettying much invested in this pot, and almost 100% sure she was not holding KK or AA I decided to go all in over the top and hopefully win the whole pot but go for the side pot atleast. It was a weird thought process but I just didn't feel like I should fold my QQ in such a prime spot so early on in the tournament. Once again she thought about it, counted out her chips with maybe 3000 left over and shoved them in. She turned over AK, and the button turned over KK. It played out well for me and no A fell so I took down the side pot giving me slightly more then I started the hand with. Haha. Not much for that much stress but I profited a few thousand. The KK player got quite the triple up. So played continued and not long after I played a stellar hand and got many compliments including a "genius play" but the dealer of our table. With KQ off suit, and blinds at 400/800 I make it 2300 to go. Next guy calls and all others fold. Board is K87 and I lead out acting first for 2500. He just smooth calls and we see the turn. The 9 comes down and I am a little scared so I decide to see what he does and I check this time. He checks right away. The river is a K. This is where I was confused and thought if he had something he would have bet the turn, but still confused with what was going on I decide to check again on the river and see if he bets. Well you can guess it, not only does he bet but he pushes all in for 20K in to a pot of maybe 15K. I was so confused but after running all the hands through my head I made the call and he said " I was just making a move" and showed A6. A huge pot my way and I could breathe easily. From then on I played conservative poker till the final table and even there I did the same thing. Had a few hands here and there got a few chips but after an hour of play the players dwindled to 3 and I was left just pushing and praying. Got my money in with the best hand A5 diamonds but couldn't beat Q7 after the 7 hit the flop. It was a successful day for I got 215 dollars for 3rd place meaning I profited 135 dollars. I got a little greedy and joined a 40 dollar game right after and busting early but still profited 100. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to going again sometime soon.

Back to online poker action. After an hours worth of play today, I finished up 2.55. Saw around 250 hands and didn't have any big hands just kept grinding away and winning small pots. I want to avoid the big swing I had last time I played and today was a good sign. I feel like after playing live poker I was able to concentrate more in online poker and play solid consistent poker. Need to keep increasing one day at a time. Below is the latest graph.

New Level

After last nights negative session, which was a first since 5/22, I bounced right back. Today, I am up 21 dollars and back over the 100 mark. It is all about avoiding big swings, and not losing focus. Because I am at the .05/.10 cent level now, the chances for me losing more is much easier then it was before. I am only allowed to buy in for 10 dollars at each table, which is the same as when I was sitting at the .02/.05 cent tables. The one difference though is the amount others buy in for. At the lower tables, many people will buy in for the minimum and try to double up. At the 10 cent level, there are a lot more players with the full max buy in and like me waiting for big hands. Therefore, just as easily as I can double up I can also lose my whole buy in. By looking at the graph, I notice that (from my high school math knowledge) the slope from hands 7000 and on is much greater then it was previously. If I can just keep the great poker play going I will be able to move to the next level in no time. As I increase in the level of play, I will need to have more in my bankroll to fund it so here is the laydown of how I will play.

.05/.10 = >100 --- This allows me for 10 buy ins, so I would have to lose 10 times in a row to lose my roll. At this level I don't think that will happen so I am comfortable with this amount.

.10/.25 = >200 ---Once I get to 200 I will move up to this level. This gives me only 8 buy ins but once again I am fine with it.

.25/.5 = >500 ---I will not move to this level till I have reached more then 500 dollars in my bankroll.

.50/1.00 = 1000 ---You get the idea.

Played another session. Lost around 12 dollars. I was up for most of it but then ran in to some big hands and lost my cool. You always feel like you need to win back what you lost but thats where I need to say ok it may not be my day and walk away. Instead I stayed and just kept losing hand after hand. I am just below 100 dollars and will need to play better poker next time.

Reached $100!

It took 8,000 hands to reach 100 dollars. I have switched to .05/.10 cent level and although there is more discrepencies in my graph, I am still increasing at a consistent rate. It is crazy how some people just give you free money. Below are two hands that sky rocketed me up to 100 dollars.