Pulled in a Win

Short post tonight because I'm really tired and I just finished playing for the night.  I finally pulled in a winning session since I started playing again.  I went on a mean tilt around game # 20, but pulled it together to keep the session positive. 

110 Games In

After tonights session, I'm at a total of 110 games in the $4 HU hypers.  My job gets me so exhausted that by the end of the day I don't have the energy to focus for long periods of time and play, so I've been just getting in some games this week where I could.  I didn't play well tonight, had my first -ev session this month.  Gotta refocus and get back on track.  Here's a graph from the beginning of this HU hyper journey:

Games played: 110
ROI:   -22.9%
EV Adjusted ROI:  -1.6%
Winnings:  -$104.50
EV Adjusted Winnings:  -$7.23

I know this isn't enough games to say this yet, but it looks like I'm at least doing some things right since my ev is near break even.  It's been a tough adjustment from the $11 turbos I used to play.  I was at about 9% roi over 400-500 games, so I was making a good amount at that level, but the big action is in the hypers and I have to start somewhere.  Hopefully this turns around a little bit before my Carbon account runs out of funds, lol.  

Well I'm off to go dominate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, then I have to fast and get some blood work done tomorrow.  Sometime this week I'll get into more detail about that, but I'm sleepy right now.  Later homies.

9-5-2012

Not much to talk about today.  I spent the past 36 hours studying some mersenneary videos and tried to apply some different concepts to my game today based on what I could remember.  I ran a bit below ev, but both my ev and actual results were in the negative.  I felt much more solid 2 days ago, but I tried some new things today that will improve my game in the long run.  Todays graph:

Game: $4 hyper turbos

Number played:  22

ROI:  -21.1%

EV adjusted ROI:  -11%

Winnings: -$19.30

EV adjusted Winnings:  -$10.07

9-3-2012

Hey guys.  I've decided to post a graph on here of every day that I play, regardless of volume.  I figure it will help keep me motivated in making the best decisions that I can.  Also, I always like seeing graphs on other people blogs (winning or losing) so I think it will be fun to do.  

After my talk with jackstack99 the other day, I've decided to stop multitabling and stick to one at a time to try and learn more as opposed to just trying to cram volume.  It seems to be working so far based on my ev.  

Here's today's session:

Game: $4 hyper turbos

Number played:  37

ROI:  -21.8%

EV adjusted ROI:  9.2%

Winnings: -$33.55

EV adjusted Winnings:  $14.15

Very small sample, but the red line is helping to keep my tilt at bay.  

I emailed HEM regarding issues I think I'm having with it's ev calculation so I'm waiting to hear back from them about it.  It will have hands like my TT vs villains A4 all in preflop, and have it be a -ev play from me.  I don't understand why, maybe they can explain something to me that I must be missing.  Other than that, that's all I have today.  Good luck at the tables.

No More Fear

I'm writing this before I go to sleep.  It was a long day (but good) and I'm exhausted, but I want to post something so I'll try to sum up my mood as best as I can.  

I am very excited about poker right now.  I haven't felt this desire to play or butterflies in my stomach thinking about poker in quite some time.  

After BF, I've been haunted by the idea that the government can shut down any site I was on and I would be out X more dollars than I already am on FT (~$1100), and that has lead me to play a fearful game.  I was fearing all different aspects of poker.  Fear of losing:  What if I lose this money?  What could I have bought with it instead?  Fear of looking bad:  Other players won't respect me/won't think I'm good.  Etc Etc.  Then on the flip side, fear of winning:  Am I going to be able to cash out this money if I win?  Will it take long?  Will I ever receive it?  Those thoughts have often led me to the point of my mentality being "you probably won't cash it out, so just play to play, not to win".  That has to change.

Tonight I was talking to my friend Jackstack99 about some issues I've been having with HEM, and it turned into a brief Q&A about poker, and him letting me pick his brain on a few things.  It was only a few minutes long, but as always, he gives me great information.  He's been my poker mentor for probably two years now, if not more.  I used to play live .25/.50 with him in my backyard, and now he's a top pro on Pokerstars playing in the $200+ Hyper HUSNGs.  I honestly couldn't be happier for him, and hope he keep crushing these games hard!  So after we spoke, I suddenly felt excited about the game again.  Like really excited.  I literally have no one to talk to poker about in my immediate circle of friends, so when the one person I talk to is a highly winning player, it adds some excitement to it.  It's not just BS advice, or a random guy telling you his bad beat stories, I'm talking to someone who I know is a professional poker player.  That makes it feel so real, and that it's not just a dream to chase-  it can really happen.  

Now it's time to keep the excitement going.  Tomorrow I'm going to play and start my rejuvenated poker journey.  No more fear.  If I lose, I have to analyze my game and get better.  If I win, I'll keep building the bankroll and getting even better.  If I can't cash out, so be it, I'll just keep refining my skills until online poker is back in the US.  There is no downside.  Thanks Jack, you always bring me back on point when I'm down and out. 

Back on the grind...ish

Hey everyone.  Last time I was on here I mentioned that I was awaiting results of a comprehensive exam, and good news!  I passed.  It was only pass/fail, so there are no exact number or letter grades to correspond to it.  That was a huge weight off my shoulders.  The Graduate Advisor of the program told my class that over the years the percentage of students passing the exam on their first try was 40%.  Beating those odds was relieving, as I did NOT want to have to go back in December to repeat the test.

So anyway, onto poker.  I still haven't fully set up my Lock account because after their acquisition of Cake, there were a shit ton of glitches/errors/whateverthefucks going wrong with their program.  So I decided to wait out all the chaos.  Now things seem to be running smoothly on there, I just have to set up my account verification (I've been too lazy to print the stuff out and send them pics of everything).  I've tried depositing on Carbon just to get some games in, and for the first time, my bank isn't allowing the charge to go through.  Motherfuckers.  So then I tried an international Visa gift card (as per Carbon support advice) and that still didn't work.  My other option is a direct cash transfer via Western Union or MoneyGram.  I'm saving that as a last resort.  I'm currently posting on the 2+2 boards to see if anyone wants to trade Chase quickpay for Carbon. 

I am playing currently though, through a different Merge skin.  It's pretty shady and I don't like it too much, but it's the only way I can play right now.  I'm not going to mention the skin, or my username on it because, I'll just explain how it works and what my results have been thus far. 

A friend of mine told me about a place near where we live that has laptops and computers set up, and all you do is go there, make a username and password, give the guy cash, and he funds your account.  From there, you can either play on site, or go home and download the skin and play at home.  Then, when you're ready to cash out, you just go to the place and they give you cash on the spot.  The catch, from what I understand, is that they get the rake from games I play.  So no rakeback for me :(

In the days post Black Friday, I'll do just about anything to get online and play. 

I'm trying out hyper's right now.  I put in 50 games today at the $4.15 buy in, and had a 60% win rate.  It has a much higher variance than the turbos, so I'm playing lower than I usually do so I can get used to the swings.  I would like to get in 50 games a day if I have time.  Even if I can never see this money again because the site isn't legit or whatever, it's only 200 bucks, and I can use it to refine my game and keep getting better.  When online poker returns to the US market, I want to be ready.

6 Month Update

Wow, it has really been a long time since I've been on here.  Let me read back on my previous post so see where I left off...

Ok I'm back.  So I waited patiently for my cash out to happen and it did.  It took about six weeks.  Even though it was a really long time, there were no problems with the deposit or anything else that people were complaining about on 2+2.  Shortly after that, I read something about the DOJ potentially targeting the smaller poker sites like Carbon so I decided to withdraw the rest of the money I had on there (although I did leave like $20 or so just to play around with). 

Poker was really slow for me.  I didn't trust playing online too much and I was super busy finishing up my last semester of Grad school to really put in a lot of hours live.  Back in March I took a poker trip that really changed my outlook on the game and rejuvenated my excitement and passion for the game again.  I just got out of work on one Friday afternoon, grabbed a few hundred bucks, filled up my car with gas, and hit the road to AC.  This would be my first time going to the Borgata.  I got there around 10pm and sat 1/2 until about 3am or so.  I was TIRED!  I ended up being stuck $440 I think.  The majority of that loss was my KK to AA preflop.  Even though I lost, I was in a surprisingly good mood.  I had a lot of fun.  The whole ride home I was thinking about when I would get to do it again.

Fast forward to me arriving home at 6am.  I went to sleep the second I hit my bed only to awake 3 hours later still feeling the excitement from the night before.  I laid there in bed and decided that I was going to sleep a few more hours and head right back out there.  It was crazy since its a 5-6 hour round trip, but I was in a crazy kind of mood.  I woke up around noon and decided to book a really cheap hotel outside of AC so that in the event I was really tired I could crash there for a bit before heading home.

This time I arrived at the Borgata at about 9pm (I got to my hotel at 6pm and took a little nap before playing).  I basically brought my entire bankroll with me and decided that I was going to play my ass off and make the best decisions I could make and if I lost, I lost.  Still being stuck $440 from less than 24 hours ago, I was in a different mindset.  I sat 2/5 for a full buy in  ($500) and began to play some good solid poker.  After two and a half hours I was sitting with a stack of $1300.  I decided I was satisfied with my winnings and called it a night.  I drove home at like midnight and was able to be home by 3am to get a full night sleep.

That weekend was the both the single biggest loss in a single session (-$440) and the biggest win (+$800).  It was swingy, so I'm not crediting any crazy poker skills to my small triumph, but it was a step in the right direction nonetheless.

I haven't been back to AC since, but I did play in a lot of local games in Queens.  I went on like a 5 or 6 session win streak that brought me up about another $1,000.  Then I went to Parx Casino for the first time and lost like $400 and slowed down my playing a bit since then.  I didn't slow down because of the loss, but more because of the fact that I was paying more attention to poker than I was my school work and there was no way I was going to fuck up the final semester of my life. 

So now, I have graduated.  No more school.  Forever.  It still hasn't hit me yet because I'm awaiting the results of a comprehensive exam.  I should get them in the mail in the next week or so.  I'm excited about putting more time and energy back into poker.  Hell, I'm even going to play online again since the DOJ hasn't done anything against the smaller sites.  I recently signed up to Lock Poker since they merged with the Cake network.  I'm pretty excited to begin playing husngs again. 

Side note of updates:  I had some more tests on my heart just to make sure all that shit was working fine before my free student health insurance runs out.  I wore another holter monitor, had a stress echo, and everything is looking really good.  I went to get an MRI just as one final test, but I got way too claustrophobic and couldn't do it.  My doctor said it wasn't a big deal and that it's nothing to worry about since all of my other tests were negative.  That was a really big relief and I've felt much better and less stressed since. 

Ok well that's about it for my 6 month update.  I'll try to get this updated with more poker news once I start grinding some more.