mid month garph

I moved up to 25NL yesterday and am running well... Garph so far this month, mostly 10NL...

NCAA tournament going on, and am barely watching it. I'm used to hopelessly picking the pitt panthers to break through and make it the final four, so watching their digusting season has turned me off completely.

I just booked a vacation in may to go to paris and amsterdam. So looking forward to catching some of the french open. I've been to the US open many times, but clay is my all time favourite surface growing up...

when to moove up?

I'm sitting with about 50 buy-ins at 10NL, and am really comfortable just grinding here. Up 6 buy-ins today in about 2 hrs of work. I kind of want to move to 25NL but don't want to play scared, so I will probably stay here for the next month or so. I'm playing around a 18/14 style and it feels so risk free with the amount of fish here.

Here's a hand I butchered on the turn but ended up working out: Villans are both around 60/15 over 40 hands:

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 1666028

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter



UTG+2: $3.50

Hero (MP1): $10.12

MP2: $9.90

CO: $15.03

BTN: $28.13

SB: $8.15

BB: $8.00

UTG: $8.34

UTG+1: $12.34



Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP1 with Q A

UTG calls $0.10, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.50, 2 folds, BTN calls $0.50, 2 folds, UTG calls $0.40



Flop: ($1.65) T Q 8 (3 players)

UTG checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $0.30, UTG raises to $0.60, Hero calls $0.60, BTN calls $0.30



Turn: ($3.45) A (3 players)

UTG bets $0.80, Hero calls $0.80, BTN calls $0.80



River: ($5.85) 4 (3 players)

UTG bets $4.80, Hero raises to $8.22 all in, BTN folds, UTG calls $1.64 all in



Final Pot: $18.73






I've been watching some Matthew Janda videos lately, which I feel are the nuts. I will try to go through some of his suggestions for creating balanced ranges using flopzilla in the next few weeks.

Garph so far this month...

Grinding 10NL again

So far I've doubled my bankroll from $200 to $400 this month playing exclusively 10NL. I usually play around 1hr/day and have been winning at an hourly of $12/hr. Poker at this level, with soo many fish has been quite enjoyable. Playing a 16/12 style and it's so much more fun to have your hands paid off. I won't move up until I get to $600...

Poker has been a lot more fun tiling 12 tables as opposed to what I was doing when grinding 100NL at this point last year, where I was stacking 24 tables and playing like a robot. There are so many nuances I've been able to pick up when there's less of a time crunch.

last minute comeback

Here is my garph for today:



No big deal I know, but I got coolered and hit my 3 BI stop loss limit, and was shutting it down, but hit a few hands including this one against a 25/0/infinity over 25 hands:

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 1450826

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter



CO: $2.69

BTN: $5.57

SB: $4.88

BB: $5.20

UTG: $5.12

UTG+1: $4.91

MP1: $1.60

Hero (MP2): $5.17



Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is MP2 with K A

1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.20, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.20, 3 folds, BB calls $0.15



Flop: ($0.62) 4 K 9 (3 players)

BB bets $0.45, UTG+1 folds, Hero calls $0.45



Turn: ($1.52) A (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $0.31, BB raises to $4.55 all in, Hero calls $4.21 all in



River: ($10.56) 5 (2 players - 2 are all in)



Final Pot: $10.56

BB shows 8 8 (a pair of Eights)

Hero shows K A (two pair, Aces and Kings)

Hero wins $10.04

(Rake: $0.52)





Had my favorite meal last night, started with



as an "appetizer"

then devoured





Simple things are often the best...

pocarr setup

Below is my chair in the condo I am staying at in Toronto. I used to have a nice cushy office chair, but I decided to punish myself for sucking at poker by using this wooden piece of crap that's going to give me a sore butt for as long as i'm grinding 5 or 10NL...




Here is a pic of my monitors:



I tried grinding tonight but I was working all day and the stupid chair was so uncomfortable I had to stop...

to grill or not to grill

Right now i'm grilling burgers and in my condo its against the rules. I think for a guy it's a basic human right and will simply play dumb when caught. No harm IMO as long as I don't burn the place down...

When I first started grinding through the micros several years ago, I would play at most 4 tables, and would be able to watch a movie, get up to go to the bathroom, get a snack, etc. This time around I'm 18 tabling, am much more likely to be in a spot, and now when the wife asks something like "babe can you get this dish on the shelf- I can't reach it," my first reaction is "S*%#, you want something NOW?!?- can't you see that I'm trying to decide whether I have enough fold equity to check/shove this turn?!" What ends up happening is I anwser her question and request- 5-15 nagging minutes later.

As an asian american resident of an asian area in Toronto, I've discovered that there needs to be "no spitting signs," put up. I frequently see wads of spit when I'm out for a walk (and often the spitter in action), and today I saw a guy open his car door to spit a huge wad at not one, not two, but three straight stop lights... It's at times like these that I miss the homogenous suburban small town I grew up in.

grind vs tennis

It's such a nice day outside, plus Fed/Djokovic, Rafa/Murray are going at it, so grinding will have to take a backseat today. Playing 5NL leaves much room for error i've dicovered. I usually make a big mistake or two, but it's more than made up for by the spewy donks that keep on donating stacks. The only losing day I've had so far was when I tried grinding during my fantasy draft. I haven't been doing session reviews lately which doesn't bode well for my progress. I realize I have so much work to do to improve, and need to put some time in with pokerstove, stat session analysis, and flopzilla to get a better feel for ranges and being able to determine the best line while 18 tabling.


In my keeer league, I had the number one overall pick, and went the safe route by selecting the best rb available, Chris Johnson, instead of taking a quarterback. My lineup looks like this:

Philip Rivers
Chris Johnson
Peyton Hillis
Vincent Jackson
Mike Wallace
Mike Williams (TB)
Jason Witten
Steven Gostkowski
Giants D

My controversial/questionable pick was selecting peyton manning in the 8th round (we get to keep players in the round we drafted them).

Off to the races

I should be grinding, but pokerstars is frozen for some reason. I also should be prepping for my fantasy draft, where I have the #1 overall pick, but am slacking in that regard and will most likely just rely on cbssportslines recommendations, as their stats are very comprehensive.

It will be difficult to put in lot of volume this month as I'm heading to Las Vegas at the end of the month for a conference. However, I will have a decent amount of time to grind the tables live. My bankroll is in bad shape as I've been using it as a ATM since I've been off for the past few months.

First week of september results, off to a goot start:



The AIEV difference was due to this hand:

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players - View hand 1433652

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter



CO: $4.15

BTN: $5.00

SB: $4.95

BB: $21.45

Hero (UTG): $10.18

UTG+1: $14.77

MP: $4.05



Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is UTG with K K

Hero raises to $0.15, 5 folds, BB raises to $0.40, Hero raises to $1.20, BB raises to $3.55, Hero raises to $10.18 all in, BB calls $6.63



Flop: ($20.38) 8 A 7 (2 players - 1 is all in)



Turn: ($20.38) 9 (2 players - 1 is all in)



River: ($20.38) J (2 players - 1 is all in)



Final Pot: $20.38

BB shows T T (a straight, Seven to Jack)

Hero shows K K (a pair of Kings)

BB wins $19.37

(Rake: $1.01)

starting from 5NL

After trying to grind 10NL with a $200 bankroll, I've decided to move down to 5NL haha after not playing well. I haven't played a whole lot in the past few months, and was extremely rusty. My roll is currently at $150, and I will be at 5NL for awhile. Here is a garph of my first 1,700 hands this month:




After some session analysis I've discovered I was spewing so much postflop and really just need to tone it down.

I'm working full time now for the first time in several months, which is actually going to let me get more grind in. I've been away from teh tables because I was in the philippines and malaysia on a family trip. Also I've just moved to Toronto last month. As an American living in Canada I've discovered there are more differences between small town/big city people versus canadian and americans. I lived in rochester new york and niagara falls ontario, and also in new york city and now toronto. The mentality between GTA and NYC people, and ra-cha-cha/niagara falls folks seems so similar in general, that you can just throw out that they are from different countries on some level.

So this month i'm going put in significantly more volume than I have the past few months. Hopefully I can hit the 30k mark.

time to rededicate-again

So I really mean it this time when i'm going to start my poker grind again. There have been many things going on which have prevented me to put in time... mostly good stuff now that I look back on it.

I've moved to toronto, and now live in a 1 bedroom condo. Although I've been resistant to the move, now that i'm finally here i'm getting settled in. My dual monitor poker station is right by a large window, which helps make the grind more interesting.

Also keeping me from the grind was a 3 week trip to the philippines and malaysia. It was a costly trip in many ways both money and otherwise, but in the end was well worth it. It was a family reunion, and you really can't place a $ sign on that. I gained a total of 5 lbs, which isn't too bad considering my breakfasts typically consisted of a buffet of rice, chicken adobo, fruit, cereal, croissants, and omlets, then lunches and dinner were of equal or larger size. I've since lost said 5 lbs in the two weeks since i've been home. At 33, I wonder how long it will take for my metabolism to catch up with me.

I've decided to grind up again from 10NL, but to not mass table anymore. I will tile my tables, and play no more than 12, with a sweet spot of around 5-8. It's really not fun to be a robot, not getting better and really not thinking. Yesterday was my first day in months I spent studying, trying to get my mind into "grinding shape." I probably won't play for another week or so.

On that note, its time to start errand day with the wife.

Time to start grinding again

It's been awhile since I last posted, so I'll treat this as a new blog. My screen name is whiterice197 on pokerstars. I've cashed out my pokerstars account sans $200. I'm going to attempt to do my own $200 to 10k micro stakes challenge like Verneer on cardrunners. However, I'm not the same caliber player as Verneer, and it will take me much longer than two months.

A quick synopsis of my poker career thus far. I'm basically a breakeven grinder borderline losing player right now at 100NL. I am a mass multitabling nit. I was able to grind up $10 into roughly 8-9k the first time I went through the micros, but took the long route. I achieved supernova last year, barely getting 100VPPs. I've since lost it this past May.

As I try to grind up from 10NL I will try to keep you posted on my progress. I really don't have any firm timetable on this. I do know that I've put in a lot of time into this game, and have become stagnant in my play. I'm hoping that starting from the beginning will make poker fun again. Hope you enjoy the blog!

some random thoughts

My parents visited my house for the first time this weekend. We watched the manny pacquiao fight on saturday night at the casino. I was surprised at how crowded it was for just a fight. I think they need to televise an event like this to bring boxing back. It was an amazing fight in that margarito was so much taller and bigger yet still got pummeled. Manny did get hurt though from a few uppercuts.

My fantasy teams are rolling. Tied for best record in the league in one, & on a five game winning streak in the other. This despite a slew of injuries.

Didn't play much this weekend due to folks visiting. I did play a short session with my dad watching, and ran into a few interesting spots. Got it all in with middle set against a flush draw that couldn't fade the river.

mid month update

Having a good november so far. Plugged some leaks and am focused. Had a few hands of "regs gone wild," which was fun...

Villian #1 was a loose aggressive regular who was stealing around 45% of hands.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com



UTG ($146.20)

UTG+1 ($100)

MP1 ($198.50)

MP2 ($110.15)

CO ($186.50)

Button ($54.50)

SB ($100.50)

Hero (BB) ($100)



Preflop: Hero is BB with A, A

6 folds, SB bets $4, Hero raises to $14, SB raises to $100.50 (All-In), Hero calls $86 (All-In)



Flop: ($200) J, 10, 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)



Turn: ($200) K (2 players, 2 all-in)



River: ($200) 5 (2 players, 2 all-in)



Total pot: $200 | Rake: $3



Results:

SB had J, 9 (two pair, Jacks and tens).

Hero had A, A (two pair, Aces and tens).

Outcome: Hero won $197



Hand 2, villian is another loose aggro reg


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com



Button ($406.30)

SB ($128.15)

BB ($76.45)

UTG ($125.35)

UTG+1 ($111)

MP1 ($75.50)

MP2 ($68)

MP3 ($53.20)

Hero (CO) ($100)



Preflop: Hero is CO with Q, Q

5 folds, Hero bets $3, 1 fold, SB raises to $11, 1 fold, Hero calls $8



Flop: ($23) Q, J, 6 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $9.50, SB raises to $34, Hero raises to $89 (All-In), SB calls $55



Turn: ($201) J (2 players, 1 all-in)



River: ($201) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)



Total pot: $201 | Rake: $3



Results:

SB had 8, A (one pair, Jacks).

Hero had Q, Q (full house, Queens over Jacks).

Outcome: Hero won $198