The Weekly Journals of DavidRoss

Week 37

Well the weather has been freezing here this week, and so has my poker play. Another disastrous week. In order to keep my bankroll at a non-critical level I had to cut my usual withdrawal in half. For the first time in many months I’m actually worried about long term viability of this. However since I’m not been deluged by calls from prospective employers, I guess we’ll keep on trying. Logic tells me I haven’t suddenly become a bad player, so It should turn around, but I also know that I am just as likely to have a bad run of cards starting right now as I was 4 weeks ago when this started. I’m beginning to think I angered the poker gods when I went to Seattle.

The Week started out poorly when I lost $611 on Sunday. That made 3 substantial losses in 4 days going back to the previous week. I lost over $900 on my davidross tables, and actually was up on my Empire tables. Then I seemed to find my stride and I posted a $741 win on Monday, a $472 win on Tuesday and another $489 win on Wednesday. But Thursday was the biggest one day loss I’ve ever had, dropping $1,804. I lost 1,100 in the afternoon, and was down over 1,200 in the evening, before a late rush saved me from a 2K loss. On Friday I had a frustrating day, with a nice win in the afternoon, but giving most of it back in the evening, ending up ahead by only $209. Finally Saturday started well, and at 1:00 AM I thought I might get even for the week, I was only $150 short of the break-even mark, when the bottom fell out again. In the next 2 hours I lost another $1,000 finishing with a $602 loss for the day and a $1,106 loss for the week.

That’s 3 losses in 4 weeks and is eerily similar to a run I had in June where over a 4 week period I lost money and switched from paradise to Party. The difference then was that I could tell the games had gotten tougher and this time I don’t think that’s the case. I’m still seeing some pretty dubious play, it’s just running me down again and again.

It’s hard to identify one thing that’s happening during the losing streak. Some days I just can’t win a hand. Most days I build pots with the best hand only to get beat on the river, and then of course In the blinds battles, I’m losing heads up again and again. I’ve lost full houses to quads, and every time I have top pair it seems like the board pairs and my opponent makes trips. I can only hope my turn is coming. I feel like I’ve got a huge day coming to me soon. I could sure use it.

I had posted several weeks back about the problems we were having with my gifted daughter and her lack of results in school. Now comes word from the school this week that my 10 year old son has scored even higher than she did in the same tests they give to all the grade 4’s. But the two kids couldn’t be more different. My son gets straight A’s and is a diligent worker. I’m quite shocked to be honest, I thought his results were more to do with his work ethic than any special abilities. He has a promising future. Maybe he can look after his father.

The weather finally broke here today, and we’re getting snow. I hope that signals a change in my fortunes too. The kids have a half day of school on Tuesday and I’d like to take them skiing. We have a soccer final this afternoon for my 10 year old. They are a big favorite having only lost 1 game this season. I hope the heater is on. My daughter played her last game on Friday when it was -30 out and we arrived at the dome (It’s just an inflatable dome they put up for the winter) to find no on e had turned on the heat. It was freezing for the poor kids.

If you don’t like bad beat stories stop here. I think almost all the hands I saved this week were a bad beat of some type. Just the mood I’ve been in I guess.

In this hand I limped in behind another limper with 33 and got raised. 4 of us saw the flop for 2 bets. Flop comes A 9 3 rainbow. It gets checked to the raiser who bets and two of us call. I decide to wait for the turn with the A on board I think he’ll bet the turn. Turn is another 9. Sure enough the raiser bets, but now UTG raises. I get cute and smooth call hoping to keep the raiser in, and he stays. River is another 9. Doh!! UTG bets, I fold, and the raiser calls. Quad 9’s beat 9’s full of Aces. I’ve been counterfeited so many times on the river it’s unbelievable.

I’m in the SB with A3o. Button limps in 3 handed. I call and the BB checks. Flop is A T 5. I check, BB checks and button bets. I raise and BB folds. Button just calls. Turn is a Q and I bet, he calls. River is a 2. I bet he raises. Jeez. I make the crying call and he shows me the crazy 4h 3h.

I was criticized heavily by my opponent after this one. Again I have 33, this time in the SB. There is a raise and 2 cold calls to me and I pay the $8. BB completes too. Flop is 7c 3d 2h. Pot is big enough and I bet out. BB calls, preflop raiser raises and CO 3 bets. Button calls 3 cold, and I cap it. Everyone calls. 5 to the turn with 15 BB’s already in the pot. Turn is the 2s. I bet and I get 4 calls. River is the 8c, I bet and get 3 calls. My full house is good. KK, JJ and A7 all called me down and I won $238. The guy with JJ was abusive in his comments. I had some fun with him actually. Of course had he 3 bet pre-flop, I wouldn’t have been in the hand and he would have lost to KK instead of to me.

This has been happening to me a lot with my free plays. 1 limper to me and I check the BB with Q3. Flop is Qd Td Jd. I bet and get raised. I call. Turn is the Qh. I bet and get raised again. I still don’t like folding in these games where guys will riase anything anytime so I call again. River is a Th. I figure I sucked out on his flush and bet. He raises again. DOh, QJ? I call and get shown Kd 9d for the flopped straight flush.

And if you wonder why I call the raises heads up here is another fine example. I have KQ in the SB. One limper and I call. BB just calls. Flop is K 6 5 rainbow. I check and then raise the limper. BB folds and the limper calls. Turn is a 7. I bet and get raised. Here we go again. I call. River is an 8. I check, he bets, I call. He has 94 for the rivered gutshot. What kind of balls do you have to have to make that raise? I guess balls aren’t the word.

I have 88 in the CO and I limp behind another limper. 5 of us see the flop. Flop is A 8 7. Checked to me and I bet. I get 1 caller. Turn is another 7. I get bet into and I raise. He 3 bets and I cap. I put him on a 7 and even A7 is behind be. River is another 7. He checks and I bet. I can’t explain why. He raises and I call. He does have A7 and for the 2nd ttime in a few hours I get beat by a rivered Quad.

This was my first hand on Friday after the disaster of Thursday. I have Ac Ah and I limp in first. I get raised and the SB calls. I 3 bet, it gets capped and cold called again. I call. Flop is A K 5. I bet get raised and cold called. I 3 bet, he caps, blind cold calls again and I call. Turn is a 3, putting a flush on board. I bet, get called and the blind folds. River is the case A. I bet, get raised, I 3 bet and he caps. He of course had KK. No telling how big it might have got if the flush card hadn’t come.

A different kind of bad beat. UTG limps and I limp too with KQ. BB raises and UTG 3 bets. I fold to his presumed AA. It gets capped. Flop is K K 8. Turn is a Q. They had AA and QQ. Imagine how big that pot might have got.

Finally a fitting finish to the week. I have Ac As and raise an UTG limper. BB calls. Flop is Ah Ts 6h. I bet and the blind calls. Limper folds. Turn is Jh. I bet and the Blind raises me. I debate 3 betting but just call. River is the 7h. He bets and I call. He has Ad 2h, and his 2 wins the pot.

Week 38

And once again the pendulum swings to the other side. If I want to continue to do this for a living I guess I better get used to the fact that there will be up times and down times, but I’ve been remarkably fortunate in that I went 6 months without a losing week. So now after losing 3 weeks out of 4 I started this week very apprehensive. The major comment I got on last weeks play was that I was playing too passively, and I took that to heart. I decided not to limp first in with anything, and I was pretty good about it. I did find myself limping with suited broadway cards and suited aces a little bit. Post flop I raised much more often on the flop. And for the first time in weeks I got good cards.

I started off the week with my best Sunday ever, winning $951. I got AA 12 times and they held up 11 times. I even had them in back to back hands right after I had commented on how often I was seeing them. It was the perfect antidote to my flagging confidence. On Monday I had solid sessions in the afternoon and in the evening winning another $617. The week was off to a great start. Tuesday afternoon was a break even session and after a late curling game I played 3 more hours and managed to win $371 more. I’ve never had a week without a losing day since switching to the shorthanded games, and I started thinking maybe this would be the week. Oops. Wednesday afternoon was a disaster. I dropped $660 in 2 hours. It was last week all over again, but I still had the evening to pull it out. Wrong. I lost another $600 by 1:00 AM and suddenly my amazing comeback week had become an average week with me up only $700. I had played on 12 different tables in the 2 sessions and had rebought 11 times.

Then the most amazing thing happened. I went on a rush like I’ve never had before. Between 1:00 AM and 4:00 AM I won back everything I had lost that day finishing up $14 for the day. Over $1,200 in 3 hours. And it didn’t end there. Thursday saw me win another $1,616 and Friday another $1,502. From 1:00 AM Thursday morning until 4:00 AM Saturday morning that’s $4,400 in 19 hours of play. Over $200 / hr. Just an incredible feeling. Flopped quads on one hand (666 on board) and got all kinds of action from 2 pocket pairs. In a 4 way pot the final board was 5 6 7 8 9, I had the button with JT and the UTG guy bet into me, everyone called hoping for a chop and I got a raise in which they all called. If I was ahead on the flop I stayed ahead, and if I was behind I hit the river. I made so many sets on the river after being raised on the turn it was crazy. I also called down some outrageous bluffs.

Saturday night my wife and I went out to and saw ‘Along came Polly’, the new Ben Stiller Movie. My wife loves Ben Stiller. It was very funny and a nice break. Got home late and played for 2 ½ hours and won another $269 giving me the perfect week. For the week that’s $5,340 smashing my previous record.

So now life is great again. The bankroll is healthy and I’m looking forward to playing. I picked the right time to increase my aggressiveness. It’s always good to raise just before you make a big hand. Interesting to note that last week when I ran so poorly I had around 35 hand histories saved to review. This week I have about 8. I guess it’s human nature to want to share the misery, and show every bad beat, but when we win we just accept that it’s expected and there is nothing unusual about that.

It is still freezing here and we had all kinds of snow this week. In keeping with the crazy life I’m leading now I booked my summer cottage for next August in Maine. You have until the end of December to reserve the cottage you had the preceding year, but we didn’t like last years so starting in January there is a list of vacancies. We missed out on the one I really wanted by hours while my sister in law decided whether they were going to come with us or not. It seems crazy that we need to book in January for August, but that’s the way it goes. I need to send a deposit in $US so this big week came at the perfect time.

At least during the losing streak the affiliate money keeps coming in. I just had another guy sign up and now have 10 players playing on my tracker. It’s nice to get paid even when you’re losing.

I’ve made a number of adjustments to my game since switching to shorthanded. All the heads up situations that you see only rarely in full table games require a different kind of play. You win a lot of pots with an unimproved A. I think it’s an area where you can really take advantage of poor players. I really like having at least 1 other good player in my games shorthanded for some stability, but I don’t like it when he’s on my left because now the blind play becomes much more difficult. I’m still raising some marginal hands first in from the button like K8 or Q9 or A3, but I’m much less likely to keep pushing them post flop. I think this has saved me some money. Another change has been my flop play heads up. Lets say I raise AKo and get called by the BB. The flop comes out T72 and I get bet into. I won’t call here. Some players I will fold to here, but usually I will raise. That is something I never did in full table games. I would raise if I hit the flop and call if I missed. The raise serves 2 purposes. Sometimes the guy folds. I’ve made the pot bigger if I do hit, and given myself a chance to get to a showdown for ½ a bet cheaper by checking the river if I want, or to take the free card on the turn and see the turn and river ½ a bet cheaper than if I just called. Of course some guys 3 bet the flop which I have to watch for.

There were over 30,000 people playing every night this week again, the increase over the holidays seems to have continued, and the games are good. There are a lot of good players in these games though, and it sure helps to know who they are.

My monitor died again just before Christmas and I bought a 19” monitor while it was off being repaired. I thought I would be able to increase the resolution beyond the 1024 X 1280 I used on my 17” monitor, but I discovered that is the max for most monitors. It did make everything bigger and easier to read, but it was also bulkier, taking up more space on the desk, and pretty ugly (that was my wife’s comment anyway). So when my original monitor was returned fixed, again, I had to make a decision. I have 2 computers, the fairly new one I use, and an old P1 133 running WIN95. I was thinking of keeping the 19” monitor on my computer and putting the repaired one on the old machine, but the monitors appearance wise belong to the computers they are attached to. And I decided I didn’t like the new one enough so I returned it and got my $400 back. Today I went out and looked for monitors that will give me a resolution greater than 1024 X 1280 and discovered they are not easy to find. Right now I can get 4 tables on my screen with only a little overlap, but I need to find seats on the 4 compass points of the table to make sure I can see my cards at all times on all tables. Some nights this can be a problem, when every open seat seams to be #1 for example. With a slightly higher resolution I believe I could set them up with no overlap at all, then my seat wouldn’t matter. I found a place that sold a name brand 19” with a max resolution of 1200 X 1600 for only $300 and I’m considering that now.

Most of this weeks hands involve me winning monsters.

In this one, what more can you ask for. I have AA in the cutoff, and UTG limps. I raise and everyone else folds. He 3 bets. I know him pretty well and I doubt he does this with QQ, so it’s KK or AA. Odds are pretty good it’s KK. Flop is A K 6. this is pretty good for me. He bets and I just call. I think if I raise here, I will get only one raise in on the expensive streets. Turn is a Q. He checks, I bet and he raises. I 3 bet and he caps. River is a 7. He bets, I raise, and he just calls. He did have KK.

I have Ah Th on the button. It is folded to the cutoff who is a poster and he checks. I raise, the SB, BB and poster all call. Flop is As Ts 2s. Checked to me and I bet. SB raises, BB calls and I 3 bet. Both blinds call. Turn is 2h. Checked to me, I bet and they both call. Hmm. I have to believe a flush would raise here, I think I’m still good. River is the Ad. SB checks, but now the BB bets out. Well only 22 beats me and I raise. SB calls and BB raises again. I still don’t believe he plays 22 like this so I cap it. They both call. SB had flopped a flush, but only 9 high, and BB had AK. Another monster suckout and pot for me.

I have 9d 8d UTG and I limp. Only the blinds play. Flop is Jd Th 5c. BB bets, and I just call. SB calls too. Turn is the Td, giving me a huge draw. They both check to me and I bet. They both call. River is the lovely Qd. Again checked to me and I bet. SB raises. BB folds and I 3 bet. SB caps it and I call. He has JT for a turned full house. Yet another monster pot.

Finally one that didn’t work out. I open raise with 88 UTG. I get cold called and then 3 bet by the button. BB calls 2 cold and I call as does the MP player. Flop is Q 7 2, and the BB bets out. The button will raise almost anything here and I fold. MP calls and the button only calls. Turn was a 5 and river a 4, and the BB wins with 97 for a pair of 7’s. Button had 66. My eights were good.

This coming week will make 9 months of playing full time. The first 3 months I won $13,950, the 2nd 3 I won $17,932 and so far for the last 3 I’m up $19,287. I hope that means my game continues to improve. Those numbers are for playing only and don’t include any affiliate money.

Have a good week.

Week 39

On the heels of last weeks all time high week (for me anyway) where I won for 7 straight days, I wasn’t surprised that I started this week with a loss. I dropped $541 on Sunday night in another frustrating session. It got even worse on Monday though where I lost big in the afternoon followed by an even worse evening session to leave me down $1,623 for the day, and over 2K for the week already. It was the second worse day I’ve ever had and by far the worst start to a week I’ve ever had. It also marked the 3rd 200 BB down turn I’ve had already in 2004, 3 weeks into the year. If it weren’t for the great week last week I’d be desperate by now. On Tuesday I had a decent afternoon, followed by a break even evening to post my first win of the week, a modest $278. Wednesday and Thursday were carbon copy days, with brilliant afternoon sessions followed by evening losses, leaving me with wins of $409, and $446. On both days though I was up as much as $700 in the afternoon and thinking I was on the verge of a huge day that would salvage the week. Friday again saw me with a nice afternoon, but this time the evening wasn’t bad, it was horrible. Another one of those $700 in an hour losses that have become so regular lately. Again I don’t think I’m playing badly, although the frustration surely caused me to pay off a few hands on the river although it seemed obvious I had been rivered again. I ended the day down $290, and still down over $1300 for the week. So on Saturday I was looking for a huge day to salvage the week and I didn’t get it. Instead I had another awful day, losing $900 more for my worst week ever, down over $2,200.

My wife has expressed some concern about my stress levels during these last few weeks. She has taken to sitting with me after the cursing starts for a while. I appreciate her concern but to be honest I think it’s better that I yell a few obscenities at the computer (Another reason to play when the kids aren’t here) rather than keep it bottled up inside me. There is no doubt that I’m frustrated, and not just a little concerned. However, it’s easy to handle anything when you’re winning. I would think the measure of your competence as a professional is how you handle the bad times, so I’m determined to muddle through it. I finally broke down and purchased Poker Tracker, hopefully it won’t take long to compile a database that will help me in those heads up situations with regular opponents and also look for trouble hands I might be playing. I’ve also started posting more questions in the shorthanded section after experiencing problems.

To be perfectly honest, although I still think I’m playing better cards on average than most opponents, I am struggling against some hyper-aggressive opponents. The kind that raise every time I limp, and 3 bet every time I raise. These guys never used to bother me at full table games because we rarely ended up heads up, and the presence of a third player usually makes it much easier to read hands. Now I find myself heads up a lot, and the other guy is driving the car. After I get raised with a good but not great hand heads up I tend to think “well, that’s got my extra bet in if I’m good” and let it go at that. But in hindsight I can see that by not 3 betting my good hands, I’m allowing him to get in the extra bet when he wants, and although I’m making a little more on my winning hands, I’m losing much more on my losing hands. I’m getting outplayed by these guys. Of course when your not hitting any flops, it’s hard to outplay anyone. I’m hoping the poker tracker database will help me identify the kinds of hands I’m getting 3-bet with. I need to punish the 3-bet with anything from the blinds guys I keep running into.

4 times this week I capped the river and lost. That’s really unusual for me. In all 4 cases I put the guy on the wrong hand and got blind to the possibility of something else being out there. One of them was understandable, I flopped a wheel with 54 on an A23 flop with two hearts. The flop got capped and I put him on 2 pair or a flush draw. The turn was a J, and again he raised me, and I 3 bet. The river was a T, no flush possible and he bet into me. I raised again, he 3 bet and I capped. He had KQ hearts and beat me with a higher straight. I never saw it coming.

The big news here this week was my wife writing her Provincial Nursing exam. Pending the results she is now licensed to practice as an RN. We’re all very proud of her.

I was called again this week by the freelance reporter who wants to interview me for a magazine article on online gaming he’s writing. He’s going to drive up here on Wednesday to interview me and watch me play for a few hours. Should be interesting.

When I was playing full table games I remember describing my play as like a big play football offence. I would grind along losing small pots and waiting for the monster pots with flopped sets and straights and flushes. It wasn’t unusual for me to play 6 or 7 hours of break even or losing poker, but make enough in the other hour to make my day. Now I think I’ve turned around completely. I feel like I grind it out making good decisions for hour on end to make my 1 BB per table per hour, only to have one hour where I drop $500 or more.

Clearly in games where only 2 or 3 people see the flop, the implied odds aren’t there to chase sets and flushes with baby pairs and small suited connectors, so I’ve had to change my play with these hands, but I’m still not clear if my recent performances are a result of a) bad luck, b) bad play on my part, or c) a general toughening up of the games.
I tend to disregard (c), if only because the increase in players makes it very unlikely that all the new players are good. I’m still seeing some terrible play at the tables, I’m just not getting the cards at the right time to take advantage of it. SO my guess is that it’s a combination of (a) and (b). This week and during the losing streak my big pairs just didn’t hold up. I lost with KK 4 times in 45 minutes earlier this week. Twice when a K flopped, whereas during my 5K week, I had Aces hold up 11 times out of 12 in one night. But I don’t believe in too much chance, and in the last 6 weeks I’ve had 4 losing weeks, after not having any in the previous 24 weeks. I will continue to look for weaknesses in my game. A good indication of how bad I ran on Saturday though, since I have only 1day of results in Poker Tracker so far is that I’m losing money with AA, KK, QQ and AK. That’s pretty bad.

Twice this week I had the honor of playing with a true maniac. It’s been a long time since I had the pleasure, and in both cases I didn’t make a cent off him. The best case was one I shared with 2+2’er James282. James was in seat 1 and I was in seat 6 (we sandwiched the dealer). The maniac was in seat 2. For 2 hours he saw every river (that’s right, not just flops but rivers). Most of the time he raised every time it came to him. When this started he had around $400 in front of him. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if he just arrived and started playing like this, or he went on tilt and started, I really hadn’t noticed his play until it began. James was baiting him a little, but he never typed in a comment during the entire 2 hours. No one left the table until he went broke, which he eventually did, then we broke within 5 minutes. The miracle is that he lasted as long as he did. He made hand after hand, and ran his bankroll up to over $700 at one point. He won with 54 3 times making full houses. James was his victim more often than anyone else, and actually I was up considerably, winning $100 plus pots twice with only Ace high as he just kept betting hands like 8 high. But eventually he got me too making huge hands against my simply good hands and I was down around $150 until one of the last hands he played. I had T9 and the flop came down TT9. There was no need to slowplay with him, he will push anything, and in this case he was cold-decked, holding 99. We capped every street. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. After that hand he was left with around $30 and went bust shortly afterwards.

One pretty reliable read is when someone calls two cold with a pair on the board, they have trips. IN this hand I had 88 on the button and limped behind 2 others. The SB raised, and 4 of us called the raise. Flop is Jc Jd 2c. It gets checked around to me and I bet. SB calls, BB folds and UTG raises. LP folds and now it’s on me. The UTG guy loves to bluff, so I don’t necessarily believe him. I decide to raise here as the last money I’ll put in unless I improve. The SB calls two more cold, Ding!! There’s the trips. UTG folds. Turn is an 8. Yowee! SB checks, I bet and he just calls. Hmm. River is another 8. Now the SB bets into me. How nice is it to be bet into with quads. I raise, and he raises me back. I’ve never lost with quads under quads so I raise again and he calls. He has QJ and I win a beauty.

I’m not going to post any more bad beats this week, suffice to say there were a lot of them. Hope you all have a good week.