The Weekly Journals of DavidRoss

Week 49

For the second straight week I found myself in a great situation at an Empire Tournament, but again couldn’t cash it in. Last week was the 100 person VIP freeroll where almost half the people didn’t play, this week it was a WSOP qualifier with 2 seats guaranteed. Package was worth $12,000, entry fee was $200 + 15 and only 61 people entered, leaving Empire 12K short in entry fees. Alas, after making 3 big hands in the first round, flopped a straight, and twice flopped 2 pair, I only won one more hand the rest of the night and went out in 40th place. I’m glad I don’t play tournaments full time. Seems to be a lot of disappointment sprinkled with a little success. I don’t think I handle the bad times well enough to take it mentally.

On the plus side, I had another really good week. Just like last week, it started slowly, but finished well. I lost $351 on Sunday, but won $416 on Monday. Tuesday was another small loss of $178. Wednesday I seemed to turn the corner and won $280, followed by a big day Thursday, winning $931, and an even bigger Friday, winning $1,155. Saturday night I was up $542 which included the $215 I spent on the tournament. Final tally for the week was $2,795.

I’m on a good roll. My bankroll is the highest it’s ever been. The games are still good, over 40,000 playing every night. I have over 120,000 hands in my database now and I’m earning over 2 BB’s per hundred hands. With the deeper bankroll I’m handling the slow periods much better. And to make it even better it’s a rake rebate week. I bought myself a new toy yesterday, a laptop. It’s equipped with a wireless network connection so I can get out of the basement when I want to, and it should be easier to play when I travel. I pick it up tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to sitting in the backyard and playing in the fresh air instead of the dark basement for a while. I have to figure out the logistics of maintaining Pokertracker when I’m playing on 2 machines. I expect to still play evenings on my desktop, but maybe I should think about using the laptop all the time. I pick it up tomorrow and I guess I’ll just see how it goes.

I’ve been on a carb free diet for 2 weeks now. It is agony for me, I am a carb-freak. No bread, no pasta and no sweets. I have lost 9 pounds so far and I can start adding small amounts of carb’s this week. Thank god, I can’t handle bacon and eggs for breakfast every day. I want to have a bagel with cream cheese so badly. I’m also not supposed to drink caffeine. I don’t drink coffee so that’s not a huge deal, but I do have a diet Dr. Pepper every night when I’m playing and I stopped that. I have noticed 2 things poker related since starting the diet. The first was how tired I was getting in the evening sessions. I have observed that almost every night, I started losing later in the evening, giving back a lot of my winnings, or putting me in the hole. I was really having trouble concentrating, so I added back my Dr. Pepper to my diet on Wednesday with good results. I was able to play at my normal level well into the night. The 2nd observation has to do with my mood. I’ve been irritable at the tables. I usually stay out of confrontational conversations at the table unless I feel someone is being a bully. But in the last two weeks, I am ashamed to say, I have lowered myself to the idiots level several times. The worst one was one night when some guy took offence to some of my play. I snapped back at him and of course the inevitable challenge to play heads up fired out. I don’t know why, but whenever 2 guys get arguing, one of them always challenges the other to play heads up. Instead of ignoring him I brought $10,000 to the table and told him I’d play him a $10,000 freeze-out, bring the money or shut up. As satisfying as it was, I don’t think it did much for my earning potential at that table. I honestly think the diet is affecting my behavior a little and it’s something I need to watch out for.

Only 3 weeks to go to complete a full year of playing. It is my intention to stop the posts at that point. I think I will spend a little time writing an outline for a book and see if there is any interest from the poker publishers. I still want to finish it with a trip to Las Vegas, and If I can’t win a trip from Empire, I’m still thinking of bidding for that satellite package they are auctioning to the VIP players. I think it would be the perfect way to end this year.

A couple of things I was pleased with this week. I went to bed early on a couple of the nights I was so tired. Usually when I’m losing, I stay up quite late trying to get even. This time I recognized that I couldn’t play my best and called it quits. And Saturday night after getting knocked out of the tournament, I realized that I was still replaying all my hands, so instead of getting right into the ring games I watched the end of the Duke UConn game before starting to play. It’s interesting to me that simply improving my play at the table isn’t all that has to be done to be a complete player. There are so many little things outside of the actual play that have to be worked on too.

I’m not sure how much of my win rate comes from hands like this, but it’s not insignificant. My opponent in this hand has been pretty wild already. I open raise with KhQd in the cutoff. The button cold calls and both blinds fold. Flop is Kc 9s 7c. I bet and he calls again. Turn is the Kd. I bet, he raises, I 3 bet and he caps it. River is 4h. I check, he bets and I call. He has As 2c?????? Is this just a function of watching no-limit tournaments on TV and thinking they can run the big bluff?

This is the hand that convinced me to go back to my Dr. Pepper. UTG limps, and I limp behind him with 4c 4s. Button and small blind limp as well and the BB checks. The flop is Ts 5s 4h. Checked to me and I bet. Button calls and SB check-raises. BB calls 2 cold, UTG folds and I smooth call, fairly certain there will be a bet and a call on the turn allowing me to get a nice raise on the turn if no spade comes. Button calls behind me. Turn is 8d. Unfortunately both blinds check. I bet and get called by all 3. River is Js. Argh. I’ve put at least one of the blinds on spades. They both check and I check too. Button bets out, SB folds and the BB raises. There is $133 in the pot and I have to put up $20 more. I fold and the button calls. The BB had J4 and the button had J8, the J made both of them 2 pair. There are a few different ways I could have played this, but the bottom line is how often will the river fold be a good one as oppsed to missing out on 13 BB’s?

I think this is the biggest 5/10 6max pot I’ve ever won. 2 limpers to me on the button. I have Kc 9d and I limp too. Both blinds play as well. Flop is Qh Js Td. UTG bets and the cutoff raises. I 3 bet ( no fooling around withthis flop), and the SB caps it. BB folds but everyone else calls. Turn is 8s. SB bets, UTG raises (a 9 I hope), CO calls 2 cold and I 3 bet. SB calls 2 cold (2 pair I’m guessing), UTG caps it (definitely a 9….I hope. Would he limp with AK?) and we all call again. Don’t pair the board I start chanting. River is the 2d. Checked all the way to me. I’m surprised UTG let it go after capping the turn, but I bet. All 3 call. UTG had K3o. He was pushing his 1 card open ender pretty hard. CO had QJ and was caught in the middle the whole way. SB had 98 for a flopped wroing end of the straight. Pot was $303.

Have a good week everyone.

Week 50

Another week of limited playing, but still a success. No poker during the day Monday, as I configured my new laptop and wireless router. Very short sessions on Thursday night and Friday night because of a visit from my sister and her husband and step children. With Friday being a holiday I didn’t play during the day either, and I’m writing this Saturday afternoon watching the Masters not sure whether I will play tonight or not. We have an easter egg hunt scheduled for the morning so my opportunity to write tomorrow will be limited. We have numerous bottles of wine to drink tonight and since I know the kids will be up early I may opt not to play. There is a WSOP qualifier at 9:00 PM tonight, but I doubt dinner will be finished, and it would probably be rude to abandon my wife to my family, so I think my dreams will have to wait another week. I guess I played 15 hours fewer than normal already this week.

I started the week on a great note with a $611 win on Sunday. Monday night was a struggle and I lost $136. Tuesday was a sad day, we were eliminated from the club championship in curling, my season is over, but winning $1,231 took away some of the sting. Wednesday was a wild day. A terrific couple of hours in the afternoon put me up $400, but a horrible evening put me $344 in the hole by the end of the day. Thursday however saw me bounce back with another big win of $1,119, and on Friday in a 90 minute evening session after taking my sister to see Mamma Mia I won another $419, which covered the tickets and dinner nicely. Going into Saturday I am up $2,900 for the week.

My sister has borne the brunt of looking after my mother since my dad died. I’m lucky that I live 350 miles away, but my sister is visiting my mom almost every day. She takes her out, entertains her etc. This was my way of paying her back for some of that. My Mom is healthy as a horse and will be with us for a long time to come, but she was with my dad from the age of 17, and is very lonely.

The big news in our household this week was my wife getting a job in the area she wanted. Labour and delivery. Most of her classmates are already working, they graduated in December. But none of them is really working in the area they wanted to. They all hope to eventually move to where they wanted, but after 3 years of school, needed to start working. My wife had the luxury of being a little more patient and it paid off this week. So she starts in two weeks, and will love being around babies and expectant mothers all day. I’m going to love some guaranteed income.

I owe so much of the good things that have happened to me this year to the contributors of this forum. Despite my own stubbornness too. It took me many weeks of urging before I made the switch from Paradise to Party, and that paid immediate dividends. It took a lot of urging for me to try the shorthanded games, and once again I was glad I did. I was a latecomer to the affiliate programs, and that has certainly made this year just amazing, (my laptop, bar-b-que, power washer, show tickets and dinner out were all thanks to this months affiliate payment). And finally Poker tracker. I stalled and stalled before buying it, and for the life of me I can’t imagine why. Has to be the smartest $40 I’ve ever spent. Besides pointing out several hands I was playing that were losing money, I am loving the notes export. Twice this week I have been sitting on the button with a very playable hand, AJ and 99, and faced a raise from the cutoff. When I checked the notes, the player had a pre-flop raise percent of 1%, and I folded without any doubts. Both times the guy had AA. I folded AQ against an EP player who had limp-re-raised, but had pre-flop raise % of 2, and he flashed AA at me too. I’m really starting to like this tool.

I have spent a lot of time this week wondering what game to move to next. The time is ripe for a change, the bankroll is healthy, and my game has improved. I’m considering 3 possibilities, shorthanded 10/20, full table 10/20 and full table 15/30. The shorthanded 10/20 seems to be the most logical choice, but some of the advice I have received indicates the 15/30 game may be softer. The curious thing about moving up though is if I assume I can maintain a 2BB/100 hands win rate, I would only break even with my current situation playing 2 15/30 tables. I would only see 120 hands an hour at 2 full tables, making me $66 an hour, and right now I’m seeing 320 hands an hour making me $64 an hour. I don’t know what the reduction of rake played would be, and of course it’s probably a big assumption that I can continue to make 2 bb’s at an increased limit, but it would seem I would need to play at least 3 tables at any increased limit. One thing I do know is that when I do change, I have to give it a reasonable amount of time. 4 weeks at least. Anything less than that and I think I’m just gambling that I won’t run bad the first week or so.

I sent Empire an e-mail this week asking about the satellite package they are auctioning later this month. It is described as 5 nights in Vegas the week before the “big one” and includes 2 entries to super-satellite’s, and airfare and hotel. But what they told me was that upon arrival in Vegas, they will give you $2,000. So I’m guessing you make your own arrangements, and can actually play no satellites if you choose. No matter how it works, I guess it still seems like a good deal to me, since cashing in my e-points will only be worth $200 to $300.

I was interviewed this week by a reporter from the Washingtonpost.com. He’s doing an article about the online poker boom and has already spoken to Chris Moneymaker and Mike Caro. I’m in esteemed company.

I played exclusively on the laptop this week, and it was good and bad. Nice to play anywhere in the house, I took advantage and played upstairs during the sunlight hours. Unfortunately the best chair in the house for sitting hours on end, is the chair at my computer desk. Anywhere else leads to discomfort after a short period of time. It seems silly to plop the laptop right next to the desktop, but I think for the long evening sessions that’s what I’ll be doing for a while. I found the display hard to look at after a few hours the first couple of days, but I turned down the brightness and that problem seems to have gone away. The only problem I’m still having has to do with the touch pad on the laptop. I seem to hit it inadvertently while I’m typing, and it moves my cursor, usually backwards several lines, as I keep typing. By the time I notice it, I’ve got a pretty mixed up paragraph. I’m pretty sure I can disable the touch pad sensitivity, but I haven’t looked for it yet. I guess my next purchase will have to be a comfortable chair for upstairs.

Well I did in fact take Saturday night off. So it goes into the books as a $2,900 week. I think I will try a new game this week and I’ll let you know how it went next week.

Week 51

Well I finally did it. After weeks, even months of thinking about it and procrastinating, I finally took the plunge and moved up in limits. It’s kind of strange that I’m trying to eliminate all risk from my gambling lifestyle, but that is what I have been doing. With only 2 weeks left in my first year of full time playing, I decided if nothing else it would give me something interesting to write about, and boy was I right about that.

My decision came down to playing 10/20 shorthanded or 15/30 full tables, and since I figured I would want to play fewer tables, at least at first I decided to take a shot at the 15/30 full tables. With over 500 BB’S in the bankroll, I figured I could withstand some bad luck, and some bad play. With the exception of my move from paradise 5/10 to Party 3/6(those 3/6 games were so soft that I was able to win right away there), I have struggled every time I changed games. It always takes me some time to adjust to the style of that particular game, and in my opinion every different game has a unique style. I hoped it wouldn’t take me too long to find a winning strategy for these games. I ran into 2 old friends almost right away, Rigoletto and So Be Dude seem to be regulars in these games.

Well there is a lot of adjusting to be done. First of all I decided I would play 2 games at once. That didn’t last too long. I’ve been playing 4 shorthanded tables for 6 months, and playing just 2 full tables was like watching paint dry. It took me about 15 minutes before I opened 2 more tables and played 4. With a $750 buy in, I brought $3,000 to the table just to sit down. Phew! Those are big numbers for me. Average pots are in the $150-$250 range. The biggest pot I’ve ever won was just over $300. I know I have to think about them as betting units, not dollars, but it’s going to take some time. I also have a bad habit of watching my balance during a session to see how I’m doing. Well at these limits you can win or lose a thousand in 15 minutes, easy.

I got off to a rough start. I hadn’t been playing 5 minutes when this hand came up. I open raised with Ad Qh two off the button. I got 3 bet by the cut off. The BB called and so did I. Flop is 9d 8s 6s. The BB bet out. I folded fearing a raise behind me. The CO just called. Turn was 4s. BB bet, CO called. River was an Ac. BB bet, CO raised, and BB called. CO had AJ and BB had Q4??. So I got pushed off the first hand I played. Just a few minutes later this happened. I’m in the SB with Ad 3d. There are 2 limpers then a raise in LP. I called from the SB (getting a presumed 6.5 to 1) and the BB and both limpers called too. Flop is 9d 7d 6d. How to milk the most out of this? With the PF raiser acting last I decided to bet out and hopefully trap everyone between us. I got 2 calls, but then the LP only called. Turn was Tc. I bet out again and this time got 2 calls. River was 2c. I bet and now the BB raises, and the EP calls 2 cold. I 3 bet, BB caps, and EP folds. I called and he shows 8d 5d for the flopped straight flush. Ouch. I lost $200 in the blink of an eye. This is really going to take some getting used to.

The entire Sunday night was tough. First of all I saw very little bad play. There was almost no cold calling, it was 3 bet or fold. Very few hands went to a showdown. Everyone seemed to be playing “hit the flop or fold”. The only adjustment I was able to make was to bet almost any piece of the flop from the blinds, and you had a good chance of winning a small pot….or getting raised. When the dust settled I had lost $1,531 and my wife was looking pretty concerned. Of course she’s the one that told me I should move up in limits back in February, but she’s a real “live in the moment” kind of gal. Monday afternoon was more of the same. Tough games, down over $1K again, and I was cursing everyone who told me about these “soft” games. But to be perfectly fair, I ahd a terrible run of cards. 4 flopped sets in 25 minutes that all lost big pots on the river. AA vs KK with a K on the river, and KK against AA with no save for me. I finally made some hands late in Monday’s afternoon session and finished only down a little bit. Then Monday night all the bad players showed up. At least it seemed that way. I went on a 2 day run of great cards. I won around 12% of my hands, and close to 40% when seeing the flop for over 2 days. I ended Monday ahead $1,689 for the day and Tuesday was another win of $2,313. Wednesday afternoon I won another $1,800 and looked like I was going to have a record week. I decided to make Wednesday night WSOP night, and I played qualifiers at Poker Stars and at Empire for several hours (more on that later). But I dercided to get one more hour in at 2:00 AM and went cold again. I gave back almost all of the afternoon winnings finishing the day up $224, and Thursday the bad run continued in the afternoon when I lost another $2K. Since the stakes are tripled I guess I have to relate it to a $650 loss at 5/10 which wasn’t unusual, but man it’s tough getting used to these amounts. Thursday night was a grind, making no headway all night until real late again, when I went on a $2K rush in 30 minutes. I finished the day up $3. Pretty wild considering the $4k difference in my afternoon and evening sessions. Friday was a good day again, winning $1,887. Unfortunately Saturday night didn’t go so well and I dropped another $1,121 leaving me with a $3,464 week.

Based on my experience, I can expect a $6,000 downswing at some point, and daily wins or losses of around $5K. Wow! I won a $730 pot this week, and on Saturday I lost with my nut flush to another straight flush in a $930 pot. Going to have to get used to these numbers. The tough games of Sunday and Monday changed to regular games as the week went on with a nice mix of good and bad players. I know it’s too early to tell, but although I had some wild fluctuations, I think I can beat these games for a decent rate. My pokertracker stats, although only 9,000 hands strong at 15/30 are very close to my 5/10 numbers. I voluntarily put money in 21.7% as opposed to 23% in 5/10. My SB numbers are much higher (42 to 28) because of the 2/3 blind structure. I won when seeing flop 32.9% (35.5 in 5/10) and my win rate was 1.86 (2.11 in 5/10) per 100 hands. My PFR number is way down, 9.06 compared to 11.8. I think that’s because of the bigger fields. I’m limping in with more hands (medium pairs and suited connectors) that I was folding or raising before, because I have a much greater chance of getting 4 or 5 people to play than I did shorthanded.

A couple of generalizations about these games. There is way less bluffing than in the shorthanded games. I think part of my problem Sunday and Monday, was that I was calling everyone down with hands like an unimproved AK, as I did in the 5/10 games. I could count the bluffs I caught on one hand this week. However, they were much more likely to 3 bet hands like A4s or ATo than I’m used to. And most of these guys are terrified to play shorthanded. If 2 people sit out, the table will break in 5 hands. I have used that to my advantage. I just start raising as the table gets short and almost always pick up a couple of blinds. They can’t get away from the table quick enough. The other thing I noticed, that I’ve never seen at Party/Empire before, is the solicitation going on. 3 days in a row someone came to the table asking for a $50 loan, promising to pay back 75 or 80 when their bonus came in. Also someone selling poker chips and supplies. I guess they don’t bother the low rollers with this kind of stuff.

You know I want to go to Vegas for the WSOP, and I’d love to be a better tournament player, but unless I dedicate the same time and effort to tournaments that I do to my ring games, it’s not going to happen. But I’m not giving up just yet. On Thursday my youngest daughter takes piano lessons, and I always take her. It gives me 30 minutes of reading time, and her instructor is a knockout too. This week I took Phil Hellmuth’s book with me. I have panned his sections on limit Hold’em before, I think he’s another one of those incredibly talented guys who can’t explain how they do it to less gifted people. But to give him credit, I read his sections on Limit tournaments, and no limit play, and it made a lot of sense to me. It also made me feel a little better because It wasn’t all that far off my experiences, especially the limit tournaments which the Empire qualifiers are. On Wednesday night when I was riding so high I decided to try and qualify at Empire for Saturday nights satellite. I also had discovered that I had over $300 in my pokerstars account (I had set it up to play in the zoo tournaments) and they had daily $33 with rebuy and add on tournaments. So I played that while I was in the $10 Empire tourney. As usual in the Empire tournaments, I made the first break easily with slightly more chips than I started with, but went card dead right after the break. I was out pretty quickly. The PS tournament was a lot of fun. It was No-limit and with the rebuy option until the first break was wild. I won the very first hand which left me ineligible for a rebuy right away (I didn’t know you could rebuy before even starting.) I just sat around for a couple of rounds before getting a free play with A3. The flop was 733 and I check raised an EP bettor. When I bet the turn he put me all in and turned over 77. Doh!! Rebuy. I got blinded down a little more and rebought once more, then added on $2,000 at the break. Right after the break I got my first big hand, KK in EP. 2 people called my raise and the flop was Kxx. I checked and one of them bet out. I raised over the top of him and he went all in with KT. Cha-ching, suddenly I had 12,000 chips and was in 20th place of the 300 still in the tourney (Only 2 seats though). Next big blind I had AKs and there was an EP raise and 2 cold callers. I made it $4,000 to go which was more than any of the others had. The EP guy called, and the other 2 folded. I was ecstatic to see Ac Jc when he showed. Unfortunately the flop brought 2 little clubs, and the river brought his 3rd and I was back down to less than $8,000. I never got above $10,000 again. I did get KK once more, but got no action, and no other playable hands. I played 300 hands in the tournament and only won 7 pots. Had KK twice, but no other pair over 88. AKs that once, but no other big aces. A couple of times I had suited aces, but faced a raise in front of me and folded. The blinds beat me down, and I tried to make a stand with QJs but missed completely and I was out.

Saturday night I bought into the Empire WSOP qualifier for $200. Once again they didn’t get the numbers they wanted and only 53 people played for the seat. Another overlay I was unable to take advantage of. Once again I got to the first break in average shape, but couldn’t win another hand. With 1100 in chips and limits at 50/100 I got KK in LP. I raised a limper, got cold called by the button and the BB played too. Flop was T94. I bet and all 3 called me. Turn was a 5 and the limper bet out. I tried to decide what that meant and just called him. Now the button raised. Is it 2 pair or a set? Any chance it’s AT? Once again these calls I make in ring games, just kill me in a Tournament. What’s even worse is the river brought another 5, making me good against 2 pair so I called the river bet too. He had 99 and I was almost out of chips. Thank god my Canadiens won or Saturday night would have been a total disaster.

Sometimes you worry about the wrong guy, and the wrong hand. In this hand I have Ac Qc and I raise an EP limper from MP. A poster in the co calls 15, the sb calls 20 and the BB and the EP limper both call. Flop is As 3s 2d. The EP limper comes out betting and I raise him. Poster folds, SB calls and now the BB 3 bets. EP calls 2, I call and so does the SB. I’m thinking EP has an A or a flush draw, and BB might have A3 or A2, maybe even 54. Turn is the good news, bad news Qs. BB bets, EP calls, and I chicken out and just call. SB folds. I probably would have raised if there was only one of them, but I’m not that sure I’m ahead here. River is the beautiful Qd. Now the BB bets again, and the EP raises. Wow! I 3 bet, BB folds, and EP calls. EP has 33. I really sucked out on him.

Value Bet? You never know. UTG raises, EP cold calls and MP 3 bets. I’m in the CO and I have posted with 99. I call 2 with it. BB calls 2, and UTG and EP both call 1 more. Flop is 7c 6h 6s. Checked to EP who bets. MP just calls. I Think EP has a 7. I can’t believe MP just calls with an overpair so I raise. I get BB and UTG to fold, add the other 2 call. Turn is 8s, giving me a lot more outs if I am behind. Checked to me and I bet. They both call. I’m pretty sure I’m ahead now. River is the lovely 2c. Checked to me. I’m pretty sure EP will call with a 7. I can’t believe he has waited this long with a 6. I’m more concerned with MP having TT or JJ and being afraid of the 6. But since I’m sure he won’t raise me I bet. They both call. EMP had T7s and MP had Ac Jc?? And he overcalled with it. This is 15/30. I think I’m going to like these games.

A couple of tidbits. For the first time in my poker playing life, I laid down JJ and AK before the flop. Might be routine for some of you, but for me it was new. I was in LP both times, and it was capped before it got to me. In the JJ hand, AA was indeed out there, and the AK hand I suspect it was, but a straight was made and I never saw the 4 bettors hand.

I now head into week 52. I really can’t believe a year has passed. I hope to give you a summary of my 2nd week of 15/30 and a wrap up of the numbers for the year. There is an Empire VIP free roll next Saturday that I’m eligible for, and I’ll probably play another Pokerstars rebuy with what’s left of my roll there. IN a post this week about chicks and poker someone asked if my wife would be willing to write about what it’s been like living with a poker player and she thinks that’s a good idea. I will either include it with my post or put it into a separate post. Have a good week everyone.