Today's my last day that I'll be playing this month, and unless I win 50k I will have failed the 100k in 5 months challenge I put on myself at the beginning of the year. A couple of things slowed me down including a very slow start in January, due to my lack of hours at the tables, and a complete loss of the desire to play online on a site with crappy software and low traffic. So instead of trying to win 100k with a combination of live and online play, I had to try to win 20k per month at 5/10 live. I still think that it is do-able, (in fact I know a reg who hit 100k profit this year a few weeks ago playing 5/10 only) but I think that it requires a lot of hours of play per month. Something that I'm not willing or able to commit at the present.
Stats for the year:
Total Profit: $50,490
Total Hours Played: 732
Est Hands Played: 25,620
Est Rake + Dealer Tips Paid: $10,980
Days played: 109/150
Avg Session length (hrs): 6.72
Hourly Rate: $68.96
Win Percentage: 57.80%
Monthly breakdown:
January, 96 hrs, 57.68/hr
February, 178 hrs, 120.46/hr
March, 167.5 hrs, 71.33/hr
April, 153.5 hrs, (32.74)/hr
May, 128 hrs, 128.76/hr
I'm a little disappointed with the downward trend of April and May in terms of hours played. Hopefully I can up the number significantly with the WSOP going on now, but MTT's could interfere with a lot of cash time, so we'll see what happens. I really wanted to hit 750 hours but I just didn't have it in me. Took some extra days off, but I don't think I would have done anything differently if I had it to do over again. January's low volume is the culprit, and a lot of the time I took off in January wasn't really in my control so I'm happy with how it all played out.
Any ideas for a rest of the year challenge? I was thinking after WSOP ends trying to do 1,000 hours from July-December. That's 167 hours per month average, but I should be able to play a shit ton July-Aug because Mrs. wh00sel isn't working during that time. I may have to take a vacation or something though after the series, because I'm sure I'll be pretty burnt out this year, as i'm trying to stay at the casino until midnight or later every day that I play.
I'm done with the game. I have a TON low-mid level stuff. 7 mules semi/filled with items for starting/leveling characters + full stash. 1.4M gold atm, could sell a ton and get 2M pretty quickly. LMK
In all seriousness, I'm at 14k which is a good place to be in but I should have 20k. I played pretty horribly, but I don't blame myself too much. I was ridiculously tired for the last 4 hours of the day. It sucks, but oh well. Everyone is really terrible too, its kind of hard to play against them(not really), because I don't ever see such bad play like this. Phil Ivey was at table in front of me. I want my money back from him.
Ok if this blog had no structure, and reads terrible, its because I'm really tired.
After a sick heater and string of consecutive winning days, I finally lost about 1.5k at the 2/5 tables today. Although in general it is no big deal, I still can't help but feel crummy, degenerate feelings (record month for me).
Anyway I came across this article and googled the second one. Just thought I'd share.
Decided to commit 2 of my normal 1/3 buyins for a single buyin shot at 2/5. So I bought in for $400, and worked it up to $700 when some asian lady sits down. She buys in for the max, $1000, and within 3 hands me and her get it allin preflop, AA vs A5s. Obviously she hits a flush, allin preflop for $700. The typical asian ramblings of "gamble gamble" ensue. It was a pretty crushing defeat since I was nervous playing a new limit anyway, so I just had to quit for the day.
Didnt get any sleep last night after the A/C was making annoying noises every hour, so I didnt get up till 2pm and missed my opportunity to rent a car and travel some. Instead I explored more of the strip on foot, and to be honest, got quite a bad taste in my mouth from it. Just so many degens, homeless people, beggars, weird crackheads approaching you making a scene, etc. I just hate all that shit. At least get a job handing out those stupid porno cards that all these random folks are doing, at least they're fucking trying to do something that constitutes work. But just sitting there on your ass taking handouts? GTFO. I gave $5 to some horribly deformed man with no arms, because there is nothing he can every do to be productive. He got dealt a shitty hand in life and thats not his fault. I dont expect him to work or achieve anything, and he needs all the help he can get. But 90% of the bums in vegas think they're being cute with the "all I want is beer" signs they are holding up. That shit was funny the first time some guy did it in 1995.
Anyway, I'm definitely going to need to see some of the softer side of vegas after all that, since it was so disgustingly vile that I'm not sure I would actually want to travel through it every day as part of my "poker career" just to get to the casino. In fact it was so bad, I dont even want to leave the City Center premises again, which is basically a small 5 building sect of vegas constituting the Aria and some shops. They've done a pretty good job of being able to maintain your entire vacation within this one small area, and I feel like I wont be venturing out beyond its borders anymore lol.
Someone asked earlier about the quality of the PLO games at the Aria, and I'm pretty sure it got answered, but I made sure to check myself tonight. There was 1 game of 2/5 PLO running and that was it. Over the weekend I think I saw maybe 3 tables of 2/5 PLO and 1 table of 5/10 PLO. There are also some random "interest" lists for people trying to start 10/20 PLO but it only had like 4 people on it. Looks like the Aria is definitely not for PLO.
it hasn’t been long enough but i’m back in the game of promoting my thoughts and myself once again, then again that never changes ……..and no one is listening b/c this is my first post on this site (not that anyone was listening in anyway before)
until next time when i actually have something to say……..
-haus
edit:i actually started blogging on my own website thought id post some here too good to see people are still alive and well........see some familiar names here and there. after 3 years of law and order marathons, chinese takeout, and crawled up sulking in bed like a bad sandra bullock movie im ready to grind, talk jibberish in run-on sentences, and pretend i know what the hell im doing
-haus
ps what hurt poker most ?? a)black friday b) starcraft 2 c)diablo 3
So, I've been playing on and off for the last month or so at the micro stakes. I am doing ok'ish, basically breaking even. I think I am playing ok ABC-type poker, with some stupid mistakes.
http://i.imgur.com/xSAaQ.jpg
I enjoy playing 1 dollar STT a lot, I feel less pressure to make money on every hand.
My #1 mistake - i think - is getting carried away in the betting when I feel I have the best hand. I get excited about flopping 2 pairs and get killed by a set or straight. When I look at my hand history per tournament, I usually only have 1-3 hands that show a big loss.
Second mistake is calling a semi-good hand (middle pair with Ace kicker or something) all the way to showdown, knowing that I should probably just have folded when opponent raised after the flop..
So, my question to you guys
1: What can I look for in PT4 to evaluate my own play? I have all this data available, and don't really know what to look for. Please let me know if there is anything specific you would like to see in order to give me some simple advice.
Bought in for $200, cashed out $1200. I still find myself playing fancy on occasion, but have toned it down to the levels I mentioned earlier meaning isolating limpers and button raising, plus the occasional raise when someone donkbets me or check-raising a dry flop when someone bets weak like 1/3 pot or less. No more squeezing or playing back at anyone who raised. Im not sure if it's really all that profitable, but I just do it because it seems like the right thing to do. Interestingly enough, the few times I did it I royally sucked out and hit some bullshit hands, but it didnt matter because villains ended up folding 150BB pots when I shoved the river. I dont know what to make of this. They call and call and call and then somehow find a way to fold on the river, making all my fancy play irrelevant since I never saw a showdown.
So tomorrow (or today depending on your timezone) I'm going to rent a car and just cruise around vegas. Wh00sel mapped out a nice route to get a feel for the avg vegas neighborhood, so I want to see what the landscape is like here and if I can see myself living in it. Obviously vegas is a blast, and I've had such an emotional rush being here I stopped even taking pictures because pictures just cant do it justice. You have to see it for yourself to understand.
Walked through the bellagio and ceasars palace, what a dump. The bellagio is alright, although clearly dated compared to a brand new establishment like the Aria. Saw Doyle Brunson in Bobby's room just waiting for action. Ivey's room was full but I couldnt recognize anyone playing there, besides some asian american I've seen on TV.
Now that I know how casino's work, I must have ordered about 30-40 mixed drinks lol. I made sure to tip the waitresses $2 each time for tending to me nicely. Got my first meal at the table comp'd, so that was a nice surprise. I havent bothered checking my comp status so I have no idea where I stand, but supposedly they'll just knock the rest off my final bill when I go to check out. Have 3 more full days here. Plan to spend the morning/afternoon sight seeing and the late afternoon/evenings grinding.
Man I would love nothing more than to just fuck my job and never come back home. Just find a longterm hotel rental at the Aria until I get settled, or get an apt if they'll lease me with no job and never look back. This just really feels like my calling, the life for me. It feels so right. Going back to my miserable job fixing computers just feels depressing as all fuck. I have no intention to move up limits, but if I somehow ended up finishing +10k here in vegas, I would have no reason to return home after adding in my savings/poker earnings. It's just too fun out here. Hell, at this point I'd take a job making $15/hour and supplement the rest playing poker and be proud to live in vegas, until I go full time playing poker that is.
not a fantastic month but not a bad one either. i have really been getting owned so far this year.
Even though i am losing a lot this year my confidence is at an all time high, as i know i have been playing some of the best poker of my life for past two months since i completely quit fast tables.
quitting fast tables is definitely one of the best changes i have made.
it kinda sucks that i can only play HU at 6max tables now though.
i was watching a coaching video by THE_END a month ago and he said something about it not mattering how tight or loose you play. Probably some of the worst stuff i've ever heard in a coaching video, i know he probably didn't mean too much of it but if i was making a coaching video i would always make sure everything i said made sense. I would never do a live video because of this principle.
Anyway this month i played a lot of nl100 deep which is insanely soft, and some nl200 100bb as well when deep games are not running.
I'm thinking really hard about buying a couple of books which I mind find interesting:
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance (Robert Pirsig)
The God Delusion (R. Dawkins)
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (R. Dawkins)
Anyone had some experience with these titles? I'm especially interested in thoughts about the second one, since if it's just some random hatred-driven rant about how religion is crap (which, after reading up about it, appears to might be), then I could give up on checking it out.
Any other particular titles regarding religion/cosmology/philosophy that you recommend?
I need to work on my mental game a lot I think. I just finished a session out of frustration after playing like a moron. It started out with a suckout in the first couple hands then I opened more tables up to 10 (super stupid idea). HM2 was giving me trouble because I had too much other shit open and that made me want to punch my monitor (I get the most angry when technical shit isn't working; wifi problems, RAM problems and timeouts all bring out some kind of rage in me). Then I made some super dumb calls and jams (I think I 4bet jammed an oesd/fd against a set on the turn, b/b/c'd some schmuck who'd nfd made and ace on river, and worse was 77 calling an overbet shove on a 679 8 T board woops he has JJ). Looking at my graph for this session what really bugs me is that it would have probably been about breakeven if I had kept it together
Landed in vegas a few hours ago, checked in to my room and went straight for the tables. Having never played in a casino, those drinks the waitresses keep bringing by are completely free right? And people just tip them like $1 or so for every one? Most important, will they make you any drink you want for free? I mean can I order some nice vodka beverages and it's all on the house?
Anyway had a good first run. Bought in for $200 at a 1/3 game and cashed out $540. I nitted it up to start, but couldnt help but attempt to isolate and target a few players with no joy. I just dont know enough about that stuff, and bleed off a good 30BB's before I recognize it just isnt working. I seem to do alright stealing blinds, but I just cant quite understand how to properly iso/squeeze and what to do on certain flop textures. I keep trying to balance my range even though I know it's pointless because nobody cares, I just cant help myself, it feels like the right thing to do.
Apparently people are allowed to use cash for chips on the table. I turned a flush and missed a shit ton of value vs 2 pair because this guy had $100 bills under his stack and I just wasnt looking at that. I looked at his chips and thought I put him allin by sliding a stack out, only to realize there was a good $300 behind that I missed in value.
Other than that, the casino is great, the Aria is ridiculous, and I feel right at home in the live setting no different than playing in my home town.
I felt that after this sample I was confident enough that I can comfortably beat NL 4 and am moving up to NL 10 today. 8.64 bb/100 winrate ain't too shabby even if it's against some really terrible players.
a lot of deep runs in the end, had 5 screens now going very deep on all, and no FT... ran super crappy when it came down for the big flips. posted the important hands.
around 4.1k left now, so good enough for another sunday, will have to be 06/10 tho cause I'm going to Sao Paulo to play a big live MTT this weekend. there is still hope for when I come back tho
Register on the site, go through 15 groups, select 1 of the 5 players in each, and you are finished. Fun, easy, possibility to win prizes. I think 1st place wins 1% of Negreanu's winnings at the WSOP this summer, which could be fairly big if he cashes the one drop. Gogogo
Here are my picks. I tried to prioritize more on people that play more events and skill was second.
ElkY (Bertrand Grospellier)
Dan O'Brien
Vanessa Rousso
Shaun Deeb
Thomas Marchese
John Juanda
Tobias Reinkemeier
Tom Dwan
Sam Trickett
Vivek Rajkumar
David Chiu
Viktor Blom
Shawn Buchanan
Chino (David Rheem)
Brian Ras
for nl100/200 HU players for $100 per hour, or 3 hours for $75 each.
I used to play NL1000 HU a before, I made a good clip, but i was mostly bum hunting and was not very good.
Only recently I have been playing the mid stakes games recently, sitting across multiple tables "waiting for donks" but routinely joining other regs; i average about 300-500hands per hour because of this and I am constantly in action.
I usually never coach, but I think its the right time. I think most of my students will only need 1-3 hours.
PLEASE Inquire with PM for details and the expected outcourse.
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