Tuesday, January 31st: (NEW) January Report Card

January Report Card **edited

Total hands: 20,500
Total net: $19,800

Limit: 2.54 BB/100 over 14,200 hands: + $14,250
NL: 6,350 hands: + $5,550

Funny thing happened tonight -- I actually wrote my "January Report Card" blog entry on the morning of the 31st, figuring that I probably wouldn't have too much time to play that day, and even if I did, it probably wouldn't be enough to substantially change my January results. Turns out I was wrong. Big time.

I played for 4 hours tonight, and I guess things just went my way because I somehow managed an $8,000 run-up (as you can see by the heavily backloaded results on the graphs below.) I wish I could say that I was going to be able to buy myself something purty with this cash infusion, but in a cruel twist of irony, I also learned this morning that my law school is refusing to honor the remainder of my scholarship if I do my last semester in Sydney, as I had planned. Long story short, I'm still welcome to study abroad to fulfill my degree, but it will cost me $8,500 more than it would if I stayed in boring Philly (at, again ironically, a better school). Woulda been nice to hang on to the money, but Australia beckons. Maybe there's at least some academic expense tax-credit I can take advantage of.





--here is where I had previously had a paragraph lamenting my mediocre start to the year, and my annoying run-in with the 60/35 LAG I referred to as NLDERB, but given my 11th-hour January success, it probably has no place here anymore--

Suprised myself by actually managing to get in around 20,500 hands this month even though I've been swamped with school work and other business. This blog has also been given a few shout-outs in this 2+2 thread. I suppose if that publicity attracts any new readers, and you're looking for some way to navigate through a year and a half's worth of postings, I would check out my December 20th, 2005 post with my self-described "Top 10 posts." That's probably as good a place to start as ever, although I really do think you'll get something out of simply starting back at the beginning, and reading straight through (if you've got the time.) Also, last thing for now, if you want to leave a comment, only do it on the most recent one or two posts, since those are really the only comment sections that I ever bother checking.

Sunday, January 29th

I have been trying to figure out just what's next in my life. I technically have two semesters of law school left, even though all my friends here are graduating this May -- there's no point in me coming back to dreary Philadelphia when most of my friends have left for New York, so I'm seeking approval to do my last semester of school in Sydney, Australia. I couldn't be more excited, since Australia is high on my places-to-go list. I also might use that as a jumping-off point for this trip around the world that I've had in the back of my mind. Over the last little while, I've been mentally cataloging places and things I want to see, and I've got a pretty neat little list compiled -- but I welcome any more suggestions of some of this world's "can't miss destinations", if any of you want to volunteer some of them. To give you a little more idea of the theme of my proposed trip, I'm interested in not only going to some cool places, but especially doing some of the "signature" events while there...it's a silly analogy, but if you ever watch Insomniac with Dave Attell, he goes to cool cities, but doesn't just do the typical touristy sightseeing -- he always manages to throw in some really unique little excursions that are unique to that particular city. The list of proposed destinations / activities is currently as follows:

• Scuba dive the great barrier reef in Australia
• Run with bulls in Pamplona, Spain
  
• Carnival in Brazil
• Mardis Gras in New Orleans (assuming they bring it back)
  
• Bangkok
• Galapagos Islands
• Climb Machu Pichu in Peru
• Go back to the Greek islands (if most of Western Europe seems absent from this list, it's because I did the Western-European thing a few years ago -- but Greece was so amazing, I need to go back)
• Ibiza
• The Pyramids in Egypt
  
• Oktoberfest in Germany
• Some type of safari in Africa
• Watch the Iditarod in Alaska
• Fenway Park in Boston
  
• Fiji
• China
• Easter Island (I don't know why - always seemed fascinating to me)
  
• Stay at the Ice Hotel in Sweden
• Israel
• Eat sushi and ride bullett train in Japan
• Take the trans-Siberian express train through Russia
• Morrocco
• Bali
  

The biggest issue with this plan, unfortunately, is who the hell do I do it with? The financial freedom that poker has given me has been liberating and enjoyable, but also incredibly isolating every time I realize that most people I know don't have the luxury of simply blowing off work whenever they want to take a great trip or indulge other desires. Do I want to take this incredible trip on my own? I've never had any trouble meeting new people, but 4 to 6 months of living as a transient nomad I'm sure will be lonely at times.

After Australia / world travel......well, I guess that's the big one. I'm not fretting over things too much right now. It's not like I'm going to end up homeless on the streets. I went to our law school's moot court competition last week -- if you don't know what that is, basically it's the finals of a mock trial competition, which is presided over by 3 very prestigious appellate-court judges who come in from all over the country. A very big deal, if you're into that kind of stuff. I figured it was my last year of law school and I might as well go watch with everyone else to see exactly what type of career I was taking a pass on. Pretty interesting to watch, I suppose, but it also made me exrcuciatingly cognizant of the disconnect between my life/career ambitions and those of my law school peers. The question all of this begs, I guess, is whether it was a mistake to attend law school in the first place. And you know what: I don't think so at all. To be sure there were times that I questionsed what I was doing here (which originally led me to taking that semester off way back when), but at its core, I've had an enjoyable academic experience here, made some of the best friends I could ever dream of, and it even allowed me to discover poker if you want to make that connection.

Last thing for now: I have this pretty nice Citizen Ecodrive watch that Empire sent me a couple months ago for earning enough points to get into their Royal Flush Club -- had a price tag on it of $180, although apparently they're going on Ebay for $100 or something. After having it sit on my shelf for some time, I've decided that I'm never actually going to wear this thing -- so maybe I'll give it away to one of the readers of this blog. Haven't quite figured out how to pick someone, but stay tuned, I'll figure something out.

Wednesday, January 25th: Mom said there'd be days like this...

Help, Party flipped the doom switch on me! Had my biggest single day loss the other day: approx $7,000 down. I think if I ever stopped to think about just how much seven thousand dollars is, or what it could buy, I'm not quite sure I could go back to the 30/60 tables. Given that lately I've been simply devoid of good writing ideas in the few moments when I haven't been swamped with schoolwork, I figured this is as good an topic as any to write about, as maybe it will prove slightly therapeutic and ease my frazzled nerves. I honestly hate writing strategy or how-to entries, because they come off as so self-righteous, and I guess provoke the kinds of reactions as my "highlight hand" write-up did. Nonetheless, given that I simply haven't had any moments of spontaneous inspiration lately, here are my quick thoughts about dealing with the inevitable painful downswing.

First off, remember that these things are normal -- EVERYONE suffers through these brutal stretches, and I've found that they're usually the results of one of the following (and more often than not, simply a combination of the 3): a string of bad beats, second best hands, or simply a prolonged stretch of being card-dead. I always make it a point to keep the BIG picture in mind, a habit that I'd like to demonstrate with a visual aid. Here is a chart of my biggest freefall from last year -- I think it was something like $10,000 (around 225 big bets) in 2 or 3 days. A brutal stretch for me. And it didn't look pretty on a chart:

• But you know what? If I "zoom out" and look at that so-called "devastating stretch" in the context of the last half of my 2005, it's barely more than a little divet. Doesn't look so bad, does it?
  

So all I'm trying to say is that one of the reasons I think I've really gotten more tilt-proof is that I've learned to view my downswings (even the tougher ones) in context. This post probably didn't break any new ground for the more experienced player, but I just get blown away every time I get an email from a relatively new player about how to handle bad beats, or why the strategy that seemed to work so well when they opened their new account seems to be busting them now -- what, haven't you heard about the 'cashout curse' :0) -- that I felt it would be worthwhile for some to understand that even consistent winners suffer through 200 - 300 big bet downswings. David Ross (a good player I'm told) once famously posted about his 510 big bet downswing, and Microbob recently reported an almost unthinkable 1,000 big bet downer. You're not a bad player if you suffer through a prolonged losing stretch (I've had break-even stretches of 20,000 hands). It's all about how you react to it. Play your game, and keep the big picture in mind.

Tuesday, January 17th

Sorry for the week-long hiatus in posts...frankly, I just found I didn't have anything interesting to say, for once...didn't want to just dump whatever meager thoughts I had into a blog posting, even though I'm sure that's what this post is going to end up being. Nothing all that momentous to report. Just saddling up for what will be my second last semester of law school...since all of my friends will be graduating, I've decided to do my last semester of school in Australia (assuming I can secure the appropriate authorization). Beats dreary Philadelphia any day of the week. I'm thinking of making it all part of my 6 to 8 month round-the-world extravaganza.

It also appears that I'll be playing in my first $10,000 buy-in tournament in March: the Party Poker Million Cruise, which I'm extraordinarily excited for, and I'll be sure to post day-by-day reports when the time comes. It's a limit tournament, not NL. Which might at first appear to be right up my alley, since I really consider myself more of a limit specialist. But that's primarily for ring games...in tournament format, I find NL to be much more exciting, even though I've never been a particularly strong NL player.

So I guess I don't have anything more exciting to report for now than a progress chart for the new year. It was a little unsettling to have to re-set the "counter" back to zero for 2006, but I guess I"m looking forward to seeing if I can achieve the same success at the 20/40 and 30/60 games that I seem to have found for myself in the last half of 2005. The $2,000 freefall in the middle of this chart was from a hand where I decided that I was good enough to sit at the $2,000NL game with a full stack, and promptly lost it all when my KK improved to Kings full of Aces, only to have my opponent's AK bust me with Aces full of Kings, spiking a 3rd A on the river. Oh well. Back to limit and occasional short-stack NL play for me.

Sunday, January 8th

EDIT on January 9th: The morning of our very last day, my friend and I also played in a WSOP-qualifier and I finished second (for the 2nd time in 3 such qualifiers). Blow was softened this time by the fact that it was my friend who took first and will be going to this year's Main Event. Sigh...always a bridesmaid...

About to get on a plane, which will spell the end of my 6-day Vegas excursion...I actually didn't play all that much poker...maybe 1,000 hands over the 6 days. The Bellagio poker room was great -- all the dealers and floor people were very friendly and professional, although I was pretty pissed off that the poker rate that was quoted to me over the phone wasn't honored, and we actually ended up paying approx $60 more per night than we were promised by the poker office. Split 3 ways, it's really not the end of the world, but a source of frustration nonetheless.

Poker hand highlight of trip:

I really like this hand -- and of course it's easy to say that when you rake a huge pot, but I like this for so many other reasons as well. I'm at the most unbelievable 15/30 table I've seen all trip. 6 to 7 people to every single flop, and no one has any clue what they're doing post-flop. I have Jh,8h in the SB. EP1 limps, EP2 limps, MP2 raises, Button calls 2 cold, I call for another $20 from the SB. The BB, who was a complete donkey, but on a rush, gleefully 3-bets from the BB (which could really mean anything, but probably nothing more than he was a gleeful donkey on a rush who was happy to pump the action). Everyone calls, including me. 6 to the flop, with 18 small bets in the pot.

Flop: 9h, 7d, 3c.

Not bad, I've got a gutshot, backdoor flush draw, and one overcard (although I doubt it's good) in a huge pot. Here's where things get fun. BB bets, first 2 limpers call, and original MP2 raiser raises, button calls 2 cold. I happily cold-call 2 bets (do the math, it's correct, and really not even close). BB makes it 3-bets, all call, and MP2 makes it 4-bets. Button folds, and I call another 2 cold. Rest of people call. 5 people remain with 40 small bets (20 big bets) in the pot.

Turn brings the 6h.

Outstanding card for me. My straight draw is now open-ended, and I'm closer to my flush. Figuring I now don't mind the action, I lead with a bet into the other 4 players. Strangely, the first 3 fold, and only the MP2 raiser remains. He just calls to make it 22 big bets in the pot. I make the quick decision that (now heads-up) I'm betting the river regardless of what comes, so I toss out 6-chips in the dark, before the dealer even turns over the river. To my delight, it's a Ten. MP2, buying my strong betting act, lets out a sigh and calls my bet, although his resignation turns into anger when he realizes that I didn't get there until the river. He furiously throws his Kings into the muck. I feel daggers coming at me from the eyes of everyone else at the table, as I stack $700 in chips. I'm immediately greeted by a chorus of insults and criticism of my play on the hand. It does not help that a few minutes later, I start talking pretty loudly to my buddy 2 seats away about how expertly I played the hand. Yeah, it was a pretty dick move, but it served a good purpose: I got a hell of a lot of action on my premium hands the rest of the night, and finished up close to $1,500 on that table alone. Not wishing to actually engage any of the perturbed fish in an enlightening discussion of why every street was played properly (argue pre-flop if you want...perhaps a marginal call, but it would obviously be an easy call from the BB, and with the two thirds blind structure in the 15/30 game, it's pretty routine from the SB as well), nor point out my gutshot on the flop (which apparently nobody recognized), I sufficed myself with explaining to everyone that "I was sooooooted". That was fun.


Poker hand lowlight of trip:

Beware the perils of drinking too much at the table. The weakest guy at our 30/60 table who sees about half of the flops limps from early position, and I raise from late position with As,8d to isolate him. Everyone folds, as I had hoped, and it's just the two of us. The flop brings an Ace, he checkraises my flop bet (which probably should have set off some warning bells, since he was typically very passive). I play my A8 strongly on all streets, 3-betting the flop and raising his turn bet. River brought another Ace, at which point I thought I was probably good. I confidently put out another bet, and when he called, I smugly table my cards. Everyone is staring at me. Confused, I look down and see that in my alcoholic stupor, I had mistaken the pointy top of a Four for an Ace. My eight-four offsuit was, sadly, no good. Fishy guy happily rakes pot with A5o. That was an interesting use of $300 on my part.

Wish I had happier news to report, but I actually finished down around $1,000 for the trip. Of course in the grand scheme of things, that's really only around 20 big bets, a pretty routine swing at the mid-stakes games for any player. Hurt my pride more than anything else. I got the Bellagio back in other arenas, though. I friggin' owned them at the buffet -- no way they didn't take a bath on my self-styled 5-trip meal. I also lucked out big-time on the wildest night of the trip, as follows:

My only food all day had been a roast beef sandwich around 4pm. That evening, I played in a beirut/beer pong tournament at a local bar. I won, going 8-0, including beating 3 of the bar owners, who apparently fancied themselves beirut superstars. (I am actually very good at the game.) Only problem was that my 2 friends had left me to fend for myself to go play in a 2am poker tournament, and I very nearly got my ass kicked by the owners of the bar who forcefully ushered me back into the bar to play more games even after I had beaten everyone remaining in the tournament at least once, then decided they were going to card me before paying me the $300 winner's prize (cheap move), then challenging my ID as fake, which, as a 26-year old, I took offense to, and told them that they were being douchebags about it. Apparently, every week they run the tournament, they essentially rig it so that one of the bar owners gets to keep the $300 prize. I guess it bothered them that I wiped the floor with each of them repeatedly. I stuffed the $300 they gave me into my sock, and ran the hell out of there like me ass was on fire. Anyway, as per their house rules, each of the games was played with 3 16-oz. cups of beer on each side. That means that over the course of my 8 games, there were 32 12-oz beers placed in front of me...because I won all my games, I probably only drank around 26 of them or so, but when we pre-gamed before the bar, i had had at least 4 drinks. I think I can confidently state that I have never had anywhere close to 30 drinks in a single night...I remember puking on #19 on my 21st birthday. Combined with the single sandwich that I had eaten that day, it was truly a perfect storm of blood alcohol poisoning. I have never, ever been that drunk. Anyway, back to how I lucked out: as recounted to me the next day, the security guard wouldn't let me up to my room in the Bellagio because i was obviously beyond wasted and it was 4am and I couldn't find my room key. By a true stroke of fate, my buddy was just finishing up his poker session for the night, and was headed up to the room when he saw me struggling. The security guard told him that he had just called the sheriff to come take me away, but my buddy was able to talk him into letting me up to my room. I puked in at least 4 different Bellagio bathrooms for the following 12 hours. I remember thinking the next morning that perhaps a dose of pepto bismol would soothe me slightly. I drank it with a glass of water, which my body summarily expelled within 10 seconds. Not an experience to repeat, but not one to forget either.

So overall the trip was great -- I really wanted to pop in on the adult film and internet porn convention that happened to have been being held during our trip, but nobody really wanted to accompany me, and I thought it would be pretty lame to go by myself. Celebrities were all over the Bellagio. Bobby's Room in the poker room hosted Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Gus Hansen, Sam Farha, Negraneau, Beyamine, and others. Paris Hilton dropped in on the poker room and allegedly donked off chips at the $25/$50 NL game our first night there. Ludacris performed an impromptu 30 minute set at the Hard Rock nightclub, and our $700 bottle service tab was kindly picked up by one of my friend's bosses who were in town for the tech convention.

January 4th, 2005

I've never really been one to make New Year's resolutions -- I always felt that if you were the type of person who needed an arbitrary date on the calendar to motivate you to change for the better, then you probably weren't the type of person who was going to follow through on those promises anyway.

That being said, I DO believe in goal-setting, and I'll take this opportunity to set some poker and life goals for myself this upcoming year -- (feel free to criticize my attempt to distinguish resolutions from goals...I still think there's a difference.)

1. Continue playing 3BB+ poker at full ring limit games.

Alright, I admit it: even though I've managed 3.5BB / 100 over my last 125,000 hands, there's still a part of me that thinks it might all be a fluke. I'll drop $4,000 one night, or go through break even stretches of 5,000 hands or more, and all of a sudden start to think "hey, maybe I just ran really really well, and I'm really just a marginal winner...after all, the vast majority of 2+2 threads discussing limit winrates, even regarding 3/6 and 5/10, suggest that anything above 2.0 is outstanding." I won't even enter those discussions, because I'm pretty sure my claim of 3.5 at 20/40 and 30/60 would be subject to endless ridicule and skepticism. I've been pretty outspoken here about how I think that 98% of information on 2p2 is full of shit, so I figure there's simply little to be gained from having a pissing contest there. So I've allowed for the fact that I might have just run really well by merely shooting for 3.0 this year. I wanted to set an actual monetary goal, but because of how crazy I anticipate my life being this year -- all my friends are graduating from law school in May (although I've got a semester more to complete), I've got no clue what I plan to do this summer, although I've contemplated a 4 month around-the-world trip -- I don't think making a concrete dollar figure goal makes sense. I will say, however, that I hope, for the weeks that I am relatively stable, I'll be able to continue to get in 5,000 hands / week.

2. Continue to improve my shorthanded game.

Approximately 80% of my action in the last month was playing shorthanded games from 10/20 through 30/60. Before embarking on that adventure, I admit I really didn't think there was ALL that much room for improvement in my limit game, but having now played 20,000 hands of SH limit, I feel like I took a HUGE step forward, and I'd recommend that everyone practice 6max games (even if you struggle at first, which I promise you will). For starters, the caliber of competition at the Party 6max games is stunning. You won't believe just how bad people are. My theory is that because increased aggression is often rewarded in SH games, then the maniac who will get completely annihilated at a full ring game all of a sudden seems unbeatable playing 6max, and -- while he will eventually lose all his money -- there are times when he'll just run the entire table over for hours...and these temporary moments of domination gives him more reason to believe he's actually a good poker player, and thus is more likely to lean towards SH games. I think becoming a good shorthanded player is really an essential tool in one's poker toolbox (and will only expand the number of soft games you're able to find at any one time online.)

3. Become a dominant NL player

As I wrote here around a month ago, I really am in awe of the best NL cash game players out there, and how effortlessly they seem to accumulate chips. Although I've had modest success even at the highest stakes NL tables, I really don't think that abusing the short-stack strategy / shortcomings in Party's software really qualifies as having any tangible NL skill. I think, as I observed before, that most expert NL players' profits would make mine look like chump change over the same number of hands. Interestingly, NL tournaments have absolutely zero appeal for me. I think they're impossibly gay (in the colloquial sense). I can handle my own in SNGs and MTTs, but they're just not my bag. Maybe it's because deep down I'm a "math guy", and I know that over the course of 100,000 hands, it's nearly impossible for poor players to take my money in cash games. I just can't stand busting out of a MTT on a bad beat, only to watch some little punk rake in my chips, smiling smugly as though he freakin' owned me, and knowing that I'm not gonna get a chance to get him back. Maybe it's a little chink in my tilt-proof armor. So I avoid them.

4. Play in this year's WSOP.

Alright - complete contradiction of the preceding indictment of MTTs, but who really knows how long this poker bubble is going to last, and I figured I'd get in while the getting's good. It would be cool to play in the main event, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I'll shell out $10G to play in it...so either I win an online qualifier, or maybe I'll just go play in the $1,500 buy-in events or the side cash games. A couple friends are in the exact same boat and are equally committed to going this year, so it looks like it'll happen one way or another.

5. Take a trip around the world

Alright, a non-poker goal: I realize how little of this great world I've actually seen. Beyond North America, I've really only done the post-graduation Europe in a month thing, and then miscellaneous trips to Costa Rica, New Zealand, Mexico, and Hawaii. I also realize I'm in a somewhat unique position: a decent amount of disposable income, no realy family or work obligations in the near future, and a hell of a lot of free time (assuming I don't tie myself down with a summer job this year). I've got tons of places on my want-to-go list, so I was thinking maybe I'd just do a 4 to 6 month trip and hit as many places as I can, so I'll never find myself sitting in an office dreaming about all the opportunities I'd missed to see the planet's wonders when I was young. Just a few places and activities I've been thinking of: run with the bulls in Pamplona, dive the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, do an African safari, Easter Island, the Galapagos, Carneval in Brazil, Machu Pichu (sp?) in Peru, ski the Alps, Bangkok, China, ski Mt. Fuji eat sushi and ride the bullet train in Japan, Oktoberfest in Germany, take the trans-Siberian express through Russia (credit to a Henry Rollins show for this idea), see Pyramids in Egypt, Bali, Fiji, the Ice Hotel in Sweden, Ibiza, go back to the Greek islands, Israel, I heard there's an underwater hotel opening in Dubai that sounds like a trip, hmmm....that's all for now, although I'm open to any suggestions that people want to make of can't-miss places or activities I should hit. I figure I'll buy one of those open-ended unlimited-flight tickets for a few thousand dollars and see what happens.

I've got plenty more goals, some of the more personal nature that I won't waste space with here, but I think jotting these things down is a worthwhile activity. Makes you feel as though you're being productive with your life. I'm in Vegas for the next 6 days -- I'll be a fixture at the Bellagio tables if you want to say hello. Will write up trip report when it's over.