Has the train finally left the "Calling Station"??

I certainly hope so. I have continued to work to ensure that I am no longer calling almost any action. If I want to be in the hand, I need to be so certain that I feel confident re raising and taking the initiative. If my hand is not that good, I have been letting it go. I have no doubt I have left some money on the table this way, but I am even more certain that i have kept even more. A lot of slightly flat of up sessions. Just buy staying away from the marginal hands all together.

I added the chart at the bottom of the page where you can track the progress. Has been a nice run since December 15th and I hope it continues.

Took down a nice money finish this afternoon in the $20 Hollywood Celebrity Poker Classic. Maybe could have done a little better, but not much with the cards (or lack there off) that I had. In any case that was a $65 profit and a tournament where I never felt pressured to do something stupid.

The Transition from Good Poker To Great Poker.....It still escapes me.

OK, I will admit I have had a bit of a nice run. Well it all stopped tonight (Or at least I think it will, I am still playing right now). And I wish I had some juicy "Oh god why me, I don't deserve this" bad beat to tell....but it would be a lie.

I am just not that good. Don't get me wrong, I am not bad. But I am no where near THAT good. Case in point.

I just can not get away from the "pretty good" hands. I mean the ones that are not just pretty. But Pretty good. Example

Being dealt A 2 in the big blind. Now a crap hand. I actually thought "Wow, a hand that can get you into trouble"

So when I come back to the table, I see that everyone has folded except the small blind, who just called. I have no interest in crazy B vs B play, so I just check.

Flop comes down 3- 4 - 5

So I flop the straight...against 1 player.

So to cut to the chase he had 2-6. OF COURSE HE DID, he was the small blind. Now why did I not believe him?? Especially when we got all in on that flop?? Granted I thought he flopped a low pair set...but why not the crap hand of 2-6?? Easy. Because I am not that good. So that was 100 dollars. I am now 70 down but whatever. I am an idiot for letting that happen. 1 hand and the night is screwed.

And that is the difference between both good and bad, as well as the different between cash and sitngo's. ONE HAND IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT. I sound so righteous telling Felter that over and over again...maybe I should listen to myself once in a while.

You gotta love it when a plan comes together.

So I sat down tonight and had an up session. I seem to have essentially flat or up sessions. And I would like to credit it all to great play, but it had to be the cards as well as I am sure. But I will say this. The majority of my winnings tonight did come from great reads (and great notes) on players. That feels good.

Felter gave me the insight. I called him during the run and he made the comment that he does not hear a lot of odds calculations and hand rankings when I am playing, and I embarrasingly admit his is right. I mean I do the basics and the obvious, but when it gets close I really just think about the player I am up against and how did he get to the point we are at, with the flop that came down. Do his bets make sense with that flop to have me beat. And as of late I have been pretty good at making that yes or no call. Maybe the pot odds and outs calculations would help mitigate or lower the chances of me getting rivered, but as of late when I have been re-raising or sticking my chips in there, I have been leading. None of my winning tonight (about 4oo dollars) came on hitting draws. It was all there when the cards were turned over.

What scares me is that I am not exactly sure what I am basing my decisions on. It seems to be a little of everything (timing, betting patterns, notes, etc). But whatever it is, it is working. So tonight for the first time I closed up over 2100 dollars. Now if anyone outside of Felter and Ethan ever read this, I am sure that is chump change, but I am hoping this trend will only take me to 3 4 5 and 10k eventually. I would like to be at 3k by my Birthday, which is April 2nd. That will be ambitious for me, but I do hope to do so. That is a 900 increase in bank roll, and I will have 10 weeks to do it. (There are 12 weeks left but I am in Cuba for 2 of them. Will be playing poker, but not online).
So I need to profit 90 a week for 10 weeks consecutive. It does not sound like a lot, but I have in no way done that the last 10 weeks, so we will see.

Anyhow. Merry Christmas and all the best in the new year!!

Small Steps and Shorter Sessions

Well I have to say that taking smaller steps and leaving the tables soons seems to be workings. Without trying to Manufactor a win I have been able to have 4 nicely positive sessions in a row. None greater than 80 or less that 20 dollas, but some solid poker all the same.

The bank roll is growing slowly and I do hope to keep it up. Have hit a couple of nice sets, and my notes have also allowed me to play hard against a couple of players that I know had the tendency to positional bluff hard.

Dont look at the cards Felter...look at the Chat and the bank roll (You might have to click on the pic). I know why you are never hitting your sets....cuz I am!! lol

2s that turned into Set that turned into a Boat vs KKs.

Ching baby!!

Barca hates me

So then play tight and wait. Felters Brother in law raises half my stack. I look down and see AA. I go all in. He calls. He has AQ. Blah blah straight on the river. I suck.
Check out my Poker Blog
http://slurpeed.blogspot.com/

Pain at the Barca

Well just had the worst beat live I have ever taken. Just hurts. And the funniest is that it happened to me and Felter at the same time. Ok. Here goes...

Dealt 6 - 7 off suit. Big blind.
No raises.
Flop comes down 3-4-5. 2 of this cards were hearts.
Betting starts to my left with 5. Felter makes it 15. I make it 30. Man on my left calls. Felter re-raises pot (about 130). I call for all in. So does man on my left.
Felter has 6-7 too. But heats. So he has straight flush ass well.
Guy on the left has 44 for a set of fours.

Turn blank, no heart.

River.......5. Pairs the board. Full Boat wins.
Felter and I both flop the nut straight and both lose. Sux to be us. So now I have like 30 bux and am trying to grind back to just somewhere near respectability.

Gotta love the poker.

Check out my Poker Blog
http://slurpeed.blogspot.com/

Try out the live game tonight

So apparently I am off to the Barca Club tonight. Should be interesting. Have not really ever had a lot of success there. I think over time at the cash tables I am only a little better than even. I hope that tonight things are a little better. We shall see. If there is anything of interest I will be sure to send it direct. Heading there with Felter and his brother-in-law.

On a non poker related note I decorated my christmas tree. Now if I could just get that shopping started.....

Oh yeah.

And Ethan I beat Jeff. He was like in 22nd or something. 2 pair to a set of 8s. And he calls like 6k on the turn with 2 pair. Ouch.
Check out my Poker Blog
http://slurpeed.blogspot.com/

16th place.

Played some damn fine poker too I might add. Blinds were 1k - 2k. I had about 12g.

Dealt KK.

Get all in Preu flop after my raise was raised.

He had 10s....

Flop..

10 10 10 10 10 ya whatever I'm out!!!
Check out my Poker Blog
http://slurpeed.blogspot.com/

First break!!

And still in...

And get this Felter and Ethan. I sit down to play, and who is on my right....E..your friend Jeff (??). They guy from Pkr Strs who won those Qualification tournies. Anyhow, so I have played 2 hands. One against some shmuck and one against him. I did not win the one against him (set to 2 pair). So I am not too short stacked...but I am not winning. Crazy loose players with people who will calll anything with anything. A something Rules!!
Check out my Poker Blog
http://slurpeed.blogspot.com/

Let's get ready to rumble!!!!

Err. Almost. As the tournament is in the basement there is no signal, so there will be no play by play. I will send updates at the break, or when I bust out (which ever comes first). There is a field of 48....not even sure what exactly we r playing for. Lol. Whatever. Probably a hat or something. Some people are already drinkin hard, and we start in 20 minutes. Woo hoo. It should be interesting....

...Just went and asked about the prizes. Top 3 and they are some vacation package for first, and 2nd and 3rd is a bunch of bar schwag (booze, coolers, shirts, glasses, etc). So it is win or go home baby!! Valet...keep the car warm!!
Check out my Poker Blog
http://slurpeed.blogspot.com/

Cash vs STG's...and the Finals Tonight!!

First off Howdy Felter and Ethan. Shocked someone had come over and glad I have inspired you to greatness...or at least blogness. Anyhow.

As you can see there is a large disparity of my bank rolls between HP and FT. Reason being that I was pretty sure I was going to transition over to Full Tilt, but the action at HP seems to have picked up again. With their soft bonus structure and tilty players I am not so sure. Not a big fan of playing the same games at 2 sites...so I am not. What i have started is a small experiment where I am ONLY using the money at FT to play Sit N Gos. Obviously with the bank roll I have there we are talking small ones. But I am interested to see if I can grow it at all. Felter has had some success in that area, and I would like to try.

So I am going to try a few now. Mainly though to get ready for the Freeroll Finals I am in at "The Charlie" tonight. I won a satellite tourny a couple of Fridays ago and so I am in the finals tonight. I am pretty sure it will be a typical bar poker type game (Extremely loose with crazy calls). So I will play the ultra tight and incredibly aggressive game. When I won the satellite the only bets I made were pot sized or all in......so no doubt I will have some horrible bad beat story to tell later.

Actually I will be posting from the tourny from my BlackBerry, so you will be able to read my frustration on the beats as they occur.

And finally Ethan, in regards to your comments...this will not ONLY be about poker. I am sure I will post the odd comment on Sex, Women and Booze as well. I do not want to be typecast!

Slurpee Dude!

Pocket Pairs Pay?

Well of course they do, but I am more speaking to the lower to mid ones. And I think Felter and I may be on to something. I had always wanted to see them with a flat call, or maybet 2x blind, and then hope to flop my set. But I was really hesitant to do so for any more money. Well I say a post somewhere that has changed my mind...and it just paid me off again.

Call any raise with a Pocket pair as long as it is not more than 5-7% of your stack. Why those numbers?? Well because you are going to hit 1 in 7 on your set...and when you do call that raise you can get paid. Now I know there has to be holes in this, but I think that there is some basis to this idea. So trying that tonight at 1NL and am now up due mainly to this.

Interesting.....

Big Sick!

Did I ever mention that I hate AK in early position. All my own warped perception I know, but it would appear that no matter what I do (Limp, represent, continuation bet, whatever....) I can not win. I am sure I do sometimes...but at that particular moment I can not remember it.

Here Goes...

So this is supposed to be an online diary of my current habbit du jour, online Poker. This all started about 12 months ago seriously. I got into online poker with 50 dollars and a dream!! Well quite quickly both of those were smashed and gone. Then I found Big Felter! He is a guy I work with, and turns out he liked this Pok-her thing too. So we started talking...and talking...and playing....and so on. Well Felter found this site called Hollywook Poker and gave it a try. So I signed up too. Well the rest is a lot of ups and down and history. Currently I have money at 2 sites. Hollywood and Full Tilt. I will update my bank rolls anytime I post. My game has developed into 3 seperate and distict areas.

Cash Game - I am not aggresive enuff but can be incredibly patient. That is USUALLY enuff to remain profitable but does not allow you to quickly rebound from any bad beats or more usually STUPID Play.

Sit N Goes - That is Felters area. DOnt even talk to me about them. I suck Dont believe me?? Just check Shark Scope. But of late I have been trying to get better just so I can continue my domination over Felter.

Multi-Table Tournies - Have had some sucess but you have to be soo good to be long term profitable that I am not there yet.

So anyways, enuff for a first post. Who am I kidding, no one will read this anyhow. Just wanted to get it started and we will see where it goes from here. See you at the tables

Slurpee Dude.