life of a poker player, dream or nightmare?

For the past 4 months, I have been playing poker everyday. Occasionally I’ll take a day off or two but these are rare. After blowing my live bankroll I’ve come to realise how much time I have spent on poker. Every night just going to the casino grinding the cash games there and come back only to have myself playing more online… it kinda sucks really. The first 2 months were great. I was earning way above I would normally do playing poker as oppose to finding a real job like all the other varsity students. I would eat out all the time, having dinner at various high class restaurants without even thinking of how the money could be better spent somewhere else. I was living like a king and a bum at the same time. I think over the period of 4 months I have gained like 10 pounds. All the eating out and not exercising at all. At one stage I felt real burned out and I believe that that must have been because of my mental and physical state that I was in. Not good. LOL

I’ve got a profit of approximately 17k over summer playing live cash games and loss of 12k at the table games (blackjack/roulette). Not many people can make a living off poker and fortunately enough I’m one of them who can. Its not easy to be a pro (I’m not one), i mean, after 2 months and I was already burned out from all the grinding. Imagine the professionals who do this everyday for 20 years. I know a pro from the local casino who has been living off the casino for 4 years now. He told me that it would not be hard to make 100k a year playing 2/5, especially with all the new fishes these days. But he also told me that if I wanted to go pro, be prepared to give up alot of things in life. You’ll never see the sunrise again and only wake up to the sunset.

I am done really. Poker has giving me so much and at the same time taken away alot of what makes life enjoyable. I have never regretted playing poker and will continue to play on, but only with moderation. I’ve decided to stop playing live games and set a couple of new goals which I hope to accomplish before May.

1) start eating healthy

2) exercise regularly

3) build a community poker forum for New Zealanders

Oh btw, I’m starting uni again doing 2nd year architecture. So…. wish me luck

Bad run cripples bankroll

A long bad run of cards just crippled my bankroll which now stands at $138. Every SNG I play I cannot win a race. My aces would get cracked like 70% of the time and I would run into aces everytime a bubble situation came up. I’m not going to complain as I have experienced this couple of times before. What can I do? Well, I guess I am going to have to start over again. Grinding the 180 SNGs until I get myself properly rolled for 25NL cash games and $16 SNGs. Live have been just as bad although I have to admit that most of it came from bad play of my own. More often than not I would be able to put my opponents on a hand and make the right move but they would just make ridiculous -EV calls and suck out. The fundamental theory of poker (David Slansky) states that any time you make a different play as if you could see your opponents hand, you’re making a mistake. This is one theory that I have strongly integrated into my game. Sometimes after unsuccessfully trying to push my opponents off a hand, I would get asked on why I would make the play when I know I’m beat. An example would be when I raise with something like pocket 10s and an ace comes on the flop. I put my opponent on a weak ace you should lay down the hand if you’re beat. However, if you KNOW that your opponent has got a weak ace, is that REALLY the right move according to Slansky?

Who knows? I guess some more aggressive players like myself would much prefer the re-reraising move while some more conservative players would prefer to lay it down and wait for a better spot. Here is an excellent article by grapsfan that I would like to share with you guys.

http://www.pocketfives.com/661A9C29-582F-4368-BF56-47D698A0908D.aspx

To become a great tournament player, he/she must not give up +EV situations. You must be willing to take every possible edge in order to win a tournament. I’m still a student of tournament poker and I find that the article above really shows the difference between those who play to win and those who are just playing. Enjoy

evo.com

SNG challenge

Ok, so after a couple of bad losses at the cash tables and tourneys my bankroll is now down to $386. For the next 3 days I am going to do a SNG run and try to play as many SNG’s as I can, 4 tables at once. I’m going to try and play 120 SNG’s in 3 days. Wish me luck

Anyone is welcome to join me. Maybe we can make a side bet of something

sad update :(

TILT. Thats one word that poker players use all the time. But I’ll tell you what really makes you tilt. When you get called by someone for a gutshot and hits on the river for a 1.2k pot. When someone calls your preflop reraise in a tournament and can’t seem to lay down top pair. When you decide to get your bad beat money back on blackjack only to see the dealer get 20 8 times in a row. That is what makes me tilt. I think I’m on LIFE TILT at the moment. Nothing seems to work out. I’ve lost like most of my live poker bankroll to blackjack and got knocked out of a 40k prize pool tournament on a bad beat. I have seriously no idea what I am going to do next. I think I’ll probably stay away from the live poker scene for a while and focus on playing online. The FTOPs are coming soon and I plan on playing most of the events, hopefully being able to satellite my way through.

Bankroll update + extras :)

Bankroll : $430.11

Have been playing a lot of 6 max 0.10/0.25 cash games and been running quite well. I’m sure variance will kick in soon and grab me by the balls. 4 tabling 6 max 25NL is a little over my bankroll management program but my Pokertracker stats says that I’m earning 9BBs/100 at 6k hands which isn’t too bad. Maybe I’ll try to play 9 handed tables instead just to reduce variance.

Just came back from Skycity casino playing a $260+40 tournament. After 9 hours of intense poker, I finally get knocked out of the FT bubble holding AK. Cutoff raise 5xBB and I  3bet him all in. He thinks for a long time before making the call with TT which IMO is an instant call (I have been playing super aggressive). Standard race for the chip lead and his TTs holds up. He was the only person in the tournament who can knock me out but heck… I’m playing to win anyway. I thought I played really well and didn’t really make any mistakes throughout the entire tournament. I doubled up quite early with the nut flush and basically controlled every table I sat. I was the CL after the first break AND after the 2nd. One bad beat came up that really crippled my stack. Button raise from a semi-loose player and I 3bet with A9 from the BB. He thinks after a while and 4bets all in. I thought for a while and calls him. He shows A8 and all the other players was shocked when I tabled A9. As usual, the 8 came on the flop and I lose a monster pot. After that, I was left with 25 BB and the table broke soon after. Despite losing the pot, I really felt that my reading skills have improved.

Theres another 700+70 tournament tomorrow which I am going to play. Hopefully I will run good and take it down

lil update

I have been doing quite well at the 180 man SNGs recently although I have not gotten a 1st yet. Have made like 2 FTs and a couple of cashes. Can’t seem to manage to win a coinflip when it matters most . I have been doing quite well at shortstacking PLO. What I usually do is buy in for min at .50/1.00 and then when I double up I move to the 1/2 tables and buy in for min. Sort of like a progressive betting strategy . Oh… I finally got Lee Nelson’s new book (Kill Everyone) from Pokerstars. Only read the first few chapters and I must say it is the best tournament book after Harrington’s. Will write more bout it when I finish the book.

good luck at the tables,

evo.com

Bankroll update

$313.95

Not a bad start I guess. Finally FTed a 180 man after going deep in a couple of them. Only came fifth but I thought I still played real well. Not getting overly aggressive and being real selective on blind stealing situations.
However  most of the roll came from small cash game profits. Buying in with only 10% of my bankroll etc. Shortstacking .50/1.00 PLO have been really good as well, just potting the hell when I get a monster draw with 1039940203 outs.

Hopefully this continues and all the best to you grinders out there.

evo.com

re-evaluating play

I don’t know what it is but I think I have not been playing my A game for the past few days. I have been getting real deep into some tournaments but not been playing fundamentally perfect. I’ve decided to take some time off the casino cash games and work on my tournament play for the upcoming tournament on Saturday. I have been going through Pearljammers videos on PXF and also Rizens. Also will be playing a few 180 man SNGs to work on my game. I guess my biggest leak is playing overly aggressive at the later stages of the tournament where I usually will try and accumulate a lot of chips by restealing and 4 betting. Its pretty much a do-or-die strategy where I either get A LOT of chips or bust out trying to do so. Its a good way of playing tournaments especially at the later stages where most people would tighten up but I realised that I get called way too often by mediocre hands in the micro limit tournaments. Maybe I should just be playing perfect ABC poker at these levels….

Played a live rebuy tournament on Sunday and wasted $450 . I busted out 13th on a resteal with 9Tos. Obviously that didn’t fare well against KK. LOL. Did get some money back on the cash tables which is good.

SNG satellite live

100 buy in SNG. Payout as follows:

1st : entry to 700+70 tournament

2nd : $100 (buy in back)

Total players : 10 Starting stack: 2500

I been playing quite tight at the start, not playing too many hands despite having multiple limps into pots almost every round. I’ve showed down JJ a few hands before when this hand came up.

I pick up AJos UTG and decide to raise it up to 300. Blinds were 50/10. UTG+2 calls (steve). From what I’ve seen, Steve have been playing an awful lot of hands, limp calling alot OOP etc. Everyone folds and we go heads up. Now the flop comes 234 with two clubs. I led out for 350 with the pot at 750. Steve thinks for a while and reraises to 800. I immediately shoved all in for another 1600. He goes into the tank and eventually folds saying that hes got AQ

Now my thought process on this hand. I raise UTG and am representing a strong hand, especially since the only hand I’ve showed down was JJ. We both play alot together in the 2/5 cash games and he knows that I would C-bet like 80% of the time. When he reraises to 800, I knew that if I shoved, there was absolutely no way he can call my all in unless hes got a set. He has to put me on either a high pocket pair or AK,AQ of clubs. Now if hes got 77-TT he is behind even against AK of clubs. If I’ve got a high pocket pair hes obviously way behind and if hes got a flush draw on his own, he must be worried about whether or not his club draw is actually good. To make this play, I obviously had the Ace of clubs in my hands. Without the ace of clubs I would only shove here with AQ, AK. These situations do come up often and I must say that 80% of the time you will be able to get away with it. Knowing which flops can be bluffed at is always going to help you increase your earnings/h.

45 man sngs

I’ve been playing alot live poker recently and have been getting some good results from cash games and tournaments. I just won a satellite today to a 700+70 tournament at Skycity Auckland next saturday and will be playing alot of 45 man SNGs to work on my MTT bubble play. Will be updating the blog as new interesting hands come up.

evo.com