Poker Insomniac

April Showers bring......MUD

2009-04-12T22:50:00.003-05:00

To say that I've been in a rut would be an understatement. I think the push for gold in March really led to massive burnout. So far in April, my playing time has diminished greatly. I've just not had the desire to put in a lot of hours. My play hasn't been that bad, but I've been on the wrong side of the variance a few times and that hasn't helped either. As of today, I'm hovering around break even for the month, so I can't really complain I guess. Just isn't as exciting as the last 3 months of triple digit wins each month. Oh well, maybe a little more sleep will change things next week. I'll be turning in early (for me) tonite. Gotta do my taxes tomorrow....YUK!

March towards gold

2009-03-16T02:07:00.002-05:00

Mid-way through March and I've already blown by the Poker Stars Silver FPP level and well on the way to Gold. I know I've said in the past that I wouldn't chase points or bonuses (especially after my self-destruction on Full Tilt trying to clear the 2007 year-end bonus), but as of now I've been profitable while racking up the points. I know that with summer coming up my playing time will be greatly diminished, so I'd really like to make Gold in March to rack up the double FPPs in April, which will probably be my last "big month" for a while. After that I'll look to turn the FPPs into T$ and turn the T$ into cash, without worrying about the amount I play.

Wow, it's after 2 a.m. and tomorrow's a work day. Gonna be another long week.

2009: A New Hope

2009-02-10T00:46:00.004-06:00

Well it's 40 days into the new year, and while much has changed, some things never will. Here I sit in the dark after finishing an evening at the cyber tables, long after reasonable folks with daytime jobs have drifted into dreamland. So far 2009 has been good to me. My Stars bankroll has taken many ups and downs, but overall has more than doubled since the start of the year. Still grinding the 10c/25c NL tables, but have dabbled in the bigger stakes here and there when I found the right opportunites. I still haven't finalized my 2009 goals, largely due to the amount of hours I'm spending at the tables. I plan to do some analysis of my year-to-date play sometime soon, both to identify the factors that led to my downturn in week #3 as well as what I did right at the beginning of the year and the past week to make my comeback.

On a personal note, I entered a "biggest loser" prop bet in January. Person with the highest % loss takes the pool. After 5 weeks I'm down 24 pounds and have a decent lead on the rest of the pack with 7 weeks to go. I'm hoping to drop another 17 in that time to get to my target weight. If I can do that, even if I lose the prop bet I'll be satisfied.

Nice week

2009-01-21T01:18:00.005-06:00

Another good day today, actually breaking my best one-day results posted 4 days ago. While I feel like I played well, I will say that my good hands mostly held up again and one big hand helped make it a great day:

I limp with 44 in mid position. cutoff raises $1.25, button calls and the guy to my right calls. Price is right to see the flop so I call. Flop is 49T rainbow. I check, cutoff bets $3, button folds but the guy to my right calls. I raise to $12.75 only to see the original raiser shove all in for his last $24 and the other guy shove right along with him for about the same amount. At this point, I figure there's a good chance I've been outflopped set over set, but the pot is so big that I can't fold. Turn is a 9 and river is a 7. Cutoff shows AA and guy to my right shows JQ offsuit. I drag the $73.50 pot and exhale. Again, the best hand (postflop) held against a lot of draws that could have sunk me. I need to remember these days for the times when the suckouts make me feel like the best hand never holds.

Happy Accidents

2009-01-17T00:46:00.004-06:00

In the past few nights I've seen a lot of ups and downs. The one consistant thing has been that almost every night I've stayed up too late and finished on a downturn, losing all or most of what I've won earlier in the evening. I decided tonite was going to be different. Stars was good to me tonite....several big hands and with few exceptions they held up. The biggest score of the night was by total accident. I've been playing exclusively at the 10c/25c no limit tables with the full buy-in of $25. I'd been playing on 4 tables and one of them lost a few players so I got up and opened another. By mistake I opened a 50c/$1 table and proceeded to buy in for the max as usual. I guess I had action on the other tables while doing this because I was in my second hand before I realized that I had $99 on the table of the $100 full buy-in. I decided that I would see a few hands and sit out when the blinds came back around to me. In my last hand (UTG) I was dealt AA. I raised to $4 and got 2 callers....not what I was hoping for. The flop came down A25 with 2 spades. I fired $5 into the $13.50 pot hoping to get down to heads up at least. First bad guy folds but the second raises me to $16. I have $90 left on the table to his $24. Now there is more in the pot than he has left so there's no way he's folding, so I ship it knowing I have the best of it for now, and hope it sticks. Of course he calls, the turn pairs the 2 and the river is a meaningless 3. He turns over 55 for a lower full house and I take a $90.40 pot. Whew!
As I said before, I had already decided that I wasn't staying too long to lose back my winnings, so I quit soon after up $110 on the day. If only all accidents worked out so well.

Has it really been this long?

2008-12-24T01:54:00.002-06:00

As it sit in my living room staring at the blinking lights on the tree at 2 a.m., I realized I haven't posted in nearly a year. Starting to think about my resolutions for next year, more regular posts have to be one of them. While not many others may read them, I have found that going back to see what I was thinking at a particular time has been helpful to me in the past.

2008 has been a much better year than '07.....hope '09 brings even more successes. Looking forward to another Tunica trip in January. More to come.....

Recent Sucesses

2008-02-13T15:15:00.002-06:00

So it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted. Actually, it's been a VERY GOOD couple of weeks. I struggled to get to and stay over the $100 mark for most of the past year. The $50 iron man bonus I cleared in January got me up over the $150 mark. Then, strangely, things started to move upward. I'm not sure if it's just the variance going my way, or hopefully, all the hours I've spent in the last 6 weeks playing up to 4 tables at a time has improved my game. Regardless, I have nearly tripled my FT bankroll since the beginning of the year and have a $26 token in the bank that I won a couple of days ago. I'm still trying to decide what to use the token on. I've really stayed away from tourneys for the most part this year. The one that I did decide to play was the PokerSluts event #2 (Omaha hi/lo limit) and I took 1st place for $28. Not a big payday but the win felt good.

I'm also debating on when & how to move up my stakes now that my bankroll can support it. I have started playing some dime/quarter pot limit games (up from my nickel/dime usual games). I have had mixed results with those tables, sometimes doubling up and sometimes losing my $5, which is usually what I sit down with to limit my losses if I get a bad beat hand. So I'm wondering....would I be better off sitting down with a bigger stack at the lower limit tables so people take me seriously, or do they even care since the stakes are so low?

Results from Tunica

2008-01-30T01:27:00.000-06:00

My last post was just before my trip to Tunica, MS and I was very excited to be making the trip. I did have a good time, although I think I found the limit to the amount of time I can spend at the poker table before it starts to seem like work. I arrived at the Grand on Friday morning after spending 4 hours on the road. I registered for the noon WSOP Circuit $300 NLHE tournament and had a couple of hours to nap before it started. I played fairly well for the first several levels (40 min levels). I really can't blame the cards, as I had pocket pairs at least 8 times in the first 4 hours. The problem was that I either had the second best hand each time or had the only decent hand and couldn't get paid off. I lasted nearly 6 hours and finished around 300 in a field of 1,000. I was disappointed that I didn't make it to the money (paid top 72), but all-in-all I was pleased with my play and got a decent amount of play for my money.

I left the Grand around 6 p.m. and checked into my hotel at Sam's Town. While not the most classy place in Tunica, the rooms are decent and the people in the poker room are generally friendly and better yet, not all that great. I tend to play the $3/$6 limit holdem game there and can play for 6 or 8 hours at a setting and usually come out ahead. Friday night I played until about 11 p.m. before I hit the wall and had to sleep (I had been up since before 3:00 a.m. to make the drive).

Saturday was a good day...I was up close to $100 at the cash game and decided to play the nightly turbo sit-n-go at Sam's Town. While the $60 entry fee is one of the most reasonable games you'll find in Tunica, the ratio of prize money to fee is terrible at $40/$20. The only reason I played in it was that it was at my hotel and I didn't feel like hunting for a game somewhere else. I couldn't get any traction early on, then came a hand that helped me get healthy. I had 77 in early position and limped. A VERY loose player min-raised from middle position, it folded back to me and I called. The door card was a 7, followed by a Jack and another 7. Of course the only challenge was to keep my heart in my chest and I checked and kept handing out the rope to the loosey until he eventually doubled me up. The ironic part of the story is that they paid the top 9 or 10 and I went out 18th, losing to the wife of loosey.

When the dust settled, my trip was break even other than the WSOP $300 tourney on Day #1. My room was cheap and I ate for free all weekend. I played somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 hours in 3 days counting the tournaments and cash games.

So now it's back to work and playing online at night. So far my January has been a little better than break-even and I cleared my year-end Iron Man bonus on Full Tilt. Bring on February!

Tunica Bound

2008-01-09T12:17:00.000-06:00

This is the week I've been waiting for since last fall. I convinced my wife that all I wanted for Christmas was a long weekend at the WSOP Circuit event in Tunica, MS...and to play in one or two of the smaller events. I originally planned to be there today (wed) to play in the limit omaha hi/lo event #8, although a conflict at work kept me from making it for that one. So, I will be there for four glorious nights starting this Friday. I am planning to play in event #11, and if things go well (ie, I cash) then I will play in another, possible event #13 on Sunday/Monday.

As I stated in previous posts, I play regularly online but live action is what I crave. I made the trip to Tunica last winter, but only as an observer. I arrived too late to sign up for the $300 buy-in tourney, and was not confident enough in my game to pay $500+. The trip was still a lot of fun. I watched a few hours at the Grand (railed the Devil Fish and the Grinder for a while) and spent some time at the Gold Strike (the WPT is there at the same time), where I saw many more players I regularly watch on TV. The rest of my time was spent in the Sam's Town poker room where I like to play the $3/$6 game.

I'm still developing the game plan for my weekend and may play it by ear depending on how my first tourney goes and what else I run across while I'm there. Regardless, I know I'm going to have a great time.

I am Iron Man

2007-12-29T01:19:00.000-06:00

Well, the silver version at least. I fulfilled my final day of FPP points required to reach the "Silver" level on Full Tilt's Iron Man Challenge. I learned a lot in the past month during this process. I learned that there are a lot of really bad players playing the nickel/dime games. This can be a really good or really bad thing. I was slightly profitable most of the days playing at this level while reaching my 50 FFPs required. However, there were about 4 days where my losses exceeded $10 per day and 3 days where my winnings exceeded $10. What I found was that people will play, bet, call and raise with anything at this level. The key is to pay close attention to your opponents and take good notes. Find out who is willing to push in all their chips preflop with 7 8 of hearts versus my JJ. Yes, he hit his flush for a $4 pot, and yes, he actually said "TY" when i typed "congrats" in the chat box after the hand (obviously i need to work on my sarcasm skills). Anyway, I fared reasonably well in the cash games and earned a $50 bonus (which I have to clear in January). I am hoping to use what I've learned this month to become more profitable at these games in January while clearing this bonus. At that point, I should have a bankroll to support a move to the dime/quarter games

Mooooovin on up!!!!

Identity Crisis

2007-12-19T01:06:00.000-06:00

Who am I?

As I sit here after 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning, I'm asking myself one simple question...who am I? Specifically, who am I as a poker player? I've been playing for several hours a day, nearly every day for quite some time. I go through spells (like we all do) of playing well and winning, playing well and losing and even winning sometimes despite myself. I've recently begun to play more ring (cash) games and fewer tourneys & sitngos. I made this change not because I was looking for a change, but to try to take advantage of a promotion on Full Tilt offering bonues for earning more FPPs, and that was the quickest way to rack 'em up. Funny thing, the first several days were awesome. I was racking up points and winning money too. Then an even better thing happened...they started another promotion 3 days ago offering double FPPs ring game play through the end of the year. And that's when everything changed.

In the past 3 days I have lost $50 playing nickel/dime pot limit holdem and dime/quarter limit omaha hi/lo. So the question is....what changed? My playing style? Not really. My luck? Maybe a little. But the major change is my attitude. I was grinding it out before and was happy to break even while getting my 50 points a day. Then I started trying to push for 100 or more and expected to win in the process. I've taken some brutal beats that cost me four or five bucks in a hand in the past couple days, but I think that's the result of my problem as opposed to my problem. I have to get back to folding the marginal hand....calling instead of raising....keeping the pot small until I know I have the goods. Stop relying on luck after the money's in the pot.

Answer to my opening question....I'm a poker player who is better than how I've been playing lately. A player who should be the best at the table at almost every nickel/dime/quarter table he sits down at. A player who is gonna go back to the basics of what got me where I am.

Funny sidenote...I checked poker-edge.com to see how they were rating my play. I expected to see some negative feedback based on my recent demise. Actually, the reverse was true. Check it out if you're interested. My ID is budgetcoach.

New strategy....same results

2007-11-28T23:29:00.000-06:00

For the past few days, I have been on a terrible streak. Since my last post, where I acknowledged my play wasn't up to my normal standards, I have make strides to tighten up. Maybe I tightened up too much, but the only thing that changed was the way I wasn't winning. I went from going out early to going out on the bubble...over and over.

I spent some time today listening to some poker podcasts. The one particularly hit home was last week's Ante Up, where Chris said he was taking a break from online play for a while. It seemed that everything he said had been happening to him was exactly what I'd been going through. I also listened to an interview with Barry Greenstein where he talked about limping into the money versus being in a position to win. I realized that this is something that happens to me a lot, so I need to work on that as well.

I have been trying to qualify for the Full Tilt "point-a-day" bonus and so far I'm on track for November with only a few days left. I decided that I will continue to play to qualify for this, but will take a few days off next month if my play hasn't corrected itself by then.

I can say that I did cash (12th) in a 180 man sit-n-go just a few minutes ago. I didn't make anywhere near enough to make up for my losses this week, but at this point anything that isn't a loss feels like a huge pick up.

Loosey, I'm home!

2007-11-20T23:52:00.000-06:00

So it's almost midnite and I've just started a 18 man Sit-n-go. I've already busted out of two SNGs tonite, playing far too loose. The most frustrating part is that I know exactly what I'm doing wrong and I'm still doing it. I made the final table twice last week in 180 man SNGs, so my bankroll had a substantial boost. Ever since, I have been fighting the urge to want to push with questionable (or worse) hands. Is it greed? Maybe. Could it be that I've tasted sucess and I want even more faster than it's supposed to come my way. Probably. Either way, I know that I'm playing a style that isn't me....so why I am struggling to fix it?

One bright side is that I honestly cannot blame the cards, the programmers or even luck. All of those are things I can't control. My play is something I can control. So now that I've put it in writing, I have to put it into practice. As of this moment there are 16 players left of the 18 that started. There have been 14 hands dealt and I have played only one (A9 from the BB) and took down a minimal pot after flopping a set and not getting any fish to bite.

Here's to hoping that I've left my bad habits here in this post and I'll get back to playing my game. Wish me luck.

Diary of a Poker Insomniac

2007-11-16T01:46:00.000-06:00

As I type the first words of the first entry of my first ever blog, I glance down at the clock on my laptop....1:48 a.m. on a Friday morning. No, I don't work the night shift and I'm not unemployed. I'm just a guy who needs very little sleep to function and enjoys the quiet hours of the late night and early morning.

Why am I posting here? I have decided to start this blog to chronicle my addiction to poker. I plan to post my experiences so that I may track my progress (hopefully upward progress) and perhaps share some learning experiences with others who may stumble across these pages.

I play both live games and online poker on Full Tilt and Poker Stars. I started several years ago on Poker Stars and have had some success (although very small stakes). I have played on Full Tilt for a much shorter period of time, but I really enjoy it. I generally am a player who gets his money in with the best hand, and I have had better luck on Full Tilt avoiding suckouts.

I really enjoy playing live more, but I don't live near a casino so I play online much more. There's just something about the feel of the chips and the felt that can't be replaced with a keyboard and mouse. I get to the casinos about 2 or 3 times a year and make it to local games or tournaments once every couple months. I hope to be able to take my online play to the next level to possibly subsidize my trips to the live games.

Well, the clock now says 2:07 a.m. Even a poker insomniac has to get a little sleep. I'm off to bed.