Slowplaying AK and getting paid off ...

If I bet either of these flops I am not going to get paid off:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1218894

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1218896

... and a board where you DON'T want to slow play a big hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1218897

Here is a situation where I played a hand correctly and lost. I am so far ahead on the flop that I want to give the person a chance to catch up. He also has so little money that I can use the turn and river to get it all in. Unlucky for me:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1218904

I played for 40 minutes or so and won $350 or so. Here is a hand that I really misplayed. I think calling the flop is the correct action. Given the turn, we would have gotten all our money in anyhow. He was a 2:1 favorite on the flop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1218916

Met my goal for June ...

So I'm actually up around $12K for June - $800 is in another database + around $1,200 in rakeback. BUT ... I'm up $10K in my new PT database. I told myself I would take tomorrow off if that happened, but I think I'll play just long enough to get my PT points. I'll play nitty low-variance TAG poker.

Rough day at the tables ...

I got down early - like 4.5 buy-ins and then decided to play until I was up (as I've seen Brian Rue do that time and time again). I took some brutal beats but overall I just didn't play well. Paid off people when I shouldn't have, etc. Ugh. Bad play galore today. Still ... I'm up ~$100 ... haha.

Good news ... today will be rakeback city :)

The float ...

I read him as weak ...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1212952

When to overbet ...

I think anytime I have quads I am shoving the river just to see if I get called. Wheeee for the gutter:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1209460

Whenever I get a backdoor flush on a non-paired board:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1209465

Whenever the opponent is a calling-station and can't fold sh!t:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1209467

I'm done for the day ... I played 1623 hands (2.42 hours) and ended up $558.40. I'm just short of $10K without rakeback. My rakeback for the month should be around $1K.

WTF are they thinking ... ?

I swear ... most players are so bad. So many of them have no concept of board texture and are always trying to bluff others off their hand. Here are two hands from this morning's session:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1208972

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1208975

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1209311

I own Josh and SirNeb

Prostyle:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1208192

Got the $1K again ...

I decided to play until I got the $1K today ... I was up $600 and then down $400 at some point. I played for over 5 hours but got there. Wheeeee ...

The Blocker Bet ...

Here is a very standard way of playing the blocker bet:

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $1/$2 Blinds - 6 Players - (http://www.legopoker.com/hh)

BjErHe: $503.90
TheXC: $200.00
__Acehole888__: $197.00
BigHands73: $158.65
nonthinking: $214.85
ColmsUM: $203.00

Preflop: TheXC is dealt 8c Ad (6 Players)
__Acehole888__ folds, BigHands73 calls $2.00, 2 folds, BjErHe calls $1.00, TheXC checks

So we get to see the flop for free. That's fine.

Flop: ($6) As 9s 6c (3 Players)
BjErHe checks, TheXC bets $4.00, BigHands73 calls $4.00, BjErHe folds

Flop for us is pretty good - we flop an ace with an average kicker. We put out a little blocker bet to get value out of 9's and draws.

Turn: ($14) 3c (2 Players)
TheXC bets $8.00, BigHands73 calls $8.00

The turn doesn't change anything - we put out another blocking bet. 11 would have been better in this case.

River: ($30) Kc (2 Players)
TheXC checks, BigHands73 bets $16.00, TheXC calls $16.00

So ... flush draw and straight draws both missed. Now we check to induce the bluff and call.

Pot Size: $62.00 ($3 Rake)

BigHands73 had 8d 7d ([8d 7d] Ace King high) and LOST (-$30.00)
TheXC had 8c Ad (a pair of Aces) and WON (+$29.00)

I suck out ...

1 hour session with Hookem148

Brian "Hookem" and I did a two hour sweat session today (well - we started at midnight with me). I really think we played every hand optimally. It was really cool just talking it out with him and discussion how we should play some hands.

Anyhow - I ended up $1,200 so I don't think I'll play any more on Sunday.

I'm not sure how to play this hand ...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1202083

After this, Brian played $400NL and made $1,200. It was a pretty sweet sweat session.

Update on the month ...

So that's $6777.10 + $716.51 rake back = $7493.61 over 63 hours = $117.82/hr.

Wow ... just ... wow.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1200182

$1,000 day

I decided to play until I got to $1,000. Ugh ... I was so close many times but just got in a bunch of crappy situations. In the end, it took 3 hours and 50 minutes, but I got there:

A good turn for me ...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1191118

Up around $600 for the day ...

Played ~1K hands at 200NL and finished up 2 buy-ins. I am very happy with my play. It helps that I tightened up to 24/18.

At the time that I played these two hands I thought checking behind on the river was correct. Now I don't think so ... I should have put out a very small bet both times. The flop and turn are good though - if they are bluffing, let them keep bluffing.

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1185265

2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1185271

I'm running at ~$124/hr since coming back from Europe and am up a little over $5K.

Meh session ...

Yeah, I finished up $853, but it was just so frustrating. I decided to keep playing until I was up after some massive swings. Sets lose to gutters, etc - those kind of hands are just killer for the winrate. Here is a hand that I thought I misplayed:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1183540
He has 66 here like 90% of the time. I'm also behind a slowplayed AK:

And here are a few hands I thought I played pretty well:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1183552

The player is 21/12/1.2 I just don't think he's overbetting the river without the nuts here. I also don't think he's raising pre-flop w/o JJ, QQ, KK, or AK.

And overbetting because I don't think the villain can fold a King here so I will "bluff" at the pot after he checked to induce the bluff:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1183558

Overall, I am getting pretty good at picking off bluffs, etc.

EDIT: Played a few more hands of HU and finished up $1,060 for the day. 100NL HU is really starting to be my bread and butter.

I really think this is a fold on the river ...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1177562

It was the one card I didn't want to see. Overall, I'm up $1,641 for the day at 200NL (6-max) and 100NL (HU) + short session of 1000NL HU (long story). 6-max is significantly easier as I sit back and just play pretty ABC poker. 200NL seems pretty soft - very few good/solid regulars from what I saw today.

I'm suspending my n = 10,000 challenge for a while

This summer I wanted to see if I could make a living playing poker full time. My plan is to play 100NL and 200NL for a while. My goal is to make $500/day for 20 days out of the month. This way, if I work 10 months out of the year I will make $100,000. This does not include rakeback, which I will count as a Christmas bonus. My current job pays a tad over $50K and I can always go back to it the following year if I have to. There are plenty of schools that need good math teachers :)

So ... me playing full time professionally is still in it's early stages. I guess as long as I can show my fiance that I can keep up a certain winrate, I'll quit my job in May and play full time for a while. We might have a baby by then so I could work out of the house and take care of a lot of things which she is at school.

So far, since coming back from vacation I'm playing really well. Here are my stats:

So I'm up $3015.30 (6 days' expected profit) over the last 3628 hands. Playing HU has really helped my game overall. It feels like I sit down and take people's money:

First, I cooler a guy:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1171006

Then, he doesn't believe that I have anything:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1171009

Finally, full out monkey tilt:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1171010

Back from my trip ...

So I'm back from my trip to Europe and since coming back I've mostly played 100NL HU. I haven't had much time to play so HU allows me to just jump right in and be in the middle of action. It's crazy how much money you can make off bad players there. Like Taylor told Brian one time: "Playing HU well is like printing money."

The thing about HU is that no-one seems to believe me when I have hands and people bluff like CRAZY. I just played good solid poker and profit.

I will get back to playing my 6-max challenge soon, but for the meantime, here are my PT numbers: