5/10nl is Craaaazy

Friday: +$198
Hours: 5
To Date: +$65,235

The swings of 5/10 nl are pretty damn sick. I've been playing these stakes for over a few weeks now pretty consistently, and I'm finally realizing how big these games are. The swings occasionally are ridiculous, but I've always been good about handling the emotions of losing/winning big amounts of money quickly. Here was my day yesterday: My first session I played for 1.75 hours and lost $3,465, my next session was 1.5 hours long and I lost $2,103, and my last session I played for 1.75 hours and won $5,766. This left me at +$198 on the entire day, lol. So I swung down $5,500 in a little over 3 hours, and then swung back up about +$5,800 in just under 2 more hours. Those are some pretty sick swings! My first session I really was pissed off about how I played, and absolutely should have lost at least $1,000 less than I did. My second session I just played ok at best. So I was really dissapointed in my play and was down huge. My last session I was very determined to play my best. I was playing some pretty short handed tables, as well as both some 2/4 heads up and 5/10 hu. I was a little apprehensive playing shorthanded on most of my tables like I was because I knew it was possible that I could take another BIG hit. But I ended up playing really well and things went absolutely great. Although I did make a bad call w/ a low flush that cost me around $700, I should have gotten away from it I knew I was beat. Anyway, what a crazy day! Talk about stressful, but also very fun by the end of the night.

Swinging Up Up Up...and AWAY!

Monday-Thursday: +$5,818
Hours: 11.25
To Date: +$65,037

Was hovering right around even since my last update, until yesterday when I made just under $6k in around 3 hours. I've been playing good since then too, but not as good as I want to be. I haven't been putting in my max effort each time I sit down to play, and have found myself halfway through a session going through the motions. That is completely unexceptable and I'm gonna make sure to stay disciplined and focused throughout the whole session each time I play. Anyway that's really all I have to say right now regarding my play and results. But in other news I just read last night that Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet are starting intersite transfers. I think that is a great idea, and have wondered if that was ever gonna happen between poker sites for a good year now. I figured it probably wouldn't unless two sites had the same owners running them. Well thats the case w/ UB and Absolute, but I really hope that other sites that have different owners will start doing this in the future. It's a very good idea and will definitely help both websites bring in more business. Too bad I don't really think I'll be playing on Absolute anymore becuase they don't have enough higher stakes games at all. My dream would be for UB, Full Tilt, and Stars to have intersite transfers between them. I'm still very excited that UB and Absolute Poker have started doing this though, I hope it will bring a lot more fish to the mid stakes games on UB. Anyway, I swear I'm gonna add in my rakeback next post. And also gonna post my results from July.

BOOYAKASHA!!!

Saturday+Sunday: +$4,344
Hours: 4.75
To Date: +$59,219

WOW! Saturday was a great day for me. I had my best single session ever and also my best overall day ever(money wise that is). My first session of the day I played for only an hour and made +$4,960. Not bad for just one hour of play. Then my second and last session of the day I played for an hour again and made +$1,070. That brought the total on the day to +$6,030, in only 2 hours of play! I was playing $1,000 nl on most of my tables, but still a couple of tables were either $200 or $400 nl. The first session I played I just ran like GOD, but I also played really well too. I was in complete control and dominating the table, which allowed me to make a couple great plays. Yesterday I lost around $1,500, but oh well that's to be expected after a day like Saturday I guess. So far after my first 10k hands at 5/10 nl I'm doing really well. The swings really don't affect me that much at all, and I now feel really comfortable playing that high. It also makes poker fun and exciting too, which I think will last for a pretty long while actually. If I happen to lose 5 buyins or something more at $1000 nl I will probably just play lower limits for a little while, but other than that I'm gonna try to play at least a couple tables of it every session I play. Unless all of the games at the time are really bad of course. I just remembered that I need to add in my rakeback from last month, so I'll definitely do that a little later on today. Hopefully I can go on a tear the rest of this month and make over $10k more by the end of it.

Back in Black

Monday-Friday: +$4,641
Hours: 13
To Date: +$54,875

Ok I'm finally back in the black on the month! Only took me a little over 2 weeks, lol. I've been pretty happy w/ my play these days. I think this last downswing has made me a better player for sure. I don't have enough time to talk about how I feel I've gotten so much better in the past few months, so I'll save it for another post soon here. But it feels really good to be completely out of my downswing and I'm ready to put in a lot of hours the rest of the month and hopefully the month will turn out to be a really good one!
P.S. - I just had my best session ever about an hour ago! I made $5k in only 1 hour, feels sooooo good!!! Those results as well as my rakeback from July will be posted tomorrow.

VERY BAD NIGHT

Tuesday-Sunday: -$3,520
Hours: 15.25
To Date: +$50,234

I think I'm on my biggest downswing(money wise) ever in the last 2 weeks. That's ok though, I've also been playing the highest limits of my life. For the past few days or more I've been playing at least a couple tables of 5/10 NL every time I play, and even some of the time more than 4 tables of 5/10, while still playing a couple tables of 3/6 and 2/4 as well. The funny thing is that I've been winning a little bit at 5/10, but just been getting killed at 2/4 and 3/6. I guess that's a lot better than the other way around so I can at least feel good about that. Anyway on Saturday night I almost had my second breakdown of the year in poker. My internet at night lately has been cutting out a few times a night, but usually it is for less than 30 seconds and never more than a few minutes. Still it's been very frustrating to say the least and has definitely cost me some money and my sanity at times. But on Sat night I sat down to play at midnight and got on all my 6 tables, 4 of them being 5/10 and the other 2 or 3 of them my normal mid stakes. I started playing and was absolutely amazed at how GREAT the games were! I was so happy and excited and ready to put in a long ass session and hopefully make a shit load of money. Every single table I would consider very good, especially my 5/10 tables. I knew it was Saturday night but just couldn't believe how bad almost all the players were, probably the best I've ever seen in my experience at that high of stakes. So I'm playing and within the first 20 minutes my internet starts going out. I got very pissed off because whenever it would go out I actually was involved in and had good hands which ended up costing me over $300. So I was very pissed off but I just kept thinking I have to keep playing through it b/c the games were so profitable. Well long story short I had to quit after 45 min b/c it was constantly cutting out and I just couldn't continue. I was so unbelievably frustrated because I know this costed me so much +EV and very likely something in the $5k range a fair amount of the time. Anyway it was a very bad and frustrating night and is still very hard for me to think about how great the games were and how unfair it is that I was cheated out of the opportunity to play. So I thought it would be good for me to take Sunday off shut down the engine and recharge the batteries. I think it was a very good idea b/c today I feel great and really motivated to play again. I swear next post will be my results from last month, but I just wanted to get this out first. Time for me to go hit the tables!

Focused Energy+Positive Thought=Playing Well

Thursday-Monday: +$1,521
Hours: 9.75
To Date: +$53,754

So I'm making a steady and slow comeback on the month. Iv'e been happy with how I've been playing the last few days, so that's what really matters. I could go on and on about all the ways I've been getting unlucky on the month so far. But I honestly don't focus on that side of poker whatsoever anymore. I was actually thinking about this yesterday and today, and I'm pretty damn impressed with myself. Compared to almost anyone I know, follow, or read about I talk about bad beats and ways I'm getting unlucky while running bad less than anyone I know. I pretty much just don't talk about it hardly at all, and in my head to myself I don't think or focus on it about 99% of the time either. The more you don't spend any energy on even thinking about how you are getting unlucky, the vastly better you are off for sure. I have become so good at this part of poker that I really don't waste any energy on it at all, and this has really been keeping my mind right and completely filled w/ positive energy and allows me to focus on what I need to. I used to think I was good at controlling tilt and handling the swings and such. But now I realize that I was only OK at this b/c I was still putting way too much thought into these kinds of negative things. Now it is so much easier on my mind b/c I barely have these thoughts at all, so I often don't even realize how bad I've actually been running until later after it's over. I just keep my focus on what I need to and mentally it makes my poker life so much easier. Anyway, I know I said last post that my next one would be on my results for July and goals for this month. So I will definitely do this in my next post which will probably be tomorrow. Also I still want to write about when I read a bunch of poker blogs that aren't on my daily list of reads last week and some of my thoughts about them in the next few days as well.

The Latest

Saturday-Wednesday: -$2,817
Hours: 9.5
To Date: +$52,233

So I was around break evenish since my last post until yesterday when I dropped -$3k. I should have lost around -$2,500 but I made pretty costly $500 dollar mistake that I definitely shouldn't have. I actually played quite well overall yesterday, but just made that big mistake and was getting hit very hard in the face by the deck. I was put in a huge amount of very tough decisions very quickly. That is the only time where multi tabling like I do can really be a problem. I also layed a hand or two down that I figured had to be the best hand from the way it was played out, but my opponets bet big on numerous streets so I assumed maybe I was just tilting and layed them down. Sure enough I was shown a complete bluff once, and the other I'm pretty sure looking back on it was too. That really frustrated me and stressed me out a lot, so that was the end of the night for me at that point and I quit playing immediately. After this before bed I wrote down my goals for August on a peice of paper, so I'll post those and my results for July in my next post. I ended up having similar to June a very good month in July again, but realize that b/c of this and the way August has started out, that this month is most likely gonna be much tougher cards wise. So my goals that I wrote last night are very intense concerning the mental side of poker and life away from the actual tables. Also, the other day I went through and read a BUNCH of poker blogs that I hadn't read much of or hadn't read at all and have some thoughts on them I want to post about in the next few days as well.

Playing Poorly

Thursday+Friday: -$1,373
Hours: 4.25
To Date: +$55,050

Not only have I not played as much as I should have on thursday and friday, but I'm also not playing even close to my potential. Thursday was fine, but yesterday I really ended the day off bad. The last session of the day I had to cut short b/c I kept on making stupid fucking bluffs that I knew wouldn't work. I lost 600 that session and should have broken even or maybe only lost 200 at the absolute most. Actually looking back on yesterday, the last session of the day was really the only one where I played downright bad. But it still kills me b/c it was one of the most I've spewed off chips in a long time! Anyway, I kinda feel like punishing myself in some way for my play. Something like forcing myself to drop down to $200 nl and play a certain # of hands until I can move back up to 2/4 and 3/4nl. And I would have to play my A game for those hands or else I would have to keep playing at the lower limits. But I probably won't end up doing that if I see that the games I normally play are looking good today. We'll see though, all I know is I HAVE to play solid today or I'm gonna freak out on myself!

I Love MY Life

Wednesday: +$2,294
Hours: 3.5
To Date (in 2007): +$56,423

My life is great right now! That's all for today...lol.

Internet Poker vs. Live Poker

Sunday-Tuesday: +$1,901
Hours: 9.25
To Date: +$54,129

I think I've been doing a good job of motivating myself to play since I posted about that in my last post. I've been doing some things at the tables against some of the solid regulars that I play against everyday that I think will make me more money against them in the long run. Anyway, I was talking to someone the other day about playing poker full time on the internet compared to live at a casino/cardroom. He was saying how sick of internet poker he is and how much he hates it, and can't wait until he moves so he'll be close to a casino and can play there most of the time. And I was saying how much more I like playing on the internet and that even if I lived at a casino I would still play on the internet for the majority of the time. There are definitely negatives and positives concerning both however. So, here's why I like being an internet pro compared to a live pro. First and most importantly, playing multiple tables on the internet for the most part is MUCH more profitable. You see about 3 times as many hands on the internet for each table compared to sitting in a casino at one table. So if you are playing 3,4,5,6, or more tables on the internet you are seeing an enormous amount of hands, which in turn allows you to make more money. Now, your play does diminish a little for each table you add on, but w/out going into too much explanation and taking forever it is much more profitable to play a couple tables or more on the internet than playing at a casino. Secondly, staying with this concept, the internet is unbelivably and not even comparable to live poker when we are talking about speed. No dealer, multiple tables, quick one click buttons, and time bank limits all make for very fast play. There are numerous advantages to this. It's more profitable, and it's not boring b/c you are playing hands very often and almost always have a hand to play. In a casino you can go for a couple hours and only be able to play a handful of hands during that time, which can become not only VERY boring but also quite frustrating as well. One of the best things about internet poker is that it's more profitable, but at lower limits compared to live poker. To make up for the number of tables and the speed of the internet you have to play significantly higher limits live. While this is exciting and fun at a casino, there also comes pitfalls to this. The swings are very large and very long! On the internet you can grind lower limits and play numerous tables, which makes the swings lower than when playing big limits live, and most importantly makes the downswings and breakeven stretches MUCH shorter. You also don't need nearly as big of a bankroll when grinding these lower limits on the internet. Lastly, the convenience of being able to sit down on your computer anywhere in the world w/ internet access and play vs. players all over the globe at anytime is hard for the casino/cardrooms to beat.
Now, there are numerous things about live poker that are really nice. First of all, the players typically are MUCH, much worse than on the internet. People that come to casinos and cardrooms are gamblers and looking to have a good time. So, that is the best thing about live poker to me, the players for the most part are just terrible and it's awesome! Also, for a little while it can be really fun to play in a cardroom and have actual money in front of you and it's exciting to rake in a big pot to your stack. It's also nice to be able to be social and talk to other human beings at the table for a change. But like I already said, this gets old after a while and just not being able to see more than 40 hands/hour gets to be extremely boring.
Overall, I can't imagine being a live pro. The internet has given so many players the opportunity to make a lot of money in a short amount of time. I am so grateful for internet poker and the life it has given me and will continue to provide. But I will from time to time make the trek out to play some live poker to change it up and break the everday grind of internet poker.

Another Day Another Dollar

Thursday-Saturday: +$1,695
Hours: 4.25
To Date: +$52,228

I took Friday off, but played 3.25 hours on Thursday and only 1 hour on Saturday. Last few days I haven't been feeling as motivated to play as the few weeks before. I always know this when my sessions start shortening to 1 hour or less a lot of the time. I find myself looking at the clock after 45 minutes or so. Sometimes poker is just such a grind and so monotanous. I really want to get in some good hours to finish off the month though, so got to motivate myself to play. The only thing is, I have to make sure to not just force myself to play when I don't feel like I will play well becuase that is when poker gets horrible for me. So I need to motivate myself to WANT to play, and to want to play WELL! That's all for now folks, don't feel like typing much right now.

Wow...Where Do I Start?

Last 11 Days: +$1,219
Hours: 29.5
To Date: +$50,533

It's been so long I don't know where to begin. I guess I'm being a little dramatic...lol. It's only been about a week from my last post. But it has been over a week and a half since I last posted my poker results. Basically, after playing and running really well for over 2 weeks I hit a very sharp downswing. The severe, main part of the downswing was actually only a few days, with the rest of the time getting back to being down a little and then back to above even a day ago finally. The first two days of the decline were intense however. I went on about a -$7k downswing in only those 2 days, by far my worst monetarily wise. Actually, nothing too crazy happened surprisingly. I did on the first day make a huge mistake that cost me a little over $1k, as well as a few other mistakes as a result of being off my game in the first 3 days. But that's pretty much it. Mainly the reason it was almost twice the amount I have swung down before is because I was playing a lot of very shorthanded games. I was playing a lot of 3/6 no limit tables late at night with only 3 or 4 players, as well as a descent amount of heads up at both 2/4 and 3/6 tables. The swings associated with these shorthanded games, especially heads up is obviously a much bigger difference. Anyway after the initial 3 days I made my way back, then swung back down a little, and then hovered around even for a couple days. Finally a day ago I was back in the black and said completely bye bye to my evil downswing. Anyway, wasn't a HUGE deal, I'm so used to the swings of poker by now that I can handle them pretty damn well these days. Still can be a little scary and obviously quite frustrating and stressful, but not too bad at this stage in my poker career. Mostly, I just got out of the groove of updating and became lazy with it and didn't prioritize posting like I should have. I have more I want to talk about but I'll save it for the next post because I feel like this post is just getting too long at the moment.....plus I want to go hit the tables right now!

June Rakeback

I guess this would be a good time for me to add in my rakeback from last month. Considering in the last few days since the last time I posted I have been on the biggest and sharpest downswing of my poker career. I'll post about that next time tomorrow probably. But I made +$1,643 on UB and +$122 from FTP. So overall in June I profited +$1,765 from rakeback. That makes my new total to date on the year(until I add in the last few days results): +$49,314

I'm gonna look at that number for a couple minutes right now and just enjoy what that looks like, becuase when I post tomorrow(or actually later today, it's 12:07am) that number will be MUCH lower.

Friday: +$4,272
Hours: 5
To Date: +$47,549

Im already up almost $10k on the month after only 1 week! This heater I have been since the last week of June has carried on to this month with a vengance. Not only am I running very well, but I'm playing the best poker of my life too. Had a session yesterday where I made $3k in 2 hours, pretty sweet. It feels like my dreams are coming true, and I can't even explain how good I feel right now. Anyway, I need to add in my rakeback from last month, I guess I'll do that next post.

Gotta Keep the Ball Rolling

Monday-Thursday: +$3,274
Hours: 8.75
To Date: +$43,277

I only played one session on tuesday and didn't play at all on wednesday, the 4th of July. But the 3 days I have played I have averaged around +$1,100 each day, so that's pretty good. I feel like I'm playing and running well, except I could be up a lot more if I didn't keep getting sucked out on in HUGE pots once and a while. But other than that, I have no complaints at all about how the month has been going so far in the first week. I just want to put it some serious hours in the near future and keep this ball rolling. I have been having some serious issues with Ultimate Bet about cashing out. I am trying to cash out a little over $3k and apparently as a new security issue I have to send in my drivers license(with current correct address), my debit card, and a recent statement. No problem right? Wrong! My driver's license has an old address on it! So annoying, and there is no way I'm waiting for 2 weeks to get a new one and then not getting my money that I need now in another month. Anybody else having some of these same problems with them? Or does anyone have any suggestions for me about what I should do???

June Results, July Goals

Total Profit for June: +$15,707
I made a little over $14k from just poker, and another $1,500 from rakeback. I'm pretty sure that my Ultimate Bet rakeback hasn't been added in for the last few days either, so that could be another $200 or so. I played about 90 hours total for the month. So I made right around $170/hr. June was definitely my best month ever in poker, and I've been waiting for a month like this since the beginning of April. June has really got me re energized and focused on my game and excited for the next 6 months of the year.

My main goal for July is to put as much effort into my play as possible and to play the best I am capable of every time I sit down to play. I also want to focus every day on things I can do to get better. I want to play over 105 hours total for the month, as well as put over 5 hours a week into my game away from the tables. I think that is pretty much it for now. I'm not setting a monetary goal for the month because I really have no control over that. All I have control of is what I have listed above, and hopefully the results will plentifully follow.

Start of the month

Sunday: +$1,434
Hours: 4.25
To Date: +$40,003

Other than a HUGE mistake I made that cost me over $1k, I have continued to play really well. II played a 3.25 hour session last night, which is very long for me. But it just shows how much I'm really enjoying playing poker right now. I normally can't play much longer than an hour or two. But since I've been working hard on improving my play and changed my style, I've realized almost every session I play is like 2 hours or more at a time. I'm really excited for the last 6 months of the year, I believe they are going to be very good to me. Anyway next post will be my results from last month, as well as my goals for July.

Recoverd from a small mental breakdown

Thursday-Saturday: +$4,786
Hours: 11
To Date: +$38,569

I'll explain what I mean by the title in a sec, but first a little summary of my results. So I got back from Vegas on Thursday and hit the tables for 2 sessions and made around+$1,500 in a few hours. Then on Friday I started out great in my first session, but then went downhill from there. If I didn't play this horrible chump heads up at the very end of my last session on Friday, I would have made around +$2,500 on the day. But instead this guy hit some miracles on me and I only ended up making +$350 on the day(more on this later). Then yesterday I only played 2 sessions for 2 hours total, but had great results and played great profiting just under +$3,000. Anyway right before I left for Vegas I was really thinking hard about how I can improve my game. I decided that when I got back I was gonna change my style and strategy a little. It's been going great and I really feel like I have taken my game to another level. I'm not gonna say what I have changed, but I've just tweaked my style a little. I'm very confiedent that I will make significantly more money now playing this way, and I'm really enjoying playing lately a lot. Now the reason I said I recoverd beautifuly from a mini mental breakdown is because on Friday after I played this guy heads up and lost about $2k I really lost it for a half hour or so. I had a great session going, was playing VERY good and was up over $2,000 in the first hour and a half. Then a HORRIBLE maniac that I was playing w/ earlier at a 6 max table sat down to play me. I had already taken around $1k from him earlier and I had $1,600 on the table. He only sat w/ $250 so I felt like I probably shouldn't play him, but I knew he would rebuy numerous times and was really bad so I decided to play him instead of stopping for the night. Well, we got all in 3 times in the next 15 minutes and he won every time. I was a big favorite every single time the money went in the pot. He was extremely annoying and talking shit the whole time as well, so that made it a lot more frustrating. Long story short, he took about $2k off me and I ended up breaking even on the session. For some reason I just lost it after and it really bothered me. I think w/ all the crap I hold in in poker, this just brought it all out in me and I freaked out. Anyway, the reason I say I recovered really well is becuase then on Saturday I didn't know if I even felt like playing at all, as if the wind was just taken out of my sails. But I got my mind right and ended up playing and had a great day yesterday, and most importantly I kept playing really well like I have for the past few days.
Next post I'll give my results for June, it was my best month ever!

SIGH..........

Today: +$650
Hours: 9.25
To Date: +33,783

SIGH.....so depressing to only be up $650 in the last couple days. My first session on Sunday I made $3,099 in 1 hour, and ended up a little over 2k on the day. The last session of the day I really played sloppy and didn't put nearly enough effort and energy into my play. I could have easily made another 2 buyins. So I was pretty pissed off and motivated to play good the next day. So Monday comes along and my first session I played pretty good, winning almost $100. And then after I went right back to playing very mediocre at best, losing $1500 in my next and last two sessions for the day. I honestly should have at least only lost $500 between those 2 sessions. So I'd say in the last 2 days I should at least be up around $1,500 more, and that wouldn't even be with amazing play at all. It's just soo frustrating to know that if I just played good solid poker that I would be up over $2k for the last 2 days. I have not been a proffessional lately at all, and it really bothers me that I haven't had the neccessary self discipline that is so crucial to a professional player's success. This is by far the most frustrating thing for me in poker. It bothers me so much more than getting bad beats, or running extremely bad for a week or two straight. Luckily, I'm leaving for Vegas today to have some fun for a few days. I think being down there will really help me get the right mind state again for when I get back home and back to the daily grind. I'm not even sure if I'm going to play live at all yet because I don't have enough cash on hand and will have to get some from a friend. I definitely will play at least a couple hours on the internet in the room, but that might be it. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that once I get back I will have the neccessary focus and energy available to put into playing my best everytime I play. I just can't take the agony of playing mediocre or worse, it makes playing poker way too frustrating and it's too hard on me. So when I get back I'm gonna go on a tear and be a true professional every single time I sit down to play. This trip has definitely come at a perfect time for me, VEGAS HERE I COME!

The Last Week= NOT GOOD

Sunday-Saturday: -$2,025
Hours: 19
To Date: +$33,133

Haven't updated in a week, I know I said I wouldn't be doing that anymore. But I started running really bad and just kept putting off updating. Anyway I went on a pretty sharp downswing from Sunday through Wednesday, losing around 4k in only those few days. I was playing almost half of it at $400 nl, half at $600 nl, and a few hundred hands at $1,000 nl. I got off my game a fair amount in those first 3 days or so. I was forcing things a little too much, as well as making too many bad calls with the mindset of, "there's no way he hit that gutshot, so I call." But they were hitting gut shots and miracle 2 outers, so I should have realized this sooner and started making some better folds. But over the last 3 or 4 days I have got back to playing better, not playing great at all, but at least pretty good. On Friday I finally had my first really solid day in over a week and made a little over 2k. Then I took Saturday off to recharge my batteries to be fully prepared for the last week of June, which I think should go really well.

Happy Father's Day

Today: +$357
Hours: 3
To Date: +$35,158

I'm really happy w/ my play and I've definitely taken my game up a small step to another level. After playing the way I have for the last couple weeks I'm now finally convinced that I definitely have improved enough to say that I've once again taken my game to the next level. No massive improvement or anything, but I know I am noticabely better than I was a month ago. My consistensy in my play, as well as choosing my spots much better for when to make moves/bluffs has been what I've gotten significantly better at. On a Father's Day note, there's nothing like a gift for your dad on Father's Day like telling him that you are now playing poker for a living and plan on doing so for a while. That's what I have the pleasure of doing tonight at dinner, haha. Anyway, hopefully I can get in a couple sessions today and win some money off all the father's looking to have some fun playing poker today at the 2/4 and 3/6 no limit games.

June going really well

Today: +$906
Hours: 1.5
To Date: +$34,801

For how great poker tracker has been for me, it is still really annoying sometimes when it doesn't work perfectly. I'm up on the month between $900 and $1,000 more than it says I am in my poker tracker stats. But at least I'm up almost $9k on the month and have been making about $185/hr. Hopefully the second half of the month is as good or better than the first half was. I know for a fact that my own play definitely will be, so hopefully the results will come along for the ride too.

Playing really well

Today: +$2,193
Hours: 3.5
To Date: +$33,895

Only played one session on Tuesday b/c I had to do stuff all day, and then yesterday I finally got in a few solid sessions. Still pretty damn happy w/ my play lately as I'm really putting a lot of thought, energy, and effort into every decision I make for every session. Late last night I decided to play some $400 nl Heads Up tables on Full Tilt. I played 2 tables at once and absolutely killed it. I made some really good reads and plays, as well as hitting a good amount of flops. Ended up making just under 2k in half an hour. I wish I cold have played longer, but my opponets kept on leaving me after I was owning them so I decided to call it a night after only around 30 minutes. It felt really good to book a very nice win at the heads up tables, and boosted my bankroll on Full Tilt nicely.

May results=not so good :(

Only made around $2,500 in May all together. Oh well, I ran really bad and didn't have the chance to play that much. I only played 73 hours for the whole month and got in 37,500 hands. But I guess looking at the positive side of things I did only play 18 hours a week and ran exceptionally bad, yet still managed to make as much as some of my friends will make this summer each month working 40 hour weeks as an intern full time. It also feels good to know that May is over with and the next couple months will most likely be WAY beteter.

May Rakeback

Only made $1,307 from rakeback for the month of May because I didn't get that many hours in. I'm pretty sure I will make over 2k this month.

To Date: +$31,702

Taking 1 Day off per Week

Today: +$576 (friday-monday)
Hours: 11
To Date: +$30,395

Things have been pretty up and down results wise in the last few days. I took all of Saturday off and I really think it was a good idea. I'm gonna make an effort to take 1 full day off of poker a week. It really helps clear my head and get re focused for the next few days. After taking a day off I always feel motivated and end up playing very well afterwards. So I'm gonna make sure I do this once a week. I've definitely been playing my "A" game lately so I'm feeling really good about my game right now. I'm very confident that this month and probably the next one too will be really good. Anyway that's all for now I have to go do some stuff that I'm late for.

It's Been a While....But back to regular updates

May 28th-June 7th: +$4,497
Hours: 35.25
To Date: +$29,819

It's been a while. Once I stop updating for more than 4 or 5 days I just get in a rut where I don't get back here to blog. Also, when I'm not running well and my results are lackluster I'm not nearly as motivated to want to log on here to talk about how bad things are going and post my results. But I don't want that to happen anymore and I think it's important to post very regularly not only for myself, but for any readers too, because I want people to experience through me what it's like as a poker player through the boring and bad times as well as the positive ones. So I'm gonna definitely be posting at least 4 times a week consistently from now on. Anyway, the last week and a half has been a swingy one! From my last post I went on a -$2,000 swing over the next 5 days, and then over the last 5 days I swung up around +$6,000. The last few days I've really played well and have improved a part of my game that I think will really help my bottom line in the future. I had developed a bad habit at the tables over the last couple months and didn't really realize it until about a week ago. I've been running really hot and I guess I didn't realize just how bad I had been running for the last couple weeks before this, becuase I had almost forgot what it feels like to get a lot of good hands. May ended up being a pretty bad month for me, I'm not sure what I ended up for the month but I'll post my May results in the next couple days along with my goals for April.

Poker is SOOO Humbling

Today: -$1,679
Hours: 2.5
To Date:+$25,322

Poker is such a humbling game. Just when I think I'm reaching a point where I'm becoming almost too good, I realize I definitely am not, lol. I guess I started thinking that I didn't have to try as hard in the past couple days and that I could just play my absolute best "A" game everytime I sat down w/out any serious drive, effort, and energy at the tables. I couldn't have been any more wrong, and the great humbling game of poker put me back in my place fast and hard. I only played one session per day in the last 2 days, but managed to make somewhere around $800 worth of bad plays and mistakes. I'm happy it only took a few hours for me to realize this though, and am motivated and determined to put all my energy into playing my best game everytime.

And another one...

Today: +$229
Hours: 2.5
To Date: +$27,001

I got lazy in my second session and didn't try my absolute hardest to make the correct decision for about an hour. It cost me a few hundred bucks. I made some back playing a little 1/2 heads up at full tilt for a little while. But I definitely should have made over $500 today because of laziness. On another note, some people who play poker are just sooo dumb and ignorant to the point where I just can't believe there are actually this many idiots in the world. Oh man, I don't even have time to get into this right now. But some of these people just amaze me to the point where I just have to sit back and ponder with astonishment as to how there can be so many people in this world like this. I'm not talking about their play, just about what they say and think. Anyways, don't have time right now to get into this discussion because I could go on about this stuff for a really long time.

Back from Vacation....Back to the Grind!

Today: +$1,385 (Friday-Wednesday)
Hours: 1.25
To Date: +$26,722

Back from one of the best cities in the nation, San Diego. I got back yesterday and started finally playing again today (which I will post tomorrow). I only managed to log 1.25 hours while I was down there for a total of one session. At least it went really well though, I was pretty hot. It was nice to get a break from the daily grind but I am very ready to get back into the swing of things. I feel really refreshed and motivated and want to finish off the month playing really well and logging a lot of hours. As long as I continue to put as much effort into focusing on my discipline and play for the last week as I have since the 7th this month will be a big success no matter what my results are.

Playin my best at all times is SO IMPORTANT

Today: -$1,221
Hours: 12.25
To Date: +$25,337

Didn't play my best on Monday or Tuesday at all and was probably down almost 1k more than I would have been if I had been playing how I was for the last week before. Happy about my play on Wed. though, and made almost $500 of it back. Don't have time to post anything more right now. I'm going to San Diego for the next week and am not gonna be able to play for the next 3 days at all. So I'll be back on here in a few days, later.

It's Gettin Hot in Her

Today: +$2,258
Hours: 2.75
To Date: +$26,558

Made $1,700 playing 2/4 6 max and the rest playing 1/2 heads up. I've really been enjoying playing some HU here and there at $200 nl on Full Tilt. It's a good change from the normal full ring 2/4 games for me, and the money isn't that stressfull at all. I think I have gotten a lot better at it, and I'm enjoying working on getting much better. I've always enjoyed the competitiveness and psychollogy of heads up. I've just had a 2 really bad sessions before when I didn't have nearly as much money that really hurt at the time. But I've been loving it and I know I'm due for some good times at it now and in the future. Anyways, results wise it was a great day for me. Just building the bankroll one day at a time.....