Masterpiece Poker

The Start of something big.

2010-07-12T08:49:00.000-07:00

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." - Stephen King

So,

Four months is a long time. I know this, I understand it, and yet when your day is filled to the brim nearly every day, its tough to get online and write a blog. All this I guess begs the question of why today I'm able to actually take some time out and write down what has been happening in the recent past and will be happening to me in the near future. And there is a lot to write about, so this post may very well fall into the "Holy crap, thats a lot to read" territory. Since I know some of you may not want to read 6 pages worth of material, I'll get to the main reason for my post immediatley, and work from there.

Today is my last day punching the clock and working for someone other than myself. Hopefully forever, at the very least for the forseeable future. When I started working with Nick back in November, my ultimate goal was always this. Work hard, learn, improve, and absorb everything I could, really looking to determine whether playing poker full time is a viable career option. After 8 months, I can say now that everything I have seen and done has shown to me that this is something that I can do and support my family. Obviously, transitioning into a full time career playing poker has both its pros and cons, but after weighing them both against each other, the pros (getting to spend more time with my family, no commute, saving on gas, working from home, income increase, potential future earnings) far outweigh the negatives (fear and doubt, uncertainty, surviving variance.)

So two weeks ago, I gave my notice at Verizon. I had quite a few people ask me why I wouldn't just quit and get to grinding, and while its a valid question, the answers aren't hard to find. I came to Verizon looking for a job during a tough time, and while my employment was beneficial to them, they also did not turn me away. Couple that with the fact that of the call centers I have worked for, this one is by far the best and treats their employees with the greatest amount of respect, it is easy to see why I would give them the courtesy to be able to look for a replacement. After working here, it is clear why I will be a Verizon customer for life. I leave with no ill will on either side, and if the need arrises in the future, hope to be able to return to continue my employment.

As Mr. King says in the above quote, hard work is the key in tapping into talent and using it to help make you succesful. I'm sure there are people out there who will feel that what I am going into will be easy, a cake walk, walk in the park. That being able to set my own hours, wear what I want, vacation when I want etc. are all this job will be about. While there are some wonderful perks to working from home, playing poker for a living is far from glamorous. For those of us that are considered grinders, poker is exactly that, we put in a large amount of hours every day. We deal with negative variance that can at times make us question our abilities. Online poker, playing 10-14 tournaments at a time is very mentally taxing. While a lot of the game is fairly automatic to me now in a lot of situations, there are still many many times a day where a very important decision must be made weighing mathmatical probabilities, possible outcomes, how the decision will affect my image, and most importantly whether the decision is correct in terms of expected value, all within the span of about 20 seconds max. In comparisson, in my job right now, I cannot remember the last time that I've made any significant decision, and the output from my brain required to do my job is virtually nil.

While there were a few moments of fear and uncertainty when I finally reached the decision, with each day that has passed towards my end date with Verizon, a greater sense of calm has come over me. The decision has been made, the papers have been signed, and starting tomorrow, the only thing I will need to do is get up, get myself ready, go to my computer, and treat poker as a job. Poker is no longer a hobby or recreation for me. For millions, it is still exactly that, and it is now my job to take their recreation money and put it into my pocket. I am part of a very small percentage of people who can call this great game a career.

How much work will actually be required of me then? Best I can tell, Ill be looking at anywhere from 45-50 hours per week, and while some may say "Well, aren't you working more than you were at your other job?" Well sure, if you don't count in my two hours of commute every day, my one hour lunch, and the fact that I didnt see my family hardly ever. I however, do count those things, and I wasn't being paid for any of it. My goals (And while I say goals here, this is more or less a requirement. Its the same as if your boss says he needs a 20 page report done in 1 week. You wont make a 20 page report your goal for that week, you'll finish that 20 pages because its your job.) for the month to start with will be 2500 games. While I'm not setting a monetary goal, my current per game win rate puts me at a comfortable earn rate to support my family. It is important at this point to continue to focus and improve, making the best decisions possible with every game that I load. Its not fullproof, errors still occur, but learning from them is key. My errors come few and far between now, but recognizing them quickly and correcting them is what makes me a winning player. I made a large mistake last night that cost me a good shot at a win, but its not something that will happen again, heat of the moment or not. With that, I think I'm going to break this into two parts. The second part is going to reflect more on the past four months, and how the changes there have affected my decision.

Heads up poker picks

2010-03-05T11:43:00.000-08:00

Here is the top half of the bracket. Circled in red near the bottom you can see my final two Jason Mercier and Howard Lederer

And here is the bottom half. In the middle you can see JM= Jason Mercier stands alone with a 2-0 win over Lederer. Good luck to all who are playing. I will update as the day goes along.

NBC Heads-up Bracket Challenge.

2010-03-05T05:49:00.001-08:00

So this is pretty short notice, but I am running an NBC heads-up bracket challenge. Works just like a standard March madness bracket challenge. The bracket can be found here. http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/35642443/ns/sports-poker_on_nbc Fill this out, take a screenshot and send it to me at djhotrod3004@hotmail.com. The cost is $10 to play. Send the money direct to my Master3004 account on pokerstars. Money and Brackets must be submitted by 1 PM Pacific time today in order to count. Good luck to all. I will post my Bracket picks before the 1PM deadline so everyone knows this is on the up and up.

Where ya been?

2010-03-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

Yeah I know, its been a while, shut up.

First of all, I know some of you have talked to me about how hard its been to post comments. I made some changes to the settings on the blog, you should be able to comment much easier now.

So where've I been? Between taking care of children, working, and grinding, I just have not had the time to get on here and update. No worries though, I should have a bit of time this weekend to go over my february results and March goals. So check back here soon for that.

I just had a quick second to jump on, cause I wanted to put down to writing something going through my mind. Last night was bad. I made two terrible plays late in a tournament that have been wearing on my mind the past 12 hours or so. These kinds of mistakes are what are seperating me from acheiving the results that some of the other students have acheived to this point. The leaks must stop, and they must stop soon. Regardless of whether anyone else is, I myself am losing patience in mistakes. Yes, when you start something new there is generally a learning curve, but after a full quarter, my mistakes should be lessening to the near nil point.

Tonight I get back into a more simplified grind. I've been attempting to add more tables recently and I think it has added a bit more to the mistake log. Tonight I scale back to 9-tabling and providing complete concentration to making the correct play, especially in the late game. No longer will I feel bad about my play. Playing well and losing is one thing. Playing like shit and losing is a completely different monster, and I won't stand for it.

Poker player math

2010-02-15T11:17:00.000-08:00

So, I've had questions from people since starting this. The questions that I wanted to talk about today is one that comes up fairly often, and its an important questions to regard when deciding to play poker full time. I also feel that once this questions can be answered correctly, it is at that point that poker can begin to become a full time career.

So, that question is normally a very simple one to answer, and when asked to someone with a job that pays a certain dollar amount per hour can be answered within seconds. How much money did you make today?

All you non-poker players, answer the question in your heads and think about how long it took to answer. 5 seconds? ten? Ok great.

Now all you poker players, answer the same question and think about how long it took. The answer isn't hiding in the Cashier tab on your poker client, it isn't accesible by logging onto sharkscope, and in fact, the question should be able to be answered just as quickly as any other person out there.

So here is where poker player math comes in, and is probably one of the hardest concept for those outside of the poker community to wrap their heads around. Today we will deal with the ever popular Player A, and his exploits into the poker world on a specific day.

Now Player A plays primarily $12 NLHE 180 man tournaments on pokerstars. His average ROI is 30%, so for each tournament he plays, he should expect to earm $3.60. Player A on this particular day played for 8 hours and managed to play 80 tournaments, resulting in playing ten games per hour. However, variance decided to be the hateful beast that it is, and Player A failed to cash in any of the 80 tournaments. So, the questions is, how much did Player A make per hour today?

Lets do the math the non-poker player way, and then the poker player way.

So, as a non-player we would look at Player A's losses for the day. He played 80 tournaments at $12 a piece and made $0 profit. Therefore, he lost $960 dollars over 8 hours, or made -$120/hr today. Wow, Player A is terrible.

Now, lets do the math the poker player, or correct, way. Player A played 80 tournaments at $12 a piece and made $0 profit. Player A played 10 tournaments per hour. His normal hourly rate is $3.60 per tournament. Therefore, Player A made $36 per hour today. Wow, Player A made $36 an hour. Thats a hell of a lot more than I make.

You see the difference? Short term results in poker mean absolutley zero. Player A may have lost 960 dollars today, but what about when he wins 3000 the next day? Short term results mean nothing. Long term results, ROI over a large sample of games divided by hour played = your hourly rate. Regardless of how much you have made or lost that particular day. When you are able to seperate Short term wins/loses from the bigger picture, you are well on your way to becoming someone with a professional mindset. Those outside may never understand that, and maybe they aren't supposed to. Maybe thats why we are poker players and they are not.

Just something on my mind today.

A clarification. And why PLO is a fun (and frustrating) way to spend an evening.

2010-02-09T14:09:00.000-08:00

I wanted to provide a bit of a clarification from my student of the month post. We got to talking about this last night during the training session, and I don't think I made myself as clear as I needed to be. When I brought up the comparison of a sports team rising to the level of competition of a better team, I was actually including this as one of my faults. The simple fact is that I should be playing at my highest level, whether I am at a game full of people who have never touched cards in their lives, or surrounded by nine guys who have played for ten years straight. Stepping up my game when faced with better competition is something I feel is a detriment of mine that I will continue to work on. By playing at my highest level at all times, I will increase my winrate and win more often. And that, is what poker is all about. As Nick said yesterday, "What are we here for if not to win and make money?" And with that, he isn't saying that we need to win every game, because we won't. And we all know that, or at least we should, because we wont win every game. Hell, we won't even place a majority of the time. What I think Nick meant, and I'm sure he will correct me if I am wrong, is that we need to continue learning as much as we can so that we are making the correct play as near to 100% of the time as possible. Because as we have seen in other posts on this blog. Correct plays + number of games = profit. Therefore, the more correct plays we make, and the more games we play will equal to outrunning variance and making a profit.

Now, I wanted to put a little something here since I see that Nick has sent prospective students to the blog to see what I have to say. If I can offer those that will become the next group of Nick's students one piece of advice, it would be this. Forget anything that you think you know about poker. Shut your mouth and listen. And above all else, if you ever get to thinking after you have been told to make a certain move or do a certain thing that you think is wrong, open up sharkscope, pull up your graph, pull up Nick's graph, and place them side by side. Then ask yourself, who makes more money? When you see the answer, tell whatever thought popped in your head that this move may not be right to shut the fuck up and listen.

Ahhhhh,gotta love the rants

Now, on to my second point.

For those not aware of what PLO is, it is a poker game invented by Satan to torture those of us who are good and just.

Actualy, PLO stands for Pot Limit Omaha, which says the type of limit the game is (Pot limit) and the type of game (Omaha, a 4 card down version of texas hold em, with very different rules.) I'll do a full write up on the game at some point in the future, as it is my favorite and most fun game to play right now. But, for now, while grinding holdem 180 man poker is what I consider my part-time job, there are times when fun needs to come into play, and I was able to take a generous gift from Nick for being student of the month on the brand new poker site Victorypoker.net to have some fun with. If you are a poker player, check it out for sure. Anyway, I was able to take an night off from the grind and get some time in at my favorite game, and boy what a time it was. The game (being that its on a new site, I hear this is quite normal) was incredibly soft, which is a wonderful thing for someone who understands the PLO game. But PLO can be very frustrating, after being up almost 200 dollars, I ran into a gigantic pot that I ended up losing. Im going to try to do this from memory so bear with me

Two players joined me to the flop after a preflop raise from the button. I held AhQc9c7h. The flop was 8h10h6s giving me a monster of a hand, with the nut straight (best possible hand at the moment) plus a nut flush redraw (The best possible hand if another heart were to come at some point.)

So I did exactly what you are supposed to in the situation. I kept the pressure on. PLO is not a game of slowplaying the nuts on the flop, as there are oftentimes when your nuts can be trumped quickly on the turn or river. There are also times where someone will have the exact same straight cards as you and your redraw becomes very important, as letting go of the nuts on the flop is very very hard to do.

This is running long, so let me sum it up really quick. Both my opponents had backdoor flush draws (they hel two spades in their hand with 1 spade on the board. Two more spades would need to come on the turn and river to make their flush) One had bottom pair and an overpair, which came to basically nothing against my straight, and the other had the dummy end of the straight with the nut backdoor flush draw. Two running spades later, and my money joined theirs across the table. Up 200 playing tight preflop/aggressive post flop. Lost nearly all of it on this one hand. I love where I was, and though I took a bad beat, I was more tilted by the hands I played poorly and won, than the hands I played wonderfuly and lost. That more than anything makes me feel like I am maturing as a poker player.

Lets see some graphs shall we?

2010-02-08T13:41:00.001-08:00

Hey, I promised pictures, and I always deliver.

First, lets start by looking at my overall graph since I've started being coached by Nick.

Ok, so lets go over a bit of this. First, on the left side, I started working with Nick right around the 150 game mark. You can see that my graph took a pretty severe dip. Nick wanted to see how I played without any instruction, and you can see it wasn't all that great. Since my first session with him, I have been in the black for over 2000 games. Right around the 1600 game mark is when my first runbad hit. I had an 82 game cashless streak, which, while not fun, taught me a whole lot about my game and myself. It also taught me that the hardest thing that will confront me when I make this a career is that there will inevitably be downswings, and I have to roll with them, as you can see that within 250 games, I bounced right back to where I had been at the start of my downswing.

So, simply put, the faster the games are put in, and the more time that is invested, the easier it is to outrun variance. And outrunning variance is often the only way to survive it.

The second graph shows my improvement month over month. I started with Nick in Novemeber, and you can see the amount I have improved each month since then. You can also see at the bottom of February, my progress so far this month. 7 days in, 1/4 of the way through the month I have completed 252 games, juuuust slightly over my goal of 250 at this point. I am pushing hard to get to the 1000 game mark, and I feel I will, I'm in a bit of a downswing, you can see only about $50 profit so far in the 7 days, but I'm feeling good about my game, and sense an upswing coming soon.

Survivor! At last!

2010-02-06T14:53:00.000-08:00

Before I get into this, big congrats to Aaron for his first official day out of the corporate universe and working for himself rather than working for the man. Aaron has completed the transition into making online poker his full time job, and I am very excited to learn all I can from him.

Now, onto a post I've wanted to write up for a long time. For about ten years now, one TV show has garnered the top spot on my must see list every time it comes on. The show exemplified appointment television for me and is a must watch as soon as I possibly can. With the advent of Tivo, things become much easier in that regard. I have three shows that are must sees for me every year. They include 24, The Amazing Race, and of course Survivor

What I've always found interesting about Survivor is that I decried it when it first debuted "That sounds terrible, why would anyone watch that." However, I along with 54 million people decided to watch the finale of the first survivor, and I was hooked. As soon as I got the chance, I picked up the first season on DVd and I was blown away by just how much better at the game Richard Hatch was than anyone else. Even while watching the second season and every season thereafter I felt that noone would touch Hatch's mastery of every aspect of the game. He laid back when he was supposed to, he proved his worth with the fishing spear at just the right time to keep himself from being booted, and he ran an expert four person aliance all the way to the end, and he exploited his other competitors when the merge came, specifically Joel's asinine and rediculous alphabetical voting scheme.

But then last season came along, and Hatch was usurped as the master of Survivor. The irony of the whole thing? The new master did not win the game, and looking back there is no way he could have. He was a victim of the evil bitchgodess Variance, one with whom I am very farmiliar. Russell (that would be our new master) was the quintessential Survivor player. he was cunning, unbelievably smart, a good actor, and (for the most part) kept his mouth shut when he was supposed to and looked strong when he was supposed to. But Russel really had no chance to win with the group of people that he was playing with.

Survivor at its core is the simplest of games. 16-20 people are stranded in the middle of nowhere with minimal supplies. It is up to them to make all the materials they need to survive, catch food, make shelter, and basically find a way to live in the wilderness with very little help for 39 days. Every three days one person is voted on to leave the wilderness by the remaining players until only one remains. Simple right? Well like I said, at its core, yes. But the game has many twists and turns to help keep it interesting and entertaining. First, instead of all 16-20 people living together, they are split into two seperate tribes. Before someone is voted out of the game, the two tribes compete to see which tribe has to vote someone out. before that (usually) the two tribes compete for some sort of luxury that will provide comfort or sustinance to help give them an advantage in later competitions seeing as the other tribe would have less comfort/food.

So what makes Russel so good that he will go down as the best to play the game? A lot of things. Lets go back to Mr. Hatch and do a quick comparison.

1. He laid back when he was supposed to. Count it. One of the most major screw ups of this game is being too loud, too strong, too quick. On Russel's season, the girl who probably would have been the strongest of the female competitors this season was the first to get the boot, and why? Because she was too loud, too strong, too quick. Being a strong loudmouth when surrounded by a group of new people will immediatley put a target on your back. So what did Russel do? He recognized the strong loudmouth and he put into the minds of all those who were placing the target on her back that she had to be the first to go. Walla- the threat is gone. Russel lays low, survives the first cut and is able to get time to get to know people and get an aliance together.

2. he proved his worth with the fishing spear at just the right time to keep himself from being booted Whats that? You mean Russel knew how to do things in the wilderness as well? You're damn right her did, and after the second week, having eliminated two of his more serious threats, Russel was able to show the goods, as at this point, having a strong team to compete is important, and thus strength becomes coveted and weakness is quickly eliminated.

3. He ran an expert four person alliance to the end of the game Lets add another one to Russel's list. 4 seems to be the magic number when it comes to Survivor alliances. The very first Survivor Alliance was 4 people strong, and the most recent was as well. The most succesful seem to always consist of 4 people determined to get to the final 4 and then battle it out. This strategy is in stark contrast to a game such as Big Borther where a two person alliance is essential and any further players added to the mix can get messy (unless they are pawns specifically used for votes, knowing that your two person alliance is strong and that pawn will be voted out when the time becomes right) So, after taking out a majority of their team because they were terrible and couldn't win an immunity challenge, Russel and his tight alliance of four infiltrated the other camp at the merge, created tension and stuck together to take out a much weaker group of 8.

But Russel took things a step further by being the first player in many seasons to actually seem like he was attempting to win the game from day one, instead of just enjoying the experience. He found 3 (!!!) hidden immunity idols hidden around camp. And he did it all without one clue. The determination of this guy to keep himelf strong by having a backup idol was awe inspiring and shows another reason why he SHOULD have won the game.

But again, the reason for this post is why Russel didn't win, and in fact why the chances of him winning with the group of players he was playing with was basically none. Lets start with when the players were seperated into two seperate groups. Russel did everything he could at the beginning of the game to make his team dependant on his strength and skills. Again, as I said before this was neccesary to keep him strong and keep a target off his back. He burned socks, destroyed water supplies. Did everything he could to make his team miserable and count on him to help them. While this was important to keep him around as long as possible, it created a detrimental effect of having the team so weak that they couldn't win an immunity challenge. This was a problem because the final group of jury members who vote on a winner are made up of the last nine survivng people other than the final three. By eliminating a majority of your tribe early in the game, the jury then becomes made up almost entirely of the opposing tribe who have no reason to vote for you to win, unless you are up against other remaining memebers of your original tribe. Luckily for Russel, he was able to make the final three players from his tribe, and the jury made up entirely of people from the other tribe save for one.

One other crucial mistake Russel made in the game was to introduce the fact that he was already a millionaire outside of the game. As unfair as it is, this caused him to be judged by the jury as less deserving of the win because he "did not need the money" and "it could go to someone more deserving." Of course, the winner of the game should be the person who played the game best, but when you have humans deciding the outcome of something, more will come into play than just who played the best game.

And this is where variance kicked Russel in the ass. Because as important as it was for him to be able to be strong without putting a target on his back, thus having a weaker team and losing players who may have voted for him on the jury, it was equally detrimental. Had the jury been made up entirely of his tribemates, there is little doubt he would have won the game. However, by keeping the stronger member of his tribe around, it was more likely that he would have been eliminated early after the merge and would not have made the final three. He was caught in a double edged sword.

The final part of the ass-kicking variance is that the final jury was a bunch of idiots that had no idea what the game was about. And there is nothing Russel could have done about that. The jury eventually awarded the first place prize to a very quiet but nice young girl who made no moves and did nothing to improve her overall status in the game other than align with Russel. Unfortunatley, the jury (being the idiots that they are) were always going to vote for someone nicer who did not orchestrate their ousting than for Russel. For that reason, Russel was drawing dead, and had no real shot at winning.

However, tonight starts Russel's possible redemption as he has been recruited for Survivor: All-Stars 2.5 It will be interesting to see how he fares against people who actually know what the game is all about. Seeing as this post is entirely too long, I will be reviewing Survivor on a week by week basis. You'll get my thoughts and opinions each week. It may not be on Friday, as Tivo is a lifesaver, but when I get to it, I will.

Student of the month? Ohhhhhh boy.

2010-02-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, after 26 years of life, I have my first official student of the month award.

Thats right, Screw Del Roble, screw Herman, and screw Oak Grove, I have been named the Rainman poker school for turning fish into sharks first official student of the month. I am overjoyed by the fact that I was chosen by Nick and his coaches as the first student of the month for his coaching program. It really validates just how much effort I have put into improving my game and making sure that when I play I do so at optimum concentration and efficiency. Nick wrote up a nice little blurb that you can check out on Rainmanpoker.net.

Once again, I am stoked, and very thankful for the opportunity that I have been provided, and my work and effort is just going to improve from this point forward. I have recently gotten the chance to mix in a few of the larger games with my mix of 2's and 7's, and have already seen a nice profit from them. I feel like my game actually excels playing against better players.

That is an interesting phenomenon actually. The ability for poor athletes/teams etc to step up their play when playing against better talent. (Now, I'm not saying that i am a poor player in any sense, but there are certainly guys that are tiers and many tiers above my play ability at this time.) Anyway, Back when my old girlfriend played softball for a college that was division 1, but well below the ranks of other division 1 schools, there was always one team that the girls really excelled against, and it just didnt make sense. On a regular basis, the team would get blown out of the water by teams that just weren't very good on the grand scheme of things, but about once a year, the softball team would make a trip to Knoxville and take on a team that made the women's college world series every year, and the strangest thing would happen. The softball team would start playing well. They would hit their spots, make amazing plays, and constantly frustrate this team that was 100 times better than them. Not only that, but they managed to take 2 wins of the ten times that they played. That to me is an incredible stat, and any time I watched them play against this clearly superior team and somehow step up their game was really very interesting to me.

Anyway, maybe its an actual phenomenon, maybe it only happens to certain people, but I really feel that I play my best when surrounded by those who are at the top of their game. And don't get me wrong when I say that the players in the 12's are all at the top of their games. They aren't. Instead of about 95% of players being terrible like you will see in the $2 games, you are more likely to see about 80% of players being terrible. There is a much higher number of regulars who make a living playing the $12 and $36 games than there are at the $2's, but there are still plenty of terrible players joinging the game to take their shot. It is those players who help pay the salaries of all those who make a living doing this, and we welcome them with open arms. When one cracks your aces with A7o on the bubble, you just smile, shake your head and reload and really hope that guy puts any money he wins back into the pot later on.

Keeping sharp

2010-02-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

A couple random thoughts while I'm on my lunch break at the daily grind. (Good name for a newspaper by the way.)

During my breaks and lunches, I try to do something to help keep my mind sharp. A sharp quick mind is one of the most important tools to possess when playing multiple poker tables at once. Often 6-9 decision need to be made in quick succesion, and as I've noted before, making the right decision a majority of the time is imperative to being a winning player. So during my downtime, when a majority of poker websites here are blocked, I need to find something else to keep my mind sharp. Two activities I have found that really help are Sudoku and Gin Rummy. Gin Rummy is a very complex game where knowing which cards are deadwood is the difference between winning and losing. I play online against a computer, and while the computer makes some terrible plays at time, just learning which plays to make and when helps keep me sharp. One of the greatest poker players ever (Stu "the kid" Unger. And I would suggest looking him up on wikipedia. His is one of the most interesting stories of any person I have read. Such an incredible mind wasted and destroyed by the allure of drugs) is also considered by many to be hands down the best Gin Rummy player ever.

Anyway, just a quick rant. I hope you all enjoy when I rant. I tend to do it a lot, and hope it keeps your interest. I've got some in the near future I want to touch on, including a look forward to the next season of survivor (which will include my recap of last seasons, I swear), why online poker isn't rigged, and why people think it is; and a discussion on the UIEGA and what it will mean for my pro poker hopes if it does or does not get repealed.

Well now I HAVE to update. + January results

2010-02-03T11:27:00.000-08:00

So January has come and gone, and I didn't update my blog nearly enough. For those of you close to me who never get emails, or facebook responses, or e-cards, or basically anything that has to do with getting on the computer and typing, you know that it doesn't happen very often. It just so happens that a blog does require both getting onto a computer and typing, so keeping it current is a fair struggle for me, though something I'm really going to try to start doing in the spaces after I complete my sets. At that point, Ill be able to have some reflection and go over whatever is on my mind at the time. It may cost me an extra 10-15 minutes of sleep, but sleep is overrated anyway.

As for my title this time around, I got linked on Nick's blog at www.rainmanpoker.net, and so i figured I should really start keeping this up in earnest, as I may have some more visitors to my little corner of the interweb.

Good news is that I have finally figured out how to post pictures. So, once I get home I will be able to post my first graph and show how I did for the month of January. The most important number that you'll see isn't how much my total profit was, (as judging your play based on total profit is useless) but the number of games I played. That's right, I met my 1000 game goal, and was very excited to do so. I kept my ROI at a very respectable level while doing so, so I was very happy with my results this month.

February, I have been set forth a very ambitious goal by Nick of 1000 games. Two days into the month, I have a respectable 70 games completed. At this pace, I would finish at just under 1000 games. However, with some free time on Fridays and Sundays, I should be able to kick it into high gear and complete the 1000 games.

February is a very important month for me. Maybe this is just in my mind, but I feel that this month will really set the bar for my future in the game. My focus will be 100% upon my poker game during every free minute that I have, I am studying, preparing, and analysing upon completion because I want to get better. By the end of the month, I expect to be at the next level of games, and the next level is the one where playing for a living can become a reality. I am very excited about my possibilities, and feel very confident in my game right now.

That's all for now. With my new found internet skills, Ill have my graphs up tonight.

Until then.
Matt

How to finish sixth in a pokerstars Blogger tournament.

2010-01-26T20:17:00.000-08:00

Step one: Forget that you are registered for said torunament and go out for pizza with your family right when the tournament starts.

Step two: Arrive to said tournament an hour and 25 minutes late.

Step three: Find yourself with only 320 chips remaining with blinds at 60/120 and the average stack about 5000.

Step four: Run like god

Step five: make a crucial bluff at the final table that is snapped off.

Step six: Finish in sixth place, recieve ticket for $215 Spring Championship of Online Poker event.

Step seven: (Note: I have not yet completed this step) Take ticket and enter largest buy-in tournament you have been involved in. Win said tournament, parlay winnings into 100 million dollars.

63 days

2010-01-18T20:04:00.001-08:00

What's so special about 63 days you ask? I started working with Nick on November 16th, 63 days ago. Tonight is my first break from the tables, I played in some capacity for 63 consecutive days, and I have a lot to show for it, a lot learning completed, and a small but nice profit so far to show where my hard work is getting me. I will be moving up to the next level of stakes soon, and I expect to see my profits jump significantly at that point. Tonight though, I take a break, not through laziness or burnout, but because sometimes the cards and the game scream at you to take a break. After a small rough patch of cards, I decided tonight, it will be best to let the deck lie. I expect to get back into things tomorrow in earnest, and let the deck hit me square between the eyes. The best thing about my downswing right now though is that I still feel like I am making the right play almost all the time. I have my mistakes, we all do when we start playing more tables and really learn how to balance our thoughts, but more often than not, the correct play is being made. If the deck misses me, so be it, the cards will come around. And I'll be there to catch them.

Just not tonight.

2010 Goals.

2010-01-12T05:57:00.000-08:00

so 12 days into the new year, its time to set some goals that I feel are attainable with hard work. None of these goals are going to come easy, and I'm going to have to bust my ass to acheive them, but I feel they are all there for the taking.

1. Make 100K playing poker online. While money goals are not always the best thing to set, I feel that is more of a short term thing. Setting monthly or weekly goals can be a very disheartening thing if you run into a bad bout of variance, and so a yearly money goal (while still not the best way to judge your worth in the game) is more suitable and allows for swings both up and down.

2. Do not have a losing month. This kind of falls into the last goal as variance is tough to account for, but if a month is winding up to be a loser, that will just mean I need to put more hours in towards the end of the month. More hours = more results.

3. within 1 month, move to the $12 180-mans, and within 3 months move to the $36 180-mans. More money in the pot = more money to be won. Bigger games = bigger scores. As long as I continue to play the game at the highest level, goal number 1 should fall.

4. Begin mixing MTT's into my game. These are the big money makers of the poker world. While making a living from these requires an extreme amount of patience (hundreds of loses can be offset by one big score, variance is much much higher than in the 180 man tournaments, and you can often play for 6-8 hours without making a single dollar) playing these often but not as a primary source of income is key. The 180-mans will continue to be my money maker, the MTT's will fall into the side of extra income.

5. Play 25,000 games this year. Posting yearly game goals is a lot better way of judging yourself than a yearly monetary goal. Why? Because when you attain and keep a certain Return on Investment for every game that you play, playing a certain set number of games will net a certain set amount of profit. 25,000 games is a little over 2,000 per month. A lofty goal for sure, but as each month passes, it will become easier and easier.

6. And this is why. Goal six is to increase my number of tables played from 9 to 24 at a time. This is a big jump, and I'm going to allow myself 6 months to get it done. 9 tables is comfortable now because they fit well on my beautiful 23 inch monitor, but changes that I hope to make in the near future will help increase the number of tables I can play.

7. Improve my poker setup. Nothing in particular wrong with my current setup, but there are some improvements that need to be made. I'm entering my fourth year with my current computer, and the 1GB memory and 250GB hard drive, plus a fairly slow graphics card just isn't going to cut it soon. Upgradng my computer to something with dual or even quad graphics card capabilities will be key to increasing my multi tabling options. For each graphics card, i can add another monitor to the setup. By the end of the year, I would like to upgrade to two 30 inch monitors, which will provide more than enough space for 24 games at a time. My computer desk and chair will also need to be upgrade to provide the maximum in long hours comfort.

8. My final and most important goal will be to get this to the point where I am playing full time and no longer need a second source of income. This is a little tougher for me than most of Nick's studnets as I have a wife, children, and a mortgage. These things require a consistent source of income, something I am positive I can get from the game, but I will need to show a continued 3-6 month life supporting profit before I can transition to making this a full time job. By the end of December 2010. I will be at that point.

I also want to add that I want to keep updating the blog reguarly, not just with poker content, but with my thoughts about the world and life in general. I have a few posts that I'm drawing up that I hope you all will like, including a recap of last season's survivor, including why Russel couldn't win and why he looked so downtrodden at the final council. I also want to go into detail about the UIEGA, why it was so dastardly to begin with, and why, once congress realizes just how wrong the law was and repeals it, that another poker boom as big or bigger than 2003 will be coming. When that day comes, us that have transitioned into professional play will all be making a ton of money. So keep checking back, I have a lot in store for 2010.

An interesting night.

2010-01-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

So this weekend I finally had my first session with Nick Rainey. Nick has one of the more interesting poker minds that I have ever run into. He went into detail about thinking on not just the first, but the second and third levels. There was a lot discussed, but one thing that I put into practice tonight really brought everything home for me.

Nick mentioned that in order to give full concentration to the game, that we have to control our minds and ourselves like robots. Tonight I attempted to show zero emotion regardless of what was happening. When I had aces cracked on two consecutive tables, I shed not a tear nor threw anything in anger. And you know what? On another table, my aces held to triple up. When I busted out deep in a tournament on a bad beat, instead of moaning about how the world isn't fair and how that guy could possibly call with such a terrible hand, I booted up another game and got back to the grind. ten minutes later, I booked a win. And when I did, I didn't pump my fist, clap my hands, or stand on my chair and cheer. No, I closed down the game and booted up another.

This is how it goes as a professional, and though I've been working hard, tonight may have been the first time I treated the game as 100% a job. I played, I busted, I reloaded, I won, I reloaded, I busted some more and I reloaded some more. All in all, in 5 hours I played 35 games and made a nice profit with 7 cashes. The results mean little, but its the feelings and the focus I had tonight that meant eveything. With all distractions gone, I feel like I played my best game for the first time.

And that led me to something. As I busted out of my fifth conescutive game, and doubled up again on two other tables to take big leads, I realized that I have everything it takes to do this. And not just to be able to make this a full time job and use it to support myself and my family. No, I realized tonight that I can be great at this. That this could be a calling in life that I knew was buried somewhere but haven't found. I think every person who in some way competes at something to make a living, be they pro athletes or top ranked chefs, or anything along those lines, eventually come to a point where they realize that they will be great at this. Tonight was my night. Tonight, I came to the conclusion that I will be great at this, and I'm going to put in whatever time it takes to accomplish that. From here on, my play will be machine like, and I will make the right plays every time. Because I can, because I'm capable, because I will be great.

Blogger Championships: AKA I'm an official poker blogger now.

2010-01-07T21:30:00.001-08:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 197640

For my Dad

2010-01-02T17:08:00.000-08:00

So, my Dad is a big Carlos Santana fan. Thought I would post this up here for him to enjoy. I'm sure he is one of those kids that used to lay awake and think the same thing.

(Note: NSFW if your workplace frowns upon cursing or misogyny.)

Fearing the thing that has already happened.

2010-01-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

Its an interesting phenomenon really. Why is it that we fear something that has already come and gone? The past cannot be changed, and to let fear of a past action/mistake/experience hinder your progress is counter-productive. So it is in poker as well. I've seen it happen, and been a victim myself. Fear of a past action, a past loss, a past misplayed hand may affect how you play a hand in the future. And it shouldn't. With each new hand come new possibilities and that is a mantra I must keep in my head.

The title is particuarly apt when it comes on the heels of the start of a new year. For the previous year has past, and therefore has nothing further contained that we should fear. Whether you had a wonderful or terrible 2009, the year 2010 brings with it a multitude of possibilities and the ability to start anything that you may have misplayed again. 2010 is a new hand, and the last hand is over and done with. You can no longer change the results. Look forward to the future and make the right decisions every time. The mantra continues.

2009 was an interesting year. Many people compare life to a rollercoaster, and I have no doubt that my year epitomizes that. I started off 2009 4 months into a new job that was going nowhere, My son was about to fnish the first year of his life, and a whole slew of new things had started with him, rolling and crawling were on the menu and walking and talking were soon to come. My parents visited in February which was a real treat. Since moving to Tennessee, visits are few and far between. That may change in the future, either with more visiting or closer quarters, but my parents being able to see all five of their grandchildren on a regular basis is important to me.

March came along and the dip started as I lost my job at a company that had little appreciation for me to begin with. No big loss, other than the hit to my confidence and stability of our life. My wife deserves more credit than I can possibly give her for keeping us afloat during the layoff. For any and all that go through a job loss in these times, my deepest sympathies go to you.

With April, a climb back up began as I found a new job with a major telecommunications company. The odd thing being that when I took the job at the unappreciative gutter of the previous job it was by turning down the job I now have. Essentially, I took a 6 month detour from a company that actually does appreciate my service and respects me as an employee to be with one that was all take and no give. But, with the arrival of a new job, the money woes dimminished a bit, always a good thing.

The summer came and went, fairly uneventful. Though I did start reading an amusing poker blog that would come into play later on. No trip to California this year after an amazing trip in 08. We decided it was best to conserve our funds after the great lost job fiasco.

So with the summer gone and the kids and wife happy healthy and fortunes turning around, the coaster took another dip. In august, my wife and I faced a lawsuit and were forced to get a lawyer. Note: Lawyers are damned expensive. With me and my wife both working and going to school, we placed our son back in day care, which is a good thing for him. Although he does seem to have some animosity towards one or two other kids, he seems to like it there and his vocabulary improves daily.

The lawsuit ended in November, and the little roller coaster that could began to climb again, near the end of November, the poker blog that I read mentioned a short blurb about the possibility of poker coaching. Seeing as its always been a dream of mine, I decided that sooner rather than later was the right time to get in touch and try my hand at something. Turns out, that was the right decision. I finished my first semester of grad school,and I've discovered that without modesty I can say that I feel like I'm a natural at poker. I finished the first 1.5 months of play with a 48% ROI, and i've earned nearly ten buy-ins per hour of work put in. Everything I've read shows that this is a very good number. Though my sample size is still small, I feel confident that my numbers will continue this way.

The roller coaster is on the way up a big hill. one that I don't see an end to right now. And thats fine by me, I think there will be a few small hills in 2010, but nothing that me and my family wont be able to overcome. We have survived what can rightly be called our worst experiences as a family this year, and we have persevered.

So with these notes, the past is now the past. The fear that was experienced is no longer, and the future looks bright. Our hand will not be played with the fear of the past in our eyes, and we will come out on top, raking in the pot. Winners are those that make the right play every time, regardless of past actions. Continue to make the right play in life and take down a big year. That goes for everyone who reads this as well as for me personally. The mantra survives.

Onward to the goals and the poker recap for December.

Entering December I set a list of four goals to accomplish. Lets recap.

1. Play 1,200 games this month. 2. Review at least one full hand history before starting every session. 3.Upgrade from 5 tables to 8 by the end of the month. 4. Work hard, work harder, complete my school semester, and play the best I can play.

So lets review. 1,200 games with my schedule was a tad ambitious. That said, its a goal that I am going to keep for the current month, and I'll explain why in a moment. I finished the month with 750 games played, a very good total for someone jugglign work, finals, and family. I also finished the month with a 53% ROI, and a nice profit. I haven't decided whether to post my profit numbers here or not, but if I do, I'll come back and change this post. I have also commenced playing seven dollar tournaments, so if my ROI keeps up on those games, the profit will increase significantly.

Reviewing one hand history before play was not done as often as I wanted. It is an important thing to review and get an idea of why I did what I did, but it came down to hours in a day and that there just werent enough. I will work harder on this going forward.

Upgrade from 5 to 8 tables? Count it, and add one as my general session consists of nine at a time. I was having trouble with this for quite a while, but at one point, it just clicked, and my eyes and fingers and thoughts were flying around the screen. At first it affected my ability to make the right play every time, and mistakes still pop up here and there, but the number of mistakes is quite a bit lower than when I started nine tabling. It is for this reason that I am keeping my 1,200 game goal for the month. Yesterday got me off to a good start.

I feel like number 4 was accomplished quite well. In terms of working hard,I played 100% of the days in December. Yes that includes Christmas and New Years. I did not take one day off, and it shows the dedication I have to learning and improving my craft. I also completed my semester with an A and a B in my courses, not an easy feat when taking two graduate level courses at once working full time. With those out of the way next semester, homework will not be an issue, and more time can be devoted to the tables.

This post is long enough, and hopefully doesn't lure any of you into tl,dr territory. Ill have another up tonight outlining my goals for the year 2010. Here's a hint: It involves making a ton of money at poker.

Ciao,
Matt

Holidays = Hectic

2009-12-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

So, I've meant to keep this thing more updated that I have, and I have had some good ideas for posts which will make it here soon. Some topics include: For all you survivor fans out there, a look at the best to probably ever play the game and why he never had a chance of winning. The state of villainry in modern media and why I love the bad guy. And, more poker coverage.

For now, I have played poker every day this month, be it for a short or long period of time. I had a good couple days where I was lost in the magical world of Runbad, I have rebounded in a fine way the past few days with 3 wins in three days, and I'm attempting to crack the top 2,000 on the TLB this month. So far I'm sitting in about 2,300 place with 3 days left. I figure anywhere between 2-4 more wins this month will crack the top 2,000 and get me into a freeroll for a Pokerstars passport (basically a buy-in and trip to any of their land-based tournaments. I would probably look at somewhere tropical of course, although there are some nice tourneys running on the European tour they have as well) I'm closing in on 750 games for the month. It will put me short of my goal, but for everything that has been going on with the holidays, I think its been pretty good.

With January approaching and Nick finishing up on trying to be the first and only person to win the monthly TLB two months in a row (an amazing feat for sure, considering they have been doing this for about 5 years and nobody has ever done it. Speaking of which, he is in the lead by about 300 points with 3 days to go. He may need one more big cash in these three days to secure it, but I, along with many others, think he has a great chance to do it) Nick will be getting more and more involved in the coaching side of things. This is big for all of us who are his students, and it will be great to have some 1 on 1 time with the guy who is crushing the game right now. I continue to feel like my game is improving, as even during my trip to magical Runbad, I kept my head clear and cool, didn't tilt, and continued to tell myself its all one long game, and the losses will come as they will. Keep your head up and your midn sharp and keep learning. Make the right play every time. The beats mean nothing, and the beats you drop on other mean as much nothing.

And with that, I'll leave you for now. I've got something to post on here for my dad soon that I'm sure you all will love. Hope everyone had a happy holidays, and keep checking back. Ill have more soon.

A random thought: AKA more why poker.

2009-12-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

So I was talking with my mom the other day, when this conversation came up. We were talking about the usual things, how life was and work, etc. She asked me how the poker was going and I gave a brief outline on where I hoped things would be by next year and the idea of doing this as a full time job.

She got into her usual huffy mood about it. (My mother has never been a fan of my desire to play poker, she feels that it has the ability to turn me into a degenerate gambler, but she supports me in what I think will help improve my life.) So although she was hemming and hawing, she did bring up a point that she was hoping that poker was not making me neglect my children. Thats when the thought came in, right now I play poker daily, roughly from 9PM to 2 AM. My children are asleep the entire time. On the other hand, in my day job I drive one hour to work each way and work from 10:30 am to 7:30 pm. All this time my children are awake. This begs the question then, which form of work is actually keeping me away from my children? My night job, or my day job? Its an interesting question. Yes, I have my day job to support my family and keep us in our home and provide food and clothing, but were my night time job my actual full time job, it would eliminate a few things. One, there would be no commute to work. Two, there would be no working away from the home which would provide greater opportunities to see my children more often. Three, by being able to set my own hours, I would actually be able to maximize the time I got to spend with my children.

So while its possible playing poker for a living may seem like the big bad wolf to some of you, sometimes it certainly seems the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Fun while it lasted

2009-12-10T08:22:00.001-08:00

No, that doesn't mean that I'm finished with this little journey, just that I didn't complete my one win a night for the rest of december goal. Thats alright though, I've had a bit of a run bad here the past few days including some incredibly cold cold decks, (For those not in the know, cold deck is a term that refers to one great hand being trumped by a better great hand. For instance, if I, on the button move all in with a pair of kings, and I am called by the big blind who has woken up with a pair of aces, I have been "coolered" by a cold deck) and horrendous beats. I'm not here to make this a bad beat blog, so lets just say that my two highest finishes these past two days would have been wins had it not been for some horrendous cards.

So all in all, still feeling happy, still ahead for the week, and just continuing to make good plays. I'm going to reevaluate my early game on my next session with Bodeye as I feel that there may be some places where I am missing value or giving up value. I am feeling very confident in my late game, including my push/fold decisions. Again, there is room for improvement, but I feel I am making the right plays at the right times, and the number of bad beats that I am taking helps to confirm that.

A fair warning to those who are reaing. My next two posts I feel are going to be rather lengthy, including a rundown of things that I enjoy outside of the game of poker, and a brief history as I know it of my main coach, Nick Rainey, and why I decided to get into this. For now though, its back to the grind (my daytime job right now, Ill be grinding more at my nighttime job later on)

1 for 1

2009-12-08T13:48:00.001-08:00

Well the first night of my challenge is complete, and it did result in a taking down of a tournament. So I am officially one for one. I also completed 35 games which is more than I had put it any other night up to this point. One week in, I have completed 155 games. Not quiiiite on pace for what I was looking for this month, but with a large chunk of my honey-do lsit out of the way,a nd this being my final week of school for the semester, my volume will pick up considerably. My goal for tonight is 40 games and at least another win. Lets see how it goes.

Sweet Dreams

2009-12-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

Its always nice to book a win in the last tourney of a session before bedtime. It sends you off to sleep with a smile on your face and a confidence inside that has you waking up in the morning with that same smile on your face.

Of course, it isn't the winning that makes you smile (Though the winning is certainly good, don't get me wrong) its the fact that I feel that I played that last tournament about as perfectly as I am capable of doing right now. I of course have plenty more to learn about the game and strategies, but for my current situation and where I am right now, I could not have finished that tournament better than I did. And that confidence will carry over into tonight's session. I can feel it.

I set a goal for myself last night, an attempt to win out and out at least one tournament every night through the end of December. Its a tough goal, very tough for the number of tournaments that I put in, but I'm gonna try my best to complete it. Tonight starts night one, and as long as it goes on, I will continue to update here.

Doing so would be wonderful not only for my confidence, but if I can show a nice run of profit between now and the middle of January, I will reward myself (With the permission of my wonderful wife of course) with a trip to Vegas with my buds John and Naco.

I met John and Naco, god has it really been 5 years now? Yep, a little over 5 years ago now back when I made my firs foray into the world of poker as work when I took a job for local pub poker company Party League Poker. Naco (or Anthony I guess, though the number of times I have called him by that name are very limited) was pretty much running the league in the Nashville area, and after being a regular for a few months, I approached him asking for a job running a few of the games in the area. As he had gotten to know me as a regular, and seemed to be one of the few people there to actually "get" me, he obliged.

John was a different story. When I first met him, he certainly was one of the people who totally did not "get" me. And for good reason, I was brash, cocky, and felt that my poker game was far above any of the other drunkards and lowlifes that attended the games. (Note: I also fell into the lowlife category, though at the time I didn't realize it.) From the start, John didn't like me, but after some time hanging out with me, and discovering that I actually loved the game and the theory behind it much like he did, and realizing I was more than just the obnoxious loudmouth at the table across from him.

Luckily, the chance meeting with these two have led to the two longest running friendships I have in this place. And I'm grateful for it. Friends are such a stabilizing part of a person's life, and having the opportunity to just hang out and shoot the shit, break down poker and sports. Its a good thing to have in your life, and I'm grateful to have such good friends.

So the opportunity to fly to Vegas and participate in our favorite pasttime in the world capital for that pasttime would be very hard to pass up, so as I told John the other day. I'm going to "Grind my balls off" this month and next so that I will have an opportunity to get there.

Lastly, and for those of you that know me well, this is going to come as quite a surprise, This past weekend I did something that counts as Handy. I know I know, a shock to all, but I actually put up the Christmas lights, sawed through a tree trunk, and set up the tree. Handyman Matt to the rescue. I only suffered minor injuries, including a sliced finger and a twisted ankle, but none of these should keep me from performing work, so that is all a plus.

And that's about it. Keep me in your thoughts as i try to make a killing these next few months. I think I may have figured something out last night during my last game that will help improve me further, and if it turns out that is working, Ill be sure to clue you all in here.

December: The first

2009-12-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

Red: "I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Andy did it in less than twenty."

Goals are a very good thing to have, and a wise man once said that getting your goals down on paper (or in this case the internet) may be the most important step towards being a winning poker player. Without goals, all we do is drift idly through space. So while I outlined some longer term goals in a previous post, today I wanted to focus on goals strictly for the month of December.

1. Play 1,200 games this month. I'm not really sure how ambitious this is, and after a full month of playing I will certainly be able to gauge this better. Through about two weeks I played roughly 400 games, and I feel like I could have worked a little harder for a little longer, so 1200 may be attainable. My coach Bodeye has set a 2,000 game goal for himself, and of course he has the ability to do this full time right now, so with me having a FT job and finals coming up, this may be a tad ambitious, but ambition never hurt anyone.

2. Review at least one full hand history before starting every session. This is especially important. Going into a new session with a good outlook of certain mistakes I had made will help keep me from making those mistakes in the new session.

3. Upgrade from 5 tables to 8 by the end of the month. More tables = more games = more money won. Its a pretty simple equation, and so long as I can keep my game as consistent as it has been with more tables loaded, it is one that will be profitable for me. This will also help me complete goal #1.

4. Work hard, work harder, complete my school semester, and play the best I can play. Bodeye is right when he says the only thing you can control at the tables is the way you play your cards. By playing the cards correctly every time, I may win, and I may lose, but the right play will give the right result, and I'll be happy with it.

Until next time...

Riding the Coaster: Part Deux

2009-11-30T21:26:00.001-08:00

Last Time on Master3004: Pro poker player, our hero was in the dumps after a negative 44 buy-in day. Did he cry about it? Drop his chin and say he wasn't made for this? Curse the poker gods and bitch and moan? Of course not, that's not what our hero does in the face of adversity. He gets back on the horse and he rides all the way to the top.

Ok, so back on top may be a little bit of hyperbole, but that is a win that capped off a wonderful 4 hour session. 11 games, 3 cashes, 2 final tables, 1 tenth place, 1 third place, 1 first. All in all, 4 hours, and a yummy yummy +66 buy-in day.

I don't want this blog to be about variance every time, so let me get this out, regardless of how down I get, variance balances out, and in a very interesting way. It took me 4 hours of positive variance to more than make up for the nearly 12 hours of negative variance that came the day prior. No matter how bad you may run at times, all it takes is a little bit to the positive to even all out plus.

So that finishes up my first two weeks on the poker tables. This is the most consistent I have ever been in the game, and I feel like I'm getting better every time I sit down. Off to bed for now. Tomorrow, goals for December.

Poker player? Or Roller Coaster Entusiast?

2009-11-29T19:53:00.000-08:00

Well.

Poker is an interesting game. You can make every right move and at times, the result won't come out right. Not then at least. Like I've said in my past blogs, variance is mathematically there for a reason, and there is no way around it, but boy there are some times when you wish there are.

Lets look at my last two sessions (By the way, once I get some more time and learn a bit more about this blogging thing, Im gonna have graphs and pictures and stuff up, I got some great advice from the blogging queen and my friend Jenn at prommafia.com, go check her out if you are or know any teenage girls. Shes a wonderful writer.)

So, Friday the 27th, 20 games played, 3 cashes, 2 final tables, 1 third place, 1 1st place. A wonderful wonderful run, and a + 57 Buy in rate for the day (I currently play at 2 dollar stakes, so a +57 buy in day would equal to about 114 dollars) I made that in about 3 hours, so quite a good hourly rate.

Contrast that with today. Having some alone time, I was able to put in about 10 hours of play. 1 cash, zero final tables. Overall -44 buy in rate for the day. All the goodwill for the first day goes out the window. so in 13 hours of play, I made 13 buy ins, or about 2 bucks an hour :(

Not discouraged though, I made a lot of good plays today, and can count on two hands the number of mistakes I feel I made (I may have made more, but I will need to do some hand history review to really see if I did or not). As long as I am making the right play, the discouragement is not there, and I will continue to be happy with my progress.

That's all for now, the bed beckons, and I'm actually gonna get a good night's sleep. I could stay and play another couple of hours, but sometimes, when the cards aren't hitting, giving them a night off to heat up isn't a terrible idea.

Poker, Thanksgiving, and the Best wife in the world.

2009-11-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

So its late. Again. Welcome to my life, where sleep no longer means what it used to. Not that I'm complaining. I come home every night, spend some time with the wife, and play poker for a few hours, meet with my coach and LEARN.

The amount of info that I am absorbing is astounding to me, and I cannot wait until I have the ability to put in enough games to really make it show.

Thanksgiving is stressful and busy, but still nice and always great to have some really good down home cookin.

What made my Thanksgiving so great? The night before recieving an easly christmas present from the greatest wife in the world. Gone are the days of trying desperatley to make even 4 tables fit on my monitor. I recieved a beautiful 23 inch widescreen. It shows just how much Lisa really supports my efforts in this poker thing. I think she wants it to succede just as much as I do, and that more than anything will give me the drive to be the best.

Anyway, its 1 o clock, and my employer becons me at 8 for BLACK FRIDAY.

Pray for me.

Week one and goals.

2009-11-24T08:32:00.000-08:00

"I guess it comes down to a simple choice. Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'"
-Andy Dufresne

Really, isn't that what it all comes down to? Anyway, I wanted to use my blogpost today to go over my goals, both short term and long term, and outline what I hope to accomplish through my training and coaching.

First, a little more about one of my coaches. He posted a response in my first blog. Bodeye is 19 and from Sweden. Some of you are probably thinking, boy it must be emmasculating being trained by someone 7 years my younger but, Bodeye is, well Bodeye is a great poker player already. And being that he has only been playing online for a little over two years, Bodeye may become a legend in time. Since working with Nick just a few short months ago, his results have exploded. Through just my first session with him, I have learned enough to make me feel 100 times more confident in my game and make me scrutinize my game to a greater degree. So, am I emasculated by working with someone who is younger than me? No way, I'm humble and I'm willing to learn from whoever is willing to coach me, be they 15 or 90. If they have words of wisdom and a killer poker mine like Bodeye has, I am wide open to learning from them. Speaking with him just a few days ago, I learned that no matter how confident you are in your game, the best players are those that evaluate and find out why they made the plays that they did, not those who claim "I did everything right and still lost, I'm so unlucky" without looking within and seeing if they really did make the best plays they can make. If however, you look into yourself and evaluate your play and find out that, yes, you did make the best possible play, then you take the loss as it is. As long as the right plays continue to be made, you will be a winning poker player over time. Sometimes it takes a while for variance to even itself out, and the winning players are those who realize that and don't devert from the best plays regardless of whether they feel unlucky or have a hunch. Making the best plays = winners. Its as simple as that. With Bodeye's and Nick's help, I fully expect to post great results before the year is even out. With that in mind, lets take a look at some goals of mine for 2010 and beyond.

I'm going to bunch some of my goals into groups and explain them from there, as a lot of the goals can compound on top of one another.

Goal #1:
Play 1,000 games in one month
Play 2,500 games in one month
Play 5,000 games in one month.

With the system I am working on being based largely on volume, acheiving these goals as quickly as possible is key. 5,000 is a lot of games in a month, especially playing primarily 180 man tournaments at this point. But as I am allowed to sprinkle more 45 and 90 mans in there, and by uping the number of tables I can play at once, I feel it is an attainable goal in 6 months.

Goal #2:
Begin playing $4 tourneys
Begin playing $10 tourneys
Begin playing $20 tourneys
Begin playing $30 tourneys

This goal is more up to my coaches than me, but my results will determine how quickly I move up in limits. The more I raise my ROI, the faster it will become profitable to move to higher levels.

Goal #3:
Win a 1000 person MTT
Win a 2500 person MTT
Win a 5000 person MTT

For those not in tune with the poker terminology, MTT stands for Multi Table Tournament. A tournament with multiple tables that normally hold thousands of people. The world series of poker is run as a series of MTT's. Anyway, MTT's are the great equalizer, and the big chance that all poker players are looking for. Winning a large person MTT can be the ticket to tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I have every intention of winning a big one in 2010.

Goal #4:
Win a satelite into the WSOP
Play in the WSOP main event
Play in one preliminary WSOP event
Win a WSOP bracelet
Win the WSOP main event.

Ok, so the majority of these fall into the Loooooong term goal category. However, the first one is not a pipe dream and I feel is very attainable before the 2010 WSOP.

I have more goals that I want to get to in a later post. Most of those deal with much more in-depth statistics related numbers, so for now, lets leave it at this. Play more tables, play higher stakes, win the big tournaments, and satelite my way into the big one. I can do all of these, and I have confidence in myself to the point that I know I will continue to improve every time I sit down as long as I am honest with myself and openly evaluate and critique my own play. Why I am making the plays I am will be more important to me than what plays I'm making and what the final results of those plays are.

Do not be results oriented, the results will come in time. Play well, play hard, and play smart. Always make the right play and you will be a winning player.

Next time: More info on my first few weeks, why I chose Nick, and how I got to where I am.

An Introduction

2009-11-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

"Remember Red, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."
-Andy Dufresne

"I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain."
-Red

Ok, so the title for my first blog post is a little uninspired and bland, but you have to start somewhere right? And essentially, an introduction is exactly what this is, so why not start there. First off, to all who come here, welcome to my blog. For those who know me a little or not at all, I hope the blog gives you an opportunity to understand who I am and what I am all about. To those who know me well, I hope that you will take the opportunity to learn even more about me.

With that out of the way, a little about me for those who don't know me; and a little more about why I'm starting this blog for those who do. My name is Matt, I'm 26, married and have two children; a 7 year old girl and a 21 month old boy. I have a happy healthy home life and a job for one of the leading wireless phone providers. As of right now, that's me in a nutshell. Pretty straight forward, with what you see being what you get. Recently, I have been given the opportunity to work towards something I have wanted to do since I was 16.

Ten years ago I started playing poker on a regular to semi-regular basis. At first with friends following our time when we were younger playing Magic:The Gathering. Then more and more online and live whenever I could actually find a game. Living in Tennessee makes it quite difficult to find a game, as you have to depend on making the long drive to Tunica. So while I have dabbled in poker, read the books, watched the videos, and all in all absorbed what I could about the game, other obligations have kept me from ever pursuing it to the degree that I’ve wanted. Since I have started playing, I have recognized that I have the skills to be a winning player and that with polish and a bankroll could make an honest attempt towards supporting my family primarily through poker as a profession.

So why now then? What is it about November 2009 that has made me decide to get off my ass and actually attempt something like this? As I said before, and opportunity has presented itself. One in which I cannot pass up. I took the plunge and went to a poker coach, one of the top online players in the world, asking for assistance, coaching, and guidance in what it takes to become an online pro and one of the best in the world. Along with coaching from him and one of his star students who has come a long way in a few short months, I will be broken down, coached, motivated, and molded into a player who can make a living from home, setting hours that I want to keep and working hard towards providing a living for my family that up until this point I have not been able to provide. As for my coaches, although I will not be naming and names at this time, as I get to know them more and more through my sessions, you too will understand more about them through my writings.

As long as I go on doing this, I am going to keep this blog. Maybe not every day, but as I progress I want to take the opportunity to track and evaluate my lines of thinking and give not only myself, but all who choose to read this an insight into how I am improving. As this will mostly be a blog about poker and my attempt to make it in the poker world, there will be a lot of poker terminology and situations that may not be completely clear to those not involved with the game. In those situations I will do my best to explain everything that I am talking about along the way. For now though, this introduction will serve as a welcome. And those two guys up there, Andy and Red? Get used to seeing their names. The Shawshank Redemption has some of the greatest words of wisdom in all of cinema. If you have not seen this movie yet (And seriously, if you haven’t, what size boulder have you lived under to keep you away from it) go out and get it, this very second and watch it. Then watch it again. And again.

I’m writing this blog and attempting this foray into online poker because what Andy says is true. Hope IS a good thing, and if you have the skills on top of the hopes and the dreams, nothing can stop you. I’m setting out to put that to the test and to prove that it is true.

Along the way I will post about any marathon sessions that I am planning or any big shots that come my way that I can take. If you want to follow me, I will be on Pokerstars, under the name Master3004. Hence the name of my blog of course. There will be much less rambling to come, but come if you will. I would love to have you along for the ride.