Pretty rough day today. Crucial hands to start things off.

Early stages. Raise 3x with QQ and see a flop of Td6s2d. I bet out fully expecting to get mashed by TT/66. One opp calls. Turn Qs. Yippee I think. Bet 3/4 pot hoping he either had it or was drawing. He flats. River, 5s. Push, call. Opp shows A4ss.

Flopped air called cont. bet, turned a flush draw, called off half his stack and hit.

Next hand, 2 from the bubble. 2nd in chips. Big stack who is beyond awful limps the button. I check 44 in the SB. Flop is Js-6h-4h. Check to big stack who bets 500 into a pot of 300. I only have 2200 and shove, he instacalls with Q5hh and hits his flush on the turn.

These two hands put me at 0-6 on the week with a flopped set. Try and wrap your heads around that for a minute. You limp or make a small raise 10-20 small pairs a day hoping for that juicy opportunity when you hit that set 1:8.5 times. Sometimes it feels like you went 50 pairs without hitting one. Then when you do, you lose 6 in a row to a flush draw/straight draw/jack shit. I actually had a week once where I lost set over set 4 times!!

I didn't really make this blog to bitch. It's poker and it happens. Everybody runs bad for varying lengths of time and I've been very fortunate to never have gone busto on my roll. I do however get the feeling that when I'm running good it's due to having my big hands actually hold up and not necessarily getting lucky. When I'm running bad it's just an avalanche of diarhea all at once.

Even my winning sessions yesterday I was 0-3 getting it all-in with AA.

That continued again today. Had a guy on the button and 4-bet shove over me with K9 off against my AA. Flop = QJT fml

The worst was that today I was, and this is a mouthful, 0-2 getting it all-in with my opponent dominated and flopping the right pair.

Okay let me explain. Called a SS all-in with A7 and he shows A3. Flop = 7-Q-4. Yahtzee right? He's drawing dead to..... well there's the 2.... there's the 5. Fuck.

Really important hand on the bubble of an 18-man with everyone is shortstacked at 300/600 blinds. Sitting 2nd in chips when the worst player at the table jams. I call with AK and he shows AT. Flop = K-9-5. Soon as I saw the flop I knew it was coming. Turn Q, river J. Christ almighty. Bubbled that one.

As I'm typing this up I'm finishing my last session. Just bubbled a 8-game sng where I had the SS all-in on a flop of 7-6-6-5 in LHE. I had 9-7 to his 44. 8-ball won't help him obviously so he's drawing to 6 outs. River 3 helps him double up and I soon hit the rail with another devastating $0.

Close to the bubble of a 3-table sng and this pretty much sums up my whole day. For the day, 1/12 on flips:

PokerStars Game #35329001560: Tournament #212393268, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2009/11/14 0:20:38 ET
Table '212393268 3' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: HankKwan (2836 in chips)
Seat 3: Pyroshouse (7439 in chips)
Seat 4: RaidenRadio (3855 in chips)
Seat 5: HeyMan07 (8430 in chips)
Seat 6: bogie78 (7181 in chips)
Seat 7: atx45 (3443 in chips)
Seat 8: papaguya (1916 in chips)
Seat 9: Mickyboy333 (5400 in chips)
HankKwan: posts the ante 50
Pyroshouse: posts the ante 50
RaidenRadio: posts the ante 50
HeyMan07: posts the ante 50
bogie78: posts the ante 50
atx45: posts the ante 50
papaguya: posts the ante 50
Mickyboy333: posts the ante 50
Pyroshouse: posts small blind 300
RaidenRadio: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaidenRadio [Tc Ts]
HeyMan07: folds
bogie78: folds
atx45: folds
papaguya: raises 1266 to 1866 and is all-in
Mickyboy333: folds
HankKwan: folds
Pyroshouse: folds
RaidenRadio: calls 1266
*** FLOP *** [Qh 3c 9d] He had AQ

PokerStars Game #35329021440: Tournament #212393268, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2009/11/14 0:21:28 ET
Table '212393268 3' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 2: HankKwan (2786 in chips)
Seat 3: Pyroshouse (7089 in chips)
Seat 4: RaidenRadio (1939 in chips)
Seat 5: HeyMan07 (8380 in chips)
Seat 6: bogie78 (7131 in chips)
Seat 7: atx45 (3393 in chips)
Seat 8: papaguya (4432 in chips)
Seat 9: Mickyboy333 (5350 in chips)
HankKwan: posts the ante 50
Pyroshouse: posts the ante 50
RaidenRadio: posts the ante 50
HeyMan07: posts the ante 50
bogie78: posts the ante 50
atx45: posts the ante 50
papaguya: posts the ante 50
Mickyboy333: posts the ante 50
RaidenRadio: posts small blind 300
HeyMan07: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaidenRadio [2d 2h]
bogie78: folds
atx45: folds
papaguya: raises 3782 to 4382 and is all-in
Mickyboy333: folds
HankKwan: folds
Pyroshouse: folds
RaidenRadio: calls 1589 and is all-in
HeyMan07: folds
Uncalled bet (2493) returned to papaguya
*** FLOP *** [Td Kd 4s] He had AT

So yeah. That's my day. I can't win any substantial pots, period. Big pocket pairs, sets, flips. Nothing. I wish I could just fill with every big hand I was dealt so you could see how utterly impossible it was to win for me today. But that would be too much.

Again I have to say, I didn't make this blog to bitch cause that's not what I'm about. But these first two blogs were written during what has been my toughest week in a long time. It's insanely frustrating to get your ass handed to you by people that you think are utter garbage time after time. To have to call an all-in during the first level for 2/3 your stack with Jacks because an awful opponent lost a big pot early and now he just wants to throw 40 bb's away on A6, and you have to stare at that Ace-high flop and think, "Fuck you, you don't deserve this. Why am I being punished because of your awfulness?" Then you sit there and fight back and get back to your original starting stack just in time for 75/150 level when you're in push/fold mode. But you continue to play better than everyone at the table until you get 2 limpers and you shove 99 and lose a flip to some guy with QT who limped and called off 2/3 of his stack only to trip and fall over a Q-T-5 flop and send you out in 5th.

Bottom line is I don't think I've ever seen TAG style play punished this severely in all my life. For my best hands to lose to the 60th best hand of anyone who wants to come along. Fuck today.

So as a result I dropped 8 BI's today. Gonna hit em hard tomorrow til I'm pulling my hair out.

Daily Total: -$41.50

Weekly Total: +$14.30

Needed for month's rent: $200-ish, don't feel like tallying

Days Til Rent Withdrawal: 11

So I made a post about this awhile back and thought I'd contribute a blog about to keep those interested updated.

For those that didn't see it, my goal isn't to turn a certain amount into a certain amount significantly higher in a designated amount of time. Not that there's anything wrong with those that set lofty goals. What I'm doing is similar, the one difference is that my goal is more of a necessity and my starting bankroll fluctuates.

This started in mid-August when I came to the conclusion that my job wasn't providing me the necessary income. I decided to grind $5 1,2, & 3 table sit n go's to make the $700 to pay my rent on our 1 bedroom apartment.

I have been successful for the last 3 months but obviously this leaves me little bankroll to start over again (usually around $40-$80). To say this is grossly irresponsible BR management would be an understatement.

That being said, welcome to the torture and excitement of my poker life!!!!

Here's a recap of the last few months up until now.

My "schedule" is to play 1 session every weekday and 2 on the weekends. The number of daily sessions is a minimum so there are days I play more if I feel up to it.

One session consists of the following:

3 $5 9-mans
2 $5 18-mans
1 $5 27-man
1 $5 HORSE
1 $3 8-game

Here's a profit/loss breakdown of the last few months. I'm impressed with the fact that to date I have never had a negative balance week.

8/9-15: +$287.50
8/16-22: +$163.20
8/23-29: +$190.00
8/30-9/5: +$144.60
9/6-12: +$48.40
9/13-19: +$165.30
9/27-10/3: +$163.00
10/4-10: +$94.20
10/11-17: +$58.70
10/18-24: +$101.00
10/25-31: +$241.10
11/1-7: +$122.14

Total: +$1898.14

I hit a pretty rough patch this week. My Monday session started off so-so as I barely made a profit. Tuesday was a complete disaster as I dropped 16 BI's. I played a session where I lost 3 BI's and after a short break played a second to chase it down. I can't speak for other's tilt-control but mine is usually pretty good. I have gotten much better at maintaining control of my play.

After the 2nd session I was down 12 buy-ins. This was just due to being extremely unlucky and card dead. I had an entire session where I wasn't dealt any premium hands except for JJ and AK which both lost. I don't get involved in a lot of flips, usually 2 or 3 a session, but I went 0 for 6 here and was even 0 for 3 when I got it in and had them dominated.

After the 2nd session I took a break and spent some time thinking about my play. I came to the conclusion that I was still playing well but was just getting unlucky. I returned for another session that was pretty brutal. I flopped my first set of the day and got it in against a pretty bad player who called a raise with T7o and stacked off with bottom pair and a straight draw which he rivered.

On another table I battled just to stay above push mode. The blinds jumped and a player that had me outchipped shoved on my BB when I had KK. Thank god I thought. Felt like my first big pair all day. He showed A6 and flopped an Ace. I felt pretty down but said to myself, "it's a downswing, deal with it." I dropped a few more buy-ins to finish down $80 on the day. Yikes! I know there are tons of people who drop that in one hand (x1000, durrrr) but they don't have struggle to pay that rent yo! The good news is that I ended the day learning an important lesson.

Lesson: When you're running bad, you get dealt AJ a lot when you're shortstacked. Seriously. You get to 10-12 bb's and that AJ looks like gold but baby it ain't. Not saying it's not profitable to shove. But when you're running cold there's an AQ/AK waiting behind you for sure.

Wednesday was a good day. My first session started off with the same old. Get KK, lose to QQ. Get AA, lose to KK. Had a guy open shove 20 bb's into my AA with AQ and we saw a flop of KJT, dajkgnfdsjd. Shortstacked I got in with 22 against AK. Let me preface that by saying this was a way better spot than I'd usually seen lately. I saw his AK and thought, "well, gg me." Amazingly I won the flip and things just picked up from there. For some reason Jacks were really good to me. I can't win with AA, KK, AK, or QQ but I'll be damned if Jacks didn't hold well for me. Ending up wiping 2/3 off my $80 deficit from the day before in 2 sessions.

Thursday was another good day. Again, it started off exactly the same as Wednesday. Started out 8-tabling and was down to 6 in no time. Limped 55 and saw a flop of 3-6-5. I checked with another player behind who I had noticed was overbetting every flop. To my dismay he checked. The turn was a K but there was only 140 in the pot so I was kind of stuck here. I bet $100 and both players called. River was a 4, blech!! Checked around and one player bet 200. The BB called. Even though this is $5 I don't see how the late-limper can have a 2 or a 7 unless it's 22/77. BB called down and probably had it but 200 into a pot of 840 and there are hands they could have I could still beat (54, Kx) so I called. Better showed A4 (?) but the BB had 22. Still ticked me off that I was 0-2 on the week with sets.

On another table I had a 3x raise (90) and 3 callers behind when I had AA in the SB. I make a ridic raise to 430 and then watch as 3 of the 4 flat. So, 2125 in the pot and I have 990 behind so it's going in no matter what. Flop is 7-8-9 and I push. Fold. Fold. Call. Fuck. Dude shows A6 (lol?), turn 3, river 5. Eat shit!

So with two tables out of the way I buckled down. I think I ended up cashing in all 6 of the other 6 sng's. In one of the $5 18-mans I managed to fly under the radar and swim past the bubble. One hyper-aggro-tard knocked out 2 others and I found myself with 7 bb's and 3 left. I doubled up with A7 when the big stack called my shove with 89o. Then he doubled me up again re-shoving on me with K4 v. my 99. I won a nice pot off the 3rd player when I raised with KT and flopped two pair. He called me on the flop and turn but folded his 4 BB's on the river. Other player dispatched him I entered HU with a 2:1 deficit.

After some back and forth I closed the gap to 12k/15k with blinds at 200/400. In the 8th hand of HU he decided that my 30 BB stack was so short that he should just shove. I obliged him with TT and outran his K9 to decimate his stack. I finished him off and padded the $36 to my daily total.

I did the math and found that I was now +$55.80 for the week. I was definitely pleased to turn it around from -$80 2 days prior. I will keep this blog updated at least every other day with a tally for the current months rent.

Daily Total: +$74.30

Weekly total as of Thursday 11/12: +$55.80


Bankroll total: $575.95

Days until next month's rent withdrawal: 13