Back to School

I think I may have a bit of a cold virus but it feels manageable. Can I play with a cold? Yes. Would I be playing my best? Probably not. Will I play with a cold? Not professionally. I have a full week of a comped room starting this Sunday so hopefully this cold will subside by then.

So I went back to the books. From Doyle's orginal Super System which advises "To win big, sometimes you have to gamble big." to recent Greenstein's Ace on the River which advises to be modest and wise away and at the table. I've always been a fan of aggressive play. In fact, I feel it's the only way to play if you want to be successful. I began really looking at Doyle Brunson's and Tom Dwan's strategy. Tom Dwan was regarded as one of the top rank Online players around. He still is. But more impressively is his elite status a Live player. He has his own style, but it's comparable to Doyle's. Bet. Bet. Bet. I used this same aggressive style during that great 3 day run I had. I was fearless. No pressure. I had my opponents constantly guessing and in fear. My first week as a pro for some reason I played differently. I was the one doing all the guessing. I'm sure I was being picked apart and targeted.

I had a follower who asked me why I never post pictures or videos. Well, here is my first one. It's a video that describes how I played a lot of hands my first week as a pro. You'll notice Tom Dwan is 4 steps ahead of his opponent.

As you can see, Dwan bet, bet, bet and then made a dumb call. Only, this a rare scenario. Every pro makes these calls when they get ahead of themselves. It's not a dumb call whatsoever because of the complex level of thinking Dwan took to even begin thinking of a reason to call. It was just a bad decision. I made too many bad decisions my first week as a pro. It won't happen again.

I've found a lot of holes in my game that I know I've fixed. I'm so confident I'm ready to get back to shuffling chips and moving them all in.

-King2

Getting Into a Hole You Can't Climb Out Of

I woke up about an hour ago. I got home this morning at about 6AM. I was so disgusted with myself, I can't even remember how I got home.

I had several weird dreams. None of them having to do with poker, but all represented the theme of being happy, mad, sad, disgusted, or surprised.

The first feeling I had when I woke up was me not being +$ for my first sessions of poker as my new job. I remember having the urge to go downstairs and play to get rid of the feeling, but at the same time just mentally drained at the thought of poker. I was relieved to find myself in my own bed.

I can feel that in the back of my head I keep asking myself what went wrong for me not to be +$ like I usually am. Let's review my previous session. Technically for the month I am +$. 2 weeks ago I had a great 3 day session. I had a rate of $134/hr and played a total of 29 hours. You do the math. I was on top of my game during that 3 day run. I stayed EXTREMELY disciplined and NEVER gambled. I bluffed in great places and to inferior players. I never really got into lucky situations during that session but rather I played so well, I was betting correctly to maximize my profit every single hand. I controlled the whole table each night. I was viewed as the strongest player. I was the shark at the table, and everyone knew it. Whenever I felt I might be put in a tough situation on whether to call or fold depending on the next cards to come, I'd simply fold and save money and brain power. The top two things I remember extremely different about that successful 3 day run was I played graveyard hours because I worked graveyard at my regular job. So my body clock was in sync which allowed me to think more efficiently. Imagine you guys who work 9am to 5pm and then playing poker for your money at 11pm till 7am all of a sudden. You'll probably be tired and your brain will be in overdrive to compensate for fatigue. The other difference was my discipline with my money on the table. I did play tight and very aggressive. I hardly ever played in early position such as UTG, +1,+2 unless I had textbook hands. I used the cutoff and hijack positions effectively with medium hands, and played my button a bit loose but aggressively. I also maximized my profit by playing longer and holding onto the money as tight as I could. I would triple my buy in in 4 hours, lose 20% in 2 hours, and increase it by at least 150% in 5 more hours. So there you have it. I think it's pretty obvious why I had such success on that great 3 day run. Lets take a look at the overall picture on my recent sessions.

You'll notice in my previous posts I kept stressing that I got great top starting hands but managed to get the second best hand or was forced to draw to a hand. I played a lot of these top starting hands in wrong positions and against wrong players. Had I just avoided these hands by folding preflop, I most likely would saved a ton of money. This is what I call avoiding sticky situations. I did not avoid these sticky situations. Instead I got my self so deep I could not get out of them. I also never played graveyard except the one night I played at the higher limit table. And of course when I played that night I didn't avoid the sticky situations and ended up losing all my money. I played alot of afternoon to evening shift. I think I'm comfortable with evening-graveyard or just straight graveyard. It seems the worse players are there around that time. And that's the name of the game. Play against the weak players and avoid the strong players. I needed to be much more disciplined. It sounds like such an easy solution...

-King2

Undisciplined and a Gambler???

Technically I've already posted today but what the hell...

I woke up today at around 2:00pm after having that long day I mentioned in the previous post. But I experienced something I never have before when I woke up. I did not really feel like playing poker whatsoever. But a man who doesn't work doesn't eat. I headed down to the tables. While I waited for a seat, I ate my chicken strip dinner that was comped by the poker host. As I ate my free meal and was treated respectfully by fellow players and casino personnel, I felt a bit weird. I realized I may be becoming a regular...Being a regular means you're probably a very decent player and everybody knows you. I didn't like the fact that I'm known.

When my name was called for a seat available, I still didn't feel like really playing. But, what else was there to do? I made an easy $150 in my first hand because of some idiot who I knew was bluffing. Well he was actually semi-bluffing because he had Ace High just like me on a board of QQQ29, but I knew exactly what cards he was playing. I had him on either AJ or A10. I held AK and made the easy call on the river to get his money. He flipped over AJ and was assuming I had a queen. The chips went to me after the dealer annouced my Ace high with a King kicker. He probably thought I was an amateur or donkey to make a call like that, but little did he know I knew what he held the entire time. I went with my first instinct.

Once I was up his $150, I began to play tight but aggressively. I increased my stack to about another $150, when all of a sudden I started getting top starting hands again. Mathematically correct calls on draws did not go my way. I had AK suited, while some short stack shoved preflop after I raised. I was pot commited to making the short stack call. That immediately took 30% of my stack when I failed to make a pair and he turned over pocket Kings. Then... I get one of the biggest coin flips I've ever had.

With medium action preflop and 4 players in the hand my cards were A5 of spades. The flop comes 2 6 K. ALL SPADES to possibly make my nut flush. I just needed one more spade! I was in first position and checked knowing someone would bet at the spades. I decided I was willing to to commit my whole stack on a raise if I needed to because I felt no one probably caught spades. However, the next player checks while the next player bets 40% of an already good size pot. The following player folds, and I raise about 120% of the better's bet to see if he actually does have a hand. The player next to me, who initially checked, quickly folds. The original better I raised decides to go all in and seemed pretty confident. I knew he had 2 spades in his hands. I even had him on Q10 of spades. At this point I think whether to call or not. All I need is one spade in the entire deck to give me the best hand. But if I don't get a spade, I lose 90% of my stack. I decide to call. Everyone knew I needed a spade and had the Ace of spades since I took so long to make the call. The turn comes 7 of clubs...and the river comes....9 of clubs...no spade.

I shoved most of my stack to the player as he flipped over Q9 of spades for a flopped flush. All i could do is sit with a dwindled stack and think about how stupid I was. Mathematically it wasn't even a coin flip. It was like 60/40 in the opponents favor to win. Even though the pot was great, I realized I didn't really have correct pot-odds to call. But, I did the math in my head before making that dumb call. I knew I shouldn't have called. But, I just kept thinking "one more spade is all I need". What I did was gamble. Poker has some gamble in it, but you have odds. Just like in Baseball when a GM takes odds on which player to pay the most. Or when Jerry Jones picks up Dez Bryant knowing he has about 70/30 odds to becoming a premier career receiver. I did not have correct odds but yet I still decided to call. I could believe I gambled. I might as well have gone to the roulette table and placed down all my money on black...thats gambling. I couldn't believe how undisciplined I was. I was sick to my stomach. I lost my left over stack on my very next hand when I flopped top pair with medium kicker and opposing player flopped bottom two pair.

I announced to the dealer to hold my seat signifying I was going to buy back in. I'm sure as I went upstairs to grab more cash all the players thought I was some gambler who doesn't know shit about poker. I went to grab another buy in of cash and headed down to my saved seat.

I lost my 2nd buyin in 5 hours due to me playing really bad. Not only did I play bad, I was really tired of playing. At times, I daydreamed during hands. I even check a nut straight instead of betting because I didn't even realize I had a straight. I wasn't paying attention in hands I wasn't in. I wasn't focused nor disciplined. Not only did I gamble with the earlier nut flush draw, but I bought back in rather than calling it a day knowing I wasn't playing as best as I could. That's rule #1 in my book. If you are not playing your best or come to a point where you're losing, you better get out asap.

One thing I remember thinking and daydreaming about during hands was my family. My brother, my mom, my dad, my step dad, my grandmother...just everyone. I really missed every one.

So given that, I think it's a sign I need a break and need to go home to prepare for next week of poker. I think I've had way too much pressure on myself because these were the first sessions of me playing for a living. I have tons of data to analyze and tons of studying to do. Even though I am negative in $profit,  I feel very humbled. I was always used to winning. I don't lose very often. But when I do, I usually get back on track because I refuse to lose again. It's all part of being a poker player. It's a hard way to make an easy living.

I'm finishing my meal here at the restaurant and will pack up and leave back home early in the morning.

-King2

The Emotional Swings...

I know I missed a day posting so I apologize. On the other hand, I didn't really have a choice. I was too busy sleeping off emotional distraught and trying to play more poker.

Let's begin with ending of my last post.

After having the delicious breakfast I joined a game with all the morning regulars just as I predicted. It was boring just as I predicted. I randomly 3 and 4 bet just as I predicted. I lost my buy in just as I predicted. I knew I threw my money away out of boredom. In fact, I knew that I knew I was gonna throw my money away. I even knew that I knew that I knew I would lose my money and win it back. Does that make sense??? If not...welcome to my world of thought.

So after throwing away my buy in I was confident I could easily win it back buy re-buying in. And I did. I did end up making a profit as well. It wasn't much, but I still came out positive in a 5 hour boring session. The win rate was $25/hr.

I ended up going to bed after the boring session because for some reason I was just sleepy. I woke up 11pm to go play with the night shift. But, the only game available was a higher limit game. There is no way I can play in that game because I do not have enough to really withstand losing a big buy in right now. So I go back to the room, eat, and watch Law & Order episodes. It's now 2am and I still see there's only that same higher limit game. I talk myself into playing at the game. I'm confident that I can easily outplay a lot of the higher limit players because most just aren't too good. What's odd is that I usually make my money from playing with better players. After buying in, I easily outplay opponents on marginal hands in the first half hour. The next half hour I get on lucky run ( I have best hand vs Player who has 2nd best hand) that allows me to get paid off BIG. At this point I just made $1300 in 1 hour!

With my $1300 profit I decide to tighten up my play and only play top hands. What happens...I get a crazy amount of top hands but none of them hit. And if they do hit, I have a big hands but are only 2nd best. So  my stack slowly starts decreasing. 3 hours later I'm still positive $1020 and I get pocket KINGS!!! About 85% of the time I get KK, I run into AA. So I only call the small 3-bet from a tight player preflop as I assume he has AA, KK, or QQ and is trying to trap me. The flop comes rainbow K 4 A....
He bets 40% of the pot, and I raise because I have a set of Kings but am concerned if he has a set of Aces. My raise was only a bit more than twice his bet. He doesn't hesistate a second and says "ALL IN" and moves in his chips which happen to be the same amount as mine...
WHAT DO I DO??
I really felt like he had Aces. I mean I REALLY felt like he had aces. But I started thinking he had Ace King for two pair. Maybe he had QQ's and is trying to rep AA's because I didnt reraise all in preflop. Maybe if he knows that I know he has aces, I'll fold when he really doesn't have shit. Maybe if he knows that I know that he knows I have KK's he's messing with me so I can call.

So, I hit the tank for 5 minutes until I finally said "CALL" like a total idiot. He flips over AA's and after the turn and river miss a K he gets all my money...Everyone was in awe that we both had a big hand. No one could understand why I didn't instantly call if had a set of Kings. But the better players respected that I knew he had AA's and almost actually folded a big set which is usually unheard of.

So not only did I lose the $1300, I lost my buyin which I really couldn't afford to lose. But I had to pull myself together. I couldn't believe that I actually busted out like that. I was so mad at myself. Ultimately my decisions led to the outcome. Poker is managed by choices and decisions that YOU make. I left the table at 5am or so and headed to the room. I felt so sick. I could only lay in bed and attempt to sleep it off. But I couldn't. I felt so alone. It was just Me, myself, and Poker in my head.

Finally after 3 hours of trying to sleep my mother called me. She made me feel much better after talking to me after a while. It made me realize how much I need her. I love her so much. She pretty much put me to sleep by talking to me on the phone because I felt like everything was ok, and I could relax then.

I woke up at 3pm and just really needed to go have a winning session not only to help money but my confidence.

I find a table and an hour later what happens?? I lose my buy-in when I turned a nut straight and some gambler re-raises me all in only to need to catch a spade on the river. 2 spades had been exposed during play when someone folded, so this only left him 7 cards out of the 52 card deck. A lousy 2 of spades hits the river so he wins my whole stack....GREAT!!!

I rebuy and wait 10 hours just to finally get up to a profit $100 out of the two buyins...10 hours! Ridiculous.

So now I'm here at 2:30am eating an amazing caesar salad in the restaurant. All in all I'm happy to come out positive in a session after I lost at the higher limit table the night before. Or the morning before..I don't know, I'm so confused with my days...Hopefully all you guys can keep up with all my nonsense talk.

I am still positive in $profit since becoming "pro". Not by much, but it means I'm a winning player if I'm still positive after withstanding that big loss I had...I'm going to get a long sleep and rest my brain.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

-King2

p.s. I don't really proofread or type grammatically correct. I had one follower who said "You really need to learn commas."...If you're bothered by an informal personal blog such as this one then please stop reading now.

Empty Poker Room???

So me being a cheap a** I didn't want to pay the $11 per day for wifi in the hotel room. However, a restaurant in the casino has complimentary wifi! AHH what a relief. Ok so its 9AM. I went to bed last night shortly after my post with the intention of waking up at around 4am or 5am to out think the tired players who had been there since 5pm. Well...I over slept. Didn't wake up until 7am or so. I got dressed and went straight to the poker room in hopes to at least catch one tired and drained player. There was nobody there! I mean it was completely empty! It was horrifying. The host informed me everyone broke off at 6am or so. So I'm here eating breakfast at the 8oz while my name is first on the poker list. This is probably the best 2 eggs, bacon, potatoes, and toast I've ever had. So since I was posting from my mobile device last night, I left out some key points. I was so card dead that I wasn't even catching hands I could draw to. At one point I was forcing my self to see a bunch of flops, but it still confirmed to be ineffective. I made critical bluffs. So critical that I could have lost my whole stack and busted out. I have no idea how I would have felt busting out my first day as a "pro". I'm so sick of using that word. I look back on yesterday and thank my body language reading skills. The bluffs I pulled were based on reading opponents who I felt had marginal to a least best hand. Had an opponent called in any of those situations, I was drawing dead. I was bluffing with 8 high, 10, high, a lousy pair of 2's. It was ridiculous. I think because I was so card dead and never got too committed with previous pots, opponents viewed me as a very tight player. This is one reason why I never ask for a new deck. Not only is asking for a new deck an amateur move, it gives off way too much information on you. At every moment, I try to be 2 steps ahead of my opponents. By asking for a new deck, that could make me two steps behind. It will show I'm not a tight player but card dead. It shows that psychologically I'm not patient. My reaction to a new deck may give on new information. After the new deck when I play hands, they'll assume I actually have a hand and wont get paid off, which would then result me to bluffing all the time??? To the follower who inquired why I never ask for a new deck, I hope this answers your question. I did see one guy who was a total idiot. This guy bought in about 5 times in 1 hour and thought he was just getting unlucky. Of course everybody at the table got a piece of him except me. By leaving early last night, I'm sure I left money on the table, but I felt I needed to eat and get some rest. I was happy overall with my $/hr rate. I'm about done with breakfast. I'm going to get to the poker room and see all the morning regulars. It's gonna be so boring. Super tight older players (55+ age group). I'm probably just gonna play a few hours and get bored. Hopefully I don't do what I usually do when I'm bored. Which is 3 bet, and 4 bet bluff till I'm committed to go all in and lose all my money. -King2

1st day @ the new job

First off, I apologize for the format of this post. I have to use my mobile web browser. I don't feel like paying $11 a day for wifi on the laptop. Today was Day 1. It felt like my first day at a new job, first day of school, and the first football game of the season. Well I had a 6 hour drive on 4hrs of sleep. I thought about just heading to bed as soon as I checked into the hotel but I just wanted to get my 1st day over with. I checked into my comped room and got dressed. I went to the poker room where surprisingly they had an immediate seat available. I recognized some of the day regulars but didn't notice any strong players. I was card dead for 3 hours. I had to make a bunch of moves just to improve my stack a bit. Half an hr later I hit top 2 pair and over bet on the turn to make it look like another steal. The non believing oppenent fell into my trap as he went all in with just a pair of 4s. He didn't have much but it still took a piece of me when he got a lucky 4 to hit on the river. I decided to leave as I got super hungry and sleepy. Played a total of 3.5 hrs and made a profit of $410. -King2

Finally Synced

I’m literally writing this blog 5 minutes until midnight just to get the blog dates synced.

Today was weird...

Tomorrow I will play my first hand as a professional poker player.

I got last minute things done such as pulled cash from ATM, bought extra socks, toothpaste, and hair gel to be exact.

Oh yea and while on the way to CVS my car started stalling. Turned out to be one of my air intake couplings had disconnected. Fixed it no time. What a relief!

-King2

Understand the Confusion...

Friday March 23, 2012

I just realized how un-synchronized the blog post dates and actual dates are. As I catch up on posting to the website It will sync. I hope you understand the confusion…understand the confusion… That’s interesting.

I did manage to get a couple of needed things done such as shop for clothes, cut my hair, eat and sleep. Not a wasted day, but not really a productive day. 

I spent time with friends and family most of the day which outweighs a lot of other wasted time. Sometimes I have an issue showing appreciation towards my friends and family. I feel I’m getting much better at it and will continue to cherish the friendships and relationships. I feel poker has helped me a lot in a social psychological understanding. Poker provides countless emotional swings and millions of stressors. I try to take every one of these opportunities and manipulate them into some sort of a life folder titled “Life Is Not Fair.” Because I feel I can and will be able to manage the emotional roller-coaster poker offers, I feel I can relate to other people much easier. With better understanding of people come better social skills. With better social skills comes better general communication. The list branches on. In a nutshell and to spare everyone my random jargon, I feel poker has helped me find myself and understand life and its meaning. Unlike many other professionals I see poker as part of my life…not my life.

Tomorrow is my last day before I play my first hand as a professional poker player. 

-King2

Not Much...

Thursday March 22, 2012

I’ve been procrastinating on this post but here it goes.

It’s about 4am and I can still feel spurts of the adrenaline running through me. I finally got the windshield wiper motor in today and it works great! Thanks to the eBay user who sent it out in a timely matter. I didn’t get to go to the thrift store to buy a month worth of poker table clothes but I did manage to create tons of spreadsheets for more data to analyze. 

I’m going to hit a breakfast buffet in a few hours, then after that I’ll go to get my licensed renewed if I’m up for it. 

That’s all I have for today. As soon as I begin to play, my journey will get much more interesting and chaotic.

-King2

Reality to Fantasy to Reality

Wednesday March 21, 2012

It just hit me that I just quit my regular job to play poker as my main source of income. I guess reality is setting in and I am starting to naturally second guess this new journey. However the excitement keeps me going. Excitement isn’t even the right word to describe what keeps me going. 

Before going to bed last night, I was reading over some old articles on advice of going “pro” at poker. Many of the authors suggested many things I disagree with. From the limits (5/10, 10/20/, etc.) to the “bankroll” you should start with. Most of it did not make any sense to me. I understand where they are coming from, but it made no sense in relation to the way I view poker. In fact, I never use the word “bankroll”. I simply substitute it with “my money” or “total cash”. After all, the money I win from poker is not a bankroll; it is in fact my money. According to the authors my methods most likely will prove that I have to abide by their rules…we’ll see.

Not much happened today other than booking 15 comped nights-not consecutively- at the casino/hotel. Couldn’t get any weekends comped of course but I can easily stay at nearby hotels for a fraction of the casino’s rate. I should be getting the new windshield wiper motor tomorrow. I managed to get out and wax/polish my car today. I even managed to polish my rims and mufflers. Oh yeah, I played PLO online today for the first time in forever. I was rusty so of course I donked off my $10, but it helped me remember how much more exciting it can be than NLHE. Maybe I’ll get back into PLO. A big positive of PLO is there are very few decent players around. Hmm…maybe I better start really getting back into PLO. 

I’m off to bed. I’ve been itching to shuffle chips. I might go get a bunch of t-shirts at the thrift store for my poker uniform. Goodnight.

                                                                                                         

-King2

Where It Begins

Tuesday March 20, 2012

This will be short and sweet.

I’m beginning my unrealistic journey of throwing around money like it’s a piece of clay…Determining whether someone is left brained or right brained…Manipulating and persuading innocent people to give me whatever I ask…Devouring all the fish at the table. The unrealistic journey of playing a card game for a living suddenly becomes reality. The card game of choice is No Limit Texas Hold’em. The rules are simple. Know when to fold’em and know when to hold’em.

I will not disclose how long I’ve been playing or my style of play. I will not disclose who I am or my background. You will simply come along my journey and experience the emotional and financial aspects of becoming a professional poker player while maintaining the job title. Some entries will be short. Some will be long. Some you will agree with. Some you will disagree with. As long as I’m physically able to write, there will be an entry every day I play poker for a living. Let’s get to business.

Today I decided to start the first entry despite the fact I have yet to play a single hand. In fact, I will not be playing until about another week. However I feel I must mentally prepare and strategically weigh all my options…Call, Fold, or Raise. To help prepare, I bought this Laptop I’m typing on about 3 hours ago. This purchase will probably be the best investment of my poker career. This Laptop will analyze and calculate countless results, manage my finances, express my feelings, and serve as one of my best friends. After every session of poker, I promise to come home to this Laptop. Perhaps I give this Laptop a name since I have taken it upon myself to capitalize the letter “L” in Laptop. Any suggestions?

Why am I not playing until another week? You never appreciate a windshield wiper motor until it burns out during a storm on the highway. Once I get the new motor arriving in a week installed we’re good to go. Until then, I am creating countless spreadsheets to forecast my hours worked, money made per hour, total cash, and ROI. I may attach a few screenshots or pieces of the spreadsheets throughout my next blogs. You’ll learn what my starting money will be and more aspects of my finances soon.

-King2