The Rising Sun Keeping it a(LIVE)!!

A Short But Long Update

2011-11-27T18:58:00.001-08:00

Hey fellow readers, I know it has been quite sometime since I have posted anything about what has been going on with poker and life. It has been quite a journey since I started playing poker professionally. I have been continuing to keep the journey going with poker. It definitely has been a grind as much as it was playing online. I still love it and in some ways enjoying playing live a lot more these days. Even though I have been thinking about playing some online again. Wink wink soon enough hehe

So what has been going on? It has been a super grind that is for sure. I have been traveling down to south Florida the past few months now. As all of you that don't know, I live in central florida about 3.5 hours from where I have been playing a lot more these days. I leave for about 5 days, sometimes longer like 10 days because the games are so much better lately out there compared to Tampa, FL. That has been the toughest part is being away from my wife and kids. But I do what I have to do to keep it going and to take care of the family like always. It has been tough but my wife understands and she gets to take care of the babies. I just wish I could be in both places. Oh well can't win them all, but all we can do is remain positive and stay focused.

I've gain quite some weight since playing live poker, maybe close to 25 pounds since black Friday. I have been making a huge effort to work out 4-5 days a week. I've been running on the treadmill and bike at least 30 minutes a day and when I am home, I try to put a decent work out in as well. I wish I had done this back during my online days. I feel so much better and have a lot more energy to put in sessions whenever. I feel good about myself and it is helping me focus better on poker. I haven't quite been studying as much as I can since I am out of town so much and leave my computer at home, but I still try to keep up on the games especially live.

My twin girls are over 2 years old now. 2.25 to be exact..haha They are getting so big! Me and wife are still in love with each other even with me being gone so much these days. We just moved from Davenport, FL to Tampa, FL 2 months ago as well into a house with a lake behind our back yard that we can overlook and we have a nice pool. My wife absolutely loves our house and that makes me happy that we are still surviving. Our neighborhood is great and could be a place we might just park for a while and stay instead of moving year after year.

Anyways, I am going to try really really hard to keep updating my blog, work on my game, and get a little online poker back in my life and keep in touch with the online world. I seriously miss is and been thinking about grinding some carbon poker and lock poker in my spare time. I took a screen shot from my poker journal. My graph looks so much better than online...lmao I guess I have to do my best to play poker since I don't have rakeback to fall back on these days. I hope you guys and gals are alive and well. If you have any questions about live, feel free to shoot me an email or send me a skype whenever I am on.

Email is socialscenepr@yahoo.com

Take care and Good Luck on the Journey

Jeff

By socialscenepr at 2011-11-27

Whoa!! It's been a long time

2011-08-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!! It's been quite sometime since I last posted in my blog. I've kept up on a few emails from some of the people who check my blog out, but other than that, I've been quite busy and away from my laptop. Ever since I left for vacation back in the beginning of July till about the 20th, I've since heading down to other places to play live poker. So it's been nothing but a grind putting in hours, living and breathing poker in the poker rooms, wake up, eat and do the same thing. Did that for about 10 days and continuing the grind back home. I have to say, if you don't have a life bankroll away from your poker bankroll for people like me who do it for a living, it can severely hurt you both money wise and mentally. When I went on vacation for the 20 days I was gone, that's a big hit to your poker bankroll when you are not playing, so expenses just keep coming in and that has been something I had to deal with the past few weeks since I've been back. Also, putting in those long hours trying to play catch up can hurt you while at the poker tables sometimes. Always trying to make sure I am providing for my family is my main goal. I've recently decided that maybe picking up a small part time job, maybe waiting tables will be a good thing for me since every month we're basically not able to save much money since I played live post black Friday and my wife has to take care of the babies. We will see how things go, i'm hoping I don't have to, but honestly saving money is important both for my poker bankroll and life money.

2/5NL has still be treating me pretty well and i'm still making decent money but like I said, I feel it isn't enough for one income. I've finally had a few rough patches of 2/5 over the past 2 months now going a 2-3k swings at times, but somehow managed to get back on track. I cannot believe how mentally draining live poker can be and how much the money matters at times when I am up at the tables. I hate being in that mindset of when I'm up, I want to quit because money is always an issue when it comes down to what I need to make every month. I've been working very hard on this over the 2 months now and it is slowly getting better. I've been reading quite a few books, watching videos, and listening to audios on working on my mental game. I highly recommend reading and listening to people like Tommy Angelo and Jared Tendler. Also watching a video series called shuffle and flow from the Deuces Cracked Website which I found very helpful. You all know about fish and bad players right? Well I have to say the I am a mental fish, yes a mental fish when it comes to live poker and most of us are in some way which some don't even know or think of. I am one of those, but I am getting better at it. I have been putting in a lot more longer sessions over the months even when I'm up. Some days, I will put in multiple sessions in the day when I'm up or down. Doesn't matter because we are poker players and the more we play, the more money we make. Even when I am on my B or C game, I always fight through it and work on my A+ game. Even when I take a huge beat, or losing...as long as i'm still playing optimally, I will not quit the game or take a 30 minute break. These are the things I deal with on a daily basis at the tables, some days are good, some days...well I am still mental fishing.

I am continuing to work on my game even though I haven't had much time to be on the computer talking to my other poker friends online or posting on the forums. I still am reading books, watching videos on Live Poker, talking to other live grinders like myself, at trying new things. I've been slowing finding new leaks in my game where I'm not adjusting well enough dependent on game conditions.

Life is going well. Vacation was great and wife and babies are great. Sofie and Ally will be turning 2 in a few weeks, how time goes by so fast. We are still planning on moving somewhere in the Tampa Area to be closer to the casino once our lease is up.

Well, I hope everyone is doing well. I still miss playing online, but live poker is alive and well, and still lots of money to be made!! Until then

Jeff

June review and ramblings

2011-07-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

Hey guys and gals! June is over and I have to say it was one crazy months at the tables. I plays at all weird hours of the days and nights. Pretty swingy none the less. I took a few shots at 5/10nl earlier this month and had no success at the few sessions I put in. I managed to drop a little less than a buy in after being in the game at one point stuck 3k, but somehow managed to minimize the damage. I have to say it was a great experience and after playing at 5/10, there is a lot of things I need to work on in my game if I want to move up from 2/5nl. I know there were more players exploiting other players and at the 2/5nl and below, not many players exploit the other players which makes for a straight forward game. Sure there are some out there that will exploit you at these smaller limits, but honestly don't think people do it enough and you don't have to worry about other players exploiting you. As far as my month at the tables, it wasn't the results I wanted. Over the beginning of the month while I was shooting at the bigger limit, I was playing a few sessions at 2/5 and didn't do so well. I still managed to win this month, just not as much as last month. The good news is I did receive my Ipad2 for putting in 120 hours at the tables...haha my rack back..lol Also my wife and babies went up to New York to visit family so I have been without them for almost a month now, the good thing is I am flying up there tonight as I finish writing this blogpost. I will be up there for about a week and drive home from there back to Florida, so I might not be at the tables unless I decide I want to play at some of the local casinos in New York. I realize though that I have a lot of things to figure out if I want to move up, a lot of leaks, opportunities to make more money at the tables, being more aggressive, more patient, etc. I know taking shots was worth it and once I build my bankroll up to where it needs to be, I hopefully will be back at 5/10nl. I hope everyone is doing well and for us USA players, online will hopefully be back in no time.

Jeff

The Start Of A Old but New Beginning

2011-06-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone, it certainly has been a wild swing of things in the poker community just as much as it is at the poker tables. I certainly have had the fortunate blessing to be able to play live poker and doing ok at it. I feel everything happens for a reason and thus will only make us better as poker players.

What can we do in the mean time? Really tough to answer for all of you and its all player dependent. Some of us are single, married, married with kids, single parents, have other forms of income outside of poker and some of us only had poker. I have thought a lot about how this effects us both in our lives and our mental side of it. I can speak for myself that I was and kinda in a sense still worried about everything that has happened. But the truth is, we cannot be worried about what has happened. We can't wait around for things to get better tomorrow, next week, months, or years. When the time comes, it will happen and only waiting around will really have an effect on yourself and others. This can be a reflective and positive period to figure out what to do next. Use the skills you have learned over the course of your poker knowledge. Remember, poker is related to business and correlate with each other if you really think about it. Maybe its a good time to really work on your game if you didn't do so in the past, or maybe its a good time to learn new things. Whatever the case may be, we can only move forward and not backwards. We cannot dwell on what use to be or how it was.

For me, I am continuing to fight and take care of my family. The day they shutdown online poker is the same day I went to play live poker and haven't looked back worried about what I'm going to do next. New opportunities open up, you meet new people, you find new passions in life. Never really thought about it until lately, but I truly do have more time to spend with my family, talk to other people and get out of the house more, have the freedom to do more things, meet new people, see the fresh sunlight everyday here in Florida, and have more time to spend studying and working on my game than I did before. Weird how things work out, because you would think staying at home grinding on the computer in room all day would still give me those things, but in reality, it held less true with my consuming of putting in volume, hours, hands, staring at the computer for hours on end.

I'm going to just keep on going. I have a lot of things to do in between. We are trying to get out of our lease now so that we can move closer to the casino here in Tampa, we are also planning on a family trip back up to New York for about a month as well for a wedding and visit family in July. So I will probably be grinding in Upstate New York at Turning Stone and some of the casino's by the Canadian border. The 2/5NL games are treating me good and I feel like I'm not running bad nor am I running good, but managing to still make things happen. I've been thinking about the 5/10 NL games which is good...so only time will tell.

Anyways, I hope all of you find yourself and if you are still playing online poker here in the USA or outside of the country, keep up the grind and continue to stay ahead of the curve. When that time comes around again for us USA players, we will be ready to rock at the tables again.

Jeff

Keeping the dream a(LIVE)

2011-05-07T05:09:00.000-07:00

So as anyone who reads my blog knows, I have started playing live since April 15th. Pretty much the same day the DOJ shut down the big sites that most of us play on. I honestly do not know what to expect. I have lots of live experience, but in LIMIT holdem. So, since there are NO (limit) games in Florida worth playing, I have no choice but to play No Limit and use all the knowledge I have gained over the course of my online (days).

So I've been keeping track of my results daily and trying to get a decent sample size. My April results playing 1/3 NL during the month was a little over 8bb/hr, which I'm pretty ecstatic about since I read in a few forums that 5bb/hr is good and 10bb/hr is crushing. Once again over a small sample, but I logged in about 78 hours in April.

Now it is May and I've decided to jump into the 2/5 NL games this month. The player pool is a bit better and the players seem to fight for pots a bit more and also the games are a bit more aggressive. I actually really enjoy the 2/5 game because the chance to make 5K+ a month is now a possibility. Also, there is better table selection because the 2/5 game runs more than the 1/3 game, so if I see a bunch of (young internet players), I can move to another table where its softer. No point of playing with a bunch of regs as all of you know. My first week of play has been off to a decent start and I hope to continue playing well, reading players well, and just try and make the money to provide for the family.

I think the beauty of live play compared to online is that I can quit whenever I want and not worry about having to put in 10k hands today. If im up a buy in, I can just quit the first hour. I have the option and that is something more valuable than staying at the casino grinding 10+ hours not enjoying life. I have more time to spend with my family, more time to study when I wake up instead of putting in a 6am morning session on the computer. It's pretty nice to be able to do that.

I hope everyone is doing well out there and good luck. Until then...

Jeff

And Just Like That, Online Poker Swooped Away, Time To Adjust

2011-05-01T06:22:00.001-07:00

Wow, I don't know where to begin. As much as this has been a shock to me, I am certain everyone is feeling the same. My heart goes out to the grinders that were handicapped and found a way to do something that they can enjoy and live off of and depended on it, my heart goes out to all the people like me that have a family, wife, and kids to support, my heart goes out to all the young and upcoming players that just put all there time,energy, and soul into the game and now have to possibly go out into the job market.

We are all scrambling to know what to do next. Moving out of the country, people finding ways to still play like using vpn's that are if you get caught can only hurt you, and playing on other sites that currently allow US players to play. I have thought about all these things, and just thinking about it just hurts. I know for me I have spent a good 18 months devoting my time, energy, etc to online poker. The one thing I can take from it is I was able to take care of my wife and babies through that time and was able to stay home with them and just watch my little munchkins grow up. Even though I spent a lot of time on the computer and grinding out those 10-14k hand days, it was worth it and I cannot look back on black Friday and be bitter about the situation. I am going to stay strong and fight to take care of my family.

So what is the next step for me? It's really tough to say. I have obviously been looking into all the smaller sites that seem to be promising and offer good rakeback programs and able to play many tables. But the thing I have to say about it is that if the Department of Justice has already taken all the big sites down, it's just a matter of time that they go after the smaller sites, reasons being the i'm sure US players are going to flood the smaller sites up and when that happens, we might never see our money again. I just cannot afford to throw in a few thousand and this happen again. It certainly is an option, but I think I am just going to start over from scratch on my free time like I did when I first deposited money on sites like full tilt and poker stars for minimal amounts of money. Even though, there are some pretty sick deposit bonuses and redeposit bonuses out there, I think I just can't depend on it since I will have to devote a lot of my time to clearing the bonuses. I've thought about going out into the job market, but I haven't had a job that was worth anything in years since I've owned businesses in the past, being a musician, and living off poker for the past 2.5 years. I have a business degree that probably isn't worth anything anymore since I graduated over 8 years ago and haven't used it ever.

With that said, I've decided that the best means is to play live poker. I fortunately have the luxury to be near a few about 45 minutes from where I live. My wifes parents moved to Tampa,FL a few months ago as well so they are near the Hard Rock about 10 minutes away, so I have a place to stay so I don't waste too much money on gas. The downside at the moment is being away from my family a bit more, but I have to do what I have to do. After our lease ends in October, we are going to have to move and if we can move sooner, we either are looking into moving closer to Tampa which I think is best if I can have live poker success. The good thing is that is how I started but the downside is I was a live LIMIT player, not No Limit and in Florida, they do not have any good limit games are here that are worth anything to make a living. That was a good strength of mine and I am a much better LIMIT player than No Limit. We've considered moving back to California where the games are just insanely good for limit players. But I think I have a decent skill edge live for NL and that is something I am going to have to adjust to.

Since black friday, I have already starting my live poker journey and been playing the 1/3NL $300 max buy in game. I have had some decent success at it and my hourly is actually better at the moment live than online. Short term sample, but I've basically played 5 days a week and logged in about 70 hrs. So I'm hoping to improve and adjust to the games. I am going to start playing 2/5NL in the upcoming week or so since the money will be better and easier to make 4.5k+/monthly as opposed to 1/3NL where I would have to win more buy-ins there. Even though I think I have a decent chance to come close to it, that isn't good enough for me. I will start posting hopefully some Live Poker stuff,strategy,current games live compared to online as I continue to figure it out.

I hope this is a new beginning for me. All I can say is right now, I am able to spend more time with my family compared to online where I would worry about grinding a certain amount of hands every day. I hope everyone is doing well out there. I cannot complain, talk about how much life sucks, bad beats, etc because I can't. I have people that depend on me and I cannot let them down.

As the journey continues, Good Luck!!

Jeff

March coming to an end, check out my past band!!

2011-03-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so in my last post I talked about my new routine and sessions. I wish I could follow my own advice always. There was quite a few times where I put in longer sessions then usual and I think it really effected both my play and my mind. It all started a few Fridays ago when I was shooting for my 4k bonus and trying to reach 250k fpp's which I just killed myself that day putting in over 12k hands to reach it. Not that I couldn't wait, but I really needed it and have been waiting to cash out for a 2 months with my points. So I put in like a 7k hand session, and a 5k hand session straight through. Needless to say, I obviously spewed over 10+ buy-in's, and that's kinda where my month fell apart. Before that, poker was going really well for the month and felt like I was going to have a 2k+ month in winnings alone, but after all those really long sessions and bringing in my mental lose game to my shorter sessions, it kinda added up to basically a slight winning month for me. I still have today and tomorrow to grind, but thinking that I probably should just end the month in the small green that I have so I can start April refreshed and ready to go. Over the past few days, I've been taking my work load light since I put in 200k hands this month. Decided to even to play some live poker which I haven't done since I've been to Florida. It went ok, played some NL and Limit. NL went terrible when I was up like $188 dollars and got my AA cracked vs JJ all in pre flop, so I ended up going to play some limit and made about $237 bucks leaving the casino.

I've also been considering mixing in some sessions on stars playing limit online. I've had some decent success more live than online and that's how I started this whole poker thing. To be honest, I think, well I'm a much better Limit player than No Limit. Probably thinking about finding someone to get some solid coaching from that can help me mass table limit. I even did a session a few days ago for about 800 hands and made 40bb's in the process 24 tabling.

Haven't really found any new music lately. All I know is Dredg is coming out with a new album in May and I'm really looking forward to the release since they are one of my favorite bands. Radiohead released there album this week in stores and I'll probably be heading to best buy to pick it up for $7.99 on sale.....yay!!!

I use to be in this band, Nevea Tears if anyone wants to check it out.

http://www.mediafire.com/?inuzyjnkwzn

Free album download that I found a link to that someone uploaded. If you dig, you can buy it anywhere online like cd.com or amazon.com

Let me know what you guys think!!!!!

Peace out for now everyone!!!

Jeff

New Schedule, New Routine, New Post

2011-03-10T07:18:00.000-08:00

So I've been trying out a daily schedule for me that started a few weeks ago. Basically I wake up pretty early anywhere between 4:30am-6am. Put in a session before my babies wake up (now 18months) and usually get around 2k hands in. Then I take care and play with the babies for a few hours and turn the tv on with Barney for the girls. They usually watch it for a hour or two which lets me get another session of around 1500-2k hands in. Which is awesome because now I have almost half the volume i normally put in. Then I get them ready to take a nap shortly after and able to put in another session 2-3k hands in and my wife gets home from work, so I can play poker till about 7pm with another break in between. So I log in around 7-10k hands in a day, take care of my babies, and still have some time to hand with my family and get some wife time in. I guess the only downside is I don't get to work on my game as much since I head to bed a lot earlier, usually around 9-10pm. But part of my new routine is trying to find time to still study and work on my game, so I'm going to make and effort every week to spend around 4-6 hrs to do so.

This schedule seems to being working pretty well, Im not putting in large volume in one session like 5K+ hands, I'm taking plenty more breaks while putting in shorter session, and I'm more alert at the tables instead of going into autopilot after 2k hands. At the same time I'm getting more volume than I did in the past where I would start working when I put my girls for there first nap. I'm not staying up till 3am and feel like my time is more productive. I found it really hard to put in any sessions past 10pm because I just want to relax and wind down from the long day.

Also, I think I want to start writing more about other things besides poker. If you guys know Doublefly, he has some pretty awesome blog post where he talks about food, family, etc. So I think I'm going to write a little about my family and music that I've been listening to, and maybe write about my past when I was a musician touring the country and putting out records.

With that, poker is going well. Lots of ups and downs this month, but manage to be in the green this month, hopefully I can keep it up. Played the sunday 12 million, and got knocked out about halfway through the field. Basically never doubled up and didn't pick up anything, not even a pocket pair and AJ+ which sucked, Had to make some light 3bets vs steals to gain some chips and finally got knocked out when I shoved ATo vs HJ open that was pretty active and he turned over AK. Didn't suck out.

Been listening to lot of cool music lately. One being Radiohead which put out a new album recently "the king of limbs"

Also listening to the new Mogwai - Hardcore will Never Die but You Will which has been absolutely amazing.

Both bands which are two of my favorites and been listening to them for over 12 years now. I would recommend checking out all their past stuff if you don't know them.

My two little babies are now 18 months old. They are just so responsive and full of life. Walking up and down the stairs, clapping their hands, running, doing little jumps, and eatting lots of food. They are just beautiful. Me and my wife been taking some nice drives around florida with the monkeys and going to the mall, going out to dinner, and watching old movies in bed.

Hope March is going well for everyone and I need to run good good and more good!!!!

Jeff

Sunday Million 5th Anniversary!!!!

2011-03-06T06:33:00.000-08:00

So I've been thinking about this tournament a lot weather or not I should play it or not, and to be honest with you, I'M GOING TOOOOOO!!! So much value and dead money out there that I just couldn't resist. I bit the big one and paid $215 for the tournament ticket. Never in my life have I paid so much for a tournament live or online. I just couldn't help myself. Seriously though, 5 million bucks with a 1st place guaranteed at least 1 million plus a brand new Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4. It's some pretty life changing money and if I can run deep in this, it will be a nice boost to my poker bankroll as well. I wish all my other fellow poker players out there that are in this as well, donkdonkdonkdonk, mayox, dabomb, and rosh and all the other low stakes grinda's out there!!!! We're all gonna make some magic happen!!!!! Do you feel my excitement!!!

Bababababa Boooooooooom!!!!

Good Luck and even more luck for me

Jeff

February Recap, No hands last day of month

2011-02-28T13:06:00.000-08:00

So I decided today that I want to end my month on a decent note. So, I'm not going to play a single hand of poker today. Haven't had a winning month like this since my downswing back in September. As for this year, slowly working on my game as we speak. Things have been slowly improving, adjusting to the game a lot better than I have, making changes to my game, and finding all the little leaks that I never noticed before.

Now implementing them to fix them is the tough part because players, games, etc keep adjusting and we continually run into different dynamics and situations in every hand. But as long as I keep that in the back of my mind, than I as a poker player will hopefully get better and moving up we be a lot easier. I'm not going to be truly happy with my game until I can crush the games at my limit. So i'll be at the the 50nl for a while until I can prove to myself that I can beat it.

Best of Luck to you all!!

Jeff

February 25th Best Day of the Year Brag

2011-02-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

So I thought I post a little run good to my blog instead of always talking about things to get out of downswing. So I played a few small sessions yesterday and managed to make almost 10 buy ins for once in my life. Best resulted day of the year thus far and probably the past 4 months. Its been a rocky roller coaster but things are looking up and feeling more confident helps out a ton more.

As far as the month goes, I'll have to see how it goes the next few days before the months over. I hope everyone is playing well and running well

Until then

Jeff

Dynamic Full Ring and contest Winner!!!

2011-02-21T12:19:00.000-08:00

So I posted a review a few weeks ago about James "Splitsuit" Sweeney's new book: Dyanamic Full Ring that I purchased last month from www.dailyvariance.com Anyways, he was running a contest for his new product the 6 figure NL system: crushing NL Holdem in 2011. I'm pretty pleased about all the products daily variance puts out, so when this was coming out, I really wanted to get the chance to win. So so exciting and have something to keep my brain working along with my full ring work. Anyways here is my review:

By socialscenepr at 2011-02-21

By goldganesh
This book is not another poker book, it is specifically designed to get you thinking about full ring poker. No other book is like it out there on the market. Not only will it get you on the right track about poker in general, it will get you on the right path to thinking, being creative, playing optimal, and taking standard/non standard lines to use in your arsenal. This book is outlined and enriched full on examples, pictures, ranges, and concepts that are easy to understand and read.
This book covers almost every concept you can think of from pf play all the way down to river play, 3bet and 4bet pots, raising and check raising, opponent types, how to play big hands, how to play AK, playing in positiion and out of position, isolating, playing limped pots, bet sizing, adjusting,etc. This book also helps you correlate with how to use your statistics for poker tracker 3 or holdem manager.
This book is like a years worth of coaching combined in one book. So much value. Never in this book will you get how to do a certain thing, this book is going to help you think beyond the norm.
Nothing is held back in this book. If you are beginning, transitioning from HU play, or 6max no limit, you will find that dynamic full ring poker will satisfy your taste buds to playing full ring at its best and get you on the right track to success!

That's about it, so far things look as though are picking up and my game is getting a lot better and actually have results showing for it this month. I hope I can keep it up!!!

Best of luck on the journey!!

Jeff

2011 Update

2011-02-17T06:53:00.000-08:00

I haven't had a chance to update to much of my blog lately. I think between taking care of my babies, hanging with the wife, studying, doing HH reviews with others, and getting coaching weekly...oh and I forgot to mention playing poker has not so much not giving me enough time in the day, but just so many things I want to do that there is just not enough time in the day. I would have to say, maybe working on time management more would be useful. I know some poker players out there that can live and breath poker and are truly dedicated, and you can see the results show.

As for poker, things have been, like always, a rocky mountain. I've really been working on my game and kinda like I said in my earlier blog, that I am redefining my game. Whatever I was doing to win at poker last year at 50nl for a few months was kinda irrelevant for 100nl and I so so want to play 100nl regularly. I think that once I become better with my post flop edge, things will start falling into place. I have definately opened my game up compared to the past. Picking good spots to get into pots, well at least I think they are. Working really hard on 3b pots and playing out of the blinds is something I have been doing all this year. My results thus far have not really showed much, but I'm learning a lot more than I ever have in the past. Talking to like minded poker players, getting different aspects, opinions, and views with them. Really helps keep the grind on my mind.

One thing I have to say, since pokerstars has taken out the 20-50bb tables, that the games for at least 50nl have been so much better. Some have said that the 100nl games are really good as well, so i'm licking my chops just thinking about it. So table selection has been a lot easier these days since their are more bad players coming into the game. Own the fish and own the regs....easy game right?

Outside of poker, things are going well. My babies are almost 18 months now and they are just incredible. My wife hates her job and I so want to be able to provide more so she doesn't have to work, that's why I think 100nl is just one big step away from that. The fpp rewards are far better and the winnings seem more significant.

Well gotta get back to the grind, change diapers, and make some chedda!! Gl on the journey!!

Jeff

New Pokerstars Structure...Goodbye 20-50bb tables!!!

2011-01-27T11:27:00.000-08:00

So i'm excited about the new structure at stars and doing away with the 20-50bb games. Will make for better games and the bad players will be back at the 100bb tables soon. I posted what steve wrote on 2+2 and if you want to check out the link yourself here it is: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28/internet-poker/pokerstars-ring-game-changes-effective-january-27th-2011-a-967460/

Message from Pokerstars Steve:
PokerStars Ring Game Changes: Effective January 27th, 2011
PokerStars will be making substantial changes to No-Limit Hold’em ring game offerings starting immediately. New 6-max tables of No-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo will also be added. These changes are being made after careful consideration of all information available, including feedback provided by players here on the Two Plus Two forums. PokerStars would like to thank all players who made suggestions about ring game buy-ins this past year for their input. PokerStars Poker Room Management has read each and every post on this topic to make sure that all players’ suggestions have been considered.

Introducing CAP Tables
PokerStars has been testing ‘CAP’ tables at certain stakes and game types for the past several months. These tables will now be offered more widely as a part of the standard PokerStars offering.

‘CAP’ tables place a limit on how much each player can wager over the course of a single hand. When this amount has been wagered, the player is considered to be all-in for the remainder of the hand.

The ‘CAP’ is always the same for each hand, and always the same for each player at the table. PokerStars will initially deploy only 20bb CAP tables that limit each player’s total betting to 20 big blinds in each hand.

CAP tables will initially be listed alongside other tables in the No-Limit and Pot Limit lobbies. PokerStars may move CAP tables to separate lobby tabs in the future. Games with caps larger than 20bb may also be offered in the future.

6-handed and 9-handed tables
The following buy-in options will be offered at No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) tables with 6 or more seats:

0.01/0.02 and 0.02/0.05 blinds
• 40-250bb tables, unlabelled. This offering is unchanged.

0.05/0.10 and 0.10/0.25 blinds
• 40-100bb, without lobby labels. This will include all Euro currency tables.
• 100-250bb tables, labelled as ‘deep’

0.25/0.50 blinds and above
• 20bb CAP, allowing buy-ins of 20-50bb, labelled ‘CAP’
• 40-100bb, without lobby labels. This will include all Euro currency tables.
• 100-250bb tables, labelled as ‘deep’

Tables with 20-50bb buy-in ranges will no longer be offered for 6-max and 9-max NLHE.

Tooltips explaining the exact minimum and maximum allowable buy-in at each table will still be displayed when the mouse pointer is hovered over a table name in the PokerStars lobby.

New Tables: 6-max No-Limit Omaha Hi/Low
New 6-max tables will be offered for No-Limit Omaha Hi/Low at stakes ranging from 0.10/0.25 to 3/6.

Implementation
These changes will be implemented in two steps.

The first step, the addition of new tables, will occur immediately. NLHE Cap tables will be deployed at limits $0.25/$0.50 and above and No-Limit Omaha Hi/Low 6-max tables will be deployed at all currently offered stakes.

Removal of NLHE 20-50bb tables and changing of Euro NLHE tables from 35-100bb to 40-100bb will take place on February 10th. Changes to table labels will also take place on this date. Tables of discontinued types will slowly be closed as they empty, but some may exist until the next server restart.

Heads-up NLHE and Omaha
PokerStars is still considering making changes to table buy-in minimums and maximums for heads-up NLHE and all omaha games. Player input and suggestions for possible changes to these tables are appreciated. Any changes to these tables will be announced and implemented in February.

Thanks
PokerStars would like to thank all players for their patience in waiting for these changes. It is important that PokerStars consider all options and opinions before making decisions about ring game buy-ins.

WBCOOP

2011-01-13T08:13:00.001-08:00

A post to all you blogganators!!!!

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: XXXXXX 784997

2011 Crush Crush Crush

2011-01-11T11:06:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!! It has been a while and I hope everyone had a blast off to the New Year and Christmas!!

Things have been great. First off, I like to recap my 2010 year. Since last year was my first year trying this online thing out to play professionally, I have to say it wasn't what I expected. I'm officially a Rakeback Pro for 2010. I put in 1.62 million hands and managed to breakeven the whole year. Not my proudest moment and most of my losses came from 100nl when I took shots at it. I think overall was a good learning, life, and knowing more of myself experience. Poker has taught me a lot of things the past year and I think I'm a better person since I started this career path. You have to balance your life, yourself, your family, working, studying, etc etc. Without it, you will just be a poker unsocialized person to the real world. Not saying that it is bad, but believe me, I have gone through it shutting the whole world out and at one point I think poker was an addiction. Playing professionally, has taught me to manage my time more (which I'm still doing), continually trying to stay ahead of the competition, and making better decisions with what I do weather it be poker, family, life. I think we continue to evolve and with that hopefully become a better poker player. Dealing with so many emotions, swings, happiness, sadness, has all led to my development. I really hope that I can make this a career for the many years to come to take care of my family. Honestly, this beats most jobs out there and the chance to stay home, be my own boss, and spend time with my family whenever I want has been amazing.

With that, 2011 I hope to have a winning year. Put in at least 2.5 million hands and work towards that SNE Goal. I think for this year, I might not be able to make it since I really want to crush my limits i'm playing at before I even consider playing 100nl again. I'm rolled for 100nl, but to be honest, I am not ready for that comfort zone. I'm starting to feel good again, regaining my confidence, working on my game, getting into good situations, talking poker with other like minded individuals, etc etc. I'm going to see how the next few months go at 50nl and if I do have some solid results, I might consider taking shots at 100nl again.

I'm still going to 24 table as I depend on the vpp's, but I have a wealth of more knowledge than I did when I first started and I think with that said, I should have better results for this year. If I don't, than it will be time to reevaluate poker. I hope you all have a great year and I hope we can get better at poker along the way. Feel free to email me and we can exchange skype info to get better at poker and work on this ever changing game. socialscenepr@yahoo.com

best of luck on the journey!

Jeff

The downward spiral in confidence and poker

2010-12-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I talked about this in other posts and I can't remember, but when your game goes down the tube and you don't know what you are doing anymore, lose confidence, etc etc, what do you do? Well this has happened to me over 2 months now since I took my shots at 100nl and haven't really figured out why I haven't got my game back on track. It has a lot to do with playing sessions and breaking even/losing. Which leads to your overall confidence going down. From there, you don't know what the heck to do. I tried to get back into it a while back watching a few videos, retooling which I thought I was my game, trying to do whatever I could. I was sick of myself and decided to try other games out like 6max again. To some it might be could to switch things up, but I think for me, it was a huge mistake and paid for it, literally. I honestly felt like I did back in April/May where I didn't know why I was playing this game. But then, something clicked in my brain and I thought to myself, how come I am not continually working on my full ring game like I was. Sure things weren't working out over the past few months, but it had a lot to do with me. I wasn't playing my A game at all, just my B or maybe even C. I think I just threw together everything I had worked so hard over my winning months and just mixed it in a blender and went on autopilot. Just mindlessly doing things to do it and that is just bad. I wasn't thinking about my game, my tables, the players, the cards, etc. I became a complete robot. Just trying anything I could to get my game back without thinking about it.

The time has come again to change that. Since December 4th, I've had a lot of things to think about and to continually get better at poker. A lot more concepts to work on and rework the things I did in the past. It all starts with one thing and you continue from there. So with that said, I am slowly getting back on track with my game and my results are getting better again, especially at 50nl where I couldn't even crush the game in October/November. I am thinking about every hand, every table, every opponent. Trying new things out that I would just in the past not think about. I went back to a few post I had wrote back months and months ago and reread some of stuff that made me get better and that has really helped as well. But like I said, I am redefining my game for the better if I want to move up and not be stuck at 50NL forever. So 2011 is hopefully going to breakthrough for me and past 50NL. 2010 was a fun ride, a lot of emotions, a lot of ups and downs, and it being my first year of playing poker professionally online. I have to say its been good and the best thing about it is getting to stay home with my babies. They are now 16 months and counting. It has been amazing none the less and I do it for my wife and kids. I'm hoping next year I can really make it happen and make more money than this year will be really helpful.

Hope you guys and gals have a great Christmas!!! A great New Year!!! I'll try and post something before the end of the year.

I also finally reached my 300k milestone bonus!!!

Best of luck on the journey!!

Jeff

December Grind Redefined

2010-12-14T08:19:00.000-08:00

How's everything doing out there? Good I hope!! It's been a while since I posted and to be honest, I haven't really found the time to do so outside of grinding hands, taking care of my babies during the day, spend time with the wife, and have family time. As most of you know, I've been trying to get my game back in gear since the end of September and haven't really had a good momentum in doing so. October and November were small losing months, basically break even. Luckily I have rakeback. December hasn't been going to well for me as well because I decided to be a moron and play some 6max games the the end of November and Beginning of December. Lets just say, it was a trainwreck. I guess jumping back into the waters as a lagtard can really be spewy. So as of December 4th, I've playing all Full Ring now and for a while. I decided to keep sticking with 50nl for obvious reasons and that is to rebuild confidence, bankroll, and redefine my game.

Over the course of June, July, August, and September, I had some solid results. That's because I worked on different aspects of my game one at a time. Over the other previous months, I had no idea what I was doing, but what I did get out of it was getting out of marginal situations, like flipping AT best spots. With the volume I put in, I have to realize that there are more plus ev spots for me to get in. Since October and November, I just been mindlessly playing and not thinking to much about the game. Why I open here, why I 3bet, etc etc. Not that it wasn't the right play, but poker is all about adjusting and readjusting, and that's something I haven't really been doing for a few months now.

Also, I haven't really had the chance to study, talk poker, post in forums, post hands, do sweats, watch videos, etc. Since I depend on the money, I have to grind. Though, I have been making a conscious effort to work on my game away from the tables and finding time to do more things related to poker and talk to more people and watching videos just to keep my mind freshened up. It hasn't been easy, and a lot of times when I watch a video, I just end up falling asleep half way through, but it's something I have to do if I want to keep improving. As far as my full ring results this month, they are ok. I'm actually up over 10 bi's. Not good, but not bad. I've been chasing my last milestone for the month and need about 4700vpps till my 300k milestone. $3600 is a nice little bonus with the holidays and all. Outside of the milestone, I still am trying to get as many vpp's to get a $1500 supernova bonus or concierge whatever I can to get the most out of my points. So far, if i keep up the volume like I've been doing this month, I might make close to 75000fpps which will be worth close to $1200 and that would help with not using my milestone for bills.

So I talked earlier about redefining my game. I'm not really sure what that entails, but i'm trying to get into all +EV situations (don't we all). I noticed that my vpip/pfr changes every session, but I think it's a good thing since I'm paying close attention to most of my tables. Realizing that I do put in lots of volume and sometimes 10k plus hands a day, I really have to play optimally and not mindlessly. I was running some pretty aggressive stats my winning months, but I think that to improve and move up, I have to get better and it is going to restart at 50nl. I might post more later about certain concepts, but I have to test it out the next month or two and see if it is going to work for me. Next year I plan on putting in over 2.4million hands. This year I think I put in a little over 1.5million hands. As far as SNE, I'm not going to say I'm going to make it next year, but I'm going to let it come to me. If I can keep making profits, then SNE won't be to far away next year.

I also have some other things going on for next year and when I finalize everything, i'm going to be really excited since this will hopefully improve my game and make 2011 my year and maybe even FULL RING KING!!!

As far as this year, it's been a rough ride. I made out to what I planned on doing and that is playing poker for a living online. Not the results I hoped for, but luckily for rakeback and bonuses, I've been keeping poker alive and have more of a poker bankroll than I started with last year which is good. I learned a lot since then and still trying to find what works for me. I think i'm getting close and closer to the rainbow, but only time will tell. I think though, redefining my game is going to help me move up in limits instead of being a 50NL grinder for life and hopefully take care of my family in the long run.

I hope everyone has a great December, make lots of money, get lots of gifts, and spend time with the ones you love. Until then, good luck on the journey

Jeff

When Poker Doesn't Go Your Way

2010-11-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!! I finally been thinking about the past 6 or 7 weeks since I went through my misfortune of what they call a downswing. First off, what really is a downswing? To most, people think they are running terrible, getting sucked out on, losing flips, etc etc. Not that i'm say that I don't have this downswing like others because I really feel like I do day in and day out. Believe me when I say it....I run bad. But I put in tons of volume, so i'm gonna have tons of swings all over the place. What I have been thinking about over this reflection of what has happened is it isn't any different than what I go through over the past 3-4 months, and those months I had winning results. I think over this period of stretch, my game changed to the point of tilt. All the bad beats, suck outs, flips that I couldn't win, overpairs vs underpairs that lost all in pf and overpairs in 3b pots that couldn't win. and draws that I couldn't get there with really got to me. I started getting it in a bit lighter, calling 3bets a little more, cold calling raises, getting aggressive in all the wrong spots led to my disaster. I didn't really think about all this before my last few days I left to go to California.

Basically my winning month in September turned into even stevens. I think I ended up winning like $350 for the month, which was unfortunate because I was having my best month in September, up almost $3k. Than I carried over my same game into October and still ended up losing for the month. Granted, I only played 2 week worth of hands, but still managed to put in almost 100k hands and lost about $800 for the month.

So what has changed since then? Not much I guess besides working on my game. I basically am starting back at basics. Trying to regroup and do what I did months ago and working on each aspect of the game while acquiring new knowledge of things. So when poker doesn't go how you expect, you have to think about what your doing. Like I said get back to basics, discuss hands, what videos, read a poker book or two. I've been trying in whatever small spare time I have, but I've been watching a few vids and trying to find time to get on the poker forums.

Since my parents left back to Thailand which was November 9th, I started grinding again. Since I started back up, I'm pretty much still trying to get my game going. It seems a little better, but basically I'm close to break even for the month which sucks, but better than losing tons of BI's. I'm only play 50NL at the moment and hopefully start back up at 100nl soon. I just need to get back in the groove and start winning again. If I don't, then I'm gonna have to reevaluate myself and poker.

If has been one rough ride and when you keep losing or breaking even, the best thing to do is just play your A game and don't change anything or play differently because you can go on tilt really fast. You might not even notice until it's too late. It took me 3 weeks to notice and it wasn't pretty. I still deal with the issue on a daily basis, but it is getting better. I feel a lot better and not so upset about my sessions and life. Maybe taking the past 3 weeks off is something I needed. We will have to see how the rest of my year ends because as of now, SNE is not looking like it will be in my cards for next year unless I have some huge heater coming up.

Since I rely on poker to take care of my family, moving up just doesn't seem like the best thing to do and risking my bankroll right now is not what I can do. I'm going to continue on improving and move back on up!!

Hope everyone else is running better than me!!! Good Luck!!

Jeff

Still on a break

2010-11-01T04:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a lot of time to think about poker the past few weeks since my parents flew from Thailand to California and now to Florida. I've been taking care of all there errands and needs and spending time with them as much as I can since I don't really see them too much. I guess in a way its been a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing meaning that I probably needed a break from poker since I haven't been playing so well or running well. The bad thing meaning I haven't had any time to work on my game, not get any hands in, and not making any money. My parents will be leaving on November 9th which is next week, so hopefully after that, I will be able to log in a ton of hands and hours.

On a side note, I filled out an application for Team Pokerstars Online Pro a few weeks back when I left to California. I'm not sure what the qualifications were, but they sent me a form to fill out which I thought was really awesome to do. It's something that I really want to do and accomplish and hopefully (i'm crossing my fingers) will get. With a family to take care of, I really hope for this since I love the game of poker, especially online. I have a lot to work on.

I've been thinking about my super downswing over the course of this and have to say that it's been soul crushing. I thought that I was over this, this meaning tilt. I've had a great 3-4 months of poker before this and I was almost tiltless if that is the right word for this. Even when I was running bad, I still tried to play solid and more solid. I still booked winning sessions/break even sessions when I ran felt like I ran bad. With that said, since September 20th, I pretty much went on an epic slide down the mountain. When I ran bad, I just started playing worse. Paying off river bets to light, turn bets, all ins, and getting it in on the flop with the worse of it. I think it had a lot to do with losing a few sessions back to back. When you loss 3-4 buy-ins over consecutive sessions, it can really mess with you mind. I mean, I can't blame myself for running terrible because I did...but who doesn't right? I had quite a bit of coolers, I think more than my average downswing. Overpairs vs Underpairs, smaller sets over bigger sets, bigger sets vs smaller sets only to get quaded,etc etc blah blah we heard it all before. I think though, when you are downswinging pretty hard, you have to keep focus and continue to..like I said play you A+++ game. More easier said that done but you really have to. Sometimes you have to get back to basics and fundamentals. Whatever can help you through catastrophic events like this. For some, that may be the solution, but to others it might be taking a few days off and head to the beach or just do nothing and watch TV and movies. Maybe even work on your game and study more which I haven't done at all.

Well, one more week to go before I get back to poker. My parents having been staying with me since last week and it will be sad to see them head back to Thailand. At least they finally have seen my 2 babies finally, 14 months later...haha I will be continuing to help them with anything the want, mostly shopping because my mother loves to shop, oh and also eat like 7 times a day and go to walmart as well. It's been nice though and they have helped out a ton and since I moved to Florida into my new home, they have added some new life to the house which I am gracious for.

With that said, I still hope SNE is in my cards next year and I hope all the best to everyone out there. Better than me. Until then....

Jeff

October a long month

2010-10-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!! It's been quite some time since I posted my last blog. I've had a busy busy 5 weeks. I recently moved from NY to Florida towards the last week of September, so I've been busy moving and trying to get settled in Florida. I haven't had to much time to really do much of anything besides trying to get back on track playing poker and just getting settled.

I like to apologize upfront about not posting the past few weeks. I've had a rough patch at the tables the past 4 weeks online as well, so that didn't help much. My goals for SNE are still a possibility, but I really have to keep stepping up my game. I had a rough ride at 100NL and basically lost all my winnings in the month of September which was a soulcrushing blow to myself since I've been improving so much the past few months. Since then, I haven't been doing so well at all this month, down some, but not as much. Trying to get back in it while just losing or breaking even every session can be draining, but I hope that I can get myself out of this downswing. Anyways, the past is the past, and hopefully I'll be back sooner than later.

I'm in California at the moment. My parents flew down from Thailand and I'm here helping them out take care of some stuff out here. They will also be heading back with me so they can finally see my babies for the first time. I'm really excited for this. I might be putting in a few sessions throughout the next few weeks, but nearly not as much as I usually do.

I hope everyone is doing well at the tables and wish you the best. More than me that's for sure...haha. So with that, I am off, I will be doing a lot of thinking to post my downswing thoughts and rough patches that happened hopefully soon. Lets just say, I played bad due to getting coolers and running bad as well. Not a recipe for success......hope all is well

Jeff

No Results to Zen

2010-09-17T04:14:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking about this topic for a while, not looking at your results whether its the day, week, or month. It's no stranger to me that I have talked a little about this in my past blogs, but I really think as a poker player, you shouldn't ever be results oriented. Of course we make mistakes on the way, but at the same time, looking at our results can lead to bigger mistakes.

For example, all you live players out there, have you ever accumulated a big stack and have a pretty healthy amount of chips only to see it dwindled away when you start losing a few pots. Now i'm not sure if this is with a lot of people out there, have you ever accumulated a huge stack only to play different live? Maybe tighten up a bit, not play as many hands, play really weak/tight so you don't give your chips away. I use to be a live player, so I use to have that mentality a lot and be about results which led to me quiting sessions when I was winning and playing longer hours when I was losing.

Same goes for playing online for sure. Looking at your cashier while you are playing or looking at your holdem manager or poker tracker can almost lead you to not playing optimal. Not saying that there are people out there that can't do it, because I know a few who look at there results while they're playing and win. I think though, people who look and still win can make more money and play longer sessions. I use to look at my results while I was playing. Sometimes I would be winning and sometimes I would be losing. All those times I looked, ended up being -EV. You just have to detach yourself from the money because the money is just a number that is part of your poker bank roll. Yeah, it's cool when you are winning, but when you are losing, you feel a different feeling, something where if can really mess with yourself and your game.

That's why I have been working on not looking at my results. What I would really like to do is not look at my results the whole month. When I don't look, it really helps me put in the much needed volume for SNE. Starting to win the past few months has really decreased my volume and I know that is something that needs change. This past month, I have stopped looking at my results for at least the whole day and sometimes after a few days. Which is good because my volume is increasing again. As far as results go, they seem like they are getting a whole lot better not looking. I've been experimenting with this and noticed there are a few days I did really well and some days where they were decent none the less. When I use to put in volume though, I just keep breaking even or losing tons of money when I first started. Looking at my cashier and my hold em manager sometime during the session. It was pretty heart breaking and emotional for me. I'm not saying that I don't go through these things every now and again when I see my results, but not much if any really.

The biggest thing that I have to work with since I'm on my SNE pursuit, is that my poker bank roll has to keep building by December and I still have to put in the much needed volume to make my supernova bonuses to take care of the family. I'm also planning on moving to Florida in the next few weeks, so I'm going to really have to step up putting in more volume and mixing in more 100NL tables. No Results to Zen is what I need to make this happen for next year. If I can do this and continue to keep playing solid poker, I have a good chance for SNE.

I hope everyone is doing well at the tables!!

Jeff

A Review of Ronfar3 Coaching

2010-09-10T04:34:00.000-07:00

I just finished up my last session with Ronfar3 and had about a good 3-4 hrs picking his brain, talking poker, and anything to help me along for SNE. Not only does he know a lot of concepts and theory behind poker, but he also can really help fine tune your game based on your poker playing style. I didn't really have a game plan going into our coaching session and didn't know what to expect. As soon as we talked, he was on time and ready to get started.

First thing we did was going over my holdem manager statistics so he can get a feel of my playing style and get an overall general guideline of my game over the last 300k hands I put in at Full Ring. Since he didn't know much about my game, he felt like I had overall strong stats. We went over things I need to fine tune a bit more and work on. Such as continuation betting and barreling a little more given my vpip/pfr. It's funny how things work by just doing little adjustments can really increase you earnings.

The second part of my session, we did a live sweat. I basically played my normal setup and played, not so much 24 tables, but a good healthy amount so I can get into some interesting spots. It was nice to have him watching over me but it wasn't anything he told me I should do or have to do, which is good. I mean, if you have someone telling you what to do or what you should do, I feel is not good, because you're not really learning and won't be able to fix your mistakes. I just played my normal game while just talking anything about poker and situations. When I did get into some interesting spots, I told him what my normal line is here and there. He listened and later, talked about different lines we can also be taking based on your image.

The third part was reviewing my session and going over any leaks he may have found and things he felt like I can work on. We also went back to holdem manager and did a hand history review and also a detail analysis of calling 3bets, suited connectors, etc. This is probably the most important part of the session where you can really learn a lot of things, not only about yourself and your play, but really going in depth with using holdem manager. For myself, I never really reviewed my sessions like I did with him. We went over quite a few hands as well and we talked about post flop concepts.

There wasn't a fourth part of the session, but I felt like there was and we just got talking more poker and SNE. We also talked about playing long sessions and putting in volume.

He has helped defined my game, improve my win-rate, and has given me the confidence to conquer the limits at my level. Whether you are a winning, break-even, or losing player, Ronfar3 will improve your game.

If you have any other questions or what not, just message, email me, or write anything else.

Keep up on the journey!!

Jeff

September 7th My Day of Redemption

2010-09-08T04:05:00.000-07:00

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Yesterday, by far has been the most incredible day poker wise. Not only did I have my best day in poker since December 2009, I also received Come Back King on PTR. As some of you may have not known, I had this train wreck icon on PTR for quite some time and over the past 2 1/2 months, I finally got out it. On top of that, it was kind of a ironic day to be honest because I checked my total winnings for the month and it shows $777+. Some lucky numbers huh?

On a another note yesterday, I also had the opportunity to get a long session with Ronfar3. He is pretty well known in the poker community and plays a ton of full ring 100nl and 200nl and is one of the top winners at his limits. I think he also does a lot of things at 2+2. So given that, I really wanted to work with him and pick his brain. I'm going to post a little review tomorrow on my blog to think about the ideas and concepts we discussed yesterday. All I can say at the moment is he knows his stuff. He's also a card runner coach there as well. I'll be posting a review soon of his coaching.
Ronfar3's page:
http://www.pairtheboard.net/

09/07/2010 cliff notes:
$654 biggest winning day
$777 month winnings
From train wreck to COMEBACK KING on PTR
Ronfar3 Coaching

All in all, I guess its a little run good post. But I had to share my luck with all of you.

Hope all is well with everyone out there!!

Jeff

September to SNE next year!!!

2010-09-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

September is here and I finally have decided that I'm going to be grinding a ton now, particularly 10k+ hands a day with a mix of 50NL and 100NL. I have to start now and get myself mentally and physically prepared for what's ahead of me next year or else I will never become SNE. I have to start now and get over my problem of not putting in enough volume, not looking at my results weather I'm winning or losing, and just grind. I'm never going to make it happen if I don't start now. Minimum 10k a day, 5 days a week, with a 6 day option to grind a few more thousand hands is my goal now till the end of the year.

As far as working on my game, I have my coach that is helping me on a weekly basis, and I have another coach that is pretty well know at the stakes I'm playing at which I start Tuesday with him and I'm really excited. I also been working with my B and he's helping me with a bunch of the math behind the math in poker and 3betting and 4betting which is pretty sweet if I can understand it. Also, I have quite a few people messaging me on skype about helping there game and doing my best to give them all the knowledge that I have gained the past year. As far as success goes, I've been doing a lot better from when I first started, so I'm going to help out as much as I can to everyone out there that wants my help. It's just tough grinding 10K hands, working part time, and spending some quality time with my family. So I'll do my best to anyone that has skyped me over the past 2 weeks.

If I can keep my goals up, I will be able to attain two more milestone bonuses while accumulating the $1500 supernova bonus twice in the month as well or at least be really close if I keep mixing both limits.

So goal recap:
Minimum 10K a day
Grind 5 days with a 6 day option
Continue to work on my game and study all the regs that are giving me trouble

Anyways, feel free to message me anytime hit me up...I always love feedback and support

Best of luck on the journey!!

Jeff

August Recap

2010-08-31T13:56:00.002-07:00

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So it's the end of August and have to say it was a lot of ups and downs pokerwise. I took a week off as well when I went to Florida, so I didn't put in the same amount of volume I usually put in. I managed however to throw in a good mix of 50NL and 100NL towards the last week and a half of the month, I put in around 13000 hands at 100nl. However, I also managed to start putting in a lot longer sessions over this past 11 days keeping my sessions to around 4500 hands+. I also forgot that I cashed in the million dollar freeroll for $225, so I had a decent month with all the swings. I have a lot of work to put in at 100NL if I want to beat it, but I'm going to do it if I want to keep course for SNE next year.

September is right around the corner, and I plan on putting in a good amount of volume at 100NL if not more than 50NL. Until then......

keep up the grind!!

Jeff

The 50NL n 100NL mix/knockdown

2010-08-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

So I finally decided to put in some epic sessions (12000 hands) of 100NL and 50NL to get a feel of the long grinds ahead of me. Well, it was a pretty brutal knockout in the face for me. I got crushed at both stakes. Most of it being at 100NL.

I just couldn't seem to get anything working for me and the regs at 100NL seem to fight a lot more for pots and make some more creative plays than at 50NL.

I lost all at 100NL...2 times AA vs KK, 2 times KK vs AA, won 1 out of 4 flips. Dominated running into big hands like TT vs AA and QQ vs AA, and getting outfloped in a 4b pot when they hit a set against my KK or AA which happened twice as well post flop.

Add all those up at 100NL and it just wasn't good. 50NL wasn't good for me either and lost a good chunk there as well. The only thing I can say is when I got back from Florida and put in my 10K hands the first few days, I did extremely well and basically lost what I won this week.

I have to really step up my game, pick more spots to fight for pots, get a little more creative but not fancy play syndrome for 100NL and at 50NL don't get to crazy. It seems like the regs at 100NL get it in a lot more lighter both preflop and post flop. But then again, I could be wrong, most definately player dependent for sure. I just have to learn from my mistakes, study the regs a lot more, and really....I mean really work on my game at the 100NL.

Hope I take down the poker stars saturday 100K tourney!!!

Until then, best of luck on the journey!!

Jeff

Away From The Tables

2010-08-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Last week, me and my wife decided to head to Florida to check it out because we are planning to move there. So we left for a week and basically was going to be a mini vacation/seeing if we like Florida. So during that time, I was going to put some time and volume playing poker still. My plan was to put in 25k-30k hands in considering I was going to loss some time playing driving to Florida and driving back to New York, roughly 3 days without grinding. So I had a good 5 days in Florida to wake up early every day and grind and still have time to do things.

Truth be told, I just had problems after problems trying to play. My computer was running like crap, the big thing was the internet wasn't super good, and I couldn't seem to get the time in when I finally got everything working again. I played the 1st day I got to the room and I was timing out every 5 minutes, spewed of a bit, and only managed to get a total of 5500 hands in for Florida. Really hard to play when the internet is not good. And one of those days, the internet didn't work at all because the hotel made some changes to the internet like needing a password which they didn't have.

So, I had to make due and decided just to clean up my laptop, do some studying away from the tables, check out some of the forums, and look for a coach to help me with 100NL. I found 3 coaches that I really wanted to work with and all really solid winners. I decided to stick with one coach and talked to him while in Florida and was really excited on his thoughts and things he can really help me with. I also had a chance to talk to another coach while there. I told my friend about him and he basically got coaching from him that same night I told him about him. I got a chance to listen in and talk during the conversation which was awesome. So I learned quite a bit of stuff and had a really nice conversation with my buddy about 3betting and ev calculations against certain opponents.

What I'm really trying to get at I guess is even when you are away from the tables, there is still a lot of stuff to do with poker and working on your game. Heck, i'm trying to work on SNE, so I have to keep on grinding away from the tables.

So, I am back from Florida now with a game plan. I've also been throwing in a mix off 100NL with my 50NL tables to get a good feel for the new limit. I have a coach and we start our first session tomorrow. Now I just have to make up for lost volume!

Best of Luck at the tables

Jeff

Time(Roll) Management

2010-08-13T04:37:00.000-07:00

Hey again blog, I've been thinking what to write about the past week since I've been grinding it out this week and I thought about Time(Roll) Management. When you think about bankroll management, you have to have enough money to support the limits you are playing at anytime. It determines weather or not you are able to move up or down in the stakes. What I have come up with Time(Roll) Management is you have to have enough time to be able to play enough poker while having enough time to maintain a life outside of poker. It also determines how much time you want to dedicate to poker based around your life circumstances. I think its a perfect fit while I pursuit SNE. It's a way to balance you as a person, a poker player, a family man, a student, etc. If you take poker serious to any degree even part time or full time, you really need to manage your time properly and that is in every aspect of life. It's something I have been trying to work on the past year and until this day still find it tough to do.

So how do you manage time around playing poker? This is really tough for me as all of you know. I literally spend 6-8 hours a day trying to put in volume playing as many hands I can while working on building my bankroll and supporting my family. I also have to spend time working on my game, weather it be reviewing my sessions, going over hand histories, watching a training video, posting in poker forums, writing in this blog, or just talking about the game in itself. I also work part time in the evenings which takes up anywhere between 12-24 hours a week. Have enough time to spend with my family, try to have time to do little things to help out, and have enough time to spend with my wife.

Right now I feel is most important in my poker career is being able to build my bankroll up and this is where it involves time. Lately this month and pretty much throughout the past few months my wins have resulted in shorter sessions and losses result in longer sessions. It's been a real problem for me that I have really been improving on. My volume has increased but no where near the potential I think I'm capable of. The thing in the past is I have been pretty much break even over the course of 4 months and volume was never an issue. Since I've had more success than note over the 2 months, I have to say that my time management has been a bit tougher since I have to try and make up some time here and there over the day or week since when I have winning sessions, I tend to take more breaks which maybe longer or quitting for the day. My friend pretty much staked me for a session so I can put in more volume after I had a +7 buy-in session over 2600 hands. Unfortunately that same day he staked me, I put in 3500 hands and managed to lose him -3 BI's.

As you can see, its a battle. What I realized about pursuing SNE is really pursuing yourself. Life isn't all about poker and I think to some who pursue SNE, they get really stressed or give up because it's just too much work. You need to find a balance and chasing SNE is no different. Some days I grind a lot, if feels like a walk in the park and some days feel like it's never going to end. The later part of that is what I need to work on. I need to get over winners tilt. I need to work on more volume, build my bankroll, and work on my Time(Roll) Management.

Something more or less for me to think about and hopefully help anyone out who reads this.

Good Luck on your journey!!

Jeff

Rebuilding Confidence

2010-08-04T03:36:00.000-07:00

The past week and last week have not been going so well. I've been trying to overcome the hill over and over, and I'm yet to climb over it. All my days lately have been losing 2-3 buy-ins at a time, or breaking even. Add that up and i'm slowly bleeding my bankroll away. The positive thing is, I am getting the much needed volume still which is good. Another positive outcome from this is I haven't completely went on any massive downswing like I have in the past where I lose 5-12 bi's each session over a 2 week period and all of a sudden going on a 15 to 25 bi downswing. Thank goodness for that. I've really just focused on playing through this and have had much better results.

When I go through downswings like this, it really takes a toll on me. I get a little more negative, hate life, frustration starts to set in, and I am just all around at the computer in a bad mood. The thing that makes me even more upset is when I look at my ev difference and adjust in my holdem manager and I should be up this much when I'm down this much. It's never the other way around for me where I can run over ev one time. That's another story, and I'm not here to complain, I'm here to keep positive. I use to rebuild confidence by playing a lot of small sessions just to book a win. I still do from time to time. It use to really help me but cuts into my volume I would save at least a 1/3 in the month. But since this small downswing, I've kept grinding through it trying to keep playing long sessions and put in the volume I need to pursuit what I hope to prepare for...SNE.

Rebuilding confidence is something that just kinda makes you feel better when you start to run good and win again. That is just a short term state of mind. I've been thinking about it and have to say I shouldn't let booking a win influence my mental state. I should be thinking about making the best decisions at all times and keep focusing on the game. When I get sucked out on, can't win any flips, or lose to smaller overs vs my overs, I can't let that effect me. It happens and it still bothers me here and there. I need to keep in control of myself, my body, and my mind. I'm in it for the long run and not the short run. If i'm going to rebuild confidence, it's going to be away from the table. If that means, taking a break to spend a few hours with my family, reviewing my sessions, reading a book, going for a walk, talking poker with other people, helping others with their game, etc.

I need to keep on focusing on quality and quantity. It's been getting a lot better through this downswing, but I HAVE to do it. Playing a small session just to book a win isn't in the cards for me if I want to become SNE. It's very important that I do build my bankroll by winning, but I have to still put in the volume not just for me, but to make the bonuses to support the family and pay the bills. I can't choose one way or the other way. I have to keep on grinding and play my A+++ game.

So what else can I write about to help rebuild confidence. My goals are a bit different from others. But if could help anyone out, like I wrote about earlier, play some shorter sessions. When your up, just quit and come back again if its later in the hour or the next day. It really helped to build my bankroll and win rate. When I was winning, I kept playing until I felt like I wasn't focused or when I play a a few pots, that's when quitting is best while your up. Winning one or two buy ins adds up over time. When you start to feel like you aren't focused anymore, or If you are losing a buy in or two, just quit and come back. Remember, thats balancing your shorter sessions. Another thing I would really do is go through your sessions in detail and review. When I thought I was running bad, it had a lot to do with playing bad. Find new leaks in your game will help you become a better poker player and in the end, rebuilding confidence.

August Luck is just around the corner!! Best of luck on the journey!!

Jeff

July Recap

2010-08-02T04:20:00.000-07:00

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After working on my game over the past 7 months playing full time online poker, put in over 1 million hands...I've finally had the best results since moving back to full ring!!! It's been a long grind, lots of hours, and stress the first 4 months pretty much breaking even, slightly losing, or barely winning. The fifth month, I won 20 bi's, sixth month broke even, and this month up 40BI's. More than the supernova bonus I accumulate every month. Good Sign indeed!!!

I've stepped up my game, I mean really stepped up my game over the past 3 months. It's been a long process, but I think I have a pretty good idea of the game, and I'm only improving now learning new things as I go. Depending on fpps was to stressful because it was frustrating not winning. I'm really dived into full ring poker as a result at 50NL and have to say, you can make a pretty decent income at 50NL. Hopefully I can moved back up to 100NL soon...only when I'm ready for it.

So as of July, the 3 main topics for my SNE pursuit will be the backbone and a skeleton to write about more of the little details within:
SNE Prep 1.0
Quality n Quantity
Mental Prep and Game Focus

Good Lucky on the Journey!!

Jeff

Mental Prep and Game Focus

2010-07-30T04:41:00.000-07:00

So I finally thought about what it's going to take to mentally focus and prepare myself for the grind thats gonna start. Truth be said, it's what I pretty much do now. But I think over the past year, it has changed from time to time till today which I'm still dealing with. What you really need, I think, is a daily plan, like the game you crush, your bread and butter, which leads to routine. I'm not saying you should follow this for the rest of your life and you can also diverge from the routine if there are obstacles in the way or if you can improve, then by all means, change it.

So what does Mental Prep and Game Focus mean?
To me, it means preparing myself to play my A+++ game over many hands and long hours both short term and long term without stressing myself out doing this. Worrying about hours, hands, and money is the last thing I need to be think about because if I play my A+++ game, then those described will just happen.

Mental Preparation is going to be different for all people. For me, it's a 24/7 thought process. I want to make sure I wake up early without setting my alarm, going to bed at whatever time, but still be able to wake up early, putting in volume and hours without thinking about it, eating healthier without thinking about it, feeling good and staying positive even when times can be rough, planning around everything, etc. Planning your day, weeks, and months are very important. Things come up and things to do, but the thing I have to be aware of is I have to pursuit SNE. So If I have to take the day off or do something in the middle of the day away from grinding, I better have a plan to make up for lost time as a part of my mental game.

Game Focus is something I need to keep working on and is what I struggle with the most. Playing long quality hours and hands is the toughest part. Even when I put in shorter sessions, multiple sessions seem tougher to put it sometimes. Either way I look at it, it decreases my volume dramatically and cuts away from SNE. I need to get over this mountain. Not think about results, winning, losing, but really like I keep saying is play my A+++ game for long long hours over the next year. Taking breaks are good for the game, but coming back reset and ready to go is better. So if I can set myself out to A+++ game in 5 minutes or 10 minutes, I will have a chance at this. Not 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, but short breaks. Why?

Time is valuable. I don't know about you, but I want to enjoy the quality of life still and not spend all my time playing poker 18 hours of the day by playing a few hours here, few hours there, study here, etc. That's why playing quality and quantity over a long period is important. I need time to be with my family, my wife, my babies. That's where I need to balance my time and myself. It's probably something I've been working on since I first started and still to this day, working on. You need to have balance at the tables and away from it.

So my routine I follow as of now:
Wake up early between 6-7:30am
Take a shower, drink coffee, relax, maybe some light house chores
Fire up the computer, read some forums, look over some hand histories, watch a training video
Get ready to start working and fire tables up focused
Focus on poker from the time I start to about 4 or 6:30pm 5 days a week.

That's about it, of course working at home, I stray away from this sometimes. But I have to manage to replace the time missed playing weather it be I put in a session another day or later in the evening. I have to make sure I do that.

If I can improve on everything I discussed, I'll keep adding to my mental prep and game focus. Thanks if anyone reads this. If anyone has any other thoughts or advice, I would love to hear them

Good luck on the journey!!!

Jeff

Quality n Quantity

2010-07-22T03:51:00.000-07:00

There's a thing to be said about Quality and Quantity. I'm sure there's a bunch of mixed feelings and some would say its much better to put in quality, and very few would say quantity. The thing about this is, I need to be able to take the best of both worlds. At least over the next year and a half. Over the first 4 months of grinding, I never had a problem with putting in the volume. That's where it led to being breaking even over those months. So one of the months, I put in shorter sessions, and I started winning, but I didn't put in the volume nearly as much. I look back at it from the beginning over those rough months and know now that I wasn't good enough. I still might not be good enough, but I've been working on my game since then, improving, making better decisions, understanding concepts a lot better.

I remember 24 tabling Full Ring or 16 Tabling 6max and handful of my long sessions led to disaster. Usually ending up in -10-14 buy-in downswing. If anyone reads this, please don't let this happen to you. I want to say, don't try this at home. I use to think I was just running bad, but in reality just playing bad overall. Mixing those two together can really lead to a train wreck. Now I think I'm getting a little bit better with my long sessions. I've noticed that even when I'm running bad, I'm still not down two much in my epic sessions and manage to book a few +bi's for the session.

This leads me back to the topic at hand. I've had trouble with putting in quantity when I'm playing well and winning. I try and not look at my results of my session when I feel I'm running good and playing well, but I do sometimes. I end up quitting my session and take an extended break (1-2 hours) and fire another session and repeat if it goes well and quit. My volume I should be putting in usually gets cut in half if not more for the day. I have always had this problem and trying to fix this leak. This month has probably been the best so far when I'm winning, but I still am having this problem. I need to fix it and overcome it if I want to be SNE. I have to keep telling myself to not be results oriented, not look at my cashier, and just play my A+++ game over an 6-8 hour day. I see people like Nanonoko and Leatherass. These guys are beast when it comes to putting in volume and quality. They don't play 1 hour sessions and quit, they keep playing and playing. They still do till this day and I give them much respect for doing so.

Putting in volume is really tough when you seem to lose or break even. I think I am overcoming this monument slowly but surely. The past 3 months have been so much better than before. I have worked on my game, talked to people, watched a few training site videos, worked on my mental game, and breathing poker. I have a few people who I try and help with there game as well since I've started to understand the game a lot more. Time to start working!!!!

Keep the dream alive,

Jeff

SNE PREPARATION 1.0

2010-07-21T05:35:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot about what I have to do to prepare myself for SNE the past week and realized that it's gonna take a lot of work. I mean a lot!!!

Not only do I have to grind a ton of hands, a ton of tables, and a ton of hours...I have to get ready for a roller coaster of a ride that's going to come along with this.

Since starting to play professionally of January,2010, I've had so much stress and success doing it. But it wasn't the kind of success I had hoped for. I basically broke even the first 4 months of playing, had one winning month, another break even month, and till now where I had an ok month so far. So the progress is improving. So how am I even playing professionally you ask I broke even over those 5 months? I'm not proud of it by no means, but I use the pokerstars supernova bonuses, milestones, stellar rewards, and whatever promotional money they offer to survive. It isn't the worse thing in the world because I'm able to take care of my wife, two babies, and pay the bills. So that alone keeps me motivated to keep on playing.

So the next thing I have to ask myself is why am I playing? Well, you need some motivation and reasons behind doing it. Some have different reasons, but mine is because as I had said before. I'm doing this for my family. That's the first and foremost reason for doing this. I want to be able to take care of them in all ways possible and provide for them. Buy a house one day, take a nice vacation, buy them whatever they want. But the biggest reason I'm doing this for my family is because I want to be able to spend all the TIME in the world with them. If I can put in the work now, I might have that chance to. The second reason is I'm doing it for me. It's something I want to accomplish for myself. This is where success comes in. I feel like I haven't been to successful since I started. I put a lot of effort, time, and commitment into this. The thing about what I do is, I really enjoy playing a ton of tables and a ton of hands. I don't mind 24 tabling Full Ring NL or 16-18 tabling 6max NL. I've always done it since I first started playing online poker and it's something I want to really master which I'm still doing to this day. Most might achieve success playing less tables, but that has never been my game and I'm not going to start any time soon, unless I play the nosebleeds one day.

Which brings me to now. What am I going to do to prepare for the long road ahead of me next year. I have a lot of obstacles to hurdle. The biggest one is I have to win on a consistent basis this year. I have to be able to have a 20K-25K bankroll by the end of this year in winnings. Like I said, I don't use any of the money I receive from pokerstars to add to my bankroll, so that isn't even an option. I might be able to use one of the milestones I recieve to add to my bankroll if I can get to 400K vpp by the end of this year, but we'll have to see if we really need it.

I'm gonna keep on grinding at 50NL for the next few months and see how I do. If I can have a few winning months, I think I might be able to start playing 100NL again. So my goal as of now is to play minimum of 125k-175k hands the next 2 months. I going to grind 6-8 hours a day 24 tabling 50NL. In between that, I'm going to study, review my sessions, go over some hands, check out the poker forums, talk poker, do some live sweats, and help my friend to become SNE as well. If I can help someone else be successful, then I might be doing something right and help with my confidence in my own game.

With that being said, this is my journey, and I'm ready to go to war. If anyone wants to follow my blog, give me any support, advice, or anything, that would be amazing!!!!

Best of luck to everyone!!!

Jeff

SNE Pursuit Here I Come!!!!

2010-07-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

So I've been thinking a lot lately about what I really what to accomplish next year and that is to become Supernova Elite on Pokerstars. It's going to take a lot of work, a lot of hours, a lot of hands, a lot of tables, a lot of studying, a lot of mental brain work, and a lot of dedication to make this happen. Over this past year, I've logged in close to a million hands, so I think I have what it takes to become SNE. So from now till the end of the year, I'm going to try and work on my game playing many tables and many hours. I'm gonna try and work my way up to hopefully 1/2 NL by the end of this year is going to be my goal and to have a pretty healthy bankroll for 1/2 NL. Roughly 20K sounds good. That way, I can still take care of my family and bills still. So with that being said, I'm going to try and update this blog ever so often with my pursuit for next year and hopefully give some helpful advice and hopefully some of your support to make this happen.

Reset

2010-05-07T04:31:00.000-07:00

I had written a post right before I hit some button on my laptop and erased everything.

Here I go again

So, I've been thing a lot about poker and my life lately which equates to my family and music. Anyways over the past 5 months since I started taking poker to the next level by playing full time online, I have to say, it wasn't what I expected. After putting in over 700K hands, seen every beat possible, trying a ton of different things while multitabling, watching a ton of training videos, posting of forums, talking with friends about poker, getting a few coaching lessons, in the end I'm just a marginal, to break even, to slightly losing. It's been really mentally draining on me. What i'm not going to do is complain or say that I ran bad. I think I just over did it by forcing myself to put in to many hours, play to many tables, and really a lot of bad play in my opinion. I mean, 1 or 2 mistakes can really really cost you day in and day out. I mean there would be a lot of days where I would play for 8 hours and be down 10+buy-ins. And I really felt I was playing well, but just coolered a bunch. I would be down for that day and my ev difference would be still positive. But then again, somedays, my ev difference would be negative. I really thought that I would be able to take care of my family in a good way through poker and possibly have more time and quit my part time job and maybe some more time to get my band going again, but from then till now, it's just not working out. I think my whole idea was skewed, and playing for those bonuses on stars was just the wrong way to go. I mean, I set out to what I wanted to do and the bonuses were like my paychecks to take care of bills which it has been doing. But my poker bankroll is just slowly and slowly decreasing.

What I'm not going to do is quit poker. What I'm still going to do, is take it seriously and play to support my family. What I'm not going to do is play countless hours without taking any breaks. What I'm not going to do is play 18-24 tables.
So, for this month, I'm going to keep my sessions short to around 600-1400 hands depending on how I feel. Really, no more than an hour to an hour and a half max. Up or down, i'm going to stop. I'm gonna stick to 6max so, I'm going to play 12 tables max and try and play the best games and exit tables that are just bad. This is how I started and built my roll when I was playing for the fun of it. The only difference is i'm going a to put in a few more sessions in the day. Around 4-6 sessions throughout the day withing a 8 hour period. Take a 15-30 minute break after each session and come back fresh and RESET. I've been doing this the past week and so far my results have been more optimal and in the green instead of red for each session.

I'll have to see how this pans out and I really hope this will help. I've been at 50NL way to long, but really have to crush it before even thinking about moving up. I need to build my bankroll back up and hopefully set out to why I'm playing this game, for the financial freedom in the future and to enjoy the things that have meaning in my life, my wife and my two babies and maybe throw in some time to get back into music if I have time. Maybe own a house of my own one day, go on roadtrips and vacations without worrying about money.

Well I hope all is well and good luck on the journey!!!

Jeff

Almost 27K hands this month

2010-04-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

So, I told myself this month I'm gonna try and put in some heavy heavy volume and quality play as well. I think I've managed to do so pretty well. I hadn't looked at my results until yesterday, but only because it was accidental and was looking through my reports and I guess it shows how much i'm down or up at the bottom. Well I looked and I guess I was running well my first couple days up like 10 Buy Ins but the last day I played I guess I lost close to 8 buy ins. That day I had put in heavy volume and lost pretty much like 6 buy ins with KK and AA. 3 hands were KK vs AA, and the other KK hand was a rough beat against 77 post flop on a 653r board and villain minraised by cb and I shoved, he called and hit a 4 on the river for the straight. My AA hand ran into a set Blind vs. Blind. And I forget the other. I guess that's poker.

I guess that's OK number of hands put in, but I really wanted to get about 10-11K hands a day in and the first week of April has come to an end. I really like the mix between 6max and full ring. Sometimes I fill like when I'm playing Full Ring, every is just so damn nitty and just waiting around for the nuts and it ends up that I start playing nitty as well I hate it. Well I still have 3 weeks left. My goal was to achieve around 40K vpp on stars for april and i'm about at 5600vpp thus far. So I got a long long way to go but I still want to put in quality hands in. I pretty excited about my first milestone bonus coming up for $1000 bucks, cash that out and put in the bank!!! Yeah

Keep up the grind and good luck on the journey!!!!

Jeff

Music Music Music

2010-04-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't yet to post anything about music. Maybe because I've been to consumed with poker. I thought it be nice to write a little about what I've been doing and listening to lately.

I went to hot topic last week looking for some new music. I found The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis and bought the album. I've been a long time fan of there's and have seen them in concert a few times and own all their albums and really really excited to find they put out a new album. All I have to say is it is effing amazing!! As good as "Miss Machine" they put out a few years ago. Another album I thought was pretty incredible that came out this year was Between The Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect. Really sick stuff you all should check out if you are into heavy music.

I've also been working on a solo project. I've written about 5 songs kinda complete, but not. Have to write a few more lyrics and finish up with some parts, but all in all, I'm really happy with the results as of now. Now only if I could sing well, that would make everything so much better...haha. It's going to be a music project about me and my life up until now and possibly future. I have no real plans on when the project is going to be finished, but I plan on writing 12 songs on my acoustic guitar. Maybe put in some keys and drum loops. I was thinking I can have my band mate Greg sing the songs since he has a good voice.

As of my band, I hope we will get back together soon once I move back to cali!!!

Best of Luck on the Journey!!

Jeff

April a new month, A new start!!!!

2010-04-01T04:55:00.000-07:00

So I've doing a lot of things the past few months, trying new things, seeing what works for me. Between poker, my kids, wife, and working part time, it has been really tough the past few months to balance. But now is April, and I'm going to try really hard to balance between them all. I've also decided to start working out and lose roughly 20 pounds in the next months.

So what am I going to do to balance this out. Well, i'm going to try and get most of my playing time in the days I have to go to work. On my days off, i'm going to have one day where there is no poker whatsoever and another day where I at least get a good half day off as well just to spend time with my babies and wife. Do things, take drives, maybe just have a nice day. As far as working out, i'm going to try and wake up around 7am and do a light to medium workout for 15-30 minutes a day. I chose 7am because everyone is usually still sleeping and my babies don't wake up till around 8-9am. That way I don't take away from the rest of my day.

Hopefully this will work out. My confidence has been down the past few months after putting in probaby 400K hands in the past few months and pretty much losing to break even. I think I had one small winning month. I'm tired of making money only through the supernova bonuses on stars and ready to play quality and quantity poker. I've been working on putting in 2-3 sessions instead of one long session keeping my sessions to about 2-3 hours. I've also been transitioning back to 6max which I really enjoy. I fire up around 7-12 6max tables and around 4-5 Full Ring tables and have found it to be quite comfortable. I'm also going going to dedicate a few sessions a week to 180 man turbo SnG's since I've had some pretty decent results. So that is something I will throw into the mix and maybe a few HU sessions.

One thing I'm really working on which I've been trying the past few days now is not looking at my cashier box and holdem manager stats. I not looking at how many hands I put in, not knowing how much money I've won or loss for the day and really focused on playing my best poker at all times. If I go busto, I wasn't meant to play poker. I guess the only thing I'm really looking at is how many fpp's I have by the end of the day since I rely on the points to live and pay bills. I'm gonna try and not look till maybe 2 weeks or really at the end of the month to check my results and review my play. I've in the past few days have felt more alive and focused on playing my A game at all times. I'm not thinking about how much I lost or how much I've won when I had a good run. Really, it's just now what I want to be thinking about. Just thinking about the game, making the best decisions, and playing solid poker is all I need!!!

Best of luck on the journey!!

Jeff

I need more days like this

2010-03-20T21:10:00.001-07:00

So, i woke up this more planning to have a long day of poker. It was more like 3 sessions of 3 different things.

I ate some breakfast, put in some icm calculations on calling shoves and decide to start my session.

My first session was playing a ton of 180 man turbo sit n go on stars. I ended playing around I believe 30 games over a 2.5 hour period. Giving it my first real run at these games, i had some pretty decent results. I ended up playing around 12-16 games over the 2.5 hr period which was decent, but maybe want to be able to play around 24-30 games at once once I get more comfortable with it. I cashed in 4 tournaments total. Got 17th and 10th for the min cash. And the other 2 I got one 2nd place finish and one 1st!! place finish which was a really nice result.

My second session was kinda random, but I thought I mess around on my full tilt account and play a little rush poker. Played maybe less than an hour maybe 30 minutes, but ended cashing for 2 buyins which was pretty sweet. I didn't know you can play up to 4 tables on each rush cash table. So I 4 tabled some rush and probably could do up to 8 if I really put more time into it. 4 tabling is equivalent to about 16 tables an hour. Really happy with my results and got some of my money back and I shipped some to a coaching session I had last week.

My third session, I had my typical stars 20-24 tabling session. Put in about 1600 hands and up close to 2 buyings.

All in all, it was such a great start and I was thinking about putting in more volume on stars, but my wife, two babies, and her family were heading up to meet a friend and take care of a little business after my 3rd session and she really wanted me to come, so I agreed. Plus it's always great spending time with my wife and babies which I need to do more off but two busy working. It was a great night, we went shopping, had a nice dinner, ended going to the mall and walmart. It was fun and here I am a little past midnight.

Well, keep up on the journey!!

Jeff

The Daily Grind!!!

2010-03-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

So, in the past 2 weeks, I've slowed down on my volume of play after taking quite a few shots at 100NL. I had a rough few sessions and lost quite a bit.

So I've moved back down to 50NL and really really just working on my game. I've put in a lot less volume, playing fewer hours, and keeping my sessions shorter than usually but putting in maybe a couple a day instead on 1 or 2 long 4 hour sessions. I would like to say, that is has been really refreshing and building my confidence back up and have won more in one week then I have in a few months over 50K hands this month. So i'm feeling a lot better these days and hopefully be able to put some larger volume in soon.

I've also had some recent coaching and had a session the other day that I found pretty useful. I also am getting some free coaching on 180man sit n gos and going to put in some volume at the lower buyins for now. I'll probably be starting this up this weekend and maybe put in about 40-50 180man tourneys and see how I do. I'm really excited working with him since we have talked for a while now and he has published 3-4 books,has his own radioshow, and doing all sorts of cool stuff related to poker. So that I am blessed and hopefully this will be a new opportunity to something amazing!!!!

Best of luck on the journey!!!!!

Jeff

1st Post

2010-03-17T21:20:00.001-07:00

Well, I decided to moved my blog over to here for no reason what so ever. I have one at deuces cracked, so i'll probably be blogging back and for. Also depends how much I actually have time to do this.

I play a lot of poker online, work part time and take care of my family. Hopefully, this could be the start of something new and refreshing.

I sometimes ask myself, why I play poker and really, I love the game, but more importantly, taking care of my family is the first priority and hopefully soon have a lot more freedom from playing poker.

Well I guess I'll post again sometime soon!!

Good luck on the journey

Jeff