Still Alive!!!!

Update coming soon!! Still playing poker like always!!

Jeff

2012 Hoping to Break Through

Hey everyone!! Poker is still alive and well in the Rising Sun Camp!!! I'm still keeping the live pokerz going. As a matter a fact, I had a fortune saying that this year will be huge and another lady that told me the same when I gave her my birth date. I'm just crossing my fingers and going to continue what I'm doing and just giving it my all everyday to take care of my family. My overhead is still quite high but 2/5NL is still manageable with my life and am very fortunate to keep making money from it.

Since the beginning of December, I've been short stacking the live games at the casino I play at and building my stack up from there. Mostly due to the convenience where I play and when I stay with my friends that grind there as well. I found a bit of success doing it and my variance isn't as bad and my hourly is only cut by a little. I took some bankroll considerations for doing this since I felt I was a bit under rolled for 2/5NL after I moved to a new place and my bankroll took a pretty big hit. A little less stressed and still can take care of my family and build my bankroll back up to take shots at 5/10. I had real good success in December, and just been doing it since then. I have about 385 hours from what I filtered and making about 9bb/hrly from short stacking. I wouldn't really recommend this to someone without studying and working on it. It is a different style of play compared to full stacks, but I just keep adjust and build up my stack and keep playing even when I'm over 100bb's. Here is my graph from poker journal.



Only downside I feel from doing this is I'm not playing to my full potential sometimes. It deteriorates from my play and my game isn't as solid. Fortunately for me I have surrounded myself with a lot of real good players that buy in for max at table and we always discuss hands on and off the table which helps me keep in touch with the game. What I realized from poker there is all kinds of possibilities to making money from it. There are different winning styles. You can play deep stack 150bb+, reg stack 80-120bb's, or mid stack or short stack, tag, lag, etc. It is all about adjusting. If you don't, you will get eaten alive in this game. I have seen quite a few players that came from the internet and gone now. Quite a few live players that just quit and went to the corporate world because they couldn't handle the mental side of the game.

Aside from poker, I have been eating healthier and working out on a regular basis. Since my weight gain last year, I'm happy to say I have lost nearly 25 pounds and feel a lot better about myself and feel it has improved my lifestyle and game. I have a lot more energy and my kids that keep on getting bigger and bigger now 2.5 years old feel a lot lighter when I pick them up.

Well I'm still hoping for a big year and break out of the 2/5NL and onto bigger and better things from poker. Granted, taking care of my wife and kids is the greatest feeling to do and poker has given me that freedom to do so. But I gotta keep improving, getting better, and working on moving up because the games keep evolving and changing so i need to stay ahead of the curve.

As far as questions about poker, I am continuing to talk to other poker players from around the world through email or phone. So feel free to contact me about live poker, I am always trying to help others out there become successful at it or improve there win rate. Happy Grinding 2012!!

JEFF

A Short But Long Update

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

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

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

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)

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

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!!

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

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!!!!

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

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

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!!!

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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