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
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
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
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
Sunday, May 1, 2011
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
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
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
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
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
Thursday, March 10, 2011
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
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, March 6, 2011
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
Monday, February 28, 2011
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
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