Meh

Still on a bit of a bad run, certainly not the worst I've ever been on, but it's up there. Again, it's always hard to know, even with stat indicators, whether I am playing well, especially since I have started slow playing my top pairs more on the flop (due to so much c-betting and double barreling) and thus my flop aggression is down. I feel like I'm playing well, and I'm also more focused on what to do to make more money as opposed to just rote # of hands. I might play in some cap NL games more this week and I might play some different limits, I don't know for sure.

I have still been eating less, although I've been less concerned with it over the past week. I have not focused on a lot of my other goals and I still feel unambitious and lethargic. I have been told by a few people lately that I should either start exercising or at go get anti-depression pills from the doctor--just do something to get myself out of the funk, and I know that's good advice although I haven't taken it.

I watched a CardRunners video about exploiting loose late position steal-raisers who c-bet most flops HU but are otherwise straightforward and it was certainly useful but nothing too mind blowing. I have also had numerous friends contact me about getting me a good deal on a new comptuer once all my refunds get in, so I am somewhat excited about the prospect about a faster computer; however, the main reason for getting it is now fixed, so I might save that money for now.

That's right, Poker Tracker 3 finally works! It was not the new update, which is still not out. It was the realization by a friend that the source of the problems was too many panels, or stat groups, which I had in my HUD. When I combined that stats together into only 4 stat groups, the hud now covers all my tables without much lag and without crashing. I can now finally use PT3, and I am certainly happy about that.

Here's my stats from the past week. Rakeback and discipline have been my major saviors over the past few weeks. A little win is still a win, and being able to be up about $350 for the month even on a bad run makes things feel a little better.

I have been trying to tighten up the past few weeks too in order to get more disciplined and also to practice 8 tabling, but I think I'm ready to open back up a little, so I am going to try to LAG it up a little more this week and be more active at the table... we'll see what happens.

Also, I found out about a new computer video game coming out called Spore which looks very interesting and I encourage whoever the hell reads this thing to check out the demo of it recorded here at the 2005 Game Developer's Conference. It has been in developement for years as they worked more aand more on it and should be fascinating. The full video (from which the previously mentioned clip is taken) where the creator talks about the conception and development of the game and the conception of the algorithmic models is here.

-Max

Hell week, failure, and optimism...

Well this week was horrible both in terms of things that happened, and in my own failure complete my weekly tasks. Last Tuesday, I had the most horrid run of cards. Among other versions of it, I lost the vast majority of my all ins (the vast majority of which I was a favorite, by a vast amount). I put in 3K hands and just got beat down to a pulp! Wednesday, I feel I ran still below average (but better than Tusday!) but I just don't know if I played my best or not. It's hard to tell when you're on a bad run how much of it is cards and how much you unconsciously are doing different than you normally do.

So with my showdown winnings negative for 6K hands, and down more than I care to admit (but you will see in my PT stats), I went into Thursday. Being burned out, I was looking forward to getting my new motherboard and CPU in the mail to install in my computer. It would be a nice break from playing, as I was feeling burned out. So I go to put in the motherboard, after sticking the CPU and fan on it, and my chassis is too small. Off to Fry's to find the cheapest big chassis I can! Hour later, I am back, $40 lighter, and stick in the motherboard. So I unscrew everything else from my old chassis and strip it for parts and put everything in the new casing. And I plug it in and.... nothing.

Six hours later, in the middle of the night, after sextuple-checking to make sure everything was in the right place, I gave up for the night. Friday I took it in to a repair shop that said they'd be able to look at it before the day's end... and Saturday, right before they closed, I went in to pick up my computer with the information that the motherboard was faulty. So I dropped by Fry's again on the way home to get a new one of the same type, and get home to install it. Unplug and unscrew everything, gently and carefully replace the CPU and fan, reinstall everything, plug it in, turn it on, and.... nothing.

I lose a screw (in my head) at this point, and just give up for the night, pissed at the badness of the week, pissed at myself for wasting a large chunk of the week, and frustrated out of my mind that my computer isn't working. And I'm also pretty sure that the guy at the repair shop did not look at my computer with my than a cursory glance and just told me my motherboard was faulty in order to get me out of there, minus the fee...

Sunday, I took everything apart, boxed up all the motherboards and the CPU and the chassis, which are all in fine condition, and reassembled my old computer, which at this point was just a metal skeleton with a power supply on the table next to it. Sunday night, I plug in my old and rebuilt computer, turn it on, and... it works fine. So here I am, with the same computer as last week, having wasted four or five days of my life, $100 lighter in repair fees and gas and whatnot. And as soon as I get the refund from Amazon and Fry's for everything, I am going to use that money to buy a pre-assembled computer, and take the $100 or so hit that was the cost of the repair shop, gas, and extra screws and parts. The motherboard/CPU combo was supposed to be a cheaper fix than getting a new computer, but that just didn't work out. So for now, I will continue to play with laggy software that runs my CPU hot whenever I play poker, and without a HUD, since PT3's hud crashes every time I try to use it and needs more processing power than my computer can give it, being a 3.2GHz (single core) Pentium 4 processor. (Although PT3 CLAIMS that the newest beta update this week will fix that, although they've been saying that EVERY beta release....)

So not only was it a miserable and annoying week, I wasted a large chunk of it. I haven't made a video this week either, and I only watched one video... I feel bad about having such a bad start, but I am very optimistic. I am also going to cut down my weekly load a bit to something that I think I can do. I am not going to force myself to play when I don't feel I will play well but I will try to build up my stamina for playing. This is about making money, after all, and if I'm putting in -EV hands, then it's worth my while to play fewer hands, until I can learn to put in more hands profitably.

In other news, my donation for last week was a two-week's worth donation of $21 total, covering last week and this week. $7 went to the Poker Players Alliance, $7 to the Democrats to help elect Barack Obama, and $7 went to the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. I have been eating about half of what I normally eat, but I did not exercise. I truly hate all forms of exercising except hiking, and I thought I could push myself to do it, but I just do not feel motivated enough to do it—so I am thinking of signing up with a mountain-hiking group to go on weekly hikes to beautiful spots around the Seattle area like Mt. Rainer. That would do me some physical good, as well as give me a nice emotional bump every week, and I could see some very pretty scenery before it gets too cold to do anything, which it will in a few months. The Mathematics of Poker was a bit too much for me to concentrate on this week, and especially since the main theme of most of the chapters I've been reading is "unexpoitable play is acheived through a mathematical analysis of figuring out what betting frequency makes your opponent neutral about his options"... so I read a few chapters out of Mike Caro's excellent “Caro's Most Profitable Hold 'em Advice” and Daniel Negraneau's “Power Hold 'em Strategy”. I recommend both books—they each have very good advice and there's golden nuggets for all skill levels even if you are an expert.

So that's it for this week. Here's my horrendous PT3 picture of the week, but again, I'm optimistic. Even with a bad run, with my earlier win and rakeback, I'm still a few hundred up for the month. And considering I only planned to be able to make $500-$1000 per month playing 50NL, still being up a little for the month after 6K hands of NEGATIVE SHOWDOWN WINNINGS, I'm really not in too bad of shape.

I hope to have better news, and more updates next week....

-Max

First blog; attempt at a new life...

Ok, so here's the deal, as short as I can make it.
Graduated college, and played poker for a bit after college, but decided that I should try to get a real job because I felt that's what my parents would want and because I wasn't bankrolled quite enough. It seemed like the smart choice at the time. I've regretted it ever since
Couldn't find a job... couldn't find a job... money ran out... moved back in with parents.... still couldn't find a job.... finally found a job which was, of all things, dealing poker. Happy to get job but died a little inside, dealing as opposed to playing... less happy... died inside... lost some of my soul.... quit dealing job because I couldn't take it any more.
During this time, I kept playing online in my free time so I wouldn't go insane or do something stupid like--- well, you read the previous paragraph. I have discovered that over a very decent sample size (a little over 100K hands) I do pretty well online. So now, without a job, and with my parents support, which is very important to me (as they are great parents), and which I did not expect to get and am very happy to have, I decided to make a go of online poker. 6-max NLHE to be precise.
So here's the plan: I have about $6K at the moment and I would like to work it up to at least $10K by the end of the year. This will be more than plenty to move back to Vegas, move in, and have some living expenses for a month or more while still having at least $6K as a bankroll to play 100NL. (I'm currently playing 50NL but have played 100NL often). When I 8-table, I average about 500 hands per hour. If I play 6 hours per day, that's 3K hands a day. If I play at a winrate of 2.5ptbb/100 (I play at about 4, but I want to have a low estimate rather than a high one) and make an additional rake back of about 1 ptbb/100, that's 3.5ptbb/100, which equates at 100NL to $7 every 100 hands, which at 3K hands a day is $210. If I grind this 5 days out of seven each week, like a full time job (6 hours a day, five days a week), this works out to $4,000 per month. Of course, I might not be able to put in all the all hours if I burn out, and any number of other factors might come up, but given that I will be trying to play at least 60,000 hands per month, even with variance and other factors, I should easily be able to make more than enough to live on ($2K per month, about) and extra to add to my bankroll.
Currently, living with my folks and having zero to minimal expenses, I am hoping to be able to grind for a few months in order to save up from the 6K I have to at least 10K or so. My goal is to be back in Vegas the same day that the new President is sworn in. I figure the recovery and reclaiming of the country fits very nicely with the reclaiming of my life...
In order to do this, I have decided to make a routine for myself and set out very strict goals and guidelines, including an update to this blog every Tuesday. Each week I pledge to:
1. Play 15,000 hands online
2. Watch two videos from instructional sites such as CR.
3. Make at least 10 posts in low limit strategy forums.
4. Record a video of one of my sessions and upload it for download in my blog here.
5. Show my last week's stats from Poker Tracker.
6. Exercise for at least one hour or until 1500 calories are burned (whichever takes LONGER) 4 days out of the week.
7. Be mindful of what I eat and try to eat less that 1500 calories per day
8. Be honest in my blog, and update it weekly.
9. Also, finish one poker book per month. 4 weeks from this date, I must finish my current and very difficult book, The Mathematics of Poker. Also, give thoughts on the book in my blog.
10. When I am back in Vegas, I pledge to attend, contribute to, help out with, and do everything I can for the NLDG and WPDG groups.
11. Follow a guide of my own choice to be a more social, friendly, and outgoing person. This week, since I am just getting going, I am making a quick and simple one. I will say hello to at least two people whom I have never met and ask how their day is going. Also, I will come up with something more before next week's blog.
12. Donate at least $10 to a good cause (this number will increase as I have more money).
You may notice that many of these things do not directly relate to poker, but I have discovered that being a healthy person in body and spirit DRASTICALLY improve my poker.
My goals, by time frame:
By the end of Bush's presidency: be back in Vegas, have 10K in total living expenses and bankroll, have kept up with the above weekly outline, and attend NLDG and WPDG meetings each week.
By my 25th birthday (June '09): Be rolled for (6,000 blinds) and be able to beat 200NL, and keep up with weekly and monthly goals.
26th b-day: rolled for 400NL and be able to beat it, and keep up with weekly/monthly goals.
27th b-day: weigh less than 180lbs and keep it that way, and keep up with weekly/monthly goals.
Further projections and goals haven't been determined, but the goal of them all is to 1) be self-sustaining, 2) be happy, 3) make the people I care about happy, and 4) improve the quality of life on the planet in general. Based on my life experience thus far, poker is the most direct route to accomplish these 4 things.
Although, I am just starting, I will still post a video and some statistics, since that is the routine I am starting. The video is the only one I have, which is a few years old, and of me playing 50NL heads up against a former member of the NLDG, Jeff Larson. The stats are my play since the 1st of the month. I have only put in about 9K hands, only played a few tables at time instead of my goal of 6-8, and I have been playing very poorly I think.... but I am optimistic, especially since I am getting back into weekly coaching with my friend and mentor, in life and in poker, Edals. He is the best poker player I have ever seen in my life. I would seriously put my money on him to play anybody in the world, including world class pros. And the stupid son of a bitch is helping me get better!!!
Stats:


Video Link:
https://mega.co.nz/#!4IJH2ALY!bMtLmSholuInmSZHPNNAjW_lH203O96WN-NpTRRtOP0

Updates next Tuesday....

-Max