So it's all over. Life is back to something that looks normal.
I used to think that the World Series made life crazy. After all, I had friends in town and poker going round the clock and I had a job that took up at least 9 hours a day and sometimes more. I had a girlfriend and somehow I had to find the time for all of those things and sleeping in a day and it just never seemed to work out. I figured that playing for a living would probably make the 7 week stretch a little less insane, but I was mostly wrong.
Basically things were every bit as crazy this year as they had been the last 2 years, they were just a little different. I didn't have to be at work, but I had a fiancee and I wanted to make sure to make time for her. I'd pick and choose my spots to stay out til 6am (which I couldn't do when I had a job) but mostly I would be home at night.
The one big change was I really didn't play much poker. I played some live sessions and I played a few tournies, but my online production was virtually nonexistent. I started off July in a hole because of the $$ that I was out for playing the Main Event. I didn't have a super strong desire to play in the days between the last $1500 event I played on June 27 and the start of the Main Event about a week later. I played a few live tournaments and basically just relaxed and hoped to go into it and have everything work out for me.
I didn't really do as well as I would've liked in that tournament. In contrast to the $1500 event where I got 10th, there were a lot of hands that I wasn't really thrilled with how I played. It's so weird to go from playing for 3 days straight and not playing a single hand that you'd go back and change, to playing for about 16 hours over 2 days and realizing that there were probably 6 to 10 hands that I'd go back and do differently if I could. I'm not overly disappointed with how I played or anything, but I didn't play anywhere near as well as I would've needed to in order to give myself a shot to win. Oh well, next year will be better.
Now that the series is gone and so are all of my poker friends, my life has been getting back to normal, except for the crushing poker part. I made up a decent % of the WSOP ME buyin by nailing 2nd out of like 225 people in a $50 1 rebuy, 1 addon tournament on Full Tilt. Aside from that, I've played a ton of hands (including a career high 4838 hands of HU on Sunday) and haven't gained much traction.
It's just good to be back to normal and on a good schedule again. Now I just gotta get back to the gym and get rolling back into that.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tournament Pro
I play cash games for a living. If I'm not feeling like I'm playing well, I can stop playing at any time. When I put my chips into a pot, I'm ahead or I'm behind and there's an exact dollar amount that I know that I am supposed to have won or lost based on my equity in the hand.
Yesterday I played the biggest hand of my life and it wasn't in a cash game and there isn't an exact dollar amount that I am supposed to have won or lost based on the hand. I know that the end result of me losing the hand was that my chip stack was crippled and I was left going out in 10th place out of 2714 entrants in the $1500 WSOP event #39 for $56,071 (of which I had 30%). It's hard not to think about the skill (or lack thereof) of some of the players who finished ahead of me. The guy who got 7th place for $96k and got all of his chips in on day 2 with AQs vs AA and QQ and won. The guy who got 3rd place for $270k was the guy who won the hand in question. I can't help but think that I should have made at least that much, given that I'm a much stronger player than he was.
___________________________
I had myself a great month in May. June started out horribly poker-wise. I have had a ton of friends in town and I wasn't playing any hands. When I did finally decide to play, I lost. At one point I was down $9,000 this month and that was just last Monday the 15th. I wanted to play a WSOP event, but I didn't want to buy in because things were going really badly, but Rod and Casey and Jesse, having the ultimate confidence in my abilities offered me a standard single tourney stake (70/30 their favor) if I wanted to play a $1500 event. I've had people ask me why I took that, since I have to be a favorite in the field. My answer is really simple: I wasn't going to play otherwise, so 30% of my own action is more than 30% of nothing. Even after cashing for $56,000 (54.5k net) and only getting to keep about $16,300 of it, I still would do it again, and incidentally might in a few days.
I generally don't like tournaments because of the vast amount of luck that it takes to win one. Often times, if you make one mistake or get unlucky in a key spot, you're out of the tournament and hours or days of good poker can be spent with no reward at the end. You have to run sooooooooo good to win a tournament, no matter how well you're playing. I'm not dumb or clueless enough to think that I didn't run amazingly to get where I did in this tournament, but it's not all as apparent as coolering people or winning coinflips.
I had great table draws most of the time, where either I could control the action or I had position on the good players at the table. I never really had too many cards or made hands in the tourney. I had aces, king and queens one time each in 3 days of play. I rarely played hands that went to showdown and I was almost never mentioned in the updates on pokernews (http://www.pokernews.com/wsop/2009/event-39/) since nothing I did really stood out. I would raise and try and steal the blinds here. Play a small pot there. Slowly and steadily chip up and stay in good position. The fact that I was able to do that is another form of running good. I made a few hands when I needed chips and I picked my spots well and for 3 days of continuous play, I can't look back at a hand that I played and be upset with the line I took. Sure there were little things I'd change, but I didn't make a single glaring error, which is all I can really hope for. I never lost focus once and I played at the top of my game for 3 days.
Then I get QJs in MP and raise to 70k at 15k/30k/3k and the bad nitty guy behind me shoves all in for 540k chips and I'm forced to fold.
Then I get ATo UTG+1 and raise to 70k at 15k/30k/3k and the bad nitty guy behind me shoves all in for 610k chips and I'm forced to fold.
Then I get AKs UTG and raise to 70k at 15k/30k/3k and the bad nitty guy behind me shoves all in for 680k chips.
I know he has a hand. I know he had a hand the last 2 times as well. He's just completely incapable of making a play here. It really doesn't matter. I'm not here to sneak into the final table, I'm here to win and I can't fold a hand this strong in this spot, so I reluctantly (not "quickly" as pokernews would have you believe) call.
He has QQ.
Let's flip a coin for $100,000+
The flop comes J24 with 2 spades. Still flipping, even though I am a slight favorite now.
The turn is the 7c. I would've liked to pick up a backdoor straight draw, but 14 outs is still 14 outs.
The river is a red 4. Quite a large brick.
I wish I wouldn't have flopped that flush draw. There was just so much hope after that flop that it really sucked about 10 times more than if the flop just came 8 high and rainbow.
I'm left clinging to life with 280k in chips and posting the 30k BB the very next hand. I manage to outlast one person to get seated at the final table of 10.
Until this point, I had been all in and called, putting my tournament life at risk, exactly two times in the previous three days. The first time was last in the day on day one where I got it in with the worst hand in an unavoidable spot and got lucky to win. The second time was on day two, where I got it in basically in the same spot, but with the best hand and I held for the win.
The third time I was all in during the course of 3 days and outlasting 2704 people was when we got down to 10 people and I shoved JT in middle position and a very short stack and was called by A3 in what would be the last hand I would end up playing in the tournament.
___________________________
As I left the tournament area to go cash out, I tried to be happy, but it was pretty had to hide my disappointment.
I had probably 20 to 25 friends there including Lindsey (who took off of work and watched the whole 3rd day and a chunk of the 2nd) and Tom (who actually watched all of day 3, all of day 2 and 80% of day 1) and then just everyone else who came out at various points during day two and the people who flew in for the final day. I just felt so great to have everyone there supporting me and that just kept me so focused on playing well.
Afterwards, about 12 of us went to get dinner and then we went out after and played a little bit of blackjack at Encore. I lost $90.
When I finally got home at like 2am after being up til 4am the day before and then only getting 4 hours of sleep before we started day 3, it all just kind of hit me.
I played my absolute best poker for 3 days. I made $16,350 for myself and about $38,000 for the people that backed me. I turned my month around from being down $8k to being up $18k (I had gotten back to even before the tourney began), but nothing was going to be different. I still had to pay student loans and a car payment each month. It didn't even make this month my biggest month as a poker player.
I was so close to making an amount of money that would've changed some aspect of my life, and I flipped a coin and I lost. It is really hard to take since opportunities like that just don't come around often at all, especially when you don't play tournaments with any frequency.
I know how lucky I was to have made it as far as I did. Just because I didn't get lucky in the sense that most people think, I know that the stars aligned for me to get that far. But if you told me that I'd have gone out in 10th at the start of day 3 with 26 left and a slightly below average stack, I'd have told you that I'd be disappointed because I expected to make the final table and be in a position to win the thing.
___________________________
Just thanks again to everyone who was so awesome and excited for me during this whole thing. I had Tom updating the forums during the 1st 2 days and Rod doing his twitter. I found out that a ton of people including my brothers and mom were following because they saw that I posted the pokernews link on facebook. And it's awesome to have such great friends who come out and watch you play live poker (there's not a lot to see!) but they know that I'd be there if the roles were reversed.
Hopefully in a couple of days I'll be just a little happier about turning my month around, instead of being disappointed for how the tourney ended.
Lindsey only took a picture of the cash here because she said that I'd be happy looking at the picture with all of the money ($56,000) but not the disappointed look on my face.
Yesterday I played the biggest hand of my life and it wasn't in a cash game and there isn't an exact dollar amount that I am supposed to have won or lost based on the hand. I know that the end result of me losing the hand was that my chip stack was crippled and I was left going out in 10th place out of 2714 entrants in the $1500 WSOP event #39 for $56,071 (of which I had 30%). It's hard not to think about the skill (or lack thereof) of some of the players who finished ahead of me. The guy who got 7th place for $96k and got all of his chips in on day 2 with AQs vs AA and QQ and won. The guy who got 3rd place for $270k was the guy who won the hand in question. I can't help but think that I should have made at least that much, given that I'm a much stronger player than he was.
___________________________
I had myself a great month in May. June started out horribly poker-wise. I have had a ton of friends in town and I wasn't playing any hands. When I did finally decide to play, I lost. At one point I was down $9,000 this month and that was just last Monday the 15th. I wanted to play a WSOP event, but I didn't want to buy in because things were going really badly, but Rod and Casey and Jesse, having the ultimate confidence in my abilities offered me a standard single tourney stake (70/30 their favor) if I wanted to play a $1500 event. I've had people ask me why I took that, since I have to be a favorite in the field. My answer is really simple: I wasn't going to play otherwise, so 30% of my own action is more than 30% of nothing. Even after cashing for $56,000 (54.5k net) and only getting to keep about $16,300 of it, I still would do it again, and incidentally might in a few days.
I generally don't like tournaments because of the vast amount of luck that it takes to win one. Often times, if you make one mistake or get unlucky in a key spot, you're out of the tournament and hours or days of good poker can be spent with no reward at the end. You have to run sooooooooo good to win a tournament, no matter how well you're playing. I'm not dumb or clueless enough to think that I didn't run amazingly to get where I did in this tournament, but it's not all as apparent as coolering people or winning coinflips.
I had great table draws most of the time, where either I could control the action or I had position on the good players at the table. I never really had too many cards or made hands in the tourney. I had aces, king and queens one time each in 3 days of play. I rarely played hands that went to showdown and I was almost never mentioned in the updates on pokernews (http://www.pokernews.com/wsop/2009/event-39/) since nothing I did really stood out. I would raise and try and steal the blinds here. Play a small pot there. Slowly and steadily chip up and stay in good position. The fact that I was able to do that is another form of running good. I made a few hands when I needed chips and I picked my spots well and for 3 days of continuous play, I can't look back at a hand that I played and be upset with the line I took. Sure there were little things I'd change, but I didn't make a single glaring error, which is all I can really hope for. I never lost focus once and I played at the top of my game for 3 days.
Then I get QJs in MP and raise to 70k at 15k/30k/3k and the bad nitty guy behind me shoves all in for 540k chips and I'm forced to fold.
Then I get ATo UTG+1 and raise to 70k at 15k/30k/3k and the bad nitty guy behind me shoves all in for 610k chips and I'm forced to fold.
Then I get AKs UTG and raise to 70k at 15k/30k/3k and the bad nitty guy behind me shoves all in for 680k chips.
I know he has a hand. I know he had a hand the last 2 times as well. He's just completely incapable of making a play here. It really doesn't matter. I'm not here to sneak into the final table, I'm here to win and I can't fold a hand this strong in this spot, so I reluctantly (not "quickly" as pokernews would have you believe) call.
He has QQ.
Let's flip a coin for $100,000+
The flop comes J24 with 2 spades. Still flipping, even though I am a slight favorite now.
The turn is the 7c. I would've liked to pick up a backdoor straight draw, but 14 outs is still 14 outs.
The river is a red 4. Quite a large brick.
I wish I wouldn't have flopped that flush draw. There was just so much hope after that flop that it really sucked about 10 times more than if the flop just came 8 high and rainbow.
I'm left clinging to life with 280k in chips and posting the 30k BB the very next hand. I manage to outlast one person to get seated at the final table of 10.
Until this point, I had been all in and called, putting my tournament life at risk, exactly two times in the previous three days. The first time was last in the day on day one where I got it in with the worst hand in an unavoidable spot and got lucky to win. The second time was on day two, where I got it in basically in the same spot, but with the best hand and I held for the win.
The third time I was all in during the course of 3 days and outlasting 2704 people was when we got down to 10 people and I shoved JT in middle position and a very short stack and was called by A3 in what would be the last hand I would end up playing in the tournament.
___________________________
As I left the tournament area to go cash out, I tried to be happy, but it was pretty had to hide my disappointment.
I had probably 20 to 25 friends there including Lindsey (who took off of work and watched the whole 3rd day and a chunk of the 2nd) and Tom (who actually watched all of day 3, all of day 2 and 80% of day 1) and then just everyone else who came out at various points during day two and the people who flew in for the final day. I just felt so great to have everyone there supporting me and that just kept me so focused on playing well.
Afterwards, about 12 of us went to get dinner and then we went out after and played a little bit of blackjack at Encore. I lost $90.
When I finally got home at like 2am after being up til 4am the day before and then only getting 4 hours of sleep before we started day 3, it all just kind of hit me.
I played my absolute best poker for 3 days. I made $16,350 for myself and about $38,000 for the people that backed me. I turned my month around from being down $8k to being up $18k (I had gotten back to even before the tourney began), but nothing was going to be different. I still had to pay student loans and a car payment each month. It didn't even make this month my biggest month as a poker player.
I was so close to making an amount of money that would've changed some aspect of my life, and I flipped a coin and I lost. It is really hard to take since opportunities like that just don't come around often at all, especially when you don't play tournaments with any frequency.
I know how lucky I was to have made it as far as I did. Just because I didn't get lucky in the sense that most people think, I know that the stars aligned for me to get that far. But if you told me that I'd have gone out in 10th at the start of day 3 with 26 left and a slightly below average stack, I'd have told you that I'd be disappointed because I expected to make the final table and be in a position to win the thing.
___________________________
Just thanks again to everyone who was so awesome and excited for me during this whole thing. I had Tom updating the forums during the 1st 2 days and Rod doing his twitter. I found out that a ton of people including my brothers and mom were following because they saw that I posted the pokernews link on facebook. And it's awesome to have such great friends who come out and watch you play live poker (there's not a lot to see!) but they know that I'd be there if the roles were reversed.
Hopefully in a couple of days I'll be just a little happier about turning my month around, instead of being disappointed for how the tourney ended.
Lindsey only took a picture of the cash here because she said that I'd be happy looking at the picture with all of the money ($56,000) but not the disappointed look on my face.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Been a While
Back in the middle of March, around the 16th or so, I was up a lot of money and was on a pace to have my best month ever (besting January 2009) and I probably wouldn't have even had to work that hard to do it.
Things got a little out of hand rather quickly however. On the 18th of the month, I had my worst day online ever ($5600 loss) which I took really well since most of the losses came at 5/10 and I played a guy who just had the best hand every time, so it's kind of hard to get super upset about that. He wasn't good, but he didn't play horribly and I was just never winning in any of the pots. It's just one of those days that everyone has. Then 2 days later I had my 3rd worst day live ever (-$4200) and I was more upset with this just because of how the day transpired, and also, because the opposition I face live is generally awful, so I expect to be able to control my results a little better.
Irregardless, those 2 days started a rather bad downward trend for me. I was only able to recoup about $1500 of those losses by the end of the month despite playing a lot of hands. I finished the month with a number that I'd consider a disappointment (because of how well the month started) and most other people would be thrilled to have made that much money in a single month.
Enter April.
Last April, I didn't run too well and ended up playing 31,500 hands, which is the most hands I've ever played online in a month. My usual end total is somewhere around 20,000 hands. Well, this April would turn out to be no different; lots of hands, mediocre results. I was determined to play a lot and make up for a lackluster March, but it turned out that I would be running really badly here too.
Let me get sidetracked for a second. Bobby Baldwin (President of Bellagio, former WSOP champion) said something a long time ago that people tend to forget. Paraphrased, good players are going to get sucked out on A LOT more than bad players are simply because the good players are going to get their money in from behind (thus, necessitating a suckout to win) far less frequently than the bad players will. It makes a lot of sense. I'm going to lose a ton of hands where I get it all in as an 80% to 20% favorite since I'm going to be putting myself in that position a lot more often than a bad player will, and losing 20% of a large number is obviously going to occur a lot more frequently than losing 20% of the much smaller number, representing the times when they get it in good.
So when it comes down to it, poker is all about decisions. It starts with the decision of whether or not to play at all. Then which game to sit in. Then what hands you want to play. Then how you want to play those hands. Each decision is broken down and followed by smaller and smaller decisions. The goal of the game is to make as many correct decisions as you can make. Winning money will be a byproduct of that. Sometimes though, making the correct decisions doesn't yield the results that we want to see. It happens all of the time. Sometimes the most correct decision you can make is actually still a wrong decision in that single trial where you are evaluating it. Sometimes it's the right choice, but your opponent draws out on you anyway and you lose. Over time, making all of the right decisions will yield you a tidy profit.
So, back to April 2009, I'm running horribly. I'm making enough correct decisions to be winning money, but the cards are not cooperating and I'm either losing or breaking even, depending on the day. So, given that I have a large-ish sample of hands to work from, playing the range of stakes that I do (1/2 HU to 5/10 HU) I expect to make anywhere from $0.50/hand up to maybe $1.20/hand depending on the variety of stakes that I am playing that given day. Well, April hates me and I've been running far below expectation, but I had a solution.
PLAY A BILLION HANDS
Ok, not really that many, but I've just decided that I'm going to win by brute force this month. If my expectation is 1/2 of what it should be since I'm running so badly, then my obvious solution is to play twice as many hands as I'd normally play and then at the end of things, I still have made the same amount of money.
As I'm writing this, I've played about 34,000 hands this month already, despite not playing today and only playing 500 hands of the weekend. I really could've easily broken 40k hands, but I have no desire to do that. I'm just trying to make a living. As it stands, I'm still running about $8,000 under my expected value for the month. For those non-poker players who read this, I'll take a second to explain.
When I play a hand and we get all of the chips in the middle (meaning nobody else is going to bet and you just show down a winning or losing hand) there is a % of the time that you're going to win. Sometimes you're fortunate and your opponent has zero outs to win the hand. This is quite favorable since my equity in the pot is 100% given that my opponent cannot possibly win the money in the pot. Usually though, they have some % to win and I have some % to win. If there are more cards in the deck that I can win with (whether they improve my hand to a stronger hand than it already is, or just fail to improve my opponent's hand is irrelevant) then I'm favored. Let's say that we get all in preflop and I hold AA and my unfortunate opponent has KK. Well, he's gonna lose roughly 80% of the time and if we're playing a pot that has $1000 in it, that means his equity is only 20% of that $1000, or $200. Basically, if we play the hand an infinite amount of times, he expects to get back only $200 on average out of that $1000 pot where as I'm going to get back $800 on average. Keep in mind, in reality, he gets $1000 or $0 (barring a tie based on board cards).
So, let's say we play the pot and I win, because I'm good like that, but also because 80% wins more than 20%. So I just won $1000! Go me!! Well, I ran above expectation. Yes, I was expected to win the hand most of the time, but since my average win in that spot is only $800, I just ran $200 above expectation by having the best hand and not losing. Of course, it matches dollar for dollar. If I ran $200 over EV (expected value) then he will of course run $200 under EV, which makes sense since he's supposed to win $200, but he won zero dollars instead.
In the end, this is my roundabout way of bitching about how my opponents have $8000 more of my money than they should have this month. I should be happy, since I have played well enough to make $8000 more than I did, which would've been an excellent month for me, but this is all part of the game. I have a bankroll and I have the ability to make the correct decisions that my opponents are unwilling or unable to make and in the long run, I'm going to win and they're going to lose.
I guess that's the part of poker that people like to forget. The bad players only keep playing because they can win. If this was chess and there was no luck involved, then the bad players would lose every time, but they wouldn't keep coming back because it wouldn't be any fun for them.
Despite everything that comes along with it and any complaining that I will inevitably do when things are going poorly, I still love my job and the flexibility that it affords me.
Also, I'm really looking forward to having all of my poker friends here for part or all of June for the WSOP.
Things got a little out of hand rather quickly however. On the 18th of the month, I had my worst day online ever ($5600 loss) which I took really well since most of the losses came at 5/10 and I played a guy who just had the best hand every time, so it's kind of hard to get super upset about that. He wasn't good, but he didn't play horribly and I was just never winning in any of the pots. It's just one of those days that everyone has. Then 2 days later I had my 3rd worst day live ever (-$4200) and I was more upset with this just because of how the day transpired, and also, because the opposition I face live is generally awful, so I expect to be able to control my results a little better.
Irregardless, those 2 days started a rather bad downward trend for me. I was only able to recoup about $1500 of those losses by the end of the month despite playing a lot of hands. I finished the month with a number that I'd consider a disappointment (because of how well the month started) and most other people would be thrilled to have made that much money in a single month.
Enter April.
Last April, I didn't run too well and ended up playing 31,500 hands, which is the most hands I've ever played online in a month. My usual end total is somewhere around 20,000 hands. Well, this April would turn out to be no different; lots of hands, mediocre results. I was determined to play a lot and make up for a lackluster March, but it turned out that I would be running really badly here too.
Let me get sidetracked for a second. Bobby Baldwin (President of Bellagio, former WSOP champion) said something a long time ago that people tend to forget. Paraphrased, good players are going to get sucked out on A LOT more than bad players are simply because the good players are going to get their money in from behind (thus, necessitating a suckout to win) far less frequently than the bad players will. It makes a lot of sense. I'm going to lose a ton of hands where I get it all in as an 80% to 20% favorite since I'm going to be putting myself in that position a lot more often than a bad player will, and losing 20% of a large number is obviously going to occur a lot more frequently than losing 20% of the much smaller number, representing the times when they get it in good.
So when it comes down to it, poker is all about decisions. It starts with the decision of whether or not to play at all. Then which game to sit in. Then what hands you want to play. Then how you want to play those hands. Each decision is broken down and followed by smaller and smaller decisions. The goal of the game is to make as many correct decisions as you can make. Winning money will be a byproduct of that. Sometimes though, making the correct decisions doesn't yield the results that we want to see. It happens all of the time. Sometimes the most correct decision you can make is actually still a wrong decision in that single trial where you are evaluating it. Sometimes it's the right choice, but your opponent draws out on you anyway and you lose. Over time, making all of the right decisions will yield you a tidy profit.
So, back to April 2009, I'm running horribly. I'm making enough correct decisions to be winning money, but the cards are not cooperating and I'm either losing or breaking even, depending on the day. So, given that I have a large-ish sample of hands to work from, playing the range of stakes that I do (1/2 HU to 5/10 HU) I expect to make anywhere from $0.50/hand up to maybe $1.20/hand depending on the variety of stakes that I am playing that given day. Well, April hates me and I've been running far below expectation, but I had a solution.
PLAY A BILLION HANDS
Ok, not really that many, but I've just decided that I'm going to win by brute force this month. If my expectation is 1/2 of what it should be since I'm running so badly, then my obvious solution is to play twice as many hands as I'd normally play and then at the end of things, I still have made the same amount of money.
As I'm writing this, I've played about 34,000 hands this month already, despite not playing today and only playing 500 hands of the weekend. I really could've easily broken 40k hands, but I have no desire to do that. I'm just trying to make a living. As it stands, I'm still running about $8,000 under my expected value for the month. For those non-poker players who read this, I'll take a second to explain.
When I play a hand and we get all of the chips in the middle (meaning nobody else is going to bet and you just show down a winning or losing hand) there is a % of the time that you're going to win. Sometimes you're fortunate and your opponent has zero outs to win the hand. This is quite favorable since my equity in the pot is 100% given that my opponent cannot possibly win the money in the pot. Usually though, they have some % to win and I have some % to win. If there are more cards in the deck that I can win with (whether they improve my hand to a stronger hand than it already is, or just fail to improve my opponent's hand is irrelevant) then I'm favored. Let's say that we get all in preflop and I hold AA and my unfortunate opponent has KK. Well, he's gonna lose roughly 80% of the time and if we're playing a pot that has $1000 in it, that means his equity is only 20% of that $1000, or $200. Basically, if we play the hand an infinite amount of times, he expects to get back only $200 on average out of that $1000 pot where as I'm going to get back $800 on average. Keep in mind, in reality, he gets $1000 or $0 (barring a tie based on board cards).
So, let's say we play the pot and I win, because I'm good like that, but also because 80% wins more than 20%. So I just won $1000! Go me!! Well, I ran above expectation. Yes, I was expected to win the hand most of the time, but since my average win in that spot is only $800, I just ran $200 above expectation by having the best hand and not losing. Of course, it matches dollar for dollar. If I ran $200 over EV (expected value) then he will of course run $200 under EV, which makes sense since he's supposed to win $200, but he won zero dollars instead.
In the end, this is my roundabout way of bitching about how my opponents have $8000 more of my money than they should have this month. I should be happy, since I have played well enough to make $8000 more than I did, which would've been an excellent month for me, but this is all part of the game. I have a bankroll and I have the ability to make the correct decisions that my opponents are unwilling or unable to make and in the long run, I'm going to win and they're going to lose.
I guess that's the part of poker that people like to forget. The bad players only keep playing because they can win. If this was chess and there was no luck involved, then the bad players would lose every time, but they wouldn't keep coming back because it wouldn't be any fun for them.
Despite everything that comes along with it and any complaining that I will inevitably do when things are going poorly, I still love my job and the flexibility that it affords me.
Also, I'm really looking forward to having all of my poker friends here for part or all of June for the WSOP.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Running Like a Kenyan
So, I haven't been posting much in here and it was about time for an update.
Since my last blog entry, I've done the following things:
1. Been to Hawaii
2. Been SCUBA diving in the open ocean
3. Gotten engaged
4. Won lots of money
Here are pictures of the ring and then links to pictures from Hawaii, Scuba diving/snorkeling and then video that I took underwater that Lindsey pieced together into one video.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lindseybrinker/Hawaii#
http://picasaweb.google.com/lindseybrinker/Hawaii2#
http://picasaweb.google.com/Matt.Livingston70/SnorkelingScubaInMaui#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atz_XHx1U6U&feature=channel_page
Since my last blog entry, I've done the following things:
1. Been to Hawaii
2. Been SCUBA diving in the open ocean
3. Gotten engaged
4. Won lots of money
Here are pictures of the ring and then links to pictures from Hawaii, Scuba diving/snorkeling and then video that I took underwater that Lindsey pieced together into one video.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lindseybrinker/Hawaii#
http://picasaweb.google.com/lindseybrinker/Hawaii2#
http://picasaweb.google.com/Matt.Livingston70/SnorkelingScubaInMaui#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atz_XHx1U6U&feature=channel_page
Monday, February 9, 2009
Good Start
I think I've made $32,500 in the first 40 days of the year and I've played poker every single day so far. I'm not really running above expectation or anything, but I'm definitely running well.
Cwik and I are coaching a new guy, Sean, from the forums. This is in addition to me coaching and staking Mario and I will likely start up with another one of my friends who lives in Vegas here with me, since he's eager to learn the game and I think he's got the right attitude and approach to succeed.
I'm going to Hawaii on Friday and I'll be gone for a week. I don't think I've ever looked forward to going somewhere as much as I've been looking forward to this trip.
We had to board the dogs for half of the time, but the other half of the time, we have a couple of friends who are eager to watch them.
I'll post pictures when I get back.
Cwik and I are coaching a new guy, Sean, from the forums. This is in addition to me coaching and staking Mario and I will likely start up with another one of my friends who lives in Vegas here with me, since he's eager to learn the game and I think he's got the right attitude and approach to succeed.
I'm going to Hawaii on Friday and I'll be gone for a week. I don't think I've ever looked forward to going somewhere as much as I've been looking forward to this trip.
We had to board the dogs for half of the time, but the other half of the time, we have a couple of friends who are eager to watch them.
I'll post pictures when I get back.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Still Burning
Best month ever playing poker. Set that mark yesterday.
Now officially a certified SCUBA diver.
Hawaii in 25 days.
Ship it.
Now officially a certified SCUBA diver.
Hawaii in 25 days.
Ship it.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
On Fire
It's been quite a start to 2009. I've been playing every day so far and things have gone really well. I won $2200 in my first few hundred hands of the year and haven't really looked back. I've had a few days where things kind of went badly for me vs some guys who'd run at like 90/50 and they'd amass a huge stack against me, but mostly they didn't leave and therefore ended up losing it back.
Here's a good example.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3680660
So, basically what he does, is spend about 2 hours beating me in every single meaningful pot by playing horribly and then he decides to put in 200BBs on the river of an unraised pot with one pair. I wish he could've just given me his money earlier and saved me the trouble.
As for the hand, I've had a few people ask why I check the river and it's because he's shown a propensity to overbet the river in spots like this. I can recall several times when the pot would be $28 or $32 and it'd get to the river, I'd check and he'd just bet $138 or something, so I checked hoping he'd spazz out and do something like that. I guess I got an even better result.
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