I have said before that I am not a fan of Mondays right?

Today is no different.

I just feel like I need some sleep.  Sitting at my office all day at work, and doing NOTHING MEANINGFUL gets pretty boring and though I don’t do any kind of physical activity, it makes you feel tired.  I know its weird, and its hard to explain, but this is what I was talking about before how work can get in the way of poker.  I know that line makes me sound like such a degenerate, but it is what it is.  Oh, and having a toddler waking up well before you are ready is never a good thing.  Poker + Work + Dad duties = Tired.

Anyway, I played a quick session on Stars where I won a little more than $300 playing mostly 3 handed.  Then I got hit-n-run on FullTilt for $65.  So a small profit for the day in about 25 minutes of play.

I just need to get some rest, it is going to be a long week of work since I actually have to go the office everyday this week.  Grrrr…..I hate work.  But if you look at my goals page, you can see that I plan on doing something about that in the near future.

Amount to 60k: $32,512.46

EDIT:  lol. Someone mentioned to me on Stars today that he was hoping I could win on Stars today so that I can write something positive.  I know I come off as being a really negative person from what I write at times.  It is not the case, my words are painting a different picture than what the actual model is portraying.  I will TRY to be more positive.  My negativity leaves me feeling eager to win, but at the same time can be demoralizing when it drags on for a while.  So please understand where I am coming from through this period.

I played 2 $700 mtts (plus one yesterday) to try and win my way to the PokerStars Carribean Adventure today.  Unlike last year, when I won 2 of these tournaments, I didn’t have any step 5 tickets to use.  The fact that the steps never seem to run that often is really killing my bottom line, especially when you get cards like I did today.  In those two tournaments, I got zero cards.  I also never really had a good shot to steal any pots.  Looking at my stats from those two tournaments, I played only 5% of all hands dealt to me.  It was that bad!  The good hands I did play, didn’t go so well either.  Its kind of hard to do anything when you ohhhhh say… run KK into AA, AK into KK, and run AK into AA.  So basically half the hands I played was just a set up cooler!  Yeah, real normal!  So -$1,400 there.

I also played the Sunday Million today.  I decided to play uber-loose from the get-go.  It worked to, because before I knew it I had complete control of my table.  People were scared to play any pots with me since I tried to show an image of someone not willing to fold.  So when I got played back at, I pretty much knew what they had.  It was beautiful.  Then as we were approaching the bubble with about 50% more in chips than the average stack, I get QQ and get in a clash with another pretty big stack in which he decided to shove AK.  Of course I can’t win flips on Stars, so busto there before the money.  I almost feel like I should just fold when it is a suspected coinflip (though I was ahead and was getting laid the odds) and just keep abusing the table with a ton of non-showdown wins.  Sigh.

PLUS, I am not running normal in 5 card draw on Stars.  I haven’t been running normal since the end of July.  Though I did post Friday night that I was running good, and I didn’t want to go to sleep…..well, I wish I hadn’t gone to sleep because boy had the cards changed!  I am down $398 since Friday.  I know, I know….it doesn’t sound like much.  But I did just have a heads-up session where I won almost 1k to make it back to that number.  Before that, I was down almost $1,400 basically just getting outdrawn left and right.  I had a few hours there where all of the trips that were dealt to me couldn’t hold up to win.  It was demoralizing.

BUT, at least now I have Full Tilt to lean back on.  Because I have been winning there.  In fact, I am now up well over 3k there since Thursday, the day they introduced draw.  I am up $517.50 there today alone.  So, at least something is going right for me.

Whats the difference?  Mostly the players on PokerStars are better.  But that is not it, I am just not on the right side of variance right now at PokerStars.  Hopefully things will change soon though.  Also, I wish there was more options to win a seat to the PCA, because those $700 mtt’s get expensive!  Those $75 rebuys ($82 buyin) that start in the early afternoon are more down my alley, I just wish they offered those sometime when I could play more of them.  The 33r’s are a luckfest, and those too can get extremely expensive as seen by my run for the 2010 WSOP.

Oh well…..

Amount to 60k: $32,231.96

So, not a good weekend.

Because I am hoping that someone else will sit down to play me.  I am running pretty good right now on both sites.  But of course I like to think that it is because I have been really working on my game.  Plugged some leaks and this is the pay off.  But that is how poker goes I guess.  When you are losing, it is the bad luck.  When you are winning it is because of the hard work. 

But I made $528 on Stars, and $1202.50 at FTP.  Both, I just played 15/30 draw.  HU at FTP and HU to 3 handed at Stars.

Amount to 60k: $33,557.96

But alas, I need sleep.  Long day of poker tomorrow…..and the next day, and the next……

No, I am not on tilt.  I am talking about Fulltilt Poker.  They FINALLY added draw games today.  It has been a long time coming too.

I was like a kid on Christmas morning when I found out that the latest update was THE UPDATE that added draw games.  I came home early from work and the first thing I did was modify the way my tables look on Fulltilt.  Now they look almost identical to my PokerStars custom tables.  I did this to make it easier to play both sites at once.

My thoughts on the first day of draw on Fulltilt:  There seems to be a few random players willing to play 15/30 and higher.  Unless of course these are already regulars and I just don’t know it yet due to the new screen names.  My name is NoMeNot on both sites which is probably putting me at a disadvantage against someone that already has an idea of how I play.  The software is OK, but it could use some improvement in my opinion.  For one, the cards are smaller than that on PokerStars, and it can be hard to click each card to discard at times.  This inherently makes the game slower.  It is a small issue, that I am sure they will fix in the future.  Another thing I noticed is that when you draw, you don’t actually see what you have drawn to until the last player drawing has taken cards.  This also, will slow the game down.  But both of these are just minor issues.

However, I must say that PokerStars is still my top choice at this time.

I just wish PokerStars would add higher limits and add HU tables.  Both of these things, Fulltilt added.  However, one thing Fulltilt did not add was limit 5 card draw HU SNGs.  Oh well, maybe eventually.

So how did I do today?  I won 640 on Fulltilt and about 800 on Stars.  Since now I have multiple totals to keep up with, it will be harder to keep tally of where I am on my goal.  But as it stands……..

Amount to 60k: $31,797.46

Looking forward to an action-packed weekend of cards!

Oh…and sorry for the lack of updates recently.  I have been working on my game or playing pretty much every chance I get, so the blog was taking a back seat.  I can also probably expect it to take a back seat as I really buckle down here for the last two months of my goal.

Ok, I have 2 months to get my butt in gear and reach this goal to 60k.  I haven’t posted the last couple of days, not because I didn’t play, but rather because I have been sick, frustrated, busy doing other stuff, etc etc.

But we had a ton going on over the weekend.  Friday night, I carved one of our pumpkins to be ready for Halloween.  Happy belated Halloween to everyone by the way.  I used to try and make a really scary or goofy face for my pumpkin every year.  I don’t like using one of those stencils either.  I like them to be more from something I created either by looking at something or by coming up with something in my head.  Well this year, as I was trying to decide what to make.  My wife suggested that I make “Elmo”.  For those that don’t know who he is, he is a character on a very popular kids show, Sesame Street.  Since my kid is absolutely obsessed with that show, I agreed. 

I looked it up online to see if anyone else out there had made an “Elmo Jack-o-lantern” before and there it was.  A picture of one, that was good enough for me to go by.  After about an hour of carefully carving and constantly looking at the picture on my phone.  I came up with what you see to the right.  I was pretty pleased with the final outcome.  But by time Sunday (Halloween) came around, the thing had warped pretty badly and was almost unrecognizable since so much was hanging from just a thin amount of the pumpkin’s exterior.

Saturday, we went to a wedding shower that was really more of just a party.  That was fun, but I forgot to say that I had just gotten over this cold of mine which I still have some symptoms of still today.  It was fun though either way.

Now on to poker.  I played here and there throughout the last couple of nights since my last post, but it was a ton of ups and downs.  I would have one session where I just absolutely crushed followed by a session where nothing went right.  I definitely feel I have some leaks in my game.  I feel I am making progress with finding exactly what those leaks are, but when you get into a habit of things, no matter how good or bad…..it can be hard to shake.  But I have to do it, and I have to do it now if I expect to reach this goal.

Today, I played the Sunday Million and the 2nd chance tournament.  I busted somewhat early in the 2nd chance, but made another deep run in the Million when I came in the top 300 of the large field.  I also played a step 4 tonight.  I definitely have some rust to shake off when it comes to the steps before I seriously start playing those.  But the thing is, I look over the steps lobby….and there are nothing but empty tables!  What happened to the steps?  That was a big satellite system that I have relied upon over the past couple of years.  I am very disappointed in the lack of players signing up for those.

There have been many talks in the past on forums on ideas to try and boost player participation in the steps.  I still think that they need to make a cash exit step 6.  While I am at it…I also wish they would offer some $215 180 man sng’s on PokerStars that can be used as direct satellites to live events.  I think those might get quite a few people signed up.

Ok so where was I.  Yeah, I made a small profit from those 3 tournaments, but nothing to brag about.  I also played some 5/10 and 15/30 draw tonight.  I ended up making about $1,600 there.

Sounds like a pretty good day I suppose, but added in with all the other days since my last post.  I don’t believe I have kept pace with my goal.  Sigh!

So I really need to get my butt into gear.  I know I have posted here in the past saying things I need to do, and then I turn around and don’t do them.  But that is what this goal was about, its not about the money.  Instead it was to prove to myself that I can put in the effort of playing more tables.  Thus far I have failed.  Not just monetarily speaking but I have really been lazy as of recent.

I hope it was just a calm before the storm kind of thing.  I have been working on some of my game, and still am.  I expect to be really reaching some conclusions soon as far as that is concerned.  But the main thing right now is to put in at the hours at the tables. I know I sound like a broken record.  But hopefully by my continually writing it, it will soak into my thick head.

I do have a couple things coming up in the next month.  For instance, I will be going to Miami for a bachelor party later this month.  Then of course there is Thanksgiving.  So with these things coming up, I am really hoping to still be able to put up a good amount of time at the tables.  We shall see.

Also, since the steps option seems pretty non-existent at this point in time, looks like I might have to put up some of my own money to enter some of these PCA satellites.  It can get extremely expensive, and if I run anything like I did for the WSOP ones, it is not going to look good.

Ok, I have rambled on enough.  I got a big couple months coming up.  Time to get some rest.

Amount to 60k: $30,346.37

This can’t be healthy.  The fact that I am sick and still up playing poker.  I ended up playing well into the morning and I am exhausted!

Things started off brutal tonight, I just don’t understand how I can be card dead for so long.  But after almost 3 hours, I was up $19 somehow.  That was all from playing at 10/20 draw.  Then I took my card dead ways with me to 15/30 where I played 3 handed against 2 aggressive opponents.  Being card dead against those opponents is never a good thing!  I ended up dropping my buy-in there in a little more than an hour.

But as that was going I sat back down at the 10/20 table, where for once….I was getting some decent hands!  I ended up winning just over $400 in about 25 minutes.

Do you see a pattern here?  When I am card dead, I lose in a longer period of time or at the least I break even.  When I am actually getting some cards, I win big quickly.  So I am happy about that.

To end the night, and the reason I am up so late while sick is that I was playing HU at 10/20.  Again card dead.  It was brutal.  I was break even for the longest time.  Thankfully though, my opponent never left and we played for nearly 2 and a half hours.  I ended up winning $657 when I started to get some decent hands towards the end.

But seriously, I really feel like I have been card dead.  I am not making this stuff up.  It has been a long, demoralizing last couple of months since I feel I am way below the norm in card distribution.  But I need to learn to fight through these ruts, and at times I am not doing a very good job of it.

But as it stands, I ended up winning  $525 in a long, exhausting night in which I really fought to win.

Amount to 60k: $28,988.99