Goal 1: Average 15 Hours/Week Playing My “Regular” Games

I’ve found that 15 hours/week enables me to earn a pretty healthy income, far more than I could make at any real job I could get, without impeding too much on my lifestyle.

I consider my regular games to be anywhere from 2/4 NL to 50/100 NL as well as big tournaments like the Sunday Majors, the FTOPS, and the WCOOP; time spent playing any of these will count towards my goal.

About 7 hours ahead of pace. I actually lost ground on this in March, which surprised me, because I really felt like I was packing the hours in. I’m still hopeful that April will be a big month, though.

Goal 2: Earn $X in NLHE Cash Games

It’s very tough to predict or control what I will earn playing tournaments. With cash games, though, it’s mostly a question of game selection and putting in hours. It’s not something I’m going to announce publicly, but I am going to set a target, and I am going to put in extra hours towards the end of year if I’m on pace to come up short.

Pretty much exactly on pace, given the number of days that have passed. Considering how many hours I’ve played relative to that yearly goal, I’m actually slightly behind pace.

Goal 3: Earn Supernova status on PokerStars

My plan for this is to table select as usual in the beginning of each month, and then assess my progress towards the end of each month. If I’m on pace to come up short, I’m going to put in extra hours above and beyond my weekly goal just grinding 9 tables of $1/2 NLHE (or smaller) until I hit my VPP target for the month. Hopefully this is something I can do relatively stress-free, just an hour or two at a time, when I’m not in the mood to put in a proper session in higher stakes games. To be honest, my hourly rate should still be quite good multi-tabling SSNL, so hopefully this will incentivize me to make a little money in what would otherwise be downtime.

As of today, pace for Supernova would be 25,479. I’m sitting on 28,780. I think this might really happen this year!

Goal 4: Monetize This Blog

I know I keep saying it, but sooner or later I really am going to look into making money a little more directly from this blog. I feel like it’s right on the cusp of being pretty profitable. That doesn’t have to mean ads, though it might. Maybe I’ll…

Snail’s pace.

Goal 5: Write a Book

I’ve talked about this before, but this is the first time it’s ever been an explicit goal. I’ve already got some downtime sketched out in the next few months to work on this and have been kicking around some ideas in my head. Rather than trying to write one big, expensive e-book as a lot of people have done, I’m thinking of doing a series of smaller, modular works that could be purchased separately or as a set. Those of you who read this blog regularly are going to be a big chunk of the target audience, so keep an eye out for posts in the next few weeks soliciting your input about what you’d like to see in a poker book authored by yours truly.

No progress, but I’m expecting to have some time to get this straightened out this month.

Goal 6: Average One Blog Post Per Day

I know it’s been a little quiet on here of late. Part of that is the holidays, and part of it is just laziness. I want to get back to posting once a day. There will probably be more non-poker content, and not all of the poker stuff will be equally in-depth, but overall you can expect to see more and better content here.

Only 29 posts in March, falling slightly further behind….

Goal 7: Average Five Hours of Coaching Per Week

Coaching was extremely fun and rewarding for me last year. So far, except for my group seminars, I haven’t done much to market myself as a coach or actively solicit students. I’ve mostly just worked with students as they’ve come to me, and so so far that’s kept me just about as busy as I’d like to be with coaching. I want to ramp it up a bit this year by setting a monthly goal and actively soliciting students if necessary to ensure that I’ve got a regular stream of students.

Very little this month, which was unexpected. Two of my students had personal issues some up and needed to go on hiatus, and I haven’t had time to fill those spots yet. I’m in the process of lining up new students, so if you’re interested, check out my poker coaching information.

Goal 7: Average an Hour a Day of Dedicated Studying and Improvement

I’m going to be very broad about what this can include: reading books, watching videos, reviewing hands in Hold ‘Em Manager, talking poker with a friend, and even blogging (when it’s related to reviewing my play).

Way behind. I haven’t done as much with Leakbuster as I thought I would, so that review is still in the works. Maybe this month?

Goal 8: Use Hold ‘Em Manager

I switched from Poker Tracker to Hold ‘Em Manager last year. PT2 is great, but HEM is just better. For the last part of the year, I was playing without it on my laptop. It does get in my way sometimes, but I’d rather learn how to work with it than insist on playing without it.

Still getting better, slowly but surely.

Goal 9: Finish the Year with a 4BB/100 Win-Rate at 5/10 NL and/or Higher

Same goal as last year, since I didn’t achieve it but still think it’s very viable. It might be cheating a little, but I’m going to allow myself to count my results from bigger games towards this goal or not depending on whether I do better in them than I do in 5/10 (this was the cast last year). Basically, if I am at 4 BB/100 over a big sample at 5/10, then I don’t care how I’m doing in bigger games. If I’m not doing quite that well at 5/10 but am at 4 BB/100 if I also count bigger games, then that’s certainly a fine result as well.

3.88 BB/100 at 5/10, 3.06 if you add in bigger games. This still looks doable, but these games can be tough!

Goal 10: Play 50,000 Hands of Heads Up NLHE at 5/10 and Higher

Last year, my win rate at heads up was twice what it was at ring games. Plus, it’s a great way to improve poker skills in general, and at stakes above 10/20, it’s often the only way to get action.

Didn’t play as much this month. I’m at 12K hands now, with -5 BB/100. Got to put some more hours in and hopefully start winning!

How did March treat you?

Goal 1: Average 15 Hours/Week Playing My “Regular” Games

I’ve found that 15 hours/week enables me to earn a pretty healthy income, far more than I could make at any real job I could get, without impeding too much on my lifestyle.

I consider my regular games to be anywhere from 2/4 NL to 50/100 NL as well as big tournaments like the Sunday Majors, the FTOPS, and the WCOOP; time spent playing any of these will count towards my goal.

Ahead of pace by nearly a week!

Goal 2: Earn $X in NLHE Cash Games

It’s very tough to predict or control what I will earn playing tournaments. With cash games, though, it’s mostly a question of game selection and putting in hours. It’s not something I’m going to announce publicly, but I am going to set a target, and I am going to put in extra hours towards the end of year if I’m on pace to come up short.

Pretty much exactly on pace. February wasn’t such a great month, but getting off to a good start in January was a big help.

Goal 3: Earn Supernova status on PokerStars

My plan for this is to table select as usual in the beginning of each month, and then assess my progress towards the end of each month. If I’m on pace to come up short, I’m going to put in extra hours above and beyond my weekly goal just grinding 9 tables of $1/2 NLHE (or smaller) until I hit my VPP target for the month. Hopefully this is something I can do relatively stress-free, just an hour or two at a time, when I’m not in the mood to put in a proper session in higher stakes games. To be honest, my hourly rate should still be quite good multi-tabling SSNL, so hopefully this will incentivize me to make a little money in what would otherwise be downtime.

Well ahead of schedule. I’m almost 20% of the way there, with 19809.9 VPPs under my belt. I’d only need to have a little over 16K to be on pace, so that’s a nice little buffer in case I slack off later in the year.

Goal 4: Monetize This Blog

I know I keep saying it, but sooner or later I really am going to look into making money a little more directly from this blog. I feel like it’s right on the cusp of being pretty profitable. That doesn’t have to mean ads, though it might. Maybe I’ll…

Under discussion.

Goal 5: Write a Book

I’ve talked about this before, but this is the first time it’s ever been an explicit goal. I’ve already got some downtime sketched out in the next few months to work on this and have been kicking around some ideas in my head. Rather than trying to write one big, expensive e-book as a lot of people have done, I’m thinking of doing a series of smaller, modular works that could be purchased separately or as a set. Those of you who read this blog regularly are going to be a big chunk of the target audience, so keep an eye out for posts in the next few weeks soliciting your input about what you’d like to see in a poker book authored by yours truly.

Not much progress. I’m pretty good at churning out small writing assignments, but it’s tough to get my head around such a big one!

Goal 6: Average One Blog Post Per Day

I know it’s been a little quiet on here of late. Part of that is the holidays, and part of it is just laziness. I want to get back to posting once a day. There will probably be more non-poker content, and not all of the poker stuff will be equally in-depth, but overall you can expect to see more and better content here.

So close. 57 pots in 59 days. I’ll make it up by the end of the year, I swear!

Goal 7: Average Five Hours of Coaching Per Week

Coaching was extremely fun and rewarding for me last year. So far, except for my group seminars, I haven’t done much to market myself as a coach or actively solicit students. I’ve mostly just worked with students as they’ve come to me, and so so far that’s kept me just about as busy as I’d like to be with coaching. I want to ramp it up a bit this year by setting a monthly goal and actively soliciting students if necessary to ensure that I’ve got a regular stream of students.

I really fell behind this month, with the NAPT and related travel taking me largely out of commission for two weeks.

I’m in the process of lining up new students, so if you’re interested, check out my poker coaching information.

Goal 7: Average an Hour a Day of Dedicated Studying and Improvement

I’m going to be very broad about what this can include: reading books, watching videos, reviewing hands in Hold ‘Em Manager, talking poker with a friend, and even blogging (when it’s related to reviewing my play).

Falling further behind. I just bought Leakbuster for Hold ‘Em Manager, which should give me some impetus to review my game and also make it less of hassle. Look for a review of that in the coming month as well, once I’ve had a chance to play with it for a while.

Goal 8: Use Hold ‘Em Manager

I switched from Poker Tracker to Hold ‘Em Manager last year. PT2 is great, but HEM is just better. For the last part of the year, I was playing without it on my laptop. It does get in my way sometimes, but I’d rather learn how to work with it than insist on playing without it.

I’m getting better with this. There’s another HEM add-on called Hold ‘Em Vision Pro that might help me to use my HUD even more effectively, I’m probably going to look into that once I’ve got a handle on Leakbuster.

Goal 9: Finish the Year with a 4BB/100 Win-Rate at 5/10 NL and/or Higher

Same goal as last year, since I didn’t achieve it but still think it’s very viable. It might be cheating a little, but I’m going to allow myself to count my results from bigger games towards this goal or not depending on whether I do better in them than I do in 5/10 (this was the cast last year). Basically, if I am at 4 BB/100 over a big sample at 5/10, then I don’t care how I’m doing in bigger games. If I’m not doing quite that well at 5/10 but am at 4 BB/100 if I also count bigger games, then that’s certainly a fine result as well.

Now with about 27K hands played, I’m at 3.98 BB/100. So close! Unfortunately, that number only gets worse if I add in higher stakes games.

Goal 10: Play 50,000 Hands of Heads Up NLHE at 5/10 and Higher

Last year, my win rate at heads up was twice what it was at ring games. Plus, it’s a great way to improve poker skills in general, and at stakes above 10/20, it’s often the only way to get action.

Gross. Almost 10K hands, and -8.5 BB/100.

How did February treat you?

Goal 1: Average 15 Hours/Week Playing My “Regular” Games

I’ve found that 15 hours/week enables me to earn a pretty healthy income, far more than I could make at any real job I could get, without impeding too much on my lifestyle.

I consider my regular games to be anywhere from 2/4 NL to 50/100 NL as well as big tournaments like the Sunday Majors, the FTOPS, and the WCOOP; time spent playing any of these will count towards my goal.

Slightly ahead of pace: I played about 70 hours this month, not counting a few hours spent in smaller stakes games and the PLO8 tournament at the PCA.

Goal 2: Earn $X in NLHE Cash Games

It’s very tough to predict or control what I will earn playing tournaments. With cash games, though, it’s mostly a question of game selection and putting in hours. It’s not something I’m going to announce publicly, but I am going to set a target, and I am going to put in extra hours towards the end of year if I’m on pace to come up short.

Ahead of pace. Running good at 40/80 and 25/50 helps. A few more months like this one, and I’ll be a happy boy.

Goal 3: Earn Supernova status on PokerStars

My plan for this is to table select as usual in the beginning of each month, and then assess my progress towards the end of each month. If I’m on pace to come up short, I’m going to put in extra hours above and beyond my weekly goal just grinding 9 tables of $1/2 NLHE (or smaller) until I hit my VPP target for the month. Hopefully this is something I can do relatively stress-free, just an hour or two at a time, when I’m not in the mood to put in a proper session in higher stakes games. To be honest, my hourly rate should still be quite good multi-tabling SSNL, so hopefully this will incentivize me to make a little money in what would otherwise be downtime.

On pace, barely. I picked up Silver Star with barely and hour to spare last night, but even 7500 FPP/month isn’t going to be enough. Then again, I spent 8 days playing live in the Caribbean without so much as signing into Poker Stars, so I still think is doable.

Goal 4: Monetize This Blog

I know I keep saying it, but sooner or later I really am going to look into making money a little more directly from this blog. I feel like it’s right on the cusp of being pretty profitable. That doesn’t have to mean ads, though it might. Maybe I’ll…

Under discussion.

Goal 5: Write a Book

I’ve talked about this before, but this is the first time it’s ever been an explicit goal. I’ve already got some downtime sketched out in the next few months to work on this and have been kicking around some ideas in my head. Rather than trying to write one big, expensive e-book as a lot of people have done, I’m thinking of doing a series of smaller, modular works that could be purchased separately or as a set. Those of you who read this blog regularly are going to be a big chunk of the target audience, so keep an eye out for posts in the next few weeks soliciting your input about what you’d like to see in a poker book authored by yours truly.

I’ve got about 15 single-spaced pages in a Word document so far, but it’s pretty directionless. I just decided if I was ever going to do this, I was just going to have to start writing and do some severe editing later. A lot of it will probably be used for articles or blog posts rather than a book, but I’ve found the only way to get myself motivated for a big project is just to start working and figure the big picture out later.

Goal 6: Average One Blog Post Per Day

I know it’s been a little quiet on here of late. Part of that is the holidays, and part of it is just laziness. I want to get back to posting once a day. There will probably be more non-poker content, and not all of the poker stuff will be equally in-depth, but overall you can expect to see more and better content here.

Close. I made 28 posts versus 31 days in January. That means I owe you a few.

Goal 7: Average Five Hours of Coaching Per Week

Coaching was extremely fun and rewarding for me last year. So far, except for my group seminars, I haven’t done much to market myself as a coach or actively solicit students. I’ve mostly just worked with students as they’ve come to me, and so so far that’s kept me just about as busy as I’d like to be with coaching. I want to ramp it up a bit this year by setting a monthly goal and actively soliciting students if necessary to ensure that I’ve got a regular stream of students.

I thought I was way ahead on this until I added it up. I’ve got three great students right now, all very good players who I feel like are in just the right place to be working with me and learning very quickly. Even counting the time I spend preparing for each session, I’m still not hitting five hours/week. I may not end up making this one, as I’m pretty happy with the amount of coaching I’ve been doing this month.

I probably will be taking on some new students soon, so if you’re interested, check out my poker coaching information.

Goal 7: Average an Hour a Day of Dedicated Studying and Improvement

I’m going to be very broad about what this can include: reading books, watching videos, reviewing hands in Hold ‘Em Manager, talking poker with a friend, and even blogging (when it’s related to reviewing my play).

Not even close. I came in at about 10 hours for the month, though I was pretty conservative about how much blogging I counted. Also, I tend to study more when I’m running bad, as I try to play a lot when things are going well for me and I’m feeling confident. Still, I think I’m going to have step up my efforts here.

Goal 8: Use Hold ‘Em Manager

I switched from Poker Tracker to Hold ‘Em Manager last year. PT2 is great, but HEM is just better. For the last part of the year, I was playing without it on my laptop. It does get in my way sometimes, but I’d rather learn how to work with it than insist on playing without it.

So far, so good. I’ve accustomed myself to using the HUD on my laptop, and it’s definitely helped me with some decisions. Even just checking out how tight the blinds are, how often the Button three-bets, and how often the guy on my right folds to three-bets has probably increased my win-rate by 10%.  I know there’s a lot more I could be doing, too.

Goal 9: Finish the Year with a 4BB/100 Win-Rate at 5/10 NL and/or Higher

Same goal as last year, since I didn’t achieve it but still think it’s very viable. It might be cheating a little, but I’m going to allow myself to count my results from bigger games towards this goal or not depending on whether I do better in them than I do in 5/10 (this was the cast last year). Basically, if I am at 4 BB/100 over a big sample at 5/10, then I don’t care how I’m doing in bigger games. If I’m not doing quite that well at 5/10 but am at 4 BB/100 if I also count bigger games, then that’s certainly a fine result as well.

Killing it, baby! I’m running better than 17 BB/100 for my last 10K hands. Sustainable?

Goal 10: Play 50,000 Hands of Heads Up NLHE at 5/10 and Higher

Last year, my win rate at heads up was twice what it was at ring games. Plus, it’s a great way to improve poker skills in general, and at stakes above 10/20, it’s often the only way to get action.

Ahead of schedule, I’ve got 5500 hands under my belt. I’m down $1000, which of course is virtually nothing at these stakes, and I’m $3000 below EV. Still, I’m not happy with how it’s going, particularly after I made some bad bluffs last night (I’ll post those hands soon).

All in all, so far so good. I’m putting in hours, having fun (for the most part), and making money. Can’t beat that!

How did January treat you?

The vacation did me some good. After more than a week of no poker, probably the longest I’ve gone since I started playing seriously, I really buckled down and put some hours in. I played a few more tables than usual, maintained a pretty solid game, and got myself pretty well into the black by the end of the month. Of course, with the Spring Championship of Online Poker starting tomorrow, that profit could all be gone by mid-April….

Resolution One: Keep Grinding NLHE Cash Games

Goal 1: Earn $X in NLHE Cash Games

I’m still not on track to hit this goal, but even if I continue at my current rate, I’ll pull down a respectable income by the end of the year.

Goal 2: Earn Supernova status on PokerStars

On track, by the skin of my teeth. On March 30th, Stars notified me that I hadn’t earned enough FPP’s to maintain my Gold Star status, largely because of my vacation. I opened a bunch of 2/4 full ring games and $50 and $100 sit-and-goes to grind FPP’s, and by the end of the night, I was within range of the 7500 FPPs I needed to get Platinum Star. Since I’m going to be playing a lot of SCOOP tournaments this month, I figured that would probably be worth getting, so I put in two more grind sessions yesterday to pick up Platinum at, literally, the 11th hour.

On the one hand, I feel a little like a tool for giving in to this little marketing ploy. Then again, it was a good incentive for me to put in hours, and it made me more money than it made Poker Stars, so I guess the real victims were my opponents!

I’ve got just over 25,000 FPPs now, and I’ll need 100,000 by year’s end to reach Supernova. Now that I see how many FPPs I can earn in a brief period if I set my mind to it, I’m once again confident that I can get this done.

Resolution Two: Diversify My Income Streams

Goal 3: Monetize This Blog

I really need to get around to this. I can’t believe I haven’t posted any book reviews this year. I’ve got one nearly ready to go, and there are a few others I’ve been wanting to read.

Goal 4: Get Back Into Coaching

To those of you who’ve spoken to me about group rates: I’m looking to launch something for the second half of April, after the SCOOP.

Goal 5: Market My Writing

Same old, same old.

Resolution Three: Improve My NLHE Skills

Goal 6: Use Poker Tracker More Effectively

Nothing new to report.

Goal 7: Finish the Year with a 4BB/100 Win-Rate at 5/10 NL.

I’m actually having a problem with my database right now, so I’m not able to look this up. I think though that I’m barely above 0, even though I’ve made a decent amount of money. Just a matter of doing better in bigger games than small ones.

Goal 8: Play 50,000 Hands of Heads Up NLHE

Again, I don’t have the exact number offhand. I will say though that I was wrong when I reported 78,000 hands from last month. My goal is still 50,000 for the year, and I think I’m 30-40% of the way there. It’s actually quite difficult to get action. Most of the regulars who sit alone at six tables at once won’i play me, and the ones who will are mostly guys I don’t want to play. Even Poker Stars sponsored player Vanessa “Lady Maverick” Rousso quit me the other day after I stacked her, telling me that she thought she could find a better spot.

Aaaaand the annual graph, which is getting swingier by the month:

Resolution One: Keep Grinding NLHE Cash Games

Goal 1: Earn $X in NLHE Cash Games

Still on track to be busto by the end of the year….

Goal 2: Earn Supernova status on PokerStars

I earned 8866 VPPs in February, which keeps me on track to make Supernova in November. Truthfully, I’m just not digging the games on Stars. Maybe I’m just more accustomed to the FTP interface, but I also like the deep stack games, the Bet Pot button, and the way the tables tile to fit whichever screen I have them on.

Resolution Two: Diversify My Income Streams

Goal 3: Monetize This Blog

I need to get on this…

Goal 4: Get Back Into Coaching

Progress is slow but steady. I’ve had some conversations with former students about how to structure group sessions, and I may get a trial session off the ground soon.

Goal 5: Market My Writing

Same old, same old.

Resolution Three: Improve My NLHE Skills

Goal 6: Use Poker Tracker More Effectively

Still haven’t done much. The Poker Savvy Plus community has been helpful in finding some stats I wanted that weren’t available in the commercial product, so I guess I’ve got the tools I need now. This probably ought to be a priority- analyzing one’s game is a good thing to do during a downswing.

Goal 7: Finish the Year with a 4BB/100 Win-Rate at 5/10 NL.

Got it up to -.19 BB/100, which is a big improvement from January’s -5.

Goal 8: Play 50,000 Hands of Heads Up NLHE

This is the one place where I did make substantial progress, for all the good it did me. In fact, I kind of underestimated how simple this goal was: I’ve already played 78,474 hands. They go quick when theres’ only two of you. I hereby revise this goal:
Play 300,000 Hands of Heads Up NLHE

Aaaaaand my swingy graph:

I played about 28K hands of NLHE ring games online, and despite losing money at the highest stakes I was playing (10/20), I was at 8 BB/100 for the month, so no complaints there.

There are no major tournament series coming up this month, and I’m starting to have less responsbility with the BDL, so hopefully this will be a good opportunity to grind some higher stakes cash games. I’ve pretty much obtained my goal of becoming a winning regular at 10/20, so with a little work, I think I can definitely be there by the end of the year.

I must admit, though, that spending five hours a day, five days a week in charge of a bunch of teenagers is more than a little exhausting. Even though we had a great group that was for the most part eager to learn about debate and easy to get along with, it was still a lot of work and pretty draining. I was in no mood to play poker at the end of a day, that’s for sure.

Here’s me taking notes on the board during a short debate two of our students had about the morality of eating meat.

Poker-wise, I ended the month almost exactly dead even after rakeback. I guess that’s not too bad given that my several forays into 25-50 resulted in several bad beats to the tune of five figures. I did make more of an effort to learn PLO, watching the PLO Leakfinder series on Cardrunners and the PLO guest series that Tom Chambers did for Poker Savvy Plus. I put in several sessions at 2/4, and even though I was a net loser, I feel like I am getting much better at reading hands and board textures.

The World Championship of Online Poker starts today, but I probably won’t begin playing in earnest until next week, so that’s when you can expect to see more regular posts. Sorry for the extended silence.

Here’s my year-to-date graph. As you can see from the little blip after the huge spike, I’ve actually done pretty well in the few hands that I’ve played since as well.

I actually haven’t quite hit my goal for the year yet (yeah, I’m ambitious), but I’m very very close now, so I think I’m actually going to spend less time grinding NLHE. I want to focus my attention now on getting better at some other games, especially PLO. I may even hire a coach- any suggestions?

Granted I’m about to turn around and spend all of June’s winnings in Las Vegas, but I was going to play the main event anyway, so the winnings are still very meaningful. And if you count staking profits, June turns into a damn fine month.

I was playing smaller stakes, though deep-stacked, and ran at about 4 BB/100 over 19K hands.

Non-poker stuff, which is where I devoted a lot of my time, is going great as well. The school system is really excited about the debate league and committed to investing in it, and we’re very close to hiring an extremely qualified new director. I wish I had a bit more time for poker, but as I said, the first part of July will be dedicated to it, and once there’s a paid employee working on the debate stuff, I should have more free time as well.

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $20 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

SB ($3338.50)
BB ($2272)
Hero ($5000)
MP ($4314)
Button ($11909)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Ks, Kd.
Hero raises to $70, 1 fold, Button calls $70, 2 folds.

Flop: ($170) 8s, Qs, Js (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $120, Hero calls $120.

Turn: ($410) 3s (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $320, Hero calls $320.

River: ($1050) 7s (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $800, Hero calls $800.

Final Pot: $2650

Results in white below:

Button has 9s Ts (straight flush, queen high).

Hero has Ks Kd (flush, king high).

Outcome: Button wins $2650.

This one I believe I played badly, though not for the reasons you might think:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $20 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG ($5459.50)
MP ($6787)
Hero ($9459.75)
Button ($1582)
SB ($4198)
BB ($3796)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 2s, 4s.
1 fold, MP calls $20, Hero raises to $90, 3 folds, MP calls $70.

Flop: ($210) Qs, As, Jc (2 players)
MP bets $200, Hero raises to $819, MP calls $619.

Turn: ($1848) Kh (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $1550, MP calls $1550.

River: ($4948) Ts (2 players)
MP bets $2020, Hero raises to $7000.75 (All-In), MP calls $2308 (All-In).

Final Pot: $16276.75

Results in white below:

MP has 9s 6s (flush, ace high).

Hero has 2s 4s (flush, ace high).

Outcome: MP wins $13604. Hero wins $2672.75.

Note that we are nearly 350 BB deep here. You’ll also need to know that my opponent was absolutely terrible and loved to play loose and passive from out of position. I was happy to oblige by raising roughly 90% of his limps, potting most flops, and then proceeding from there. So I think raising him with 42s is actually fine/good.

He didn’t lead into me that often, though, and I’m not a fan of my flop raise. He isn’t very likely to fold, and he’ll probably pay off if I hit my flush, so I’m almost surely better off calling and keeping stacks deeper for later streets. Having raised flop, I guess the turn bet is OK. There’s probably a good-sized gap between his range for calling the flop and his range for continuing on this turn, and I’m 99% sure he’s not raising with anything less than a pretty unlikely straight.

Alarm bells went off when he led the river, though. I really hadn’t been thinking enough about his range, but this is very consistent with his having a flush draw. Yes, I’d seen him check call pot on the turn with a bare flush draw and no plans for bluffing the river. If there weren’t a straight on the board, I wouldn’t even thinking about jamming on him. But here there is both a plausible reason for him to bet this river without a flush (even if I do call he’s probably chopping, since my hand doesn’t look very much like a flush) and a good reason for him to call a shove with less than a flush, since a chop is so likely.

That’s what should be the case. But this guy was bad and predictable and I was just pretty damn sure he had a better flush. But I convinced myself I was being a wuss and shoved the last 100 BB into the pot. I got to tell you, as much getting bad beat out of a big pot sucks, losing a monster because of your own mistakes is ten times worse. Ugh, if I had just called the flop, I could have avoided such a catastrophe.

The month got off to a rough start, but I recovered reasonable well. I ran at nearly 2 BB/100, but because my win rate was best at smaller stakes, I was actually in the red for the month, though not by a lot.

I played a touch of PLO and Stud/8, but not enough to be worth talking about. I will say though that I need to realize that those games require a lot more focus, both because I have a lot less experience in them and because there are fewer automatic decisions than in NLHE. Playing three tables of Stud/8 and talking on the phone is not going to work, even though that’s no sweat at almost any stakes in NLHE (unless I’m playing HU).

Most importantly, I accomplished one of my New Year’s Resolutions by getting affiliated with Poker Savvy Plus. My first three videos, which comprised a series on Flop Fundamentals, was well received, and it looks like I’ll be doing some more.

April Graph:

Aren’t I supposed to be winning money? Here’s to a better May….

On the plus side, I got in a lot of hands this month, nearly 38K. Unfortunately, I ran at -1 BB/100, which combined with a continued failure to thrive in tournaments, resulted in my worst month ever. It was enough to wipe out the gains of February and then some. I haven’t added in my rakeback yet, and hopefully that will be substantial, but either way I’ve got some rebuilding to do.

Also, I played NLHE cash games almost exclusively, so I’m not going to bother with PLO or tournament stats or anything. I’m now just under 2 BB/100 for the year, which isn’t great, but still means I’m making decent money given the stakes I’m playing. I’m at about 80% of where I wanted to be for the year, but honestly if I continue at this pace for the rest of 2008, I’d have no room to complain. Downswings are always frustrating when you’re in them, but my big picture is still bright, so I try to focus on that. Here’s my really swingy graph for the first quarter of the year:

At that start of the year, I set some year-long poker goals for myself. So far I’ve played too many tournaments and not enough hours, but my hourly rate has been so good that I’m getting by anyhow.

I averaged 17 hours a week, only 2/3 of my goal. However, despite playing so many FTOPS tournaments, I put in about 25,000 hands of NLHE. Some of them were full ring, but I am still in good shape for my goal of 250,000 short-handed hands in 2008. My win rate was only about 2 PTBB/100 for the month, but when the BB is sometimes as high as $100, that adds up.

At Omaha, on the other hand, I played about 1500 hands and had an 8PTBB/100 win rate.

I played 41 tournaments, cashing only for a pittance in the two freerolls that I played. I honestly think that I’ve gotten worse at tournaments as I’ve gotten better at cash games. I’m just accustomed to more loose and aggressive play than one sees in most tournaments, and to playing with deeper stacks, and I’m not making the right adjustments. I’m also losing a lot of coin flips.

I’ve played a few hands here and there of Stud/8, mostly at 10/20. I’m feeling very good about my game there, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to play one of the WSOP events. I think that would be fun, if less profitable than just playing the side games.

I played about 22,000 hands of NLHE, which puts me on par for my goal of 250,000 in 2008. However, a fair number of these were full ring, which weren’t supposed to count. Unfortunately, I don’t have an easy of disaggregating them, since Poker Tracker groups full ring games on Full Tilt with short-handed games on Ultimate Bet.

With results like what I saw in January (not sustainable, unfortunately), I wouldn’t need to play anywhere near that number of hours or hands, though. I earned better than 6 PTBB/100 for the month, which at the higher stakes games is definitely well above my true win rate.

My goal of improving my Pot Limit Omaha game is not coming along so well. Over 2000 hands (a minuscule sample, especially for a high-variance game like PLO), mostly at 3/6, I was at -10 PTBB/100. I did read Jeff Hwang’s Pot Limit Omaha: The Big Play Strategy, though, and I think that will help me improve my game in the coming months.

I played 25 tournaments, which should bring me in under my cap of 400 for the year, though FTOPS VII begins tomorrow night, and that will likely see me playing more tournaments in February.

Overall, it was a great month, topped only by July and November of last year, both of which were marked by big tournament wins. My central goal for 2008 was to focus on NLHE cash games over tournaments, which until recently had been my bread-and-butter, so it’s great to see my new game of choice delivering comparable results so quickly.

Meanwhile, cash games continue to go reasonably well. Here’s a graph of my NLHE performance for the month, courtesy of Poker Grapher (sorry, no dollar figures):

And my stats for the month from Poker Tracker Omaha (sorry, I tried my best, but I think it’s still kind of hard to read):

Yesterday concluded both the worst week and the worst month of my poker career. I’m not going to post dollar figures, but I lost about 15% of my bankroll and slashed my hourly rate for the year by nearly 1/3.

I initially put this graph together to garner pity, but I actually found it reassuring. The last month really does look like a substantial but not heart-breaking dip in what has otherwise been a pretty satisfying trend. The best news is that this graph only displays my online winnings, so that big spike that occurs in July doesn’t even include the money I won in Vegas.

My profits so far this year haven’t been anywhere near where I think they should be, let alone where I hoped they would be. When I think about it objectively, though, I have still made more money than any person should be able to make clicking buttons on the internet.

Really, though, I just haven’t had a lot of time to play. Between running the Boston Debate League summer institute, traveling to Chicago to hang out with Dave and work at the Chicago Debate League summer institute, then hosting my girlfriend and a friend from high school over the last 10 days, I just didn’t end up putting in very many hours at the table. It was nice to spend so much time being social, because now that Emily is living in Las Vegas I can easily go a few days without speaking to anyone I know.

It was good to see each of them for different reasons: Dave I see only once or twice a year; Mike was my best friend in high school but we haven’t spent much time together since we both graduated 7 years ago; and this was the first time I’d seen Emily since I left Las Vegas over a month ago. In college, it was normal for us to go weeks without seeing each other, since she lived in Boston and I in Chicago, but since we moved in together three years ago this was the longest we’d been apart. We speak on the phone most nights, but I don’t really like talking on the phone no matter who’s on the other end, so that accomplishes only so much.

But now August is over, and I have a few obligations in September, but mostly I am looking to finish up my summer work, get the BDL off the ground, make another brief trip to Chicago, and play the World Championship of Online Poker upon my return. Wish me luck!