Brick By Boring Brick

K so this is the final time I'm trying to blog. I suck at it and frankly I don't write anything remotely interesting but hopefully that will change this time around. I'm almost reluctant to do this but w.e. certain people I take seriously said I should seriously consider writing one and reading Dr. Giggy's blog has moderately motivated me so here I go. For those of you who don't know Dr. Giggy is pretty much my new hero since Stellar Nubllar decided to be a moron.

Anywayz yo I'm BB, I'm 20, out of college at the moment due to a bad case of strep when my program started last August. So I've pretty much done nothing but poker, sports and fap. Unfortunately I have a lot of tilt issues and have only made like 15k in the last 7 months. Hopefully I'll learn to resolve those eventually. Anyway my current game is usually whatever the hell I feel like playing. I know I'm proficient in every form of NLHE including FR 6m and HU cash, turbo SNGs, hyper turbos and MTTs as well as full stacking, deep and 20bb cash. I realize this may sound like arrogance or overconfidence but I think its pretty true. However I get bored really easily and a bad stretch at anything I'm playing will make me switch games so while I am proficient at all the games I'm really only great at HUNL and the variance of the game drives me insane so I don't play much HU anymore.

In the following months I have to do several things. Firstly pick a god damn game and stick to it. No changing every other week. Except Sundays, hyper turbos are way +EV if you have a good 10-15bb stack strat and know even a slight bit of ICM. Second, I need to fix my tilt issues. All the people who I've helped with their game are now crushing higher stakes and it kills me inside. Obviously there's no one to blame but myself and my lack of emotional control so I need to get the tilt under control and stop destroying solid session after solid session with one giant disaster. If you look at my TR graph its pretty much the story of the last 6 months. Thirdly I need to put in more volume. There is no reason whatsoever that I shouldn't have SNE this year. I need 3.2k vpps a day for the rest of the year and if I don't make it I've lost some serious monies just because I am lazy and lack work ethic. I think I've only had like 5 +2k vpp days this year and frankly thats really pathetic. Definitely need to work on that. STOP FUCKING TILTING and the other things will come easy.

Props to IRC and GL at the tables everyone. Out

1st

sir jello

nommmmmm

do it.

GL sir! more uno while grinding wll surely help.

Bbickes is my hero, yes, which is why I don't mind donating stack after stack to him at 6m.

So I raise my glass to him NOT tilting like a drunken fratboy and making some serial monies!

Originally Posted by d0zer

Bbickes is my hero, yes, which is why I don't mind donating stack after stack to him at 6m.

So I raise my glass to him NOT tilting like a drunken fratboy and making some serial monies!

FU Cap'n Canada.. Bickes was my hero WAAIIII before you. So plz to go accidentally yurself.

We all know you have moar than sufficient skills to pwn... but knowing it and actually doing it is the gap that you need to fill in with ACME wonder spackle.... mmhmm.

I fully expect you to crush. Good Luck my friend.

Work it Bickes!!

Ill donate HU to you anytime

oh hey der

As an IRC reg I fell obligated to post here. Good luck dude. Start shipping pots soon.

Originally Posted by animal_chin

Start shipping posts soon.

Why do you think he made a blog?

<hint>I'm an awesome coach</hint>

Meh. After the last session I kinda want to take a break for several hours. Certain people wouldn't shut up for a 40 min span and with running range cold for a little while I found in the last 5 mins I was making some pretty bad shoves so I quit.

Which I'm happy about cause I only prolly dumped like 40 bucks by the time I realized that I was tilting really bad. Which is a huge improvement cause usually I'll have dumped 1k by the time I realize that I'm not playing my best. Umm for now I'm kinda experimenting with 20bb ss'ing 6m. It's going fairly well I guess before today I was running approx 4ptbb. after today its like 2. I'm not quite sure what's standard for 20bbing but I don't think I'm going to do it more than a month or two and frankly I just want to do it to catch up to SNE pace. It feels kinda weird doing stuff that you despise, but whatever gotta do what you gotta do.

Here in the real world I'm pretty sure I'm moving in with some buddies from college next semster back at ferris state. gawd. Atleast I'll be living with some good friends, but Big Rapids MI is such a shitty town. Appearantly they're looking at a nice house which I hope is a lot better than their apartment they have currently. Its damp and moldy, not very well lit and they have some kind of bug infestation that has been bug bombed several times and still seems to come back. But all of the guys are pretty solid friends of mine so even if the house sucks I can deal so long as there aren't bugs. Hopefully I can get some pics up soon, probably as soon as I get them. Also I've come to the realization some of my friends back home weren't as good as friends as I thought which makes me only wanna get the hell outta Dryden faster.

Live and learn I suppose.

remember to make a spreadsheet!

How have you been running at Uno?

HELLS YEAH ITS APRIL!

April is awesome! I say that in a serious manner. I feel like I'm playing great despite instadoom switch in my first 500 hands. I think I misplayed a hand BVB with KQs against a rather spewy reg. W.E I don't think it was that huge of a mistake but I got stacked. There is a certain reg named like smiledk or some dumb shit like that who kept raising the flops when I had like the bottom of my range which was annoying to say the least. Umm. That being said I need to be playing like 9k hands a day. I'll forgive myself today because I got my xbox 360 and had to screw around with that. Tomorrow I'll get into pace again.

Also I has prop with Jinxx on us both doing 150 hours or if we dont the guy who doesnt play 150 ships the other guy 200$. If we both make it no one payz. I'm so fked.

GL getting 150 hours (even though I probably won't even get there myself, lol). Also, gl with everything else ldo.

Originally Posted by fatb

remember to make a spreadsheet!

lol

K so people have been demanding updates.

So this month I think I'm up something around like 1.7k which is obviously nice. I'm playing a lot better than I did last month. Or atleast I feel like I am. Anywayz. I'm way behind my prop against Jinxx, I think I've played 20 hours so far this month and he has like 50 or so. So I'm obviously boned unless I kick my ass into gear. Hopefully I can back into it tomorrow pretty hard but I am give up on putting in sick hours again until I'm completely confident in my game.

I played the 320 SCOOP today thanks to a few friends buying pieces. I think I played pretty well overall. The hand I busted on was questionable but I don't think it was bad by any stretch. To replay the hand with reads is would be like this. UTG who has been running me over opens to 2.5x to about 700 and has me covered. MP1 is a massive donk and has been running fairly well against the table calls and he also has me covered. I am in the BB with JJ and I have a 9k stack. The pot has about 1.8k in it so I decide to shove. I could have 3b to 2k but my reasoning behind shoving were as follows. I'm OOP and there are a lot of flops that suck for my hand. Any A, K, or Q board has me in a bad spot because MP+1 is capable of calling with a wide variety of hands and if I cbet the flop and he shoves I'm committed. If I am called by a worse PP like 66-TT they will have to fold most all flops which is obviously bad. And finally I decided squeeze shoving looked the most bluffiest so I decided to just ship it in.

I could have also just decided to 3b normally and commit myself to the pot right then and there on any flop. But meh I wasn't insanely fond of that option.

Here in the real world I want to go see adventureland really bad but all my friends are away from home and I lack to the testicular fortitude to ask girls who I haven't talked to in like 2 years if they want to go see a movie. It's also supposed to snow 10 inches tomorrow. If it does I'm going to explode. Where the fk is my warm weather. It's just unfair that we get all this damn snow. I run so bad at weather. I got to see some of my friends this weekend who I haven't seen in a few months which was nice, we all got lunch at Nacho's which is this amazing little mexican place down in Imlay City. The food there is absolutely phenomenal for the price. I was really happy to see everyone and I tried really hard not to be so quiet and kinda just there like I usually I am. I got some life coaching from a very good friend and I'm trying to correct some mistakes that I've made in the past in regards in that I've become kind of a recluse and I don't go irl unless I have to. So hopefully this month goes well for me in poker and socially.

Ship it holla.

K so here we are again. I really don't wanna turn this into a blog that I update everyday because frankly not enough interesting stuff happens everyday. Not to knock the people who update their blog everyday, its more that nothing moderately interesting goes on in my life so why should I bore you all with the mundane details of me. I shouldn't so I'm not going to.

Ok so like poker is going pretty well. The sick thing about poker going well is like, its really difficult to tell why its going well. I feel like I'm playing absolutely fantastic again since I've re-watched spaceman in a cowboy hat series and since I've gotten my bluefire subs.

Bluefire is amazing and well worth the price. To the people who claim its too expensive it easily pays for itself. I feel this deserves its own little stanza or whatever.

Anyways since the start of this month I feel like I'm playing very well and to be honest I think I'm playing the best poker of my life. Thats not to say to much because frankly I suck but meh. Anyways back to poker and winning monies. When your winning maney in poker its often very difficult to tell if its the result of running good cards wise, you know when you run well cards wise, you hits sets and they get paid by overpairs or w.e, KK runs into AK and QQ and AA runs into well umm anything. But when your playing well you make the good folds, the sick hero calls and the wicked thin valuebets. You read your opponent very well and he's a level behind you. Unfortunately the latter can all be an illusion due to gross overconfidence from card ev. Just something to think about.

I played some HU with will as well which was enlighting. I thought I would get my ass handed to me going in but I think I played pretty well till the last 5 hands I got stacked pretty much twice cause I made a bad hero call. Obviously the results say bad call but even during my timebanking I wasn't sure if he was turning an Ax of spades into a triple barrel bluff enough. Or like a KJ with a spade or something. Instead he took this solid line with TPTK with the As which crossed my mind but I thought that would be kinda thin for him due to my lack of hero calls throughout the match. Nope he had it and owned me. nh sir. He brought some leaks to my attention that I'm trying to fix.

Here irl I got my parents old car today as me Mum decided to get a 2010 escape. Which is an amazing car tbh. I was going to get something like a 08-09 fusion because frankly those cars handle amazingly and they don't look that bad either. However I kinda don't wanna spend that kinda money right now and my parents gave me the car so who I am to complain. The car runs it doesnt look like complete shit so I guess its alright. I'd take pics but I don't want to hear from mcat if he bothers to read this how his old junker is better than my current car. Other than that its Easter weekend so probably going to go eat Easter breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner with the family. Yeah. It's that awesome one meal and I'm in a food coma all day.

I suppose I've bored (is that the correct usage here? if not f it, you get what I'm saying) you enough. If you feel you've wasted 3-5 minutes of your life that you will never get back I sincerely apologize.

Hello there ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to today's edition of 'Brett bores the crap outta you for five minutes' Today's episode fields a multitude of insipid affairs complied together in the narrative for my life.

Poker is going reasonably well. I'm fairly positive I'm playing decent if not good. I was doing fairly well at 200nlz 6m and 100nlz HU, despite my claim of never playing again, I think my edge is too big, until my taxes got returned to me yesterday due to my parents claiming me as a dependent thus I have to ship 3k more to the government. What a life beat. So I am forced back to 100nlz 6m. I suppose you all would like to see some interesting albeit funny hands.

People like to bluff me for some reason.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (5 handed) -

UTG ($35)
MP ($324.90)
Button ($208.45)
Hero (SB) ($249)
BB ($283.15)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9, 9
2 folds, Button bets $6, Hero raises to $22, BB calls $20, 1 fold

Flop: ($50) 6, 9, Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

Turn: ($50) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $114, Hero calls $114

River: ($278) 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $60, Hero raises to $113 (All-In), 1 fold


Hero (Button) ($176)
SB ($148.40)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 5, 5
Hero bets $3, SB raises to $10, Hero calls $7

Flop: ($20) A, 9, 5 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $14, SB raises to $32, Hero raises to $50, SB raises to $138.40 (All-In), Hero calls $88.40

Results:
Hero had 5, 5 (three of a kind, fives).
SB had K, 10 (high card, Ace).
Outcome: Hero won $296.30


Hero (SB) ($184.60)
Button ($110)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, Q
Button bets $3, Hero raises to $10, Button calls $7

Flop: ($20) J, 2, K (2 players)
Hero bets $14, Button raises to $28, Hero raises to $42, Button raises to $100 (All-In), Hero calls $58

Results:
Button mucked 5, 3 (high card, King).
Hero had Q, Q (straight, King high).
Outcome: Hero won $219.50

Last but not least this gem. While yes TP is the nuts and if your an aggro player and they have TP beat its a cooler I believe this fellow took this mantra a little to far.


Hero (SB) ($100)
Button ($100.95)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9, 8
Button calls $0.50, Hero checks

Flop: ($2) 10, 6, 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $2, Button raises to $6, Hero raises to $18, Button raises to $99.95 (All-In), Hero calls $81 (All-In)

Results:
Button mucked K, 10 (two pair, Kings and tens).
Hero had 9, 8 (straight, ten high).
Outcome: Hero won $199.50

All that aside I'm fairly positive I'm going up to my old college this weekend to visit the old roommates and make lots of bad life decisions. Horrid choices such as, eating at taco bell, walking in the rain, drinking Busch Light as well as other such treacherous liquors such as burnetts and umm, actually well thats all they drink up at college. Major life beat again.

Anyways if you haven't enjoyed today's entry I highly suggest you stop reading because this post is probably the cream of the crop for entertainment value and I don't want to hear how I've wasted precious minutes of your life again. Peace!

Here we are again wif da updates. This month is going fairly well but obviously there has been some swongs. I think I started the month up like 4.5k and then I hit a 3.5k downswing and currently I'm on a 2k upswing. So lol swongs. I finally picked the games I enjoy and I feel that I play the best in. 6m 200nlz on the weekend and sunday mil hyper turbos and HU during week. Ugh, its been almost 2 weeks without an update and I can't think about anything worth reporting.

I guess all I have to say is downswings suck and make you hate life and upswings rock and you feel like your on like cloud 9 or something stupid like that. I was watching a phil galfond movie recently and he stressed how important it was to not devout your life entirely to poker and to have something else to do when your not playing so well or running so well. I really can't say how much I agree with this statement. If all you do is like eat sleep and play poker and have nothing else to do, life can suck really hard during times. Like when you downswing and start to play bad its really important to be able to do something else and get your mind off of the last session. Like anything, going for a bike ride, going out with friends or playing video games. Anything help you forget how atrociously bad last session was so you can come back with a clean and fresh mind for your next session. Also if all you do is poker you kinda tend to put your self worth in poker and if you hit a downswing it leads to depression and all other kinds of crap.

So this blog entry I guess is to reiterate phil's point of make sure you have something else to do besides poker.

Originally Posted by Bbickes

d he stressed how important it was to not devout your life entirely to poker and to have something else to do w.

incredibly important this.

Balanced lifestyle FTW!

Keep crushing FPS solider. I'm back from vacation tonight so....skypeaments yes? yes.

OMGbrettbickes

K so I've been up here in Big Rapids since like umm Sunday. Came up to see my friends from college and its obviously been a blast. However someone had the brilliant idea of getting drunk at 6 in the afternoon on Monday and since I have zero concept of pacing myself I obviously was passed out at around 10:30 that evening. So obviously I'm a hudge pussy.

Yesterday we spend most of the day golfing at the driving range and finding morel mushrooms. After 3 years of not swinging a golf club, well it was really fucking bad. Like wow if you need a massive confidence boost on your driving skills, please to invite me. So obviously we go look for morels and I'm blind as shit so I obviously find none. Great success. We later go to the casino and I proceed to drop like a couple of hundred but thankfully win most of it back playing the blackjack. Degenerate ftw obviously.

oh hi
gl on the pokers

So I'm back home from being at college for the past week. Let me say that I had a hella good time. I got to see friends I haven't seen in ages, and I met some really cool new people which is really rare for me cause I don't do to well meeting people. I spent like 5 outta 6 nights completely wasted so yeah its really hard for it not to be a blast. It looks like were all going to Windsor on the 15th so that also should be pretty fun as well.

On to the poker cause obv thats what everyone cares about. Poker is going fairly well recently. People play me like weird. Like really weird I'm not sure how to describe how people play me. I think hand summarizes how oddly people play me. He has the Kh so I'm not sure wtf he's doing or what he thinks he beats. Like AhQh and thats it.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (5 handed) -

Hero (MP) ($249)
Button ($401.75)
SB ($203.35)
BB ($202)
UTG ($102)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 10, 8
1 fold, Hero bets $6, 1 fold, SB raises to $18, 1 fold, Hero calls $12

Flop: ($38) 10, 10, J (2 players)
SB bets $21, Hero raises to $60, SB raises to $185.35 (All-In), Hero calls $125.35

Results:
SB had A, K (two pair, tens and nines).
Hero had 10, 8 (full house, tens over nines).
Outcome: Hero won $406.70

Anywayz this month started out pretty rough but I recovered pretty nicely so hopefully this month goes well for me and everyone else, (i feel i should clarify if your in a pot with me i wish things dont go well for you like an AIPF misclick with 32o while I have aces, but its nothing personal)

Graph of May thus far.


Shit happens when you party naked. Go big or get AIDS and We're too legit to quit.

...Gah =(

May sucks. Really bad. Far too lazy to post a graph but I think I'm down like 15 BI. I really cant get anything going for an extended duration, which happens, it just sucks, I guess there really isn't anything more to say about stuff like that. I was half tempted to do a slevin $75 to 1k in like 7 days cause I'm pretty sure it can be easily done, but its so -EV that I shouldn't bother.

Hello 100nlz 6m here I come. Plz to be folding to my bets and raises =D

more prop bets imo. . .

UPDATES. K so this month I'm down like 10 BI, no biggie prolly like 5 due to cash and 5 due to hyper turbos. Std stuff. That being said I havent played much this month. Ive been sick for the last 4 days probably due to running all over canada in the rain and the hotel tell people telling me its a 40 min wait for a cab. I'm impatient and don't like to wait so I run through the rain obviously. No worries at the time but now I'm reaping the repercussions. C'est la vie obviously.

I have like 20k hands this month and have only played like 6k since my last update due to Canadia and being sick so nothing really cool to report. I'm probably going to Cedar Point in the near future so if you're are that area and want to meet up send me a pm or something, reply to the blog i dunno.

Goals for June.

- Play +30 hours a week.
No fucking excuse for being lazy this month

- Make 10k
TAKE MANEY THE F DO

- Review hands more
I've been getting lazy at looking over shit where i play horribly

- Workout some
FFS. Get back in shape time

- STOP BEING A BITCH AND ASK HER OUT.
k enough said


These are all fairly reasonable and attainable goals. So I expect to fail miserably.

Lets go June!

HEY LAZY FUCK. GET TO WORK!

Originally Posted by Bbickes

HEY LAZY FUCK. GET TO WORK!

K so lets recap this month. I've been downswing for about a month and a half now. Obviously my confidence has been completely shattered and my desire to play poker or even continue in this game is quickly running down the drain. I suppose this will happen to everyone, or maybe I have too much self worth invested in this game. Either way I have not been very happy lately, especially the last two weeks.

Anyway I was trying to figure out what to do and while watching this CAP PLO video, (jmannnnnnnnnnnnnn) something like went off, like a light bulb or me getting struck by a bolt of lightening (whichever you prefer) I really can't explain it, I suddenly feel like playing poker again which is awesome.

This month while bad is still very salvageable, and I'm 2/3 of my goals already. I'm feeling better about my fitness situation and I asked her out and she said we'll set something up later. Needless to say I am very excited for the rest of the month.

@ blog name change.

Congrats at proving me wrong about goals. I'm only cynical to motivate you to prove me wrong. gogogo and such.

So fronz has brought something to my attention that I've known for a long time but haven't bothered to address. I'm a b/e player =(. That isn't to say I haven't made a small clip from this game but I'm really not content being an FPP grinder. So in regards to that...

I pretty much withdrew my entire BR barring $750. I'm rebuilding from the 50nl on up. If I'm not a winning 100 en el playa by end of August I am throwing the towel in with poker.

That being said I started Tuesday and I'm at about $1350. I'm really excited about this as I'm actually putting time into the game again. Slowing down and thinking and putting in a reasonable amount of hours again. I could be running really well and thats whats motivating me but meh w.e. It's nice to be enjoying this game after 2-3 months of downswing and breaking even.

Unfortunately I'm off to giant fucking failsville. I mean Lafollete, Tenn, for a family reunion for a week. I really don't get along well with family, its not to say we dont like each other its more I never have anything interesting to talk about and its kinda just awkward silence and small talk. Also its in a dry county in the middle of no where. Sigh.

take a suitcase full of booze, obv.

BB, get the vids on Stox poker by jared tendlar. Put up with the stuff that sounds bullshit and do the exercises. Trust me. these are some of the best tilt reduction vids I have ever encountered. I put them on my PSP and watched them while doing cardio at the gym. 2birds, one stone.

Poker is going fine obv. I don't want to nor do I have the time to elaborate at this moment but I'm reposting what may be the greatest post on 2p2 ever

and that ****ing email from ****ing fulltilt ****ing poker with the ****ing tips from the ****ing pros, the one where the ****ing asshat says poker is a joy. **** him. **** him in the ass. he says it doesn't matter if you win or lose it's a joy to play. **** you. ****ing *******. say that after you get your money in good over and ****ing over and lose every mother****ing time. **** **** ****ing ass ****** ****.

Weeeeeeee donkaments =D

BR = 7k Will write an actual update tomorrow

ship ittttt. wp sir gj on the document =)

Ok so I said I would do an honest update instead of my usual 3 liners. Not that theres anything worth reading here but anyway.

So anyways like I said I withdrew most of my roll and I decided this time along I would follow pretty aggro bankroll management. So I started at the HU sngs to about 1k from the $22s to $33s. Moved to 50nl HU and I felt I played great and ran well to 1.8k Took my shot at 100nl FR. Got coolered a few times and regrinded back at 50nl HU. Went back to 100nl at 1.8k and won a few BI. Donked around with MTTsngs and MTT's every night with Dthorne and d0zer. And lol big score the BR is now at 7.1k
...
I feel this is an atrocious entry so I'd like to elaborate on a few other things.

If you ever decide to take a vacation in the town of Lafoyette Tenn. Don't. I repeat. Don't. The town doesnt have cell service, and youre about 1 hour from the nearest city and all they sell is beer there. This especially blows if youre not a beer drinker and thus are forced to drink beer all vacation and drinking beer to me makes my stomach feel like I just ate a turkey sandwich and I constantly have to piss every 10 mins. So anyways. Avoid that town at all costs.

It's easy as hell for me to talk when I'm on a hudge upswing but I feel there is some serious merit to these words.

[mailman] the problem with downswings is not that it breaks a bankroll, cause we're well rolled for them, the problem is it breaks your mindset.

I feel like rarely are truer words spoken in poker. Its not that were losing money its more that our confidence gets shattered. We question plays we know are right, we make bad plays as a result and we don't even want to put in the hours, because why is this session gonna be any different than the last ones. I'm not sure but I know a lot of people can be completely unaffected by downswings and I'm out to figure how because frankly they happen to all of us for one reason or another.


Also, dthorne enjoys men. big burly men.

Originally Posted by Bbickes

[mailman] the problem with downswings is not that it breaks a bankroll, cause we're well rolled for them, the problem is it breaks your mindset.

I speak the truth! Didn't know this marked you tho =)

GL sir, keep luckboxing donkaments and pwning at HU

Updates have been demanded. So let's start this out with poker is going well. My confidence is pretty high, and I'm playing very well, which makes poker fun again which makes me want to play more and everyday which is obviously good. I keep switching between 100nl FR and 200nl 6m depending on how I feel. I think this system works out pretty well as it helps keep my play balanced. I'm aggro in the right spots in 6m and I pick spots better in FR. So yeah poker is fun again which is really really cool to say the least. I think this month and how I had two weeks away from everything really helped.

So anyways, my sister got back from euroland this week, she brought me a real swiss army knife, some francs and das boot. Which is all really cool. Unfortunately I don't drink much beer so das boot is more for show but whatever. Anyways funny story, my parents get the cell phone bill for my sister and her friend. My sister and her friend spent 1.1k in cell phone bill in 3 weeks. Pretty lol and my dad is furious, after further examining the bill my sister spent about $80 of the 1.1k and the rest was spent by my sisters fat friend and the foreign exchange student they went to visit. Both of my sisters friends are pretty life busto and I was under the impression that the foreign exhanges student's parents busto'ed themselves to send their daughter to america for a year. From what I saw this girl had no concept of money whatsoever, and that is really unfortunate for how much her parents and brothers and sisters sacrificed so she could come to America.

Anyways, everyone in IRC gets to go get good sushi whenever they damn well please. I live in a small tiny town and the nearest sushi place is about an hour away. A bigger beat is no one I know likes sushi enough to pay for good sushi. So I never get to go. Which pisses me off. The 'city' I'm moving to in August also has no solid sushi restaurant and the nearest one again will be about an hour away. This is a serious life beat. Nobody runs as bad as I do when it comes to obtaining sushi.

TLR obv.

Find an asian supermarket. Buy sheets and a roller. Invite girls around for sushi. Ez game.

****WARNINIG*** dont be in the process of drinking anything when reading the "greatest 2+2 post ever"...more laundry for me !

So July is at an end.



+$1000 feeps

Uhh. July was fun. Especially fun since I spent 2 weeks of this month away from the internet and cell phone service. I ran like 2k under ev in cash but w.e am not complaining, in fact am fucking ecstatic on my month. Obviously my donkament score means I ran wayyyyyy above EV.

This month I have my document prop bet with dthorne, which I'm kinda looking forward to, kinda not. I'm not really sure how big my edges are in MTT's I'd assume decent due to the fields being horribal but meh I have so many leaks in my MTT game that I'm not sure how confident I am in me being able to turn a decent profit. So that being said I plan on grinding both cash and MTT's. I pretty much plan on playing like 10+ hours a day. I really don't know how long I can sustain a schedule like this but I'm definitely going to try.
If both of my games suffer I will be dropping MTT's from the schedule because as nice as it would be to luhl @ thorne, improving my game and making manies come first.

GL to everyone this month.

[ ] 100k hands cash
[ ] 300 documents
[ ] move up to 2/4

[x] poker is amazing


oh yeah -600 cash. August is obv amazing.

sorry for being a noob about tourney graphs but what does each of the three lines represent?

the blue one is rakeback.

the red one is expected winnings.

Also ship shap was stuck 2.4k post some tournaments now only stuck 1.2k on the month!

HOLLA

how is expected winnings calculated?

Originally Posted by Parasurama

how is expected winnings calculated?

I'm pretty sure it's chip equity against the prize pool.



Anyways. This month has been a real grind fest. It's only been 5 days and I already have 11.5k vpps. That's nothing to you SNE grinders but f off its alot to me =(. Anyways after the fucking disaster that was the hyper turbos I have finally started to turn my month around. Except today, today sucked. 8k hands of break even poker for the fucking lose. Including all that I've played about 32k hands of cash for 1k which is about 2ptbb. Needless to say I'm unhappy about that but if poker wasn't gambling they would call it printing monies amirite? I'm only up $500 in tournaments, which is a real fucking drag due to the fucking hyper turbos. So including rakeback and such probably up like 2k so far this month. Which is really cool. Hopefully close to the end of the month I'll be ready to move up to 400nl. =D

Speaking of moving up. I feel this is a very important point to make here. I had this point driven home back when I first started poker actually. Back in about fall 2008 there were several micro grinders hanging out in irc, I think it was like, me yaawn, wems, dwarfman. Anyways we all were 25nl grinders sitting with about a 1k roll. We asked mcat when we should move up, and he told us 1k was good and to move up. Well me and yaawn both play 200nl now, dunno where wems is but dwarfman is still at 25nl fr lol. Anyways enough about the past.

Anyway the point I'm trying to make here is. Unless you hate money, you should be trying to move up and stay moving through the levels as fast as possible. I cannot stress this enough. The latest fad in the microgrinders seems to be see who can be the nittiest with their bankroll. Seriously, this 100k hands of 10nl, is a fucking waste for an example. If you move up to 25nl at say $500 instead of grinding 10nl till like 1k. Say you're winrate at 10nl is like 5ptbb or whatever. But you're winrate at 25nl drops to like 4ptbb. You're still making more money at 25nl so why would you stay back at 10nl? Please don't use the excuse "You guys don't know what it's like at the micros anymore, it's alot harder than it was for you". Frankly thats a load of bullshit. The games at the micros are equally as beatable as they used to be. You're only slowing you're own learning and prohibitting your bankroll growth. You get better by playing hands, playing better players and talking poker with better players than you. Not by sitting at the micros forever until you have a 10k roll or something. Don't just be content with your w.e winrate in the micros you have to stay driven and hungry otherwise your not going to get better and by the time you move up to SSNL and MSNL the games WILL be a lot tougher. So guys move up as soon as you can. 20-25 BI's is more than enough especially if you only play like 2-8 tables. Take your chances but don't be stupid, if it doesn't work you can always drop down and rebuild but you should be aggressively trying to move up. I cannot stress how important this is, even if I don't articulate it very well =/

I brought down the sky for you, but all you did was shrug.

powerful lyrics ITT

Anyways. Life and poker is going very well. My bankwire got in yesterday and I took my parents out for steak and lobster. Turns out they don't like lobster so they just got filets. I had my first bad dinner at Lucky's, which is where I took them, they like overcooked my king crab. Which was moderately meh, It's really dissapointing as their food is usually superb. It happens I suppose.

Anyways due to me getting my bankwire and check from my trust I was no longer life busto as I have been for about a week now so I went back to play some live poker at this local charity room, which I haven't been to in about a month due to my travels and what not. Everyone was happy to see me and wondered where I'd have been and that was pretty cool considering everyone there should hate me for how much I take out of there, but I keep a very friendly table presence and I don't act like the typical young douchebag so I guess that goes a long way. Anyways there's a really hot dealer there, shes about 20 and a 10, not even fucking kidding, and not an IRL 10 an internet 10. Dunno wtf shes doing dealing cards, except for her dad owns the place. Anyways she was happy to see me too which is umm always nice. Anyways, despite how friendly everyone is, or douchebaggy, there is only one other good player and I would describe him as a good nit who likes to use his image from time to time, everyone but this good nit and I were busto with me and him being up about 500ish. Unfortunately him and I are the only ones who buy in full and we just cleaned the table by about 1. So that's how live went.

My jump into donkaments is going well, that is to say I've been running hotter than the sun. I'm fairly positive that I have an edge on like everyone postflop in tournaments, but their preflop edge kinda outdoes my postflop edge unless I can accumulate a 30-50bb stack. Then things get fun cause its like everyone plays fit or fold like a 10nl cash table or something. That being said I've won more than my fair share of flips, which is obvious I guess, to do well in donkaments you need to win those flips. I really can't seem myself becoming a tourney pro, mostly due to the sick variance and how easy it would be to go on a massive downswing. Tournament variance is really sick and I've already had this lesson.

I'm headed back up to college soon as well, back to Ferris State University located in the scenic town of Big Crapids, I mean Big Rapids. I'm moving in with some friends which should be pretty fun, I mean their not nearly as life busto as my friends at home so we should actually be able to go out occasionally as opposed to never. I'm pretty excited I think, I get to take some classes again and continue poker. I told myself I would quit if I wasn't a winning player again by the end of August and I've made about 12.5k since that time so I'm pretty confident about my game and my ability to win, though I could be on some sick heater, and by which case I can just go back to school full time in January. It's actually pretty awesome how flexible my life is atm and I feel really fortunate that I can both do whatever I want and have the money to do it. Not many people in this world can say such things so yeah, it's pretty umm really can't describe how thankful I am for things I have been given.

Oh yeah, Fronz gets sushi whenever he wants and thats bullshit and Fatb outplays me in FR on a regular basis.

Originally Posted by Bbickes

Oh yeah, Fronz gets sushi whenever he wants and thats bullshit

Shipittttt blogged about me ITT

Ok so. Umm last night I dropped 9 BI at 200nl FR. Most of it was coolers and lost flips but there was some misreads and bad play as well, which ya know is standard when things go poorly. Umm, yeah losing 9 BI in about 5k hands really blows. Can't really think about anything else to say about that other than it really came at a bad time because I was taking small shots at soft 400nl tables and now my confidence is shot to shit.

Some thing I want to talk about is a spot where I keep running top two in sets on drawy boards. I would say the last four times I felted top two on really drawy boards I've ran into bottom set all four times. It would be really easy for me to be results oriented and say k f it I'm just folding everything thats not the nuts to flop raises but that would be very wrong. Just because you run into the top of people's range consistently does not mean the play is bad. The boards I'm talking about will be like AQ9 or AQ7 with FD's on board. Where like yes he will have bottom set on occasion but his range will also be weighed with flush draws and gutters as well as flush draws with pairs

Hand 0: 77.384% 77.38% 00.00% 45966 0.00 { AQo }
Hand 1: 22.616% 22.62% 00.00% 13434 0.00 { 99, KdJd, KdTd, JdTd, 9d8d }

As you can see we're a massive favorite on the AQ9 board against his range and just because I ran into bottom set all 4 times does not mean the play is bad. It's really important to keep these things in mind while on downswing. You have to consider their range and not whether or not you keep running into the top of it.

In the real world my cousin is getting married on Saturday which means I have to go get a new blazer today which should be umm fun. I can do some clothes shopping as well for college and whatever. Tomorrow I'm going to get a massage with me mum because my mom is pretty much the bee's knees when it comes to being a parent to me, she's always been amazing to me when she didn't have to so I try to do everything possible for me mum which I'm sure everyone else does as well. I think I'm taking a break from poker until Sunday but that could change if I feel like getting in play. Gotta throw yourself back in the water, ya know?

Today I'm back off to college and such. I probably will be leaving in around 2 hours or so. I'm pretty excited but at the same time I didn't get much sleep last night so I'm really not looking forward to make the drive up there at all. Plus when I get up there, blah blah blah, you know the drill, people wanna do shit. Which is really cool it just sucks that I feel like I'm half dying right now due to lack of sleep. Anyways we don't have cable yet at our apartment and that's pretty unfortunate considering if I miss a Sunday of poker I'll be pretty upset. Either way I'm really pumped about the school year and living with friends again, just not so much right at this moment.


Poker is going, umm, trying to figure out the right words to convey what I want here. I'm up like 5.2k or something close to that this month but my results in cash have been very mediocre. I'm a 3ptbb winner at 100nl and a 6.5 ptbb loser at 200nl. Which is obviously discouraging and I'm not sure why I either play like complete shit at 200 or just run meh and play poorly. I'll have to do a bunch of analysis while there is no cable in the apartment. I feel like a 5 figure month is still very much in reach depending on how much I can get accomplished when the apartment gets cable. That's my goal and I'm sticking to it. I feel like if I underachieve that this month will kinda be wasted because I got off to a really great start and its a shame if I waste that. That being said I cannot control the cards and all I can really do is put in volume and hope everything works out for the best. Hopefully I can find some leaks this weekend and work on correcting them.

Since I try to talk about something useful in my blog I guess I'll talk about the importance of actually playing. Yes you can study all the time and put in the ev calcs and whatever but when shit really hits the fan the most important thing in difficult spots is experience. With experience comes hand reading, tilt control and with bankroll management that is where most of our money will be made. Experience is the difference between oh fuck he c/r'ed me i guess i should fold and hmm he c/r'ed me, what exactly is he trying to rep and how credibly is he repping it maybe I should considering calling or raising here. These things are important to consider and the more hands you play the easier it will be to hand read and develop reads other than stats and you will find poker is far more enjoyable and profitable when you have the experience and skills to play solid, winning poker.

Take care guys.

I've been back up at college since about mid Thursday. I'm pretty much moved in I guess. Uhh, I bought a really nice leather couch and TV yesterday which all get delivered tomorrow the day after I think. My L shaped desk and computer chair are pretty much the bee's knees. I'll get some pictures up around Wednesday I hope, pending on me actually putting stuff where its supposed to go. It's nice being up at college again, being around friends and getting away from my grandmother, that sounds horrible of me but I've been taking care of her almost non stop for the past 2 months and she has bad Alzheimer so it's like taking care of a young child. My stress levels have decreased dramatically since I've left home though I really miss my own bed. I've been sleeping on the floor with a blanket and pillow due to me not being able to find a bed I like yet. The cable guy just came yesterday and I had a friend at the apartment for most of the day so I haven't been able to play much.

Though one thing I want to talk about is how burnt out I'm getting =/ For the first two weeks of this month I was motivated and putting in anywhere from 8-14 hours a day everyday, no breaks, putting in like 8k hands of cash a day and like 10-15 donkaments. Now towards the end of the month I struggle to put in like 3-4k and it's becoming a real drag. Like I'm getting completely burnt out of this game and I'm not quite sure what to do about it. I'm playing fairly well and still running really good, I'm just struggling to put in the hours. Like it's getting to the point where I have to tell myself the more I play the moar BI's in the bankroll but the desire isn't there. I dunno, maybe I should just take a week off and party my ass off and then hit the tables hard again but I get the feeling if I take a week off it will only make things more difficult when the week is over.

Hey dude, just read through your blog. Pretty good stuff so far. Keep it up man. Sucks ur getting burnt out, but meh happens to everyone from time to time imo.

We gotta hit up the casino together sometime when I get back from SOI. Do a lil drinkin, etc. Will be pretty cool to meet up with a fellow FTRer.

P.S. just lost a 1500bb pot at 2nl to BooG while typing this lol. KK < AA ez game :P

So in the last 5 days I've only played about 12 hours. Needless to say, really f dissapointing but tbh I really don't care too much, its welcome week and I'm at college, what was the point of moving here if I'm not going to enjoy it during the only good time to be up here. I've been having a really good time with all my friends that really means alot to me.

So anyways, the small amount of poker that I've played is going v well. I'm trying to learn PLO and I'm running pretty well which always helps when you learn a new game, especially in a game with variance as high as PLO. I mean lets face it, if we all didn't run good learning NLHE we wouldn't be playing would we. Something I've had to learn the hard way is the 3rd nut FH is not the nuts in PLO, that's been a painful lesson. That all being said I'd still like to make my cash game goals finished. I did play a bit of 2/4 this month that I'm very pleased with, I thought I played very well and actually bothered to tableselect very well. I'm about 15k hands away from my cash goal and that needs to be addressed. Frankly I think I'm going to have to do lockdown mode until about late tonight to get that taken care of so I won't have to worry about any of that tomorrow. I actually feel like playing today, which is wonderful.

Take care guys.

[ ] 100k hands cash
[ ] 300 documents
[ ] move up to 2/4


Fail. Fail. Fail.

So I'm wrapping my month up right now as I feel pretty soul crushed to be honest. The variance of learning and playing PLO is absolutely destroying me so I'm probably not playing PLO for a long time anymore. Final tallys for the month are 91k hands cash, 215 documents and I never really moved up to 2/4. I made 7k this month so I really can't complain, I just feel completely beat by this 2k downswing to end the month. College is getting really old really quick, everyone fights all the time and frankly theres nothing I can't stand worse than drama. So that's getting me down as well.

That being said I made 7k this month! Thats pretty awesome considering its way moar than any busto student here at Big Crapids. I think I'm going to go out and celebrate an awesome month! I mean ugh I hate it when I get like whiney and then I put things in perspective about my general well being compared to everyone else in big rapids let alone the world. Damn, how lucky are we, that we get to play a game from the comfort of our homes, whenever the hell we want and make some serious bank. Life is awesome.

Goals for next month

[ ] 150k hands
[ ] Live

Nice on the 7k! Prob bets +ev, weeeeeee. Dude, tbh you crushed this month no matter what happened at the end. Congrats!

Originally Posted by Bbickes

I put things in perspective about my general well being compared to everyone else in big rapids let alone the world. Damn, how lucky are we, that we get to play a game from the comfort of our homes, whenever the hell we want and make some serious bank. Life is awesome.

i like

Originally Posted by daven

Originally Posted by Bbickes

I put things in perspective about my general well being compared to everyone else in big rapids let alone the world. Damn, how lucky are we, that we get to play a game from the comfort of our homes, whenever the hell we want and make some serious bank. Life is awesome.

i like

Keep on killin' bikes, keep this perspective in mind and try not to get too attached to goals that are results-based with this crazy game of variance...

i'm a bbickes fan, ftw

that being said, your ass is mine in a few weeks.

shutup thorne. jello will eat ur ass, the nongay way. lDo

there is nothing that can make your prior statement seem anything but blatantly homosexual

lies LIES. its astroucious and propousterous

I have not updated in awhile so I guess I'll do that. Poker is going reasonably well. I'm around a 5ptbb winner while simultaneously running bad around 1500bbs. I feel I'm playing pretty solid so I'm really happy about that. I keep running KK into AA AIPF and my AA AIPF hasn't won much either but I'm coolering the shit outta people with sets so it all evens out in the end. Like I said I'm really happy with my play and I'm on pace for a very good month. I would like to be at 2/4-3/6 around early November and I really want to make this happen this time around. It's really hard to make reasonable goals due the variance of this game but this is something that I think I can really do if I put in the hours and work on my game. I think my mind and potential is there I just have to put in some very hard work. They say everyone moves up until they are either not smart enough or don't work hard enough and I hope I don't cap somewhere low.

Here in the real world, my roommate correctly guessed what his anniversery gift was when we were talking about what she got him and I kinda let out a little smile when he did and his gf knows and she got upset and thus I feel like complete garbage for ruining the surprise though in my defense there is really nothing I coulda done about it. So I feel like crap, can't describe how bad I feel about it. I dunno if this even merits how bad I feel but w.e. ugh. School has started for everyone so I have a lot of time to work and play poker but have only put in like 22 hours this month which is pretty unacceptable. I'm getting really unhealthy due to eating nothing but garbage and sitting in this chair and couch alot so I need to start running again or something. Basically there are a lot of aspects of my life that need changing and unfortunately I'm putting some on hold because poker then fitness are taking priority and unfortunately again poker is taking way more priority than fitness.

fitness prop bet?
but i'm doing enough exercise already.

I do need to study/work on poker more and play less, you need to do more exercise. Sort something out?

Poker is going terrible, but that's fine umm, you can't run good all the time and right now I'm fairly close to b/e and I'm like 4k under EV. Which is fine, I cannot control the cards once the monies is all in and really all I can do is continue to play good and hope everything works out. I won't deny its frustrating but I've got this new day, new start philosophy thats working out pretty well. I screwed around at 50nl 6m yesterday for confidence and results were lollerable. I think I won like 6 BI in 2k hands and my graph looks like +10BI in non showdown and -4 in showdown winnings. Which was hysterical to me as it's the first time in awhile my AF has even been near that high and my graph resembles a Joe Ingram or griffey graph. Which was cool, you never know what little thing will make you feel substantially better about this game.

I'm also putting in a conscious effort to play more, these past week hasn't been great for volume but again it is kinda difficult to play when you lose all the time. I'm trying to correct that though and want to put in some decent hours.

Here in the real world my cousin is getting married for the second time. It's a big wedding I'm told and frankly, I almost would rather not drive home to go to it. Does this make me an asshole? probably, but it's her second wedding so shouldnt it be small and shouldn't they elope somewhere? Blaggards I say! Anyways me mum asked me to stay home for a week and take care of my grandma.............Let me first say that me mum is one of the greatest people alive and I would do anything for her, but taking care of grandma is like taking care of a 3 year old, a whiney 3 year old. I can't say no to me mum after all she's done for me so obviously I told her I would. So hopefully, umm, trying to figure a way that this next week can go well, pretty much I need to luckbox a donkament!

Also thorne is getting crushed like *insert more smack talk here*

So this month I'm stuck 2k and 5.5k under ev. Yeah. i really couldnt get anything going this month and everytime I tried to I got slammed in the face. Yeah variance happens to everyone but it doesn't mean its not difficult to deal with at times. All I can say is, well theres really nothing to say cause theres nothing you can control about it.

I can't wait till next month and I really hope that I can play better than I did this month. If not hopefully I can find the motivation to just grind through it rather than just give up every session.

Take care everyone.

Most of us have tricks to get thru the bad runs, but they're gears toward specific causes. If you tell us exactly what's going wrong, someone might have some useful nuggets for you.