Finally I find myself with some spare time since my trip to Tunica. Let me say the ride down there was pretty depressing knowing this may be the last trip I make with his friend ever. We left at about 8 AM and arrived at about noon plenty of conversation on the way down there. No one else really calls him as often as I do and he feels as people treat him like he is already gone. It must be hard to go through what little life you have remaining like that. I have taken it upon myself to be there for him until the end know matter how difficult or uncomfortable it may get.

There are a few things he wants to get accomplished before he leaves this earth, most of it is things he would like to get done around the house to make his wife's life easier when he is gone. Some of these things are things he can do on his own but tiling the garage floor is a task to big for him to accomplish alone so I have volunteered my services to help him get that one done.

Played cards until 5:30 had dinner at the Horseshoe buffet and then started the journey back home. The ride home seemed to take forever got him back to his place shortly after 11 and it was midnight before I made it home and yes I had to work the next morning. All in all it was an emotionally draining day.

As for my play at the tables could not be any happier with how it went. My reads were spot on and managed to make folds in all the right places saving $$$. For instance 3 limpers I look down at AKo so I make it 20 to go 2 callers flop comes out A2J it goes check check I cbet 20 one fold and then get raised to 75 after careful deliberation and looking at the stack size I mucked and got showed A2. The most I was ever down was about 100 the most I was up was 85 my biggest pot one was about 200 with quad 8's versus a flush. I cashed out for a 26 dollar profit and after my share of the gas made 3 dollars and some change.

Been working on the content for the first installment of the study group for cash game players thread HERE going to more like a seminar on preflop play and how to make life easier making sound decisions preflop. I should be ready for the first session the week after next. I am on call at work this week so not able to plan anything definite not knowing if I will be able to keep the plans I make. Hopefully will be able to come up with a time that works for all but if not I am up to doing one during the week and perhaps one on the weekend to try to accommodate everyone's schedule.

Until next time GL in all your games.

Cheers,

Mark

Wow just noticed its been awful long time without a post here. This summer has gone by extremely fast and have not accomplished anything I wanted to. No live poker no live tournaments and very little online play by my standards. For those of you who are interested in my progress in building a roll its been a real roller coaster, the swings have been crazy.

It seems like every time I get some momentum going its not long until things start to head the other direction. I am beggining to think I am not cut out for the microstakes at all my thought process and approach to the game do not work at this level of play. I know there are bad players at all stakes but I keep coming out on the losing end. It is really frustrating this graph speaks for itself.

That is my lifetime graph on Merge since starting trying to build a roll from nothing four months 22,104 hands 208.82 hours of playing time and stuck $7.26.

On a another note a real good friend of mine has liver cancer and we are making what could be his last trip to Tunica to play cards next week. I have mixed emotions about it on one hand its the first trip I have been able to break away for this summer and really I am doing it more for him than myself. He is the one who introduced me to online poker in 2008 amazing this then 57 year old turned me on to online poker when I was 31, I have known him for 11 years now and in that time have learned so much from him about poker and life in general. On the other hand I know my game will not be where it needs to be given the circumstances surrounding the trip kind of a catch 22, I might be better off to light a couple of hundreds on fire and watch them burn.

Will make a conscience effort to post more regularly the problem is not much to tell these days. Hope your poker endeavors have been going better than mine. Until next time Gl in all your games.

Cheers,

Mark

So April has come and gone and overall for me it was not a good month poker wise. I had to spend half of the month away from home out of town on business so not alot of time for grinding the virtual felts. Only about 1K hands put in with the way things have been going that was probably more of a blessing. Not my usual volume grinding.

As mentioned in one of my previous blogs have not been very poker motivated as of late, not sure what that is all about. Since Black Friday up until this January I missed online poker tremendously and longed to play, so I devised a way to try to build a roll from nothing. Now with a small roll and the ability to play I have no desire to play at the present time.

I am going to take this time to focus on improving on my tournament game, which I feel overall is lacking and not on par with my cash game skills. Which means I will have to start playing some more tournaments. I will also play the DON SNG's to help build the roll to offset the cost of entering tournaments in the event I don't make ITM.

My results for April


Until next time GL in all your games.

Cheers,

Mark

So I have been doing some business traveling here the last couple of weeks. Was gone all one week and four days last week. Not much time for poker. I did in my travels however arrange it so I would pass by Tunica, Mississippi with enough spare time to get in some time at the tables.

I arrived at about noon or so and was able to get a seat in a 1/3 game at the Horseshoe. I used to frequent Tunica quite a bit back in 2008-2009 so as I looked around the table I saw some familiar faces = regs. Now the guys here I am refering to are grinders they play day in and day out they are retired and trying to make some extra $. The one in the following hand I have played with on several occasions. He is not a gambler that I recall and he likes to slow play and trap from what I remember. He had stacked me a couple years ago with the nuts on the river.

All that being said lets get to it. So I had been playing three hours now and was still pretty much even nothing exciting has gone on. I am on the button and it folds to me I look down at I open to $20 I notice the SB look at his cards and start to pick up a stack of chips like he is going to raise and already I can see my chips going into the middle he hesitates and just calls the BB folds so we are heads up. Now the SB is the guy I described above. The flop comes down great flop I have an over pair and very unlikely he has a draw at this point. So I bet $25 and he calls the turn brings the . This is where it start to get interesting there is roughly about $95 in the pot so I bet $70 and he snap shoves. I sit back in my chair and say "wow" took all of ten seconds the guy in the BB says you should call the clock on him. I looked at the SB and said "you hit the queen?" and the BB calls the clock on me and calls for the floor manager. Not even a minute had gone by at this point since he shoved his stack in. I could not believe it, hard to believe this was happening most of the time players not involved in the hand do not intefere unless it has gotten out of hand which this clearly had not. So the floor guy tells me sir your going to have to make a decision and starts counting down from thirty.

At this point I am furious my bloods is starting to boil and now I have this moron counting, I am trying to concnetrate and replay the hand and try to make sense of it so finally I just muck it and throw it away. As if that is not enough to send someone over the edge the idiot who got involved and called the floor leaves the table saying he is going to get something to eat at the conclusion of the hand. Really what was his damn hurry if he was just going to leave, it took all I had to keep my mouth shut and remain calm.

So I did the only thing I could do at this point. It was clear I was no longer going to be able to play anything close to my A game so I racked the remainder of my chips and cashed out. Leaving the Horseshoe in the rear view.

GL in all your games

Cheers,

Mark

Why is it whenever I go to a store these days there is someone wandering the parking lot begging patrons for cash or items?

Case in point just this morning I am walking into Walmart a place I absolutely hate to go into in the first place and this women comes out form in between two vehicles and says excuse me siIr. I tell her I'm not interested and keep walking she proceeds to follow and say I was only going to ask if I could buy a cigarette from you. I told her I don't smoke and kept going she continued to follow I was no longer listening but she was still talking.

Another time I was approached by a gentleman who said he was just passing through and his car was broke down and being reapired but would not be ready for two more days he had money to pay for the repairs and one night in a motel. He just wanted what ever I could give him to help him and his wife and new born daughter be able to put towards their motel stay. He was blocking my path and when I told him I was not interested and went to go around him he moved to block my path again and trying to convince me to help him out.

I am tired of this happening over and over with increasing frequency. I am sure with the economy continuing in the direction it has been going things are going to get worse before they get better. Sooner or later someone is going to be hurt by one of these individuals when they find the right weak target and their desperation has reached an all time high. The stores really don't care because I have spoken to managers and you can tell by their body language and actions they could care less about it.

Just needed to get that off my chest.

GL in all your games

Cheers,

Mark

So after completing the 10K hands I have had no desire or motivation to play poker really. I have barely scratched the surface in terms of reviewing hands and sifting through the data acquired on the journey. I have been looking at the differences between the upward climb and the spiraling descent comparing and contrasting the differences found in the two time periods. The thing that stands out the most is the blinds, on the way down I was hemorrhaging more $ in the blinds than on the way up. So will definitely breakdown the hands from these positions I am sure there is a big leak to be found here.

Other things I have been up to watched 2 Months 2 Million again on Netflix I had watched it when it first aired in 2009. I did notice alot of things I had missed the first time around what disappointed me the most about that show was they really did not show as much poker as I thought they would. It did show some sick beats reassuring to know it happens to at those levels as well. Like usual when I get in the moods I have been lately catching up on some non poker reading.

Like to give a big Congrats to Tudki for just beating me again in the March HU challenger. This means I finshed up in 3rd place. Toronto does a great job organizing and putting this thing together. It is a shame that not all participants are as dedicated as some to playing in this. Really makes it not as much fun for the rest of us and very frustrating.

May be making trip to Metropolis, IL to play in a live tournament in the upcoming weeks ahead still do not have all the details on it just heard about the opportunity on Wednesday. If I still feel the way have lately then I may pass though, no sense in playing when your head is not on straight just a waste of $ and a -EV proposition. Until next time GL in all your games.

Cheers,

Mark

So on Friday night I made it to my benchmark fo 10,000 cash hands played. As far as sticking to stipulations set forth in my Bankroll Management Plan blog, I never strayed from the stake I set forth only playing .02/.04 6 max. I did find that 4 tabling I was losing $ so went down to 2 tables only, starting on March 4th. I did not move tables after doubling up as much as I probably should have but that mainly was so I would not give back any profit to a fully stacked player.

The 2 buyin stop loss I failed in this aspect on March 3rd I dropped 8.5 buyins and that was the beggining of the downward spiral up until that day I was winning and minimizing the losses. That day is where I have traced back to the start of the downswing. If I would have followed my own guideline I may have been able to prevent the losses that I incurred due to lack of discipline. Of course I experienced some bad beats but I think more of my problem was my mindset and my mental state. The best thing to do when starting to lose is just simply to stop playing however I did not and I deserve everything I got.

After that horrible day of play my confidence really suffered I beat myself by taking myself out of the game mentally. Every time I was all in my thoughts were always that I was going to get beat and that is what happened. I auto piloted the last several thousand hands I lost sight of the objective it became more about getting to the 10k hands than it did about playing smart poker.

I am my own toughest critic no one can be harder on me than I am on myself. This relates to all areas of my life not just poker. The good thing is I am very resilient and will learn form my mistakes overcome my obstacles and persevere.

I now have the daunting task of sifting through all the data I have accumulated on this little venture. I am sure it will be awhile before I am back at the virtual cash felt, I need the break anyway. Below you will find the graph that shows my journey and my profit of only $1.04.

Until next time GL in all your games.

Cheers,

Mark

Hey all,

If you have not read part 1 you may want to do so before reading part 2 here

So we last left off with Joe ramping up his aggression and busting a couple players. I don't recall the exact postions for this hand but have a good recollection of the action. Joe limps there is a raise and one caller and Joe calls as well the flop comes out 10s Ks 4d. Joe bets and gets calls from boith. The turn brings the 8s Joe checks the preflop raiser makes a hefty bet gets a call and Joe calls. The river 6h again Joe checks the pre flop raiser bets gets a call and Joe goes all in. The pre flop raiser contemplates for about five minutes and makes the call the other guy looks real distraught at this point not liking what has just happened after much deliberation he shows his hand to the table and folds his king high flush the pre flop raiser shows his set of tens and Joe flips over the nut flush for the win. There was another hand a little later where Joe went all in on the river in a sizeable pot and the other player was struggling with what to do, Joe tells him I will show what I have either way even if you fold after about five minutes or so the guy finally folds. Joe asks him do you want to see it he says no so into the muck they went. I have been playing for about six hours now at this point looking at rags since the AJ hand I played earlier I am in the SB and look down a KK there were three limpers and a couple of callers Joe limps as well bringing the count to four no way I can limp with them have to raise and thin the field so I make it $50 to go teo fold two call Joe being one that calls. The flop comes out 2s 4s 4h there is about $165 in the pot so I bet $125 get one call and Joe raises to $500 which has me covered and I will have to commit my stack to continue. So I go into a huddle my first thought is this guy has had the nuts all night. I replay the action from the start of the hand and compare it to previous hands trying to figure out what would limp call and then play this strong on the flop I can see this maybe with 22 or 44 but why raise here no need to protect against a flush draw with those. I remember the AJ hand where he minraised with QQ and I called why so large with this raise does he have AA or an over pair and is scared of the flush draw, does he have a draw himsself and is semi bluffing on the come. So after deliberating the raise looked strong but why so big the size was nagging at me so I elected to make the call the other player calls as well but still has some left behind the turn brings 10c the guy checks and Joe goes all in now that looks real strong not a good sign for me but the guy snap calls and we are all all in at this point. So we fllip the cards over my KK against the guy's nut flush draw and Joe tables 2 4 for a boat and tells me dont worry you can still catch a king and with that the river brings the Jd having lost my initial buy in I graciously stand and leave the table. I have thought about this hand alot the past couple weeks its haunting me I should have gone with my gut and gotten away from it but hindsight is 20/20. Just goes to show you that even live players will play the same garbage you see online with the same results in some cases.

I have hit a big downswing in the cash game area so taking a short break have about 1500 hand to go to make it to 10,000 hands then will post the results from that endeavor.

Until next time Gl in all your games.

Cheers,

Mark

Whats up my peoples? Well I had a great trip to California was able to spend some quality time with my mom and sister, it had been four years since the three of us were last all together. Celebrated my mom's birthday, reminiscing and enjoying one anothers company. Spent most of the time just lounging around and hanging out. I was able to grind out about 1500 hands of cash online, but what I am really wanting to share is the trip to Bay 101 Card Club. I grew up in San Jose, Ca I had driven by the Bay 101 numerous time but this was the first trip ever to play cards there. The club itself is very nice the poker room is roomier than the poker rooms at the casinos I have played in. so I put my name on the list for the 2/5 game and hit the rail to get a feel for the place and observe the games that are running. Since this not a casino with a tourist trade I expect the competiton to be a bit stiffer than usual. So they call me and I swing by the cage buyin for 1K and take my seat. I immediately look around the table and check out the stack sizes they range from about 200 to 600, the guy three to my right has about 3500 and the guy to my immediate right has roughly 1500. the guy to my right who I will call Joe starts chatting it up. I think to myself great I am sitting next to someone who has an obvious case of diarrhea of the mouth. So on my second orbit it folds to Mr. Talkative who completes the blind so I look down at AJo and decide to pop him to discourage the limping I make it 30 to go he ponders for a bit and makes the call. So I put him on suited connecters, broadways, or a mid pocket pair the flop rolls out J84 with two clubs out there. He checks so with top pair I fire off a cbet of 30 he min raises to 60. I think this is not an overly strong move and figure him as having a draw of somekind be it as flush or straight I make the call. The turn brings the 2 of diamonds a relatively safe card and he checks so I start to count out some chips and then elect to pot control and give the free card and check behind. The river brings the 3 of hearts no help at all so he makes a small bet of 40 not quite a quarter of the pot it looks weak like a busted draw so I call to find he played me with QQ. I tell him nice hand I did not see that coming because I really did not and for about the next hour thats all he talks about is that hand. His play had started to get more aggresive when he is in the hand he is raising and forcing the smaller stacks to commit their stacks if they want to continue. I had tightened up and not played a hand except in the BB on a couple limped pots and folded to a bet on the flop because I had rags and was not catching anything remotely playable, and had watched Joe bust two players holding the nuts both times.
More to follow...

Gl in all your games cheers,

Mark

Some say pics or it doen't count so here is me out front of the Bay 101

Well managed to final table another event in the Winter weekend Series tried to get cute with ATo and got snapped up by KK and lost to quads so finished in 7th. On another note headed to California tommorow for my mom's 60th birthday. While there going to try to sneak by the Bay 101 card club and get in some live action.

GL in all your games.

Cheers,

Mark