June: Wow

WSOP June 12-14 Event #28

I have to admit that I have not really enjoyed writing in the blog as much as I did when I first started. I mainly do it just to keep a record so I know where I am. Today, however is a different story. I am actually really excited to write about this.

I have been playing texas holdem for 8 years and have been really working at it for about 5 years. So it took me about 5 years to get to this point so as you can imagine I was totally amped.

I got a room at the Rio where the event was going to be held. It was a $600 room that I only paid $200 for since I was playing in the tournament. I rented a car that is $250 for the weekend but we paid $85 since we had a coupon plus a membership.

And I dropped $1500 on a tournament.

I took my girlfriend a with me as I really didn't want anybody else with me. I also brought $5000 cash and a debit card with $7000 on it. So it was on. We left Friday afternoon and got there Friday night. We got to the hotel and went straight to the tournement to register. Right there $1500 cash came out of my pocket.

We then went to the room and got settled. We decided to get fucked up and gamble all night. We played craps for about 6 hours that night. (The game with the dice.) I made about $700 and she made about $200. It was a good night indeed. I had already made half of my tournament buyin.

I got up at 9:30 and took a shower. I fucked around in the room until about 10:30 and then we went and had breakfast at the Palms. We ended up waiting 20 minutes in line just to get seated. We didnt get back to the Rio until 12:00 which was when the tournament started. We went back to the room and I got myself together. To get prepared for the tournament I brought about 5 joints filled with blueberry kush. We smoked one of them last night and I took 7-8 really strong hits on the second one right before the tournament. I wanted to be FUCKED UP. I get down to the tournament and my girlfriend is walking with me and it was only then for the first time where I felt really fucking nervous.

I got to the tournament room and it was massive. I had seen it last night but it was different now since every table was full. I showed up about 35 minutes late for the tournament but it was no big deal. We started with 4500 chips at 25/50 blind levels. Blinds were to last for an hour. Every 2 hours there was a break.

I sat down and had 4200 chips. As soon as I sat down I was buzzing hard and became very relaxed. Everyone on my table looked very harmless.

It really took a minute for it to set in but it did. Seeing WSOP on the table brought a smile to my face. Seeing WSOP on the chips was equally awesome. I just sat back watched for a while and it was just like playing online. Everyone was limping a lot and it was pretty obvious when people had it. I was watching every player and I don't think I had ever been more focused in my life.

My first big hand came when the following happened.

I had about 3600 chips and one player limped for 100 and I completed in the SB with AJ of spades. The BB checked. I only completed because in my experience raising with hands like AJ or AQ out of position in the SB is going to lose you more then win. This is why.

I raise and I get called by the limper.

I miss the flop and bet it out. He calls.

I miss the turn.

Now what? Do I potentially risk the whole tourament and make a stupid bluff with a shitty hand like AJ. Or do I check and let him bet me off it which then makes me look bad.

So I decide to just call the small bet and potentially avoid all of that.

The flop comes all rags with 2 spades and I lead out with my flush draw for 200. I get called by the limper.

I miss my flush and check to him. He bets 400 and I call.

River: I hit my flush.

I check looking to check raise fully expecting him to make a big bet. Unfortunately, he checked behind and showed 9 10 off for top pair on the flop. The turn was a King. I probably get called by a small value bet of 300-500. However my gut said he was going to bet and I thought I had a lot more potential for a bigger payoff.

That hand put me to 4700 and I was ready to roll.

I won a few more small pots and got to 5500.

We get to the break and I go back to the room to toke up. I kind of got lost getting back to my room because there were literally thousands of people walking around in the tournament area and I was having a hard time navigating through the crowd. I got back, talked to my g/f and told her to go do whatever she wanted that I was going to be in the tournament for a very long time. I am running late again and run back to the room. My sunglasses are on my neckline and put them in my hand so they dont bob up and down in my face as I am running. At some point, I must have dropped them because when I got to the table I had no sunglasses. I immediately felt uncomfortable but knew I was just going to have to suck up and deal with it. I paid $250 for my persols about 2 years ago so that was a bad beat.

I called a couple raises and that put me down to about 3900.

I was almost 3 hours into the tournament when this happened. The blinds are now at 75/150.

The player 2 to my left was a relatively new player. I already knew what he was about before he even played a hand. He was a little Vietnamese man who looked like the typical Commerce player. The type of player who plays loose aggressive, plays every suited hand, and generally calls a lot of raises and limps a lot.

I knew that no matter how hard I tried I was not going to be able to avoid this guy. I pick up AQ and raise to 450. He calls like I expected him too and we go heads up to the flop.

The flop comes

A 10 6

I know that if I bet he might just fold if he has nothing, but will probably call me if he has some sort of draw. If I check, I am certain he will bluff any 2. I check and he quickly reaches for his chips.

He throws out a small 500 chip bet. I was hoping he would bet around 900-1000 because then I could just go all in and make it look like a legitimate bet. If I go all in over only a 500 chip bet then its going to look weird to the whole table and I was trying to get a specific type of image. And going on all in for 3500 more was not the image I was trying to portray.

I check raise to 1500 and he calls.

The turn is a beautiful 4 which I know isnt going to hurt me.

I put in my last 2200 or so and he calls very quickly. I knew right then I was fucked.

Of course he has A 4 and I couldnt come back. I think if I go all in on the flop that he is still calling me. If he does call me and the 4 pops up like that then I am singing a very different tune.

So that was it. Out $1500. I will say that I can't wait to do that again as that was most fun I have ever had playing poker. I am thinking of doing the tournament in 2 weeks but I have a lot to go over first. I had the next couple days to fuck around in Vegas and had a blast.

We played more craps that night and I made another $400 plus she made another $200.

We decide to stay Sunday night and it was a wild night of gambling.

I was up $1100 for the trip which was almost equal to my tournament buyin.

We played more craps and I dropped $700 and was down to my last $77. I decided to spin the roulette wheel and if I lost we would go home and if I won then who knows.

I throw it on red and win and have $154.

I let it ride on red and sure enough I win back to back coinflips and have $300 back.

We played craps all night and I ended making back my losses for the day and ended up breaking even for the day.

All in all, I did about $3000 worth of shit in Vegas and only spent $1000 to do it. A very successful trip even considering the tournament which was still totally worth it.

WSOP

I have started June on a really nice upswing. I am up $3383 on Stars and another $870 on Cake for a total of $4253. I just got 3/1881 which was good for $2694. I was seriously considering it a couple weeks ago and have now decided to play in the WSOP. I am hoping to go in on an upswing and would like to surprise some people.

I have decided to play in Event #28 on June 13 which is the $1500NL event.

I have totalled up all my numbers and am up $30975 since April 10. I also have the biggest bankroll I have ever had and I have decided its time.

It would be so nice to have a nice little weekend heater and get a really nice cash.

One time please.

May

May was a crazy month. I started the month by going on a $2000 downswing. Mainly on cake and my stars account was dwindling. I was down to my last $200 and was going to play it out hoping for a good result. If I lost, I was going to reload but I really didn't want to have to go through all that.

I started off my session May 8 by losing $800 in the cake cash games. I had some random tournaments going and wound up going deep in the $5 rebuys. I wound up getting 2/2700 which was good for $5293.

From there I went on a furious upswing making another $1000 on Stars plus recovering another $1000 from the Cake downswing.

I then decided to invest $1000 in Lebron James.

Unfortunately I didnt think he was going to get throttled by the Magic and I lost $900 betting on playoff basketball.

I then went on another downswing and ended the month that way.

For the month I finished with the following:

Stars $4773.90
Cake $1991 ($1000 withdrawn for Lebron.)

For the month I made $3598 on poker and lost $900 on betting for a total of $2598 for the month in gambling.

April

So April for the most part has been like the rest of year. Since it was that way it's a good thing that I didn't get to the tables that much. If I remember correctly, I had only played once 10 days into the month. Overall I only played 17282 hands of cash poker on Cake. I also played in 81 tournaments on Stars but that is a rather high number because about 20-30 of those were triple or nothing tournaments which aren't real tournaments.

I did really well on Stars but the RNG still fucked me all month long. I got really really deep in quite a few tournaments but I don't ever get lucky on stars.

Example 1:

$3 rebuys... 10 players left out of 4100 and we have been 12 handed or less for about an hour. People keep barely avoiding elimination and I know that the longer I have to wait to make the final table the more likely I will be the bubble boy. Sure enough, it happened.

I have 2M chips and am in 6th place and a guy who has me covered shoves UTG. I call with AK and he has AQ. Before this hand, I had been dealt this 4 times in a row in different tournaments and won. Each time I won, it was a huge spot where I couldn't afford a bad beat. When I saw his cards I knew I was fucked. I will never win the same scenario 5 times in a row. I am just not capable. It will never happen. I can lose the same way 20 times in a row but to win 5 times in a row is a huge stretch. I didn't even look at the board because I had that horrible feeling I get everytime I am about to get fucked over. Sure enough a queen hit the flop, I lost a 4M chip pot and I am fucked out of $6K and for the second time in my life I get 10th place in the $3 rebuys. Seriously poker, when the fuck do I get mine? Never? If thats the answer then just fucking tell me already so I can quit and stop wasting my time.

I really don't know why I keep playing on this site. My account is extremely close to bust and yet I am contemplating reloading if I get cleaned out. Please don't ask because I don't know why.

As for Cake, I got to my wits end playing the 50NL. I get fucked over at 50NL more then anybody. The hands that people show down when they win are unreal. I have gotten KK and AA cracked by bullshit like 3 6 and 9 4 for months on end now and I finally said enough was enough.

I have adopted a new strategy and for the first time in a really long time, I have picked up a strategy that is actually working.

I decided to start shortstacking 200NL and 400NL. I buy into 1/2NL with $120 and 2/4 with $200.

I played in these games on Cake a really long time ago and some things have changed and others have not. 2/4 is still extremely difficult. I know I am a much better player because I have been able to hang whereas I got killed the last time I played in this game.

The game is hard enough to where I actually stopped playing in it. Altogether I made about $500 in that game. I only play if I need one more table and I don't like the $200 games.

As for 1/2NL that has become my new game. The game seems a lot easier then from when I played it before. It's not as aggressive as I expected and you get to see a lot of cheap flops. The average player is not much different then the average 50NL player. They just have a few more tricks. With the exception to a couple hands where I lost full stacks, I find the players at 1/2 to be much more predictable. Only because they don't play bullshit like 9 4 and 8 2. So now when I get AA and bet the flop I don't get checkraised on boards that look like this anymore: 4 2 2. When I do get c/r on those boards they have a pair smaller then AA and I just have to fade 2 outs.

I have played 1/2 for about 10 days and have done really well. When I started my accont was down to $2050. When I called it a month I was all the way up to $3990. Remember thats from $120 buyins and not $200 buyins.

For the month I made $313 in rakeback.

Speaking of rakeback, I have another incentive to play bigger. I did the math and I get paid triple what I get paid at 50NL in terms of rakeback. Unfortunately 80K hand months are a thing of the past. I will probably make the same amount in rakeback as I did before at 50NL however I will only need to play about 25K hands to make $1000 in rakeback.

I have also come to the conclusion that I am not a good mass tabler. When I play 8-10tables this is what happens.

Bad beat, lose big pot. Cooler, lose big pot. Win small pot. Win small pot. Bad beat, lose big pot. Bad beat, lose big pot. Bad beat, lose big pot. Win big pot. Win small pot.

That will all happen in about 5 minutes.

Now when I play I have no more then 4 tables of NL200 going on at once. The most tables I play altogether is 6 when I have tournies going as well.

For the first time in a while I am pretty excited about poker because I really think that I can take a lot of money out of the 1/2 game.

For April I ended with the following:

Cake: $3990
Stars: $276

Thats a total profit of $921. Yay.

For the year I have made $4134 which is obviously better then losing but I expect to make more then that in May just playing 1/2 NL. Hopefully I don't stick my foot in my mouth.

Sunday May 03.

Right now I am up for the month. I have the following on my sites.

Cake: $4179+$133 in r/b = $4312
Stars: $254

As for the WSOP, I have the money to play in a bunch of the $1500 buyin NL events but I like having money and I am not really in the mood to play the lottery. Although frustrating, I like making money slowly. I like making money fast but I can't hold up in 4M chip pots when there are 10 players left in a tournament so I have to rely on grinding. In the unlikely event that I get some big tourney scores I will more then likely not be making my first ever appearance in the WSOP. And although I have more then enough money to play I don't feel bad about it at all.

March

I have been meaning to write like always but I could not have more shit going on. I am not going to get into any details but I am seriously fucking stressed out right now. Combine that with the fact that I am trying to lay back on smoking which is going bad and good at the same time. All in all, I am waiting for this little period of crap to pass my by. Due to how busy I have been I have only played poker one day this entire month and that was today.

As for March, another bullshit month of playing poker. I played 65K hands on Cake and I lost $120. Pretty much every day was the same. I would sit down and within 15 minutes I would be down 3-4 buyins. I would spend the rest of my session trying to recover my losses. I probably lost 20 days for the entire month. That probably makes me a losing player.

I had 5 different 10 buyin downswings because I am such a great player. My account fluctuated between $1210-$1910. I got up to $1900 3 different times but could never get passed that number. I also fell to $1200 3 different times. My only real big upswing came in about 5 minutes when I came up about $400. It was crazy. But of course I had to lose that over the next 3 days.

I lost to 1 outers five times and gave one outer bad beats 3 times.

I lost 3 400BB pots (two were set over set) and I won 1 400BB pot.

I made $873 in rakeback and $150 in extra bonuses.

As for pokerstars, this site is such a fucking joke. I don't know why I am wasting my time on here. I truly feel its rigged for certain people. I get knocked out of every tournament by either a bad beat, a cooler or I lose a big flip.

I played in 30 tournaments and cashed in only 5. Not once did I even come close to getting something worthwhile.

I watch these "great" players who win big all the time and I see the same shit over and over again. They constantly shove all in and when they actually get called they always have some bullshit hand like J 7 and they suck out every fucking time. It would be easy to win 100K in one shot if I could suck out every time I got it in bad. But like always I almost never get rewarded when I get it in bad.

My account on Pokerstars went from $1202-$870.

When my account gets down to $500 because I have absolutely no expectation of getting a huge cash since I lose so often when I get it in good and never give bad beats I am just going to cash the rest of it out.

On Stars I lost $332.
On Cake I made $903.

In total I made $571. What a great month

I am seriously tired of all these 65K hand bad runs. When am I going to get my 20K hand upswing. Seriously?

I have come to the conclusion that poker will never get me anywhere in my life because I constantly have months like this one. Therefore, I am just going to supplement my income. I have also learned that the worse a player is the more they are likely to suck out. I cannot tell you how often I watch someone catch a 2 outer on the river on an all in only to just dump it all to a regular 3 hands later. So basically I am constantly losing to the regulars w/o actually having to play against them. When am I going to get rewarded for how stupid the fish play?

To start the month my accounts are as follows.

Cake: $2475
Stars $870

How about one time I have a really sick month. How about a $7000 cash in a tourament? How about a 30 buyin upswing playing my cash games?

It seems like I breakeven most the time which makes me think that I am nothing more then a breakeven player even though I get it in good on my all ins almost every time.

February: Finally where I want to be.

February has come and gone and I played almost no poker. I would guess that I played 10 days out of the whole month. Overall, I made a whopping $32 because I run good. Actually I ran terrible. I lost $545 on Pokerstars and made $427 on Cake plus I made $150 in a live home-game.

I am more or less done with stars. I am convinced that there is something wrong with the software. I am down at least $1000 in cash games if not more. My sharkscope SNG graph is a total trainwreck. I am a losing player over a 1000 game sample. Every time I play in a tournament, countless times people hit there miracle card when I am playing for the biggest pot of my tournament. On the other hand, when I put it in bad, it seems that I hit that miracle card 5% of the time or less. If I held up in a just a couple more pots I would be a big winner in tournaments but I only get a good cash once every 300 tournaments. So, with that said, I am pretty much done with Stars. I have $2933.12 to start the month and I just withdrew $1700 via personal check. I am leaving the last $1200 with which to fuck around with. I am going to play a tournament here and there whenever I get the itch, but other then that I am over tournaments for a long time.

I am back into the full swing of cash games and I couldn't be happier about it. Cash games are pretty frustrating for there own reasons but I crush the games and I can beat them consistently. Unless, I have a change of heart, I am going to be a short-term lifer in the 50NL games. The money is good, the rakeback is good, and the games are really easy. As long as I am making money at a satisfactory rate I have no reason to stop playing cash. Plus the rakeback is huge. Last month I was only able to play 12K hands on Cake and made $181 in rakeback.

I started off with $1115 and of course had to deal with the standard downswing. I was all the way down to $580 and was cursing the world. In about two days of obsessive playing I was up to $1300. I ended the month at $1541 and was happy about my little $1000 upswing.

It took me about 10 months but I am finally back to where I want to be. I have paid off all my debts and on top of that have 1 years worth of expenses. So, if I lost my job tomorrow, I could survive for a year. I have never had that kind of cash flow before so I look forward to the future.

With that said, I am really fired up about poker and am going to try and clear as much reakeback/bonuses as I can. I have already played about 4500 hands this month and have made $130 plus about $60 in rakeback. I plan on going balls to the wall for the next month and hope to keep up the volume. Hopefully I run good.

My cake account right now sits at $1671.85
My stars account right now sits at $1202.62

January

It has been a while since I have actually sat down here to write and report on my results. There has been a lot going on in both my personal and social life and as a result I just haven't been able to put the time in that I would like. Unfortunately, deciding to have a life has cost my poker game.

On the one hand, I did fairly well for the limited amount of time that I played in January. In January, I would estimate that I played 18 out of the 31 days in the month. During that time, I made $2610. I lost around $600 during the NFL playoffs because nothing turned out the way it was suppose too. I do not have that exact figure as it's been a while and some of those games made me sick to my stomach. The poker number is exact though.

I have been quite frustrated lately, because no matter what I do I can't seem to expand my overall bank account. I have been sitting on the same number give or take about $2500 for the last 4-5 months now. It is better then losing, but I have gotten a lot of things taken care of lately and I am hoping to focus more time to poker and hopefully to make more money. I am happy to report that I have paid about $7000 over the last 6 months to credit card companies and just sent in my last payment about 10 days ago. Hopefully, I can behave myself from now on and will be debt free in the future.

I am back to playing on Cake full-time as well as playing tournies on Stars. I have been on hiatus from Cake for the last 10 days or so because my computer (I have 2) that had cake installed on it crashed and the computer was not worth fixing. Just today I bought a brand new Dell for $500 and am ready to start paying for the computer that I am typing on right now. Another reason why I have been unable to make money has been unexpected expenses. I also got the California cell phone ticket which I have yet to pay and thats another $131 that I will never see again.

I ran pretty decent on Stars last month but didn't have much to show for it unfortunately as I got into a lot of random bad spots late in tournaments. My main cash was 4/3906 for a cash of $2128.

I also made $700 playing 50NL cash on Cake. For the time being I am going to stay with 50NL because it is just easy pickings and the money combined with rakeback is pretty damn good.

To start the month I have the following in my poker accounts.

Cake: $1119
Stars:$3478

I have yet to play on cake this month so the balance is still the same but I am down about $400 or so on Stars. The last couple days that I have played on Stars have been quite pitiful and I have run like shit.

I did make about $200 in a home poker game so I am only down a couple hundred for the month.

I have gotten a lot of menial tasks done over the last few weeks and am hoping to devote more time to poker.

One time please.

2008: The best year of my life

It's finally over and I could not feel better about it being over.

December ended pitifully because I can't catch a break.

This is how the year ended up.

I started in April as I had quit poker in December after a bunch of shit in my life had fallen apart.

In April I started working a job for my dad/brother's business. I don't really make much money and don't really have a lot of responsibility but I could not be more grateful then I am right now to have a job considering our economy. I am not going to lie, they more or less did this for me as an act of charity. They did not need me but I don't really have any relationship with either of them and they were generous enough to help me out and also wanted me in their lives.

I more or less make enough to barely pay my bills and any other money that I spend comes from poker. Fortunately, I am a total Jew when it comes to my money and have become a master at frugality. So, I very rarely use poker money to pay for anything else. At least not at this point in my life.

So after my first week working for my dad/brother I took $300 off my very first check and deposited it into Cake and had a 33% rakeback deal. I started off playing NL20 which is a $20 buyin NL cash game. The rest is all history. This is how I did.

April (Mid April-Mid May) $2400
May (Mid May-End May) $2700
June $2170 (I actually lost money playing poker but made a killing in rakeback)
July $4477 (Second best month ever playing poker)
August $2700
September $1560
October $290
November $1400
December $-370

Total: $17327.00

That number includes live poker and sportsbetting.

I had a horrible year sportsbetting and lost approximately $1000-$1500. I had my worst day ever sportsbetting and I have never been more upset in my life with gambling then I am right now. More on that later.

Look at the last 4 months of my poker playing. Wow, I hope that changes. I only made $2900 during that time and I think I would have rather have not played at all during that interval. The only thing that makes me slightly happy is that I was putting in much lesser volume during that time. In the early months when I was doing really well I was playing absolutely obsessively. I literally had no life. I would come home from work and start playing poker immediately. I would usually play until I went to bed. I swore off women during that time and my social life definitely was hurt as a result. I have no regrets about any of that because I think it needed to be done. My guess would be that I was playing about 60 hours of poker per week from April-Mid September.

The last few months I have skipped a lot of days but have had some of my most legendary benders. I have had several sessions that have gone 18-20 hours in length. Unfortunately, I never had any major wins during any of those benders. Minus the benders my estimation would be that I was playing probably about 20-30 hours per week. My social life for the most part is doing much better and I am casually seeing someone.

As for the sportsbetting story. This is seriously fucking terrible and this is installment #64 in the story of my life and why I will never become wildly successful in my life.

I had intentions of betting huge on the Rose bowl game between USC and Penn State. I initially was going to bet $600 and then decided to up the number to $1000.

In order to bet that much I needed some help.

My friend Kevin degen is a professional gamber and makes most of his money handicapping sports. He was going to lay the bet down for me and we would pay each other cash win or lose.

I saw him last night and decided to up my bet to $1500 and he told me that he would do it for me. I told him to call me the next day when the bet was placed and I wanted to know what my line was and what the payout was.

I get a hold of him 30 minutes before the game and he tells me that he is capped out with his main bookie as he has $16K of his own money on the game. He tries to get a hold of his secondary bookie but could not reach him. I then offered to purchase some of his action and he refused.

Because this is the story of my life I miss out on betting $1500 which would have been a great way to start my year and of course USC kicked the shit out of Penn State and I get fucked out of $1500.

If any of you ever wondered what it is like to be me that more or less exemplifies it. Constant missed opportunities and constantly getting fucked over.

I know that if I wanted the bet I should have just made it myself but making a bet of that magnitude was impossible as I do not have the neccessary funds electronically. I did have the cash in my hands which is why I was willing to place the wager.

This just better not be a sign of a fucked up year to come.

Went deep in the million.

Well, its the end of the year and although I run like total crap all the time, I still had by far and away my most successful year ever in poker. I don't have the numbers on me because looking at them makes me sick but unless something crazy happens before the new year. (yeah right) I am going to finish just shy of $20K in overall profit. As of right now I am down about $300 or so for the month of December.

Overall, I have paid off all my bills and still have twice as much money as the last time I had decent money on me. So to say that I am not extremely proud of myself would be a total lie. I am proud of myself but I still can't stand poker.

Last weekend I had one of my worst weekends ever. I was up about $1200 for the month and in a short 48 hours I was down $700 for the month. Yay go me. I wish I could have upswings like that. Once again, yeah right. That was from playing exclusively cash. NL50 with shots at NL100 which of course was a huge disaster. I literally lost $500 in about 10 minutes because I'm good at poker.

I also lost $300 on the Celtics/Lakers Christmas game. As a result, I plan on making my biggest sports bet ever on the Rose Bowl game. I have to make a couple phone calls to my sports betting experts but there going heavy on USC. So we'll see what they say.

This is pretty much what poker has been like for the last 4 months and why I hate it. Remember I am almost never on the other side of this and don't understand how all this math they claim can be correct.

These are all in situations with the exception to one. I run terrible at all ins.

I have Q Q.

They have A 10

All in Preflop

Flop A 3 7

That happens about 8 out of 10 times. I don't know it off the top of my head but I think I am an 83% favorite. That may be a little high but that can't be right because that's how often I lose there. Like I said, when I have A 10 there, I have won 4 times this month. I lose that way 4 times every day.

I have K Q

They have A J

Flop K x x

I swear to God, every time I flop that the turn is an Ace. Every single time. I never ger to suck out there.

I have A K

They have Q 8

Flop A 8 3. All in on the flop.

Turn: Almost every time: 8 or a Q.

I never suck out here with the 5 outer but it happens well over half the time.

My new favorite. This has been happening a lot in cash games and I don't know why I lose here so often.

I have J J.

I raise preflop.

Flop Q Q 6

I bet. They call.

Turn K

I bet they call again.

River Check Check.

They show K 10 and win. It's unreal how often people call me with nothing with a 3 outer and then suck out and get rewarded. I would be dead in 3 months from the collectors coming after me if I played like that yet people do every day against me and get rewarded for it. This is why I hate poker. Don't get me wrong, I want people to play like that but I only want them to win 13% of the time like there suppose too. Not win the vast majority of the time over 100's of thousands of hands over months and months.

So, as a result of losing my shirt over the weekend I decided to play in the big stars sunday tournies (which I never do well in btw) because maybe once I'll get lucky and it was the last sunday of the year so all the tournaments were juiced.

I had accumulated 20K FPP points from playing cash and tournies on stars and decided to play in the sunday million which had a guaranteed prize pool of 2.5 million. The ticket cost me 13500 points.

I had played in this tourney 3 other times and only made it past the first break once. With over 16K players registered I had very little expectations. It's pretty much a lottery with that many players. The prize pool ended being over $3 million.

Early on I picked up A A and got all in the on the flop against 10 10 and for some reason didn't lose. Must have been a glitch in the system. You start the tournament with 10K chips and right away I had 20K chips with the blinds at 50/100.

I then got nothing for 2 hours and then gave someone a bad beat to double up. Must have been another glitch. I then gave another bad beat. I knew not to get too excited because 1st place in this tournament was $330K. I don't ever expect to win anything like that ever so I never got my hopes up.

Overall, this was by far the most fun I have ever had playing poker. Even more fun then the time I played in the $1000 buy in game at the Bellagio.

We made it to the money and I had about 70K chips with the BB at 2500 so I was in great shape!

But... come on you aren't reading the blog of one of these guys who gets lucky every week and is a millionaire.

This is DrBadBeat.

Like always I lost the biggest pot of the tournament.

I was up to 85K and got all in with A Q against J J.

Couldnt win. That was a 120K chip pot.

Then I get all in a little while later with A 9 against 6 6 and couldn't win again.

I finished in 1501 place which was good for about $350. All profit since I spent points to get in the tournament. I survived for almost 5 hours in the tournament which is surprising even too me. It sucks because if I would have lasted another hour I would have more or less made back my entire dowswing from the last couple days since the money jumps were extreme.

All in all, I am really really happy I played in the tournament and hope to play in it again some day.

My goal for next year is modest. I hope to make $40K playing poker next year. Assuming I don't quit, it will be the first time ever that I will play all 12 months in a year.

As of right now I have no aspirations for playing in the WSOP next year. I don't really see it being worth my time unless good things happen between now and then. I am not counting on it though since I am not good at catching breaks.

November: Yay an upswing.

Hahahaha, yeah right, I wish. This month was just as bad as the rest of them were with the exception to the one cash. I pretty much know how it is at this point and I expect nothing less then to get fucked every time I sit down to play online poker. As I go through the numbers I think I did go through an upswing. It actually would make perfect sense. I more or less run good once every four months for a short period of time and its about that time so I am due, right?

You tell me. These were my big finishes. This is what an upswing looks like for me.

4/3429*
32/1332
19/468
16/1647*
31/5823*
8/1242

I also made final tables in the 180 man tournaments 7 times. Overall I finished 4th twice, 6th, 7th, 8th twice, and 9th. Basically for the 180 man tournaments to be worth your while you have to get top 3. As you can see I didn't get top 3 once. I came into every final table except for one of them as either 8th or 9th in chips.

Also, * means that the tournament had a very large first place. Large enough for me to jump up and down like an idiot had I actually won.

The 6 MTT's that I just told you about are the best I have ever done in a short period of time. Of course my upswing has to be halted by the fact that I have to lose back to back coinflips in one tournament, can't hold up when I have the best hand, and can't suck out when I have the worst hand. That's some upswing.

I seriously have the worst timing ever when it comes to poker.

I pretty much never shove bad hands anymore when I am short because I get snapcalled by some bullshit hand every time as if they know what I have. This even happens if I haven't done anything for 45 minutes. Proves that no one pays any attention. More or less, I have lost every time I have gotten all in with a bad hand. On the flip side, I lose numerous times every day to people shoving with 8 5 and cracking my A K.

When I play a hand out and have a big pocket pair, the Ace almost never comes on the flop. Its really nice.

However, every time I get all in with a big pocket pair and they have A x I lose 9 times out of 10. Which fucking blows because I am getting knocked out of every tournament this way.

Of course when I have A Q against K K, I can't tell you the last time I hit what I needed too.

Every day I play except for the rare days that I actually win, I lose the biggest pot I play. Great timing.

I am also losing to 3 outers at a disgusting rate which proves that the percentages on 3 outer hands is really wrong. I probably lose every other time with good regularity every time I get all in with A K against A 3. And believe me people love calling my all ins with there rag aces. It's almost like they know how the board is going to come out.

My solution? Yes I have one. I'll tell you at the end.

Degen Adventures:

I was going to write about this last week but never got around too it. I had a really degenerative trip to Las Vegas two weekends ago.

I am not going to go detail for detail as I don't want to set any records for longest post ever but I'll sum it up.

1. I started the trip by buying a 1/4 ounce of kush.
2. I then got picked up from work by my "free" ride. Win for me.
3. We got to Vegas and we got to stay in a 2000+ square foot suite for free. Win x3 for me. We stayed at Ballys on the strip.
4. There were 5 guys total. It was ballin.
5. I ran sick hot gambling the first night and at one point was up $800.
6. By the end of the night I was up only $160. Which is okay since its the first time I have ever come up the first night of a Vegas trip.
7. The next day I proceeded to be down as much $760 at one point. I brought $1000 cash with me for the trip.
8. With only $120 left in my pocket and $120 in chips on a poker table (the only time I played poker the entire trip) I proceeded to go on one of the sickest card runs ever and went from $120 to $730 and call it quits for the night. I hit the nuts 4 times on the turn and overbet huge on the river and got called every time because no one ever believes I have anything.
9. I am now only down about $200 and meet up with the rest of the group across the street.
10. They decide to go to a strip club and I decide to not be the only one not to go even though strip clubs are against my religion. (I'm obv not religious.)
11. Without even trying I drop $180 in the strip club and didn't even get off. I paid $30 for the cover and another $20 for 2 drinks. Just walking in I spent $50. I was then attacked by two strippers which turned into an $80 lap dance.
12. I spent by far the least and overall two guys got laid but spent $700+ and another guy got a handjob.
13. My crazy degen gambler friend Kevin woke up at 8:30 the next morning to go place sunday football bets. (We went to bed at 6:00 am)
14. I gave him $300 and tell him to put it all on the Buffalo Bills. He does.
15. I go back to bed.
16. I wake up a few hours later and wake up to find out that I won my bet and go downstairs to collect my winnings. Hell yeah.
17. From 10:00 Friday morning while at work until I got home Sunday night I was either stoned or stoned/drunk. It was awesome.
18. Overall, I went to Las Vegas with $1000 and came home with $880 in my pocket. I was by far the big winner for the trip and it was by far my most successful Vegas trip to date. The room alone would normally be $600-$1000 per night.
19. I never went to bed before 6am the entire trip.

In terms of live poker, I have played 3 times since playing online and have run sick hot each time. Overall, I am now up $1000+ in live poker.

My solution:

Although I am extremely disappointed with my performance on stars, I am still extrememly proud of what I have accomplished since April.

In April, my life was literally in 20 pieces. I had no job, no money, thousands of dollars in debt, no where to live, court fines, and had upset a lot of people.

I now have my own apartment, no debt (except my car payment), courts are all paid up and happy, a job, and the most money I have ever had in my life.

Although I have much less money right now then I initially projected, I still look at December as a complete free-roll as this is the first month where I won't have to make any debt payments so money should start stockpiling even more.

For the month of November I came up a whopping $1400 playing poker. My stars account currently sits at $2529. Oh I forgot to mention that I am on a $1700 online downswing since my 4th in the rebuys. Shocking.

This is my new plan. Stars hates me and I hate them. You can't only play tournaments. I have unfortunately learned this the hard way.

I have redeposited $1000 on Cake. I originally did this too move it over to a sportsbook but saw a sick freeroll and just started playing randomly. I am up $100 on the account and am playing 50NL cash along with a tournament here and there.

I have two laptops. One for Cake and one for Stars. At my peak, I will have 4 games going on the one computer and then will have 6 going for Stars. For Stars, I have started grinding 50NL which surprisingly has a lot of action along with my tournaments. I will start receiving rakeback once again which is huge and will become a bigger player in the Stars FPP program. So long as I don't run bad at every avenue I am trying I expect December to be a very very good month. I am however on the weed wagon and that is my biggest challenge. Today was my first day playing sober and although I was able to do it, it was very difficult.

Since April, I am up over $20K+ in poker which shocks the shit out of me considering how many big pots I lose.

FINALLY!!!! aflidjfdjfdfjlaf. AAAAHHH...For once I am the lucky bastard

For the first 3 days out of the last week I was buying into on average about $180 worth of tournaments. Each of the three days I was cashing for no less then $160. I was basically breaking even but losing small amounts everyday. Then I went on a horrible two day streak. In a two day period I bought into about $500-$600 worth of tournaments and in that time had only two cashes. They were for $30 and $7. After buying into all of Saturdays tournaments I was down to about $700 in my account. That is way too close to $0 for my comfort. It was also pissing me off because it was only about 10 days ago or so that I had $2100 in the account.

To make a long story short I set all kinds of records on Saturday.

The first one was that I cashed in a total of 6 MTT's. Several times prior to that I had 4 cashes in a day.

I ended up making most of my money back from the previous day when I final tabled a $20 180 man tourney and ended up taking 4th for $288. With my other cashes that put me back to $999 in my account.

I was invited to a juicy homegame at 9:00 that night and knew I wasn't going to be playing online all night if I so desired. So the last two tournies that I bought into were at 2:00 and 3:00.

The first one was a $10 freezeout with 3000+ players and the other was the $5 rebuys.

They recently changed the structure of the rebuys tournaments on Stars that has made it much harder for me to be successful. They extended the rebuy portion to 90 minutes, extended the playing time before breaks to 90 minutes, and decreased the blind levels from 15 to 10 minutes. There are added blind levels but the blinds go up way to fast after a while.

I went far in the $10 buyin but busted after about 2.5 hours and out of the money.

I have been doing so much worse in the rebuys as of late that I have considered quitting them altogether even though they are my favorite tournaments.

Not only that but if you have a bad rebuy session then its going to cost you a lot more then it use to. On the flip side, if you have a good rebuy session then you will go into the second part of the tournament stacked really deep.

On this particular day I had a terrible rebuy hour. I ended up spending around $80-$90 on the tournament. Even with that I still took 11K chips into the non-rebuy portion of the tournament.

There were things in this tournament that usually go against me all the time that finally flipped around. Here's the first one.

I recently watched a training video and the guy I was watching was absolutely relentless with raising in late position regardless of his holding so I have experimented here and there with that playing style. It's backfired big time and worked out really well in some spots.

Hand 1: It folds to me in the cutoff (one off the button) and I raise with a Q 7 spades. The guy on the button was calling all my raises because he's an idiot like that.


Flop:

K x x

I completely missed everthing and lead out and of course I get called.

Turn

x

The turn gives me a gutshot straight draw and puts 2 spades out there so I am flushing.

I stick it all in and of course the button calls and shows K 10. Really? It's obviously impossible for me to ever have A K here. The pot is 50K and the river comes:

6 of spades. I hit both the straight and the flush and the button starts bitching and whining about how terrible I am. I love how this shit happens to me all day everyday and once a month when I get lucky like that they have to talk shit everytime. Stop playing trash like K 10 and that won't ever happen to you. From that point on I was one of the big stacks for a good chunk of the tournament.

I got my stack up to 100K when the blinds were at 600/1200.

Unfortuntaley, by the time the blinds reached 2500/5000 I still had 100K. I then dropped to 60K and then got it back the next hand. I then dropped to 60K again and managed to grind my way up to 100K again.

I changed tables and this happened.

Hero 110K
Villain (about the same)

Blinds 4K/8K

Villain in the cutoff minraises. SB calls and I decide to shove with Q 10 of spades hoping that they both fold. Of course the CO calls and the SB folds.

Villain shows K K.

Flop

Q x x

This is the flop I always get but I never ever seem to suck out even though it happens to me constantly.

Turn x

River 10.

HAHA! Finally goddammit. Ship the 250K chip pot. I change tables immediately after.

I chill for a while and then get my stack up to 470K on one hand. I don't recall the hand.

I then change tables and what a table change it was.

Within 10 minutes of my new table change my stack grows from 470K to 930K without even having to make a showdown. I picked up Aces twice and Kings once and there was a lot of action before me and each time I shoved I won the pot uncontested.

At this point, I am top 10 in the tournament with about 150 left.

First is $8500. One time?

I eventually change tables again and there was this idiot to my right who was literally raising every pot. This stupid bastard cost me so many chips. He kept raising crap like K 2 and Q 4 and then calling all ins and winning often enough to never go broke. On multiple occassions I was going to play my hand but got raised off and would have won a big pot.

On this table I ran sick hot but never got to profit off of it. Had I limped or called raises with really trash hands I would have flopped trips about 7 times. Because of the moron on my table I wasn't able to play any hands and started getting dwindled away.

I got down to the last 3 tables and the money jumps were now substantial. During that time I went from 1 million chips to 500K about 3 times, because I would win a big pot and then fold every hand for 3 rounds because of how crazy everyone was playing. I would then get super short and shove with crap and on two separate occassions I was called by 2 2 and won both times!

We got down to the last two tables and I was 18th in chips just barely hanging on. People were playing so crazy I thought I had no chance to make the final table which I so desired. 3 of the top stacks knocked each other out because they all played terribly. I ended up doubling up with about 14 left and then won a few more uncontested pots and suddenly was looking good. The rest all got knocked out and I came into the final table 8/9 in chips. I was so stoked. It was only the second time ever that I have ever made the final table of a jumbo rebuy. This tournament also had the most players ever where I was able to make the final table. It was also the first time ever that I made two final tables in the same day.

Almost every player on the final table was terrible. There was one guy who was calling every all in whether it was preflop or pre-river and this guy was sucking out every time. Quickly we were down to 5. But before that there is one more great suckout.

I think there were 6 or 7 left and I was in last place.

The blinds were 75K/150K and I had about 1.4M in chips.

I shoved on the button with K 10 and the BB who was calling everything and had a 12M chip stack called me with 2 2. Again 2 2!

Flop

x x x I miss everything.

Turn 2 spade

There are now 3 spades and I have the king of spades.

River 10 of spades.

NO FUCKING WAY. I know how it feels to lose there but I never hit that card!

I am pretty sure that is biggest pot I have ever won in a tournament as my stack was over 3 million. I was now second in chips.

Mr 12M donked off 8 million of his chips and at this point I had 4.5M in chips with 4 left.

Super donk raises to 1M which is a stupid raise and I have A 10 in the SB. I shove expecting him to call and for me to win but instead the BB who was playing super tight and was taking all of the donks money overshoves and I knew that I just lost the tournament.

He shows A A and I actually hit my 10 but I can't hit the 2 outer. The worst part about that hand is if the donk calls and the BB doesn't call I would have won since the top pair on the board was a 10.

4/3429 was good for $3267. My second largest cash ever and on the day I made over $3500 which is my second biggest money day ever playing poker. My stars account now sits at $4226.49

If I can now get 10 more like the one you just read about then Stars and I will be even. Until then, I still hate poker and still hate Stars.

Also, the tournament took 8 hours and I ended up showing up to the home game at around 11 but my stupid drunk friends hadn't even started yet. I was there more to drink and get smoked then I was to play poker and I didn't last long. I built up a nice stack and then had JJ run into KK and I was out after a couple hours.

Another classic example of why it sucks to me and play poker

Ladies and gentlemen, it's really close to over now. I have been following the same pattern for 2 and a half months now. (On stars) I run decent throughout the beginning of a lot of tournaments only to take the big bad beat in the most crucial moment. There really is no skill in this game. It doesn't matter how good you are, how knowlegdable you are, or how much "skill" you have. This game is all luck. For the people who win, I want to know how they do it. How do they win the big all ins.

I have learned a lot about this game and I have learned the following. This game is nothing more then a big downswing. I spend most of my time losing and when I run well it is very short lived only to return back to running bad. It seems profitable to put your money in bad because thats what most people do against me and they seem to get lucky against me more often then they should. On the flip side, when I put the money in bad I almost never hit the miracle card. I don't know if I am cursed or what but the way I run on a consistent basis is entirely confusing to me. For every bad beat I give, I take 10. Just for a month I would like that number to flip. I would make an ungodly amount of money. Of course, like most things in my life I am not that lucky and that will never happen.

Anyway, the hand that inspired this.

$25 buyin. 1st place of 7K.

I am down to 4K with the blinds at 300/600. We are right at the bubble. I have been getting dealt dogshit for the last hour and haven't won a hand in that time. During that time I have gone from 25BB to less then 7.

I get dealt A A in the BB. There's a raise to $2400 which is enough to where the villain has no fold equity. My play is obvious but I have not cashed in over 20 straight tournaments and I have been knocked out on the bubble about 12 times over the last week. I already know I am going to lose because stars sets it up that way except for when I am the one with the big stack then I get screwed no matter what.

For some reason I decide to gamble even though I already know the deck is stacked against me. He calls and shows K 8 off.

Flop

5 6 x with two hearts. Of course he has one heart and I have nothing.

He is almost drawing dead at this point and the majority of the cards in the deck should kill his hand on the turn. But we have to remember there are about 30 hearts in the deck so I am major underdog on the flop. Because its me, the greatest card he can hit comes on the turn.

7 of hearts.

He just went from almost drawing dead to 15 outs.

Basically if anyone has 10 outs or more against me then they have a 90% chance of hitting. Of course because its stars and its the site that I have run by far the worst on in my life they decided to deal me a fuck you river.

A of hearts.

What a fucking shock.

I am down to $1200 and some change and if I bust the account which I am sure I will because stars will never let me have a taste of glory I am quitting forever.

The only time I will ever play poker post quitting is live when invited by friends or in homegames. After quitting I will find something else to do with my time. I honestly don't know what I want to have happen at this time. I obviously want to win big but I know its never going to happen. So its either keep struggling until I commit suicide or lose and quit.

As I write this, I just won a big pot in this tournament.

$9 buyin 360 players. 1st place $800.

I am currently 15/36 which is just in the money.

Run good in another small tournament? Just stars way of saying fuck you so that I keep paying rake.

I will obviously make an amendment if something crazy happens. If I don't then I probably got jewed.

FUCK YOU POKERSTARS. I HOPE YOUR HEADQUARTERS FALLS IN THE OCEAN AND ALL THE LUCKY BASTARDS WHO WIN ON YOUR SITE LOSE THERE MONEY.

And congrats to Obama for winning. I didn't vote for him (or McCain for that matter) but I think its amazing that a black guy is the president of the US. Just make sure you watch your back buddy.

This confirms it. I will never win doing this stupid shit.

I have long held a theory that it is impossible for me to win big playing poker. This proves it.

150 left in a 5000 player tournament. All in with KK. I lose.

Build it back up. Then all in with AA. I lose. What a fucking joke. Another minor cash for me.


Then the last one of the night. I knew I had no chance even though I was killing this tournament for the first 3 hours because I always get screwed when it matters most.

$55 buyin tourney with 12K first place.

I have 30K with the blinds at 500/1000. This all happens in 10 minutes.

Call all in from shortstack with A 10. He has K Q. I lose.

Then I raise with A Q. Shortstack goes all in. I call. He has 5 7. I flop 2 pair. I still lose. I never ever win when I that far behind but it happens to me all the time.

What the fuck ever happened to the theory that the shortstacks always lose to speed the tournaments up. Thats a fucking scam because no one gets sucked out more often by shortstacks then I do.

Then with only 13K left because I have so much skill for this game. Theres a raise by a guy who has 21K. I have A K. I shove. He calls with 5's because putting 70% of all your chips on the line with only a pair of 5's is obviously a skill play.

Do you really think I won a coinflip to save my life when there is 12K on the line. Yeah fucking right.

Fuck this stupid bullshit. I will never hit a big score because I never ever hold up when I have the best hand. The more important the pot is the more likely I am to lose it. And I never ever fucking suck out in big crucial spots. I don't think I have ever cracked pocket aces with a bullshit hand when there is a ton of chips on the line. Happens to me every fucking day.

Fuck poker. Fuck this stupid shit. FUCK FUCK FUCK. I don't want to play this stupid shit anymore.

I played in over 20 tournaments today and gave 1 count em 1 fucking bad beat all in preflop. I showed several just in two tournaments and there were 20 other tournaments that I didn't talk about.

Also in my last 24 hours of poker, I have hit 2 fucking flushes. Of course people hit theres on me all fucking day. The numbers don't add up. I will never go 24 fucking hours of continuous play with people only hitting 2 flushes against me. If that actually happened I probably would win the 12K. Oh but wait, that will never happen so why even bother considering that I could go that long with no one hitting a flush even though I can go 1000's hands without hitting a single one.

I really hope poker gets criminalized. Fuck poker stars, its fucking rigged against me. This proves why all the "top" players have multiple accounts. When one of there accounts is getting screwed they just move over to another. Of course my account is always being screwed over and I'm not allowed to have another so I guess I just have to be on a forever downswing because there is so much skill in this stupid ass game.

Fuck this stupid shit. I fucking hate it.

I will never win.

October: Another rigged month.

There is a lot I want to say and I don't know where to start so we'll just see where this goes.

Another month wasted and another month has gone by where by where I am that much closer to just hanging it up for good.

For the month I made a whopping $290. Whooooo. I must be really bad at this game. My stars bankroll to finish the month sits at $1571.11.

I don't know if I have ever run worse. It is all just a blur at this point. I went on legendary downswings playing sit and goes and I think that I am going to give them up. I may play them here and there but theres too much luck in turbo sit and goes and everyone always spikes there 3 outer when they call off most of there chips with A 7 when I have A K. I have been running so bad for the last several months that I am certain that if I was playing 100NL cash I would be down 15K. It's been that bad.

The most disgusting thing about all of this is that I actually won 2 tournaments outright this month. Had you told me that to start the month I would have been really excited. Of course one of the tournaments was a BS tournament and the other was only a moral victory.

On a positive note, I played significantly less poker then I have in prior months. That is a win in my book. I did a lot more things socially, partied quite a bit, met some girls, and had a lot of fun.

These are my numbers for the month in MTT's.

Tournaments played 162 (this number needs to triple next month)
Cashes 31
Final Tables 3
ITM% 19.12 (which is actually really good.)
Winnings $3972.39

As a result to my lack of play I lost my gold star standing however I still managed to finish in the top 1000 in the TLB once again so I'm sure I will get that invite again. Didn't really like playing in it the last time, so I will more then likely skip it which about half the players end up doing.

I have been meaning to write this for the last week or so but just haven't gotten around to it.

I played live poker last weekend and had a legendary degen session at the Commerce.

Last Saturday night a bunch of us got together for UFC 90 and after the fight there was suppose to be a costume party. Someone left for the party and told us that they would call us later for a scouting report/location of the party. Quite a bit of time passed and there was no call so I just went home. I got home at about 11 and started playing online. At around 1:00 I get a call from one of my friends and he says that he and two others were on their way to Commerce and they would pick me up. Of course I accept the offer. They come over and we smoke a copious amount of weed and I am super stoned and ready to make an all nighter of it. We get to Commerce and smoke some more and then go grab some beers. We start playing at about 2 in the morning. My friend Matt and I went to play $200NL and the others went upstairs to play the $40.

I started off a little shaky and couldn't get anything going. I had to do an add on and was in for $300. I don't remember most of the hands but these were the main ones.

I'm down to my last $75 and shove with 10 10. I get called of course. (The reason why I shoved $75 into a $7 pot.)

Board A 10 6 Q A.

The degen Asian who called me starts talking all this shit that he has me and he has the nuts but then I rolled over my boat and his K J straight wasn't shit. Hey I won a coinflip.

I had another hand where I had K 10 of hearts and got all in on the flop and for like the 3rd time this year actually hit a flush on the river. That was against random armo who I will talk about later. That pot was about $300.

Anyway, anyone playing poker at the Commerce at 5 in the morning is a complete degen. Myself included. There was this Armenian fish who had a stack of $2200 at one point. Over the course of about 6 hours, myself, Matt, and two other players took all of his money and he left at 8 in the morning completely cleaned out. It was awesome.

Anyway, this hand was against the Armo degen and was my biggest pot of the night.

I raised J 10 suited and get two callers.

Flop J 10 x suited. Not mine obv.

Armo degen and I get it all in on the flop for a $700 pot. I know he has some sort of draw so I am praying that the poker gods don't realize that DrBadBeat has skipped out of playing online and is hiding at the Commerce. I somehow get lucky and the Armo degen mucks his hand when the turn and river blank off. On the night I came up $480 and that is cold hard cash and not electronic internet moneys.

During the night, we smoked a bunch of weed making multiple trips to the parking lot. At one point I met some random guy and I almost purchased 1.5 ounces from him but decided against it. We played all the way until about 10 in the morning and then left. We all got back to my house and at 11 I started playing online. I ran like dogshit like I always do online and dropped about half of my Commerce profits. I played online until about 5 which was when I went to bed. In total I was up for 34 hours and spent 18 straight hours playing poker.

I will say that I am starting to run better but have very little to show for it.

Last night I took 23/3150 and finished 23rd because I lost two giant coinflips like I always do. But I ran really well to get there.

And earlier today I took 4/180 in a $22 buyin and made a whopping $288. I ran good early on and then went card-dead with about 4 tables left. I won a couple of huge hands right before the final table and came in 5/9. I more or less folded every hand as I wasn't dealt anything and finished 4th.

I also went really deep in a couple others today and made a couple of crucial mistakes. Today was one of the rare times that I got ALOT of chips all in and I wasn't winning. Of course I am not like everyone I play against and I didn't get rewarded for it.

I am up about $250 early in November. Big month? One time? No more getting fucked constantly please.

Sigh...

After yesterdays debacle I was going to type this really long post detailing most of the last couple weeks. Instead I am too stoned and have 4 games going right now so I'm going to run through everything really fast.

As it stands, I have now hit my worst gambling downswing ever. I busted my sportsbook account and in total lost $700. I am taking a break from all that and will come back when I find a game that is a sure thing. Football has been way to unpredictable all season to play the games regularly.

My stars account is taking some wild swings. I hit my high of $2760 on 9/24 and a couple weeks later, I was all the way down to $600. I then went on an upswing that lasted a whole four days. I had a turnaround of $1600 on my sharkscope and took my account all the way up to $1800. Then in only two and a half days of playing, I was right back to $600. Over that time I went about 50 tournaments straight without a single cash. 30 straight SNG's to be exact and approxiamately 20 MTT's.

The very next day I was down to $400.

The next day which was yeterday I bought into a bunch of MTT's and had my account drop to $200 after not cashing in all but the last one.

The last tournament was pretty interesting. It had everything.

The tournament was an $11 buyin with 1086 players.

Early on I picked up a nice stack and then got my greatest fuck you hand ever. All in one hand I took the sickest cooler and simulataneously took the worst bad beat you can take.

Blinds 125/250

UTG raises to 500. Call. I call. Two other callers.

I have 7 7.

Flop A 7 5

Three of us including myself get all in on the flop.

UTG has A A and the other guy has 5 5.

Turn 5

Fuck me. I cannot believe what I just saw.

My stack was all the way down to 1200.

I played shortstack for the next 4 hours.

In that time these two sweet pieces of justices go down.

I get all in short with 6 6. Get called by J J.

Flop 6 x x.

The second hand was the same situation. I get all in short with A J.

Villain shows 10 10.

Flop A J x

As we got down to the last 70 players I was looking at the money breakdown. There was a big prize jump at 27th place. 27-19 was $60 or so. I only had $200-$250 in my account so a $60 cash is substantial. Also prior to my play that day I was considering what to do in the event of going bust. I was debating whether or not I was going to redeposit so I had that mindset when I was playing.

I actually got down to the last 27 and was about 22nd in the tournament so I was stil rocking the short stack. I don't remember many of the hands played at this point but I kept advancing through the tournament as one of the shortest stacks. I badly wanted to make the final table as I hadn't made a FT in almost a month.

Sure enough I actually get there shortstack and all. I came in 6th in chips.

When we got to 8 handed I was 7th in chips and we were on break. Someone suggested that we chop the tounrament 8 ways with each player getting $900. Several players actually agreed. The chipleader wasn't going for it and I sided with chipleader saying that I wasn't going to chop either. The fact that I was refusing to chop is completely assinine on my part since I would be getting 4th place money. I thought I could win and I needed the 2 grand that was on the line.

The first hand back I pick up 4 4 and flop a set in a raised pot with the chipleader. He almost doubles me up and I move into 4th or 5th in chips.

We get down to the last 5 and I am 4th in chips and the player 3rd in chips offers a 5 way chop where we all get $1500. The first two agreed and the chipleader said he was thinking about it but I said no deal and we kept playing. We get down to 4 handed and I double up by actually winning a coinflip. At three handed the sickest hand ever happened.

I have J J in the BB.

Chipleader 2M
Me 700K
Shortstack 600K

Blinds 10K/25K

Chipleader raises my BB from the button like he always does and the SB shoves. I overshove with my Jacks and the CL actually calls!

CL A 10
Me J J
SS 6 6

Lately, I have been in this spot a lot and I have been really good at losing so one time please.

The board blanks off and I win a 2 million chip pot and am heads up. This is also the first time the entire tournament that I hold the chiplead. We play for about 20 minutes or so and I outplay the guy nasty and win when I call his shove with Q 8. He showed 4's and I hit the 8 to win the tournament. 1st was $1,985 and some change and makes for my second biggest tourney score ever. I finally got a good win on stars but am pretty indifferent to it. My bankroll was at $2100 or so and today I have been running like shit. I hope at this point I start making some money because I am in no mood right now to watch my account go all the way back down to almost nothing because everyone hits there 3 outers against me.

No one runs worse at poker then I do.

Oh my God where do I start? I think this might be the worst run I have ever had gambling in my entire life. On 9/24, I final tabled a tournament and made about $900. My Stars bankroll at that point was at $2760. Since then I have run like the stock market. It's not official since I am still playing but right now my bankroll sits at $732 and thats before I buy in to a couple more tournies. Things could not be going worse in the land of football.

I took Tennessee yesterday +11.5 against Georgia which means they couldn't lose the game by more then 12 points. I got in early and the line ended up moving to about 13 or so. Tennessee lost the game by 12 and had I waited a couple days to place the bet I would have won but instead I got in early and lost by a half point. I also took 5-0 Vanderbilt against 1-4 MSU yesterday and not only did Vanderbilt not win the game by 3 points, they didn't even win the game. Right now, Dallas just had a punt blocked in OT and Arizona scored a TD on the same play and I just lost that game as well. I don't even want to look at my account by I am now down about $500 overall since I started betting on sports. That puts my gambling downswing at $2500. My worst downswing ever was $3000 playing live poker but I was risking thousands of dollars on a daily basis so that is to be expected. This is much worse because it is over a longer time period and it is happening much slower so it's a lot more painful.

Fuck poker. I just needed to say that.

If you want to know what its like to be me as a poker player then do the following. Go to www.sharkscope.com and search CUgold61 under PokerStars.

I started playing again recently on Stars at around game 400 right where it flatlines. In the last 3 days I have played about 90 games or so at the last "peak" in the graph. In that time, I haven't won a single SNG and have only gotten 2 seconds. The games that I'm playing are 18 man and 45 man turbos.

I could not be running worse in these stupid ass things. These stupid ass things are the main reason for the most recent part of my slide on Stars.

In those 3 days I have gotten into this situation all in preflop and have lost about 70 times. That is AK vs AQ or worse. I obviously don't have AK every time that I have lost but I have lost in that situation about 70 times in the last 3 days. On the flip side when I have been behind I have won about 12 of them. Remember the numbers do not add up in poker. That, or my account has a Pokerstars inflicted curse. I really wouldn't be surprised if my account was cursed because this is all the same crap I use to go through way back when I played on Stars.

I also had KK vs. AA 15 consecutive times before I had AA vs KK a little while ago today. I have never had a run like that with AA vs KK but of course I can be on the bad end of it. Never once in those 15 did I suck out.

I also am getting really fucking frustrated with the big field MTT's. No one goes farther in these things more often then I do without ever getting a payday. I have only played 42 MTT's this month and have the following results.

28/1962
57/3204
54/3483
30/4995

For the players who win a lot online, I want to know: How do you do it? I always run out of cards, take a bad beat, or get it in with an inferior hand because I am shortstacked and never suck out. It happens every time. I am never big stack when there are 30 players left. I am always one of the shortstacks. The 30/4995 happened earlier today and I ran really well throughout the tournament and really thought I was going to make the final table.

Of course I ran out of cards and shoved 10 8 on the button with 10 big blinds when it was folded to me. It was the first time the entire tournament that I did this and of course the small blind has AQ. He calls and the flop comes J 10 x. I knew not to celebrate because I know who I am and know that I am the king of the suckout followed by the re-suckout. Of course he hit the king on the turn giving him the nuts and I was drawing dead. Hey pokerstars, why don't you let me win one those just once or actually give me a couple of good hands when the blinds get enoromous. Why do my cards alwasy die when the blinds get really big? Please, you have no idea how frustrating it is to go that far so often and too never get a cash. It's fucking bullshit.

Also, I would like to tell everyone how smart I am. Today I played in the Top 1000 TLB tournament. It was awesome, only 600 players showed up so 1st place was a lot bigger then it should have been. This was easily the hardest tournament I have ever played in. It's very boring to play in a tourney when there are no donks. There was no action and no one was giving away any chips. Every time I raised, they folded and if they called or 3 bet I knew I was in trouble. Early in the tournament I folded QQ preflop because some guy who was a supernova shoved all in over my 3 bet. I knew that he had AA KK or AK and I wasn't going to call and find out if I was flipping a coin that I know I am going to lose so I just pitched it.

Anyway, I totally called the way I was going to get knocked out. We were about 1 hour and 45 minutes in and I had about 15 BB and I overshoved with JJ. I got called by QQ and of course theres the cooler that I predicted.

At this point, I am probably not going to go to Las Vegas next summer. What the hell for? I am probably going to run like shit anyway. I can see it now. I'll be in some WSOP event and I'll go all in with AA and get called by some stupid farmer from Nebraska or some idiot from Arkansas who's a plumber and he'll have A 7 off and hit two sevens on the flop. So unless my luck turns around which I don't expect it too then the WSOP can kiss my ass.

Also, I am never paying off my debts ever again with poker money. This is the 3rd time that I have paid off most of my debts and followed that by a vicious downswing. I had about 18K to my name and thought it would be a good idea to erase 5K worth of credit debt/court fines. But of course like every other time I pay debts, I end up losing everything else and go back into debt. So never again am I paying that shit off with poker money. I still have well over 10K to my name and if it weren't for having a job I would probably be close to busto.

If I lose another couple grand, I will probably quit for good and invest the rest of my bankroll in the stock/commodities market after things bottom out. I keep hearing that if Obama wins the presidency that he will spend us into oblivion and the market will tank really hard. People made millions after the last depression so go Obama if I have the chance to make more money.

UPDATE: Unfucking believable. I typed the original message at around 4:00 in the afternoon. Was watching the Sunday Million final table to see how these guys play with monster money on the line. Decided to play in a couple $11 180 man turbo tournaments. This is seriously the story of my life. Got knocked out of the first one right away. Did something stupid. Can't remember what. Ended up taking first in the second one and won $594. Ran sick hot the entire tournament and didn't take a single bad beat. I'm obviously relieved as I have made back a big chunk of my weekend poker losses. But why do I always win in small events? Just one time, I want to win one of the bigger ones like one of the rebuys. Oh well, this only adds more fuel to my fire. Maybe things will turn around. Also, for the last 2 days I'm like 19 for 20 in this situation. 7 7 vs. AK. I have never run that well in those kind of coinflips. However, I am losing most of my coinflips on the other side but thats ok because I am tired of losing 80% of the time when I have the pocket pair. My bankroll now sits at $1288.

Poker can kiss my ass: Thank you for the nice ego-stroke pokerstars.

I have not played any poker since I made my last blog post. That alone should tell you how frustrated I am. This is the longest I have willingly not played since I started playing again in April. The only other time I didn't play in consecutive days sine April was when I went to Las Vegas in June.

Not only that, but I have absolutely no desire to play and that is actually depressing the hell out of me.

I haven't blazed since Saturday as I am attempting to regenerate my black lungs and since I haven't blazed I haven't had the urge to play. I might have to pop some adderrall the next time I play but I do not know when that will happen. It is also pretty sad that I have to take drugs just to play. Thats one of the reasons why I look forward to the days when I don't play anymore.

Since I haven't been playing, that has left with me with a lot of free time so I have had the time to take care of some personal affairs and it is allowing me to be social again. I have been extremely anti-social lately and I decided it would be best if I started seeing the people I care about.

I will need to get back soon as I am on a set time schedule and only have so much time to make a certain amount of money.

Anyway, my reason for writing is follows. I checked my email at work today and I got this email. This definitely put a huge smile on face.

"Hello CUgold61,

Congratulations on your performance in the MTT TLB for September. For finishing in the top 1000, you have earned a ticket for the Monthly TLB Top 1000 $20,000 Freeroll. The event is scheduled for October 12th at 15:00 ET. The tournament will be deployed in the next few days under the Tourney > Special tab.

If you have any questions regarding your prize or the MTT TLB, please let us know."

I defintitely look forward to this as I will be playing for a free shot at $4K. Also I will get to play with all of the best internet players in the world in one tournament. This will defintitely be a measuring stick for me as most the players I usually play with are terrible and constantly get downright lucky against me. Since I am playing against a bunch of good players, I'll probably get knocked out in the first 30 minutes with a giant cooler.

I will probably make my next update after this tournament.

I also decided to crunch some numbers since I haven't done it in a really long time.

Since April 08 I am up $16,097. That's all online with one live session and a little sportsbetting.

Since I turned 21 I am up $15,786 playing live in LA card clubs and Vegas.

Prior to being 21, I made about $12,000 playing online before I really took it seriously.

Prior to that I made another $3,000-$5,000 but none of that was kept track of since I was just dicking around with friends back then.

Since I quit school I have made $31,883. That play is from October 06-present. During that time there are about 7-8 months where I didn't play at all.

September: The month is over as far as I'm concerned. It's not a skill game.

Well everyone, I have now found the most wishy-washy profession on the planet. I have always said that being an actor is the worst profession in the world as all my friends who are aspiring actors/actresses are always out of work and broke. But nope, that's not the worst profession in terms of being unreliable. The worst profession is tournament poker player.

It boils down like this.

In a 30 day month, you are only going to make money between 5-8 days out of the entire month.

The rest of the time you are going to be losing since you will not cash in the majority of your tournaments.

You only make money if you're losing days are small and your winning days are big.

Also which tournaments you cash/final table in will make all the difference.

As usual, I have followed the same formula for the last few years and that is:

1. Play large tournament with small buyin and run really hot. Make final table. Get small payday.

2. Play large tournament with large buyin. Run really bad every time and never cash.

That's the way its always been and I have no reason to see why thats going to change.

For example:

My new favorite tournament in the world. Held every Sunday at noon my time.

$55+$5 $125K guaranteed.

Usually attracts close to 3K players, has a prize pool of close to 200K, and has a 1st place of 25K.

The last two times I have played, the exact same thing has happened.

Week 1:

I have 15K chips. Avg is 10K. I get all in preflop with a guy who has me covered. I have Aces. He has 9's. We all know the story.

Week 2: (Last week)

I have 10K chips. Avg is 8K. I get all in preflop with a guy who has 8K. I have Aces. He has fives. We all know the story. In this one though, I managed to climb all the way back and was within 300 players of the money.

I get A Q. I raise. Fish calls on the button. Flop A x x. Turn x. I get all in. He calls and has AK. Shocking. I'm out. I had an average stack and told myself to do nothing stupid and was folding my AQ to a re-raise. Of course the worst player on the table coolers me and of course I don't see it coming since he flats me preflop.

Here are my overall numbers for the month.

Tournaments played: 242
Cashes: 45
Cash percentage: 18.6%
Final Tables: 6
Winnings: $5678

These were my final tables. These 3 were in a four day period.

$30NL 9/693 $294
$20NL 3/180 $428
$10NL 5/3339 $1502

Then a whole two weeks pass with no Final Table finishes because I run bad. These 3 were also in 4 days.

$15NL 3/513 $769
$8NL 5/2358 $905
$38NL 6/180 $297

That's it. Pretty bad right? Only one cash of over $1000 is extremely disappointing. Only two final tables in 1000+ player tournaments. I don't really know how I feel about that since I had never final tabled one prior to this month. I still think I can expect to do better. Pathetic nonetheless in my mind.

No final tables in prestigious tournaments such as daily re-buys or any Sunday tourneys.

Overall, twice, I got down to the last several tables in the daily $3 rebuy. I ran horrible in $5 rebuys this month and don't really dabble much in the $10 rebuys since I don't really have the bankroll for it. Pathetic again. I should have gotten further in these tournaments more then just twice since these tournaments are the best part of my game and I consider myself an expert in them.

This is what I have deduced from poker. This is definitely not a skill game. Anyone who tells you otherwise is kidding themselves. Anyone who says that everything balances out in the long run is also kidding themselves. Those of us who actually make money consistently only do so because the losers aren't as intellegent as the winners. They don't think things out thoroughly. They don't care. They don't want to be taught. Obviously, there are intellegent people who play the game who are losers but its because they either don't try or don't care.

This game is all timing. If there is any skill in this game, that is the only place it lies. After much experience, a little luck, and being smart enough to realize certain situations you can put your money in at the right time and have the right result.

I have played close to a million hands of poker and I don't see how the numbers add up. Either you need to do simulations for billions of hands to have a large enough sample or the numbers really don't add up.

Over the course of my life I have lost disproportionately in these situations. These are all in preflop situations. I obviously cannot speak for non all in hands since most hands don't make it too showdown.

AK vs. AQ. I probably win half the time if I am lucky.

AA vs. AK. I have now lost 8 times in the last couple months. You are only suppose to lose some 4-5 times out of every 100 but I have lost 8 times in the last 30 or so. An anomaly. Seems to be an anomaly when it only happens to me.

88 vs. AK. The classic coin-flip. I try very hard to not get all in with these types of coinflips. I lose these well over half the time whereas when I have the AK I win more then half the time. It probably balances out that way but you can tell by my logic which types of hands I would rather be all in with. I will take AK any day all in over a PP.

When you make certain calls or certain laydowns will determine whether or not you lose. Holding up once in a million chip pot is not a skill. It's luck.

Example.

The $8 tournament I final tabled had a similar situation happen. Something that has never ever happened to me and will probably never happen again happened.

I won 8 straight all in confrontations with 60/40's and 65/35s.

For those who don't know the numbers: That is K J against A Q and J 10 against A K type of hands.

Whether or not I was favored pre-flop, I won every time. I sucked out when I needed too and I held up when I needed too. Of course that happens in the $8 buy-in. There was one that I would have lost but I had the skill to make the appropriate lay down and let someone else call the all in and lose. Had I called, I would have been the favorite against both players and would have finished with the worst hand.

----------------------------------------------

I am also going through one of the worst strings of cards I have ever seen.

The following is happening.

I am getting knocked out of every tournament via bad beat or cooler. I have had KK vs AA 7 times in the last two days to end tournaments. Several of which I was doing really well in and getting knocked out came out of nowhere.

I am losing over 80% of my all ins where I am the favorite.

When I suck out on the flop. I am getting re-sucked out on the turn or river about 90% of the time. Right now I am the king of the suckout followed by the re-suckout.

When I get sucked out, I come back about once out of every 20 times.

Half the time I get all in with a coinflip and I actually hit my over... About 30-40% of the time, they are catching there set on the turn or river.

The poker gods then think that because of all the crap I take, that I deserve to give one god-awful bad beat. They assume it makes up for 10 straight tournaments out of the money and a loss as a result of a bad beat.

This happened last night.

Limped pot. BB=400.

I have 6 3 in the SB.

Flop 10 6 3.

All in. All in.

Villain 10 10

Hero 6 3

Turn 3

River 3

That little 15K chip pot obviously makes up for the $300 I dropped in about 12 tournaments prior to that hand.

Oh, but wait. 10 minutes later I was out of the tournament because of AK vs. AQ. I guess not.

Here's the end result.

My stars bankroll was at $300 to start the month.

As of right now I am sitting on $1761. On Saturday I had $2760 and was rolling. After my 20th straight shitty weekend I have lost almost half my stars roll. The weekends are obviously a huge leak in my game. I have only had two winning weekends my entire time playing online since April and the weekends are traditionally when poker players make most of there money. Playing against even more bad players and getting jewed even harder. Skill game? HA!

My sportsbetting account started at $430 and now sits at $530.

Two big recent losses are the reason for the low number in the sportsbook.

I thought taking the #1 college football team in the country against an anemic Oregon State team was a good idea. $200 later, I realized how wrong I was.

Then tonight I bet big on the under in the Monday night football game. The two teams playing literally don't know how to score points. With only 17 minutes left in regulation all I have to do is not have 18 points scored and I win $200. 30+ points randomly get scored to end the game and I lose. Oh well, there's variance in sports too.

Overall, I am up $1560 for the month which is my worst month since I started playing online.

On the one hand, I did achieve gold star status on pokerstars which is very good for me.

I was able to reach gold because I started playing multi-table turbo SNG's which are really fun and kind of keep things a little stable.

At this point, I don't know how much more of this crap I can take. I know I have said this in the past but I can't last much longer if its going to be like this. I need a 5K to 10K score soon to keep the faith. As of right now, I am also doubting my live tournament aspirations since I think it will be a waste of time since I pretty much never ever do well in the tournaments you want to do well in.

Obviously, if something crazy happens tomorrow to end the month then I'll update the numbers. But with the last few KK against AA, I don't think anything is going to change between now and tomorrow.

Oh and lastly, my biggest argument about this not being a skill game.

Unless something changes tomorrow I am going to finish 359th on the pokerstars TLB list which is in the top 2% on all of pokerstars. I was as high as 293 and will finish the month with 3639 points. The guy who finished 100th and gets his name on the list for the world to see has 4321 points.

Basically, if I finish in the top 3 of any tournament tomorrow thats worth playing in.... ie 1st is between 5K-7K then I will crack the list.

I would assume that at least being close to the top 100 puts me among the top players on the site. Yet I find myself losing my shirt most the time and am barely making enough money to make ends meet. (which is why I work a job) Skill game? HA!

OCTOBER? Please one time.

September: Weeks 1 and 2

Let me start off by saying that poker is all luck. I don't know about anyone else, but I seem to get the shitty end of the percentages most of the time I play.

There is only one thing I see going disproportionately in my favor.

That is, getting all in with this type of situation: AQ vs. AK and having the board come out as such: 5 5 3 3 6 for a chop. I have probably had AQ in this spot and managed to chop with AK about 10 times or so in the last few weeks whereas it has probably only happened to me once.

Everything else however, I am getting fucking screwed.

At least 3 times a day right now I am having someone crack my overpair with an underpair AIPF.

I got pocket aces popped again yesterday by A x. This time by A 7. Thats the 6th time in the last few weeks whereas I have probably won in that spot maybe once or twice in my entire poker life.

For the last week or so I have been getting crucified on my coinflips which is pretty standard. Never have I been the crucifier when it comes to coinflips since I have never won more then 3 or 4 in a row but I am usually the one getting stuck on the cross.

I am also getting knocked out of every tournament as a result of a bad beat. Maybe 1 out of 10 right now are ending with me shoving bullshit at the wrong time and running into a bigger hand.

Here are my results

Week 1:

Cashes 11/74 14.86%
Winnings $2477.84
Final Table Tables 3
Largest cash $1502.56

This was actually a really shitty week with the exception to 3 good tournies. 14% cash rate is absolutely terrible. I did however make 3 final tables in 4 days. The first was a 9th place finish in a $30 freezeout with 700+ players.

I got fucked really hard like I always do.

I had 300K chips with 15 players left and the next guy had only 100K. Of course I finished 9th with 1st being 4K. I took 4 bad beats in succession. I don't remember nor care what they were. The last one was only one I remember because the guy snap called 3/4 of his stack with Q J when I shoved all in with a superior hand. Oh yeah, he spiked his 3 outer. Shocking.

I then got 3/180 in a $20 tournament.

And then, the only thing I have done well in during the last few weeks.

I took 5/3339 for $1500. I came in to the final table as the 5th stack and finished there so I have no gripes. I will say though that I made a huge mistake 6 handed and then of course got rewarded by getting busted with a bad beat when I had K K only a couple minutes later. It was also my first ever final table in a 1000+ player tournament. Even crazier was the fact that it was over 3000 players.

Week 2: Not much to talk about.

Cashes 13/42 30.95%
Winnings $620.59
Final Tables 0
Biggest Cash $90.09 WTF?

As you can see I took a big loss in MTT's this week. Ironically enough I cashed in almost 31% of my MTT's which is a ridiculously gaudy number. That will probably never happen again but even with that number I still lost money. I ran well enough/played patiently enough to make the money in a lot of tournaments but I ran bad after getting in the money.

I also started playing a lot more sit n goes this week which is why my games played are down for the week. I did manage to make $900 last week in STT which salvaged the week.

Overall

Cashes 24/116 20.69%
Winnings $3098.43

Overall for the month I am up about $1500 in poker.

I also have started betting on sports regularly. A friend of mine has made a shitload of money handicapping football and he is going to let me ride his coattails.

Overall I am up $300 betting sports since Saturday.

So that puts me up $1800 overall on the month which is way behind schedule.

To make matters worse, I have started smoking weed regularly again and am starting to get back to the point of not being able to play without smoking first. Hopefully that doesn't persist.

I am also sorry for the negativity but I hate poker and I hate the way it makes me feel. I look forward to the day I don't have to play anymore which I hope comes sooner then later.