Another Losing mothaf#$*ing session

Unbelievably, my last session was more than a week ago, on Wednesday, April 18th. Obviously based on the title of this entry, it was a loss. I haven't played a hand of poker since then. I think I'm a bit discouraged by my recent losses so I've taken a bit of a break. I've also been really busy with life. Wednesday I played poker. Thursday a couple of my boys from Seattle came to town and stayed overnight with us. I smoked with one of them, who coincidentally was on "Judge Mathis" the next day on 420. Apparently he sold his dog to his friend and then never gave it to her. Good stuff. Then Friday, which is the infamous 420, I smoked and went to a couple bars with my partners in grime M-Tweezy and Sanetomo. First we went to Zanzibar, which was horrendous. They were playing techno and it was over 40 night. We left after a horribly-spent $10 cover charge and went to our default spot "Carbon." Wow is all I can say about the state that this bar has evolved into. First of all, this place is like 10 square feet. They have a bar with benches and a wall that is about two feet behind the benches. Then there is about a five-foot dance floor. But they play hip-hop and it's close to our apartment and there's no dress code and no cover charge, which is why it's our default spot. So we go there, they make us wait in line like it's some sort of club or something. They tell us it's a 45-minute wait and then they let us in after eight minutes. We go in and the girls all look like they came from Star Trek's forgotten episode "Beast of the greater galaxy" and I decide that I must be drunk in this situation. So we head straight to the bar and we get long islands. They taste like shit. I can't even finish mine it tastes so bad. So we go back for shots of patron, my favorite. I'm barely buzzed and this monster is trying to get me to dance with her. "I'm tired." "I'm injured, I hurt my leg playing basketball." "I don't know how to dance." I used every excuse in the book. So what does she do? She starts giving me a lap dance. As soon as she heads to the bathroom/pig sty I tell my boy Mark "Let's get the FUCK OUT OF HERE." Normally, Mark likes to wait around not only until the bar closes, but until the last female has left the parking lot. He can tell that I mean business so he reluctantly agrees to leave. Plus he's seen me getting treated like grapes at a vineyard by this wildebeast. So we bounced.

Damn that was only Friday! Needless to say, my 420 was not so great.

421 I went to a birthday party for my boy that moved to Dallas. It was good stuff, saw a bunch of old friends that I used to work with and that's about it. Saturday night I actually came home and fell asleep. Then Sunday I had a baseball game (1-2, R) and hung out with my UCLA buddy who is doing big things. We went grocery shopping too. The wild life I live!!

422 We have softball practice for my work team. Damn I knew we would be bad but this was just an ugly situation. People didn't know what position was what, how to throw, how to hit, how to catch, you name it. It's gonna be a long season. I've been trying to eat healthier and really set myself back about three weeks when we went to Pink's famous hot dog stand and I happily ordered chili cheese fries and a hot link. They might as well have toilets as the chairs people eat on.

423 I had a softball game for my old team in the valley. Traffic sucks going out to the valley but I think if you head from Hollywood to the valley around 5-6pm, you're guaranteed to see at least one celebrity in traffic and at least one porn star in traffic. It almost makes it worth it. Anyways we played the team that I hate in our league. Their team name is the Dawgs. How corny is that shit? I would really hate on them but our team name is the Rockets, which I think is the only name worse that the Dawgs. We lost to them as usual and there is a chick on the other team that I used to date. Our history is pretty much I blew it with her by not calling back regularly, etc., typical Kev fashion. Now she always looks good and wears extra tight pants at the softball games and it kills me. So I hate her team and after the game I don't even want to talk to her because I hate her team so much and we always lose to them. But she catches me while we're in the parking lot and starts clowning and somehow we end up at the bar having drinks watching the Lakers game.

424 Went to the Dodgers game and saw Barry hit number 4,564,874.5 into centerfield. That made it worth the trip alone. Gotta love Dodgers games. For some unknown reason there is always a plethora of fine women at Dodgers games. I can't figure it out. I used to go to a ton of Mariners games in Seattle and there were never fine women there. I made like twenty mental notes during the game to get some good seats to the Dodgers games and take all my boys that are single. At last night's game I was with my co-workers, so I was kool kev, not killa kev. And actually I think we were sitting in the 400 section somewhere between Heaven and the Orion star constellation. My boy and I had to leave the game early to make the company softball game. We got there and it was a mess. We had seven players to start, lost 20-8, but I managed a home run, double and four RBI.

Damn I haven't even talked about my last session yet. It sucked. I got to the casino, lost my first buy-in, rebought and was up about $400 when I started playing way too loose, going after way too many pots and just tricked the cheese off. Everyone on my table was getting monster hands like aces and kings and I was getting shit so maybe I was just trying to crack everyone out of pure boredome, I'm not sure.

Anyways I dropped $400.

So here's are the numbers up to date:

4/18/07:
3/5 NL: -400
Overall: -400

Bankroll Plan To Date:
4/8 Limit: +33
1/2 NL: +195
2/3 NL: +650
3/5 NL: +1985
Bankroll: +2863

Losing is not as much fun

I've played three sessions since my last entry. At times I feel good about my play, at others I feel terrible. I've been making a lot (a ton) of moves. Almost every pot I'm in I try something. Some work, some don’t. Most of the time I have a pretty good read on what my opposition has. It's just a matter of getting them to lay it down or whatever. Either way, I've had three losing sessions out of my last four so that is not good. I need to refocus and get back on the winnning track. I also might take a new angle with this blog. We'll see.


1. -430
2. +757
3. -900 (-100 in 2/3 NL, -800 in 3/5 NL)
Total from three sessions: -573

Bankroll Plan To Date:
4/8 Limit: +33
1/2 NL: +195
2/3 NL: +650
3/5 NL: +2385
Bankroll: +3263

Over playing my bad reads

Played a bad session on Tuesday night. Historically I feel like Tuesday night is a bad night, not sure why. Sat down and won a small pot to get up like $40. Then I got pocket jacks in the cut off. I raised to $35. The button re-raised me to $100. I thought for a long time and put him on QQ at the worst, most likely AA or KK. However, I called hoping to spike a jack. The flop came all low cards. I checked, he went all-in and for some unknown reason I called him and lost.

My second buy-in coincidentally ended up th same way, me with JJ against another players KK all-in pre-flop. At least this time I didn't KNOW that he had KK like the first time. A loose player who was raising to $15 every hand made his standard raise. The big blind called him for the extra $10, then another good player re-raised to $50. I thought he was re-raising in an attempt to take the $45 pot down. I put him on KQ or AJ type of hand. I moved all-in and he called me with KK. He was real nice about it as we were neighbors and talked to me about playing JJ and how it can get me in trouble. I agreed, especially since I lost over $400 on jacks pre-flop that night, lol.

Third buy-in was lost when I tried to push a guy off his hand when a flush hit the board. He raised pre-flop to $25 and everyone called. I called with 7c8c. Flop came AT5 all hearts. He bet $55, everyone folded to me. I raised him to $110, putting him on a high ace and representing the flush for myself. I was going to push on the turn no matter what. He thought for a long time on my raise. I'm not sure if he was thinking about folding or raising. I'm pretty sure he had me on the flush though. The turn was an ace and I knew he had the ace but I felt if I moved in he would still lay it down. I pushed (with nothing) for $250 more and he insta-called with A-10. I'm out!

Tuesday Night:
200NL: -$600
Overall: -$600
Hourly: -$300/Hr.

Bankroll Plan To Date:
4/8 Limit: +33
1/2 NL: +195
2/3 NL: +750
3/5 NL: +2858
Bankroll: +3836

Running Hot + Playing Well = $

Had a good, enjoyable night at the Park. Most of the regulars were there and a few of my buddies that I play with were there. I started off okay, went up about $60 when I bluffed a guy out of his own pot. But then I tricked it off.

I have Q9 in late position. The flop comes 2-5-9 with two hearts and this crazy guys bets $40. Huge overbet. I call. The turn is a 10 and he goes all in. I thought for a while and made the call, which was idiotic. The only hand I can really beat here is either 8-9 or J-9. He had JJ, I missed the river and I already have to rebuy. So I rebought for $300. My stack started going down slowly and I had about $140 left when the next hand came up.

I have QJ in late position. The guy on my left, who is a luck box and raising every hand, raises to $15. Everyone calls. The flop comes 7-9-10 with two spades. This is a good flop for my hand. Everyone checks and luck box bets $20. Button calls him, then small blind raises to $60. While I'm contemplating my call, Luck Box says he is calling any all-in move. I know that small blind has at least two pair, so he is probably calling any all-in as well. I also feel like the button player might call an all-in, giving me a chance to quadruple up. So I move all-in. Luck box calls, button folds and small blind calls. An 8 hits the turn and river and I win. Luck box had AA and small blind already had the straight with J-8, which lost to my nut straight. Now I'm in business.

Other hands I had were KK, king hits the flop. I check, only other player checks. Turn is nothing, I bet a weak 25, he calls. River pairs the board. I bet 50, he calls. I have AJ UTG. I raise to 10, everyone calls. Flop comes Ajx. I check, button, who is tight, bets 20. I call him weakly. Turn is an ace. He bets 40. I raise him to 80, he calls. River is a 10. I'm hoping he has A10. I bet 100 out the gate and he calls with a weak ace. I win.

I also hit a flush with 5d7d when the flop came J10A with two diamonds. The button player made the nut straight with KQ but bet only 30 on the flop. My diamond hit the turn and everyone checked. Then I bet 75 on the river and he called. Nice.

I played for five hours and made $706, which is real solid for a week night. I was playing my table perfectly last night. They were folding when I had nothing and calling when I had the nuts. It was great. Table was real friendly too, which is always a plus. I checked my stash and I really only have about $2450 now. I know I've paid over 1500 in bills out of this money and I'm hoping to pay it back to my Bank Roll. I also spend money on meals, movies and at Virgin Megastore.

Monday Night:
200NL: $706
Overall: $706
Hourly: $141.20/Hr.

Bankroll Plan To Date:
4/8 Limit: +33
1/2 NL: +195
2/3 NL: +750
3/5 NL: +3458
Bankroll: +4436

7/8 Winning Sessions since the BR plan started

I took off work and went straight to the Park. I had plans for later that night either going out to a club called 740 or hanging out with a friend so I wanted to go to HP and put in a few hours. The action on Fridays and Saturdays is the best. I got on a table that was okay. Then a loose cannon showed up. His name was Mike and he was incredibly nice, just sucked at poker. He was hitting his horses and just pouring money into the table. He loved to raise pre-flop, which made the pots big and also made it expensive to play.

I hit two big hands and lost both of them. In the first hand, I had AK in the big blind. A tight player raised to $35 pre-flop and I called, as did like five players. The flop came King high with rags. I bet $100 and got two callers and then the button went all-in. Three people called. Everyone checked the turn and river and I had the second best hand with AK. The button had AA and one of the callers had QK. I was pissed at myself for not creating a side pot with the QK player. There was a 10 on the board and I was a little worried that someone may have had K10 so I checked it down. Stupid me.

The second hand I had QhKh on the button. Another loose cannon raised to $25 and got about five callers including me. The flop came 10 high with two hearts. The orignial raiser went all-in and I also went all-in. We got one caller so the pot was huge. The heart hit the river and the original raiser had AhJh. Damn!

Before I knew it, I was in for my fourth buy-in. The loose player had dumped an estimated 3k into the table and finally left. After he left around 3 a.m. I started getting some cards and hitting them hard. I doubled up first with 88 when my full house hit the river and the other player had the nut flush. I hit another set, although I don't remember what it was. I was grinding, grinding, grinding, grinding and finally had broken even. By the time our table broke around 8:30 a.m. I was sitting with about 1415 and was up on the night.

I decided to take $100 of my profit to one of the two $100 tables going. I recognized a few of the players and they are not very good so I thought it was a good opportunity. Before I knew it, I was up 1k on the table! I got AA and KK in back-to-back hands. My aces held easily and I hit a set of Kings to take down aces and AQ, who both went all-in pre-flop. It was lucky against the aces but the guy who had them was a horrible player so there was no way I was folding KK pre-flop to him. I ended up bleeding some chips back and left the table up 750.

Saturday night I went to see Blades of Glory, which wasn't very good. Some hilarious parts but for the majority of the time it was pretty corny. Plus I was lifted and kind of drifting to sleep most of the time. After the movie, I went to meet up with my boy at Commerce. I played the $200 table and really grinded and played the players just as much as the cards. I came up $655 in four hours and bounced for Easter Breakfast at 7 a.m. I don't really remember any huge hands. I'm pretty sure I mostly just won a bunch of $100 pots or so. The biggest hand I had was KdQd on the button. I raised to $35 and got a few callers. Then the flop comes 99K and a tight player in the blind comes out betting $80. I put her on probably the 9 but possibly the King, so I called to see the turn and see how she bet. The turn was another king. She checked and I immediately checked, trying to make her believe that I had QQ or AA. The river was a blank and I bet a weak $75. She reluctantly called and I took it down. She had the 9.

I'm playing pretty well and I'm happy because there are a lot of things that I can improve in my game and I know what they are. I'm trying to work on improving these aspects but at the same time I'm winning so that's good. Hopefully if I can continue improving my profits will get better, although I definitely can't complain.

My bankroll is now not really at what it is on this blog as I have paid back some bills/credits/etc. and used some of the money for other things but I plan on paying my poker bankroll back through my paychecks so I'm keeping the records consistent. Right now I think out of the $3730 that my BR is at, I only have $2250 of it. Still solid for me. The best part about this recent hot streak is that I can't even say that I'm running great. I'm definitely not running cold but my cards aren't on fire or anything. They were at the 100 table on Saturday morning though.

Oh yeah, I'm feelin this Redman album also. It's called "Red Gone Wild" and it's refreshing to hear him again.

Friday Night/Satruday Morning:
100NL: $750
200NL: $415
Overall: $1165
Hourly: $66.57/Hr.

Sunday Morning:
200NL: $655
Overall: $655
Hourly: $163.75/Hr.

Bankroll Plan To Date:
4/8 Limit: +33
1/2 NL: +195
2/3 NL: +750
3/5 NL: +2752
Bankroll: +3730

I double as a donkey

"Oh what a job this is..." - Devin the Dude

Simple and plain, I played a one-hour session last night and lost $600. Very sorry effort on my part. I was probably tired, I was probably feeling rushed because I had to go to dinner with friends around 930, but I hate excuses. So I'm just going to say that I sucked last night. I played too many hands, I played weak ass kickers, I donk'd.

The first hand I witnessed at the table was ridiculous. I was waiting for the blinds to pass, so I wasn't even in the hand. Everyone limps. Flop comes Qc10h2c. Big blind, we'll call him "Oldie" bets $15. Middle position player raises to $45. Button goes all-in for $650. "Oldie" calls him with his last $500. A club hits the river and button shows two pair, Q2 and "Oldie" shows 8c6c for the rivered flush. I was astounded and happy to be at the table.

Well on my first hand I get AQ. The guy who lost with the Q2 is immediately on my left. I limp, he goes all-in for $37. "Oldie" calls him. I feel that "Oldie" is just calling with anything so I push for $200 to isolate. He calls with AK and we both miss and I lose my cheese. Rebuy and lose to "Oldie" with Ac8c when he puts me all in with an ace on the board and a club on the turn. He has AK and his kicker plays.

I lost another $200, I don’t really remember any significant hands. The table was crazy as people were pushing all in every hand to try and double through "Oldie" and he was winning every hand. He had about 3k when I left after an hour and he was at $500 when I got there.

So I lost, the win streak ends at five. I'll be back this weekend to try and get back on the horse.

**On another note, I have to say that I listened to Devin the Dude "Waitin' To Inhale" CD today and this is a classic CD. He has some straight up ridiculous tracks on here. He has done it again.

Thursday Night:
200NL: -$600
Overall: -$600
Hourly: -600/Hr.

Bankroll Plan To Date:
4/8 Limit: +33
$1/2 NL: +195
3/5 NL: +1682
Bankroll: +1910

"You're horrible! And the best part is, you think you're good"

Another solid night. First of all, I had a semi-final basketball game after work in the L.A. Fitness league and I hit seven three's and our team won easily so that was fun. I was supposed to go out with a friend but I left the gym at nine p.m. and there were no missed calls or messages from her so I figured she was flaking and this would be a great opportunity to work on my bankroll building.

Got to HP and had to wait for a while to get a 200 NL table. When I did my neighbor to my right, who had a big stack, gave me the head's up that the two players to my left were extremely tight and hadn't played in an hour. Immediately to my left was this female about my age wearing sunglasses and an mp3 player. Immediately to her left was a guy also our age, kind of the Ashton Kutcher type and he was spittin relentless game at her. The guy I've played with many times and we're pretty cool. His name is Chris and he is a super senior at UCLA. Anyways, a few hands after I sit down, the chick raises UTG to $25 and everyone folds and she shows aces. Two hands later, she raises again and gets two callers. The flop is 10 high and she bets $50 and gets one caller. The turn is a blank and she puts her caller all in for his remaining $250. He thinks for a while and calls. The river is another 10. He shows Q10 and she shows AA. She then proceeds to berate him for calling and the dealer for putting the 10 out. The VERY next hand, I get 6c9c. Some early position player raises to $15 and I call. Then the chick re-raises to $45. Initial raiser folds and I call with 6c9c. I know that if I hit my hand, which would mean two pair or better, she will double me up. It's an extremely loose call but I can just smell the double-up in the air. Flop comes 9-9-K. Bingo. She bets $70, I call. The turn is a blank and she puts me all in. I call and she says "Do you have the nine?" I answer yes. When she sees my hand she goes crazy and walks away. For the rest of the night she keeps telling me how bad I am and that I suck and that I thought I was good. Throughout the night I determined this female was anal-retentive and she was incredibly annoying but somehow all I could do was just laugh at her. I have never laughed that much in my life. She just kept telling me and other players how horrible we were and what we were doing wrong. Pure comedy.

Another big hand I won was with the guy on my right, Amir. He was probably the best player at the table. He had a big stack and told me he's been playing pro since he graduated in December. He raised pre-flop to $40 in what looked to me like a steal attempt. Four people had limped and he was to the right of the button. I was on the button with 7s6s. I called and one other guy called. The flop came J-5-2. He bet $60 and I quickly called him. The turn was a 4, giving me an open-ended straight draw. He bet $80 and I quickly called. I'm putting him on AK or AQ at best right here. Maybe a low pair but I don't think he can beat the jack, which is why I'm calling him. I want to see if he'll slow down. Sure enough the river comes another deuce and he checks. I push all-in for about $175 and he thinks for a while. He asks me if I have a set of jacks, I tell him no and he asks if I'll show. I say yes (which I wish I wouldn't have said as it's a tell). He folds and I show him the 7 high. The pot was 400, which was nice, lol.

The only other significant hand worth mentioning was with also with Amir. He raised again to $40 pre-flop and I'm on the button with QcJc. I call. Flop comes AQX. He bets $60 and it seemed real weak to me. In retrospect, I should've raised to see where I was at, but I just called. Then the turn is an 8 and for some reason, I don't know why, I knew he hit his set. He fired $70. Even though I knew he hit his set I called, which was stupid. The river was another 8 and he bet $200. I thought for a while and told him I thought he had 88 in his hand and folded. He said he would tell me when I left what he had and sure enough he had quads. He was disturbed that I called his hand out and wanted to know how I read him but I couldn't even pin-point it.

Another hand I had KQ and floped the nuts against AK who wwent all in on the flop of A10J. I left up $650 after three hours exactly and the craziest part was that the KQ and the QsJs were my two best hole cards the entire night! The best pair I got was 77. The best Ace I got was ... I can't even remember an ace. So I'm pretty happy about that. And the bankroll grows... The only thing that sucks is I have to take some money out of my bankroll to pay a doctor bill that went to collection. Whoops.



Not sure if I'm going tonight, depends on friends' plans. I plan on hitting the tables hard this weekend and seeing what happens.

Wednesday Night:
200NL: $650
Overall: $650
Hourly: 216.67/Hr.

Bankroll Plan To Date:
4/8 Limit: +33
$1/2 NL: +195
3/5 NL: +2282
Bankroll: +2510

Four in a row and counting...

I played Monday night at good old Hollywood Park. I like to go on Monday nights. I feel like a lot of people are there chasing the money they lost over the weekend and a lot of others are there because they won a lot on the weekend. Either way, I'm taking their cheese. I actually went and watched the college championship game (gators are nice) after work so I didn't get to HP until about 9 p.m. When I got there the boards were full (100 NL and 200 NL) so I put my name down and sat in the 4/8 limit game, which was the only available table.

In limit, each player has the option to post if he/she wants to play before the blind gets to him. So I posted the $4 and got Qc4c. Not a great hand but playable since I'm already in for $4. There was no pre-flop raise so I saw the flop, which was AQ9 rainbow. Someone lead out with a bet and I called, seeing as it only cost me $4 and the pot was already about $30. Everyone called and the turn was another Queen. It was checked to me so I bet $8 and had three callers. The river was another nine and I again bet $8 and got one caller who held the nine. I got in another pot with a hand I don't remember and bled a few chips off. After ten minutes I was called to the $100 NL game so I came up $33 in 4/8 in 10 minutes.

I didn't even have a chance to play a hand in the 100 game before a new table was started in the 200 NL game. I took my seat and when we drew for starting position I drew the ace of clubs. Remember that! Here are some of my memorable hands:

So I started with the button. My first hand I a few people limped and I looked down at AcQc. I raised to $25. Small blind called me and everyone else folded. The flop came KJx with one club. Small blind checked and it seemed fishy so I checked too. The turn was the 9c, I like. Small blind bet a weak $25 and I raised him to $75. He called. The river was a 2c and now I am putting him on two pair or KQ possibly. Unfortunately for him I have the nuts. He checked and I went all in. He called and showed his aces and I double up first hand. I felt bad that I cracked his aces but everyone, including him, agreed that he played them horrendously and let me catch my flush.

The very next hand there was a hand where someone had a Qx10x on a board of 10 high. The guy fires out and gets called by "John." The river is a blank and John checks. The other player goes all-in with his Q10 and John takes a year to call and wins with KK. The way the hand played out, he had to know his KK was good. But he took a year to think about it. So three hands later I'm in the big blind and John raises to $25. Two people call so I call the extra $20 with Ah7c. The flop comes 2d2h9d. I check, another guy checks and John bets $40. I can tell he has jack shit so I'm thinking the way John played his kings, I can easily bet him out of this pot. But I'd rather let him donate some more on the turn. So I call and one other player calls. The river is the queen of spades. I don't like this as John could possibly have AQ. I check, the other player checks and John takes about three minutes to put out a weak bet of $60. I push all-in for $300 and both players insta-fold. I show the bluff, John asks me "Am I that obvious?" and I basically told him yeah. Now I've been playing on this table for about 25 minutes and I'm up over $500.

Well, somehow I lost all those chips and had to buy back in. I can't even remember how I lost them. I know when I was down to about $45 I was all-in pre-flop in a five way pot and completely missed. But I don’t remember how I lost my stack. So I bought back in. Actually I just remember that I tried to bluff a guy out of a pot on an ace high board and he called all-in with AK. Oh well, it was worth a try. He almost folded, lol.

Right after I bought back in I caught quad sixes and won $100 on the hand. The flop came 6s-7s-8h and everyone checked, including me. The turn was the 6h putting two flush draws on the board. Some new guy bet $40 and I called him extra quick, trying to make it look like I was on a flush draw. The river was the Qh, which I kind of disliked because that meant the backdoor flush draw hit, which is what I was acting like I had. He actually bet $60 and I went all in for like $43 more and he folded.

My next big hand was kind of a donk play by me but it was about 3 a.m. and I was ready to go home. I had $300 to start the hand and I'm in the big blind. The pot is raised to $25 and about four people call. The flop comes Jd9dX. Everyone checks to "Jamaica" who goes ALL-IN for like $225. I barely have him covered. He really made a great bet. I call anything $75 or under instantly. Well based on the fact that if I win this pot I will be up and if I lose I will go home with a small loss and get some sleep, I pushed all-in. A diamond hits the turn and I know I'm good. But then a diamond hits the river! Fuck! Luckily "Jamaica" did not have a diamond and he mucks his card with the jack face up. Sorry buddy.

Later in the night I made a great call on "Jamaica." I had a pair of fives with a gutshot on the turn. "Jamaica" bet $50 on the button and I called trying to catch two pair, trips, or a straight. I brick the river and he bets $50 again. For some reason it was fishy to me so I was taking my time thinking about calling. He started talking to me saying "Just call, I know you're gonna call." So I called and he mucked his hand. I didn't even have to show that I was calling with a pair of fives. Sweet.

Eventually I started playing better and built my stack up to about $700. There was one player ("Loosy") on the table who NEVER folded pre-flop to any raise. He was catching cards like crazy with hands like Q7 off and 62 off suit. Just sick. He beat me when I had pocket aces. He had 7c8c and the board was 9-10-J-Q-x. I had QQ and he called my 100 pre-flop raise with KQ and the king hit the flop.

But anyways, I built my stack back up and was on my last hand UTG with A-10. I called the $5, "Loosy" raised to $30 and six people called. Now the pot is $185 pre-flop. The flop comes A-7-4 with two diamonds. I come out and fire $100. The guy next to me, "Geo" who is a very tight player and a nice kid, goes all-in for his last $70. Everyone else folds and I told Geo he wins, my kicker is only a 10. He says he's on the flush draw with a gutshot. The board misses the diamond and he mucks his 5d8d. I win.

I left up $33 on the 4/8 Limit game and up $670 in the 200 NL game, which was great because I bought in for 400. There are some things that I am noticing about my game that I can really improve. I really feel like I'm playing pretty well right now. Making good reads and stealing pots when I can. But I have been losing a lot of chips trying to make moves on players too frequently when I have the big stack. I am going to work on that this weekend and hopefully that will give me better results. The good news is...I started my "Build My Bankroll" plan just 12 days ago with $200. Now it is at $1860 and I have won four straight sessions since I started. I'm feelin myself!

Monday Night:
4/8 L: $33
200NL: $670
Overall: $703
Hourly: 100/Hr.

Bankroll Plan To Date:
4/8 Limit: +33
$1/2 NL: +195
3/5 NL: +1632
Bankroll: +1860

My Game Needs Improvement

Well … I guess there’s a lot to talk about when it comes to my poker game. My boy Matt witnessed me re-raise someone $400 with middle pair and a weak kicker. I was quickly re-raised $289 more and I folded based on my read of the situation. My evaluation of this play is only positive. While I was obviously beat and made what seems to be a bad play, I went with my read on the player and was not scared to raise him. Not once during this hand did I feel I misplayed it, but I did pick a bad spot to challenge this particular player, who had been betting bad the whole way. The only difference is that I could have played tighter and not even been involved in the hand, as I was in there with 6-8 off-suit. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I play to win money. At no point, no matter what size stack I have, do I play to preserve money. If I am playing to preserve money, I might as well leave once I am up. I’m not saying that I play to lose…but I don’t play to sit on chips. I play to use them and win them.

Anyways. Since my last entry I’ve been to the casino twice. Once on Thursday night/Friday morning and the other on Saturday night/Sunday morning. In both instances I built a big stack of 1500 and over. Both times I left on a down swing. I believe both nights I was up at a peak of around 1100. Friday morning I left up $691 and Sunday morning I left up $124. Pretty disappointing to leave with a profit of $815 when it potentially could have been $2200. But that is not EVEN the big story. Here is the big story:

As of my last entry, my bankroll was at a very humble $342. Because I regularly play the $200 game, this is a pretty weak bankroll but I knew this. So Thursday night I went to HP planning to build this bankroll. Unfortunately, I quickly lost $200 when this hand occurred: I’m UTG with AsJs. I limp. Everyone limps. Then the big blind, who I know is a wild/aggressive/gambling player, raises to $45 in what I thought was a steal attempt. I re-raised him all-in, hoping to re-steal. Everyone folded to him and he made the call with 99. His nines held and I was down to a $142 bankroll. I did a short-buy for $100. Lost it. Now I’m down to $42 fuckin’ dollars! So I hit the $40 table. Took a couple losses. Then was down to $20. This is not looking good for my new bankroll plan. Well, amazingly I doubled up twice with 5-6 off suit and then some other hand. Shortly I built that $20 to about $250 on the $40 NL table. I then changed tables to the $200 and worked my way up to $1600 all off that $20. Pretty crazy and made me pretty happy. Later that night all the tables were condensed down to one table and it was a great table with a few loose players and one fine ass woman who was really nice. She kept all of us awake. Anyways I was playing pretty well at this table but at about 5:30 a.m. my game started going downhill so I took off.

The next night I went was Saturday night and my game was on point. I got KK cracked by AQ in a crazy ass hand. Guy raised to $15, everyone called. I raised to $115. He calls, everyone folds. Flop comes J-8-3 rainbow and he pushes all in. I call and the turn is an ace, he wins.

I also took a bad beat on my final hand when my QJ two pair on a board of J-6-3-Q was trumped by an ace on the river and the other player had A-3. It was ugly seeing that he called all the way with bottom pair and an ace kicker. I had to shake after that as I was pissed off to the utmost. Overall, I’m definitely feeling very good about my game. I’ve won my last four sessions, although they were all pretty small wins (with the exception of the $691) and six out of my last seven, and eleven out of my last 14. I just don’t know where the money goes. Fuck! That’s why I’m trying to build the bankroll, so that all my poker money stays in one place.

Game: $200 NL
W/L: $762
Game: $40 NL
W/L: $195
Current Bankroll: $1157