Day 69

Today: +$
To date: +$
To go: $
Bankroll: $

hands *** hours *** PTbb/100 *** *** MT:

Day 68

Today: +$
To date: +$
To go: $
Bankroll: $

hands *** hours *** PTbb/100 *** *** MT:

Day 67

Today: +$
To date: +$
To go: $
Bankroll: $

hands *** hours *** PTbb/100 *** *** MT:

Day 66

Today: +$
To date: +$
To go: $
Bankroll: $

hands *** hours *** PTbb/100 *** *** MT:

Day 65

Today: +$805
To date: +$24457
To go: $75543
Bankroll: $25457

1402 hands *** 3.2 hours *** 14.5 PTbb/100 *** 23.1/16.1 *** MT: 5.3

Been 6-tabling on my laptop and i'm a lot more comfortable with it. Still sucks, major overlap. But after 6 days of it i'm getting used to it. Can't wait to get back to my main computer tomorrow.

Day 64

Today: +$309
To date: +$23652
To go: $76348
Bankroll: $24652

1296 hands *** 3.4 hours *** 6 PTbb/100 *** 25.1/19.2 *** MT: 4

Day 63

Today: +$978
To date: +$23343
To go: $76657
Bankroll: $24343

854 hands *** 2.3 hours *** 28.6 PTbb/100 *** 23.6/17.9 *** MT: 4.3

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! Eat lots, play poker, get fat. It's the cycle of life.

Day 62

Today: +$192
To date: +$22365
To go: $77635
Bankroll: $23365

1064 hands *** 3.5 hours *** 4.5 PTbb/100 *** 23.1/16.8 *** MT: 3.7

More 1/2 NL, more bad beats. Just grinded it out for a long long time 4-tabling and ended up with a profit.

2 Months Complete

Month 1: +$7,501
Month 2: +$14,671

Total profit: $22,172

More updates coming when I get back to Austin and get my PT from my main comp.

Day 61

Today: +$73
To date: +$22172
To go: $77828
Bankroll: $23172

1067 hands *** 3.5 hours *** 1.7 PTbb/100 *** 25.3/17.1 *** MT: 3.5

I run so bad at 1/2. Not sure why, but it's my lowest winrate of all the levels. I beat 2/4 and 3/6 for higher amounts. So I guess I shouldn't play too much 1/2 anymore. I'm on my laptop and I hate playing 4-tables with massive overlap, so I just play 1/2 instead of higher stakes. Maybe tomorrow I'll play .05/1.00.

Day 60

Today: +$369
To date: +$22099
To go: $77901
Bankroll: $23099

1261 hands *** 4.1 hours *** 7.3 PTbb/100 *** 32.8/26 *** MT: 2.5

Played 1/2 NL on my laptop. Played a ton of hands HU with a guy. I left the table with just over $1k. +623 on that table. My other 1/2 6-max tables I played pretty poorly, so I lost a little there. But i played well HU and took one guy for 3+ buyins.

Day 59

Today: +$236
To date: +$21729
To go: $78271
Bankroll: $22729

79 hands *** 0.3 hours *** 27 PTbb/100 *** 17.7/14 *** MT: 3

Happy Anniversary to Kayla and me. Been together for a whole year now!

Decided to play til I was "up" ...had planned on no longer than 30 mins. Took some small pots and called it a very short day.

Day 58

Today: +$1320
To date: +$21494
To go: $78506
Bankroll: $22494

2464 hands *** 5.5 hours *** 6.1 PTbb/100 *** 23.1/18.8 *** MT: 4.7

Long session. Tetered around break-even due to some suckouts and the occasional bluff of mine that got called. Ran up a nice amount in the last 90 mins or so.

Update

BR = $21,174.70. That means that I am up over $20k in 57 days. Pretty sweet. The last 2 days I've been on a really nice rush. I'm up $3150 in 2.5 hours play over 1147 hands running at 34 PTbb/100. I know I should be playing more, but I just can't help but call it a day when I win over $1500.

I've been lazy the past week. I just finished updating everything from Day 51 on up today. I'm back on the wagon for now, but I expect to be intermittently AWOL due to the upcoming holidays.

Day 57

Today: +$1610
To date: +$20174
To go: $79826
Bankroll: $21174

687 hands *** 1.4 hours *** 29.3 PTbb/100 *** 21.8/17.9 *** MT: 5.5

Day 56

Today: +$1539
To date: +$18564
To go: $81436
Bankroll: $19564

460 hands *** 1.1 hours *** 41.8 PTbb/100 *** 19.6/16.3 *** MT: 4.6

Day 55

Today: -$592
To date: +$17025
To go: $82975
Bankroll: $18025

1463 hands *** 3.4 hours *** -5 PTbb/100 *** 18.9/14.1 *** MT: 4.8

Just couldn't get anything going. Didn't make a lot of hands, and c-bets weren't taking down pots. I tried tightening up but nothing really worked. One of those days.

Day 54

Today: +$159
To date: +$17617
To go: $82383
Bankroll: $18617

586 hands *** 3.7 hours *** 6.8 PTbb/100 *** 20.1/15.4 *** MT: 1.7

At home visiting the parents. I two-tabled some $200NL on my laptop very late at night. I miss my 2 20" monitors.

Day 53

Today: +$521
To date: +$17458
To go: $82542
Bankroll: $18458

142 hands *** 0.3 hours *** 46 PTbb/100 *** 22.5/17.6 *** MT: 4.1

Stacked a guy with top 2 vs my flush. I raised him with my draw on the flop and he called (holding AJ on Jxx flop). Flush hits the turn, he checks, I check. He rivers top 2 pair (A on river), and leads out so I raised all in and he payed me off.

It's the weekend and my old roommate is in Austin. Time to party like a baller!

Novemeber Rakeback

Rakeback: +$954
To date: +$16937
To go: $83063
Bankroll: $17937

Update

The past 2 days has been a rollercoaster from hell. I had some many monster bad beats. 3 times I got top set all in for huge pots and lost to funky hands that riverd a gutshot or something equally insane. I'll post the hands soon. The thing that I am most proud of, is that despite this horrible run, I broke even. So I am happy to say that I am at least able to minimize my losses on my bad runs. Now I need to work on maximizing my winnings on my good runs.

Day 52

Today: +$1125
To date: +$15983
To go: $84017
Bankroll: $16983

4367 hands *** 7.6 hours *** 3.2 PTbb/100 *** 19.6/15.3 *** MT: 6.2

Some amazing hands today. See update above.

Day 51

Today: -$1025
To date: +$14858
To go: $85142
Bankroll: $15858

474 hands *** 1 hour *** -27 PTbb/100 *** 22.5/17.7 *** MT: 5.3

Monster beats. Really pissed me off, so I felt it was best to stop rather than play on tilt. See update above.

Some 2/4 hands:

Verneer sent me an email asking me about my play on the following hands. These are some really interesting hands. I'm gonna analyze them here and would love to hear what people think about them. I'm always trying to think my play through and learn as much as possible. Let's get to the hands.


Hand 1:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?667567

I open-raised Td8d from 2nd position - which is a marginal raise since I am giving up position to 2 players if they call behind me. But I had been fairly tight so far, and felt I would get some respect from my 2nd position preflop raise. My numbers were something like 14/14 (V$PIP/PFR) when I raised this hand. I think I had been playing 3-5 orbits, taking down pots with continuation bets, and hadn't shown down a hand yet. MisterMorbid's numbers were 35/21 with a total Agression Factor of 21.5. Everyone folds behind, the sb (MisterMorbid) calls, and the bb folds.

Flop: 2h 8h 2d

I c-bet like normal, and he check-raises me from $22 to $78 in a $30 pot. At this point, there is a lot going on in my mind. I have a concealed hand. Most 2-8-2 flops don't hit the orginal raisor. So I could see how he would think that I didn't have a hand at all. At this point, I am putting him on a pretty decent range of hands. Most likely being: 1.) small pp - he would check raise 33-77 here, thinking that he is ahead. I beat those hands. 2.) medium pp - this only includes 99 in my mind. I dont think he has 88 for the 2 case 8's. I dont put him on TT because I have a T and that I think he would have reraised TT or higher preflop (so i don't think TT-AA is a likely holding either). I think 99 is likely - more importantly, I think that 99 has to fold if I reraise him here. If he doesn't fold 99, then I have 2 more 8's and 3 more T's in the deck as outs. 3.) Flush draw - could include overs, could include unders. Who knows, the guy is playing 35% of his hands. But a flush draw is a likely possibility. 4.) Nothing at all - He could easily be check raising air thinking that I didn't hit this flop at all.

I definitely can't call. It's either fold or raise. With top pair of 8's, there are way too many cards that can come that could potentially hurt my hand. Given what I think his range is, I think its best to reraise - and let him know that I am committed to the pot if he wants to play. I am trying to represent an overpair, but if he doesn't respect that, then I still have a decent hand with showdown value.

I reraise to $258, committing myself to the pot. He shoves all in, I call the additional $128. When he shoved I expected him to turn over 99, which would be an overpair to the board, not believing what I was representing with my bets. He showed AJhh which was a small favorite over my hand. The turn was the 8c, which locked up the hand for me.


Hand 2:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?667589

p5erssuck open-raises to $14 (standard pot-raise preflop) and I am on the button with Kd8c. In this case, he had been raising a lot of hands lately, and this was one of my tables where my PFR was pretty low. I think it was 12-13%, and I felt that I had a good image and could take it down either preflop or with a c-bet against p5ers. I reraised pot to $48. Very much to my surprise, mistermoore cold calls from the small blind. This confused the hell out of me. I had to put him on AK/AQ at this point. It gets back to p5ers, and he folds.

Flop: Tc Js 3h

mistermoore checks, I c-bet $76 into a $114 pot - a standard 2/3 pot c-bet in a reraised pot. mistermoore calls. At this point, his range has grown. I think he could have AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, 99 or any smaller pp that just puts me on AK.

Turn is a 6d, which is a blank on that board. mistermoore checks, and I check behind. I didn't want to fire another barrel into this guy - he cold called $48 prelfop, called my $76 flop bet, and now he has $210 left behind and the pot is $266. So by me checking here I pretty much am giving up the pot... Unless the river gives me additional information. I checked behind.

River is a 8h. He checks again. When he checks here, I am 90% sure he has KQ. It makes sense - he would have had an open ended draw with overs. I reserved the other 10% for his range to be what I had orinally put him on. Most likely being AK or AQ - these hands would have a gutshot with overcards.

Since the river was an 8, I made a pair. So now my hand has some value. If the river were a 2 or some other blank, I would have fired in a big bet on a bluff and hope to get him to fold KQ (or the other range of hands). I honestly expected him to turn up KQ. I felt that AJ would have value bet, and didnt think AT was necessarily as likely. Since he checked, I was pretty sure he didnt have AJ. I would have bluffed the river were it not for the 8 coming which game me a hand that beats KQ/AK/AQ.

I checked the river and he mucked 8s9s. I was surprised to see this hand. It made some sense, he had an open ended draw on the flop, and wanted to chase. I still can't imagine why he played it to a raise and a reraise out of position. This just illustrates how much passive play and how much money there is to be made at 2/4 NL.


If anyone has any more hands or any questions, go ahead and email me or post them here and I'd be happy to give you my thoughts. Also, I'd love to here what other people think about these hands, my play, or any other hands. Would love to see some good discussion.

Thanks guys.
-Brian

Day 50

Today: +$565
To date: +$15883
To go: $84117
Bankroll: $16883

1726 hands *** 2.7 hours *** 4.1 PTbb/100 *** 18.3/14.6 *** MT: 7.2

Tonight's session was the worst play at 2/4 I have ever seen (in my 8 day's worth of experience at FTP $400NL). It seemed like everyone was just haphazardly playing without too much thought. I had a lot of people playing back at me and not giving me credit. Lotta people going broke with one pair for one raise preflop. I kept thinking I should be raising more - my numbers were really low. But no one was giving me any credit, so i had to adjust and just play more TAG poker.

The session overall was very swingy. Took a bunch of bad beats - I was down about $1600 at my lowest, but I got paid off on a lot of hands that held for big pots in the last hour, and came back up to +$565. Nice $2165 upswing to put me back in the black for the session.

Day 49

Today: +$1212
To date: +$15318
To go: $84682
Bankroll: $16318

930 hands *** 1.6 hours *** 16.3 PTbb/100 *** 21.6/17.3 *** MT: 6.2

Day 48

Today: +$1072
To date: +$14106
To go: $85894
Bankroll: $15106

747 hands *** 1.4 hours *** 18 PTbb/100 *** 20/14.9 *** MT: 6.2

Day 47

Today: +$487
To date: +$13034
To go: $86966
Bankroll: $14034

358 hands *** 0.9 hours *** 17 PTbb/100 *** 21.2/16.8 *** MT: 3.8

Tried to 6-table 2/4. Took forever to get some games going. It's late. I'm tired. Bad excuses to stop, but the games really weren't that good. I had a pretty poor image - I raised a lot and everyone was reraising me. I laid down most hands. I did, however, hit a couple of huge hands and got paid on two of them. Tomorrow I'll start a little sooner and try to get two or three 1000-hand sessions in. Might even try to play 7-8 tables.

I'm over $14k. So that means I get to offically be a 2/4 NL player. Hope I don't lose $35 tomorrow.

*******
PS - To the four people that actually read this, there is some really good information in my CardRunners blog. Specifically the Dec 6 and Dec 9 posts. Check them out if you get a chance:
http://www.cardrunners.com/fusetalk/blog/index.cfm?forumid=26
*******

Day 46

Today: +$26
To date: +$12547
To go: $87453
Bankroll: $13547

2805 hands *** 5.4 hours *** 0.2 PTbb/100 *** 19.1/15.3 *** MT: 5.6

2800 hands of break even poker. Lotta bad beats. Couple coolers. I'm fine with break even. (+$26)

Day 45

Today: +$802
To date: +$12521
To go: $87479
Bankroll: $13521

388 hands *** 0.8 hours *** 40 PTbb/100 *** 20.6/13.4 *** MT: 5.2

I was really tired for this session - my eyes were closing as I was playing. So I decided it wasn't the best time to play poker. I had a great start and got paid on a couple big hands early, and called the session early again. I played the same way as I have over the past few days - two tables of 2/4 and six tables of 1/2. It's working well. I'll start adding more 2/4 tables over the next few days.

I'm crushing 2/4 right now, albeit a very small sample size. Over 517 hands I'm up $1780 running at 43ptbb/100. I'll play 4 tables of 2/4 tomorrow, and hopefully keeping adding tables until I am officially a 2/4 player.

Day 44

Today: +$704
To date: +$11719
To go: $88281
Bankroll: $12719

887 hands *** 1.7 hours *** 16 PTbb/100 *** 20.2/14.8 *** MT: 6.2

Did the same thing I did yesterday. Played two 2/4 tables and six 1/2 tables. Came up $271 & $433 respectively. Played a shorter session than I would have liked. But the break was so nice. So called it a day.

Day 43

Today: +$1118
To date: +$11015
To go: $88985
Bankroll: $12015

1834 hands *** 3.5 hours *** 9.7 PTbb/100 *** 19.3/15.4 *** MT: 6.3

Decided to play two 2/4 tables, and six 1/2 tables. Made $809 at 2/4 and $309 at 1/2. I'll slowly start adding more 2/4 tables as my bankroll approaches 14k. (this is all Green Plastic's doing (ok and Ryan too)).

Day 42

Today: -$22
To date: +$9897
To go: $90103
Bankroll: $10897

hands *** hours *** PTbb/100 *** / *** MT:

Day 41

Today: +$118
To date: +$9919
To go: $9081
Bankroll: $10919

3017 hands *** 5.8 hours *** 0 PTbb/100 *** 21.9/16.3 *** MT: 6.0

Swingy swingy swingy. I took a ton of bad beats today. I am somewhat proud of myself for holding up ok, because I could have completely lost my compsure, but I only lost it a bit. I didnt make too many mistakes, only 1 that I can really think of, but I dont think it was THAT bad. All in all, I think I played very solid.

Day 40 - Learned my lesson.

Today: +$711
To date: +$9801
To go: $90199
Bankroll: $10801

1127 hands *** 2.5 hours *** 15.8 PTbb/100 *** 21.1/16.0 *** MT: 5.4

I tried to be more aggressive, and create more of a loose/aggro image in hopes that it would get me paid off more. But, what happened was that I was paying off other people because I thought everyone was making moves on me since I was so aggro. I learned my lesson. I don't need to be crazy aggro at 1/2. The players at this level are bad enough that they pay me off anyways. So I don't need to get too fancy, I just need to stay solid and let my opponents make mistakes on their own.

There are a few thing's that I'll need to work on as I move up. First off, I need to learn how to fold a hand. I figure that i raised KQ and that KQ is good on a QT3 board, and that they are putting a move on me with a draw or a weaker Q. No, they have AQ/QT/TT/33, and I need to learn to get away from top pair-2nd kicker there. I've never had this problem before, because I wasn't playing that crazy - just a solid 20/15 or 21/16 style. It worked, becuase people are bad enough to pay me off when they shouldn't. It's 1/2 and not the place for 3rd level thinking.

I'm going to stick with my standard style for 1/2 until I get to 14k, and then I'll see what I need to do to adjust to 2/4. Ryan (Taylor's other protege) has been VERY helpful with keeping my head on straight. It's funny - I never tilt, but when people play back at me all the time, it really got me steaming. I'll need to handle this better if I'm going to move up. It's still very early in my middle-stakes career, and I'm not worried about it. I know that with Taylor and Ryan's help, I'll be prepared to handle whatever comes my way.

Day 39 - I suck at poker.

Today: -$1355
To date: +$9090
To go: $90910
Bankroll: $10090

2465 hands *** 5.2 hours *** -13.7 PTbb/100 *** 24.8/19 *** MT: 6.9

The past week hasnot been my finest hour. Yes, I've taken a few more bad beats than normal, but my numbers shouldn't be this bad. They are this bad due to me playing bad. I need to re-evaluate my aggression at 1/2 and modify my game (pretty much back to the way it was the week prior).