November 28 - Black Friday

Well happy thanksgiving a day late. I was going to write a blog post for yesterday, but forgot. I suck.

Boston is going well so far. Spending a lot of time with family and the GF. I get back to Vegas on Tuesday of next week and am enjoying my time here as much as possible. I haven't done too much since I've been here, but did manage to squeeze in a few coaching sessions the last few days. I still haven't played any poker which is really pissing me off...but I blame being home and being out till 1a+ with the GF =). So back to the grindstone soon, just not sure when.

I am going to start a poker video soon. I have another Stox series coming up and for some odd reason the time escaped me a bit and I realized I have to start working ASAP. This series will probably be about 10-20min of classroom per video then 40-50min of playing. I think I am going to focus on Micro to Small (10nl-100nl) and obviously teach a wide range of skills (from “how to stereotype” to “how to mega-table”)...so hopefully people will get a lot out of this one as they did out of the last one.

Also, I am one of those nutty ass people that loves Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving where there are sickO sales everywhere and doors open super early). I am staying up and then will start moving around 4:30a. It is a ton of fun to be out grinding that early with all the other nutters and you really do shave off about 30-45% of your Christmas spending. I also realized that I need to give my Xmas list out to people, and other than an Iphone (or solid equivalent), I don't have much else on it thus far. Any suggestions?

Well that is all new with me. Also, my body will not adjust to the time difference, and I am sleeping super odd hours (like 6a-11a with a nap from 3p-6p). Hoping my body starts adjusting soon, otherwise I'm going to need to get back on my melatonin. And last sidenote...my GF has strep and ear infections going around in her house. I currently am feeling very fatigued, throat sick, and achy...If I get strep, I am going to be a very angry person. Sickness isn't great for grindcore =)

Alright, hand then sleep. Night, and happy extended Xmas season to those who don't hate it.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5166026233: Table Grand Teton - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:35:46 ET - 2008/02/07
Seat 1: ElkThuringer ($164)
Seat 2: Bluffnbeaver ($199.20)
Seat 3: rst1 ($266.05)
Seat 4: Its RIGGIGGITY ($382.35)
Seat 5: lamtyson ($45.20)
Seat 6: must be famous ($146)
Seat 7: gotthenutlow ($106.30)
Seat 8: Suigin406 ($205.40)
Seat 9: MrDissemble ($158)
gotthenutlow posts the small blind of $1
Suigin406 posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Its RIGGIGGITY [Jd Ad]
MrDissemble folds
ElkThuringer folds
Bluffnbeaver folds
rst1 folds
Its RIGGIGGITY raises to $7
lamtyson folds
must be famous folds
gotthenutlow calls $6
Suigin406 folds
*** FLOP *** [Qd As Kh]
gotthenutlow checks
Its RIGGIGGITY checks
*** TURN *** [Qd As Kh] [6h]
gotthenutlow bets $16
Its RIGGIGGITY calls $16
*** RIVER *** [Qd As Kh 6h] [Td]
gotthenutlow bets $83.30, and is all in
Its RIGGIGGITY calls $83.30
*** SHOW DOWN ***
gotthenutlow shows [Qs Ks] two pair, Kings and Queens
Its RIGGIGGITY shows [Jd Ad] a straight, Ace high
Its RIGGIGGITY wins the pot ($211.60) with a straight, Ace high

*SS*

November 23 - In Boston

So I landed in Boston earlier today. Left at like 11p from Vegas, and got through security just as the plane was boarding. I found the Vegas airport to be quite hilarious. There really are rows of slot machines lining the hallways, and even better, there are people sitting there playing them. It was so sad to see people just sitting there thumbing in coin after coin...*sigh*. So got through the airport with no issue, and no one bothered me about my dog either, which was awesome.

This was Kingjamen's first trip on a plane. Everyone in the airport loved him and they were quite awesome holding and petting him while I was gathering my stuff past the security checkpoint. He scared a few people on the plane when he would randomly pop out of my hoodie and look around, but he does that often. I thought it was very cool that I could have my dog just chill in lap the whole plane ride...and even better that he had no issues at all.

So got to see my dad and sister today, and also did breakfast and dinner with the GF. Awesome to see her, especially after a 2 month long-distance thing. I'm sure I'll be seeing her quite often this week, though it will be very busy between appointments, coaching, her working, and holidays. I'm trying to stay very positive about being home, amongst other things, because like I've said in other posts, happiness is about relative point of view. So if I can learn to base my happiness on certain things, especially things I can control, then I will get more out of life.

Also, I have played no on-line poker in quite some time. This week I plan to get back to the grind. I don't have my external monitor with me, so I plan on playing 4-10 tables of 100nl-400nl. I should be able to hyper focus more on my actions, upping my WR enough to counteract the smaller amount of tables. Other than that, I did an 8 hour session on Saturday at the Wynn, and of course lose yet another 2BI+ 12+outter. I swear, one day I will win so many coin-flips and be rich, until then, I will brick all of them and hate stuff.

I'm gonna go crash. Trying to get used to the time difference (lost three hours in my trip), so I'm going to try and get to sleep early so I'm awake for counseling tomorrow. Nothing better than getting a mental check-up before grindcore season =).

Full Tilt Poker Game #5928843100: Table Lantana Falls - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold'em - 15:47:45 ET - 2008/04/06
Seat 1: thihamt ($2,335.75)
Seat 2: Inzomnia ($591)
Seat 3: RiverMeAA ($1,085.15)
Seat 4: zanjan ($53)
Seat 5: PoorNapoleon ($742)
Seat 6: padirk165 ($585)
Seat 7: AdmiralTwill ($627)
Seat 8: Its RIGGIGGITY ($120)
Seat 9: MrDissemble ($1,128.90)
MrDissemble posts the small blind of $3
thihamt posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Its RIGGIGGITY [Js Jc]
Inzomnia folds
RiverMeAA calls $6
zanjan folds
PoorNapoleon folds
padirk165 raises to $27
AdmiralTwill folds
Its RIGGIGGITY raises to $120, and is all in
MrDissemble folds
thihamt folds
RiverMeAA folds
padirk165 calls $93
Its RIGGIGGITY shows [Js Jc]
padirk165 shows [As Th]
*** FLOP *** [5h 2h 7h]
*** TURN *** [5h 2h 7h] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [5h 2h 7h 3c] [Kc]
Its RIGGIGGITY shows a pair of Jacks
padirk165 shows Ace King high
Its RIGGIGGITY wins the pot ($252) with a pair of Jacks

*SS*

November 20 - Personality Test

Ok...so it will be a very busy next couple of days. I'm flying back to Boston sometime between now and Monday (I would tell you when, but the GF reads the blog, I'm attempting to sneak up on her, so now no one gets the know), and need to move all my stuff from my current house into my new temporary place. I moved over the heavy stuff today (my 60lb trunk of books and desk), and will move the rest over on Thursday. The goal is to get it all in 2 trips, which I think is more than possible if I hustle.

The last few days have been busy with coaching and random doings. Did an intro session yesterday that ended up running 2.5 hours, which made it a 4.5 hour coaching day, which was awesome, but super tiring. Felt good though, and I really feel my students are making great strides right now. Also got my first LeakFinder client, so hopefully I can get a review from her (yes, females play poker too =) ) to share.

I've also been listening to a ton of downtone electronica lately. If people are into that genre, I suggest checking out Hexstatic “Chase me” and Booka Shade “Body Language”. I am very much a music nut, and am obsessed with finding perfect music for perfect situations. For instance, if I were granted 3 wishes, one of my wishes would always be to have a soundtrack for life. Music 24/7, perfectly picked out for each situation, would be amazing. But these two songs especially have a very positive tone and have been really solid background music while getting things accomplished...so I love them. Which reminds me, thanks to conversations with about 90 different people and lots of reading, I am starting to snap this depressive state I was slipping into. Trying to be happy with life isn't easy, but most certainly is worth the effort.

Also, I got this from one of my students the other day: Jung Personality Test, and I definitely suggest doing it and seeing the results. I am apparently an INTJ, and after reading a lot of reviews on that personality type, it's scary how much its true.

I'm off to bed. Sorry for the super random post =)

Full Tilt Poker Game #5931700753: Table Lantana Falls - $3/$6 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:18:25 ET - 2008/04/06
Seat 1: MrDissemble ($396)
Seat 2: JoRDANe ($251)
Seat 3: deweyzena ($1,400.70)
Seat 4: Elin88 ($1,608.55)
Seat 5: Pasame la SALSA ($847)
Seat 6: zanjan ($234)
Seat 7: kobe2468 ($101)
Seat 8: Its RIGGIGGITY ($129)
Seat 9: chislodc ($900.15)
zanjan posts the small blind of $3
kobe2468 posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Its RIGGIGGITY [Kh As]
Its RIGGIGGITY calls $6
chislodc folds
MrDissemble folds
JoRDANe folds
deweyzena folds
Elin88 raises to $27
Pasame la SALSA folds
zanjan calls $24
kobe2468 folds
Its RIGGIGGITY raises to $129, and is all in
Elin88 folds
zanjan calls $102
Its RIGGIGGITY shows [Kh As]
zanjan shows [Jc Ad]
*** FLOP *** [8d Jd 5h]
*** TURN *** [8d Jd 5h] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [8d Jd 5h 2d] [5s]
Its RIGGIGGITY shows a pair of Fives
zanjan shows two pair, Jacks and Fives
zanjan wins the pot ($288) with two pair, Jacks and Fives

*SS*

November 17 - Moving time

So the house stuff is official now. They offered us “cash-4-keys” and my roommates wanted to take it...so time to get moving. Checked out a few places today/yesterday, and have a place lined up for tomorrow if I chose to take it...not 100% sure what I want to do quite yet...but I'll be figuring it out this week for sure. I am getting stress sick again from the whole ordeal, but I feel more comfortable now than I did before.

Other than housing stuff, I met up with 2p2r PartyPoker123 this weekend for dinner. Really nice kid, and related to me in more than a few ways. Very cool of him to take time away from his 600K hand bet and do dinner. Not really sure how the hell one goes about grinding that hard and that long...but all power to ya =). After that I fired up a session at the Venetian...and of course ran like hell hole.

Ended up -2.5BI by the time the weekend was over...which sucked. Not very happy with how live has been going lately, but doing a quick hand/hour calculation, it turns out I'm pretty much break-even over 4K hands...which on-line is a joke...so I'm just reminding myself to look at sample size. I am noticing the effects of the economy on the games as well, which was expected I suppose. Very sad to see games getting torn down and the fish starting to dissipate a bit.

On the same note of fish dissipation, I am doing another series for Stox!!! I have Mondays inked in for December (except the first one, so it will again be a 4 video series). I have a very cool idea for this one. I think I will call it “100%” and everything will be 100% something. 1 video will be 100% vpip, another will be 100% limping, and another 100% raising. I haven't figured out what the 4th video will be yet (maybe 100% checking?), but all suggestions are welcome so long as it works with the 100% theme. The goal of the series is to educate while entertaining, but also show many different marginal spots that people tend to struggle in.

Super fun stuff for sure. I also want to work out some more this week. I have taken a huge interest in getting myself back in shape slowly. I ended up doing a nice 200m swim on Friday, and hope to put in more laps this week. Swimming is by far the most solid cardio I can be doing, and also gives the entire body a work out.

Thats enough for now. A hand before bed:

Live 1/2nl at the Venetian:
(I wasn't involved at showdown, just a fun hand. I do have a reason for not raising on the flop)

2 limps, hero ($350) raises to $11 with KhQs, 2 callers behind, 2 limpers call

Flop: (5 players, $58) Qh Th 4s.

UTG check, MP1 ($850) fires $15, Hero calls, CO ($200) calls, 1 fold, UTG ($700) raises to $75, MP1 calls, Hero folds, CO folds

Turn: (2 players, $238) Ac

UTG shoves $614, MP1 calls $614

River: (2 players, $1466) 4c

UTG shows QT for 2pr
MP1 shows KJ for a straight, King high

UTG curses all and tells MP1 how bad he is...while also saying “there is nothing I could do, I played it perfectly”. Lol, nice 3x pot shove on the 2nd worst card in the deck. Poker isn't dead yet I suppose.

*SS*

November 14 - Going to the gym

Boring but nice week thus far. Got quite a few hours of coaching done which felt great. So far I'm on pace for my goal of picking up students, and picked up my third one today. So hurray! I finally managed to hit a goal!!! I also got a burst of motivation today and got my ass to the gym. I'm not thrilled with my physical shape since I became a “pro”. I'm far from fat (6'0”, 165lbs) , but I cannot run 2mi straight through yet and my strength is way down as well...I mean hell...I'm getting winded chasing my dog around the house sometimes.

So the gym was great. I want to be kind to myself, and not over-exert myself. So I just started by slow jogging a 1/2mi, did some weights, some push-ups/situps...and I plan to go back tomorrow and get some swimming in before I go put in a session. I will never be a good runner (combination between bad knees/shins and I have super ADD), so I want to do something else for cardio...and being that a friend taught me how to swim in college, I feel I should put that to use (even though I still suck...its better than nothing).

Also got my car patched up today. My dumb ass hit a pole on my way out of Caesars one night (going like 1mph, but still beat the bitch out of my car), and I really wanted the dent out. So I ran into some guys today that had the tools on them to do it (don't ask, super sketch situation), and it was done when I got out of the gym. I ended up sitting down with the guys that patched the dent after and talked about God/religion for awhile (again, don't ask how I always get in odd convos in odd situations). For some odd reason, I keep noticing a very scary trend amongst 20-35yr olds who love Jesus...they hit rock bottom from drugs or gambling. Of course, that doesn't surprise me much given where I live currently...but is religion something that people do just because they need to grasp something on their way out of the hole, they either dug or were thrown into?

I don't want this to become a huge religious conversation, but it's just something I noticed. I mean hell, I never even considered going to church until this year (after the death of my brother)...and the only reason I wanted to go was to try to understand what the fuss was about. Religion is a silly beast.

Also...quick word on UIGEA stuff since some people have asked me my opinions on it. I suggest not panicking. This appears to be nothing more than more loopholes with fancy verbiage, juuuuuuuuuuuuuust like the last time they tried it. I think the entire thing is insane personally. Obviously the government is jealous they didn't get their dick wet from offshore poker money, and the fact they are trying to “protect teens FROM UNDERAGE GAMBOWLING!!!” is insane. I disagree with everything the UIGEA crap is about, if they really wanted to protect kids there are a thousand other ways to do it. The entire thing gets me angry (I really don't enjoy my government telling me what I can and cannot do with my money (when I'm not hurting anyone) and then ruining my job while taxing me out the ass for it).

And a hand before bed:

PokerStars Game #21899312438: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/11/09 17:00:29 ET
Table 'Salome V' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Naruse ($50 in chips)
Seat 2: AndeyPandey ($50 in chips)
Seat 3: Furioso_xx ($123.50 in chips)
Seat 5: calboy96 ($54.30 in chips)
Seat 6: BergenNH ($112.95 in chips)
Seat 7: iamjwm1965 ($58.70 in chips)
Seat 8: Punisher2421 ($36.15 in chips)
Seat 9: 7curse ($60.50 in chips)
BergenNH: posts small blind $0.25
iamjwm1965: posts big blind $0.50
grruuz: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 7curse [9c 9h]
Punisher2421: folds
7curse: raises $1 to $1.50
Naruse: folds
AndeyPandey: calls $1.50
Furioso_xx: folds
calboy96: folds
BergenNH: raises $3.50 to $5
iamjwm1965: folds
7curse: calls $3.50
AndeyPandey: folds
*** FLOP *** [7c 3h 9s]
BergenNH: bets $6.50
7curse: calls $6.50
*** TURN *** [7c 3h 9s] [6c]
BergenNH: bets $6
7curse: raises $21 to $27
BergenNH: calls $21
*** RIVER *** [7c 3h 9s 6c] [5h]
BergenNH: bets $74.45 and is all-in
7curse: calls $22 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BergenNH: shows [8d 8h] (a straight, Five to Nine)
7curse: mucks hand [9c 9h] (three of a kind, Nines)
BergenNH collected $120 from pot

*SS*

November 11 - Site update!

Just wanted to put a quick update in the blog. The site has been upgraded a little bit. There is now an “Articles” section which will be getting thicker every month. Currently, I just have my Poohbah post in there, but there are a number of people writing articles as we speak that will be getting posted soon. The goal is 3-10 articles per month with topics ranging from life to strategy. WW also suggested interviews, and I think I might do some of that as well...so we'll see how that goes along.

Also, I officially released “Leakfinder” as a service. Effectively this service couples the statistical review and the real-time analysis of coaching. Mpethybridge (2p2 Mod, who runs the current thread on 2p2 concerning statistical review) will be handling the statistical side of the coaching while I will handle the 1hr sweat session. This is great as a stand-alone service for people who just want a review to ensure their game is still tight, and also as a pre-cursor to coaching.

Hopefully people enjoy the new look and additions...and as always, if there are any comments/questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

And of course, a hand =)

Full Tilt Poker Game #8907947678: Table Duval (deep) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:08:21 ET - 2008/11/10
Seat 1: NickiNit ($50)
Seat 2: NBForrest ($51.55)
Seat 3: kdiamond_rp ($54.85)
Seat 4: Its RIGGIGGITY ($50.75)
Seat 5: uRaMaG ($98.75)
Seat 6: mosdef213 ($48.50)
Seat 8: bliZZard010 ($23)
Seat 9: 2girls1coon ($108.80), is sitting out
bliZZard010 posts the small blind of $0.25
NickiNit posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Its RIGGIGGITY [8s 7s]
NBForrest folds
kdiamond_rp folds
Its RIGGIGGITY raises to $1.50
uRaMaG folds
mosdef213 folds
bliZZard010 calls $1.25
NickiNit calls $1
*** FLOP *** [7h 2s 4s]
bliZZard010 checks
NickiNit bets $3.50
Its RIGGIGGITY raises to $12.30
bliZZard010 raises to $21.50, and is all in
NickiNit calls $18
Its RIGGIGGITY raises to $49.25, and is all in
NickiNit calls $27, and is all in
Its RIGGIGGITY shows [8s 7s]
bliZZard010 shows [8c 8h]
NickiNit shows [Ks As]
*** TURN *** [7h 2s 4s] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [7h 2s 4s 7c] [Td]
Its RIGGIGGITY shows three of a kind, Sevens
NickiNit shows a pair of Sevens
bliZZard010 shows two pair, Eights and Sevens
Its RIGGIGGITY wins the side pot ($54) with three of a kind, Sevens
Its RIGGIGGITY wins the main pot ($66) with three of a kind, Sevens

*SS*

November 10 - Life direction

Well poker has been going not well...so I'm going to talk a little about poker in this post...and then ramble about something else for the rest. Friday I did a session at Venetian and actually had a nice session. +2BI or so, which wasn't too bad at all. Hit a nice double draw (will be my hand at the end of the post) for an $800 pot, which was lovely to say the least. Saturday I lost a BI never playing a pot bigger than $125. I can't tell you how awesome it is to constantly just sit there getting dealt garbage, and then hitting nothing with the draw hands, no sets, no pairs, no nothing...yet a kid sits down and in 5 straight hands hits trips+ every hand...and claims he “runs bad”. *grumble*

Did an 18 tabling session today, and lost 2.5BI playing well. Hit 1 set out of 49 pp's seeing flops (of course the 1 set I hit I got perfect-perfect'd to lose a BI)...1/14 of pair+ with AJo+, and was dealt AA/KK ½ as many times as I should have. O well. For some odd reason PokerStars is slow as crap. I've actually increased my amount of tables because seeing 500hands/hr is just too damn slow. I'll experiment with it for a bit longer and see if most tables is decreasing my WR at all...but I'm pretty sure all that will happen is my redline will increase while my blue/green do as they wish. PokerStars players are super weak/tight...good for my style I guess (also, playing 19/14 while 18tabling is silly-fun).

Well, now that I'm done venting about this retarded game that I run retardedly bad at...I wanted to talk about my life direction. Any and all comments are welcome...but I wanted to get this out...so now seems like a fun time to do that.

For one, I feel as thought I'm playing poker for a living right now in hopes of avoiding a “real job”. I know I am capable of more than playing poker for a living, and I strive to reach a higher level in life. For one, I feel playing poker has very little benefit to anyone but myself (I mean hell, I make my money causing pain to others in a sense). I want to help not only myself, but others. I really just want to feel like I'm contributing...but my big issue is that I feel businesses tend to be so greedy that I wouldn't be doing anything but working to help grow greed which “takes” from people (right back to doing what I'm doing now, taking money and causing pain for people, but in a suit and tie).

So there is some dissonance. Also, I have no idea what I want to really do. There are two thoughts here...one is teach, get paid nothing, but enjoy what I do while feeling like I contribute, two is jump in my suit and tie, work my way up the political/corporate ladder, and get paid well while doing things that help business. Oddly enough this seems like the comment I made a few posts back about quality v quantity. I would have a high quality teaching (or something of the like), and a high quantity (money) if I went the corporate route. The damn thing is that my brain is so geared towards business, and not using a solid skill-set seems wasteful. If only I could seriously get into corporate coaching or something, I could combine both skill+desire...because right now I have no desire to become a corporate work-horse, nor a broke dude.

I know that I am avoiding my “jump” into the real world. I came to Vegas in hopes of propelling myself in life, and here I still sit behind my damn computer playing poker every day. The only difference is I go to a casino to play poker sometimes now, so there is some interaction while working. I just need to pick a route and jump. I'm not sure if I don't jump because I'm scared of hating it, I would hate wasting time, or I just secretly want to break-even for the rest of life. I just need to go forward with something...I always preach to people that they need to actively think and progress, and it's time I take my own advice....just need to flip a coin and pick a route.

Thanks for reading my ramble...

A hand before bed:

Venetian 1/2nl

Hero (covers table, MP3) overlimps Qh 9h...

Flop: (6 players/$12) Kh Th 7s
check, check, check, check, I bet $10, fold, fold, SB raises to $41 (with $380 stack), folds to me, I call.

Turn: (2 players, $95) Jd (omgomgomg!)
SB bets $110, I shove, SB tanks and finally calls

River blanks off, I ship a nice pot. Hurray hitting a draw!

*SS*