A Year Older

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jun 29, 2010 in recap | 3 comments

Today is my birthday and by internet and especially internet-poker standards I am of seriously advanced age. BW asked me what I got for my birthday and I let him know that by my age you don't get jack s*&t except from your wife or significant life partner/deal. So, I did get a cool new iPhone 4 which has been ridden with problems, from dropped calls if I hold the thing in my left hand, to this horrible "NO SIM CARD" issue which just kills the phone and requires me to either restart it or unlatch the SIM CARD and then reinstall it and reboot the phone. I go in to Apple for tech support tomorrow (sigh).

I'm headed back to Vegas soon for another bit of time out there to cover the World Series of Poker. Last trip was a lot of fun and this trip is looking to be pure epic in its entirety. Should be a blast and the stories from that should be really good and I'll definitely be getting some killer content for the site.

I've been going to CardRunners a bit lately, good team there and I've been dabbling into a new form of poker. You'll have to go there and read my special CR-blog to find out more. So far so good and having fun.

Well, that's about it. I am off to a swanky local hotel that has a real nice lounge/bar/restaurant with some friends and family. Should be a good time and afterwards I imagine I'll come home and probably just fall asleep. Thanks for stopping by, hopefully one of these days I can post some cool pics and share some funny insider stories from the wacky world of poker.

2009 in Review

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jan 5, 2010 in recap | 2 comments

We can finally turn the page on 2009 and what a year it was for poker.  In terms of the industry some pretty big things happened, with some scandals and some huge stakes games played online.  The legal atmosphere didn't change a bit for us here in the United States as it's still murky and gray as we await for something to be passed to let us play free and clear once and for all.  We saw Full Tilt Poker grow and grow and become a serious threat to PokerStars as I predicted in June.  The big sites grew more and a few smaller sites are gone.  We're heading toward a critical mass in online poker with a potential 4-5 huge networks/sites dominating the industry.

For me, 2009 was really a roller coaster in emotion, as the great times were great and the low times were low.  As you all know I love my bullet points ...

POSITIVES

• For all the whining and bitching I did in 2009, I actually ran above EV for the year.  So, in terms of that, I ran well.
• Played more hands in 2009 than I did in 2008.
• I made more money in 2009 than I did in 2008.
• I am a better poker player at the end of 2009 than I was in 2008.
• I have a cool blog and picked up a few sweet writing deals that have paid me wonderfully which I am *very* thankful for.
• I was able to stay at 100nl for he entire year and show a marginal win-rate at about 2.5BB/100 over 100k+ hands.

NEGATIVES

• Grossly allowed my emotions and tilt to get in the way of my progress as a player.  This means that it woefully reduced my volume and ability to learn more in the game.
• Failed shot at 200nl really hurt my confidence which swung greatly during the year.
• Failed to initiate any discipline in my game and put a serious plan together for the year or even month-to-month.
• Got too caught up in poker forum drama and too caught up in threads which basically revolved around running bad.

I didn't spend a lot of time putting those bullet points together because I'm in a rush to update the blog because it's 4 days late.  I think there's a lot to be positive about here but I leave feeling really disappointed.  Am I disappointed at the results or the volume or something else? Not really.  I'm actually just disappointed in myself for getting so caught up in the emotional swings of the game and allowing it to reduce me the way it did.  I really think of 2009 as a lost opportunity for me to grow as a player and develop a game worthy of hanging at 200nl.  I really could have been there.  Instead, I'd monkey tilt and be so emotionally frustrated I'd just "quit the game of poker" for what lasted a day instead of take a deep breath and move on and use the opportunity to learn.  So that's what I'll leave 2009 as unfortunately, but I think it's fair to be a bit cynical about it all now that I've spent some personal time reflecting.  I am really happy I won and showed a profit and stuck with it in a holistic sense, so there's a lot to focus on from the positive side of things as well.

What does this mean for 2010 then?  Well, that's for the next post

What I Learned From September 2009 – Big Pocket Pairs Can Suck, Table Scanner, Two Poker Sites Gone and October Goals

Posted by icemonkey9 on Oct 1, 2009 in recap | 3 comments

So How'd the Poker Go?

Frankly here's the quick line for September 2009: You can actually run bad all month and hope to break even, and will eventually if you stick to it.

Last month started swingy, went well, then went rather poorly, then ended up with me at 1BB/100 for the month after 12k hands. Last month I remember I hit sets something like 19% less than I should have and that cut into my winrate for a sub-par month. This time it felt like big pocket pairs were cursed by a Furby possessed by the devil. I ran a HEM report for Preflop cards. Stunning.  I'll actually reveal some numbers here ...

• July 2009: Taking all AA+KK+QQ dealt for the month over 14k hands = +$1,399
• August 2009: Taking all AA+KK+QQ dealt for the month over 18k hands = +$1,950
• September 2009: Taking all AA+KK+QQ dealt for the month over 12k hands = +$51

It's amazing how much of the win-rate comes from big pocket pairs and sets when you look deeply.  I've looked through the big pocket pairs in the replayer ... I'd say three hands were botched, the rest very straightforward and standard.  Just variance, plain and simple ... but quite a startling anomaly to say the least.  Back to back four figure months and suddenly one month that's break-even.  Poker ... it'll drive you insane.

I'm hoping to realign and refocus myself and enjoy poker while also plugging leaks and staying on the mindset of just playing well for each hand I'm dealt and putting together an intelligent session.

Interesting Poker Articles

I was a busy bee in September and had a few stories that stuck out.  For PokerSoftware I reviewed the new Table Scanner for HEM which is a cool feature and a great way to find fishy tables, best used by HU and 6max players.  I did a lot of WCOOP and MiniFTOPS coverage which was interesting but not tremendously riveting.  The Marc Karam interview published on Poker News Daily was very interesting which leads to the two biggest stories of September - we saw not one but two poker sites die.

EuroLinx was on the Microgaming network and unfortunately for Marc, one of the good guys of online poker, he took a huge loss financially.  The site is gone and he is out a ton of money, but he has a great attitude and is moving on personally and professionally.  His interview was candid and a serious wake-up call to those that think the industry can self-regulate.

The other huge story was the Pitbull Poker scandal which apparently came to a final conclusion just yesterday with rumors being confirmed that the poker site had indeed shut down.  Our contact and former Network Manager, Dave Brenes, reported that the site was shut down and that he felt betrayed by ownership.  Apparently the allegations of superusers were indeed true and it might even have been ownership themselves with those accounts.  Again, quite a few people out there are now SOL with their bankrolls on that site.

In October I have a few articles coming that will be interesting.  The biggest one will be the interview with Bertrand Gospellier, otherwise known as ElkY, who just might be the best poker player on the planet.  He recently took down two WCOOP events at PokerStars.  The man is just plain sick.

October Goals

I really haven't laid out myself specific goals for the month for a while.  I guess I just want to:

1. Play poker.
2. Have fun doing it.
3. Not worry about climbing the ladder to 200nl.
4. Cash out some money, put it to good use (computer upgrades!) should I win.
5. Play smart thinking poker when I do play poker.

February Month Recap

Posted by admin on Mar 1, 2009 in recap | 0 comments

Well in terms of how did my part time professional life as a poker player go in February, the answer isn't something that many could read aloud in a crowded room. I'll just use the word "bad" and attribute the lack of success mainly to my failed health in February, with the horrible stomach virus that pretty much kept me in bed for 5 days to start the month, to the current sinus infection I have now. I just can't play when I am sick, and I played the least amount of hands this month as compared to the last six. I also spent a lot of time last week focusing on some MTT play to warm myself up for the WPT event which took away time from the ring games.

Anyways to sum some thing up:

February was such a crap month ....

Only played 12,000ish hands due to illness, work, etc. Started red hot, ended crappy, and never got to play enough hands to see "the final upswing" to redeem the month.

NLHE Ring Games = +$501
Bonuses = +$0 (nothing unlocked)
PLO Ring Games = -$10
Tournaments/SNGs: -$31

Total Month Profit = +$460

Well, that makes it the worst month I've had since September 2008 when I was playing 50nl. Again I contribute this to the lowest amount of hands I've played since ... I think August of 2008.

Month Highlight: Winning the media event & Playing in the WPT Celebrity Invitational.

Lowlight: Puking guts out for a week (stomach virus), going card dead at WPT Celebrity Invitational for an epic 4 hour run.

Obligatory Monthly Graph:

2008 Recap: All These Things That I Have Done

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jan 1, 2009 in 2008, recap | 2 comments

If there was a lyric from a song that defined my mindset from 2008 (not poker, just overall) I thought of The Killers song All These Things That I Have Done:

And when there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son
These changes ain't changing me
The gold-hearted boy I used to be

This past year was definitely one of the hardest I've had to endure personally and professionally. There were many "down on my luck moments" very personal to me and each time they cut deep and crushed my heart. 2008 was a tough year for a lot of people, myself included. But I didn't change who I am, my mindset or attitude towards people, and was true to that "gold-hearted boy I used to be" and didn't give in to despair, anger, fear, and grief.

Poker served to do the following for me:

• I don't sleep much (never needed to) and served as a great late night distraction while the wife was asleep and I was still up
• A great mental exercise in game theory and statistics
• An alternative to mundane video games like World of Warcraft
• Outlet for creative expression via a blog / videos / and more
• Make some good side money in the form of profits at the table and freelance article writing

Exactly a year ago today I sat myself down on the couch and came to two conclusions about poker:

1. Playing in tournaments was something I was no longer interested in doing because of the nature of driving 45 minutes to my local cardroom to play 3 hours or 5 minutes and potentially come away with nothing.
2. Online poker offered no commute time and the ability to learn at super micro stakes.

So I decided to drop $240 into FullTilt Poker and give cash game poker a shot and just see where it led me. If I went busto - fine ... then then experiment failed. If I did well, then great I had an outlet to play poker without leaving my house and paying ridiculous rake. Obviously as you see this blog, the experiement was a resounding success.

The reasons for my success in 2008 can be concluded in the following points:

• Joining CardsChat.com and reading the forums and getting involved with the site.
• Making an effort to build relationships with people on CC that I felt were top players and asking for their help. They graciously accepted.
• Adhering to strict bankroll management guidelines.
• Playing through the downswings and getting my frustrations out via blogging

So how did things turn out? Very well for me. At the end of the year I turned a $240 bankroll into $3750 which is an amazing 1 year ROI. The year graph:

Just a nice steady upward graph with one nasty downswing. Considering my experience and emotional nature as a person, it could have been a lot swingier for ups and downs, but learning to control my emotions and simply not giving up (i.e. getting pissed off and withdrawing my BR) were keys to my long term 1-year successes. I made $2661 at the tables, and the difference from $3750 is the original $240 I deposited plus the site bonuses and rakeback I accumulated.

Here are the numbers per level of Hands, Profit/Loss, and ptbb/100 from Holdem Manager:

I have done well in 2008 and built myself up a bankroll to really be playing for some actual money in 2009. I've gained a ton of experience and my poker game and understanding of the game is simply incomparable to what it was a year ago. Overall I'm tremendously proud of my 2008 accomplishments in poker. I feel like my progress so far is in congruence with my overall end-game plan.

For those of you out there reading the blog that have known me since I started, thank you for coming along for my journey and for your ongoing assistance and help you've given me.