Pure Chokage

Random Grind Report

2008-06-08T16:35:00.003-04:00

I've been grinding a lot (for me, anyway) in the past week, and I had some nice results. The badbeat jackpot on Absolute was pretty fucking high, over 700k at some point. It is EV+ to play at these tables around 375k, so that was like printing (theoretical) money.

So, 22k hands in 11 days is not bad, considering I also got wasted pretty bad once, and the weather has been really nice so I've spent some time outside.

The bonus I get on Absolute is also ridiculously high. I'll get 600 in rakeback, I already got 445 in bonus (which is pretty much unlimited), and I'll get another 250 once I convert my points into cash. This puts me at about 5k for this period, for a pretty good profit considering I could still play even more than that.

Also, this was all at NL100 200bb deep, I wanted to see if I could play 30k hands and keep a winrate over 7ptbb/100. I'm currently at 8.2, with only 8k hands to go, so unless I run like crap, I should be good to go. I'm also not running even that hot, as I'm down over 400$ in all-in equity, but it's obvious I'm not cold decked at all.

I guess that's it for the day, remember that the sun is made of love, and helping others is made of win.

Tilt

2008-05-04T23:23:00.007-04:00

I've always been pretty good at controlling my emotions, or so I thought. It's true that I'm good at controlling anger, despair and hatred, but I absolutely suck when it comes to handling doubts or feelings. Then I realized that I was good at not monkey tilting, but I could often nit tilt or cry tilt and not even realize it.

So I let my mind wander a bit, and I categorized different forms of tilt. Then I realized I might as well write it down because, y'know... It's always good to write things down.

The first, most obvious, and well-known form of tilt is evidently the monkey tilt. That's the tilt depicted in tons of movies, where some bastard just completely loses it and does something reckless. The kid deciding to gunsling against some epic outlaw, the husband who beats the sh*t out of his wife's secret lover, or the retired officer who explains years of conspiracy in court and justifies it by saying people could not possible handle the truth. In poker, the monkey tilt is seen by the guy overshoving all-in preflop and generally going broke very easily. His raise button suddenly grows big enough to cover both the fold and call options, and shoving 500$ to steal 20$ suddenly looks like a very valid and reasonable option to him. Thankfully, I'm pretty much immune to this, as are most people who claim they never tilt. It's also the easiest form to recognize, so eventually, most people learn to adjust to this.

A second, more subtle form of tilt is what I call the crying tilt. It's the guy who suddenly realizes he is powerless and has to endure whatever life throws at him. He usually cries himself to sleep for a while until a life-changing opportunity arises, and then he finally comes back to face everything he was avoiding, realizing that he's pretty badass. Except that this last part happens only in movies, in real-life society seems to enjoy these fellows as they are very profitable for their surroundings. In poker, these guys are equally profitable, as they stop raising or folding anything, just cry-calling everything down, accepting whatever you throw at them as their fate and only path. I tilt this way to some degree when I'm drunk, tired or on some long downswing. Fortunately, sound logic and reasoning can get you out of this pathetic state, so all it takes is a gentle tap in the back from some external force to get you back on track.

The next form of tilt used to kill me at the tables and cost me dearly in life, and I haven't settled on a name for it yet. Paranoia, Nit Tilt, Loser Tilt, or maybe Monster Under the Bed Syndrome. Actually I like that last one, so I'm gonna call it MUBS. This tilt is pretty obvious and is hard to get out from. It's a state in which you seem to think that every good thing is slightly worse than it appears, and everything bad is likely to happen. It usually appears after someone's been down on his luck for a while, and as most bad habits, it's pretty hard to get rid of. Hopefully, at some point, everyone learns to recognize and avoid this pattern, but it takes lots of self-analysis and positive external force to really make the difference. Obviously, in poker, this causes you to fold too often, and miss a ton of value when you do have the best hand. It can cause you to play less, because any activity you do with the MUBS will be a lot less enjoyable. While this form is obviously not as strong as the monkey tilt, it is just as dangerous due to its sneaky nature.

The last form of tilt is kind of counter-intuitive because it is actually a good thing. I consider it tilt though, under the definition that tilt is a state in which you do things based mostly on unconscious reasoning due not to careful training and analysis, but to some temporary state of mind that you cannot really work on and improve to make yours permanently.

Wow. That sentence is pretty badass. Mostly meaningless, but it sounds good.

Anyway, this last form of tilt is best known as The Zone, and I'll call it Zen Tilt. After some fortunate event, your mind seems to be really focused, and with your newfound confidence, you can easily avoid useless thoughts and come to faster and better answers. The ultimate form of zen mastery is living under this state of mind in whatever you do, and takes a lifetime of training to achieve, according to writings such as Zen in the Art of Archery. For most of us, this is ultimately out of reach, but we still do have our moments. Unfortunately, this state is very fragile, and anything could disturb it and throw you back into your normal routine, or even down into paranoia-land.

The first three forms are obviously pretty bad, and while you do have a main way of tilting, under the right (wrong?) circumstances, you could fall for any of these. One caveat of not falling under your usual tilt is that you might not recognize it, and you can't climb out of a hole you don't know you're in in the first place. However, once you start working on ways to avoid tilt altogether, it seems that zen moments come more naturally. No matter how you look at it though, it's something that is worth investing a lot of time into, as it makes pretty much every aspect of your life better, and the sooner you do it, the more you'll reap out of it.

The Secret of Addiction

2008-03-01T07:26:00.006-05:00

When I wake up this early for some reason, I usually just go back to sleep. The reason is pretty simple: I don't really want to get up, because I have nothing I really feel like doing.

I remember a few different times though. Times when I was addicted to something, and not only would I instantly get up to do it, I think my brain would subconsciously wake me up sooner just to feed my addiction.

While I wish it happened with more constructive activities, I remember this feeling mostly from video games. My first memories of this feeling go back to my early Ultima Online days, although I suspect I just forgot about the earlier occurrences. Then there was DiabloII, World of Warcraft, and more recently and to a lesser degree, Guitar Hero, although addiction to such a game can never be as bad because at some point your fingers/arms are just too tired to play.

I guess that the point I'm trying to get across is that I wish I could get such a feeling for something really useful, or at least lucrative. I remember having it on the rare coding project, but it usually lasted only a couple of days, and it was more because of a particular challenge. That feeling is long gone now though.

When I think about something I want to do everyday for the rest of my life, I think about that feeling of addiction, where you can't stop thinking about it even in your sleep. Part of me thinks that no matter what I do, if I think of it was mainly for the money, I'll never get that feeling, so in a way, I am doomed. Another part of my tries to understand addiction though, and figure a way to redirect that feeling toward any activity. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a way to get yourself addicted to something you actually choose?

So far, the only thing I've identified as a criteria for addiction is that, from your point of view, you're always winning when you perform. Constant improvement with observable results is hard to top, and it hits a very sensible string in all of us. Problem is, with most activities, it's not a constant walk in the candy park.

However, if you could always see the big picture, if you could imagine yourself always going up that hill, even if it seems like you've just stumbled and fell down, it would be the start toward addiction, and the start toward waking up early and actually getting out of bed.

I can't imagine doing something I'm not addicted to everyday of my life, and rather than quit and try to find something else every time, I think it's more interesting to actually figure a way to enjoy doing what you want to do.

Hell, it's about time.

2007-11-07T18:10:00.001-05:00

One post a month, I guess that's a good average. Well, one published post anyway.

So, about that sidebet... We ended up aborting it after 5 days for a lot of pretty bad reasons.

On my side, I started last month with a good ol' otitis. Five days on the pills, pretty similar to last year's. That allowed for very little poker, and it kinda crushed my good intentions. Excuses...

I've been sick pretty much everyday since then, waking up with a sore throat, random ear pain (which is gone now thankfully), and lots of crappy stuff you don't care about. Like a good boy, I talked to the doctor about it, and he said it looked like untreated allergies. Great. Hopefully that will be the end of it. I really don't want to be thrown around in the medical system forever, and feeling good would certainly be a nice change.

On the poker side, I've barely been playing at all. I completely lost my motivation last month, and to be honest, I've been pretty depressed ever since. I'll need to get back to it eventually, as going busto is probably better than not playing at all, and anyway I'm pretty fucking good at this. I guess I'll never get rid of that rampant laziness that's been plaguing my life forever. Better learn to deal with it...

So, on a brighter note, I'm planning a few interesting trips next year. Costa Rica, Vegas, Australia maybe... Should be pretty terrific. I've also started to like donkaments again, and playing these has historically encouraged me to play more. [Insert complicated chain of thoughts that leads to something good]. As you can see, things can only get better from here on, and I might even start posting at a decent frequency again (no, for real this time).

ps. Yes, I mean it.
ps2. Not leveling anyone this time.
ps3. Boy was I on fire when I was writing last year. Ludicrously good prose there.

Sidebet.

2007-09-30T18:07:00.000-04:00

Wow. It's already been 2 months since my last post. [insert random comment about laziness]

October should be a big month. I have a sidebet with Glover, a pretty good player also from Quebec. The goal is simply to play a lot of poker. At the end, the winner receives 1$ per 100 more hands he played. So if I do 90k, and he plays 60k, he'd owe me 300$. Not that big of a sidebet, but just enough to encourage (at least one of) us to play more. More than that, and it becomes tempting just to play hands and not care about playing good.

I'm aiming for 100k hands in the month, and that would certainly be my best month so far (actually, it would be more than twice as many hands as my best month yet). Hopefully, I can retain a decent enough winrate to also show a nice profit. 300$ won't seem like much if I'm down a few thousands!

4k hands per day, plus two marathon sessions of 10k hands should do it. That leaves me 8 days to procrastinate... unless I adopt the 28 Hours Sleep Schedule, in which case, I'd only have 4 days to slack off!

In any case, it should be a pretty fun month poker-wise, and hopefully profitable as well. I'll get over 2000$ in bonuses/rakeback alone, so throw in a decent performance and I should join the 5-digits league.

Balance.

2007-07-25T20:53:00.000-04:00

I was reading a few posts on the CardRunners forums, and one sentence really stood out for me:
"Do you realize there is more to life than poker? Do you wake up, go outside, feel the sun and the wind and feel good to be alive?"

While I know I'm not even close to the level of degeneration of some of these guys, I was still affected by this one sentence.

feel the sun and the wind.... that's something I often do, mostly when the going gets rough. I never even considered talking about it because I thought it was just my thing and I was special or something, but reading that changed my mind.

When I feel like crap, I like going out for a walk right when the rain stops. It's just so calm and relaxing, and I swear, it even smells better for some reason. I sometimes wish I'd meet someone just to talk about random stuff, but it never happens.

I think a lot of people are missing out on this for some macho reason, but sometimes, going out for a walk is just the thing that you might need. Going out just to enjoy the sun also helps me from feeling depressed every other month.

Then, there is also the hammock and the barbecue, which both allow me to enjoy the sun while still feeling manly. The punching bag is a nice plus, for different reasons, but is still part of the whole. All in all though, having a way to 'digest' repressed feelings and emotions is very important to me, and I just don't know how most people seem to live without even thinking about it.

They like to dream about how they will enjoy it once they are filthy rich, without realizing that a lot of good things in life are actually free.

Best. Powernap. Ever.

2007-06-18T12:38:00.001-04:00

For some reason, I was awake around 8am today, so I decided to fire 5 tables for a quick morning session. I played really well, but broke even after not hitting a single draw/set (which, while it might seem like complaining, really isn't. It's just how it is, so breaking even is all you can really do when it happens).

Then, I went for a quick nap in my hammock. A powernap usually doesn't last two hours, but this was more like 3 back-to-back naps. I think I'll start doing this everyday now, because it feels way more refreshing than just waking up around noon. Wake up early, morning session, hammock-powernap combo, then ready for a new day.

And on a side note, I played some darts with a few friends yesterday. 501 is a pretty easy game. After hitting 4 bullseyes, I only had 57 left to go while they were still well over 100. I threw a perfect triple 19 on my first dart to end the game right away. This throw was so amazing that the dart broke, but the machine still recorded it. Every woman in a 100m radius was probably really turned on by this, but as we were already on our way out, we shall never know. In any case, it's a big loss for them.

I'm probably the best dart player ever. Just in case, I retired after this game so that my amazing performance might go down in history.

Marathon - Take 2

2007-07-23T18:46:00.000-04:00

That one was pretty crazy.

At one point, there were 7 of us playing about 40 tables total, and most stayed up over 24 hours. I only played about 5k hands though, but that's easily explained by three important factors:
1- We played some stupid tournaments, flipped for rolls in PLO, and played Ro Sham Bo.
2- We watched some very special* poker videos.
3- I tend to be a lazy bastard.

Those are all very good and valid excuses, so I'm not mad about playing so little. I also spent some time watching a very good high roller (I consider 10/20NL high rolling) playing 9+ tables at a time, which is very inspiring and insightful.

There were some interesting hands I played, which I might post later on, but for now I'll only post my graph, and talk about how great a play the min-raise really is. Ended up winning a whooping 28.50$, which isn't bad considering I dropped a few buy-ins early on by playing like a donkey.Min-raising postflop seems to induce so many bluffs, it's not even funny. People will shove any crap if you min-raise, it's like they can't resist it. It's also pretty fun to re-min-raise a guy who min-raise bluffs you, just to get him to fold cheaply. I'm surprised at how often that works against decent players, and how often that entices donkeys to go broke.

People seem to consider the min-raise to be a donk play, because so many donkeys use it incorrectly, and because it sucks before the flop. Postflop though, and maybe button vs CO preflop, min-raising is actually a pretty decent play. It's just dangerous to fall into the trap of min-raising too often.

Against players who will shove good draws, min-raising is pretty safe. There are actually very few players who have the discipline to just call a min-raise if they have good odds, knowing that their implied odds are actually good because you probably have a good hand. Moreover, it's actually pretty tough to adjust against the min-raise out of position, because it's such a cheap play that you could really abuse the crap out of it and still get +EV situations.

I'm not even sure what the correct defense against the min-raise is. Re-min-raising might work, but they can adjust to that easily. I think it might be the play with the biggest tilt factor that can still be used correctly, because it's so damn frustrating.

*Note: When I say special, I mean it the Ralph Wiggum way.

Sick Run

2007-07-20T23:56:00.000-04:00

I put in a few more sessions in the last couple of days, winning around 5PTBB/100 over a few thousands hands. Today though, I ran so hot that my chair almost melted*. I ran at something incredibly high like 38PTBB/100 over 1500 hands.

Brag: Won over 9 buy-ins in a single day.
Beat: I was still practicing with my new style, thus it's only at NL100$.

Still not bad, as you can see on this graph:
Winning is always nice. I guess I should have tried a little harder, just to break the 1k mark again in cash games. Maybe tomorrow...

Yeah, because tomorrow, I have another marathon! About 20h of poker with only short breaks (if all goes well). If I run half as good as I did over the last 5k hands, this should be another 1k day!

Pitch & Rewrite

2007-07-12T20:26:00.000-04:00

It has been quite a while since I wrote anything up here. At first, it was simply because I ran bad and was waiting to be up to post, then I just didn't feel like it anymore. Maybe it was part embarrassment because writing these few introductory lines always feels weird. Then again, maybe it was just that when I don't feel like writing and I type something down anyway, it's complete garbage.

For now, I've completely rebuilt my approach to poker, as I lost it there for a while. I tried to add too many things at the same time, and some changes ended up screwing other parts of my style, which made me play bad and without confidence. I also ran pretty bad (according to PokerEV, I should have won over a thousand dollars more than I did simply in all-in situations. Sucks.), which takes some more confidence and part of the fun away.

At some point, I was stuck there, in that low low, at the bottom of the barrel, unable to climb back up and too embarrassed to call for help. I didn't like my game anymore, and quite frankly, I was finding random excuses not to play. So, I did what every programmer does when he encounters something he doesn't like: I pitched it and wrote it all over again.

I made sure everything I planned was based on at least decent mathematics, and ideally backed by experience. I dropped down a bit and really worked on playing good, solid poker, and keeping the moves for situations that require a move, not simply because I usually do that and it works.

I also took the time to re-read some of the solid posts found on 2+2. That stuff is really juicy, and most of it is also surprisingly well-written. I'd almost say it is delicious, if that word was still allowed for anyone even remotely manly. Armed with that new info and some regained confidence, everything went way more smoothly from that point on.

Updates should come more frequently now, which isn't entirely a challenge. I might even post graphs at some point, which always seem to delight the audience. In any case, I'm back and I'll provide a regular dose of chokage again to all of you who can't live vicariously anymore.

WhaaaAA?

2007-06-14T14:09:00.000-04:00

It sure has been a while.

I kinda lost the need to write recently, not sure exactly why. It probably wouldn't have lasted this long had May not also been my Worst Month Ever(tm). The shit pretty much hit the fan, and I couldn't get any success in cash games or tournaments.

I'm still currently on a 2k$ downswing in cash games (ok maybe only 1600$ now, but whatever). It started off with a few beats, and then I lost confidence in my play, started forgetting everything I knew, and before I knew it, I was pissed off and couldn't win any big pot. I took a break, read a lot, and now my game's back in line, but I still didn't play enough to make up for the loss.

The reason for this is that I started playing a lot of big online tournaments. Sunday Million, Mansion 100k, Party 300k... Over 1000$ in buy-ins every week, even though I qualify for most of them, so it comes down to around 600 or 700$ weekly. Sooner or later, I'll get my lucky day and probably win big. Until then, I pretty much beak-even and get some practice, which is still pretty good without any big finish.

I also try to play many 'smaller' tournaments to try some moves and test some theory. It's kinda hard to play your A game in a 1$-Rebuy tournament, but it's good practice nonetheless, and my RoI is like 2000 fricking percents in these. Ok, that was an exception, I usually gun for at least 10$ MTTs, but anything's good since my current goal is to get first in a 200+ players event, which I haven't done yet (got 2 second places and one third, many final tables, but never first).

Aside from that, the weather's finally starting to be nice, so I fire up my BBQ about 4 times a week. It's tough on the belly, but it also forces me to exercise a bit more, since meat is just so delicious.

Not much happening besides that. I'm still just as lazy, and still working on it. Any hateful comment regarding this is appreciated. Thanks.

Update

2007-05-15T15:26:00.000-04:00

Sorry for not updating, I have no real excuse besides procrastination.

I played the Mansion 100k twice, and finished 52th in one, for 250$. 50$ profits, weeee.

Meanwhile in the cash games...
Beautiful hand.
Got some value here.
Calling bluffs like a donkey.
Monster draw, only 2 outs as he had the full.
Floater getting served right.
Flopped the nuts, let him make his hand.
"I didn't put you on a full, you raised!'

And finally...
Another Monday bad beat

I think I pretty much lost all my profits on Monday's beats. I'm still up, but only like 100$ + bonus + 50$ in tourney. Sucks, at least I played good.

Oh yeah, and I lost the PSO league on hands like this to regulars trying to help me apparently.

Monday sucks.

2007-05-07T15:49:00.000-04:00

I sat down to put in a real good session, as I planned to play about 2k hands today.

I was playing really solid, until these two hands, where I pretty much got butt-raped. I started to lose my cool after that, so I went for a break, and now I'm heading for a quick beer, so that's gonna be it for online poker today.

Only 95.5% favorite. Almost a coinflip.

Only about 77%. The turn is much better than the flop to commit.

I finished down about 340$. Not too bad after losing these two 400+ pots.

Still not enough.

2007-05-04T14:59:00.000-04:00

Name: 101 100k Guaranteed
Buy-in: 100$
Prizepool: 100 000$ Guaranteed
Game: No Limit Texas Hold'em
Rounds: 15 minutes
Starting stack: 2500
Starting blinds: 10/20
Finish:21st/631
Prize: $600

I played the Mansion 100k twice this week, dying early in one, and making it deep in the other.

Down to 70 players, with 150$ guaranteed, I only had about 11k left. Blinds at 600/1200a60, for an initial pot of 2340. Some weak-tight player to my right decides to raise it to 3600. With the big blind having only 8k, any decent hand was a candidate for that move. On the cutoff, I found a pair of sevens. With only 11k, I know that he won't fold to my all-in. It will cost him 7400 in a pot worth about 17k, so there is just no way he is folding there. The only question now is wheter my hand was ahead of his range. For that move, I put him on 44+,AT+,KJ+. I suspect lots of people might do that with much less, hands like K8s, A6s, and deuces. I decided to move all-in, getting 1.2:1 on my move, and being a 55/45 favorite against most of his hands. As it turned out, he called me with a pair of sixes, and I hit a 7 to more than double up.

I stole my fair share of blinds, which is really important at this stage of the tournament. Not only because it actually gets you more chips, but because it also allows you to get payed on your good hands. As a matter of fact, a few hands later, I woke up with AQo on the button. I made a slightly bigger than normal raise, because I did not intend to fold to a re-raise, and I don't really want to see a flop. The small blind thought for a while before shoving all-in. I had 2:1 on my call, which makes this a no brainer. He turned over ATo, and I hit a queen to double up, as I had about 28k chips and he had 25k. Not a bad move by him in this spot, as I would fold many hands in that spot, and ATo is ahead of a few hands I'd call with (KQ/KJ, A9s maybe).

I was now in the top 9 with about 50 players left, and I picked up a pair of Aces UTG+1. I decided to make the tricky play and just limp, as there were a lot of short stacks in late position. My move really payed off, as the button decided to move all-in for 11k (blinds at 1200/2400 I think). The small blind moved in as well for 17k. My Aces held against deuces and nines, for a very nice 30k win, putting me in the top 4. A few hands later, I busted a guy with a hand I do not clearly remember. He had a hand like JTs and I had an ace and some other high card, and won it.

Combined with a few more blinds, this put me first with about 35 players to go. I had about 115k chips, with a few people holding between 90k and 99k chips. At that point though, things started to turn around.

I got really crappy cards when I had a chance to steal, and I had a few big stacks to my left. Then, I raised K8s on the button for about 3-4 big blinds. The BB only had 8 blinds total with about 30k chips, and he moved all-in, which was an automatic call for me. He turned over A4o, and I lost that coinflip, putting me down to about 60k chips.

A few hands later, some random guy raised minimum in middle position, and I picked up AQo with about 55k chips left and blinds of 2k/4ka200. I knew the min-raise smelled fishy, but AQo is just too good a hand to pass up in this spot. He did have Aces though, and he busted me in a disappointing 21st place. Good for 600$, but still way too far from the real payoffs.

That guy took up 5th, and the short stack with the A4o took fourth. It kind of pisses me off when the people I lose to make it deep. One more coinflip for me, and that money was all mine.

PSO League & update

2007-04-23T21:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the third event of the PSO League. I've performed poorly in these historically (except in the first Canada vs USA one, where I totally pwned those crazy americans). My game has gone up a whole ladder since then though with my Booya league and Mansion 100k experiences, so I think I might have a shot. (Anyway, if Riverrun can win it, anyone can!).

Obviously, I'm saying this because I finished 2nd in yesterday's event, and I had a decent finish before that. I also happened to knock out a PSO admin for a nice little 20$ bonus, for a 240$ profit for the tourney. Not bad for a 5$ buy-in!

I didn't play all that much this week-end, pretty much breaking even. I started the day on a 120ish downswing without much happening. There's this hand that I might have misplayed, but as I didn't know the guy, I don't think I can make the fold against a shortstack there. I also payed a guy with ace-high on another hand. I was getting 2:1 on my call, and I figured he didn't have the T, so I was either a 3:1 underdog, or a decent favorite, which mandated a call. My read was wrong, but more power to him for calling a re-raise preflop with Q8o.

I then put in another session in the evening, netting a 470$ profit, which puts me at +350$ for the day. I think I played really good tonight, being right on almost all my reads, and hitting a few nice hands. Here are a few hands to give a brief overview of the session:
I didn't bluff the river because I thought he might have a hand like 46o.
Calling a bluff on a dangerous board after misplaying the hand
This shows a recent change in my game (No CB with AK)
Semi-tough call against this guy.
Good value bets
Some more good value bets.
Funniest. Hand. Ever.

That last hand made me laugh for a solid 10 minutes. I really don't know what he was thinking, but there is just no way I am folding anything in that spot. I also had not been playing many hands at the table, so that guy probably just felt like giving me an early birthday present. Up over 1k total now, still late on my schedule, but still not bad.

Back to Back 2nd place

2007-04-26T00:56:00.000-04:00

Another PSO event, another 2nd place. I didn't knock out any bounty this time, so it's only good for 220$. Still pretty neat considering that this should put me first on the leaderboard. Only one word comes to mind: BOOYA!

I didn't do well in the cash games tonight though. I dropped a quick 200$ and couldn't make a comeback. I lost half of it on this hand, which I do not like, but still can't figure where to bet:
K-high flush busted.

BBQ!

2007-04-20T16:24:00.000-04:00

I fired up my BBQ for the first time this year, and made some top quality burgers. Half a pound of meat in every burger; enough to make anyone smile.

That's the only good news of the day though. The cards didn't fall my way at the tables, and I ended up even (lost 7$ total). I lost this coinflip, but I hit a few hands somewhere, and the rest was rather boring.

I better start playing more if I don't want another Grand Am...

Not so bad...

2007-04-18T23:29:00.000-04:00

I put in another little session today. I didn't play that good, but I won about 250 overall. This is pretty much the only exciting hand of the session. Gotta love winning coinflips.

I've got enough for a decent bike now. Wooh!

According to suggestions, there is nothing to do with 2k (pretty much what I thought), and I have no suggestion for 5k from someone who's sexual orientation wasn't questionned. You guys need to try harder than that!

Edit: I decided to put in another session right after posting this. I won a nice little 230$ right away, and then my tables fell apart, so I quit after only about 100 hands. I won't complain!

I have no idea why, but the play is just horrendous these days. Just look at these two hands and think about how much these guys must lose overall.
Hand 1
Hand 2

Bad results so far

2007-04-17T22:19:00.000-04:00

I put in two quick questions since the last post, and the first one can be summed up this way. The 2nd one was a lot better, as I made up what I lost in the first one and then some. Still nothing stellar so far, only about +110$, but it's decent after being down 250+ after the first session. Most of it came from one guy:
Good call Sir.
Almost too easy.

So, there's 110 in the pot right now. Maybe I can get some nice shoes with that!

The 'Get a Car' event!

2007-04-16T17:18:00.000-04:00

My current big frigging american car is not gonna last much longer. While it has served me well, it's time to think about the future.

With that in mind, I start the Get a Car event! Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to help a good cause. I've given a lot away and never asked for anything in return, but now, I need YOUR help!

As the good little choking geek that I am, I know jack&shit about cars. I know I'd love to get a Lexus, for no valid reason whatsoever!

From now on to the end of June, I'll dedicate all my winnings to the Get a Car fund. With each new milestone hit (2k, 5k...), I'll need suggestions as to what car to get at the next milestone. Obviously, I'll also provide you with much more regular updates for the status of the fund. We're in this together! (Warning: Lame catch-phrase detected)

Right now, the lowest milestone is at 2k, which I'll try to hit by the end of the week. Should the shit hit the fan, what car should I get with that? I could also spend it to fix my current car and have it last another year or two, but that is just boring. I want suggestions!

You can post ideas for 5k right now as well, but please keep the other suggestions for the appropriate time. There's no point in discussing what to do with a 100k budget right now.

Now, get busy, and feel free to question each others' sexual orientation based solely on the car they suggest!

Riding the mojo

2007-04-09T22:34:00.000-04:00

It looks like the cards are just falling my way this month, and I'm also playing pretty well on top of that. I still don't play nearly enough though, so I'm only up a little over 1200$, but I'm working on it.

Here are the main hands:
Set over set (going my way!)
Aces against.. donkey?
(the last two were back to back)
Aces against the same guy..
And a nice little float... might as well use that tight image.

This session paid for the monitor on its own. I guess it's time to work on a car now ;)

Big screen = Big pot

2007-04-08T12:36:00.000-04:00

I had a pretty decent week in poker. I finally stopped breaking even at NL200 shorthanded on Full Tilt, and won a couple buy-ins. My biggest pot of the week should have never been that big, but apparently my opponent felt like a donation to pay for my new monitor was in order!

Most of my bluffs also worked out, which felt really satisfying after questioning my shorthanded play for a while, and beating heads-up games but losing 2/3 of my profits to the rake (I'll get a nice rakeback though!).

I also found that playing 4 tables is a lot easier when there is absolutely no overlap between the tables, and you even have some room left to fire up Firefox occasionally to post a hand history. I'll probably go up to 6 tables soon if cards keep falling my way!

Bigger is better.

2007-04-04T17:42:00.000-04:00

I finally stopped being a cheapskate and decided to get myself something nice and useful. Conveniently, after getting my new computer, my monitors suddenly seemed quite subpar. One thing that was bugging me was my crappy 2nd monitor, which was a dying CRT. I looked at LCDs for a while, and finally settled on a Dell 24" LCD: the UltraSharp 2407WFP.

I wanted at least a x1200 resolution, but 1600x1200 is really hard to find, and a bit too expensive. During the Days of Deals, Dell offered that 24" at 650$ (200$ less than the usual price), which seemed like a pretty solid deal.

It arrived last Friday, and it's 24 inches of visual delight. Not only does it boast a 1920x1200 resolution, but it also offers a much better image quality, and has tons of nice little perks like Picture-in-Picture and 5 different inputs.

I gave it a good test ride in Unreal Tournament 2004 and Command & Conquer 3. Surprisingly, even my measly 7600GT could handle these games in 1920x1200 without a problem. With that size, it's also pretty much a TV. Movies look really nice on it, much better than on a regular non-HD TV, and event don't get me started about porn.

I obviously tried it out with some poker too, and one feature that I neglected became pretty handy. You can flip the monitor in vertical mode, which is much better to fit many tables on it with minimum overlap. I can easily fit 8 tables, which is more than enough for my needs.

Now I simply gotta play some more to pay for it!

Irish Chokage

2007-03-18T16:01:00.000-04:00

The St-Patrick is a nice opportunity to imbibe with or without moderation. I have absolutely no Irish blood, but I believe that any tradition involving, let alone encouraging, the consumption of alcoholic beverages is to be treated with utmost respect.

I arrived at a friend's place, almost dying thrice on the way. The weather was rather ugly, with icy roads and a mild snowstorm. I parked in a free snowy spot, internally bragging about how good my winter tires were, allowing me to park where very few others dared to venture.

I dropped a call to some other friends I was supposed to meet later, and then started to enjoy a cold one. And another. Then a few more. Guinness is just that good.

A bit later I was on a couch with a nice girl, you know, minding my own business. It was pretty neat, until some guy walked by and said: 'There's a white car being towed'.

Shit.

Everyone figured out it was mine, and now I realized that my parking spot wasn't a dare, simply a trap. A few minutes and a phone call later, all I knew was that I'd have to call back in the morning. Great. It would probably cost me 150$, and I'd have to find a way to get there.

That, alone, was enough to make me slightly bitter, but not angry. Just another bad beat, right? Then I realised that the mood was totally destroyed, and I'd be forced to choke again.

Great.

Not that I wouldn't have anyway, you know me better than that, but it just sucks to not even be able to enjoy the moment. All I had on my side now was pity, which isn't exactly so fucking money. She eventually fell asleep on my rather comfy shoulder, and ended up taking a cab home.

In the morning, I called and learned that my car was much closer than I thought. They simply towed it into the parking lot of the local stadium. About 10 minutes later, I saw the small pink piece of paper in my windshield and let out a big 'Woohoo!'. Apparently, you can screw up once with plowing schedules and get away with it. Next time, it's gonna be 117$, but now I've learned my lesson:

Think before you park, or you'll choke after dark.

Back in town

2007-03-15T14:29:00.000-04:00

After the last two weeks at my bro's place, I'm back in Quebec city. These two weeks were really fun actually, even if I did have to be a part-time bitch. I guess the pie and beer made up for it.

While I was there, I played a good 10k hands of poker, with mixed results. I kind of lost my game in there somewhere, so my profits are less than stellar. 500$ for two weeks is basically a loss.

I started playing heads-up again though, and I got in against a maniac right away.

Right off the bat, I lost a big pot with queens, all-in preflop against his KJo.
On the very next hand, I am the one with KJo, but it is no match for his 83s.
What should have been done in 10 hands started to get bigger as I was already down over 200, as a big favorite everytime.

After a bit of a bad start, I fight my way back up, and finally take all my money back.
He elects to rebuy, and move all-in 10 hands in a row, stealing the blinds everytime, as my best hand was J4o in that period. Right after that, he gets very lucky again, and I have to pay him off.

I was a bit off my game at that point, down about 400, and I played a bad 50 hands, where I was also cold decked. He was about to leave, but I taunted him a bit, which forced him to stay and play some more. I recouped, doubled up with aces against his shitty hand (63s?), and picked up a bluff with a very tough call. A few hands later, he makes another such play, which I pick up easily as the pot was much smaller.

Down to his last 150$, he makes another of his stupid moves, moving all-in right away to steal the blinds, as he had done about 20 times already. This time, though, I wake up with aces, and finish the kid off!

The swings were huge, and it was tough, but in the end, I prevailed. This little graph should speak by itself anyway. What's kinda sad is that the rake cut through most of my profits, so while my opponent lost over 200$, I only made 88$. I'll get another 40$ or so in rakeback, but the rake really seems to hurt in heads-up at this level (since the pot pretty much always hits the max rake, but rarely goes much higher, this is probably the most profitable level for the poker room.)

Hopefully I'll keep kicking ass though, and will be able to afford my Lexus soon enough ;)