The new CR site finally launched, and it looks like I'll be moving this blog over there in the coming weeks (where it probably belonged in the first place). If and when this happens, I'll post here with a link to the new blog so you guys can continue to read about my boring life. I had been beta testing the site for a week or two to help test things out before launch, and I'm excited to see the way in which all of these new tools & features will improve CardRunners as a community. Cool stuff!
Anyway, I'm really pumped about leaving for Aruba tomorrow. I'm staying with Derric and a few of his buddies in a house down there from Friday until Tuesday, and I can already tell that it's gonna be very hard for me to leave the island -- especially since I'm leaving early (the tourney lasts until next Saturday!). Chicago has cooled down a lot recently, and it's getting to be about that time of year where you can't walk outside without a jacket anymore. The ~2 months I've been living up here have been beautiful and sunny for the most part, and I'm really going to miss being able to hit up the beach for a pick-up game of volleyball on the weekends. San Antonio was awesome for stuff like that almost year-round. At least I'll get one final weekend in paradise before it gets freezing in the windy city...
On a personal note, I'm still pretty bored with work. I really hope things will change, but it's been a full month since I finished my five weeks of training, and I've been applying to projects like a madman in an effort to get staffed. Unfortunately, the subgroup I was assigned to within the company does things much differently than every other subgroup: we don't get to directly apply for roles ourselves, we are under relatively strict supervision every day, and we all basically just sit around staring at our desks pumping out any remedial busywork handed down to us by our supervisors. In short, everything that's hilarious about Office Space applies to my work life right now. This is lightyears from what I expected from a career in consulting...I'm a very intelligent + motivated person, and my talents are being utterly wasted on a daily basis.
Like I said above, any project we wish to submit an application to must be approved by our HR rep. She then removes the roles that either she or the subgroup's policies deem "inappropriate" for a person from our subgroup to fill (which typically shortens my list of roles significantly), adds other roles that are "appropriate," and then applies us to the remaining roles on her own instead of letting us do it ourselves. This is apparently the standard policy for all employees in the subgroup to which I was assigned. The problems with this are as follows: this creates an unnecessarily excessive workload for our HR reps, who are already very very busy; I have no way of verifying that my internal resume was actually submitted to all of the roles I wanted; I end up being proposed for roles I don't want; and, most importantly, I don't get to choose my own career path.
This final point was actually the most important concept they drilled into our heads during our final two weeks of training: your career path in this company is entirely in your hands, and you are strongly encouraged to choose projects which will help you develop the skills you wish to acquire to further your career goals. Nearly everyone else from my start group has been encouraged to exercise their freedom of choice -- the only people deprived of this ability are myself and the four others from my start group who were also assigned to this specific internal group. It's extremely disheartening to see all of your other friends taking control of their own careers while we're stuck in the office all day waiting for staffing opportunities on projects we (typically) didn't choose ourselves.
Many of the projects I applied for sound really awesome and would certainly allow me to utilize all the skills I have developed in school and from other experiences, but unfortunately I've found that most of these are not deemed "appropriate", and I get stuck applying for boring roles as a tester for newly implemented IT systems. The words remedial and monotonous can only begin to describe how boring a testing role would be, so hopefully things will work out soon so I can stop ranting about dumb stuff in this blog that noone wants to read about anyway.
Poker-wise, I've been playing a lot of PLO lately. I got burned out after a long day of NLHE about a week ago and decided to give PLO another shot. 2/4 PLO seemed like a good place to start since I've historically done well (and spotted tons of poor players) when dabbling in the .5/1 & 1/2 PLO games for fun. It's rare for me to find many tough players at the games when I sit, but the amount of variance inherent in the game makes it extremely frustrating to play against these bad players when they keep winning. I probably have some leaks in my game still, but I think my game is reasonably solid -- even now I'm certain that my current level of skill is sufficient to show a significant longterm profit at 2/4 PLO (if I could find the time to put in enough hands). I plan on playing 2/4 & 3/6 until I feel very comfortable with the game and have played enough hands to prove to myself that I'm a solid winner at PLO. Besides, it's a nice change of pace for me, and it's always fun to learn a new game.
PLO does have some nasty swings though, and I started off with a 9 buyin downswing my second full session. I'll post some hands later, but I got coolered a few times and this one opponent kept outdrawing me every time I either flopped or turned a strong hand. It was just sick how hot this guy was running -- especially against me! My past couple of sessions have helped me crawl out of this hole, and as it stands right now I'm only down $700 on the month at PLO. Hopefully I can get this out of the red before the month ends, but it's not a big deal if I can't.
NLHE has been a crazy rollercoaster ride since my last blog entry where I took 10 buyins off that guy @ HU in under an hour. For the most part, I've been playing very well but running terribly, but I honestly expected something like this to happen after making >$20k in the first 10 days of September. 5/10NL has been good to me overall, but I'm struggling with a few players at 10/20. I've studied a bunch of hands and had lots of discussions about hands with friends, and I'm feeling confident that I can make the transition to 10/20 full time (with good game selection, of course) in the near future. I still play 3/6NL too when the bigger games aren't good, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how bad the play still is. If all goes well, this month will top August as my biggest month ever. My goal for September was $25k; I barely scraped past this mark as of last night, so as long as I don't post a big losing session before Sunday I should be good. I'm hoping to have a $30k month before the year ends, but I'd honestly be just as happy proving to myself that I can make a consistent ~$20k/month at poker.
Aruba here I come!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Another Exciting Sunday
I went deep in the Sunday Million again today. After getting a lucky double-up early on with AK vs QQ, I went on a nice tear through the soft field to accumulate a really nice stack. I stayed consistently in the top 10 or 20 on the leaderboard from about the first hour until the 4th hour; here's the sick hand that knocked me down quite a bit: AQ owns me (that's me getting it in as a 70/30 favorite for a MASSIVE chiplead). Shortly after that, I lost another 200k coinflip and was basically shortstacked the rest of the time until I busted. My bust out hand was pretty standard, and I would have been in great shape for the late stages of the tourney had I won the coinflip. I finished 280th or so for a small profit of ~$550, but it definitely sucks getting so deep two weeks in a row and missing out on the really big $$ :(
The ring games were unusually soft this afternoon too. I was 5-tabling 5/10NL during the early stages of the Million and the games were just awesome. There were at least 2 very loose-passive donkeys at each of my five tables who were playing >=40vpip (!), but unfortunately I was running pretty bad and they were killing me. I never really lost any big pots, just lots of small- to medium-sized pots. Some hands:
I honestly wanted to fold this on the turn
Value tooooowwwwwnnnnnnn
Don't try to bluff me you donkey
I run so bad :(
It's always nice when you have aces and someone 4-bets you
HU: Bluff or value shove? (this was against some other guy who sat with me while I was playing the spewtard I describe below)
I finished down about $3k in my first session, but I came back after the tourney and flipped my results to +$3k on the day. So I watched some CR videos, browsed the internet for awhile, then decided to play some HU before bed. I saw this guy at 3/6NL HU sitting with about $6k (10 buyins), which is an extraordinary amount of money to be sitting with at a heads-up table -- the most you can sit down with is $600, so he was probably a pretty good player. I've been working on my HU game a lot recently, so I decided to sit and see just how good he was. Turns out he was actually terrible at poker, and in less than an hour he lost everything he was sitting with to me. This guy was really bad. Here are some highlights from our little HU session:
Soooooo he doesn't like to fold -- this was very early in the match, and I didn't realize how light his calling range was. Made a quick adjustment after this hand :)
He calls down very light -- this would turn out to be the theme of our match
I'm a bluffer -- first time I'd 3-bet all match and I was pretty sure he didn't have much. Good luck calling me with like 66 here...
Such a sick beat...did I mention he doesn't like to fold? It was after this hand that I realized just how bad he was and that there was no way in hell I could leave the table until I had all of his chips.
I mentioned he calls down light, right?
My first preflop 4-bet -- he was 3-betting pretty light, so I tried a 4-bet and was met with insta-calls preflop and on the flop. I put him on a small to mid pair and actually should have shoved the river here, but this guy never, ever folds.
Nuts on the river -- I was planning to bluff the river regardless, but hitting the nuts helps. I guess this guy folds on the river, but he definitely doesn't fold preflop or on the flop. Ever.
He really doesn't like folding -- if he's calling with A4o on this flop, you know his calling range might as well be any two.
Remember: he never folds! I was really hoping (and expecting) for him to call the river, but I guess he realized that T6 probably wasn't good by the river :(
Tried for a river check/raise (but failed)
Here's our first really big pot -- our stacks were starting to get pretty deep, so this was a pretty tough call for me since I hadn't seen him do anything like this yet. I called because 1) I didn't think he'd take this line with a boat; 2) I felt like he'd make this play with an A9-type hand; 3) I was pretty sure he had me on an overpair, so the actual strength of my hand was greatly underrepresented; and 4) I knew that if I was wrong I could easily rebuy and build my stack back up.
After that hand, he started going kinda crazy -- he started 3-betting like a maniac, but he also (correctly) adjusted his 3-bet sizes for our now super-deep stacks, which surprised me since basically everything else he was doing was wrong. On with the hand histories!
Pretty sure I missed out on a ton of G-bucks here (if you don't know what G-Bucks are, you really need to read this article). I def shoulda bet the turn again, and I really wanted to raise the river for value, but I was being cautious playing so deepstacked because I obviously couldn't call if he re-raised allin.
He started going nuts, and I knew that a happy ending to this story was eminent.
Some loose calls from me, but my implied odds were enormous, and I honestly felt like Ks and Qs were outs too. Also, checking the river here was a huge mistake.
...and so it ends (with a 1200bb pot!) -- I just called on the flop because he doesn't like to fold and would probably call down with something retarded like ace high. My gin card hit on the turn, and I kept betting knowing he would call super light. I also knew that when I bet the river that there was a chance he would shove over my bet, so I made the bet fully intending to call a shove allin. I actually instantly called his $2300 raise on the river because I was 100% certain I had the best hand. I won't lie though: I was pretty nervous to play a 1300bb pot!
I wrote all of this having just finished off a $10k session, which puts me at +$22k for the month already...huzzah! I had a great night, and I'm wondering once again why I have a day job that pays 25% of the amount of money I made tonight per month. I'm really enjoying Chicago and most of the guys I'm hanging out with here are smart, solid people, but work just isn't doing it for me at all. Everyone always says to follow your passions in life, and mine are poker, music, and extreme sports. IMO, there's nothing wrong with leaving the company and still living in Wrigleyville to pursue other opportunities -- especially considering how favorable these opportunities are right now. Bleh, I'm starting to ramble now...this is a lot to think about, and I need sleep so I can be at my desk in 4 hours.
The ring games were unusually soft this afternoon too. I was 5-tabling 5/10NL during the early stages of the Million and the games were just awesome. There were at least 2 very loose-passive donkeys at each of my five tables who were playing >=40vpip (!), but unfortunately I was running pretty bad and they were killing me. I never really lost any big pots, just lots of small- to medium-sized pots. Some hands:
I honestly wanted to fold this on the turn
Value tooooowwwwwnnnnnnn
Don't try to bluff me you donkey
I run so bad :(
It's always nice when you have aces and someone 4-bets you
HU: Bluff or value shove? (this was against some other guy who sat with me while I was playing the spewtard I describe below)
I finished down about $3k in my first session, but I came back after the tourney and flipped my results to +$3k on the day. So I watched some CR videos, browsed the internet for awhile, then decided to play some HU before bed. I saw this guy at 3/6NL HU sitting with about $6k (10 buyins), which is an extraordinary amount of money to be sitting with at a heads-up table -- the most you can sit down with is $600, so he was probably a pretty good player. I've been working on my HU game a lot recently, so I decided to sit and see just how good he was. Turns out he was actually terrible at poker, and in less than an hour he lost everything he was sitting with to me. This guy was really bad. Here are some highlights from our little HU session:
Soooooo he doesn't like to fold -- this was very early in the match, and I didn't realize how light his calling range was. Made a quick adjustment after this hand :)
He calls down very light -- this would turn out to be the theme of our match
I'm a bluffer -- first time I'd 3-bet all match and I was pretty sure he didn't have much. Good luck calling me with like 66 here...
Such a sick beat...did I mention he doesn't like to fold? It was after this hand that I realized just how bad he was and that there was no way in hell I could leave the table until I had all of his chips.
I mentioned he calls down light, right?
My first preflop 4-bet -- he was 3-betting pretty light, so I tried a 4-bet and was met with insta-calls preflop and on the flop. I put him on a small to mid pair and actually should have shoved the river here, but this guy never, ever folds.
Nuts on the river -- I was planning to bluff the river regardless, but hitting the nuts helps. I guess this guy folds on the river, but he definitely doesn't fold preflop or on the flop. Ever.
He really doesn't like folding -- if he's calling with A4o on this flop, you know his calling range might as well be any two.
Remember: he never folds! I was really hoping (and expecting) for him to call the river, but I guess he realized that T6 probably wasn't good by the river :(
Tried for a river check/raise (but failed)
Here's our first really big pot -- our stacks were starting to get pretty deep, so this was a pretty tough call for me since I hadn't seen him do anything like this yet. I called because 1) I didn't think he'd take this line with a boat; 2) I felt like he'd make this play with an A9-type hand; 3) I was pretty sure he had me on an overpair, so the actual strength of my hand was greatly underrepresented; and 4) I knew that if I was wrong I could easily rebuy and build my stack back up.
After that hand, he started going kinda crazy -- he started 3-betting like a maniac, but he also (correctly) adjusted his 3-bet sizes for our now super-deep stacks, which surprised me since basically everything else he was doing was wrong. On with the hand histories!
Pretty sure I missed out on a ton of G-bucks here (if you don't know what G-Bucks are, you really need to read this article). I def shoulda bet the turn again, and I really wanted to raise the river for value, but I was being cautious playing so deepstacked because I obviously couldn't call if he re-raised allin.
He started going nuts, and I knew that a happy ending to this story was eminent.
Some loose calls from me, but my implied odds were enormous, and I honestly felt like Ks and Qs were outs too. Also, checking the river here was a huge mistake.
...and so it ends (with a 1200bb pot!) -- I just called on the flop because he doesn't like to fold and would probably call down with something retarded like ace high. My gin card hit on the turn, and I kept betting knowing he would call super light. I also knew that when I bet the river that there was a chance he would shove over my bet, so I made the bet fully intending to call a shove allin. I actually instantly called his $2300 raise on the river because I was 100% certain I had the best hand. I won't lie though: I was pretty nervous to play a 1300bb pot!
I wrote all of this having just finished off a $10k session, which puts me at +$22k for the month already...huzzah! I had a great night, and I'm wondering once again why I have a day job that pays 25% of the amount of money I made tonight per month. I'm really enjoying Chicago and most of the guys I'm hanging out with here are smart, solid people, but work just isn't doing it for me at all. Everyone always says to follow your passions in life, and mine are poker, music, and extreme sports. IMO, there's nothing wrong with leaving the company and still living in Wrigleyville to pursue other opportunities -- especially considering how favorable these opportunities are right now. Bleh, I'm starting to ramble now...this is a lot to think about, and I need sleep so I can be at my desk in 4 hours.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Sunday Million Blues
I got 17th in this week's Sunday Million on PS for just over $5500 tonight, and I'm on total monkey-tilt. I'm so utterly disappointed that I couldn't have a better showing...I was playing really great poker and was running decently well too (which is a lethal combination) until I couldn't get my hand to hold up AIPF 3-way with ~43% equity for a top-4 stack and only 17 players left (from a field of >6500). Sigh...
On the upside, Andrew and a bunch of other people were sweating me, and he took me out for drinks / shots after I busted out. Met some cool guys and had a ton of drinks in like an hour and a half. All in all it was a fun night, and although I'm sure you non-poker readers won't understand why I'm pissed for having a >$5k day, I can assure you that I'm still really upset at my core. First was a whopping $173,000 (!), and had I won that hand, I feel that I would have had a very, very good shot at taking home a 6-figure payday. My shorthanded game is superb, and I had some really smart people sweating me that I could turn to for advice in tough spots. SIGHHHHHH............time for sleep
On the upside, Andrew and a bunch of other people were sweating me, and he took me out for drinks / shots after I busted out. Met some cool guys and had a ton of drinks in like an hour and a half. All in all it was a fun night, and although I'm sure you non-poker readers won't understand why I'm pissed for having a >$5k day, I can assure you that I'm still really upset at my core. First was a whopping $173,000 (!), and had I won that hand, I feel that I would have had a very, very good shot at taking home a 6-figure payday. My shorthanded game is superb, and I had some really smart people sweating me that I could turn to for advice in tough spots. SIGHHHHHH............time for sleep
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Best. Month. Ever.
It's September 1st, and I just posted my best month ever at poker. I've said it before: I feel that I'm playing the best poker of my life right now, and I'm glad the results I achieved in August reflect this (nearly 21k!). I did run decently well this month, but most of the time I felt that I was unquestionably the best player at my tables. Too bad I couldn't put in more hands this month...I only played ~13k hands, which is slightly below the number of hands/month I averaged in college.
My videos for CardRunners have also gotten much better IMO; the latest video I made (1/2NL heads-up) is probably my best one yet. All in all, I'm very confident in (and happy with) my poker life right now, and I'm constantly trying to find time in my schedule to put in sessions. I'm starting to regret my decision to start a real career downtown because poker motivates me a LOT more than my consulting work so far, and I'm also making substantially more money at poker in my spare time! I'm still putting forth my best effort at work, but my real passion lies elsewhere...
Anyway, it's time to celebrate in Wrigleyville. Ryan, David and I are gonna go hit the bars on Clark; Andrew is gonna be out tonight with some of his buddies too, so we might all meet up and take on the bar scene together. Here's to August!
My videos for CardRunners have also gotten much better IMO; the latest video I made (1/2NL heads-up) is probably my best one yet. All in all, I'm very confident in (and happy with) my poker life right now, and I'm constantly trying to find time in my schedule to put in sessions. I'm starting to regret my decision to start a real career downtown because poker motivates me a LOT more than my consulting work so far, and I'm also making substantially more money at poker in my spare time! I'm still putting forth my best effort at work, but my real passion lies elsewhere...
Anyway, it's time to celebrate in Wrigleyville. Ryan, David and I are gonna go hit the bars on Clark; Andrew is gonna be out tonight with some of his buddies too, so we might all meet up and take on the bar scene together. Here's to August!
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