Don't Grind, Don't Shine

12/1/2011

2011-12-01T19:58:00.000-08:00

Sup Gang,

Finally got off my lazy ass and got back to the poker room last night. Took a little while to get acclimated to the game again but after a while I felt right at home. I instantly dropped 350 of my initial 500 buyin and took a step back and played more straightforward as opposed to being tricky. Long story short, I ended up getting into a set over set situation that almost doubled me up and then just took down a couple small pots and ended the session +300. For being away from the tables for so long, I was happy with the outcome and being able to turn a profit after dropping 350 so fast.

Session 1 Recap-
Time: 3.5 hours
Buyin: $50
Stakes: 2/5NL
Cashout: $827
Profit: +$327

I'm about to head out again so hopefully I can keep this up!

Cheers,

mazzler

10/17/2011

2011-10-17T23:44:00.000-07:00

Sup Gang,

Had a session over the weekend where I started off losing with T8hh on 883 v AA for half my stack. Built that back up to about $350 and then got it in with J9dd on JT7dd and bricked out. Felt pretty shitty and just bounced after that.

Session 5 Recap-
Time: 2 hours
Buyin: $300
Stakes: 2/5NL
Cashout: $0
Profit: $-300

Cheers,

mazzler

10/14/2011

2011-10-14T05:15:00.001-07:00

Sup Gang,

Just got back from the casino. Was a pretty good session as we were playing 7-8 handed for the majority of the night and the table was pretty soft. People were just overplaying their hands and making really bad call downs. I didn't do anything tricky, just opened and cbet bluffed with a couple hands but besides those, most of my hands were for value. The toughest hand of the night was when I opened UTG+1 with AA over a limp and got 2 callers. Flop came down 862cc. UTG checks, I cb 45, other dude folds and UTG calls. Turn is 4x and again the guy c/c my bet of 110 with about 250 behind. River comes 7x and he open ships and I call and he tables 97o. Besides that I was pretty much cruising and playing kinda nitty but I was fine with that. I was getting really good value from these players that called down with like MP or BP.

My friend is having his bday tmw at the same casino so I'll get a chance to grind a little bit on a Friday which is rare. Hopefully the action is good and ya boy can make some money.

Session 4 Recap-
Time: 4 hours
Buyin: $300
Stakes: 2/5NL
Cashout: $1180
Profit: $+880

Cheers,

mazzler

10/12/2011

2011-10-12T04:07:00.000-07:00

Sup Gang,

Just got back from the casino. Pretty lame session. Not much was going on and everyone was really nitty. Decided to just loosen up and iso a ton and had some mixed results. It was nice though because it was less variance and was just smooth sailing for the majority of the session.

Session 3 Recap-
Time: 2.5 hours
Buyin: $300
Stakes: 2/5NL
Cashout: $513
Profit: $+213

Cheers,

mazzler

10/5/2011

2011-10-05T03:26:00.000-07:00

Sup Gang,

It's been a long time since my last post. I took a bunch of time off to do all sorts of ill shit. I had my birthday at the end of July, a bunch of birthdays in August and I went on a cruise not too long ago with my girlfriend around the Caribbean. Going on that downswing really deterred me from playing more poker but on the cruise ship I got a chance to play some poker and realized that I am probably better than 90% of the population. I just have to get in my hours like I did when I played online and I know at the end of it I will be in the green. Playing live sometimes I take losing a few hundred bucks a little too seriously and feel like I need to win it back before the end of the session. I just have to remember that the fish will always be there tomorrow and today might not be my day.

I played two sessions the past couple days and I have to say I'm happy with how I am playing but the results aren't quite there. I am hoping to get in like 20 hours a week minimum and reevaluate my situation at the end of the month. Pretty much I am running pretty shitty but I managed to not lose too much money.

Session 1 & 2 Recap-
Time: 6 hours
Buyin: $1000
Stakes: 2/5NL
Cashout: $839
Profit: $-161

It just seemed that things weren't going my way. Top set in 3b pot and losing. Bricking my draws. I feel like I need to just play a lower variance style and just value bet my way to profit. It felt good to get back to the tables and I hope the next time I blog, I'll have some good things to talk about.

Cheers,

mazzler

July Results 8/2/2011

2011-08-02T02:46:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

Not much to report here. Just wasn't feeling poker for the tail end of July and just wanted to chill for my birthday and what not. My birthday was this past weekend and it was pretty awesome. We had a party over at my parents place which provided a lot more space than our condo. We started off with a poker tournament which I came in 4th/22 and I just drank myself into a blackout around 10pm. The next couple days were just spent recovering and now I realize I have some licenses for work to renew. It's just a pain in the ass that I have to do every couple years.

Poker was pretty meh for me. I just can't get anything going and I'm just going through that phase where I don't know if I'm a winning player or not. Hoping to get in a ton of hours this month and try to get some sort of true winrate. I had a couple sessions that I didn't record yet where I went like -600 and -300 I believe.

July Totals:
Sessions: 7
Time: 28 hours
Profit: -2000
Hourly: -$71/hr

So yeah, July was pretty ass at the tables but I think the time off recharged my chi or whatever and hope things can come together. Hoping I can get at least 60 hours in this month and just do work ya dig.

Hope you guys have been well!

Cheers,

mazzler

7/21/2011

2011-07-21T05:40:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

Just got back from a trip to Snoqualmie. It was actually a lot shorter drive than I expected. It usually takes me about 45 minutes to get to Tulalip and the drive to Snoqualmie took me about 25 minutes. Definite plus right here. When I arrived in the poker room there were 3 2/5 tables and 1 4/8 limit game running. I got seated pretty quickly at a table that turned out to be pretty damn juicy. There were a few people just playing every hand and calling down super light. I am trying to implement a new strategy based around limping more and just trying to take advantage of people playing terribly postflop.

While getting accustomed to my new table, I slowly bled off $200 of my initial $300 buyin. I topped off and got into a hand with 77. I opened the action in EP and got 3 callers. Came down 654ss and the huge fish led for 25 and I raised it up to 75. I got this old guy to flat and the fish called as well. The turn was the 3x and it got checked to me and I just shipped my remaining 125 into the pot. The old guy called and the river came 5x and he turns over AKss for the missed FD. At this time we were playing shorthanded so I was playing in a ton of pots with the huge fish but he kept getting some super premium hands.

The next hand of the night came when we got another table to combine with ours and a older Vietnamese dude sat down with about 3k. He was limping and calling every single raise preflop and tried to bluff a ton. I opened AA UTG and he flats as well as the huge fish. It comes down 977ss and I cb 50 and viet dude calls. Turn is the 6s and I check and he bets 120. I look back at my cards and see that I have the As just in case. The river is a 3x and it gets checked down and I scoop. I elected to c/c turn and check river because I didn't want to get blown off the hand and wasn't sure if he'd call more streets with weaker hands.

The next orbit I get JJ in the CO and I raise it up big because the fish were L/C raises to 50. The viet guy and the huge fish call again and the flop comes down 972r. I cb 65 and the viet guy raises to 140. He has been raising a lot of TP type of hands so I elected to flat with about 550 behind. The turn is the Tx and I check and he bets out 210. I decide to ship it because he can call with a lot of worse hands and I didn't feel like folding to this dude. He ended up tanking and saying how this would be a crazy call. He ended up calling because he said there was too much money in the pot and the river came like a 3x and I ended up scooping. He later told me had 98.

The last orbit I played I picked up AA in MP and raised to 45 after a couple limpers came in and they all called along with the viet guy. Flop came down KQ9dd and it got checked to me and I led for 90 and the viet guy called again. I observed that he would play his strong hands aggressively on the flop so when he called I put him on a pair or diamonds. The turn was a 7x and he c/c again my bet of 140. The river brought the 3x and he checked again and this is where I might have messed up. I thought his range consisted of more diamonds than kings, and didn't want him shoving over my vb so I ended up checking and he said he had a king and I scoop. Take into account that I have been on a downswing so I took the lower variant play but it might have cost me some money.

Session 5 Recap-
Time: 6 hours
Buyin: $500
Stakes: 2/5 NL
Cashout: $1640
Profit: +1140

It feels incredible to finally get a winning session under my belt after running so bad for so long. I will definitely be hitting up Sno in the future and hope that things will work out.

I also forgot to mention that Sno has hourly $200 high hands through 2am so that was pretty cool as well as having a Monte Carlo for quads or better.

Cheers,

mazzler

7/20/2011 Update

2011-07-20T01:54:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

Ended up catching a movie up north so I ended up going to Tulalip instead of Sno tonight. Was there for a whole 2 hours and lost $700. Started off grinding 1/3 while I waited for my 3/5 seat and quickly went up a $100 after getting 3 streets with J2 on JJ527. I then lost a decent sized pot with T7hh on 872KT. I then got moved to 3/5 and immediately got into a few pots. I opened K8hh in CO and got called by this bad reg on the BTN. Flop came J86cc and I just c/shoved after he bet 50 and he tank called off his remaining 100 with TT. I've played with him a ton and he would stack off with a lot of worse hands. Anyway it bricked out and I'm just feeling down on myself. The next hand there was a straddle and I open to 25 UTG w/ 55 and get a call from the SB who is a good reg that tends to play his hands pretty damn passively. Flop comes J65r and SB checks and I bet 45 with about 210 behind. SB elects to call and the turn is a 7x. SB checks again and I fire 65 and he almost instantly ships. I call and he obv turns over JJ. FML. I just ended up leaving right then and here I am. It's been a while since I flopped a set and I just get shitted on. Gonna try to hit up Sno tomorrow and hopefully get all this behind me.

Session 4 Recap-
Time: 2 hours
Buyin: $700
Stakes: 1/3 NL, 3/5 NL
Cashout: $0
Profit: -700

Cheers,

mazzler

Downswing Update 7/18/2011

2011-07-18T04:05:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

Sorry for not updating you guys in a while but I been on a downer and just took some time off from poker. I took about 1.5 weeks off and juts got back from the casino. I will recap my previous sessions and then dive into this last session. I ended up losing 1200 last week, 200 at the home game, and 1k at the 3/5 game at Tulalip. I have just been playing terribly and overadjusting. I am trying to get too fancy and just not playing very fundamentally sound. This is why I took the break to reevaluate everything. I came back to the casino today and felt really good with how I played but the tables weren't particularly awesome. My 3/5 table had about 6 solid regs on it and I actually opted to move tables to the 1/3 game since there weren't any other 3/5 games running. It was pretty up and down and I got it in AA v ATss and ended up losing that when it rolled out KQTTx. I decided to cut my losses and just bounced. Ended up losing about 350 and I am thinking about getting a change of scenery. I will be checking out the Snoqualmie poker room in the next few days and will let you guys know how it goes.

Session 1 & 2Recap-
Time: 10 hours
Buyin: $1200
Stakes: .5/1NL and 3/5NL
Cashout: $0
Profit: -1200

Session 3 Recap-
Time: 4 hours
Buyin: $350
Stakes: 1/3 NL, 3/5 NL
Cashout: $0
Profit: -350

Just hoping to get out of this slump and come back with some positive results. Wish me some rungood plz.

Cheers,

mazzler

7/1/2011

2011-07-01T04:20:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

Not much has really gone on since the last update. We went to Vegas for the NHL awards and was fun to hang out in the sun and see some friends. Didn't get a chance to really play poker as I opted to just sorta hang out and drink myself silly. I did end up dumping a ton of money in the pit which is tilting. I'm going to restrict myself from going too crazy at the table games and just try to concentrate on poker.

I played in the home game on Tuesday and it was pretty bad for me. There were 9 of us to start and a lot of new faces. The most memorable hand of the night is when I open the CO with AQhh and the BTN flats. We had a new dealer that was learning how to deal and she fucked up the flop and it came T97hh but she forgot to burn a card. So they killed the door card and the flop was TT7h. I cb anyway because the BTN is really fishy and will end up folding on later streets. The turn is a Qx and I c/c a bet of 30. The river brings a 9x and I check and he ships for 90. I tank for about 3 minutes and decide to call and he says "you got it". I decided to wait for him to table his hand for the info and he flips over J8hh. This is the first time I have been slowrolled in real life. I almost flipped the table over and punched this dude in the face. I was just stunned and was later told by the table that this guy gets really nervous or some shit and inadvertently slowrolls people. Like this dude expects me to show up with a full house when I tank. That just threw me off my game for the rest of the night and end up dumping $500.

I also played a session at Tulalip today and yesterday. Yesterday's session was like a dream. I went a little earlier than usual and ended up having to sit at 1/3 for a while since the waitlist was like 10 deep for 3/5. I ended up just getting everyone to fold when I was bluffing and stacked everyone that called me. I ended up cashing out $1500 along with winning my first $200 for the high hand of the hour. It was low stress and I was running really well too.

Today's session was almost the complete opposite. The poker room was pretty packed today which I attribute to their Thursday night tourney that seems to draw a lot of entrants. Nothing really happened for me and I played one hand very poorly where I ended up just calling down the nittiest player at the table with TP only to get shown aces obv. I ended up dumping $400 and decided to call it a night a little earlier than usual. Even though I lost money, I feel proud of myself for leaving when I wasn't playing my best or when things weren't going that great. I kind of wish I left when I was even because I lost that big pot at the end of the night. Oh well I guess you live and you learn.

Session 10 Recap-
Time: 6 hours
Buyin: $500
Stakes: .5/1 and 1/2 Home Game
Cashout: $0
Profit: -500

Session 11 Recap-
Time: 7 hours
Buyin: $200
Stakes: 1/3 NL
Cashout: $1700
Profit: +1500

Session 12 Recap-
Time: 5 hours
Buyin: $800
Stakes: 3/5NL
Cashout: $400
Profit: -400

June Totals:
Sessions: 11
Time: 55.5 hours
Profit: +3925
Hourly: $70/hr

The tables were pretty bad so I'm hoping there will be softer tables that I can table select from. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Cheers,

mazzler

6/17/2011

2011-06-17T07:15:00.001-07:00

Hey Gang,

Just got back from a session at the casino and it was pretty meh. I was put on a great table but just couldn't get anything going. I won a few small pots uncontested and slowly chipped up. Got AIPF with QQ < JJ and things just sorta got worse from there. The table ended up being mostly regs with a few soft spots and I just nitted it up for a while. The only memorable hand of the night was actually my last. I opened TT UTG shorthanded and the BTN and the Cowboy calls from the SB. Flop comes T72r and I cb 45 and they both call. The turn is a Jx and I cb 140, which left me with about 300 behind. The BTN folds but the Cowboy calls. At this point I figure the Cowboy to have a pair with a straight draw or some shit. This guy is pretty bad and can honestly show up with anything here. I figured if he hit a straight he would have raised OTT as well. The river was a 3x and he checked to me. I thought for a while and decided shoving was the best play. He could call with any pair and it might make my hand look bluffy. He ended up tank folding and I racked up and left for the night. That last hand got me unstuck and I even got a steak dinner paid for as well.

Session 9 Recap-
Time: 5.5 hours
Buyin: $800
Stakes: 3/5NL
Cashout: $805
Profit: +5

I'm just glad that even though I ran pretty shitty, I climbed back out of the hole. I know it's just a matter of time before I just crush everyone.

Cheers,

mazzler

6/16/2011

2011-06-16T06:21:00.001-07:00

Hey Gang,

Just got back from Tulalip and I just got crushed. Pretty much dropped 1k with the table not even being that tough. I just put myself in shitty spots and called off my chips way too much. Not going to bore you with the hand histories, it was just me spewing and paying everyone off.

Session 8 Recap-
Time: 5 hours
Buyin: $1000
Stakes: 3/5NL
Cashout: $50
Profit: -950

Hopefully I can turn things around tomorrow.

Cheers,

mazzler

Update 6/15/2011

2011-06-14T23:57:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

Been a while since my last update. I just wanted to give you guys a quick rundown of what I've been up to since I last posted. Since the last entry I have played about 4 sessions. I played a home game on Tuesday with a group of guys I met at the casino. The game was pretty laggy even though it was just a .50/1 game. Straddles and double straddles were frequent which built the pots up pretty quickly. Long story short, I ended up dropping $350 in no time and at the end of the night I ended +190. It's a great group of guys and the games at the casino on Tuesdays isn't exactly that great either. The game is right down the street from my house so I will be definitely playing in this game more often if I continue to get invited.

The next few sessions at the casino weren't too much to write home about. I went the next day on Wednesday and actually ran into one of the guys in the home game. The game was really good and I think I ended the night +1600 or so. Thursday I remember going but I don't really remember what happened.

After baseball and a bbq on Saturday, some of the people I was with wanted to hit up the casino so I took the chance to grind on the weekend. I mainly just play during the weekdays so I can spend the weekends with my gf, but since she was amongst the group that wanted to go, I finally got to play on the weekend. I immediately got seated at a table with a couple of my friend's friends. Just a couple standard younger asian guys. First hand I played vs one of them I opened 99 from UTG and got flatted in MP. Comes down T82r and goes check, check. Turn is Jx and I c/c a bet of 40. River is a 3x and I figured he might just be bluffing and he could only bet a straight or a Jack and he ended up showing me AJo. OOPS. I then proceeded to 3b the hell out of the other guy and he folded every single time to me. This chipped me back up to my original buyin of $500. The next hand of interest came against the same guy I was 3b'n relentlessly. I opened CO with 87dd and got a caller on the BTN and the guy squeezes to 70. I flat because we both got about $600 and the BTN was a pretty bad player. BTN flats and flop comes Q45dd. Squeezer checks and I bet $110 and take it down. Little later in the night the guy to my right had shown a propensity to bluff a ton and really wanted to get in a hand with him. The time came when he opened CO and I flatted 96cc on BTN and one of the blinds came along. Flop comes 962ss and the original raiser bet $25 and I raised to $75 which he flatted. Turn was a 3s and he led into me for about $110 with about $250 behind. I decided to flat and reevaluate on the river. The river brought a 3x and he shoved and I tank called after about 2 minutes and he showed me the Qd and mucks. I'm not sure if he had QQ or just air. After this hand I just slowly chipped up and decided to quit after about a couple hours to catch up with the rest of the gang. Ended the session +900.

The last session I played was just last night. I quickly found out that Monday nights/Tuesday mornings are REALLY slow. There were only two tables on 3/5 running and both were shorthanded. I got placed on the asian gambling table it seemed. There were 5 of us and it seemed every pot had at least a $100 preflop and all ins were very frequent. It took me a while to adjust since most of the players aren't this aggressive so I slowly bled chips trying to figure out how to play against this lineup. I got down to about $230 from my original buyin of $500 when the pot was straddled and opened to $30 and every at the table called. I decided this was a good squeeze spot. I looked down in the straddle and saw the Ace of clubs and shoved. I was met by a reraise and was up against QQ. I actually got lucky against my opponent and took it down with A3o. The guy to my right looked at me befuddled as to why I would ship with A3o lol. I told him I just was squeezing and he didn't seem to understand. The very next hand they had a cowboy come over to our table and he immediately raises to $30 and I look down at AA in the SB and 3b to $120 with about $500 effective. He flats and we see a flop of 532dd. I decided to just open shove to make my hand look bluffy and he might call with an overpair. He did decide to call and the board ran out Tx, Tx, and I scooped the pot. After this hand they combined both tables it was just a rollercoaster for me. My stack fluctuated from 1k to 500 for most of the night. I eventually got down to $250 after an ill advised bluff vs the cowboy. I ended up getting my stack in AK v AA and almost decided to leave after dropping $500. I decided to reload and a new player sat down who turned out to be very gambly. He had about $250 left in his straddle and I open AQo to $30 and he shoves and I call. He turns over 96cc and I hold. The very next hand I open AKo UTG and the same guy squeezes to 120. He has about $400 total and I just ship and he calls with 64o and I hold again. After a few orbits this guy ends up leaving and I am dead tired by this time. I played for about 6 hours and wanted to beat traffic on the way home. I ended up cashing out $1130 for a profit of $130. This was by far the hardest day for me. I was card dead for a long time and the competition was just a lot better than usual. I am hoping this trend isn't going to continue and that I can get on some softer tables.

Session 3 Recap-
Time: 6 hours
Buyin: $500
Stakes: .5/1 Home Game
Cashout: $680
Profit: +180

Session 4 Recap-
Time: 4 hours
Buyin: $500
Stakes: 3/5NL
Cashout: $2100
Profit: +1600

Session 5 Recap-
Don't remember

Session 6 Recap-
Time: 2 hours
Buyin: $500
Stakes: 3/5NL
Cashout: $1400
Profit: +900

Session 7 Recap-
Time: 6 hours
Buyin: $1000
Stakes 3/5NL
Cashout: $1130
Profit: $130

Here's hoping that Monday won't happen again!

Cheers,

mazzler

6/6/2011

2011-06-06T05:12:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

Just got back from Tulalip after a day of doing nothing. That's my idea of perfect Sunday! Anyway I made the drive up north and saw that there were a lot more tables on this night than the Thursday night I played last time. I was on the waitlist for about 30 minutes before getting onto a table. The first table I was at seemed okay from the look of it. The first hand I played, I iso'd to 25 w/ 33 in MP v an UTG limper. Flop came KK5hh and the limper c/c my bet of 35. Turn was a 8x and the limper again c/c for 65. River was a 3x and this guy c/c a $200 shove with KQ. That got me up to about 800 and got berated for a while. It's always fun to get berated because the people that do it are always so bad. My last hand at this table happened against this guy that had been drinking for a bit but actually seemed like the only one that knew what he was doing. I opened QQ from UTG to 20 and get him to call from the SB. Flop comes Q76 and drunk guy c/c $25. Turn is a nice 2x which the drunk again c/c $65. The river was a Kx and for some reason he led for $225 which left him with about $125 behind. I shoved after a couple seconds and gives a speech about me having KQ or something but he mucked pretty quick after that.

Our table broke after a while and I got moved to another table and scanned around the table. I had a guy wearing some Las Vegas hat to my right and one other player a two seats to my right that looked reggish. When I say reggish, I mean he looked young and had a big stack. Turned out that this guy was pretty good so I chose my spots against this particular player. After a couple orbits of mucking, I picked up AQo from the BB. The reggy guy opens to $15 on BTN, asian SB flats, and I 3b to $55. The SB overcalls and the flop comes K77 and the SB c/c $50. Turn is 8x and SB c/f to a bet of $120. I figure he flats with a lot of small PP and double barreling will get him off most of those hands. A few hands later I pick up AA in MP and I squeeze the reg and SB and get no action. The very next hand I pick up AKss and squeeze the same two guys again by the SB overcalls. We were both about $1600 deep at this point. Flop comes 722cc and SB leads for $300. At this point I'm like wtf. It looks so much like 99-JJ but I'm not sure if he is folding to a raise. I contemplated just flatting but in the end I just mucked because I told myself I should avoid those marginal situations. There was one really huge whale at the table that would L/C pretty much his whole range. He got c/r on a KQJT9sss and actually shoved with JTo. LOL.

The most interesting hand of the night was when I got into a hand with the reggy looking guy. He opened CO to $20 and I 3b to $55 on BTN w/ K7ss. He 4b to $160 and for some reason in Washington, you can only put in 3 raises. He had about $600 total and I had him covered. I elected to flat because it looks super strong on my end and I had position. Flop comes 852r and he checks. I decided to bet $110 and he tanked for about 5 minutes before folding. The reason I 3b and flatted was because I had already 3b him about 3 or 4 times beforehand and he always folded. I feel like he was positionally aware that I could show up light so I think he could be 4b'n light as well. When he checks, I am only worried he played AA tricky and would c/r but I still elected to bet because I am obv never going to win that pot at showdown and needed to put maximum pressure on him.

Session 2 Recap-
Time: 4 hours
Buyin: $500
Stakes: 3/5
Cashout: $1515
Profit: +1015

Just need to keep grinding and I feel like I have a huge edge in these games. I am hoping the games are this good on the other days I plan on going. Good luck at the tables.

Cheers,

mazzler

Resurrection

2011-06-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

Long time no post! Since my last post a lot has gone down. I was doing pretty well up until April, playing mostly 200NL and 400NL. Then Black Friday hit and everyone just got shitted on. I have to admit that this was pretty depressing and I took the next few weeks off to try and just figure out what to do next. Along with poker, I do financial planning on the side that I could always fall back on. Just last week though I decided I would try to do the live grind for a month to see how I would do and re-access at the end of the month.

This blog is going to mainly talk about my live sessions and just a way for me to record keep for myself. There are a couple casinos within 30-40 minutes of me that I have to choose from but I have decided to grind mostly at Tulalip Casino. The reason I chose Tulalip over Snoqualmie is because of the $500 max buy at the 3/5 game as opposed to only $300 max at Sno. The poker room is also better IMO because of the spaciousness of Tulalip. The Sno poker room is like a sardine can where every table is squished right next to each other and it is cold as hell in there.

I had my first session of the month last night and found out that Tulalip has a hourly high hand promotion worth $200. This was the cherry on top of everything I mentioned previously about Tulalip. I took a look at the waitlists and decided to hop on the 3/5 game to shake the rust off my live game before diving into 5/10. I usually play a little tighter when I first get to the table just to get a feel for my opponents. I quickly found that there were 2 solid players at my table and the rest were pretty big fish. The first hand of note happened about 5 minutes after I sat down. I iso'd a UTG+1 and MP limp with J8cc on BTN to 25. Flop came Ax7s2s; I got c/c by UTG+1 for 40. Turn was another Ace. UTG+1 c/c again for 95. I cbet here because he might dump his FD with the board pairing and even if he has an ace, I don't think he has a very strong kicker. The river came a 9x. I bet 185 this time thinking he was going to fold all his small aces but he actually tank called after about 5 minutes with A8ss. I guess I'm just a fish and I shouldn't try to bluff so much. This helped me build an aggro image though because it seemed as though I was the only person at the table willing to bluff. After this hand I topped off to 500 again.

No other hands of note really came up for the next few hours but I slowly chipped up to even with about a $800 stack. The next hand of interest began when it got limped around to me in the SB and I woke up with KK. I raise it up to 35 and got 1 call by a nit reg. Flop came down Q99r and I elected to check because I think his hand consists of a lot of pocket pairs and I only really get value from some Q's and JT. Nitreg checked back and the turn was a 3x. I cb 45 and got called. River is a 7x which I wasn't entirely happy about but I bet 80 and was prepared to fold to a raise but he just flatted and mucked.

The game ran pretty shorthanded for a while, having usually 4-5 players until the end of the night where they combined another table with ours. It was just playing as many hands as possible against the fish and value betting as best I could. There was one guy that would never bet his strong hands and would c/c his mid set vs TP. It made it a lot easier for me to play against him because he played so passively. I was able to pick my spots carefully and ended the night with about a $1250 stack. After my total buyin of $800, I was up about $450 after about 5 hours of grinding.

Overall I'm happy with how I played because the table wasn't exactly the best since there were actually a few good players at the table. I plan on playing Sunday-Thursday between 11pm-5am. I'm hoping the games will be running during those times as its the only time I can really go.

Session 1 Recap-
Time: 5 hours
Buyin: $800
Cashout: $1250
Profit: +450

Hopefully we can get some rungood and crush this month.

Cheers,

mazzler

October Results

2010-11-23T23:31:00.000-08:00

Hey Gang,

Been super lazy with this blog but I have not forgotten about you! Just going to be a short update because I plan on blogging again at the beginning of December. Can't believe the year is almost over and I already know with all the holidays around the corner, it'll be the new year real quick.

RESULTS:

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The month went about as good as I could hope for. I started the month off super hot and sorta cooled down towards the end. I can't be complacent though because there were definitely some spots where I could improve and I know I can't just rely on running hot at 200NL and above.

That's all for now and I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Cheers,

mazzler

September Recap

2010-10-04T14:04:00.001-07:00

Hey Gang,

September started off pretty bad and thanks to Brian, was saved at the end. Pretty much I was just burning money and Brian helped me plug some leaks and I feel like I'm gonna just crush in October.

In other news, Pokerstars has decided to stop serving residents of Washington state. Pretty shitty huh? So I'm anticipating that FTP will be doing the same soon so I will be trying to grind as much as possible as well as finding a solution to this problem.

I haven't been playing as much Starcraft lately but the games we have played, we have been doing a lot better. Couple of the guys probably got coaching or something because they have been carrying our team. Time to ride their coattails to diamond!

GRAPH:

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Again I'd like to thank Brian for helping me out! You can tell where he started sweating me and the rest is history.

GOALS:

4ptbb+ @ 100NL
Top 50 winner at 100NL

Hope you guys had a great September!

Cheers,

mazzler

August Recap/September Goals

2010-09-01T05:19:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

LIFE:

First off, where the hell did summer go? I'm up in Seattle, WA and its freezing up here already. Can't even get through August and its all loom and gloom again. August from what I can remember was a pretty solid month. My gf and I have been making new friends and it has been fun to get to know new people. It all culminated with a end-of-the-year bbq last weekend. Obviously there was lots of drinking and grilling and was good times.

POKER:

August was okay IMO in regards to poker. It was up and down for me and eventually I went on a miniheater at the end of the month to grind out a small profit. I feel like I'm doing really well and knowing what to do in certain situations to be more profitable. I took a few shots at 200NL and it didn't go too great so I have decided to just concentrate on being the best 100NL reg and when I think I am one of the top 100NL regs, I will move up to 200NL.

Graphs:

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GOALS:

4ptbb @ 100NL

Only one goal for September and it is to CRUSH 100NL. I know I can play well enough to get top 10 on PTR's top winners.

Hope you guys had a great summer!

Cheers,

mazzer

July Recap

2010-08-03T16:38:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

July was pretty meh on the poker front but awesome on the life front. I only got in about 50k hands at 100NL for a whopping +1200. Started the month off running terrible and it sort of evened out in the end. I blame the lack of volume with a trip to Vegas as well as my birthday at the end of the month. It definitely is really hard to get back into grinding when you take more than a few days off from the game. I just couldn't get any traction after getting back from Vegas. I feel like I won't be able to get many hands in for August either with.... the release of SC2! If anyone out there wants to play, hit me up!

Plans for August are to play at least a little bit but I already know the majority of my time will be spent on SC2. Hopefully I can grind out some profit at tables at the same time hittin diamond league in SC.

Cheers,

mazzler

Vegas!

2010-07-09T02:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

Gonna head to Vegas in a couple hours to hang out with a big group of friends. Hopefully I'll get a chance to put in decent volume at the 2/5 and maybe 5/10 games at the V. Anyone that's in the area feel free to leave a comment so we can get in touch.

Hope everyone has been well.

Cheers,

Mazzler

Ugh.

2010-07-03T04:04:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

So I started Friday completely crushing and ended the day at +730 over 5k hands. Came home around midnight to fire up the tables again it was just a disaster. -740 over only 2800 hands. I ran terrible but that included some really sick coolers (set over set, runner runner BS).

Awesome Friday Afternoon:

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Disaster Saturday Morning:

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So far I am running 6 BI below EV. It just feels really sick because when I'm not getting sucked out on, I'm just getting totally set up which just makes things that much worse. Great start to July.

/vent

mazzler

June Results/July Goals

2010-07-01T01:24:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

Hope everyone has been well. Let's start off with June's goals.

75k hands at 100NL/200NL - Success
Study more through vids/sweats - Success
Become a rakeback affiliate? - Still working on this one.

June was sort of a downer at the beginning of the month but then I decided to get some coaching to get myself over the hump. For anyone that is looking for a good full ring coach, you definitely gotta look up Damn Ringer on Cardrunners. This guy is just really good at helping people plug leaks as well as giving good insight on really common spots that trip people up.

I have also been using my down time on watching FR vids on CR, mostly from Rask, and have been really helpful. If you aren't already, check out the videos on CR and it could definitely help add to your overall winrate.

The topic of becoming a rakeback affiliate is still in the works. There is just so many things that I have to learn before even considering doing this. Hopefully in a few months I can get this venture off the ground.

As I posted above, June got off to a pretty crappy start. Breaking even for the first 50k hands was just like a kick in the nuts. I'm sure everyone has experienced it so I won't go too much in detail about the ugliness. The 2nd half of the month is when I got some coaching from Damn Ringer and after a few sessions with him, I see 100NL completely different.

Overall graph for June 2010:

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Graph after getting coaching from DR:

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The major adjustments DR has helped me make was to open up my game more and attacking when the time is right. I'm still getting the hang of it but each day I feel like I am getting better. Needless to say, I hope to be at 200NL in the near future and hopefully crushing.

OVERALL:

+3100 over 97k @ 100NL, 1.58BB/100
+1350 RB

GOALS:

75k hands at 100NL
Take shots at 200NL
3BB/100

Hope everyone has been well and good luck in July!

Cheers,

Mazzler

May Results/June Goals

2010-06-03T03:17:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang,

I hope everyone had a better May than I did. I'll just post the graph and save you the words.

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My goals from April were as follows:

75k+ hands at 100NL - Success
3BB/100 winrate - epic fail
Study more poker through sweats, hh reviews, asking questions - Borderline
Get back to the gym regularly - Fail

Even though I played a ton of hands this month, I just couldn't get things going. It seemed like I'd have one winning session and then have a losing session right after that. For my first month back thought I'll definitely take the win. I'm going to use this a motivational tool to push me to study more and do everything I can to get better.

In other news I was entertaining the idea of starting a website as a poker affiliate. I know nothing about going about this but it seems like a very profitable investment of my time. I've sent out a couple emails to people to get insight about this topic but like I said, I'm just throwing the idea out there. If anyone has any thoughts on starting up an affiliate, let me know.

OVERALL

+$1240 poker
+$1300 rakeback

GOALS

75k hands at 100NL/200NL
Study more through vids/sweats
Become a rakeback affiliate?

Hope everyone has a profitable June!

Cheers,

Mazzler

May Update

2010-05-28T03:53:00.001-07:00

Hey gang,

May has been pretty up and down for me. Seems I can't string together a few winning sessions. I have been having one winning session and one or two losing sessions right after that. Overall I'm +14 BI at the moment but I've put in almost 75k hands. I can't complain since this is my first month back on FTP. I'm hoping to get back to 200NL either next month or the following month. I plan to take some shots at 200NL and see how I do.

In other news I wanna give a big shoutout to Damn Ringer. He will be making videos for Cardrunners and he definitely deserves it. He has helped me a ton with my game and is just an overall great guy. So again, congrats Eric!

Cheers,

Mazzler

Getting Crushed.

2010-05-12T04:18:00.000-07:00

Past few days I have been getting destroyed at the tables. Cbets getting raised, hands not holding up, etc. I really hope this is temporary because I was doing pretty well at 100NL (20BI) before these past few days came up. I'm also thinking about getting a coach to help me progress through the games. If anyone has any thoughts let me know.

Cheers,

Mazzler

April Results/May Goals

2010-05-03T01:25:00.000-07:00

So April was sort of a goofy month for me. I was on Playersonly (Cake Network) but the games were completely dead and I didn't feel like moving to FTP until I checked out the new software they were coming out with on the 15th. So between the 1st and 15th I would check the PO lobby to see what games were running and it would only be the 5/10 green tables. If you aren't familiar with Playersonly, it is mostly a sports betting site that has poker as well. So the green tables are only for the Playersonly skin. This equates to massive fish with big stacks that love to gamble. Normally I play 1/2 or 2/4 but with no other games running I could 1 or 2 table 5/10 comfortably.

Looking at my HEM for April, I ran ridiculously hot. ~1600 hands for +2200. Adjust EV? -1600. I was lucky to win the flips and one KK > AA AIPF. Also tallied about 1k at 3/6 over ~900 hands.

In the middle of month I took a week long vacation to Miami with my gf and a couple friends. It was nice to take some time off but I had the urge to grind. So I hopped back on FTP because the new PO skin was terrible and played a couple sessions to get my feet wet. When we got back from vacation I just had grind on the mind and put in 40k hands from Sunday-Wednesday. In the end the final tally came out to be +1800 over ~40k hands at 100NL. I continued to run hot because my adjusted EV was ~+900.

It is definitely nice to run hot but it also gives me the false sense of security at the same time. I thought I was just playing well but I was just getting really lucky. Either way I'll take it.

SUMMARY-

42k hands +5k
RB - +800

Total: $5800

GOALS-

75k+ hands at 100NL
3BB/100 winrate
Study more poker through sweats, hh reviews, asking questions
Get back to the gym regularly

Cheers,

Mazzler

Getting Started

2010-04-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

BACKGROUND-

24y/o player from Washington State. Mostly play 200NLFR but starting back at 100NLFR.

PAST-

So I was a FTP reg for a little while a couple years ago and then switched over to Cake and it was great. Then the games started dying (obv) and I couldn't get the volume in that I wanted. Then a couple weeks ago the skin I played on (PlayersOnly) was moving to the Merge network. I was hesitant to move over but waited until I loaded up the software and my god is it bad. This led me to take my action back to FTP.

When I was a reg at 200NLFR a couple years ago, I was a super nit playin 10/8 and ran hot for a little while and grinding RB. Then I just played bad and never really learned. This is why I wanted to use this blog to help me get better by getting advice from other players and to help me go over sessions because normally I would just shut down after playing. Evaluating my game and getting better is what I want to do because who knows how much longer we can do this.

PRESENT-

So like I posted earlier, I am back on FTP playing 100NL. The reason for this is to rebuild my bankroll and to just get re-accustomed to the new environment. I took for granted what I had at Cake because the players weren't as good as they are on FTP. I don't want to make the same mistake I did two years ago by just being complacent and "beating" the game for .80bb/100. I feel like I have the tools to be a 2bb+ winner but I just have to keep working at it. It is easy for a lot of poker players to either get lazy or complacent. With the distractions of everyday life (COD, TV, etc) it can be hard to grind the volume you want. But as the old adage says, if you're not getting better, you're getting worse. I firmly believe that because the game is constantly evolving and you have to keep on your game or else it's going to pass you by.

In conclusion, I hope this blog will help motivate and succeed in being a better poker player. I am happy to talk and meet new people so feel free to email me at jmar1985@gmail.com or leave your contact info.

Cheers,

Mazzler