Honestly, wtf is the deal with 3/6

Gah what a stupid session.

Played two tables of 2/4 and two tables of 3/6, most of it during a lesson with Wilt, with the usual results. I was actually doing pretty well at 3/6 until the following back to back hands:

Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

Jordan Morgan (BB): $2,286.35
sexy_indeed (UTG): $795.40
Frisk95 (CO): $438.80
arrrrtard (BTN): $1,788.05
additionally (SB): $1,005.25

Pre-Flop: 2 2 dealt to arrrrtard (BTN)
sexy_indeed raises to $21, Frisk95 folds, arrrrtard calls $21, additionally folds, Jordan Morgan calls $15

Flop: ($66) 2 3 K (3 Players)
Jordan Morgan checks, sexy_indeed bets $50, arrrrtard calls $50, Jordan Morgan folds

Turn: ($166) A (2 Players)
sexy_indeed bets $120, arrrrtard raises to $333, sexy_indeed raises to $724.40 and is All-In, arrrrtard calls $391.40

River: ($1,614.80) T (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

Results: $1,614.80 Pot ($3 Rake)
sexy_indeed showed 4 5 (a straight, Five high) and WON $1,611.80 (+$816.40 NET)
arrrrtard showed 2 2 (three of a kind, Twos) and LOST (-$795.40 NET)

Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

td8507 (SB): $676
SnowyOwl85 (BB): $641.25
LP400S (UTG): $576.65
arrrrtard (BTN): $1,803.90

Pre-Flop: A K dealt to arrrrtard (BTN)
LP400S raises to $21, arrrrtard raises to $72, 2 folds, LP400S calls $51

Flop: ($153) K 2 5 (2 Players)
LP400S checks, arrrrtard bets $111, LP400S calls $111

Turn: ($375) J (2 Players)
LP400S checks, arrrrtard checks

River: ($375) 3 (2 Players)
LP400S bets $264, arrrrtard calls $264

Results: $903 Pot ($2 Rake)
LP400S showed J J (three of a kind, Jacks) and WON $901 (+$454 NET)
arrrrtard mucked A K(a pair of Kings) and LOST (-$447 NET)

Sexy_indeed is a bad nit, so I was pretty surprised that 45s was in his UTG opening range (he limps a fair amount). LP400S is a standard 33/12 donk and I kind of wanted to fold the river but we decided not to.

But yeah, guess I can’t complain too much, still up about $1k (my winnings are off a bit because my fucking internet keeps cutting out… yes I’m pretty tilted). Oh well.

Blah

Just finished a lesson w Wilt, down about $730 or so in 800 hands. We ran really badly but for some reason I’m completely, unreasonably bummed about it.

I guess two buyin downswings hurt when you’ve only played 8k hands all month. I’m trying to get back in the poker groove but it’s just not happening – I’ve had no motivation to play whatsoever over the past week or so. Getting kind of depressed about it.

In better news, I went to another crossfit thing today and got totally owned. Next one’s on Wednesday, I’m looking forward to it.

Crossfit is funnn

Went to the info session yesterday morning and had a complete blast. The facility is badass – gymnastic rings, medicine balls, dumbells, kettlebells, weights and of course a big pullup bar. The session consisted of me and two other guys, probably mid to late twenties and in pretty good shape, getting coached by Jon Gilmore. Jon was awesome – clearly a beast, funny, and he knows his shit. He has a website too, againfaster.com, you should all check it out.

We worked on squat technique, ball slams, wall ball, kettlebell swings (w 30lb dumbells though since they didn’t have lighter kettlebells), and box jumps. Afterwards we tried doing three rounds of 15 each of ball slams, wall ball, swings and box jumps, for time. Lol, none of us finished – I was on my second round of box jumps when Jon was like, nope, you’re done buddy. God damn I’m out of shape. And lol, I am soooo sore today.

Tomorrow morning I start “phase I”, which consists of three one-hour private sessions with Jon to get me up to speed with the crossfit repertoire, and then I get join the regular daily classes. Should be awesome.

Blah stop snowing

My cold refuses to die and it snowed all day today, so I’m grumpy. I am unbelievably sick of Boston winters. Couldn’t get motivated to play for some reason so all-in-all a pretty unproductive day.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to a free crossfit info session thing, should be fun, although ugh I really thought I’d be over this cold by now. I expect to get owned.

I’m baaack!

This time I actually had a pretty legit excuse for the blog hiatus…

It’s a pretty long and complicated (and kind of ridiculous) story, but two Sundays ago (on the 10th) I had to catch a last minute flight to Villahermosa, Mexico because of a family emergency. Cliff notes: my cousin Sylvia is bipolar. Her last severe manic episode was in 2004, and although I wasn’t really involved, I know it was pretty bad. This time around she was gallivanting about in the jungles of Mexico with a commune of hippies. As she got more and more manic the hippies (I met two of her friends from the commune, and they were genuinely wonderful people) decided she needed to get some medical care, so they got in touch Sylvia’s stepmother in Montreal, who got in touch with the rest of her family, which set off a rescue effort. My mom, my aunt Nell (Sylvia’s mom) and I were the people on the ground, while other relatives in the States and Canada helped organize from afar. My job was initially just to help out my mom, but I ended up being the communications guy because I had the only laptop and no one’s phone would work. I sent more emails in Mexico than I had in the past six months probably.

Thankfully, things went very very smoothly, considering how badly they could have gone. Variance ftw. Sylvia made it from the her jungle camp to a hospital in Villahermosa (about 6 hours by car) without too many problems, and then this past Friday (the 15th) we all flew back to Montreal and checked her into the McGill University hospital. I flew back to Boston the next day, whereupon I proceeded to get knocked the fuck out by a ridiculous cold. I’ve still got the sniffles and feel like my brain is working at about 70%. Pretty annoying. Oh yeah and I also picked up some diarrhea. Ughhh.

So, I haven’t played any poker in almost two weeks… blah so much for the hand challenge. I’ve got a lesson later today, so hopefully I can come back strong.

Ok, on the the less dramatic part of the broadcast. I am still totally hooked on Smallville. I’m about three quarters of the way done with the third season. I still don’t think it’s as good as Buffy (Clark is great, Chloe can actually act! but doesn’t get much screen time, Pete’s okay but kind of meh, I hope Lana gets shot in the face) but it has its charms for sure. I’ve also just started watching the new show Reaper. I’m undecided so far – there were a couple hysterical moments in the pilot, but the next few episodes weren’t as funny and the plotting/mechanics of the show are a little shaky. I will persevere though because the girl is a baaaaabe. Tbh she’s such a babe that her character doesn’t make any sense – wtf is a girl that hot doing working at a shitty hardware store? The funny thing is that in the original version of the pilot they had a different girl playing her part, and she was waaaay more plausible – she’s hot but not quite so freakishly perfect looking. Whatever, Missy Peregrym >>> plausibility imo.

Only other update is that I think I’m gonna give crossfit a shot. There’s a really awesome looking crossfit gym in Boston, and I’m gonna try out their free intro session this Saturday. Judging by some of their youtube videos, crossfit looks like a complete blast – I did some crossfit-style workouts for soccer in high school, and omfg they were hard (but fun too).

Back to the grind, Alan

Post-lesson update: Booyah

Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

arrrrtard (BTN): $604.70
SB: $463.90
BB: $657.90
UTG: $524.10
MP: $585.90
CO: $398

Pre-Flop: J J dealt to arrrrtard (BTN)
2 folds, CO raises to $12, arrrrtard calls $12, SB folds, BB raises to $50, CO folds, arrrrtard calls $38

Flop: ($114) 7 J 7 (2 Players)
BB bets $114, arrrrtard calls $114

Turn: ($342) 2 (2 Players)
BB checks, arrrrtard bets $120, BB calls $120

River: ($582) T (2 Players)
BB checks, arrrrtard bets $320.70 and is All-In, BB calls $320.70

Results: $1,223.40 Pot ($3 Rake)
arrrrtard showed J J (a full house, Jacks full of Sevens) and WON $1,220.40 (+$615.70 NET)
BB mucked T T (a full house, Tens full of Sevens) and LOST (-$604.70 NET)

Villain was playing 65/13/0.5 over 120 hands. Oh so satisfying, and a pretty sick river. Up a little over $1k on the day, nice way to ease back into poker.

Gonna be sick

Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

UTG: $390
Hero (CO): $778.80
BTN: $283
SB: $952.60
BB: $983.50

Pre-Flop: J J dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $14, BTN folds, SB calls $12, BB raises to $56, Hero calls $42, SB calls $42

Flop: ($168) 9 8 3 (3 Players)
SB checks, BB bets $100, Hero calls $100, SB folds

Turn: ($368) 7 (2 Players)
BB bets $250, Hero calls $250

River: ($868) 5 (2 Players)
BB bets $577.50 and is All-In, Hero calls $372.80 and is All-In

Results: $1,613.60 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero mucked J J (a pair of Jacks) and LOST (-$778.80 NET)
BB showed 7 7 (three of a kind, Sevens) and WON $1,610.60 (+$831.80 NET)

This guy’s a maniac so I’m not sure I can fold. Maybe should have 4bet preflop, not totally sure. Probably never playing poker again.

Couple nice sessions

I’m still playing way fewer hands than I’d like, but I’m playing pretty well I think and results have been okay. Played about 2k hands yesterday and picked up 3 buyins, and another 2.5 buyins today in 1300 hands or so. Nothing crazy but still nice.

The laziness is partially because I just started watching the show Smallville. It’s about a young Clark Kent (Superman) growing up Smallville, Kansas. The show is structurally almost identical to Buffy (although there are some interesting differences), so I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising I like it. So far I’d say Buffy is much, much better, but Smallville is definitely pretty entertaining. It’s also kind of cool since I don’t really know much about the story behind Superman – I saw the old movies as a kid but I’ve never read the comics, so this is all pretty new material for me. It’s in the middle of its seventh season, so I’ll be pretty busy this month…

Not much else is knew this month (off to kind of a slow start tbh). I’ve been listening to one of the sweetest bands ever though – they’re called Anamanaguchi. They basically play old NES Megaman boss music. Trust me, they’re awesome.

Sometimes poker is really annoying

Just finished a lesson with WiltOnTilt, and gah it was frustrating. As usual, I picked up a quick $1k in my solo session beforehand, and then as soon as Wilt started sweating we ran like ass and now I’m stuck $500 in 1500 hands. Just one of those sessions – e.g. we had aces 11 times, and saw 3 flops. Ran AKs into AA aipf, didn’t flop a single set, etc. Poker is not always fun I guess.

The worst part though was that my fucking internet keeps cutting out. Sometimes my wireless connection is great, but lately it’s just completely sucked. There isn’t a whole lot I can do about it though, since our cable outlet is up in our attic, and I’m stuck playing on the ground floor. I usually have to mooch off our downstair neighbors’ internet, but it’s been incredibly unreliable for some reason. Ugh, these trivial frustrations drive me insane.

Anyways, I’m gonna watch some TV for a bit, and then put in another session later tonight.

February!

I was all set to grind out a few more buyins to end January but FTP had to go and get all laggy on me, so I decided to just take a day off and rest up for February. Didn’t do a whole lot today other than read my book and watch Blood Diamond. I have to admit, I didn’t think it looked that great in the previews, but I loved it. One of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. That said, how could I not like it, it’s got tons of cool accents and Jennifer Connolly.

As for February, I’ve got big plans. Well, sort of. I want to really push myself to grind some hands. I’m shooting for 50k. I think that’s very doable, especially since I’m getting used to 6-tabling. I just need to keep working on not burning myself out with overly long sessions when I’m stuck – I think consciously playing much shorter sessions will work out to way more hands. Part of the solution to that problem is reading Tommy Angelo’s new book, Elements of Poker. A couple poker friends have recommended it to me, and it looks pretty good.

Money-wise, if I can put in the hands I think I could pull in my first $20k month. I feel really comfortable at 2/4 at the moment, so with a little luck I’ll have a decent shot.

Oh yeah, and no 3/6 this month. That’s a promise. I’m gonna force myself to wait until I have $30k in my bankroll, and that way I can take some shots at 5/10 as well.

As far as non-poker stuff goes, my main goal is to keep going with the exercise routine. I’ve gotten a little lazy over the past couple weeks, so it’ll be important to start February off disciplined. The 50k hands goal and the exercise goal go pretty much hand in hand, so hopefully I’ll be rich and jacked by the end of the month

Gl everyone and happy February, Alan