Damn Ringer's Poker Blog

Today i get home from work and give a quick lesson to a new student. He seemed to be very sound at 100nl and we will be doing a post-flop session next week and i’m looking forward to see how he thinks in pots. As soon as i finish that lesson, my roommate walks in the door from her run and we start just socializing about this and that. I have had a pretty interesting last few days so I always like to just shoot the shit and get it all out in the open. Her friend then comes over with her brothers dog and my dog starts just totally getting gay with this dog.
I mean we couldn’t pull Shooter away from licking that dog downstairs. Its quite an interesting sight to see dogs getting gay shamelessly in front of you. I mean if that’s what shooter is into, good for him. haha. but seriously a little creepy. So the dogs are running around and we decide we want to go watch some of my friends play softball and bring the dogs. Basically, we get to talking and my roommate decides she doesn’t wanna go. And at this point, my brain is all poker. Sadly, I am hangin out with friends and whap the urge hits me. If i wasn’t such a winner at the game, i’d totally have a gambling problem (well maybe just a poker problem, cause i kinda hate gambling). Its funny how you can’t have a gambling problem as a winner though. It just makes me kinda laugh.
Anyways, so when my roommate bails i decide that i might as well not go and i see my out. So i bail on something that probably would have been fun (but a little cold). So i come fire up the tables. The tables look good with a few regs playing 2/4 and no 3/6 games running as usual. So i decide to take a peak at 5/10 tables as i wait on the lists for 2/4. I spot a great game! So i immediately sit down and start playing this 5/10 game. There were 3 donks at the tables which were unlike donks i’ve seen in awhile. I seriously think some players play 5/10nl play money and think since they can beat that, they can beat 5/10 real money. Well it was a total donk fest! So i end up making a nice amount of money and scooping a $1k pot. So I’m now in the green about $400 play 30 hands of 1knl. Impressive i know. But seriously, these donks went bust in a matter of minutes. I’ve never seen so many ridiculous allins pre-. Just unprovoked allins like you would see in play money.
After those donks bust, the regs fill in the blanks and i hit the road. So a nice little warm up for mean real session. I start getting on the 2/4 tables and I heat up like no one’s business. I made about 3k in the matter of 500 hands. I mean i was hot like that. Everytime i had it, someone was making a play and every time i didn’t people were folding. It was one of those kinds of days. I ended up cooling down slightly after i hit around the 3.2k profit mark and i made a few arrogant plays (which is really easy to do when you’ve just spend the last 500 hands not losing at showdown). I ended up giving about 600 back. I’ll post below here the PT stats.

Hopefully this month continues this way and i can get a very decent chunk of my ‘years salary’ in saving so i can be worry free going into august and the professional arena. I really wanna go pro by the end of august and i need that money plus a 25k BR to take a no-stress approach to going pro.

Alright, so i’ve had the bankroll for awhile now to play 600nl and just haven’t gotten the means to get money over to stars to play those games regularly and figured i’d proll just play 2/4 til i got up to 5/10. Anyways, for whatever god-sent reason, the games ran today. Not just the normal 1 or 2 table with elin starting both from scratch, there were 6 tables and none of them having more than 3 or 4 regulars on them. It was beautiful and i made out like a bandit.

So here’s the stats from the session and the damage…

So obviously i ran well.

This helps my month out and hopefully can easily reach other 10k month. I’ll try to get around to posting hands later. But a little preview, one guy called a 140 pre- with 46s and stacked off $700 with a pair of 6’s. wild.

First things, first. I went to Virginia tech all weekend and managed to take that godforsaken FE exam for the second time. This time i’m pretty confident I passed it however, when you see the ranting post in 3 months about how i’m gonna have to take it a third time, don’t be that surprised. That bitch is hard as shit and i just don’t have any study ethic since finishing school. After I finished the test, the first order of business was to booze til I couldn’t feel feeling anymore. So of course i was wasted and running around the town. Telling my friends of my intentions to go pro, and getting called a fucking idiot more times than i can remember last night. Oh well, we shall see who the idiot is after a year of poker (disclaimer: i might really be an idiot).

Now onto the epically shittier part of my weekend, the session today. I got sucked out on and coolered to death with a few mistakes thrown in for good measure. I played hungover, i should never play poker hungover cause i’m not nearly as sharp as i normally am when i’m thinking about taking a screwdriver to my temple to make the hurting stop. However, i still have not had a 1k losing day! Today i came as close i can tho. I had a 999.70 in the red day! Pretty impressive, but actually the number softened the blow mentally cause i just kinda laughed it off saying its not a 1k loss. I also played the 750k garunteed on FTP which i’ve never played before (mainly cause i hate tournies). I was just in the mood for it and after about 2 hours of not being able to get up from my seat, i remembered why i hate tournaments. But i think me and ragingquads_ are gonna go 50/50 on each weekends tournaments on stars and FTP. He way better at tournies than i am but i think he enjoys having someone with him to think stuff through and also he definitely likes to financial blow being cut in half. I’m gonna post some of the shittier hands from today and some of the good ones, so here goes…

Against a spewy donk, but against me he picks up the nuts…
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2431976

Whoops, I got caught.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2432003

A pretty savvy play by me that just didn’t work out. I thought it was still played excellent by me, i think he folds on turn if any other card comes off.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2431986

I’m better than this and i know it. This hand is played horribly on every street. For the record a fold on this flop, should be the right play his range is approximately, AA, KK QQ and i don’t beat any of those. Very shitty

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2432008

Sigh… what am i suppose to do here check the flop? This is just awful. I really was upset in this hand, but nothing i can do about it. I see no way i can get away from this one.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2432012

Again, i think i play this hand well. I had been warring with this guy, and i was ready to get in a big pot, but on the turn his bet size really made me slam the brakes. I think it was good i spotted his strength, but this stuff happens when you risk checking the flop to get value out of the hand later in it. Its give its take and today everything was on the take.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2432020

I <3 losing money

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2432025

So as you can see today wasn’t my day and i really think walking away down 999.70 wasn’t bad all things considered. Not much more could have gone wrong today, and i didn’t lose all that much money. So tomorrow is another day, so lets make that one a winner.

I have been bulking my BR up to take shots at 1k nl on FTP and recently have been waiting for the right game to run. Well i found it today. The table was full of players i had never seen before and i often watch these games/datamine them so i can not go in blind against the regs when i do hit the level. This was the first time i’d ever played 5/10 ever. I’ve never played a hand of it before in my life. That said i was little nervous. Even knowing that the players weren’t better than me, i just got that feeling that i rarely get anymore. That feeling of really gambling and getting a real thrill out of sitting down. I was basically shaking i was so overwhelmed. This is how i started 2/4 as well and also 3/6. It just takes time to overcome it and I eventually will overcome it on 5/10. My bankroll is online is enough to play the game, so BR isn’t an issue.

Well little did i know, that these games apparently break really easily and don’t ever usually fill with more donks. All the best on full tilt are onto these soft 5/10 tables when they run. So in the span of 12 hands the table went to complete shit! I found myself sandwiched 2 deep on both sides by 5/10 regs. Well needless to say, i’m not popping my cherry like that. I left. The hands i did play were pretty irrelevant and I ended up down -168. Here’s some 5/10 hands…

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2419156

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2419160 (very first hand at the table! wtf)<br>
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2419162 and this is my only win.

Really exciting i know. Anyways, after that shot i decided to 8 table 2/4 as per usual. And I ran very well… I took one REALLLY REALLY shitty beat in a $900 pot. It was KK in a blind battle and I managed to make my opponent shove $450 in the middle with AQ pre-. Here’s the hand history…

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2419168

wow i had him by the balls and he escaped. Anyways was still a pretty solid session with alot of fish on the site playing. So that worked well… here’s the stats:

On top of that win, I won another 800 last night playing omaha before i went to bed. So i’m up close to 2k playing 2 nights of omaha which is awesome. I find it fun so i really might start taking some time to get to know the game better and really learn the ins and outs of it.

Alright well i gotta go to VT now and take this god-foresaken test! AHHHHHH. The 2/4 tables are safe for the weekend, so regulars go ahead and win all the money without me there.

This weekend i have to take a Bitch of an engineering test. Its called the Fundamentals of Engineering exam and anyone who has taken this before or has to knows just how shitty people can make a test. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the shittest… its running epically hot at 42. Anyways, that is on saturday so i’m still obviously trying to work in some poker to my schedule while still studying for this test.

Alot of you might be asking why i would take an engineering certification test when i intend to go completely pro in 4 months. Well, its called a parachute, boys and girls. I live my life by that philosophy, always leave yourself outs. And I have a lot of outs. Anyways, i want to take this test now cause god knows when i’ll have time to take it again and shit how much i’ll even know about engineering after my poker days are done (if they ever are). So get the test outta the way.

I bought a new laptop today. Its actually not very baller at all, however there is a greater baller idea in mind for it. I will be using it to play poker on my 60 in tv in my living room. I have a monster machine in my bedroom but i’m not moving that thing into the living room every time i want to relax, that would completely defeat the purpose of relaxing. So i’ve purchased this $800 laptop (with my company discount nonetheless). I figure i will also be doing a decent amount of travelling once i go pro so i’ll want to have something i can bring with me with all my poker programs already loaded on them. And in case you didn’t know, if you use your computer for online poker, internet, and pokertracker only, any computer from roughly 1994 on will do. So i didn’t slurge. I CAN NOT WAIT TO PLAY ON THAT MONSTER TELEVISION. Maybe i’ll even 12 table cause i’ll finally be able to not have a seizure from all the overlapping.

Anyways i’ll be going to VT this weekend to take the test, and i’m staying with another friend who is stuck taking the same test while the rest of our frat is on their formals. Pretty shitty for him and I eh? Well i’m sure it won’t be that bad, we will likely get very shitty on saturday night after the test and by likely, i mean if you live in blacksburg chances are ambulances will have to take us from tots around 1 am.

I’m also thinking about putting some money on Cake Poker. I was talking to GoldSeraph today and he really made the site sound appealing and i mean how bad can 33% rakeback be? I shall ponder that and prolly will impulsively do it one day.

Anyways, that’s all i got.

I am completely obsessed with a song called ‘Handlebars’ by FloBots. Its like Rock/Rap and it is amazing.

Here’s a link to the song… you should definitely give this a listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvNvkXD_gs0&feature=related

One of the coolest songs with pretty cool/political message.

First let me preface this by saying I made one raging mistake today and it cost me $500. It was a 3/6 table and I butchered a hand. I got it allin with top pair (a pair of T’s) with top kicker, against a guy 4-betting allin on the turn. Definitely not the place i like to be. The only problem I often create for myself is I trick myself with my tricky lines sometimes. And this would be one of those situations.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2411449

This is a no brainer, fold on turn to 3-bet. And it should really be a no brainer turn bet/fold to raise. That would be the most EV way to play the hand. However, i got too tricky and overthought myself which happens. So anyways, lets start the blog shitty with showing you how stupid i am.

But lesson learned. And that’s what its gonna take to get up to the 1knl and higher.

Now for the fun part. I’ve been getting some great advice from my college friend Nate, who goes under the hand RagingQuads_ on PS and Dark_Chek on FTP. He’s really been helping me alot and he’s really got a great fundamental look at the game and is very capable of beating some of the best online has to offer imo. He’s got some pretty nice tourney scores under his belt as well. Anyways hopefully he gets me through those last few leaks i need to get through to be a serious winner at 5/10 and above. Here’s the stats from tonights session and the graph for the month so far.

This also doesn’t include the nearly 1k i made playing omaha last night. So we are off the ground this month! But as you can see from the graph, i had a choppy start.

My coaching has also been something i’ve been really focusing on. I’ve stopped taking students who are below 100nl as its just not enough money for me to really get serious worth out of it. However, don’t worry 50nl players who are currently students, you will be grandfathered in. However, no more for the time being. I think its really rewarding to show players the keys between playing 50nl (which i was playing like 7 months ago) and the higher stakes games. Anyways, I’ve finally gotten organized with it and will be keeping very detailed schedule of lessons and how they went.

That’s about all i have on the poker front at the moment. Here’s to keeping this month going!

Alright so I need a blog banner for this new blog. I’m terrible with photoshop so I’m putting it up for grabs. $10 on Full Tilt or Pokerstars to the person who can come up with a banner that features a VT theme and my name of ‘VT Hokie Poker. The size of around 90 by 900 works. So shoot for that.

Please also post a comment here if you are gonna undertake the job. And also no promise i take your design but ya might as well take a shot at it.

So as you can see above apparently if i have a mortal day at holdem all i gotta do is hop over to Omaha. I thought i played pretty well and definitely got people making plays at me because i was being so aggro.

Great to run well again especially at a game that is not my strong point. I honestly had a few points during the session where i had absolutely no idea if i was getting it in good or not but usually went with my gut.

Anyways, figured this pre-bed massacre deserves a post before i sleep.

Well playing 400nl and 600nl on FTP you play with alot of stupid pros. But today i got a big helping of Allen Cunningham at 400nl. He sat down at 7 or my 8 tables! Wow he’s no push over like most of the FTP pros and he is definitely one of the tougher players imo to play out of position. I have a few hands that i could post but i simply got owned at about ever venue. Luckily, none of them in particularly big pots.
I did find myself a little star-struck and that plus poker equals losing money. I was trying to make alot of obnoxious plays. The most interesting hands from the session today however didn’t even come from Allen. They came at 600nl. Basically i played a few hands too tricky and ended up losing value. Here’s a few of those hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2406043

This hand i sacrifice alot of value against a guy I viewed as scared money. Basically speaking i saw him as the type of player who shows up with a set there or nothing at all. So i decided to make sure he didn’t have a set before going for value. And i think i cost myself about $200 in the process.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2406066

This hand completely blindsided me and i don’t think there was anything i could have done. I put the player in the best spot to bluff and i thought he was. He showed up with the nuts and i was left weeping! well not literally but still pretty gay!

Anyways, April has been mediocre at best with myself only being up around $500. I think its just been alot of tough spots as well as alot of bad beats. I’ve obviously still made a few mistakes but definitely not enough to cost myself this much money. Anyways later guys.