Damn Ringer's Poker Blog

Welp, I finally hit my last straw with this stupid program. Last night, I found out my pokertracker 3 importer had been re-importing an extra 100 hands each time I imported my files manually. Sure enough, that completely fucked my numbers of late. I went looking for a solution online and instead of finding one I found a cardrunners offer for $45 Holdem Manager (yes that’s right, if you bought it for $80 and are a CR member, you paid about $35 too much… suckers). Seems like destiny right?

I’m so happy with HEM. There are some ridiculous tools on it. Vizer had always told me about what a great program was but I liked the stone age pokertracker 3. Its so smooth and wonderful with its importing. I haven’t even gotten into the hud yet, but i can’t wait. I have already uninstalled pokertracker 3 from my computer and written off the $80 for it as a bad beat. I had faith in pokertracker 2 and thought that pt3 would only get better and what ensued was the loss of their brand.

To Pokertracker, You guys need to do some serious work on your program but you seem complacent. You are getting out worked by holdem manager. This program has turned me successfully and i was a very loyal pokertracker customer. So to this I say bye bye to Pokertracker, and i don’t plan on ever coming back unless Pokertracker 4 is free.

In my real life, I had a great time hanging out with my friends while they had off for their work vacations. I went to a party which I thought could have been semi-awkward if the wrong people showed up. It was a work (well my old work) party. Is it still considered my ‘work’ if i haven’t gotten a new ‘work’ yet? The wrong people didn’t show up and it was a great time. It was the kinda party that i’m inevitably going to attending more often. The ‘30 year old’ party with food and nice beer provided. Its sorta depressing but its actually not that depressing as I’m about ready for the go-out drinking every night of the weekend lifestyle to end. Also, at the party, my lifestyle didn’t come up in a negative way. Basically even people i didn’t know that well, already knew my story or had heard a rumor. Overall it was a good time, and afterwards, i just went home and played poker because i’m that lame on a saturday night.

Onto other things, Me and Vizer have been looking at places in vegas for this summer. By “Me and Vizer”, I mean vizer is looking up places and then sending me links of awesomeness. We are starting to get close to actually putting money down on a place. Vizer has already talked to a few people and we are starting to talk about getting 2 more people who want to spend May 1st til August 30th in vegas in one of the most ridiculous houses ever. I personally can’t wait. I keep seeing these places and want it to be summer right now so that I can go lay by the awesome pool we will inevitably have. If you are pro and want to rock out in vegas with us for the summer, please let me know. My only requirement for a potential roommate is you can’t suck as a human and need to be a pro. I can not wait to be out there living the life.

Pokerwise, I am still running good. I am running at 12ptbb/100 over 5k hands. That begs an interesting question… does holdem manager use ptbb or bb? or is it hembb? AHHHHHHHHH! A whole new world for my poker databasing, I’m pumped. Anyways, I think i’m gonna play a session or maybe i’ll go play call of duty 5 as that seems to be all I can do this month.

Alright so my apologies about the blog guys. I have had a really busy last few days and the holidays put me at a strain for time. I barely found enough time to play myself.

Lets get to the december goals before i get going any further about my 2009 hopes and my 2008 realizations. Here’s my goals I wanted to accomplish this past month:

[ x ] Run Over 3ptbb/100 over the whole month at 200nl – I ran over 6ptbb/100 this month (it was a good one for sure)
[   ] Play 60,000 hands – I only got in about 50k… so epic fail here, but I can blame the holidays i guess
[ x ] Bring my Cake Roll up close to $15,000 – Well cleared 15k, my roll on cake is getting close to my roll on ftp. Pretty good considering I only put 2k of my own cash on there.
[ x ] Get one new student to coach, hopefully a long term student from lower stakes – I didn’t coach a student yet, but I do have 3 which I am talking to
[  ] Iron Iron Man – Epic Fail. I gave up on FTP for the month. I broke my 8 months of iron man, and blew my year end bonus. I just needed a break from FTP, and cake let me change my scenary and get out of the mundane rut i’ve found my game in recently.
[ x ] Drink less alcohol, likely by taking certain fridays and saturdays off to work – I took off 3 fridays this month to play poker. It was really good, but I did still go out on thursdays so its really not that impressive.

Overall I’m pretty happy with my month results. I had a solid first full month. I ran amazingly on 1/2 but managed to get wacked for 1700 on 2/4 tables. Mostly just bad spots and playing poorly, I have earned a reputation on the 1/2 tables however as being one of the better regs i feel like. I did this on FTP and then fell into complaceny. I notice the pros and start to overthink everything and give them too much soulreading credit. I am trying to overcome that, and i think doing it with good success so far.

On that note, I think that’s my story from 2008. I started the year playing .5/1 and finally starting to take poker seriously. I managed to run hot and breeze through 1/2nl and take shots at 2/4nl by april. I was full time 2/4nl by the end of april. I killed the games for 3 months having a few 10k months, and then the regs adjusted to me and I didn’t manage to adjust back. I played as high as 3/6 on a regular basis, and am still well rolled for that game. I then ran bad and came back to 200nl. I have stayed at 1/2nl since October. I have been degressing mentally since october. I have a monterous BR for even 2/4 yet I mentally can’t handle losing a buyin. I could handle a 2.2k losing night in april, but now for some reason I can’t. Its just a weird mental progression. Either way, I am still winning and i think that’s what i’m addicted to. I just love the feeling of being one of the best players on a limit. Anyways, I could never have imagined in a million years in january that i would be professional by 2009. I am a professional poker player, its a wild thought. I went to school to be an engineer, and came out doing something completely different, something that I could never have seen myself doing. Obviously, I got a little shove from my old company but i don’t think I could have pulled the trigger myself, so i commend them on doing it for me.

I have decided I will play throughout 2009. I will give one full year to poker and at the end of it, I will decide if i want to do it again or if I want to go back to work. Obviously, there are a few things that will change my mind. If my old company comes back and wants me, i’ll likely go back to work for them at least part-time. The job was so enjoyable, I would absolutely spend my time there again. However, I doubt that’s happening anytime soon if ever. I am on my own and its pretty sweet. I informed my dad of the decision and he supported my decision however told me to find something I have passion for, as my old passion has just become my job. I think I have passion for engineering, so I will continue to look into some sort of part time work in that field or perhaps something to do with computers.

My goal for 2009 is to make 100k.  I hope to be in a completely different place at the end of this year. I hope to be playing 5/10 or 10/20 regularly, but i know I have a ton of progression to do as well as about 100k to pad onto my bankroll before i can play 10/20. It’s a lofty goal, but I really would like to undertake it and perhaps with another pro. I will be in vegas for 3 months with a few pros this summer, so I feel like that will be the time that each of us will build off each other. I know vizer will be one of the guys there, and I know he’s got the same lofty goals i do. I look at the holla-dolla-ballas and see what those guys did, and how they built off each other to be the elite. I would like to do something similar, and truly make the grind something that isn’t so grinding. If i am to make 100k at 1/2nl, that will be volume, volume, volume. I would rather make that at 2/4 or 3/6, which would mean i need to come back to full tilt, which of course has been in the cards all along. Cake is just a fun little stop on the way.

That’s my only real goal for 2009. Be wealthy, and improve my poker game through other pros. Here’s to a great 2009. Good Luck to everyone.