Damn Ringer's Poker Blog

The run-molten lava hot month finally cooled down. I had a 3k down swing (1k of which was a shot at 5/10nl) over the past week. It’s sad to have it come to an end and not really achieve a completely epic month, but I’ll still take it. I should still be having a great month overall but my graph just got a little bit more hilarious, with it leveling off finally. I will post my graph after the month is complete, hopefully i run hot on the way out and close with a huge month.

On the life front, I’ve been getting myself back in the gym after about a month of being really lazy. I finally got a nice schedule going which has many of you told me when going pro, is nothing like i thought it would be. I go to bed at 4 to 5am after playing all night usually, wake up at noon or 1 and then base my eating around what i would normally eat at different hours. I eat lunch around 4pm, and eat dinner around 10 or 11. I am going to focus on doing a ton of cardio in the gym for the next 3 months and try to lose some of the excess body fat, ive got floating around. I’m prolly 15 lbs over where i’d like to be. I’m about 185 and 6′1 and would prefer to be closer to a 170, and pretty lean. Also starting to make sure i don’t eat super shitty, which of course got thrown completely off tilt when I grubbed on pizza last night for dinner with my friends (which was their late night binging). Anyways, I’ve got a decent amount of time to focus on it.

Vizer finally locked up the vegas house, so that’s a go. On a sad note, we aren’t getting out there til may 17th now because someone booked the place til then. Kinda sucks, but I’m not that worried about it. The only tricky part is finding a place to stay once my lease is up in april. I still gotta figure that one out. Also, on the vegas front, I’m going for 4 days on march 7th with a few friends from charlotte. I’m incredibly pumped.

That’s pretty much all the updates i got. Peace.

I got back around 6 today from DC where I was visiting my GF. I rushed back as I had a poker lesson at 6pm tonight, and Leigh (my gf) doesn’t have internet at her place. The lesson actually ended up being a no-show which actually wasn’t horrible cause I was exhausted when I finally got home. I managed to almost fall asleep at the wheel a few times on the drive. The soothing voice of colin cowherd and scott van pelt kept me awake.

I had a great weekend visiting my GF but it really reminded me that I hate big cities. And being in the middle of DC for 3 days was absolutely exhausted mentally for me not to mention it wasn’t exactly a cheap visit. I kinda came ill prepared for valentines day which sucks. Let me break this down for you though. I think far too analytically to be romantic and so there for I really really suck at coming up with good gifts. Thankfully she didn’t want a gift because she didn’t get me a christmas present yet and felt bad. I did basically pay for her entire trip tho which was nice for her. We went and got food to go from a place called ‘founding farmers’ which was actually REALLY REALLY good. Leigh cooked the food up when we got back and we had a cute little date setup in her apartment. We even dressed up for no good reason. We then proceeded to go hunt for dessert which no place would serve us! It was ridiculous every restruarant was just doing ‘full menu’ which meant we had to order a meal! No thanks. We went back home with no dessert and passed out watching princess bride. Great flick that I hadn’t seen in awhile. INCONCEIVABLE! haha.

I didn’t play one hand of poker over the weekend which was ok, but I was REALLY fiending by the time I got home today. I checked the tables when i first got home, and they were heinous, so I made dinner and screwed around with shooter (my dog). I couldn’t take him this weekend and my roommate watched him which she hates doing. She’s a good roomie though and hopefully I can return the favor at some point. I then came back on and just hopped on some tables. I played from about 10 til 1am. I wasn’t mass tabling but really focusing. I managed to win another 2.1k tonight. I managed to keep my non-showdown winnings right at zero which is something i’ve always tended to struggle with, but have been getting much better at recently. I was happy with the results obviously but I also felt like I really didn’t run that well. Here’s the big hand from the night… (what a beautiful turn card against this calling station)

Hold’em No Limit ($2/$4) – 2009/02/17 – 00:06:29 (ET)
Table ‘Cake_ Bapor Kibra 11453′ Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: rjrj*** ($708.70 in chips)
Seat 2: Down*** ($485.70 in chips)
Seat 4: Olde*** ($388.00 in chips)
Seat 5: Roy Finkle ($811.50 in chips)
Seat 6: Luvt*** ($419.00 in chips)
Seat 7: MrsG*** ($429.90 in chips)
Seat 8: poop*** ($392.50 in chips)
Seat 9: thef*** ($203.80 in chips)
Seat 10: TheC*** ($452.30 in chips)
Olde***: posts small blind $2
Roy Finkle: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Roy Finkle [Td 7s]
Luvt***: folds
MrsG***: folds
poop***: folds
thef***: calls $4.00
TheC***: folds
rjrj***: calls $4.00
Down***: folds
Olde***: calls $2.00
Roy Finkle: checks
*** FLOP *** [7c 7h 6c]
Olde***: checks
Roy Finkle: bets $16.00
thef***: folds
rjrj***: calls $16.00
Olde***: calls $16.00
*** TURN *** [7c 7h 6c] [Tc]
Olde***: checks
Roy Finkle: checks
rjrj***: bets $32.00
Olde***: calls $32.00
Roy Finkle: raises $118.00 to $150.00
rjrj***: calls $118.00
Olde***: folds
*** RIVER *** [7c 7h 6c Tc] [Jd]
Roy Finkle: bets $333.00
rjrj***: calls $333.00
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Roy Finkle: shows [Td 7s] (Full House, Sevens full of Tens)
rjrj***: mucks hand
Roy Finkle collected $1,059.00 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1,062.00 | Rake $3.00
Board [7c 7h 6c Tc Jd]
Seat 1: rjrj*** mucked [4c Kc]
Seat 2: Down*** folded before Flop
Seat 4: Olde*** (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 5: Roy Finkle (big blind) showed [Td 7s] and won ($1,059.00) with Full House, Sevens full of Tens
Seat 6: Luvt*** folded before Flop
Seat 7: MrsG*** folded before Flop
Seat 8: poop*** folded before Flop
Seat 9: thef*** folded on the Flop
Seat 10: TheC*** folded before Flop

I don’t quite know how I like my line or if i could have stacked him, but I think I played it well enough against the poor player. I needed to ch/r cause he was just going to smooth call my bet on the turn and I also got a little extra value from the other villain. I might have been able to bet bigger on the river, like just open shove or something. I think I did about as well as I could tho. Also, on a side note, I changed my name to ‘roy finkle’ which I soon learned I had remembered wrong from ace ventura as his name was ‘ray finkle’. Well epic fail.

I got commented on about 10 times tonight from everyone and their dog and i can’t change the name til next week! well i suppose i better check my sources before picking a funny movie name again. Whoops.

My month is still on fire. I have only played 16k hands and am up just under 10k. I am running 24bb/100 over 10k hands at 2/4 which is pretty incredible and completely ridiculous. Obviously i’m running well and not getting coolered but also i’m exploiting fish and regulars well. I am going to shoot for 20k this month and if I make really any profit at all the rest of the month, it will be the biggest month yet of my career and it comes on the 3rd real month of being pro. Since getting laid off in the middle of november, I have played just under 100k hands and turned a profit of 22k. Not too bad especially considering I took a month and didn’t have any real poker played in it, as I was doing that contract job the whole time basically.

Poker: Beating the hell out of really working since November! Here’s my graph since going full time professional:

Click to Make Full Size

I finally put my old dinosaur to rest. My 4 year old desktop is now tucked away in the corner of my room. I was talking to vizer yesterday about randomness and I started asking him about computer specs. I started looking at all the computers I could get, got all excited and ended up driving to best buy and picking up a new tower. Its great! I was never able to do more than 1 thing at a time on my old computer so you would imagine any sort of hud would freeze up not to mention just running AIM in the background would freeze my dinosaur. I got an awesome new computer with pretty silly specs for what i’m using it for. I already notice the difference, I can’t wait til I start playing on FTP again and use a hud with it.

On the life front, I have offically ended my contract job. It was a great job and awesome environment, but working while you are worth far more hourly at poker just doesn’t make alot of sense. Plus i didn’t have any time to do the things I really enjoyed doing, poker included. I am going to hunker down starting march and go balls to the wall on my FE studying. Screw this exam, and it’s stupid ass. I have to pass this thing in the next two tries or I gotta go back to school and damnit that ain’t happening. Its like my key to ever being an engineer again, so as much as i’d love to a civil designer for my life, fupp that.

On the poker front, I am running lights out at poker. I had another monster night tonight and had a decent session this morning that would have been a monster if i didn’t get bad beated in two huge pots. I ended up winning another $2400 today, which puts my monthly goal in silly attainable reach. I actually am starting to think about doubling it and shooting for a 20k month. I am bound to get hit by the real life bus that’s waiting for me cause running at 23bb/100 at 2/4nl is not sustainable. But if I cool off, I can easily still attain 10k this month.

My graph is so silly this month, and I will not post it however til its all said and done. Lets just say i’m running hot at the moment.

I am leaving at 1 today to visit my GF for the weekend. She deserves some time with me and I definitely need some time with her. Valentines day is totally gay but a good excuse to treat her well. The drive to DC however is totally gay. 6 hours in a car by myself is gonna be lame. On the car front, I just spoke with one of my good charlotte friends and he was saying he wanted to ride-along on my cross country trip to vegas. That would be incredible as I would much prefer not to die by falling asleep not to mention all the fun stops are always better with someone else. Hopefully, he follows through with that and comes out. Come to think of it, maybe my GF would like to do that. Hit all those cute spots across the country. I might be onto something here, and i’m usually romance retarded.

Anyways, I’ll prolly be taking a break til Sunday on the tables. Have a good weekend guys.

I had been managing to hemorrage money since my first two monster days this month, but today it felt like the days of old. I managed to pull down about $2750 in under 2k hands. The session was great, and i managed to pull down 2 three-way pots. Here’s the hand histories…

The regular is tari*** in the hand. He is getting the reputation of never playing his AA or KK straight forward preflop. I have basically stopped giving him credit for calling a 3-b with worse than KK. Here is a classic example. When he called, i knew i was likely killed. When the gin card came off on the turn, and he wanted to shove still, i figured i was about to shove into top set. But to my happiness, i didn’t!

PokerStars Game #772011425000321:  Hold’em No Limit ($2/$4) – 2009/02/09 – 19:06:35 (ET)
Table ‘Cake_ Bapor Kibra 11425′  Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Srin*** ($435.00 in chips)
Seat 2: jake*** ($387.20 in chips)
Seat 3: TheC*** ($480.70 in chips)
Seat 4: Tari*** ($435.60 in chips)
Seat 5: Glower Power ($504.50 in chips)
Seat 6: fatm*** ($512.10 in chips)
Seat 7: jobo*** ($484.40 in chips)
Seat 8: Pusz*** ($361.80 in chips)
Seat 9: The*** ($278.00 in chips)
Seat 10: the*** ($788.20 in chips)
fatm***: posts small blind $2
jobo***: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Glower Power [Qd Qc]
Pusz***: folds
The***: folds
the***: folds
Srin***: folds
jake***: calls $4.00
TheC***: folds
Tari***: raises $14.00 to $18.00
Glower Power: raises $46.00 to $64.00
fatm***: folds
jobo***: folds
jake***: calls $60.00
Tari***: calls $46.00
*** FLOP *** [2c Kd Jd]
jake***: checks
Tari***: checks
Glower Power: checks
*** TURN *** [2c Kd Jd] [Qs]
jake***: bets $198.00
Tari***: raises $173.60 to $371.60 and is all-in
Glower Power: raises $24.40 to $396.00
jake***: calls $125.20 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [2c Kd Jd Qs] [3d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Glower Power: shows [Qd Qc] (Three of a Kind, Queens)
jake***: mucks hand
Tari***: mucks hand
Glower Power collected $96.55 from pot
Glower Power collected $1,164.85 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1,264.40 | Rake $3.00
Board [2c Kd Jd Qs 3d]
Seat 1: Srin*** folded before Flop
Seat 2: jake*** mucked [Ts Ks]
Seat 3: TheC*** folded before Flop
Seat 4: Tari*** mucked [Ah As]
Seat 5: Glower Power showed [Qd Qc] and won ($1,261.40) with Three of a Kind, Queens
Seat 6: fatm*** (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: jobo*** (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: Pusz*** folded before Flop
Seat 9: The*** folded before Flop
Seat 10: the*** folded before Flop

This pot had the mark of the table in it. I’ll give ya two guesses who that is. It was unfortunate that I managed to cooler a pretty good reg here. I actually really don’t like my line on this hand. I think really would have liked leading out the flop, but if that was the case, i prolly wouldn’t have gotten donk boys money in the pot. Here’s that hand…

PokerStars Game #772011425000349:  Hold’em No Limit ($2/$4) – 2009/02/10 – 00:08:04 (ET)
Table ‘Cake_ Bapor Kibra 11425′  Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Srin*** ($231.15 in chips)
Seat 2: !BUL*** ($249.70 in chips)
Seat 3: TheC*** ($394.70 in chips)
Seat 4: Tari*** ($647.00 in chips)
Seat 5: Glower Power ($1,300.30 in chips)
Seat 6: fatm*** ($522.90 in chips)
Seat 7: jobo*** ($473.20 in chips)
Seat 8: Pusz*** ($347.00 in chips)
Seat 9: The*** ($271.60 in chips)
Seat 10: chea*** ($361.20 in chips)
Glower Power: posts small blind $2
fatm***: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Glower Power [6h 6d]
jobo***: folds
Pusz***: folds
The***: raises $8.00 to $12.00
chea***: calls $12.00
Srin***: calls $12.00
!BUL***: folds
TheC***: folds
Tari***: folds
Glower Power: calls $10.00
fatm***: folds
*** FLOP *** [4d 6s Ac]
Glower Power: checks
The***: checks
chea***: bets $34.00
Srin***: calls $34.00
Glower Power: calls $34.00
The***: folds
*** TURN *** [4d 6s Ac] [5s]
Glower Power: checks
chea***: bets $115.00
Srin***: raises $70.15 to $185.15 and is all-in
Glower Power: raises $1,069.15 to $1,254.30 and is all-in
chea***: calls $200.20 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [4d 6s Ac 5s] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Glower Power: shows [6h 6d] (Three of a Kind, Sixes)
Srin***: mucks hand
chea***: mucks hand
Glower Power collected $259.30 from pot
Glower Power collected $707.25 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $969.55 | Rake $3.00
Board [4d 6s Ac 5s Th]
Seat 1: Srin*** mucked [9c 9s]
Seat 2: !BUL*** folded before Flop
Seat 3: TheC*** folded before Flop
Seat 4: Tari*** folded before Flop
Seat 5: Glower Power (small blind) showed [6h 6d] and won ($966.55) with Three of a Kind, Sixes
Seat 6: fatm*** (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: jobo*** folded before Flop
Seat 8: Pusz*** folded before Flop
Seat 9: The*** folded on the Flop
Seat 10: chea*** mucked [4c 4h]

With the help of those hands, plus running quite well at 200nl, I managed to pick up a nice chunk of change and continue on the path of my first 10k month since June 2008. It feels good again, to be on top of 2/4 again. Hopefully, I can continue to run this well for the rest of the month and finish well above my goal (and possibly have my best month ever).

I just finished at my job today. I finished the second project for my boss and I felt like I did a really good job. I have also decided to take the FE exam again. That’s right, number 4. I will be focusing on studying much more intensively especially since I don’t have a day job. I know I wrote that entire post about how pissed I was and how big of a failure I was. I was being a complete pussy, and excessively overdramatic. I can pass this thing I just need to shoot for an 85% and not a 75% like i’ve been doing. I keep coming up about a point or two shy of where I need to be, so i figure I should study even harder. The test comes up on april 25th which is the week before we go to vegas for the summer. Its pretty good timing I think, and should keep my distracted while I am waiting for my awesome summer.

I have been having a weird feeling all day. I have been having what i guess would be described as ’shortness of breath’. Everytime I take a really deep breath, I feel a little discomfort. I can’t quite figure out wtf it is. I started thinking I was having a heart attack or something, but i’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to have this pain for 24 hours and still be alive/concious. I’m pretty sure its something minor as when does a heart attack ever hit a decently in-shape 25 year old? Let it be known if i’m dead tomorrow, my funeral will be a party and I want all the guests to insult me.

That’s right… my funeral will be a roast. I really do what that to be the case on my funeral day. So when I die guys, you have it in writing ‘Roast me at my funeral’. However, I would really like not to die tomorrow as I have a decent number of plans for the next few months. Either way though, i guess we all gotta go sometime.

Anways, back to the poker grind tomorrow. I just hope I can get ridiculously rich in this economy (like those commericals all say). Maybye I should start a commerical for sirius radio… ‘wanna get rich quick? I did in this economy and you can to! Hi, I’m eric, professional poker player. I got rich the easy way, by taking other people’s money from them playing poker’. I can see it now… I bet i’d sell at least 50 cds of my thoughts.

Full Ring Poker so easy, I can do it.

This year isn’t a complete wash, after the first month! My february has been going fantastically and i’m making up for all the all-in equity i lost in january. I am up more than quadruple what i made all of january and its only 3 days in.

I have been playing alot of 2/4nl recently, and trying to stick strictly to it. I took a break from 2/4 over the past 4 months or so, cause it really made me feel uncomfortable. Finally I managed to get my cake roll up to a number that i felt comfortable taking 2/4 shots at, and the fact that there were 10 tables of 2/4 running last night during peak hours helped as well. I have played close to 3k hands of 2/4 so far and plan to put in most of my month at 2/4nl. I hope to go back to the days of april, when i was having no problem 10k months. I hope this month will be similar… or at least remind me that I am better than the average 2/4 regular and that 1/2nl is really underachieving.

Obviously, all this said, i’m riding a pretty big 3 day high right now. I am running a measly 33bb/100 so I think this is totally sustainable. It should come back down to earth before the end of the month but I’m hoping it won’t. 50k hands at 33bb/100 one time please… for the record that would only be a 66k month at 2/4. haha. Ok maybe that’s completely impossible, but I’ll be damned if anything takes me from this high right now. Hopefully this trend of 2/4 tables continues so that I can at least 8 table them during peak hours.

I’m starting to run completely different numbers than i use to. On ftp, when i was playing 2/4, i was around a 14/10 which is basically just nitfest 2008. I am now playing a much more aggressive style, and feeling alot of situations better. I am running close to an 18/13 over a big sample size at 1/2, and doing the same with success at 2/4. Its an interesting style for sure, but I kinda just fell into as I’ve gotten more comfortable in marginal situation and my reads have become much better. I think it’s just the natural progression of play though. Regardless of the stakes i can beat now, I think I’m much better than i was April of last year. Enough of this paragraph… its like that paragraph works itself into every 3rd post. I need to stop that, i’m sure its boring reading.

Coaching is still going great. I have a new student tonight, and i’m excited to get started with his sessions. I am running out of days in the week for lessons honestly. I gotta get outta this job, so I can finally make room for all my students so i actually have time to have a life/play poker myself. I am gonna have a sit down with my boss soon and let him know my intentions with going to vegas and not wanting to become full time. I hope he understands but I almost feel like he thinks I’m gonna take a full time job.

Vizer and myself will be securing the house in Vegas by the end of the week. And we will be renting rooms out on a first come first serve basis. Again, let us know if you are interested in pimping.

Anyways, good luck at the tables, and lets go 66k month, one time!

Another month down, and this one was one of those months I have had like twice that might as well be break even. I managed to make around 1k + rakeback. So I made around 2500 this month, which is merely enough to survive. Not the best of months, but I made alot of stupid drunk mistakes. The emphasis there is on drunk. I’m done doing that shit. It’s killing my win rate, and is just horrible in general. My graph for the month ended up looking like this.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7971/loljanuaryxg1.jpg

Screw that month. I managed to only put in 30k hands, which was mostly due to my job and a ton of coaching. I have picked up a few more students over the course of this week. For awhile, I was worried that coaching through cardrunners was a big mistake, because they didn’t bring me any business that i didn’t already have. However, about 6 students later, I have changed my mind. I had one of my students quit poker all together, so i dunno what that says about me. He did however leave a very positive review of me. He seemed to just be very troubled outside of poker, and insecure in his game. However, my other students all look very promising. I also had technical difficulties with skype. Something about a ’sound card’ somethign or another, on my students end. Hopefully, we can fix that however. I also got a horse in the 100nl game  on ftp. He’s a player I’m going to be spending alot of my spare time teaching. I also would only waste my time with a horse who i really felt could kill the game. So if i’ve turned down your offer to be my horse in the past, its simply cause I don’t know enough about your game. Overall, The coaching is coming great and its forced me to be far more organized about my coaching and scheduling. I have a lesson pretty much every evening of the week, and its really starting to cut into my gym time. So soon i will be a slightly richer, but far fatter ringer.

February just started off with a bang. I played for 2 hours tonight and made about 1k playing 400nl on cake. The games were really good, and only one player was being a nuisance. The 400nl game on cake really never runs enough to make it even worth playing. Tonight there were 6 tables that stayed together, which is pretty unheard of. I managed to stack a player who scares the crap out of me too. He shoved an AK on me, which I dunno if he knows is horrible against my range against him. He’s like the cake high stakes rounder though and plays HU, FR, and 6m. So lets shoot for a 10k february, especially to make up for the shitty january. I would love to put in some serious volume too. Something like 80k hands, but I just don’t have any time for it thanks to this job i have.

I finished up the project i was hired for on friday. I actually kinda enjoy working there, since my boss is pretty cool. I just don’t know how much longer i can mentally deal with working when I know i’m just passing on profit. It is pretty nice though, cause i kinda get in and leave when i want and no one gives me shit for it. I usually roll in at 9:30 and leave on the dot at 5 cause I’ve usually got a 6pm lesson. Then i spend the rest of the night eating and playing poker. Hopefully that changes and i can get my life back together.

On the vegas front, vizer and I got the house we wanted down to the price we wanted. We should be closing on it in the next week or so. We just need one more full time roommate and then I think we are gonna rotate out the other room. Once again, if you wanna be our third roommate for 3 months, let me know asap before the spot gets scooped up.

Superbowl is tomorrow, and there’s a big bash for it. I’m pretty excited about tailgating and the bowl. I will probably be getting very drunk tomorrow as I haven’t gotten drunk at all this weekend. Honestly, its pretty absurd because I haven’t gone an entire weekend without going out since high school really. I know its a testament to my shitty drinking habits, but more so a testament that i’m starting to get older and my friends are even starting to slow down on their drinking. I think it only goes downhill from here, however its pretty awesome not being hungover and have an entire day ahead of you. For predictions, Cardinals for the superbowl win one time. (i don’t really believe that pick, i just hate the god damn steelers so much).

Bengals in 2010! SHIP IT!