Damn Ringer's Poker Blog

Full Tilt Poker Game #14388894882: Table Lost Mesa – $1/$2 – No Limit Hold’em – 14:17:58 ET – 2009/08/31
Seat 1: Robin05 ($52), is sitting out
Seat 2: vanyuk ($220.15)
Seat 3: GoDaeBu ($273.50)
Seat 4: rbhambhani ($40)
Seat 5: jess328 ($139.10)
Seat 6: ischiaswilly1 ($40)
Seat 7: juicyjc ($325.65)
Seat 8: UCanActLikeAMan ($222.25)
Seat 9: Damn Ringer ($225.55)
vanyuk posts the small blind of $1
GoDaeBu posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Damn Ringer [9d 6d]
rbhambhani folds
jess328 folds
juicyjc folds
UCanActLikeAMan raises to $6
Damn Ringer raises to $21
vanyuk folds
GoDaeBu folds
UCanActLikeAMan has 15 seconds left to act
UCanActLikeAMan calls $15
*** FLOP *** [Jh 7c 4h]
UCanActLikeAMan checks
Damn Ringer bets $28
UCanActLikeAMan calls $28
*** TURN *** [Jh 7c 4h] [Ad]
UCanActLikeAMan checks
Damn Ringer bets $54
UCanActLikeAMan has 15 seconds left to act
UCanActLikeAMan calls $54
*** RIVER *** [Jh 7c 4h Ad] [7s]
UCanActLikeAMan checks
Damn Ringer checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Damn Ringer shows [9d 6d] a pair of Sevens
UCanActLikeAMan mucks
Damn Ringer wins the pot ($206) with a pair of Sevens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $209 | Rake $3
Board: [Jh 7c 4h Ad 7s]
Seat 1: Robin05 is sitting out
Seat 2: vanyuk (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: GoDaeBu (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: rbhambhani didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 5: jess328 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 6: ischiaswilly1 is sitting out
Seat 7: juicyjc didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 8: UCanActLikeAMan mucked [3c 5c] – a pair of Sevens
Seat 9: Damn Ringer (button) showed [9d 6d] and won ($206) with a pair of Sevens

Full Tilt Poker Game #14388769751: Table Lineshack – $1/$2 – No Limit Hold’em – 14:10:57 ET – 2009/08/31
Seat 1: WiIIie ($37)
Seat 2: Damn Ringer ($214.95)
Seat 3: inherrsun ($200)
Seat 4: Sloffy ($215.20)
Seat 5: xxsclencexx ($106.20)
Seat 6: gib26 ($76.60)
Seat 7: Swiper023 ($155)
Seat 8: indian1112 ($259.90)
Seat 9: Shammann ($40), is sitting out
Sloffy posts the small blind of $1
xxsclencexx posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Damn Ringer [6c 3c]
gib26 calls $2
Shammann has returned
Swiper023 has 15 seconds left to act
Swiper023 folds
indian1112 calls $2
WiIIie folds
Damn Ringer calls $2
inherrsun folds
Sloffy calls $1
xxsclencexx checks
*** FLOP *** [Jc 2c 4h]
Sloffy checks
xxsclencexx checks
gib26 bets $4
indian1112 folds
Damn Ringer calls $4
Sloffy folds
xxsclencexx has 15 seconds left to act
xxsclencexx has timed out
xxsclencexx folds
xxsclencexx is sitting out
*** TURN *** [Jc 2c 4h] [4s]
xxsclencexx has returned
gib26 bets $10
Damn Ringer has 15 seconds left to act
Damn Ringer calls $10
*** RIVER *** [Jc 2c 4h 4s] [Js]
gib26 checks
Damn Ringer checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
gib26 shows [3h 2h] two pair, Jacks and Fours
Damn Ringer shows [6c 3c] two pair, Jacks and Fours
Damn Ringer wins the pot ($36.10) with two pair, Jacks and Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $38 | Rake $1.90
Board: [Jc 2c 4h 4s Js]
Seat 1: WiIIie didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 2: Damn Ringer showed [6c 3c] and won ($36.10) with two pair, Jacks and Fours
Seat 3: inherrsun (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 4: Sloffy (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: xxsclencexx (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: gib26 showed [3h 2h] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Fours
Seat 7: Swiper023 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 8: indian1112 folded on the Flop
Seat 9: Shammann is sitting out

Well this month ended less happily than I was planning but it is what it is. I was hoping to continue rallying at the end of the month and run this up to at least a 10k month. However, no such love from FTP. I took some pretty brutal coolers and was on the wrong side of a few too many standard spots. I put in alot of volume this month for me. I played over 50k hands which might be the most i’ve ever played i think ever in a month. So good for me. My winrate was the lowest my winrate has ever been on a month however. It also dragged my 1/2 WR on the year down to a less than impressive 3ptbb. I felt like I was grinding against myself. I ran about 1.5k below EV, and I’m currently under EV for the year. I’m still adjusting to FTP and the players tendencies so hopefully that comes around and I can finally put together a few good sessions to start sept. Here’s the graph:

Click to Resize

Obviously It was a ridiculously swingy month, and had a kill yourself ending. It ended up being an 8k month after rakeback. Here’s to hoping September is better and a little bit less swingy.

I think its more than safe to say that my breakeven stretch is finally over. I had been breaking even since the end of May before this month. I really started to doubt my game but was quite impressed with the way I came out of the stretch. I have already figured out that vegas made me a much better player and much better hand reader. It feels great to put in some serious volume and finally be enjoying poker again. I am still running about 1.1k below expectation this month but its not too big of a deal. I am pretty close to even at EV on the year. I plan to put in some more volume the rest of this month. My current plan is to probably play another month of 1/2 and start trying to move back up to 2/4 and 3/6 by the end of the year. It’s a pretty reasonable goal i think. Hopefully, that will also aid in getting me to my financial goals for the year.

On a personal note, I have had a few things going on in my life recently. I moved to Washington DC to live with my long time gf, Leigh. We lived together for about 3 weeks and things were just weird. I finally got her to talk last weekend and she was in fact “not in love with me”. I figure a ton of you guys think that the status change was another elaborate prank by us (which its understandable why you might think that). It isn’t and I would say there is a 99.9% chance we are done for good. However, there was no big to-do. No big fight and I think she felt really guilty for even doing it. It’s likely just she is interested in another guy, which I’m surprisingly fine with (which was the main reason I realized it was time to move on). I am more happy to not be in a relationship that is treading water. It was pretty crummy timing however, considering I moved from a city I absolutely loved to one I really kinda hate and stayed faithful to a girl while I was spending 3 months in Vegas. I do however get to live with my best friend from college, so that’s a definite plus. I’ve gotten so use to change recently I’m really kinda falling in love with it. I’m gonna stay in DC for a full year, and then re-assess in 2010.

On a different note, I went to a wedding this past weekend in Richmond to watch one of my fraternity brothers get married and shindig afterwards. It was a great time, but let me say… I hate Richmond. It was just a terrible city. We had a really great time though, and I met alot of fun new people and got some see alot of old faces I hadn’t seen in forever.

I have also decided to pick up the drums. Me and Klein setup the drumset tonight and were messing around with it. I think i’m going to take some lessons and try to get really good. It’s gonna sound gay, but I got the urge to play drums after playing the new guitar hero: world tour game all summer. I was doing several songs on expert and really really enjoying the riffs. I felt like I had a natural gift with the drums so I’m gonna pursue it. My room is gonna be setup with 2 guitars and a drumset… it will be the rockout room of our house. I’m pretty excited about it. I’ll post pictures after I get the whole thing setup.

I think that’s about everything in my life at the moment. So on that note, this blog ends.

3 days ago I woke up in the morning to that elusive scratchy throat. I knew it was coming and despite drinking as much orange juice and water as possible all that day, I woke up the next morning with the shittiest sore throat ever and a likely fever. I pretty much decided to sleep all day and just watch ESPN. However, I kept getting phone messages from PTR telling me that a few of my favorite fish were online. One particular fish who multitables 200nl was on 8 tables so I decided to just weather the storm and sit with him. It was a terrible idea. I quickly found myself getting outplayed and just playing overall bad.

I managed to lose 3.5 buyins before I decided it was a bad idea to continue on in my state. I went back to laying down. About 2 hours later, I get another alert. This time for a really big 72/13 fish. I knew i wouldn’t have to play for long with him before he stacked himself off to someone (hopefully me). I went to go see what he was playing and what the waitlist looked like. To my amazement he was on a 2/4 table with another 50/20 fish. The average pot at the table was climbing above $150. I decided again that I must sit down with them for the sake of liking money.

I managed to get cold decked and coolered by one of the fish. I lost a buyin there as well. Overall a pretty ugly day at the tables when I really shouldn’t have been playing at all. I think i learned a vital lesson though. Don’t play when you know you don’t have your A game. The C game isn’t enough to even have my competing against the likes of sainter and berlinsbest.

Today, I am feeling better but still feeling a little sick so I stuck to 100nl. I usually wouldn’t have played at all but I really have this itch to play a ton of hands. It must be just feeling out my new style of play and really starting to get my head around very good postflop play. I decided I would only play deep tables with a $200 stack (this catered to my ego). I knew i would play against likely the best 100nl regs, but I think I can crush just about all of those guys. I wasn’t wrong in my assumption. I absolutely bulldozed the tables. I managed to win 15 bi’s in 3000 hands. It was pretty awesome, but makes me wonder why I can’t just run like a normal human at 200nl. Click HERE to see a link to the graph from today.

I dunno what i’ll play tomorrow, but hopefully I feel better. At least good enough for some happy hour!

Sorry bout taking so long to get back on the blog, but I’ve finally gotten back to playing a serious amount of poker whenever i want. It’s been a hell of a ride so far. I have been swinging out of control for the last week. Alot of it has to do with running bad, but on top of the run bad it tilts me. I actually starting flipping out at my computer. It was really out of character for me.

I did some thinking and I can’t remember the last time I was legitimately upset during a session. I might be developing tilt issues but I doubt it. I think its the long built up anger from my 70k breakeven stretch. I have officially broken over the top of my highest point on the year though. So hopefully that means this shizz is finally done with. I feel like I’m playing the best poker of my life right now though. I think i’ve worked through all my issues with playing more aggressively and finally playing a winning style.

If I can win money while running as badly as I have been this week, then I think I’m gonna go on a crazy heater soon. I am roughly 7 bi’s below expectation which isn’t bad but that doesn’t account for all the walks i’ve been getting w/ monsters as well as the lack of action I’ve been getting with real hands while putting out awesome action. I am actually excited to finally a really good session.

Here’s my graph from the last week, which is hilarious at best.

(click to make it larger)

Oh and I forgot to mention I’ve got a roll back on FTP and am starting to play there again. I have missed it alot and its taken me awhile to start getting use to using a hud again but it isn’t bad. The games are infinitely better than the cake games were too. However you can’t tell I’m back thanks to PTR conveniently forgetting my winning sessions. Oh well, I guess its better I look like a breakeven fish on that site.

Anyways, That’s about all for the update.