Damn Ringer's Poker Blog

Alright so this is the end of my October, as I’m going to Virginia Tech in about 30 minutes for the Thursday night game… and massive drinking will ensue. The month was a funny one. I had a reallllly tough time getting motivated in the first half. I was simply playing 100nl so I could get my 200 pts for iron man. I don’t know what it was that made it so tough to get motivated but I’m sure it had to do with the lack of tables w/o 30 shortstackers on them at the beginning. Towards the end of the month, I really found my stride and I’m playing what I think is the best poker I’ve ever played.

Here’s the graph… it’s mostly 1/2 and 2k hands of 2/4…

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I ran 5ptbb @ 1/2nl and obviously pretty hot at 2/4nl. That said, I ran under EV in both. Overall, a pretty hilarious looking graph.

And on that note, I’m off to tech… Root for the Hokies tonight!

Let me start this blog off by talking about how much fun I had this past weekend. The weekend started a little early and we did our normal happy hour on thursday. It was a blast minus one key fixture of the happy hour. We came back from the bar a little bit early because we have a mario party addiction in our house. My friend, Lindsay, brought over Mario Party for Wii, and myself and all my friends have been hooked since. I even gambled on a game of it. For those that have never heard of it, Its basically a board game for Wii where you have challenges against your friends for points. Its pretty fun for drinking.

Pretty much every night this weekend started off with Mario Party and 8 beers. Friday night I went to a b-day party for one of my ex-gfs (no, not that one) and it was an awesome time. It really helped that I brought along 3 of my boys as I didn’t really know too many people. She had the downstairs of a lounge to her party and one other. Everyone got basically blacked out and I’m sure she had a really good time and that’s really all that’s important right? We ended up coming home and playing drunk Mario Party until like 5am. Are you catching the theme yet? We are absolutely hooked.

Saturday it was a Hokies bye week so a rare opportunity to actually have a productive Saturday in the fall. I played a little poker while running like god. I also played some more mario party when a few of my friends came over. We started pre-gaming at around 8 for another birthday party at Clarendon Grille (a local bar with live music). I had another great time and hung out with basically every friend I had in the city, which was fantastic. I love combining groups of my friends, as it makes for an optimal good time for me. The girls at the party wanted to go out in DC 2am since the bars in virginia close at 2 but in DC they close at 3. Me and my roommates thankfully passed on that option, cause I clearly already had enough alcohol.

That was pretty much my weekend and hopefully I have a bunch more like them.

Onto other stuff… Shooter, my dog, hurt himself somehow a few days ago. I can’t quite figure out what he did but he’s incredibly tender on his back and belly. I’m taking him to the vet tomorrow, so hopefully its nothing serious and they just give him some doggy pain killers. He won’t jump which is just depressing, cause the dog has crazy ups and can’t get to alot of his favorite places (mainly my bed). The one thing that sucks about owning a dog is paying $300 for a vet visit, but it doesn’t happen very often and i guess he’s worth it.

And last but not least, Poker stuff. I have got my motivation back to play. I don’t know what happened but these past 2 weeks I’ve felt like I can do no wrong in poker. It’s really an awesome time. I have made about 25 bi’s in the last week after breaking even for the rest of the month. Hopefully I can finish off strong as I’m going to be heading off to VT on thursday and that will end my month. Either way, I’m pretty happy with my poker progress and I’m really starting to reap the benefits of living with better poker players in vegas. I think I’m 3x better than I was when I first went out. I can’t wait to see what else progresses.

I’ve been trying to play 2/4nl recently, but the games are just totally crap. I have been substituting that urge with the 1/2 deep ante tables that basically play like 2/4 tables in size. I thought the shortstacking problem was bad at 1/2 but scouting out the 2/4 games, its absolutely awful there. I can’t believe the regs are willing to sit with 5 shortstackers to get to a fish. I’ll continue to try and take shots there, but i’ve been more tempted to just shoot for 600nl as the games tend to have less shorties and a few less regs too. I’ll get back to you guys after I take a few shots at each. Hopefully, I don’t busto myself in the process.

This will prolly be the last blog for the month, barring something hilarious or horrible. So look for me on Thursday night football at VT… and ya know, have a good week and all that jazz.

I prolly cleared this number ages ago, but I finally hit 6 figures in this database. Before 600k hands, I’m a happy camper.

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Easy Game.

Well my handy dandy blog specialist has finally come through and updated the appearance of my blog. For those of you that check the blog via Facebook RSS you’ll notice no different, but if you check the blog on the actual www.damnringer.com you’ll see the difference. I’ve gone with a sorta halloween look for the moment. Leave feedback for what you guys think. I think it looks alot cleaner than the old blog.

I played a session last night and I’m 90% sure that not one of my light 4b’s worked. It was pretty amazing how often i was getting shoved on. It ended up working out however because two tables formed that were absolutely the best I’ve seen in ages. They were two 1/2 tables w/ antes. I had a 60/20 fish with $1200 when i first sat down. He played for 200 hands and left with $500 ($500 too much imo). I managed to make some really big hands and got one REALLY awesome cooler. Here’s the link to that…

Full Tilt Poker Game #15435923423: Table Pratt (deep) – $1/$2 – No Limit Hold’em – 2:08:13 ET – 2009/10/19
Seat 1: Damn Ringer ($400)
Seat 2: DivineLuckBox ($100)
Seat 3: 3_to_1_underdog ($459.25)
Seat 4: HomelessShelter ($718.05)
Seat 5: pabloka ($286)
Seat 6: ynothalo ($307.45)
Seat 7: Uber Esel ($413.40)
Seat 8: ltlhulkster ($841.90), is sitting out
Seat 9: LaPoCaFlame ($200)
LaPoCaFlame posts the small blind of $1
Damn Ringer posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Damn Ringer [2d 4d]
DivineLuckBox raises to $6
3_to_1_underdog has 15 seconds left to act
3_to_1_underdog calls $6
HomelessShelter folds
pabloka folds
ynothalo folds
Uber Esel folds
LaPoCaFlame folds
LaPoCaFlame adds $1
Damn Ringer calls $4
*** FLOP *** [3d 3h 5d]
Damn Ringer checks
DivineLuckBox checks
3_to_1_underdog has 15 seconds left to act
3_to_1_underdog bets $16
Damn Ringer calls $16
DivineLuckBox folds
DivineLuckBox adds $6
*** TURN *** [3d 3h 5d] [Ad]
Damn Ringer checks
3_to_1_underdog has 15 seconds left to act
3_to_1_underdog checks
*** RIVER *** [3d 3h 5d Ad] [8c]
Damn Ringer has 15 seconds left to act
Damn Ringer has requested TIME
Damn Ringer bets $36
3_to_1_underdog has 15 seconds left to act
3_to_1_underdog raises to $114
Damn Ringer has 15 seconds left to act
Damn Ringer has requested TIME
Damn Ringer raises to $378, and is all in
3_to_1_underdog has 15 seconds left to act
3_to_1_underdog has requested TIME
3_to_1_underdog calls $264
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Damn Ringer shows [2d 4d] a straight flush, Five high
3_to_1_underdog mucks
Damn Ringer wins the pot ($804) with a straight flush, Five high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $807 | Rake $3
Board: [3d 3h 5d Ad 8c]
Seat 1: Damn Ringer (big blind) showed [2d 4d] and won ($804) with a straight flush, Five high
Seat 2: DivineLuckBox folded on the Flop
Seat 3: 3_to_1_underdog mucked [8d 8s] – a full house, Eights full of Threes
Seat 4: HomelessShelter didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 5: pabloka didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 6: ynothalo didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 7: Uber Esel (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 8: ltlhulkster is sitting out
Seat 9: LaPoCaFlame (small blind) folded before the Flop

TBH, I have absolutely no idea what I do in his shoes. I guess I puke and call, but I’d seriously consider folding 88. When he first raised however, I thought he might actually have 33… which would have been sick. I also made a royal flush for the 3rd time in my poker career which is pretty wild considering how many hands I’ve played. I think i misplayed it however by not open-shoving the turn… Here’s the hand…

Full Tilt Poker Game #15436152817: Table Verano – $1/$2 – No Limit Hold’em – 2:29:21 ET – 2009/10/19
Seat 1: tredreich ($314.30)
Seat 2: Hoffa368 ($34)
Seat 3: TheChicken69 ($77)
Seat 4: noclaninator ($40)
Seat 5: edgetrader ($38)
Seat 6: Damn Ringer ($249.95)
Seat 7: Bondfather ($31.75)
Seat 8: venk ($114.15)
Seat 9: BobbyNix8 ($348.35)
edgetrader posts the small blind of $1
Damn Ringer posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Damn Ringer [Th Ah]
Bondfather folds
venk folds
BobbyNix8 calls $2
tredreich calls $2
Hoffa368 folds
TheChicken69 folds
noclaninator folds
edgetrader folds
Damn Ringer checks
*** FLOP *** [Qh Td Jd]
Damn Ringer checks
BobbyNix8 checks
tredreich checks
*** TURN *** [Qh Td Jd] [Kh]
Damn Ringer bets $20
BobbyNix8 has 15 seconds left to act
BobbyNix8 calls $20
tredreich folds
*** RIVER *** [Qh Td Jd Kh] [Jh]
Damn Ringer has 15 seconds left to act
Damn Ringer has requested TIME
Damn Ringer bets $40
BobbyNix8 calls $40
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Damn Ringer shows [Th Ah] a Royal Flush
BobbyNix8 mucks
Damn Ringer wins the pot ($124) with a Royal Flush
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $127 | Rake $3
Board: [Qh Td Jd Kh Jh]
Seat 1: tredreich folded on the Turn
Seat 2: Hoffa368 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 3: TheChicken69 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 4: noclaninator (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 5: edgetrader (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Damn Ringer (big blind) showed [Th Ah] and won ($124) with a Royal Flush
Seat 7: Bondfather didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 8: venk didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 9: BobbyNix8 mucked [As 7s] – a straight, Ace high

I was just gonna make this a quick update. Let me know what you think of the new blog look!

I got tons of motivation. The only problem is its motivation to totally immerse myself in football and beer! I haven’t been playing poker too much and when I do I’m simply doing it to make iron man. I think this is going to turn into a trend with me, I have spurts of heavy motivation followed by a burnout period. I am currently in the later.

If you’ve seen me at 100nl, its not because I’m on a downswing/busto/geting beat at 200nl. Its simply because I don’t want to think too much. I have been making some pretty terrible plays this month and definitely don’t want to the spew to hit me to the tune of 4 figures. I am playing only deep tables however, but the competition is hilariously different. I mean the deep tables at 200nl have pretty much only the best regs and 2 to 3 fish. At 100nl, the deep tables have 4 fish regs, 3 fish, and another decent reg. I’m gonna hate writing this next paragraph but I feel like its gotta be addressed at some point…

Shortstackers are suffocating the 200nl+ games. I haven’t been able to play a decent 200nl table for more than 30 minutes without it getting mobbed by shortstackers. I don’t like being the guy who complains about this stuff but its getting out of hand. If full tilt doesn’t do anything about this problem, they are going to lose their regulars. That’s all I’ll say. I don’t have a grand solution and don’t care how they take care of it, but it needs to be done.

Onto the life part of the blog and we’ll get the nasty outta the way first, I appreciate all the comments about the ex/cheating stuff. Either way, I’ve completely removed her, as well as, my old friend who let me look a fool for months, from my life so she won’t be a reoccurring theme on this blog. /annoying woman stuff on blog

I have been following hokie football like its going out of style and really enjoying it. The hokies look hella-good this year and its been an absolute blast to watch. I can’t wait for this weekend and hopefully we beatup GT, and move onto a nice bowl game. I’d argue there’s almost no way we make the national championship even if we win out so i’ll settle for an awesome bowl game.

I’ve also finally decided what I will do with my free time as well as made some action towards it. I am going to start volunteering for the American Cancer Society. I haven’t picked a cause before but I figure cancer is a logical choice since it sucks ass. I haven’t decided what exactly I’m going to do yet but I’m excited about my options. I will likely start with a few little things at events like registration desk or something easy like that til I get the hang of this charitable thing. I’m excited to see where this takes me and start using my downtime for good.

I also started playing in a live poker game that’s a really fun time. Its a 50nl game, and no one takes themselves seriously, which is always key. The last thing I need is to play a game where people actually take it so seriously they get upset or angry. I deal with that crap the rest of the time when I play poker. It is nice to unwind at a live game and really just play dumb poker and drink beers. The guy who hosts the game I learned has a podcast which is a really really cool idea. Basically him and his roommate (and sometimes guests) just get shitfaced while talking about all sorts of fun stuff. I can’t believe I never thought of that. Me and my roommate have been joking about how funny we’d be on a radio show forever, and yet the idea of just up and creating a website for ourselves has never crossed our mind. Kudos to the guys for doing a really fun awesome idea. I won’t plug their actual podcast til I know they want it but maybe in a few update I’ll plug em.

That’s about all I have to say… now off to happy hour! And if you see me at 100nl tonight try to stack me cause I’ll be playing like a muppet!

What’s happenin boys and girls? Its been awhile… My bad, I’ve been feeling sorta down recently so writing was like the last thing I wanted to do. Alas, I’m back to feeling somewhat like a real human being. I’ve been pretty impressed with my skill in leaving my emotional shit at the door when I have been playing poker. So that said lets look at my crappy September…

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I ran like total crap in the beginning of the month along with playing terribly. I managed to put in a decent volume though and net 7k + coaching so something like 8k for september. This is only the second month in my life i’ve played more than 50k hands. My 1/2 WR was over 3.5ptbb… which was solid. I also had a little running bad at 2/4 at the end there. Overall, I feel like things are really starting to come together, and I love the fact that the awful breakeven stretch is over. I realize now how high strung I was then. I actually hit my desk more than once, which is pretty damn out of character for me. I am going to be looking to take more shots at 2/4 this month when the games look good. Alright so there’s the poker results stuff outta the way from last month.

One more poker thing i’ll touch on is TableNinjaFT. I just got the program and I can’t say enough good things about it. I can’t understand how I did this before. The mouse over option is ridiculous. Its allowed me to add 3 tables onto the 12 I already play. So I should be 15-16 tabling from now on as long as I can keep my WR up. I’m also waiting for FTP to add a 30 inch monitor to their store. I don’t need another mammoth TV but I’m gonna default to it if that thing doesn’t show up soon.

Onto life stuff, like I said i’ve been feeling down recently. I am just in rut with never leaving my house. I feel like I’m going crazy. I’ve been trying to go on like a few dinner dates a week, but its still not really enough. I need to find someone to hang with during the day, that I can just shoot the shit with. It isn’t gonna happen because real people work and I don’t want some creepy bum in my house haha. Last week, I was so bored I just up and drove to charlotte for the week. It was a good time, but clearly this can’t become habit for me. On top of just being generally depressed from never leaving the house, I got the wonderful news my ex has already got a new bf, and it was exactly who I figured it was and exactly who i thought was responsible for it. Knowing didn’t make it any easier though. It’s a shitty feeling confirming you got cheated on (which is a first for me), and then left because some dude is better than you (which is a second for me). It doesn’t help the likely reasoning was “he’s in vegas, he’s probably doing girls, I gotta have some fun”. Makes me sorta regret the Vegas thing and especially the being a loyal bf thing. Its super weak sauce, but I’ve coped with similar feelings before so I’ll be fine… just hopefully its sooner rather than later. Writing that down did make feel better. WOOOO!

On a lighter note, I got a book for recreational reading. This is big news for me as I’ve never done this before. I love the Dan Brown books however, so one about the city I live in is hella-exciting. Its called “the lost symbol”. I think my plan at the moment is read the book, then go explore the book’s momuments around dc on a date or something.

Panda Bear Madness Minute!!!!