My March

I thought I would take this opportunity to give an overview of my month. February was very good to me, I rarely every posted a losing session. It was a very good month that allowed me to pay off some big debts and have some smooth sailing. I started getting a big paranoid (see some previous posts in Feb) that I was just running hot and maybe not a real winning player overall. Well, I think that March settled that. This has been the month of swings. I've had swings over the course of s few days in the thousands. After my big loss near the beginning of the month, I had take a step down and reexamine my game. I was able to recover from that loss after 2 weeks of work. It sucked really hard because I wanted to try and qualify for a WPT event and I just didn't have the money ti be putting towards qualifying events.

But with every cloud there is a silver lining.

As I've said before, my NL game has really taken off. I am handily beating games that 3 months ago wouldn't even think of playing and a year ago seemed like a far off dream. I have ended my month 3K above my target (that's if I don't play at all today). I might be able to reach my year 'target' for my bankroll by this summer. Once I reach that magic number, almost all of my money is going to paying my student loans and putting money away for Law School.

Of course, my latest big push has started on Monday when I headed over to my grandmother's house to help her out, so I am going to thank God for this one. I haven't really stated this much anywhere, much less this blog, but I am a very spiritual person (I was going to say religious, but I don't really do alot of the ritual stuff so 'spiritual' might be better, though I do believe in celebrating my religious holidays). I helped out someone I loved and the good times are rolling!

On a last note, I think I found my biggest leak in my game: clothes shopping. Call it girly or gay or metrosexual, but I like getting stuff like new t-shirts that display my fun-loving personality.

P.S. I hope that Lynard enjoyed her time with. I have two rats, Lynard and Skynard, and one of them died suddenly before I left on Monday.

You Just Made the Blog

Well, I am having a blast at my Grandma's house. I was able to jack into a neighboring wireless network, so now I have wireless internet in a house which my grandparents have lived in since before I was born. It just feels good to be able to help my family out. I guess Karma is a 2-way street because my domination of the 5/10 Short Handed NL tables continues. I wish someone would tell me why people play like this.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $5/$10
6 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $397
UTG+1: $1071
CO: $1057
Hero: $1047
SB: $1890
BB: $1000

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is Button with ah js
UTG calls $10, UTG+1 folds, CO calls $10, Hero raises to $50, 3 folds, CO raises to $160, Hero raises to $400, CO calls $200.

Flop: jh 5s 8d ($825, 2 players)
CO checks, Hero is all-in $697, CO calls $697.

Turn: ad ($2219, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2219)


River: 3s ($2219, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2219)


Results:
Final pot: $2219
CO showed 2s 2c
Hero showed Ah Js

I put him on a small-to-mid pair preflop (I didn't think that he was smart enough to play Kings, Aces, Queens or Jacks this way) and I tried to represent a big hand. I for one cannot believe he called me preflop, though based on some of his previous retarded play (He called all in with J6 on a 6442 board against 88. He did hit the J on the river) I am not surprised he called me on the flop. This guy is the ultimate calling station and just made my buddy list.

See Ma, I do win big pots too!

Off to Grandma's House We Go

For the next week, I am going to go visit my grandmother. Since my grandfather died a year ago, she has been struggling and we are in this interim period where we are waiting for a spot to open in this nice retirement home. Of course, this leads me to a massive amount of Jewish Guilt (TM) since I want to her to go there, but that means that someone has to die. What a depressing set of circumstances. Hopefully the person who my grandmother takes over for was Hitler's mom or something.

Anyhoo, I will gone from my place for a week as I take care of her (Yay! House Chores!) and I will have to rely upon what ever coffee house internet I can find for my internet. I would like to offer a publiuc thanks to Full Tilt Poker for (finally) releasing their Mac client.

I have been dominating the 5/10 NL tables at Full Tilt. I am what I consider underbankrolled for those games, but these games are low variance and easy to beat that I do not mind playing them at all and have become very comfortable with the stakes. I have been "testing out the waters", so to speak, for the last month and a half and I feel I am almost ready for a permanent jump. It makes up for the rough time I've been having in the 15/30 and 10/20 game.

Good Lord

This is just what has been typical of my week. I've (for the most part) gotten over being mad at some of the beats I get, I just get annoyed. A little roll of the eyes and I am on to the next hand. So here is my bad beat.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $5/$10
4 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $409
Hero: $1332.50
SB: $868
BB: $965

Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is Button with 8c kc
UTG folds, Hero raises to $35, SB folds, BB raises to $100, Hero calls $55.

Flop: kh qc 7h ($205, 2 players)
BB bets $125, Hero calls $125.

Turn: 8s ($455, 2 players)
BB bets $375, Hero raises to $750, BB calls all-in $375.

River: qh ($1955, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1955)


Results:
Final pot: $1955
BB showed As Ac
Hero showed 8c Kc


Now before y'all say anything, my post flop play has become very good and I felt that I could get his whole stack if I got it big or if the right flop came bluff him off. I didn't like my flopped kicker, so here I like to call in position and see what he does on the turn. He could very easily have AQ-A10 and JJ-1010. If I didn't improve and he was still showing strength, I was going to dump it fast for a minimal loss. When I improved on the turn, his bet said I have AK or AA, so I made the push. Remember, most of the chips went in when I had the best of it. I got myself back from that with some very good poker (I was never all in at any time).

Sure, maybe I am donk and got what I deserved, but I get to post here and it is up to the rest of you to make your own determination.

Downswing and Crazy Long Session

Yesterday was NOT fun. After hitting a nice high for my bankroll, I couldn't get anything going for me. A lot of it was at Party Poker's 10/20 Longhanded games. I would buy in and just not win a pot. I realize that some of it was due to me not adjusting well to the game, but some of it was just pure Frustration. The good thing is that I didn't go on hard core tilt and once I lost my buy-in, I didn't buy in for more for that session. So the damage was minimized. I did go on tilt on a .50/1 NL game after this, though, and just went all-in everyhand. Once I lost that, I felt better. I was also hurting from playing at Full Tilt and the same thing happened, I just couldn't get anything going. I think my total losses for the day was around 1.5K. I would also like to give a shout out to my Mom who if she just read the last sentence, had a stroke. Don't worry, Ma, that's just the swings.

This morning, I logged onto Full Tilt and saw a 15/30 SH game going. I've had pretty good sucess with this game and sat down. This was all on my iBook and under the covers of my bed. After an hour, I walked away with a $800 win. I surf for a bit and then boot up my desktop. Here is where the crazy long session comes in:

I sit at the 15/30 game again. It is going fairly well, I am sticking to my game plan that works well here, but I still couldn't get anything going. I know I am playing well, but the cards aren't giving me that extra push. I hover around -$400 for most of the session. At the end, it is three handed I am -$100 and I am waiting for this short stack to bust then call it quits. Well, I go on a nice rush of cards, bust the short stack and take a bit off of the other guy and book a $230 win. Here are the stats for the session:

Hands: 283
Minutes Played: 190
BB/100: 2.83
VP$IP (percentage of times that I voluntarily put money in the pot): 37.4%

This is the 2nd longest cash game session I have played all year (the first was a 6 hour session at 5/10 where I absolutely lost my mind).

On a more personal note, I have decided to write a screenplay in my spare time so look for some sample scenes to be published here.

The Service and a Possible Trip

I'll get to the service in a moment, I just wanted to say that I might be going to Vegas today. A friend said he is driving down and asked if I wanted to go. I am leaning towards saying no because I do have business to take care off, but I haven't decided yet. I think the big deciding factor is if one of my other friends, who is awesome and good NL player, decides to go. I enjoy going to Vegas with him (been there twice already with him), so it will be the big deciding factor.

Yes, the rest is a brag post. Here is hand #1, my 4th hand at the table.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
6 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $149.10
Hero: $693
CO: $579.30
Button: $110.80
SB: $353.15
BB: $562.10

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is UTG+1 with qs ah
UTG folds, Hero raises to $24, 3 folds, BB calls $18.

Flop: 6c 3h 5s ($51, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

Turn: 2d ($51, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

River: tc ($51, 2 players)
BB bets $51, Hero calls $51.

Results:
Final pot: $153
BB showed Jc Kd
Hero showed Qs Ah

Here is why I called: the play did not make anysense. If he had the straight, he would've bet more, trying to get paid off. Any other hand (like a pair of tens), he would either do a blocking bet or a check. True, I had not played with this guy much, but at the worst I would lose a small pot and get some valueable information for future pots.

And then he tries to do the same to me, and pick off my "bluff".

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
5 players

Stack sizes:
Hero: $715.50
CO: $89.60
Button: $404.25
SB: $495.85
BB: $164.50

Pre-flop: (5 players) Hero is UTG with ks as
Hero raises to $24, 2 folds, SB calls $21, BB folds.

Flop: th kh 6c ($54, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $40, SB calls $40.

Turn: 8d ($134, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $75, SB calls $75.

River: 4d ($284, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $140, SB calls $140.

Results:
Final pot: $564
Hero showed Ks As
SB mucks Ad Qh

I really cannot fathom why he decided to come along like he did. I had been playing solid poker have not shown any bluffs. I could maybe see him playing A10 like this, but not AQ. He should've dropped out by the turn. If I was bluffing him, so be it and fold. A raise on the flop would've been better and if he decided to attack the turn, then I would have a real decision. But he just played it in the worst possible manner.

I would show some bluffs (and other bad plays) that I ran that didn't work, but my PokerTracker Database is being screwed up, so you will have to settle for the self masturbation that is my blog.

Idiot Trash Talk

Here is the hand:

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
3 players

Stack sizes:
Button: $568.50
Hero: $1102.80
BB: $513.70

Pre-flop: (3 players) Hero is SB with 5h 8s
Button raises to $21, Hero calls $18, BB calls $15.

Flop: 2c 6s 6h ($63, 3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, Button bets $40, Hero raises to $100, BB folds, Button calls $60.

Turn: qs ($263, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks.

River: 2h ($263, 2 players)
Hero bets $140, Button folds.
Uncalled bets: $140 returned to Hero.

Results:
Final pot: $263

Here is the resulting chat:

wrestle1234 (aka the Button): beginner

If only he knew how much I just served him

Finally Staying Positive

Anyone remember my most recent Tilt post? ()

Well, I've finally been able to make up for it. I still have less overall money because of living expenses, plus I went to Nordstrom Rack (an outlet) and I sure do love to shop for clothes. I have also went to 2 different high scale malls in the last week. And I have 4 tickets to Paramount's Great America that I need to use (stupid website not clearly saying they weren't open last Friday). And a Pooh Bear doll to give to my cousin. Needless to say, I have been spending some money, though I am well within my means. Just wait until I win a Major event, oh the clothes I will buy! And electronics that I don't ever need. Ever. Except my electric shaver, I am under court order to need that.

Ok, I am going dig through my hand histories and see if I can find something fun to post. Be back in a jiffy.

Still there? Good. Here is a good hand to demonstrate good value betting.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
6 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $967.50
UTG+1: $337.30
Hero: $600
Button: $360.85
SB: $628
BB: $576

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is CO with qs ad
2 folds, Hero raises to $24, 2 folds, BB calls $18.

Flop: 3s ah 3h ($51, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $25, BB calls $25.

Turn: tc ($101, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $60, BB calls $60.

River: 5d ($221, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $120, BB calls $120.

Results:
Final pot: $461
Hero showed Qs Ad
BB mucks 8c Ac

I had been playing very aggresively and showed down a few bluffs. Around this hand I figured I should tighten up and stop bluffing as much. After the flop, I was %100 sure he just had a weaker Ace and just value bet it the whole way, sure that he was calling.

A Vacation

It's been a while between blogs, so I thought I would post a little update.

I am on a vacation right now at Lake Tahoe. Now I don't ski, but I have literally grown up here. I have been here for almost every summer of my life and I've just now become winter rat. I am heading out soon to goto Paramount's Great America with my Mom and my sister.

I've played a little poker whenever I can get internet access (the cabin I am at doesn't have any) and it has been going well enough to pay for this vacation.

I think I am going to use this blog to expand a bit on my history to my faithful reader(s?). This is where my handle XA Kid came from.

I am a member (alumni now) of the national Jewish fraternity, Alpha Episilon Pi. I will state here that I am a big fan of the fraternity concept when done right (not Animal House style) and my chapter was great. I made great friends, learned a lot about myself, and had sex with a goat. Ok, that last part not true, but I had a great time. Anyways, one of my bros, Will, played America's Army, a free online First Person Shooter sponsered by the Army. I decided to play with him. I saw that his handle was Cal_kid (I was a student at the University of California - Berkeley) so I decided to pick a similar name, XA Kid. XA stands for Chi Alpha (CA), which is the name of our specific chapter of AEPi. I started using it on poker sites and it just stuck.

So there ya go, the reason for my nickname. I should be back on Friday night, so look for some more poker action over the weekend.

I Got Blisters on Me Fingers!

So I broke down and joined the millions of others and bought a PS2 yesterday. The reason?

Guitar Hero.

They were demoing it at my local ebgames and I was spellbound. Later that day I headed back, picked up the game, a used slim PS2 and proceeded to spend my entire night playing the game. If you have a PS2, get this game. If you can afford to buy a PS2, get this game!

Now I own my own guitar and I have many years of music training. Those skills definently factored into it, but I still have some difficulty with some of the last songs in Medium mode, though I am getting through Hard Mode without failing. Now I need a break, because the joints in my fingers are killing me.

EDIT: I guess I should have SOME poker here, so here's a hand I played at 3/6 NL

Seat 1: XA_kid ($559.80)
Seat 5: jerrygarcia95 ($509.10) (Button)
Seat 6: winjswin ($289)
winjswin posts the small blind of $3
XA_kid posts the big blind of $6
Dealt to XA_kid [Jd 5h]
Everyone Folds
jerrygarcia95 calls $6
winjswin calls $3
XA_kid checks
*** FLOP *** [Jh 2h 3d]
winjswin bets $6
XA_kid raises to $24
jerrygarcia95 folds
winjswin calls $18
*** TURN *** [Jh 2h 3d] [Td]
winjswin checks
XA_kid bets $45
winjswin raises to $201
XA_kid raises to $357
winjswin calls $58, and is all in
XA_kid shows [Jd 5h]
winjswin shows [4c 2s]
Uncalled bet of $98 returned to XA_kid
*** RIVER *** [Jh 2h 3d Td] [8h]
XA_kid shows a pair of Jacks
winjswin shows a pair of Twos
XA_kid wins the pot ($581) with a pair of Jacks

I've been playing a very aggresive strategy at these SH tables, I did show down a bluff earlier and I was beating up on this guy since he was on my right. I raised the flop to see where I was at incase the button limped with Aces and to punish my boy if he had any draws. He essestially checkraises all in on the turn and I thought about this for a bit. I put him on a draw and pushed. He's wasn't even that good. Any other player at the table I would've probably folded, but I could feel him breaking to the pressure I put on him.

Turn Play

I think I've found my biggest leak in my game: My turn play with the nuts or close to it. I was playing a live NL game with no Max Buy-in with 2-2-1 blinds and 5 to bring it in. I have about $600 in front of me. There's an early position raise and two callers, so I call from the SB with pocket 6s. Flop is 996. Score! Checked around. Turn is a spade 3 for the flush. I check, early guy bets 40, caller raises to $140 and late position guy calls all-in. I smooth call and the early guy goes all in. The turn is a 10 and I go all-in and the raiser calls with 10-9. Tough break, right? No, just bad play. There were two lines I could've taken, betting the flop and betting the turn. Anyways, I should've being raising the turn and not softplaying because I put this guy on a 9 and I wanted to get paid off, right? Well, he has 7 outs to improve over me and I am also dodging the 2 outs from the first guys over pair. Facing 9 outs, I should've tried to get as much money in the pot as possible. I tend to slowplay the turn when I have the nuts or near it and give my opponents a cheap/free card to beat me enough that I pay it off.

This has happened time and time again and my "greediness" got the better of me and cost me maybe not the pot, but at least me putting my money in ahead, not behind. Next time, unless I have a hand that cannot be beat unless to maybe a 1 outer, I am going to try put maximum pressure on my opponents on the turn when I believe I have the best of it.

Rough Patch for the WPT

I've managed to recover about 33% of my loss from last Saturday's tilt (It was that big), but I am being very protective of my bankroll now so I haven't been able to pursue my WPT dreams very hard. I think this week will determine how aggresively I can focus for the rest of the month on the WPT.

That's the thing about poker, it is constantly shifting. You have to charge, retreat, dodge, sashay, and reevaluate constantly, whether it being during a game or overall. I can't charge ahead right now, but I am through retreating as well. I am reevaluating right now so as to not cripple myself.

The big problem with my last tilt wasn't that I was playing too high a limit. My bankroll can easily support me taking shots at limits twice of what I play right now. What I did do was lose my head and not putting a stop loss on the game. If I stopped where I should've, there wouldn't be a problem right now. Sometimes I wish I had a poker fairy that stood on my shoulder and went "Kid, it's time to quit for the day"

Oops, I Did It Again!

Tilt is such an ugly thing. Yesterday I decided to put some money on Doyle's Room, to try it out. I proceeded to play 20/40 and lose my mind. This guy right to my, uh, right, is playing retardedly, rasing things like Q7 offsuit under the gun (first position). When I play back at him with what figures to be a better hand, he catches up retardedly and I lose a big pot. I broke my bed after one beat. I won't go into numbers, but it hurt a lot, but it is not life threatening. I made back 25% of my loss already on other sites, but I feel like a wounded eagle. I am putting my WPT march on hold for a few days while I reevaluate.

On this plus side, I finally tried out the new party poker and man is it cool. I like being able to resize windows. I tried my hand at multitabling 10/20 and it was fun. So on the plus side I have spread my wings out a bit and did find some potential.

The Kid is Out.

Maniacs

So I saw this guy sitting at a 30/60 game with $300 bucks. I like to play heads up and I don't really look at the stakes, but how much that person has. So I sat down with $600 and played this guy heads up for about 10 hands. I play against short stacks well in Limit because I play aggresively, but I try to keep the pot small unless I flop something. I find this to be an effective strategy because the short stacks are protecting their chips and I can steal blinds/flops fairly effectively and they play ABC poker so it's easy to fold.

Anyways, this guy sits to my left with about $2200 and proceeded to be a maniac. Here's an example hand:

Full Tilt Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $30/$60
3 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (3 players) Hero is SB with :3h :2h
Button folds, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls.

Flop: :2d :3s :5h (6SB, 2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls.

Turn: :8c (6BB, 2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero Caps, BB calls.

River: :5d (14BB, 2 players)
Hero bets, BB calls.

Results:
Final pot: 16BB
Hero showed 3h 2h
BB showed 3d 9h

Yeah, this was a poor river bet, but I didn't really think about it before I fired. This guy was too juicy to pass up. So I put a few thousand down and proceeded to play. This guy was betting every thing like the above hand. I called down with a QJ and K6 and won both hands after he was firing every chance he got. After being down about $1000, I booked a nice $800 win before calling it a night.

On the flip side, I posted my first losing session in 2 weeks. As odds as it sounds, I am happy about it because I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop for sometime. It was a $1000 losing session at 15/30 short handed. I did do some stupid things and that loss should've been $900, but I started tilting before I stopped.

Just goes to show y'all, poker isn't all rosey.

I Am a Luckbox and Other Weirdness

Ok, the weirdness first. I was sitting at this 15/30 Shorthanded table and there were what appeared to be 2 empty seats to my left, but whenever I posted the Small Blind (SB), there was nobody visibly post the Big Blind (BB) and whenever I was on the button, there was no SB, but a BB. I guess the software screwed up, because there was someone there, but they didn't even show up on my screen. It lead me to be very confused when there was an extra $15-$30 in the pots that I was involved with on the SB and the Button. I finally figured it out after this hand what was happening.

Full Tilt Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $15/$30
5 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (5 players) Hero is SB with :8h :jd
2 folds, Button raises, Hero calls.

Flop: :7c :8d :9d (6SB, 3 players)
Hero checks, ? Bets, Button calls, Hero raises, BB calls, ? calls.

Turn: :8c (6BB, 3 players)
Hero bets, ? raises, Button folds, Hero 3-bets, ? calls.

River: :8s (12BB, 2 players)
Hero bets,? calls.

Results:
Final pot: 14BB

I would just see that someone raised me and that's when I figured out something weird was happening with my client. He ended up having J10 for the flopped straight. If I knew who I was playing against, I would've slowed down on the turn...actually, no I wouldn't. I'm just crazy like that.

He proceeded to berate my play, but it was all observer chat. I put two and two together and figured out what was going on. To be fair, he played it poorly. I would've jammed the flop and the turn and check-call the river. He let me take control of the hand. Shorthanded, you have to be fearless and if I missed my outs on the river and he played this properly, he would've made $45 more dollars on that pot. This doesn't seem like much, but in the long run it does add up.

In defense of my play, I think the only difference I could've made in my play is just calling the raise on the turn, but I didn't know who I was up against (I figured him as a tight player from playing him before and would have played the turn differently).

My final point is to not berate the players. Whenever I am berated by another player for my play, I go ahead and play my game because they are going to overplay their hands and try to "bust" me. You have to expect bad beats in shorthanded play and to think otherwise is foolish.