Been running great lately

I'm sure you'll be glad to hear I've been playing a good bit of poker again (I know I'm delusional anyone is even reading this, but it makes it easier to write assuming someone, somewhere is). I've been running pretty damn good lately. Aside from one stupid game I played a couple days ago, I have been at least cashing in all my games for over the past week. I know it's probably just a lucky streak where I'm running pretty hot, but I have been doing a good bit of reading the last little while so my game may just be getting better too. I've only one 1 in all those wins, so my heads up game still really sucks. This was how my game tonight ended, so it may not all be my bad HU game:


It's nice to be playing again, I do miss it when I don't play but it seems something always comes up. I've been trying to play at least one SNG a night and have been reading a few more books then before. I've also tried to stay active over at cardschat.com, but again it seems that is easier said than done. Here in about two weeks I'm going to have my spring break (I know that's a little late, but better late then never). My wife and I are going to be taking a cruise down to Mexico. I will definitely get a few hands in at the casino on the ship. It'd be nice to take down a good win on there and pay for a little bit of the vacation.

Well that's about all for me tonight. I'd like to say, "talk to you soon", but if you have learned anything from reading on here, you know I'm horribly inconsistent with keeping up with this blog. So I'll talk to you some time. Good luck at the tables.

A Few Topics to Look Up

Most of my poker training has come in the form of just reading whatever I can get my hands on. I don't usually have a set goal in mind of what I want to learn, I just try and take in as much as I can. Poker is just way to broad of a subject to learn it all at once. That's why I'm going to setup a little list of a few things I want to look into one at a time and "master" as much as I can. I'll write up a few posts about them along the way about what I learn, epiphanies I have, and just a little bit of review. I'm sure doing things this way will help me improve my overall game faster, as well as each smaller aspect of my game. My goal will be to take a couple weeks on each topic that I list. After that time I'll have a full summary of the topic and what I have learned about it. I'll also throw in a little bit about how I've implemented it into my game and how well it's going with the new trick up my sleeve.

Enough chit-chat, lets get to the list:

• Continuation Betting
• Bankroll Management.
• SNG Strategy
• Expected Value
• Position

I know that doesn't seem like a very big list, but like I said, I'm going to spend about a month on each topic. That should give me plenty of time to focus on each thing and absorb as much as I can about that topic. Hopefully I'll be able to bounce some of my thoughts off of one of my buddies. I'm sure being able to actually discuss these topics in person will help me grasp the details much better. If anyone has any ideas of somethings specific that must be added to my list shoot me an email; ericgarner118@gmail.com

Anyone else in a RUSH?

Sorry for the stupid title. I guess I was feeling clever. Anyway, on to what I came to talk about. I have been playing a good bit of Rush poker lately. If you haven't heard about it, it's a newer game from Full Tilt. It's pretty much the same as everything else, except as soon as you fold you are sent straight to a new table with new people. It cuts down on a lot of the waiting that some people don't like about poker. The good thing is that a lot of people play super tight on here. When people do this, they pretty much turn there cards face up. You win so many hands on here from stealing, c-betting, and your implied odds hands. You do have to be a little careful if you are a tilter. There WILL be some crazy coolers here and you'll just have to take 'em in stride.

While most of my time has been spent on Full tilt lately (trying to grind out my first deposit bonus on there) I have spent some time on stars. Usually when I play on stars it's just for some SNG's or an occasional cash game. I played a STT SNG earlier today and came in second. It was pretty long game, but it was pretty fun. I haven't played many SNG's lately and it's always nice to get back into them and win al little. Sometimes when you play a few it just seems so easy to win them every time, then you'll go on that down swing that pulls you right back down to reality. Anyway, the main reason I brought this SNG up was to show you a pretty shitty hand for a couple people. It was pretty much all-in pre-flop and when the cards were turned up I'm sure a couple people were pissed. Anyway here you go:



Well Kayleah just walked in with some dinner, so it's time to eat. Good luck at the tables.

My 2nd Home Game Went Great

On Saturday I decide to have a few people over for a home game. I have done one once before back when I lived in Va, and figured it was time for another one. I invited a few people from school over, including my buddy that got me back into poker, my wife, and her parents, and younger brother. There ended up being a total of 7 people in the SnG style game. The buy-in wasn't much, only $10, and the top two spots were paid; 70% for first and 30% for second. I had a nice array of munchies for everyone and a few people brought some things also. Apparently the pulled pork my wife made was AMAZING. One of my buddies today said he can't stop fantasizing about them.

The Game itself went pretty good. Around like the 4th or 5th hand, I picked up AK of spades on the button and of course raised to about 4*Bb. I got one caller, my brother-in-law, the flop came Kxx of spades and I had TPTK, and the nut flush draw. The bet around 1/3 of the pot and I re-raised all in. He doesn't have a whole lot of experience with poker and I knew if he had anything he would call. Fortunately for me, he had started with JJ and called. I ended up making the flush and he didn't catch anything. That had set me up to play some pretty nice big stack poker and bought a few pots and kept my chip lead up for a good while.

It got down to me, my wife, and her father. They were both about even and I had a good bit more than the two of them. I don't remember the exact hand now, but I busted my wife out next with a higher two pair then she said. She was getting to the point where she was just tired and didn't really want to play any more.

Finally down to heads-up it was my father-in-law and me. We went a few rounds with me pretty much throwing my stack around and bullying a good bit. The last hand he had pocket threes, I had position and raised up about 3-times his bet with 67s. He called and we went to the flop. The flop was A7x and he checked, I raised about 3/4 the pot. After a little bit of thinking he called. With the action I figured he had maybe two connected broadway cards, or maybe a middle pair. Luckily the turn was a 7 and I made my two pair. He checked again, and I once again made a raise which just about put him all in. After a quick chip count he ended up shoving the last few chips in. I called and he turned over his pair of 3's and didn't get lucky on the river.

It was a good time. I had fun playing and made a few quick bucks along the way. My friends from school all agreed we should make it a regular thing. So once we get a few more people (I don't think the in-laws or my wife want to play regularly) we'll start setting something up. If one of the probably 3 people that have read this blog are around Phoenix, Az., hit me up and lets get something going.

Back to the Grind....

Well, well welll. That sure was a long break from poker. It had been a pretty busy last few months. Aside from getting out of the Navy, going back to school, and getting a full time job, I just haven't had much time for poker lately. I've had the itch, just haven't really been able to scratch it properly.

In my Calc. class, one of my buddies needed some help. So I've been helping him out a little bit too. Come to find out, this dude used to play a ton of poker. I haven't really had anyone in real life to talk to about poker, let alone someone who really knows what he is talking about. I played a few hands with him the other night, and have been back at it since then. I'm not really following proper BR management right now, and I'm playing some 5NL and played a few times at 10NL. Here soon I'm going to deposit a good bit more and bring my BR up to where it should be for these levels. Right now I'm just playing with what was left on Stars.

I think I'm going to stick with it this time. I know I've said that before, but I shouldn't have any more stuff popping up in life that's to crazy. Plus, like I said, I now have someone to talk to about poker. We shall see though.

I Did Ok in My First BIG MTT

Well I haven't played a whole bunch of poker lately. I think I'm a bit tilted on the down swing I've been having. I knew it was going to come, and I figured it would come hard. My winrate was super high and I new I couldn't keep something like that going for to much longer. I've been playing in some of the free rolls lately. I've missed a couple of the CC freerolls but hopefully I'll start making the time for them.

I played in on of the "Hubble's NL" freerolls. There are like 9000 guys to start with and only 72 get advanced to the next round. I was doing really good. I made a couple right plays and the biggest thing that set me up; I picked up AA when three other people pushed in.



That set me up really good. It gave me great opportunites to steal some blinds and just push people around. I made it all the way down to like 256 people. I though I was golden. I knew that this was going to be the toughest part of the freeroll, but I thought I was playing pretty damn good. I look down and see two cowboys sitting there. I was like great! I just need to not see and ace on the flop and I'm set. Here's the hand history for that hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 0 Tournament, 600/1200 Blinds 100 Ante (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com



SB (t100272)

BB (t20885)

UTG (t5452)

UTG+1 (t34116)

MP1 (t48849)

MP2 (t103945)

Hero (MP3) (t105784)

CO (t13350)

Button (t32814)



Hero's M: 39.18



Preflop: Hero is MP3 with K, K

UTG calls t1200, 2 folds, MP2 calls t1200, Hero bets t5000, 2 folds, SB calls t4400, 1 fold, UTG raises to t5352 (All-In), MP2 calls t4152, Hero calls t352, SB calls t352



Flop: (t23508) 9, 3, Q (4 players, 1 all-in)

SB checks, MP2 bets t3600, Hero raises to t23000, 1 fold, MP2 calls t19400



Turn: (t69508) J (3 players, 1 all-in)

MP2 checks, Hero bets t77332 (All-In), MP2 calls t75493 (All-In)



River: (t220494) 4 (3 players, 3 all-in)



Total pot: t220494


Needless to say, I was extremely pissed. Part of it was my fault. The guy that pushed in with the AJo had to small of a stack to make a proper bet, so I couldn't reraise. If i would have noticed that (which I should have) I could have raised a little less so that some one could have reraised. If I could have shoved, the guy with Q9o wouldn't have called. Either way it is way passed my bedtime and I need to get some sleep tonight. Hopefully my luck will start to turn around a little bit and I can shake off some of these losses. Good luck at the tables.

More Good Luck With Technology

Well my fantastic luck with computers continues. After only a couple months of owning my new laptop, it decided to crap out. I need to take it in to gateway and see what they are going to do. I'm pretty sure I can salvage the hard drive, if nothing else. I hope so because I'm just about done with restarting my poker Databases.

Well any way, I started to play a bit of poker today and that did not go very well at all. I was expecting a bit of a downswing (I've been running at a winrate of about 35ptBB/100). I didn't think I could hold that winrate for too much longer. Well here is just an example of how I was running:

On the turn I was a 95% favorite to win this hand. As you can see, the river brought one of the two cards that he needed. I also ran into AK

I don't know if you noticed, but that is a Holdem Manager screen. While my other computer is down, I figured I'd go ahead and download the trial of HM. So far it's ok, It will take a bit of getting used to but I'll let you know how it was when my trial is up.

A Hilarious Youtube Video on How to Play Jacks

I was just dicking around on youtube today and found a hilarious video. Its some guy "teaching" people how to play Pocket Jacks. He pretty much sucks, but the video is very funny.

Sometimes Things Just go Right!

Do you ever have those days where it seems like everything is just going right? Well I've had a couple of those the last few days, on the felt and off. In the last couple days (I don't play to many hands a day) I've gotten aces about three times, and a ton of just great hands. Tonight in the span of 4 hands; I had aces once and AK twice. Here's one of those AK hands I got a screen shot of:

You can't really ask for a better flop than that with AK. With the pocket Aces I also stacked the guy off. He had a shit hand but was still more than happy to put it all-in against me. In the beginning of playing this time around, I ran into a few bad beats and it really dropped my win rate down. I've been climbing my way back out and have been doing pretty damn good (if I do say so myself). Here's a quick screen shot of my graph:

I know it's not a very big sample yet, but it's going pretty good. I'm sitting on $82.03. I don't remember the exact amount I started with (it's either $30 or $35). Either way, I've doubled my initial deposit. Once I finally make it up to $100 I can finally make my first jump in limits. I'll finally be playing 5nl, yay!!!! On another topic, here in a couple days, I finally get to join the CC freerolls again. That should/may help me build my BR up. At the start of next month, I'll go ahead and put up another month goal list. I hope I can do better on this upcoming one then I've done on my last ones.

Well that should do it for tonight. I think I may head back to the tables and put in a few more hands before I head off to bed. I wish you the best of luck.

Home, Sweet Home

Well that trip wasn't to bad at all. Wednesday We had the movers and the exterminator over. I didn't know that the exterminator was going to spray everywhere, and not just around corners and stuff, but he did. So we decided to leave that day. We left around 6:30 eastern time. I wasn't going to stop till I got out of Virginia. Around midnight, my wife decided it was time for something else for us to worry about and broke out in hives. She does that every once in a while when she gets stressed out, all the chemicals we'd be cleaning with didn't help either. I found some Walmart and ran in and bought about 10 things that could help for hives. Benadryl, hive relief, lotions, oh and one big ass machete (for the trip not the hives). I was about half way through Tennessee and stopped at about 3 in the morning at a rest stop. That was definitly our favorite state to drive through. The roads were great, the trees were beautiful, people were nice, and it was just all around a nice drive.

I slept for about four hours and was ready to go. When we got to Memphis we just had to try some Memphis style BBQ. We stopped at some place that was off I-40. It was called Tops BBQ. We got some BBQ sandwhiches, a bunch of sides, and a big old jug of tea. They were fantastic. Everything was great! The sandwhiches had a good mix of tender meat and nice crunchy ends. They were covered in Memphis BBQ sauce and some cold slaw. The Baked beans were good, they had some of that sauce in them and were a bit sweat.

After our tasty meal, we were ready to hit the road. I used to live in Van Buren, Ar when I was younger, and we drove right through it. I showed my wife the High School I went to for a year and a little bit of the town. We drove on through to Oklahome City. HOLY CRAP!!! That is was by far our least favorite state. I will never go through that place, EVER AGAIN. We stopped about 40 miles west of OKC in some Truck Stop at about 1 local time. I think it was a "Flying J".

I got back on the road again at about 5 and made sure I got out of Ok, as fast as possible. About half way through the Texas Pan Handle my contacts were starting to act up again so I had my wife drive for a while and took a little nap. She got us through to New Mexico and I was back at the wheel again. The East side of New Mexico is just about as boring as Ok., and Tx., were. But when we got a few miles out of Albaquerque, it started to get really pretty. Huge mesas, beautiful red rock, and more beautiful desert landscape. Oh, did I mention we were in a huge storm just about the whole trip till about right here? Yeah, we were rained on, no poured on, the whole trip till a few miles into New Mexico. The East side of Arizona was pretty boring too. Not much happened there, we just saw about 600000 signs for all things Indian related.

We got into Phoenix at about 5:30 local time. It was great finally being back home. My wife and I are staying with my parents for a little while, just till we can close on a house. Life is good, and I should be back to some poker here in no time. Till then, good luck on the felt.