Well, I guess I should start out with some brief background about how I got started.

I’m a 20 year old student at Penn State University. I started playing hold’em right around 2 years ago. Previous to this, I had never played the game before. I started like basically anyone that’s new to the game. A few friends get together, throw in $10 and play sit n goes. Well, this was fun to me, and I enjoyed the competition, but I needed more. I heard about online poker and played play money for about 3 days until I got bored with it. I couldn’t bring myself to put in my own money though, because I was skeptical about the whole online thing. After a month or so, I came across the RGP boards and saw a post for a free $20 (!!!) at a prima site (TGC). I jumped on the offer, and it worked…I was ecstatic.

This is where the fun begins. I began playing .05/.10 NL, I really had no idea what I was doing. I would buy in with $3 (the max was $5 at the time) and just sort of play off of knowledge I could gather. I would win here and there, but it was the consistency that I was looking for. I would see the same people at my tables with $30-$40 stacks all the time. I wanted to be that person.

Eventually, my bankroll dwindled down to six dollars and change. I had it up decently, and then I got greedy and began playing stupid. It was time to do something, and I did. I started reading literature, articles, etc to improve my game. I found tons of holes in what I was doing. I got the bankroll from $6, up to about $120 in the span of about a week. Ignoring bankroll issues, I moved up to .25/.50 when I had around $180 or so. Perhaps I got lucky at first because I know I wasn’t a great player, but I have been playing off of that same money ever since…(about a year and a half later).

My game has improved drastically, but it still needs work .. there is always room for improvement. I’ve probably made $6-$8,000 in the last year and half, playing mostly .25/.50NL.. with a few runs of .5/1, $1/$2 and $2/$4 for a short while, where I did OK, but did not have what I consider to be a sufficient bankroll.

Being a lazy college student, I have no job. This is the money that I live off of for my day to day expenses. It’s been alright so far…but I really want to kick it up a couple notches.


So here we are…
I decided today to start a journal of my poker winnings. It seems that I have become less and less caring about the money I play with. This is not a good thing. So my plan is that if I’m in the public eye, it will force myself to either do well, or become embarrassed. I would much rather do well. So here it is.

I have my money scattered across various sites and will report about where I play when I play there. It’s 2am now, and I plan to play some $50NL at pokerroom for about 2 hours.

Session 1
Monday, July 18 2005
BR $530.70

3 tabling
PL$50
NL$50
NL$50

Nice way to end.

The session went pretty well overall. I only ended up playing for just under an hour, as I was tired from a weekend of partying. A good portion of this session’s winnings were won on the last hand I planned to play, on the last of the 3 tables I was on. I didn’t get the hand history, so I’ll just give a brief summary.

I was UTG with black 8s on one of the NL tables. I raised 3xBB and got a single caller.

FLOP: 2d 8h 5d

I was first to act here, so I bet out with $3. The player in mid position folded, and the guy one off the button raised it to $9. He could be on many things here, including lower set, flush draw, or overpair . I reraised him to $24 to try to push out the flush draw and he merely called. This is what got me thinking he was deadset on hitting the flush draw, or was playing an overpair. He only had about $12 left at this point, and I figured he would have went all in with even a lower set.

TURN: 5c

This gave me the top boat on the board, and I was pretty certain that he didn’t have 5s at this point. I went ahead and put him all in for his last $12 or so, and he called.

RIVER: 10c

I took it down with my eights full, against Ks-8d

End Session
$580.45
Net: +$49.75

Monday July 18, 2005
1:44pm
$580.45

3 tables
$50NL
$50NL
$50NL

Today really seems to be turning into one of those days, where no matter how good you flop, somebody is always calling to catch something better on 4th and 5th street. It’s very frustrating.

I was up a decent amount early on. Then I lost a few tough ones. I lost a full house to a rivered boat that was higher, etc etc etc

I play just a bit over 2 hours and ended up nearly exactly even. Overall, I feel that I played decently even though I don’t have the money to show for it.

End Session
$581.20

Net: +$0.75

I’ll probably run another session later this evening.

Monday July 18, 2005 (SESSION 2 TODAY)
5:45pm
Crypto - $346.32
PokerRoom - $581.20

4 tables
$50NL x 4

It’s an uneventful day, so I played video games for a bit, and now it’s back to the grind. $50NL at PokerRoom, as well as some 50NL at crypto.

I lost a full buyin within my first 10 minutes at crypto. Again, it was another instance where I had the best of it, and lost to a higher full house on the river. And again, it was another big blind special. I check in with A-2, and the flop came A-2-A, I called a $3 bet, and was immediately put all in by a 3rd player. I called of course. The turn came 8, and the river 9. I lost to my opponents A-9.

So far today has been mediocre. I don’t think I’m playing bad, other players are just getting what they need when they need it most.

--
The cards finally stopped falling for my opponents every hand I entered. I was down on both sites for a while, but ended up nicely at pokerroom, and near-even at crypto after losing a full buyin there from the start.

I should really play longer sessions more often. I played almost 3 hours this session looking through pokertracker, nearly all of my sessions that go beyond 3 hours are winning…and most of them by a fair amount. The only problem with that is that I can’t do it all the time. I play until I feel like quitting. If I’m not in the mood to play, I don’t. Because I know I won’t be bringing my best game.

End Session
Crypto: $342.82
PokerRoom: $694.10

Net: +$109.40

Tuesday July 19 2005 - 1:32pm
Crypto: $342.82
PokerR: $694.10

Random Babblings as I play

I woke up feeling ready to play today, which isn’t normal for me. I usually like to get out and get some stuff done first, but I feel like playing some poker, so that’s precisely what I’ll do. Games selection at PokerRoom is a bit dull, and crypto only has a single .25/.50 game going on. Hopefully some good tables open up shortly.

-My internet decided to go out about as soon as I sat down. I hope that wasn’t a sign. I went outside and played some ball for a bit…it was too hot to play very long at all though.

-I came back and sat 3, 50NL tables at PR, and 1 50NL at crypto. There’s a maniac at crypto that I’m just waiting to bust out. I just hope nobody else gets to him before I do. I could use a healthy double up to start my day.

-I’ve been pretty happy with my play recently, even when I was sitting with no profit for the day early on yesterday….I was happy with my play.

-On a side note, I have a couple bonus’ to clear. The one at crypto is $40, and should be realeased very soon. The bonus at pokerroom is a big one sitting at $300. It’s taken me forever to clear, and it had me very upset at one point. I deposited $600 to get the $300 bonus. Within the first couple weeks, I was taking some ridiculous beats (and not playing near my top game to boot). Well, that $600 was down to $250 real quick. I’ve managed to push it back up near the $700 mark with solid, smart play. Again, I hope I continue like this.

-I’m pretty sure that the problem before was that I was too eager to play big pots, trying to make quick cash. I was calling too many all-ins with good hands that weren’t worth of calling all-ins. It took a week off of poker and some thinking about what I was doing wrong to solve the problem. In the end, I believe it’s all ironed out.

-I ended it as another short session today, and unfortunately it wasn’t because I was waaaaaaay up. Nope, I just wasn’t in the groove and felt like quitting, so I did. I’m trying to keep away from forcing myself to play.

-It was the day with no sets. I looked at upward of 30 pocket pair, without a single set. Hopefully next time, all my sets come out for me (in dreams). Anyway, I ended up the day up slightly at pokerroom, and down just slightly at crypto (Edit: Cleared the bonus at crypto, so I’m up on both sites.)

End Session
Crypto: $380.52 (+37.70)
PokerR: $708.95 (+14.85)

Net: +$52.55

Tuesday July 19th
10:00pm
PokerRoom: $708.95

I just got done playing a live sit n go, where I took 3rd to a maniac who I’ve played with before, and I know is terrible. Oh well, no real big deal. There is always tomorrow.

So I come home and get back to some online tables. I opened up crypto, but it crashed on me after I was blinded down about $5. So I just closed that and got on with my business at PokerRoom, still trying to grind out this bonus that seems like it’s never-ending.

I was down about $15-$20 right from the go, as I brought my live/short handedsit-n-go style game to a full table cash game. I play a good bit different when comparing live to online play, so I had to switch gears. So switch gears is what I did, and I was on my way. I caught two sets of 5s almost simultaneously. Those pots helped pull me out of the hole,but neither was HUGE.

I also had a KK hand where it was raised, I reraised, then I was reraised and I threw in a healthy re-raise on top of that and the player folded and then started complaining about how he hated Jacks. Victory.

The session is looking up a bit after around an hour of play, and I hope it continues. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be sitting down. Could be 10 minutes, could be 3 hours. Whatever it may be, I just want the chips coming my way.

Well, it ended sooner than later, right around an hour and a half session. It ended in the positives, so I’m a happy person.

End Session
$749.15
Net: +$40.20

Wednesday July 20, 2005
8:57pm
$749.15

Ugh

Well, I sat 3 tables at pokerroom for my normal nightly session. Hand #2 I get KK, I raised to $3 and someone minraised it, and made it 6 to go. Now maybe it wasn’t a smart thing to do, but I pushed my chips in that position, hoping to get out to an early lead. But alas, I was met by AA. So I lost KK vs AA on my second hand of the night. So I’m sitting down $50 from the start. I hate these days.

It was one of those hands that got me really mad at myself for doing something so dumb. This is my first really stupid mistake in the last few days, and I’m not proud of it. I’ve been at the table for about 20 minutes now, and AA has taken down KK 4 times now. I don’t feel so alone anymore..ha. Either way, I’m not happy with myself for playing it how I did.

Today is just full of cards that should win, but can’t win for me. No matter what I’m hitting today, people are drawing out or outkicking me.

*sigh* and it continues…unrelentlessly. I have big blinds calling $3 with J-4 and hitting 2 pr on the river. I’m catching my set into somebody else’s straight and my straights into their flush. I’m not sure there’s anything that can be done about these beats today, aside from my dumb call to start it off.

Right now I’m down almost 2 full buyins at right around -$90.

End Session
$683.05
Net: -$66.01 >:(

Thursday July 21
2:10pm
683.05

UGH!! x 10 … then it got a little better

-So yesterday, on hand #2, I lost with KK to AA all in preflop. Well today, on about hand 10-15, I lost with AA to KK all in preflop, the man hit his 2 outer on the turn. Stuff like this just irks me to no end. I struggle all week to make a bit of money, and play solid…and in just a few hands, it’s gone. One hand of which, I was far ahead
in. But I suppose that’s the nature of No-Limit - Love/Hate

-It’s also another day of SOOO many pocket pairs and no sets. I've been seeing an amazing number of pocket pairs today. 0 sets. In fact, after an hour of play on 5 tables, I haven’t had a hand higher than a pair yet. Yuck!

-When I was winning the past few days, it wasn’t really because I was hitting tons of huge hands. It was simply that I avoided the huge losses. Well, it seems like they’ve come back to haunt me in full force, let’s just hope that it doesn’t last for very long.

-I plan to play a super-long session today to try to grind out the end of this bonus at pokerroom. It might take a healthy 6-8 hours to clear, but I’m going to do my best to finally get this thing cleared after a few months of waiting for it. I’m not so sure I’ll keep my money at this site, I’m not really a huge fan. There usually aren’t more than 6-7 full table NL ring games going on at the 50NL level, so you’re constantly sitting with the same people. While I don’t really mind this sometimes, it’s nice to sit with people that aren’t aware of how you play. I feel that it is an advantage for me to do so.

-I’ve seen pocket Q’s 8-9 times today, I’m still waiting for them to hit…or any pocket pair for that matter.

-I’m catching back up to even slowly but surely, just raking in some smaller pots as they come along the way and building. I can’t say that I enjoy climbing back to even from a hole, but it seems that I start that way a lot…down $20-$30 and building it back up to eventual profit. I hope I don’t take any more nasty beats today.

-Ended the session at 5:44pm, and on a positive note. I would have really liked to play longer, but I'm going out to get some drinks with a friend of mine for his birthday. All in all, not a bad outing.

End Session
$749.95
Net: +$66.90

Friday, July 22, 2005
12:30AM
$749.95

Bored … tournament time.

- Well, I just got done watching a movie, so I think I’ll sit down to play a small tourney while watching some Family Guy episodes. $5+50 MTT it is!

- There are 97 entries….and oops, I made a mistake. Apparently this is a super-super satellite for a WPT seat. Top 10 earn entries to the next round and 11th pays $35. Looks like I’ll be gunning for 11th place since I have no interest in the next round. (Gunning for 11th? How often do you hear that one?! )

- I haven’t really seen any cards, nothing exciting.

- Well, it’s getting down there. I hit a few hands and managed a few blind steals to keep me alive. I’m sitting with 14 people left, and I’m right at #11 where I’d like to end. This is slowing way down now.

- 12 people left…this is taking an eternity. I’m in last place now and I really hope I don’t bust out in 12th place.

- Wow, how lucky am I? I was down to $3800 chips with 400/800 blinds. I get 88 in EP and raise it up to 2,000. I get one caller and the flop comes as K-9-4. Check/Check. Turn comes a second 9 and I push all-in, and my opponent calls with QQ. River-8. Scoop it up!

- 11th place it is!!! That’s kind of funny that I managed to get 11th place. It was the first hand after #12 went out, and I was dealt K-10, and called an all in. What do you know? I was up against A-10. A on the turn, and I’m out. I never thought I’d be happy to win 11th.

End Session
779.45
Net: $29.50