Right back in the sh*tter today. The aggression was a downfall today. You would think though that I would have won at least 1 big pot out of the 3 of these to break even for the session at least. Sucks to play 3 big pots, or at least try to (I can't believe he never raised me on the 3rd hand. I would have pushed), and not win one.

This one sucked the most. Nuts on the flop and the turn, but I just can't wn a big pot. I know, it could have been worse right.
forum/viewtopic.php?t=5816&start=270


Frequent stealer, all around aggressive player. I defintely didn't put him on a big pair there, still don't think it was a bad push. I had been playing tight and I thought the paired board would scare him. Evidently not and I still had 8 outs twice.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?831794

I can't believe he never raised me. These draws have been tougher to hit for me lately than the damn gutshots. I only had 14 outs on the flop and then 17 on the turn. Ok, 13 and 16 because he had the
http://www.pokerhand.org/?831796

Another Quick Exit
In keeping with current trends, I either cash in the Midnight Madness or I'm out very quickly. The last 7x I've played, including tonight, I've cashed 4x and gone out within 20 minutes 3x. Tonight I folded the 17 of the 1st 18 hands I was dealt (AKo whiff exception) and then with the blinds 20/40 something strange happened. 1 limper and then the table big stack pushes for 2900. WTF? I have JJ OTB. Nobody had really been out of line at the table so I couldn't figure him doing this with a monster. I figured TT or AK most probable and called. He had Aces. Oh well. What am I gonna do? Fold every hand and get blinded down like last night when I was a big stack?

My Turn To The Darkside
Alternate sub-titles may include Super Tilt or Any Two Sooted or Falling Down II.

So......
PFR - call - c'bet - c/r - fold
PFR - call - c'bet - c/r - fold
Anyway, you get the picture. Now I'm only raising 5% of my hands or so and this got to be rather annoying just donating $5 or $6 everytime I PFR'ed. Then of course we have the 50/6/21 player who had called and c/r'ed me already. Then he flopped a flush, then he turned a boat, then the 55/38/46 player next to him flopped a set, and then flush, and then turned quads.

Meanwhile I'm just playing solid hands and donating to whoever decides to play every single hand. Both players over 50 VP$IP had more than 200BB sitting in front of them and after a day of grinding out a stack of profit, I was now donating to the lucky bastards and I was down a stack and a half.

I got fed up. I'd had it. Starting now, just for the rest of this session I was going to play every 2 suited hands I saw. I didn't care. Maybe I could win too if I played every single hand.

So of course, immediately I end up with [4d] in the BB. GARBAGE! A player who had raised 30% in CO or OTB made it $2.25. So I folded.

FVCK THAT! CALL! I'M SOOTED!

Flop [2d][Ts] Pot $5.25
I check, he bets $3.50. SCREW YOU - ALL-IN!

He calls - [Qh]

Turn River

OH REALLY???

6 hands later.............
[6c] CO.
New player UTG+2 raises to $1.50, I call.
[9h][8c] Pot $3.75
He bets $3 and I call
Pot $9.75
He bets $5 and I raise to $15. He calls
Pot $39.75

He had Aces! HOLY CRAP - This play every sooted hand stuff works???

Next hand in the BB........[4s]
1 limper, MP1 raises to $2.25
FU, I'M SOOTED! I CALL!
[4h][7d] Pot $5.25

HOLY SHIIIT!!!

Pot bet, c/r ALL-IN, CALL. [Qh] AGAIN!!! AND I HELD UP!

So wait a minute, this really works. I was getting called every name in the book, but you know what? 3 garbage to semi-garbage hands and 3 hits for a stack! This is insane. Playing like a nut works. And how ironic was it that the raiser happened to have a big pair in every single case that they couldn't get away from. And guess what? They stopped screwin with my PFR's after that. No more c/r'ing.

There are 18 players in my PT database with VP$IP's over 50% and at least 50 hands played against. 11 of them are winners! If you can't beat the maniacs, join them.

Weekly Results
Rough start. Better finish. At least it's a profit.

#'s for the Week
Yearly Results:
WEEK 1 +$95.60 (23h 11m)
WEEK 2 +$61.05 (14h 53m)
WEEK 3 +$159.12 (18h 42m)
WEEK 4 -$193.65 (26h 45m)

JANUARY +$152.69

WEEK 5 +$57.85 (25h 32m)
WEEK 6 -$167.65 (26h 17m)
WEEK 7 +$52.09 (26h 40m)

Blind vs Blind and Blind vs Steal Hands in Limit

This may end up being a very lengthy and rather technical post, but hopefully it will end up helping my limit game and that of anyone who may read it.

Where as I consider that many, but not all, of my problems are possibly due to bad runs (ie getting it all-in way ahead and being sucked out on a higher % of times than should happen so far in a not so significant sample size), I believe that my problems in limit are more due to my play and opposing player skill level.

I don't believe that I am a bad player, as a matter of fact I believe that I am a good limit plalyer, but it seems that the majority of limit players even in the 1/2 stakes are good aggressive players and much better than those stakes have seen in the past. My numbers after 17,193 hands at the 1/2 limit stakes are the following.......

17/7.5/29 2.08 Total AF +$9.36 or +0.03 bb/100

That is the epidimy of a break even player if I ever saw one. My goal, of course, is to not only beat the 1/2 limit game, but improve to a +3-5 bb/100 area.

One of my biggest leaks has become blind vs blind or blind vs steal (lp raise) hands. While it does seem that far too often I am holding a big hand (AQs+ or TT+) in this situation only to be facing a better hand or a worse hand that ends up better, but there must be more to it than that. Even in those situations I believe I may be hanging onto or being too aggressive with these hands in the belief that they are stronger than they are in heads up situations against either a blind who came in for a discount or a LP raiser/stealer in position. Following are the blind vs blind and blind vs steal hands I played in my last session with some analysis to follow.......

Hand #1: [Js] in the SB
Button - not loose, but very aggressive player who does not give up and does not usually fold. I have more hands vs this player (900+) than any other player in my database. I have seen her raise with hands like A3s and KJo from early to middle position and on many occasions call down with Ace high. (22/18/37)
BB - not many hands, but he had cold called a preflop raise OTB and shown down KTo. Not very aggressive, but did not like to fold (28/4/31)

Folded to button who raises, I 3-bet, BB calls 2, and Button caps, I call, BB calls
[Td][7c] Pot 12 SB (I don't like this flop, but knowing Button's tendencies doesn't lead me to believe I am definitely behind here)
Checked to Button who bets, I raise hoping to discourage BB from hanging around with AJ or the like which works, and Button just calls

Pot 8 BB
I bet, Button raises, and I dump.

Aftermath: I believe that I played this hand well and folded when I should. Of course there was a small chance I was still ahead, but it was much more likely that I was behind or Button had a number of outs. I still like my flop c/r as it knocked BB out and also let Button know that I was serious about this hand which in turn made me respect her turn raise a bit more than I normally would have. What am I beating there that she raises? [Qd] which would have a number outs on me anyway? I can't see her raising the turn with anything else I beat here.

Saved Bets? - It would have cost me 2 additional bets to see the river (12-2 or 6-1). Again I think folded this hand correctly here and added 2 BB to my bottom line.

History:
- PT tells me that I've had JJ in the SB 8x. I've won 62.5% of those hands for a net of +$16.75 or +$2.09 per hand or 1.05 BB/hand.
- This was only the 2nd time I've faced a blind vs blind or blind vs steal situation with JJ in the SB. The other time I won 3.25 BB from the BB.

Conclusion: - Although a small sample size, I don't consider JJ to be a leak. In fact after reviewing all JJ hands in the SB as well as just the overall stats for JJ in BB, CO, and OTB (all positive) I consider it to be a strength from these positions.


Hand 2: [9c] in the BB
Different table, but Button is the same opponent from last hand so I know her well.

Folded to Button who raises, SB folds, I call
[Ac][Ad] Pot 4.5 SB (Obviously a golden flop. Button may have the last Ace, but knowing that she'll raise A3s from EP/MP means she's raising any Ace from the Button and I beat more than half of those. Many more good scenarious than bad for me here.)
I check/call the flop

Pot 3.25 BB (Not elated about the diamond, but I can't really worry about that heads up here)
I throw in a check-raise which gets called, not raised which makes me feel even better.

Pot 7.25 BB (While this card means I'm not losing the pot, it also may mean I'm splitting instead of winning so I'm not sure what I think about this river yet)
I bet, Button calls

Button shows [Qs]

Aftermath: As much as I loved that flop, I now have to admit that the turn card was the most important card on that board giving Button a pair of Kings. I think I played this hand brilliantly and my check/call instead of c/r on the flop allowed Button to not only catch a King, but also believe she was ahead since I played the flop passively.

Saved Bets? - Obviously I didn't save any bets since I won, but I did feel that I added at least 1 BB and possibly 2 by waiting until the turn to c/r.

History:
- PT tells me that I've been dealt A9o in the BB 15x and won 33.33% of those hands (5x) for a profit of +$5.25 or +$0.35 per hand or +0.18 bb/hand
- I've been in one blind vs blind situation with this hand from the BB and won on the flop and one other blind vs steal attempt and folded to a bad flop.

Conclusion: After reviewing all A9o from the BB hands as well as from the SB, CO, and OTB I don't consider A9o and therefore medium Aces (A7-AT) to be a leak. I am slightly more negative than I would like to, but that stems from a big pot I lost from the button to JJ in the BB where I flopped an Ace and JJ hit a set on the river. I seem to play A9 very passively against steals, calling and folding when I miss, and very aggressively in blind vs blind situations which I believe is correct. I can't find any situations where I've taken this hand too far after a CO or OTB open-raise on my part and then met resistance when I missed.

To be continued.....maybe. There are a few more hands and this is more time consuming than I thought it would be. There is an AQs hand in the blinds that I could just kick myself for even though I was a little unlucky to be up against AK OTB. There was an AJ hand I lost to JTs after hitting an Ace and a K6s hand I may have taken took too far in a blind vs blind battle. Also a QJ BB hand I got lucky on vs KQ.

lucky @!$ flop

Very good, or lucky, early session today. Depending on your point of view I guess. Both of these hands took place simultaneously at different tables.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?846643
Villain was 78/6/35 but was running over the table +81 bb/100. He was playing hands like Q2o and K4o vs from UTG and against raises so I could have just seen him turning over Q7o here. Luckily I think I bet just little enough on the river for him not to think his 73s might be beat.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?846653
Immediately following the hand....
Villain: lucky @!$ flop

Well, maybe, but pretty damn ingenious min-re-raise preflop too. I liked the river even more because it put me ahead of AK.

Limp/push experiment update
Forgot to do this the other day. 1 UTG limp/push with KK. Uncalled. +$6.25

Limp/push experiment:
12 pushed - 5 calls (42%) = (-$20.05) (-$1.67) per push
AA: 1 push - 1 call = (-$56.75)
Calls = 0 Wins 1 Loss
http://www.pokerhand.org/?762382 (AKs)
KK - 4 pushes - 1 call = +$32.10
Calls = 1 Win 0 Losses
http://www.pokerhand.org/?811632
QQ: 1 push - 1 call = (-$41.70)
Calls = 0 Wins 1 Loss
http://www.pokerhand.org/?767894 (AKo)
AK: 4 push - 2 call = +$41
Calls = 1 Win 1 Loss
http://www.pokerhand.org/?787600 (A9o)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?790129 (QQ)
76s: 1 push - 0 calls = +$4
Calls = NONE
65s: 1 push - 0 calls = +$2.50
Calls = NONE

Poker has been good the past few days. Mostly non-descriptive hands and running normally which is a good thing. I've been getting flush over flushed a lot this month playing NL, but even those hands haven't been that bad mostly.

Found some loose 1/2 Limit tables last night. I was up about 15BB through 40 minutes of play, but then went on a 50BB downswing or so before coming back up 15BB again before leaving. I just remember having AK and flopping TPTK vs a very loose player 2x in a row and having him set me.

Then I played 5 tournaments last night one after the other which I normally don't do. I played for over 5.5 hours.
$10+1 90 man deep stack SNG - YUCK! More chips just means they can call more without a hand. I got crushed with AQs flopping KT9 then 8 with 2 of my suit. River was 7 and I was beaten by A7o who called me down. WTF???
$25K Guarranteed $24+2 buy-in - YUCK again! I got pretty sick of the blinds pushing everytime it was raised so I called a push after I open-raised OTB with AQ. BB had KK. Silly
$1 Rebuy with no vig - Inspired by ED's recent success I tried to give the rebuy a try playing the way he and H2T play. Sorry to say that I couldn't find anyone to call me, but the good news is that I never had to rebuy. I spent $2 on add-ons for a total of $3 and was a medium stack after the rebuy period, but parlayed that into a big stack soon after when the maniacs were still playing like it was a rebuy. Finished 10th out of 450 for a profit of $17.53 in 4.5 hours. Awesome!
Normal $10+1 MTT - shortstacked the entire way. Lasted a long time, but missed the cash.
Midnight Madness $10+1 - Again shortstacked most of the way, but doubling up 2x just before and after the bubble. I finished 122 out of 1243 for a $7.64 profit.

So I cashed in 2 out of the 5 MTT's, but since one of them was the $1 Rebuy, I ended up losing money on the day.

A short NL session today for a small profit. I stopped after about an hour soon after I was flush over flushed in a small pot played badly by opponent.

Tonight I was able to find several more loose 1/2 Limit tables. I'm hoping this is a result of all the Tribeca players coming over. A lot of players I've never seen before who played very badly. Loose and not post flop aggressive. Picked up 8BB at each of the 3 tables I played for a total of 24.5BB in an hour. Good times.

Limp/push experiment update
2 more to add to the list. An AKo limp/push vs a half stack and an AA limp/push vs a half stack as well who both folded. I was actually thinking of playing the AA differently, but I didn't want anyone to be able to tell the difference between my limp/re-raises and my limp/pushes so I pushed the Aces as well. Picked up $7.25 total

Limp/push experiment:
14 pushed - 5 calls (46%) = (-$12.80) (-$.89) per push
AA: 2 push - 1 call = (-$52.75)
Calls = 0 Wins 1 Loss
http://www.pokerhand.org/?762382 (AKs)
KK - 4 pushes - 1 call = +$32.10
Calls = 1 Win 0 Losses
http://www.pokerhand.org/?811632
QQ: 1 push - 1 call = (-$41.70)
Calls = 0 Wins 1 Loss
http://www.pokerhand.org/?767894 (AKo)
AK: 5 push - 2 call = +$44.25
Calls = 1 Win 1 Loss
http://www.pokerhand.org/?787600 (A9o)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?790129 (QQ)
76s: 1 push - 0 calls = +$4
Calls = NONE
65s: 1 push - 0 calls = +$2.50
Calls = NONE

345 extremely frustrating hands of flop a set, donk an Ace, and reverse dominate me on the turn just completely washed out anything positive I did yesterday.

And then the topper was the last hand I played. AQ UTG+1 I raise after UTG limper. A very tight player in CO who knew I was very tight cold called. Flop AKx and I bet and get raised. Turn J and I knew what he had but I was so pissed off that I paid off his AJ. That's the kind of day it was. I had nothing, but when I bluffed they knew. They would call down with a pair of 5's with overcards, pairs, and flushes on the board at the same time.

AA/KK/JJ/TT - ZERO TIMES
QQ - ZERO for 2 - Ace on the flop both times and DONK A9 is good
AK - ZERO for 1 - How do you go 345 hands and see AK 1x, but see 86 and K5 9x each?


Top pair - only 4x in 345 hands!
2 pair 2x - lost both
ZERO sets
1 boat - no action
1 quads - no action
Biggest pot won = 3.5 BB YUCK!

So 7 weeks into the year, playing 25+ hours of 50NL, 1/2L, 10-26 MTT's I haven't had one week winning over $200 yet. Best week $159. This would have been my best week and could have put me over $200 if not for today. Instead only +$100 this week. So frustrating.

I'm absolutely effin SICK right now!

$25K Guarranteed tonight. Card dead, but the last 2 hands I play I run JJ into KK and then push a short stack vs AA. 2nd night in a row this happened. I only enter pots against AA and KK.


Then this goddamn mother effin $#)$(*U!@&(#Q@_*_R(*@# R hand in the Midnight Madness. I was looking at a good spot high up on the leaderboard if I won which isn't really asking much since I was a HUGE favorite after the flop

http://www.pokerhand.org/?856595

I'm still in it but can't really say that I give a shit right now.


#'s for the Week
Yearly Results:
WEEK 1 +$95.60 (23h 11m)
WEEK 2 +$61.05 (14h 53m)
WEEK 3 +$159.12 (18h 42m)
WEEK 4 -$193.65 (26h 45m)

JANUARY +$152.69

WEEK 5 +$57.85 (25h 32m)
WEEK 6 -$167.65 (26h 17m)
WEEK 7 +$52.09 (26h 40m)
WEEK 8 +$76.77 (22h 17m)

Notice that the 2 losing weeks are much bigger than any of the winning weeks except for Week 3.

This is a bit painful and ugly, but here goes....

FEBRUARY NUMBERS
NL Hold'em ($50NL) - 3,436 hands - 30h 08m
+$30.55
LIMIT Hold'em ($1/2 FR and 6-max) - 3,900hands - 16h 40m
-$91.10
HORSE ($.50/1 LIMIT) - NONE
$0
OMAHA H/L ($25 NL & PL CAP, $.50/1 LIMIT, $25 PL) - 8h 23m
-$47.91
MTT ($10 & $24 buy-ins) - 25 MTT's
-$57.64

BONUSES: +$180

TOTAL -$11.89
This total doesn't add up with the numbers above. My PT does not agree with my personally kept records. PT missed some hands which is probably the reason for the discrepancy.

Jury Duty
Haven't played much poker the past few days and jury duty is the reason why. The jury selection process in NJ is a train wreck. I went in on 1 hours sleep the first day and they stuck us in a frigid room and only called 1 panel all day, but still kept us until after 4pm. It was TORTURE! It was amusing to see some of the things people would do to get out of it. One guy was wheeled through on a gurney and then left. Appartenly something "happened" to him there. Then 2 hours later he actually walks back in to pick up his coat and leave. The entire room broke out in laughter. One woman "accidentally" flushed her wedding ring down the toilet and had to spend the entire day in there with maintenance tearing up a women's room stall. A 3rd guy was just yelling out racial insults and ethnic slurs. The worst part about it is that I don't even think this was a ploy to be releaved of jury duty. I just think he was an idiot who didn't realize how loud he was.

Day 2, today, they tell us that there is only 1 panel to call so we're probably all going home after they call said panel. Then they proceed to put almost EVERY FREAKIN PERSON in the room on the panel. So the judge hands out a questionaiirre after telling us something about the case because this is supposed to expidite the process. Yeah, well then they took about 10-15 minutes on average with each person going over their questinairres. I was in and out in 1 minute. I knew I wasn't making that jury as soon as they read my answer about the abortion questions.

Anyway, thank god that's over. Back to poker.

I played some NL today for the 1st time in about a week. Actually I played a lot of NL today. 3hrs of it to be exact split into 2 sessions.

Session 1:
Exhilirating. I hit a few flops hard then I ran the over both tables and had everyone running from me whenever I bet.
Big Hands:
Some guy min-raised from UTG+1 and got a caller. I 3-bet TT OTB to $4.75 and he re-raised to $8.50. OK so now if your gonna only min-4-bet me then I'm sure gonna call cause we're both full stacks, but only now I know what ya got.
Flopped my set of $10's and put him all-in on the flop. Held up against the Aces.
QQ UTG+2. I raised to $2, was re-raised to $5 and then 4-bet to $13 willng to give it up if he pushed. He called, an Ace flopped and I put out a 2/3 pot bet and picked it up. I'd like to think he had Kings, but just as likely or even more was JJ. Hey, maybe he had QQ too.

After that I pretty much ran over both tables with them folding to my every bet. Most I lost on a hand was $2 and that even only once. Why can't they all be like this? +$92.10 for the session.

Session 2:
Damn frustrating. How about I played about 50 hands at one table before I won a pot AND I only won 2 out of the 1st 77 hands I played. I was catching hands too. I was just getting brutalized with TPTK and overpair hands by c/r's on every turn. I threw out one bluff and of course it was into someone who flopped the nuts.
BIg Hands:
Only pair of Kings I saw all day, I 3-bet an aggressive player from MP and he called. Ace on the flop and he bet the pot into me, I raised and he pushed.
JJ in a 4 way raised pot. Flop 442 and I bet pot and get called. K on the turn and I get min-c/r'ed after betting 1/2 pot on Tn
99 and I call a PFR from MP, CO makes it $5. Again, not re-raising enough. I call and catch a 9 and stack him with his Queens. He bet just enough to not let me fold.
JJ again on the other table is no good as an overpair seemingly

My favorite hand of the day was a hand in the BB. I had KQo and the SB and I seemed to be getting into some big HU battles. We always seemed to have a hand against each other when everyone else folded.
Anyway, Flop was KTx w/ 2 clubs. Blank on the turn. Q on the river. He checks, I bet pot. This was the 3rd time I did this to him and I actually had hands the other 2. He called both times and I won. So this time he says "AJ clubs? Missed flush draw?" and calls. He put me on the nuts and called? LOLOLOL Because of that set of 9's near the end, I finished down only -$12.70 for the session.


Limp/push experiment Update:
One AKs today. No calls. +$5.75

15 pushed - 5 calls (33%) = (-$7.05) (-$.47) per push
AA: 2 push - 1 call = (-$52.75)
Calls = 0 Wins 1 Loss
http://www.pokerhand.org/?762382 (AKs)
KK - 4 pushes - 1 call = +$32.10
Calls = 1 Win 0 Losses
http://www.pokerhand.org/?811632
QQ: 1 push - 1 call = (-$41.70)
Calls = 0 Wins 1 Loss
http://www.pokerhand.org/?767894 (AKo)
AK: 6 push - 2 call = +$50
Calls = 1 Win 1 Loss
http://www.pokerhand.org/?787600 (A9o)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?790129 (QQ)
76s: 1 push - 0 calls = +$4
Calls = NONE
65s: 1 push - 0 calls = +$2.50
Calls = NONE

Yesterday afternoon I played a $26 MTT and won a seat into the $100+9 buy-in $50K Guarrantee. It was only about the 3rd or 4th $100+ MTT I've ever played online. I started the day with a bankroll of about $1400, but by the time the night was over I had fought my way through 528 entrants, finishing 4th and cashing for $4620, by far the largest cash of my poker career, quadrupling my bankroll in the process.

My poker life as I had known it was now changed, much for the better of course. After a day of being all proud of myself I then have to ask the question "What now?".

How much do I cash out?

Do I take a shot at some higher limits now?

Do I do nothing different?

The following circumstances will all affect my decision:
-The landscape of internet poker in the US
This scares me as it has for months. After what the government did with Neteller, we now no that nobody is safe. Can the government freeze and seize my Full Tilt money? Well, I didn't think they could get at the Neteller money either. I have to withdraw a good chunk of it. I would be sick if I won this money only to lose it. Full Tilt has had some withdrawal problems recently, but checks are now being sent out. I certainly want to get some money while I still can.

-The limit at which I currently want to play
Playing for just a little while at NL50 before Full Tilt went down today, I felt more at ease than I can ever remember at a poker table. I didn't care and every move I made, I made with confidence and no fear of reprocutions. I was c/r'ing and 3-betting with impunity. If I just thought someone was weak, I raised no matter what my cards were and it was working too. That's how I want to play poker always. That's the difference for me mentally between having a $6K bankroll and a $1.4K banroll.

If I want to stay at NL50, and I believe I will for the time being until I am completely hammering it, I want to leave enough money in my account where I still feel extremely confident and can consistantly make plays like I did today without a second thought. I may move up from 1/2 limit even though I've been break even over almost 20K hands. I may just play less tables and hopefully enjoy the game more if I try to do so. I believe the competition at 1/2 limit is actually very tough now so I'm not sure that I will run into that much of a higher level of play at 2/4. It's getting to the point online now where the lower limits aren't just the worse players, but just the players with less money online who are quite good.

-Taxes
How many times has this been debated in different threads in different forums. I now may have to pay taxes on poker winnings for the 1st time in my life. Or at least I hope so after the year is over. Or maybe I do have to pay now. I don't know. I have no problem paying them and I'm not trying to hide anything, but I really don't know what I'm supposed to do. The accountant that does our taxes is an old family friend and the only reason he still does my taxes is because he doesn't charge me, but really, he's very old school and I don't think he has a clue about any of this. Whenever I'd bring up the subject in the past he'd pretty much just brush it off. So I'm trying to get some tax advice and I'd like to put that money asside now. I know that if you win $600 in a live MTT they make you fill out paperwork.

I'm leaning towards leaving $2.5-$3K in my account or a little less than half. Maybe even less ($2K) if I am not that comfortable with it from an online stability/government standpoint. This should allow me to accomplish all of my goals. I was thinking about playing some higher buy-in events (by that I mean $75 buy-ins), but I may have to hold off on that until the futue of online poker becomes more clear. Or maybe I can hit big again in the near future.

Either way I feel like such a load has been lifted off my back since I've been promising myself that a big cash was coming right in this journal for a long time now. I had gone 60 MTT's this year without a cash over $100 yet.


Now here comes the good part. The weekly update

Yearly Results:
WEEK 1 +$95.60 (23h 11m)
WEEK 2 +$61.05 (14h 53m)
WEEK 3 +$159.12 (18h 42m)
WEEK 4 -$193.65 (26h 45m)

JANUARY +$152.69

WEEK 5 +$57.85 (25h 32m)
WEEK 6 -$167.65 (26h 17m)
WEEK 7 +$52.09 (26h 40m)
WEEK 8 +$76.77 (22h 17m)

FEBRUARY -$11.89

WEEK 9 +$4,628.97 (21h 10m)

***8h 51m of that 21h 10m were spent in the qualifier and then MTT that netted that big cash yesterday.

Hell yeah dude; congrats on the cash!

Zmej is spot on as usual. Tourney donks that move up in limits in cash games after big wins are some of the most consistanly reliable donors in those cash games.

Taxes: Taxes on poker winnings are patently unfair. You are not allowed to net out your wins and losses unless you file as a professional. Instead, you claim all of your winning sessions as income, and all of your losing sessions are itemized deductions (you cannot take the standard deduction). You should have been reporting this way all along.

As for the current win, if you think it will raise your income to more than 110% of last year's income, then you need to make an estimated quarterly payment. It isn't due until April 17th. If you don't make the payment and you end up owing a penalty when you do your taxes for tax year 2007, given that in the scheme of things your tournament win was not all that large, the penalty will not be very large, so this is not really something to stress over too much.

Oh, yeah, CONGRATS ON THE WIN.