30 Songs

From jusdealem: Here are the rules: Put your music player on shuffle. Press forward for each question. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn't make sense.

30 Songs:

How am I feeling today? Can't Hold On (LIVE)

Will I get far in life? A Groovy kind of Love

What's your current state of mind? I know What I Want (LIVE)

How do my friends see me? Hot Love

Where will I get married? I'll Be With You Tonight

What is your view of marriage? Take Me I'm Yours

What is my best friend's theme song? Working on a Groovy Thing

What is the story of my life? No Mercy

What is/was high school like? Casualty

How can I get ahead in life? Night Moves

What is the best thing about me? Don't Be Cruel

What is today going to be like? Surrender

What is in store for this weekend? Gettin' Better

Describe my parents? No Excuses

Describe my grandparents? Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me

How is my life going? Got Me Wrong

What song will they play at my funeral? The Fire Inside

How does the world see me? Paradise

Will I have a happy life? In Your Time

What do my friends really think of me? Steppin Over

Do people secretly lust after me? Got to Give it Up

How can I make myself happy? Would?

What should I do with my life? Mama's Fool

Will I ever have children? Way of the World (LIVE)

What is some good advice for me? Heaven Beside You

How will I be remembered? Glory Box

What is my signature dancing song? Voices

What is my current theme song? Battleflag

What do people think my current theme song is? Rooster

What type of men/women do you like? Our Day Will Come

I'd say at least 13 of these are absolute true answers. You figure out which ones.

RATES DROPPING AGAIN!

If you are thinking about refinancing your home mortgage, rates have dropped again. I can't really say how long it will last or if this is the absolute bottom, but I am able to get 30 year fixed rates as low as 5.25%. Look at this 1 year graph of the 10 year treasury's from Yahoo:

I don't expect drastic changes this year because of the election, but rates are at 2 year lows right now and just a hair off their 40 year lows. You might want to call your mortgage broker today and see how low you can go.

Finally Cashed in a SNG

$2 buy in 9 person Turbo NL. This was the final hand. We were about even in chips and saw the flop with a 2xBB raise. All in after the flop and he hit one of his 7 outs. I was 72% going in so can't complain, but the suckouts I saw were brutal. I went on to cash a 2nd time in the same night. 2 for 2. I was so stunned.

Congrats to waffles for going deep last night in the Daily Double. I had fun railing him with everyone. And make sure to check this out for latest on jeciimd and his run in Austraila. He made it through day 1. Good luck to him.

Big Brother (not CBS version)

What do you think about all the video cameras and satellite cameras? I kind of understand it when they put a camera at an intersection that takes a still photo if you run a red light. It is designed to reduce accidents and generate revenue for local municipalities. There are some interesting facts and arguments for why that is not working out if you want to click here.





The one that kind of bothers me is the traffic camera that sits atop each light crossbar and runs a steady feed to monitor traffic flow. If I'm sitting first at the light, surely it can see right into my car. Not that I drive to work naked on a regular basis, and I usually keep all my illegal immigrants in the trunk, but it still seems creepy.





And if you've ever seen Google earth, you know that the technology is there such that your "privacy" fence doesn't allow for as much privacy as you thought. Again, I doubt any government agencies are interested in seeing me cut the grass in the nude, but isn't it creepy to see the fringes of what they are capable of seeing. Is "Big Brother" slowly creeping into our society to a point where you will no longer be able to "hang out" without thinking there is a camera monitoring you at all times, "just in case".





It may be that the last private things you have are your thoughts. And now I am screwing that up by posting those on some servers somewhere in which I have no idea how or if it will ever be used against me. If my son runs for President of the United States, will they someday pull this up and criticise him for his Dad playing poker on the Internet (which is still questionably legal/illegal). Hmmmmmm. This could even be used against my grand kids.... What documents do you have of your grandfather's or great grandfather's thoughts? Most of us barely have any pictures of our ancestors. Maybe it is a positive thing since they will better know how I was thinking (about poker? maybe they won't care).





Anyway, on to other things: We started another Biggest Loser contest at work. I won't bore you with too many details, but I won the first one we did in January 2007 (8 contestants I think). Then we did one in the summer of '07 but I basically paid my money and never did a thing to try. I decided after a few days, that I wasn't motivated enough to do it. Well now I'm ready to go again and I have all the weight on me that I had one year ago. I will be using the You on a Diet recipes and doing 30 minutes on an elliptical machine 1 to 2 times a day. I take off on Saturdays and even eat bad Saturday nights to give myself something to look forward to each week.





I'll post some pictures of my progress as I should lose about 30 lbs over the next 10 weeks. It will be hard work and will cut into my poker time. 1 week ago I would get the family settled in and I could drink beer and play poker until 1 or 2am. This week, I get the family settled in and prepare meals for the next day, do 30 minutes of cardio, then drink 1 glass of wine and go to bed by 11pm. BORING!





Here is picture number 1: I am the heavy one all the way to the left. I carry 255 lbs on a 6'3" frame. I don't always look exactly like MiamiDon, I just made myself up that night since it was a special event.





Stay patient...

Moving forward cautiously Part II

Thanks for the comments yesterday from WillWonka, OhCaptain and Riggs. Riggs was right in saying that I need to nail down the $5 level first and then move upwards. Same thing OhCaptain was getting at. I think another part of my problem is that I am more aggressive playing at the $5 levels (play my game). I play defensively more when I move up to the higher levels, just because it is out of my comfort zone. As Riggs pointed out: you can't play "defensively and with emotion". I've also been known to do the "aw-fawk-it" move and register for a $30 tourney to try to make a quick recoup of my losses at the $11 or $20 levels. That only increases the gravity pull on my bankroll even though I may occasionally cash in one of those.





This graph shows how drastically different my ROI is at the different levels. I think that says it all:








It seems the moral of the story is to play patient. Play my game, stay within my bankroll and get through the variance. There is a reason that AA is not 100% to win preflop against any other hand.





Part of my success in the blogger tournaments was my knowledge of how certain people play. Who was going to be aggressive and who was going to be tight. In the SNG's, there is a constant flow of new people. And, I think getting pokertracker back up and running will help somewhat when I do see the same opponents from time to time.





Any criticisms or suggestions are welcome.





Stay patient...





Oh and don't forget:




I doubt I make it out again tonight as I am feverishly working on getting my house ready to list for sale. Painting over writing on kids doors, patching holes kids put in walls, fixing screens dogs busted out, etc... Maybe I will be back in the blogger tourneys in within a couple of weeks. Good luck to everyone who makes it out there tonight.

Moving forward cautiously

First of all, thank you for the comments to my '07 recap. Every single comment made me feel really good. I hope to continue my learning this year and have a huge '08 recap.

Now let's get this over with. I am going to post something here that will make me feel like I am posting a picture of myself naked. Well, not that extreme, but almost as embarrassing. But I really need to look deep inside my poker game to find out what is wrong. Here are my SNG stats from Sharkscope:

First thing to notice is that I have not been consistent in either direction -well, until recently, consistently down. One of my problems I know of over the first 150 games was that I would build up from the $5 SNG's and then jump up to $11 or even $20 or $30 SNG's and lose back most of my profit quickly. Then I would settle back down and build up again from the $5 levels. I was not consistently winning enough at the $5 level to move up, but I would do it anyway and it always cost me.

But most alarming has been my stats over the last 70 games. I don't think you will see a graph like this posted anywhere else on a poker blog. Everyone wants to post how great they are doing and tell you why they run so goooot. But I need help. Serious help.

After about 25 games sliding downwards I usually tighten up and try to play ABC poker. After 50 games I become a rock. The last 20 games, I started limiting my plays to AA, KK, QQ and AK unless on the button or cutoff. And even in those positions, I played tight.

I could list all the hands I went out on, but what's the point? AK losing to 77. 77 losing to AK. Flush losing to boat. Could variance be this evil? I know I play aggressive at times, but lately have really tried to tighten up. My last 10 SNG's were all at the $2 buyin's 6 and 9 player tables. I did not cash 1 time. Really.

After finishing high in points over the BBT2 tournaments, I was starting to feel like I really progressed in 2007. But now I am beginning to wonder if I did luckbox my way into 4 final tables.

I mean, in 36% of the tournaments I played, I finished in the top 25% and half that time I made the final table. I only cashed 18% of the time, and managed to take 1st once. But wouldn't everyone like to cash in 18% of the tournaments they play in? Was I getting that lucky? My SNG stats are pointing to yes, the BBT2 was just luck. Or could variance be that strong. Granted, I have only logged 225 SNG's but now the last third of the games I have played has been a drastic downward spiral.

My goal now is to tighten up, play ABC poker and grind my way back to a profit and stay at the same level for awhile ($2 to start). Maybe then I can loosen up a bit. I don't know what else to do. Is there something else I am missing?

I need to get pokertracker set up on my new laptop. Maybe that will answer some questions. If you have any numbers on me that you could/would share from your stats, I would welcome them.

The nice thing is, I have a lot of room to improve this year. It surely can't get worse than the last 70 SNG's I have played.

Stay patient.....

2008 is going to be great!

Did someone already say that? 2008... is going to be great! How catchy.



What an interesting year 2007 was for me. I began the year barely knowing anything about Texas Hold'em. Oh, I thought I knew something. I was able to play the game. I played live occasionally, and did quite well (on very small stakes). I was playing on my ability to read people.


As of January 2007, I had played once in a Hold'em tournament at a casino and I finished in the money (6th of 60). My only other experiences were playing in charity tournaments or home games. And I usually cashed in those or at least did well enough to think I knew what I was doing.


So in April 2007, when I was going to be in Las Vegas for my wife's business, I decided to load up on poker tournaments. The first night there, I played a re-buy tournament that paid 9 spots and I finished 9th. Once again, confirming (in my mind only) that I was a "good" player (not "great") and could play breakeven or better for the trip. Then everything went down hill. I ended up playing 7 more tournaments and didn't cash in a single one.


To right the ship, I sat at the cash tables and found I could make money quicker (and easier) there playing $1/$2 no limit. To classify it for you now, I will say I was a high end fish, not even worthy of a "donkey" level, but was able to win a few pots here and there as long I avoided the local amateurs who would run all over me. When I ran into these, I would take a break and come back later refreshed. By the end of the week, I was able to replenish my poker bankroll to almost breakeven. But I was starting to realize:


I really suck at poker. I don't know what the hell I am doing. I would play a tournament, lose, replay it in my mind and know that I played it wrong, but didn't really know why. You know that feeling? You should have re-raised, but you fold and the raiser shows his bluff. I mean, it is one thing to be able to read tourists and occasional players when they are weak, or when they hit their monster, but it is another thing to play with no knowledge whatsoever, of position or pot odds and hope to beat someone who has that knowledge. I had no clue. I was guilty of overbetting pots or not calling when pot odds screamed you have to.


This also explained why I could never make any money playing online. I played online like I did live but was unable to consistently win anything. I had dabbled a few hundred bucks at a time on pokerstars and fulltilt, but never could keep a profit. RELOAD. That should have been my screenname. I couldn't bluff people off of pots and I couldn't tell if they were bluffing me.



So in late April, 2007, I bought a few poker books, started reading poker blogs, and tried to take in as much information as I could to really study the game. It helped.


I still had bad tendencies to gamble too much. All in for a draw. All in because you know some donkey is on 2nd pair, and he calls you. But, I managed to pull off a few decent cashes. I loaded $200 into FTP in July and by December 31st, I had withdrawn $1150. I hit a freeroll for over $700 and then won the MATH (a private tournament) for a nice little boost in the bankroll. Neither of these will show up in any online tracking sites but it accounts for just over $1,000 in winnings.

So with 2008 ahead, my goal is to solidify my game. I have moments of good play, but I am inconsistent. I got a great email from Vinay that laid out some leaks for me that I can work on. I am literally down to my last $10 as I went on a horrid run cashing in like 1 out of my last 20 SNG's. I think I need to tighten up my game, play solid poker and play it well, and then loosen up my game. I do know that I am doing the right thing by trying to improve my game. I want to play with the "fish" who don't try to improve because they know "poker is all luck" or they think they know all there is to know about the game of hold'em already.

I didn't play much over the last two weeks as I was doing a lot of Christmas and Holiday stuff with the family. And, I kind of wanted a break after the Push for BBT2. That was damn fun! And I have met so many new players. I think Chad has the right idea in trying to really develop a bigger and stronger link between all of the poker bloggers. Not only is it fun to compete against the same players on a regular basis, but you get to meet a lot of new people.

So that's about where I am at. I really hope whatever you do, you do it better in 2008. Set some goals and figure out what you need to do each and every day to stay on path to achieve those goals.

And of course, stay patient....