Got my bus tickets and Hotel booked for a 6-day trip to AC for the Borgata Summer Poker Open!  Going out June 13-19 and really excited to play some live events.  Starting the Sunday grind soon, lets ship one!

Feel kinda like talking to a wall here, but decided to post a quick update anyway. I’ve been grinding as much as I can lately but life has gotten in the way of putting in a lot of volume. Deposited 1k back onto Carbon recently for the series and am up 1k in that. Have been the king of min cashing on there. Going hiking tomorrow on a pretty grueling 9 hour mountain hike, very excited for it!! Saturday going to my friend’s wedding. I HAVE to grind this Sunday. The problem is that my girlfriends mother is coming to visit! This Sunday is all the Carbon Main Events as well as some Punta Cana sattelites and the bigger guaranteed’s on Bovada. I missed last Sunday and will miss next Sunday for another wedding. MUST GRIND!!!

My confidence in my game is at an all-time high right now and a lot of that is due to coaching sessions With Danny N and Marc Alioto (It also helps that I’m running good and have had results lately). My current bankroll situation looks something like this:

$8,300 in bank
$4,600 on Bovada
$2,000 on Carbon

I hope to deposit 1k or so on WPN before Sunday to grind the Punta Cana sat. there too. Really wanna get out there to use up the last of my vacation this year and meet some TPE guys!!

Current plan is to go pro by June 1, 2015. Ideally I would like to do it much sooner than that, but would prefer to have a 30k+ roll and more savings before making the leap.

Rungood TPE Nation!!

Thanks for the support Hawkeye!! Just took 2nd in a Bovada 50k for the GSPO Series the other night for about a 10k score!!

Bankroll is now slightly above 20k from $200 in February and I’m looking at going pro next year! Couldn’t be more excited and ready to finish this year strong.

Run good TPE Nation!

Quick Update:

After the 10k score I went on a pretty big downswing playing all the big series events.  Considered taking a week off and did take a few nights off, then decided to grind one night and shipped the GSPO $30 turbo rebuy for a little over 6k. 

Played like shit on the last day of the series which was a huge Sunday grind- punted my stacks early in the 200k and 400k main event.  Ended up getting 2nd at the end of the day in a 109 6-max to turn the day into a 1k ish profit.  My net profit on the year for Bovada (where I play the vast majority of the time) is about 30k, which I am very happy about.  I have lost money playing Merge MTT's, Live MTT's, and a little live cash.  I have also spent significant sums on training site memberships, professional coaching, a little travel, and a few life expenses.  Currently my bankroll is around 22k or so.  Been grinding some PLO cash and enjoying that, hoping to have a decent sample of hands by end of year to give me some idea if I'm a winning player.

Plans/Schedule for the rest of this year:

-Try to get into a rhythm of working out 3-4 days/wk

-Get on a more regular sleep schedule

-Try to play more PLO during the week

-Play the Winning Millions

-Hope to go for a last live trip to Foxwoods black friday weekend for 3 events (selling action)

-Figure out finances and consider quitting sooner and going pro with a 20-30k bankroll

Weekly Update:

Feeling kind of blah about the past week.  Haven't put in a ton of volume- honestly feeling a bit burnt out lately.  Work has been really busy/stressful and I haven't had time to put in much MTT grind.  Stopped regging early today cause I didn't feel like I was on my game.  Have been dabbling a little bit in grinding HUNL this week and somewhere around breakeven.  Haven't been working out at all and haven't had a good diet either- and definitely feeling it.  This week I hope to get 3 workouts in with thanksgiving and all and and then heading to Foxwoods for a few Live MTT's before the year ends!!  Just booked a hotel for Fri. night and going to be playing a $400 50k on Fri. and a $300 “Big Stack” 30k on Sat. 

Over the past few weeks I have put a little study time in and purchased Flopzilla.  I have spent time going over cbet spots and looked at spots where I had a cbet opportunity and didn't bet.  I think the best thing for me to do is to have one very specific study goal each week.  Two goals is too much.  I haven't really spent time with preflop jamming ranges under 15bb, but the cbetting study time I spent has been helpful. 

Goals for this week: 

Life: Workout 3 times 

Poker: Study Live Poker topics to prepare for Foxwoods tournaments 

Killingbird said:

enjoying the updates!  keep it up.

Thanks KB! 

Weekly Update: 

Had a great time at Foxwoods over the weekend playing a couple of live events.  No cashes but still got a big confidence boost because I feel I played incredibly well.  Put in work last week watching lots of MTT vids and also picked up Zach Ellwood's book on poker tells, which is much better than anything else I've read on the topic.  I'm about halfway through it and plan to finish it this week.  I also got a subscription to crush live poker, I want to polish myself in all the formats of the game!  Couple of interesting key hands from the tournaments I played this week (from memory): 

MTT #1 $400 NLHE w/ 115k prize pool: 

We are mp, one open from ep and a call from the guy on my right, who was talkative and drinking beer.  Had been muttering under his breath about how he isn't hitting flops.  We are both deep and I have about 5bb more than him.  I look down at 45 and happily come along (no 3betting at this table and small raise, we're getting a great price w/ implied odds and are gonna outplay everyone, etc.)  

so 4 players to flop (bb, opener, 2 flatters in between incl. me) 

Flop: 

TKJ

Check, beer guy cbets like 2/3 pot, I call, fold fold 

Turn:  3

Beer guy bets 2/3 ish again, very quickly.  I call 

River: x

Beer guy very quickly shoves the rest of his stack which is like 22k into 37k ish 

I tank for a minute, decide he has very few flushes (AQ is it really) and also decide he can have any AQ played this way and maybe even sets, and make the call.  Beer guy quickly and confidently turns over AQ and we're good.  I actually like his line somewhat with the A blocker.  Few guys at the table tell me what a good call that was and the old guy next to me gets wide-eyed and says “THAT'S THE LOWEST FLUSH YOU COULD HAVE!”

MTT #2 (BUSTOUT HAND) $300 Deepstack ~50k prizepool: 

blinds 1k/2k, we start the hand with a little over 60k

Guy to my immediate right opens 2x ish, I call with Q6o (he had been opening like every hand since he got to the table a few orbits ago.  I had 3b bluffed him once for a nice pot and hes going to make disgusting mistakes postflop, everyones being nitty and don't expect any light 3bets).  BB defends. 

Flop: Q23 rainbow 

Opener open jams 65k over like a 16k pot.  He had jammed in spots like this a couple times and always got folds.  I thought for a minute and decided he can be doing this super wide and also that he's capped and not doing it with KK,AA, probably not AQ or even KQ.  I also studied him and just felt like he didn't have it.  I make the call, other villain folds quickly.  The jammer turns over K2o and I was not surprised.  Guy who folded says “wow I folded QJ!!”  Turn is a K and we go home, gg us.  The nice thing is that I was completely unfazed when this happened.  I was super happy with my read and making the call and didn't mind that it was now time to drive 4 hours at night to go home.

That was Saturday night, and then Sunday I was busy and didn't get to grind.  I was also sick and today stayed home from work sick.  I decided to grind some cash tables laying on the couch, and crushed them for a lot of money.  Admittedly I played out of my bankroll for a few hours which is a big no-no, but I did have stop-losses in place to prevent too much of a downswing. 

Regarding my life goals for last week- I didn't get 3 workouts in as I had hoped but did get 2 solid ones in.  I'm fairly happy with this since I did a lot of traveling and was strapped for time.  This week I am super busy with work and traveling to do a startup from Thurs- next Tues, so not much grinding/studying.  

Goals for this week: 

Life- Stop being sick 🙂

Poker- Finish reading Ellwood's live tells book, watch 1-2 MTT videos, watch 1 Cash Game video 

Rungood TPE