I'm done with tournaments for the forseeable future.  They've just been a drain on my br these last few weeks and I don't like the structure of 90% of online tournaments, so I'm gonna leave them be for a while.

My BR finally got back to 2k today.  About $72 in rakeback put me over the top.  Not bad considering the ~$300 i've blowin in MTTs recently, but oh well.  Hopefully I've gotten that out of my system.  Next week I'm really going to focus on getting some 50nl hands in, as lately my FTP have been coming half from sngs and tournies and half from cash game sessions.  I actually only have about 5k hands put in this month, and I'm up over $300 in those sessions. 

I'm gonna go ahead and set a goal for myself to get my BR up to 3k by the end of November.  I'm up over $1k in cash games, mostly 25nl actually, in the last ~3.5 weeks, so I don't see any reason why this isn't doable.  That would put me in good shape to start taking shots at 100nl in December.

oh yeah.  I'm finally up at 50nl.  In just under 60k hands I managed to be down $1,421 at one point and now I'm up $81.  I owe the comeback to variance being fucking stupid.

Fuck tournaments

Seriously, fuck them

Bowling Green > Pitt > Notre Dame imo

I started off November on a bad foot, not getting my 200 pts for ironman on the first day and owe it all to pure laziness.  I somewhat made up for it with 400 pts on the 2nd and already have my 200 pts for the 3rd.  I broke my no 25nl goal already, simply because I didn't feel like putting in a 50nl session and needed about 100 pts after some random SNGs earlier today.  Luckily I managed to be up 3+ BI in the 1k hands I put in.  That puts me at about +150 on the month, which I definately can't complain about.  Ironman is still easily reachable, but there is really no excuse for me to be missing days when I have nothing going on.  I only have 5 to spare for the month, and I know of two I'll be missing due to traveling and Thanksgiving.

October results, November Goals

The results don't look as nice  as I'd hoped, but its a start.  Thats about 2 weeks worth of play.  My last 5 or 6 sessions at 25nl have either been multiple buyin losses or small wins, which killed my winrate for the month.  50nl was going to be about breakeven until this hand gave me a nice end of the last session of the month boost.  I didn't bother to keep track of my HUsng or tournament results/buyins, so we'll call those a wash even though I'm pretty sure I came out ahead with those given a pretty sick run in HUsngs.  Earned about $250 in rakeback for the month and got Silver level ironman on FTP.  All in all not a bad start after 2 months off.

I am getting bored with 25nl.  Its just not challenging, and after long sessions if I'm not up a decent amount I tend to get impatient and much more willing to flip.  So I'm moving to 50nl.  My br is sitting just under $1,700 right now so I'm in decent shape to move up.  I'm not gonna set a hard volume goal but I do want to hit ironman for November.  I think if I really focus on moving up I can still get myself to 100nl full time by the end of the year, which is sort of a goal I had in mind before I took a break.  So for now, 50nl it is.  I think I'll keep up with HUsngs when I don't feel like playing a full session.  I'm still debating whether I want to pursue tournaments anymore right now.  They're definately not worth the time + effort at the stakes I'm willing to play right now(up to $26), but I'm still somewhat interested in them.  Maybe I'll start playing the daily double every night and cut myself off at that.  Its just frustrating to look at how much I've won at HUsngs in the last week and realize its only gone to support my nasty tourney habit.

I haven't been keeping up with my cfb picks, so I'm not gonna worry about keeping up with them anymore, at least for right now.  I made quite a few picks over the weekend on a whim just to give me a reason to watch the games.    I was 3-0-1 in coinflip games :).

Poker is wierd.  For some reason I've started to want to take shots at tournaments again.  The results have sucked...  I've probably thrown about $130 at tournament buyins in the past 3 days and I've yet to cash.  I just feel very out of place in the early stages of a tournament.  I try to stay tight, but if I don't win a hand within the first few levels then I quickly get to a point where I'm shortstacked.  One failed raise + c-bet just gets me feeling short that much quicker.  If I do happen to build an early stack,  it seems like it takes so long before the blinds get to a point where aggression really gets rewarded(early antes would help a lot imo).  I haven't played tournaments seriously for years, and after making a serious attempt at cash games this past year they just feel completely foreign to me.

Luckily for me I've also discovered HUsngs recently.  Even with the money I've thrown at tourney buyins, I'm still up over the past few days with the $11.50 turbo HUsngs I've been playing.  I've used up my sharkscope for the day so I don't have an accurate count, but I've been destroying these.  I won't claim to know heads up play that well, but even being somewhat novice I am amazed at how bad some of the people I've played have been.  I've wanted to dabble in heads up play for a while, these seem like a decent transition between 6max and HU cash.    If only I had laid off the tournies the last few days...oh well.

NBA starts tomorrow.  Portland vs LALakers will be on tv, which is the perfect way to kick off the season for me.  My lakers vs Greg Oden.

Issue 6 commercials are starting to upset me.  They've gradually gotten more definitive in their assertions in the last few months.  Anti-casino commercials have gone from hinting at loopholes that *could* allow taxes on casino revenue to drop to 0% to outright claiming the casino will pay 0% taxes, which couldn't be further from the truth.  I also like the keywords they throw in like saying the bill will give this casino a "Monopoly" in Ohio for casinos.  There are a number of things wrong with this:

1.  If anybody actually makes an effort to investigate the whole 0% tax "loophole", they'd find that among the various unlikely things that would trigger such a tax drop, among them would be a 2nd casino being authorized in the state.  So as long as this casino has a "monopoly", the whole 0% tax argument is moot.

2.  Is not wanting to let a casino operate in the state as a monopoly reason enough to forgoe the 6000+ projected jobs it would create and the millions in tax revenue for the state that is currently leaving the state for casinos in Detroit, Indiana, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania?

3.  Who cares about a monopoly on the casino?  Its a resort destination.  Would you not allow a golf course or an amusement partk to be built in the state if it were to be the first and only one of its kind in the state to prevent a monopoly?

The sad thing is, I know the kind of person this message is getting through to.  Its people like my parents.  They hear words like loophole and mentions of 0% tax rates and they get reminded of the whole lottery debacle in Ohio and their stance in opposition to the casino bill is set in stone.  I don't even know if I'll be in Ohio in 6 months, but I'm hoping the early projections are right and the bill gets passed.  If my other plans go to shit I'll move to Wilmington and become a dealer.

Poker, Football, and Porn stars

So much for having a reason to watch the game last night, I fell asleep early in the 1st quarter.   West Virginia came through for me, though.

Anyway, woke up around 1, put in 2k hands of 25nl and dropped 2 BI.  Then I played 5 $11.50 HUsngs and went 5-0, so I'm up like $1.50 for the night + rakeback.  Ship it!

Shortly I'll be getting on a bus to Dekalb, Illinois for the BG/NIU game tomorrow.  I know nothing about Dekalb, but thats what wikipedia is for!

"DeKalb is a city in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States. The population was 39,018 at the 2000 census. The city's name (as well as the name of DeKalb County, where it is located) is IPA: /dɨˈkælb/ "di-KALB" with the L sound, unlike similarly spelled locations where the L is silent, such as DeKalb County, Georgia. The city is named after decorated German war hero Johann De Kalb who gave his life for American Independence during the American Revolutionary War."

boring...

other fun facts from wikipedia:

birthplace of barbed wire

birthplace of cindy crawford

"Porn Star T.J. Hart (real name Amy Damkroger) was born and raised in Dekalb and graduated from Dekalb High School."

porn star you say?

"She graduated from the Northern Illinois University with a degree in General Studies. She enjoys riding horses and is a former ballerina. She is a member of Kishwaukee Country Club"

She sounds like a classy lady.  See you all in Dekalb.  Over/Under on # of Michael "Burner" Turner jersies I see is 12.5

You know you're a degen when....

...you flip a coin to see which team to bet on just so you have a reason to watch some Thursday night football.

Auburn @ West Virginia -3.5  bet 1.1u to win 1u.