Best Month This Year - October

The title says it all.... I have turned $50 on Full Tilt into $1500 prior to October.


With 1 day left in the month I am currently sitting at $3800... It has been great, wonderful, awesome, etc... I can't say the same for all site, but I have broken even on Mansion keeping my $50 start up capital floating around $1300 to $1600 and haven't played much on the other sites.

I have been playing to get silver iron man status for my 2nd month in a row and have been still cracking the satty's and playing $11 turbos and $14 super turbos and running pretty well.

I have used a few $26 tokens and cashed 2/2 tries in limit games and played some 7-game and HORSE games and cashed or won the tournament entry in over 50% of those.

I have also been taking advantage of all the super satty's to the FTOPS events and cashing out the T $'s to use in my SNG games. I wish I could show you some graphs or show you results from Sharkscope on myself but am too putercore ignorant for that kind of thing. Plus my PT3 graph actually shows me as a losing player because it doesn't account for satty's. So I use it primarily for stats on other players and hand reviews.

I have also started playing only 4-6 tables at a time and not trying to push my max of 8-9 tables and focus more on taking notes and colour coding other players on Full Tilt so I know what kind of table I am sitting at when I get moved or start up a SNG in the beginning and can make decisions a little quicker in the games.

I have also made time to fit playing some live poker in my schedule and have been faring well in that as well. This past weekend I chopped 1st in a SNG with friends at a local underground tournament where the "regulars" play a lot of cash games and weekly tournament, not just your average bar league donkfest anyway.

I have been watching lots of videos, practicing on ICM, playing lots of games (for me), reading lots in the forums and finished 2 poker books this month on breaks and lunch at work. My game against better players (PokerVT events) has also improved, making me think when I do start moving up in buy in levels I will stand a good chance against stronger players.

I am hesitant about the upcoming FTOPS events though.... not sure if I am ready or if I should wait for the next mini-FTOPS later this year.
I almost joined a few larger satty's and clicked register to 4 $70 satty's and won 2 of them, I woulda won 3 but I played Q3o in the BB poorly.

It was all limped to me 2 other callers and the flop was 336 with 2 hearts, I probably should of led out but I checked. MP limper bet 300, LP folds, I had 700 left (it was a super turbo) and tank called. I should have either lead out or check raised, but check calling was totally the wrong play in my mind.
Turn: was the 5h and I shoved all in, MP snap called and showed 88 with a heart...
River: Heart, I lose

He was probably calling a flop shove, he was probably calling a check shove on the flop, but by playing it the way I did the random generator gave him the hearts as well as his 8's for the win.

Maybe I am being results oriented, I mean I got it in with the best, he was most likely calling anyway and what happened was poker. But knowing the results is not my thinking, instead could I have played it differently and forced him to fold.
Or by having the cards all in on the flop instead of the turn, does he still call? Does the random generator give 2 different cards not heart, heart.... Maybe he still hits an 8 and I still lose.

Am I over thinking the hand and it's just poker and I am not winning this every time anyway. Not sure, but most hands, most games come and go, but this particular hand has been in my head for the past few days and just wanted to "get it out" and see if anybody had any thoughts.

Anyway, my kids are doing great, wife is great, job is great, not sleeping as much as I could, but there is just too little time in a day to play, study, work, eat, do family stuff, read blogs, do forums, watch videos, T.V. shows I enjoy and still fit in time for sleep. I AM a GLUTTON for punishment and sleep always seems to be the first choice to cut back on.

Okay time to take a dose of sleeping pills and get in my weekly 1 night of 12 hours of sleep and wake up in time to play some poker on Saturday and get my silver iron man status for October, of course I left it for the last minute. That's the best part of being a procrastinator, the same as when I was in school with homework or assignments or studying for test, yet I tend to perform way better under pressure.

Always working on my leaks... and I still have a lot!

Fixing my leaks in a nutshell, on the fly, with a little bit of sarcasm:

Electric shock is almost the same as losing 2 deep stack buy ins in 1 night... lol

Usually the money you lose, the less you gain when you could have value raised, the more you lose when curiosity or getting married to a hand you should fold, going deep in a tourney and losing it all in 1 hand... are all forms of punishment for having big leaks.

I say call a plumber, watch more, study more, put a sign beside your computer screen telling yourself what not to do in big red letters and practice practice practice...

Nothing makes you realize what works best until you do it wrong a few times, in my case about 11 times and then some. Heck I still sometimes touch the burning stove even though I know it will hurt! (But I love that red glow so much, dang stove)

I am sure other people will have ideas but bottom line is you know what you need/want to fix so that's the starting point. After you start to fix those things you'll start to recognize other leaks and work on them too.

Lack of focus, curiosity and stubbornness are born from playing too many hands that look like garbage, if you don't change those leaks you might as well start drinking a lot and raise A3o UTG and tell yourself you have suited connectors.

Just my 2 cents, worth a penny.

Past 5 days some nice profit for me!

I have been slowly growing my Bank Roll since January and very hesitant to move up in stakes.

When I did move up on Mansion a month or so ago I went from $1700 down to $1100 in like no time at all. I quickly realized I needed to improve, change some things up and drop down to the $10 limit again. I wrote myself a note and stuck next to my computer, "No more games over $10 until BR is back above $1500". Well as of this past weekend I had just reached that mark. I decided I won't start higher buy ins again just yet, I AM a BR NIT and will keep on at the $10 level on Mansion.
I made some good money playing in some 18-30 man Sng's and 9 man's, staying away from playing too many Don's. I play about 10 games a day on Mansion, just enough to keep my bonus status in check and at the end of November I will get a bonus 120K member points. Add that to the 120K I already have and the 20K I will earn over the next 5 weeks and it is enough to trade in for a cool $500.
Without rakeback on Mansion I can't complain about it since I have only gotten $120 in rakeback from Full Tilt and I have played double the games on Mansion so it is almost double the amount of rakeback FT offers. I will simply check with support before I do the trade in to make sure it's not a play it out to get the cash bonus and a straight up deposit into my account.

Well the real reason I felt the need to write this "quick", nothing is ever quick from me, blog was my recent success on Full Tilt. 5 days ago I came in 2nd in a MTT with 355 people, it was a $2 buy in, and paid a nice little profit.
On the weekend I won my 1st 45 man super turbo with a buy in of $14 and got $239 for my effort. I have been doing well at both $11- 9 man turbos and $14- 9 man super turbos as well cash a lot and getting lucky to take some down. My bankroll went from hovering around the $1900 mark a week or two ago and shot up to well above 2K during this run of luck.
Tonight I took down another, BLAM SPAM THANK YOU MAAM, for a cool $239 once again. I looked at my BR on FT and saw a pretty little amount of $2996, soooo close to the 3K mark and from playing tournaments no higher than $14+1 buy in.
I mean I play a lot of satty's and then simply un-register and use the tournament dollars to play my daily 10 games on FT.
I have 3 $26 tokens and have used a few in the past and played the $22 Double Deuce as well but haven't cashed in any of the big ones yet. Last mini FTOPS I played 1 event and went deep but busted just before the bubble, thanks for railing me during that one Nik I appreciate it.

I think I am starting to feel more confident in my game and am considering moving up to some bigger events down the road, but I don't want to play scared and my experience with the $20 and $30 tournaments on Mansion gave me either a reality check or made me a little bit "chicken".
I have tried a few satty's to bigger events on FT and won some $50 entries and cashed out, and even tried some $70 satty's too which I did win one and cashed out the $216 just the same as any larger tournament. With a larger BR now I think I can give it a try I just need some confidence and convince myself I am not going to play scared.
I think I will take it slow, but this is what I have been training for and practicing for these past 10 months. I turned $50 into $2996 on FT and $0 into $1570 on Mansion and $50 into $450 on Pokerstars, Betfair is a measly $140 but still a small profit and tiger (which I have played on as much as betfair) is at $380 agian without depositing in years except to earn extra bonuses but in very small amounts that didn't need to be done as my BR was up to $1800 when I joined PVT.

I am a winning player, I am getting better, I can actually have a chance at turning pro and playing poker for a living some day, hopefully sooner rather than later.

I started out winning live, I still do win when I play live, but the internet has opened up my game and helped me improve so much faster than live play ever could. There are a few things I can attribute the success to.
Of course training and PokerVT and all the forum discussions, reading more books, watching training videos and practicing at the tables.
But more importantly the people who took part in "smacking me in the head" with common sense and helping me to not get upset about bad beats, learn to control my emotions, giving me somebody to look up to and wish I could play as good as them.
Those people will forever be in my mind as the greatest part of my poker learning experience and I hope someday to be able to meet them, take them out for dinner, on me of course, and shake there hand and tell them face to face how grateful I am.
The biggest bummer about it all is none of them live in Canada and I will have to do a lot better and climb a lot higher on the "poker ladder" before I can achieve that goal. Yet for now I know and I hope they know how much I appreciate all of the help they provided me even if it was a little and for a short period of time it meant so much to me.
"THANK YOU"

Cheers and best wishes to you all!
All 4 of you that read my blog and don't find it a rambling bumbling waste of time. This blog has been a part of my learning and I hope it can be of some inspiration to any of you that read it.
If any pros actually take the time to read this sucker I would like think that I remind you of yourself when just starting to get serious about the game, even if I am a late bloomer who wishes he found this game 15 years ago, yet we all have our own life lessons and I have had my fair share, but that's another story!

Double Cheers and Shambone!

Playing lLive at a Casino

Just some random thoughts I had about playing live and things one probably should remember if they are just starting out. Don't make the same mistakes I did:

Yeah I was in the BB and was getting food and drink from a waitress, the action came to me I turned around to look at my cards and didn't have any... the dealer had dealt me in and took my cards back before I could even see them from the BB, always protect your cards!

Plus even if you won a pot, don't toss your cards into the dealer or muck until they pass the chips to you that way you shouldn't have any disputes.

Another time I thought after I bet that nobody had called and tossed in my cards waiting for the pot. The dealer turned and gave them to the guy sitting on there right as they had called but didn't say it out loud only pushed in the chips and they were blocked by the dealers arm so I didn't know they had even called. I lost the pot because of that mistake.

If you get nervous and start feeling sick, like at the final table, just ask the floor man to bring a garbage pail over, you don't want to miss any hands at the final table by running off to puke in the bathroom. Then drink some ginger ale it's good for the tummy and nerves...

Don't ever show any cards unless they pay to see them, no matter how proud you are of the hands you hit or was dealt, even bluffs...

Study other players especially when the do certain things out of the ordinary, if you get to see there cards mark it in your head if it was a bluff or a strong hand and if they do it again in a pot vs you, decide accordingly if you can steal the pot or value bet/raise or fold and be happy you made the right choice based on your reads.

Most people are always acting, if they act strong they are weak, if they act weak they are strong... If they talk like a pro, they might just be, if the complain about bad beats they are most likely a fish.

I usually talk so much I put somebody on tilt, usually the people drinking alcohol, and can take advantage of them trying to play back at me or bust me when I have the nuts or super strong hands when they are super marginal and would have folded if it wasn't for the urge to "take me down, felt me"

Cheers!

This past weekend!

I play the same on the weekend as I do during the week, tight early and looser late when blinds and antes kick in.

I got 4th in $2 355 man MTT yesterday, I cash in sng's about the same as Friday.

I realize that I am getting called looser on the weekend and play smart in position and extra tight out of position.

I let people steal my blinds early and 3 bet them later on.

There is no real secret except to not let the bad beats effect your game, don't start playing looser trying to incorporate for the donkeys, just play solid poker and the game will even out the chips in your favor in the long run.

I do find when I am doing bad, I play worse and usually need to take a break and walk away. Heck even when I am winning I need to take a break to ensure it all doesn't go to my head.

I don't play 1 specific type of game either, I play 9 man turbos, 9 man super turbos, 10 man Don's, 18-90 small MTT/sng's, and large MTT's. All at the same time, I find that this way there is always something going on to keep me interested and focused as I need to watch the style on each type of game in a slightly different manner and play accordingly.

Not sure if that is wise for other people but it seems to work for me, as I try to figure out which game I should focus more on and specialize in towards the future as I begin to increase my buy in levels.

Also I am a super tight bankroll nit and losing a bunch in a row doesn't hurt me too much so it effects me mentally a lot less as well. With a 1,500 BR on one site and a 2,300 BR on another I am still playing $10 buy ins on both.

I am at the $3 buy in with a $400 BR on another site.

I also go back and watch videos done by our trainers here on PVT when I am going through a losing streak of sorts to help me realize where I am going wrong it it's more than just bad beats.

Wow, I find it's exactly the opposite....

During the week, I break even or win small, or lose small. But on the weekends I tend to do very well throughout each month.

Friday night I was up $190, and Saturday up another $180.

However I tend to only play a little on Pokerstars at the moment since I get rake back and bonuses on Full tilt and Mansion. I save Pokerstars for PVT tournaments and when I have met my daily quota on other sites.

GL at the tables, the variance train is coming around for a one-way ticket to "OMG'sville"

Cheers!

Edit: Sunday was the same, only played a few games a bunch of satty's then unregistered took the tournament $'s and played more sng's.

Then played 3 $14 super turbos, 1 was a 45 man and 2-9 man also 3 $11 turbos all 9 man.

Took down the 45 man for $239 and 1 of the $11 for $49.

$78 invested, $278 won = $200 profit.

That's a total of $570 for the weekend.

Cheers! Variance rules when you suck out.

Came in 11th in the bounty tournament on PokerVT and bubbled many sng's this weekend, otherwise it could have been way more profitable weekend.
Cheers!

Goals Review

The following were the goals I gave myself back on February 16th, 2009. One month after joining PokerVT.com and Pokerstrategy. I am now going to comment on each goal individually and see where I am and provide the reason, in my mind as to why I have or haven't accomplished them. If not completed is it realistic by year end or was I simply dreaming.

This post is does not have humour in it as I would like but it is a serious look at my poker progress this year, sorry for the boring read.

Cheers!

All input is greatly welcome both positive and negative, I need to be realistic and not a "tool" if I have any chance at becoming a better poker player.

1. to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on FullTilt past $100 and begin $2 sng's, and progressively increase the limit played by $1 per $50 increase to bankroll.
Completed, currently playing $11 turbos and $14 super turbos, with a bankroll of $2,300.00 with a couple tokens and some tournament $'s. Over 1,600 games played.

2. to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on Mansionpoker past $100 and begin $2 sng's.
Completed, currently playing $11 turbos and don's, with a bankroll of $1,500.00. I was up as high as $1,700.00 but was losing at $20 and $30 down to $1,100.00, so I moved back down to the $10 level. Over3,000 games played.

3. to cashout $1000. from my tiger gaming account to get a new computer set up for larger amounts of play and to increase the sites I currently can log into and play on.
Completed, "the old dinasaur" is long gone in the trash and I purchased a new system for myself and my children so they could never use and screw up "Daddy's" computer. I have named her "Bertha".

4. to deposit $50 into and to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on Betfair past $100 and begin $2 sng's,
Completed, I am at $150.00 on Betfair and am playing $3 turbos mostly Don's, but I hardly ever play on that site as there is not much game selection. To be honest I only joined Betfair because of Annette, but am slowly losing my "awe" for her and have only played in one tournament with her. She was not at my table either. 50 games played.

5. to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on Pokerstars past $100 and begin $2 sng's,
Completed, I am at $450.00 and am playing $3 turbos and all PokerVT tournaments that I have time for. Not playing that much only just over 200 games played.

6. a) to play 1-5$ sng's and MTT's to increase my bankroll on Tiger gaming past $500 and begin $10 sng's and MTT's,
Not completed, I have $400.00 in my account and haven't played much at all on the site all year except for member point free rolls. I will be returning to play as the year runs down to build my bankroll a little.

b) I am permitted to transfer funds between poker sites to increase the limit of play on each if I am able to expand my bankroll to over $1000 on any given site, then $500 will be transferred.
Not done or completed, as I have decided that I will not transfer funds between sites because the sites I play little on don't need more money in the accounts and I am debating just playing up to the minimum withdrawal amount and taking out the funds and limiting my play to fewer sites which offer better bonuses.

7. to continue to expand my poker skills and knowledge by broadening my chances to learn.
a) stay with PokerVT for the next 11 months and continue to learn, watch all videos 2x, and 5 times for videos about Sng and MTT's, participate in member tournys. Decide after 1 year if I want to continue.
Completed, I have watched every video on the site, except the math, twice. Some videos I have watched 4-5 times and some videos almost 10 times. I have played in every PVT member tourney I could, and won the leader board in the Sng challenge, won some FNF's and beat a trainer on the site for bonus money. My membership fees are taken care of until January 2010 at the moment. At this point I feel I will be staying for another year.

b) begin learning through PokerStrategy, reading all the articles and materials available to me, taking advantage of rake back programs currently unavailable to me.
Since I already had an existing Full Tilt account I couldn't get rake back, did apply through rake back pros and now receive it through them but I do get rake back on Betfair and will be able to get it on other sites in the future if wanted. I have watched many videos and read many articles. But there are too many videos to watch them all without having playing time and living a life and going to work. They do offer many programs for members to use that assist in improving your game including ICM games which I practice on regularly.

c)to take poker seriously, not just a hobby anymore, expand in as many areas possible and listen to my advisors and follow there advice. To purchase some poker software to expand my ability to play the game. i.e. PT3, Pokerstove, SnG Power tools or SnG wizard, universal player for now.
UMMM, I am a putercore ignorant tool... lol yes I am! I have purchased PT3 and have a great HUD but am not able to use it for all it's other great assets. I got universal player but couldn't get it to work, and out of frustration deleted it from my computer. I didn't bother with SnG Wizard because I was worried it would be the same thing as the universal player. I haven't done table ninja or poker short cuts because I haven't gone past the 6-8 tables at a time and can manage that much on my own without extra programs, for now. I suck with computers and know how to use e-mail and play poker, write this blog, navigate forums and watch videos. Thanks to Derek, PokerDerk, I have recently learned how to send in HH to get reviews.

8. begin expanding into 45 and 90 person sng's as I have done well with MTT's on Tiger gaming which are usually between 30-150 entries.
Completed, I play 45 mans on Pokerstars, 90 mans on Full Tilt, 18-50 mans on Mansion, as well as MTT's on many of the sites when I have time to play for over 3-7 hrs. I also got in a lot of free roll practice as I built my BR

9. to qualify in the top 10 of the SNG 10 wk Contest and play at the final table on PokerVT.
Completed, I came in 1st after the 10 week contest and finished 4th in the final's. I also was only member to win FNF's 2 times and get to play a trainer HU for bonus cash.

10. to not make a fool of myself on the forums or in the chat box on the larger sites now that I have begun playing on them, and hopefully not here on my blog... hehehe.
Not really completed, I am a tool and have made some mistakes, but I call them like I see them. As it turns out I have not been disrespectful and my opinions have been close to accurate about some people as time eventually proved. I also am able to admit when I am wrong, and recognize the need to improve in many areas.

11. to increase at least 1 level of buy in for SnG's and MTT's each 2 months on any of the sites.
Completed, went from $1 - $2 - $3 on 5 of the sites, then to $5 - $6 - $10 on two of the sites, up to $14 on FT.

12. to increase at least 2 level of buy in for MTT's and SNG's for all 5 sites within 12 months.
Completed, as explained above in #11.

14. to reread 4 poker books in my collection and purchase 4 new poker books and read them.
Not completed, I have purchased 3 new books, and read 2 of them. I also purchased "Fooled by Randomness" and "The world is flat" and read 1 of those. I have also started reading more poker articles on line as well as picked up a prescription for 1 year with Bluff magazine.

15. to increase my multi-tabling ability, for now 3 at a time, 30 tournaments a day at the proper bankroll mangement level on any of my given poker rooms, and only go out of the bankroll comfort zone for PokerVT member tournaments or events related to PokerVT.
I guess this one wasn't measurable per say, but I have gotten up to 6-8 tables at a time with comfort and try to get up to 10 at a when the buy in is low. I have played like a super ubber nit when it comes to BR management.

16. when I begin playing larger amounts of money on FullTilt, if possible, look into getting the rake back as I was not aware of it when I signed up a month ago or sign up a new account with a rake back affiliate on a site I have yet to create an account on, rake back is very important.
I get rake back for Betfair through pokerstrategy and Fulltilt through rakebackpros, it took time and patience but it finally went through. I can also get rakeback on any new accounts through pokerstrategy as well.

17. be willing to adjust my goals if suggested by instructers that a different or more realistic approach may be needed, as well as open to criticism.
Didn't get much feedback, but looking back I realize I set my goals very very low and was able to accomplish most or all of them already. Next year I will have to increase the goals I set for myself. I don't know if these goals are appropriate with the long term goal of having a chance at going professional or playing on a professional level in 3-5 years. I would love any and all feedback as pertains to this goal specifically as well as all the rest.

18. at my current account balance level, to also continue to play 10-20 online freerolls per day. At least until all the beginner bonuses for Free tourneys has expired.
Comleted, and after finding out that playing free rolls on Full Tilt actually affect my rakeback I only play free rolls on Pokerstars anymore and have almost completely eliminated my "free roll habit", I do have a very addictive personality.

I hope to become a professional poker player within the next 3-5 years, after building enough bankroll to pay the bills for 2 years and still have enough to play and have a 1 year bad run/loosing streak at the higher levels.
Never to forget that a sound strategy and ability to encompass as much information as possible into my game play will be my ticket to happiness.
I am forever learning and have done a lot to try to improve and work on my game and leaks. I will continue to remember what my main goal is and do everything in my power to achieve the long term goal of going pro in 3-5 years.

Cheers! I do hope to get some input and even suggestions towards other goals that I could give myself to work on in the future and advice where these goals above were pathetic or reasonable and anything else you can think of.

Double Cheers and Thanks in advance!

Revisiting Goals from January 2009

Well it's about time I revisit the goals I set for myself in January or February, whichever, for this year. I have about 2 1/2 months left to try to accomplish what I had set out for myself just 9 months or so ago. It seems like a lifetime ago in terms of how much better I have gotten playing poker but at the same time I have so much more still to learn.
I set these goals for myself when I was still ignorant to how much improving I really had to do. Remember I thought I was a 7-8 out of 10 on the poker scale, but quickly learned from PVT that I was really at about a 3-4. I might, maybe have moved up the scale to about a 5 out of 10 by now but it will be very interesting to see how I have done with the goals I set for myself back at the beginning of the year.
I have learned a lot about studying, playing, understanding the game. Proper bankroll management, to the point of being a "nit" but at the same time have had to move back down buy in levels on 1 of the sites because I started losing too much money when I moved up and hit a bad run of cards and started playing poorly. A couple of the sites I have ignored and hardly played more than 100 games on, it that much. While 2 of the sites I have played over 2K games on and 4K games respectively, which is a lot for a part time poker player, at least I think so.
Some of the goals I may have forgotten about and it is good to review them and see where I went wrong and possibly where I was a moron for even thinking I could accomplish them.
I am also going to have to get back to my "home site" to have a chance to win another free year of training on PVT... Heck why pay for what you can get for free with a little bit of extra effort!
So to make a long story longer, I am going to post my original goals in the forum on PVT and allow other members to have a chance to laugh at me or offer advice, yet it will force me to focus on completing them by years end and move me one step closer to my 3-5 year plan of having a chance at maybe becoming a professional poker player, if there is ever the chance of such a thing happening for me...
I still am a complete computer moron, ignorant tool, who should be using more programs and software to increase my skill, but at the same time I accept my inability to use such devices and try to focus on the things that I can work on to improve my game. Like reading books, participating in the forums discussing HH's, watching videos on poker, practicing and playing many games at different buy levels along with different variations of games on many different sites. On top of that participating in member tournaments against people with a higher skill level than your average player on line which totally forces me to focus and identify leaks in my game and admit them so I can improve as I play against other players. Having some HH's reviewed in training videos have also showed me where I make mistakes and aid in giving me a chance to work on that as well. I realize I am more aggressive than the average bear which can help at times and crush me at other times. Changing gears is a skill I need to work on more as well.
All in all playing on line with way way less live play has been a great learning tool and given me a chance to play and learn so much more than I could have in a brick and mortar casino.
So here I go, in the next day or so I am going to post my old goals and then respond to where I am on each of them with 2 1/2 months left in the year to accomplish said goals. I am sure some will be out of my reach, some unrealistic, some not complete do to being lazy on my part and some surpassed. But by putting them out there for all of the forum members to see, I force myself to work harder and open myself to criticism both positive and negative.
Cheers all!

Grinding, Variance and boy do I need to work on my Game!

So I was doing well at the $5 Don's on Ipoker, moved up to the $10 Don's and was also doing well... had my $50 starting capital up as high as $1700... but then I tried moving up to the $20 and $30 Don's, BIG MISTAKE!!! I started losing money like leaves blowing in the wind on a fall day. Maybe variance said NO BUDDY you aren't moving up yet... and decided to slap a black ball on any cards I had. The god of the turn and river, usually great friends, joined in to ensure that my hands wouldn't hold up. Plus any of the suckouts I was providing went away and haven't come back for over 4 weeks. I think my dead cat abandoned me for a feline he saw at the Zoo a month ago when I took my kids.
I got as low as $1000 and decided that I am obviously not ready for the jump in games and my Bankroll was feeling pretty sick about the $700 downsing. Now I am back at the $10 games playing both Sng's and Don's on Ipoker and have rebounded back up to just under $1300. I think this time I will wait until I break $2000 before trying to move back up in the buy in levels.
I also re-watched a lot of training videos and worked on an ICM game which hopefully brought my focus back into effect. I still can't work the re-player so review of my HH's is difficult for me at this time.

Derk, a PVT pro, did a review of 2 of my Don games and boy did I play like a fool, fish, donkey, monkey who was just randomly clicking buttons. I am not sure if it was just the 2 worst HH's I sent him or not but I am sure it made me realize I have a lot of work to do if I plan on still playing the Don's. Lot's of forum searching for answers on PVT, pokerstrategy and 2p2 to see what else I can think about and improve to increase my play at the tables.

I saw a few posts from some people I used to think were "idols" and lost some respect for the comments and life choices they made and are making. Also jumping to conclusions about things they didn't have full facts on was just plain ignorance on a level I have seen too often in this world. We all make mistakes, we all make our own choices and other peoples opinions sometimes makes us do or act in ways we might not of if we had only thought about consequences ahead of time. No need for the long/whole story but I am sure you kind of get what I mean.

I am finally starting to fully accept that my brother is gone, for good, for real and am trying to appreciate the things in life that matter most to me... family, poker, food, poker, love, poker, lol.
My wife and my mother want me to try for a baby girl... yes that's what I said a baby girl. I already have 3 boys am still paying of my college loan (still 1/5 left but almost gone) and there is no guarantee that my female sperm will win the race against my boy sperms this time. I guess I am destined to have a big family not be rich, unless I break through in the poker world and enjoy my family time even more, like for an extra 19 more years minimum. My doctor said my chances of having a girl are like 1-4 but no promises since my male sperm obviously swim faster.

I am almost finished reading another poker book by Sklansky and am moving on to one written by Gus Hansen, the great Dane... hope it makes me open my thoughts to ways of deeper thinking about the game. Reading Bluff magazine in spare time (bathroom breaks) and watching many videos gives me lots of thought about how I have been playing lately.

It's almost year end and I am going to have to go back and give those tourneys a few more tries on my "home" poker site to win another year membership at PokerVt :) ... it's hard to complain about things that are free in life, especially when they have been as inspirational as PVT has.
Haven't played much on tigergaming lately and my BR sits around $400, same for Betfair with a dismal $150 BR, on Full Tilt I just recently passed the $2000 mark and have been playing $11 and $14 Sng's with many satty's taking the shot at a few $70 satty's that pay a $216 seat. On Poker Stars I just recently won the PVT weekly Sunday bounty tournament and have just over $400 on it's BR which is pretty good considering I really only play free rolls and PVT events on that site.
So from $50 X 5 sites $250 total I am up to about $4150 in total BR's playing pretty much only part time at nights and on weekends. I made silver iron man on Full Tilt last month for the 15K free roll and made one a day free roll as well which plays next weekend. I came in 19th in the Pokerstars Fox challenge to be on a show with Daniel N, which is just 9 spots out of making a chance to send in an audition tape (so close yet so far). On tiger I am going to win another free year at PVT, I know I will, by the end of December if I start in the next couple of weeks that will give me 10 chances to come in 1st and earn the membership again, last year I won it on the last week in Dec. Betfair doesn't have much to offer and doesn't run many great events or free rolls or anything so I am not going to put much into that site for a while still. On Mansion I almost have enough points to cash in for a bonus $500, so I'll probably do it around X-mas time as a nice little BR boost gift to myself.

Looking forward to next weekend the kids and I are going to Canada's Wonderland, then it's to the parents house for a nice Turkey feast and Pumpkin Pie for Canadian Thanksgiving. Then my younger brother's birthday the week after, then Halloween the week after, then my birthday for and nice cap to the next month or so. Looking forward to lots of food, family and presents.

I want to send out a quick thanks to my friends in other countries... you all know who you are, I appreciate all your kind words and advice during the past while and I wish you all the best. I am also looking forward to a big score soon in a big MTT and plan on sending you some "bonuses" for all your help when I do, Thanks! You are the Man!

Cheers and see you all at the tables!

Hey I think my cat just came back, he smells a little like Cougar... he must have dipped into my supply of Extenze before he took of with some of those cats at the Zoo!