w00t! I made it to the final table at the Casino San Pablo tournament on Saturday (in person, not online). They start paying out prizes at 10th place and I went out in 7th. Not too shabby. A combination of short stacks at the table, and me getting trash hands, had me just waiting for the short stacks to go out. Every player that busted meant more prize money for me. It worked ok at first, as three of the short stacks eventually went out before me. But the binds & antes were so huge, I eventu...

I finally got my bonus from Party Poker, so my total for the night was about $114. These games are tough, I just can't seem to make very much money. I think I was earning more cash total at $1/$2. I considered moving back down, but I want to make progress towards the higher stakes. I'm starting to think earning so little is just normal, at least until I improve. Battling this tougher competition is helping me get better, though. My reads on opponents are improving and I'm pretty confident tha...

Last night was another tough game at $2/$4. After three hours, I only booked a win of about $7. Better than losing, I suppose. It was one of those nights where I started out losing a few big hands right away, then spent the rest of the night playing catch up. What was slowing down my progress was that I kept splitting big pots with other players. Four times there were four to five people in these huge pots with over $100 in them. I'd get a strait for the win, but then would have to split the ...

I broke even last night. Well, not exactly. I actually made about $12 after three hours of play. Party Poker will give me a $100 bonus if I can get 1,000 raked hands before the 26th. So last night I was just trying to get it up to 500 hands, then I'll do 250 hands over the next two days. I buy-in to each table with $150. Since I play two at a time, that's $300 I keep in play at any one time. Kind of nerve wracking, having all that money at risk. I have to keep telling myself it's just a sc...

I lost that tournament from last week. Kind of depressing, I really wanted to make it to the next round. Oh well, maybe next time. So it now looks like I'll be playing in two events at the World Series The first event will be the $1500 No-Limit event, where I'll stay in that timeshare with Dutch and his friends. Well, I hope to do that event. I'll be trying out a few satellites in Vegas to try to win myself a cheap seat. My wife also wants to play in the ladies event, which is about a week ...

Oh man, I'm totally nervous about that tournament tonight. I only have to finish in the top 40 to advance, but it's through a field of 400. I'm visibly shaking with nervous energy as I type this. I want to win it bad . Anyway, onto the article... Playing poker well requires a rather wide skill set. Lately, I've been thinking about those skills and how I stack up. Math skills: This is more essential in limit, but still plays a critical role in no-limit. You need to be constantly compari...

That tournament I won last week was a qualifier for a bigger one tomorrow. There are going to be 400 players and I just have to finish in the top 40 to advance. Fighting those big fields is tough, play lasts so long that the blinds start getting really huge. I'm going to have to accumulate a lot of chips early, so I'll have enough room to put the pressure on during the mid-stages. I'm already nervous. I've been doing more tournaments this week to practice. I played $2/$4 for about 15 minut...

I pretty much had break-even play this weekend. I lost a little at $2/$4 Friday night. I actually had a nice profit, but then got AA beaten twice right before I quit, which took me down to a loss. I played live at Casino San Pablo on Sunday, lost a little at $3/$6, and then played the tournament there, but didn't place in the money (I'll talk more about that in a minute). On Monday, I lost three $5 tournaments. I was feeling pretty bummed... winning tournaments requires luck & skill. When you...

w00t! I got first place in that FCP Protege tournament! I just had to finish in the top 40 to qualify for the next tournament, but only first place had an actual cash prize of $200. I wanted it bad. I had been working on a strategy for that structure and it was nice to see it all come together. It was great, I didn't feel like I made more than one or two mistakes the whole tournament. The last tournament I was in was pretty tough, I was short stacked most of the time. I went into the final...

I lost about $25 after an hour last night. Kind of frustrating to get so close to having enough to move up in stakes, but then to watch the bankroll shrink. I still need at least $75 more before I'll let myself take a shot at $2/$4. I wish I could say it was just bad luck, but I know I made a few mistakes last night. It was bad luck that started me out, though. I had QQ against an opponent who had A4. He paired his 4 on the flop and we got into a re-raising war (he was a loose/aggressive)....

Last time I talked about what makes a good table. Today I'll talk a bit about the different individual personalities you'll encounter. A majority of players can be classified along two dimensions: loose vs. tight & passive vs. aggressive. Loose vs. Tight This dimension is primarily about what cards a player is willing to play. Loose players tend to see a flop with a much wider range of hands than tight players. At the extreme, a loose player could be playing with any two cards. Tight pl...

I did pretty good this weekend, scored about $80 total. As predicted, the tables were great Friday night. My favorite tables are the ones where there are a lot of players that call one bet before the flop, but rarely raise before the flop. This let's me play a lot of marginal hands at a profit, like small pocket pairs or Ace-something suited. I love those hands because they usually don't require much decision making. If I have a small pair, I'll only continue with it if I get a three of a kin...

I made about $25 after an hour of play last night. Not too bad at the stakes I play, I was doing pretty good at both tables I was at. Multi-tabling is definitely where it's at. I tend to lose small amounts of money most of the time when I'm playing, but occasionally get a big win. Those wins cover all my losses, and then some, which is how I've kept my bankroll growing. By having two tables going at once, I get a few benefits: 1. More chances to get a big win during a play session. 2. Les...

Ok, I'm a retard. I was eligible for a freeroll tournament last week, since I'm a charter member over at Full Contact Poker . I thought it was a qualifier for the Daniel Negreanu's Protege tournament (the winner will be tutored by Negreanu for a few months and he bankrolls you in four $10,000 tournaments). I took that tournament very seriously and ended up getting 3rd (out of about 500 players). Man, that was a stressful evening. I was stoked, thinking I would go onto the next tournament ...

It's the new year, so I decided I need to keep better track of my poker sessions. I suspect I'll be making enough from the game this year that I'm going to have start to paying taxes on it. It's kind of annoying that I can't just declare my net win for the year. I have to add every single winning session to my income, then deduct every single losing session. It'll be vastly easier to start tracking this in a spreadsheet right now. Since I'm doing all this improved record keeping anyway, I ...