Reflections and another update

Although i write quite a bit i often find it hard to open things up in a proper and logical sense so for future reference pardon me for diving right into issues….
So as part of my daily grind and mental preparation to play i often read articles on 2+2 or watch a random video as a way to make sure that i am in a mental state that is conducive to profitable play. Not to mention it helps me refresh my brain with new tactics and helps me plug leaks. Well today was no different and after a brief session on Stars where i couldn’t get anything going it was time to get my fill of motivation.
I typically gravitate to brags beats and variance threads just because there are some really random off the wall topics and i am one of those kinds of people!! Long and short i ran into a story that actually made me reflect on life and just how fortunate i am. Here’s the address

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54/poker-beats-brags-variance/hu-vs-drooler-lost-my-roll-715623/

I really encourage you all to check it out but i will give a brief synopsis of the thing… Guy down on his luck loses rest of bankroll in a HU match. O BTW guy is having a sick beat and life and is whoring himself out to 2+2 members so that he doesn’t become homeless.
I’m still not sure if it is all real but if the guy is making it up well that’s on him and his soul, but if i were laying odds i would be willing to lay 7:1 that its legit. Anyways it was a truly touching story that really helped me put things into perspective and realize just how lucky we all are and how often we take things for granted. PARDON THE LIFE STRATEGY… I won’t drag on to much more but it was an article that really made me wonder and see that as a whole there are lots of good people out there and we should all strive to help the world be a better place. Be it a smile at a stranger or a genuine question to someone who is down. We should all try just a little harder to be a little more compassionate. (I’m a hardcore republican so please don’t think to much of this bleeding heart rant)

AS far as poker goes i haven’t really been able to log to many hours because i was in Charleston SC again this week helping a friend. So the action was rather sparse but i did type something up earlier in the week and i will post it here later,

With that out of the way…the week in review

This week has been a great week of poker for me.  A couple of weeks ago i cashed out 100 from stars and deposited it on Cake.  (trying to keep play money desperate)  I was grinding my way to a decent BR and decided to take a shot at a tourny.

I used to play a ton of them wether it be SnG’s or MTT’s. Ive had ok results but i never really understood what it took  to make it deep and make final tables.  I was cashing at a decent rate but i just wasn’t making final tables. Well i fixed that leak and this week proved it.

Monday night after a long evening of grinding away at .05 .10 nl my BR was somewhere at 225 and i jumped into the $20BI 4k bounty turbo on Cake. What a great decision that was after about 3 hours of grinding through 350+ players i was at my first final table in a long time. I was somewhere in the middle of the pack as far as chips but i had great reads on my opponents, one by one they fell by the way side and lady luck was on my side by way of a few huge flops when i was flipping. I managed to make it down to the final three.   And that was it lol, anticlimactic right, the blinds were something ridiculous and there was no such thing as a safe stack, i picked up KQos on the button and open shoved for something like 30BBs and got snapped called in two places one with AK the other with AQ….Just like that 3 handed and bust.

I cant complain tough it neted me 290 for the finish and i think i had somewhere around 6-8 bounties @ $7. Needless to say i was very happy

Wednesday night again after donking around at some 6 max and not having any great success i said F it let see how i run in another tourny. So i put my measly 6 dollars into another bounty and what do you know i made another final table. No really great hand that stood out and i finished in 4th for…..wait for it……$18 plus a ton more bounties. It was a moral victory for me damn it. lol

Friday…. More tnys’s see the theme here. $30+3 10k bounty 372 i finished in 35th for 37 + 3 bounties which i raked up in the first 20 mins. So it was nice to freeroll the rest of it.  After i managed to bust a couple people i went super card dead and had to claw my way into the money. (60 places paid) The hand that i busted on was rather odd. I had been at the tbl for 30mins or so and was playing insanely tight. I knew it was time to make a push if i wanted to make another final table and with only 25 BB I shoved pre from 6 seat with KQos. There were couple of short stacks behind and a couple monster stacks.  Free and clear and then the BB decides to tank for a bit, not good news for me and with only 40bb’s in his stack he calls it off with A6h. Off course i didn’t hit and that was it. Having played with the guy for a while i really felt like that was a spot that he would have folded as opposed to calling off most of his stack with A6. Whatever it happens. Not to continue on this but he actually won with A high, no pair no nothing just A high. Ok got that  out of my system

About an hour later its time for the $5 LHE tourny. I didn’t really touch on this to much in my previous post but i consider myself to be rather good at limit events. (Most all of my final tables have been at either HORSE or Razz.)   Usually I stay with the mixed games, but limit is limit. I think it takes a little more skill to manage chips and what spots to push and i find it to be a lot easier to exploit weak opponents. 27 entries $5 a head nothing special just a glorified SnG.  What do you know i make it to the final 5 only 4 cash, blinds were at 400 800 and at this point its looking like I’m gonna be the bubble boy. I picked up Ax on the button, it folds to me i raise and just hope for the steal because the next guy in the BB was super short stacked as well. That would be nice and all but thats my own little world and the BB calls and off to see a flop of 775…hmmm not great but ok he checks, i like my chances here!  I bet he insa raises and by this point i am so involved in the hand that i just cant fold, i shove what i have left and on their backs they go. BB shows up with a 5 so my ace was still good turn brick and what do you know an Ace on the river.  Back in buisness!!!  From there i ran well and started to pick off my opponents leaks and made it to HU with a 1.5:1 lead,knowing that i have a HUGE edge over the other guy.  Blinds were sick high and if he made a mistake it was over, i might not be a great player but i knew that i was going to make far fewer mistakes than he was. After about 10 hands of me smashing him and avoiding a marginal spot i think i was good in i was up to a 4:1 chip lead and picked up 88 from the button with blinds at 800 1600 simple open he flats. flop comes down 632 he bets i raise he flats….Really odd spot for his play imo really made me think that he had a 4 for the gutter. turn comes blank and he opens, i raise he shoves well i guess this is it and I called and sure enough he shows up with K6, and that was it i won. Again it wasnt a huge cash only 60 but a win is a win and in limit lots of bad things can happen.

So thats been my week so far

16 tournys 6 cashes 3 being final tables and one mini win!!

I haven’t done the ROI yet but i’m willing to bet its gonna be nice, i just hope my run doesn’t come to a 30 tourny drought

Out of 372 players in Tournament 7991889 (Nightly $10K Guaranteed – Bounty), you came in 35th and have won $36.46.

Out of 60 players in Tournament 7968114 ($6 NL Hold’em Bounty), you came in 4th and have won $17.82.

Out of 236 players in Tournament 7941209 ($4,000 Guaranteed – Turbo Bounty), you came in 3rd and have won $291.46.

Out of 27 players in Tournament 7996342 ($5 Limit Hold’em), you came in 1st and have won $60.75.

Hello world, its thatsclever

So here we go, this is to be the start of what is hopefully an epic journey to the lucrative offerings of the online poker success, lol.
My name is Jason and i’m 25 i have been around the poker world since i was 18. I got my start during the “Moneymaker” era like so many others. I had some really solid success in the short term and ran small money into lots more only to blow it with improper BR management, i was young, yeah that’s it i’ll blame it on that.
Before long i ditched the online game in favor of local home games, nothing fancy just 1 2 nl which involved lots of random ‘players” from around the community with entirely to much money. Before long i was crushing the games (4-5 a week) for thousands of dollars a month and thought hey this might be something that im good at. So back to the online world i went. That’s where i managed to get ruined yet again! So i swore it off in early 2007. Fast forward a few years (2009)and i got back into the game in a big way after a former girlfriend and i made a cross country trek to Vegas, 12 days in and 5k later the fire was rekindled. I was back in the swing of things and ready to try the online thing for the third time and wow had the games changed! It was no longer a bunch of 20 somethings just spewing money it was actually a legit game of skill. So that brings me to where i am today. I finally sucked up my pride and decided to learn something. I watched videos at stox cardrunners DC, here and probably a few other random sites. It was crazy to see how bad i really was and it really made me wonder if i was really that good at poker in general. Honestly in live games i make sick reads and could sit for an eternity, so i exploit that edge to the fullest. When i lost the ability to make “reads” i was just another donk spewtard. sorry for the detraction… In the past 6 months i have discovered a whole new world of poker and have really opened up my eyes to the new era and i am pleased to say that i have finally started to beat the games and at a rather consistent pace. With that being said like so many others who vow to make big money out of small money i ventured out onto that quest yet again!! So far so good .I’m actually ashamed to admit it but i deposited 50 on stars and started banging away at .1 .2 lhe and boy was that a grind however profitable it was agonizingly slow and frustrating. After doubling my Br to 100 i started the nl grind once again. This time i vowed not to overextend my BR to much and from there it has been a steady grind to a decent bankroll and im happy to report that i have not had to rebuy since! Along the way i have gotten back to my “roots” as a H.O.R.S.E and mixed game wiz too and of late i have started to tackle the tournaments on Cake.
It has been a lot of fun and there are a ton of details that i have left out but i can assure you that there will be more to come. I have way to much time to play poker thanks to an early retirement so i have the luxury of spending tons of time learning and developing my game and now i will be able to share my adventure.