The party for Jason, Paul, and Adrian was really cool.  I really enjoyed spending time with the group away from the felt.  We need to do it more often.  The stories were great and there was so much laughter, it was infectious!  Lydia and Paul were the most gracious of hosts - and I think I can safely speak for everyone when I say it was an impressive spread of food and all-around-comfort.  It was an honor to be invited into their home - and a true act of generosity for them to provide so well for so many of us.  Gracias.

With that, Phil and his wife brought the coolest gift for Jason - it was a collage of some of the live feed info that featured descriptions of hands that Jason had won and a portion that showed the leaderboard standings when he hit his peak - 2nd place.  It was framed and just oozed with class, thoughtfulness, and was a fitting way to mark Jason’s 12th place finish at the WSOP.  There’s a reason that guys like Phil do so well in life and are so well respected by friends and peers.  He went the extra mile to celebrate the success of someone else.  Way cool…many many props!

As expected, a cash game broke out - even though people’s SO’s were there - who are obviously supportive of their poker partners, but not 100% down with getting into it themselves.

I was WAY tired from the previous night’s lack of sleep and opted out.  On the way home, my friend and his wife texted me to say they’d be at the pub and that I should meet them.  I was drinking water and 7-up all night, so I said what the heck - I’ll stop by to meet the wife’s dad who’s in town visiting.  I chilled with them for an hour and came home.

You know what happened next of course.  I scoped the lobby on FT for a juicy game with no wait…and was I ever in luck.  A few fish from previous encounters were seated, and without delay I took diligent notes and got ready to pounce.   I got involved in 3 big pots - of which I dictated the pot size - and won all 3.  After 17 minutes and $157, I called it a night and began this post.  That puts today at about $485 total in just under 1 hour of total playing time (3 sub-20-minute sessions).  It’s kind of blowing my mind.

I feel like January 1st is too far away and that I’m going to want to move the date a bit closer.  However, it’s imperative that this is demonstrable long term, it’s imperative that I continue to quit more effectively than my competition, it’s imperative that I have a suitable bankroll that includes several months worth of living expenses, and it’s imperative that I know how to track and manage the “business” part of this endeavor.  Until those stars align, I will continue to juggle appraisals and poker…with the poker being technically “recreational”.

Good 30 minute session.  Huge suckout from the fish within the first few hands.  Got my money in good, and he hit the miracle on the river.  No problem - no emotional melt-down, just re-loaded and was certain I’d get him back soon.  I immediately started the recovery process from a few of the other easy targets at the table.  But my focus was on trapping the fish with chips.  He seemed totally willing to gamble and would call big pre-flop raises from out of position players with weak drawing hands - so I figured as long as I didn’t piss him off and scare him away from the table, that I’d get it back somehow.

That’s what happened within about 10 hand when I got rockets.  He paid me off what I’d originally lost to him plus another $260 all in one hand.  He paired his K on the flop w/ KJo and called a $400+ bet with top pair, medium kicker.   My AA held up and it was good times.   Once I got that back, I stood up from the table $260 richer and focused on the other $2/$4 table I was playing at the same time.

The other table seemed juicy too - so I figured I’d stick around until my BB came up and maybe I’d just bail out with the $10 in profit I had so far there and net $270 for the day.   The poker gods had something else in mind.  Rockets again.  Lots of loose players at this table, and I  really only wanted one caller….first wish came true!   He had about $80 at the start of the hand (small considering the stacks of other players).  Flop came 474.  He had 67o.  I bet, he called.  Turn was another A (I now had a boat).  I checked, he bet, I smooth called.  He had $10 left.  I checked the river, hoping he’d shove it in - which he didn’t (rookie move on my part) and I took $70 of the $80 he had.  Stood up and started getting ready for Jason’s celebration tonight with an extra $340 in the FT account after a 30 minute work day.  Wee!

I’m 100% beat this morning.  I tried to go to bed at 11:30pm - but was restless and couldn’t sleep.  Not sure if it was the delcious curry chicken from Trials Pub - or if it was the quick strike just before bed that had me feeling satisfied and day-dreaming (night-dreaming) about what the future holds.  Anyway - I fell asleep sometime after 2pm and was awake at 6:30am with no hope of getting any more sleep.  So here I am already at the coffee shop - about to get going on one more appraisal assignment before the long weekend.  I hope the coffee kicks in SOON!

Went to the pub to have a drink to celebrate a good day’s work.  Didn’t drink too much, so I wanted to get a few hands in before Letterman.  Glad I did.  15 mins - $247.  I hope this isn’t luck.  I did pick the right table - the notes I had on the players that were already seated told me that this would be juicy.  A couple monsters where the donk’s paid me off for some huge pots and I pulled the plug.   I am a 100% believer in effective quitting.  If you want to know more, get Tommy Angelo’s book - Elements of Poker…it’s priceless.   That puts today’s earnings at just over $500.

As a side note, after this afternoon’s success, I went for a 2 mile run - it felt great and got me thinking about Team in Training again.  I’m hopeful that if this success continues, I’ll have time to start volunteer coaching again.  It’ll be a great way to give something back to the community and a great way to honor both my mom and Zack.

G’Night - time for Letterman & Ferguson if I can stay awake long enough.

Played several cash game tables and bounced around as I found looser tables and as the dynamics at the tables I sat at changed.  All cash games were winning sessions (7 total) - with a little bit here and a little bit there.   Up a total of $356 in cash games.  Played a few tourneys and did not cash for a net win so far today of $260.

This was an interesting day because I really had to bounce around to find loose tables and fish - constantly.  The last several sessions I’ve found juicy tables that stayed juicy and bore lots of fruit.  I like those better, but the skipping around keeps things fresh and encourages breaks - which is part of my overall strategy!

I’ve pretty much just played TAG from position poker and fared pretty well with picking my battles with looser players with my good hands.  Lots of times it’s big pots, but today was just several small/medium ones.  Either way it’s good I guess.   Happy with the performance and glad to have the challenge of moving around a lot.  Good practice for the “real world”.  Kinda highlights one of the benefits of online play vs live play too I guess.

2 Tabled for a short time (I don’t have much experience at this).  I suppose it has some benefits if you can keep tabs on both games.  Played a 6-H  $0.50/$1 for 15 mins while playing 9-H $1/$2 for about 45 mins.  Was up about $100 or so, and then seats to the left of me started to get filled by TAG players who seemed threatening.  After folding to one of them who re-raised me from the SB (I was button w/ KQo and had a TAG image myself), I decided to take a break and walk from both tables with my $87 profit and relax for a bit before scoping out another table.

Good quitting and bankroll/profit protection strategy I hope.  Either way, $87 isn’t bad for 45-mins, eh?  Glad to walk with that rather than zero and glad I saw the table dynamics change quickly so that I could get out before any damage was done.

The recent wins have been tremendous for my confidence and my patience.   On June 30th, my neighbors and I won the weekly pub-trivia event at th local watering hole, and I also logged another $600+ poker day ($150K/year win rate…if it were repeatable). 

This comes on the eve of my original optimistic “go pro” date, and while I haven’t hit that optimistic date, I couldn’t be happier about what the future holds.  I’ve worked VERY hard over the last two years in an attempt to become adept at NLHE and have had my share of wins and losses and dished and been the victim of many a bad beat.  It’s all been worth it. 

While I don’t feel I have the bankroll just yet, I know I’m not far off.  I’m going to sit tight, continue with RE Appraisals during the day, and working the tables at night.  $/hr and ROI are where I want them at the moment - but I want to continue to demonstrate consistency and I want to have a bankroll that will sustain both California living/mortgage expenses AND a safe playing bankroll.   New target date is Jan 1st, 2009.  I’m thinking of using my FullTilt points to get a customized FullTilt Soccer Jersey with “Snyder 09″ on the back in order to help keep that goal in my crosshairs!  Whaddya think?

Up another $200 before bed.  A LONG session where I was card-dead quite a bit, but the table had a few juicy players - so I stuck around until I finally got a monster.  They got lucky and I did the up/down thing for a bit, until I got QQ on the button vs an UTG limper who was prone to calling after the limp.  I made it $8 to go.  He flopped a gutshot and chased…while I floppped a set of Q’s.  He paid me off in full.  I thanked him for making my car payment and stood up from the table.

With that, I have to give some props to Jason and Adrian.  They set out together to play in a WSOP event (#49).  Jason has been near the top pretty much all day, and Adrian snuck into the money - enough to double his entry fee.  In the home game, Adrian is a feared player who cashes regularly and keeps an even keel throughout a session.   I personally respect his play tremendously.  Now, Jason stands to make a decent amount of money and if he continues his solid play, he will be at the final table tomorrow.  I really wish him the best of luck - though he doesn’t need it (well - maybe when his 10’s flopped a boat vs a few bigger hands).   Regardless of that, he’s a great player and tirelessly works for our league (and others) to maintain the PokerSoup.com website.   I can’t think of anyone more deserving of a good run at the WSOP.  Hats off to Jason and Adrian!  And may tomorrow’s final table bear a crap-load of fruit in the form of green pieces of paper and dead presidents!

Just got back from watching Spain defeat Germany, 1-0 and decided to try to find a tourney to play in.  As has been the case over the last 2-3 days - when I want to play there hasn’t been many fish registering for the tourneys.  So I decided to give another go at the cash game.   $400+ in 34 mins and decided to call it quits.

I can’t say that there’s a secret, but my overall strategy is to figure out who the really loose players are and simply engage with them for large pots when I’ve got great hole cards - and I overbet the pot pre-flop.  My impression is that these guys can’t resist an opportunity to gamble - so big hands like AA, KK, and QQ get paid off…a lot!  They chase draws passively (by calling rather than raising).   They seem to have a tendency to think that other players are bluffing too much too.  If you have a monster hand an do the stop-go, they’ll often bet the pot.  I’ll smooth call if the board isn’t too dangerous, then come out for 1/2 their stack.  Often they decide to re-raise on a bluff or semi-bluff and I catch them.  By shoving all-in, they seem to back off and fold -so I don’t get the full pay-off.  By betting 1/2 their stack, they seem to look at the bet size in relation to the pot and say, “that’s a weak bet” - and they re-raise all in.  The key to this is knowing that your opponent does not take stack size into consideration when they engage.  You can pick up on this fairly quickly and it’s a great way to manipulate the donks.  They have $100 behind, the pot is $300, you bet $50 and they think it’s a weak bet, and re-raise all-in for their last $50…it feels great when it works, and it’s been wildly profitable recently.  

If there’s a remotely skilled player acting interested in the pot pre-flop, I’ll play straightforward poker with raising/calling hands from position.  Folding AJs and even AQo occasionally from the SB - depending on how I’ve profiled the aggressor.  Position REALLY has advantages in the cash games (which shouldn’t be news to anyone) and I’ll almost NEVER play from out of position.  If I raise to isolate pre-flop and get a smooth-caller from someone in position, I’m very wary and am willing to give up on the pot unless my hand improves to a set, etc.

Anyway - things appear to be going swimmingly and I’m quitting my sessions at a point where the anxiety of losing $X would outweigh the joy of winning another $X.  I’ve mentioned it in earlier posts after reading Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo, and I think this is going to be a key to long term success.  When I stand up and take that money off the table, I realize the income and the success.  I can go for a walk, do some exercise, call a friend, etc and mellow out before I get too far down the path of thinking that I’m the table captain and that I am invinceable.   That break brings me back down to earth.  Re-starting another session an hour or two later protects your bankroll because you buy-in for less that what you had at the table earlier, and it generally keeps you on your toes rather than getting too comfy and winding up sorry. 

I’m going to continue to quit more effectively than my opponents for the sake of my bankroll and because it’s a vital element of good poker strategy.

OK - it’s a bit long, but there’s some worthy topics to cover (at least worthy to me).

1)  Zack passed away finally.  I had to put him to sleep.   It was a friday afternoon at 5pm when I determined that enough was enough.  If I’d done it the day before I’d have been uneasy.  And if I’d waited till the next morning, I’d have been uneasy.  It was difficult, but the timing was right.  He passed with his chin on my lap and it was as peaceful as that kind of experience can be.  I know he’s in dog-heaven right now chilling on some cool grass under a shady tree - his favorite thing to do.  I miss him a lot, but my neighbors have been kind enough to let me watch their dogs when they go out of town for an evening or a weekend.

2)  I’ve been playing poker.  And lots of it.  I developed some software that would help me track things and had little checkboxes for me to check off as I played to make sure I was doing the things I needed to be doing in order to be a winning player.  It worked for a while, but I think I became too obsessed about ROI and results.  I took a hiatus and stopped using the software.  One really good thing though, was that I was keeping meticulous financial notes.  Something I’ll need to do when/if I decide to go pro.

3)  Most recently, I’ve been on a friggin tear (online anyway).  I’ve had some decent results at the home game - but to be honest, I think I’m pretty much done with it unless it’s a super-cheap buy in and I need the social part of it.  It’s not as profitable as online play because the players all know each other and all we do is trade money amongst one another from week to week.   As for the online stuff.  A year ago I was playing $2, $5, or $10 SnG’s.  I’ve built up a bankroll and some skills and discipline and am now at SnG buy-ins of $20 to $100.  I’m starting to like the $69+6 45-player SnG’s.  I’ve played a few and it’s added several hundred at a time to my bankroll (a few $200 to $600 pay days).   They’re over in about 90 minutes too, which is shockingly nice.

There’ve been a few times recently where I can’t seem to find a good SnG with enough fish.  After all the reading and playing some micro-limit cash games, I have stepped up to $1/$2 6-handed ring games.  It’s been pretty profitable.  This morning, for example, I played for 90 minutes and cleared $640 after the rake (about $30).  I scrammed and took a bike ride, met a friend for lunch, bought some new shoes, and took it easy for a while.    I decided to play again and found another juicy game with just the right fish.  I played for just over 2 hours and cleared $620 after the rake $48).  That’s $1,260 for the day.

My bankroll is flourishing and today was the winningest day I’ve ever had.  Previous best was $1,100 in one day.   I haven’t kept track of ROI or anything like that recently, but it’s clear that I probably should. 

My internal “go-pro” date was July 1st.  While I’m getting more comfortable with my play and my bankroll, I’m not where I need to be in order to take the leap.  I’d like to have a few months worth of mortgage payments saved up AND have an adequate playing bankroll before doing that.  But I’m optimisic that I’ll achieve my goal someday soon and I have set a new target date.  I plan to keep it flexible though, as the time has to be just right!

I hope anyone else who’s reading this someday has the good fortune of having a remarkable poker day just like I’ve had.  It’s very satisfying to have the feeling that you are on the way to achieving a dream.