Separating Us from Them

We all know what makes a bad player "bad"- their lack of understanding the fundamentals of the game, the mistakes they make over and over, the fact that they get married to their hands, and the basic level one thinking that engulfs these players. There are also other factors that add to their "badness". These include the bad player's compulsiveness to "gamble" often with no edge, their failure to recognize mistakes and improve their game, and the blame the "luck" factor- meaning how unlucky they are, and how lucky their opponents tend to be. This post is not to complain about bad players. All are encouraged, believe me. I can't turn a profit if my opponents do not repeat their mistakes, gamble, seek to get lucky, etc. This post is about what separates us (the thinking player) from them (the bad player).

Good players lose a pot and say to themselves- what did I do wrong? What can I do to improve my game? How could I play that hand differently? Next time, can I do something to maximize my profit? How did my opponent play their hand and how can I exploit their mistakes in the future?

On the other hand, bad players, ask different questions. Those players ask- Why did my opponent call my flop bet? How does he stay in with a flush draw? Why do I always get unlucky? Why is it that I can't win a hand tonight? The questions that the bad players ask produce one result- further bad play. Guaranteed status quo for the bad player. They will not improve with these questions. All these questions do is lock up the good players' hold on the bad players' money. Keep asking those questions please.

I played at the club this week and saw a gerat example of my good/improved player v. bad/stagnant player- two guys I have played with for years. The first gentleman was Alan**(names changed to protect the innocent) and the second was Mario. Alan, if it is possible, has gotten worse over the years. More likely, his bad play is just that much more obvious to me. I observed him make a mistake pretty much on every street in every hand he played, with the exception of the one time he flopped a set and played it well (against Mario, ironically). But, in most hands, when it was clear he should bet, he would check, when he should've raised, he just called, when he should fold, he called all in., etc etc. Additionally, he blamed luck on every pot he lost, and complained the pots he won were too small. Very negative mindset- the icing on his bad play.

Contrary to this, Mario, has improved tremendously in the last two years that I have known him. He has gone from a super tight player, to a player who exercises pot control, discretion and handles post flop play very well. The amount of his mistakes has diminished, and the quality of his play has dramatically improved. He and Jon have spoken on several occasions on proper play, execution of bets, etc. He is a prime example of how focusing strategic questions designed to evaluate your game, can ACTUALLY improve your game. In a strange way, I feel proud of Mario for his improvements, and I am truly happy for the successes he has experienced in poker. He is a humble player, with a quiet demeanor and good instincts. He has become a player I shy away from in hands, which is a huge compliment to his play.

The bottom line that as good players, we are ALWAYS looking to improve our game. I remember when I first began playing, it was a complete mystery to me how there was such a thing as a "professional poker player". In my mind, I believed that you had to always make the best hand to make money and further, bluffing was virtually impossible, because why would anyone fold a better hand?

This is level 1 thinking.

This is ignorance.

It took a long time- years- for me to talk to other players, learn what I needed to do to improve, and then actually apply what I learned to my game. This is a law school concept for me. Read a strategy or a rule in a book, and then apply it to a case. Just like in poker- you read a strategy- three bet with nothing, check raise on a draw, etc, and then find an ideal scenario to apply this strategy and execute it. It is much more difficult than it sounds. Just like in law school- you think how hard can it be? Then you open up the first page of your final exam, stare at the 8.5 x 14 page single spaced fact pattern and want to run screaming from the room- how are you supposed to apply the law you learned to this miniature novel in less than 2 hours? But somehow you manage, and it gets easier and easier, just like in poker.

And again, the bottom line- good players are always looking to improve. Just like in law school, once I mastered the skill of applying what I learned to ideal fact patterns, likewise, I have been able to do that in poker. And I am always looking for more spots, better ways to exploit the game, more nuances to refine...and all that good stuff.

Other than that, I have been running well in cash lately. I have had several earning sessions in a row, and I am happy about that. I am playing the Borgata 50k guaranteed tomorrow, and I will let you know how it goes. I will try to record some interesting hands for you. That's it for now, good money at the tables!

Good money and peace,

Lucky C, and Ace.

More Hands from this Weekend...

Here are so more hands from this weekend...



Borgata $1100 Satellite

I was very lucky to chip up early in this tourney. We started with 15k in chips, 25-50 blinds. In first 20 min, I chipped up to 20k, winning a few big pots with full house v. flush and an over pair against top pair, top kicker. My table breaks and I get moved to a new table with some very interesting players- the one good thing is that there was only one pretty tricky player at the table with a big stack. Everyone else was unique in how they played, however transparent. So at 100-200 with no ante, utg raises to 700, 1 seat who is tight calls, I call and two other players call. Pot is pretty big, like 3500 at this point. Flop is K 3 5 with two diam. I have 89 dd. Now let me preempt this by saying I usually dont play flush draws super strong. My plan this weekend was to play differently, and think outside the box, get to a deeper level in each hand, have more reasons for each decision, think more critically of my opponent's reaction to what I will do, etc. So bb and utg (orig raiser) check, and 1 seat fires 1500, I decide to smooth, to make sure no one flopped a big hand behind, and also to see if utg was goin for check raise. I am happy to have position on seat 1 too. So turn is brick, like black 7. Utg checks. Now, normally I would check here, but I feel that if I check, I am advertising that I am on a draw. If I had two pair, a set or a king, i would bet to clear out the draw. Also, i would bet to get action. Knowing the player I am against,if i check behind on turn and i miss on river, I have absolutely no chance to win this pot. Considering all of this, I decided to bet 2850, about 1/2 thepot. My opponent has 12k behind and I had 19k, so it was a substantial bet compared to his stack. He hemmed and hawed for several seconds and finally called. River is a brick. He checks quickly. I know that he is goin to fold but I need to fire HUGE. So I bet 7,000 completely planning to fold to his all in, obviously, for 2k more, but he is def not the type of player to check raise river. So he counts out 7k and goes that's almost my whole stack and folds. And asked if I had a King. ?????. I said which card do you want to see and he chose 9 diam. And he's like good bluff with pkt 99s. lol. he goes, I folded QQ. QQ?????? Good thing I did not try to get him to fold top pair- I really have to stop doing that.

I picked up a few hands, raised and took it down. Blinds were 100-200 with ante, I standard raised to 575 and took it down a bunch. I picked up 10s. I raise to 575. the button makes it 1700. BB calls, utg tight player (seat 1), called, so I decided to call, even though I felt the button had a monster. Flop is A 6 x. Checcks to button, he bets 1500. BB calls, seat 1 and I fold. Turn is rag. BB checks and buttton bets 2k and BB calls. I was sure bb had aq or ak, button not sure. River is 6. Bb chks, button bets 4,000. BB calls, and button had AA, for aces full. I thought he played his hand superbly. He later proved to be a player who tilted very easily, but still played that particular hand well.BB had Ak consequently which was a tough spot, but he couldve folded to the raise and reraise in front of him.

A little while later, at 200-400, I had Ak dd in bb. four players limped. I raise 1400 on top hoping to either take it down, or get HU. Unfortunately, only player that called me was the other big stack, we both had close to 30k. Flop is 9 6 3, one diam. I checked, and he checked. Turn is 4 diam, giving me overs and flush draw. I bet 2300. He calls pretty quickly. I decide I am checking river if i miss. He either has a pair, or a straight draw or a flush draw, so either way my hand might have show down value. River is 2 cl, what a fking brick. I check, he checks and shows 67 sp. I thought that was a very interesting hand. Even though I didn't win the hand, i think it played well.. the only thing is its patently obviously i have AK there. I think the other big stack played his hand well also.

An orbit later, I am utg +2 with 3 6 sp. I raise to 1175, the guy on my left (tighty) calls pretty quick and bb calls. Flop is K Q 5 rainb. Checks around. Turn is 3c. I think, oh maybe I have best hand, but I will check, and see what happens. Checks around again. River is 6 h. weee. bb leads into me for 500 in an attmept to bluff, I believe, I raise to 3k and all of a sudden, heard the tighty say, I call and BB folds. I said I have 2 pair and he mucks. The only hand that made sense for him to have was Aq and he thought I was a on a move. So I asked him and he confirmed he had AQ. In a weird way, i understand the call. I looked like a super hyper aggressive player. By the same token, I would never call a bet and raise on the river by a super hyper player, unless I had a specific read on their hand. And of course, the whole tabel went nuts, ohh she raised with 36 omg, thats terrible, blah blah blah...let's play real poker. its a 1k event, not a $10 stars donkevent. But really, no difference.

Ok, I am goin to play the 10$ r on stars, I will write more hand later.

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and ace.

Bubble Girl Extravaganza

Hey guys. I played the $560 at Harrah's this weekend and the $1100 satellite at Borgata yesterday. I think I played super well, and I experimented with many new moves, and strategies. I really feel that in every live tourney, I am bringing my online game to it. Additionally, my reads are more and more spot on than ever. One area I really need improvement on is the middle stages of my tournaments. I believe that I tighten up too much, as I am less likely to put more chips at risk as the blinds go up, and this is why I find myself short stacked late game. Once I improve this area of my game, I feel that I will be more profitable than ever.

At first, I was extremely distraught over what a disasterous weekend I had because I played 23.5 hours of poker with $0 profit. Then, I reflected on it more. The truth is I am going to bubble a lot of tourneys, and when I cash, I am going to final table, not just cash. My time is coming, it is close. I feel it in my heart and soul. The silver lining is that this was 23.5 hours of experience gained. I did play really well. I gambled a bit in some spots, and I got lucky a few times. It was excellent. Below are some hands from the tourneys this weekend. Please comment on what you think.

Little tidbits that I found humourous this weekend. A guy from LI, a hispanic guy with a strong accent- super nice and when he speaks, its so cute, I always want to laugh. He is hilarious. He also does not like to fold. So late in the Borgata tourney, he and I are at the same table and utg shoves for 10k (blinds 1k-2k). Cheeky (our friend from LI), has about 35k and is utg +1. He calls all in. Everyone else folds. UTG turns up pkt 10s. Cheekie looks at his opponent's hand and goes, "Oh my god man, you have two of my outs" and proceeds to turn up A10. I almost fell off my chair laughing, it was hilarious. Cheekie is also the ultimate luckbox and hit an ace on the turn after flopping a flush draw w the 10 of sp in his hand. A little while later, Cheekie raises in middle pos to 4.5 x the bb, and the bb, who only has 7 bbs, shoves. Cheekie looks at him and goes, "come on man, i was just trying to stole the blinds." LMAO. He is so cute and funny. I <3 him.

At Harrah's, early in tourney, my dealer said something, and I did not hear. I asked what he said, and he replied "Honey, I was talking to myself out loud." I found that statement intriguiging. If he was talking to himself and it was NOT out loud, wouldn't it just be thinking to himself? And hence, isn't that just plain thinking? Food for thought.

I also watched a thing on CNN about the bail out and the proposed amount. That got me thinking- what is me and jon's bailout? between my student loans, the mortgage, the jeep, a few credit cards...gives me shivers. I better win some f%$king tournies. LOL.

Ok, enuf of all that. Hands from Harrahs:

QQ 15 minutes into tourney. I get dealt QQ on the button. Table has played relatively tight so far, but no indication of how players really are, it is too soon to tell. A player that Jon final tabled Mohegan Sun tourney with is in seat 4, across from me. He is obviously a terrificly bad player. Unbelievably so. In any case, he had limped utg. MP player raises to 150 (blindes 25 50). Because I am in position and I am very comfortable playing post flop. bb calls and utg limper calls. Flop is 7 4 2 rainbow. I am 90% sure I have the best hand. Utg fires 200,means nothing. PFR raises to 600, I cold call bc I don't want to reraise right here. I can control the actionb etter on the turn. I felt that pfr raised flop, to take down pot. UTg call the raise as well. Now pot is big. Turn is 7 sp, which I am not concerned about. UTG and PFR check to me. I bet 1200, utg calls, as it turns out later, "to trap me" and prf folds. River is 10 which is a bad card for me. I put utg bad player on 10 jj within his range. He bets 1500. I swear, if any card but 10 or j or ace comes, i shove. i call, bc pot is big, and he has pkt 10s and is shocked to see my hand, which is exactly what I was hoping for. Sigh. Down to 4500 in first 15 min.

An hour later, blinds 50 100, I have ak dd in mp. I raise to 275, with 2800 behind. BB makes it 800. I was really unsure of what to do. I thought he had AQ, AK, 10-kk, but i didnt think he would raise so big if he had aa. I reluctantly shipped it in, hoping for race and he had KK. I was getting up to leave, and AUTO ace on river. Weeee. Up to 6400.

At the same table, a few hands after my double up, the kid in the 10 seat, who was decent player, a bit tricky- leadign out on draws, making plays, etc, raised to 800. We had a bit of history at this point. I had about 6100 at start of hand. I look down on button and find AA. I reraise to 2k hopin it looks like a move. BB is our terrible moh sun player. He looks down at his hand and says, how much u got left? I show him a bit nervously trying to hollywood a little. As soon as he asked how much i had left, I knew he was shippin it in. So he ships it, predictably. Kid folds, but I know wants to call. BB has Aq diam and my AA hold, up to 13k. Moh sun guy out. There is a good chance he will never cash in a tourney again, he is in top 20 worst tourney players i ever saw in my life. Soon thereafter, our table broke.

I hover at 13-15k for about 1 hr. I get moved to my third table, with blinds 200 400, and 50 ante. I get involved in a few pots and my stack goes up and down. I decide I do not want to get too involved with a tricky internet player in the 1 seat who is running over the table, but I am not going to back down to him either. The following hand arises- first hand I decide to gamble. UTg limps, another players limps, I find A7 dd. I limp, internet guy limps on button and sb and bb check. We take flop 6 way. Flop is 10 9 3 with two diam. I m like, here we go in my head. sb and bb chk, utg bets 2200. I raise to 7k with about 8k behind. The reason I decided to raise so much is bc I have an awkward stack. Second, I put utg on q10, j10, possibly k10. he would raise pre with k 10 and a10 i thought. button folds, and sb thinks forever and folded what turned out to be two pair. I was trying to rep a set iwth my bet and that i was tryin to push fl draw out and that's what he put me on. SB was solid too. Utg thinks for less than 10 seconds and says I am all in. Im like, here we go. So I call. He has K 10 os. Turn is 10 and I hit on river. he was visibly upset but I really dont think that he should shove there. Then again, how dare I try to bet people off top pair?

I have way more interesting hands, but I am going to focus on tournies. Good night and good money!

Lucky C and Ace.

Happy ThanksGiving everyone!

Hey all- I just want to give a shout out to Hugeheatfan, Abatnic, sonofa_nh, and any of my other online friends I missed in my last blog. If you know me, I like to do things quick, so I apologize for not providing a comprehensive list of players to thank, and whom I support!

Thanksgiving was relatively quiet by us. We went to Jon's family for an early dinner and then out on the island to my aunt/grandmother's house for dessert. It was fun. Every year, my family picks who has who for secret santa at Thanksgiving. That was nice. Jon and I are going shopping for holiday gifts this week. We already got a bunch done; we just have to finish up.

Jon won the 8pm last week- congrats babes! I am so proud of him. I do not think I mentioned it in my last blog, he did great. As for I, I have not cashed in one single, freaking thing since last week. It was like, all of a sudden, I could not get anything going, which is fine. I played live last night, which was invigorating. I had a decent session, doubled my buy in and the game broke, in less than 2 hrs that I was there. It was great!

This week, I have a busy week. I am in court every day, going to Brooklyn for a friend's birthday, and maybe heading into the city to see the tree at Rockefeller Centre. We were goin to go to see the lighting ceremony, however it is supposed to be insanely crowded, that we figured it would be best to go another day.

We are goin to try to head to Atlantic City this weekend, which should be fun. Fri night I have a charity tourney out on the Island for the Spinal Cord Foundation, so we will be down there late Fri night or early Sat morning.

That's all for now, good money and peace!

Lucky C and her sidekick, Ace.

'Tis the Season and Poker =)

Hello readers. I love this time of year- the week before Thanksgiving, all the stores getting ready for the holidays, planning presents..there is so much excitement in the air, its almost electirc.

I wonder, if because my energy level is so positive and high in Nov and Dec, if that is the reason why I seem to excel online repeatedly each time of year at this time. This week, I finished in the top 10 of UB's MTT Tournament Leaderboard, with 7 out of 11 cashes. On a sidenote, I have done well in the few sngs and satellites that I have played. Maybe I just run good the second and third week in Nov =).

Last night was frustrating for me. I managed to final table the UB $8k $30r at 3pm. My goal was to play four or five tournies to boost points on leaderboard in the event that I cashed. I ran QQ into AA at the final table- if I had more chips, I couldve folded however, I was down to less than 8 bbs.

This week has been great. I caught up on a bunch of work, we got a new TV for the bedroom, I got an awesome new monitor for the desktop- 22"- it makes playing online so much better, although I still prefer using my laptop.

I cannot wait until next weekend, I am going to decorate for the holidays. We are getting our tree the middle of December, and going to see the tree lighting on Dec 3rd. It is going to be wonderful! I already started holiday shopping. I dislike wrapping the least out of all the holiday season activities, but even that is not so bad! I am going to decorate in all silver and blue, since Jonathan is Jewish, I think it is important to incorporate aspects of both holidays in our life.

Lastly, a huge shout out to Jonathan who took down the 8pm 20k on UB last night---goooo babes! So cute that he won, I am so proud of him!

Also, I want to take this time to thank my old dear, online UB friends- tater h0, hazy cat, kryptic, sonofanh, heyzeus, arjun7777, mr sgb, big savage, mooknam, and michele1024 and my new UB friends, jbc_78 and abatnic for all the railage and support the past few weeks, you guys are awesome- I hope we all win a ton of fking tournies in 2009!

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.

Quick Post about some folds, tell me what you think.

I just wanted to post a few hands that arose last week at a club that we play at. Note that I do not advocate these folds typically, and my reasons behind my decisions were not always driven by whether I had the best hand or not. Ok. So first hand. We had been playing for 1 hr. A new guy, older gentleman on my right, raises utg to 20. I haven't played with him before, so I do not know him as a player, but from the time I played with him, he did not play one hand. I re r to $80. It folds to him. He goes, I raise to 100$. The dealer is like, that's impossible and rules it a call, which is fine with me. At that point, I was sure he had AA or KK also. Flop is rags. He shoves 375. I thought forever. I decided that this game was so ez that I don't need to commit my entire stack when I only have $80 invested, on a 50 50 shot I have the best hand. He also couldve had AK, bc tight players do play AK like that, but I am not sure. So i folded, and he refused to tell me what he had. Importantly, later on, I observed him limp as 6th limper wtih JJ, so his play of that hand indicated to me that he had a monster when we were hu. I was convinced he had AA bc of his failed attempt to reraise preflop.

About an hour later, a weird bad, obvious player, but super nice, made it $40 to go pre. I had about $600 in front of me. I am on the button with 66. Two players before Bobby had limped so I knew if i called to flop set, and they called, the pot would be valuable. So I called, and predictably, we took flop 4 way. Flop is K Q 6. Ok. This is background. I know bobby raises 25-30 with AK AQ and medium pairs. So when I called preflop, I gave him AA KK or QQ. Not good for me. so it checks to me. I decide i can't check. I have to assure that he has set that I suspect. I bet 80. other two fold, bobby grabs a handful of greens and raises to $250 with 300$ behind. Ayyy, my dilemma. So I decide that if i ask if he has kk or qq, i wont get a response. But he is nice enuf guy to be honest about aa question. So I asked, Do you Have AA? He said no maam very proudly. I folded and he instantly showed me set of KK. I grabbed my cards out of muck and flipped up my fold- whole table went nuts! So sick. A year ago, I wouldve put it in without even giving it a second thought. Nice to see the progress I have made.

What do you think of the KK fold? It was 50 50. Please post and let me know.

Going to play at a lawyer's game tonight, we will see how that goes. Talk to you guys soon

Online Hiatus, Sister's Wedding, Live Play...

Hey readers. I have been MIA for about 2 months online. I decided at the beginning of September that I would take an unknown hiatus from online. Since then, I have stopped all play with the exception of a few satellites, and two or three multitables. Jon and I have traveled extensively in the past two months. We have been back and forth between ny, ct and nj. It has been exhausting, but exhilirating at the same time. This break from online has been the best thing for me. My live play has been great, I feel I am getting better and better all the time. Live poker has renewed my confidence in our ability to do this professionally. I feel in control of most cash games I play at. If I am at all uncomfortable, or don't like the game for whatever reason, I just change. The number of bad, loose players out there is staggering and the amount of money they throw around, even more staggering.

Jon and I have been playing at some private clubs over the last few months, when we are in fact in NY and not traveling. I am very choosy about the clubs I will play at- I like 1 table games, low key, quiet, well run, clean and as not shady as possible. These places are hard to come by. I have been invited to play in Astoria and NYC often, and I just don't feel comfortable with these games. The stories of city games getting busted are endless and I want to avoid being in that situation as much as possible.

In other news, Jon final tabled the 750k at Mohegan Sun for a $30k cash, which is awesome. The timing could not have been better. We just broke the news to my family that Jon is going to focus on poker, so this cash is perfect validation of our decision. Jon also cashed in the same week, in the $1000 at Foxwoods, I bubbled the $1500 and Jon finished 15 out of the money in the $2k. With all of these tourneys we played, we managed to still minimize our losses with sng and cash profits. I love being in CT in Oct/Nov...the foliage is beautiful, the air is crisp and its so country, I really love it.

My business is going well also. I am picking and choosing my cases now. I refer out what I want. I still do a good amount of per diem work, which is my bread and butter. The freedom is so exhilirating, the best thing that ever happened to me (other than Jon) is not having to work for a company or a firm.

We have the rental house in Jersey again this year. That's such a relief bc hotel expenses are starting to eat into our profits, especially in CT where room rates are insane. During the week, rates are reasonable, however on the weekend, it is difficult to find a room under $200 per nite.

We also purchased a certified pre owned '08 Jeep Wrangler which we are picking up this weekend. It is awesome, it is the car I want, i love it! I can't wait. We are over our miles on our current wrangler lease, so it makes sense to get into another vehicle. I am so excited to pick it up!

My sister's wedding was the last weekend in October. It was absolutely gorgeous. The most beautiful wedding I was ever at. Angela looked amazing, the place/atmosphere was classy and elegant, and overall, it was awesome. She and her new husband, Joe, are off to Hawaii for their honeymoon for two weeks. I will try to post pics when I get them.

That's all for now, I will post soon, I promise!!!

Good money and peace,
Lucky C, and sidekick, Ace.

VIVA LA VIDA....Return of Garnet.

Hi readers. Sorry for the lag in posts. My life has been extremely busy the last six weeks or so...and poker has taken a backseat. At least online poker has. Over the course of six weeks, my frustration with online increased dramatically, and although I was not deficiting greatly, I was not building my account. Instead of playing frustrated, I decided a hiatus was in order. During that time, Jon and I did play live. A lot. A super lot. We went to Foxwoods at least three times and to Borgata/Harrah's another three or four times. Everytime we sat down to play online in the evening, and I did not have court the next day, we were like, f it, lets go. LOL. We had a great time. We made money, ate great food, hung out with some friends, played tournaments, Jon won a free cookbook.

Speaking of which, we went to David Burke's new restaurant at Foxwoods. Awesome. We had chilled seafood platter, Jon had a steak and I had halibut. It was delicious. The theme was fun-steakhouse. With the check, they serve cotton candy in a martini glass. Instead of bread, they serve freshly baked pop-overs, which are amazing. For dessert, there is a wide selection, all with very creative ideas incorporated into them, like a cheesecake lollipop tree. We did not order that, but next time...We were there for Jon's birthday--- my little baby turned 29!

Hmmm. I feel like i have so much to tell you guys....lets see. I had a very interesting hand in 2-5 NL at FW. Jon and I signed up and we ended up at the same table when they started a new game. Our table was pretty conservative- other than Jon, I knew two other players. There was a guy who played interestingly, but then it became apparent, it was same as black jack to him. he raised/reraised every single hand. He literally could have ATC. I really believe he had no concept at all. So, he got stacked twice, bought in for 200 again. The following hand arose. Two players limped, Jon's bb. I was on button. ATC guy raises to 10. That was the other thing, his raises/reraises were always min, but after flop he usually bet pot. five people call. I find As5s on button, I call 10. I normally don't like calling raises pre, but this was a special situation and I saw an oppty to win a large pot. In any case, we took the flop 8 way. Pot = 80$. Flop is Jd 3s 4s. I flopped gut shot and flush draw, and one over. This is the action: min raiser bets $60 (I believe it is likely my ace hi beats him), a tight pro thinks forever and calls. I believe he had kj or qj. now, another guy who has not played many pots, raises 90 on top, with $100 behind. I have $400 total in front of me. So, I don't usually like to get it all in with draw, but mathematically its right play. If raiser does not have set, and has kj or qj, i have 15 outs twice with my ace. If he has aj, i have 12 outs twice. So I shove. If I lose, I will have still 275 or so in front of me. Min raiser guy calls with what turns out to be 67os, and raiser reluctantly puts $100 in with Aj, I hit 2 on river to scoop. I was happy with that hand.

It is amazing to me how people are so unaware. It is insanely ridiculous how unaware they are. I recently read an article about the life of flies. It described how difficult it is to swat a fly. A fly's perception occurs in a milliseconds, much quicker than a human, so they see the swatter way in advance. The article explained that in order to catch a fly, you have to predict where it will hop/fly to and swat that area. Outthink the fly. In poker, we must predict our opponents' actions. Outplay those flies. LOL. The article was so analogous to poker. If you want to read it, go to www.theweek.com and search for fly article.

Another hand arose at Borgata that I thought I played well, but was a really tough hand for me. I was playing a 2-5 game and I was spot on. I was playing extremely well. Jon and I went to dinner and I came back to find some new players, in particular two drunk guys at my table. I posted 5$ in middle pos, and pick up 88. three players limped. I decided not to raise as it was first hand back from my break and I checked my option. We took pot 6 way. Flop is A J 9. Hold on, I know it looks crazy, how can I play a pot here but listen. Flop CHECKs around. Turn is 8. Here we go. Now solid player in SB leads out for 20, utg drunky makes it 40. I can't raise for fear of good player reraising. So I call. Good player SB calls. River is 9, making board A J 9 8 9. Good player leads out $75. I swear, I was just calling. Now utg drunk dude raises to $200, what the fk dude? So obvious he has q10. How can he raise? bc he is drunk idiot. Now I am in super tough spot. I almost folded. I thought about it for 5 min and got clock called. I finally called. I really thought sb had a9 or j9. He decided to just call j9 bc he was worried i had A9. Which shows that he wasnt thinking too deep or he outthought himself bc if I have A9, I AM absolutely shoving river. So he scooped monster pot with j9. And my side of table is like, u cannot fold there, Im like, uh yea i can. They all thought I had Q10. Q10 is insta muck there. I thought that I played well to lose minimum, but frustrated by the fact that drunk idiot made me put more money in for no reason. Such a bad player.

In the recent months, I have been playing cash great. I feel so good. I always know where I am at. I feel like the best player at the table all the time, or at least capable of being the best.

In other news, my sister's wedding is in 2 weeks, so we are busy getting ready for that. We have a baby christening next weekend, and will be at Borgata again, I am sure. Jon is playing 750k at Mohegan Sun the week of the wedding, I hope he does well, I am so excited for him to play it. Wish I could play too. I will be busy taking care of bridezilla and her needs.

Ok guys, more to come, hopefully very soon!

Good money and peace,
Lucky C and Ace.

August is Flying By...

Hello all. It is already August 13th. So many things coming up in September- Borgata Open, Aruba, and then Foxwoods in October. And unfortunately, I do not know if I will make it to any of these. First off, I am playing the 50 seat guaranteed on Saturday for the Aruba trip. If I win the trip, I am going, I don't care how busy I am. Secondly, Borgata and Foxwoods are 50/50 right now. I would love to go and spend two weeks at each and dominate tourneys, but I made a commitment to my law practice. I promised myself I would spend the rest of the year working really hard and building up, so that I can grow a decent bankroll for Jon and myself. I hate that our poker earnings are constantly used for bills and life expenses. For the next three months, all monies earned in poker are going towards the bankroll and I am going to make sure my business pays for all of our living expenses and to grow our savings, because I am tired of worrying. My business, overnight, took on a life of its own and its great. I am so happy with it. Jon has agreed to assist me in many of the smaller,easier assignments I am receiving from attorneys, allowing us to increase our revenue substantially. Don't get me wrong. We are both still dedicating a lot of time and energy to poker. We have to, it is also a major source of income for us. My point in telling you this is, the variance of poker, especially before you have had a major cash to establish you, can be so great, that at times, it is definitely nice to have a stable income to fall back on.

I want Jon and I to be set for our futures. I want our IRA's to grow, our bankrolls to grow, and our savings to grow. I want, in 5 years, to be playing poker full time, without the thought of being an attorney. But I will grind now. I will grind as a poker player and as an attorney. Eventually we will have our dream. Because when I set a goal, I make it happen. I have never NOT achieved something I have put my mind to. I want to have a house in Vegas and a place in New York. I want to come and go as I please. I want to not worry about money. And all of these goals will be achieved. I promise you.

As far as poker is concerned, I have been grinding entry chip satellites and $50 sngs and found that these are the best and most profitable ways to grow my somewhat modest online bankroll at this point in time. Until either Jon or I have a big cash, this is what I will do. I will grind and do the best I can to build it up. Truth is, I don't mind grinding. It's almost like real work, except without the mean boss and relentless begrudging routine!

I also need to stop berating players online. Sometimes I can't help being a bi**ch, but I need to have class. I like to think of myself as a classy person, and my comments online do nothing but degrade my image and insult my opponents. While, granted they deserve these insults most times, there is no reason to badger the donkeys. They are there for me to make a profit off of, I wouldn't turn away clients who need an attorney, why would I turn away donkeys in poker?

Sorry that this post was more of a reflection on myself and my goals rather than about poker so much but it needed to be said. Thank you as always for reading- I promise to have more interesting literature next time.

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.

Happy August!

Hello readers, how are you doing? Things have been going very well lately. I have been doing well. Won five or six entries on ub for numerous tournies, came in 11th in the Deep Stack last night, which was a small cash, but I played really well and I did bust in an unfortunate manner. Three nights ago, I cashed for fourth in the 30k guar for 2400$ but was partners with someone, so only got 1200$ but that's still fine, anything to build my accounts and get me back on track.

So there is a hand I wanted to post for discussion. Please leave comments if you have any thoughts on this hand. In the deep stack last night, early on, blinds 20 40. I had built a nice stack to 7000. I have A 10 os on the button. One limper, I raise to 110. The bb calls and limper calls. Both limper and bb are super tight players. Flop comes out A 10 j with 2 hearts. Although I have flopped top and bottom, I am not happy with this flop. Limper and bb's range def include AJ, KQ, two hearts, and bb could have pkt jj. They both check to me. Pot is 340. I decide to check. If I am ahead, I am going to stay ahead on turn albeit a high card most likely. Second, if I am behind, I have few outs to catch up and I can control the size of the pot. I really think this is a good spot to check. Although I will end up calling more bets on later streets, if I am ahead I induce bluffs and if I am behind, I can decide where I am at based on size of bet. Turn is 2 sp. BB bets 300 which is almost whole pot. Now I give him AK AQ AJ or kq. I call. River is 6 cl. He bets 300 again. I decide to call instead of raise. I call, he has AQ and I am good. One player I know who is a decent player, suggested that I should have won a bigger pot based on strength of my hand. I actually liked the way I played the hand. If I thought I made a mistake at any point, I would admit it- I think it is very important to be honest about one's play in order to get better. I reviewed the hand with Jonathan and he agreed that I played it well. What do you guys think?

Another funny story. Jon was playing pokerstars Donkevent last night. One of the players bet small into a rather large pot on the river and Jon called with ace hi bc it appeared the bettor had missed a draw, bc a bet did not make sense. So Jon called with Ace hi and the player turned over 3rd pair. So Jon said, were u trying to bluff? And the guy's response: "why did you call, I don't bet with nothing!". LMAO On the floor laughing. If you bet into 3 players out of pos on river with third pair, does that not equal a bluff? I guess not to everyone.

So as you guys know, I do some poker coaching online, railing players, discussing hands, plays, strategy etc. So one of the newest players I talk to is very religious. Late one night, while we were discussing various hands, he says to me "If I wasn't a christian, I'd be a pimp." One of funniest lines I heard in a while. Another friend, who is very tan, told me "you are so white, I should rub myself on you and give you some color." That's either a very weird suggestion, or the worst come on line I ever heard. LMAO. But so cheeezy, its hilarious.

Ok guys, that it for now. One more thing, I don't know how much poker I am going to be playing this month. I am swamped with work and need to get it done, so we see how it goes. Talk to you guys soon, and makes lots of $$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace

Back in New York

Hi guys. I arrived home on Wednesday after a fabulous week and a half in Vegas. It was wonderful. I had a great time with my sister and her friends at the bachelorette party. We went to fancy, delicious restaurants every night for dinner- including Nine at Psalms, Table 10 at Palazzo, Koi at Planet Hollywood, and a few others. We had dessert at Cut, Wolfgang's restaurant and that was great also- the desserts were fabulous.

Unfortunately, I returned with a terrible cold and cough. I have been sick for four days now and I cannot wait to get better! My legal business is becoming very very busy, I have court everyday next week and I just want to feel better. Last night, I broke my online dry spell with a 3rd place finish in the 10$ straight on ub. Unfortunately, I did not finish first, but I played well and I was happy with the result. 3rd out of 580 is no small feat, even for a weak buy in.

Back to Las Vegas. I played my cash games in a sick (sick = good, not sneezing, lol) and professional manner. I told you guys about the KJ dd hand in my last post. Very proud of that hand. I earned approximately $2500 in 7 out of 9 earning sessions at 2/5 NL, which is probably way above average, but I will take it. Below are some hands that I thought I played well, and a few that while I did not play well, luck allowed me to win the pot.

Bellagio 2-5 NL

I was preparing to pick up with about a $150 profit, because I had to go back to the hotel and get ready for dinner with the girls. 20 minutes before I pick up, these three novice players sat down and bought in for 200 each. Sometimes I think it is an act when players are like, "what do I do? how much can I bet?" but these three clearly did not know a check from a bet. So the following hand arose. I limped q4 sp in late pos. Two other players limped. The bb, novice player, raised to 30. So I gave him Aq, ak etc. I decided to call and see what develops. To be honest, I should've folded- a lot of novice players, even if they miss, will put all their money in with hi cards based upon what they see on tv. So I thought playing post flop wouldnot be easy, but by the same token, he was mr. novice, so lets see what develops. We took flop heads up. Flop is 2 3 5 with one spade. Of course. So he bet 55. I called because I figure if I hit straight with Ace he is paying me off and if spade comes on turn, i can determine where I am at. Pot is now close to 200$. Turn is 7 sp. Great. He bets 60$ with 110 behind. I decide that I can't push him off here, so I call, annoyed at myself for playing this hand. River is nine of diam and he checks really quick. I didnt even think, I just said "all in" and he folded so fast. My original read was correct and I am glad I followed my read on river. I really think if I pushed turn he may have called with Ace hi. I do not think I played that hand particularly well until the end. Once I call preflop though, I am kind of strung along by this dude and then he gives me opportunity to be aggressor on river. I thought I followed my read great on river. I showed the guy next to me my hand before I mucked, and I picked up 5 minutes later. He's like where are you going, there is free money here! LOL.

Venetian 2-5 NL

Another hand that arose right before I had to meet the girls for dinner was at 2-5 NL Venetian game. I decided to play a 1.5 hr short session before dinner. I was up about 100 15 min before I was going to pick up. A tight guy utg + 1 raises to 30$. I call with AJ dd. My instinct was to fold, he has a big hand, but I thought maybe a few other players would call and if I hit a big flop, I would win a nice pot before I left. We coincidentally take flop HU. Flop is A 2d Qc. Tight guy leads out for 60$. Bells went off in my head. Fold, he has AQ or QQ. But I ignore my instincts and Call. Admittedly a bad call. Turn is 5 diam. I am like, here we go in my head. LOL. Now tighty bets 140. I was goin to shove right there but I remembered my inclination on the flop and now I call. River is 6 diam. HE checks and I lead out for 250$. He insta folds top set of AA face up. Nice read sir, nice read. If I know he folding that hand, I be bluffing river a lot more in different hands. LOL

And yes, this is another example of hand I won, but did not play optimally. You all know, I play cash a bit looser than tournies.

Playing the Player Venetian 2-5 NL

I had a sick read on most of the players at my table. It was early morning around 1am and I was up 200$. But, while I am always playing for profit, I really enjoyed this game and my profit/loss didnt matter so much as I was using this session for practice. I decided that since I was doing well for the week in NL, this session was negligible and I should really abandon any fear or intimidation i may have. So these two hands signify,I think, the improvement in my NL game over last year.

QQ utg + 1. I raise to 35, one player calls, and tricky player who is having a good time, and obv a regular at Venetian, is on button, looks at his hand and gives me a great tell. He says, I dont know whether to reraise or call. I will just call. he says. Immediately I put him on 10s-qqs, or ak suited. bb calls, we take flop 4 way. I am second to act. Flop is 10 j 2 w/ two sp. I have two red queens. I decided that i need to find out where I am at against button. Pot is 140$. I lead out for 80$, which is small but forces a raiser to make a decent size raise. Guy in between folds. Now tricky guy on button makes it 250 on top. Whoa, huge bet. It folds to me, I think forever and there are only two hands I can put him on, 1os or jjs. So i Have two outs. He would raise AK sp but not that big. Secondly, he is not type to raise on draw. So i think for a minute, knowing I am going to fold. Then I said to him, will you show? And he said no. I insta mucked face up. Then he showed me pocket jj for top set. Thank you for virtually not letting me go broke on that hand. Felt like I won.

Second hand against same guy:

10 minutes later. I have K7 sp in bb. That guy is on button and he is big on the button raise. He makes it 30$ to go sb folds I call, and one limper calls. Flop comes out 3 5 6 with two sp. I decide I will check raise here. So I check, limp/caller checks and dude on button bets $50. I make it 110$ on top. It folds to him. He thinks forever and mucks. Begs me to show, so I show and he said, great play. I said thank u.

I think these two hands are pivotal in describing how I had been playing all week and where my reads were at.

Thats it for now dudes, take care and I will post again soon.

Good money and peace,
Lucky C and Ace.

My Sincerest Apologies....And...In Las Vegas!

Guys- I suck. It has been three weeks since I blogged. I have a million excuses, but the reality is my blog is part of my poker life, and my poker life has taken a place on the back burner the last couple of weeks- I really hate when that happens. But now, I am back on track. My sister's bridal shower was this past Sunday, and it was awesome, everyone loved it, the candy theme was a smashing success, and I am so happy. All I wanted was to make this an original, untypical-unboring shower, and it was.

Ok, enough girly talk. I do have more hand histories from Borgata that I will post but not until next week when I get home. I am in Vegas right now for 8 days- mix of business/pleasure. Jon and I are staying with our friend Dragon (who found a great apartment, its beautiful and makes me jealous I am not living out here, but I digress), but on Wed, I am stayin at Planet Hollywood for 5 days with my sister and her friends for the ultimate bachelorette party. Should be so much fun! I am trying to get as much poker in as I can during the day b/c the evenings are goin to be filled with going out!

I also want to say Congrats to Bumbklaat (aka Chris from Fl), a friend of mine who went very deep in Sun 2 million guar, chopped a few tourneys on stars, and overall is having a phenomenal three weeks! Good job Bumb. Also, congrats to Dragon (aka our friend Pete in LV), who final tabled the Orleans tourney yesterday for a Cardplayer cash, and also did well in a few tournaments in June, very nice Dragon!!

So, on a difference note, Jon and I arrived yesterday, relaxed for a bit, had some dinner and then went over to Venetian to play (we both really like their poker room). I was a bit anxious about playing cash because I have not played cash regularly since last year. My focus this year has been online tourneys and some live tournament series. I decided, after speaking with Jon about strategy, and that I was not going to play scared, to use my reads to make my decisions. Not chicken out and follow thru on my reads 100%. So based on that, the following hand came up.

I had been playing very tight, and I looked like the 'typeical tight chic' at the table. I had a great table, excellent mix of weak tight, 1 loose aggro, and a bunch of very readable players (with continuation bets, etc). So, I have KJ dd in middle pos, I raise to $30 (playing 2/5 NL by the way) and the sb and bb, both pretty tight, call. Flop is Q 7 8 with two clubs. Both blinds check to me, and I normally would not cont bet here, but being as it is a harmless flop with exception of q, and I was tight, so my bet should signify AQ ++ (aa, kk), I led out for $60. The sb mucked, and bb called. Now I had observed this kid check raise with monsters (so I can eliminate set possibilities) and bet into raiser with top pair (he probably does not have Q). So I narrow his range to open ended 6-9, 5-6, flush draw, J - 10 cl for gut/shot fl draw, etc. So I decide to see how he acts on turn. Turn is 4d, making board Q 7 8 4, which completes one of his draws, he checks very fast as if he is not interested in the turn. So I check behind. River is 4 sp. He now leads into me for $100.

My first instinct was, he missed his draw. Then I thought, maybe he has a full house. And then I re-played hand, and decided he did not check/call and then check turn with set. Almost impossible. 44 is out bc he mucks on flop. So the hands he has that beat me are A hi fl draw missed, or A4 cc, and he hit running fours. Those are only hands that I can legitimately give him with that bet on river. So based on the fact that I beat so much more of his range, I called pretty quick and he said nine hi and mucked. I tabled K hi for 300$ pot. My other option on river, was that if he could have Ace hi, I could raise the river and he has to muck, but bc of off chance he has a 4, I decided to just call. But that is a great example of how raising the river with nothing to get your opposnent to fold their nothing that might beat your nothing is a great play. In any case, it felt quite good and gave me great confidence, that I hope lasts throughout the trip.

Lastly, we told Jon's family pretty much, in total, that he is full time poker player. His immediate family is as understanding and supportive as they can be, which is great, but his extended family, not so much. Whatever. Jon an I were then joking how it is probably easier to tell your family that one is gay than one is a poker player. I think it really depends if your family is more worried about your social status (straight/gay) or economic status (poker players notoriously having a gambler-degenerative, financial failure stereotype). It was pretty funny though.

Ok guys, good luck at the tables and I post during the trip if I can!

Good money and peace,
Lucky C, and Ace.

Hand Histories from Borgata Summer Open

I played 7 events total and was close to cashing in almost all but one. It was very unfortunate. I will post results and hand histories from several of the tournaments.

$340 NL Event

My plan here was to play tight first round, make reads on players and decide who will be my victims of re-raises, and who was strong player, etc. As it turned out, my table, with the exception of two players, were very weak/tight. The nine seat was so super aggro and got very lucky a few times. He referred to himself as a donkey- I dont know if he was kidding or not, but it was very funny to me because it was true. In any case, because his raising range was so so so wide (any two suited cards, ie Kc2c, etc), I decided A10+ or any pp was good enuf to reraise him. So I picked up AJ hh, he raised to 650, I have 5200 behind and I want him to know I am committed, so I reraised to 2125. He folded and showed A7os, lmao. A few orbits later, I pick up AA. He raises to 1450 (blind 200-400), I reraise to 2800, he folds and shows 66, wow. I showed AA to get credit for my hand.

Then I played A6 hh where I limped as third limper, and bb (with 3200 chips left) min raises to 800, the limpers FOLD. So I have 10k in chips, I call deciding that any decent flop, I am in and might even call with Ace hi no draw. In retrospect, I prob should just shove right there pre, but I didnt. So in any case, flop is 7 8 2 with two hrts. So he bets 1k I shove, he insta with 9 10 os. ???????????? I was good with Ace hi. He min raised out of pos with 10 hi, and then bet small on flop it was hilarious. I rivered flush but didnt matter, bc ace hi was good on flop and turn.

I chip up to 15.5k. 8 tables left. I pick up QQ against the idiot. Blinds are 400-800 with 100 ante. He raises to 3400. I decide to shove. I showed him AA last time I re-raised him, so I believed he would fold a lot and if he called, I would most likely be way ahead unless he had AK. So I shove. Now he raised to 3400, with 17k behind. Which is a lot, its 20+ bbs. He insta and goes, I guess this is as good a time as any and flips over A8 OS. Flop is A x x turn is c giving me fl draw, but I missed and I was out and he said sorry. I shook my head, and said, I want you to give me ur chips with Ace rag there. Too bad it didnt work out. And thats how I busted.

7-Card Stud 230$ buy in (I love stud <3)

I played tight, aggro and very smart in stud. I reraised on 3 cards when I felt I had best hand and I kept pressure on and got paid off in some very marginal situations. All in all, considering I play stud like 2x per year, I still felt I was the strongest player at the table. In any case. A very key hand. I had 10k betting round is 400-800, bring is 200 with complete to 800 ( I think, I could be wrong). In any case. I was bring in with 2 door card, and A5 in hole. It insta folds to guy in 10 seat ( I was in one seat) and he is big stack with k showing so he completes to 800. This guy is so full of it. He is raising bc he has K hi and thats all. So i re-raise. he calls. I hit 7 on 4th street and his 4th street is 6, unremarkable for both, he checks to me, I bet. He calls. 5th street gives me 4, making my board 7 4 2 and gives him 5, making his board K 5 6, still unremarkable. I bet 800 now, and he folds. Ship a nice pot. I really felt I outplayed him there. I represented a monster with re raise on three cards. Next time, I think it will be important for me to find more spots like this.

Intermission from HHs

SHOUT OUT TO HEATFAN on ub! LOL. Also, congrats to Tater ho on cleaning up in several tournaments this weeek, go Potato head- so pro! On a different note, players really need to check their egos at the entrace to poker room. Because most poker rooms are not big enuf for players and their oversized egos. It is very disgusting how players have no control over their conceited, arrogant, ridiculously loathing self-righteous comments and behavior- it makes me want to vomit. I witnessed a player in Stud play rolled up KK against aces wired, in such a way that it was CLEAR AS day he had rolled up. At the end of hand, he taunts the guy who paid him all the way to river with two pair, Aces up. Why? You just took a huge pot off this guy and you were lucky to be against the one player that never folds in stud at the table. It was so sick. Why taunt him? Have a little class and play like a gentleman/woman, not like a gd dirtbag.

Second item- Taj Mahal in AC- their poker room is the brick and mortar version of UB. You knwo how on UB if you play satellite, sometimes last place in money islike $1- and you have paid 20 or 30$? Well Taj = UB. I played a stupid little, $68 tourney, which I will never play again - and I will never play at taj again either- and 8 places paid. 8th paid 63$- LMAO. GG Taj. Note- I came in 9th. QJ suited v. q10- I shove 7 bbs and big stack insta with q10 os and flops trips like he is clairvoyant. LMAO. GG me.

I will do more hand histories later from last three tournies, gotta relax now before UB 200k.

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.

Donkeys on Lay Away

Sorry for not posting in a while readers. The beginning of June was relatively quiet. No big cashes online except for a few 1300$ cashes here and there. Jon and I spent this past week in Atlantic City, mostly at Borgata. 1st of 2 weeks at Summer Open. Jon did very well in cash. I witnessed him make some sick calls. It is truly hilarious how his opponents always try to bluff him. Its funny. If I see a player capable of making strong reads and thin calls, then I will make sure that I have a strong hand or, alternatively play my hand in a way to appear that I have a monster.

In any case, Jon cleaned up in cash, however got super unlucky in tourneys, losing the following three hands in three separate tourneys very early to bust: AA v. 10jos on board of 10 2 2 (guy hit miracle 10 on river), AJ hh on AAJ board with 2 c, turn is Qc, jon loses to royal flush, and third, 24hh on A 3 5 board, guy hits gut shot on turn for two outer because jon had steal wheel draw.

I was luckier than Jon in that I did NOT get super unlucky in my tourneys. I went deep, three out of three that I played, 2 NL events and 1 7-card stud event. I will post hand histories for you later. I need to work on finding more spots to steal pots and build stack. I will concentrate on this week coming up.

Lastly, as to the title of this blog entry. Jon and I were walking on the Boardwalk, goin into stores and started joking around about putting the overpriced stuffed animals on layaway ($15 for little stuffed monkey), and I said, in poker, it is similar. We pay buy ins and when we bust, we are putting the donkeys on lay away. Those donks will pay us off when we have our big cash and we pick up our prize.

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.

Exciting Times Approaching...

I am very excited for this summer. There is so much good stuff goin on. Add that to not working full time, being a pro poker player, and having a good personal life, I feel on top of the world.

In June, I have two weeks of pro poker fun at Borgata- it is going to be awesome- four or five tourneys, hitting the spa, the pool, so much fun.

In July, my mother and I are throwing my sister the coolest bridal shower ever- the theme is "A Sweet Celebration" and it will be candy galore. The very next day, I am leaving for Vegas for 1.5 weeks for bachelorette party and to hang out with Jon and Dragon a few days. I am so psyched for that- we are goin to have a blast.

In August, I have a friend's wedding,y best friend is having her first baby (awwwwwwwwwww) and the rest of the month will mostly be just winding down from summer and getting ready for my sister's wedding. I would also like to go to Vermont for a few days in August, we will see if we can swing it (I would love it)!

Today we went to my parents for a BBQ. It was delicious. So how memorial day weekend goes- lots of bbqs and beach stuff goin on.

This week, I have several court appearances, and lots of paperwork to do, but I am goin to bang a lot of that out tomorrow. I am going to try and have lunch with my dad wed or thurs and then get together with my mom over the weekend.

As far as online poker goes, I am sticking with smaller buy ins as I always do when online rolls get low until I have significant cash. I will keep you guys posted about that. I am very confident, I am playing extremely well and I am super looking forward to playing live at Borgata. It will also be nice to take a break from the online grind and get back to live play.

That's all for now but I would like to leave you guys with a very profound quote I came across:

"All we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become." ~Buddha

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.

If yesterday were my first time playing poker ever....I'd Quit...

They say that your goal is to be completely un-emotional about the results and how important is not to be results oriented. It is not always that easy, and for me, some days, nearly impossible.

Yesterday, as well as the day before, were horrific days for me. I hardly ever feel like crawling up in a ball and crying from poker and that's what it has been. In yesterday's tournaments, I busted out with AA or to AA in all nine tournaments I played. In an ironic and extremely painful fashion, I bubbled both the 50/50 and the 40k guar on UB that way, plus many smaller tournaments. The amount of money invested and the amount of money not earned is a non issue-that is how poker is. It is the agonizing feeling of defeat from each and every hand. You get it in good as a 70% + favorite preflop or on the flop just to have the unluckiest turns and rivers brutally crush your mathematical & skillful edge.

If it were my first day ever playing poker, I would've quit and my life would be completely different =) Lose with aa or to aa 9x in nine separate tourneys in less than 8 hrs? It seemed rigged! Sigh. Just a bad run, which hopefully will end very soon.

In any case, I am revived for tonight, I will continue to play well and hopefully, not continue to get severely unlucky. Also, I tend to play more loose aggressive when I am running bad, so I will work on playing closer to the cuff.

On another topic, I want to share an intersting eye-opening experience from today. The last couple of weeks, between work, poker and planning my sister's bridal shower, I feel very stressed out and slightly edgy. Plus, I have been dealing with some personal/family issues that just add to my stress. I have been not as cheerful as I usually am.

In any case, I was in the supermarket this morning, waiting on the check out line. In front of me was a group of mentally challenged adults accompanied by their companions (obvioiusly on a grocery store field trip). One particular individual asked to buy something and was not allowed to, so he started screaming uncontrollably in a very loud and scary voice. I felt so bad for him and his situation in life. My eyes met with the guy in line behind me and he commented "makes you really appreciate your own life." At that moment, everything I had been dealing with for the last few weeks was put into perspective. Seeing first hand the daily life of a mentally challenged person made me really grateful for all I have and all of my potential. Because the truth is, no matter how bad things get, I still have my health, my family, Jon and my happiness. And I am truly thankful for that.

Hopefully I will win with AA tonight and I can be thankful for that too! =)

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.

Family Wedding and Good Times

This weekend my cousin Jessica and her fiance were married. The ceremony was beautiful. It took place in a fairly modern church out in Suffolk County, Long Island. I was in the wedding party, as was my sister, Angela. After the ceremony, we took pictures at an Arboretum on the north shore- it was spectacular. The backdrop was a castle-like building surrounded by wild flowers and nature. The reception was at a place called Verdi's. Although I did not care for the reception too much, everyone had a great time and it was truly a wonderful event.

Because of the wedding and other various committments this weekend, I barely played at all. Yesterday and today, I was busy with work, but I did play an evening session last night and had a two minor cashes- in the 40k guar on UB, in which I took 24th place out of 368 and likewise, a small cash in PS 25k guar, 63/1500. I am looking forward to playing later on today.

Jon is in New Jersey playing some WSOP warm ups at Harrah's. Unfortunately I could not go with him because of some obligations I have for my per diem business, but he is doing well. He bubbled last night's tourney and he is still in today's tournament (started at 12pm today), so I hope he goes deep! Good luck Jon!

That's really it for now, I hope I have more interesting things to post next time!

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.

Incredible Week in Poker...

Hey all. This has been a phenomenal week for me thus far. After my win on Monday night, I decided to invest in the 9pm 80k guar on UB. I ended up finished 2nd for 12k. It was an amazing feeling to have two big cashes so close in time. I understand better why full time players play so much volume. Having those two victories produces an addictive feeling of wanting to win more, not just cash, or final table, but win.

I want to discuss an interesting situation that occurred when we were five handed at the final table on wed in the 80k. I was one of the chipleaders, guy on my left had decent stack. It folded to me on the button. I meant to raise to 17,500, with blinds 3k-6k. I had kjcc incidentally. I accidentally typed in two 1s, making the bet 117,500 and i had 110k behind. I was like, oh god, i hope everyone folds. Unfortunately the sb shoved all in and it was 55k more to me. He was playing relatively tight and I know that he had a better hand than me. However, I am getting 5:1. Another important consideration is that it was 1/2 my stack to call. While, mathematically, the call would be correct, this is what I also must take into account: 1. I built my stack by reraising. If I call and lose, I also lose my ability to reraise bc I only have 9 bbs and no fold equity if I reraise all in. 2. Because he was laying me 5:1 with his push, and considering that I recognize him as solid player, he has to know that he has no fold equity with that play, therfore I can reduce his range to aa, kk, qq or ak most likely. Even though I have the odds to call, this is a tournament, not a cash game, so therefore, in the long run, I beleive I will make more money with that fold. Obviouisly, I ended up folding and later on, that player informed me he had AA which I believe. Had I called there and lost, the likelihood that I would end up taking second is slim.

Other than that, life in general is very good. My per diem work is busy. I have my cousin's wedding next week which should be fun and after that, Jon and I will be going to Atlantic City for a few days.

Lastly, I would like to congratulate Ostrich for taking 6th in the 40k guar on UB last night and zmen for finishing first and winning it- very nice. Jon told me his final hand, which is a good example of my earlier post whereby I indicated that it is virtually impossible to predict when certain players will fold and when they will call, no matter how 'priced out' or obv 'dominated' in a hand they may be. Last night, Jon played the final table very tight, only showing pp, AK and KK when he rerased. If you guys know Jon, you know he is very good at securing a tight image and making super great plays to build his stack. In any case, he had 2 4 os in the sb and a player who was obv weak/loose raised the button, the way he always raises with junk, raised the on jon's blind. Jon decided that he could not posssibly have a hand to call with and considering that, and also they had the same size stack, Jon shoved and the button, insta with J 10 os. Some players will look at this and say why did he push with rags? But by watching the final table and recognizing the betting patterns of that guy, it was an excellent play for Jon to push. It did not work out when guy insta with J10 and flops 10, but the results don't matter. It was the correct play against the wrong player who just will not fold once he raises, regardless of any other factors. Jon figured that he would call with A2, etc, but considering his wide range of raising, Jon felt this player would be lucky to have an ace on the button. However, Jon believed he would fold a hand with J hi, but to his credit, it is hard to have all of this information.

In any case, congrats guys- super proud of your results!!!!!!

Good money and peace, will post more soon!

Lucky C and Ace.

$40k Victory !!!

Hey guys. So last night, I final tabled the 40k guar on UB and ended up taking First for 10k cash. It was amazing. I planned my strategy from six-handed play and was able to use my image and stack to do a lot of reraising. Like all tournaments, I got lucky at a few of the right times.

NorthKato, the player that I eventually got Heads Up with was a very good player. He made a crucial fold aagainst me with JJ. This is how the hand played out. We were playing four handed, I was 2nd in chips with 390k, he was first in chips with 450k and blinds were 5k 10k. He is utg and I am in sb. he raises to 25k. The other two players have 90k in chips. I reriase to 130k. he insta mucks and shows JJ. I coincidentally held AK hh and showed also.

The morale of the story is that he utilized strategy, information, and intelligence to make that fold. Was he folding the best hand pre? Yes. Could he have doubled up and won a monster pot and move up one spot in the money? Absolutely. So why did he fold? One reason, if he shoves and gets called by QQ KK AA AK AQ, he is ahead of only two of four hands, and he is racing his entire tourney, the difference between $3100 (4th) and $10k (first). Second if he folds, even if its the best hand, he protects his stack and moves on to next hand. Third and most importantly, bc the other two stacks have 9 bbs, it is very likely those two will bust in the next few min and now he is guaranteed at least 2nd place money ($6k) which is the biggest reason of all to fold. And even if he wouldve won that pot, he does not need to win that particular pot against other monster stack four handed to lock up 2nd place money. All he has to do is get it in good against one of short stacks or wait for me to knock them out. Another EXCELLENT reason for him to fold is that he knows that I cannot re-raise him without a big hand there, and, for the very same reasons, I would not raise a big stack without a very strong hand. It was, I believe a brilliant fold, and one very few online players in that particular tournament would be capable of. If I were in that spot, I do not know what I wouldve done to be honest.

Interestingly, the above posts relates directly to my previous post of making the best decision throughout different portions of a hand in poker. NorthKato properly folded JJ there, not because he thought he was beat, but because it was a smart play for various other reasons listed above.

I also came in 14th in the 50 50 on stars last night, I ran qq into the nuts, AK and lost flip pre flop. I almost folded but that hand wouldve put me in top 5 of tourney so I decided to take race right there. In that tourney, $$ is so top heavy that it is worth it to take race for big stack with 25-30 players left. So I really thought I was gonna have a double big cash, but I take what I can get!

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.

Choices in Life and Making the Best Decisions in Poker

Hello all my loyal readers! Haha. It is another beautiful May day. You would think by the mood I am in, that I am chipleader in the Borgata 500k, but I am not. In fact, I busted yesterday at about 3pm. It was very unfortunate that I only got to play the deep stack tournament for 5 hours.

Once the initial aggravation and frustration of busting passed, I reflected on my tournament objectively and I realized that I made several mistakes of which I have learned from. I will post hand histories at the end of this post. Additionally, after a stimulating discussion with a very pro friend -Dragon -regarding big, deep stack events and experience level, the truth is that this was my first deep stack event in 2.5 years. Dragon has played 5-6 deep stack events and because the majority of his experience/success as tournament player is in buy ins less than $2k, he informed me that for him, there is definitely an adjustment that needs to be made when playing bigger tournaments- getting used to playing bigger pots, playing deep stack longer, etc. Hopefully I will never go two years again without playing a deep stack and I hope to gain much experience in them in the near future.

From the beginning of the tournament, I was not comfortable. I felt a bit anxious, out of my league (which is ridiculous considering my competition), and overall, just uncomfortable. Even after those initial feelings subsided, as time passed throughout the tournament, thoughts from when I first started playing poker haunted me. "He has the nuts, he has a better kicker, she flopped a bigger hand than me." Many times, I observed a hand, whether I was in it or not, and I let my fear overcome my ability to be objective about the playres' holdings. This is very unpro like of me, and extremely novice. While it may be understandable to have experienced these thoughts/emotions in my first live big event in a long while, its also my responsibility as a professional player to take a step back and regain control of objectivity and supress any irrational fear I may have.

Enough about my feelings. Part of the title of this blog is "the best decisions in poker." This is another concept which Dragon and I have discussed over time. His take, which I agree with 100%, is that one of the major contributing factors to his success is his ability to "make better decisions in poker." This is a pretty broad statement. I think that on a general level, these decisions include proper bankroll management (the right combination of conservatism and risk at the appropriate times), game selection, money management in personal life, etc. On a more specific level, related solely to poker, those 'better decisions' come from objectively analyzing each particular street in each hand played, be it a cash game or a tournament, and based on a number of factors- including your opponent, chip stacks, pot size, your holding, reading ability, etc.- making the correct/better decision at the appropriate time.

One part of making the proper decision is understanding your opponent's thought process and to some extent, being able to predict his response to your action/decision.

So, as an example, from a hand I played during the bubble of the $500 buy in at Harrah's in December. I was involved in pot where I was out of position and I had raised utg with xx (cards don't matter). I got called by a player who liked to see flops and play post flop, which is fine with me. Flop came out Q 5 6 rainbow. I continuation bet 1/2 the pot, he called. I decided that if he had q, he wouldve raised, and most likely he had a draw or middle pair like 99, etc. So turn was 8. I decided to check, see how strongly he bet, get more information and decide what to do. He bet 1/3 of pot and the way he bet, I sensed weakness so badly that I decided to shove for 90% of his stack, making it impossible for him to call with anything worse than AQ. He thought forever and CALLED with 77. I held 3 6 coincidentally. So, while I was angry that he could have made, what I thought would be an impossible call, it is my responsibility to know, based on the information I had on him, that if he was open ended, even if he had A7, he most likely was calling there. The truth is, sometimes, no matter how much information you have, there is no crystal ball. There are no steadfast ways to make such predictions. All you can do is compile an educated guess based on all the information available to you, and based on your skill and experience, hopefully surmise the correct prediction as to what your's opponents reaction to your action will be. Unfortunately, I lost that hand and busted. While I want to be mad at myself for busting, the truth is, that had I seen his hand, I may have shoved anyway, believing that he is not the type of player to risk his entire stack with middle pair and a draw with one card to come. Sometimes predictions are near impossible. However, each hand, as always, is a learning experience.

So those are the lessons I have learned in the past few months and I am excited to have more eye opening revelations about poker with each hand, tournament or cash game I play.

Hand histories from yesterday's event:

Bad hand #1: QJ os in bb with 4 players to flop, blinds 25-50. Flop is J 10 x. I check to see what action is, button bets. I really thought he had a 10 or pkt 44s or something, and the correct decision would have been to raise, but I just called, which caused me to pay him off throughout the rest of the hand. Turn is 10. I check call and river is K, and again I check call. I think the turn call was OK, but I def need to fold river bc I beat nothing. It was a relatively small pot, but more about mistake of not raising flop or folding on river. He had 910 of course.

Hand #2: Early, I limped with 35cc. Took the flop 6 way. I got a great flop. Q 46 with two clubs. Pot was 800 (blinds 50-100). Checks to me, I am in middle pos, I bet 600 (2/3 of pot). Get caller by big stack, who I believe has a flush draw also. Everyone else folds. Turn is 3 spades. I decide to check and he checks behind. I could bet there I think, but I believe check is ok also, in case he does have q or a set. River is 3h, which gives me trips, I value bet and he folds 8 hi flush draw. I think I played that hand well.

Hand #3 (not exciting). R utg to 350 with blinds 50-100, Ak ss. Mind you my image is super tight because I was very card dead, and playing a bit cautious b/c of my level of discomfort I described above. I get 7 callers. Hilarious. Flop is Q xx all diam I check fold. Guy who is very bad and major donk at tble, shows the nuts after betting pot. Hilarious.

Hand #4- involving ssame donk and a very very good player at table. Donk limps, good player raises out of blind to 500 (blinds 50 100) and donk limp/re to 1500. Obv aa or ak. Good plyr reluctntly calls. Flop is AKx. check, check. LMAO. Turn is A. chk chk. River rag. Good plyr chk, donk bets 600, good plyr insta muck. Hilarious. Now. As an aside, this was conversation I had with donk (he was on my left, nice guy but not smart plyr at all). He said to me about good plyr, "that guy is goin to get caught being that aggressive and making all these moves." My response was, I think he is decent player, just likes to see flops. So donk's response "well when I was full he didn't call." LMAO. Exactly why you are defined as donk- for comments like that. So then, about an hour after that conversation this hand comes up:

Hand #5- Our good/pro player raises to 1000 utg blinds 150-300. Previously, this good plyr ended up callin all in for a 1/3 of his stack a little while before and losing, so he has been playing much tighter and I gave him a pretty strong hand here. Donk on my left, announces in a loud voice (which is always great), RE raise, to 3k. Folds back to our good plyr, he looks at guy and re-reraises to 10k leaving himself 6k behind. Our donk, without even looking at good plyrs committed stack behind CALLS. I know what donk was thinking- I am goin to teach this guy a lesson on this hand. Problem is, when good plyr re re raises, donk should abandon lesson. But he's not capable. So anyway, flop is K xx. Good plyr properly shove and donk is now like, damn it, I am committed, and calls all in with AQ. Good plyr of course has set of KK. But good plyr obv had AA or Kk there with re re raise and pinned our donk as going after him, and unable to fold what should have been QQ, AK or JJ. In any case, that was hilarious. Five hands later, is my bust out hand.

Hand #6- My first mistake. AK sp utg again. Blinds 150-300. I should have limp reraised. My table had become kamikaze with a raise and a reraise preflop 3 out 5 hands played. The truth is, I was a bit worried to do that and while it crossed my mind, I decided because I had been playing tight, players might fold to me. Also, I would've had to commit most of my stack preflop (started hand with 18k so if I limp/reraised, I would have to shove or make it 8k to price player out)Negative on all folding to my utg raise. I got 5 callers. Flop is A A Q. Where am I going? So I bet 2200, which is about 35% of pot. Folds to very good player who smooths on button...DING DING DING, every bell went off in my head that he had AQ or AJ. AK he reraises pre on button and either AQ or AJ he just calls, and if he has Ace rag, I believe he raises right there to find out where he is at. Turn is J. So now I dont beat anything. I am perplexed, I do not know what to do and then...my brain shut off. I bet 10k leaving myself 4k and committed myself when he insta shove and I call and he turn over AQ. I mean, come on. So ridiculous. But had I bet 5500 on turn, or een 6500 i could fold when he shoves. It would have been super frustrating but at least I would still be in. I also feel like, it would have been the best fold of my life. But I didn't. Sigh. Oh well...there is always another tournament.

Ok, this blog entry is super long, so I will end it here. Will write more later- oh and one more thing, I cashed in $10r on stars and I was in the money in 30$ r last night- I had 9 bbs and ran Aq into AA and JJ, lol fun. But I made small profit, and nice to go deep on UB again.

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.

Hand Histories as Promised...and Ship Entry for Borgata 500k tomorrow!

First things first, I final tabled $7500 guar this week on Ultimatebet and managed to run AhQh into KK, gg me for 7th place finish. Only a few hundred, but it was nice to go deep and final table a tournament. I am still getting used to new tournament schedule on UB, however, hopefully they won't change everything again in five minutes, as that site has been known to do in the past.

Hand #1

Deep in the 50 50 in stars, I was in 4th place with 20 players left. First place 12k. Excited to make final table because I worked really hard and was very patient in building my stack. In any case, I pick up QQ utg, my tabe is playing 7 handed. Folds to the sm blind. He has 222k in stack. I have 235k. He re-raises to 48k. My table had been playing relatively tight. He could have aa or kk here, but i have third best hand in tournament, its 20 people left and we are short handed. Plus its $55 buy in on stars, so it will be hard for me to get away from this hand. That being said, other than those hands, the hands most likely holds are: 1. AK; 2. AQ (maybe); 3. QQ also; 4. JJ or 5. 10s. So given his range, if I shove, I do not think he is folding any of those hands except maybe AQ and 10s. So I decide to call and if no A or K comes, I can raise all in if he cont bets. Flop comes out K J 10 rainbow. Big dilemma for me. He bets 78k which means he is committed to my all in and the hand that makes the most sense now is AK. With AQ, I believe he bets a bit more for value, and he also could still have aa or kk. Sooo...against most hands, i have 10 outs twice, and against some 7-8 outs, and at worse, i have 3 outs. It was a very tough decision. However, I changed my pre-flop plan based upon the favorable flop, the enormous odds, and the fact that if I win this hand, I build all the way to 600k with a shot to win tourney. So I shove and he calls with his set of JJ. I don't hit and I am out the very next hand (bc im all in in bb with less than one bb). If I had re-raised pre, I don't think he folds and the only thing I could do differently is limp/reraise pre, or alternatively, fold to his flop bet (continuing with my pre flop plan). It was one of those yucky decisions. In any case, I finished 19th. GG me.

Hand #2

Today, I played a satellite at Borgata for the $2200 buy in tomorow. I won my entry. 450 entrants, 69 places get entry. We stopped play at 3k-6k with 1k ante. I had 9 ANTES in my stack, lol. Hilarious. In any case, at the very next table there are 75 people left. (keep in mind we are 6 away from entry with 8 tables left). Player utg raises to 6k (blinds 1k-2k). A big stack, immediately to his left with about 125k in chips, RE RAISES TO 100K. What hands is he doing this with? There is def an argument for him folding aces there. UTg had 40k behind and then the guy on the button with 60k thinks for a bit and CALLS ALL IN. The button shows KK and the RERAISER of utg who couldve coasted his way to entry turns up- A 10. Hello. What the hell are people doing. The punchline to this story is- A10 reraiser says (young punk kid player who thinks he mac daddy of poker): "I think you have to fold KK there." ????????? The truth is, with 60k, he can fold KK, however, that very logic dictates a must fold of A10. He is the fool that reraised to 100k (which is an insane reraise). He cannot be telling the guy with KK that he needs to fold pre, especially when this kid has showed a reraise with 25os earlier. Just thought that was an interesting story for you guys. The bottom line is that a good majority of players have very little concept of satellite strategy.

Ok guys, good money at the tables this weeekend. I will let you know what transpires with tomorrow's tourney. I really feel like I am in a zone and I am excited to do well. However if I do bust, I am happy to know that I satellited in, winning entry was victory in itself.

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.

Bubble Festival

I have gone deep in many tournaments in the last week, a few small cashes, nothing of significance. I will continue to strive and improve my game. UB has completely changed the entire tournament schedule, adding great guarantees with smallish buy ins. The pro is that there are huge overlays; the con is that the players create a minefield and it is difficult to bob and weave through it. However, I have fared pretty well in smaller buy in tournaments, so I hope that I will have many cashes with UB's new schedule. It has definitely encouraged me to play on their site more often.

I have also reconsidered starting up my own law practice again. I struggle back and forth. One of my biggest tragic flaws is my indecisiveness in life. I can never make a decision about anything, down to what to wear, what to have for dinner. Ironically, decisions during a tournament about how to play hands, etc, come fairly easy for me. The decisions surrounding a poker lifestyle, I always question. And, as you know from reading my previous blogs, its because I worry about money all the time. I am so paranoid and crazy about money, I don't know why. I mean, Jon always tells me I could be worse, but I don't know about that, sometimes I think he is just being nice. I believe I have gotten better about it and hopefully in the future, I will be RATIONAL. I am rational about nearly all aspects of life, yet somehow I always manage to be paranoid about finances. I will take the month of May to decide about the solo practice. Right now I am just doing per diem work, picking up small matters here and there. I do not hustle though, I am not out there, trying to get new business. Part of me wants to focus only on poker, and part of me wants to do both. It is a difficult decision for me. I guess, what will be, will be. I will see how it goes and make a decision at the end of May.

Ok, I am off to play my night session. Just wanted to leave you with this quote:

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the you didn't do than by the ones you did do." - Mark Twain

I think this saying can be used as a great guide when making life changing decisions. Maybe that is a bit dramatic =) I think it is a very good quote.

Good money in all your games tonight!

Good money and peace,
Lucky C and Ace.

Sunday Night Musings- and congrats to Bumbo!!!!!!

Today was one of those extremely frustrating days where no matter what I did, I could not do it correctly. Bubble 5 out of 8 sngs. 2nd in three sngs. Could not close the deal. Played the Million guar on stars and managed to fold 77 in a perfect squeeze situation and would've had big stack. With 15 bbs left (instead of 50), I ran Ak as reraise right into bb with AA. Reflections on poker. Sigh. I played the 9k guar on UB and built a nice starting stack early and then struggled uphill the rest of the way. Quite aggravating.

It is also disheartening when I look at my cashier on three of three sites that I play on and see that the bankroll is in the danger zone- and I get uneasy about how low the funds are. This is partially my fault. Because Jon and I use our poker earnings for monthly bills, we force ourselves to keep limited funds online so that we ensure that everything is paid on time. However, this also requires us to deposit more often and move money around frequently. It is a system that has worked for us, but I am hoping to come up with something more useful, more resourceful. My instinct tells me that such a better money management plan will occur when we have a big cash , but logic dictates that money management will be less of an issue when Jon or I do have that big cash =) It's all a big Poker Catch 22 I tell you.

The silver lining (I always like to look objectively at the whole poker forest, not just the individual, two-outer, donkament trees), is that Jon and I live a truly charmed life. We have unlimited, unprecedented freedom. We make our own schedules, dictate the terms of our daily living, and report to absolutely no one. While this freedom is born only from being a slave to online poker, there are much worse things that we could be doing. And slavery is a slight exaggeration...I guess playing poker online is more of like a 'profitable drug of choice.' While it can be intoxicating, riveting, and exhilirating when things are great (+ making $$$$$)- when the trips are bad, they are the really bad. Those days when you feel like every play is a failure, flopping a hand is a joke, and you are getting run down by everyone and their mother, poker really sucks. But again, we look at the forest, not just that daily 'tree'. Escaping from the daily results, and looking at long term results for validation of how good we really are.

I am not only talking about your stats on pokerdb or pocketfives. I am talking about what you have accomplished in poker, how you have improved, become profittable, made that one incredible hand that was the revelation to yourself of your own abilities. That hand where you thought "damn, this is why I am so good at this game, this is what makes me a great player." Those are the things we must reflect on. Its not about one hand, or one tournament, or even one year. Its where you started and how far you have come. It is putting one foot in front of the other, and getting better with each step.

And it is difficult to persevere when things are bad. Sometimes I feel deflated and discouraged. And then I remind myself- variance is part of the job that you chose for yourself. If you cannot accept variance, then find another job. LOL. That is my wake up call. Because I do not want to do anything else. I am proud to say that poker is one of the things I am best at. I am happy and confident in my abilities. I enjoy it. It challenges me every day. I love challenges and competition and success.

So I promise myself to spend this week rebuilding my accounts, to stay optimistic and to continue growing as a player (hopefully not just metaphorically, but financially too, heehee). I also promise to stop comparing myself to others, which is one of my biggest downfalls. We all experience poker success and achieve the learning curve at a different rate and at various times, and I must accept that.

I know this has been an extremely long post, but I saved the best for last. My friend, Bumboklatt on UB (aka menyomomz on Stars), aka Chris in real life, had a phenomenal Sunday. He put up very impressive results- 16/3million (well, maybe like 3200, but same thing) in Stars Warm Up for a nice cash, and top 150 in Sunday Million. Even though it is 12:15 am, he is currently deep in 50/50 and strong in 10$ r on stars. I predict nothing but success and long term great results for Bumb, he is truly a great player with so much potential that I think will be displayed in the near future! Congrats Bumb, so proud!!!

That's all for tonight guys. I will check back soon.

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and her sidekick Ace

ps. check out picture of Lady I posted, isn't she a cutie?