January....

So, I finish my last entry and decided to check out my stats on sharkscope, and this is what I find. This is for the month of January....not too shabby....Shooting for 1000 games next month, gonna require more commitment, but I believe I can do it...

For the record, I checked out my stats on just the $13-90mans, and found a nice symbol next to my name...It shows a lil shark next to me.... for those of you not familiar with this, it is supposedly the ones you should avoid when playing these games...lol...very nice ;)

Been too long....

First off, I'd like to apologize for not having an HOD. There was definitely one worthy of it, just before I wrapped up for the night tonight. It was a classic blind v. blind situation, there were 3 of us left in the tournament, and I was in the small blind. I was the chip leader, and had both of my opponents out-chipped 2-1. I had 68o, which to those of you that may not know much about poker, is a killer hand 3 way, a monster if you will(of course I kid). Though most people would not consider it to be a huge hand, you should play it as such, and just shove. Well, I did, and the big blind wakes up with KK....YIKES!! Well, in true fashion, I come through like a champ and flop a set of 6s...and improved to a full house on the turn, he had one out, and did not hit. This led to me taking down the tournament about 5 mins later when I was able to knock out the other guy, and took down a big score.

Lesson of the day: NEVER GIVE UP, and keep making the right plays....Good things will happen, and though they may not happen EVERY time, they will happen MOST of the time.

The last two weeks I have not been getting in as many games as I would have liked to, but that is in part because I have had my kids both weekends, and that has limited myself alot. Not to mention that I have been in school, and had alot of homework to do....so ya.... School, for the most part, is going pretty well. I like my my instructors and my classes, so I can't complain too much ;)

A good friend of mine, and fellow poker nut, Josh Tekesky has been running downright sick lately, and has been CRUSHING the MTTs this week, check out his blog for just some of the details. The man is insanely good, and glad to know such a great poker mind....

Another year of my life....

I do apologize, but I am not including a hand of the day.... As I first mentioned, some of my blogs will be about poker, but some will also be about my personal life, and what I am thinking. Well today's blog is about what I am thinking, and feeling. So I apologize in advance if I offend anyone, but I do need to get some things off my chest.

First of all, yesterday(Jan 16th) was my birthday, and I was very much looking forward to it! For those of you who don't know, my wife and I split just over 3 yrs ago, and while I have no feelings for her, and haven't since we've split, I've always just kept to myself on my birthday. Well, tonight was the first time since we split, that I was actually going to go out on my birthday, and had even made plans to go out with some friends, one of whom shares the same birthday.

While it was better than years past, this birthday still could have been better. First of all, instead of driving myself to the meeting place, I had to rely on someone else to get me there since my car was not going to be functional. Well, my ride to the bar(which was only a 5 min drive away) decided there were more important things to do, like be on his computer. Like 10 mins out of his night would have made all that much difference.... Just because I did not have a ride, that was not going to keep me down, no sir! I decided to walk there, now mind you, this was around 9pm, and it might have been 30 degrees, maybe not, but it was somewhere around there.... But I was bound and determined to make this a better birthday than years past, and I wasn't going to let a thing like no ride stop me. I got about half way there before that special birthday girl who shares the same birthday decided to come get me, and not make me walk the whole way to get there(thanks Brandy, and Megan, as it was your vehicle).

We get to the bar, and I start having Cap'n and Cokes...what better way, right? In the course of an hour or so, I managed to down a few, and some other drinks that were put in front of me. Brandy then decides we needed to go somewhere else, as the combination between the alcohol and the music that was playin, was about enough to put someone to sleep. We decided to go to a small town bar, in my old stomping grounds(and by that, i mean the same town I went to high school in). We spent the last 2+ hrs there playing pool, and drinking of course, and all in all, it was a good night.... Could it have been better? sure, things can always be better...

If there is one thing I've learned from tonight though, it's that I will no longer be other people's doormat, and will not be the Mr. Nice Guy that I have always been....I know I've said this before, but this time I mean it, and this year is going to be a new Josh, one that some people may not like, but one that I believe will get much more respect, and will keep me headed in the right direction.... Just giving you all a heads up now, so you are warned ahead of time. For those of you that don't like the new Josh, well I'm sorry, but it's something I've got to do. For those that respect the new Josh, and look forward to the new Josh, then welcome to the ride, it should be a fun....errr....interesting one.

Now does this mean I am going to change the way I interact with everyone? NO, not at all...just with those that seem to take advantage of me, and those that tend to hurt me. So if you haven't done either of these, you have nothing to worry about, I will be the same ol' Josh, with maybe just a lil bit more of attitude ;)

So in closing, I hope everyone's upcoming year is a good one. For me, it should be VERY profitable, in a monetarial, and a mental way.... GO Vikes! show those Cowboys whose boss!!

Goals, and outlook for 2010....

Hand of the day.......

Today's hand comes from yesterday actually, but is something you all should see. As you can see it started off pretty painful on the flop, sure flopping two pair isn't a bad thing, except when your opponent has flopped a set...YIKES!! Then there was elation on the turn when i spiked my Ace, leaving him with only one out...ONE out. Yes, he had a full house as well, but mine was bigger. Then total disgust when his one out hits on the river.

What does this have to do with today's topic you ask? Well, not much really, but like life, you are going to have good and bad things happen to you, sometimes at the same time. And most of the time there really is nothing you can do about it, but realize that you've done the best you can do and that's really all you can ask for. Sometimes things will work out for you, and sometimes they won't, you just have to buckle down and keep doing what you're doing. So by looking at this hand you make think, "God, he must have had a pretty bad day, with a beat like that", but yesterday I had profited nearly $200, which to say the least is a decent day, especially at the stakes I am playing at.

So, onto the goals for 2010. Some of these are personal goals, and some of these are poker goals, so please, enjoy ;)

1. To be the best father I can to my kids. With all the new ventures I will be taking on this year, this may be pretty difficult.

2. To focus on my schooling. I have been in school in the past, and have told myself that I am going to finish it, and do well. Well, this is the third time I've been back in school, and I have yet to have anything to show for it.

3. To continue to improve my poker game, and make this my primary source of income. I have technically made this my primary source of income already this year as I have not had a job, but even more than it is now.

4. To be doing well enough on my daily poker grind that I will be able to grinding the weekly Sunday tournaments, and be profitable at it.

5. To have a MTT win of:

a. over $1k

b. over $5k

c. over 10k

This is going to take a lot of work, but I also have a whole year to do this, and believe that with enough dedication and hard work, I will be able to accomplish at least 2/3 of this goal.

So far on the year, I've gotten off to a decent start, but poker can, and usually does, have lots of peaks and valleys. So I must stay the course, and continue to improve, and keep making the right plays as much as I can...

A Good start....

This hand is from a while back, but shows some of the craziness that can, and does happen when you are playing in a $3 90-man KO tournament. This was the very first hand for me, and needless to say, got me off to a very good start!

Now while this one worked out in my favor, oddly enough, I've had it go the other way, where I've clearly had the best hand, and one of those other hands would suck out on me. Before anyone tries justifying why any of these people would have shoved, we were all "all-in" PRE-flop.

Now on to the rest of the blog, and the HOD does lead in to the topic of today's blog..."A Good Start". Even though the year is young, I feel that I am off to a pretty good start, and hope to continue to improve. So far(1/1-1/4) I have won at least one tournament each day. Granted, they were in the $3 tournaments, but a win nonetheless. To go along with those wins, I have had a few 2nds as well, so when I am making the final table, I am finishing strong.

Since I have started playing the 90-mans 1 1/2months ago, I have found that my strength is my strong finish, look at the graph below:

This shows the different positions that you can finish in the tournament, and the number of times I have finished in each position. Notice the two tall bars to the left of the graph, those are 1st and 2nd place finishes, clearly more than ANY other position in the tournament, nice huh?

While getting off to a good start is important, it is just as important to maintain the good throughout, and finish strong. So like a 90-man tournament, I hope to continue to play well at the start of the year, and finish the year strong.

Coming soon....Goals for the year....