March 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I cover the Running Aces Harness Park freerolls that are drawing huge fields.  Note Manessah Kunkel is a woman even though my editor changed the article to refer to her as "he" once.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/freerolls-gaining-popularity-at-running-aces.htm

Jason Senti Interview

I interviewed 2010 November niner Jason Senti today about how he has dealt with the fallout of Black Friday for the April issue of Ante Up Magazine.  He really is a nice guy, and a great poker ambassador.

Struggling Continued

Today I tried to win my way into the MSPT $1,100 tournament that will be next weekend.  I played a $90 single table sit-n-go and won my way into the $260 Satellite.  I busted out of that.  I lost about 25% of my stack trying to steal a pot, then ended up losing a race.  I think I played better in the sit-n-go than in the tournament.

After that I played cash.  I could not seem to win at all.  I had 2 pair at least 6 times and didn't win a single pot with them.  I don't think I played poorly, I just never seemed to have the winning hand.  I'd really like to start winning again.

This is by far my worst down swing of all time.

February 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

I'm suppose to keep articles under 250 words, so they will be short and sweet from now on.  This month I cover the the MSPT Season 2 finale, the POY winner, and HPT will host an event at Canterbury Park in April.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/vang-captures-mid-states-poker-tour-finale.htm

Short-term Stop Loss Program

Since I've been on a bit of a bad streak and I don't have a lot of time to recover for the three months $3000 challenge, I've decided to try a bit of a stop loss program on my cash games.  Usually I buy in for $200 and have 3 buy-ins for a potential total loss of $600 for a session.  Instead I'm going to try to buy in for $160, and have two extra bullets of $120, for a total of $400.  This should still give me a chance to take advantage of a good game, but also limit my losses if I'm not playing as well as I think I am.

I normally buy in for the maximum allowed because I tend to play better with a deeper stack.  But recently I've been running bad, so it seems like a good idea limit my losses at least until I have my confidence back

Largest Career Downswing

Recently I've had over a $1,600 downswing while attempting my 3 Months $3,000 challenge.  I looked over my records and it is the largest downswing I've ever had in my live poker career.  $1,600 is eight buy-ins to my average $2-60 spread-limit hold'em game.  I've had a 12 buy-in downswing in my online play (although that was for smaller stakes).  I don't have very many downswings more than 3 or 4 buy-ins, so this is a major downswing for me.  But I don't think 8 buy-ins is too far out of the norm.  I'm just going to make sure I'm focused and prepared next time I play.  I'm ready for a comeback!

CLARIFICATION: The downswing I'm referring to is consecutive downswings without booking a win.  If you include intermediate wins, then my largest downswing is closer to 10 buy-ins.

Crash and Burn Continued

The run bad continues.  In fact I've never had a downswing this large playing live poker.  I know a lot of it is just being on the bad side of variance.  I've been on the good side of variance before, so I can't complain when things even out.  Just suck to happen when I'm publicly tracking everything.  I think I'll take a few days off, make sure I'm in a good mental state and then play again.  I have a $1,300 hold to dig myself out of when I start back up.

Crash and Burn

Thursday night I went to the card room to try to schedule an interview with the tournament director.  After that was accomplished I thought I'd play for a little while.  It was one of those nights where nothing went right.  Chips were flowing freely around the table, but none seemed to head in my direction.

I honestly don't think I was playing that badly, not that I didn't make any mistakes.  I think it was largely just variance.  After losing 3 buy-ins ($600) I decided to call it a night.  After all one of the most insidious aspects of tilt is that you can't always tell when you aren't playing your best.  So even though I think I could have still beat the game, I left.  In retrospect I think that was a good idea.  Even if the game was beatable, I think there are softer games.  And I don't want to by trying to "chase" my losses.  It's better to start fresh with a clean slate.

Normally after a bad session I might take a couple of weeks off, to make sure I reset my mental state.  But with this challenge I don't have that luxury, so a couple of days will have to do.

Day 2

Today I won a little bit in a cash game while waiting for a tournament.  I busted out of the tournament just shy of the money.  I probably should have stayed in the cash game.  It was a good game and higher EV than the tournament.  Still had a fun night though.

That's two winning days in a row so far.  Not a bad start.

First Sessions

I played my first session today.  I started off playing a $5,000 free roll.  Well sort of.  You start with 2000 chips, and a $10 add on gives you an additional 5000 in chips.  I got a little carried away and ended up spending $133 on the "free roll".  (13 add on plus $3 in tips for drinks.)  In retrospect I think I spent too much on add on  I think 4-6 would have been reasonable.  There were over 600 players. It paid 60 places and I busted somewhere in the 90's.  First place payed over $4,000.

After I busted I switched over to cash games.  There I was able to re-coup my losses and  make a little profit after grinding for 4 hours.  Up $146 for the day.

January 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I interview Bryan Mileski of the Mid-States Poker Tour.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/surma-wins-record-setting-mspt-event.htm

Is $3,000 in 3 months realistic?

$3,000 is the arbitrary goal I set for myself to win in the first 3 months of 2012.  (Mainly because "Three Months Three Thousand" sounds cool.)  Depending upon your point of view $3,000 may or may not sound like a lot of money.  But here are some factors to consider:

• 6-8 sessions per month -  I'd like to play more, but I only have so much time.  I work full time and work as an Ambassador for Ante Up Magazine so I think 6-8 sessions is all I can expect.  That's probably double what I average, although I occasionally will play that often.
• $2-60 SLHE - I mainly play $2-60 spread limit hold'em.  This has a max buy-in of $200 and plays similar to $1-2 NLHE.
• Tournaments - The variance in tournaments is really too high and my volume to low to be realistic for a challenge like this.  However I'm really trying to play more live tournaments since that is mainly what is covered in magazines. So I'll be playing some tournaments even though it may not be the best strategy.

So let's say I play 8 sessions every month.  That's 24 sessions total which would mean averaging $125 per session.  It's definitely possible to win $125 in a session playing $2-60 SLHE, but it is a very aggressive goal to average that.  I may have to try to play additional sessions.  Of course this will only be worthwhile if I can keep my level of play up.

So I may need a little "run good" but I think the goal is achievable, but by no means easy.  I'm looking forward to starting.

Three Months $3,000

I remember for a while, back in the day, Daniel Negreanu was posting all of his session results.  I thought it took a lot of guts to post everything, the good, the bad and the ugly.  I've been thinking of doing the same thing for a short while.  It might make me think twice before calling that draw when I don't have the odds.  I was also a fan of the TV show Two Months Two Million.  That had four internet poker players trying to make two million dollars over two months.

Of course my plan isn't anywhere near two million.  In fact I'll probably only play 1 or two sessions a week, in my spare time.  But to make it more interesting I'm going to come up with the them of Three Months Three Thousand.

So starting January 1, 2012 I will publish the results of every live poker session I play for three months.  The somewhat arbitrary goal will be to make $3,000 by the end of those three months.  I'm hoping this will help my to kick-start this sorely neglected blog and help me focus on playing good poker.  Whenever I tweet things related to this event I'll use the hash tag #3Months3000.

Wish me luck!

December 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I review a poker room that was recently remodel.  It is for one of the smaller casinos in the state.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/prairie-s-edge-poker-room-smaller-but-successful.htm

November 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I cover the results of the Fall Poker Classic and the Midwest Poker Classic.  This is the cover story of the magazine. Cool right?

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/hubbard-captures-canterbury-park-s-fall-poker-classic.htm

October 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month's article covers how Canterbury Park and Running Aces handle the betting limit in Minnesota.  I think it turned out well.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/creative-ways-to-simulate-no-limit-hold-em.htm

September 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

This months article previews Canterbury's Fall Poker Classic and covers the impact of the Minnesota state shutdown.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/tournaments/canterbury-to-host-fall-poker-classic-on-oct-1-15.htm

August 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month's article was about how the Minnesota State government shut down affected Canterbury Park and Running Aces.  This one took a lot of research to write, but I like how it turned out.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/news/two-minnesota-poker-rooms-re-open-after-3-weeks.htm

July 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

For this month's article I interviewed Chris "Fox" Wallace about some poker training he is offering at Running Aces Harness Park.  I hope you like the article.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/fox-hosts-poker-seminars-at-running-aces-in-minnesota.htm

June 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

I had my first article published in Ante Up Magazine.  It's short but I didn't have much notice for this one.  Hopefully the rest will be better.  I'll include the text below because there isn't a link directly to the article.  Or you can download the PDF here and go to page 42. (It's small so you may miss it.)

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Minnesota

By John Somsky
Minnesota has had a vibrant poker community long before the Moneymaker boom, with cardrooms sprinkled throughout the state. The Department of Justice’s actionsagainst online poker sites on April 15 sent shockwaves through the nation’s poker industry, but Minnesota’s live action seems to be heating up as a result.

Gregg Barktu, the Running Aces Harness Park poker room manager, said entries have increased in the $235 and $125 weekly tournaments since Black Friday. There also has been a noticeable increase in players sporting PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker gear.

As further evidence that poker will continue to thrive in Minnesota, Ante Up is now covering all things poker in Minnesota and will be available at many local cardrooms. You can look forward to coverage of such events as Canterbury Park’s Fall Poker Classic and the Spring Poker Classic at Running Aces. Anything important to the Minnesota poker player will be reported here.
— John Somsky is the Ante Up Ambassador for Minnesota.