The meet up is getting close, let us know if you are attending!
Ante Up Magazine Co-Publisher Scott Long will be in Minnesota at the end of May. The meet up will be held on Sunday, May 27 2012.
The plan is to first meet at the St. Paul Saints game which starts at 3:05 PM.
Let us know if you are planning to attend. Scott is looking into getting a specialty group box if we get between 10 an 40 attendees. Anyone is welcome. Please let us know by May 15th so we can get a head count and reserve the section.
We will then go Canterbury Park to socialize over a friendly game of poker. If we can get enough people, we may even be able to get them to open of our own table.
Let know if you plan on attending. Send me an email at john.somsky (at) gmail.com, scott (at) anteupmagazine.com or post in the forum.
This meetup should be a fun event!
Check out more information on the Ante Up Forums:
http://www.anteupmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3783
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Black Friday Anniversary
Today is the one year Anniversary of Black Friday. On April 15th, 2011 the Department of Justice seized the domains of the three largest U.S. poker sites, derailing the engine that funded much of the growth in the poker industry. Fallout from this event is stall happening to this day.
Personally, I remember fondly playing on PokerStars with the rest of the Ante Up Nation. I'm still jealous of our Canadian brethren that are still allowed to play. Several professional players have either moved out of the country or commute to play online poker occasionally. Some professionals have switched their focus to live poker, others have left poker as a profession to find a job in the "real world". And of course no one has been paid out by either Full Tilt or UB. Some people have staggering sums locked up online.
The damage done by Black Friday probably won't be repaired until poker is regulated in the US. But the world didn't end. Poker is still the game I love and has a vibrant community.
Personally, I remember fondly playing on PokerStars with the rest of the Ante Up Nation. I'm still jealous of our Canadian brethren that are still allowed to play. Several professional players have either moved out of the country or commute to play online poker occasionally. Some professionals have switched their focus to live poker, others have left poker as a profession to find a job in the "real world". And of course no one has been paid out by either Full Tilt or UB. Some people have staggering sums locked up online.
The damage done by Black Friday probably won't be repaired until poker is regulated in the US. But the world didn't end. Poker is still the game I love and has a vibrant community.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Ante Up Minnesota Meetup May 27
Have you ever thought to yourself, "I'd really like to meet the owners of Ante Up Magazine and let them know in person how much I enjoy their podcast and magazine." Well now Minnesotans have a chance.
Ante Up Magazine Co-Publisher Scott Long will be in Minnesota at the end of May. The meet up will be held on Sunday, May 27 2012.
The plan is to first meet at the St. Paul Saints game which starts at 3:05 PM. Let me know if you are going and I'll see what I can do about reserving a block of tickets. (I don't know how that works so no promises yet.)
We will then go Canterbury Park to socialize over a friendly game of poker. If we can get enough people, we may even be able to get them to open of our own table.
Let know if you plan on attending. Send me an email at john.somsky (at) gmail.com.
This meetup should be a fun event!
Check out more information on the Ante Up Forums:
http://www.anteupmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3783
Ante Up Magazine Co-Publisher Scott Long will be in Minnesota at the end of May. The meet up will be held on Sunday, May 27 2012.
The plan is to first meet at the St. Paul Saints game which starts at 3:05 PM. Let me know if you are going and I'll see what I can do about reserving a block of tickets. (I don't know how that works so no promises yet.)
We will then go Canterbury Park to socialize over a friendly game of poker. If we can get enough people, we may even be able to get them to open of our own table.
Let know if you plan on attending. Send me an email at john.somsky (at) gmail.com.
This meetup should be a fun event!
Check out more information on the Ante Up Forums:
http://www.anteupmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3783
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Spring Poker Classic And Heartland Poker Tour
Running Aces Harness Park has their Spring Poker Classic from Thursday, April 12th through Sunday April 22nd. There are several events as well as several satellites to the main event. I'm thinking about playing the $180 Omaha H/L event on April 18th. The $1100 Main Event begins April 21st. It should be a great series. You can get the full schedule here.
And then April 19-30 is the Heartland Poker Tour at Canterbury Park. The $1650 Main Event has four Day One flights, beginning on April 26th. There should be a big turn out. Check out the details here.
And then April 19-30 is the Heartland Poker Tour at Canterbury Park. The $1650 Main Event has four Day One flights, beginning on April 26th. There should be a big turn out. Check out the details here.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
3 Months $3,000 Summary
My 3 Months $3,000 experiment has reached its conclusion. I was trying to win $3,000 over the course of 3 months playing live poker for the challenge. Instead the challenge included my largest career downswing ever, although I did start mounting a comeback toward the end. This blog is a summary of what I learned doing the challenge.
Over the course of the three months I played 167.5 hours of live poker spread across 58 sessions for a total loss if $2,749. This compares to 4 hours of live poker played over the same time period in 2011. Of course in 2011 I was still playing quite a bit of online poker. And I've also increased my live play since becomming an Ambassador for Ante Up Magazine. However I'd guess that the challenge caused me to at least double the amount of poker I would have otherwise played in that time frame.
I played 50.8 hours of live tournaments spread across 25 events. I lost $2,306 without achieving any significant cashes. I did make several deep runs and was within 4 or 5 places of cashing several times, but didn't quite make a big score. Prior to becoming the Ambassador for Ante Up, most of my tournament play was done online. Since most poker coverage involves tournaments, I thought I should increase my live tournament play. I am still trying to become proficient at live tournaments, and hopefully that will be possible since I did have some success at online tournaments. 25 tournaments is small enough of a sample size to no be statistically significant, so it's unclear what conclusions can be drawn from the numbers.
I played 58.8 hours of cash games across 33 sessions. At my low point I was down $4,023. I ended up making a come back and was down only $433 in the end. I probably had a couple of larger losses than I should have in the beginning, but I felt I was playing well toward the end.
Overall Impressions
I think I felt quite a bit of pressure from the challenge. I am a little surprised by this. After all no one forced me to do this challenge, and I could have stopped at any time. Additionally my blog gets fairly low traffic, so not very many people are seeing it anyway. Despite all that, the challenge added extra pressure to me and may have affected my play. I must say I did have a harder time trying to actually blog about the challenge after a losing session. And it isn't fun sharing your worst losing streak ever with the entire internet. (Or at least the 7 people who actually read this blog.)
The losses playing tournaments aren't statistically significant so it's hard to draw conclusions, but I definitely think I need to improve my tournament game. Strictly speaking I shouldn't have played any tournaments for the challenge since the variance is too large for such a short challenge. But I do want to improve my live tournament game so I kept playing.
I think there was a little bit of run bad too. For example I had 70% equity in an $1800 pot with one card to come. Had I won that pot, it would have cut my losses in half. I think there were other examples of running below expectation in the beginning. But it is also likely that I was running a little bit above expectation in the end, so maybe things evened out.
It does make me appreciate professional players who have to win day-in and day-out in order to make a living. I, on the other hand, have a steady income and do not rely on poker winnings in order to pay my bills. But just post the results to the internet was enough to throw me off my game. I choked under the pressure I manufactured in my own mind.
Having said all this, I'm considering repeating this challenge next year. I enjoyed the challenge, despite being demoralizing at times. If I want to become a better player I need to handle pressure in all its forms. I need to be able to win when it counts!
Over the course of the three months I played 167.5 hours of live poker spread across 58 sessions for a total loss if $2,749. This compares to 4 hours of live poker played over the same time period in 2011. Of course in 2011 I was still playing quite a bit of online poker. And I've also increased my live play since becomming an Ambassador for Ante Up Magazine. However I'd guess that the challenge caused me to at least double the amount of poker I would have otherwise played in that time frame.
I played 50.8 hours of live tournaments spread across 25 events. I lost $2,306 without achieving any significant cashes. I did make several deep runs and was within 4 or 5 places of cashing several times, but didn't quite make a big score. Prior to becoming the Ambassador for Ante Up, most of my tournament play was done online. Since most poker coverage involves tournaments, I thought I should increase my live tournament play. I am still trying to become proficient at live tournaments, and hopefully that will be possible since I did have some success at online tournaments. 25 tournaments is small enough of a sample size to no be statistically significant, so it's unclear what conclusions can be drawn from the numbers.
I played 58.8 hours of cash games across 33 sessions. At my low point I was down $4,023. I ended up making a come back and was down only $433 in the end. I probably had a couple of larger losses than I should have in the beginning, but I felt I was playing well toward the end.
Overall Impressions
I think I felt quite a bit of pressure from the challenge. I am a little surprised by this. After all no one forced me to do this challenge, and I could have stopped at any time. Additionally my blog gets fairly low traffic, so not very many people are seeing it anyway. Despite all that, the challenge added extra pressure to me and may have affected my play. I must say I did have a harder time trying to actually blog about the challenge after a losing session. And it isn't fun sharing your worst losing streak ever with the entire internet. (Or at least the 7 people who actually read this blog.)
The losses playing tournaments aren't statistically significant so it's hard to draw conclusions, but I definitely think I need to improve my tournament game. Strictly speaking I shouldn't have played any tournaments for the challenge since the variance is too large for such a short challenge. But I do want to improve my live tournament game so I kept playing.
I think there was a little bit of run bad too. For example I had 70% equity in an $1800 pot with one card to come. Had I won that pot, it would have cut my losses in half. I think there were other examples of running below expectation in the beginning. But it is also likely that I was running a little bit above expectation in the end, so maybe things evened out.
It does make me appreciate professional players who have to win day-in and day-out in order to make a living. I, on the other hand, have a steady income and do not rely on poker winnings in order to pay my bills. But just post the results to the internet was enough to throw me off my game. I choked under the pressure I manufactured in my own mind.
Having said all this, I'm considering repeating this challenge next year. I enjoyed the challenge, despite being demoralizing at times. If I want to become a better player I need to handle pressure in all its forms. I need to be able to win when it counts!
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
3 Months $3000 Results
Here are the results of all the sessions I've played for the 3 Months $3000 challenge.
- Running Aces is Running Aces Harness Park
- Canterbury Park is Canterbury Park
- St. Croix is St. Croix Casino in Turtle Lake, WI
- NLHE is no-limit hold'em
- SLHE is spread-limit hold'em
- LHE is fixed-limit hold'em
- SLO is spread-limit Omaha hi
- Survival tournaments are no-limit cash games in tournament format
- Meskwaki Casino is Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel
Sessions
| Session | Date | Type | Description | Hours Played | $ Won | Total $ Won |
| 1 | Jan 1 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($5K added) | 3.9 | -$133 | -$133 |
| 2 | Jan 1 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 3.4 | $279 | $146 |
| 3 | Jan 2 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 1.2 | $165 | $311 |
| 4 | Jan 2 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($1K added) | 2.9 | -$18 | $293 |
| 5 | Jan 5 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 3.9 | -$600 | -$307 |
| 6 | Jan 8 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament | 1.2 | -$46 | -$353 |
| 7 | Jan 8 | Cash | Canterbury Park - $4-8 LHE | 2.1 | -$193 | -$546 |
| 8 | Jan 8 | Tournament | Canterbury Park - Survival NLHE Tournament | 1.7 | -$440 | -$986 |
| 9 | Jan 9 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 2.5 | -$360 | -$1,346 |
| 10 | Jan 14 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 3.1 | -$600 | -$1,946 |
| 11 | Jan 17 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 2.7 | -$340 | -$2,286 |
| 12 | Jan 21 | Tournament | Home Game | 3.1 | -$40 | -$2,326 |
| 13 | Jan 22 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament | 2.5 | -$250 | -$2,576 |
| 14 | Jan 22 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 3.2 | -$301 | -$2,877 |
| 15 | Jan 27 | Tournament | Running Aces - Satellite | 3.5 | -$67 | -$2,944 |
| 16 | Feb 1 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 2.7 | $46 | -$2,898 |
| 17 | Feb 4 | Cash | St. Croix - $1-2 NLHE | 4.5 | -$502 | -$3,400 |
| 18 | Feb 11 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 0.1 | -$2 | -$3,402 |
| 19 | Feb 11 | Tournament | Running Aces - Super Satellite | 1.0 | $159 | -$3,243 |
| 20 | Feb 11 | Tournament | Running Aces - Satellite | 1.4 | -$260 | -$3,503 |
| 21 | Feb 11 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 4.0 | -$408 | -$3,911 |
| 22 | Feb 12 | Cash | Running Aces - $3-6 Kill LHE | 0.6 | $70 | -$3,841 |
| 23 | Feb 12 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament | 4.2 | -$8 | -$3,849 |
| 24 | Feb 12 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 2.2 | -$174 | -$4,023 |
| 25 | Feb 13 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($2K added) | 0.3 | -$15 | -$4,038 |
| 26 | Feb 13 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 3.6 | -$300 | -$4,338 |
| 27 | Feb 18 | Tournament | Running Aces - Super Satellite | 0.4 | -$90 | -$4,428 |
| 28 | Feb 18 | Tournament | Running Aces - Super Satellite | 0.6 | -$60 | -$4,488 |
| 29 | Feb 18 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 6.2 | -$320 | -$4,808 |
| 30 | Feb 19 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 1.8 | $205 | -$4,603 |
| 31 | Feb 20 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($2K added) | 1.0 | -$16 | -$4,619 |
| 32 | Feb 20 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 3.0 | -$25 | -$4,644 |
| 33 | Feb 25 | Tournament | Canterbury Park - Survival NLHE Tournament | 2.0 | $105 | -$4,539 |
| 34 | Feb 25 | Tournament | Canterbury Park - Survival NLHE Tournament | 1.8 | -$530 | -$5,069 |
| 35 | Feb 26 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 3.9 | $35 | -$5,034 |
| 36 | Feb 27 | Cash | Running Aces - $3-6 Kill LHE | 0.5 | -$38 | -$5,072 |
| 37 | Feb 27 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($2K added) | 2.1 | -$16 | -$5,088 |
| 38 | Feb 27 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 0.3 | -$76 | -$5,164 |
| 39 | Feb 27 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE/SLO | 2.9 | -$184 | -$5,348 |
| 40 | Feb 28 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament | 2.3 | -$125 | -$5,475 |
| 41 | Mar 3 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 6.9 | -$400 | -$5,875 |
| 42 | Mar 5 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($2K added) | 1.3 | -$16 | -$5,891 |
| 43 | Mar 5 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 3.0 | $4 | -$5,887 |
| 44 | Mar 10 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 4.1 | $402 | -$5,485 |
| 45 | Mar 12 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($2K added) | 2.4 | -$17 | -$5,502 |
| 46 | Mar 15 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 5.0 | $36 | -$5,466 |
| 47 | Mar 17 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 10.9 | $500 | -$4,966 |
| 48 | Mar 18 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament | 4.0 | -$66 | -$5,032 |
| 49 | Mar 18 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 3.1 | -$28 | -$5,060 |
| 50 | Mar 19 | Tournament | Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($2K added) | 2.0 | -$15 | -$5,075 |
| 51 | Mar 19 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 2.4 | $700 | -$4,375 |
| 52 | Mar 24 | Cash | Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE | 6.4 | $430 | -$3,945 |
| 53 | Mar 29 | Cash | Meskwaki Casino - NLHE | 5.4 | $460 | -$3,485 |
| 54 | Mar 30 | Tournament | Meskwaki Casino - $250 Satellite | 2.0 | -$250 | -$3,735 |
| 55 | Mar 30 | Cash | Meskwaki Casino - NLHE | 2.9 | $776 | -$2,959 |
| 56 | Mar 30 | Tournament | Meskwaki Casino - $90 Super Satellite | 0.7 | $160 | -$2,799 |
| 57 | Mar 31 | Tournament | Meskwaki Casino - $250 Satellite | 2.5 | -$250 | -$3,049 |
| 58 | Mar 31 | Cash | Meskwaki Casino - NLHE | 8.2 | $300 | -$2,749 |
Hourly Rate
| Type | Hours Played | Total $ Won | $ / Hour |
| Cash | 58.4 | -$443 | -$3.80 |
| Tournament | 50.8 | -$2,306 | -$45.43 |
| TOTAL | 167.5 | -$2,749 | -$16.42 |
Progress Toward Goal
| Total $ | |
| Goal | $3,000 |
| $ Won | -$2,749 |
| $ Left | $5,749 |
Sunday, April 1, 2012
April 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article
This month I interview Minnesota poker pro Jason Senti to see how he has dealt with Black Friday.
http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/poker-pro-jason-senti-making-the-most-of-situation.htm
http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/poker-pro-jason-senti-making-the-most-of-situation.htm
Sunday, March 25, 2012
CPL Poker Podcast
Last night I interviewed Mark Cardenas and Phil Fuehrer the CPL Poker Podcast for Ante Up Magazine. The CPL Poker Podcast is the longest running poker podcast in the upper mid-west. Mark and Phil have been pumping out the podcast since 2007. They are poker pros, but instead just a couple of really nice regular guys. Their podcast regularly features local Minnesota music and humorous banter reminiscent of Ante Up's own podcast.
This podcast is a must listen for any fans of Minnesota Poker and podcasts. Look for the article in the May 2012 of Ante Up Magazine.
This podcast is a must listen for any fans of Minnesota Poker and podcasts. Look for the article in the May 2012 of Ante Up Magazine.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Confidence Back
Although the numbers haven't come back, I'm feeling good at the tables again. There's no way I dig my way out of the hole by the end of March, but I hope I can make a dent in the losses. In any case it's good to be playing with confidence again.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Jason Senti Reacts to Black Friday
I recently interviewed Jason Senti for the April issue of Ante Up Magazine. We discussed how his life has changed since Black Friday.
Jason is best known for being a member of the 2010 November Nine. He ended up finishing 7th, much to the dismay of his fellow Minnesotans. After making the final table he began traveling to lots of final live tournaments and didn't play much online all the way through March 2011.
Jason is best known for being a member of the 2010 November Nine. He ended up finishing 7th, much to the dismay of his fellow Minnesotans. After making the final table he began traveling to lots of final live tournaments and didn't play much online all the way through March 2011.
As of March, 2011 I hadn’t played nearly as much online
since the world series because of all the traveling I’d been doing. I wanted to get back to it. I really missed playing lots of hands with
regulars in deep stack [online] cash games,” said Senti. He planned on grinding lots of online poker
from March until the beginning of the 2011 WSOP where he planned to play about
30 tournaments. He played 5-10 hours a
day five days week for the month leading up to April 15th.
“Then (Black Friday) hit and I didn’t know what to do,” said
Senti. With so much uncertainty in the
future of a reliable poker income he decided to change his plans and only play
a handful of tournaments and instead concentrate on playing the lucrative cash
games that pop up during the WSOP. He
also has maintained his position as a pro for the online training site Blue
Fire Poker, as well as taking on the role of being a poker ambassador for the
Canterbury Park card room located in Shakopee, MN.
Senti has also set up a second residence in Vancouver,
British Columbia where he has spent several months playing online poker. He is optimistic that poker will be regulated
in the U.S. soon. “If poker was
reasonably regulated within the U.S., I would probably have to plan on playing
far more poker than I [ever have] in the first couple of years following
[regulation],” Senti said.
For now he will continue to commute to Canada to play poker
and hope for regulation in the U.S. If
regulation doesn’t come, he will eventually need to decide to move somewhere
else to play professionally, or perhaps make a career change. But for now he’s hopeful that online poker
regulation is on the horizon.
Let's hope that we can all get back to playing the great game of poker online as well as live.
Friday, March 2, 2012
MSPT: Recipe for Success
The Mid-States Poker Tour held the first event of season three at Running Aces Harness Park in February. the MSPT events have been steadily gaining popularity and resulting in ever growing prize pools. This season's events will have both a Day 1A and a Day 1B, and allow people to re-enter into day 1B if the played and busted from day 1A.
February's event attracted 311 entrants. This was an record number for both the MSPT and Running Aces for $1,000 events. I believe this is the record for all of Minnesota. When standing next to Gregg Barktu, Running Aces poker room manager,watching the final table, he mentioned they may consider multiple day ones for some of their other events.
I also watch some of the live stream for the final table. It more compelling than I would have guessed. Maybe I was more interested than the average person because I had to cover it for the magazine, but I thought it was very entertaining. Seeing the hole cards made it much more interesting, and Bryan Mileski gave audio commentary to fill in information about stack sizes, blinds and antes.
Running Aces also put the stream on their big screen in the card room. I heard many people in the card room talking about the the final table. Many people assumed that repeat powerhouse Erick Wright would take down the final table, but in the end Rodger Johnson won the RF Moeller Diamond Championship Bracelet and $79,185.
Mileski deserves a big congratulations for the continued success of the MSPT.
Click here for more information about February's event.
February's event attracted 311 entrants. This was an record number for both the MSPT and Running Aces for $1,000 events. I believe this is the record for all of Minnesota. When standing next to Gregg Barktu, Running Aces poker room manager,watching the final table, he mentioned they may consider multiple day ones for some of their other events.
I also watch some of the live stream for the final table. It more compelling than I would have guessed. Maybe I was more interested than the average person because I had to cover it for the magazine, but I thought it was very entertaining. Seeing the hole cards made it much more interesting, and Bryan Mileski gave audio commentary to fill in information about stack sizes, blinds and antes.
Running Aces also put the stream on their big screen in the card room. I heard many people in the card room talking about the the final table. Many people assumed that repeat powerhouse Erick Wright would take down the final table, but in the end Rodger Johnson won the RF Moeller Diamond Championship Bracelet and $79,185.
Mileski deserves a big congratulations for the continued success of the MSPT.
Click here for more information about February's event.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
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
http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/freerolls-gaining-popularity-at-running-aces.htm
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
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.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
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.
This is by far my worst down swing of all time.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
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
http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/vang-captures-mid-states-poker-tour-finale.htm
Thursday, January 19, 2012
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
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
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, January 9, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
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.
Monday, January 2, 2012
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.
That's two winning days in a row so far. Not a bad start.
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