Trying something new...

It has been a tough year for me with all the swings so I have decided to attempt to sell out my action on a salaried basis.

The ad is here.

I thought long and hard about doing this and I am not even sure it will work. The pros for me is that I am giving myself stability and forcing myself to put in volume if I want my salary. The cons are that I am giving basically all of my profits away.

At this point I just want to see if it will even sell out. If it does and it is profitable then I can just re-evaluate at the end of each 400 tourneys. But at this point I am thinking that this could and should work out for everyone. If I sustain a 10% ROI the BAP would breakeven. A 20% ROI should give my backers over $7k in profits. And although I would hate to keep giving $7k+ away each month this will allow me to keep my current bankroll intact until we make our move next June when my wife ends her residency here.

We'll see what happens...

Still Downswinging

I am still in the midst of what is now over a $20k downswing. I had another close but not quite finish tonight when I got 9th in the $55 70k on Stars for like $1k but took just a horrendous beat with 10 players left so I really felt like I had a great shot at the $14k for first and then it just blew up on me. This was the hand that crushed me.

***** Hand History for Game 50386566295 ***** (Poker Stars)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, September 30, 04:16:40 ET 2010
Table 333011083 130 (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 2: chardrian ( $460377.00 USD )
Seat 3: JayEs23 ( $429500.00 USD )
Seat 5: teasall ( $378083.00 USD )
Seat 6: FML4DaWin ( $1440000.00 USD )
Seat 7: jaytj03 ( $366180.00 USD )
chardrian posts ante of [$1600.00 USD].
JayEs23 posts ante of [$1600.00 USD].
teasall posts ante of [$1600.00 USD].
FML4DaWin posts ante of [$1600.00 USD].
jaytj03 posts ante of [$1600.00 USD].
JayEs23 posts small blind [$8000.00 USD].
teasall posts big blind [$16000.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to chardrian [ Ac 8c ]
FML4DaWin folds
jaytj03 raises [$32500.00 USD]
chardrian calls [$32500.00 USD]
JayEs23 folds
teasall folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, 8s, 2s ]
jaytj03 checks
chardrian bets [$45677.00 USD]
jaytj03 calls [$45677.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8h ]
jaytj03 checks
chardrian bets [$100100.00 USD]
jaytj03 raises [$286403.00 USD]
chardrian calls [$186303.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 7s ]
jaytj03 shows [8d, 9s ]
chardrian shows [Ac, 8c ]
jaytj03 wins $761160.00 USD from main pot


I did get my 200 tourneys in this month so that's good. I will keep trying to grind it out but I really need a decent score just to heal my psyche.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry

Ok fun news first - I am happily sun burnt after spending the day kayaking and hitting the driving range.

Now the same old same old news. I got 20th in the UB Sniper which paid $20k to first (and just $520 for 20th). I keep feeling it is going to turn around, but then it doesn't.

I

just

keep

getting

close....

But I'll keep plugging away.

Just re-read the last post

I got 18th in the 75k. First was over $25k. 18th paid a whopping $555. Super coolered. Such is life.

So Close Yet Again

I got another 19th in the $60k on FullTilt. It's my 17th tourney of the year where I finished between 10th and 36th in a tourney where first place pays over $20k. I.e. I made the final 4 tables but just can't make a final table for the life of me. I am looking forward to when this statistical anomaly returns to normal.

I did get 3rd in the $109 PLO/8 for $1k so the day was positive at least.

My folks come tomorrow so I will be taking the weekend off and then will be back at it next week.

Finally getting some volume in...

and as has often been the case this year, I am just getting brutalized. I played 20 tourneys today and didn't cash any single one of them. I am doing my best to keep my head on straight but I definitely found myself falling into the "I am jinxed," "I can't win," "I don't know how to play anymore" realm of thinking which is just really hard to get out of when nothing is going right.

I know I made some mistakes today, but after reviewing my play there really wasn't anything too bad.

I will keep at it because there really isn't anything else to do. A nice score would be nice....

Trying to find my mojo

Just been really lazy lately. I hope to get in some decent volume the rest of this week and then my folks come to visit at the end of this week.

Fun Weekend and now I am back at it

We didn't do our big bike trip this weekend because we got invited to a friend's house on Discovery Bay (a little over an hour south of here) and go out on his boat (well more like a mini-yacht). We did bike to Ruth's Chris on Saturday night for a steak which was nice because then we didn't have to worry about our booze intake. Anyhoo, weekend was relaxing, and today I started playing again. Basically another breakeven day but I am just lying in wait for some big scores because I really am playing really well.

Random Thoughts

* My wife actually has the weekend off and it is our anniversary (11 years!) and her birthday this weekend so I will be taking the weekend off. We are planning on biking to Lake Natoma doing some kayaking and then biking home. It should be about 40 miles round trip and I hope I don't die.

* I am starting to mix in some cash games as I play my tourneys. So far it is going well - the big thing for me with cash is just to make sure I don't tilt. But when I don't tilt, it is a great way to keep the bankroll at least somewhat sustained. E.g. yesterday I lost over $2k playing a full day (2 sessions) of 20 tourneys but I made close to $1500 playing cash games so at the end of the day my bankroll only took a $500 hit rather than a $2k hit.

* I have now been playing poker professionally for over 3 years. This year has been by far my worst in terms of results. I am just eking out a 10% ROI whereas my worst year prior to this I had an 80% ROI. The games are definitely getting tougher with fewer fish and more of the player pool having access to books, forums, training sites, coaches, and friends who they can have help them play through skype/im/chat programs. I am hoping that part of my downfall this year has just been bad luck, but I am not sure how achievable an 80% ROI is anymore which means I really do need to put in the volume if I want to keep making a living at this game.

wahhhhh for bricking out.

I got 15th in the 75k on Tilt and 50 somethingth in the quarter million on stars. I felt I played pretty much mistake free on Tilt but I definitely imploded on Stars. Meh - tomorrow is another day.