Ring Game Result Summary:

• Poker Site: Full Tilt Poker
• Day / Date / Time: Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 11:00pm
• Starting Chips / Balance: $61.55
• Ending Chips / Balance: $50.00
• Win / Loss Amount: -$11.55
• Notes: I entered the table at $11.55

Ouch… lol  I had Ace King, and someone went all in with pocket 4’s.  That guy caught a FLUSH… WTF? lol
I knew I should’ve walked out when I was at $15..

Ring Game Result Summary:

• Poker Site: Full Tilt Poker
• Day / Date / Time: Monday, 11/23/2009 @ 12:35a
• Starting Chips / Balance: $72.11
• Ending Chips / Balance: $73.85
• Win / Loss Amount:  $1.74
• Notes: Painful… up and down… chipstack torture…

So right after 2 huge sessions and being up $100, I am down a mighty $61.60 today.

742 hands

-$61.60

$318.30

Now I am $81.70 away from my goal for this month. It’s been a rollercoaster ride this poker thing. Maybe i don’t play enough hands to breakeven faster, but it seems like losing 1-2 buyins a day comes more often than i think it would. Sure i made bad calls when i had the 2nd best hand all day, but i feel like i am being outdrawn a lot today. AK vs AA on a K high board. JJ vs set of Tens on a 7T382 board. He call flop, raise 3x on turn. I really couldn’t beat anything by now except a flush draw semi bluff, which is unlikely since he’s a 12/0 player AF only 2. I called raise on turn. Check river, he bet $9 into $16 pot. I think for longest time, and actually think he might be bluffing with a busted draw, called and he obviously has TT for the set. I shouldn’t think so much when against tight players, they basically play really standard, i shoulda just fold turn.

I am increasing frustrated by putting people on a range, especially on a 4straight/4flush kinda board. It’s just so many cards they can call you down with, you have no idea what they actually have, and I don’t know when to stop barreling on such boards. I feel like my poker is plateauing at the moment, meaning I haven’t learned anything new this week. I can’t seem to be able to think about poker away from the game. I guess playing and losing helps in the motivation to study the game more.

Live Cash Game

Played a cash game yesterday. Basically plan to play exactly like i do online. Meaning bet premium hands for value. Since live is always loose and call-y. A very loose player limped and i raised like 8x with A9s, which is slightly on the bigger side of a raise but in this game, bound to get a caller still. One guy called. Loose player who limped announced he is all-in for 75x. I thought for a while, and since a limp shove range is at best a weak ace, KQ KJ and low pockets 22-88 type hands, i definitely thought i was ahead most of the time with A9s to call. That plus the fact this player has shown that he is capable of shoving preflop with almost atc – 56o etc. Well i didn’t factor in the fact that he thinks I am tight player, and yet willing to shove over my raise. That means he probably has a better hand this time. I called his shove for the first time in like many times, shockingly another guy called behind. We are all-in. Loose player shows AQo, I am very shocked to say the least, never expect him to limp such a strong hand. Guy behind showed A8o, which is so bad a call. I got A8o guy covered, but loose player got me covered. In my shock i forgot that I was dealer for that hand (I had position that is why i raised with A9s in the first place). I opened the 5 cards, and i got myself a diamond flush for the bad beat. I felt so bad to loose player coz it was obviously a wrong move on my part to call. But given a limp shove and super loose image, the decision to call was right. Loose player began to tilt after this bad beat and lost like another 3/4 buy-ins.

I didn’t enjoy myself though, i thought i wasn’t thinking like half way into the session. I didn’t get any reasonable holdings. In fact i only had 3/4 premiums all night. Nevermind, managed to steal some pots with huge cbets in position. Always a great strategy against loose limpers. I donked off some money trying to play position with A5o against a huge raise. Then donked off some more in i forgot what. But i was sitting with a nice 250-300BB stack after that 3-way suckout. I donked off like 50BB. And decided to play tight like online. Got a run of bad cards. I can’t believe it 38 4T Q2s keep getting dealt these type of shit cards. I prolly could be more “pro-active” like my friend W who was playing well and on a sick run. He was raising 56o and all sorts of junk from any position. I think his PFR is something like 40-50%. But whatever, his 3.5x raise always still gets 4-5 callers every round. But i really don’t think there is any fold equity against loose players, that is why i don’t try his strategy, but W begs to differ and maintains it is a very effective strategy coz he would get paid of when he actually has his premiums. I don’t know, i think these people just call with like 30% of theirs hand all the way up to a 25BB raise preflop. Which is kinda crazy but not uncommon in live cash games.

Also i would like to add that one thing about live cash games is that people smoke. And i have to breathe in the 2nd hand smoke, and my whole body smells of smoke too. I may be over blaming things for my bad sessions, but i think that inhaling smoke makes it harder for me to think. Whether this is true or not, i don’t like playing in a smoke filled area.

Oh ya so much for complaing I had no hands. The 2nd last hand of the night I was dealt red Queens. Shipped it and got called by KJs. Flop came Q, then board paired so I had the nuts. Happy. That is how patience pays. The last hand of the day, everyone posted 2.5bb ante. Pot was around 30BB to start. I looked down and found… red Queens again! wow.. what are the chances. I thought that my tightness was really getting rewarded finally right at the end of the session. People limped of course it was a friendly last round, everyone wants a piece of it. I had to spoil it by raising huge, 15BB. Super loose guy to my left shoves. I don’t really think about his range now, although he did showdown some crazy hands like K8s or something earlier. A girl who is a big winner in the 2 cash games we played so far shoved too. I call of course. Flop came KTxxK. Girl rejoiced and showed King six -.- Guy showed Q8. Awesome way to lose to a 3 outer. Wasn’t so affected, coz i was up 3 buyins by then, and i only lost a buy-in this pot.

Starting Bankroll: $45.01

Game: NL Hold’em, 6 max, $.01/.02 blinds

Buy in: $?.??

Cashout: $?.??

+/-: $14.91

New Balance: $59.92

Kept it pretty simple over the past few weeks. I haven’t been playing much due to a combination of working a lot, being busy in school, and having lots of stuff going on with my bands. Pretty steady income, though. I’ve played a few tournaments, but for the most part have kept it to cash tables.

I’m still kicking myself for getting drunk and blowing my bankroll, but it seems like I am recovering, and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Ring Game Result Summary:

• Poker Site: Full Tilt Poker
• Day / Date / Time: Sunday, 11/15/2009 @ 9:15pm
• Starting Chips / Balance: $72.56
• Ending Chips / Balance: $75.01
• Win / Loss Amount:  $2.45
• Notes: I just wanted to get my money back from losing $2.50 from the previous Sit n’ Go, and was successful after catching trip Jacks..

One of those nights where my head ran scripts and quotes from “Rounders”.

Ring Game Result Summary:

• Poker Site: Full Tilt Poker
• Day / Date / Time: Wednesday, 11/11/2009
• Starting Chips / Balance: $41.04
• Ending Chips / Balance: $52.81
• Win / Loss Amount: +$11.77
• Notes: Win one big bet an hour… that’s it.  I was big blind with 5-6 off-suit, caught a straight draw with lots of outs, and caught my straight on the turn.

Wow, now I have tournament money!

Of course, I’d limp when I’m on big blind…

Whew! I wasn’t gonna go ALL IN, he put me ALL IN… My dumb ass did put him on that J-T, and called it anyway. Luckily, he didn’t have J-T and had Q-T instead. whew!!!!!!!! This “Ring Game” business really takes lots of balls…

Wow, so this is how it feels to get totally cleaned out…  I got frustrated playing $0.05-$0.10 games, where my chipstack just swung up and down. So I went into a higher stake game, like $0.25 – $0.50 ring game and played aggressively.  Eventually, I went ALL-IN with pocket 10’s and guess what beat me?  Pocket Aces… I don’t remember ever getting pocket Aces all night long either. Ring Game Result Summary:

• Poker Site: Full Tilt Poker
• Day / Date / Time: Tuesday, 11/10/2009, 9:30pm
• Starting Chips / Balance: $24.75
• Ending Chips / Balance: $1.04
• Win / Loss Amount: -$23.71
• Notes: I just reloaded, so my balance on Full Tilt Poker is now $41.04.  Along the way, I got a Full Tilt $1 bonus.

“You gotta know when to hold’em, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run….”

In my poker league I played a simulation of the WSOP final 9 where we bid for the exact stacks the November 9 have.

How it works is that we did a silent auction where noone else knew about the other’s bid until all the stacks were won. The minimum bid was $20.

We started with the exact chip count and used the same blind structure. The only difference was that we implemented 30 minute levels.

The big stack ($58,930,000) went for $137
2nd stack ($34,800,000) went for $101
3rd biggest stack ($28,885,000) went for $82- best value in my opinion.
4th biggest ($19,580,000) went for $66 (out bid me by $3)
5th biggest ($13,215,000) was won by me at $55.
6th biggest ($12,390,000) went for $47.
7th biggest ($9,765,000) went for $28
8th ($9,500,000) sold for $23
9th stack ($6,800,000) was $20.

$559 in the prize pool. 3 places payout.

The auction went well. I bid $115 for the big stack and wasn’t even close as 4 others bid more. The fact that I wasn’t going any higher than $115, I knew that I had to target the middle stacks. The surprise was that the 2nd biggest went for just over $100. Maybe I should’ve taken a stab at this but I decide to stick to my guns. I low bid for the next stack but get outbid for the 4th stackby $3. I now target the 5th stack, because I really don’t want to deal with playing the small stacks.

My bid of $55 wins this stack. I outbid the next player by $10. Value? I’m not sure especially since the next stack went for $47 (which was 600k less than me).
Now we’re ready to play some cards. The blinds start out at 120k/240k with 5k antes. It was kind of weird at first because it took some time getting used to betting and calling large amounts but it went smooth.

I didn’t want to mix up too much early on as the pots were pretty wild and I didn’t want to get crippled or short stacked too early. I played it pretty tight early on and during the second level I win a big pot against “Ivey”. I hit a flush on the turn and get paid off.

I’m cruising along playing small ball for the most part but I build up a decent stack after the first hour. After two hours, I’m riding about 19million in chips. Then I finally knock out seat 3 (Ivey).

Seat 6 takes down a huge pot when he hits his flush against a set on the turn. The curious thing about this hand is that seat 6 and seat 4 had a lot of chips and yet we get a shove and a call on the flop. This was a $30 million dollar pot and the guy drawing called a huge raise on the flop with nothing but a draw. Pretty sick.

We go back and forth and I’m still building my stack. I’m playing solid poker, I’m reading well and making good folds (at least I think I am). I folded some pretty strong hands at times but I was never truly in trouble, I never risked my stack at any time and I rarely played out of position.

After 4 hours, I’m sitting on a stack of about $36 million and there’s 5 of us left. The play has really slowed down and I get by winning blinds and antes from time to time. Then the two biggest stacks go at. One has JJ and the other has AA. JJ spikes a Jack on the turn and takes down a huge, huge pot (there had to be at least 70 million in that pot). So now we’re down to 4 players. Bubble time.

There’s one huge stack with over 100 million and I’m at about 39 million and the other two are about the same as me but I have them outchipped I think.

The big stack starts to bully and I mostly fold. My stack shrinks to about $32 million when I strike gold.

I’m in the BB with 67 suited. The blinds are 500k/1million with 50k antes. The big stack limps in. Button folds and the SB completes. I smell dead money so I raise to 5 million, hoping to take down this pot. The big stack calls. I get a decent flop. I have top pair with a gutshot straight draw. I bet out 8 million and the big stack calls. Not good, now I have to put him on an over pair but then this player is tricky so he could have anything at this point. I turn trip sixes and I’m golden. I check and the big stack bets, I push and he calls. He turns over AA.

I double up and now I’m in business.

Later on I take down a 40+million dollar pot when I have AK and flop broadway. The villain had top two pair and I knock out the bubble boy. I feel that I played this hand very well. I had AK in the BB. The button attempts a steal but I flat call hoping to trap. The rest is history.

Now I’m the big stack and I start to bully myself. I’m guaranteed a profit because I bought my stack for $55. The other two guys paid more than me, so they need to hit second in order to make some money. They’re playing relatively safe so I keep up the heat.

I finally take the short stack down with A10 when he shoves with A9.

We’re now heads up and I have over $130 million in chips, twice my opponent.

We go back and forth. He runs hot for awhile and we’re just about even.

He’s been trying to trap more often given my aggressive nature so I turn the screws on my opponent by limping with big hands.

This was how I was finally able to crack the other stack. I flat call a raise with JJ. The flop is 7 high with two hearts. I bet out and get flat called. The turn brings another heart. I still have an overpair to the board but no heart. I decide to take anther stab at it. Again I get flatted. The river was a scare card as it put 4 hearts out there on a 9 high board. Now I’m screwed, I decide to check and the villain checks behind me. He shows 88, no hearts. I am relieved because at this point the pot was pretty big but even though I had an overpair, I just couldn’t bet out of position on a board where its’ 4 to a flush. I was glad he didn’t raise because I would’ve folded if he did.

Now that I’m 3-1 in chips against my opponent, I get a decent run of cards and I finally take down the tournament.

The winning hand was 97 and I cracked 55.

I clear $245 for my trouble. Pretty sweet. The whole tournament last about 7-8 hours (with breaks for food and stuff).

Although, it took a very long time, it was worth it (especially since I won). It was fun, I think we’ll do it every year so now it’s tradition.

This tournament may given me a glimpse of what goes on during the final table of the WSOP, so that was an adventure in itself. Maybe the best thing about this tournament was that I was finally able to say “I raise to 10 million” on a bluff.

So the WSOP finally comes to a close. This year was just like any other year that I’ve been watching the WSOP on ESPN. The only difference is probably all the super young players making deep runs. It was due to happen. The younger kids are very adept at playing poker. They understand situations very well, because they play thousands upon thousands of hands daily and that gives them the advantage. They’re also willing to gamble and are not afraid of making plays that many people may think are stupid. Ok, the luck factor plays into it but still, they’re willing to stick in their chips because they know that one lucky swing in the tourney can mean a WSOP championship. They’re willing to play for huge hands at any given time.

I feel that it is this willingness to shove with any two at any time is the difference between the new and old guard. I think the old guard are still playing the old school style. Look at Ivey, he was playing super tight for the most part, nothing like the old Ivey that I used to see. Additionally, these young kids play a lot of tournaments every single day and they understand the nuances better than most because of the sheer experience of playing online tournaments.

Additionally, the hands they show on ESPN are taped and edited for the casual fan and not the hardcore poker enthusiast. The hands were picked for a particular reason, either a solid fold, a huge pot, a bold bluff or a terrible suck out. You’re not going to learn about how a pro plays a hand for the most part or are you going to get any new insights into poker that you haven’t known about before. I think the beauty of televised poker lies in the fact that an amatuer can beat a pro at any given time.

Despite this, I still watch the WSOP on TV whenever it’s on because it’s fun to watch players make incredibly tough decisions for millions of dolars and then watch somebody else hit a miracle river card. That’s the beauty of the game and I wouldn’t change a thing.

So I called a hand with a 7 2 offsuit, under the gun, got raised, everyone folded, and I called it. Flop showed 7 4 7. I checked and my opponent put me ALL-IN. I called. LOL

Full Tilt Poker Game #15824969702: Table Churro – $0.05/$0.10 – No Limit Hold’em
- 22:46:32 ET – 2009/11/05

Seat 1: rmbrwhen ($6.13)
Seat 2: Albericht ($2)
Seat 3: moecheeze ($10.13)
Seat 4: Dasgirrrl ($8)
Seat 5: kengeru ($2)
Seat 6: maximo266 ($1.90)
Seat 7: Ronin171 ($5.45)
Seat 8: callmeroger ($3)
Seat 9: ARCAND ($8.76)
maximo266 posts the small blind of $0.05
Ronin171 posts the big blind of $0.10
5 seconds left to act
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to callmeroger [7h 2c]
callmeroger calls $0.10
ARCAND raises to $0.45
rmbrwhen calls $0.45
moecheeze folds
maximo266 folds
Ronin171 folds
callmeroger calls $0.35
*** FLOP *** [7s 4h 7d]
callmeroger bets $0.60
ARCAND raises to $3.30
rmbrwhen folds
callmeroger calls $1.95, and is all in
ARCAND shows [Jc Js]
callmeroger shows [7h 2c]
Uncalled bet of $0.75 returned to ARCAND
*** TURN *** [7s 4h 7d] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [7s 4h 7d Kd] [3c]
ARCAND shows two pair, Jacks and Sevens
callmeroger shows three of a kind, Sevens
callmeroger wins the pot ($6.16) with three of a kind, Sevens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $6.60 | Rake $0.44
Board: [7s 4h 7d Kd 3c]
Seat 1: rmbrwhen folded on the Flop
Seat 2: Albericht is sitting out
Seat 3: moecheeze didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 4: Dasgirrrl is sitting out
Seat 5: kengeru (button) is sitting out
Seat 6: maximo266 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: Ronin171 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: callmeroger showed [7h 2c] and won ($6.16) with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 9: ARCAND showed [Jc Js] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Sevens

“I felt like putting a bullet between the eyes of every Panda that wouldn’t screw to save its species!” – Fight Club

Actually, I really believed that calling the worst hand in poker, under the gun (to add insult to injury) could still be a winning hand. Nothing is impossible! But damn, that was a donkey call… LOL

My opponent had Pocket Jacks! Gotta give him credit for playing his hand right!

Ring Game Result Summary:

• Poker Site: Full Tilt Poker
• Day / Date / Time: Thursday, 11/05/2009 9:46pm
• Starting Chips / Balance: $5.03
• Ending Chips / Balance: $7.04
• Win / Loss Amount:  +$2.01
• Notes: This was quick, and a brave donkey ALL-IN call. lol

Starting Bankroll: $20.07

Game: NL Hold’em, 6 max, $.01/.02 blinds

Buy in: $?.??

Cashout: $?.??

+/-: $24.94

New Balance: $45.01

Back to playing (relatively) sober. Back to playing winning poker.

I’ve just been grinding at the micro-limits cash tables, and having a lot of success. Before long I should be really starting to hit my stride and getting back to where I was. More updates as I continue to progress.

I played a little over 1,000 hands last night. I played 3 tables at once, two heads up and one full ring game (all $50 NL).

The thing I noticed is that playing heads up can be very lucrative if the villain isn’t catching cards. I was running very badly, it seemed that every move I made just didn’t work out the way I wanted to. For example I have JJ and I raise 3x the BB. In heads up play, you’re going to get a lot of callers. I hit my set on the flop, I slowplay. The turn gives a flush draw. I decide to bet $3. Villain re-pops me $9, I re-raise $20, villain pushes. I call he’s on a flush draw. He hits his flush on the river.

I tell him he got lucky and he tells me that I played this hand horribly. Maybe so but playing it this way I tried to maximize profit and it didn’t work out for me.

The funny thing about this player is that he kept betting big on the river because he kepton thinking that I missed my draws. I then started to use this against him. I started to bluff when there were 3 to a flush on the board. He would fold almost everytime. Then I started to outplay him, when I would check on the river, making him think I missed my draw, then he would bet out and I would check raise him with two pair or trips etc.

I managed to win back $28 before he left with a $20 profit. I’m guessing he was scared he was going to lose it all and I don’t blame him. I would’ve crushed him if he wasn’t hitting so much against me.

Crazy thing about playing heads up at $50NL, the rake really kills you. We did about $30 in rake during this session. That takes a lot away. Good thing I get rakeback. And if you don’t I highly recommend it. Believe me it all adds up. Just click on the link below and try it and you’ll see what I mean. I have received over $180 in rakeback this year.

I then play this Russian dude and I manage to win about $30 off him before he left. This time I was hitting on a lot of hands and kept getting paid off.

My full ring was up and down. I was card dead mostly, but that never stopped me from trying to make something happen. Maybe I was trying too hard, until I get paid off big time with QQ vs. JJ. Why anyone would call a shove with JJ is beyond me. You have to think you’re being dominated would’nt you? But then again I was playing pretty aggressive so maybe he thought I was making a move.

I was up and down, and then I lose a big hand when I call down a $14 bet on the river with top pair top kicker (villain hit two pair on the river…ugh).

After a few hours I finally decide I’ve had enough. I count my stacks. I wound up being up $3.85. Wow. 1,000 hands of high anxiety for only $3 bucks in profit.

There must be a better way to make money isn’t there?

I was talking to a guy who is a serious chess player. He told me that the position of your pieces is crucial between winning and losing. This got me to thinking about poker and how position is the single best weapon at the poker table.

I would bet that position is probably responsible for most of my profits. The players to my right are the ones who I make money from. It’s that simple. Maybe too simple. But it’s proven and who am I to re-invent the wheel. Playing position can help you control the pot and the betting, it enables you to get the most information you can before acting. Who wouldn’t want the last say in anything? If I had position on my girlfriend for every disagreement we had, I’d win every one of them.

Starting Bankroll: $526.34

Game: NL Hold’em, 6 max, $.02/.05 blinds and 6 max, $.05/.10 blinds

Buy in: $?.??

Cashout: $?.??

+/-: $506.27

New Balance: $20.07

And this is why you don’t break your bankroll limits.

This is why you never ever play poker when you have been drinking heavily.

I got blitzed and decided it would be a great idea to play $.50/1.00 NLHE. I bought into a couple tables for $100 each, busted, and then decided to rebuy. I should start another blog called “How to throw away weeks of hard work in a few short hours.”

Not all is lost. I’m confident in my play and as long as I can recommit to my bankroll guidelines, in a few weeks I should be back to where I once was. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

Ring Game Results:

• Poker Site: Full Tilt Poker
• Day / Date / Time: Thursday, 10/29/2009 – 9:45pm
• Game Details: No Limit Hold’em $0.05 / $0.10
• Starting Chips / Balance: $17.97
• Ending Chips / Balance: $10.03
• Win / Loss Amount: – $7.94
• Notes: My Jacks Full over 9’s, and all my money on the table, was destroyed by my opponent’s Quad 9’s!

Ok, whenever I wasn’t catching cards, I either fold or saw the flop…  I did set a limit.  I promised myself I will not go below $10, which I started with.  I got some work to do tomorrow…

I am finally back to blogging! (online at least).  I’ve been keeping an offline blog, but they are more topic-centered. Like how i used to use this blog as a poker blog. Actually the reason i haven’t blogged here is because I have stopped playing poker, aside from the occasional facebook poker games. So i decided, that i should keep my investing diary offline. But certain things are not bloggable in the investing diary, and i often go into philosophy and psychology in my posts, so i thought i might as well come back to this blog, where i can discuss everything and have them put into the different categories. Also I have the feeling that if i write them here, they “won’t be lost forever”.

Here I will sum up all that has happened in the last 4 months (to make up for lost time) ( i may have forgotten some but these should be the main ones):

15th of July, I missed my flight

This was the first time ever i missed a flight. And it was due to an unexpected jam on the airport toll. We could have anticipated the jam, as it was at 5pm, but i don’t think we could have anticipated the severity of the jam. It was terrible… 6 lanes of jammed cars, on the only highway that leads to the airport! I can’t imagine how many people missed their flights too due to this.

Run like God in a live cash game

Might sounds like a blasphemous statement but the session itself, how good i ran, it really felt like God or a force was playing through me. Everything just went so well. I told W that I’ll never run this good again in my lifetime lol. How do you get up 8 buy-ins in a 3 hour cash game? Was dealt a fair lot of premium hands (AA twice KK JJ TT) but mostly importantly, every time i played for a big pot, i get lucky. Whether with premium hands like AA or speculative like 35s, i seem to hit the board hard, but more importantly someone else also hit the board, but only for the 2nd best hand. For example, I flopped flush on the turn over this guy’s set of aces on the flop, the two times I got aces I manage to get it in pre-flop and hold, then things like flopping straight over two pair, flopping two pair against a high pocket pair. Very unreal, and was definitely a great feeling. Although it seems like a lot in Indonesian money, I only won SGD$200. But it could last me a month or two here. Before the session i was focusing my mind on relaxing, and not thinking of anything at all, i think this state really helped a lot. I tried to maintain it throughout the session.

Finally investing the money

Father gave me some capital to trade, which is quite a huge sum to me, but i was too scared to put the money to use as i think i haven’t learned enough to invest properly yet. Then after some pressure from my dad, i finally picked a day when the market was red, and put 50% of my portfolio into 4 stocks – TLKM BBRI UNTR and BBKP. I believe these companies are safe yet might produce more than medium returns. I used two indicators, first Earnings growth, and second strong analyst recommendations. These stocks produce solid growth in earnings and are recovering well from the crisis. Their P/E are low 13-15. So this combined made the  ’margin of safety’ i was looking for if i was to enter into stocks. Although this was in no way a detailed analysis, at least i felt i did a good job in minimizing risk. I just didn’t want to lose any money, that is the number one key.

Thanks to my ‘guts’ the market rallied from that day onwards, BBRI and UNTR has seen 10-15% increases, reaching the initial price targets i set on them (which i never expected will come so quick). The less volatile stocks like TLKM and BBKP has seen a fair share of increases from 3-8%. I have seen taken profit on UNTR for 15% (it’s since moved higher….). BBRI i should have taken profit at 15% too but i didn’t because i thought BBRI has a little more to go. But i was wrong.. it’s gone down 10% from then, and my paper profits for BBRI today is only 6%, TLKM 3% and BBKP 1%. I’m thinking of putting another 1/3 of the money into the market again today, seeing 2 days of big drops upon no real news. We’ll see how.

-

That’s the end of the summary. I’m constantly distracted throughout this blog post but hope i didn’t write too bad. More frequent blogs posts (mostly about investing) from today onwards.

Starting Bankroll: $120.33

Game: NL Hold’em, 6 max, $.02/.05 blinds and 6 max, $.05/.10 blinds

Buy in: $?.??

Cashout: $?.??

+/-: $91.71

New Balance: $212.04

Sorry again for incomplete records, but I haven’t documented individual games so I’m not sure of exactly how much I bought in and cashed out for. I have started to play at $.05/.10 tables and the transition is going well so far. Once again, I’ll try and get better at updates.

Starting Bankroll: $102.67

Game: NL Hold’em, 6 max, $.02/.05 blinds

Buy in: $17.50

Cashout: $64.83

+/-: $47.33

New Balance: $150.00

I’ve been having much more success at cash tables than I have with tournaments lately, but I’m still not willing to give up on tourneys. Ultimately, I enjoy playing them a lot more. I wonder if the difference in success has to do with the fact that when I play cash tables I play 6 max, but tourneys are generally full 9 man tables…

So here I am thinking about my target for the day – currently $50 of profit. I’m waiting on the big blind to come round to me after just taking a seat at a 9 handed table in a $2-$4 cash game on fulltiltpoker. I’m taking it easy at the moment not trying to rush things but if I can make a steady $50 profit a day and build my bankroll i’ll be a little more adventurous with my targets and stakes on my way to the million. 

The blinds are here and I have $160 at the table I am the small stack here by some way but thats ok its low stakes.

94 off suit everyone folds round to me so I’m off and running with my $2 profit!!! ….. Well 3 hands in and my day is over from a profit point of view. Dealt 88 in mid position Small Blind is in and another guy in mid is in. SB has raised pre flop and we both flat call. Flop comes 3 J 6 and there is a flush draw spades there. SB bets as expected probably with AQ but its a weak bet maybe 1/2 the pot. The other guy smooth calls as do I. Next card is a king which had me a little worried but SB isnt going any further and checks giving away his big miss on the flop. Now I’m expecting the other guy to pop this now if he has caught some of that board but he checks round to me so I’m thinking maybe he has aq or a draw or maybe a small pair so I am not going to wait I pop it with a pot sized bet. I’m committed now if a raise comes.

I’m not surprised to see SB fold but I am surprised to see other guy put me all in?? He had the Jack! An AJ to be exact. I won the hand due to an 8 on the river which you may think (and you might be right) is harsh on the other guy who has had me beat since the flop but hear me out as I think this guy could have avoided this situation twice already – once when SB bet on the flop as he was bound to the other guy could have played back at him with a raise and once when SB checked.

Still poker is a cruel game sometimes and having the best of it isnt always guaranteed to win you the money. So I’m off to a flyer with $50 profit banked for the day and another $100 on top for good measure. Might log on tonight and play in a tournament for a treat with my winnings!

Starting Bankroll: $68.14

Game: NL Hold’em, 6 max, $.01/.02 blinds

Buy in: $1.50

Cashout: $11.64

+/-: $10.14

New Balance: $78.28

I really like playing on Friday and Saturday nights sometimes because you are generally going to have a lot of drunk players making bad plays (worse than usual, even at these limits). This was the case last night and I easily made a ten dollar profit at one table.

Starting Bankroll: $61.83

Game: NL Hold’em, 6 max, $.01/.02 blinds

Buy in: $3.00

Cashout: $9.31

+/-: $6.31

New Balance: $68.14

Starting Bankroll: $59.33

Game: NL Hold’em, 6 max, $.01/.02 blinds

Buy in: $1.50

Cashout: $4.00

+/-: $2.50

New Balance: $61.83

My personal goal for the month of October was to break $50. I’m doing much better than that right now. I started a new job last week and have had a ton of exams in school, so I really haven’t had time for tournaments lately. I’ll try to get a few in this weekend. I’m thinking about starting to try a few $2.00 + .20 MTTs as well. If they don’t go well I can move back down to $.25 and $1.00 + .20, although I don’t really like the latter because of the 20% rake.

According to my 3% rule, I can’t play $2.00 + .20 tournaments yet, but I’m very close to it, and someone suggested that I should start playing them occasionally with a $50 bankroll, more often at $80, and regularly at $100. Seems like it might be good advice.

I don’t know why i find it bad tasted to tell other people about our winnings. Like, it’s so bad tasted. But i can’t stop doing it, or feel like doing it. I don’t know what good can come out of telling people about our successes. You tell a person, “I won this this this!!!” and that guy will either go “oh ok” or like reluctantly congratulate you, or worse they will feel uncomfortable and ignore you. That’s why it’s better to keep successes as ’silent incentives’ as Carlos Slim said. The trip was good and i got to see Singapore’s best player on the cruise! Which is shocking at first..

There was only one NLHE table. Blinds was 3/5! Kinda scary to hear at first, but less so when you start playing. Bought in $300 ($250 + free $50 bonus), won $97 at one point, but slowly dwindled down to $65. Key hands was Jh10h flop trip Jacks on the turn, KQ flop King pair and got called by Will who had Jack pair lol He didn’t believe me cos i check the TPTK on the flop. After midnight we played again, like the 2nd hand i got 99. Guy UTG raised to $20 4xBB i called. 3 other players called? I thought of re-raising here due to the many people after who might just limp-in, decreasing my chances after the flop. Anyway i was too afraid to make a big re-raise with like my first hand, i sat down for barely minutes. The flop came 9d 8s 2d. Guy UTG first raiser preflop made it $50, pot was $100 or $80. I was right after him, made it $50, and $100 more to go. Guys after folded. This guy don’t even think long and said “You’re committed right” commenting how i just put in $20, and $150 into the pot now, so i only had $130 left. He said “so i’ll put you all-in”. I was kinda afraid now because he appeared so calm like he had a big hand. I had to call, so there i was first hand i played and got put all-in. But i had the nuts so i’m not afraid. I was hoping he reveal the AA or KK, which i’ll be a fav against. All the chips are in he asked “What’d you have? set?” “Yeah set of 9s” “I have nut flush draw” Then the people on the table were like woah woah, definitely fun to see a made hand against a huge draw. Turn came A (not diamond), and river came Ace of hearts (not diamond). Then everyone just went ‘OHHHH’. I also thought i had lost at that moment. At least the table thought i had lost due to an unfortunate case of runner runner. Even the dealer took in our cards and pushed the chips to the guy. Thankfully for my friend W, who was also sitting beside, who shouted saying “(He has) Full House! Full house!” As in the set of 9s, although runner runner aced, would have made full house 999AA over the AAA. Then everyone began to realize and all the chips was pushed to me. I just kept quiet, even though i knew i made the full house, everyones reaction and the situation just made me so nervous, my heart was beating so quick. Of course it’s the biggest pot i have ever won, but i didn’t see it like that since the stakes are so high, and there were a few $1000+ pots that night.

W and I went home tomorrow, both profiting almost the same amount $250 or so. That felt so good, i don’t know how to explain. It’s good to be able to win enough money on the table to cover the cruise, room, food and still have some felt. It felt like we were free-loading off the cruise which was definitely a good feeling