Wednesday, December 30, 2009

One year as a semi-professional poker player

The year is coming to an end its time to review. I would say that overall the year went pretty well. I set out with a set of goals in mind, but as time went on they changed as I and my game did. I made many mistakes, but I feel I have learned from a lot of them.

The year started off well in January. I was playing KO Doublestack Turbo 90 mans on FTP. I crushed the games pretty well, having my biggest month ever to date winning just under 6500. I only played about 90 hours in that month, but considering every sessions was 4+ hours it made it much harder to put in 30 hours a week. At the time I viewed this as just the beginning of my reign of terror upon the masses of retarded fish at the 90s. Alas, February did not go as well as I expected.

One of the main reasons I had decided to go semi-pro was because I was making less than 1k a month at my job, didn't have a car, and lived with my parents. So flush with the success of January, I decided it was time to buy a car. In the beginning of the month I withdrew the majority of my roll and put into a down payment on my brand new Honda Civic SI. This same month I decided to move out of my parents house and into a house with my girlfriend. All of the expenses of a new unfurnished home as well as the time it took to move all our stuff left me with a very poor month. I went on a relatively small downswing, but with my relatively small bankroll it hurt hard. I didn't have the discipline to move down in stakes, and by the end of the month, I was busto. I made some obviously critical mistakes in February. I would say the big things I learned were that to space out big changes in my life. Buying a new car while moving in with your girlfriend while attempting to go pro at poker was way to much. I also left myself no reserve fund. Many of my bills were overdue, and I was in a state of near panic over whether I would be able to pay them. It was a terrible feeling and definitely made me play much worse. And the third and probably most important mistake was that I failed to respect bankroll management. I was trying to 12 table 26$ sit and gos with a 1k roll, which anyone will tell you is very reckless. My lack of discipline and need to satisfy my ego kept me from moving down and averting bustoness.

In March I emerged from the rubble. I deposited the last 100$ I had available to me and started grinding 3$ 90 mans. Luckily for me I ran well right off the bat, and was able to slowly advance through the stakes and was back up at the 11$ level by the end of the month. I grinded a ton, many many more hours than any previous month. I was driven by necessity, I had bills to pay and literally no other way to pay them. Through tons of volume and some good play, i managed to build my roll up to 1500$. I had to cash the majority of it out was able to pay the bills.

If you are capable of basic math, you will realize that in April my situation was not all that much better. I had around a 300$ roll, and faced another grind up at the 90s. I had too much pride to be stakes, though I'm sure I could have easily have gotten a deal as my winrate was steady and my variance was relatively low. But the thought of grinding 3$ sit and gos made me sick, and at the beginning of April I decided to try my hand at Heads Up No Limit. The only experience I had at playing heads up was from when me and my buddies would get drunk and try to run 50$ up to 5k. I had several good runs, getting to 400nl several times before going bust, but never completed my task. Looking back at the hands now, I realize I was running pretty hot and playing mediocre. Still, I thought I must be somewhat good at HU to make those runs, so it was worth a shot. With my 300$ roll I began my venture into HUNL. After breaking even for a few thousand hands I went on a tear, winning 30 BI in about 5k hands. At this point I thought that I had found my game, and the world was mine. Then disaster struck. With my new found hubris, I decided that it would be a good idea to 3 table a good reg on deep tables. I had the worst session of my life thus far, losing 22BI and running 10BI below EV. I certainly played poorly and got absolutely wafflecrushed my the guy. I had never really battled a reg before, and had no idea how to play against a frequent 3 bettor. I was calling a ton of 3bets, and would often go broke with second pair 200bb deep on the flop, chalking it up to a cooler. I tilted like never before, and soon found myself with a nearly breakeven month. Thank god for rakeback, the only thing that saved me.

By the time May came around I realized that my hubris was what had led me to such a crushing blow, and vowed to have humility and work hard. I started watching videos and really worked on my game, while also putting in a lot of volume. I ran about 12 BI above expectation, which always helps as well. I remember watching my lifetime winrate slowly rise from the grave and thinking that maybe all was not lost for me. I decided that I would play 100k hands at 50nl before I moved up to 100nl, as I was feeling very cautious given my previous swings.

When June rolled around, I decided to say eff it and made the jump to 100nl. I had a great month for me, and luckily ran very well in my shot. I also took a shot at 200nl, which was successful. For the second month in a row, I ran above expectation, but even if I had ran expectation I would have been very happy with the results. I continued to work on my game, and my confidence began to grow. The only thing I was unhappy with from June was that my volume was only half of what is was in May. I think I was feeling very nitty and didn't want to mess up my pretty graph (lol).

July was an absolutely awesome month for me, and still my best to date. Despite running 1200 below EV, I managed to book a near 10k win with rakeback. I was really coming into my own and looking back on that graph, I am very proud of it. I worked hard, putting in more volume then ever before, while still maintaining a very high level of play. However, this new high brought out my arrogance again, as I felt the world was mine.

August was a great month for me as well, though I did fairly poorly in HUNL cash. I played some tournaments, and managed my biggest score ever in a 125$ tournament on Full Tilt, for nearly 6k. I also played a bit of live, and managed to win around 2500 in just 10-12 hours of live 500nl play (ran very hot). I ended up the month with another nearly 10k win, but things were starting to unravel. I was no longer actively working on my game, and my volume and level of play had suffered significantly.

September was another low volume month for me, putting in only about 20k hands. I did fairly well, but only won about 3500. Its not chump change, but my level of play was not what it was the previous months.

In October the shit hit the fan. I ran worse than I ever had before, but my I seemed to be on permatilt. I didn't adjust well to my opponents, and chalked every hand up to a cooler. I lost about 2k in October, having the first losing month of my career. This wouldn't have been so bad, but at about the same time I withdrew almost all of my roll in order to finish paying off my car. At the same time I used the rest of my available funds to furnish my new office. This left me with a small bankroll that was unable to sustain the swings. I even moved back down to 50nl, but to no avail. By the end of the month I was busto.

November began with me back where I had started, with 3$ 90 mans. I had only a 100$ bankroll again, and I need to build it fast. Unfortunately, the games had gotten somewhat tougher, and instead of maintaining a 100% ROI as I had done over a large sample before, I was running at around 30% ROI. I was making only about 10$ an hour. I kept it up though, despite my frustration, mainly because I had no choice. A couple good days grew my bankroll to 500$, but I stagnated there. Once again I found my self say eff it, and jumping back into HU. I started back out at 50nl, and once I had 25 BIs took a shot at 100nl that went pretty well. I was back again, and starting to really work on my game again.

At the beginning of December I withdrew a large portion of my roll to pay bills, and was back at 50nl. I went on a tear and quickly took a successful shot at 100nl and then 200nl. Overall this month has been pretty good, though there have been some large swings.

So looking back again at this year I feel that I made many mistakes, but have learned a ton from them. #1. Always keep a healthy bankroll, no matter what.
#2. Space out big changes. #3. Keep a one year reserve fund so the pressure of paying bills never effects your play. #4. Putting in solid volume is the result of living a balanced life, with plenty of sleep and exercise.

Friday, November 13, 2009

11-13-09

Goals for todays session-
Play 8 hours of poker.
Play my A game as often as possible
Work on recognizing triggers of tilt.
Using breathing exercises to help overcome tilt.
Focus solely on poker- no messenger, videos, or surfing while in session.
Not making big moves without information.
Saving timebank for tough decisions.
Learn something.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

11-4-09



Today was another frustrating day, but despite continuing to run very poorly, I booked a small win. Im going to keep putting in the volume even if the winds of variance are against me. I will lower my head and press on endlessly.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

11-2-09



So today went somewhat poorly, but i still managed to break even. The results are a little inaccurate, i actually won about 10.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

October





Well October is done and over, and it was officially my worst month ever. I have never had such a difficult time in a month, I perpetually ran bad and tilted. It was a month that reminded me to be humble despite my recent successes. I dont want to wallow in it too long so I'm just going to post the graphs with stats.

11-1-09



Today I had a pretty good session. I decided to really buckle down and put in some solid hours. Regged for about 8 hours, and got in some good hours. I am proud of the effort I put in today and am going to try to put in another 8 hours of play tomorrow. One of my good friends and fellow 90 man players suggested that we do a challenge this month of who can win the most playing 90 mans, with a couple rules set up. I think this would be a great way to help motivate me to rebuild my bankroll. When we come up with some guidelines I will post them on here. Tomorrow I am going to try to put in similar hours, by coming in prepared and motivated. Above are the stats for today.

Friday, October 30, 2009

10-27-09



I had another frustrating day today, running below expectation and getting a little frustrated. I put in a relatively short session, but made up for that by 16 tabling for a good portion of it. Here are the graph and results.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

10-25-09



Well today went somewhat poorly. I believe I played alright but hit a rough spot in all in EV. I am proud that I managed to avoid tilt and continued to play well. Below is the graph and stats for the day, though they are somewhat inaccurate.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

10-24-09

Well today went significantly better than yesterday. I played just over six hours and despite running somewhat poorly managed a decent profit. Below are the stats for the day and graph, though I am fairly sure that I made 40-50$ more in profit for the day. Good day!

Stakes # ROI% ITM% Time $ Rake Hours $/Hr
3.3 40 86.8 45.0 64.6 114.63 12 6.2 18.44


Friday, October 23, 2009

10/23/09


Today I had a fairly breakeven day playing 3$ 90 mans on FTP. Definitely could have played better but I am pretty happy with the day overall. Below is the graph and stats for the day.

Stakes # ROI ITM Time $ Rake HOurs $/HR
3.3 49 4.4 42.9 62.6 7.06 14.7 6.3 1.13

Not a bad day back and I dont feel nearly as bad. A breakeven day is actually a victory for me at this point

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Back at it

Im back on the grind, feeling fresh and new for the most part. Ive been playing a bit of live poker and tournaments. The switch up of this and a few days off really has helped me regain my love of the game. I also stopped playing NL400 for awhile until im better rolled.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Back again... lol

So I feel I've been missing something out of my life, and I think blogging may be it. I dont get very much time alone with my thoughts these days, so this will be my outlet for that. It will also give me a place to just post my thoughts and brags that my friends would probably get annoyed with if I told them all the time.

So I suppose I should give you guys an idea of what I've been up to poker-wise. A few months ago I switched from grinding 90 mans on FTP to HU cash. I started at 50NL HU for the first month and did very well to start off. I was running somewhere around 20bb/100 over like 20k hands, and thought I was god because I kept hearing 10bb/100 was impossible. I decided to 3 table a reg on deep tables after he dumped one stack to me. He was good and aggressive, and my counter to this was to spew like crazy and 3 and 4-bet a ton. I ran super bad against him, like 10BI below ev, but also played terribly and lost like 1100 to him (all my profit for the month). I just couldn't stand to be beaten by anyone.



This led me to an epiphany that I was being results oriented, and that was what led to my insane monkey spew. After a few days off I went back to grinding 50nl HU and May went much better. I did a much better job of table selecting and quit whenever I thought I was tilting. May was very successful for me. My plan was to play 100k hand of NL50HU, and at the end of may I had played 55k. Heres the graph from that month.



At the beginning of June I was planning to keep playing NL50, but ended up switching to NL100 and NL200 just as the month started. My first month at those levels went quite well, I only played 18k or so hands online but played a bit live and won 1500. Throughout this whole time period I was watching tons of vids and table selecting a ton. Heres the giraffe from that month.



June was pretty cool and my biggest month up then, made like 7400 with rakeback and live pokers.

For july I set my sights on making 10k and came pretty close to accomplishing it. Came up just short but with rakeback it was around 9900. I ran worse than I ever have before which frustrated me but I also put in a ton of volume as well. Heres the graph from July.



So far august has not been going to well. I am winning like 700 but have had huge swings on a daily basis (like 2k swings). That doesnt bother me as much as this general feeling of not caring. I feel kinda burnt out, working at starbucks and doing 30+ hour weeks at poker with videos and playing time. Plus this pre-paid legal thing is stressing me out as now I feel I have another responsibility that I dont relly want. Heres the month so far:



So that pretty much brings us up to date. I left a lot out but I didn't feel like writing 5 hours on this. I'll probly post more later today.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I'm back

Well I have been seriously neglecting this blog, but I'm gonna be back posting more regularly now. I went through some tough times and had too much pride to post my poor results. I'll post a review of February later

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

1/17/09

Some goals for this session:
8 hours of solid play
Follow the guide I have written myself
Follow the BRM guidelines I have set out
Not cross the threshold
Be process oriented, not results oriented
Right a solid review

Thursday, February 12, 2009

2/11/09


Today was a pretty solid 5 hour session. I went cashless for the first 4.5 hours, which made me want to rip my hair out, but at the end I managed a win and a 5th in a 26$ which brought me to a total profit of $212. My overall level of play was ok, but I think I was tilted when I took multiple bad beats in under 1 minute for large stacks. Had I stuck to my formula I probably would have made around $500 instead. At least I am recognizing the tilt now so that I can take action against it. When this trigger for tilt happens in the future I will take a few deep breaths, review my strategy, and continue to play. It would be nice if I could just take a break, but the nature of these games prevent that. As I learn more about tilt management I can come up with better strategies. Anyway, here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 35 $5.33 $14 -5% $187

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

2/10/2009


I feel today was the breakthrough that I really needed. I started to really apply the concepts in my guide, and play a bit more conservatively. I feel that my level of play toward the end was very good, mainly due to my mentality. I will finish the overall first draft of it by the end of the week, focusing mainly on the mid-endgame as that is the part that generally gives me the most trouble. Luckily I have found that this section is much simpler that I had thought before and most of the concepts that begin to present themselves in the mid game are the same as those in the end-game. Total profit was 198$. Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 22 $10.3 $14 123% $227

Week 6 (2/2/09-2/8/09)


This week was incredibly tilting and frustrating, but I gained a lot from it, even though in total I lost 30$. Writing the guide that I am now will help me in several ways in the long run and will make me much more profitable. I really need to work on my hours of play, but being that I was tilted nearly the whole time, I think I really just need to work on my mentality so that I feel better when I play.

Total hours: 18.5
Total profit: -$30
Hourly rate: -1.61$/hour

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 122 -$0.04 $14 -2% -$5

2/8/09


Today was the most frustrating day yet. I only played 4.5 hours, and became very tilted at the end. I continued to work on my guide though and I believe it will help a lot. I won $54 today, here are the stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 33 $1.64 $14 33% $54

2-6-09


Today was another frustrating day. I played for about four hours, and about the whole time I was tilted. I only lost 12$, but all the uncertainty I felt because of the tilt made it difficult to play. However this lead to me beginning to write a guide for 90 mans, that will allow me to standardize my play. I think this guide will help me a lot in the future. Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 23 -$0.62 $14 -31% -$14

2/5/09


Today was a fantasticly disastrous 4 hour session. I am writing this 5 days later because I was so ashamed of how this session. It was my biggest losing session so far this year, I lost about 240. I feel that I was playing poorly and this was the main cause of this loss, but also I was running fairly badly. Here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 25 -$9.76 $14 -44% -$244

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

2/3/2009


Today was a fairly meh 6 hour session. I made a small profit, despite taking some horrible beats HU a couple times. Felt like my play was pretty good overall. I had a moment of clarity today when I realized that I am making myself vulnerable to resteals by opening to often, and as such I will probly be stealing a little less in LP, and looking for other opportunities to gain chips uncontested. Total profit was $168. Sharkscope:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 41 $4.84 $14 12% $198

Monday, February 2, 2009

Improvements for February

Overall my venture into semi-pro poker has gone quite well! I have already had great success beating the games that I am good at, maintaining a very good hourly rate and relatively low session to session variance (variance with sessions has been relatively high though). I have thought about adding in new types of tournaments so that I can use my time more effectively, but for now I think I should stay with my 90 mans until I am totally comfortable, financially stable, and well equipped enough to deal with playing multiple types of games at once. So what this means is that I will not be mixing in 18, 27, or 45 mans until May of this year.

One of the most frustrating things thus far has been trying to get in my desired hours of play while maintaining a healthy lifestyle, a high level of play, and avoiding tilt. I do not think that arbitrarily saying that I will raise my hours by 6 a week will work, as I do not think I could handle that volume right now. I think eventually I could but only through slowly increasing my average per week. In January I average 21.7 hours per full week of play. So for February I will have an absolute minimum of 23.5 hours per week. My goal is an average of 24 hours per week, which would be a small, but meaningful increase in total hours of play. Slowly adding in time makes it much less intimidating for me to add in hours.

The results I would like to achieve this month are:
*$7700 total profit
*Increase hourly rate to $80/hour
*Feel better while playing
*Average 24 hours a week
*Read one book on poker


I will do this by achieving these goals daily and weekly
*Improving my focus
*Removing distractions
*Improving on my confidence in the face of negative variance
*Listening to classical music while playing
*Closing Trillian as soon as I register for a tournament
*Not opening a web browser except to Sharkscope other players while in session. All other research/surfing must be done before or after session. (an exception to this rule is when I have 3 or less tables open)
*Using the concepts contained in the Secret to reduce tilt and increase level of play.
*Absolutely no videos or movies while in a session, for any reason.
*An absolute minimum of 23.5 hour minimum per week
*Read through HoH Volume 2
*Have a jug of water, and some snacks ready before I start my session

I am very proud of the discipline I have maintained and will continue to maintain as I slowly master my games. I have recognized that greatness is a gradual process, and that the only way I will reach it is through taking small steps. My next step is to 3 months of solid winning play at the 90 mans, mastering myself. Then I can move up to the 45 mans in order to increase hourly (however variance will also increase). This will work!

Week 5 (1/26/09-2/1/09)


This week was pretty solid despite 75% of my sessions being losing ones. I had a bit of a tilt problem this week as I think playing consecutive days really hurt my focus and drive to play well. Still overall a good week

Total hours: 21
Total profit: $1137
Hourly rate: $54.1/hour

Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 149 $7.73 $14 67% $1,152

2/1/09


Well today was a somewhat interesting 4.5 hour session. I ran pretty terribly despite breaking even. I think my focus could have been better. Total profit was $-36. Sharkscope:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 36 $0.01 $14 14% $0

Friday, January 30, 2009

January Review


Well there is no doubt that this has been my most profitable month ever at poker, online or live. I was fairly consistent about putting in high volume hours, and my level of play was quite high. My hourly rate was around where I had projected it to be, and my negative variance was almost non-existent. That being said, I still have a lot of room for improvement. I definitely have a tilt issue when my sessions run on back to back days, or even if I'm running bad. I either go on a wild sort of tilt or I just go on autopilot, reading forums or paying attention to other things instead of focusing. That being said, when I do focus to hard I seem to play a little to splashy. Also, I need to play more hour, not a ton more, but like 5-7 more a week. Not doing so will cost me a lot of money in the long run. I also need to find a way to incorporate other types of games into my sessions (at the beginning or end or wherever I am running under 12 tables) so as to increase my hourly. However these must not too much focus away from my normal games so as to cause me to lose money there. I also need to set up for my sessions better. To often I time out when I go to get a glass of water, or some food. I should have a jug of water and a couple snacks sitting by me while I wait. If i start to feel restless I could do some stretching while playing.

Total Profit: $6413
Total hours played: 91.25 hours
Hourly rate: $70.2/h

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 643 $9.69 $14 68% $6,232

1/30/09


I had a meh session today. Took about 5.5 hours and I lost about $46 dollars. I was very bothered by the fact that I just seemed to be playing sloppily and without concern. I believe I was slightly burnt out as this was my third day in a row playing, but this was also some form of tilt. I will be discussing this more in my monthly review.
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 40 -$0.35 $14 16% -$14

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

1/28/09


Today was a very profitable 5.5 hour session. In fact, it was my most profitable session ever. I ran pretty well throughout, and managed to tack on 3 wins (too $11s and one $26) in a matter of 10 minutes at the end, a first for me. Total profit was $1365, and here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 31 $41.74 $14 298% $1,294

1/27/09


Today was a slightly losing 5.5 hour session. Generally played a little too splashy, and lost almost all my key flips. Still managed to control losses pretty well though without any top 4 cashes. Total loss was -$146. Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 42 -$3.06 $14 -8 -$129

Monday, January 26, 2009

Week 4 (1/19/09-1/25/09)


This week was not bad overall. I really feel that I could have had a 4-500 dollars more in profit if I had been more focused during the time that I had to play. I also really need to put in more hours. My solution for this problem is to regularize my hours. I will do this by changing my available hours at Starbucks. Based on some Sharkscope stats showing that I have the most profit between the hours of 2PM and 8PM, I have come up with the following regular weekly schedule for poker:

Monday- off
Tuesday- 12:30PM-6:30PM
Wednesday- 10:00AM-4PM
Thursday- 12:30PM-6:30PM
Friday- 3:00PM-9:00PM
Saturday- off
Sunday- 10:00AM-4PM

Of course, most of these sessions will run under 6 hours, but this more regularized schedule will allow me to also regularize my Starbucks hours, and is also conveniently positioned while my girlfriend is at work (she's a server at a local golf club). I will have to fill out a new availability form at Starbucks, but this will actually give me more hours of availability.

Here are the total stats for the week.

Total hours of play: 20.25
Total profit: $1336
Hourly rate: $66/hour

1/25/09


Today ended up being a pretty good 5 hour session. I feel that I played about my B- game, mostly because I was trying to do too many things at once (non-poker related) and this caused me to time out and fold in various key spots. Total profit was $336. Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 35 $9.57 $15 68% $335

Saturday, January 24, 2009

1/23/09


Had a pretty good 5.5 hour session today. Total profit was $884. I really felt this was a breakthrough after my past few break-even sessions. We shall see though.

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 36 $24.86 $14 140% $895

Friday, January 23, 2009

1/22/09


Had a small winning session today, 4.25 hours and a total profit of $69 (lol). Sharkscope:
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 34 -$0.09 $14 23% -$3

Thursday, January 22, 2009

1/21/09


Well I had another somewhat mediocre session, about 5.5 hours long, but that is bound to happen occasionally. Overall felt I played pretty well, might have made a few too many read based spewy plays. Total profit was $47, but here is the Sharkscope.

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 40 $0.2 $12 53% $8

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Week 3 (1/12/09-1/18/09)


This week was very frustrating overall. I started off very strong but then started running terribly and I started to question my play. I am going to try to take a few days off and gather my thoughts, and do some more reading, which I have been neglecting. Looking back objectively though, this was still a good week, and I made way more than I would have at Starbucks lol. I only played 23 hours, and I would like to average higher than this. Putting in the hours is tougher than I imagined. I have noticed that a 6 hour session (at least planned that way) in late morning to mid afternoon seems to be optimal. I would like to try for 30 hours a week, so perhaps I should adjust my availability at my other job so that I can have more regular hours of play.

Total hours of play: 23 hours
Total profit: $1005
Hourly rate: 43.7$/hour

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 168 $5.67 $14 43% $952

1/18/09


Today was another mediocre 6.5 hour session. Ran somewhat bad but also made some key errors. I feel very burnt out, I'm gonna take a few days off and just study a bit. Will probably self-exclude for 24 hours or so. Anyway a total profit of $12 lol. Sharkscope stats:
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 49 $0.25 $14 55% $12

1/17/09


Well today went pretty poorly but once again I was able to control my losses with some solid cashes on the end. Ended down only $96. Started drinking once I was done loading and finished early because I was too tilted. I believe I was playing somewhere around my C game during this session :(. Maybe tomorrow will go better. Here are the Sharkscope stats:
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 36 -$2.42 $13 -10% -$87

Friday, January 16, 2009

1/16/09


Today was a very stressful 6.5 hour session, but I think I managed to pull through it pretty well. Started around 10:30 AM, and had a terrible run for the first 4.5 hours where my only cash was like $21 lol. I was down like $750, but managed to pull a win in a $26 and $11 and some other medium cashes to end up $227. Here are the Sharkscope stats:
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 51 $5.84 $13 39% $298

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

1/14/09


Today was a pretty nice little 4.5 hour session. Started off as usual with me sustaining some heavy losses and getting frustrated, but I held it together and managed to pull a very good ending. I tried to never back off the throttle, as I often do if I am tilted or feel I have enough chips to survive without good play. Net profit was $791. Here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 29 $26.95 $13 110% $782

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Week 2- (1/5/09-1/11/09)


This week went pretty well overall I think. Started off running pretty well and then hit some negative variance, but dealt with it pretty well. My internet connection probably cost $50-150 in equity at least. Would like to play more next week if possible. Here are my total stats:

Total hours of play: 22.5
Total profit: $2303
Hourly rate: $102.36/hour




Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 163 $14.04 $14 75% $2,288

1/11/09


Not too bad of a day. played a nice little 6 hour session starting at 11:20 AM. Ran pretty darn bad but still managed to pull together a decent profit on the end. Tilted a little but tried to keep perspective. My new attitude this year is to become somewhat detached from short term results and focus on success over thousands of tournaments, and that even large downswings have relatively little meaning if dealt with effectively. Just think long term. Looking at other highly successful players in my type of tournament has really motivated me to keep going, and stay humble. Net profit was $253. Here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 41 $6.83 $14 50% $280

1/9/09


Well today was the first losing session of the year. Played 5 hours total, starting around 4PM. Was probably playing my B- game, but also ran pretty terribly. I actually ended up being pretty happy with how it ended up, I managed to cut my losses from -$500 to -$119 total for the day. Here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 42 -$2.42 $14 -28% -$102

Thursday, January 8, 2009

1/08/09


Well today I had a pretty nice little 6 hours session. Started off at 4pm, and things did not go well to start off. I kept at it tho, keeping 8-12 tables open and constantly loading 26$s. At one point I was down 500$ on the day (well really 500$ invested), but I pulled even and then had a miraculous double win within 1 minute of two 26$s. I ran pretty damn hot, which kinda scares me because I know I will see the other side of that, but for now I can't complain. Today Was my biggest day ever, online or live. With bounties it totaled to 1261$, my previous biggest day was 1120$. Here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
Chuckruns 36 $34 15$ 176% $1224

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

1/06/09


So I had a pretty nice little 5.8 hour session today. Started around 4pm, and started out busting out of a lot of tourneys then had some solid cashes and held on. It seems that the 26$ 90 mans are continuing to be by far my most profitable game, my ROI is up at 78%. I am slowly raising my ROI for the 11$s, currently it is at 43%, which makes a 5% raise for the year so far. Total profit was 918$ with bounties, but here are the Sharkscope stats:




Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 44 $20.13 $13 114% $886

Monday, January 5, 2009

Resolution #1- 50 books

So I recently rediscovered that reading is the only pay to truly and consistently stimulate by brain into growth. So I decided that this year, I was going to read 100 books. When I did the math I realized that was a book every 3.65 days, and promptly decided that there was no way I could do this. But being the stubborn ass that I am (thank god) I decided to try to keep to that goal. But now I've changed my mind to go for 50 books a year, much more than the 8 or so I read last year. I will be updating this note with the name of each book I read, and perhaps a short review if I'm feeling especially nerdy.

1. The Psychology of Poker , by Alan N. Schoonmaker, PhD.
Definitely worth the read, totally redefined my outlook on player types, their tendencies, and motivations. Addressed a lot of very important underlying issues that most poker books ignore.

Week 1 (1/1/09-1/4/09)


Well here's the results for the first week of 2009.
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 56 $10.61 $14 79% $594

I only played about 9 hours I think, which seriously cut into my bottom line, but my overall quality of play was very good. Somehow managed to play a nearly equal amount of 11$ and 26$ tournaments. Overall, not bad for a 4 day week. I need to put more volume in obviously.