The Professional Poker Player

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Stevie, I'm trying to get your point-total hi enuf to buy yourself a Gift-card:

"You still have the truck?"

[stevek173]

Stevie, I'm watching "Rounders" on auto-recycle. I can almost quote the whole movie:

"I pay Alimony. My kids eat."

Joey Knish, my poker idol!

[stevek173]

He should never have friendzoned Petra!

[ChuckyTheGoat]

He should have given Petra a down-payment for sure.

[stevek173]

[pabonaparte]

He should have given Petra a down-payment for sure.

And they should have shown it uncut. No stunt doubles!

[RudyRuetigger]

ofcourse steve cannot send pics

steve sold the camera to replace the hole in the ceiling

[sweep]

somebody loan Stevie 50 cents for todays newspaper all his cash is on the table apparently

[stevek173]

Rudy correct again

always is Sweep

I AM THE GAME

[sweep]

stevie i call bullsh*t pal.....take a pic at a brick n' mortar poker table with a stack of chips and a current day newspaper. 500 points says you cant by this Saturday. Prove me wrong Stevie!!!!

Stevie- deadline tomorrow!!! Prove us all wrong pal!

[Ballerholic]

Monthly Profit: $917 ($402 from Live after 9 hours)

Hours Played: 67

Sports Total: $456


Saturday night I went out to play some live poker. Hand 1: UTG limps, I UTG+2 with QJs make it $10. BU calls. Flop is AsTo2s. I cbet 60%, Bu folds, UTG raises to 50, I tankjam all in and he calls with AKo. We decide to run it twice and I hit a spade both times!!! The guy was fuming! Another hand I ended up having bottom straight 45 on a 2687 board double suited mw pot and I didn't raise at all during the hand as I'm beat by too much. Good thing because one guy had a full house on turn. So month has gone really well in terms of hourly and I am happy with the profit. I'm obviously looking to make more, but I won't complain. I'm running wayyyy over EV so I'm due for a huge downswing and in reality I should only be up a few hundred for the month. I think I'm going to try and focus more of my effort on live poker for the upcoming month. Online poker is great, but I think I can make way more playing live. Also some of the stuff I see live is just lolol. One hand both players get all in and player busts all his chips, but the dealer made a mistake and gave the guy a $5 chip without realising. He ended up running that $5 into $280!! WTF man, insanity.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Stevie, when they make Rounders2, u should be in the cast. Could u pass for Knish's son?

[Ballerholic]

Monthly Profit: $1,201

Hours Played: 90

Sports Total: $113


So the month is up! September was a very interesting poker month. I was up, then down, then up, then down. Hit some big swings of variance for sure. I play about 4 different online sites as well as live, but every single one plays different from each other. I think this month I'm going to focus almost all of my volume on Sky poker and Live casino. I found an amazing casino this weekend. Went Saturday night into the heart of Dublin. The Casino was top class, nicest casino I've ever seen. Unfortunately, games don't start until around 11:30pm, but they run until 6am. Game started off 4 handed, 2 fish, 1 bad reg, and myself. We played 1/2 with a $5 straddle every hand. So huge game that I'm really not used to playing. Unfortunately I didn't hit anything so I went down pretty big to start, but made it all back by stacking one of the fish. These guys were just punting off stacks, once we got at least 6 players the flop was usually already at $100!!!! Big loss happened in a limped pot I got stacked after flopping a set, when my opponent flopped a full house. I was down about $300, but I came back and booked a $30 profit after 6 hours of play. It was the most card dead I've ever been in a live game and man I could have easily destroyed that game with some decent hands. My biggest pot came from a 3bet preflop and 4 of us go to flop. I flop a set, and I turn a boat after an A pairs the board. That was all she wrote for my opponent and he got stacked there. So I'll definitely be playing more in this game from now on.

Sports have gone really well all month long, but we had a terrible weekend loosing around $400.

Goals for October

Play 100 hours of Online Poker
Play 40 hours of Live Poker



To improve my poker play, before each session I need to watch 15 minutes of a poker video to get my mind right. Also do some kind of workout/stretching if I can beforehand and relax my mind as much as possible. If I look at my poker hands over the past month I will see that I lost at least $300 from making plays I know are wrong. Let's hope this month goes well!!!!

[garvardntl]

excellent read, thanks for sharing this

Question: are your expenses account for in your monthly totals? Do you consider paid picks or poker training part of the expenses, and if so are they included into your monthly totals?

goodluck going forward!

[bobbywaves]

Monthly Profit: $1,201

Hours Played: 90

Sports Total: $113

Where did your poker coach thread go?

[slikec]

Big loss happened in a limped pot I got stacked after flopping a set, when my opponent flopped a full house.

How can that happen? I think you meant you flopped trips and he full house.

[BetterBizness]

I lived this life once... enjoy the moment.

[Ballerholic]

garv- thanks man! The totals that I post here are all amounts made at the tables or through sports betting without subtracting my monthly expenses. The picks I paid for before the season and I pay about $300-400 for poker coaching each month.

bobby- i received an infraction from the mods because i was advertising financial transactions thru paying for poker which is not allowed so they deleted the thread.

slik- A set=trips. So I had J3o and he had QQ. Flop came QJJ.



better- any stories to share?

[slikec]

Wau ppl played 75% of hands and someone limps QQ. Still you had really poor kicker to stack off on that board.

But set is not trips. If you wanna be coach you have to know the difference. You can get set with PP(pocket pair) and trips on paired boards.

[sweep]

Good read here for Baller-

There is a vast difference in the way you play a poker hand when you flop a “set” versus when you flop “trips”. A set is having a pocket pair and getting a third on the flop. Trips is having one card in your hand, such as a seven, and getting two more on the flop.
It is difficult to understand just how much more powerful and deceptive a set is. Three of a kind, in my opinion, is the first really powerful hand in Hold’Em, but if everyone at the table can see two of your three cards, they all become much more cautious. For example, if you hold one Nine in your hand and the flop is Ace/Nine/Nine, you can come out with a nice big bet, but the guy holding Ace/King is going to hesitate to call it. However, if you hold Nine/Nine in your hand and the flop is Ace/King/Nine, a nice big bet by you will probably be followed by a nice big bet from your opponent with the Ace/King.
Now the situation above would be perfect for you and is unusual. It is more likely that you will be up against someone on a draw than someone who flops two pair. For example, you may hold the Nines, but the flop will be 3/8/9. In this case you do want to make a bet, but you want to keep the chasers in the pot so you have to make the bet small. The other players with the two over cards (such as Ace/Jack) will think they still have a chance to win the hand with the cards on the Turn or River. The important thing is to not chase the other players out with outrageously large bets.
You do still have to bet enough to take the other player’s pot odds away. You don’t want the player drawing to make his Straight or Flush to be able to stay in the hand cheaply. This is why it is important to evaluate the Flop and watch the other players as well when making your bet. A player making a moderate bet in late position is likely drawing to make his or her hand. When there is a straight or flush draw on the board, it is often profitable to check and let a player on a draw make the first bet. Then you come back over them with a raise.
Having Trips is much more difficult to judge. You might not even be the only player at the table with Three of a Kind, in which case you need a good kicker or it could cost you a lot of money. You will not be surprising anyone with your Three of a Kind in this situation though. I find I have made more money in this situation by checking and letting someone else bet top pair or bluff at the pot in this situation. Any bet you make will probably convince the other players to fold unless the player already has, or is drawing to make, a better hand than your Trips.
As you can see, you need to play both a Set and Trips very differently. Only experience and instinct will teach you what to do in every situation since there is always a lot of improvisation involved in poker.

[Ballerholic]

slik- ok i didn't realize there was a difference, now i see. Also that is probably the one hand I regret. The table were extremely fishy and bluffy so I called down here, although the whole time my intuition was saying to fold.

sweep- thanks, yea definitely need to play them differently. Play a set with higher aggression than you should trips. Although this is very board/villain dependent.

[bobbywaves]

bobby- i received an infraction from the mods because i was advertising financial transactions thru paying for poker which is not allowed so they deleted the thread.

I tried warning you about that. But since SBR doesn't give us the option to edit/delete our own threads for whatever reason, my warning did you no good.

[Ballerholic]

yea bobby you did, but what could I have done as you said we can't delete threads. Maybe if it's for betpoint transactions it will be okay? To be fair optional said that he liked my idea, but that it is against SBR rules so he had to take it down unfortunately...

[Ballerholic]

Monthly Profit: $380

Hours Played: 4

Sports Profit: $113


Unfortunately I played some live poker and ran soooooo bad. So I have just under $300, and I hold 88. We go 6 way to flop at $10 each. Flop is 689dd. I x, other big stack bets $25, I raise to $75. She then jams all in and I call. Turn is Q and River is a Diamond. She has Q7dd for a flush. Then another hand I have AKo, I raise to $10, 6 callers and we got to flop where I hit a K on a 2 flush board. I go HU with the other big stack and she ends up hitting a flush on me again on the turn. Then another hand with the big stack board runs out A245, I have 63s. We get it all in on river and she turns over 63s. Then I get it all in on flop in a mw pot with TPKkicker and opponent hits 2pair on river. Down $500 for the session. What can you do. I'm going to be playing a lot of live poker this weekend as well so hopefully I can turn things around. I'll also have to start playing some more online and getting hours in. The way I look at it is that I've played 4 hours so far this month, at my expected hourly of $15 that's $60 I am up for the month.

[sweep]

Monthly Profit: $380

Hours Played: 4

Sports Profit: $113


Unfortunately I played some live poker and ran soooooo bad. So I have just under $300, and I hold 88. We go 6 way to flop at $10 each. Flop is 689dd. I x, other big stack bets $25, I raise to $75. She then jams all in and I call. Turn is Q and River is a Diamond. She has Q7dd for a flush. Then another hand I have AKo, I raise to $10, 6 callers and we got to flop where I hit a K on a 2 flush board. I go HU with the other big stack and she ends up hitting a flush on me again on the turn. Then another hand with the big stack board runs out A245, I have 63s. We get it all in on river and she turns over 63s. Then I get it all in on flop in a mw pot with TPKkicker and opponent hits 2pair on river. Down $500 for the session. What can you do. I'm going to be playing a lot of live poker this weekend as well so hopefully I can turn things around. I'll also have to start playing some more online and getting hours in. The way I look at it is that I've played 4 hours so far this month, at my expected hourly of $15 that's $60 I am up for the month.

why not just use a poker tracker app on your phone and post screens here??? Way easier imo

[Ballerholic]

Steve- I could do that, I only haven't because it takes forever to upload photos here and I don't only play live poker. But in case you wondering I have a profit of $2,044 over 38 hours of play live. That's obviously over the past few months. This month I am -$80 after 8 hours.

[stevek173]

Steve- I could do that, I only haven't because it takes forever to upload photos here and I don't only play live poker. But in case you wondering I have a profit of $2,044 over 38 hours of play live. That's obviously over the past few months. This month I am -$80 after 8 hours.

Wow, sick! What stakes/site? I wouldn't ask you for screens man.

I hit a nice bonus yesterday on my way out that really hit the spot. October off to a decent start.

[Ballerholic]

****Quarter Monthly Update****

Monthly Profit: $360.29

Hours Played: 14

Sports Total: $61.01


Bad start to the month. It's part of poker. Only 14 hours played so far and since I expect minimum $10 an hour I'll just keep thinking I'm up $140 for the month. Need to put in a lot more volume, but I've got a lot of school exams and assignments coming up. Anyway, I got really unlucky on Wednesday night, the worst I've ever run in a cash game live and walked away down 2.5 buyins. So not the worst outcome. Friday I went to the casino and everybody at the table were basically sitting with $500 minimum. Some guys had near $1000 in a 1/2 game! WTF. Now these guys were the best live players I've ever played with. Some of them used to be poker pros, and they all play $200+ buyin tournaments and even travel to different tournaments around Europe and even vegas. Anyway I buy in for $250, I have about $300 in total and then I get dealt 44 first to act after guy to my right straddles to $5. I limp, and we get 8 limpers to the flop. Flop comes K43r. I x, one guy behind bets $30, buy to my right goes all in with $22 (lol) and I call. So turn is the T of diamonds so there are now two diamonds on board. Pot is about $122. I've probably got about $250 left behind. I donk here (by accident, i thought I was the cbettor for some reason) to $75. The guy asks how much I have behind and jams over me, in which I snap call. River is a brick and I show my set of 4s which are good. Man I ran so hot that night. I got AA, KK twice, AK four times, JJ twice, TT. All in 4 hours! I ended up cashing out for $420.

Another hand I'm on BU, it limps around I make it $15 with KK, another good reg calls. Flop is T83r or something. I cbet he calls. Turn is A. He x, I x behind. River he bets out big, just under pot, and I tank for a bit. No draws complete, but it obviously looks like I don't have an A here. Part of the reason I x behind the A turn is because I fold worse and only really better call here and I have a value hand, no need for protection really. If he has an A he's beating me. I only x back this turn so that he can fire river as a bluff and I have to call with KK. So river here is a snap call, but because he made it so big and because it's a live game I tank for a bit. I ended up calling and I win the pot. The funny thing is most people at the table were like, "wow I wouldn't have called that river there, good call!" and the pro next to me said to the villain "He had to call there you never have an A there" to which the villain responded "Yea but he doesn't know that". So basically I got labeled as a fish at the table with my American accent and going out clothes on a Friday night. I love being labelled a fish. The only way I get jammed on in that first hand with 44 is probably because they think I'm a fish. Like what other hands can villain have that jam turn. K3, K4, 33. But if he thinks I'm a fish he can jam turn lighter which leave give him way more combos of worse hands than mine there.

So that night was good, unfortunately my GF called me and I had to run and collect her when she was drunk and alone at mcdonalds....Great friends of her's....I also didn't play Saturday night because I needed to spend all today studying for a test Monday. So looking back at this week, I've run terribly at Online Poker, Terrible at Live poker as well. Sure, I got dealt some good hands, and took advantage of them Friday night, but I've got sucked out on so hard Wednesday and all week online. At least it means the games are good.

Sports have kind of gone downhill. All the picks for today are my own so I'll post them right now for you all.

$44 on each:

Bills +3
Cowboys -2
Browns pk
Cols -1.5
Ravens +3

[stevek173]

Nice job man!

Lol at being the fish because of an American accent, nice play with the set. I probably would 've folded KK there, nice call.

[Ballerholic]

Steve- Haha thanks steve, yea it's pretty funny. Anywhere I go I'm instantly considered a fish. About 2 weeks ago I went to play and right when I sat down and opened my mouth to buy chips a player at the table asked the dealer if he could move to the seat to my left lol.

Alright guys, so I've been not putting in enough hours because I want to play poker in the right mindset. That means getting in some kind of workout beforehand, meditation, quick study session. However, being a student/working part time it just doesn't work out that way. I'm going to have to try and put in more hours just whenever I can. As well, I'm going to be studying some PLO. I've got Upswing Poker PLO Course so I'm going to start studying this seriously. The only 2/5 games that run regularly in Dublin are PLO and apparently they are very fishy. Also PLO is a game with very little information out there, just having this course gives me a huge edge if I can learn it.

[stevek173]

Good luck with that man, personally I can't handle limit games because the donks hit their draws enough on me getting their stacks in, I don't need to play limit and have it easier for them to do that.

One of the biggest douchbag moves I've seen yet pulled on me yesterday - I flop a set and a guy rivers a straight on me. I say "do you have a straight?" He says "no" so I show my set, he shakes his head and flips over the straight, lol. We all called him slowroll for the rest of the session. Douche.

I hear you on wanting workouts before sessions, man - I do as well when I have time.

GL man.

[sweep]

[stevek173]

Nice move by "slowroll" right Sweep?

Unreal.

[Ballerholic]

Monthly Profit: $409.67

Hours played: 22

Sports: $110.69


So far it has just been a bad month overall. I hit a downswing with poker to start the month, but I haven't been able to grind out of it because I've been so busy with school. I'll definitely try to get more hands in this weekend for sure. I may even try out global poker as I have heard some very good things...Sports are going bad too, but that happens. I'm still very confident in my game and just need to put in the hours. I will be buying a desktop PC soon so that should make grinding 100x better than doing in on my 13 inch macbook.

[stevek173]

Ty for the update Baller.

Check out this hand from yesterday:

Me in the hole: KK (suits aren't important on this one)

I bet out $20, one caller

Flop 4 6 8

I bet $25, he calls

Turn - A

I put him on an ace with possible two pair

check, he checks

river - K

He bets out $35, I put him on the two pair which I just beat so I raise to $85, he takes a few seconds and shoves. He wouldn't have played aces that way, maybe a smaller set?

I tank for a bit and ask him "wow, did you flop the straight?"

He's a nice guy with money and he says "they were suited"

I proceed to make a call that costs me 3.8 units and it was one of the worst calls I've made in a long time. He obviously flopped the straight, looking back. Grr. I don't write that off to bad luck or a horrible card for me, I HAVE TO get away from it. No excuse.

$1,715 for me so far in October, not bad but should be higher.

It's good you're making school the priority man, keep up the good work and bol.