wbmustang's poker blog

Words Can't Express How On Tilt I Am! F Washington Government!

2010-09-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

This needs no explanation after you read what PokerStars sent me. Just another reason to find my way out of Washington. I might of found a loophole but won't talk about it on here.

Hello wbmustang,

We regret to inform you that real money play at PokerStars is no longer permitted in Washington State.

Due to the recent Washington Supreme Court ruling on Internet gambling, we have blocked real money play for all players from Washington, effective immediately. This unfortunate step is being taken based on input from our legal team following this court ruling.

Rest assured that your account balance is safe. If you wish to cash out immediately, you can do so.

At this point, we have not yet made provisions for dealing with other balances you may have in your account, such as T-Money and unused tournament tickets. We plan to complete this process in the next 5-7 business days. We appreciate your patience.

September Update

2010-09-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

As always it has been way too long before I have updated this blog. I always think about updating it but don't sit myself down to actually type it. About a couple of weeks ago, my family came into town and I couldn't have been happier. It was the first time my mom and dad actually came out to visit. To be honest it kind of hurt my feelings a little bit but once they explained I felt like an asshole. I mean my sister is in a good college that they are paying for, they go out to visit and check up on her, they are busy with work, and the world doesn't revolve around me. Oh well it is what it is and now I understand and just happy for the visit. They are very happy with where I am at in life and where I live. I was pretty happy too. I mean I have to show them that they didn't just waste money by paying for me to go to school and it payed off with an engineering degree and good career start.

Sometimes I just think that college is a big scam though. Maybe because I think about what a huge investment college is. I mean everything in life has a ROI. It's just ridiculous how low the ROI for college is. I mean we have people who will major in God knows what at a good school, get consumed in student loans, then graduate and try to find a job that pays $40k unless they are an engineer, good business student, or IT/Computer work. It's just a big joke. Why are people paying ridiculous amounts of money on loans to just come out making money and hoping to scrape bye. It just is mind wrecking.

I guess that's part of my America conspiracy theory lol. I mean you get yourself into debt trying to get education. With education comes a decent job. Now you are making more money than the person who has just a high school education so you get taxed more. You are talented so you make more money and you are taxed more. Add onto that the fact you are still paying off government/bank loans for school. It's just a viscous cycle. I don't want to talk shit about anyone's interest or major but it's like if you are not gonna come out making decent money after college what's the point. I mean money isn't everything but geez you just are so handcuffed in that situation. I just think that the USA needs to be paying more money for teachers, counselors, etc to help build itself up. I mean people who teach really really love it and have a passion for it. They have to because they aren't getting paid jack and still putting in all the time and effort of teaching and bringing up the next generation. Then people complain about the shortage of teachers. Duh who wants to teach, work all those hours, and not have anything to show for it. How about increasing salaries/incentives to teachers so attract more people to the profession. I know you are gonna say wb who is going to pay for this. I don't care about all that the fact is that the people that should be getting the money are not.

But I digress. I have been doing pretty good with my diet and fairly good with my Insanity workout program. I have missed some days due to being busy but hop back on it the next day. Sometimes life gets tough but I am not going to give up my goal of finishing the program. I have lost 6 lbs in the first week of doing it so that's a plus and I will continue pushing myself.

In terms of poker volume I need to pick it up or will be paying the piper on this one. I plan of putting in some bigger sessions at night for the rest of the month. Hopefully I can play 6-8 hrs a day until the month is over. Trying to go out with a bang.

Reasons14 also has got me to order the book "Peak Performance Poker". It should be in my mailbox today and look forward to reading it. Probably will try to read it at lunch at work so I can finish it. I don't have any trips planned which sucks because plane trips are an easy way to catch up with your reading.

Other than that life is great and I couldn't be happier. Just trying to keep push myself towards my goals.

Till next time

wbmustang

26 Years Old & Goals

2010-09-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

Well I am officially 26 years old. My birthday was on August 31st and my friends and family made it nice as usual. I always feel like I don't deserve the good people in my life but I am very fortunate to have them in my life.

As my birthday gets closer I often times tend to be very reflective. For me, it gives me time to evaluate myself as well as the last year in my life. I guess I use my birthday as a status check to see where I am at in my life. I think I learned alot about myself and my poker game this year. Although my poker results have been a lot better, I feel like I have a lot of personal development to work on. Then, I started thinking about some goals that I want to accomplish next year. As always, I was flooded with all these ideas of what I wanted to accomplish but didn't want to fool myself and write them down. I am really trying to work on fulfilling my goals and thought that the following simple goals will help me not only in life but in poker as well.

Goal 1: Don't waste time doing non value added things.

As an Industrial Engineer I am taught and trained to eliminate things that are non value added aka waste. Even though this is my profession, I fail to look at myself and realize when I am doing things that are non value added. Non value added things are defined as something that doesn't add value to a process. I feel like I waste far too much time bullshittin and not doing what I am supposed to do. I mean if I am not going to grind at least work out and study right? Well this year I am going to do a better job of valuing my time and making sure I am doing things that add value to my life whether it be spiritually, financially, or physically.

Goal 2: Set REALISTIC goals/targets and meet them.

Obviously this is a recurring thing of my blog duh, but I need to do a better job of setting realistic goals and meeting them. I have a knack of trying to do too much and often times having a high pie in the sky goal and don't even come close to meeting it. It's really starting to piss me off. I don't want to be known as a person that is just all talk. Therefore I want to be one of the people that do things instead of not doing things.

Goal 3: Get in shape and eat right.

I don't know how many countless articles/blogs I have read or podcast that I have listened to that talk about being in good physical shape will also help you mentally. I need to do a better job of not only working out but also eating better. Right now I am 26 years old and probably like in the worst shape of my life which is sad. My plan is to do the insanity workout followed by p90x to get myself in the right direction. I am going to take some before pictures very soon and will take more pictures at the beginning of the year. Regardless of how good/bad they look I will be posting the after pictures on January 1, 2011. If they look worse I will only have myself to blame so it is what it is. I have never really put myself out there like that and it is kind of hard for me. I am very self conscious of my body and the way I look actually. Even though I do have swag I don't want to look back in my life and be like oh hey why were you looking so umm fat. Yeah there is no other way to put it. I look around at work and get real scared because I don't want to look like them when I get older. Older men working in cubicles with big stomachs. Everyone always says that it is easier to lose weight when you are younger rather than when you get older. Well I am not getting any younger and need to shed the weight. Not only will it help me in the long run physically but also my mental stamina will be much higher.

Well now that is out of the way I will list the goals for September below. I am actually going to be putting my money where my mouth is so I will have some financial harm if I do not meet my goals so here they are!

September Goals

1. 1200-1500 SNGs - I have been sucking in terms of my poker volume. I mean I have barely reached 1k games very many times this year which is just gross. I have decided that for ever game that I play below 1200 SNGs I will pay $1 for each game short and donate it to a charity. If I hit that goal of 1200 SNGs and play less than 1500 SNGs I will pay $0.50 per game short. If I actually play more than 1500 I will just come out of pocket $100 and donate it to a charity. I figure it will be a win win situation and look forward to the challenge.

2. Start my diet and insanity workout - I dl'd the videos and have all the nutrition info for the program and will start using the program. My parents are here this weekend so I won't start until next Monday. I am not gonna lie to myself and start while they are here because lets face it I miss mom and dads cooking. So I will officially start on 9/12 or 9/13 just have to look at the workout schedule. I will be taking those before pics and expect to see a lot of improvement before 1/1/11. Wow that looks weird after I typed it.

Well that's it for now. I want to take time to say thank you to all the people that read my blog, my poker network, family, friends, and people that genuinely support me. I don't know where I would be in my life without you and the best is yet to come.

wbmustang

August Results

2010-09-07T11:52:00.001-07:00

Well the results speak for themselves. I had a decent month I guess but my volume is still sorry and my profit could have been better. Not much to say because there only so much you can talk about with 951 games played. However, I am proud that while I was breaking even I increased the amount of studying I was doing. I have also sought after more players to exchange some hand histories with so that is always good. It is always funny how many different styles produce positive results. I guess that's how the game goes though. Will post my goals for the month as well as some other thoughts in my next post.

No Traction

2010-08-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

It seems right now I have no traction. One day I win around $400 the next day I lose $300. It's all good it just feels like I can't get any traction going this month. Although I don't know how much I can complain. I mean I am up money and know that I am running bad late in the 180's by either not having my big hands hold or shoving and someone waking up with a monster.

However, this stretch has made me look at my game and seek out other players to do some reviews with. That is always a good thing. I mean poker is such a psychological game it's ridiculous. One day you can be playing so well and crushing and the next you can be playing well and just run like death. SNG's are all about REPETITION and it's hard for the psychi to think you are doing things correct but you are still not getting the results. That's one thing you have to do is stick to your game. Sure you can make some adjustments.

One big adjustment I need to make is refining my ranges at 45 man final tables. I think I have gotten far too gambly and I blame that solely on the way that 180's play. I need to make a concerted effort to analyze the whole situation before making my moves. For the most part I am good at this but sometimes I have a mental laps and either call or shove and then realize oh snap that was a 45 man table.

"You plug the volume the money will come". I think it was PortlyPig or MSU that said that and it is true. I just need to work on getting in volume. It's hard though especially in the summers in Seattle. There are only so many months of good weather and after that it sucks so gotta take advantage.

Outside of poker I have started to play basketball one time a week as well as playing softball. Everything is going well but I need to do more work outside of those days to get back in shape. The only thing that sucks is that my knees start to get stiff on me if I give them a rest in between games. I am contemplating purchasing some knee braces to help with this issue.

wbmustang

Irresponsible

2010-08-13T22:09:00.001-07:00

I promise I have to be the most irresponsible 25 year old there is. I have to get this together. Once again me being unprofessional has cost me not only a little money but also precious time. No it's not that much money. The time lost means more to me than anything. But, I need to tighten up and get my shit together. Especially after the foolishness of missing that Dominican Republic flight and the bullshit I had to do to make the trip.

This weekend I will not being playing poker. I will be doing a lot of soul searching and meditating. I plan on putting together some goals and plans for myself. I plan on sealing them in an envelope and putting them in a safe deposit box. I won't open the letters to the appropriate date and then see how I did. Hopefully this will give me some motivation.

wbmustang

Bun B - Lights Camera Action

2010-08-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

Bun B's new album Trill O.G goes super hard. RIP Pimp C UGK 4 Life.

Whatever's Clever

2010-08-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

I feel lost. Not lost in the since I don't know where I am but lost just as a person. I know I have a pretty good life, play poker, have a good job, can travel, but I still feel like something is missing or needs to change. I haven't gone to church in weeks just because I am just confused. I know there is a purpose for my life and some type of after life but isn't life about the journey. It's like playing chess or piecing together a puzzle. You often times think about everything you got to get to the final point and look back and it is amazing.

I just am not happy with myself. I am proud of myself because I have an engineering degree, a good job, and a way to supplement my income in a game I love. But physically, I look at myself in the mirror and just get sick. It's not that I don't like myself as a person I just don't like the way I look. I know it's so cliche and I probably sound like a female but whatever. How the hell am I 25 years old going to be 26 at the end of the year and in the worst shape of my life. I look at pictures of myself I took in Dominican Republic and Costa Rica and just shake my head. I need to put the same effort I put into poker into starting to eat healthier and working out. Broken record I know but I will get there soon. I plan on just building my knowledge and reading and wherever it takes me it takes me.

I have never really ever been the skinny guy always the bigger/fat kid. Do I really care? Well somewhat but I know for me to live as long as possible I need to get it together. Not to mention all the things I am more prone to get just by being black. I always joke and say that someone just had it out for black people and try to exterminate us. I mean it's just ridiculous how black people are more prone to end up in jail, have high blood pressure, have diabetes, or prostate cancer. I know it's not the case but it's pretty gross. My goal is to get down to 200 lbs. I will weigh myself tonight and try to update the blog with some type of progress. The last time I weighed 200 was probably like 8-9th grade which is pretty lol I guess.

Enough about that though poker is good. Been trying to put in more volume since I have had time off for school for the majority of this month. I did a decent job of putting a plan together on how to get the volume I want and breaking down which days I will play. It has helped me so far I just need to stay on schedule. That's my main problem though is my schedule which makes it harder to do the simple things in life. I just recently hired a cleaning lady to clean the house because I got sick of my place looking like trash. People think I am crazy but it is well worth the money and it saves me a lot of time. Now if only I can figure out how to start cooking and lifting I will be the truth.

I will be thinking about what direction I want to take this blog. I think I am going to start doing an occasional video update here and there because sometimes I just don't feel like typing. I mean I am happy I started this blog because it has allowed me to express myself in writing a little more. I mean hey I am an engineer I know numbers.

Lastly, congrats to Alex "msusyr24" Carr for making it on tv during the WSOP ME. The hands they showed were kind of trivial but at least he got some face time. It was also funny because Mike Matusow just blew up and looked like he was not well medicated. Oh well that just shows you that poker is a mental marathon and if you are not right upstairs or just slightly off your play will falter. It's about knowing how to play your A game for the longest period of time determines who wins long term. Try to avoid your B game because if you don't you'll just start slippin to C game all the way to F game. I know it made no sense but to me it did.

Till next time be easy.

wbmustang

Here's Wil B

2010-08-07T02:59:00.000-07:00

Man Hold Up! I am so throwed in the game right now it is ridiculous. I really haven't written in this blog because I have had so much on my freaking mind. I feel like I am unstable and sometimes I have to let the hulk out but it is only after listening to music and drinkin ya dig. Anyways what is going on with my life...

I was in Vegas with KB and went to the WSOP and it was a wonderful time. I got to meet a bunch of TG guys, drink, and degen and that is good. Vegas is crazy with all the shopping, good food, and gambling.

Went to Dominican Republic that shit is tight. I would go back next week. I missed my flight and had to pay $1.3k because I was being ignorant and stupid. It was still worth it and memories will last forever. People are lucky I came back to the US. Big shout out to my boys from back in school and Hans for keepin it trill on the local scene. I played poker and think I got cheated because my spanish isn't great. Could of ran bad too but it is what it is and Dominicans hollywood on every street including the river freaking amateurs.

Can't believe how blessed and fortunate I am. I see people struggling to pay bills and rent and wonder why I am in the position I am. It doesn't make since but one day it will.

Next blog won't be so cryptic but hey it is what it is. See me on them tables.

wbmustang

Jadakiss - Allergic to Losing

2010-06-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

May Results

2010-06-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

May went fairly well but I am a little disappointed in my volume. I believe I have some excuses for not hitting my 1k games but I still need to finally get to 1k games played. I was honestly surprised I got in 804 games but I know there were times where I could of grinded and just didn't. It's tough though I mean I had a lot of homework to do last month, I traveled to Philly and Tampa in back to back weeks. I just flat out got tired on the days that I didn't grind. I was just so worn out I would just come home lay on the couch and just pass out. I will do a better job in time management so I don't run myself into the ground.

I am really happy with the way I am playing atm. It seems like when things are going well and everything is clicking there is no thinking involved. I mean yes I think about stack sizes, who is shoving, ranges, etc. but my decisions seem to be so cut and dry which is a good thing. I remember when I started 180's and how lost I felt at some of the stages in the tournament due to not being familiar with the blind structure. I am also pretty proud of myself with my improvement in post flop play. Yes I still do retarded things from time to time but it seems like I am getting better with my post flop play and hand reading. I could have accelerated this process by playing a lot of HU SNG but I guess I was a combination of lazy and stubborn. I mean when I grind I want to play my main game and just hard to step out and load some HU SNG's. Even though they take little to no time sigh.

Other than that I am pretty happy with my progress in the push up bet. I am current on Week 2 and about to do my day 3. Technically this is my third week but I repeated week 1 since I struggled towards the end of the week. I hope this is the tipping point to get myself going and working out more. I will post my goals for the month of June after class tonight. Sigh yes class is starting again and I won't get a chance to grind tonight or Saturday. It is what it is I know it is for a good cause.

On a side note though bit shout out to Alex "msusyr24" Carr. Damn why all the good players gotta be named Alex. Anyways he got 22nd in Event 5 $1500 NLHE. I know he is disappointed that he didn't final table and win, because that is what we all play for, but it is a good start to his series. I know he is going to follow it up with more results in the future. That is one thing I def need to figure out is when I am going to visit Vegas for my weekend trip during the series. I am a little disappointed because I said that I would play in the series this year but tbh I just don't have the paid time off to do it. Oh well next year. Below are my results and till next time be easy and good luck on the felt. Oh yeah one more last thing that Drake Thank Me Later is fire if you don't have it go get it. I don't pay for music normally and probably will purchase this album.

Late Night

2010-05-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

Probably going to be a super late night because I need to clean up the crib. I have been traveling so much and neglected the apartment for too long. I have often times thought about getting a cleaning service or maid to come help 1x a week but I think that is waaaay to frivolous and I just need to start making time for cleaning.

I am doing alright with my push ups. I restarted the week one workout and day 2 went a lot smoother. I am really starting to focus on my breathing when I am doing them to help keep me in a rhythm. I just found myself not breathing at all when I was doing them before which is pretty bad. Now I am trying to breath in when I go down and breath out as I push back up.

I grinded today and did fairly well. Seems like my game is alright but I know I was running way hot. Some of the beats I was putting on people were lol but hey that's variance. Anyways gotta make some progress on cleaning or it will never get done.

wbmustang

Wipe Out

2010-05-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

I can't grind @ all today. I am just so tired from traveling and doing massive school work. But, the school work was definitely my fault. I should of done it a lot earlier to prevent myself from having a huge headache. Sigh duck. It's the life I choose though. I think I could easily say f it and just spend the time I do homework doing other stuff but I can't. For some reason, I really want this masters. I have this goal set inside of my head and I will make it.

I purged my bank account a little and now I am on the right path to saving. I had to go to Tampa Bay for a wedding and waited to the absolute minute to buy a ticket. I had to do this because I am terrible at juggling my time off @ work so I really didn't know how much time paid off that I had. I ended up leaving at 10pm on Friday and getting to Tampa at 9:30am. From there, I had to drive about an hour to get to the wedding. I grabbed something to eat, passed out for a couple of hours, then got ready for the wedding. Tbh I was really scared that I was going miss the wedding when I went to sleep. I was so ridiculously tired.

The wedding was a really nice and it was really good to see how happy the two together. Anyways, I was able to see a lot of friends from college and get ridiculously drunk. All you can drink patron is money and I can't turn that down. The wedding started at 3 pm and I didn't stop partying till about 3 am. I proceeded to pass out and then sleep for the majority on Sunday. My flight left at 5pm and I got back in Seattle at 11pm. I went to sleep and ended up going back to work at 6 am. I know sick life I live :-s.

I also got a chance to rent an Infiniti G37 when I was in Tampa. That was a bad idea because now I got a little taste of a luxury car. I know I won't be getting a car for at least another five years but I am gonna be doing some research until then. I felt like a total boss in it and it was ridiculously quick. Oh well if I want the finer things in life I better start busting my ass and saving now.

As far as poker is concerned I got a chance to put some volume in on Monday. I had a nice little upswing but I was happier with the way that I played. I really felt like I was in the groove and not rusty at all so that was good. I was way too tired for anything today so I just coached my buddy and watched the USA lose to the Czech Republic in a soccer friendly. I will try not to worry about the result but it definitely sucks to lose.

I am actually proud of myself because I got myself into the stock market game. I got a 401k and a savings but decided to start doing a little buying in the market. Everything I am looking at will be strictly longterm and I don't plan on touching the money. At least I have some type of plan for something for once.

Lastly, I know TLDR probably didn't make it this far, I started up with a push up bet with reasons and yodaddy. We have to be able to do 75 consecutive push ups. For every push up you fall short you owe $25. Since I am betting two people it's gonna turn into $50. I started the program and struggled through week 1. I am going through week 1 again since I struggled and hope to go through the six week program. I am also contemplating running home from work. I work about 4.2 miles away from where I live so I think this can be feasible. The only downside is that I have to figure out how I am going to get to work. Maybe wbmustang will take the bus to work. Idk but gotta figure it out.

Oh yea and congrats to Assassinato and reasons14. Assassinato won $48k in the $1k Monday and he really deserves it. He puts in the hours and works his ass off. Also not to mention how many times he has gotten so close. I hope this score is just an appetizer for his filet mignon score that's gonna happen later. Reasons14 took down the $109 Turbo for a nice little score. I would say you would hear from him but he is too much of an underground poker mogul to put in any type of volume :-p. Anyways till next time.

wbmustang

Life/Poker Update

2010-05-10T12:52:00.000-07:00

Life is getting a little bit better. Even though I made some bad decisions I am dealing with it and moving forward. Sometimes I wish there was a save and restore point in life. You know how it is when you play video games. Sometimes you mess up and want to do it right the next time so you just load up from your last restore point. Unfortunately, life is not a video game and you just have to deal with what happens. Accepting consequences and then moving on and learning is all about growing better as a person.

I grinded for a good amount this weekend. I am not too happy with how I played Sunday. Even though I have a winning session I just wasn't verry happy with my play. I felt that I made way too many bad decisions which resulting in more gambly plays. I ended up on in the black for the day, awww yes black is beautiful, but I wasn't thrilled with how sloppy I played. I will be making some minor adjustments but more some of me being aware of my image. Oh well it's only one session when this happened but I am disappointed because I strive to play quality volume.

I wish I could put my finger on what was making me play so sloppy. @ first it was due to the fact that the internet was cutting in and out and was just being annoying. Then, there were times were I could feel my temper rise a little bit. For the most part I relaxed, but I got caught slipping a couple of times. Lol it's so weird to even explain but it's that feeling you get when you are just pissed and burning up on the inside and you are about to do something crazy. I don't even know why I felt that way, maybe because I lost like three all ins in a row when I was the favorite. I need to be emotionless and just not care as much.

I look forward to grinding for the rest of the week. I have to leave town on Saturday and go to my cousins graduation in Philly.

wbmustang

April Results

2010-05-04T06:27:00.001-07:00

As I said I would post my April results in a different post. As you can see I ran well with some extremely low volume. Obv looking at stuff gives me motivation so I can put some volume in. I played around 50 games last night and that went fairly well. I just need to make sure that I keep trying to play the best of my abilities. Quality >> Quantity! In my masters class I have been hearing that more and more and it applies to everything in life.

Doing better in some aspects in terms of procrastination etc on some things. I am not where I need to do but definitely taking some strides. My goal is to play 1k games this month. My class is almost over and I will have some of my weekends back for three weeks. The only thing I am concerned about is having to take a trip to Philly for my cousins graduation and a wedding in FL later on that week. Other than that it is full steam ahead.

Big congratulations to vertek for the month he posted last month. He is about to go into it full time and I give him props because he definitely has more balls than me. Unfortunately I have to finish school before I make any moves. I know I may be restricting myself because who knows how long poker will be here but getting my masters is one of my goals. Neither my mom or dad have one and I want to have a leg up on them weeeeeeee.

I have kept this same janky design for my site for some time and will looking to switch it up soon. So be on the look out.

Yo son where you been @?

2010-05-03T11:33:00.001-07:00

Man, whenever I get into some personal bullshit I promise I never know how to deal with this. April was a fairly crazy month. It started off well when I went to Toronto for a business trip. I had a really good time meeting vers, cardlo, and Shen888. Toronto is a really cool and diverse place and would love to go back. Hell I wouldn't mind living there but I know the winters are pretty cold. I mean I probably could deal with them being from Denver though. But obviouslly my trip wasn't flawless because drama had to ensue.

I won't go into many details about but I basically just got caught up in some T Woods type bullshit. I always knew it would happen at some point in time but just kept pushing the envelope. I guess it's a part of the reason why I am a poker player. I just make gambles. I have made so many gambles in my life where it is just not necessary. A lot of the gambles that I made could of really messed up my life and prevent me to be in the situation that I am in today. I guess it's a part of getting older and becoming more mature but damn I am 25 years old. It's sad when you are 25 and you feel like you haven't really matured since you were 18. To those who I have affected I want to appologize. I am not perfect and make mistakes but it's never fun to play with peoples feelings.

When everything first happend I just didn't know what to deal with it. I am a terrible communicator and usually when shit goes down I feel like holding everything back and keeping to myself. I hate to admit it but being an online poker player has introverted me. I mean I am fairly sociable but now it gets to the point I feel more comfortable talking to people on im/skype than in person. It's kind of sad but it is what it is.

When I first got out to Seattle I really didn't know many people. I mean I had some friends out here that I knew before but for the most part I just chilled by myself. Meeting people and starting a new network is always a problem when you move to a new city That is when I took it upon myself to take poker more seriously. My first initial year was a lot better than last year but hey it is what it is. The games got tougher and I really wasn't advancing my play. Now I feel a lot more comfortable with my game. I still feel like I have some ways to go. I am always willing to learn because the second you think that you know everything you close of what you can learn. Being close minded will definitely be the downfall for a lot of people. In poker you just can't be. There is no one optimal style or one pure way to play a hand. My poker journey has showed me that people can have such different playing styles and still just crush the games.

I decided to limit my volume this past month. I thought it was the professional thing to do. I just had so much going on and didn't know how to deal with it. Those are the times when you are supposed to get on your knees and pray to God about the situation. For some reason, I just feel like I didn't need to. I don't know why though because it is so stupid. You never know what types of signs or answers God will give you. I feel like I am so ungrateful sometimes. God has blessed me in so many ways in my life but I refuse to do something simple and saying thank you every once in a while. I will do better with this. I know if the roles were reversed I would think that I am an ungrateful bastard. But hey he still wakes me up the next morning giving me to opportunity to make things right. I know God is definitely not through with me and I have a long ways to go. Side note I am not trying to force my views on anyone and what I feel is how I feel. I never want to force my views on people and I can't stand it when people try.

Anyways I just didn't feel like talking to anyone about the situation. I mean don't get me wrong I talked to some people but I hate just talking about my problems with people. Maybe that is a fault of mine but I hate bringing down peoples moods with my own problems. This is the reason why I decide to hold things in and deal with it myself. I don't like to complain and moan I just take it and try to keep going. Maybe one day I will change my way of dealing with tough problems but that is just me. I rather just lock myself in seclusion and think about it or just try not to. Oh well I guess that's part of becoming more mature is knowing how to deal with situations.

I played about 600 sngs and watched some videos on pokerpwnage. I really like the content they have on there and feel like with some tweaks they could be a very good site. They have a lot of sick players on there and I have learned a lot I feel. I just need to watch more movies and actually trying things and put what I have learned into practice. Anyways that's all for now I will post pics of my graphs but in a separate post so this post won't turn into TLDR but hell who reads this anyways.

Hopefully this blog allows me to open up and actually write deal with my problems instead of holding them and get infuriated/down on myself. That is why I give other bloggers like msusyr24 and assassinato so much credit. It's so hard to just talk about your problems and put your business out in public. I am coming around to the point where I can slowly. I mean don't get it twisted I will have to leave somethings out but for the most part trying to not turn this inot a monotonous regular poker blog.

wbmustang

CR Photos

2010-03-27T11:27:00.001-07:00

Here are some of the pictures that I took from Costa Rica. Man looking through all these pics I didn't know which ones to put up because they were all pretty good. Looking at the pics made me realize how fortunate I am to be able to take trips like this. People struggle to pay bills month to month and I am doing this. Also another thanks to Assassinato and co because they held it down big time.

John F'n Carter

2010-03-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

As promised I said that I would give my boy JC some plug and put his video up. He has gotten better editing his videos and his dancing is actually improving. The last part of the video is pretty good. On to the next one!

Stay On My Grizzly

2010-03-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

This month has gone fairly well so far. It is going to be tough but I think I will be able to squeeze in 1k games for the month. When you play just 180's, your volume definitely declines a little bit due to the load times when I play. I have been incorporating the $12 45's back into my game. I think I have Ninja set up to run up to like 6 of them. I think playing them will increase my volume because I am not waiting as long for the 180's to load.

When I played the 45's I forgot how much I loved them back in the day. I think I am better playing them now especially after getting more comfortable with the 180's. I am sure that I have some things to touch up on but the more I play/review the more I will be able to adjust.

Anyways that's all I have for now. I am scheduled to go on a business trip to Toronto Canada next week so I am not sure how much I will be playing at the beginning of April. Hopefully I will be able to meet up with vers, shen, or cardlo will see what happens.

wbmustang

C'mon Son 11

2010-03-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

These joints always have me rollin!

$20k Mark Too Little Too Late

2010-03-17T17:29:00.001-07:00

Well this would of been nice when I was in the prop bet where I lost $500. I have finally reached the $20k mark months later. So many freaking ups and down. It seems like every time I eye some top of money milestone I just blow up and play/run bad. Oh well I learned a lot this time. Hopefully this is the start of things going to the right direction. I don't have anymore milestones until I hit $50k. That's the type of long term vision I have because that is a grind.

Playa Flamingo, Costa Rica

2010-03-17T17:06:00.000-07:00

I wake up out of bed yawn and stretch my arms. I get up wipe my eyes walk around 10ft and open the door outside. It is the waves crashing into the beach. The sun is just barely up and it perfectly reflects against the ocean water. I look to my left and right and see mountains in the background. On my bottom left I see a natural beach with rocks. I set take a deep breath of the air close my eyes and realize I am in paradise. To some it is a dream but for me it is a reality.

I was fortunate enough to finally go visit assassinato. Words cannot explain how thankful I am for the trip. It was a perfect relaxing trip and it was much needed. I mean some people probably expect a wild trip report but it wasn't even all like that. I pretty much and just chilled out all day every day. Yeah I walked around the beach and the beach towns but I was chilling super hard. I went out there with my boy O so we had a good time. The maid/cook named Anna made us some great meals too. She would always ask what we want to eat what type of juice and everything. The meals were incredible. Especially with the fresh squeezed fruit juice it felt like I was eating the fruit when drinking the juice. I was truly spoiled though and hated the fact that I have to go back and cook/clean myself :-(.

I got my grind on a little but for the most part this was a learning experience. I was able to watch Raventhon and Bukithepro play some. Buki is a real good guy. An older cat and he schooled up on some things. He has been playing for a little bit and his thought processes going through each hand is amazing. Raventhon is also crazy good with knowing that math behind a lot of situations. He is also good at knowing who is doing what with what stacks. As for Assassinato he is a straight up I don't give a shit beast on the tables. Watching him run deep in his score I was thinking damn I would break my mouse playing against you. He has incredible heart and excellent feel about what he is going on. He def is not afraid to gamble at all. xnumchuck plays some sng's and mtt's too. He was going deep in one of the stars rebuy tournies before flaming out. This crew is dangerous and you should hear about these guys soon. I was really impressed and saw that I have a long ways to go in my MTT game.

It was especially fun to watch assassinato go deep in 750k on Tilt and finish up 3rd for like $50k ish. I mean you see the stuff behind your computer but you never see the person behind the computer. The whole atmosphere was weird because it had every feel imaginable. He was playing viro the virus and just in the zone ready to kill. He wanted first so bad but it wasn't meant to be. I mean 3rd is cool but I know him and he wants to win. I know he thinks like Ricky Bobby if you not first your last but he will take the cheese.

I played about 15 MTT's on Sunday. I lost money but boy was it a fun and learning time. I would of gone deeper in the 22 cubed if my AJs does chop for an enormous pot against AT aipf. I was around 9th that time and around 100 people I think. Oh well that's tournament poker though. I definitely was lost in some spots but it's just like sngs I was unfamiliar with the spots. So for now my plan is to grind mtt's during the week and play mtt's on Sunday. The more comfortable I get the more I might be inclined to play mtt's more.

I will post some pics later but for now this is it.

Feb Results

2010-03-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

As you can tell my month of Feb was pretty terrible which is why I wrote the below post. Granted school was picking up, I really didn't play much and when I was playing towards the end of the month I wasn't playing my best. From reading so many other players blogs you have to know that you know only have to play volume but it actually has to be good volume. I guess I get a little help due to the fact that I got a 1k live score so my results aren't so bad. But meh here they are.

Total: $927+1,000=$1927

Noticing A Trend

2010-02-26T08:14:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: Long post

This post is probably as real as I am going to get with myself and it is from the heart. I have started to notice a bad trend in my life. The trend that I have noticed is that I continually get outworked by people. Why is this you ask? I don't know but I had a lot of time to think about why I am the way I am. To be honest the reason why I think I don't work as hard as I can is because I take too much shit for granted.

I grew up in a family atmosphere where I never really had to struggle. I mean I don't want to sound all uppity/spoiled but I didn't have to work for much. I mean yes I was required by my parents to get good grades etc but never really had to struggle for what I got. Even in college I feel I got outworked. I mean don't get me wrong, I got ok grades got a decent job and graduated, but sometimes I wonder what would of happened if I pushed myself more. Maybe I am just a lifetime lazy achievement award.

Thinking about other players who have taken off and me in the same position you have to wonder. Did they have resources you don't have? This is clearly not the case. I have been on SngMentors had good coaching etc. But tbh the answer is within me. I have to man up and say that I have been outworked to be honest. People have put in more volume and more hours in. This is why I am in the same poisition.

I am tired of going through my life seeing people advance and do things better than me. I mean I have always been competitive but sometimes it seems like I lack that fire I guess. But with poker, I have the fire but it's like I am not working to get there. I mean don't get me wrong I feel like I have learned a lot and come a long ways from where I started but I can be doing expotentially better. I am not putting my 100% heart into the game. I need to start doing this. I am trying to change my life around. I am tired of being lazy and left behind. Some may say that I have a good head start but damn it I want more. I am not greedy I just expect more out of myself.

This is the reason why I decided to change my avatar on PokerStars to Wayne Rooney. He is someone that is never outworked on the pitch. This year he is the best striker in the world, yes it is an argument to have but I am biased Man United fan. He has speed, power, grit, determination, and heart. These are the qualities that I need to exhibit on the virtual felt. Speed in making good and clear decisions while multi tabling, girt and determination to grind when running shitty, and the heart to never feel like I am out of a tournament. Even when I have t1 chip left I need to fight like there is no tomorrow.

I have spent a long time lying to myself saying that I am going to do this that and the other. I need to take the slogan from Nike and just do it. I don't want to live the rest of my life thinking about would could of been. I need to start thinking about what will be. One of the funniest but real quotes is from Mighty Ducks when the coach looks Gordon Bombay dead in the face and says "Your not even a has been you were a never was." I don't want to be a never was.

So I am putting 100% in taking over my life and making positive changes. The clock is ticking and time is not slowing down for anyone. I remember like it was yesterday when I was in Middle School, High School, and College. I can really say that there was maybe one semester where I put everything I had into school and treated it professionally. You know what happened, I got a 3.8 that semester.

People always tell me that I will be succesful and amount to something. Although I take it in stride sometimes I get nervous. I need to stop getting nervous and acting on what people see in me. I need to act on what I see in myself. Watching the 25k NAPT high roller event and reading up on Faraz Jaka has also kind of motivated. Hearing vertek tell me that he put in more hours than me lit a fire under me. Reading Rainman aka MI_Turtle aka Nick Rainey's blog about how hard he works and people say you won't do x,y, and z and trying to prove them wrong motivates me. It's time for me to stop looking for other sources of motivation and motivate myself. Motivate myself by trying correction meeting my goals. I don't know why I was always the typle of person that needed a kick in my ass to get things going.

I need to put this plan into full force not just on the felt but in life in general. I need to do better at work and making an impact to. Bottom line I need to do better and know I can do better. I have some homework and stuff to do but after that it's no more bullshit. I will be sitting down today and making my schedule. The last time I tried to do this I got scared just looking at it and I didn't even start my schedule.

Lastly I would like to say that I owe vertek $100 for the psychological coaching lol. Here is a good video he recommended to me. It is short and a very good video. I probably should watch it every morning I wake up.

Busy Busy Busy

2010-02-24T10:20:00.001-08:00

I have been so freaking busy lately. I have had to deal with homework, attending class, and doing a final. My volume this month has been laughable. I feel like I am playing good but just running like dog shit on fire in some spots. If you win in key spots your results will be a lot better.

I have to figure out how to stay on top of things. I keep saying that I am going to make a schedule. I get nervous when I see how much stuff I am trying to pack into a day. I am so not a morning person and the only way that I can make it work is if I get to work at 5 am. That gives me the best chance in putting in good volume. I will figure it out some day. My biggest fear is not living up to the hype. So many people in my life have seen good things about me and said I will go places but I feel like I am letting myself and them down. I dunno maybe it is apart of me growing up. I look at see that I am 26 years old but still growing up. The irony of things.

I just have to make things work. I am sick of seeing people who I started with or after me just crushing. Although I have a full time job, I still don't find that as a viable excuse. I mean if I am going to do it then I have to do it right. Somehow it has to come from within. I am getting tired of saying I am going to do x,y, and z and still don't do it. How can anyone trust what I am saying if I am lying to myself all the time. It's something I battle with and need to figure out. I set aggressive goals for this month and probably will not meet all of them. Maybe one day I will look at the goals that I set or things I said I do and be proud about it. One of these days I am going to read my old posts and see how much hot air I am full of. It's disturbing and I am tired of it.

Maybe some of this has to do the fact that I do have ADD and actually getting help. It's so hard for me to start and finish something completely. Like most of the times I will finish something but it feels like it is a long journey of bs to get there. Talking to someone is definitely helping I just need to find a way to control it. I mean sometimes I think I am lazy and sometimes I just feel like I can't control what I am going to do next. I can set my mind on doing something and 15 minutes later it feels like I am not doing what I am supposed to do. Oh well hopefully I can figure everything out.

Getting real excited for my trip to Costa Rica coming up. Not only will I get a chance to kick it with O, Raventhon, Assassinato, and others but I will be grinding and kickin it. I hope this trip doesn't spoil me too much. Definitely looking forward to learning a lot. On a side note as of now I am done with the $36/180's. I am so not properly rolled for them right now and my results are bad. Although it is a small sample size, they don't seem to load enough to even get a good sample size in. Other than that life is good.

I really can't complain though because crazy things happen and you realize how fortunate you are. Just yesterday my old middle school got shot up. Crazy how when I was in high school Columbine went down and years later Deer Creek Middle School gets shot up. Apparently some teachers tackeld the shooter which is good because it could of been a real bad situation. I just don't get what is running through peoples minds.

On a side note congrats to vertek to getting on the SharkScope leaderboard. It's gonna be tough to hold that spot but I know you can.

Chopped Live Tourney For 1k

2010-02-12T14:31:00.001-08:00

Well, yesterday I was convinced by my boy Diga81 to play some live poker. He always is clowning me because I am lazy and would rather play @ home on my computer. Either way I begrudgingly went to the Muckleshoot Casino to play a $60+5 tournament. I was feeling good and confident about my game and knew I could own these live donks. Either way 4 hrs later I chopped for like $1150. Not a bad score for 4 hrs of work. I knew I was going to win or @ least get to the final table when I got it all in KK vs KK vs QQ and I won. Of course the black kings won because black kings are better. Not really but I said it and it happened lol. Other than that it was pretty uneventful. What did perplex me is how bad players are. People have like 120k @ 10k/20k blind level limping. I was just laughing and I didn't understand how to combat it. I mean I was at the final table some ICM gets involved and people will limp call with Ax so meh. The only spot maybe I could of shove blinds were at 10k/20k three people limp I have KTs with like 200k and I was real tempted to shove. I got pussified and folded but oh well I thought I could pick a better spot since the players were so random.

Other than that, I really didn't have any interesting hands and everything was pretty standard. That and I really suck about remember hands and how they went down a day later. It's werid when I am in the zone and playing I remember stuff but later on the next day I don't. I guess I should start taking notes but oh well. Not 100% sure if I am going to play online today because I have to get my hair cut and run some errands. I am kind of mad about it because February is a short month and I need to get as much volume as possible.

On the online front, my last coaching session went good but clearly I am missing some spots. These little spots add up over time. My coach tells me not to get too down on myself since I have a day job my game won't progress as fast as someone that has no job and that is their sole source of income. Although I believe this to an extent, I still know better and need to do better recognizing these spots. The hard part is keeping a level head. I mean I know I am getting better and winning money but I am still making some mistakes. I won't be happy until I feel like I get my game more consistent and not making mistakes. Hopefully I won't be making mistakes by the end of Februaury.

wbmustang

Eating Crow

2010-02-07T19:44:00.001-08:00

I am eating crow big time right now. I predicted that the Colts would win the Super Bowl and boy was I wrong. Peyton Manning is a great quarterback but kind of a choke artist. I mean his receivers dropped some balls but he didn't come out and do anything spectacular. Add that to the fact that he threw a pick 6 when the Colts were driving to score which totally changed the game.

I have to give a big congratulations to New Orleans because they played their hearts out and won it for the city. I know a lot of my family in Louisiana is going to be pretty happy about the win. On another note, I think Sean Payton has to play poker because he is a gambler with balls of steel. His first gamble, going for it on 4th and goal, didn't pan out and the Saints turned the ball over on downs. But, he stuck to the script. This man comes out in the second half and does an onside kick and makes it work. WTF? I texted my boy hotbizzle saying that he probably used a shove chart for that play. Then later in the game he went for two to put the Saints up 7 points. The refs ruled that it was an incomplete pass but Sean Payton challenges the call and it gets overturned. Such a sick game and a great Super Bowl. Other than that I thought that most of the commercials were pretty booty.

Sigh America and Life

2010-02-07T12:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I had a good time with my buddy Scotty B. We ended up going to the UW vs ASU game. ASU got waxed and Scott wasn't too happy about that because he went to ASU. Oh well maybe next time. But after the game things get interesting. We ended up going out downtown and having a pretty good time. After leaving the bars we decide to cut out early and get a hot dog off the streets in Bell Town. Boom we book it over there we are kinda drunk and this chick walks up. Scott and I are talking about how he hasn't had a hot dog from out there for a while and I said I never had one. Then this chick blurts out you never had one where are you from. I said Renton. She then proceeds to try to make a joke oh Renton, Africa. Hold on C'mon son gtfo here with that bullshit. She proceeds to say ohh it was just a joke are you going to take it offensive. Now everyone around me looks more pissed off about it than I am. Eventually some cool guy say BITCH YOU NEED TO CLOSE YOUR FUCKING MOUTH. It was so funny she was like geesh I will go across the street to get a hot dog. Bitch you know there is not a city in Africa named Renton why say some dumb shit like that. Imo I just felt kind of slapped in the face. I mean it's sad that she has that point of view and it's 2010. The thing about it is that I don't even like mad about racist jokes. Hell I make a lot of them too but that's with people I really know ya know. It's always funny to crack on stereotypes but imo hers was just garbage/insulting. Anyways, she gets the fail off the night award.

This class I am taking these semester is going to be more time demanding than my last so my volume might suffer. I really hope not but this is where I find out how to be a rockstar and get my balance in life together. In order to get any type of volume in I must stick to a schedule. I won't be playing today because it is Super Bowl Sunday so meh. I am not even a Colts fan or even a Peyton Manning fan for that matter but I think they will win. Manning is waaaay to good and if he did work against the Jets D which was #1 in the NFL I dunno what he is going to do to New Orleans. But, if New Orleans wins it definitely be good for the city especially post Katrina.

On another note I will be doing a simple math equation. Arsenal + Big Games = Fail. Great job on NOT being Chel$ea. When is the excuse of oh we have a young team going to not be accepted for Arsenal. I mean you guys have been saying the same thing for years Arsenal fans yet you keep failing. Oh well at least Man United won on Saturday 5-0 to keep pressure on Hull City.

I actually went to the gym on Friday so semi proud of myself. Now I need to find a day to go next week, hell maybe I might go for the gusto and go twice. Anywho I can't wait to get back on the tables on Monday.

Till next time

wbmustang

Weekend Plans

2010-02-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

Well, this weekend officially is going to kind of sucked. I am on a little life tilt because as soon as I feel like I am playing good something comes up. It's like right now when I am playing I am just in a flow and in the zone. Unfortunately, I couldn't play yesterday because I had a docs appt. Friday I have work and then going to class. Saturday, I have class and then going to the UW vs. ASU basketball game. Sunday, I will be watching the Superbowl and probably too drunk to play when it is over. Plus, the traffic on PokerStars is going to be terrible for American players. Hmm, I wonder how the drunk fish will be after the Superbowl. Anyways I am playing good and can't wait to play again.

Vertek, grrrr, you always have to outdo me. I started off strong and you just raped in your first 55 games. Hopefully Man United can play good this weekend and Chel$ea lose to Arsenal :-).

wbmustang

Wayne Rooney

2010-02-02T10:35:00.001-08:00

Man I thought I was done blogging for the day until I went to manutd.com. Anyways it was an article about Wayne Rooney and his season so far. He has been an absolute beast and has 22 goals in all competitions so far. This is what Wayne has to say about hard work. I am tired of being lazy and not even coming close to meeting my goals. I need to stop saying stuff and DOING it. I feel like I have typed this over and over and over. When will I change geesh. I guess people in the UK spell realize different lol.

"Sometimes people don’t realise how hard it is to practice every day. It’s hard to constantly put the work in to improve your game. But if you want to get the rewards from it, you have to do it. The best players always practice to get better. That’s what I’ve done since as far back as I can remember. I've played football every day for most of my life. It’s something I really enjoy doing."

Wayne Rooney

Just in case you don't know who he is I will post a video below. He scores some sick goals and works his socks off during games. Rooney Rooney Rooney!

January Results and Rambling

2010-02-02T10:05:00.001-08:00

January was a very interesting month. I feel like I am learning a lot from the coaching and doing better with push shove and icm but the results don't show it. I mean I know that I am playing my A game but clearly I don't make up with this in volume. I had to humble myself and just play the $12's and only play 12 tables. I thought that I was able to get good reads and play to the best of my abilities. The only bad thing is that my volume was so low from just doing that. The results are below. I mean they are pretty meh but thanks to my horse stepping up and putting in some volume my month looks a lot better.

Besides that, when talking to my coach he really expressed shot taking. We did the math and it was astronomical the number of $12 you get when you when a $36. I mean really, I am in a perfect opportunity to shot take. I don't depend on this money from month to month to live so why wouldn't I shot take. I need to break out of my nitty shell and play higher. I think I can easily bum hunt the $2's but I just don't want to. I want to be a good winning player in the $12's and higher. I mean how good you think Jordan, Lebron, Tiger, Phil Ivey, or Melo would be if they just played scrubs all day they would of never elevated their games and got better. That's just something I am thinking about and hope to execute it this month.

I normally hate February but slowly I am trying to shake this off. I really want to make a lot of positive life changes this month. I mean there are so many things that I think I need to do better about and I will be putting those into goals. Plus, I saw a recent picture and was disgusted and how fat I am starting to look so something has to give. I probably am going to have to pull the trigger and pay $400 for the chef to make me dinners and lunches and I think it will help me stop spewing money and fast food joints. I just have so much going through my head and suck and expresses myself ugh. Anyways here are the goals for the month.

Feb Goals
1. 1k SNG's
2. GET MY FAT ASS TO THE GYM AT LEAST 1x per week. I would prefer to do 3 but f me lets get the ball rolling.
3. Stop eating out so much.
4. Say something and keep my word. No I am not a shady person but I say stuff and don't always do it on the day I say I will. Pretty much working on being more prompt with shit.
5. Waking up on time and keeping to my schedule. I saw Msusyr24's schedule in excel and it was very visual. Maybe I need to make something like that to make sure I stay on track.
6. Keep accurate records. I think I need to do a better job of tracking my expenses, horses action etc, but just need to be more organized.

I plan on posting my schedule and goals all over my apartment. I am hoping that by seeing this stuff everywhere I will actually get my ass in gear. I am just very frustrated with myself as a person right now and know I need to make changes.

On a side note I did donate $100 to the HaitiFund on Pokerstars. It was matched and stars said they donated a little more thant $1.4 million which is a lot. Classes start agaain this week and with a short month I can't be fooling around. I guess when I feel like I can express myself better I will right more but to now that's it. I mean I have always been a very private person holding everything in so meh baby steps.

wbmustang

Time Off Was Needed

2010-01-27T14:20:00.000-08:00

The trip to Cincinnati was real good. I got to see people that I care about and it was just an all around good time. During my vacation, I played absolutely 0 poker. It was a much needed break because things were not going my way before the mini vacation. After being soul crushed that I lost the prop bet, I proceeded to go to the outlets and buy some clothes. Msusyr24 and I talked about stopping the frivolous spending but I felt terrible that day and wanted to look fresh later on that night. It felt good getting some new threads especially to look fresh to death later on in the evening. Now I have purged myself I will working on the frivolous spending. Of course Msusyr24 bought the sickest watch I have seen, he said he forgot about the convo and was setting a bad example lol.

The same day, I was able to have an im conversation with TheLipoFund. This is rare because this fool is always playing hella tables. He has some of the biggest swings of anyone I know and I asked him point blank how he deals with them. He gave me an honest reply of by not caring anymore. This is the mentality that I definitely need to have. I was getting so caught up in the emotions of the game that I think I was putting too much pressure on myself to succeed. I mean I have a full time job I do not depend on this income at all. I am thankful that Lipo talked some sense into me.

Last night I grinded and had a good +1k day. Those days always feel great especially when things are not going well for you initially. I was getting killed earlier in the session and even lost a hand KK vs KK vs 95 sigh. After that happened, I just closed my eyes, took a couple of deep breaths, focused my consciousness on the present and making good decisions. I also looked at some positive thinking quotes during one of my breaks to make sure my head stayed in the game. Definitely proud of the way I mentally handled the session. I also was able to rail vertek to a win in a 180. He was so short and out of nowhere start pwning and won it. I was joking and saying that if he won I would cut my comp off because he really came from such a short stack. Good thing I didn't because I was still going strong in my tournaments. Will be putting in more volume today because it will be a joke if I don't hit 1k games played this month.

I am also posted this Michael Jackson video of him doing the robot. Man MJ was so talented and he was killing the game with this. I am sure Daleroxxu will appreciate it C'mon Son GTFO here wit dat bullshit!

OFFICIALLY PISSED

2010-01-23T08:37:00.000-08:00

Congrats to vertek for winning the prop bet. To be honest I am a sore fucking loser and pretty pissed. How I was so close to 20k then pokerstars shits on me like America does to black people. J/k obv but not happy about this @ all. I guess it is me just being competitive. Honestly I feel like crying but it's whatever it is what it is. I was flying to Cinci last night just thinking about my life and how it is just filled with unfulfilled promises or goals met. I promise the only goal in my life that I have accomplished is getting a freaking job and college degree. Let's go throught my list of goals I wanted to have for my life.

1. Become an astronaut - Failed but at least I got an internship @ NASA
2. Become a pilot - Failed but at least I am working on airplanes now
3. Be a successful poker player - Failing at that
4. Eat better and lose weight - Failing but I still have time
5. Stop frivolous spending - Failing I make it rain more than Lil Wayne

Sums up my life I guess. But whatever at least I will make this post motivational so I NEVER lose another prop again.

wbmustang

Frustration

2010-01-20T14:07:00.000-08:00

It seems like I am the biggest biatch of online poker just whining all the time it will change soon. Yesterday I played a session of only $12/180's and I got absolutely raped. I lost around -$600 and was kind of tilted while playing my last one table. I know I didn't play it my best but I came in 4th. I rarely do tilt but with how I was running I just couldn't take it I guess. I missed a couple of spots that were bad and now I am really focused on not letting me affect me. Maybe the fact that it was my last table and I was one tabling and just wanted to finish. I will go over the majority of my tournaments I played and see what happened. I can't control how bad I run but I can control how hard I work. Sadly I might have to make a deposit I am not busto but I like to have a comfortable roll to play with online.

Also, just read msusyr24's blog and he was talking about misclicks. I tend to misclick too especially when I get too caught up in the little stuff. I am going to do everything possible to keep these down because I am sure they are causing me to lose money. I am really thinking about starting to read up on the Tommy Angelo breathing exercises and start using those.

Oh well that's all I got for now. Don't get it twisted got confidence in my game just gotta work things out. I am happy I am documenting all of this because when I start shitting online I am gonna be like wow look where I came from. Sorry if you think I complain all the time I am just telling you what's going on.

wbmmustang

Dissapointed!

2010-01-17T10:57:00.001-08:00

I am pretty disappointed in myself after my last coaching sessions. We went through a hand history where I won in a $12/180 and my play was pretty bad. I have no idea why I am missing spots I should be easily catching. It has to be that I am not focusing enough or I am playing too many tables. I am moving down to like 12-14 tables. I feel like I have done this in the past and it helped. At the same time I guess it is a blow to my ego to know that I have to step down in tables. It will be worth it so I stop making mistakes. I mean the ones I am making have to be part of the reason for some of my results. Either way that's the plan. Probably will review some hh's, watch football, and clean the apartment today. GL to everyone on the tables.

wbmustang

Figured Something Out

2010-01-14T13:14:00.000-08:00

I know one of my main problems I have when I am playing. I think I try to click to fast instead of thinking about situations. I remember when PDice use to coach me and tell me to wait till the warning beeps and then act. Well, I feel out of that and now sometimes I feel like I am clicking way too fast. Maybe it is me playing too many tables but I can handle the tables I just rush too much. Now, I have been pausing like 3 seconds before clicking or doing anything. Hopefully this will help.

I feel like I am finally getting some traction going this month. I probably should review more of my games to make sure I am not missing spots. I feel all around better and hopefully can turn the corner this month. I have also thought about donating a % of my poker winnings or organizing a tournament for the people in Haiti. Haiti was already one of the poorest countries and this earthquake didn't help @ all.

In other things, I am really contemplating getting a personal chef. This personal will make me meals in advance and make it easier for me to heat up. I would get a bunch of microwaveable stuff like Lean Cuisine but that stuff is nasty. Hopefully this will allow me to eat healthier and not trick off my money every single day. I just feel like I don't have enough time in the day to cook for myself. I practically always have to play right after work or the games will die. Thanks a like Pacific Standard time!

wbmustang

Clipse Feeling Good

2010-01-12T12:41:00.001-08:00

I don't know why but I am vibin to this song right now.

Keep The Day Job

2010-01-11T07:01:00.001-08:00

The second that I think that I want to play full time for my job I am happily reminded why I have a day job. Also, it makes me respect the players that do it for their sole source of income that much more. I can't even begin to explain how I feel. I had a coaching session last night with my new coach and it went well. Gave me a chance to grasp new concepts and think about things in a different light. For the most part, I am playing good but missing spots here or there. The spots I am missing are not terrible but each mistake could mean more chips gained. We also talked a little about the variance in the games.

1000 game break even stretches are not even unfathomable just a part of the game. I just need to keep plugging volume. Geez that sentence gets old but it's the only way you will make money in this game. When I bored I also look at other top players and the variance they deal with. I guess it is just mind boggling to know that even though you are +ev you are going to have stretches like this. If anything I am just freaking crushed. I was so close to finishing off the prop bet with 20k and the doom switch hit. It's so annoying, everything I get close to some milestone everything hits the shitter ugh.

Today I have a doctors appointment so that will be interesting. I have long thought that I have some type of sleeping disorder/ADD so I will see what's going on. It's pretty hard for me to stay focus on stuff and my mind just wonders. Even when playing sessions or at work my mind tends to wonder when I am doing different things. This is probably the reason why I am writing this post now lol. Either way good luck to everyone on the tables. Will try to update from now on 2x per week.

In Seattle Can't Sleep

2010-01-04T23:11:00.001-08:00

I am in Seattle I and I can't really sleep so I thought I would do something productive and blog. Honestly, I was supposed to clean up the appartment but I have been getting sidetrack. All I can think about is poker, grinding, being successful, and having my own life. Yeah I love my job and everything but I just want to be independent. All I can think about is getting into work at 6 am. I am so not a morning person it is ridiculous. 2010 will crack off for me it has to. I have put way to much time, energy , and emotions into this game for me to fail this year. All I can think about how in 2009 I thought I was going to be making the kind of money I wanted to but I sucked. I shouldn't say I sucked, but I definitely didn't perform that great. I know I am hard on myself but looking back at things I feel like throwing up. All those times where, I was autopiloting through sessions, not concentrating, and being a poker bot. I feel like I am doing a much better job on concentrating and capitalizing on all spots. It's crazy because since my downswing I feel like I am playing good just running bad. That might be the wrong mentality but, I still feel like I am actively looking at my game.

I don't know why it's all I think about. I am so hungry and like this game it's ridiculous. My dad tells me that I am wasting my time but I just can't wait. I have always been a rebel on the inside and do opposite of what my parents say. I mean for the most part I make great decisions, but I always know there are times where I want to do something my way. Meh oh well it is what it is. I will also try to keep the blog more personable. I mean don't get it twisted I am not dumb and obv have to exclude things because you don't know who will read what. But in general, I will put more stuff about whatever I am feeling at the time.

Also, good luck to my buddies vers, assissnato, draqq, jbrown, reasons14, and whoever else I know that is down in the Bahamas for Pokerstars PCA. I really hope you guys crush and make a name of yourself down there. I am going to try really hard to get there next year I will be there and it better be in that tournament and not a bystandard!

wbmustang

December Results and 2010 10 Ninja!

2010-01-02T10:27:00.000-08:00

This month has been a tale of two storms. As I said earlier in this blog for my first like 500 or so games I was on a sick heater. There is no better feeling than running like Usain Bolt when you are playing online. You just feel like no matter what happens you will win. AA vs 22 it's all good my deuce is coming. Unfortunately heaters don't last forever. I ended up on like a 2k downswing at the end of the month. Although normally I would complain my ROI was still at like 55% for the month of December so it's whatever. It was my best poker month and I played all 180's so that seems like I will stick to those going into next year even though the variance is just crazy.

Personally, I learned alot about myself and poker this year. I thought I was going to be like last year and just crush but that wasn't the case. Maybe some of it was due to me not concentrating while I was playing and being on autopilot but it showed in my results. Sure I can say I ran bad too but I don't think I was doing everything to put myself in the right situation to succeed. I feel like overall I am a lot more comfortable with my play in 180's and getting better with my play postflop. Of course I have the occasional slip up but for the most part I am happy with my progress in this game. I still need to finish out this prop bet with vertek and thought I could do it in December. Well I started running bad and now he has a little bit of a lead on me. I won't let him win I will make it as tough on him as possible.

For 2010 I have a lot of goals and aspirations that I want to right down so hopefully they become true. First I would like to make 40k+ playing poker this year. I know a lot of people are gonna be like wtf you barely made 10k in 2009. Oh well I don't care I am aiming high and I think I can do it while playing the 180's. Another thing I want to do is make sure I play nothing less than 1,500 games a month. It's been tough trying to find balance but at the end of the day if I don't put in volume I won't make money bottom line. I also want to start venturing in 6 max cash and dibbling and dabbling in it. I think your potential earn is higher but I at least want to win money and stack up playing sng's. I also want to make sure that I am at 200lbs or below for my birthday. That means I have to get off my lazy ass and start working out. Lastly I want to make sure I stay on track with grad school. I got an A in my first class so hopefully I can keep my momentum going. I am posting my results, sub par at best sigh, below and my graph of the month. I am really looking forward to 2010 and am proclaiming this my break out year in poker. I also would like to say I appreciate all the support of my friends/fellow grinders in 2009 and look forward to meeting a lot fo you in person in 2010.

Goal Cliff Notes:
Profit:40k+
Games Played/month: Nothing Less than 1500
Learn 6 Max Cash NL and PLO
Get down to 200 lbs

Keep on track with grad school

December Results

2009 Results

Sunday Sunday Sunday

2009-12-28T07:01:00.000-08:00

Well, I had a good Christmas and for the most part I am happy about being back home. It is kind of funny being back @ home because now my parents can tell me what to do and I have to do it. I miss my freedom so much. It was also tilting me because I was trying to 12 table on my sisters mac laptop and my mom kept trying to be a facebook stalker and have me look at everyones photos ugh. Oh well it is what it is but now back to Sunday.

I woke up and felt good and watched the 2nd half of the Manchester United game. Ship it they win 3-1 so I was like alright I am going to have a good day. Wrong wrong wrong. I proceeded to bleed away money. Not really but I did lose a little over $300. It's just so frustrating. I mean I knew I was on a heater and ran way above expectation for like the first 500 games of the month and that a downswing would happen but not like this. I am on like a 2k downswing but really can't complain because I am up close to 4k on the month. But when talking to some people they say that it is completely standard. I believe it too because I look at other grinders graphs and that happens too. I just have to grind out of it.

Also, the Broncos and the Nuggets lost. It was a terrible day for Denver sports and now the Broncos need some luck to get in the playoffs. Well first off they have to beat KC, not a given because we are playing so bad lately, and then the tie breaker scenarios kick in. TBH I don't know all of the scenarios but it is sad. This is just like last year where we were close to the playoffs before an epic collapse. Oh well it is what it is at this point.

This morning I woke up at 5 am and really wasn't tired so I proceeded to read this good thread on 2p2. Boywonder, who is a 6 max cash game player, had a well and he talked about some of the things that make him successful. His posts were very inspirational and thoughtful but I am sure to take the advice. It seems like a lot of people have the same beliefs about being focused, thinking clearly, etc when playing it's just about executing. Here is the link http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54/poker-beats-brags-variance/destroyed-3-6-time-move-up-graph-286574/. Even though it's a long thread, it is a really good read.

Today I will be going up to the mountains to go play some live poker. I probably will be playing $1/2 and move up to $3/5 if I run good. That's all I got planned for today. This week I plan on grinding more so I can get out of my downswing but other than that keeping it low key.

wbmustang

Post #100

2009-12-21T10:56:00.000-08:00

Well I am happy that I have actually committed to something and stayed on track for the most part with my blog. I didn't notice that it was Post 100 until I was about to add this song that I was feeling with T.I. Well here it is.

Discipline Lapses AKA Tilt

2009-12-21T10:46:00.000-08:00

The heater has come back to earth but I really can't complain because now my ROI is at like 70%. I have been playing regularly but it seems like every once in a while I get stubborn and have lapses in my discipline. These lapses in discipline usually comes from not wanting to fold hands. Sometimes I feel like Daniel Negreanu, no I am not comparing my stellar play to him, but sometimes I know what my opponent has and I still feel the need to call a bet on the river. It's something that I usually am good about but on Sunday I was really bad about. I can't complain about Sunday especially with the way I played. I was down like -$162 but trust it could of been much worse. I got to a couple of final tables at the end of my sessions and ended up minimizing my loses.

The thing about discipline lapses and being a calling station can all be quantified as tilt. Most people think that tilt is when you go nuts just playing any hand, coming up with retarded lines and raising where you know it won't work, or just being maniacal. After listening to various podcasts, like Deuces Plays with Bart Hanson which is the nuts, tilt is defined as anything that is not your A game. Well when I am being a calling station and not folding when I should this clearly goes into this category. I need to really start doing the breathing exercises during my sessions like Tommy Angelo reccomends so I will be concentrating more on what is going on.

Either way I really can't complain at all. I am very happy with where my game is going and playing very well, when I am not being a calling station. I will be leaving to go to Denver on 12/25, yes on Christmas day flights are cheaper and I waited to the last minute, so I will be trying to get my volume in so I can relax at home. Maybe I can just look at some deuces cracked videos or something with my time off.

My ultimate goal is to finish up the month > 5k and I think it is obtainable just gotta concentrate and put in GOOD volume. I remember my post not too long ago that not all volume is good volume. Well that's all for now till next time.

wbmustang

He's On Fire

2009-12-16T08:08:00.000-08:00

Well I am in a catch 22. I started this blog so that I could document the ups and downs associated with poker. Last month, I was focusing on the psychological affects of being on swings and losing. This month however, I am on a ridiculous heater so far. The reason I say it is a catch 22 is because I really don't like bragging or borderline jinxing myself :-p. I mean sure I got swagger and I can be cocky at times but for the most part I am a humble guy. I don't like to flaunt my success in people's faces all like that because I think it is unnecessary. I feel like I am playing very good poker at the moment. Although I may be making small mistakes I try to catch, I think for the most part I am playing my best game right now. It is showing in the results below because obviously I am crushing. I try to keep a level head with it and keep hungry, keep studying, and not being complacent. The problem with a lot of poker players is that they get good results and get complacent thus prohibiting their progress in the game. Well, I am trying really hard not to do this. PortlyPig and I have something setup where we review one HH of each other a week so that's just a little trick that helps.

Congratulations to vers! He ended up finishing 5th for €22,000. This is a great score but he went out in the cruelest of ways by losing AA to QT. To make things worse, it was to a drunk spewtard at the table. I was paying attention to the web updates and it seemed like the guy that sucked out on vers was a huge fish. Oh well that's the nature of the best. Skill can take you only so far but even a monkey can win in a MTT. I look forward to seeing more live scores from this guy he is a good player and it is long overdue.

In terms of me, I got about a week left before I go home form Christmas. I am trying to grind enough so I won't have to worry about playing at home because of the pressure I get. However, I might have to bend my rule when I go back especially if I am in close enough range for top 200 on the TLB. I am hovering around 186 and although it is a longshot, it would be nice to finish top 200 to compete for the PokerStars Passport promotion.

Also, I am proud of my fellow poker players doing their parts to make a difference in the world. Msusyr24 ran a very good Toys for Tots promotion. He raised over $1k and did a good job of promoting his events. Although I didn't play in a tournament, I donated a little money towards his cause. Reasons14 is also doing a good job with trying to get the GrindForAmy thing up and running. I keep joking and telling him I am gonna stop donating unless Amy gets some photos with some black kids :-). In 2010 I have to think about what I can do to benefit the community. Maybe some community service or something but I am sure I will figure it out. That's all I got for now tell next time!

wbmustang

Not Much Volume and GOOOOOOOOO Vers!

2009-12-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

Well, due to the fact that I had a final and had to do some studying my volume definitely decreased. I also had to work on Saturday for a little bit so the time I spend playing on Saturday was pretty much cut. I can't complain though, I have worked here for two years and this was the first Saturday that I worked. I am getting pretty pumped up too because the 787 is "supposed" to be flying on Tuesday.

Other than that everything is pretty good. I need to start buying some Christmas presents pretty soon. This is always the time of the year when your bank account gets pwned trying to make everyone happy. I don't even know what I am going to get my parents or my sister so it looks like I got some work cut out for me.

I plan on putting in some good volume this week. Since I am done with school for the year, and know I won't be playing when I get home I gotta get it in when I can. Hopefully I can keep running hot for the rest of the month :-)!

Vers is currently at the final table at the UKIPT. It's good to see him finally get some results live and is way overdue imo. Plus, it gives me motivation that I can someday get there. I will embed his video at the bottom of the page. It's funny because he mentions everyone's screen name except his own lol. GL and TID FFS!

Watch UKIPT GALWAY: Michael McFadgen on PokerStars.tv

C'Mon Son

2009-12-08T15:14:00.001-08:00

Ed Lover is still killing the game lol @ him saying Baby is trying to look like a Heineken bottle.

Running Goot

2009-12-07T15:50:00.000-08:00

Well enough about bitching about running bad I can talk about running good. This month so far I running above expectation. Hopefully I can still ride this heater for the rest of the month. I mean that boy wbmustang got Christmas presents to pay for. Sometimes I hate talking about being on a heater for the following reasons: A I am a little bit superstitious and B I hate bragging. I like to think about myself as a pretty humble guy with a little cocky swagger. Oh well it beats bitching talking about how bad you are running.

This week I plan on playing everyday this week until Friday. Friday and Saturday I will have things to do with class so I won't be able to play. On Sunday, I probably will grind after the Broncos play the Colts. It sucks I can't put in the volume I want on the weekend but oh well at least I am getting a masters.

Speaking of the Broncos, they had a very good game against KC and are 8-5. Very happy because we had a mini meltdown in the month of November. Manchester United is looking like they are coming into form but they have a major injury crisis. They only have one person on their back line of defense who is a regular and everyone else is pretty much hurt. Johnny Evans and John O'shea are out until January which makes things a little worse. Oh well hopefully they can pull it together and not drop points because Chelsea is out there ballin even though they lost to Man City :-). The Denver Nuggets are pwning right now too and Carmelo Anthony is out there trying to win the MVP this year. Lastly, congratulations to Mullen High School in Denver, CO for winning the state football title. That means they won back to back and are going to try to win a three peat next year. I was hella nervous listening to the game on the radio which is sad but hey I still have my school pride and always want them to do good. Well that's all for now till next time.

Also, I appreciate all the support I get about writing my blog. It makes my day when someone says they enjoy reading my blog. It also makes me know that I am not writing this blog for no reason. I know the punctuation and grammar is probably terrible but hey I am an engineer I do numbers.

wbmustang

wbmustang

C'Mon Son

2009-12-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

This man Ed Lover is foolish his c'mon son stuff is too funny.

November Results

2009-12-01T07:43:00.001-08:00

My name is wbmustang and I am a loser this month. Did I also mention I am addicted to poker? J/k but, it's ridiculous how I can pretty much loose every key flip or coolered late game in 180's. Nothing is more soul crushing than getting big stacks and busting at the final two tables for a min cash it's a joke. Sometimes I think I rather not even cash than to min cash but obv I will eat my words. But sometimes I think I must be addicted to bring myself back to this punishment after 8 hrs of work. But hey that's the 180's. I guess part of playing them is dealing with the variance and playing your best for as long as possible. I guess the good news is that the month is over and now I can start as a clean slate. The bad news is that December is here which means I have to grind just to buy Christmas presents etc.

Anyways update on the prop bet I am losing by like at least 2k or something like that. It's kind of sad but if I run hot this month hopefully I will be easy with vertek by the end of the month. At the bottom of the page I will post my feeble results. Hooray just noticed by looking at the graph I am on a 2k downswing :-)! The following month will be cut short because I will be going home for Christmas on 12/23 around that time and won't be playing while @ home. So I have to figure out how to get a gold star in 23 days of grinding.

Goals:
-DO NOT PLAY ANY 45's
-4-5k Month That would be nice so imma aim high like Air Force
-@ least 1.1k games played
-20-25% ROI

These goals seem close to what I have tried every single month this year and have gotten clowned. I feel like my game is good to go so bring on December. I feel a cold coming on so hopefully I can be a soldier and fight through it. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and good luck on the tables.

wbmustang

Haiku

2009-11-29T18:09:00.000-08:00

Instead writing about how I get screwed every way possible because it is boring I wrote a haiku instead.

Dub B is all in

Donk makes call and is crushed

Donk sucks out gg

Hope everyone had a great sunday

wbmustang

Realizations / Reality Check

2009-11-28T14:50:00.000-08:00

Often times there are points in your life you realize things and recently I have been thinking alot. I know I have posted before about how my results have been so much worse than last year. Some of that is attributed to the games getting toughter but I need to dig deeper than that. I don't know what is going on with me but this year has been a big test for me. My ROI has drastically decreased and I am trying to pin it on something. I know it can be easy to say it is variance but it's too easy to blame it on that. I am kind of writing this post out to call myself out. I know I am very hard on myself but it is for a good reason. I know I am capable of a lot more than what I am currently doing.

This year I have been with SNGMentors. It is an excellent program and I can't tell you how much I have learned. I feel so much better as a player but the results have not followed. I kind of feel like not only have I let the mentors down but myself as well. I am such a freaking competitive person it's ridiculous. I read other peoples blogs and they are winning and when I don't win its a punch to my gut. I am not a hater, I am happy when other people do well, but hell I feel like I should be getting the results. I read a lot of blogs about putting in hard work and more volume. Maybe I am not putting in enough work to be a great winning player. I was talking with reasons today a little bit about my frustrations. I appreciate him for listening to me whine but more than anything help give me guidance. I pulled up my graphs in the 180's. Even though I have a 2k sample I am clearly not doing something right. The varaince has been ridiculous and I am slight loser, if you wanna call being down -$386 either slight or just a loser ;-). I know I could revert to playing the 45's and increasing my stakes but for some reason I want to crush the 180's. I refuse to feel like I can' t beat these games when I KNOW I can. I think I will try something different this month. I am not gonna play another 45 man for the rest of the year. I will be only focusing on 180's so I will be playing the $2's and the $12's. I know I may want to slit my rest if I run booty in the $2's but this is the only way I see myself getting better. I will have to study hard this month and see where it leads. After the month of December I will be able to shape my upcoming poker plans for the next year.

I am leaving Denver in a couple of hours so I will be grinding tomorrow. I must say I enjoyed being home with my family, even though I caught grief for playing one day, and seeing some of my old friends. It's always good to come back and see the people you grow up with. Bottom line is that I am very hungry and I will make things change around instead of just hoping and praying for positive variance. Below I am going to post my graphs for 2008 and 2009 as well as post my 180's graph. Here is to finishing the year off strong cuz vertek just aint gonna get a free $500.

2008

2009

180's

Home Is Where the Heart Is!

2009-11-26T09:56:00.000-08:00

Well, I am back in Denver right now. It's really funny to look back last year and see what I was talking about during the month of my blog. First of all, it was funny to see how low volume I used to have. I used to run like 500-600 games for like a 25% ROI what a sick life. I think the games were probably a little bit softer last year as well but funny to see how far I have gone. Also it was also funny to see I wrote the same thing about the Broncos. Way to go fellas you have actually collapsed twice in two years who would of thunk it.

As far as poker is concerned I didn't feel like playing that much on Tuesday. I decided to do a little bit of studying instead. I def saw some spots here and there where I missed some shoves but for the most part everything is meh. I guess I am trying to focus on finding out my weaknesses even though I should be winning. I don't know how much I am going to play over Thanksgiving break because I dont' know how much I will get sweated. If I do though, I will wake up really early and then just grind for like 4 hrs. Like a 6-10 shift. I know I sound like a degen but hell a brotha is actually trying to make money this month. BTW I would like give Assassinato a shout out for that email he sent me. It really put things in perspective and got me back on my jo.

When I am at home I really don't have too much planned. Probably will see a couple of friends and just chill out with the family. I haven't been back home since Christmas so this was a long time coming. I need to do a better job of coming back home because the flights are super cheap. Other than that everything is gravy and the family is doing good. Probably will update on Sunday after I grind. But till then Happy Thanksgiving. Oh yeah and congratulations to reasons for that nice little MTT score.

wbmustang

Irritated

2009-11-22T19:22:00.000-08:00

I was going to post this earlier but I had to cool out for a little bit. Today sucked like 10000000000%. First it was poker. I feel like I always put myself in good situations in these 180's to actually win. However when you lose hands like KK vs. A3 vs. 88 for massive chips it doesn't work out like that. All in all I think I played well but the results didn't follow. If I did suck out my opponent would just resuck out on me on the river. It was just absolutely irritating. The end of the month is coming so we will see what happens.

Another thing that was annoying to watch is the collapse of the Denver Broncos. Hey lets win 5 in a row get Wil all excited and then loose 4 straight. It's absolutely ridiculous and Chris Simms is the worst backup qb ever. They should cut him after that terrible showing. Either way this month has sucked for me with poker and sports just hoping to run good in something.

Always Play Your A Game

2009-11-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

I am fairly proud of myself for what I did during the past weekend. I finally got my Windows 7 installed in 64 bit mode. I had to buy a new 500 gb hard drive so I could backup all the information I needed. It helped a lot because I had to pretty much format my old 1TB drive so I wouldn't have any settings etc which are a headache to setup sometimes. After I did that I installed a lot of my poker related programs and did the whole licensing thing. Licenses are such a headache when you have to reformat or upgrade your computer.

I played this weekend too but wasn't too thrilled about my results. I thought I played a lot better on Saturday then I did on Sunday even though I made a little money on Sunday. The reason I was so disappointed with how I played on Sunday because I wasn't playing my A game. It's so much easier to lie to someone else but you can't lie to yourself. After the session, I was like I played alright but deep down I knew I played terrible. I had far too many misclicks and did dumb stuff and I don't know wtf was going on. I am doing a better job of staying focused but it was just terrible how bad I played on Sunday. Oh well I managed to actually win a $12/180 the fact remains that I played bad. SNG's are funny because the more consistent you play obv the better results you have. It's tough because you are human and might have off days but if you are professional and do your job then your bad days will be limited.

Today I plan on playing for 5-6 hrs. I am really working on playing more 180's and less 45's but it sucks when you have to load a lot fewer tables. The $7.70's load times are absolutely garbage and I never really could get that many going. Mostly it was $12 180's mixed in with like 4-5 45's at the most. I want to keep it like this because I like playing 180's and I like playing 45's too. But I dunno we will see what happens. I also need to find time to do some studying for grad school sigh. Lastly I need to buy a chair and move my computer to the office area. This way I won't be able to turn on the tv and will be 100% free of distractions.

wbmustang

Making Progress

2009-11-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

Well, I actually got two things accomplished with my life yesterday. First of all I went to the dentist. I thought the visit was going to be pretty bad but it was alright. I found out that I need to brush and floss better, well that wasn't a shocker, and I have to go back for a deep clean. The only bad thing is that I have one small cavity but I kinda knew that was there from when eating candy I could feel it.

I also finally upgraded my computer to Windows 7 and I am pretty happy. It was so aggravating having HEM and Table Ninja really slow down my computer. It even is more aggravating when you know it's because your OS can't recognize all of your RAM. XP had a limit on how much it recognized and that problem is solved. I was going to upgrade to Vista but just waited until Windows 7 came out. I probably will just play the same amount of tables at first to see if it runs better.

I also received a little bit of coaching from Jbrown yesterday and feel like I learned a lot. It's always good to have coaching sessions because you see the spots where you are missing. Anyways I was missing some spots and being nitty in others. I would expand more but I don't know who is reading this blog. Either way I know what I am doing wrong and going to try to correct my problems. Also I won't be playing any 45's for at least a week. Jbrown and I talked about this and he said that it would be good so that I can get my 180 man game down. I feel so confident in my 45 man game that think I will be alright. Another thing that he said that really struck home is don't be one of those guys that worry about how you run. I do have a tendency to do this but hey I can't control it. The only thing I can control is if I am playing my A game and not missing spots and the results will come. Hopefully these changes will help and I look forward to pwning soon.

Keep Pluggin

2009-11-05T20:00:00.000-08:00

Often times when I start off the month off I get kind of lazy and be like well oh I won some money I can chill. I am trying to work on making myself keep plugging volume. Now that I feel so good about how I am playing I need to put in as much volume as possible. I didn't play any last nigh because I wanted to chill and ended up just staying home playing some Fifa and studying. Hey at least I did something poker related.

Yesterday I also watched the Phil Ivey special on E:60 and it was pretty cool. I mean I think they could of made it better but Phil was as open on that as he has been in any type of interview. It was pretty sick to see the life he lived and how high he gambled. When he signs a check for $1 million to play some craps I just laughed and thought. I was like dang I don't think I have enough courage to put that amount of 0's on a check. I know he worked pretty hard to get where he is at and seeing stuff like that motivates. I probably will never get to the point where I play craps for that much money though lol.

I probably am going to keep plugging volume this weekend too seeing that I don't have class this weekend. I still have to do stuff like upgrading my computer, sigh yes again I said it, and figure out how to get some studying in for actual class. I really need to start getting on that class stuff like ASAP before it starts to snowball out of control. I think I probably need to find a way to look at stuff at least an hour a day.

Anyways I am pretty tired so I am going to bed early. Something that has been pissing me off lately is that fact that I am so sleepy all the time. I don't know wtf is going on but during the day I am so tired. I have gone the route of starting to drink energy drinks and stuff and that is all bad I think. Whenever I take an energy drink for some reason I feel like I am taking years off my life and I hate it. Maybe it has to do with my nutrition which sucks. I really need to evaluate how I treat my body because I do it so bad. Lol I feel so dumb sometimes but I will get it together soon.

wbmustang

Motivation.... and 13th In the Nightly $70k

2009-11-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

T.I - Motivation
You can look me in my eyes, see I'm ready for whatever
Anythang don't kill me, make me better
I ain't dead nigga, you can take the fame and the chedda
And the game, and the deal, I'm still a go-getter
Take my freedom for the moment but it ain't fo-ever
I got the spirit of a god, heart of a dope dealer
I'm a king, seen hangin' with some cold killas
I ain't never back down or ran from no nigga
I ain't sat down yet, pimp, standin' gorilla
Even if I'ma all alone or standin' with four niggaz
Tell'em jump, pimpin' it don't get no realer
5'9" with the soul of a 6'4" nigga
I separated the fakes, paralized from the waist down
From the real stand up guys of the A-Town
Can't even look me in my eyes, put yo face down
I'm outta jail nigga, whachu gotta say now?

Motivation
Niggaz fakin' only gonna inspire (Motivation)
All yo hatin' is fuel to my fire (It's motivation)
Niggaz plottin' on the crown soft droppin' (It's motivation)
Hey but I ain't slowin' down and I ain't stoppin' (Motivation)
Now nigga don't stop my show (Motivation)
You ain't know I don't stop, I go (It's motivation)
Sucka niggaz can't make me suffer
Just make me stronger and make me tougher (It's motivation)

I was trying to post this song but I can't find one to post due to copyright reasons. I guess TI needs all the money he can get while locked up and doesn't need music pirates killing his bankroll. This has to be one of the most inspiring songs for me for some reason. When I started playing my session yesterday I played this song and was really vibing to it. Little did I know that this song will be my anthem because of what happened yesterday.

When I started my session, I set up my regular stuff to register for in Table Ninja then went to the MTT tab. I was like hey might as well try to play the nightly $70k. Two problems I didn't know the buyin and I didn't know how long I wanted to play. Well after I registered and started playing I realized it was a $50+5. I wasn't too mad about that thanks to msusyr24 making that score and inflating the bankroll. The next problem I would get over. I knew I was going to load for 4 hrs like I usually do but hey it was icing on the cake to get deep in the nightly $70k. I ended up having a good session with SNG's and got 13th in the Nightly $70k. I guess that's all fine and dandy but I really wanted to final table this one. Hell I really wanted to win it. I have been waiting so long for my score and here it is I could taste it. I am kind of disappointed in my bustout hand because maybe I went broke to easy but my stack was just too shallow to fold imo.

PokerStars Game #34901296067: Tournament #209011082, $50+$5 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXII (4000/8000) - 2009/11/04 0:30:15 PT [2009/11/04 3:30:15 ET]
Table '209011082 130' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: JerWorld (59454 in chips)
Seat 3: piAnisSimoO (641465 in chips)
Seat 5: payup123 (400184 in chips)
Seat 6: dapperson (340220 in chips)
Seat 7: wbmustang (173738 in chips)
Seat 8: 925rounder (366681 in chips)
Seat 9: punisher03 (515766 in chips)
JerWorld: posts the ante 800
piAnisSimoO: posts the ante 800
payup123: posts the ante 800
dapperson: posts the ante 800
wbmustang: posts the ante 800
925rounder: posts the ante 800
punisher03: posts the ante 800
piAnisSimoO: posts small blind 4000
payup123: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to wbmustang [Kd Jd]
dapperson: folds
wbmustang: raises 12000 to 20000
925rounder: folds
punisher03: calls 20000
JerWorld: folds
piAnisSimoO: folds
payup123: calls 12000
*** FLOP *** [7d 5c Kc]
payup123: checks
wbmustang: bets 40000
punisher03: raises 40000 to 80000
payup123: folds
wbmustang: raises 72938 to 152938 and is all-in
punisher03: calls 72938
*** TURN *** [7d 5c Kc] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [7d 5c Kc 6c] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
wbmustang: shows [Kd Jd] (two pair, Kings and Sevens)
punisher03: shows [Ks Ad] (two pair, Kings and Sevens - Ace kicker)
punisher03 collected 375476 from pot
punisher03 said, "gg"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 375476 | Rake 0
Board [7d 5c Kc 6c 7s]
Seat 2: JerWorld (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: piAnisSimoO (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: payup123 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: dapperson folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: wbmustang showed [Kd Jd] and lost with two pair, Kings and Sevens
Seat 8: 925rounder folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: punisher03 showed [Ks Ad] and won (375476) with two pair, Kings and Sevens

Oh well gg me and I will take the $500. It was so much fun getting that deep in a tournament. I was concentrating so hard and my adrenaline was just pumpin. One day I will make a deep run and TID but for now this just like a sample at Costco and I want the whole pie.

Other than that I still need to get stuff done at my apartment. I still have not upgraded to Windows 7. The most productive thing I have done with my life is that I have a dentist appointment set up. I have put this one off for some time and now I am pretty scared. It's gonna be painful but hey I know a certain someone wants to make sure my smile stays intact.

Anyways, I know it seems like I blog only when things go good and that is really not the case. Usually when I take breaks from blogging I have a lot going on and I don't know how to put in on paper as the say. I guess from now on I will just start typing and see what happens.

wbmustang

Light Bulb Turns On + October Results

2009-11-02T09:53:00.000-08:00

In poker people talk about the aha moment that happens before they catch on and start crushing. For some reason I think I might be getting to that point. Gone are the days I am just going through the motions playing the game. I feel like I am more actively thinking about all my situations instead of clicking away mindlessly. I feel like I have said this in the past and I hope that it really sticks this time. Now if only I can apply these principles to everything else in life sigh.

I feel like I have so much to do around my house and not enough time in the day to do it. I have clothes that need folding, I need to tidy up my place in general, I need to finally set up my office by getting an office chair, I need to upgrade my computer to Windows 7, I need to play and study poker, and on top of that I need to read for grad school. So much to do but I feel like I don't have enough time. I have a great idea, instead of thinking about doing this things I can start doing them. Sounds real easy but not for me. J/K I am working on not being as lazy but I am taking baby steps I need to start taking grown man steps. This upcoming will be interesting to see how I balance everything out but I am sure I can. Sometimes sacrifices must be made and if that means less partying/drinking/spending money then it might be for the best. Of course I don't do this all the time, but it might happen less frequently. I mean most of the time I don't end up playing is because I go out to happy hour and get too many drinks in me and come home and pass out.

I am pretty proud of my month poker wise. I did well with a 23% ROI over 1,009 games for close to $2k. The reason I am so proud of this month is because you can see the correlation from me realizing things and my results that follow. This is why I truly believe that the light has gone on. The graphs of results will be at the bottom of my post. On top of that msusyr24 shipped the Sunday Second Chance for $45k and I had a piece of him. I really am happy for him because he puts in a lot of volume and time on his game. Just another example about what hard work can get you so congrats msusyr24. I don't know how much my share will be worth until he does the math but I am looking forward to it. This is one of the rare times where I have staked someone and they actually did good. I have staked good player countless times before and not gotten a positive ROI. Maybe this will make me take it seriously and start tracking my staking adventures.

Other than that I really can't complain about anything. Oh yeah I do have a prop bet with vertek set up. It is going to be a $500 to see who gets to $20k profit on sharkscope first. This should be interesting because lately he has been pwning me in volume but we will see what happens. If I want to win I definitely have to focus. This has to be one of my largest bets I have set up and I don't plan on losing. GL vertek I hope we both stay motivated and make money at the same time.

wbmustang

The Calm

2009-10-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

I am proud of myself due to the way that I have played recently. It seems like I really took the points of the last blog to heart and I feel like I am playing a lot better. I am not being a "zombie" during my sessions and actively thinking a lot more and I feel like it is paying off. I have also been doing more studying and I feel like I can still do more. However, I am little bit disappointed with my volume this month. I am like 70 games away from 1k games and I must reach that goal. I feel like my month is a joke if I don't hit 1k games played and it's so easy to get there. I have my schedule and everything setup so I really am pursuing 1.5k games very hard during November.

I switched it up and played a live tournament last night. My buddy Al always wants me to play but playing live just tilts me so bad until I start playing. I love being in person and playing. You get the feel of the chips, the nervousness and excitement, and everything that comes with live poker. However, when you take a beat it stings that much more live because you can't just load up another tournament. The tournament is $50+5 and it gets about 130 people when I play. It was pretty uneventful and I busted all in pre flop with AKs. At the 400/800 level one guy ep+1 limps, another person in the cut off raises to 3k I am on the button with 11k total I ship sb calls, ep+ 1 guy calls, and then the guy in the cut off calls. I am against 52s, ATs, and 66. Obv I flop trip Kings but I get two outed on the turn so gg me. I was just so mad because I feel like I win that huge pot there then I am going on a tear. Oh well thats live poker lawl donkaments.

I sit here today at work a little nervous because my grad school classes are starting today. Sigh 4:30 pm - 9 pm on Friday and 8:00 am - 2:00 pm on Saturday every other week FML. Oh well it's for a good purpose. I just want to go ahead and get this masters degree out of the way so I can be done with school forever. Often times I keep telling myself I am going to get this degree and see what happens with poker after that. I mean I will have a masters and hopefully enough money to take some time off and grind. We'll see I could be talking to soon so I dunno. My biggest thing is how my parents will react if I do this. Lol I think about it all the time but too scared to do so. I just got a promotion, they are paying for my schoo, and so easy to just make variance free money so I will just stack it up. I know I shouldn't care about what my parents will think at this point since I pay my own bills but I don't want to disrespect them. Oh well that's all I got for now.

wbmustang

"I'm a professional. I just do my job."

2009-10-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't updated my blog in a while because I had a lot of stuff going on. I had a lot of thinking to do about why I am not where I want to be in terms of poker. When I started to think about that I remembered this quote from Man on Fire, "I am professional. I just do my job." Even though this is a quote from the organization that kidnapped a little girl it still has merit in my life because I don't think I am being very professional in ANY aspect of my life.

I have always been a pretty gifted kid. I always was able to pretty much exceed in a lot of things that I do without putting in the proper work. As I look back on my life, I think this is a big problem and one of the biggest flaws I have. I always had the talent but never wanted to work, basically I am just lazy. For me to succeed in poker the way that I want to do I need to be more professional with it. I need to stop jerking around and really focus during my sessions. I don't know what is up with me. Maybe it is my adult ADD, or something but I need to be more focused. Bottom line, I am playing for money and need to be more professional. Even though it looks like I am playing a video game I need to always be focused at the task at hand.

I also need to make a better habit about studying my games. I don't know how often a lot of people talk about studying their games and reviewing what they are doing and playing to get better. It's like I feel like I can skip a step because I feel like I am not making mistakes. Well you can feel that way, but bottom line I think you can be hard pressed to find a person that makes no mistakes while playing. I believe that the good players have a low number to non mistakes but I can't even qualify myself in this category. Why I have the mentality of thinking is beyond me but I am trying to make a character change.

Watching, the Will Smith video on vertek's fb page really motivated me. The video is a bunch of clips of Will Smith saying some inspirational stuff and it really hit home. He says that he is not the most talented actor but he will outwork anyone. This is the mentality that I must carry in everyday I do. I mean who knows what I am capable of when I work hard. I just don't want to be known as a guy that had all the talent and didn't put in the work. It's scary because that's how I see my life going and not really poker. I have so much potential I just need to untap it. I mean I am not doing bad for myself. I just got a promotion at my engineering job which pays good but I know I can do better. I am just trying to stop living my life going through the motions.

To implement my master plan, I am going to put myself on a very strenious schedule. This is only for the best and it is going to be a good starting point. I can adjust my schedule to incorporate working out but with grad school starting this weekend this is how it is going to have to be.

M-T
5:00 am - 1:30 pm Work
2:15 pm - 7:15 pm Load up and play poker
7:15 pm - 9:00 pm (the latest) - wind down poker sessions
9:00-10:30 pm

I have classes on Friday and Saturday so I will have to figure out how I can play after class on Saturday. I know this is a demanding schedule but I expect greatness from myself.

Results have been pretty meh after I went on a downswing when I wasn't playing the greatest. I am just tired of saying I am going to do this and that and not follow through. I really need to read some of my older post and count how many times I say I am going to do something and don't end up doing it and it would be sickening. Oh well all I can do is just make positive changes and keep on trucking. Well maybe I am too hard on myself but the great people are. Till next time.

wbmustang

Ran Terrible

2009-09-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

I played today and ran terrible. It sucks so much to build up stacks just to get pwned later. Granted may be missing some little spots I need to figure out how to get the poker gods on my side. Maybe I need to sacrifice a small baby or lamb or something. J/K obv but I just wanna run hot 1x. I will probably put in a small session tomorrow and that will be it for the month. Oh well I can't really complain thats just the variance of the game. I also was running pretty good in the $11+1 20k guaranteed but spewed my chips away. I was very disappointed in myself. When I was in the hand I was just clicking buttons like a monkey and not thinking. Next thing you know my hella good stack is in with top pair 2nd kicker gg me. Hopefully can make some noise tomm.

wbmustang

Where You @?

2009-09-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

This aint a Boost Mobile commercial but I am still around grinding. Whenever I have a pretty busy month, I rarely update my blogs. I mean I have plenty of opportunities to update but I guess I am just lazy and don't feel like sitting down and typing.

This month in poker has been pretty meh. I had a volume goal set at the the beginning of the month but had to be real with myself and adjust it. At first, I was going to try to play 1.5k and as the month went I was going to be pretty short. I adjusted that total to 1.1k games played. I mean I remember a point in time when I wasn't getting in 1k games and thought I was king ish but my eyes have been opened. I want to run at 25% and I got some time left so we will see how it goes. Currently I am around 988 games played with a 15% ROI. I still have a couple of days left for the rest of the month so hopefully I can crush. I am doing really well in the 45's but just can't get things to connect in the 180's. For the most part, I think I am playing pretty well and should be a winning player but its just about putting in the volume tbh. Kind of hard to complain about not being a winner in a game and not even have a 1k sample size lol.

I have been kicking it with Assassinato and Raventhon more recently as well. I am still kind of mad it took me so long to meet Raventhon but happy I did. He is a cool guy and when we kick it with Alex its just a good time. The dynamic is kind of weird I guess and I have poker to thank for bringing us together. There is Alex who is a younger and just came of the tour and a hella good player. Then there is Raventhon who is a serious sng grinder, aka Pimp of the Nerds, and he can even grind out rpg games just sick. Then there is me 25 year old black guy with a professional job. It's all good times when we get together and look forward to kicking it with these guys more. Just so fun to just talk hands, bs, and watch them grind. You learn so much just buy being around them and hearing them talk its ridiculous. They are going to be leaving to go to Costa Rica probably within a month so that will suck.

I am loving reading all my friends blogs and seeing the success it has it just drives me more. Msusyr24 is having a gangster month and now has that crystal star by his name. Reasons14 has grown a lot since I have met him and he also has a start by his name too. Jontsef, TheLipoFund, Vers,Vertek, Shen888, and JBrown are also guys that I talk to regularly. It's cool having the relationship with players who are good so you can see what they go through and also game knowledge from them at the same time. The number one thing that I do get from this is to put in volume. I mean you can be playing retarded, put volume in, and still be a winning player. Either way I need to find a way to increase my volume. I mean I know I work a full time job and everything but playing 2k games a month would be pretty dope. I should be getting some good money too especially if I run like I am supposed to.

I just plan on grinding for the rest of the month. I told myself I was going to go through a Deuces Cracked series before the end of the month but its looking like that might not happen. Hopefully I will actually be able to review more of my games and watch some videos. I am still looking at how much my monthly expenses are "supposed" to be so from then I can set a goal so I will know what I need to shoot for. TBH the number is like $15k but I need to add some padding onto that because obv I want to have a house one of these days. I wonder how long it will take me to get like $30k stashed away. Probably like a year or so but who knows if I actually put some volume in. Sigh on another sad note I have way more money on PokerStars than in any of my bank accounts. We gots to work on that.

wbmustang

Playing Better

2009-09-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

For the most part I think I am playing a lot better and getting a hang of the games. The one thing I do have to deal with is just the swings in the sessions. When you are playing these things it seems like the 45's just keep you a float and then when you get a good finish in the 180's thats how your bankroll gets boosted. I just can't wait till that session where I catch on fire because you have the potential to win a lot with a couple of 180 man wins in session.

I have also been trying to review more of my HH's in genearl. I think I am doing a pretty good job about that in general. I just reviewed one a second ago wehre I got second but I played so Lol bad. Of course I was happy with the second, but there is no way I can miss the spots that I did and be a good player. I think it is better for me to be hard on my self to keep myself humble. Poker is a game with a deep rabbit whole so there is so much that you can learn. For the most part when I review my game I play good but, I just need to play better in some spots. Hopefully by reviewing the stuff I will get more comfortable with it so it will be like 2nd nature in the future.

Either that I have just been chilling basically. Trying to put in my volume and study so I can be the best player I can bee. Also on a side note I saw some black guy on the TLB front page of Stars and got jealous because I want to be there one day Lol.

wbmustang

25 Years Old

2009-09-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, 25 years old and I can't believe. It's crazy because all I hear about the statistics. Black people are either dead or in jail by the age of 25. GUESS WHAT MOFO'S I AINT NONE OF THAT. I feel like I am on top of the world at times. I have a good job and I have a mind that helps me make money everday. I am soo comfortable right now I just can't believe it right now. Right now I am in Chicago @ my homeboys wedding just chilling and vibing.

Life can be so crazy sometimes! I feel like I am old but at the same time I feel young at the age of 25. I have so many plans and dreams that I want to accomplish. For instance poker, I want to make it so bad I can taste. This past year my results have been pretty booty and I think I have isolated why they have been that way. I talk so much shit, say I will do x, y, and z, but at the end of the day I don't do it. I have heard too many times that the only way that I will be succesful is if I play, study, and repeat. It's a vicious cycle but I know that is what I have to do. I just need to become a student of the game and put what I learn into use.

I finally got deuces cracked, watched one video and thought it was that piff! I am going to continue watching the content on deuces so I can develop into more of a thinking player. I dunno why but often times I feel like I am just like a droid and not taking my game to the next level.

Big plans big plans. I can taste success in my mouth right now and it taste great. I just am so happy that God has blessed me with another year to do something. Even if it is just waking up the next morning I am thankful. I am thankful because I have a Mom and Dad that love me so much that helped me to be in the position I am today. I am thankful because I have my little sister who is my heart beat and my best friend. I just don't know how many times I can say thank you. I know I sound like a spoiled brat sometimes which is why I have to sit back and say thank you.

I am also starting graduate school in October. This program has been delayed so many times but I am just happy that it is starting. I am so drunk right now, gone off that bay, that I don't really know what to put together to type this blog. Then I am thinking about how this blog is gonna look when I am mad old looking back on history. Well, if it ends up being a mistake I am happy. I never thought I would get this hard into it but I am. Like Jay Z says it is the allure of the game. BTW that Blueprint 3 is fire.

Well I have spewed off for enough and these are my goals for this year.

1. Make money playing poker
-I know I make money but not as much as I want. I know I need to study and take my game to the next level to be profitable. I love the game so much, am so competitive, it really means a lot for me to make money and be good in this game.

2. Get down to 200 lbs.
-It is inexcusable the way I look. I mean I was bigger in high school but, I feel like I can do a lot better. I want to get back to 200 lbs. by the time I am 26. I mean I am at my peak right now lets get it.

3. Develop my business and create my team.
-I know I need to develp Bradford LLC from the ground up. But at the same time, I know I need to created a team for me to be succesful. So I am going to try real hard to bring this business from the ground up.

4. Jay Z said it the best "Never live with regrets!" So that is exactly what I am going to do put balls to the wall and have remorse.

I know I am drunk and spewing but I have so many emotions in me I don't know what to say. I appreciate everyone that reads this blog and rides the roller coaster which is my life with me. I have big plans and can't wait to one day say mamma I made it. Well that is all. Here is to a year of greatness and prosperirty.

wbmustang

Might Be On To Something

2009-08-18T06:25:00.000-07:00

I played last night and besides the second place I got in an 180, I think that I generally was not playing my A game for some reason. I say this because I think I noticed a leak that I have a the final two tables. Hopefully that will help me when it comes down to it so that I can have more chips when I get to the final table.

Probably not going to play today. I have a business meeting after work and then I have a double header in softball. I am just going to use this time to go over some HH's and other players HH's to see if maybe my leak is valid. Either way something has to turn around. I think that studying more will help. It is always great when studying = results and they usually do in the long term. Just feel like I am in a general rut trying to get ahead.

Either way I dunno I just think I am so competitive deep down inside. I hate feeling like I am not winning because tbh I feel like a break even player. I am hungry! My ribs are touching like a starving African because I just am that hungry to win. I can't wait for the day I really can't. I know it will come sooner than later or I will have to quit. J/k about the quitting thing but I know I need to play better.

wbmustang

My Break Through

2009-08-17T07:12:00.001-07:00

When I started this blog I never thought I was going to try real hard and not complain about swings etc. etc. but it's the way of the game. I just hate blogs when someone is like I am crushing the game and they only blog when they are winning. Blogs are so cool because you get to see the dynamic of the person that is writing it. You get to feel the emotional roller coaster, known as poker, and how people deal with their struggles. Basically this is a mini disclaimer because I will be complaining a little bit.

The picture at the top is supposed to represent breaking through. That's all I want to do is break through in this game. That was my whole goal this year but of course things never go like it is supposed to plan. I just look at my profits for 2009 and sometimes I feel like I am wasting my time. Don't get me wrong I love this game, I love to grind, that's why I play but, can a brotha make some money. I feel like I study do the right things but often times don't get rewarded.

When you read stuff like this it will make it sound like I am either a losing player or having a super long BE stretch but I just feel like I am a better player than my results are showing. I know that vers is going through his 5k BE stretch and I guess it's kind of reassuring. He is one of the best 45/180 man grinders I know and he is going through his struggles. I just have to accept the fact that the games are tougher and I have to GRIND though it.

Yesterday I felt like I played pretty good but nothing really went my way. I bust the Sunday 1/4 million when my KK < AJ just so annoying. I am happy at how I played thought in MTT's in general. I felt I capitalized on spots to squeeze etc but some things I did may of been a bit excessive. There are def spots where I think I am better off just re raising and jamming flops instead of just shoving my stack in the middle. Either way its gotta turn around.

This next week I just plan on grinding a lot because I have friends coming into town on Friday. After that I won't be playing that much for about a week because I need to entertain them instead of playing poker. In a sense the timing is good. I could probably use a week of though. Hopefully I can start making some good profit this upcoming week. Below are my results for the month. I am down like $100 but was up to like $600 this month at most. All I want to do is have back to back winnning sessions and I think I will take off from there. Don't get me wrong thhough, the confidence/swag is there, but the results are not. Maybe PokerStars doesn't like black people j/k obv :-(.

Welcome Bizack

2009-08-11T02:59:00.000-07:00

Guess who's bizzack
Still smell the blow on my clothes
Like crispy cream I was cooking them o's
Like horseshoes I was tossin' them o's

-Young Jeezy-

Been a while since I updated the blog. I always go out of town at the beginning of months and when I come back never update my blog and I guess basically I suck at getting back into the groove.

Last month went alright in terms of poker. I actually had a winning month but took a little bit of a downswing at the end of the month when I started playing the 180's. Sometimes I play the 180's and think wtf did I get myself into but I love them. I don't know if it is my addictive personality but the feeling when you go deep in one of those is pretty crazy. Although, you know that so much needs to go your way to get to the final table or take one down.

Some people will probably be like wtf is this fool doing up updating his blog. Well that's what happens when you got happy hr after work get some drinks in you and pass out early. Now its 3:04 am and I don't think I am going back to sleep. I mean I will pretty much gurantee myself being late to work if I go to sleep now.

Lately just been grinding the 180's and played a cash game session at Muckleshoot. I took a nice hit and I won't be playing that 3/5 game until I re up some money. It's hard because I want to build up a live roll but I guess it requires me taking a shot so I have to save up to take shots. I really don't like withdrawing from stars so I just save and take shots here and there. Oh well.

That kind of led to this funky mood I was in this weekend. Often times I read other peoples blogs and they talk about depression. I don't think I get depressed very much but sometimes when things aren't going right I get in stank moods. Kind of weird moods where I don't want to be bothered. I usually don't get like this but when you played bad and lost live and then play online and not exactly crushing it's hard to just be all excited lol. Although for the most part I usually just think about the positive. Think about how I am blessed to have a job in this economy and a skill where I can make myself some money. Kind of puts it into prespective I guess. I complain a lot but thats probably because I am lazy and don't like waking up at 6 am ;-).

I started my LLC and pretty excited about it. I think I am going to start doing some more research and looking at real estate stuff. I am trying to develop a network around me and as things get more set into place I will talk about it more. But hey Bradford Investments is an official company.

My plans for this month are just to play a lot of games. I have some trips I want to go on soon so I needs the money. Plus having a passport now I feel like I can make big time moves now :-) . Thats all I have for now I will post the results of last month below :-). Here's to success in 180's!

wbmustang

Missing Out On Money

2009-07-27T05:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I have decided to stop being a little girl and start playing the 180's. I have always been turned away from the 180's because of the variance but you know what who cares. I think I will be pretty +ev and already have a pretty good knowledge for push shove decisions so it shouldn't be that much of an adjustment. I have already started studying some HH so it should only be a matter of time before I start hopping in those games. I just see players like jontsef crushing these games and I know he is pretty good but at the same time, I think I will be alright at these games and probably just throwing away free money. Hopefully this will also increase my ROI and hourly which will be nice. I just will need to suck it up and play through the swings.

I guess even though the money in my stars account does not contribute to my life roll I am still kind of nitty. This is kind of bad because I remember Assassinato saying when you don't have that big of a bankroll you can be kind of wreckless and when you have a bigger roll you want to protect it. I am still trying to run my bankroll up so I think I have it padded enough to take the variance. The plan for now will be to finish out the month playing the 45's then next month load in the 180's as I am playing.

I have kind of cooled down poker wise. I was running pretty hot at the beginnning of the month and now running just ok. Can't complain much because I am just sitting at home clicking buttons on a computer making money but oh well. Hopefully I can finish off strong and get started on my new challenge, pwning the 180's.

Everyday Struggle

2009-07-19T04:06:00.000-07:00

"Im livin everyday like a hustle, another drug to juggle. Another day, another struggle!"
-Notorious B.I.G-

So I am pretty pissed off at myself right now because it feels like I haven't played an SNG in a couple of days. I can contribute this to a couple of things but I will just talk about what I have been up to lately.

On Friday I ended up going to the horse races with some coworkers. It was the first time I have seen it live and I definitely have a new outlook on horse racing. The people there are pretty funny just degenning it up betting on an animal to win. I just don't see how people can do it. It's weird because I just don't figure out how you can bet on an animal. Like I mean when you bet on sports they are actual people, they do interviews show so you think you know about the psychology of them, and at the end of the day you know humans. But with horse racing its like wtf information do you have to give you an edge on a horse. Maybe the jockey is good but the horse isn't gonna be like will imma come out there and wind because I feel good etc. Oh well kind of a tangent but just my two cents.

Later on that night, I ended up rolling with them to the casino. When we got out there I imediately signed up for $3/5. I walk in there and look at the least and it is on diesel. I put my name on the list grab a pager and head back out. They are in this lounge place just drinking so we decide to go out and gamble in the pit. I usually don't gamble in the pit but I played roulette and lost $40 oh well what a spew.

After eons, I finally got the page to go play poker. Now here is the predicament, I rode with one of my coworkers and didn't know how long he wanted to stay and watch me play. So I sat down buy in for $500 and play for a little. I sat down and got a feel for the table and notice how fishy all the players were. Pretty much a bunch of limping and nothing too crazy. There was this one cat who I thought was a fish and he was kind of luckboxing. Anyways there were only like a couple of hands I really got into.

Playing live I really am trying to get better with analyzing stack sizes etc because its no blinking on your screen. So I am getting a little better but I will give you the hands. One hand that drove me kinda of crazy internally in particular. I have about $420-450 in my stick. A tighter UTG guy raises to $15. We get two callers and now it is to me on the button I look down and oh boi like Jazze Phizzle I got AKs. So I bump it up to $65. Bam thats the first mistake I should of made it $75. Then it goes to the guy UTG and he reraises to $165. The two other callers gtfo and now it is on me. I was just thinking about his range. I was like man live players usually don't 4 bet all like. He is UTG and he is mad comfortable. I mean buddy didn't look like a ballar so I think the money means something to him. He also is rockin out on his ipod looking comfortable. I ask him how much more he has left he said $175 so I thought and folded. Plus I felt like I can just pick a better spot instead of flipping or possible being crushed. I mean these live fishes are going to pay me anyway.

Last Hand, we have a MP limper and a LP limper I am in the SB with AQo but I am oop so I just bump it up to $30. The guy in MP calls and the other guy calls. Bam flop comes AJ8r cbet $45 and the guy calls. The turn comes 9 diamonds. I was like hmm I could bet here but let me check and try to get him to bluff so I check and checks. Turn is a 4 diamonds and I am like alright I need to value bet here. I grab my chips and ended up betting $120. Now that I think about it that may be too much but hey I suck at adding up the pot live. I just am lazy and hate doing the math for it. Either way guy heeems and haws counts out chips and calls. That was the biggetst hand of the night. Nothing to excited but booked +$120. By that time my coworker was ready to leave so I dipped.

Saturday I ended up going to the Chelsea vs. Sounders soccer game. It was real cool because Qwest Field was pretty much sold out and was the biggest soccer game I have been to. Even though Chelsea's A team was out there, they still fielded a decent squad and managed to absolutely abuse the Sounders. You just see how much better the English sides are than an MLS squad. Chelsea looked so composed on the ball and did whatever they wanted to do. While the Sounders were more frantic and always looking to pass instead of shooting. Either way it was an good game and the Sounders lost 2-0. I am really looking forward to going to the Sounders vs. Barcelona game August 4th.

After the soccer game, I ended up going to the NSBE (National Society of Blacke Engineers) Bbq. It was a pretty good time and got to see most of my friends from college tghat I kicked it with. I ended up just kickin it out there eating food having a good time. After that, I just went home and passed out. I guess I kind have been pretty busy.

This brings me to my next point about why I have not been playing. I just feel like I don't have any balance at all. I feel like I can never find the happy medium of going and kicking it with friends vs. playing poker online. I mean I always get cracked on kind of because everyone is like we don't see you out. Well I feel like I don't need to go out. Why go out and spew off money instead of just coming home and making money. Now it seems like the roles are reversed. I have been going out lately and now I haven't played any SNG's. Sure I played live but I rather be playing online trying to get that bank roll going. Don't get me wrong live is a good change of pace but I just wanna get the BR on swole online.

I guess it comes down to it I am hungry but I am not putting in the time to even get better/make more money. Sure I have studied some stuff but I have to find a way to put these games in and maybe possibly go out. I dunno its something that I just struggle with. It seems like I have said something about it in previous post and just seems like a vicious cycle. Like I really do want to start going to the gym, going to the store, grabbing groceries SO I WON'T EAT OUT ALL THE TIME!!!!! But, I never really slow down to do it. After work all I think about is coming home to grind. If I don't start right after work then the games load way to slow being out here on Pacific Time. After that I am so tired from working and grinding I just go out get something to eat. Eat and go to sleep. Oh well.

I know this post has been all over the place so I apologize. I guess I should of put this on top as my disclaimer my bad.

SharkScope @ $10k

2009-07-11T23:40:00.000-07:00

Well it took me long enough but I finally hit the $10k mark for profit on SharkScope. Some people may roll their eyes and think it is pretty wack but hey I am proud. I have actually managed to make $10k doing something in my spare time so that also makes it better. I guess I could be out having fun at the bars and clubs but hey that's more about spending money than making it.

I haven't updated this blog because I suck at doing things after I get back in town. I always feel like I am the laziest person on earth. If I don't do things right when I get back into town then my life really goes to hell. That was the case again this time as I didn't unpack anything and everything goes down hill from there. I am finally kind of back on track but hey its like the middle of the month now.

Hmm now its time to really sit down and set some goals for the month. Last month, I feel like I had a good goal trying to put in 1,500 games but things didn't happen how I wanted them to. I put in the games but I wasn't playing my A game which lead me to posting that post at the end of the month. This month I am going to shoot for 1k games played and an ROI of 25-30%. I think that I may be overestimating my ROI in these games since they have gotten a little bit hard so I might have to sit down and reasses sustainable ROI's. I will also try to play more MTT's when I am on and we will see how that goes.

So far this month I haven't put that much volume in but I think that I am playing a lot better. I still cut down tables and now I am usually 12-14 tabling during my seasons. I don't feel rushed at all and everything is flowing smoothly so I probably won't add anymore tables for a little. I feel like I am just taking everything I have learned from last month and trying to really apply it to my game. I feel like I learned so much psychologically and mentally about the game that it will do nothing but help me when I play in the future.

Lastly, I just really wanted to say thank you to the game of poker. I know it sounds crazy and people are going to ask me wtf I am talking about but let me explain. I feel like I have talked to so many different people just by playing this game. I can't say enough for the network of people that I feel like I have gained from this game. People that are always there to listen to you help you and also share their experiences. It is unbelieveable how much you can just learn just by listening to people share their past experiences. More than likely, it will keep you from making a mistake that they had made or just have a different way of looking at a situation. I really feel like the things that I have learned from other people has turned me into a much better player today.

Oh yeah I almost forgot congratulations on and good luck tomorrow TheLipoFund. It's crazy enough you took down the weekly TLB now just beat that chick Katja Thater! Vamoooooooooooos!

All Volume Aint Good Volume

2009-07-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

The title of this blog post totally summarizes my whole month. I am very proud for myself from getting down to the nitty gritty and putting in the games but how may of those games where actually good volume? How many games was I playing my A game? Well I guess its hard to know unless I review every single HH but at the same time I know I didn't put in the best volume I could.

Last night, I was inspired by TheLipoFund who actually played for 30hrs straight trying to win the TLB so I decided to grind a long session late last night. I was so focused on getting to 1.5k SNG's for the month that I really didn't care. I just kept loading and playing. Granted that I didn't run the greates it was clear after reviewing some HH's with Reasons14 that I was not playing my A game. That got us starting to talk about how I need to be mentally prepared for the game.

We started talking about how with variance included and you are 16 tabling you have to be on your A game. I have heard many succesful players that said this same thing but I think I took that statement for granted. Last night I had a volume goal and I was forcing myself to play instead of wanting to play. I mean I always want to play don't get it twisted but, the wrong thing was motivating me on this session.

The reason I am so angry at myself is because I am hard headed and don't keep lessons in my head. When ParadiceCity was coaching me we always talked about not spazing out and really focusing on what you are doing. Now it seems like I am not for some reason. It has always been a struggle for me to focuse period though. I have a hard time sitting down doing one thing at a time. Like I only can look at something for a little then my mind wanders. I guess my mom was right when she called me scattered brain growing up lol. Anyways I either I have Adult ADD or I need to find a way to concentrate more. I have some plan of actions that I am going to take and I am going to list those.

1)Dropping down to 12 Tables.
-I think I was so focused in moving up on tables that I really started slacking with my game play. Sometimes I think I play too many tables too because I feel rushed and am not thinking about each situations to the fullest. For @ least the first half of the month I think I am going to 12 table and focus on everything going on more. Seeing what types of hands people show up with etc etc. I know this could be bad because I can get bored and tempted to surf the web or message but I will work at focusing on everything more.

2)Closing all IM programs and cutting of phone while grinding.
-I feel like I just get too easily distracted. I work from 6:00-2:30 every day and when I am off of work I want to talk to people. People usually call me when I am grinding and I will pick up the phone for like 5-15 mins and I will talk. This is very distracted and I cannot focus on my A game when all of this is going on. Thus the reason why I am going to stop. I end up missing way to many shoves/iso spots when this is going on so it has to stop.

3)Focus on playing my A game all the time.
-Obviouslly I have struggled with this because this past month I have already written about playing like a robot/zombie. I need to be focused on everything. What % of my stack am I raising with? What ranges I put this person on. What my image is perceived? How do I get max value from hands? These are just the little things that I must constantly askign myself when I am in every situation.

These are all of the things that I am thinking about that are off the top of my head. I left a thread on both forums I am a member on becauce I feel like I need more help to focus. I don't know if I need to get checked for adult ADD or what but I refuse to just grind that long for only a measily 7%. I know I am better than that and no matter how bad I run I refuse to believe I am that "bad" of a player. Below you can see the graphs for my month.

I am thinking about taking a couple of days off not really thinking about poker. I am going to relax and start next month with a clean slate. I need to take advantage of the months I have before my grad school program finally starts. Even though thats another story that I don't like to talk to this time. I hope when people read this stuff they can learn from my lessons and not do the same thing. Till next time stay classy.

wbmustang aka wbdonkstang :-(

Nice Sunday Session

2009-06-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I went camping on Friday night so I didn't get an opportunity to play any type of poker this weekend. I was going to link up and do a ghosting session with Casp Air but we decided to reschedule and I decided to just grind instead.

I was really proud of the way that I played today. I was doing alright in the TT but shoved in a standard spot with AJ got called by QQ and proceeded to lose. The Daily 30k I did alright in but made some spewy decisions. One would be the death of my tournament when I tried to three bet all in with 67o to a late position minraise and he had AQ. The play is a little spewy because I should of had more of an idea about his range but I had just moved to the table and it looked weak. It didn't help that I flopped the 6 but like Stars usually does he turned his Q. I am just proud for the fact that I actually opened up a little and tried this because I normally never three bet light @ all and now I know what needs to be going through my head the next time I attempt it.

Early on in the session, it just seemed like I was getting absolutely owned. I can't even tell you how many times I had AA and it got cracked by people hitting sets on me. Luckily, I kept my wits and ended up a little over $600 on the day. It is making my month look a little more respectable but obv my ROI has been so bad. I look forward to grinding the next two months and maybe even reaching 1.5k sng's in a month. I really want to finish strong this month because it would be nice to move up and try to mix in some $27's if my bankroll permits it.

wbmustang

The Light Goes On

2009-06-21T19:25:00.001-07:00

Something just clicked to me when I was talking to Reasons14 yesterday. Our conversation was just about optimal and unexploitable in SNG's. Then I got to start thinking about everything and realized that when I play poker I am playing way to much like a robot. I am not really thinking about everything that is going on. That is the very key aspect of poker. You must always thinking about what is going on, what is going to happen, what range you put this person on, etc etc the rabbit hole is so endless. Its then when I realized that I have not been putting my mind and focusing into poker enough. This is the main reason why I feel like my results have been so sorry this month.

With a new mentality, I fired up some SNG's today and had a very good day. Granted I might of ran well in certain places but I feel like I tried to be more mentally involved in my game instead of playing like a robot. I felt like today I played one of my best sessions I have in a while. I know I am actively working on my game but I am just trying to take it to the next level. I think what I am just going to try to do is just make sure that I stay so focused on poker that I want to be mentally exhausted when my session is over. I know it sounds crazy but I know that if I feel this way I feel like I would of left everything on the virtual felt. I know another corny sports reference that relates to poker but that is how I feel.

I definitely am excited to see what the end of this month brings. I am very proud of myself because I have grinded out over 1k SNG's in a month for my highest volume month. Although it hasn't been easy and has been so freaking swinging I think I have learned a lot about myself and my game. I know what I need to do to take it to the next level and that is what I am going to try and do. That means being more of a student of the game and reading more strat articles etc. I am also going to get a deuces cracked membership this month and going to stop being a nit. This should help me for preparing for my transition to cash games in the future. I know I won't be playing SNG's for forever and feel like I need to evolve even more as a player. I also want to by the book Winning Poker Tournamnets One Hand at a Time. I think this will be a good book for me to read and help me with my bigger MTT game because right now I play them and feel like a fish out of water.

wbmustang

Happy Fathers Day

2009-06-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say Happy Fathers day to all of the fathers out there especially my father. My father has been very influential in my life and I can't thank him enough for what he has done in my life. He provided me with food in my stomach, clothes on my back, and a place to live. My father is a person I can consider my hero because of what he has been through in his life. It's crazy how a little country boy from Wilson, LA can grow up and do such great things with his life. He has a wonderful family, especially his son :-), and is respected by everyone whose life he was able to impact.

I can't say enough for what my dad has done for me though. He taught me how to play baseball, football, and basketball when I was younger. He also put a tremendous amount of time into those things for me. He was always right there supporting me or being a coach on one of my teams. My dad could work all day and after work would just take me to practice and be so supportive to me. My dad also provided for me everything without even asking. He paid for my private high school, college, and even my expenses when I was in college. There is so much more that he has done for me that I can't even type because this post would be eons long.

Lastly, I just wanted to say I love you Dad for everything that you have taught me in my life. I may not of been very happy when you punished me when I got in trouble but those bumps in the road are what made me grow up and shaped my foundation of a man that I am today. I wish I could just write more about my dad but when I think about the things he has done in my life for me my mind starts going everywhere and its so hard for me to capture everything. I hope you have a great Fathers Day and know that your son loves you very much. Just know that it is my dream to not only be the man that you are but even better. It's going to be a hard task but I think I can get there one day.

wbmustang

Sigh...

2009-06-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

I just feel like hitting my head on the table for endless hours. So sick when I look at my sharkscope and see how many games I have played and little to nothing to show for it. Oh well it is what it is I guess I just have to deal with it. It seems like this month I never got any real traction going. I win go on a streak then seems like I can't keep moving forward. I can't really complain I guess because even though I feel like that I love playing. It kind of just feels like I am in the zone thinking about what situation or decision I am going to have to make next.

I am also happy because I am starting to study more and I am sticking with it. I know I could of shut it down by now but I am stubborn and can't wait for my heater. I am just gonna laugh and grin so freaking hard when stars activates my boom switch instead of the dookie switch because I feel like I am getting shitted on!!! I know it sounds like I complain a lot but hey this is what I am feeling right now. I guess you don't have to read it if you don't want to :-p!

wbmustang

Plugging Leaks

2009-06-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

Late last night, I went over some HH's with Reasons14. It is amazing how good he is with knowing ranges in different situations. He really studies hard and it shows because he can break stuff down and know exactly what ranges you need in each situation. Then there is me, I definitely have a good idea bout what ranges I need to shove but more often than not I am a feel based player. I keep saying that I want to get to the level where I am sick good with identifying what ranges I need and when but its kind of hard for me especially trying to balance things.

We found some leaks that I do have. I am not going to put my business out there about what leaks were found but I am going to work hard on fixing them. I think the best way to do this is to cut down some of my tables. I am going to start 14 tabling instead of playing 18 to work on fixing my leaks. I mean my leaks are not huge but every little bit counts. Especially for me, because it seems like I am basically going through like a 2k break even stretch although it might be less but that's what it looks like on Sharkscope.

Balance!!!! I know I wrote something about this a while ago but it is so freaking hard for me to find a balance between poker and actually having a social life. It's bad enough I go to work from 6:00-2:30, although I am very thankful to have a job, and then get off and start grinding. Plus people really don't even know the hustle/struggle it is being an SNG grinder. I mean my friends would look at me crazy if I say uhh sorry I can't go out to have drinks I am grinding. Plus, you never know what experience that you are letting pass by. I knew that playing a lot more volume this month it was going to be harder for me to balance thing but it is good. I need to find out how to fit all of this in together. I like poker too much and I want to be successful too much so I know I need to figure out how to squeeze in volume. At the same time I know you have to be a well rounded individual so I guess it is like a work in progress.

I am happy because I see 1k games played in site but I am not happy with my profit margin. Oh well at least I will have a bunch of fpp's.

wbmustang

Better Days

2009-06-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

I had a good day playing today and actually won money. I don't know what happened but, Reasons14 was railing me and I was listening to The Diplomats and I went on a pretty sick heater. I was running so good it was unbelievable. I felt like I could of shoved ATC's and still won against AA. I absolutely love that feeling when you are on a heater. It's so hard to explain but you almost feel invincible like you can't do anything wrong. Even if you do something wrong, you always feel like you are going to hit that gin card and suckout.

I have actually put in a lot of volume for myself this month. I am pretty impressed too because I have just been pushing myself. There have been times where I felt like I ran like complete dog shit and I still find a way to keep on playing and staying on top of my game. It's not easy but still I grind.

It's crazy how far I have come in the time I started playing these SNG's. I remember where I only use to play one table at a time and was biting tooth and nail to cash. I always use to laugh at people shoving and was like oh I will wait to crack them. Funny how the tides have turned because now I am 18 tabling and I am the one shoving. Although I feel like the games have gotten harder, I still feel like I can be +ev and make money if I just put in the volume. I never realized how much volume I didn't put in and how small my sample sizes were per month. This month has also taught me how much I actually need to play to put in that required volume. I guess that makes no sense at all but you really don't realize how much you have to grind until you set a goal start reaching it and realize you put in mad work.

I need to put in some heavy games the next couple of days because I have some plans for this weekend now. I will be going paintballing for my first time on Saturday and totally looking forward to it. I am kind of nervous because I know it will sting like a mug when I get shot for the first time but I can't wait to go out there and try to light some one up.

wbmustang

Still I Grind....

2009-06-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

But I don't shine. So far this month I am very proud with the volume of games that I have put in. I have put in over 500 sng's this month and that is a ton for me because my top month is like 800 and that was last month.

Although my volume has increased, I have no money to show for it but I feel like I am playing well. These things are like printing money and I just feel like I have to be patient and keep grinding and the positive results will come around. I just hate when I am not up on the month or losing.

To me, I see poker as a dream to get me out of this cubicle and waking up every morning at 6 am. It is like a huge punch to the stomach when I am not successful and I think that it fuels me with a hunger for more. This is absolutely insane because I have never felt this way about anything in my life. I can sit there and be down money playing sng's but know that I am like a 20x happier person but oh well it is what it is. Maybe I just need to realize that for the rest of my life will consist of working and playing at the same time although I would love to just play. I mean yeah I hate the 6:00-2:30 and it is guranteed income. Maybe I can just use both sources as good income so I can just retire early meh. Oh well I am still positive and still grinding just can't wait to keep shining!

wbmustang

Confused

2009-06-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

Right now I have no idea wtf is going on with poker. I finally corrected the problem of not misclicking while I am running my sessions with HEM. But that is not really the tilting part. How can I run so freaking good in the $6.50's and so bad in the $12's. I find it very perplexing but I am just gonna keep playing my game and just patiently waiting on my heater. I am doing pretty good with putting in volume for this month and I hope to keep it up. One person commented on my blog and said try to be disgustingly positive. That's all I am gonna try to do. Just grind grind grind until that money comes in. I know I am +ev so no need to even trip.

Other than that life is pretty good and it is clear that I am always living for the weekend. It's bad to wish away your life but I always get that feeling like wow I can't wait till the weekend is here. Oh well till next time see you on the tables.

wbmustang

Didn't Play Today

2009-06-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately was not a good day today in terms of putting in volume. I had a softball game at 5:15 so I played and that and we proceeded to loose I mean get cheated out of the game. Basically the story goes we were up by like 3 runs and the home team is up hitting. They ended up scoring enough runs in that inning to overtake the lead and at the same time they ran the clock out too. We ended up losing by like 2 or 3 runs because they called the time limit for the game. WTF I feel like we got cheated where is David Stern I know he is behind this.

I plan on putting in at least four hours of loading again. I really am going to try to reach my goal of 1-1.5k SNG's on the month. I mean these things are like printing money as long as you put in the volume. However, if you look at my recent post I guess it is not like printing money.

The one positive thing that I did do is to change my avatar on PokerStars. Since people have jokes when I say my name is Wilford they are always ask like Wilford Brimley. Well, this has only really recently happened were people got that joke so I have changed my avatar from a fly pic of me to the one below. Hopefully it brings the run good and good health weee!

2009-05-31T18:19:00.001-07:00

Upswings and Downswings

2009-05-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

Sometimes poker and life can be so hand it in hand it is ridiculous. You run hot and you are on a ridiculous upswing and you never felt better. Then, you have a -50 BI downswing and everything sucks and you feel like crap but you try to play it off and play on and know you can't afford to tilt. Well I feel the exact same way about my life right now. The reason I didn't update this blog for a while because I was kind of stuck about what to and not to write on this. I guess it does kind of weird me out to know that if I put myself out there on this blog that strangers and close people that I know I might read it. I have always been ridiculously private with my feelings. I rarely let anyone know how I am feeling or what is going on because I feel like it is an issue more about me so why does anyone else need to know. I am going to try to start writing about my life and feelings more on this thing because I thought my blog was getting lame. Yeah I won this day, I lost this way, I am getting better. Whatever its all fine and dandy but it comes to a point where you think there is more to it. That's what I am going to try to accomplish more with this blog. That's why I really respect the blogs of TheLipoFund, when he updated it, and Assassinato because they don't care they put it all out there. Well, I don't know if I can go from an extreme left to an extreme right but I am going to start taking baby steps in the next direction.

Sometimes, it just feels like I am smiling on the outside and just really dying on the inside. I stay to myself, don't really talk to my family like I should, because I am an idiot obv, and try to live life like I loner. I have been away from my family for song its ridiculous. I wanted to go to school in Tallahassee to not only get a different culture experience at an Historically Black College, but I also wanted to get out of the house. All I knew was that house and my parents rules and I just couldn't wait to get out. Yeah I loved my family but sometimes I hated the way that they had so much control of my life. I mean I don't want to make my parents sound bad because I love them but sometimes I feel that I wasn't allowed to do what I really wanted to do when I wanted to do which led me to wild out pretty hard in school. That first taste of freedom that I actually experienced when I first got to college was probably like a continuous cocaine high. I have never done it but that is the way people describe. I was just so free and could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and there was nothing that anyone could do about it. With that type of mentality, comes some parts in your life when you are going to learn life lessons. I feel like I learned so much in school about myself and life its ridiculous. It probably has shaped me and made into the person that I am today.

After, I graduated I accepted a job offer in Seattle,WA of course I could never move back home. It just felt like I got to the point of my life where I can't live with them anymore and just have to be out of my own. I know it probably perplexes them when I don't call like I should but sometimes I just like that feeling I get knowing that I am just out alone my own man trying to do me. Recently, I have been questioning a lot of things in my life and making me realize how important my family should be to me. Nothing bad has happened or anything but I just know deep down how important they are and should be to me. When everyone else lets you down they are the ones that you can talk to. During this time period I also have been trying to figure out what in life is going to truly make me happy. I would be telling you a lie straight to your face if I told you I was happy going to work from 6:00am-2:30pm every freaking day. Yeah, its good to have a job in this economy, the job is fine, and there are things I can learn but ultimately I know that's not me. I absolutely hate structure sometimes and would rather be on MY schedule that a 6:00am-2:30pm schedule. That's why I even started playing poker in the first place. I mean I know I need a back up plan because obv I am not good enough to just play poker but its such a dream of mine. I don't want to have to wake up everyday having to go to work at the same time. I would much rather do what I want to do when I want to do it. I will put my heart into work because it is a means to an end and I need that job for stable money. But, my heart is so much into the game of poker. Sidebar my parents/family are going to think I am NUTS if/when they read this. But anyways I would be perfectly fine waking up doing something I absolutely love to do everyday and making my own money than waking up 6:00am-2:30pm making someone else money. I guess I just have that hustlers/entrepreneur spirit. I always that my boy Pat in college for crazy talking about a job working for someone else is not him but hey Pat I feel where you are coming from. Ultimately I just have to grow as a person, keep networking, get this graduate degree, and play poker. That is going to be my game plan. Hopefully by the time I get that graduate degree I have so much freaking money saved up so I can just take some time and figure out my next move. Ultimately, that feels like it is going to take forever because grad school classes keep getting delayed. This is like the fourth or fifth time that it has been delayed and it is driving me crazy. I would be more frustrated if I was lazy and it was something I did but hey I am in the program just waiting to start.

Poker has been so mind wrecking it is ridiculous. April was such a freaking smooth month and everything was perfect. 776 games played 27% ROI $2,275. I never had any type of rough patches of everything. Now lets look at the stats for May. 896 games played -2% ROI -$447. This month was so trying because I never felt like I was gaining any type of traction. It is so frustrated to absolutely be killing the $6.50's and getting killed in the $12's. They are not that much harder and I believe I have a pretty good edge in these games. When going through last month I just started to think why people they are grinding when they are playing online. The truth of the matter the game is such a grind it is ridiculous but I love it. You have to love doing something if you are sitting there playing in front of a computer for 4-5 hrs and you are losing money. Sometimes I feel like an idiot after the session but I know deep down inside it is what I love. I feel like my game is on point for the most part though. Been doing some more review over my hands and posting hands but going to try to get better with that. Meeting people like Assassinato and his boys his boy he introduced me to sexuelity really taught me that. You get out of poker what you put in. If you don't put in the work or the time to play you are not going to get better point blank. This is why I am going to try to work harder than I have ever before. This month I was very proud of myself for putting in the volume despite it being a losing month. To some people they may sit back and laugh when I say volume but it was the most amount of games I have ever played in a month. I honestly think that I could of actually hit the 1k games played mark next month when I put in the time. I know I will run better and I know that I will keep analyzing spots to help me get better. I also finally got HEM after everyone cracked on me for being nitty and not buy int. It is definitely a good purchase and I am interested to see how well I do with it next month. Especially, when I try to start transitioning to cash which will probably happen after I am done with my current deal at SNGMentors but who knows. Well I might as well list my goals for next month.

-1k games played
-20-25% ROI
-Study @ least 8 hrs a week

It's going to be hard for me to track the last goal of studying 8 hrs a week but I will figure it out. Whether it be reviewing my hh's, looking at other peoples, or running stuff through SNGWiz myself. I know this post was super long but hey that's what happens when you don't update your blog in a month. Here is to running well in the second half of the year because I need to start stacking cheese to make some believers out of people :-p.

P.S I love and miss all my family a lot especially my Joi Joi :-)

wbmustang

Computer Built & Using Scripts

2009-04-20T21:50:00.001-07:00

Well my computer is finally built and you know I couldn't wait to fire it up to play my first session. The thing about it is that I had put everything together on Saturday with my boy Al but had trouble loading the OS so finished that up on Sunday. I also had to transfer a bunch of music and videos from my old computer so I can eventually get to formatting the hd and putting it in my new box. Although I am tempted to just wait and get another 1 TB HD. Then, I thought I was gonna get all sophisticated so I downloading some scripts to run to help me multi table. My Hotkey program selections are Stars Assitant, StarsHotkeys, and Debustifier. It takes a little bit of getting use to because I had to tweak the settings to give me what I want. I didn't really like how Stars Assitant would bring up the active table and not really let you select what table you can act on. I guess it is just different because the program is essentially telling you to play optimally I guess but hey I wanna do stuff quicker on other tables like when I want to snap AA and such things. Other than that my first session wasn't that spectacular. I ended up have like a 28% ROI over 43 games for a whopping $83. Oh well I am not complaining because it was a winning session but it felt good to get comfortable on my new computer. I also had to mess around and fidget with the custom table layout when the tournaments. It was kind of tilting and next time I will be sure to set that up before I start playing by just opening tables and setting stuff up. Its tilting trying to line up the stuff to stack it and make the same size but it got accomplished. Other than that life is pretty good and I can't complain at all. I am having a good month and really liking how my game is progressing. I really see myself getting more comfortable in a lot spots where I used to was not. Hmm it seems like the quality of my posts are so bad but meh I don't care I kind of enjoy writing whats on my mind. Till next time.

wbmustang

Running Alright + Go Man United and Nuggets

2009-04-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

I have still be running fairly good this month. For the most part, I am a little off pace to reach 1k games for the month so I might have to stretch out some longer session on my Saturdays so that I can meet this goal. I still think that I am learning new stuff everyday which is good. I just try to play as best a possible and not lose any of the old stuff that I learn. I guess I just need to keep playing and find time to study and evaluate my game. That is the only way that I am going to get better is if I keep playing and studying. Often time, I think it is real easy to get caught up in the success that you have an therefore are less inclined to study. Well, then you are only hurting yourself in the long run because I am sure there are players out there that are always looking for an edge and that is key. Another funny thing did happen the other day I was playing and looking at the chat and obv people are talking about how bad I am and how I suck balls. Honestly it is just sooo funny to me and all the hate just feeds my positive energy. I obv think that when people hate on you they want what you have. I guess since they have to be a reverse grinder they have to hate on me for doing ok oh well lol.

The Nuggets have secured the second seed in the playoffs and we are playing the New Orleans Hornets. This is kind of a scary series because I know how dangerous the Honrnets can be with CP3 aka She P 3 lol. Hopefully we can play good against them and handle them in 6 games and I think that is how long it is going to take. Man United had a pretty big win in Porto yesterday to advance to the semi finals of the UEFA Champions League. United is the first English team to win in Porto so it was a huge win and even bigger goal by Cristiano Ronaldo. That goal might be the strike of they year tbh. Hopefully they beat Arsenal in the semis and march our way to Rome to win the title back to back. Thats all for now till next time.

wbmustang

Lazy Weekend

2009-04-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I was totally lazy this weekend and did not get anything that I wanted to get accomplished. Wow Wil that sounds so earth shattering on your blog. Saying that you are going to do something and don't do it. Yeah will it is what it is. On Friday night I played some poker and ended up going to a friends house party for his birthday. Poker was good and I had a nice session. Unfortunately after I got done playing I took my sorry ass to sleep. I am so notorious for just going to sleep and the truth of the matter is I like to sleep waaaaaaaaaay to much. Sometimes I think about going to a doctor to get it checked out but other times I guess its normal. The only problem is that when I go to sleep like that it messes my sleep schedule all up. Basically I ended up falling through the party at like closer to 12. It was a good time drank and clowned and then passed. Man I like patron weeeeeee. Anyways I ended up waking up, going to IHOP, then coming back to my house. Unfortunately when I got back home I proceded to fall back asleep and wake up at like 5. So mad at myself didn't play any poker or anything. On Sunday I went to church and I don't play on Sunday's anymore. Ok cool perfect it seemed like I could go ahead and build my computer. I called my boys up who were supposed to help me out so it turns out to be a no go. Now I must go to work early so I can get off earlier so I can grind. I want to grind for at least like 3-4 hrs and then put together my computer. Well that is my plan. Hopefully I will be able to actually follow through with a plan that I have created. The only glitch in the plan is that I have to wake up and be in at work by 5 am. Will he make it?

wbmustang

April So Far

2009-04-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

April has been treating me pretty well I am running pretty good. I will play today and tomorrow and obv take Sunday off for Easter. I am also excited because I will finally be able to put my new computer together on Sunday. Its terrible because I have had the mobo and cpu for a while just was too lazy/broke to put everything together and get the parts off of newegg. I will have my buddy up here help me so I hope that I won't run into any problems. Other than that I am just chillin right now longing for the Seattle sun. I guess I don't really let the weather affect me too much but geez is it too much to ask to see the sun geesh. I also need to figure out times where I can sit down and study my game. The only problem is that sometimes I feel like I rush myself going through stuff sometimes I dunno. The only way for me to continually get better is for me to keep studying and that is what I plan on doing. I have to continue to tell myself not to focus on short term success and look as my poker playing as one giant session. Pretty uneventful post but going to try and do better updating.

wbmustang

March Reuslts, April Goals, and More!

2009-04-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well March again was another trying month. I am happy because I actually reached GoldStar but sad how my profit ended up for the month. It seemed like the month was going so good then out of no where I hit a downswing. I guess I just have to get used to it. It's so frustrating when you think that things are turning the corner and then you get totally pwned. I guess that is variance for you but it really hurts. I ended up making around $812 with a measily 10% ROI. I guess I should stop complaining because I wasn't down for the month but really I do expect more from myself. To be honest I thought that this year was going to be my break out year in terms of poker and so far it has not panned out this way. Oh well this is only the end of the first quarter of the year and I still have three quarters left to play. Sorry I had to put in a cheesy football reference in on this blog. Either way I guess I can say that I am happy with the amount of volume that I put in this month. 758 games played is not bad at all and I long for the month when I actually hit 1k games played which I think is doable since I am playing more tables and I got a new monitor and just have to put together my computer finally. When I look back on this blog years from now I am just going to cringe about how I say I am going to do something and then don't do it. I guess like that one post said I am just a man of excuses :-p.

April should be a good month but unfortunately my grad school really with start this month towards in the end of April. I can't say that I am all too thrilled about it but I know that it is necessary in the long run for my professional career. Besides that I am going to try to be hardcore and put some tough goals on myself. Hey shoot for the moon and if you miss you will land in the stars. Heare is a list of my goals:

-1k games played
-25-30% ROI
-Update blog more

Obviously the VIP Status will take care of itself if I put in the volume which is why I did not include this month. I am happy with the way my game is progressing and just waiting for the results that I expect/deserve. Even though that sounds kind of cocky I don't care because @ this point that is how I feel.

In terms of life and what not everything is cool. I finally got a 23" Samusung monitor on a sweat deal and I have all of the parts to my computer. Now all I have to do is just put it together which I plan on doing this weekend. Probably Sunday so I can keep myself entertained and not play poker on Easter. Everyone and their mom probably knows by now how my Broncos how just been torn apart. I mean yes Jay Cutler is a cry baby, yes we got a lot for him in draft picks, but how did Josh McDaniels come in here and just mess everything up is just beyond me. He had one job to do which was shore up the defense now we need a qb because I am not convinced that Orton or Simms in the answer there. I mean I think these guys can manage a game but being Pro Bowl calliber I do not see. I guess it is better to have an overall better team and a good qb rather than a Pro Bowl QB and a suspect team. I mean at least that is what I keep telling myself. The Nuggets are doing good and are in position to be the #2 seed in the West. That is definitely suprising and I hope they lock that up and actually get out of the first round of the playoffs this year. Manchester United have hit a little bet of a rough patch but I know that they will pull out of it and win the EPL and Champions League.

I was going to make another post about this but hopefully I can write this and no one will read it. Right now I am struggling with the concept of the value of a dollar. I mean yeah I make good money, yeah I make money playing poker most of the time :-s, but I am kind of calling myself out for not saving like I should and being frivolous with my money. I kind of have the mentallity that when I leave this earth I will not be able to take anything to heaven. With that being said why act cheap. I am not gonna say I go out getting bottle service every night but I do need to do better. I have a gym membership which I don't use, a Netflix membership that I will start using more when my computer is built, and I spend way to much money eating out and drinking good when I go out. I dunno I guess it comes with growing up but I need to do something. I made a budget for myself when I started working and I tottally don't use it @ all. I mean don't get me wrong I have alright contribution in the 401k and do like $100 a week in my savings account but bottom line I think I can do better. I don't want to be the person saying wow I worked x amount of years and have nothing to show for it. I mean hear it is year 1 down and I am not 100% sure if I have anything to show for it. I got some things in my apt but it is not where I want it to be. Meh let me not start because it will be the LONGEST post ever. Good luck to all my other buddies with their goals and see you @ the tables.

GoldStar Weeeeeeee!

2009-03-26T06:08:00.000-07:00

Well I have accomplished my goal of reaching GoldStar vip status level. It has been a crazy month. After the beginning of the month, I was doing alright and was close to 1k. Then I reached a point where I had a downswing and pretty much lost all of it. Now it is towards the end of the month and now I am back up like 1.2k. My ROI is slacking for what I had in terms of my goal but I still have some time to bring that up. I need to make that final push for the end of the month. I don't know how long I will be able to play this weekend though. Friday I will probably go out after work have some cocktails so that is that. On Saturday, I have ticekts for the Cask Brew Festival in Seattle so thats going to be another night of drinking. I probably will be able to get some games in on late Friday night and Saturday morning. Hopefully, I don't get too faded on Friday so that I will be able to play. I also made the decision to not play on Sundays anymore. I know some people are going to be like thats the juiciest day of the year but thats the ev that I will just have to pass on. When I first started poker, I told myself that I wasn't going to play on Sundays just because of religious reasons. It's already a struggle having to talk to my parents about me playing poker and just views of it with the church. Oh well I am not going to get deeper into it but I am just not playing on Sundays anymore. Plus, most of my Sundays suck anways and I usually get pwned by Stars. This just means I am going to have to grind a little harder since I am going to be out of like 3-4 days a month because of Sunday. Oh well, I think I will feel better about the situation in the long term.

wbmustang

Running Better

2009-03-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

After a session with vers and reviewing tournaments critiques I have posted, I have been running a lot better and back to where I was before my swing. I am pretty happy about it too because I think I have been putting in a lot of work. Like I have said before on previous posts, there is no better feeling than getting results after putting in the work. While doing these things, I figured out another thing that I was doing. From time to time, I kind of get myself getting cocky and running on autopilot on SNG's. Well, although a lot of peopel talking stuff about how easy SNG's are to play and it only becomes a shove fest I don't think that is neccesarily true. Sure we are kind of playing a little dumbed down because not having to play flops, turns, and rivers like in cash games but it is still one big problem. You are constantly having to think about ranges what range of hands you think this person will be pushing with his stack size, etc. etc. It's these types of things that I think I was slipping for a while and not really thinking everything through. I have to realize I must have to mentally play through EVERY single hand/situation and not just coast through my SNG's. I guess its more of like a life leak. Sometimes I can just walk around and not put 100% of my efforts into something. Although think I am playing poker 100%, I think I need to go that extra and make sure I play 100% mentally and always thinking about the situation. I think that this will greatly help my game and help keep me on point more. Even knowing all these things, I know I still have some leaks that I need to plug. I won't put all my leaks on blast on blog so people can use them against me :-p. But please believe I am trying to plug them. Although, I probably could put everything on this blog because no one reads it anyway.

Oh yeah I almost forgot to mention. I was interested in the Dang brothers because I have heard and read some stuff on them but there interview on Mediocre Poker was real legit. They seemed like cool down to earth guys and they were talking about some good tidbits of information about ranges and stuff. I probably will start listening to some more of there shows on there like the one they did with Phil Galfond.

wbmustang

Computer Problems

2009-03-18T05:56:00.000-07:00

As stated before I still have not built my new computer. That is the main problem because now my computer problems have affected my poker so something needs to happen. Yesterday I spent my time after work cleaning the computer with anti virus and spyware removal software. It took freaking forever and pretty much knew that I wouldn't be able to get any type of volume in. I am going to try and get some volume in today. I am scheduled to play some basketball after work and then I am going to hop on stars and grind for a while. I really am motivated to play which is why I was kind of pissed off I wasn't able to play yesterday. Lawjik is helping me get all the parts together for the new system so hopefully I will be able to have that built before the end of the month. Thats all I have for now until I actually start playing again :-s.

wbmustang

Sunday Sunday Sunday

2009-03-16T06:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I seemed to have to worst SNG day ever. I played for a while and even got to up to around 16 tables at one point but just ran so bad bad bad. I looked at my session and saw some shoves where I was shoving wider but nothing that I would think would contribute to a -$700 swing. I feel so terrible because as soon as my sharkscope gets close to 7k I just tank it. Granted I was experimenting with ranges in some spots I guess I had to learn the hard way. It also didn't help that jetblackx was running so hot against me it really was funny. I always felt like I went in with the better hand against him but he just had my number. I guess I can't complain because the other day I was playing against jaydoggie and felt like I couldn't lose in a pot against him. I guess sometimes its like that. I am still up like $250 on the month but this downswing hurt. I really thought I was turning the corner but when trying new things I can't really argue with results or be results oriented. Due to the fact that I ran so badly on Sunday, I plan on putting in heavy volume this week. I will be playing the $12's and also mixing in the $6.50 so I can try to 14 table. I was doing 15-16 yesterday pretty effortlesly and when reviewing the session it looked like my game really did not fall off. I dunno maybe I will end up doing that later on this week but for now I think I will just stick to 12 tables. I definitely am on pace to get that GoldStar I just need to run better and play smarter. It's always easy to say but hard to accomplish :-).

Unfortunately, the Jay Cutler vs. Broncos saga has gotten worse and he has officially asked for a trade. I didn't think it would ever come to this but I don't know what kind of resolution can happen with this. I am just upset that Pat Bowlen has said nothing about the matter or John Elway hasn't chimed in for a nice quote in the Denver Post. Who knows where this is going but it can't be good. The Nuggets got lucky, thanks Eastern Conf. for whipping up on the Jazz and Trailblazers, so they are in spot #4 in the playoff race. Hopefully they will pull there heads out of their butts and start playing how they need to. Manchester United got whooped by Liverpool though so you can't win them all. United are still in great position with a game in hand so hopefully this loss will humble them just a tad. Till next time.

wbmustant

Letting Fans Down

2009-03-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I honestly think I have been letting my fans down by not blogging. Well I am not really that delusional and know I don't have very many :-p. But, you know it is bad when my sister calls me out about not blogging and she doesn't even read it all that often. J/k I love you Joi and even though we don't talk much, because you suck at working mobile devices, I hope you are doing great at UVA. Now on to the great game we know as poker. Obv I was a loser last month two. Needless to say 2009 has not been filled with the greatness I have anticipated but hey thats variance. I really can't do anything but look at poker in the long term. If I keep making +ev decisions I am sure that I will be able to come out ahead in the long run. I asked my boy TheLipoFund, who also needs to update, about what it takes to be a good SNG player. He said you just need to put on dookie repellant. I totally agree because sometimes you get into slumps where you don't feel like anything can go right. Well it is what it is and all you can really do is play through it. Currently, I am having a decent month but need to put in a lot of volume. I will put my goals at the bottom of this post.

As far as last month, I had a good time enjoying traveling. Going to Phoenix for the All Star Game and Las Vegas the next weekend. I crashed and burned when I came back which also contributed to me not putting in much volume. Man it really was cool to go on vacation with money that I won off of stars. Seems like the life I want to live. So donkeys please keep donating to me so I can jet set across the world, hopefully the world part is coming soon but for now the USA is jut fine.

On another note, it seems like all my sport teams besides Manchester United are in crisis mode. The Nuggets just continue to find ways to lose games as of late. They were as high as 3rd in the west and now they are around 7th. They better get their minds right because if they don't they will have to either play the Lakers or Spurs in the playoffs or miss them entirely. Now, lets talk about the soap opera also known as the Denver Broncos. First Jay Cutler is mad because we almost traded him for Matt Cassel. Then, Brandon Marshall got arrested the next day but charges were dropped. I think Jay Cutler has a little right to be mad but seriously man let it go. Right now you are acting like a whining little baby. I mean yes you have talent and had a pro bowl year but you still are not Payton Manning or Tom Brady. That is why you really can't be suprised they talked about trading you. Bottom line pro sports are a business and you need to recognize that. Besides you haven't even gotten us to the playoffs or won a playoff series yet. All I have to say about the Marshall situation is STAY OUT OF TROUBLE! How hard is it to not put your hands on a woman. Just don't touch her if you feel like she is getting on your nerves or you might snap how about going out and taking a run or just driving around in a Ferrari. I think that would fix my problem. Although I don't do much running ;-).

Even though this post is so random and everywhere, you can't expect anything less because I have not blogged for almost a month. I have set some stricter goals for the month, even though we are almost halfway through March already but anyways here we go.

-Vip Status: GoldStar
-ROI: 20-25%
-Wear Dookie Repellant and not let things get to me
-Blog at least one time per week

I think these results are definitely obtainable. Especially the GoldStar one since they lowered the amount of VPP's you need to get this VIP stats. The last one I am actively working hard at. I mean its hard to let beat after beat after beat after beat well you get the point get to you. But hey its poker and the life that I life so f it. I think it will help me emotionally because last month I definitely snapped out on KJK when she im'd me for no reason because I was just running terrible. I don't want to be the type of person that is too emotionally attached to the game and wearing on my personal life so I will do better with this. Well this post is all over the place like I said earlier but until next time.

wbmustang

Refocus

2009-02-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

Before I start this entry, I want to apologize to Reasons14 for swacking, swagger jacking, his title. Alright back to my post. Like Reasons put on his last post I feel like I need to refocus. Right now I know I am running just terrible but at the same time I know that I am not playing as good as I can. First of all I think its due to the fact about the distractions around me. For the rest of the month I will be trying not to listen to any music and keep off of my messengers. I feel that this will do me good and I should of never broken this habit. I def can tell something is not right but at the same time it could be due to the variance I am experiencing. I know that I am a +ev player so there should be no reason for me to have like a 50 bi downswing unless that ish is standard which I know it is not. Its like I know I may be making some bad decisions but not enough to turn me into that much of a loser. Oh well I will be refocusing and really trying to get my game on point before I go to Las Vegas this weekend. Congrats to vers for min cashing in the Venetian event. I know he wanted to win it and of course I did too because I own a small piece in him. Other than that everything is everything. I look forward to posting about how I have been crushing before I leave for Las Vegas. Till next time.

wbmustang

Phoenix

2009-02-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

Well I am in Phoenix now I am having an absolute blast. I have pretty much been living it up since I left Seattle. I was drinking some gin and oj on the plane ride up. My boy O who lives out here picked me and JB up and pretty much just went from there. Its great to be around my friends from college and we haven't seen each other in about a couple of years. Its kind of funny because we were the original crew to live together in Campus Lodge back in my soph year and its just good times. Last night we ended up pre funking, lawl Seattle term, and then going out to the Rookie Soph. challenge. We had great seats right around the mid court level and on the main first level. The view of the game was real sick and thats how I like to watch my games. There is nothing worse than going to a game and getting terrible seats so we did it right this time. After the game, we ended up going to Stoudemire's. The place was pretty straight and the groove was right and we had a good time. Especially sippin off that patron and rosea lime juice.

Valentines day lawl. Thats really all I have to say. I just really don't like the holiday all like that but I do what I have to do when its this time of the year. I am not gonna go further into it because it just is what it is and I don't think I will be changing my opinion about the day. To add insult to injury, I only cashed one time in my session that I played early this morning. The worst part about it is that it was a 6th place finish I guess better than a min cash. It is what it is and just the variance of the game I play. Maybe that was my Valentines day present. Well tonight we are going to the Ced the Entertainer and Shaq comedy show. It should be a good time and we will problem end up watching the 3 point shootout, dunk contest, etc. at a bar before that. Right now we are just chillin, clownin, eating on good food, and drinking. Just livin it up. Hope everyone is having fun.

wbmustang

January Results, Feb Goals, and Life

2009-02-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

Well this post is pretty late and I haven't really posted on here in a while. I really have no reason that I have not posted this month besides the fact that I am lazy and procrastinate so this is what I do. January was definitely a humbling month in terms of poker. I felt good about myself because I was fighting through downswings and pretty much just grinding. I felt that my game was getting better I was just running bad in certain spots. I mean I really can't complain because I was crushing the past two months but it sucks so bad to run bad. Looking back on it I think I may of overrated my game just a tad but I am taking the proper steps to be more humble, study more, and always learn. I think the key in grinding SNG's is just knowing that you never have it 100% down. There are always things that you can do better. I think it is kind of funny when people say that SNG's are solved and that there is no edge in them. For the most case I think that is true for when you get in higher limits but even if the game is solved people still make a lot of mistakes and don't do the proper things. I was really proud of my self because there was normally a call that I would make but I really couldn't because there was someone so short and just had to flat out fold 99 but it was worth the second place money. Well to cut from the bs I made GoldStar but lost -$99 last month. It was my first losing month in a while but really don't care either way. I need to think about poker as a long term game even though I set monthly goals :-p. I will post the stats below so you see how I ran. It happens I guess but I am sure I can overcome it. I am really comfortable with my sessions with sngmentors so I am sure that my game is improving and the results will show if I run good.

As far as Feb. I really have to think about my goals. I have two trips planned which is the All Star game in Phoenix and the following weekend I will be going to Vegas. That takes out like 6 days out of a short month so I will only have 22 days to play. My goals are as followed:

1. At least 500 SNG's
2. ROI 25%-30%
3. Study More
4. Make another video.

I really need to work on 3 and review more of my sessions because sometimes I think that I don't review enough of my sessions. I think making the video will be easy enough and it should be better this time. The first video I made I was a little bit nervous and I didn't want to make a mistake but I am over that bs now and will just play.

Life is life I guess. I went through a little rough patch at the beginning of Feb and it came out of nowhere. I don't know if it was the weather of what but I somehow just wasn't feeling good about myself. I felt that I was not advancing in my career and just naturally not advacning as a person. I dunno maybe a little bit of this also came from the fact that my grad school got postponed so I kind of felt like I was in a stagnant state. I am all good now though. The next day I snapped out of it because I was telling myself that I need to stop feelling sorry for myself and that I need to just be thankful for being alive, having a job, and being able to do what I like. I mean I hate the fact that I feel so restricted working this job in the cubicle but I am happy to have it especially now when the economy is so bad. Add on to that I can get off of work and play when I want to so I guess life is not that bad. The only thing that I have to do is make sure that I balance my poker life and my personal life. It shouldn't be that hard I just need to take more initiative to not being so dang lazy. I promise I have to be one of the laziest people that I know but I am working on getting better. I know this post is mad long but thats what I get for not blogging in a while. Hopefully I run better in Feb. its Black History Month so I have to run good obv.

wbmustang

GoldStar

2009-01-30T07:07:00.000-08:00

I am finally a GoldStar this month. It's crazy because I feel like I have been putting in soo much volume to get this thing but don't have any type of winnings for the month to justify it. Oh well like my previous post said Still I Fight. I had a good learning session with vers yesterday. It seemed like everything was going great at the beginning but then I started to run terrible late. It seemed like no matter what I shoved it was running into big hands. All vers and I really could do is laugh as this happened even though I was making +ev shoves. Anyways I will be playing some this weekend to pick up some additional fpp's since I got that GoldStar. I can see my 1k giftcard from Nieman Marcus in no time. Not really because I need like 80k more fpp's to get it but I still want it. I will probably sit down and order all of my parts at my desk today since it is Friday and I don't feel like doing anything at work. Oh well this is the life I live longing for sucess and not having to work for the man for forever.

wbmustang

Spoiled

2009-01-26T07:38:00.000-08:00

Well I think I was definitely spoiled by the past two months of my success in poker. It seemed like no matter what I was doing I was just crushing and making good money. To be honest I know my game has improved so much within these two months. There are often times spots where I feel everything is so automatic and know when to shove or make certain plays. Other times I get weird feelings and kind of question what I do. Even though I get these weird feelings, I usually end up making the right play and everything works out. It is funny because this month I have put in the most volume in a month that I have ever put in. Unfortunately right now the results are not where I want them to be but that is quite alright. I won't bee too mad of not reaching my goal for ROI's this month in SNG's if my GoldStar. It is a little premature to be saying this as I have about five days to go on a sick heater and make myself look good. All I need to do is just have a good coaching sesison this week and everything is all good. It is just so amazing how good the coaching sessions go. It seems like whenever someone else is watching me this month I am just smashing and running so good. Then I play by myself and just get coolered and sucked out. It just sucks because it gets to that point where everyone is sucking out on you and whne you shove that 69s and get called by AK and you can't suck out. Oh well that is poker. It is so funny because people type in the chat windows about how I shouldn't be complaining about running bad. The reason it is funny to me is because whenever they say that its either not worth than many chips or early on in the tournament. Here is to running good late in tournamtnes :-).

Other than that I just living life and just going to work. I definitely sit down and think about my life and some things that I do and know I can do better like in the laziness department. I can't tell how often times I set down and look at my apartment me and just want to throw up. I mean for the most part I keep my place farely neat and everything but every once in a while I just let things go. Then add onto the fact that I really have not just sat down and finished the place. There is no excuse for me to be having a 2 bedroom 1 bath apt. and one of the rooms just being a junk room. Oh well hopefully I will motivate myself to do better. Meh this is a random post with random topics but oh well at least I updated the blog.

Back To Even

2009-01-23T13:04:00.000-08:00

After some coaching, studying and grinding I am finally up on the month of January. It definitely has been a trying month but hay variance, aka shit, happens. There only so much you can do when you are running bad. You can get on tilt and play worse or you can study more and focus more and make sure you are making +ev plays. I don't think I was making bad plays but at the same time I think I might of been playing sub optimally. Who knows but I know variance had a large part to deal with it. I am really close to GoldStar and I should be able to make it by the end of this month. The only thing that will hold me back is the fact that I have classes Friday after work from 4-10pm and then on Saturday 8-4pm. Sigh, I really don't want to go but its something that I know I have to do. Hopefully I get some good time to play for like 3 hrs on Sat and grind a bunch on Sunday. I will update my blog probably on Monday so till then be easy.

wbmustang

Still I Fight

2009-01-19T23:18:00.000-08:00

Yeah, well I have still running kind of blah but actually had a good session today. Even though it was only up around $126 on the day I still ran a 38% ROI over 30 games so that is good. I am still studying hands and analyzing my game as I have gone through this difficult poker month. But I tell you one thing though. I have a new found respect for sng'ers who grind day to day as there life. You have to endure so much shit during when you play its serious. You always have to be on top of your game while having to endure soul crushing events like getting your 72s shove for snap off by AA in the bb and you are crippled and the final table still starts. I know I often complain about my job but @ the same time it is a good job and a CONSTANT source of income. I mean I am guranteed my money regardless and it doesn't matter if my AA gets cracked. This is the main reason why I feel that I couldn't do the poker thing as my sole source of income. Psychologically right now I don't think I am ready for that. I plan on making a video so hopefully that goes good and I can put it up on the SNGMentor site.

Lastly, tommorrow is such an epic event. There will be a black President sworn into office. Boy I never thought I would see this day. When everything was going on with the election I just felt like it was just too good to be true that Obama would actually get elected. Then he finally got elected and I found out after I just got done grinding sng's because I didn't want to watch the election. I guess I was a little nervous afterall. I still am kind of nervous for him and his family so I will pray for them. I know there are still crazy people who won't like the idea of having a black president and would want to harm him. I hope President Obama will enjoy everything and celebrate because he has a lot of work to do come the next day.

Almost Back To Even

2009-01-14T18:49:00.000-08:00

Finally, after being down -$650 I am almost back to even. I am proud of myself too. It seems like I had to endure so so much but now I am coming back around. Although, I shouldn't really even get caught up in the swings and know thats just the way sng's work. I had my first coaching session with draqq and felt that I learned alot from that session and ran better which actually helped my confidence. I was doing things right but I was definitely missing out on some things and started to plug some of my leaks. The good thing about being down is that it inspired me to play more, learn more, and do better so it looks like it will be fairly easy getting myself to GoldStar. I have a coaching session with vers tomm so hopefully that will help a lot as well.

On the sports front, I dunno what to think about Broncos hiring of Josh McDaniels. I mean it was obvious that we needed defense so why hire a guy with an offense background. Oh well I am sure Pat Bowlen knows what he is doing which is why he is the owner. I also feel that Josh McDaniels will put hire a knowledgeable staff which should also help out the defense. If McDaniels, Mike Nolan, and his staff can get everything together the Denver Broncos have the potential of being a scary young team. My Nuggets are still well despite not having Melo for a couple more weeks with a hand injury. Hopefully we can keep playing good and hold the ship until Melo gets back and we can start beasting teams again. Manchester United won there game in hand today and they are 2 pts. back from Liverpool for the EPL lead. We also have another game in hand so we gotta keep it pushing. The only concern I have with them is how seriously missed Patrice Evra will be and if the Carlos Tevez contract saga comes to an end. But that is another whole post so I am not going to go there.

I got my Feb. planned and it is going to be a crazy month. I will be going to the NBA All Star Game as well as Las Vegas in Feb. Both these trips should be a lot of fun. All my old friends from college will be at the All Star game and then I plan on meeting up with vers and draqq and some more turbo grinders in Vegas. Well everything sounds fun but I gotta keep grinding to make sure that I have as much fun as I want to :-)

wbmustang