The Poker Game of Life

One more month to go

2006-04-03T16:32:00.000-07:00

One more month to go before my rookie year is over. If we assume that I breakeven for the rest of the year I'd say that my first year has been very interesting.

First off I must say that this job is very stressful. However overall I've made more money in less total hours (let's not count the hours that I spend dreaming about cards) so I'd say the move from Microsoft has been a good one.

Hopefully my second year goes even better than my first. I would say that the single most important factor in my success thus far has been to listen to everything everybody has to say. Even the bad players can be helpful in your approach to the game. Loose aggressive players give players problems for a reason. They might not win longterm but the problems they present are one of the best parts of the game that I've been trying to add into my own.

Anyhow, if any of you would be willing to link to my High Stakes Poker page I'd really appreciate it and link back.

A link to a nice guy's page

2006-02-23T01:26:00.000-08:00

A nice guy setup a link to a few of my site so here's one in return. If you're interested in his site here is the location:

Online poker rules

For the love of the game

2006-02-21T12:36:00.000-08:00

Everyday I sit in 4 to 6 games of the Party $30/60 limit variety and occassionally make my jump into $50/100. I grind out a decent living and aspire of course to continue to progress up the "limit ladder" so that eventually I'll be playing even higher and making more money.

I won't deny that if you were to sit here and watch me play you'd still see a glimmer in my eye when I get a good player out of a few extra bets that I would've avoided losing in his situation. However for the most part poker has lost much of it's original luster and is now more of a complex analytical job.

Fortunately there are still times when my love of the game still comes back into play. One of my favorite things to do is play $1/2 mixed game with my college buddies from the fraternity. Last Saturday was one of those days. It's funny that if I were to lose $80 in that game the feeling is close to as devastating as if I go off for $4k in the $30/60.

I've played 65k hands in 2006 but the 2 most memorable hands this year have got to be the consecutive hands that I took this young kid off in the home game. I'll spare you the details but I bluff checkraised the river and got him to fold then showed him to a round of applause and laughs from the crew. The very next hand I rivered a straight on a board on a flop that was 3 spades. I checkraised the river and when everybody started laughing he decided to 3 bet and I of course automatically capped and my hand was of couse good.

new forum hand posts

2006-02-16T23:04:00.000-08:00

A couple new hands are up on the forum. Would love to know comments.

partypoker updates

2006-02-16T14:23:00.000-08:00

Well I'm not really happy with the Party Poker updates. Here's a list of why I'm not happy

1. Pokerace HUD works slow now. Why do my stats keep on disappearing? is party in the magic business now? "And boom your stats disappear before your eyes.

2. The fucking buttons dont' work. Perhaps party is in business with doctors who will make tons of money off my newly developing carpo tunnel syndrome. What do they think I'm working at Microsoft still?

3. The sidebet buttons are back up. I'm sure i'll find out how to delete these again but come on. Party makes like $70k a yr off my rake already do they really need to induce me to gamble on something so dumb as if the card will be red or black? Do they really want the fish to go broke so I can find another game?

Anyhow there is one positive development from party. They're going to allow us to use our partypoints to buy cool things. I wouldn't mind an ipod or TV instead of a stupid partypoker hat.

The comeback

2006-02-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

At the end of November I was on a roll. I had made tons of money in the party $30 and $50 games and had decised to focus entirely on the $50/100 game.

Then it happened. I ran bad. I went on a $23.4k downswing in the $50/100 game and my bankroll was beginning to hit dangerous levels for that limit. I had still the game beat for a ton but could no longer afford to play at that level.

So I swallowed my ego (which is huge BTW) and stepped back into the party $30/60 games. Then it happened again. I ran bad or on tilt. In retrospect it was probably a combination of both. Irregardless of the reasons I lost another $12.4k which really isn't the worst slide I've had but was at the absolute worst time.

I was a wreck. I had emotional breakdowns and serious doubts about my career and game. I spent a day drinking with my friends and contemplated a serious decision. I could cash everything out and go get a job. I had still made more money than my old Microsoft job and I did have a nice little run.

Or I could man the fuck up and start all over. My girlfriend was/is very supportive and totally had me feeling that I could comeback. I took my bankroll and spent a day studying and watching my friend Ian (pro player) and began to put my game back together from day 1. Everyday I played I thought about just putting my resume' back together and job searching.

In January I saw 40k hands and got almost all of the money that I had lost in both the $50 and the $30 games. I was stoked, not only had I gotten the money back quickly but I had gotten it back in the $30 game which I thought would take forever (since obviously $50/100 is much bigger than $30/60). I was and am totally focused.

Yesterday, February 9, 2006 I broke my all time high and the 2 month ride of essentially breakeven play.

I had only won $3,102 but it felt better than my $16k week or my $9k day.

I'm back

I'm all heart and I think he needs another

2006-01-31T23:18:00.000-08:00

Just posted a hand that makes me look like a maniac. Check it out on the forum I'd love to hear some comments.

Hand analysis

2006-01-27T16:19:00.000-08:00

At the request of some of my friends and blog readers I'm going to begin posting hands in the forum for the Checkraise website located here.
Poker Forum

Hopefully people will comment and we can have healthy discussions on how to play certain hands.

I'm like Fidelity baby

2006-01-23T21:00:00.000-08:00

"So Trav have you been investing much in stocks lately?" - My uncle with my cousin

"Ah, not really. I've got plans in the future but right now most of my money is invested in Aces and Kings. hehe" - Me

"Haha, that sounds dangerous" - My cousin

"Ah, maybe with Kings. Not aces though" - Me.

Need inbound links

2006-01-20T12:58:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I need to get new inbound links to my http://www.pokercheckraise.com/ in a few of the back pages. In exchange I'm willing to give a free hour of lessons in the game of the user's choice. So if you have a poker blog or website and are willing to setup a link for me please send me an email and we'll arrange a time for the lessons.

Pretty great deal I'd say.

High Stakes poker on TV

2006-01-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I saw the new TV show "High Stakes Poker". If you haven't seen this show yet you're definitely missing out. It was simply amazing to see a $100k minnimum buyin no limit cash game.

One of the most interesting hands I saw was a set of 5's over a set of 2's on a 542 board. Some rich doctor got Ted Forrest all in for like $100k pot. Sick I tell you, just sick.

At any rate I'm going to post more often. See you guys soon. Also if you're interested in High Stakes Poker online check out the site for more info.

20/20 vision

2006-01-15T18:53:00.000-08:00

"I spent a G on these glasses but my vision is priceless, seein' thru u niggaz like a fuckin psychic" - Lil Wayne

I'd say about once everytime I go out I see an acquaintance (note acquaintance is very different from friend) and they ask if I'm still at Microsoft. I then tell them "nope I'm pretty much playing poker for a living right now." Then they either go 2 routes, one route is when they ask me hella questions which is ok I guess.

Or they give me a very strange look. It's kind of a "you used to be smart or cool back in college but now you're just a loser" look. Then they say something like "well if that makes you happy I guess you can do it while you're young." I'm never really sure what that means, like are they saying go ahead and waste your life away gambling for awhile but eventually you'll have to get a job?

Sometimes I see this look and hear this statement and get hella pissed off. Lately though it's more of an eye opener and a reminder of why my friends are who they are.

It also makes me sad because it's kind of sad that college graduates working in great companies are so ignorant (IGNANT naggaz) that they are too close minded to entertain the possibility that maybe I can make more money in less time doing something I love than I ever would at the peak of my corporate career.

But I guess that's why they're acquaintances and not friends.

In retrospect

2006-01-09T23:28:00.000-08:00

2005 was a pretty good year for me. I quit my job at Microsoft and made more money playing poker. Unfortunately Dec. was a really bad month and I actually had a $37k downslide. At the very end I luckily made a triumphant comeback and now I'm about $15k off my high.

I know I know funny to be happy about losing and off of my high. But you see I was starting to doubt myself and had to spend a significant more time studying. Anyhow everything worked out and now I think 06 can be amazing.

At any rate does anybody still read this? If you do it'd be nice to hear from you sometime. checkraisetrav at gmail dot com.

Good luck

Goals for 06

2006-01-03T11:22:00.000-08:00

Well I hope everyone had a happy new year. Now that my girlfriend went back to Houston I'll be back to focusing on my game. Despite a few rocky months I'm confident and ready for 06 with a $150k goal and a drive to improve in tournaments. Wish me luck.

On our Texas Holdem online website there's also a new page on Money Management. Please let me know what you think.

Also, lessons are back on due to continued interest. I took awhile off because I was focusing on my game but now I'm ready to break to teach part time. Please send email to checkraisetrav@gmail.com if you're interested. Details are also on the website.

On Fire

2005-11-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

Well after a shitty Sept I bounced back in October and had a good month. Now in Nov I'm on fire again. You know you're runnin' good when you're at 2.78BB/100 in the $50/100.

Got about 70k hands loaded from the $30/60 and it looks like I'm shaping up to about 1BB/100. Blah blah blah, yeah I know 100k hands at the minnimum and even then it's hard to tell. Regardless I gotta focus. 1.5BB/100 would be pretty nice.

Hope everybody is running well.

No more comments

2005-10-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately people are utilizing my blog for bad marketing and SEO schemes. So I've disabled the ability for people to leave comments. However if you've got somehting to say please send it over to me thru email. Always great to hear from other poker players.

On a good note I just won a qualifier to the $750k guaranteed Party Poker tournament at the end of the month. Not to be cheap but paying $30 sounds nice compared to a few hundred to enter. Plus I sure could use a little tourney win in an easier tourney to boost how I feel about my tourney game.

Hopefully I'll see you guys there.

I'm still alive

2005-10-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

I heard there's been some discussion about if I'm still alive in my buddy MJ's forum. Well I am. =) Truth is I had that after a stellar August I had an awful September that drove serious doubts into my mind about poker. So I've been spending most of my waking life studying and trying to improve. Hopefully October shows an improvement in my progress.

Hey Bob!

2005-09-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the note Bob. Actually since starting in the $30/60 4 months ago I've gotten a better grip on the bankroll needed and winning expectations. In fact I actually started with a bankroll way too small for the game. I guess my experience in the actual playing part of the game and running good helped me do well and got my bankroll up to where it should be (was at about 750 BB now it's at 500 a bit scary). It'd be really nice to chat with another pro online sometime. If you're open let me know.

Definitely got more to learn

When does the doubt stop?

2005-09-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the comments asking me to post. I've always thought of myself as an average or below average writer but I guess the subject matter more than compensates for that.

I think someone asked what a good win was? I'd say anything less than a grand is hard to even consider a win or loss. That being said if I could make a grand a day I'd have a few yachts and I'd still be saving money, buying strangers groceries and my friend's prostitutes. hehe. Just kidding, I probably wouldn't save that much money. ;)

Anyhow due to normal swings in the gameI would have to say that a $3k swing either direction occurs quite frequently.

So what I'm really curious about is when do the doubts stop? If there are any other pro players out there that read this please let me know. I've beat this game for a pretty sweet amount of sugar (pun intended) but now that I'm on a bit of a downswing I'm constantly doubting every aspect of my game. When does that stop?

What's a bad day?

2005-08-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

To answer a couple of questions:
1.) I play 2-4 tables a day. I'd rather play 2 unless I'm in the groove real good.
2.) I'd like to make 1.5 BB per hour. I'm at that right now for 2 tables but I think I'm just running good. I'd say 1 BB/hour or 1BB/100 hands would be fine

So a fuckin' bad day is losing 3k yesterday with no more than $500 in mistakes and losing $3k today. So here's a few things that show you're running bad:

1.) Losing AA vs. AKs two times in a day
2.) Losing AA vs. A8 in a critical moment in a tournament where there's 54 players left out of 240.
3.) Doing nothing but stealing the blinds 4x in a day with AA and KK.

Considering all that I guess it's not that bad. I'll be back tomorrow!

Step it up

2005-08-26T16:51:00.000-07:00

Step it up, step up your game,
fuck the fame, just send the chips,
Fifty, one hundred here we go...players better get a grip
Cuz here I come.

So I'm slowly making ventures into $50/100 and it's going great. All I have to remember is to not make too many moves. I make way way too many moves sometimes. hehe. I can't help it, nothing is better than stealing pots you don't rightfully deserve.

I love this job. Good luck out there guys and thanks for all the notes about those of you who like my posts. =)

Don't wake me up

2005-08-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

"Was it all a dream, I used to read word up magazine, Salt N' Pepa and Heavy D up in the magazine" - Biggie Smalls

Is this a dream? I'm in the middle of the best winning poker week in my life and I leave for Houston tomorrow. On Monday I had a day that was so sick (in a good way) I almost cried. When I get back I gotta talk to a tax accountant but for now I'm looking forward to a nice big steak courtesy of a the donks in the $30/60 limit holdem game. God bless you guys.

Nasty

2005-08-11T15:06:00.000-07:00

I placed 10th out of 229 people. I think I got $229 or so minus my $100 buyin and i win $129. Sheesh...I'm better off in the $30/60. I guess my winnings buy me like 3 rounds of blinds in my limit game. hehe

Nothing against gays

2005-08-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

I got nothing against gays as I know a couple and they're ok in my book. Long as they don't hit on me and know that I got a girl it's cool homie. :)

So today I'm in a tournnament, there's about 27 players left out of 229 with a $100 buyin so I'm feeling pretty good about it. Wish me luck (it's not over yet and it'd be nice to get the $6,000 first place.)

I send in a raise of 999 chips and a guy talks shit to me and says I'm cursed for such a flagrant raise. I mean come on can't a guy have a little fun in our profession?

Anyhow so then a guy who's not even in the tournament says, "That raise was the gayest thing since gay town." First off is that funny to anybody? I think it's like the dumbest thing I've ever heard. So I reply and say, "Almost as gay as watching an online poker tournament."

=)

Life is full of questions

2005-08-08T17:28:00.000-07:00

How long will the game be good? The $30/60 is going really well for me and I continue to do way way better here than at my last job. Being a worrying geek I do have a few concerns which I'm sure some of you other players making lunch money off the donks have as well.

1.) How long will the game be good? Will it dry up and then all the money be gone? That would make me very sad. My Dad was telling me about how he crushed a lowball Razz 2-7 game for months making so much money it was incredible. Then the game dried up and everyone owed him money. He used to sit down and say, "Why don't you guys all give me $50 and I'll leave right now. Save everybody time". I've heard so many legendary stories about him sitting down and then everybody puts their name up for a seat change and these come from other people.

Then the game dried up. Will the internet dry up? So I'm building my bankroll for my next move. I'll be damned if I'm not retired at an early age.

2.) Where and when will I hit my limits? I'm at $30/60 now and making a good wage. If I can win at the same hourly rate when I step to $50/100 I'll make more money than I'd ever make at the pinnacle of my career in the corporate world. Will I hit that limit and all of a sudden have more money than I know what to do with? Or will I instead hit the limit and get frustrated and learn that I'm not as good as I think I am?

It gets trickier. Assume I can't really beat it. Will I be able to beat it after continuous study in 6 months? A yr?

How shitty would it be to reach the pinnacle of your career at 26 years and 11 months? :)

Funny because I face the same questions now that I did last year at Microsoft. Am I progressing in my career climb at the optimal rate? Am I happy with my quality of life. will I get stuck as a financial analyst? Will my poker site make me happy?

I always found that the answer was that I'll never know until I try.