Fail or Zen?

3 tourneys today, no cashes. That pretty much sums it up. The thing about playing small buy-in tournaments is that many players will make marginal calls a lot more lightly diminishing bluffing opportunities quite a bit. I think this was the formula for today's busts. I had good hands (or projects for good hands) and ran into players who would NOT let go of small pairs and that was it.

I decided to take a break from the grind and went for a walk with my beautiful wife and son. We stopped for coffee, sat for a while and had a pleasant chat while Dante played in the patio of the coffee shop. Life is good isn't?

So, now it's back to the drawing board. A friend of mine lent me Ace on the River by the great Barry Greenstein a while back and I've been a lazy bum and have not read he book. I got a hold of it today and finally tackled on a few chapters. I will read some more later today as I'm finding it insightful and entertaining. I'll let you know how much I finally like it when I finish it.

Balance is key

I didn't play at all last night. My wife had made plans to go to a workshop for personal growth and I had to take care of Dante, my 1 1/2 year old boy. We kicked back and relaxed for a while. We saw Cars and some Sesame Street videos. After a while we went out for an evening walk and when we came back home we played with his toys.

I was totally centered in my time with my son and enjoyed his company thoroughly. When my wife finally came back we tried to watch a movie but were too tired to finish it, so we went to bed and called it a night.

What happens is that I've been too focused on poker for the last year or so. I have been logging many hours to the point of creating an unnatural balance of my use of available time. I have to say that I have not played as much as I would like to, but working a full-time job, taking classes, being a husband and a father does dictate how much time I can invest on my game without sacrificing everything else. My dad used to say that there is just about enough time for everything, and he was right. I still have to bring myself to the gym O.o

Today was a smooth day at the office and now I'm getting ready to go out on a date with my wife as we were able to get a babysitter for the evening. We have a couple of ideas of where we could go and I'm looking forward to an amazing time, so... Ship it!!

PS. We ended up going for a walk to the world famous San Diego Zoo

Deep Runs!

I played two tournaments last night. The first one was a 6-max with $3k guaranteed. I placed 834 out of 1871. I was not pleased with that result because I feel like I made a few loose decisions which of course led me to bust about middle of the pack. I knew I had played out of tune so I decided to give it another shot and this time I focusing on playing my A-game.


I found a 1R1A with $6K guaranteed and played it for good 4+ hours. I was fortunate enough to have a good friend railing (Yona) which added a little extra fun to the evening. Also, I made it a point to write a few Tweets of my progress which I think helps me to focus and hold myself accountable to a certain extent. I mean, I don’t have to explain myself to no one but me, but being out there in the open certainly adds a certain element of transparency to the whole experience. I ended up placing 212th out of 2342 players which is pretty decent. I won some cash in the process which is always a bonus and one of the ultimate objectives.

After the bubble I doubled my stack with a couple of decent hands and as players were being eliminated at an accelerated place I found myself with A♥J♥ on the small blind. It was folded around to the guy on the button who open shoved with enough chips to cover me. At that point I had a stack of chips that was below the chip average, but big enough to wait for a better spot. I thought he was just pushing to steal the blinds with a random hand or maybe a weak ace. It turned out he had QQ. There was no help for me on the flop and that was it.

I’m gonna look for some software or site to be able to post hand on my blog as I think it will enrich the overall attractiveness of it. As I am writing this I am playing a small $500gtd which had 3702 players entering. We are already in the money with about 250 players left. Wish me luck!

♥♦♣♠

Year One

It's been a year since I started playing. I don't think this is a long time, but it does feel like many things have happened. More than anything I have to say that I'm thankful for everything I've received this year thanks to this wonderful game as I have met so many wonderful people and made so many friends from different places. I haven't had the opportunity to travel so much, but the little escapades I've had have been just as valuable as a long trip.

I find it amazing that I'm writing this blog looking to share my experiences with whoever wants to stop by and hopefully I'll be sharing many success stories as we move along. Gosh, there is so much to say, but going along with the title of the blog I'll talk about where I am today.

I am happily married to the love of my life and we now have a baby boy named Dante who is 1 year and a half old. She is crazy enough to support me on all my endeavors and I am beyond thankful for this and everything else she does.

I am playing poker quite regularly but not as much as I would like to. It is because of this that I think I've been making mistakes on certain spots, getting impatient and making the wrong moves. The silly thing is that a lot of those times I knew I was beat or at the very least had a hunch telling me not to call, bet or shove. But I want to think that I have learned from those mistakes.

So here is the thing: I am writing this blog for many reasons. I want to chronicle my adventures and progress and I want to be honest with myself. Also, this is another form of maintaining my discipline as there will be a track record of what I'm doing and by golly I want this record to be a winning one. Also because it looks like there is a lot of people in positions similar to mine, and who knows? Maybe my experiences could be of some use for others at some point.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to this so much!

Pd. I will talk about the "why" of the title of my blog in following posts!