2:29pm: Part 1 discussed how motivations behind listening to music can effect a poker session in a +EV manner. We also established that the motivation most likely to product positive results is “to motivate” and “to stimulate the mood”. No matter what your musical preferences, it’s hard to argue against rock and hip hop for this specific purpose. Below is a short list of some songs that you should consider loading up on your Ipod before starting your poker session — because they motivate AND stimulate the mood.

I. Rock

Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
Gary Glitter - Rock and Roll, Part 2
Phil Collins - I Can Feel It
Bon Jovi - You Give Love a Bad Name
Disturbed - Down With the Sickness
Earshot - Wait
Enter Sandman - Metallica
Fuel - Won’t Back Down
Queen - We Will Rock You
Vince DiCola - Training Montage
White Zombie - Thunderkiss 65
P.O.D - Boom
AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long
Linkin Park - Papercut
AFI - The Leaving Song
Saliva - Click Click Boom
EMF - Unbelievable
Bon Jovi - Everyday

II. Hip Hop

Trick Daddy - Let’s Go
Bonecrusher - Never Scared
Awnaw - Nappy Roots feat. Marcos of POD
Equalizer - Sam Spence Remix
T.I - Big Things Poppin
Three Six Mafia - Hypnotize Cash Money
Black Eyed Peas - Let’s Get it Started
B.G. - For a Minute
Kanye West - Stronger
Nelly - #1
Snap - The Power
Joe Budden - Pump it Up
DJ Kool - Let Me Clear My Throat
Eminem - Lose Yourself
Fort Minor - Remember the Name

There you have it. While this list couldn’t even begin to do the “pump you up” genre of music justice, it’s a good place to start in order to get your brain jogging. Start loading up your favorite mp3 player with these songs, and you are more likely to product some winning poker sessions because ANY edge in poker is crucial.

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

3:40am: It was a night of huge swings, up and down matches, and even a couple of huge misreads on my part - one time on my opponent and the other time on my opponent’s hand. However, I was able to put together a pretty solid showing to finish 7-4, bringing me to 12-7 over the last 24 hours. Regarding the misreads:

On my opponent: In the first match, I was probably over thinking the hand a little too much. I thought that my opponent thought that I was raising too much out of position when he limped, because it was the second time he limped re-raised. I picked up Ah5h out of position and raised when my opponent limped. He then re raised 2.5x and I called. I thought this was possibly a play, or maybe even something like KQ, KJ, etc. I told myself that if I hit the flop in any way, shape or form that I was going to put him to a decision and take the pressure off of myself and shove. Unfortunately, I hit the flop and he called when I shoved and flipped over KK. My bad.

On my opponent’s hand: On the hand below, I flopped top pair and thought that my opponent was getting a little restless and was at a point where he would call me with middle pair or even a draw, so I open shoved. That’s exactly what happened, but I didn’t even know it. When he called, I thought for some reason that he had top pair and had me outkicked. I’m not sure why I didn’t see it correctly, it was just a visual misread on my part. As soon as I saw the turn and river, I closed out the match without thinking twice. I sharkscoped myself 10 seconds later, and noticed that the match didn’t register. I double checked and re-opened the tournament lobby to see that I somehow was not only still in the match, but had over 1,300 chips. I then considered myself on a freeroll, and came back to win the match. Here is the hand I’m referring to:

PokerStars Game #17949346126: Tournament #91053941, $50.00+$2.50 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level III (25/50) - 2008/06/06 - 04:05:03 (ET)
Table ‘91053941 1′ 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (690 in chips)
Seat 2: omilindi11 (2310 in chips)
omilindi11: posts small blind 25
trujm: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [8c 7d]
omilindi11: calls 25
trujm: checks
*** FLOP *** [7c 6s 2s]
trujm: bets 640 and is all-in
omilindi11: calls 640
*** TURN *** [7c 6s 2s] [As]
*** RIVER *** [7c 6s 2s As] [Qd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [8c 7d] (a pair of Sevens)
omilindi11: shows [8h 9s] (high card Ace)
trujm collected 1380 from pot
trujm is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1380 | Rake 0
Board [7c 6s 2s As Qd]
Seat 1: trujm (big blind) showed [8c 7d] and won (1380) with a pair of Sevens
Seat 2: omilindi11 (button) (small blind) showed [8h 9s] and lost with high card Ace

Needless to say, this was the very last match I played and decided that if I could make a mistake like that, it was probably best to call it a night, so that’s what I did. That being said, you’ll never hear me complain about being 3 matches over .500 so I was happy to end the night the way in this manner.

I also want to announce that I’m almost done compiling the list of songs mentioned in the article “Is Playing Music +EV During Poker Sessions”, and will post the article later today.

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process