12:44am: After much contemplating, I have decided that the eighth tutorial will feature commentary on bluffing. Playing solid heads up poker on a daily basis involves you bringing your “toolbox” with you, and bluffing is definitely an important, if not essential, part of your arsenal. Playing “ABC” poker can and will get you pretty far, but in order to maximize your potential you have to know when to make a good play. The most important part of bluffing is timing, without question and this will be examined in the next tutorial.

The eighth tutorial will be released on or before this upcoming Saturday.

In other news, this week has been very kind to me. I just won my fifth straight match to improve to 56-28 on the week. In case you’re keeping track, that’s a net profit of +$2,380 — and you’ll never hear me complain about that. This week has also helped me improve overall to 61.39% (win pct) in the $100s. Not bad, considering I finished my run in the $50s at a 61.01% (win pct).

More later..

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

5:36am: I won’t spoil the back story behind this hand, but it’s a rather interesting situation and definitely awkward for both me and the guy I was playing against. Anyways, here was the hand, which was a complete cooler for him, that essentially put the exclamation point on the match.

Also, in case you guys were wondering on the results of today’s session. I did very well, but unfortunately I have to finish the rest of the 24 games on my day off because someone dropped out of my fantasy football league, and I’ve been playing email tag ever since. I finished 9-2 so far, and will resume Friday’s session on Sunday to make up for the lost time.

Enjoy the video.
-trujm

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

4:59am: Poker can be a crazy game. No, scratch that, poker IS a crazy game, and there’s really nothing we can ever do to change that, especially being no limit players. Take for example, my last match of the night, which would have put me up nearly $500 (if the hand holds):

PokerStars Game #19267291875: Tournament #99347957, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/08/01 - 05:51:24 (ET)
Table ‘99347957 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (1695 in chips)
Seat 2: TDiddy75 (1305 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 15
TDiddy75: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Ad Qd]
trujm is disconnected
trujm is connected
trujm: raises 60 to 90
TDiddy75: raises 270 to 360
trujm: raises 1335 to 1695 and is all-in
TDiddy75: calls 945 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (390) returned to trujm
*** FLOP *** [Jh Js Kh]
*** TURN *** [Jh Js Kh] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [Jh Js Kh 4h] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TDiddy75: shows [Kc Qc] (a full house, Jacks full of Kings)
trujm: shows [Ad Qd] (three of a kind, Jacks)
TDiddy75 collected 2610 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2610 | Rake 0
Board [Jh Js Kh 4h Jd]
Seat 1: trujm (button) (small blind) showed [Ad Qd] and lost with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 2: TDiddy75 (big blind) showed [Kc Qc] and won (2610) with a full house, Jacks full of Kings

Should I be mad that he had three outs preflop, and I was nearly a 3:1 favorite to win the hand? Maybe, but the point is that playing heads up sngs for a living takes some really, really thick skin and you have to be able to forget about this kind of stuff. You play so many games, that it almost becomes like a given that things like this are going to happen, so just take them in stride, and don’t look back.

My overall record tonight finished at 14-10, and although I got unlucky in quite a few matches, I’ll take it. Where else can you go and sit on your ass all day and make $300? If the agony of taking bad beats is the only thing that makes my job unpleasant, then I welcome all bad beats with open arms.

Here is how I finished the night:

Set 1: 3-0
Set 2: 2-1
Set 3: 0-3
Set 4: 2-1
Set 5: 1-2
Set 6: 2-1
Set 7: 2-1
Set 8: 2-1

By the looks of things, tonight was an incredibly consistent performance, and instead of cursing the “poker gods” about how I should have actually finished 17-7, rather than 14-10 (if hands that should have held up would have), I need to be really thankful that people are willing to put their money in behind at this level. Until then, I’ll take $280 profit all day long. Wouldn’t you?

5:13am: The key to my success tonight was consistency. When bad things happened, I didn’t let them compound into something that could potentially effect the way I play. After having put in a solid week of 24 games/day, I’m starting to realize that there’s SUPPOSED to be a bunch of ups and down throughout the day, and that’s my JOB to handle it accordingly.

$200 isn’t peanuts, and that’s how much is on the table every time I sit down with an opponent to play a heads up sit n go. Being as such, should one really expect that it be easy? I don’t think so. Having always had a complete respect for money, and how hard it is to come by, I feel that grinding $100 heads up sit n gos is a absolute privilege and I’m so fortunate to be able to play at these stakes. If the math holds up, I should make more this year than some engineers.

Back to tonight: there was really only one “rough patch” of 2-4 games, where it could have gone either way, but unfortunately went the wrong way, so I had to accept it, move on, and not let it affect the rest of the night. Moving on was an understatement, as I would then go 5-1 after that point to close out the night.

As soon as I get the hang of all this volume, I’ll be on total auto-pilot from here on out, until eventually I hit the $200s (shooting for Jan 2009, but that’s ok if not).

Good luck to anyone playing in a session today!

More later…

5:20: Everything was sunny and bright up until the point at which I was 10-5 and ready to close the day out strong. All of a sudden, my old run of cards from the last 2-3 days made a cameo appearance, and I lost 6 out of 8 coinflips when all in. Granted, one of them was my fault. The blinds were too low, and I knew my opponent was on tilt, but I made the mistake and called anyways. I was ahead, of course, when he turned over K7off, but everything went downhill from there as he hit his king.

I would then lose four straight matches, and totally wipe out what had been a great day so far. It was at this point that I hit the reset button, and went to my GF for a pep talk.

Ever see the movie Rocky (or the series, rather)? Well, whenever Rocky felt down or didn’t believe in himself, he always turned to Adrian for re-assurance. Whenever I need a vote of confidence and a new twist or silver lining in a situation, my girlfriend (Adrian 2.0) is always the one who reminds me where I’ve been, and where I’m headed.

Coincidentally, I returned to win five straight matches, before dropping the final match of the night and eventually finished 14-10 on the night. And to that I say: I’ll take it!

2:35am: It was yet another session of extreme swingyness, peaks and valleys, ups and downs. So many times in crucial situations in crucial hands that determine the winner of the match, I’ve been on the wrong side of the fence in the last 3 days. Today, despite that fact still existing, on skill alone I was able to eek out a 13-11 record.

I say “skill alone” because I was definitely more unlucky than lucky today and somehow was able to turn in a winning day. This new committment to putting in high amount of volume at mid/high stakes is way different than playing 5-6 matches a night, turning in a 4-2 record and calling it a day. It was easy back then. This is because your mind has less time to forget about the ugliness, and it’s hard not to take that with you into the next match.

Yet, that’s what I’ve been in constant struggle with the last three days, and surprisingly, I’ve been up to the task. For the most part, when you’re opening up games left and right and you’ve got so many more to play, the bad beats don’t stay with you as long because there’s really no time to focus on the negative.

I’ve said this before, and this time is no less important: it takes an EXTREMELY mentally tough person to play these for a living. I’d even go so far as to say that it’s probably the most exhausting form of poker because there’s so much thinking involved. That’s the price we pay, however, for the decrease in variance (as compared to other forms of poker).

If I would have been playing heads up cash games the last 3 days, I’d be down thousands of dollars. That’s because I ran terrible when either myself or my opponent was all in. The “battle in the trenches”, I felt was one area that I excelled in. But unfortunately, coin flips have not been very nice to me this week.

All that being said, even though I’m on a completely break-even streak this week, I know things will change. All I need to do to remind myself of that is to take one look at my graph. The greatest predictor of the future is the past, and based on where I’ve been, I like where I’m headed.

3:41pm: The session started great (2-1) in first two sets, but the rest of the night was a mixed bag of good and bad, but mostly bad. Realistically, if most of my hands hold up, I should have finished around 15-9, or something in that vicinity. The only problem? I can’t get hands to hold up. Hands that are 75% or more to win lost probably 60% of the time tonight, and hands where I was in a coin flip (with the better end) would end in me losing about 80% of the time.

Of course, as someone wise told me tonight, the best thing to do is to take my own advice and know where it’s going in the long run, which happens to be right here baby!

All that being said, I definitely like where I stand (skill-wise) in $100 heads up matches. There are still plenty of people willing to get their money in bad, so for those of you thinking that the $100 hu sngs are just a bunch of sharks, think again. They are equally as bad as the $50 players.

Today, I have a little something special for you guys. It’s (almost) all my bad beats and coolers wrapped up into one cute little video. Keep in mind I still finished 12-12, even after all of this.

Enjoy, HFL!

4:20am: The night started off extremely rough. My first three sets went like this:

Set 1: 1-2
Set 2: 1-2
Set 3: 1-2

In my fourth set, I finally broke through in going 2-1, but then ran into a series of unfortunate events in the next set of matches, and went 0-3 in the fifth set. It was at this point that I had to get my act together and focus. I was sitting at a 5-10 record overall, and down 2300 to 700 in the only match I had left on the screen. If I lose the match, I’m down nearly $700. Somehow, some way I dug deep down and came back to win the match.

This turned out to be the turning point of the night, as I would go 7-2 the rest of the way to finish the day at a complete stalemate (12-12). Nights like this aren’t easy, but when you committ to putting in the amount of volume that I’ve been putting in lately, you have to know that a lot can happen in 24 heads up matches. Thousands of hands will be played, and just by the very nature of the volume of hands, you are going to see some pretty bad beats.

Mental preparation and focus before sessions like these are crucial, and understanding how variance works is the glue that holds yourself together. At 5-10 (headed towards 5-11), I could have packed it in, went on tilt, and just declared the night a lost cause. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, it made me that much more focused. That being said, every day is a grind, and it’s not easy. It takes an extremely mentally tough person to do this for a living. It also helps to keep a positive attitude, which is almost always easier said than done.

I look forward to a better session tommorow, even though I am happy with tonights results.

3:06am: The live session was yet another card dead affair. Finally, after waiting 5-6 hours to pick up some sort of drawing hand or hand with “possibilities” I picked up Kc10c, on the button, and called a $25 raise in a 6 way pot. The flop came: Qc 9c 4d.

Someone in early position led out for $75, and the original guy who raised called behind him. The call was a no-brainer at this point, and I even contemplated a raise. However, I didn’t want to scare a third person who would potentially pay me off (if it hit) away.

The turn: Kd

The initial bettor checks, and the original raiser bets $75. I decided that my hand is probably no good, but I am indeed priced into this pot from and odds point of view. The other man calls, and we see a river with over a $600 pot.

The river: 2s

Everyone checks to me, and I thought about value betting the King, but it really didn’t make sense. As I’ve discussed before, ONE PAIR usually does not take down pots of this size, so value betting the river would go against that belief, which is usually right more often than it’s not. Having said that,  I checked behind everyone, and took it down - as both guys held a queen.

Following that pot, which was the only pot of “significant” size that I won all night, I decided to call it a night and ended the session up $500.

On to some heads up…

*EDIT*, Finished 2-0 in my heads up session. Up $700, and calling it a night. Good luck everyone!

2:36am: In a day where I just could not, for some reason, win more than one game in a row, it was a constant uphill battle the whole night, before losing the final three games of the session. 9 consecutive games went like this: WLWLWLWLW, but the final three games went like this: LLL.

If I had to sum it up into a few things, the reason tonight’s session wasn’t a good one for me probably had to with:

• Not being able to close out the victory (when my opponents had 600 chips or less)
• Whenever I held two pair, I kept losing to a higher two pair
• Did not have very many drawing hands, and failed to complete the few that I did have
• Opponents ran better than me in the 25/50-50/100 blinds
• Got rivered quite a few times in circumstances where the match was mine if the card doesn’t fall

So there you have it, as that pretty much sums it up. I look forward to a better session tommorow. I am undecided on whether or not I am going to play live. I do know this much: based on my sharkscope results (after having played 3,000 heads up matches), Thursday is indeed my best day, from a profit standpoint. It is also my second best day, from a return on investment standpoint.

The silver lining to today’s performance is that I was able to rack up quite a few VPPS, taking advantage of PokerStars 1.5x VPP promotion for heads up sit n gos.

Good luck to everyone playing a session before I start.