1:28am: Unfortunately, due to running HFL and also playing live poker 3 nights a week, and running a part time Ebay business 6 months out of the year, I am unable to put in the volume online in heads up sngs that used to. So how did I put in the volume before life got hectic?

By Using the “NFL football season” method.

The NFL is one of the most popular sports leagues in the world. Being as such, most people are aware that there are 16 games in an NFL season. Keeping this in mind, this method would mold each poker session into a microcosm of sorts of an NFL season.

Let me explain. If you follow NFL football with any sort of regularity, then every year you go through the ups and downs that is an NFL season. You also probably don’t panic right off the bat if your team starts out on the wrong foot — say, with a 1-3 record. If they win the next one, they are only one game under .500. The same holds true for heads up sngs. If you pre-commit to this set number of games each day, I find that people usually hold their composure better in a contained environment/system such as this, than they do if they are just arbitrarily playing without any real plan or system.

Any time you get serious and organized about your poker endeavors, it’s almost always a good thing. By employing this method, you’ve basically guaranteed yourself a fighting chance of beating variance because it is focused more on results at the end of the day rather than results by the hour. This is not to say that even less-than-desirable end of the day results mean anything, but it’s certainly better to put more emphasis on doing well over a 16 game stretch than it is to put emphasis on doing well on a game-to-game basis. In addition, this method also helps you stick to volume commitments. So many times we say “if I play X hours per day, and make X dollars per match, I should make X dollars per year”. However, those figures mean nothing if you don’t stick to your volume. This method will ensure that you will make [avg. profit/game] x [16] x [5] dollars per week if you play and “NFL season” per day, 5 days a week.

So let’s say you play $20 heads up sngs, and you average $3 profit per match over a 1,000 game sample size. Using this method, you will ensure that you make $3 x 16 = $48 per day.  Play 5 seasons a week, and you’re suddenly looking at a near guaranteed profit of $240 a week, which is also $960 a month. That’s not exactly chump change.

Like I said before, doing well in heads up is nothing more than a series of mind tweaks and mental manipulations you do with yourself in order to stay in the right mindset, because mindset is everything in heads up poker.

So to this I say at least give it a try - and everyday can be football season year round.

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

4:35am: Tonight was a little bit of good news, and a lot of bad news actually. The good news is more of a silver lining, but I’ll still take it any way I can get it.

Unfortunately, tonight I lost $1,200 playing 2-5 NL live. I wont go into very many details because there’s really nothing to report other than the board kept counterfeiting my hands. Every time I had top two, or a set, or a low flush, whatever card I didn’t want to see — it came. Four-to-a-straight/flush were my biggest enemy by far.

It’s amazing how fast $1,200 goes when you’re losing $150-175 here and there. Anyways, I’ve nearly totally forgotten about all of that because…

I started my $100 heads up quest as of an hour and a half ago, and I am currently 3-1. +$200 at 3-1 sounds a lot better than +$100 at 2-1 in the $50s, so already I’m liking what I see in the $100s. As for the players, so far I have noticed no difference in the level of skill at all — although I’m dealing with a microscopic sample size.

I will continue my $100 hu sng session tommorow. Will keep you posted!

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

3:43pm: I’ve been working on my new home a lot this week, so I haven’t had much time for poker in the earlier part of it. That will change today, as I am now off to play a live 2-5 NL session at Harrah’s New Orleans. I will do a full recap of my live session tonight when I return and do the late night update.

I also look forward to starting my $100 heads up sng quest this weekend. I will keep you guys posted when I finally do get around to playing my first one. If everything goes as planned, the sixth video tutorial will feature my first $100 heads up match, win or lose.

Good luck to everyone playing tonight.

10:57pm: If you guys were wondering where I was all of today, wonder no more. We finally made the move into our new home today. This is a pretty glorious/sweet moment for us, because as most of you know our apartment burned down to the ground a little over two months ago (check backlog of articles for the whole story).

No more:

• Commuting 45 minutes @ $4.00/gallon for gas to play at Harrah’s New Orleans
• Not having an official office set up (I can finally put in the heads up sng volume I was putting in before the fire.)
• GF having to commute 45 minutes to work 5 days a week
• Two people being crammed into the same room

  and last but not least…

• Thinking about everything I lost instead of what I have.

Anyways, I want to thank you guys for keeping me sane from that point until now. I value every single member of this site, and I’m very excited about where HFL is headed in the future. This is just the beginning.

-trujm

12:52pm: I might have played my last $50 heads up sit n go, pending a move back down in limits. I promised myself and everyone that I would move up in limits — to $100 heads up sngs — upon moving into my new house. That happens on Thursday of this week. I am playing a live session tonight, so I may or may not play before or after the session.

The move from $50 to $100 should be interesting. As many of you know, I used to play $100 heads up sngs on Full Tilt nearly two years ago before my bankroll took a hit due to getting my own apartment. Nearly at the same time, I went through a terrible run where I kept getting rivered over and over again to the tune of nearly $3,000 in 2 weeks. Since I now had more bills to pay, I knew I had to lower my risk of ruin because I stood more to lose that time than to gain by playing the $100s.

Now, it is officially time to give it another try.

Everything I’ve told you above, like I said, happened two years ago and to be honest I’m twice the player now that I was then. I’m extremely curious to see how much my 61% win pct. drops with the move to a higher stake. I feel I can play the $100s with the same comfort level as the $50s, so if I will be defeated, it wont be because of myself.

To be totally honest, I have completely mastered the $50 heads up sngs, and it’s time to move on. It has gotten to a point where it’s not even a challenge anymore. I’m also not too proud to move back down if things don’t go as planned. However, I don’t see that happening.

More later…

Keep HFL Free

4:14pm: The opening table last night was a pretty tough table, at which I felt I played really good. Within the first two hours of play, I picked up a seemingly never ending barrage of high pocket pairs (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, QQ, KK). I was able to come out +$500 after that heater, but then disaster struck against this LAG player that plays higher limits usually. Two people called someones raise of $25 preflop. When action came to me, I made it $100 because I felt like people were in a gambling mood and would probably get at least one caller.

The LAG guy that I referenced before called, and we saw a flop with a $250 pot. I figured he had something like 78s, 89s, 910s, or 10Js. If it wasn’t that, it was probably 66, 77, 88, 99, ot 10 10. So I knew if the middle of the deck hit in any way I could possibly be screwed, but that wasn’t going to stop me from leading out, because (a) the guy loves to draw and if he happens to flop one, I’m going to make him pay for it, and (2) the guy has a bad case of “fancy play syndrome” and I refused to get outplayed on this hand. Even an ace wouldn’t scare me because I was relatively sure he had some kind of suited-connector situation going on. I just didn’t know which ones.

Anyways, the flop held: 8h7h2c

Which told me that he’s probably either open ended, or if I’m extremely unlucky he just flopped top two (but I doubt it). I led out for the pot, $250, and he immediately goes all in — which he has been known to do on more than one occasion on a draw. No more than 10 minutes before this hand did I see the same man stick $700 all in on a 9 high flush draw. Since it’s only another $270 to me, I have to call and unfortunately he flipped over 8c7c. He filled up on the river, and I blanked out so he took the hand, which put me down almost $600.

This volatility was only a prelude of things to come. My “chip mileage” the whole night led me to call last one night one of the “swingiest” sessions I’ve ever played. Here is my journey to +$275:

Hours Into Session, Total Net Profit:

1, +$500
2, -$575
3, -$125
4, EVEN
5, +$300
6, +$400
7, EVEN
8, -$475
9, -$250
10, -$450
11, -$120
12, +$275

As you can see it was a complete roller coaster ride, racking up nearly $4,000 in “chip mileage” — which is simply the distances between all of the points of total net profit. The night ended on positive note, when everyone was tired, and someone paid me off to the river with AK on a K 10 8 7 2 board.

I was going to play another live session tonight, but I might have to switch up and play tomorrow because my girlfriend is sick, and I may have to stay here and nurse her to health. The good news with that is that I can still play online though.

More later….

2:57am: I can finally get some sleep after having an up and down battle all night. For the most part, it has been a pretty unlucky night, but I’m playing some of my best poker ever right now. I suppose that was the factor that offset the 3-4 bad beats I took tonight, and with my third win a row, I improved to 5-3 on the night — putting me over the $20,000 profit mark on PokerStars.

I promised myself I would move up to $100 heads up matches when I finally hit $20,000 profit, and I am going to stick to my word. As soon as I am finished painting my house, I am going to buckle down and start making some real money.

Who’s coming with me?!

9:45pm: After nearly 3 months at the 10k profit tier, tonight I will seek to hit the 20k profit milestone for the first time ever on one individual site. This means absolutely nothing in the overall scope of things, but it’s always nice to step back and appreciate your accomplishments once in a while.

Part of staying in the right mindset in poker is stopping every now and then to smell the roses, and look forward to the future by reflecting on the past.

As I’ve stated before, I plan to move up to the $100 matches shortly after I hit 20k profit. I have been padding the online bankroll lately in preparation for the move. Expect the move to the next level within the next week or two, as soon as I finish painting my new house.

Good luck to everyone playing tonight!

1:21am: I am operating on two hours of sleep, so I will fill you guys in on the complete details first thing in the morning when I wake up. Basic summary of the night was that I made a great comeback from -$350 to finish +$550 in my live 2-5 NL session, and I also played 3 heads up matches before I left for Harrah’s tonight — and finished 2-1.

Good luck to everyone tonight, and tomorrow as well. I will be putting in an extended heads up session tomorrow, as I have to wait for furniture to be delivered to my new home and have no clue what time the delivery men are getting there.

11:55pm: It pays to hold your composure. Two nights ago, when I lost $845 in a 2-5 session, it would have been very easy to panic and to get discouraged. The last two nights (+$700, +$1005) serve to show that patience and keeping things in perspective pays off — as I am now up nearly $900 this week, including the fact that I had a terrible session on Thursday night, and not including anything I have made playing heads up sngs online this week.

So how did it happen tonight? My profit came on two hands, with the same victim on each hand. I noticed the middle aged Asian man to my right was having a hard time believing anyone, and nearly refused to lay a single hand down. If he had top pair, he would cling on for dear life.

That being said, I had Jc7c in the big blind. Five people limped for $5. The flop was: 3d 5d 7s. The small blind (the man to my right) checked, and I led out for $25 to see where I was at. Everyone folded around to the small blind, who called. The pot is now $75. The turn was Jh. I led out for $75, and the man once again called. As fate would have it, the river card was a 6 — and once again, I am faced with another four-to-a-straight on the board situation. The man led out for $50. I took a little time, thought about it, and decided to just call. I turned over top two pair, and he quietly mucked his hand.

The next significant hand was about 3 hours into the session. I picked up 10c7c in the big blind, and there were 6 limpers for $5. Action was on me, so I decided to check. The flop was 4d 6s 9c. The Asian man to my right was first to act, since he was in the small blind. He led out for $5 (which doesn’t happen very often). Had there been another club out there, I would have probably raised, but since there wasn’t I decided to just call and see what happened. 3 more people called, and we go into the turn with a $55 pot. At this point, I was hoping for an 8 obviously, but would have been happy with any club as well.

Much to my delight, the 8c pops up on the turn. The man to my right led out for $25. I decided that I wanted to build the pot at this point, because I wasn’t trying to win only $100 on the hand. I decided to make it $60 to go. Everyone folded to the man to my right, and he decided to call. Of course, I’m hoping for the board not to pair, but I didn’t put the man on a set or two pair, so really there’s no card that would prevent me from betting the river. I liked my hand where it was, and it was possible he could have had a higher flush draw, so I really didn’t want to see a club. However, all things considered, the only card I was NOT hoping for was a 10, because I didn’t want to chop this pot.

The river was more beautiful than I could have imagined. That being: 5h. The board now reads: 4d 6s 9c 8c 5h . The man decides to check.

Now I have the stone cold nuts, and if the man has a 7, then he just completed a lower straight. I had to bet something that the man could check raise, if he did indeed have a 7 - but not low enough that if he just decided to call I would have been kicking myself for not getting more value out of the hand. I decided to bet $100. The man looks upset when I bet, so my first thought was that he was going to fold, and I was just going to drag this small/medium sized pot without a contest. He goes into the tank for about a minute, and then pulls out another $100, and says, “make it $200″.

This is music to my ears, of course. So then I pretend to go into the tank. I check my hand about 3-4 times to make sure I had what I thought I had (straight to the ten), and that’s indeed what I had. Well, remember how I told you the man had trouble folding earlier? This bit of information led me to believe that if I went all in, he would call thinking we were going to chop the pot. After 3 minutes of deliberation, I told the dealer was all in, and pushed my remaining $550 in the middle. This made it another $450 for him to call, which would only leave him with $8 should he decide to make the call.

The man takes nearly 5 minutes to make up his mind, but eventually acts on his impulse to never lay hand down, and pushes his remaining chips in the middle. Needless to say, he had the 7 for the straight. When he saw my hand, he was visibly upset and started cursing.

So to all those who have ever started a night, or even a week off with a catastrophic loss: whatever doesn’t kill you or your bankroll, makes you a stronger player. When you lose, brush yourself off and try again the next day. There’s plenty of poker still left to be played.