For those that don’t know, I got forced into a new schedule in the beginning of April. On this shift I work no more then 3 days of one shift in a row, the 3 shifts are 7am-3pm, 3pm-11pm, 11pm-7am, they rotate in that order. I thought I would play more mtts on this shift since I get some great opportunities to play during prime time on the 7-3 part of the rotation. What I’ve found is I feel like shit as far as trying to concentrate which is a big negative in poker. I also don’t feel like playing since I have no energy and anything I do other then watching tv/playing video games seems like a struggle. The thought of firing up my computer to do battle in a session of mtts for up to 5 hours doesn’t seem like the greatest choice for my leisure time when my brain is fried.

I’ve only played 24 mtts this month, I should have close to 40. I’ve stopped playing as much partly because I’ve been running bad, the new schedule, and I have to watch the spurs play in the playoffs. I’ve been playing a bit more full ring 25nl and I’m starting to become a big fan. I can pretty much run the table as most fr players are either weak/passive or super nitty. Over a small sample size (1k hands) I’m running at something like 17ptbb/100 playing 20/10. People just aren’t as aggressive, you can steal blinds much much easier and most players besides the few solid tags and the super nits are very passive post flop. I pretty much open atc in the last 2 seats at the table.

Boy oh boy, what a game coming up tonight. The spurs play in NO with the series tied 3-3. I think if the refs don’t give the home team the big advantage like it’s been all playoffs, I predict the spurs win by 6. Everything hinges on these major things:

1. Who’s role players are going to hit shots and/or play good.
2. Who will get in foul trouble, if Chandler goes to the bench early it’s going to be very hard for the hornets to win.
3. What are the refs going to do? Plain and simple the home team has gotten all of the marginal calls all series.
4. Will parker hit his medium range jumpers?
5. Can Duncan hit his layups with Chandler in his face?
6. How healthy is West? If he’s not hitting his jumpers that’s a big negative for the Hornets.

It was a decent month for me. I made lots of fts, I just couldn't get that 4 figure cash, I was just out of the money to barely in the money of some 5 figure guarantee mtts. Most of my fts were from mtts with less then 150 runners, but a ft is a ft. Here were my stats for the month:

mtts played: 75
cashes: 14
final tables: 7
top 3 finishes: 4
Wins: 1
My biggest cash was $331 for taking down a ftp $8.80.

MTT total profit: $340

In sngs I played 41 $11 STTs for a 39.7% roi and a $179 profit. I was -$34 in the other drunken lower buy in stts I played.

SNG total profit: $135

In cash I ran bad. I'd flop trips on a AQQ board then an A would hit on the river. Or I'd have a flush and the board would pair. Mostly I struggled because cash games are my drunken salvation after bubbling yet another $26/32k when AK<JT on a AJx board.

Cash profit: -$37

Total profit for the month was $411. Not so bad, it's my third best month playing online poker. I have ran bad in the last week and a half in everything. Nothing is more frustrating then the donks hitting 2 pair over and over with their JT when I pair up, then getting played with when I flop nothing or get it in in a huge pot that a donk shouldn't even be in just to get 3 outed when KK<AT. Oh, yeah did I mention KK has went to showdown 80% has won 50% this month when it's been showndown in sngs and mtts, yeah that's fun. I guess I'll just keep my nose to the grindstone and that 2k+ cash is gonna come.

I'm having a pretty rough month in my personal life. And no it's not that bad no one has been diagnosed with cancer or anything. I got forced on a rotating schedule at the beginning of the month. Here's an example of what I work in a 2 week span. M: off, T:7am-3pm, W: 7am-3pm, R: 3pm-11pm, F: 3pm-11pm, S: 11pm-7am, S: 11pm-7am, M: 11pm-7am, T: off, W: off, R: 7am-3pm, F: 7am-3pm, S: 3pm-11pm, S: 3pm-11pm.

It's been pretty brutal on my diet and exercise routine. I find I'm hungry and tired more often then working the same shift every time I work. The upside is I find it's much easier to put in volume as there are tons more mtts available after I work my 7am-3pm shift then working 3pm-11pm everyday.

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This has been a pretty good month for me so far. In under 60mtts I've made around 9 fts and have had 3 top 3 finishes. The bad part is my biggest cash is $350 iir. I'm also running pretty damn good in the very small sample size of $11 sngs, I'm thinking of moving up to the 22s as beating the 11s is like taking candy from a baby. I really like how I'm playing and feel it's a matter of time before I have a bank roll that would allow me to play $55+ mtts. I have my vacation starting tomorrow and I plan on getting alot of mtts in.

So far this month has been decent. My 2nd session of the month saw me have a pretty disappointing but slightly profitable day. I finished 27-729 in a stars $3 triple shoot out for a measly $10. I bubbled the final table of a ftp $11 finishing 13-162 for $20. I final tabled 1 of the 2 mtts I wanted to final table. I entered a stars $16.50 5/9, pretty excited as I felt I was playing my best, that feeling didn't last too long. With 18bbs utg+1 I raised KK to 2.5bb got 3 bet, I shoved and AK had me drawing dead on the turn for a disapointing 8th place finish for $220.

I have to give kudos to full tilt poker, they eliminated their 8/180s that never filled up. $8 mtts are a little lower then what I like to play but it's much better then $5 mtts. What they did was create regular scheduled $8 mtts. I'll get to those later. I feel like I've played my best poker each and every month, aside from one hand I love how I played Friday. I ended up bubbling the money in the ftp $26/32k. I managed to last over 3 hours. After the first hour and a half the best Ace hand I had was AT and the biggest pair I had was 55. Somehow I managed to push bot my way to just out of the money, granted I got it in bad 2x and sucked out.

I managed to make 2 final tables in the aforementioned $8 mtts. One of them had 108 runners and I came to the final table as the 2nd biggest stack with 50bbs. Alot of that came when I raised kq utg+1 at the ft bubble 6 handed (I had been super active) this same guy reraised me all in which was a bit of an over shove, I felt his range was AJ+, 88+, I called mostly because I was getting tired of this asshole 3 betting me pf, so I called and crushed his stack when I hit a Q on the river vs his AK.

At the final table about 7 hands in a player with 70bbs limped in mp, I raise QQ to 4xbbs, player behind me makes it 16bbs and limper cold calls 15bbs cold lol. I of course shove, 3 better calls and cl folds. I lose vs JJ for a 100bb pot when a J hits the flop. I ended up finishing 5th for $65. And finally I took down the 2nd mtt for $330. I managed to take some nasty beats and kept recovering. I got heads up with 10bbs and out chipped about 5 to 1. The very first hand villain limps on the button, I shove 22, hit the 2 on the river to beat his KK. From there on out I think he won maybe 3 pots as I owned his soul and took it down.

Although I had no major cashes, it does wonders to my psyche to win a mtt. I've went over a year since my last victory which was a ub 5.50 for $350. Since then I've made about 12 final tables with 2 seconds, a 4th, and the rest a smattering of 6th-9ths mixed in with some disappointing ft bubbles in some 5 figure guarantee mtts.

I hope I can hit a 4 figure score, I feel a couple of those coming.

I haven't blogged in awhile mostly because not much is goin on, I didn't think posting about bad beats and running bad would be a good read. I made a few final tables the first week of March and ran bad at said final tables, I finished 4th, 8th, and 9th. I then proceeded to run like windows ME the rest of the month. I did get in 70 or so mtts which for missing 11 days of playing isn't so bad. My average buy in was around $15 and I proceeded to lose $425 for the month. March was by far my worst month of poker.

I've decided that I'm going to fill in my sessions with stts to help even out variance, so far it looks like a good idea. It helps me play better when I only have 1 or 2 mtts left so that I don't get impatient, plus they are profitable at least the $11 sngs I play with rakeback on ftp.

I've grown as a poker player this month. Despite all the bad beats and coolers this month I really still want to play, maybe that's tilt control. Up until the end of last year if I ran bad (or when I first started playing playing bad), I would take a month off afraid I would lose more money. Now I just want to keep playing getting better and hopefully that nice score I've been wanting. Iweargoggles in an interview said that he plays more during a downswing to prove he can win or fix any leaks, I'm starting to get this same attitude.

As of right now I'm thinking about playing in the heartland poker tour that is in Gary, Indiana towards the end of the month. I'm still iffy on this. I might just see if there are any casinos w/in 300 miles that I could play some $300-$500 decent structured mtts or I might head to Vegas. The only reason I'm thinking I might not head to Vegas is simply there is no one to go with during the week and going on the weekend would cause me to eat up an extra vacation day.