Trials and Tribulations of an Internet Grinder

At this point, all I can do is sit back and laugh as I take beat after beat in the easiest games online. I have played enough poker to know that this stuff can and will happen. I do however, find it amusing that "it" always happens when I am starting a new quest or working with a very small bankroll. I know that I am winning in the long run and will continue to win as long as I can play the game. I am not at home right now, but I will post my stats later tonight after I play (give the fish all my money). Other than that nothing to report, just the usual self loathing life I am growing accustom to living.

SOTD
The Fratellis - "Flathead"

-Z

Well, it is about 3 a.m. and I just realized that I needed to make a blog post for the day in spite of my extremely uneventful life. I guess I did go out last night and partied for the first time in a while. Today i started off playing a little bit of NL 25 (6max), as usual I kept getting into some 2nd best hand vs nuts scenarios. I feel like these games are much tougher than I remembered but my sample size of hands played is much to small to be drawing any statistical conclusions about my game. Anyways, after the disappointing cash game session I satellited into the $109 NL 6max MTT on Full Tilt for $15. I placed 31/339 for $165 in profit, which saved my day profit wise. I am thinking about playing full ring games tomorrow since I do not seem to be faring very well in the 6max games on Full Tilt.

Before I go, I want to point you in the direction of an amazing poker blog that I have always enjoyed reading. Shane "Shaniac" Schleger has been traveling the pro NL MTT circuit for the last 2 years or so and he provides well written and insightful posts on life and poker.
Shane "Shaniac" Schleger - "You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure"

SOTD
Lily Allen - "Smile"

Well after my first full day back I am already sick of poker again (not really). I managed to lose five $25 buy-ins in only about 1k hands. I was however lucky enough to catch an episode of Cardplayer's the Circuit that featured Theo Tran as the guest. Theo is a 26 year old pro with a great story on building a roll from nothing and then going through the cycles of being rich and broke again repeatedly. If you want to listen to the interview or visit Theo's great blog, I have posted a link below. I recommend this for any of the young guys that are coming up and trying to make a name for themselves in the poker world.

The Circuit - 2/27/07 Live from L.A. Poker Classic (Commerce Casino)

The Tran's Blog - Pitt Rounder

In other news the WPT L.A. Poker Classic came to a close last night and I was disappointed to see that J.C. Tran came in 2nd place. Still, my hat is off to J.C. who also final tabled this event last year and is on a sick run this year taking the top spot in Cardplayer's race for player of the year. Look out for J.C. in 2007 and especially at the WSOP which is now only 4 months away.

One last thing before I get to playing. I am always listening to music especially while playing online poker. From now on I will start posting my "song of the day" (SOTD) at the end of each one of my posts. Be prepared as these songs will be mostly hip hop but will stretch all the way across the musical landscape.

SOTD: Paul Wall - "Break em off"

Today was a good day. I decided that I will once again devote my life to online poker and try to make a living at it. A fellow 2+2 NL cash game player offered to stake me tonight. This could not have come at a better time. I am starting at $25 NL on Full Tilt. I already managed to get in about 500 hands since I got the transfer. I made a little more than a buy-in tonight but what is more important is that I am getting back into the game.

It feels great to be playing after taking 3 weeks off, my longest poker hiatus in the past 3 years. I think my game will shine at these lower limits as I was winning in $400NL as recently as 5 months ago. I guess only time and hands played will tell.

Tommorow I plan on playing at least 1200 hands and if I can play more than 6 tables (need to get resizing Full Tilt beta) I hope to play closer to 2500 hands. I know I usually do a challange but as of now I am just going to play about 20k hands at $25 NL and see if I can move up from there.