A Good Start To The New Year

It's been quite some time since I've posted. I'm sure like me, the holiday season is a hectic time for all of you as well. As such, while I did get some play in I didn't get the opportunity to post. We spent Christmas Eve and night at Paris LV in a comped room which was nice and I picked up some Tiffany pearls for Rebecca for Christmas which I think made her happy. After New Year's Rebecca had a friend in town who just left a couple days ago. Now that this period is over it's time to get serious about my game and start treating this like the livelihood it is for me. My master's is done (though still waiting on my grade on my final project and the word from my advisor that I am eligible to walk in May,) so I now have a clear conscience to go out and make my living on the felts of LV. Had a nice start to the new year yesterday with a solid win. I made a good score early in the session and had that urge to get up with almost a day's take (for me a day's take is $200 as hypothetically that would amount to a $50,000 a year salary.) However, I am doing my best to fight that impulse and just play hours instead of tracking wins and losses throughout a session. I was kicking myself a couple hours later when I gave back my of my winnings. However, I am glad I did sit tight and just play as table dynamics change rather quickly at MGM. I ended up dragging two nice pots before I called it a day and took home $238 for my troubles. In order to get past the idea that I am up or down a certain amount, I decided to make two large stacks of checks and just continue to add to them as I picked up pots. This way, I had no idea how much I was up and could just focus on the game and on making the best plays available to me given the situation.

One unique situation came up that I want to throw out there for thought and any discussion or feedback it may generate. UTG I picked up wired 7s and limped as I like to do with any pocket pair from any position. Multiple callers around to the BB who is a loose/aggro type kid who pumps it to $12. I look at his stack and also factor in that if I call I will entice others to come along and decide to make the caller. Two others call and the pot now has about $50 in it. The flop comes down 6-5-3 with two hearts. The BB bets out $15. I am next to act and with position I decide I want to play him heads up as I think I can out play him if any heart comes, if any non picture comes, or of course if I hit my gutter. I decide to reraise and make it $40 to go ($25 on top of his $15.) The middle position caller folds and a loose/aggro Asian guy in late position moves all in which amounted to $14 on top of my raise. The original raiser folds and I am forced to call getting about 10.5 - 1. I table my over pair and gutshot and he shows a 3-4 offsuit for a pair and straight draw. Two bricks later and I pick up the $170 pot with just a pair of 7s. Funny how things work out some time. I'm just happy that he didn't have more behind. Not sure how he would have played if he did since I was fairly deep as well.

Anyway, it's good to be back after some rest and relaxation over the holidays. These next couple months I am looking to grind hard and really build my bankroll up. I'd like to make the progression to $1/$3 NLHE and move either over to Aria, Caesar's, or the Wynn where the games play a bit bigger. Or, move up to a $1/$2 room like Venetian that has a $300 max buy and a $100 min. The stacks can be short at MGM but I truly believe the relatively poor play overall makes that a bit of a wash. As I play more and more and obtain additional valuable experience I think I'll better be able to comment on that.

All the best to everyone out there for a happy, healthy, and successful new year. Live right, tell your mom you love her, help old ladies across the street, hold doors for people behind you when entering a building, merge in traffic properly, and all that jazz and I pray we all reap what we have sewn.

Oh, and my advice for the coming year and beyond. Invest in gold and other precious metals.



Hours Played From 12/9/09 through 1/6/10: 37.07
Take: $677
Hourly Rate During Period: $18.26

Earn:
Month to Date For December: $1,074
Take For 2009: $2,479
Hourly Rate Year Life Time (Includes Some Limit Hold'em Play:) $14.11
Hourly Rate Life Time NLHE: $18.84
Total Hours Played 2009: 176.63
Total Hours Played Life Time: 181.25
Sessions Played: 47
Win/Loss Record by Session: 29/14 67.44.% win rate

*Note: The total sessions played and the win/loss totals do not add up to each other. The figures are taken from Stat King and most likely the program disregards small wins and losses as insignificant; hence the discrepancy.*