Merry Christmas and Poker Prosperous New Year!

Well my first winning year at poker is coming to an end. I am hopeful for a last minute bang up win for a real end of the year bankroll boast but I'm just happy to end the year with a small but decent profit and a double digit ROI.

Last February 1, I was broke on PokerStars and decided to make my last deposit of a mere $30, swearing I wasn't going to ever deposit again. Well it's been all uphill since then. By the end March I had turned that final $30 deposit into $1000 and actually made a withdrawal. It's been up and down since then and at one time I managed to lose back down around $30 but quickly pulled that back up and haven't gotten lower than a few hundred since. So no more deposit since then.

Below is my graph from PokerTracker3 showing my information for the this year. I love seeing the lovely line continuing to head in an upward direction.

Here's to a great 2011! Hopefully I'll add at least one more digit to my profit by early 2011.

We've been screwed....

Well looks like our wonderful crooked, stupid politicians have figured out a way to push through legislation to make online poker legal, but at what price?

I'm all for legalization, regulation and I don't even mind the taxation too much but there are many things that may be in this bill that I don't like at all.

The worst thing is 15 months with no online poker. What are people who play online for a living supposed to do? Their online winnings pay their bills. Many of them have families and mortgages and other bills that have to be paid.

Many online players live no where near a casino and even those who do can't make anything like the same amount of money live as they do online.

Why does there need to be a 15 month blackout? In my opinion it's in order to give brick and mortar casino corporations like Harrah's and MGM a leg up in starting up their own online poker rooms. It's obvious both companies have Harry Reid in their back pockets. Unfortunately I think if this bill gets through we can anticipate Harrah's and MGM having a monopoly on the U.S. market.

Another thing is the part about non U.S. citizens not being allowed to play on U.S. sites. Oh no, no one but U.S. players for 3 years, tell me it isn't true. Why should the U.S. not want to get tax dollars from foreign depositors.

And my favorite, the state opt out clause. If this goes through with most states who currently have no law prohibiting online gambling or skill games automatically opted in then fine but if only states with legalized gambling are automatically opted in then I'm so screwed because Georgia will never put through legislation to opt in.

I feel screwed over by the PPA, I really don't know how they can support this legislation. I think we will all be better off if it doesn't pass. I could be wrong but there definitely needs to be some serious modifications to the original bill.

Poker as we know it may be coming to an end. So let me grind away while I can. What really sucks is I recently lost my job and was hoping to be able to make some money playing poker and now if this bill passes I may not even have that.

Hummm, my husband's company has an office in Montreal. Maybe I should start learning French.

Over a month...

...and things are still going well! I really need to step up my volume and narrow down the type of games I'm playing but things are still going well overall.

I'm currently 3rd for the month and year in the PokerStars Women's League and can hopefully finish the month 1st in both, wish me luck and send me good karma. First for the year is a great accomplishment and comes with a $1500 bonus plus a luxury package to a live women's tournament.

The Women's League was a great idea on PokerStars part. It has brought many women to the world of online play who would have never tried it without the comfort of a special league where they could play with only women.

I never understood before how many women just didn't like playing with men. Playing against men never bothered me even when I first started playing so it never dawned on me that some women wanted to only play against other women. So that said I'm so glad PokerStars created the league to give them a comfortable place to play.

I have met some of the nicest women through the league games. Many of us have become friends on Facebook and talk with each other through Skype. I have gotten involved with several women's poker groups. I can't wait for the opportunity to play in a live women's game. So funny a few months ago I would have never thought I would have said that.

Well here's to more good poker days to come...

Appears that not working agrees with me...

I have now been unemployed for 24 days and over that 24 days I have won several nice MTsngs and had some cashes in a couple of MTTs. Overall I've never played better. My mindset is good and it shows in my games. I still have several nice size leaks to work on but don't we all.

I finally took down a $3.30 rebuy 180 man on Stars for a very nice profit. That's a pretty tough game and 5th is the best finish I had before. I've also taken down a few other MTsngs and it certainly feels nice to finish first out of 90 to 180 players.

I played the Turbo Takedown on Sunday and finished in the top 10% for $105. Not bad for the biggest donk-a-ment of the month.

Well onward and upward!!! Hope to report more winnings soon!

Wow I think this is the shortest blog I've ever written.

Suckout Saturdays and Shitty Sundays

Well after a really good week the weekend just sucked! I made within $50 of my former weekly salary last week so I really can't complain but yesterday and today I just took one ass whooping after another. Boats sunk by quads, flush over flush but you know it's time to quit when it's straight flush over the nut flush. Weekends are so rough with all the lucky weekend warriors out there getting lucky at every hands turn and sucking out with trash hands that any half decent player would snap fold. But hey it's poker and that kind of crap happens all the time.

As you may have noticed in the second sentence I said former job. That's right lost the day job about a week and a half ago. Not unhappy to be rid of that crappy job and through with the nutty bitch I worked for but it was unplanned and it's an adjustment. Last week I was relieved and in a great mood but this weekend I think some of the reality has set in and I'm trying to adjust to that.

I've come to the realization that my mood so directly affects my game. Last week when I was in a great mood I played wonderfully and won and cashed plenty but this weekend my mood has sucked and so has my game. I'm going to have to watch that and be careful not to play when I'm not in a good mood. Luckily I'm not a moody person so as soon and I get through all this adjustment to my new situation I think I'll be fine and my game will be fine.

Right after the job status change I was asked to be the official moderator for the PokerVT forum and that carried a free membership and few other nice perks so I was really happy about that.

Well life goes on donkeys suck out and we continue to improve our game and most importantly WIN MORE!

Good luck at tables!

Donkeys, can't live 'em can't win without 'em...

As anyone reading this knows, I've been playing in the women's league games on Pokerstars and despite the number of women playing who are the biggest, luckiest, donkeys I've ever seen I've been doing pretty well in these games. The first month I played I finished number 8 on the women's tournament leader board and I finished last month in 8th place as well.

I had really hoped for the top five but I seemed to run badly and play badly in these game the first half of the month. Around mid-month I realized the reason I wasn't doing so well wasn't run bad it was play bad. As I said above these games are so donkey filled it's not funny. I was letting the awful play of the luckbox donkeys put me on perpetual tilt and thus found it impossible to get anywhere in the games.

It wasn't obvious tilt, like cussing, screaming, mouse throwing tilt it was underlaying attitude tilt. With obvious tilt you tilt, scream, holler and get over it. With attitude tilt you often don't even realize you are tilted but it effects your game negatively. I was underestimating my opponents and I was overestimating them as well. Both over and under estimation is bad but by overestimating them I was screwing up my thinking about their ranges and such and this was causing me to make incorrect decisions. The same problem is true with underestimation in that I don't put them on correct ranges then either.

I have now faced the fact that 75% of the women playing in this league are inexperienced novice players, i.e. fish or donkeys. I was an inexperienced novice player at one time myself and I was as big of a fish/donkey as any of these women. So I decided to try to remember how I played and thought when I was at the same point they are with my play and honestly this has helped my game against them tremendously. I pulled up some old hand histories and looked through them and after being appalled at my horrendous play I realized what I was learning from these old hand histories is how these ladies are thinking. Now when involved in a hand against one of these fish, er I mean women I try to think how I would have played certain hands when I was where they are now and it really helps me make better decisions.

All in all donkeys get lucky and donkey suck out on us with their trash hands that they had no better sense (or experience) than to play but the more we get our heads around their thinking the better we can effectively play against them and have positive results.

So hoping for much better results this month - top five here I come (I hope).

Aaaarrhhh Freaking Donkeys! aka: coping with downswings and bad beats...

I posted this on the PokerVT forum but felt it was worth repeating. Below I have posted links to some great posts from 2+2 poker forum archives that every poker player should read.

I have been playing poker seriously for about 18 months and I have gotten to know many poker players through various forums and I have seen so many of them give up playing due to their frustration with the downswings and beats they suffer. The thing I've noticed most are the people who seem to have the worse problem with tilt and post the most bad beats seem to give up the fastest. Not everyone has the psychological stamina to play poker even for a hobby much less a living but with the right attitude anyone can develop the psychological stamina and ability to be become a good player.

Another thing I've noticed is the better players who have continued to play the longest post the fewest bad beats and tilt the least. Not that I'm a great player by any means, but I don't even remember the last time I even thought about posting a bad beat and for quite awhile I only posted them because they were humorous in some way.

Not to say I never tilt because that would just be lie, I do tilt but the intensity of the tilt and length of time I say tilted is getting better and better. We all get momentarily pissed on those nights when we've suffered one too many bad beats and we fire off a bit of profanity to friends on Skype, take a few deep breaths, get over it and move on. Good players realize that it's all just part of the game and if you get it in good and played correctly that's all that matters. When we let bad beats change our mood and change the way we feel about the game then the negativity will take over and you will lose because you've allowed yourself to become a loser, or should I say to think you are a loser.

There are two types of players who will have two different reactions when reading this blog and the 2+2 posts and their reactions will be either:

1. Wow this is good stuff and so true and I'll do better if I can just keep this in mind
or
2. This is bullshit I play well I'm doing everything right but I just run like crap and can't ever get ahead

If your reaction is the later then good luck and I imagine you won't be around here too long. If your reaction is the former then I don't look forward to running into you at the tables.

2+2 posts:

Post 1

Post 2

Post 3

I just changed my signature on the PokerVT forum to something I posted in the poker quotes thread, we often need to check our reality. I changed it to read: "The world economy is in the crapper, soldiers are dying in battle in the middle east, kids are going to bed hungry all over the world and I'm freaking out and going on tilt because my aces got cracked in a $5 sit-n-go." In the grand scheme of life having aces cracked is so insignificant.

One last thought: Getting your head around poker in the proper way takes time and it takes experience and it takes patience. If you don't agree with or understand my post or the linked posts you eventually will if you don't let your unbalanced brain get in the way. Realize that if you have only been playing a few months and don't have 1000+ games or 10K+ hands of cash yet you're just not there yet. Your play may be correct but your mind is probably not right yet nor do you have the experience it takes to win consistently yet. Poker doesn't come easy, it's hard work and it takes time and experience and patience to get it right.

Personally I'm just a little above break even right now but the changes in my thinking now compared to even 6 months ago is drastic. I believe over time and another 3000 games and another 25K hands of cash I will be a winning player if I can get and keep my mind straight and focused.

A new breed...

I'm seeing a new, or revised, style of play in online poker. Players are hyper-aggressive often shoving up to 40 or 50 big blinds from various positions. They play the exact opposite style of poker to small ball. They raise 5X, 6X and up to 7X or just open shove even in the high blind levels.

Why this blog post? Because I'm having trouble adjusting to this type of player. I let them put me on tilt and because of their erratic style of play it's very hard to put them on a range or figure out any pattern to their actions.

Last night in the women's league game I was at the final table with one of these players and I let her put me on tilt and busting her became more important to me than winning the game and because of this I ended up finishing in 4th. There was no excuse for this, at one time at the final table I had 3 times more chips than everyone else. I need to learn how NOT to let this type player tilt me and how to best play against them. This is my very biggest leak and this is the big question, why does this style of bullying, hyper-aggressive play tilt me so?

I believe there is definitely merit to this type of play. The erratic style makes it hard to get reads on them. Their aggression tends to put others on tilt. They are able through their aggression to get and maintain control of the table thus giving them a real advantage.

Admittedly I creeped on this player and found her by googling her username. It seems she attended "The Maven's" bootcamp and this is where she learned her hyper-aggressive style. However, the way she plays is like she learned lesson C and D on being hyper-aggressive without learning lessons A and B on hands to play and basic betting techniques. As I said, she is a big ball bullying type player. With her huge raises 3 betting her without getting it all in is difficult. So question one for anyone reading this, how to combat and adjust properly to this type play when I'm a small ball player. And question two, how can I incorporate some of this playing style into my game while still using the overall small ball concept.

Everyone is talking about how much tougher the games are getting online and I think this aggro-style of play is some of the reason. There is definitely training of this type going on and it's so opposite of small ball style (not that I'm not aggressive when necessary but just not all the time) it's hard to know how to adjust to these players. If I don't learn I can't expect to win long term.

Pokerstars Women's League monthly standing...

Well not only did I have a decent month and finished with a small profit overall I finished 8th on the Women's League tournament leaderboard! I was really hoping for the top five and had I not made a couple of silly spite calls in Monday night's game I might have made it. Soon I will learn to leave my emotions off the felt. Anyway pretty decent finish overall. I'm not sure exactly how many ladies played in these games in August but most nights after the first couple of weeks there were usually around 160 to 180 runners each night. I believe overall there were probably a little over 200 women who participated at one time or another.

Kudos to all the ladies who made the top 50 and special congratulations to Gwyneth and Massiel you two ladies are tough competition and deserve the top two spots. It's nice to see that the better players are the ones who finished in the top places! Good luck to everyone for September!

Well it's the end of the month and time to look back on goals and see how I've done. Not too bad actually. I was just a little short of my volume goal but other than that all else was good. I still finished with about 100 more games than I've done before so at least there is progress there. The best thing from August was the Pokerstars Women's League, see upcoming blog post for more details about how I did there.

GOALS:

• Play 150 45 man turbos on Stars ($3.25 and/or $6.50)
• probably came close but not quite
• Play 150 9 man super turbos on FTP ($2.15 and/or $5.50)
• yes pretty sure I did this
• Play 100 180s on Stars ($2.20s, $3.30r and/or $7.70) - nope got sick of them mid way into the month
• nope got sick of them around mid-month
• Play 50 additional games
• Yep and then some - switched to mostly 18 man sngs mid-month and played several MTTS
• Total volume 450 games
• so close but... finished at 432.
• Finish the month with a positive ROI on Stars and FTP
• Stars - yes (14%) but FTP just plain sucks or I just plain suck on FTP!
• Get my silver status back on Stars
• Yes, made it at around 6:30 p.m. last night
• Most importantly RUN GOOD!!!
• Ran great and the beginning of the month but things went a bit south mid month

Well onward and hopefully upward to next month! Does anyone want to coach me for free???

The big knock out!

Yep that's right I knocked out Chris Moneymaker in a Triple Stud tournament on Pokerstars tonight. It was my first time playing triple stud which is a new mixed game Pokerstars just started running. It's basically H.O.R.S.E. without the holdem and omaha rounds, or as a poker friend of mine said, it's H.O.R.S.E. without the balls, lol.

Now no matter what the circumstances are, knocking out a big name pro is exciting and definitely allows some bragging rights. However, I have to say he was down to only 250 or so chips so it certainly wasn't like I outplayed him or anything. But knocking out a pro is still knocking out a pro. The fact that it was Chris Moneymaker i.e. "the Moneymaker effect" makes this all the more sweet.

As for the triple stud tournament it was great fun and moved surprisingly fast. It was also a very nice and welcome break from holdem. I ended up finishing 7th out of 79 runners for a small cash. I will definitely be playing this game again.

Pokerstars Women's League

Well as some of you know Pokerstars has started a new Women's League and I've been playing in the nightly games for a few weeks now. My results have been pretty decent and I have actually been enjoying playing in these games. As many of you (the 2 or 3 people who might actually read this blog) know I'm not generally a big fan of ladies poker games but decided to give this league a shot anyway. This journey through ladies poker has been interesting.

Currently I am number eight on the Women's League tournament leaderboard but I should move back into the top five after my 5th place finish last night. The play in these is very mixed. There are some women who are really pretty decent and few who are actually good and a whole bunch who are really horrible.

Women have a reputation in the poker world for being calling stations and after playing these games for awhile I've realized this is a reputation well deserved. I've never seen the like of horrible calls and I play low stakes sit-n-goes and see some pretty awful play there but these ladies have even the mirco stakes players beat at making really bad calls. My very favorite was in one of the earlier games before the field got so big and went like as follows:

I have AA on the big blind, one person in middle position raises about 4X and the button flat calls, the small blind folds and I 3 bet to 12 or 13X and the original raiser shoves over, the button calls and of course I call. The original raiser turns over AKs and the button turns over A3 off. What in the world are you beating with a raise, a 3 bet and a 4 bet shove with A3 off, nothing that's what! Anyway beat us she did. The board played out with a 2, 4 and 5 giving Miss Super Dumbass a straight. Luckily I had her well covered and was able to hang on for a little while longer.

I have to say the best thing about playing these games is learning how to best play against really bad players and learning the proper adjustments. One example was last night. The woman who was the big blind to my button was a total calling station and every single time I raised she called. At first I would make a typical c-bet whether I hit the flop or not, unless the flop was super wet or something, but she would call every time. So finally I just stopped c-betting when I missed the flop and even when I hit because I knew she would bet out even if she missed and then I could check raise her. And that brings me to another thing these women do that makes me insane...

Donk betting, not just normal donk betting but min donk betting, some of them will donk bet you every time and half of more of the time they didn't even hit the flop. They min donk bet with complete air. Sometimes I string them along sometimes I raise. Sometimes they fold to a raise and sometimes they call to the river with complete air or my favorite, bottom pair. I mean seriously how bad can you be? Anyway ladies keep playing badly my bankroll and I are totally enjoying your bad play!

One night in an early game I was playing really aggressive, as usual, and one women accused me of being a man. I'll take that as a complement!

On a positive side these games are very friendly and it's rare to see someone go off on someone else in chat. Women tend to be very supportive of each other and this really shows in these games. In other games I play I don't even keep the chat window open but in these games I do and I'll actually chat a small amount with the other players if I don't have a bunch of games running. Surprisingly this is one thing I am enjoying about these games. Also anything that increases the number of women in the game of poker is good. I'm pretty sure many of these ladies don't play in many other games but through these games maybe they'll start venturing out and discover how fun poker can be.

In closing kudos to Pokerstars for supporting women players the way they do!

Wish me luck with leaderboard! First place at the end of the month pays a $300 bonus and the other top five spots bonuses aren't too shabby either.

Monsters Under the Bed!

In the world of poker, tournament and cash games, there are two things that I frequently see players do that always ends up costing them lots of money in cash games or lots of bust outs tournaments. That is being afraid of monsters under the bed and over valuing big, and even small, pocket pairs.

Many players really have a problem dealing with playing big pocket pairs, and even little ones for that matter. Say you are dealt a pair of aces, while this is the absolute best hand you can be dealt, and pocket aces will generally win you the pot about 80% of the time, this hand is not always the best hand after the flop. Many people have a problem understanding that. If you are holding aces and you raise 3X the big blind pre-flop and you get two callers to see the flop and then the flop comes QJT all hearts, you bet out 2/3 of the pot and one of the callers re-raises or check raises you, guess what, you're aces are no longer good - live with it and fold them! In this scenario I will often see players shove on a flop like this and then they whine when they lose all their money or bust out of a tournament. Hello, with a flop like this and two callers you are more than likely beat so don't shove and don't over play here. Slow down and bet 1/2 pot and see what happens.

The other thing I see is fearing the monsters under the bed. Recently I was playing in a live cash game in Tunica and this middle aged woman sat down. She played a couple hands either limping and/or limping behind or making a reasonable raise. Then in one hand she raises 10X the big blind, all but one player folds and two see the flop. She is first to act and she shoves 100 big blinds. Of course the other player folds and she shows her aces saying "I just get beat so often with aces I never slow play them". Well guess what, she never gets any value for them either and what if the guy who called hit a set on that flop, he's going to call you and your are going to lose all your money.

I often see this in tournament play as well. People increase their raise size with big pairs essentially turning their hand face up. Then if the flop is coordinated or has two suited cards on it they shove. If they continue to play this way they will find themselves often whining that they can never win any money with big pocket pairs or that they are always getting beat when they have them. People, learn to play your big pairs! Don't change your raise size and don't shove 100 big blinds into a 6 big blind pot! Always remember even aces are only one pair after the flop and one pair isn't always the winner!

I'm not going to take the time to discuss mis-playing small and mid pocket pairs, I'll save that one for another post, but what never ceases to amaze me are people who will call you down with a pair of fours. Last night in the Women's League game on Pokerstars I shoved from early position with AQs, I was down to about 12 effective big blinds so shoving when this short is the only option, I got one call from the small blind who turned over pocket fours. You don't call an early position shove with small pocket pairs, you are flipping at best and more than likely you are either beat or will be beat after the flop! In this case she actually won the hand because I totally missed the board. The good thing is she'll now think that was a good play and do it again, I hope I'm there to pick up her chips.

Lady Luck

Well things have really turned around for me lately. I'm almost afraid to say anything for fear that I will jinx myself. In truth I think I'm just playing better. A few things seem to have clicked with me lately and my mental attitude has improved as well. I am winning flips more often it seems but I lose plenty as well and those damn pocket kings aren't running much better but overall I think I can attribute my upswing to better play.

I actually posted goals for August and I have every intention of achieving these goals. They are:

• Play 150 45 man turbos on Stars ($3.25 and/or $6.50)
• Play 150 9 man super turbos on FTP ($2.15 and/or $5.50)
• Play 100 180s on Stars ($2.20s, $3.30r and/or $7.70)
• Play 50 additional games
• Total volume 450 games
• Finish the month with a positive ROI on Stars and FTP
• Get my silver status back on Stars
• Most importantly RUN GOOD!!!

Last night was terrific! I shipped two 6.50 45 man sit-n-goes and had another 6th place finish and another final table where I finished in 9th in 45s. As for the later two, I think I would have finished higher in the 6th place game and at least cashed in the 9th place game but the wireless capability on my laptop went out at very crucial moments and I lost tons of chips while I was rebooting.

My bankroll is starting look pretty nice again after dipping way past the point of no return so hopefully it's all uphill from here.

Super Turbos - are they really devil's spawn????

Well some days yes and some days no....

Myths about super turbos:

• They are nothing but bingo poker
• Skill doesn't matter because they are all luck

The truth:

They are no more bingo poker that a regular turbo sit-n-go. The only real difference is in a regular turbo you have a few levels to possibly built a decent stack in the early levels but actually if you play a regular turbo properly you have to play extremely tight during those early levels so you rarely build a big stack. Once you reach the 50/100 level and you're sitting on 12 or 13 big blinds it's all push fold from there anyway. In a super turbo you are in push fold from the first hand. If you know nothing about proper push/fold and ICM then neither super turbos or regular turbos are the game for you anyway.

As I mentioned before if you know proper push/fold and ICM you have a huge advantage in either a super or regular turbo sit-n-go. Many people who play both of these know little or nothing about ICM or push/fold play and think they can rely on their common sense to win these, wrong!

Why play super turbos:

• The speed in which you can finish a set
• The extra volume you can put in due to the speed
• The extra rakeback you earn from the extra volume
• Because they are fast paced and a ton of fun
• They're great for practicing your short stack and shorthanded play and bubble play

On average a super turbo sng takes about 12 minutes to play. You may spend up to 20 minute if you win but on average only 12 minutes. That's about 1/4 to 1/3 of the time it takes to finish a regular turbo sng.

Even if you only play 4 tables a time you can play around 16 to 20 games an hour with super turbo but with regular turbo you would only get in 4 to 6 games on average.

If you want to be a rake back whore super turbos are for you! Because you can get in so many games per hour you can easily be a break even player and still make good money from rakeback.

They are very fun and it's so quick to get a set in you'll find yourself often getting in one extra set because you only have to spare a few minutes to do so.

Knowing how to play short stacked and shorthanded and how to best play on the bubble is extremely important in any tournament you play and super turbos give you a great way to practice this.

I've decided to play super turbos, now what:

• Buy sit-n-go wizard (I still have to do this myself)
• Learn everything you can about ICM and push/fold (working hard on my knowledge)
• Start at the low levels and practice
• Enjoy learning and perfecting a great poker game
• Understand that variance will be higher in these but you'll earn more rakeback to off set your lower ROI

So off to the super turbo tables...

Okay I've decided two things:

1. OMG I write the longest most ridiculously boring blogs in the history of man.

2. I have got to stop being negative

I looked every where for the unemployed writer in this cartoon but could find him no where. I guess there is a huge market for unemployed writers who are also cartoon characters and who can help people make their blogs more interesting. So until I find a cartoon character writer who can help me write a more interesting blog I guess anyone (if there is anyone) who bothers to read this is stuck with me at the moment.

Today boys and girls we are going to talk about the new language of text speak. There is an amazing number of text shorthand phrases. When reading some people's text and forum posts one often needs a dictionary. So I found one online and here is the link: http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php . Reading this I found out that my blog is BBB (boring beyond belief). So my new BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) is to write a more interesting blog and to stay positive.

Now how I'm going to do this without the help of a cartoon writer BTHOOM (beats the hell out of me) but I will TMDLB (try my dead level best - I don't see that on the list).

So until the next post IWSYITFP (I will see you in the funny papers).

P.S. If there are any cartoon characters out there who are good at writing funny interesting blogs please apply in the comments sections.

Positive Thinking and Proper Thinking!

Well to say I've been running bad would be an understatement and I could sit here and write yet another blog about the bad beats and horrible run I've been on but that's not what the post is going to be about! Why? Because I totally believe dwelling on the negative only creates more negative. We get what we expect in life! If we are sitting a poker table and we get dealt kings and the first thing that pops in our heads is "well how many chips will I lose with these this time" then it's time for a mental reality adjustment. Even though I win with pocket kings about 75 to 80% of the time I dwell on the 20 to 25% of the times I lose with them. Yes, I lost with them more over the last two weeks, about 40% of the time but over all hands played that's not the case.

Yesterday it was AK and even though I was getting beat with it or by it at every hands turn doesn't mean I should just start folding it. I win with AK around 70% of the time so over all that's good. Maybe it means I'm over playing that hand or playing it poorly and that's something I can fix but mostly it's just the run of the cards.

So starting today I am going to do my best to improve my attitude. Is this an easy task, absolutely not it's pretty difficult actually. We get set into one way of thinking and it is extremely hard to stop thinking that way.

First we have to stop making excuses. Yes, in poker it's up to the luck of the draw to a point but how we play our cards and more importantly how we play our opponents can make more difference in our results than the cards we are dealt. Here are the famous excuses:

• The sites are rigged - no they are not
• If I could afford higher stakes and play thinking players I could do better - no you would do worse, if you can't beat the donkeys you'll never beat the thinking players
• I'm just unlucky - well so it everyone else at one time or another

Get over it and stop thinking negatively and incorrectly!

Proper thinking = proper playing:

Poker is about thinking in levels:

• Level one thinking is only thinking about the cards you are dealt.
• Level two is thinking about the cards you are dealt and the cards your opponents may have been dealt
• Level three is thinking about the cards you were dealt, the cards you opponent was dealt and what cards does your opponent think you were dealt.

The way we play our cards changes the results no matter what the cards really are. This is why a very well plan bluff will often work because you plan it out step by step starting before you ever see a flop. You look at your table position and your cards, you look at your opponents left in the hand and how they have previously played. Then you look at the flop which the cards in your hand failed to hit, okay now what? Based on that flop and opponents left in hand we make a decision on whether we can bluff here with a bet. Say we did bet the flop and one opponent calls us now we think okay here's what I have, here's what's on the board and based on that and my opponents actions here is what I think he may have but if we stop here and don't think about what that opponent thinks we have then we are making a mistake. For a bluff to work it has to be believable at each step. We can't get to the river and then decide to bluff because this looks, even to a donkey, like a stab at the pot and they will call you even with ace high or bottom pair. So when we bluff we have to think out every step and think ahead.

Now that said it does us little good to think at level three when our opponents aren't thinking past level one. If they are not thinking of what cards we may hold and thinking only about the cards they hold then we have to play them based on this level of thinking. This is why it can be difficult to play donkeys especially lucky ones but their bad play and level one thinking will catch up with them and hopefully we will be there to benefit.

In closing if we believe we will lose then we will but if we believe we are winning players then overall we will be as long as we make every effort to learn and to play properly.

I've also realized that I've been very obsessed with poker and all I want to do is play and this has caused a imbalance in my life and this is not good. We have to nurture all of ourselves, our mind, our spirit and our body and to neglect either of the three will not result in a positive outcome. So I will also rectify this issue as well.

Lots of big changes being attempted here so wish me luck!

The Wide, Wide World of Poker

Back in July of 2008 when I discovered video poker in the casino of a cruise ship I never imagined there was this wonderful world of poker out there. After returning home from the cruise I was watching a Texas holdem tournament on t.v. and decided it looked really interesting so I went online and looked up the rules and started watching more t.v. poker. It just happened that it was around the time that the 2008 WSOP was airing and I found it fascinating to watch. I saw the commercials for Full Tilt and Pokerstars.net and proceeded to download the software on my computer and that was the beginning of the journey that would soon turn to complete obsession with the best card game ever invented.

I had very little clue what I was doing when I played my first games, play money of course, but I loved every minute of it I started with cash games and having no clue about table selection I looked for the tables where the players had the least play money and sat down to play. I was amazed when I would actually win a pot. After a short while I discovered the play money sit-n-goes and that's where I totally fell in love with game. Not knowing what I was doing, I remember thinking it would be easier to play fewer people so I started with the 4 max sit-n-goes. I still remember the first one I won. I was so excited and it seems so funny now thinking back on it.

I started to read everything I could find on holdem and tried to better learn and understand the game. I continued to play for play money for several months then I discovered freerolls and would win $5 here and there just lose it much faster than I won it.

In April of 2009 I won a seat to the Cake (Players Only) $250K guarantee and decided if I was going to play in it I needed to get a feel for playing for real money on the Cake site so I made my first deposit of $60 and started playing some real money games. I played in the $250K and amazingly came in 49th out of 909 runners for a cash of $625, amazing and exciting. I started playing nothing but real money games then and that was all she wrote.

In May of 2009 I discovered PokerVT and asked my husband to give me the subscription for my Mother's Day present, which he agreed to do. This is where I have learned to play so much better poker and I continue to improve everyday. I would recommend a poker training site to anyone interested in playing poker and don't wait as long as I did to join.

Now that I've outlined my poker past, on to the main point of this post the online poker community and what a wonderful community it is, wow is the word to sum it up. No one in a poker player's day to day life really understands our obsession. Our friends and family think we have become compulsive gamblers and worry that we are going to gamble away the farm. To have found so many great people to discuss poker with through the forums, the PokerVT forum specifically, has been a God send. We can discuss hands and concepts and help each other become better players and most importantly we understand each other.

I have made some really great and wonderful friends through the PokerVT forum. They are from all over the world and range in age from around 19 to probably as old as 70. We all share things about poker with each other on the forum and on occasional conversations on Skype. I get together with a few great ladies to go over hand histories and discuss the game and we have all become great friends. It's amazing that some of my best friends I've never met face to face. The best part is that the poker community has no borders and no age or gender requirements we are all doing what we love and we all have the same goal, to improve our games as best we can.

In closing I want to say thank you to all my wonderful poker friends, you make the world's greatest game even better!

Part two of women in poker:

I have been thinking about this lady's tournament thing a bit more and I have a few after thoughts.

I think it's great that Pokerstars does satellite events for ladies only with seats to major ladies tournaments.

I think it's fine that they include a spa treatment in the package.

I think it rocks that they include a bootcamp with Vanessa Russo in the package.

I think I would attempt to win one of these packages.

Do I think that it makes me less of a good player to play in a ladies only event, NO!

I think men who play in lady's tournaments are showing a blatant disrespect for women, why else would they bother to play in a ladies tournament otherwise.

I think it was silly and ridiculous for Shaun Deeb to show up for the ladies event in drag.

I think it was absolutely infuriating that another guy used a tampon for a card protector, talk about disrespect and it was in awfully bad taste.

If some men are low enough to play in a ladies event so be it. I just hope they get the butts kicked.

So point being, if ladies events get more ladies interested in poker then great! The more women that play the more likely we are to finally start winning some major events. Lady's events are a great way for ladies to start playing in live tournaments without being as intimidated as they might be in an open event and hopefully after playing a few lady's events they will progress to the open events and start kicking some mens butts.

Women are starting to really become a major factor in the poker world. This year so far women have made a great showing. Liv Boree won the EPT San Remo event and Vanessa Selbst won the Mohegan Sun NAPT event. Annette Orberstad has already won the WSOPE and won event 4 in the Aussie Millions this year. Hopefully this will be the year that a woman at least final tables the WSOP. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hopefully it won't be Annie Duke.

Disclaimer: For the most part I wouldn't consider myself a feminist, at least not in the way most people think of feminist. I don't mind if men open doors for me or pull out my chair, I appreciate it actually. I like old fashion manners and I don't think it makes me weak in anyway. I just think women can do whatever they want and they should be treated fairly.

P.S. One more thing - guys who try to make people think they are girls when playing online because they think it makes them look fishier really tick me off. Any ladies who try to hide the fact that they are ladies bugs me too. Be proud you are woman poker player and make sure the guys know they've had their butts kicked by girl!

It's always funny when I take 3/4 of some guys stack and two or three players say things like "good bet dude", "nice hand buddy"! I promptly let them know I'm not a dude or a buddy. My username is DiamondDixie - quite feminine sounding I would think but guys just hate to think a female just outplayed them.

Edit: Just watched the video of Shaun's reason and apology for playing in the lady's event and while I think him playing and playing in drag was in poor taste I have to admit that had I been sitting at the table with him I might have died laughing. I tend to agree with some of his reasoning and appreciate the fact that he was planning on donating some of his winnings to a woman's charity.

Women in poker...

What's with photo ads like this??? Who does this entice???

With the ladies WSOP event just having finished, there are several posts on various forums about ladies events and men playing in ladies events etc., so I decided this would be the subject of my next blog.

Okay, I don't play in women's events, I don't even particularly like playing with women in general so that said, why (all generalizations but)....

• Women suck at poker (this would be good as far as beating them but...).
• Women are way too nice and drive me nuts saying "nice hand", "good game" etc. (not that a little politeness is a bad thing but women go way overboard with it).
• Women talk too much at the poker table, especially about how their aces and kings always get cracked.
• Women want to chop in tournaments way too early and way too often and the part of this that kills me is when someone bust on the bubble and the women want to each chip in from their winnings to cover the bubble girl's buy in. You bust on the bubble you don't deserve your buy in back, if you can't afford the buy in don't play.

Now I don't believe for one single minute that women are not as capable as men of being good and even great poker players (many women are proving it) . It's just that unfortunately most of them never get close. Why do I believe this is so....

Women who want to play in women only events should be free to do so but I wish more women felt comfortable playing in open events. There is nothing about women that makes them bad except their attitudes and the age old things that have been drummed into their heads and this kind of crap is why women, in general, aren't as good as men at poker. They have been taught all of their lives to take a back seat to men and don't let them know how smart they are. They've been taught to sit back and look pretty. They've been taught that being nice and well thought of is more important that winning - well f#%k that crap I want to win, you men don't like being beaten by a woman, well too bad!

I recently read another person's blog about women's poker events and I totally agree with what is said. I have no problem with groups like the High Heels Poker Tour and LIPS but, like it says in the linked blog, I believe women in poker would be better served if these groups went about getting women interested in poker in a different way. I like the idea of picking an open event and encouraging as many women as possible to turn out to play in that event instead of having a separate ladies event thus keeping up the segregation of women in poker. That said if some women prefer to play in a gender specific event then they should be able to.

Nothing recently made me any madder than the scheduling of the ladies tournament during the main event at one WSOP satellite event back in the fall. What kind of message does this send out? Okay we've scheduled and event for you little ladies to play in while your husbands and boyfriends, the 'real' poker players, play in the main event, give me a break!

Ladies put aside what you've been taught and get out there and play with the big boys. Big boys times are changing get used to it!

May's end and climb up from the pit of despair...

Well April showers didn't bring May flowers so that has to mean that the flowers in my fields are all late bloomers and June will be a banner month so I'm really excited. That's just how you have to look at it in poker.

My volume was better but I still had a loosing month overall but I will not despair. I did pretty well meeting my goals and that's half the battle. I know that if I play solid poker, study, review my play and put in the volume I will come out a winner in long run.

In the long run is a phrase often heard regarding poker. Why is that, you may ask? It is because poker is about volume and end results. Two months of running somewhat bad are nothing in the grand scheme of things, after all that was only over 300 hands each month and only 600 total and that is nothing in the poker world.

Did I see improvements in game? Absolutely! I made less stupid mistakes and I almost never tilted. I posted only two times in the bad beat section on the PokerVT forum and one of those was just because the hand was pretty hilarious. My AK 10bb shove from MP1 actually got called by a big stack moron in the CO with 5 7 offsuit and he won the hand with a pair of 5s. I really actually laughed when this one happened. The best thing is this fish thinks that was a good play and I hope I'm his opponent when he does it again.

As for May goals here are the results:

Play 150 45 man $3.25s and win the prop bet - hit 100 and took 2nd place in the prop bet
Play 200 other games for 350 total - complete
maintain a positive ROI - finished at 18% for all games and 7% for sngs
review more hands - really need to work on this one
study more - ditto still need to do more
maintain silver star status - already completed
get better at 4 tabling - mastered 4 tabling and about ready to move up to 6

As for June goals here they are:

Play 500 games - mostly on Stars with a few on FTP
Maintain a positive ROI
Pick a game and stick with it
Stop making stupid mistakes
Finally purchase sng wizard and use it (that's right I don't currently have it and it shows IMO)
Successfully play 8 tables per session by the end of June
Most importantly RUN BETTER or PLAY BETTER - whichever one is causing the problems
Stay away from the cash tables

Well onward and upward and NEVER SAY DIE!!!