DeucesCracked.com's Newest Instrcutor!

Hey guys,

I was recently hired by DeucesCracked.com as an instructor/coach to make training videos and become part of their coaching team. I'm really excited.

Thanks so much for following my blog and leaving comments. I really appreciate it.

I will be moving my blog permanently from here over to a DeucesCracked.com blog at

www.deucescracked.com/blogs/siq

It would be awesome if you would follow my blog there and leave comments.

You can interact with me on the forums (free) and if you're interested in my coaching services you can send me a message directly or hire me via the DC Poker Coaches section of the site.

See you there :)

And if you like it, baby, we can take it to the condo.

Hello reader(s?),

Right after my last update I was given a two week notice to leave the apartment I was in (long story, but it was an agreement me and the landlord had, nothing bad). I went looking around for a new place and it was such a drag because realtors suck and are the scum of the earth.

In the end I found a pretty sweet condo. It's a 1,280SQFT 1/1.5 with a big den (poker office) on the 8th floor of a brand-new building in Down Town near the beach. Big windows, good views. Needless to say I really like the place. Here are some pics:

Floor plan:

The Bedroom (where the magic doesn't happen):

King Yogi, sittin' ontop of the world.

Master Bathroom:

The Office:

Living room (should be getting a flatscreen TV soon, pardon the boxes):

Kitchen:

Washer/Dryer (woman sold separately):

The View:

Panoramic night view:

I still have a ton of stuff to do before the place is finished but it's already feeling like home.

I didn't play any poker since I got the 2 week notice. I think I played 30-50 games all of August. I just started playing again these last 4 days. First day I lost something like 1,700 and last 3 been on a little heater for around $5k. Nice.

Mekhi Phifer (the actor, he's a red pro on FTP) has been playing a lot of the $119 SnGs with me over the last few days. Says he hired a poker coach and is trying to get into it. I think it's great that he's playing poker and he's been a lot of fun to play and chat with.

yeah cool wHip: gl future

Mekhi Phifer: thanks i need a win
yeah cool wHip: so do i... and im pretty sure ur worth more than me... soooo....
Mekhi Phifer: losing still hurts the ego just as much
yeah cool wHip: f the ego... im broke son, im broke!
Mekhi Phifer: haha

Aside from poker I'm getting back into the gym finally. I was up to around 175lbs and since quitting am down to 165 but I'll be back to form in no time. Can't wait for the results.

OK think I'm gonna watch a movie and pass out. G'nite.

July Results

+ ~$500 bonuses

+ ~$300 in live games

= >$10,000 profit.

I failed on my goals of 1,200 games and top20 leaderboard because I got in a lot of gambling action in real life (playing pool) this past week and have been waking up too late to play poker and get to the pool hall in time. The pool action ended up being a wash (I basically broke even after being up to start) but it felt good getting in action after such a long break.

People in pool are super nitty on top of being really broke on average so I'll probably end up getting frustrated and quitting pool again soon.

I'm happy with the poker results. I put in a good amount of time the first three weeks and had decent results. Hopefully this month nothing gets in the way and i can maybe snap off some of that leaderboard money.

6/19 update

What's up playa playas?

Well, I wouldn't say I've been grinding to the fullest of my potential, but I've definitely been grinding as much or more than I ever have.

I've missed a few days of play because I've been going out a lot lately and getting drinks (and drunk). My sleep schedule is all fucked up, as always, so some days I wake up at 7-8pm and get a call to go out with some friends.

Poker has been going well. I picked a good time to get on my grind because I've been doing some crushing lately.

I've played around 700 games and am up right around $9.5k after rakeback. I did miss a few full days and 1 or 2 half days of grinding but I'm still on pace to play >1,200 this month and if my results continue on anything similar to this trend I'll be very happy with the month of July.

I'm not so sure how possible getting top20 FTP leaderboard will be. I'm not very far off (32) and if I don't skip days I think I can still make it, but it's going to be tougher than I thought.

On the other hand, I remembered the site I am signed up to has a monthly Rake Race and the other day when I got a gander at it I was 2nd on the LB, not far behind first. 1st is $1,200 so I'm hoping I can bag that, but ultimately anything in the top 3 is OK with me.

I haven't done much coaching this month, in fact I really need to fix my schedule because there are 3 guys I really like who wanted to book some time but so far I haven't been able to get around to it.

With the good poker month and the active social life I would think I'd be more happy then I am right now. To be honest I've felt kind of down mostly and I need to turn that around. I hate getting all emo. I haven't been to the gym in forever. Maybe I'll do that tonight.

Well, I'm going to go grab some late night McD's. See you guys later.

First Week

I don't plan on always doing weekly results updates but whatever it's 6am and I can't sleep so...

270 games, $3,240 profit.

Not bad. I did miss 2 full days of play like I said last post, and today I only played around 30 games because I just couldn't get focused.

Life outside of poker has been pretty boring. I really haven't gotten out of the house much in the last two weeks or so. Not that I really mind, I kind of wanted to take a break from going out every night, but now I think I'm starting to get a little stir-crazy especially since I'm living by myself.

Made it to the gym again today. I had been missing a ton of workouts over the last month or two and am trying to get back in the swing of things. I've already seen great improvements from the gym but I really need to stick with it if I want to see the results I really want.

... alright I'm going to try to get some sleep. Nite.

Good Day

Didn't get to play any poker last two days because of prior engagements + waking up way too late. Last night (4th of July) I woke up around 7:30pm, went out, got back and took a nap from 3am - 5am. Went to the gym around 7:30am, got back took a 5hr energy and grinded poker for a little over 5 hours.

Games were loading really slow so I only got in 47 games but I played and ran really well. Made something like $2,400 after rakeback.

I'm about to pass out now but I figured I'd share a good day with you guys. Back to the grind when I wake up.

This is what makes it all possible:

And here are my July results so far:

nite.

Still at it

Good news: I've still been grinding!

I'm running insanely bad but still trucking along. I have some July goals that I wanted to share with you guys

- 1,200+ games (av stake >$100)

- Top 20 on the FTP high-limit SnG Leader-Board

- Review a solid amount (coaching my students counts)

That's it. No profit goals or anything like that. If I play 1,200 games I should make around $4k in rakeback, and another $1k (if not more) in bonuses. I can't control how I run so there is no point in setting any profit goals for such a small sample of games.

I got the random motivation to become one of the top SnG players, which means I need to make sure I play solid and most importantly put in a shit ton of volume. Because in the end all that matters is how much money you make - I could be the best player in the world (trust me, I'm not) but if I keep playing less than 1,000 games (sometimes 0) a month I'm not going to accomplish anything but just getting by.

Today only managed to get 40 games in 4 hours because for some reason they were running deathly slow. I would've played an hour or two more but there were literally no $119s or $236s with anyone but me in the lobby for a good 15 minutes and I only had 3 tables running at the time.

June Results

Didn't play much, if at all, the first two weeks of June but the last two weeks I've been grinding which is great. It's about time.

Games Played: 889

Profit: $2,220

RakeBack: $2,200

Bonuses: $300

Steps: $1,500

Coaching: $500

total: $6,720

this is bringing me out of the breakeven stretch I've been on the for the last ~2k games which was really killing my confidence, though TBH I'm not extremely happy with the results but again I can't complain. I'm just happy that I'm finally grinding and planning on keeping it up.

Yesterday and today were obviously brutal days :(

Life is crazy

My good friend, poker student and roommate Killa just left the apartment, for good, 5 minutes ago.
Two days ago his sister was found dead in her home - and now he's flying back to his home-town to be with his mother and family. Because of his visa status he won't be able to come back to the US. He's going to apply for a new one but it's safe to say he won't be back any time soon.
I obviously feel horrible about what he and his family are going through.
He was a great roommate and is a great person overall and I wish him the best and all the strength in the world to get him through this. It's going to suck not having him as a roommate anymore.

life is crazy, shit can hit you from nowhere, life is short... enjoy it.

Updateaments

What's going on world?

I know, I suck at updating my blog. To be honest I wasn't even thinking about the blog but a friend of mine brought it up today and said he'd like an update so I figured I'd get back at it.
Blogger.com has some new layout design thing so I tried tinkering with that and this is what I came up with. Hope you like it :). If not let me know so I can change it to something easier on the eyes.

Not too much has changed in poker since my last update. I still suck at grinding, but I have been putting in some volume over the last couple of days and I hope I continue to do so.
I've said it a zillion times but I hate the fact that I've let so much money just pass me by because I made enough money to pay bills and go out and have fun and was content. Financially I'm fine at the moment as long as the games stay the way they are but you can never be sure of something like that and I really will be kicking myself in the future if something happens and I'm not able to make the kind of money I can make right now. I don't put the same kind of value on money that most people do - I'm young and don't have any real responsibilities (i.e; kids) yet so it's not like I'm really worried about being broke but at the same time I know that I should be saving up.

In some non-poker news I started working out a few months ago (not sure if I mentioned it here or not) and really putting an emphasis on not being such a weak skinny POS. At the time I was 5'9" around 145lbs - I started a program called "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe which is basically a 3x a week program of compound weight lifts (for me: squat, bench, deadlifsts, press, and chinups). I am now sitting around 172lbs. I went from squatting 85lbs (3sets, 5 reps) to squatting 245lbs. The progress was pretty sick and I've gotten a lot of attention and complements (as well as accusations of steroid use, lol) for it lately. It's a really awesome feeling and I'd recommend for anyone to give it a try. A lot of guys I know have been in the gym for years and not seen the results I saw in a few months. If you're interested give me a shout out and I'll answer any questions I can.

OK back to poker. I've been on a bit of a break-even stretch, I think just over 2k games, which is totally standard but it is annoying and it definitely hits your confidence a little bit. I've decided at least for now I'm going to play more $60s and less $236s for a little while to decrease my variance. I'm sure it's a little bit -EV for me to do this short-term but I have a feeling if I crush the 60s and 119s for a while like I know I should then I'll feel better and be able to grind the 119s and 236s more which is definitely +EV long-term.

I've been playing some of the WSOP "Step" tournaments on FTP. I've played a few step 6's and so far have played two step 7's. Both times I lost the step 7s to a guy named jossel - one in 3rd place and one in 4th place (AA < 22 ... sigh). He's a really good player and I actually got to chat with him a bit and seems like a nice guy. I'm going to be playing another one probably tomorrow. It would be a little too nice to snap one of them off for the $12k so I don't think it's going to happen, but I can dream, can't I?

OK hopefully this has caught you guys up to speed. I'll try to update more frequently but for now I'm going to go rent a movie on iTunes and pass out.

Nite.

Sorry

Sorry for not updating the rest of that month. Had a lot going on and I kinda forgot about the blog.
I ended up playing over 1,500 games across all sites. I was up around $13k at one point but finished the month something like +5-6k after rakeback and bonuses.

I was on a little hiatus from playing my normal games on FTP for the past few months, I was doing some other things that treated me well. I'm pretty sure I am making my Ali-like return to the games now tho.

Played for about 3 hours today, games were loading slow only played 35 games but managed to end up on the +side somehow to the tune of $1,850. Not a bad start imo.

See you at the tables.

Day 13?

I forget what day I'm on. I hope 13 is right.

forgot to update last night so I'll include those results with todays.

Played: 66
Profit: -$766

Games to go: 1,071
Profit to go: 9,541

Today I played 50ish games, but they weren't loading very fast so I'm not upset. I feel like I played very well almost the entire session and even tho I lost I strangely don't feel bad at all. It's like finally my brain was going "you're running bad and if you keep playing this good you'll be fine". I hope I can keep that mentality up.

Killa moves in on Friday, I think it's going to be fun to sit down 2m2mm style and just grind out poker for hours. My game also improves when I coach him so that will be great for both of us.

I just got back from the pool hall and I'm exhausted, I'm going to pass out. Gnite world.

Day 11

got like 3 hours of sleep, then woke up to go with killa to get some shit for the place. mattress, computer furniture etc. Bought myself a few nice colognes while at the mall, ship.

I started playing some $220+$16 sngs today. They don't run a whole lot so I didn't get much volume in.

I was doing so well up until I got the cold, now I'm behind pace and it's going to be a bitch to catch up.

Games: 37
Profit: $289

Games to go: 1,137
Profit to go: $8,775

Day 10: the return.

Finally getting over the cold. Hollaaa.
Don't take being healthy for granted, being sick is a bad beat :(

Poker went bad. Just running so horribly.
It saddens me to admit it but I am really weak minded when it comes to variance. I get really upset and have one or two poker buddies I'll vent over AIM with about how bad I run - 5 minutes later I calm down and feel like such a tool for getting so upset. I'm really trying to work on the mental side of my game.
I've been going off in chat more often then normal lately, I had two different players bring it up today which is kind of embarrassing :(.
Right now I feel like that is easily the biggest leak in my game (having 0 ability to deal with bad variance), it stops me from putting in a lot of volume and it makes me much less of a poker player imo. I am going to try to find out some way to work on it. If any of you have recommendations let me know. Books, coaches, etc.

Killa still hasn't moved in so I've been all alone in this apartment for the last 2 weeks. Getting kind of boring tbh. I've gone out a few times since I've been here but still. Maybe I just need a TV :p (how do I not have a TV?)

Games: 80
Profit: (1,332)

Games to go: 1,167
Profit to go: $9,064

Siiigh.

Day 6: Sick

I've got a fucking cold. This sucks.

I didn't play today. I may have to adjust the goal based on how many days I feel this shitty for. Going back to sleep.

Day 5

Just finished playing poker for the day.
The regs are getting insane. There are two regs who just seem to really not care who registers behind them, and they are playing 10+ tables for hours on end, and there are loads more who will reg even behind those. None of them have to be very good to hurt the games, and all of them combined can make the games very dry or even unprofitable.
Today I spent 6 hours just to play 48 games. I'd usually get nearly double in that time, but I had to game select around everyone else. I also included some 45 and 90 man sngs just to keep more than one screen up when the regs were at their worst.

The MTTsngs went pretty gay. I only played 5 of them. I busted 4, and in a 90man KO I got to 3rd place and lost AA < J8o allin pre-flop for what would've been a pretty hefty chip lead. 3rd was $250ish for the $26 buyin. I ran pretty decent in the STTs, which was surprising because it felt like I was getting crushed the whole time.

Games: 48
Profit: $957

Games to go: 1,247
Profit to go: $7,732

I'm just slightly ahead of pace for 1,500 games this month, which is disappointing because I wanted to get a nice lead going.
It may prove to be difficult to get the right amount of volume in playing just these games with how the regs have been this week, but hopefully that's just a phase they are going through because of the new year and they'll start falling off soon.


Oh, and some more fun news. I've got a cool little star by my name on SS now. I made the Turbo 101-300 leaderboard (currently 15th).
This really doesn't mean much at the moment, and I'm likely to go up and down on and off the list for at least a few months, but one of my goals for the year of 2010 is to end up with my name in the top 10 or top 5 (unless I make a move to a different game).



(that's a bad screenshot, but you get the idea).


Time for some AD, oreos, and then sleep.

Day 4: what goes down must come up

Woke up at like 5pm today, oof.
Ate some cereal and went straight to studying for about an hour and a half. After reviewing my hands I went to fire up a session.
Lately I've been feeling a little sluggish so today I decided to 6-table.

Games: 42
Profit: $1,861

Games to go: 1,295
Profit to go: $8,689



Obviously pleased with today's results.

I've got a coaching session tomorrow with one of my favorite students SlideBy (PokerStars). He's really made heaps of progress since I first started working with him. He's going through a rough little patch right now but hopefully he reads this blog and sees that it actually can turn around :)

Time for a movie and a nice warm bottle of Tylenol PM

Day 3

Woke up and had to run some errands, didn't get to start playing until 7ish. Once I started playing I just couldn't get focused. I didn't feel like I was playing well so I stopped right away and decided to just go play pool for the day.

Games: 15
Profit: $88

Games to go: 1,337
Profit to go: 10,550

I'm still slightly ahead of pace in games but I'd like to make up for today. I'd like to really get ahead of pace for the first two weeks.

Day 2: when life gives you swings...

you build a swing set... ontop of a tall building... and launch yourself off of it.

sigh. fun game. Ran about as bad as you can run all day long. I don't want to make this a cry blog so....

Games Played: 80
Profit: (-1198)
Bonus: +$350

Games to go: 1,352
Profit to go: $10,638

I don't really buy into the HEM redline as a real indication of your luck, but for you fans out there:

Time for fruity pebbles and The Invention of Lying to cheer me up.

Day 1

The goal: at least 1,500 games and at least $10,000 profit (inc. rb/bonuses). From a profit standpoint it's probably a cakewalk bet. If I can play 1,500 games my expected winnings would be easily more than $10,000.

I've just wrapped up day one. I wish I could play more but I can't today has been a pretty frustrating day for poker. I started out on a little heater but that ended pretty quickly.
I feel like I played pretty solid today but sometimes you just have to run like shit.

For simplicities sake I'll be marking profit instead of winnings+rakeback.

Results:
Games - 68
Profit - $210


Games to go - 1,432
Profit to go - $9,790


Lets hope I run better tomorrow.