The Main thing

For me, the main thing is my Faith and service to my Lord and Savior.

Everything else in my life is directly related to that. My family, my goals, dreams, poker etc all revolves around my faith.

So whatever the main thing is in your life, never lose site of what that is.







Today I leave for a road trip to eastern Pa to my coach/backer's house for some poker training, maybe some live play and generally to get out for a week or so. It should be a lot of fun as well as very productive.

I may not be entering my daily results everyday as I will be spending much time in study and playing during this time. I will however post some updates.

Have a great day and week and God Bless you all.

Success

My friend and coach/backer reminded me the other day of this great and true quote:

"The dictionary is the only place where you find success before work" Vince Lombardi






I have recommitted myself to breaking down my game and building it back up. One of the tools I will use to do this will be posting my daily results on this blog along with key hand histories in Tournaments to be examined and evaluated. Please weigh in anytime you wish...

Thanks again Brad and Coach Lombardi for reminding me that most successful get to where they are for many different reasons but the most common reason is that they simply work harder than everyone else.

Sunday 2/20/11

FulltTilt
6 MTT's
(-) $131.06

Stars
12 MTT's
(-) $485.77

Total = 18 MTT's (-) $616.83

Tournament Results (key Hand histories)
(copy/paste pokerhand.org link in order to see hands)

FTP $11 7k GTD
finished 498 / 1058 (-) $11

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985628
knew villain would snap, HUD was absurd...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985636
I dont mind my aggression vs the flat/donk lead
but they dont dont fold much on FTP :-(

FTP $26 16k GTD
finished 772 / 1303 (-) $26

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985647
felt as though his 3b range was nut, perhaps
too tight of a fold as I should at least set-mine
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985649
win flips pls..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985650
std shortstack bust

FTP $11 SuperStack GTD
finished 1222 / 1797 (-) $11

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985654
all in @ blinds 15/30 is meh but no choice here..

FTP $26 16k GTD
finished 524 / 1016 (-) $26

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985660
villain was running 23% 3b and my table was just absurdspewy... given that I may still should not flip here due to FTP
structures ?

FTP $11 1R1A GTD
finished 569 / 969 (-) $21

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985666
busted before add-on. looked like a good spot to
squeeze but I need to examine my ranges due to
NO ONE folds EVER on FTP lolz

FTP $26 19k GTD
finished 1154 / 1827 (-) $26

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985675
sigh Russians, maybe should fold to his river lead
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985680
Prolly best to shove turn but meh.. they do
fold often on FTP sigh

Stars $109 Kickoff
finished 596 / 1013 (-) $109

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985691
std set-mine spot
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985694
handcuffed post, could not cbet here
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985700
interesting spot my bust hand. Discussed on 2+2
My coach/backer suggests open shoving 15bbs here
pre ante AJhh UTG. Others suggest open folding as well
as Stars Pro Steve Paul Ambrose suggests at times we can
even min-raise/fold... LOL pokerz

Stars $11 Rebuys GTD
finished 634 / 1503 (-) $71

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985714
Discussed with coach, its never awful with
reads(villain was r/f a lot) but certainly not std.
default is fold most times here..

Stars $33 cap/GTD
finished 378 / 500 (-) $33

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985717
Better line here would be check turn, C/C river..
as played I cant really bet/f so meh..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985723
1st real spew of the day. I tried C/R semi bluff
with gutterbal.. C/F is optimal since most times I
have little to no FE vs much of their ranges..

Stars $8 Rebuys GTD
finished 1981 / 2638 (-) $40.80
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985729
only played one hand after rebuy hour...

Stars $44 6max GTD
finished 92 / 398 (-) $44

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985742
I tank/hero called. Villain was absurd so
I felt a decent bit that calling here will be
good often..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985753
key flips need winning...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985755
everyone is so "hood" and so good lol
I pot controlled best I could, just couldnt
see folding river as played..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985759
2nd spew of the day as I reshipped 20bbs
on villain that has showed he does not fold :(

Stars $55 7k GTD
finished 126 / 459 (-) $55

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985765
was card dead entire 1st hour pre-ante. I r/c
here because villain was spewing the hardest
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985768
to me this spot is standard and these need
to be won to do well in MTTs...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985770
std bust

Stars $22 20k GTD
finished 151 / 2114 cashed = $51

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985776
3 streets easy way
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5985779
wow are these Euros awful..
STD bust 11bbs ship AJSummary:

Not a HI volume Sunday but I am going to keep my max @ 8 tables as I am focusing more
as well as saving key HH's for review and study...

I feel I played well but I can improve a lot which with hard work is encouraging..

Monday off, be back Tuesday 2/22

Thought for the day

From 1999 - 2001 I had a great experience working as an assistant coach and scout at Triway H.S. for future Hall of Fame basketball Coach Randy Montgomery.

Here is a great News Article about Coach:

(copy/paste link:)
http://northcanton.patch.com/articles/hoover-high-coach-reaches-500-win-milestone-in-107-56-romp-over-fitch



Coach always had himself, another coach or a player bring to practice with them a "Thought for the day". It would be a quote or verse or an idea and before practice the team would discuss it and learn from it.

It was one of many things I learned from Coach Montgomery that I use in my daily work habits and now that I am playing MTT's full time I will be blogging daily with my results as well as my "thought for a day"...

thanks a lot Coach and gl the rest of the season.

How we feel

"Today I will be Master of my emotions"
Og Mandino





If I feel depressed I will sing
If I feel sad I will laugh
If I feel ill I will double my labor
If I feel fear I will plunge ahead...

Sometimes I am my own worst enemy in that I seem to always attach an emotion with a result. This can be a bad thing in life but in poker it is disaster.

Every day I must remind myself over and over again that no matter how I feel at that particular time due to whatever circumstance or result that I must NOT allow these emotions and feelings to change or affect my decision making.

I wish everyone a great week on & off the felt and may you too learn to be Master of your own emotions...