Back To Blogging

Time to start back blogging again.

After this summer's fiasco, I sort of lost motivation to update my blog. Initially, I was really depressed with how things ended up working out. It was certainly a once in a lifetime type of opportunity and I could have never imagined it playing out like it did. That being said, I learned a lot because of everything I went through. I definitely feel like I'm a more responsible person and I certainly have learned an invaluable, albeit expensive, lesson on accountability.

As for Alex, I know many of u have asked, if I plan on paying him back. I know I kind of trashed him in my post on the forums, but Alex was nothing but generous to me during the entire duration that he was staking me to play. He also taught me a lot about the game and I can say with great certainty that I wouldn't be half the player I am today if he hadnt pushed me to improve. Ive just recently started to pay him back and plan to continue to do so in the coming months until he is paid in full. It kind of sucks in a sense, since im playing full time now and poker money is paying for my rent+all my expenses, but I know it something that has to be done.

The last couple months Ive been rebuilding my roll, playing a lot live at Belmark Lanes in Ann Arbor and Trippers Bar and Grill in East Lansing. The 2/5 game at Belmark has a lot of soft spots and Ive had a lot of success in that game. Im finally starting to think on a higher level and am really starting to focus on exploting the individual leaks that I see in my opponents' games. My housemate Austin has also been grinding these games and being able to talk over various hands and situations with another good player has definitely been advantageous for both of us.

As for online play, Ive taken a break from online cash and really havent played online cash seriously since before I left for France. I will not play online cash a gain until I have 5k that I can throw online. Im also really adamant about not playing online cash without pokertracker. The new PT3 is pretty cool though. Unlike the old PT, it has a built in heads up database and seems to run much smoother than PT2. Im also holding back on online cash due to some of the tilt issues ive had in the past. Im done with crushing the lower limits and then monkey tilting away all my gold at higher stakes. That aint gonna happen any more. Discipline and accountability kid. Its the name of the game.

I have been playing a bunch of online donkaments lately, including several FTOPS events. Ive definitely run really well in the sattelites, and have made it past the second break in every event Ive played. Ive also made deep runs in the daily double, 32k guaranteed, and the $20+2 with rebuys. The common theme in these tournaments is that I run up a big stack early and then end up losing flips late in the tourament. Its all good though. Ive been cashing pretty regularly and have put myself in a position to win, which is all I can ask for.

I dont mean to bore you for too much longer but I have another issue to address and thats with my weight and health. Im up to 196 pounds and my body is soon to resemble that of a South Park character. In order to get in the gym and get motivated again, I am crossbooking a bet with a friend. For every day that I dont work out, I owe him $10, and for every class that he misses, he owes me $10. Hopefully, this will get my ass in gear so that I can get back in shape.

Until next time-
Kyle

Nice Days 4, 5, and 6

Bleh, so Ive been getting killed at the tables lately. Today, I lost a 4way all in with AA and got pwnsouled by 3s2s. That being said, I couldnt have asked for a better situation. I was in the BB and the pot was limped around to me, so I looked around, counted the number of limpers (in an attempt to make it look like a steal) and raised to 60. UTG calls, a MP limper calls, and the button (young Finnish internet player) gives me a look and announces a raise to 160. I ship it in, and get called by all 3 players and am up against AK, 99, and 23 suited. So i have roughly 57% equity in a pot where I need only 25% equity to show a profit, so yeah thats reasonable to say the least

Yesterday, I lost a 250 euro all in with AQ v TT. The day before yesterday I lost a 350 euro all in with JJ v TT.

Im confident that if I keep playing playing well, I can turn things around pretty quickly. Since arriving in France, I think Ive won one pot at showdown with a set of 7s and that was for like 100 euros so thats pretty lol and all. Meh, at least I watched CTS' new Cardrunners video last night with Taylor and Brymstarr where they played against Mcshove and EC10 at 5/10 HU NL. Learned a lot and enjoyed that a ton. Until next time~

-Kyle

Nice Day 3

Got rocked in the game today. Was card dead all day and then finally picked up two red Kings that ran into Aces for 400 euros. Played four hands all day-AhQh, 77, QcJc, and KdKh and didn't win a single pot over 40 euros. Lost a total of 500 euros on the day :(

Last night after I got done playing, I came back to the appartment and watched When You Wish Upon A Weinstein- one of my favorite Family Guy episodes ever. That made me feel a bit better

Today, I plan on watching Daut44's 2/4 FR video on Cardrunners and then Ill probably run and get some food before i start playing. Hopefully, I can turn things around and book a nice win today. Wish me luck!

-Kyle

Greetings from Nice Day 2

Hi guys! My second day in Nice went really well. I woke up at 230pm after having gone to bed at 5am the previous night. Crazy hours I know but that comes with the territory of being a professional poker player, so I guess I better get used to it. I really hope that I just get used to this schedule and sort of stay jetlagged so that I can adjust easily to working long hours at night and sleeping a fair amount during the day.

After waking up, I tried to get a haircut at a local barber that is literally located right around the corner from the appartment, but that didnt work out too well. Supposedly, I cant get an appointment until Tuesday! Seems pretty riddiculous to me, but apparently they take this shit pretty seriously around here.

Bah, so after that, I was locked out of our appartment and I couldnt manage to get my phone to work. Then I tried texting Alex and that failed as well. Finally, I resorted to yelling but apparently no1 could hear me. So I was locked out and thought about asking random people if I could use their phone but for some reason, I decided against it. So what I finally decided to do was search for a payphone. But yeah, that failed miserably as well. Apparently in France, you have to pay by credit card to use a payphone, and since I dont own any credit cards, I couldnt manage to get the phone to work. So finally, I just said Id to have wait a while, and hopefully, someone would come and let me in. Yeah, so luckily that worked out well, and in like 15 mins, I was finally able to get into our building.

So once I got inside, I decided itd be safer not to leave, until I got a copy of the appartment key. For the rest of the afternoon, I pretty much just chilled, went on facebook for a while, and made a few sensless rambles on the forums. After a little while, I had wasted enough time, and the crew was ready for dinner. Dinner was fucking amazing tonight. We went to this little place in North Nice, that looked like a little hole in the wall, but man was the food good. The atmosphere was also really chill, with our friend and temporary housemate Jay working the saxaphone. For appetizers, we had these little lamb sauasages and some calimari that was absolutely delicious. For my entree, I ordered some filet, that turned out to be reallly good.

After dinner, we ventured to the Casino and put our names on the waiting list. The games were AMAZING tonight and I really wish I could have kept playing when the casino closed at 4. I managed to book a small win of 105 euros and I thought I played pretty well all night.

Anyways, Im loving France so far and plan on spending some time at the beach tomorrow. Hopefully, I can meet some girls that will make my stay even more enjoyable. Thats all for now, wish me best of luck in the games tomorrow!

-Kyle

Greetings from Nice Day 1

Hi all. I know its been a while since Ive updated and I'm sorry for that. Ive been very busy over the last month, with lots of online and live play. Things will continue to be quite hectic, as I will be living in Nice, France getting settled in, while making the transition to playing full time.

As for my trip, I left Michigan on Tuesday the 3rd and made the drive with Alex and his friend Stephano to New York City. I didnt really get to enjoy New York all that much, since I was stuck in my hotel room for the majority of the time. However, the parts of the city I did manage to visit, I really enjoyed.

Anyways, the night of the 3rd, we all ate at a Fuji, a great Sushi restaurant in the city. After dinner, we walked around the city for a while and I managed to see several different parts of the city. My favorite area that we toured was probably the West Village, where NYU is located.

The day of the fourth, I didn't really do a whole lot. During the day, I just watched a bunch of movies, while sweating some of the bigger games online. During the evening, I attempted to meet up with my friend George, but he was busy being a flake, so we didn't get to meet up.

I woke up pretty early on the 5th and helped Alex return the car that he had rented. Then Me, Alex, his wife Anna, and son Daniel, headed to the airport to check in our luggage and bags. We waited in the airport for a while, ate some overpriced airport food, and then finally got on the plane at around 530pm. The 8 hour flight went far smoother than expected. I slept like a baby for the entire flight and when I woke up, we were literally 15 minutes from our destination.

Anyways, the city of Nice, looked pretty amazing from the plane and even better in person. The city is absolutely beautiful. The downtown area is located right along the beach and there are these massive hills, along the coast that look absolutely amazing at night. The color of the water here is also pretty crazy and the weather isn't bad either :)

So yeah, last night, I played for about 6 hours and booked a small loss of 225 Euros. I made a few mistakes but for the most part was happy with my play. The game was great and I definitely feel like I got a good feel for the players/game flow by the end of the night. Ill be making a few small adjustments to my play tonight, including playing a tighter range in EP (TT+, AKs), limping all pocket pairs in early/middle position and playing extremely tight push/fold on my first buyin, since I will be shortstacked compared to the rest of the table.

Other than that, I plan on enjoying the city some more and taking a bunch of pictures that I hope to post soon. Wish me luck in the games tonight

-Kyle

Graphz

Session Notes (BB/100 hands + $/hr etc) (UB)