I've been hanging around at BTP for about a month, and figured that in order to receive the full benefit of this site, I need to swallow my pride and post a journal for all to see, the good, the bad, and especially the ugly.

About me:
I am a stay at home dad to Emma, a gregarious 10 month old little girl that is the star of the show. I have had many jobs over the years, including short-order cook, butcher, and attorney. Raising Emma is the best job that I have ever had. My wife, emmasmom, is a wonderful woman, supportive, and doesn't even get too upset when I check raise her with the nuts on our anniversary at the El Dorado poker room. And she went to San Diego State, not UCSD.

My Poker Past:
I have been playing poker since I learned how to play 5 card draw when I was 3 years old. I started playing in B&M casinos in 1990, when most games in northern California were spread limit 7 card stud. I played off and on until 2004, when I began playing at Party Poker on a semi-regular basis. I focused on limit holdem, because it seemed to be what most other people were playing. I had played a few times when I could not find a 7CS game in the casino, but I had little understanding of the game. I quickly lost my first 200 buy-in at $2-4, but I had a job and re-depositing was not a real concern. I repeated this several times before I went out and bought a book to learn how to play. I read Sklansky's Theory of Poker, and realized just how much I had to learn. I went back to Borders bookstore and spent $200 buying most of the strategy books related to limit holdem. I read them all before venturing back to the tables.

I bought back in to Party Poker, and good things started to happen. I ran my bankroll up from 200 to over $5,000, mostly by placing 3rd at a 10+1 MTT with 2300 people and by being at the table when a bad beat jackpot was hit. I cashed out $4,000 and have been playing on the remainder since, which is a good thing since I quit working to raise my daughter - if I lose the b-roll now, my poker playing days are over for the forseeable future.

My Poker Present:
In October 2005, I was playing at a 2/4 bad beat table at party when a guy started chatting about Poker Tracker and telling everyone what their VP$IP% and aggression factors were. Unless it was PT Pat, the guy is a complete idiot for doing that, and I thank him for it. I bought Poker Tracker that day, and searched the Poker Tracker forums for advice, which is how I ended up here. After 5k hands, I realized that I did not apply what I had learned in the books that I had read, and went back and re-read Small Stakes Holdem and the Theory of Poker. I also purchased and read SS1 and SS2.

Over my next 30k hands, I have been a winner to the tune of about 1.5BB/100. At .5/1, I am at 3.5BB/100 (11k hands), and at 2/4 I am at 0.79BB/100(18k hands). I am working to find and plug the leaks as I move up in limits. I hope to use this journal to do just that. I already know that I misplay AK and AQ post flop when I miss, QQ, JJ, and TT when there are overs on the flop, and I especially feel lost in the blind against a steal, although I am working very hard on that aspect of my game.

I also play 7CS online. Not many people play the game anymore, and very few of them play it well. If I am running bad at holdem, I find a low limit 7CS game and take my frustrations out there.

I play some MTTs and Mega MTTs, all <$20 buy in, and play the occasional qualifier to a larger tournament on Party, and have played in the 500k, 750k, and 1M guaranteed before, but never ITM.

I just started whoring bonuses about 3 weeks ago. There is life outside of Party and Pacific, I have discovered. I have alot to keep me busy just trying to clear these deposit and reload bonuses, and I currently have bonii queued at Paradise, PokerRoom and Interpoker. I am still learning which sites clear at faster rates and at what limits.

My current b-roll is a touch over $3k. I am comfortable playing up to 3/6 limit and 4/8 7CS online. At B&M games, which are remarkably soft compared to the online games, I play up to 6/12 holdem (no kill) and basically any 7CS game I can find, but I really try to avoid the 1-5 spread limit 7CS games that are the only thing that I can find near here.

My Poker Future:

My first priority is building the bankroll. I would like to move up in limits, but I need to have a solid bankroll to do that because that is the deal that I made with emmasmom. There is no replenishing the bankroll if I go bust. My goal for February is to reach $6,000, roughly double what I have now. I have about $950 in bonuses to clear, the rest has to come from either new bonuses or my nascent poker skills.

My second priority is to be able to draw a stream of income within the next 18 months. We are considering adding to the family, and I would prefer to stay home to raise my children rather than putting them in daycare and going to get another job that I hate. If I could generate income from playing poker, perfect.

My third priority is to learn other games. I have no confidence in my NL holdem cash game. I basically suck. I think that I am much more comfortable in a tournament because I cannot lose any more that what I bought in for, and I have a shot at a relatively huge payout. In a cash game, that is not the case. I don't have the stones. I also want to learn omaha 8. I have dabbled, and have done relatively well by following simple strategies found both here and in SS2.

My Poker Dreams:
I will keep taking shots at the big money tournaments by trying to qualify through low buy-in and freeroll qualifier tourneys. Winning a big tourney is every poker players dream, and I am no exception.

I would like to become good enough at poker that I could make a living doing it. I have invested a few months and a several hundred (thousand?) dollars in my poker education. It would be nice to have it pay huge dividends.

Any bracelet at the WSOP.

Back to Reality
I can't seem to get AA to hold up to save my life this week. My daughter got sick playing with her cousin this weekend. I need to go to the store for formula and strained squash. And sauerkraut. Emma likes sauerkraut. Oh, the joys of fatherhood.

And thus began the journey of emmasdad.

I should have mentioned that I can't manage more than 1 7CS table at a time. If I could multi-table 7CS, I'm sure it would clear fine.

Here is the hand that helped bail me out of my loss earlier. I think that I might have overplayed this hand, but the table was pretty strange. I especially like the button's play. Alls well that ends well.

Cryptologic
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $2/$4
9 players


Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is MP3 with
4 folds, Hero raises, CO 3-bets, Button calls, SB calls, BB folds, Hero Caps, CO calls, Button calls, SB calls.

Flop: (17SB, 4 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, CO folds, Button calls, SB calls.

Turn: (11.5BB, 3 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, Button calls, SB calls.

River: (17.5BB, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, Button folds, SB calls.

Results:
Final pot: 19.5BB
Hero shows Qs Qc
SB mucked 7s 7d

i wonder what button had? pair of 6s?

i'm going to start a thread to sweat xas in the MTT section. looks grim, but i'll cross my fingers.

true re the rake. short answer... move up in limits or get a nice bonus. that, or make sushi out of your opponents.

iirc, pokerroom has a really bad rake structure. i can't recall what it is, but i remember some people bellyaching about it.

stars, UB, and some other have some forgiving rake structures (relatively speaking) for HU. the HU tables at Cryptos actually have a FASTER rake structure than the 6max or FR tables. Screw those guys.