Happy New Year!

Well I am done playing for the month of December and I hope you all find players like this guy to play against.





So played almost 6,800 hands in December which has to be a record for me. I even tried to 6 table it for a bit this evening to see how that would impact my win rate. I found the players this evening playing much more aggro and seeing much bigger pot sizes which didn't help. Nothing worse than trying to make things more difficult and people are playing back at you more often.

The results for playing that many hands of NL25 worked out to be up 21 buy ins which is way above average (I doubt I could possibly maintain 15.8 ptbb / 100) for a bigger sample size.

I also wanted to add a resolution to actually read something that is educational again instead of those silly best sellers.

Hand of the night

So got in a few more hands this evening but feeling a bit tired so I will try to catch up on some needed sleep.

Here is the hand history for my hand of the evening.

A few resolutions for 2009

Well just got through the first 5k hands and so far still winning at 15 ptbb / 100 which is much better than I have run anytime in the past. The main goal is go get the bankroll back over the 1k mark so I can move up to NL50 and start to build the roll at a more respectable rate.

So some resolutions for 2009:

1. Play poker in every month of the year. Attempt to get at least 5 hours in a week playing. Also spend 3 hours a week reading or studying the game. I may spend all of my FT points on some video training site like Cardrunners but they had another choice that was less expensive that I may try out.

2. Build bankroll so I can afford to play NL100 again without worrying about a 10 buyin downswing... so I need probably 3-4k to do that comfortably.

3. Datamine a lot more prior to playing and focus on always playing my optimal game. When the fish leave the table I will leave the table (or am I the fish?!). Realize that I don't have to crush everyone at every table or win every hand. It is always up to me to determine the size of the pot and if not then get out of that situation and find a better one to attack with.

I would like to win more than 10k this year from this game and I think that is more than possible.

Some non poker resolutions:

4. Do not let the market mess with your mind... go out and find a way to make money regardless of the current situation. Work on technical analysis to help with entry and exit points.

5. Learn how to speak Spanish as that opens up a lot of places to travel. You have the Rosetta Stone levels 1-3 so start working your way through that. Also play a CD in the car to help you brush up on some other parts of the language using another program.

6. Utilize what poker teaches us in not letting others know what we think. No one cares to hear your politics or opinions even if they are asking for your opinion. Keep your thoughts to yourself and blog about it instead of talking about it.

7. Find something to do that is athletic. Starting to get a little tubby which isn't good so time to take off 15-20 pounds of fat and maybe replace a bit of that with some muscle. The extra poker will give me the mental stress that is better utilized by exercising instead of tilting away 2 more buyins.

Lots of stuff to work on this year but I will be better for it in the end.

Been forever

Well it has been a super tough year on me but now I am trying to work out what the hell I am going to do for 2009.

For starters I am going to put poker back into my life and try to play all 12 months this year! I had a couple really good poker results in the live area with a 3k win in a free event plus a few good nights at the Nutz poker club. Unfortunately my club got shut down and it stopped me from playing as much live poker as I would have liked this year.

My online funds were so low that it was always frustrating to start over at NL25 to rebuild. Well those thoughts are behind me and I have been working well over the past week and running a little hot over the first 3k hands (if you think that 23 ptbb / 100 is hot!). Had to go back to full ring because my usual 30/20/5 was getting me in trouble at 6 max so now I am 4 tabling and running a tight 23/17/3.

I find that I play a good optimal game when I stick to my goal of having me decide when I want the pot to get large instead of following someone else's lead. Full ring is a bit more on the nitty side but my first goal is to build the stack and so far that is happening.

Hoy mentioned UB and that reminded me that I do have some cash stranded over there and I will work to build that up to something respectable as well. I doubt anyone is going to abuse the NL25 crowd illegally when they are more than willing to give you cash.

Anyway over the next couple days I will post some of my goals for next year which also includes actually spending some time writing on this blog!

Vegas tomorrow

Starting to get really excited today about the Pens game tonight and the trip tomorrow. Been a long time since I had some vacation time and I really need it. Looking forward to putting my NL skillz to work at some 1/2 tables full of tourists like myself!

My buddy has been trying to see some of the shit that I wouldn't care to get to like the Stratosphere which looks like a mini CN Tower so I am not interested. Just for perspective the white tower behind and to the right of the tower is 70+ stories high and that is approx. half way up the silly tower.

When it comes to seeing the sights I really want to focus on the poker rooms that I hear so much about. My buddy likes poker but he is more of a see the tourist stuff and take pictures type of guy.... me not so much. I want good food and cute girls everywhere I look. Top that off with some alcohol and I can have a good time! From Carmen's message from a couple days ago the VIP pools sound right up my alley. And I can impress the girls with my super white skin and randomly placed patches of back hair! Going to have to beat them back....

Getting to sleep tonight could be difficult.

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Hockey Playoffs

I never mentioned anything yet on the hockey playoffs... you figure with a name like Guin that I would mention my thoughts more often.

Well to tell you the truth I am but not on this blog.... I am using a Sportingnews blog to discuss my penGUINs on a daily basis.

The good news is that the team is playing with confidence and looking forward to watching them bash the remaining Senators tonight. Malkin is such a superstar and I hope that at the Igloo that they start chanting MVP for him when/if we play Washington in round 2. The hope right now is that the Rangers and Philly wins and we get the Rangers in the 2nd round. I think that with the Pens style of play that they are better suited to play against the Rangers.

First things first... Pens have to win 2 more games before we have to worry about the next competitor.

Slow Grind

Being back at lower limits is such a slow grind... I think I may earn more in rakeback than I am earning at the tables right now. No need to make any moves... just hit a hand and shove!

Using position to keep the win rate up to 5 ptbb / 100 but damn hard to play aggro when I am nursing the bankroll.

I may have to buy some bucks off of Carmen while in Vegas to get the online roll to a more reasonable level.

So looking forward to flight on Thursday morning. Going to sleep on the flight but not much after I get there.

Going to Vegas

Can you imagine that my wife was so cool as to allow me to go to Vegas to do a pre-Stag preparation long weekend?!!!

Since I have never been a person to organize a stag (which means I haven't been the best man to anyone else!) and I haven't been to Vegas she was a bit easier to convince. But either way it will be an awesome event for this pre-Stag and I may try to put the stag itself over the blogger weekend and some of us might join in on the blogger poker tourney. Not sure if you guys could hang with a couple more drunk Canadians looking to lose some cash to big hammer drops but you never know.

So any suggestions will be very helpful... this trip has less of a budget constraint than the next one so let me know the cool pools and clubs to hang around in. Almost forgot but we are also interested in the best reasonably priced golf courses to play in the area.

Darn Work!

Right after getting all setup to play poker again I found myself in a typical problem... work is driving me nuts so when I sit down to play I can't focus. I think I really need a few months off to really recharge my batteries but that isn't possible. The new venture has been going for five months now and things are looking good.

Looking to rebuild the online poker roll as I took a bunch of it offline recently to play some live poker with horrible results.

Thinking of the bloggers as I may have a chance to get out to Vegas sometime in the near future for the first time which would be really cool. If I firm something up I will be bugging a couple people for some input on what to do and see.

Hope everyone is hitting all their draws!