Monday Night Picks

Still on Paper Chaser's picks plus I also like the Angels tonight although not willing to lay the heavy juice on the money line (-200) so I'll go with the runline at even money.

Florida -1.5

Yankees -1.5

St. Louis -1.5

LA Angels -1.5


Also still haven't decided whether I want to play the Cubs tonight or not. Harden looked strong in his Cubs debut and is an all around Ace pitcher when healthy, in my opinion. And even though Randy Johnson is something like 12-0 lifetime against the Cubs, his last victory against them came in 2004. That was when the Cubs sucked and when Randy wasn't a 65 year old man with a sub .500 record.

I'll make my decision on the Cubs a little before game time.

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Day Profit: -$6.75

Day Record: 1-3

Total Record: 52-73-2


Bankroll: $83.25

Total Profit: -$116.75

7-20 Session

Just got done with a 2.5 hour 10NL session. Played a total of 187 hands and ended the night with a $7.40 profit. Here's a couple of interesting hands:

Hand # 1 (How not to play an open-ended straigtht)

Hand #2 (Hero call that gets outdrawn)

Hand # 3 (Value bet with 2 pair)

Hand #4 (AQ>QQ)

I peaked in profit at around $12 but then donked off about 5 dollars in one of the last hands against a guy who overplayed top pair top kicker.

Still happy with the session overall.

Here's today's graph.

Oversleeping...

I don't usually work on Sundays so today's plan was to grind 10NL all day, but late last night my friend gave me a call and asked if I could work for him today. I could use the extra cash so I said sure.

I usually go into work at 4P.M. except Sundays in which case I have to be here at 2P.M. Well, I ended up going to sleep at 5 A.M. thinking I had set my alarm to go off at 10:30 so I could put in a solid 5 hours of sleep and have time to analyze the baseball lines in the morning and maybe catch an early movie at the Cineplex in Evanston before heading to work.

Well I woke up to no alarm actually and when I glanced at the clock it was 2:15 LOL. So I jumped out of bed, brushed my teeth and put some fresh gear on and managed to arrive to work only 36 minutes late. Haha, how the fuck do you oversleep for a job that starts at 2.pm?

Right so anyway this means I missed out on playing Paper Chaser's picks which is going to sting if he ends up sweeping.

I may or may not make a play on tonight's Santos v. Pachuca game. I'll update later if I do.

Since I left home in such a hurry I didn't bring my laptop with me (using a friend's at the moment) and since Sundays are usually really slow at work I'm probably going to be close to finishing up Harrington on Cash Games by tonight and then I'll put in a short session of 10NL when I get home from work.

Bad Comeback

I've been MAJORLY dragging on the blog cause I've had a lot of shit going on none of which was "gambling related" but I'm back and ready to make some money. Or lose it, whatever. I'll definitely be updating the blog daily though.

Let's start off with the sports betting. Haven't made a pick since who knows when and my record looks awful Haven't even really been following baseball at all, which is about the only sport to bet on during the summer. Have no clue who's hot and who's not so definitely going to have to do some reading up to catch up. In the meantime I'm going to ride with Paper Chaser's picks and hope he's pretty money with those. Started off on the wrong foot today going 0-2 but definitely felt like they were the right picks. Zambrano on the mound for the Cubbies, I'll put my money on that any day. And Detroit got off to a 6-0 lead in the 1st and were still hanging on in the 9th by a run but they blew it and lost in extras.

But I'm still going to follow his picks for a while and add maybe one or two plays of my own each day and hopefully start the slow steady climb out of the $100 hole and get back in the black.


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Detroit -0.5

Cubs -0.5


Day Profit: -$10.00

Day Record: 1-1

Total Record: 51-70-2


Bankroll: $90.00

Total Profit: -$110.00
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I'm also going to be putting in a TON of time into online poker. I started the grind today and it wasn't pretty. I just got done with a grueling 4 hour session ending the night down 2 Buy Ins. I started off okay, playing pretty tight and floating around even for a while until this hand came up, which put me on major tilt.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918592

With his pre-flop call of my re-raise I had to put him on something like AJ-AK so the flop looks pretty safe for my JJ. I turn a boat and have him drawing to a one outter. Obviously the river puts quads in the board and his fucking Ace high drags in the biggest pot I'd played up to that point.

Very next hand I lose the rest of my shortstack when I slow play top pair and my opponent rivers a straight. I was tilting so much so I took a short break but then rebought again. Things started off pretty nicely the second time around and was up half a buyin after the first hand. But after that I kinda just went card dead a little bit and lossend up my play a little too much which ended up costing me the second buy in.

Still feel like I had some good spots. I got my money in as a favorite for the most part.

Also played a 200FFP satellite for tomorrow's 100k Guaranteed. LOL, top 6 places paid and I busted in like 8th with my A10 going down to KQ with a King on the river. It was just that kind of night...

I also downloaded a trial version of Poker Tracker 3 which should help immensely in finding leaks in my game. I was having some trouble setting it up at first so I my HHs for tonight's session weren't captured but I'll be posting graphs of most of my sessions from now on.

Apart from that, I also picked up a copy of Harrington on Cash Games. The Harrington on Hold Em' series got amazing reviews from the poker community and I'd been hearing the Cash Game series was just as good so I forked over the $35. I just starte reading it but I can see how it's definitely going to help me with my game. I just got done with reading the general stuff like pot odds and shit like that and I'm now anxious about getting into the deeper stuff like pot control and just post flop play in general.

So that's about it. Not a good day in poker or sports betting but looking forward to putting in another long session tomorrow and get some results.

Taste of Chicago

So I'd been meaning to make a post about what I was up to for the 4th of July celebrations but I just kept on procrastinating to the point that now I can't even remember half the things I did. I'll try my best nonetheless.

July 2nd, I hit up the Taste of Chicago with my friend Mariana. We actually had an awesome time and enjoyed stuffing our faces with TONS of food. That's what The Taste's all about. Good food, good music and just a great atmosphere. The night however, ended on a sour note with some lady drama but I won't get into that.

Then the next day on the 3rd, I hit up The Taste once again but this time with my sister. Also had tons of fun and tons of food. We also enjoyed some live music including this local band called Mind's Hideaway which whom I was pretty impressed with. I was feeling their music so we stuck around after their performance and chilled with them for a little bit. Cool bunch of guys.

The Taste was definitely a lot more crowded that day because of the fireworks show that was gonna take place by the lake front that night.

Anyway we stuck around for the fireworks and they were just simply amazing. Honestly, just jaw dropping stuff. Amplified even more perhaps by the buzz I was getting from the marijuana smoke all over Grant Park, lol. Seriously you couldn't walk 20 feet without spotting someone lighting up. You'd think the heavy 5-0 presence would discourage such mischievous activities, but oh it did not.

Anyway on our walk back, the streets of downtown were just completely FLOODED with people. Shit was crazy and as my sister and I are making our way to the L station we hear these loud ass popping sounds. Those my friends, did not sound like fireworks. More like gunshots. Yup, bunch of clowns had to fuck up what has traditionally been a safe family outing in the Chi, by staging an all out gang fight in the middle of the streets with no concern towards the fact that there were families everywhere with little kids.

Anyway as soon as all this shit starts going down my sister and I skip the L station and just jump on the #22 bus instead. We got home probably in twice the amount of time it would have taken us to ride the train, but I wasn't going to take any chances. So the next day I read about what happened in the newspapers and on the news. Four people got shot but thankfully no innocent bystanders. Just what the fuck are people thinking man?

Right, so on the actual 4th of July I took it easy and chilled at home. Family wasn't up to much and I wasn't in the mood to go out so I watched TV for most of the day instead. I did go out to my front yard for a while to check out some more fireworks and brought my dog Chase along but he kept getting scared and running towards the door, lol.

And that concluded my 4th of July festivities for 2008. Good food, great music, amazing fireworks and a good old fashion gang shoot out in the streets of Chicago.

I brought my camera to the Taste thinking I'd be snapping pictures left and right but ultimately forgot so I only took a couple shitty ones:

Catching Up...

I haven't blogged in a while because not much has been going on. Summer's been treating me alright, I guess. Haven't really been doing the gambling thing for the last couple of weeks. I was extremely lucky that Rommel from work didn't want to bet on the Cubs v. Sox series this weekend as I could have potentially lost around $500 if he'd actually had the balls to bet me that much like he said he would a few weeks ago. But after sweeping them at Wrigley last week, he quickly changed his mind.

I did lose $25 on the Italy vs. Spain Euro-Cup Semifinals. Had Italy and the game ended up going all the way to a penalty shootout which is pretty much a coin flip. I didn't feel too bad about that loss though, since I'd won $25 off the same dude a few weeks ago on the Champions League final that also ended up going to PKs.

Something I have been doing a lot of lately is gaming on my Xbox 360. My Xbox Live free month trial expired a week ago so I finally had to fork over the $50 for a one year subscription. I also picked up a copy of Fifa 08 and I've got to say it's the most addicting game ever. The online play is just so much fun it's insane.

I've only had the game for a week but I've already been crushing the games online. Record thus far is 15-4 and I'm already a level 3 player. I've chosen Milan as my regular team since it's proven to be successful for me. Out of the 4 matches that I lost, I blame 2 on a bad connection on the other player's part that simply made the game unplayable because of the lag and another one where I decided to take a shot and challenge a level 8 player and got beat 2-0. I think that's the only game where I truy felt I was outplayed yet was able to keep it a modest 2-0 loss.

Anyway, the game's addicting as hell and I really want to make a run at the leaderboards so I'm going to be putting in some mad time into it. My goal for friday is to reach at least level 6 if not higher and mantain a winning percentage over 70%, (currently it's 78%.)

With all this, I'd also been trying to figure out a way to combine my love for video games and passion for gambling. Then, as if my prayers had been answered, I get a message yesterday from someone on Xbox Live telling me to check out GamerSaloon.net.

Its esentially a poker website without the poker. Instead, you load up your account with real money trough Pay Pal, credit card etc, much like you would a poker account. Then issue challenges to other players for any amount of money. You guys play the match, the results get reported to the site, and the money is either credited or withdrawn from your balance.

Wow, wait a minute. I could have sworn I though of this idea back in like 2005. Back then I was crushing Fifa 06 on the PS2 and wishing I could somehow make money off it. So this same exact concept entered my mind and I did nothing with it. Let it be known I WILL be contacting my local intellectual properties specialist!

Ha, anyway I will still however be opening an account with these sly bastards who stole my idea and try to make some money playing Fifa 08. But I'm going to wait until I've reached a gaming level at which I think I have a good edge over the average gamer. A level 10 ranking sounds about right.

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So I haven't been playing poker all that much latelyand actually missed out on a couple of home games this past weekend because of work. Also Rockford Charitables, the local charity casino I usually visit is on a 1 month haitus because of the WSOP which leaves me with limited live play options. There's another 18+ charity casino group called Chicago Charitable Games that also runs around the suburbs but the problem is their events are usually 1hour or more away.

But they're holding a very intersting series of tournaments throughout late July being dubbed the Chicago Series of Poker so I might just have to make the drive out to some of the events. The tournaments that catch my eye as of right now are the $150 Heads Up tournament and the $400 Main Event, with a potential dive in the $100 Hold Em' crapshoot as well.

Also, another $4.40 challenge is starting up at FCP and I'm undecided about whether I want to play it or not. Registration ends on July 5th, so I've still got the week to make up my mind. Last challenge I ran like shit and was doubling up with a partner so I only played half the tournies. I think I'll stick to a solo flight if I decide to play this one.

I did manage to put in a good micro limit session on Stars last night just for kicks. Ended the night up one buyin at $10NL. I'm thinking of really putting down some effort into trying to improve my cash game play by purchasing Poker Tracker 3. Everyone on FCP swears by it if you are serious about tracking your results and moving up in limits. But this is still a little farther down the road. By the end of summer perhaps, I'll save up to have a decent starting roll and put alot of study into cash game play.

I'll end this unusually long blog with a congrats to Scotty Nguyen for taking down the $50k HORSE tournament aka the Pro's Championship. I obviously wanted either Ivey or Daniel to win it. Daniel especially because it seemed like he REALLY wanted to win it by the way he was talking about it all the way back in his early blogs before the series even started. Not to say Phil or any of the other players didn't want it just as bad though. I was railing the action up until like 5am and they were still 3 handed when I went to sleep.

Ivey's chances of winning a bracelet are really becoming very weak now although he did hustle people into bracelet bets which included the European World Series of Poker, so he's still got a shot.

A Paper by Grace A.

My friend Grace, aka my ex girlfriend, aka the ex who "busted" my blog, had a paper to write for her English 101 class.

She decided to pick me and my gambling obsession as her topic of writing. She wrote what I thought was an extremely well written paper. And no, I'm not just saying that because it's about me =)

Anyway, with Grace's permission I've decided to share the paper here on my blog.

Enjoy!

And disregard the fact that she makes me sound like the next Brian Townsend. lol.

“You Got To Know When To Hold ‘Em, Know When To Fold ‘Em”

-Kenny Rogers

Learning to play poker at the age of 12 was merely the tip of the iceberg for Victor Ortiz, now 18. He was subconsciously destined to live the life of an underage gambler as the game has proven to be much more than a pastime. Attending casinos and hosting home games is nothing out of the ordinary for Ortiz, but these low stake bets must satisfy him until the big move to Las Vegas in three years. But why such an infatuation with poker and gambling?

As he sits in darkness with nothing but the glow of the television for light, his back resting against his headboard, watching the latest episode of Poker After Dark at two in the morning, Victor envisions himself at the table beside his idol, Daniel Negreanu. The Canadian born Negreanu, a few credits short of graduating, dropped out of high school to pursue a career in the sport. Negreanu became known as “Kid Poker” and quickly gained recognition for his ability to read people, eccentric yet wholesome demeanor, and knack for dominating the cards. In 1998, he became the youngest player to win a World Series of Poker bracelet and has earned four more since then.

Aspiring to be like Negreanu, Ortiz refines his technique regularly, putting it to the test during live sessions as well as online. “The pure competition,” he says, “drew me to poker. It’s the feeling of owning my opponent and knowing exactly what his hand is and knowing I was better than him that intrigued me.” Despite his drive to defeat his opponents, Victor has yet to perfect one aspect very vital to achieving success in the game; money management.

Victor: I need to learn discipline. You can be a good poker player but if you have bad money management and go on tilt every time you have a bad session, you’re going to be broke most of the time.

Do you have good money management?

Victor: No, not at all. That’s why I consider that my biggest weakness as a poker player and the main thing I want to improve.

There were times when Victor’s desire to gross a large cash reward ran through his body like melting lava erupting from a volcano, fueling his passion to win and burning a hole in his jeans’ pocket. Because of this, there were numerous occasion when he had given up the hope of making it big as a poker player. “I thought I was done. I really did,” he recalls, “I told myself last week that it was over. No more gambling for me. How long did that last? About a day and a half.” But beware, Ortiz does not consider poker to be “true gambling.” He explains that “it is a game of skill in which some luck is involved but in the long run, a skilled player will surpass a lucky one. When I’m at the poker table, I know I’m playing a game of skill. Sure, I also consider myself a gambler but only when it comes to sports betting or blackjack.”

Not only does Ortiz bet on sports but also on colloquial circumstances as well. This occurs most often during the slow slew of work at Gigio’s Pizzeria. He and his coworkers engage in intense, high wager, impromptu situations. A smiling Victor elaborates, “We'll gamble pretty much on anything. From coin flips to blackjack, to whether the next person who calls in is a man or a woman. And not just bubble gum change stakes either. There's been times were I've won upwards of $300 dollars in a single night on nothing but coin flips and blackjack.” Such activities do not end in the work place but are continued at school during lunch breaks, where the ante has exceeded from nickel and dimes to great sums of money.

Seeking every opportunity to earn a reputation as “a grinder today, a legend tomorrow,” Victor Ortiz is an unstoppable, determined, admirable figure in the world of up-and-coming poker players. Very few people endure and overcome the obstacles that following a dream requires and even fewer people achieve that dream. There is no doubt that with some time, a little practice and perseverance this young, intelligent man will be evaluating the mannerisms and calling the bluffs of top guns, like Daniel Negreanu.