Well, August's gone. My favorite month of the year, no doubt about it. And I did enjoy it this year; one of the best August in years to be quite frank :). But that somehow, and somewhat surprisingly, meant being off poker. As in out of the game almost entirely... Kinda weird... Enough to trigger some doubtful questioning, anyway... Turns out I went on vacation, and ended playing something like 200 hands tops during those two weeks... Plus 2 very nice, drunk, friendly sessions with old buddies... And that's all the poker I saw. Thing is, I work with computers, and the last year has tended to be all about me sitting in front a computer, be it at work, or at home, grinding my online poker bankroll with more and more enthusiasm... And when I finally hit my summer vacations, I just didn't feel like sitting at my PC... Not. At. All. Even when roaming inside cause of some stupid rain or last minute change of plans, I always opted for my couch, the Olympics, a comic or book, or some movie. I did catch up on stuff I wanted to read or watch or re-watch :). That Dune extended version is one piece of crap of editing, even though it shows some pretty interesting added scenes :P. Anywho, not much poker, to say the least. Thus, I can now say it's all my vacations' fault :P!

Still, returning from vacation tends to slow one's pace down quite a bit, at work for sure, but also everywhere else, just a little bid. The whole sit back groove, basically... And coming home from the office the first couple of days, one feels a tad more tired then used to. Thus, I decided to sacrifice August 2008, so to speak. I played a whooping 1,416 hands :|!!!! And while not being the slowest month ever, it is the lowest amount of poker played since I took it a tad more seriously, about a year ago... Check this out:


Crazy. But, then again, as much as I love the game, it felt like I needed this vacation. Time will tell...

In the meantime, for the sake of continuity, here's one of the 3 usual graphs (I figure it's not that relevant a month anyhow :P).

Roughly set myself to collecting a decent sample of Short-Stack play in July, in order to better define what can be expected from this strategy. Got to a little over 11k hands, which is something of a baseline. For the record, I ran at 9.91/7.96/5.56, for a 1.13 ptbb/100hands, which is basically what is to be expected when Short-Stacking. My lifetime short-stacking BB/100 is a little bigger than the one for July, but it does also make a hell of a lot more sense than it did after 5k hands (whooping, unsustainable 5+BB/100 :D!).

Now that I have a half-decent sample of SSS, I can get back to deep-stacking, at least for August, since the whole idea behind me getting into it was to clear to PokerStrategy First Deposit bonus, which I'll do come September. Thus, 40% rakeback being 40% rakeback at any stakes, I'm moving back to real poker in August that's for sure. Not sure if I'll manage to keep the pace and get the minimally satisfying 10k hands in the month since I am on vacations and will most probably get out of town for a couple days at least; if I'm lucky, I'll get to find some live play where I'll end up :).

In any case, a word to the wise; short-stacking is definitely boring as hell, and therefore should NOT be considered poker in any way. But, it can be very, very effective for bonus whoring :).

Anyway, don't wanna babble too long this time around; it's vacation time (I feel like a margarita right now lol). Still, as usual, the graphs. Note those include a single deep-stack session of about 215 hands, mid-month (of course, last hand of said session, I got rockets UTG, raised, got called by a blind with a lousy suited trash hand and we ended up all-in on the flop for the guy to make is mofoin' runner-runner flush. Decided it was karmic retribution for having hacked into poker with this whole Short-Stacking bout ;-)).

July 2008 - By Hands
July 2008 - By Big Blinds
July 2008 - Showdown/Non-Showdown

Ok, I haven't dabbed into strategic posts and such so far, mostly because, to paraphrase Doyle, brighter minds than me are already discussing those, and one can find super smart, savvy (and yes, a tad cocky) people to pick one's play and brains to pieces on forums such as 2+2 Forums (undoubtedly the best place online to discuss poker nowadays), not to mention the numerous sticky posts available throughout the internet, the poker blogs held by some of the most outspoken pros out there as well as by a bunch of unknowns with sharp tongues and enlightening perspectives, without forgetting the multiple and constantly emerging poker sites such as pokernews.com, cardplayer.com and PokerStrategy. Oh, and almost forgot the books, lol. All in all, a lot of strategic and tactical literature out there, and I figured, when first starting this blog, that it would probably be better to leave this to the best of us :).

But, it turns out there might actually be a small, tiny chance I might have gotten to the point where I have multiple readers... Yeah, I know, I'm probably turning schizo, but having linked my blog to some sites recently, it is a definite possibility! lol. Therefore, I figured I could start plugging some theoretical stuff, when the mood strikes, mostly. And what could fit more than kicking things off with a post from my good buddy ncaron, about posting when first sitting at a full ring table. Here it is. I thought my potential readers could benefit from the info as well as the poker player mindset shown there to solve a simple yet relevant question about a very precise situation, in that constant quest for an edge, some edge, any edge over one's opponent(s).

I find myself considering the famous infamous Short Stack Strategy has given me all it can offer. At least for the time being. Man, it's such a boring endeavor! But, for a couple of reasons, I must keep being the Enemy; the only almost noble reason I have to pursue this short-stacking adventure is collecting a passable hands sample in my PokerTracker database. That one is going good, with a little over 9K hands as of now for July. The thing is, I also get greedy with statistical samples, and now feel the perfect size to be somewhere around 100K... I haven't even played 100K of cash game lifetime!!! LOL!

Another, lesser reason (well, depends on the perspective, really :P) is those 2 bonuses I have to clear, which means I'm probably short-stacking until the end of the summer. Ouch! Kinda just stroke me, to be perfectly honest... I think I'll have to manage some Deep Stack venting somehow... Come to think of it, it may be why I browsed the net today to find a decent live game/tourney somewhere in Montreal on a rainy, summer Monday night... Opted for the greed of the grind... Played 300 hands of suckouts after suckouts and manage to rake a decent profit so far, but didn't feel that good doing so... Odd... Thus, taking a blog break :P... Think I'd be done with SSSing for a while it weren't for those Titan/PokerStrategy deals... I am a greedy little man...

I definitely need to put in some venting mechanism, or else, I think I might go nuts (bad pun intended ;-)). Prolly grind a decent bankroll as I do, yes, but completely lose my interest in the game in the process... Not something I want to do, ldo. For now, my purging moments have been through donkagos, but that's not real poker either, now is it :D ?!?!?! Seriously kidding here; Sit'n Go and Tournament Poker > ShortStacking by a long shot, in yours truly's humble opinion. And that's even though you often have to resort to short stack play in a tournament or sit'n go. Seriously, short stack poker barely qualifies as poker... But, for this micro-grinder, it IS a very decent way to clear bonuses by playing a tad above his bankroll (for deep play, obviously), which in turn is a very decent way to build a bankroll. And since Titan is currently giving me 40% rakeback, I find myself really addicted to those "You have received a Special Bonus" emails :D! So, back to short-stacking :S... Must... not... attempt... to... steal... blinds...

Nothing to do with poker (move along, nothing to see :P), but damn that quote felt good!!! What can I say, I'm a sucker for anything remotely related to my very first non-athlete idol ;-)... From In Bruges, with Colin Ferrell and Brendan Gleeson (now that's an actor!); Ferrell is arguing with an American in a Belgian restaurant, and things heat up enough so he finally drops the guy and goes:

"That's for John Lennon, you Yankee fuckin' cunt!"

It's official, unless my count is waaaay off, I won my 39th WSOP bet with Nic. Woohoo! The Main Event gave us a good scare, though, to be completely honest... Fscking Poker Brat, lol!

Nic's Team: $505,070
Cunningham: $147,711
Hellmuth: $357,359

Alex's Team: $717,610
Negreanu: $520,304
Seidel: $197,306

... and be right about something!

I have now played on 4 (5 even, come to think of it) different clients, two of which accepting U.S. citizens, and, well, the more it changes, the more it stays the same :P! On every client, at every limit (granted, I have only played micro, and I do hope it is relevant somehow...), you'll find a bunch of people complaining about the current platform they're playing being rigged, bogus and basically evil... Why the fsck do you keep playing there then?!?!?!! One phrase for all of you:

"Your worse enemy is denial."
- Dr. Alan Schoonmaker