I beat Daniel Negreanu at poker!

Ok, for starters, the title is a little misleading. Yes, I did beat Daniel Negreanu in one stupid little hand of No-Limit Hold'em, but it was a very nondescript hand, and one that I'm not even sure I played all that well. But for a small-timer such as myself, getting a chance to play against a professional whom you respect is the kind of stuff that memories are made of. So I'm gonna go ahead and enjoy it while it lasts.

(FYI, I'm not exactly sure what Mr. Negreanu was doing at a $0.05/$0.10 NLHE table, but based on what I was reading in the chat box, it sounded like he was just working on some kind of bankroll building experiment similar to the one that Chris Ferguson did a few years back. I'll have to look into it.)

Here's the hand history:

PokerStars Game #24996057883: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2009/02/16 1:18:42 ET
Table 'Alphard IX' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: KidPoker ($8.60 in chips)
Seat 2: big-gary1979 ($10.65 in chips)
Seat 3: RandomFlask ($10 in chips)
Seat 4: ugarforty ($14.50 in chips)
Seat 5: vordul1 ($8.70 in chips)
Seat 6: LLITOPM ($5.45 in chips)
Seat 7: Stevercakes ($12 in chips)
Seat 8: noidtymer ($9.50 in chips)
Seat 9: ShArK00000 ($14.95 in chips)
koogy [observer] said, "im 116th think ill get on"
big-gary1979: posts small blind $0.05
RandomFlask: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RandomFlask [As Qs]
EloiseZilla [observer] said, "for the champion"
SvenDee [observer] said, "humberto doubles up :D"
ugarforty: folds
vernondbacks [observer] said, "im 118"
vernondbacks [observer] said, "haha"
Soncy [observer] said, "i like to watch tables that include sammy and eli elizera"
vordul1: calls $0.10
dandog23 [observer] said, "IM 123RD"
Soncy [observer] said, "fun fun"
LLITOPM: folds
Stevercakes: calls $0.10
EloiseZilla [observer] said, "Daniel HU4Rollz???"
noidtymer: folds
ShArK00000: folds
KidPoker: calls $0.10
big-gary1979: calls $0.05
RandomFlask: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ad Kd 2d]
vernondbacks [observer] said, "yea i love watching the high stakes poker"
big-gary1979: checks
RandomFlask: checks
vordul1: checks
koogy [observer] said, "umberto;s up to $55"
Stevercakes: checks
turbo4321 [observer] said, "i am 131. i have the best chance to get in"
KidPoker: bets $0.30
thejohnay1 [observer] said, "daniel. My wife knows nothing about poker but u r her favorite player. We hope to me t u some day at the WSOP cuz we go every year. Her bday is in July"
big-gary1979: folds
RandomFlask: calls $0.30
SvenDee [observer] said, "yip he cracked aces on the river"
KKpalsta [observer] said, "lineodds very low"
vordul1: folds
Stevercakes: folds
*** TURN *** [Ad Kd 2d] [5h]
RandomFlask: checks
koogy [observer] said, "vamos daniel"
IntoTheAce [observer] said, "daniel i love u"
InfamouzKrow [observer] said, "I AM 70TH"
KidPoker: bets $0.80
jkos86 [observer] said, "who cracked aces?"
turbo4321 [observer] said, "If I get in, I would take Daniel's money. bc I know he has money"
vins21 [observer] said, "IS this really Daniel?????????/"
IntoTheAce [observer] said, "go dinner"
koogy [observer] said, "don;t worry random will call down"
JasonH420 [observer] said, "LOOK AT THE RAKE OMG"
Mr. cariry [observer] said, "129 players waiting"
Mr. cariry [observer] said, "hauhauhau"
koogy [observer] said, "how much is the rake?"
IntoTheAce [observer] said, "daniel"
IntoTheAce [observer] said, ":D"
vins21 [observer] said, "and I am 17th........:))))))))))"
RandomFlask: calls $0.80
*** RIVER *** [Ad Kd 2d 5h] [2c]
RandomFlask: checks
JasonH420 [observer] said, "OMG RAKE"
KidPoker: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RandomFlask: shows [As Qs] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
KidPoker: mucks hand
JasonH420 [observer] said, "SICK"
RandomFlask collected $2.60 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $2.70 | Rake $0.10
Board [Ad Kd 2d 5h 2c]
Seat 1: KidPoker (button) mucked [Ks 6s]
Seat 2: big-gary1979 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: RandomFlask (big blind) showed [As Qs] and won ($2.60) with two pair, Aces and Deuces
Seat 4: ugarforty folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: vordul1 folded on the Flop
Seat 6: LLITOPM folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Stevercakes folded on the Flop
Seat 8: noidtymer folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: ShArK00000 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

January 2009 Recap

Cash game net profit = -$347.37 (86.87 hours played)
Tournament net profit = $98.91
Total net profit = -$248.46

Negative net profit for the month, but my hours played are way up as I had hoped/expected. I played as patiently and as selectively aggressive as I have in quite some time, and there were probably only 1 or 2 decisions that I would like to have done differently.

System Check (monthly character assessment on a scale of 1 to 10):

Present-mindedness: 9 (+1)
I've gotten to a point where my heart doesn't even quicken anymore when I take a bad beat or run 2nd nuts into the lock nuts. It's almost like a part of me is dead (or at least dormant) on the inside, and it's actually a very peaceful feeling.

Awareness: 7 (+1)
I'm not forcing the issue as often as I used to, and I think letting the game come to me has really eliminated some major distractions. This has allowed me to be more perceptive of each situation as a whole rather than just bits and pieces here and there.

Physical fitness: 5 (+1)
Just continuing to get more consistent with my workouts.

December 2008 Recap & Year in Review

December Results

Cash game net profit = $385.92 (36.70 hours played)
Tournament net profit = -$46.71
Total net profit = $339.21

Back in the black this month, and considering the generally poor quality of cards that I saw, I definitely believe that it has everything to do with finally being truly focused on process rather than results. There really isn't much more to it than that.

Current character assessment (Scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best):

Present-mindedness: 8 (+2)
I hardly notice the bad beats anymore, I have no problem folding hour after hour if the right circumstances fail to unfold, and playing well but losing $200 in a session feels much better than playing poorly and winning $200.

Awareness: 6 (+2)
Doing a better job of analyzing the entire situation at hand rather than just the cards that I hold.

Physical fitness: 4 (+1)
Still have a lot of work to do just to get back to where I was this past summer, but at least I'm taking steps in the right direction.

2008 Year in Review

Cash game net profit = $1,488.67 (625.10 hours played)
Tournament net profit = $723.75
Total net profit = $2,212.42

Well, in looking back on my 2007 Year in Review, I had some very high hopes for 2008, which I clearly fell well short of. However, I think there's a good chance that the lessons I learned along the way could prove to be invaluable. The main reason I didn't win any significant money in 2008 is that I simply didn't play as much as I should have (though I didn't always make the best decisions when I did play either). With my newfound focus on process-improvement, my prediction for 2009 is that I'll end up playing a much higher volume and that my net profit will increase substantially as a result. It's a fairly meaningless prediction (as are most), especially considering that I'll be happy no matter what as long as I make sound decisions throughout the year. But if 2009 plays out the way I think it will, I'd like to look back and remember November & December 2008 as a significant turning point in my endeavor to play poker professionally.

September 2008 Recap

Cash game net profit = -$926.40 (19.60 hours played)
Tournament net profit = $30.00
Total net profit = -$896.40

Online tournament results:

Tournaments played = 0 (0 MTTs; 0 SnGs)
ROI = 0.00% (0.00% in MTTs; 0.00% in SnGs)

I knew going into September that my poker hours would continue to be down, but the biggest reason for my nasty hourly cash game rate of -$47.27 is that I spent most of my time in a $1/$3 cash game that rotates both NLHE and PLO8. At $1/$3 blinds, all it takes is 2 or 3 bad beats in PLO8 to eat through a grand, and despite playing practically nothing but AA23 double-suited in a loose-aggressive game, I just couldn't seem to win any all-in confrontations. This trend has also continued into October, but I'll save those numbers for the next update.

Fortunately, it looks like my old $1/$2 Thursday game might be picking up steam, and I've also finally been able to eliminate the distractions that were preventing me from logging any significant hours online. The last few months have been incredibly frustrating, so regardless of what kind of success I have for the remainder of the year, I'll be f**king elated just to be able to play as much as I've been wanting to for a change.

Current skills assessment (Scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best):

Play fearlessly: 5 (no change)
As was the case in July and August, I simply didn't play enough to really notice any significant progress in my game play, but I'll go ahead and review the list anyway...

Play my 'A' game each and every hand: 7 (no change)

Plan my bet sizes: 3 (no change)

Assign hand ranges to my opponents: 3 (no change)

Keep track of pot size: 1 (no change)

Keep constant track of my 'M': 4 (no change)

Maintain constant awareness of my table image: 4 (no change)
In this new $1/$3 game that I've been playing, there is absolutely zero value in trying to bluff. Since the only real strategy is to just wait for big hands and then bet the holy hell out of them, it doesn't take much awareness to understand that every player at the table either knows that I'm playing a tight game or is too much of a mule to even recognize that I probably only enter 1 pot every 3 hours. If I could just get a friggin' hand to hold up once in awhile...

Minimize my tells: 6 (no change)

Keep an eye out for other players' tells: 7 (+1)
Despite my shitty run of cards for the last few months, I've actually been able to make some pretty ballsy river calls, even in PLO8. Though most were based on plain old hand reading, there were multiple instances where I used physical tells as a tiebreaker of sorts.

Maximize mental acuity/endurance through physical fitness: 4 (+2)
Getting much better at sticking to my workout schedule, and making smarter dietary choices is starting to feel like second nature. Next goal is to continue to expand the schedule.

August 2008 Recap

Cash game net profit = $125.00 (30.95 hours played)
Tournament net profit = -$137.60
Total net profit = -$12.60

Online tournament results:

Tournaments played = 15 (7 MTTs; 8 SnGs)
ROI = -39.10% (-100.00% in MTTs; 24.62% in SnGs)

As expected, August was highly uneventful due to limited play.

I'll resume the skills assessment in September's update.

July 2008 Recap

Cash game net profit = $160.93 (45.30 table hours)
Tournament net profit = $1257.80
Total net profit = $1418.73

Online tournament results:

Tournaments played = 12 (4 MTTs; 8 SnGs)
ROI = 3.58% (-100.00% in MTTs; -79.59% in SnGs)

Due to some unexpected circumstances, my poker routines (both live and online) were interrupted early in the month, and I didn't really play much outside of a week that I spent in Atlantic City. And even in AC, I spent half of the week relegated to my hotel room due to a sudden and severe respiratory infection, which even further limited my play.

Fortunately, I played pretty well in the few tournaments that I did enter; well enough to even turn a profit for the month. So I don't have too many complaints about the quality of my play. But one thing that I have been going back and forth about is whether or not I've done enough to try to offset the aforementioned circumstances which have been limiting my play since early July and will continue to do so through early September.

The simple answer to that is undoubtedly 'no'. I don't have to think about it too long to realize that there are some very simple steps that I could take to increase my table time. The fact of the matter is that I just haven't been motivated enough to take those steps.

Admitting that to myself was tough at first; all I could think about was the idea that maybe poker isn't as much of a passion for me as it used to be. But now I think that it's actually taught me a pretty important lesson: no matter how much I consider poker to be a lifestyle, I should never feel like I have to play.

Playing when you feel like you have to is not only a recipe for burnout, but also a distraction that can only serve to hinder your judgment. I think it falls in the same category as playing with scared money. In both cases, you make it difficult to focus on making correct decisions because you're too worried about something else (either losing money that you can't afford to or simply not playing long enough to meet your minimum requirements). It's probably why my live results have always been so much better than my online results; unlike when I'm playing online, playing live just never seems like work to me, mainly because I enjoy the 'complete' atmosphere (people, chips, cards, etc.) so much more.

Since I estimate that 1/4 of my annual income will come from poker this year, there's no doubt that I should play as often as I can. However, knowing that I should is usually more than enough to make me want to play as well. So going forward, while I will continue to set some goals, I'm going to try to be more aware of my frame of mind before sitting down to play poker. The moment "should" turns into "must", I'll need to have the wherewithal to simply walk away.

Current skills assessment (Scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best):

Play fearlessly: 5 (+1)
There probably won't be many changes to my self-assessment ratings since I played so little poker in July, but I'm certain that this was an area of improvement. Whenever I detected weakness, I didn't hesitate to fire at it. In general, I just played with great confidence in my reads.

Play my 'A' game each and every hand: 7 (no change)

Plan my bet sizes: 3 (no change)

Assign hand ranges to my opponents: 3 (no change)

Keep track of pot size: 1 (no change)

Keep constant track of my 'M': 4 (no change)

Maintain constant awareness of my table image: 4 (+1)
In particular, I can recall multiple spots when I used overbets with an aggressive image to induce calls.

Minimize my tells: 6 (+1)
I may have mentioned this before, but concealing tells is a lot easier when you're not concerned with the results. If you put your opponent to a decision and he counters by trying to make you sweat it out a little, what concern could it possibly be to you if you don't care what he does either way? It's not always easy to remain process-oriented, but I'm convinced that the benefits are substantial...

Keep an eye out for other players' tells: 6 (+2)
It's taking some very conscious effort, but I'm finally realizing how much information you can get from many people's natural reactions.

Maximize mental acuity/endurance through physical fitness: 2 (+1)
Workouts are still too infrequent, but I'm at least doing better with food choices and spending a little more time at the beach.

Target numbers for August:

- Cash Games: 10 hours
I'm effectively shutting down any real goals for this month. We'll reevaluate things once my situation returns to normal in September.

- SnGs: 10 tournaments

- MTTs: 0 tournaments

June 2008 Recap

Cash game net profit = $557.30 (35.50 table hours)
Tournament net profit = $65.75
Total net profit = $623.05

Online tournament results:

Tournaments played = 364 (14 MTTs; 350 SnGs)
ROI = 3.58% (116.47% in MTTs; -0.28% in SnGs)

I only managed to reach 50% of my 700 SnG goal for the month. Despite the fact that my online hours were limited in part due to events beyond my control, I'm still somewhat disappointed to have fallen short. However, I do believe that I took some steps in the right direction considering that I finished in the money 38.00% of the time that I played. That said, my negative ROI in SnG play suggests that my 3-handed and heads-up play needs a lot of work.

Current skills assessment (Scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best):

Play fearlessly: 4 (+1)
I feel like I'm making more confident decisions, and it's probably partially due to my conscious effort to be more process-oriented and less results-oriented. However, there was a point earlier on when I first started playing poker that I actually kind of enjoyed getting caught in a bluff; though it might not be wise to enjoy it too much, becoming indifferent to getting caught would probably be a good thing.

Play my 'A' game each and every hand: 7 (+1)
'Rounders' has been one of my favorite movies since long before I got into poker. Its message is just so transcendent; had the story revolved around a couple of circus clowns, I think I still would've found it every bit as inspiring. That said, it's somewhat ironic that I had probably only seen it once in the 3 years that I've been studying poker seriously. So when I did finally get a chance to watch it again just a few weeks ago, it came as no surprise when I picked up on several things that I simply couldn't have appreciated before getting into poker.

The one thing that really seems to have stuck is the idea that you should never give anything away. I don't think I ever truly realized how prone I was to altering my game based on how much I had been winning or losing, but the truth is that in either case, I had a real tendency to play wrecklessly, especially when I was up big. More and more often, when faced with a tough decision, I make sure to remind myself not to give anything away. It's okay if another player takes my chips, but I have a hard time forgiving myself if I made it easy for him/her to do so.

Plan my bet sizes: 3 (no change)
While I'm paying better attention to my opponents' stack sizes, I still occasionally find myself on the river with just enough chips left to make a pot-sized bet. This isn't a situation that I necessarily mind, but I really should see this coming long before the river.

Take down orphan pots: 2 (+1)
I can't recall many opportunities from this month, but I took advantage of the few that I remember.

See more flops when deep-stacked: 6 (+1)
I think I'm doing a better job of using position, particularly in MTTs.

Assign hand ranges to my opponents: 3 (+1)
I've been relying pretty heavily on PAHUD statistics to get an idea of each player's general playing styles, and it seems to be helping. However, I need to develop a better understanding of the appropriate range of hands with which to counter. Hand equities have always been one of my biggest weaknesses, and that's an especially dangerous thing considering how many SnGs I'm trying to play.

Keep track of pot size: 1 (no change)
I still find myself eyeballing the pot to do rough estimates on the fly, and even then, I only think to do it when it's my turn to act. While doing so, there's a high probability that I'm giving off all sorts of tells.

Keep constant track of my 'M': 4 (+1)
Still need to improve my ability to maintain a running 'count', but I'm definitely much more aware of the adjustments I need to be making as my stack size fluctuates.

Maintain constant awareness of my table image: 3 (+1)
More and more frequently, I'm able to accurately predict my opponents' reactions to my bets and raises based on what I think their perception of me is. Now I need to use these predictions to try to manipulate their moves up front.

Minimize my tells: 5 (+1)
I've always been fairly conscious of other players' probing questions, but in the past, I've also felt compelled to offer some sort of response. I'm much more comfortable now with just sitting quietly while they talk away. Now if I could just get better at keeping track of pot size...

Keep an eye out for other players' tells: 4 (-1)
I still spend way too much time watching the flop/upcards as they're rolled out.

Maximize mental acuity/endurance through physical fitness: 1 (-1)
It sucks knowing that I've actually regressed in this area, but I have to be honest with myself. Workouts are still too infrequent, and even my food choices have slipped. I've had my plan pretty well mapped out for the last few months; I just need to work it all into my routine until it becomes habit.

Target numbers for July:

- Cash Games: 60 table hours
My regular live game has gone from weekly to biweekly, so I'll have to ramp up my online cash game hours to offset. It's something I need to be doing anyway.
- SnGs: 200 tournaments
I'm going to spread my play around a bit more going forward, but 200 SnGs still appears to be attainable by my calculations. I'm hoping for a lot more, but since I'm only dedicating 1 day each week to SnGs, I'll start with 200 and reevaluate next month.
- MTTs: 20 tournaments
Unlike with cash games and SnGs, I won't be dedicating any particular day to MTT play, so I'll have to squeeze them into the few nights each week that I'm not busy with something else. I just want to make sure that I don't stop playing them altogether.