I love Poker

Playing poker is so freaking exciting. I love it. I am doing O.K. only up about one buyin since last week but that O.K. too, it's just how the game goes. Overall I'm happy with my play I did get alittle spewy late Friday night. I shouldn't have played I was alittle to tired. But my bankroll is growing ahead of schedule which is spectacular. I was suppose to be at $500.00 plus 100 from rakeback by the end of the month. But right now my bankroll sits at $582.00 without rakeback.

I am always looking for more friends who play poker. So if you happen across this blog and you wanna connect and discuss everything related to poker then leave me a comment and let me know. We can chat via IM, Email, ect about poker. Also if you have a blog, let me know I would love to link to it.

See ya on the felt,
Brandon Mark

Life is good poker is great

I went out of town this weekend for a business seminar. Therefore, I have played very little poker compared to last month. None the less, I am off to an amazing start. I have already earned a profit of $161.22 at $20NL exceeding my goal of $100 net profit this month. I have quite a ways to go before I hit my goal of earning $100 in rakeback. However, there is still a lot of time left this month. I hope I continue winning this could be a big month for me.

Thanks for reading,
Brandon Mark

What a month in Poker

January was a wild month and I am going to count it as a month of victory but it was barely so. If you have been reading my blog then you will remember this post, where I discussed my goals for the year. I have them broken up by each month. The month of January I was playing $20 NL at Cake Poker, with a plan of earning $200 profit. Half of the profit from poker and the other half from rakeback. According to plan my bankroll should be at $400 after rakeback and it is.

However, I didn't hit that goal till just now which is actually the 2nd of Feb. I ended up with $60 profit for the month from my play. The first week I was way ahead of plan but my bankroll has flactuated up and down from 120 up to 380 since then. So it has been crazy to say the least. Although I only earned $60 from my play I have earned approximately $150 in rakeback. So that total will take my bankroll over the $400 total where it should be. My goal remains the same for February so let's see what happens. I suspect I should hit the same goal again, let's just hope this time it's not as stressful.

Thanks for reading,
Brandon Mark

It's all about the poker swings

So last week I had hit my goal of earning $300 by the end of the month. This week I swong all the way down to $115 and am now back to $188. It was ridiculous, most of that swing was down in a 48 hour period and then back up over 24 hours. During that 48 hour downswing it was like I could do nothing right. I played tight and all my hands were called and eventually out run on the river by very loose opponents. I tried to combat this by being alittle more aggressive and it didn't matter they still called and I got out run.

I held myself together for the most part and I am proud of that. It was very frustrating and nerve racking. I probably didn't play quite as well due to frustration and aggravation but overall I can't complain. Part of my issue was I should have just continued to play very tight. I got alittle loose trying to play back at these loose calling stations. I still would have had a big downswing but most likely could have slowed it down by at least 30 to 40 percent.

I have a week to get my bankroll back up to $300. This is possible, but even if I don't hit $300 in earnings I will hit my goals overall for the month if I can at least get to $250 because I expect to exceed my goal on rakeback. I should be pretty close to $150 in rakeback versus the $100 I had planned on.

Keep winning big pots,
Brandon Mark

My comments on another's blog

This was a response I just posted on a buddy's blog. It was in response to this post http://vizer02.blogspot.com/2009/01/to-stay-pro-or-notthat-is-question.html . As you may read below I was alittle passion about what I was saying but similar questions to this come up often on poker forums. I think people go thinking about it all wrong.


If I may... when making decisions like this you have to look at what is it you want to accomplish? In 1 year, 3 years, 5 years etc. If you goal is to quickly settle down and get into some sort of a routine then so be it. Take the job, but in the end you have to ask yourself what are you looking to gain ultimately from that job? You have to look at the same thing with poker and ask yourself the same questions. I often hear online pros make BS comments like, "I need to do something that is more fullfilling or I need more social interaction or I need to be impacting the world more".

Then somehow they come to the conclusion that a job is the answer? I can promise you one thing the guys who like playing poker and have jobs are probably saying something like, "I never have time with my family, I work way to much, I'm underpaid and unappreciated, I need to play poker professionally".

It's the classic 80/20 rule. We spend so much time focusing on the 20 precent we don't have we never really appreciate the 80 precent we do have. This is true if you are playing poker already or have a job.I think the most important question is what do you want to do in life. Travel the work, make a boatload of money (I know thats prob not you) or get married have 2.5 kids and the picket fence. Then you have to figure out what avenue will be best for you. Some jobs will get you there and some poker pros can get there with poker. Once your mind is made up. Then I would focus hardcore on that path with a singularity. Start reaching your goals and dreams as fast as you can. Live by design not by default.

Oh and back to the BS about poker not being fulfilling and not impacting the world... this is true of most people's jobs. Besides its not what you paid to do that has the most impact it's what you do with the time you aren't being paid and what you do with the money that is being paid to you. On the same note.. it's not what you for a living that defines who you are; its what you do that defines who you are...

I hope I helped bro,
Brandon Mark

Current Progress

So far I am running ahead of expectation. My bankroll is at $329.02. Hopefully, I can widen the gap alittle further by the end of the month but only time will tell. Also I am on track to reach my target for rakeback. Currently my rakeback is somewhere between $60 to $70. I am excited to be running ahead of expection but I don't want to get too comfortable. One thing is for certain anything can happen in this game.

See you on the felt,
Brandon Mark

New Year's Goals and Updates

My apologies for not updating in over a month. The reason I haven't updated is because I had really been unsure where my future in poker was headed this year. I will explain; I was in talks briefly with a friend and professional poker player that I admire quite a bit. He is a small stakes player who averages between $5000 to $10,000 a month. I had offered him a profit sharing deal where he would earn a generous supplement to his poker income. This would have been a very time consuming relationship between coach and student. However, due to time constraints on his side we decided against it. So I have adjusted my goals for the year accordingly. One change I made after a brief conversation with him was switching back to Full Ring instead of 6 Max.

I also purchased a discounted version of Hold Em Manager from Stoxpoker. I have no idea what has been my hold up. This may end up being one of the very best investments I have ever made in my poker career. Just being able to look at the numbers and now I am learning to make sense of all these numbers. Although, I will admit, I am just barely scratching the surface. I have so much more to learn.

So here are my goals for the 2008 and my projections for my bankroll through the year:

January -- playing $20NL
$200 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$400 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

February -- $20NL
$400 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

March -- $20NL
$600 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buyin win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$800 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

April -- $20NL
$800 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1000 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

May -- $20NL
$1000 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1200 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

June -- $20NL
$1200 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1400 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

July -- $20NL
$1400 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

Once I cross the $1500 mark with my bankroll I will take a shot at $50NL because I will then have at least 30 buy ins for that limit. Before stepping up to higher limits beyond $50NL, I will seriously consider having 40 buy ins or more.

The rest of this projection is assuming that I can continue to beat $50NL at the same rate as previously projected with $20NL.

August -- $50NL
$1600 (starting Bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$2100 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

September -- $50NL
$2100 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$2600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

October -- $50NL
$2600 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$3100 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

This is where further discretion will come in. My biggest goal is to take shots at $100NL by the end of 2009. November and December, may be used to make up my goals if my bankroll is not up to at least $3000 or in this instance we will assume that I use the remaining two months to build my bankroll at $50NL.

November -- $50NL
$3100 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$3600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

December -- $50NL (at some point this month will also take my first shot at $100NL)
$3600 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$4100 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

This is obviously just a projection. In a lot of ways this is a very conservative plan. I should be able to at some point learn to beat my limits for more than 5 Buy Ins. However, the single biggest challenge may been that I haven't been a winning player very long if at all. So it will be interesting to see how the next 3 months shape up and if I can maintain this track. Another factor that makes this plan very conservative is that I am not using BB/100 goals or X number of hands per month goals. This is for two reasons, the first is that I don't have a problem averaging at least 2 hours a day playing poker and on the weekends I can play much more up to 6 or 8 hours a day. So if am at least a winning player and not on tilt I can simply play more to hopefully help me hit my goals. Second, I have not had Hold Em Manager long enough to know what my current BB/100 or monthly hand totals are.

So far this month I have won $100. The first ten days or so I was only up about $27. Today I seem to have run well and my bankroll has just tipped over the $300 mark. However, I'm only at about $50 in Rakeback. The good news is I have 2 weeks to go. So lets up my bankroll continues to hold up. Maybe I can start out ahead of plan the first month that would be great.

Thanks for reading,
Brandon Mark