Decent Scoopage

Haven't really been able to play too much because of the holidays this week but I've played the 50/50's on stars and ftp w/o any luck and decided last night since i had like 25 bucks in my AP account to play the $3r. I obviously run like god (b/c its a 3r) and take 2nd for a little over $1100. No complaints here. Was playing it kind of for fun until it got down to like 15 people or so and i saw i could get a 4 figure cash out of it. Anyway, my friend that I occasionally back continues to make me some free money. So between the $300 or so he's made me and the tournament last night I've been doing ok. Going to try and put in some volume the next few days before I go to New Orleans and shut down the Harrahs craps tables.

not this time...

Out in 200th in the Million... lost a big pot w/ 10 10 v the table maniac who woke up w/ AA to cripple me. Tripled back up in the next few hands but never could get going again. Thought I played well and at least I didnt get bad beat out of it. So I'm happy.

Won't get to play really the next few days w/ xmas going on but should gte some volume in the few days after xmas before heading to new orleans to see the dawgs kick the shit outta hawaii. Everyone have a good xmas.

one tiiime in a real tourney plzzzzz?

88 of 500 in the Sunday Million....back later w/ updates.....need a big score so baaaad

Hate Poker, Life, Etc...

So anyway, it turns out I'm really bad at poker. Probably on the biggest downswing of my short poker career. In the past 2 weeks, I have lost roughly 30% of my online bankroll and around 15% of my entire bankroll. There really shouldn't be a difference but I was kinda hoping not to have to redeposit anytime in the near future. Not that I am getting close to busto or anything I just am feeling a lot of pressure to get a decent score. Enough whining though, I'm just gonna continue to play and if I go busto then I go busto.
Won't be playing tonight cuz I have family stuff and possibly not tomorrow either. Think I am going to try and play about an 8 hour session of cash on Saturday and make some of the money back I have lost recently. I gotta do something, I can't just continue to give away like 5% of my bankroll every single day. Got to around the bubble of a $109 on stars and ended up busting making what I believe now to be a terrible call. I think I would have folded the hand but I didn't have any time bank because my comp had been messing up earlier in the night. I kinda paniced and hit call and gg.
On another note, pretty excited about the new FTP sunday tourney ($256 knockout). Not that it fits in my bankroll but maybe I can hit a satellite into it or something. I don't know why i love these damn k/o's so much b/c I think i have probably accumulated a total of ~4 knockouts in the 20 i have played but it just sounds so damn fun.
I'll try and give an update on Sunday or Monday on how the weekend went and if I scooped the inaugural Sunday Brawl. Today is my last day of work until after the Sugar Bowl so I'm pretty excited. I should get to play a lot of cards over the break. Lol, don't know whether thats a good thing or a bad thing. I'll either have liked 10k online or busto after this break I feel like but I'll hope for the latter. Also, I'm gonna try and start updating my bankroll on each individual site on here again mostly because I want myself to have to look at it on a regular basis. So here goes...

Absolute: $1027
FTP: $1391
Stars: $1441

Total: $3859 down from around 5.3k on December 8th

Good luck and F dg and romes.....

updates

Nothing really exciting recently except a pretty constant flow of money from me into the poker community. I gave away a little over a thousand this weekend playing cards at my friends' house(pokerskibum, dg0016, romes23). Got a little back last night by stacking someone on AP playing 1/2NL and got fairly deep in a $50 mtt on Ap before blowing it. (AP tourneys sucks so bad by the way....30 people left and the avg stack was 11 BB's). It felt like the sunday 100k on stars. So dumb. Anyway, once i took my bad luck out of their house, pokerksibum managed to scoop 4th in the Sunday Million for a measly $54k or something like that. I'll be playing more this week and I'll try and update. Oh ya, i did make a milestone for myself yesterday. At one point, I played 6 consecutive tourneys w/o making it to the first break, so that was exciting.

Vegas, etc...

Sorry its been awhile, I've been pretty busy since I got back from Vegas. It was a good trip overall. I played the $1500 bellagio event but didnt ever have above the starting stack I don't think. I destroyed the 2/5 at Caesar's though, never had a losing session. That is the dumbest, easiest game I have ever seen. Anyway, ended up with a profit of about 3k after expenses which is definitely solid. Also, I backed a friend in a few wonline tourneys and he managed to take down a $1800+ score while I was gone. Nothing like making money for free.
Played the $500 Aussie satellite on FTP yesterday and managed to have a decent stack before losing two huge races in a row (99vAK and A4dd v 33). Also played the Million on Stars and obviously for the 10th time in a row that I have KK someone has AA. Its really getting quite stupid. So, bam, there goes about a 10th of my bankroll yesterday. Starting today I'm back to my bankroll management.
Alright, so this week I'm back in South Carolina for work and am gonna try and put in around 10-12 hrs of play today through Wednesday night and since my gf won't be in town this week I am gonna put in some serious volume this weekend. My goal is to make 2 final tables this week. I don't think that it is too outrageous of a goal because I will be playing basically every tourney w/ buyins b/w $20 and $100 from Thursday-Sunday, but we'll see. I'll try and do some updates throughout the week and definitely this weekend.

Good luck...

Greatest Call of My Life

I lied about only playing cash this week and presently sit as chip leader at a $26 FTT w/ $3.5k to winner. The following is a hand w/ 16 left and i told myself i play to win and put him on diamonds so here is the hand. I'll be back later with the result of the tourney!!!

Dealt to TKirk12 [9c 9s]
BorgTron folds
max_em87 folds
TKirk12 raises to 5,975
FITZnipko21 calls 5,975
Donadel folds
duvivier folds
JelgerW calls 3,575
*** FLOP *** [Td 2h 2d]
JelgerW checks
TKirk12 bets 12,575
FITZnipko21 folds
JelgerW calls 12,575
*** TURN *** [Td 2h 2d] [Qh]
JelgerW has 15 seconds left to act
JelgerW bets 128,217, and is all in
TKirk12 has 15 seconds left to act
TKirk12 has requested TIME
TKirk12 calls 41,075, and is all in
JelgerW shows [9d Jd]
TKirk12 shows [9c 9s]
Uncalled bet of 87,142 returned to JelgerW
*** RIVER *** [Td 2h 2d Qh] [Ac]

New Strategy

Alright, well after much debate about how to be able to put in a higher volume while working, I'm come to this conclusion....I simply have to improve my cash game. I have put in very little time lately working on my cash game/ playing cash games. So, starting tonight, I'm going to play .5/1 NLHE 6-handed cash games 2 hours night. I am probably going to 4 table it. I'll do this M -W for a while(or til I go broke) and on Thursday nights I will play as many tournaments as my bankroll will allow. If I have a good week I will even allow myself to play the $150 nightlies on FTP and Stars. Otherwise, I'll stay w/ the 5r's and 20-50 dollar freezeouts. Staurdays and Sundays will just depend on what is going on that weekend. Now that football season is over I'll be able to play a little more on the weekends. I'll do some satties into the mains but won't buy into them anymore. A quick 2k downswing from playing out of my roll will end that shit pretty fast. I want to continue to build my roll slowly but obviously am gonna need some good scores in MTT's if I am going to meet the ultimate goal....quitting my job in july/august to try and do this poker thing full time.

Anyway, didn't do any good yesterday in tourneys. Bubbled out of the $26 bounty tourney on FTP when my KK ran into QQ when QQ promptly hit its one out on the river. Who cares though the pot only woulda made me top 5 in chips w/ 80 left.
Other than that, pretty uneventful day and pretty standard for the past few weeks for me. I would do anything to be able to put in more volume right now buts its just impossible for me to stay up to 2-3am every morning and wake up at 7. Hopefully, over Xmas break I can get a little taste of what it feels like to play basically every tournament for a week or so. Will update later in the week how my cahs games have been going and how many times I've been on tilt.

BIGGEST GOAL FOR THE WEEK: Quit anytime I feel the slightest bit tilted. Also, I'm gonna set another goal that I feel is very modest for the week.....make $500. That doesn't seem too outrageous since I'll be 4tabling for 3 nights. If I reach that goal I'll continue to play. If I somehow get to $1000 profit for the week I will most likely quit and wait to play my tourneys on Thursday.

Be back with updates on my play and my bankroll on Wednesday or Thursday.

Bad few days

Man, over the past week I have given away about $2500 playing for the most part well I feel like. I can't have a winning cash session, I seriously think I have had 1 in about 20 cash sessions. Its been stupid. Played a bunch of tourneys Sunday. Didn't cash in anything and lost about 1k on the day. Yesterday went deep in a $120 bounty tourney on FTp only to have my JJ run into 88 in a huge pot all-in preflop and I'm out for $160 or something. Wake up this morning, give away about 400 more playing 1/2nl. I don't know what to do. Right now I feel like I'm gonna give away the whole 8k I had a week ago. I'm gonna play some tourneys tonight and then I'm done so I can spend some time this week with family I have in town. Tourney schedule for the day/night is as follows.

Stars:

27.50 at 8:00
162 nightly at 9:00
55 at 9:30


FTP:

163 nightly at 8:00

Can't play anything else on FTp cuz I only have $180 on there but I'm transferring probably 2000 onto FTP over the next few days so I'll be able to play more there shortly.

Anyway, unfortunately, here is the updated bankroll:

Stars: $6247.25
FTP: $180.60

SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP

Before reading on....please read the previous post to this one.

Anyway, heres the update: SCOOPED THE $5R!!! for $6700!!!

Finally finally finally I win something of some significance. Obviously this isn't the biggest score ever recorded on online poker , lol, but it increases by bankroll by a little over 300%. I always laugh at people when they talk about how good it feels to actually win a tournament. I always thought it was just about the money, but as gay as it sounds....it feels so damn good to actually win one. It gives me confidence b/c now I know I am capable of closing a tournament. This win also helped me realize how many thing have to go right in order to win a 2000 person tourney. I don't think I was particularly lucky, I didn't really suck out at all I don't think but my big hands held. I was sucked out on quite a few times but it generally against short stacks and left me room to come back. I will say the thing that won it for me was the run of cards I got on the last 3-4 hands of two tables and the first 10 or so hands at the final table. I'll post a link to the hand history when I get it from Stars but I think I got like 8 pairs in 10 hands, twice being KK.(Including flopping k66 against the chip leader and getting paid off). Felt good to have the railbirds (lol skibum romes and dg) and I feel like a lot of the work I have put it has paid off to an extent. Although I'm by no means content w/ this being my big score. Hopefully this can be the first big stepping stone to where I want to be.

Anyway, I'll post the link to the hand history later and once again thanks to romes, bum and dg for the rail and for all the help, stakes, and hand advice over the past few months....definitely 3 of the best 3 players around...and def in GA hahahha.

ONE TIMEEEEEEEE

In a $5R w/ 80 left....got avg stack and feeling good about it.....think my table is really bad. Also, I got a good stack on the bubble of the $27.50 and hopefully can make a run there. This is the one night I didnt wanna stay up late...lol....so maybe I'll have to stay up til 2 or 3 and scoop one of these things. If I end up getting 4 hours sleep and make like $20 I'm gonna be pissed so I'm playing to win tonight......UPDATE TOMORROW....ONE TIIIIIIIIIME!!!!!!

Weekend

Well after an AWESOME weekend of drinking and watching my bulldogs kick the shit out of auburn, we're back to the usual poker stuff. Satellited into the $322 ftops today for $26 and have 18k in chips w/ avg of like 6k....only to not get a legitimate hand except ak(which ran into AA) for the last 2 hours. And of course i bubble (620th and 585 get paid) when my JJ ran into A10. I am still in the 27.50 on stars but dont have a great stack and we're getting around the bubble. Anyway, forgot to mention that when I sattied into the FTOPS i sold half of myself to a friend for $150 so I did at least see a little profit today. Slowly but surely building a miniroll. Called in sick to work tomorrow cuz I feel like shit(could have something to do w/ being beligerently drunk for 48 straight hours). I probably won't play a whole lot this week. I'll do all the tourneys on Thursday but I have to get some rest this week and can't stay up until 1am every day to try and make $19 bucks and stuff.

Updated Roll:

Stars: $974.41
FTP: $794.65

In the money of the 27.50 now so will update tomorrow if by some fluke accident i go deep.

Same old shit....

Updated rolls after like 8 hours of tourneys:

Stars: $1036.05
FTP: $681.65

The only reason I didnt have a terrible night is because I staked a buddy of mine and he cashed in the 25k guaranteed for like $250. I went deep in one of the daily doubles only of course to become sooooooo fucking card dead and eventually blind out and lose a race to go out in 17th. I feel like this is at least the 20th time in a row that this exact scenario has happened as soon as I start to smell a final table. It's so frustrating. I feel like the biggest leak in my game has been lack of aggression late but tonight i remained aggressive and had a few nice resteals but one it got down to decent money i get a fucking 2 every hand and when i finally pick up a decent stealing hand there r 3 raises before it gets to me. Then I pick up QQ or AK in BB and obv it folds around. I busted out of 8 tourneys today and I swear to god on 5 of them i shoved into AA or KK to get busted. I run so fucking good. Thats all for today.

Reason for the blog is last night....

Alright, well this is my first entry besides the intro. As stated before, the reason for starting this was to hold myself accountable for bankroll decisions and my play. So last night I went on tilt for the first time in a while playing 3 tables of 1/2 NL on FTP and Stars and eventually played a $75 ftops sattied which I of course bubbled thanks to the shortstack winning 4 conflips in a row and splitting v me all in w/ my a10 v a5. Anyway, I literally almost took my entire roll to 5/10 on both sites but restrained thank god as I am really am committed to sustaining a bankroll this time as opposed to the past when all i could think about every day was doubling my stack. I'm gonna do my best to keep my bankrolls updated on here. As of Day 1 of my blog the bankroll on each site is:

Pokerstars: $1030.05
Full Tilt: $706.50

It's pretty obvious that 3 tabling 1/2 is playing outta my roll...it could be argued that .5/1 is outta my roll as well but from now on if and when I decide to play cash its gonna be .5/1. I think I am mostly gonna stick to MTT's for a while though. The time I have spent studying the game has mostly been based around MTT's and feel that right now thats my strongest type of game. I haven't had a big score yet but have been deep in a few tourneys and know that as long as I keep getting it in ahead I'll get there.

So today's Thursday (for those who don't know, consultants typically work m-th), and that means that tonight is my big poker night. I usually cant play the latenight MTT's because I have to wake up early but Thursdays are my big nights and usually try to play as many as I can. Here's the tourneys I'm definitely playing and more will be added most likely as I'm able to check the schedule:

Stars:
$27.50 25k guaranteed at 8:00
$3R at 8:00
$55 50k guaranteed at 9:30
possibly the $10R at 10:00

FTP:
$26 24k guaranteed at 8:00
$12 Daily Double A at 9:00
$12 Daily Double B at 9:00
$26 28k guaranteed at 10:00

Those are my plans for right now and I may skip the 10:00 tourneys if I'm still alive in 2-3 of the early tourneys. I'm trying not to do more than 3-4 tables right now. Alright, back to work for 3 more hours then back to Atlanta. Update latenight w/ results/updated bankrolls.

The Beginning

Don't know who is ever gonna read this but I started this blog to start holding myself accountable for bankroll decisions and my poker playing. I'll do my best to update the blog on almost a daily manner.

A little about me. My name is Tripp Kirk. I'm 23 and live in Atlanta, Ga. I work for an IT Consulting firm in Atlanta but play at lest 2-3 hours of poker per day as time allows. I've been playing for about 4 years now but I would say that I have only REALLY been playing for around 2-3. In the past I used to play for fun just to have something to do and used VERY poor bankroll management techniques. I won a good bit and would eventually lose my roll and not play for a few months and then play again and make some money but eventually just go broke again.

I love poker and the ultimate goal is to sustain a solid ROI for a year to a year and a half and have the bankroll to quit my job and play full time. As I have a solid job, I wouldn't do this until I actually feel like my current job is costing me money. I know I'm a long way off from this but have committed to put a lot of time and effort into not only playing a lot but trying to learn as much as possible and find and fix the many leaks in my game.

Forgot to mention my screen names for those that wanna follow:

FTP: TKirk12
Stars: TrippKirk