EthanCainePoker.com

Playing with the Pros: Lynette Chan

So I decided to play a super high limit SitNGo 45 Person tourney $1 + .10 buy in, when lo and behold who is sitting 2 positions to my left but Lynette Chan.  I totally chatted her up asking her about poker and why she was playing a $1 SitNGo at 3am.

She said she couldn’t sleep…which is really hot because shes a hot asian chick and its hot when hot asian chicks can’t sleep.

Wonder What We She Could Our Kids?

She Totally Wants Me...

I also asked her if there were any good books I should read to get better at poker and she said she really liked Ace On The River which has a chapter about having sex with prostitutes.

I totally think she was coming on to me…so hot.

Anyway just thought I would make you all jealous cause I’m better than you people.

-Ethan

Dec 19 2009 Christmas Poker Challenge

Just reporting in.  I have been faithfully playing 5cent/10cent tables and not playing over my bankroll which was my downfall before.  I have managed to climb back up from $40 dollars to a balance of $89.

$54.11 Up So Far

I attribute this steady climb too all of the studying I have been doing is actually starting to show in my play.  My sessions are still relatively short for some reason but I am visiting my parents and they see poker as a gambling demon so I play in a really small window on my desktop over my email screen.

Anyway I will keep you guys updated.

-Ethan

Christmas 2009 Poker Study Goals

As some of you know Christmas 2009 I currently have 2 weeks off that I can devote almost exclusively too working on my poker game.  I have thus decided to go through a number of poker resources that I have during the holiday season:

Everything Texas Holdem book – Great Fundamentals Book and this will be my 4th time through it.  Never hurts to brush up on the basics.
Zen and the Art Of Poker – Amazing Inner Game Book – I will reread it for a 3rd time
Poker Winners Are Different – Just picked this book up today from Chapters.  Really looking forward to it

Just Picked This Up - Will Post Review SOON

I have a good momentum going with this whole poker thing so I don’t think I will have ANY issues with finishing these books as well as getting poker in too.

-Ethan

Consistently Posting a Profit

Heres a snapshot of my last 10 sessions and as you can see I am consistently posting a profit which is the goal of all wannabe/professional poker players such as myself.

Consistency Consistency...not a very exciting but good

I attribute this change to small ball + tight aggressive play. I will, of course, keep working at this strategy and studying as usual.

-Ethan

Small Ball…Again

OK so I’m not going to do an update today on how I am doing because needless to say, BAD. I virtually lost everything through a few bad beats but mainly me over valuing my hands and getting greedy.

I grinded at 5cent/10cent for a while and broke even and pretty much decided too RELEARN small ball.

Daniel Negreanu has posted 3 Poker Videos describing Small Ball.

Essentially Small Ball is:
-Increase Your Stack with LOW Risk Play
-Small Ball makes you LOOK like a MANIAC
-Most CRUCIAL decisions come POST FLOP

SO I bought in for the max on a 2cent/5cent table which was $5….and lost all my money.
I repeated my max $5 buy in on a 2cent/5cent table AND lost it all…again…

THEN, I re-watched the videos, remembered the chapter in Zen and the Art Of Poker about balance and rhythm and finding your place.

I re bought in for $5 on 2cent/5cent and basically played position, sent out my small bets, folded alot of them after I received REAL resistance on my raises.

Eventually I hit decent hands, everyone thought I had nothing because I raised almost every hand I played and BAM…Stacked 3 people with 3 different plays.

Made $15 back, and on a 2cent/5cent table thats pretty impressive given the small stakes.

Going to keep at it with mastering Small Ball and see where it takes me.

-Ethan

Back in Black…just

BEHOLD the graph representing my amazing profit!

You Can See My "Profit" Bar JUST above the REDLINE

Also my score has increased a couple points:

Behold "Earnings" of $5...I can ALMOST get a Big Mac Meal

This Puts Me @ $97.43+ for the Christmas Challenge

This money was mainly made from playing single table at the 25cent/50cent level.  I figured that playing FOUR 5cent/10cent tables = 40cent Rake per hand so if I simply play ONE 25cent/50cent table + stealing and bluffs I figure I will make more.

So far this has been proven correct as I made about $50 today with this strategy, AND unlike the previous time I made alot of money it wasn’t from sucking out and getting lucky.

-Ethan

Grinding or Playing Higher Stakes?

This month I have been grinding 4 tables at the 5cent/10cent NL at once using Short Stack Strategy which essentially means playing only TOP hands.

I got kind of bored and decided to move up a limit and just play ONE 25cent/50cent table really well.  The result was good.  While I make money consistently with grinding I found it a nice change to play properly with strategy and bluffing on ONE table.

I’m not sure which is going to be the most profitable but I do like the change once in awhile.  I think I will keep experimenting and get back to you guys.

-Ethan

Dec 9 2009 Poker Report Card .05/.10 NL

Not sure whats up with that there Turn Agression...

Yay I’m no longer ICE COLD!

I’m slowly pulling myself out of the hole I dug back when I first stated playing for money online.  As a result my poker ratings is at 18%!!!  Which means I have moved up from ICECOLD to just COLD!

Dec 8 2009 Poker Report Card

Here is my Poker Report card from PokerTableRankings.com for Dec 8 2009…I don’t post these every day but I felt like doing 2 days in a row because I moved up to a B ratings…ooooo

Getting Better...

-Ethan