Well, I thought that since I am half way thru my challenge I would blog alittle about my week grinding it out. I started last Sunday and my schedule went as follows….Monday-Friday is pretty much the same. I wake up with the wife around 6:30 a.m and drink coffee, and chat. Then I play from around 7:30 to 9am. I take the dogs out for their long walks a Westie and Cairn Terriers (Toto)(separately, and dont ask why) then its breakfast time and alittle CNBC.Around tenish or so, its back to the tables till 1pm or so, when I decide to shower and eat lunch, maybe run some errands, and let the dogs out again. Of course back to the grind till maybe 4pm, when its movie time. I tend to look for good movies on cable (I have all 400 stations and record them for later dates).6pm rolls around and I let the dogs out again, and play till like 7:30, then feed the dogs, do dinner, walk the dogs again for a long walk separately of course, and back to grind after 9pm till close to midnite. Mondays I have my NL group meetings. The weekends I play as much as I can and also usually go out to dinner and the movies and taking the wife to play the slots. I do get once or twice a week to play live poker too

OnlinePoker2.0 is a great read for poker players and web enthusiasts alike. They follow and discuss advances in poker and social media/internet technology, so it was only a matter of time before we met up to discuss the future of PokerDIY – you can read the full interview – “Poker leagues go social with PokerDIY”. It’s nice to see a useful poker blog/site with meaningful content – check it out if you get a chance…

Lets set aside my current challenge for a moment (actually this probably is why the cash part is losing). I am a winning player this month. I played 130,000 hands, I won $269.00 Yes, I am a winner but under what circumstances?I played 40 hrs a week, won 269 or 1.69 an hr, winning 1BB/100. Yes, I did not lose money. I feel horrible with this winning month, do you really understand how I feel? How unhappy a winning player feels?What I did discover was that my staple hands won over $4,254.00 and $3993.00 of that came from AA-JJ, AK. To be honest with you I am not that into being a great player or anything like that, just a winning player making money is all I want. I dont care how I do it either. Its established that I suck at deep stack poker so that goes out the window.I will start using the sklansky/chubokov hands for stealing from cutoff/button/small blind. I will cut my use of AQ, AJ, TT as they are only winning 35% of the time compared to the above better hands at 82% yet when AQ

I feel sick, and I need help. I fold AJ, AQ all day long, but when it comes to AK I have a mental problem. Why can I fold AQ, AJ preflop and post flop if I have to and lose the least amount of money. It seems with AK, its a whole nother story. Is there any one else out there with this problem? Is there help for it. I think I will have to mandate a separate strategy for playing AK and not sure which way to take it. Any suggestions?So, I am thinking maybe (this issue only occurs if I am first in and raising 3BB)…If I get reraised I shove, no problem. The problem is getting called (my 3 BB raise) and seeing the flop which I missed. I know cbetting is profitable for me no doubt, but the turn miss is a freaking killer. I seem to always think the villain is floating me and he has zip. Not the case at the lowere stakes, they play their hand, and if calling they either have a draw (which they might even shove on you) or hit mid/top pair (you have over cards obv)Would it be more profitable to just fold AK every time after a cbet is called period. I think this will be my default play and after about 10k hands we can see the results. Thanks for listening, cya

I recently spent 9 days in Montana, visiting my family. Usually my mom, who is now 64 years old, fiddles with her garden and does ‘mom’ stuff. Things have changed. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s spent 15 years in the boonies with little social interaction aside from my dad. Maybe it’s a really late mid-life crisis. While I haven’t quite got my finger on it yet, one thing is for sure. My mom has become a spunky old broad! First it was fishing. I should start by telling you that my dad taught me and my sister how to fish when we were barely able to get bait properly secured to a hook. Pop and I spent probably 50 days a year out fishing in the High Sierra’s in California and all over western Montana. Times that by about 30 years and you’ve got a LOT of fishing experience. So, between dad and I, we’re a pretty formidable pair when it comes to pulling our gilled friends out of the water. The closest lake to their house has always been filled with a variety of species, up until a couple years ago. Fish & game literally killed every living thing in the water, and started over by stocking the lake with some pretty nice sized Rainbow trout. Pop and I went out a couple nights on the paddle boat, and while we weren’t knocking ‘em down, we each grabbed one monster apiece. We did this two nights in a row, both times ending when the fish stopped biting. My mom went out the next day, threw a few hooks out and caught 2 behemoth Rainbows in a span of about 5 casts. WTF?? I can’t imagine my poor dad right now, being trash-talked by my mom. I’m glad my vacation is over so I don’t have to hear it, lol. So then good ‘ol mom wanted to play online poker. She got the bug after playing in a tournament ‘just to kill time’ in Idaho one night while my dad went tool shopping. Something like 45 players, $60 buy-in, and mom took 3rd place in her first ever tournament! Afraid she’ll accidentally set off nuclear weapons, mom doesn’t like to touch the computer without me around. So, while I was up there visiting, she made it a point to have me set her up to play online. I downloaded Pokerstars and even got her the new Pokerstars sign up bonus (which she thought was a scam). “Why would they just give money away? What’s the catch? Are they going to send my name off to mailing lists all over the world? Am I going to get spam email now? Is someone going to try to sell me a timeshare? I don’t want any damn timeshares, tell them to keep their phony scam ‘bonus.” Oye. I finally got her to understand that online poker bonuses are the same as perks at a live casino – something she could wrap her mind around. An hour after she made her first deposit, she won her first sit-n-go. It was just a $5 SNG at Pokerstars, but still…her second ever tournament? Her account is already over $270, starting with $200 only 8 days ago. WTF?? So, here’s the email I got this morning…inspiring this post. “Hey Jess! Just played my first Omaha hilo tournament this morning. I won!!! Guess dad will have to accept it when I start beating him from now on – ha! I have $273 in my account now and i’m not telling dad. instead I wanrt to make it more and the next time you come up you can get me an account at another room for me to play at. Dad still thinks i like gambling too much, so it’s better if he doesn’t know. We ate yours and dads fish last night…yummm. We gave mine to bill and judy because it’s too much fish for us. Even if we share one of them, we’ll waste to much good meat so we gave them away.” Lol…her fish are too much meat even if they share one. You go mom!  

PokerDIY was featured a few months ago on PokerSoftware.com, a site dedicated to all-things to do with yep, you guessed it, poker software!
It gives a bit of insight as to how PokerDIY was formed and answers the Who, What, Why, When and Where questions…
Many thanks to Dan Cypra from PS for the interview. You can read it in full: PokerDIY interview with PokerSoftware

Online poker room Full Tilt has launched a hand replayer technology as part of it site upgrade. Full Details here ^Full Tilt Poker’s latest hand replayer technology is the latest thing to hit the online poker scene, making learning strategy significantly easier. Find out all about it here. ^David McLaren^^New Poker Technology for Hand Replays Now Available^Improved Online Poker Experience

AlertPay warns that Facebook Poker is in possible violation of the US online gambling code ^AlertPay and Facebook regulators prepare to intervene as there is concern that online poker players may be breaking the US online gambling laws on unregulated play. ^David McLaren^^AlertPay to put a stop to Facebook Poker^Facebook Poker illegal

Get the details on the latest online poker record made, this time for the “Largest Online Poker Tournament” ever, here ^If you thought online poker tournaments were big, then checkout the figures from PokerStars latest tourney – it made a new world record! Details of it are all here ^David McLaren^^New Online Poker Tournament Record Set at PokerStars^PokerStars Does it Again!

Poker has been declassified as a sport by Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. See its effects on the industry here ^All Russia’s casinos and poker rooms have been shut down following the declassification of Poker as a sport. Read about the gambling situation and its effects on the industry, here. ^David McLaren^^Poker no longer Considered Sport in Russia^No More Legal Poker!

The Asian Poker Tour has invited Michael Phelps to come and take part. See the chances of him accepting, here ^Many big names are promised at this year’s Asian Poker Tour. The latest is Michael Phelps, recently invited to participate in the event. See if he’ll hit the tables here ^Mary Ashton^^Michael Phelps Possibly Playing at the Asian poker Tour^Swimmer Turned Poker Star?

I feel sick, and I need help. I fold AJ, AQ all day long, but when it comes to AK I have a mental problem. Why can I fold AQ, AJ preflop and post flop if I have to and lose the least amount of money. It seems with AK, its a whole nother story. Is there any one else out there with this problem? Is there help for it. I think I will have to mandate a separate strategy for playing AK and not sure which way to take it. Any suggestions?So, I am thinking maybe (this issue only occurs if I am first in and raising 3BB)…If I get reraised I shove, no problem. The problem is getting called (my 3 BB raise) and seeing the flop which I missed. I know cbetting is profitable for me no doubt, but the turn miss is a freaking killer. I seem to always think the villain is floating me and he has zip. Not the case at the lowere stakes, they play their hand, and if calling they either have a draw (which they might even shove on you) or hit mid/top pair (you have over cards obv)Would it be more profitable to just fold AK every time after a cbet is called period. I think this will be my default play and after about 10k hands we can see the results. Thanks for listening, cya

I recently spent 9 days in Montana, visiting my family. Usually my mom, who is now 64 years old, fiddles with her garden and does ‘mom’ stuff. Things have changed. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s spent 15 years in the boonies with little social interaction aside from my dad. Maybe it’s a really late mid-life crisis. While I haven’t quite got my finger on it yet, one thing is for sure. My mom has become a spunky old broad! First it was fishing. I should start by telling you that my dad taught me and my sister how to fish when we were barely able to get bait properly secured to a hook. Pop and I spent probably 50 days a year out fishing in the High Sierra’s in California and all over western Montana. Times that by about 30 years and you’ve got a LOT of fishing experience. So, between dad and I, we’re a pretty formidable pair when it comes to pulling our gilled friends out of the water. The closest lake to their house has always been filled with a variety of species, up until a couple years ago. Fish & game literally killed every living thing in the water, and started over by stocking the lake with some pretty nice sized Rainbow trout. Pop and I went out a couple nights on the paddle boat, and while we weren’t knocking ‘em down, we each grabbed one monster apiece. We did this two nights in a row, both times ending when the fish stopped biting. My mom went out the next day, threw a few hooks out and caught 2 behemoth Rainbows in a span of about 5 casts. WTF?? I can’t imagine my poor dad right now, being trash-talked by my mom. I’m glad my vacation is over so I don’t have to hear it, lol. So then good ‘ol mom wanted to play online poker. She got the bug after playing in a tournament ‘just to kill time’ in Idaho one night while my dad went tool shopping. Something like 45 players, $60 buy-in, and mom took 3rd place in her first ever tournament! Afraid she’ll accidentally set off nuclear weapons, mom doesn’t like to touch the computer without me around. So, while I was up there visiting, she made it a point to have me set her up to play online. I downloaded Pokerstars and even got her the new Pokerstars sign up bonus (which she thought was a scam). “Why would they just give money away? What’s the catch? Are they going to send my name off to mailing lists all over the world? Am I going to get spam email now? Is someone going to try to sell me a timeshare? I don’t want any damn timeshares, tell them to keep their phony scam ‘bonus.” Oye. I finally got her to understand that online poker bonuses are the same as perks at a live casino – something she could wrap her mind around. An hour after she made her first deposit, she won her first sit-n-go. It was just a $5 SNG at Pokerstars, but still…her second ever tournament? Her account is already over $270, starting with $200 only 8 days ago. WTF?? So, here’s the email I got this morning…inspiring this post. “Hey Jess! Just played my first Omaha hilo tournament this morning. I won!!! Guess dad will have to accept it when I start beating him from now on – ha! I have $273 in my account now and i’m not telling dad. instead I wanrt to make it more and the next time you come up you can get me an account at another room for me to play at. Dad still thinks i like gambling too much, so it’s better if he doesn’t know. We ate yours and dads fish last night…yummm. We gave mine to bill and judy because it’s too much fish for us. Even if we share one of them, we’ll waste to much good meat so we gave them away.” Lol…her fish are too much meat even if they share one. You go mom!  

PokerDIY was featured a few months ago on PokerSoftware.com, a site dedicated to all-things to do with yep, you guessed it, poker software!
It gives a bit of insight as to how PokerDIY was formed and answers the Who, What, Why, When and Where questions…
Many thanks to Dan Cypra from PS for the interview. You can read it in full: PokerDIY interview with PokerSoftware

Play English Stud Poker online now complete with rules and guidelines to help players of all levels ^Your chance to enjoy English Stud Poker. Understand all the basic moves, work out strategies and try out some great variations of the classic game for yourself ^David McLaren^^English Stud Poker is now available online^Play poker online

Some top tips and strategies to help you play heads-up tournaments in No Limit Hold’em ^Read our advice for playing heads-up tournaments in No Limit Hold’em. Includes ways to tackle your opponent, learn how to set traps and plan your game. ^Mary Ashton^^Heads-up tournaments in No Limit Hold’em guidance^Heads-up tournaments

Enjoy Poker in the Park as it arrives back in London with a two day free poker tournament ^London’s Leicester Square is set to host the two day Poker in the Park tournament complete with Poker favourites and guest lectures all free of charge. ^Mary Ashton^^in the Park returns to Leicester Square^Poker tournament arrives

Get the details on the latest online poker record made, this time for the “Largest Online Poker Tournament” ever, here ^If you thought online poker tournaments were big, then checkout the figures from PokerStars latest tourney – it made a new world record! Details of it are all here ^David McLaren^^New Online Poker Tournament Record Set at PokerStars^PokerStars Does it Again!

Learn the rules to Dogbutt Poker, a wild variation of the popular 5 Card Draw Poker, here ^Looking to spice up your 5 Card Draw game? Try out Dogbutt Poker – with 2 kinds of wild cards it’s sure to do the trick! Find Dogbutt Poker rules here. ^David McLaren^^Dogbutt Poker Rules – a Wild 5 Card Draw Variation^Easy-to-learn Poker Rules

Poker has been declassified as a sport by Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. See its effects on the industry here ^All Russia’s casinos and poker rooms have been shut down following the declassification of Poker as a sport. Read about the gambling situation and its effects on the industry, here. ^David McLaren^^Poker no longer Considered Sport in Russia^No More Legal Poker!