Guest Post From Shark Poker Tour Pro - Desert Dog

For more on Desert Dog After the warmest September ever in the Pacific NW the rain and leaves are fallin hard. Time to crank up the flatties and play sum pokers. No longer in the car biz (as of last week), i'm 6-8 tablin, 6 max at Full Tilt (80%) and playing live full time (20%). After a brutal 20K hand breakeven stretch online and a strong run live I find myself still preferring the online game. Playing 35 hands an hour live is f***** (rated E for Everyone) up. However, I am watching my hourly rate closely since i'm playing for the mortgages/bills/medical/dental/doggy bones/napa cab/boodles. Poker Charts is what I use to track all play. Its a great system. For the last 3 weeks i'm $80.79 an hour live (26 hours) and 8.69 an hour online (includes rakeback). ouchey. I'm runnin hot live and ice cold online so those numbers hopefully will change dramatically when i start logging massive hands online. I hope to do 40-60K per month online and 80 hours live (2800 hands). I'm playing the toughest site online so I might mix it up a little and try some easier (smaller, less pros) sites that have rakeback. I can play one or 2 levels up to compensate for less games running and the weaker tables. The games are much tougher than they use to be online, no doubt. Table selection (I use TableTracker/Pokertracker3/$20 a mo.) is the key to maximizing your winrate. Pretty simple. Stay away from the winning regulars (many 6-12 tablin NL pros) and watch as the table dynamics change. I can sit with 5 stiffs and look up 45 min later and there are 3 tight regulars sitting with me. Don't get comfy in that seat kids. Close it up and start looking for a new table. With 40-100 tables running at 100 to 200 NL there is no reason to play good players at these mid/low limits. Playing goals are now set and i'm ready to 3 barrel as required. I'm learning pot limit omaha, practicing heads up and will play sum trip draw deuce seven to stay fresh. I'm also watching 1 or 2 deucescracked videos each day to improve my game. I need to move up and make more monies so I won't have to get a real job again. I have a plan and its gonna happen. The warden and I are taking our first cruise in early November. Holland America has some great deals right now. Kinda jacked since it will be our first trip to Mexico also. Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerta Vallarta is the iternary I believe. Patti is always fun and it will be a nice break from cell phones, and grinding. As always, we are already worried about leaving our LAB Cody with a kennel or one of our daughters. He wants to cruise too! Now that summer is over, i'll be posting in the Shark Forum more and hope to see a few of my friends in there posting.....