Jeffrey Romano Blog

Got so banged up on the tables I didn’t feel like writing anything for the past 2 weeks. On my worst stretch I went 2 days in a row without cashing in a tournament or a sit n go!!! So my net for the last 1 1/2 months is -$4,000, pretty lame.

About a week ago I came 3rd in the $20 1r 1a on pokerstars for about $5000. The hand I busted on was a little interesting but I don’t think I will ever fold in this spot in my life. We were 3 handed and I was sitting small blind with 2.4 mil in chips, while the big blind had 3mil in chips, the blinds were large, 50k 100k I think. The button had 500k in chips which makes this hand interesting. Button folds and I have AK in the small blind, I make it 300k and the BB shoves and has me covered. If I fold I’m losing long run but I will probably move up another $1600 due to the fact that the button is going to bust soon. I call and the BB shows 55 and sets the flop, oh well.

This past weekend was wild. I went to NYC to visit my friends and we had an outrageous time. It was my first real experience in the city going out to clubs at night and all you can drink breakfast in the morning. Its awesome to just rip down a spliff and cruise the city drinking it all in. NYC has so much more style than anywhere else I’ve been in the world, too bad I can’t say the same for their sports teams. We got table service at these clubs, where the bottles were about $300 each, I believe. We got maybe 5 bottles at each club and paid $0 because of my friend’s connections, which was very gratifying. Its really funny to watch these dudes at clubs, with blowouts, creeping all over underage girls from Jersey. They are relentless and won’t stop until the mega mix does.

I realized this past weekend that time off from poker isn’t time off unless you get out of fcuk out of dodge. I can’t just take 2 days off in my apartment and forget about poker, it’s just not an option. Next time you get burnt out at your desk, just go visit friends in a different part of the country, its cheap and a lot of fun.

You probably have all seen this video but if you haven’t you have now….

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What the hell was I thinking yesterday? Planning to drive 2 hours to play a live $400 limit tournament was probably an indicator that I just running bad online. Now that I think about it I’d rather get a lap dance from Rossie O’donnel after she crushed 4lbs of barbecue ribs, than play live limit. I woke up at 8am, first time in a while, and went back to sleep 30 seconds later.

Yesterday was a losing day on all my sites, but the Yankees lost so I got that going for me. Also the Celtics might go undefeated this season, if they stay healthy. There is no team in the world as good as the Celtics when they have their full roster, and I really want to start putting money on them. However, I’m down about $5000 life time in sports betting so I’m probably not going down that road again.

I’m trying to figure out the trends in poker right now. I’m getting 3 bet now with hands like KJ and A9+. I’m starting to see that aggressive play is starting to bite me in the ass. Maybe this is just me running bad in the short run but the game has changed a lot. I’m thinking about playing a few days super tight and seeing how it turns out. Think about poker a while back, if you were 3 betting light during the moneymaker boom you were making a lot of money. So the super aggressive players were winning, and everyone noticed this. Now if the majority of players are super aggressive, its going to be the really tight players that make the most. Maybe I’m wrong, I really don’t know. However, I like to try to think about the game as opposed to just how I play. I’ve been running so ridiculously bad in the super turbos that I’m beginning to think I’m only going to be a break even player in them. However with rakeback I’m still making over 2k a month in those, which isn’t a bad way to bankroll my MTTs (where I make all my money).

I’m predicting that the music industry is going to shift. I believe the hit songs are going to be a combination of feel good techno and rap. Gangster rap is done, and the Kanye West college rap scene has to move on. Time will tell….

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Man every time I write that I’m running bad I win a tournament. Maybe everyday even if I’m running good I should just complain and say I’m doing the opposite. Yesterday I was running like absolute trash but ended up winning the $50 turbo on cake for about $2000. So I ended the day up around $900 and it snaps my streak of $3000 MTT losses.

I almost just started shoving every single hand because of the way I had been running. I really thought no matter how well I would play I would inevitably end up with KK vs A3 and lose to a wheel. However you just have to remind yourself that no matter what happens you have to stay collected. Whenever I have the big stack and I get knocked down to average I always try to take a 1 minute break. Realizing that you still have a good amount of chips to play with is a big deal, and often times it goes over looked. Think about the last time you had a big stack and lost about 50% of your chips. Did your goal become, getting back to your past chip stack, or was it playing solid poker? I guess they kind of go with each other but some times people will just rush into hands and overplay draws or stack off with AQ even though they really need to just cool their jets.

The $400 limit tourney is at foxwoods tomorrow which I think I’m going to play. If I do well in it I’ll drive back down there for the 1k, 2.5k, and 10k main event. It would really be nice to run like God and be able to play the 10k. If I don’t though, I’ll just get really wasted on Halloween and have a good time either way!!

I’m thinking about being Clint Eastwood for Halloween.

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This month has been a struggle. I started off winning a $30 rebuy for about 4k but since then I have bricked everything. I’m now down a couple thousand on the month which will be balanced out once I get my rake back bonus. Coming off a $20k month I felt real good but it just goes to show you how fast the tables can turn. I’ve final tabled a few tournaments and went really deep in a couple Sunday warmups on stars, but have only been getting just over 2x my buyins. MTT variance is crazy because you really have to come top 3 to make up for the bricks you have in huge fields.

Building your bankroll is a huge part of becoming more successful. It’s the end of the month and I really want to get back up to +3,000 ish before rake back. This would mean I would be making between $5000-$6000 on the month which would help my steady inclining bankroll. I’m trying to live a very frugal life and not cash out for the next 4 months. I want my bankroll to be over $40,000 online before February. I figure I can live on $1500 a month and focus on grinding out these low buy ins until I can start playing live $1k plus buy ins.

I have had a few big days in the past but have always cashed out and spent it right away. I spent it on school and I took my girlfriend to Iceland, then I went on a 3 week tour of Europe. This is one of the first times I’m really concentrating on building a bankroll. My coach is helping me out a lot, setting goals and keeping me focused.

Anyone can win and call themselves a good poker player. But a true player’s character really shows in how they react to getting crushed over a decent stretch of time.

Maybe if I just listen to montage music I’ll start stacking chips???

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I really can’t think of anything to write about today. I haven’t left my office much the past 3 days so I don’t have too many ideas. I guess I’ll write something a little more informative rather than entertaining.

The super turbos on FTP are great, but still no matter how well you play you better be running good. People don’t understand that you can’t just play them over and over again. You have to take breaks and study certain situations. Situations like the very first hand of a tournament. You have 300 chips and you are on the big blind. The blinds are 15 30 and it folds around to the small blind who min raises. You have a hand like Qh9h, what do you do?

Another situation goes something like this. 4 people left and 3 people pay. You have 1000 in chips on the small blind, the button has 1200 chips, utg has 400 and the big blind has 400. The blinds are 75 150, the button shoves. He has you covered and you have 99. Do you call or fold?

ICM is an easy concept to understand. However there are just so many tough spots you can be put in. When you are playing 9-20 tables you notice these tough spots but you don’t have that much time to think about them. If you just keep playing and don’t look back you are never going to learn how to adapt to those situations. They may not happen that often but when you are playing 400 sit n goes a day it adds up. Changing your game may only reflect a 1% difference in your ROI, but that is huge over the long run. I don’t think I will have a true understanding of what my ROI is in these until I have played at least 20,000. Over the first 4000 I’m up but I could just as easily be down.

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New England in the fall kicks ass. Last Sunday it was snowing which you noticed if you watched the Patriots crap all over the Titans. Today its about 60 degrees and the leaves are bright red. Days like this suck to be crammed up inside an office grinding out super turbos….oh well can’t win them all.

Fall is said to be the most nostalgic time of the year. Maybe its due to the changing season or the smells. Maybe its due to starting a new school year and remembering the highlights of the previous. Whatever it is, it is certainly great. My favorite holiday used to be Halloween, which isn’t really a holiday.

Halloween was the first time I was ever able to get instant gratification for my work. Go out, run around, hit up houses for candy, avoid the lady who gives out a candy apple. The next day at school must have been awful for the teachers because every student was housing candy. We would have these huge lunch tables where everyone gathered and brought in all their candy. We would then trade with each other in hopes to accumulate the most Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Those were boss back then. All the Almond Joys or Mounds were just used as weapons in the cafeteria. I think I binked one off a girl’s head and made her cry one year…I rule.

I think Halloween is great because it is specific to kids. No other holiday allows kids to be as creative. No other holiday introduces kids into a purely capitalistic society. I want to grind out poker so I can have a house in a nice neighborhood and make Halloween awesome for my kids. I want to be that guy that answers the door with king size candy bars. The people who leave baskets of candy out front are idiots and they just ruin the night. Obviously the first kid without their parents around is just going to dump the basket of candy into their pillow case.

Anyways, I watched Donnie Darko the other day. In one scene they talk about the greatest invention of all time. Donnie claims it is antiseptics which is valid. I don’t think there is one invention that trumps all others. I do however think that a deck of cards is one of the greatest of all time. My brother believes that treads on a tank are the best because they make it possible to climb just about any slope…what do you think?

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Pokerstars needs to change up their format. They are just recycling all their players into one set theme. Maybe it works, I don’t see how it could though. I don’t care about what sports they play, and I don’t really care that they are getting better at them. In fact, I don’t really care that much about the players. Why should I?

I care about being entertained during a commercial. If the pokerstars commercials are entertaining the first couple of times, they most certainly aren’t the next 200. There is a reason Geico sells so well. The cavemen have absolutely nothing to do with what is being sold. Look at Family Guy. The show just has a bunch of random moments that follow a very loose storyline. It sucks but it keeps the masses entertained.

Television has shifted from good drawn out dialogue and plot twists. Now it entertains people on a scene by scene basis. Almost all of the new crime shows or doctor shows all follow a basic formula. The next time you watch 24 or Lost, notice that every conversation/scene is open ended and followed by a commercial.

I have an idea for a new commercial. Instead of showing Joe Hachem shoot free throws, the most boring shot in all of sports, show some action. Have Hachem throw a football from 30 yards directly into some dudes groin. Have the football say “The Nuts” on it. Then end the commercial by saying, get hit by the nuts…on Pokerstars. Yeah it has nothing to do with poker, but at least it will be entertaining for 15 seconds.

Versus….

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A good day for me involves, crushing tournaments, or crushing dumb liberals. I do not mean to say that all liberals are dumb, in fact I know a few very very smart ones, but there are plenty idiots in this world. I’m talking about those idealogical hippies that believe good vibes and laziness drive our economy, not the market itself.

So take for example a student from Harvard that is convinced our new health care plan will work. This student believes that the 1000 page health bill was the nail in the coffin to our “health care crisis”. I can’t just go up to this person and say, “This new healthcare won’t work because it demotivates all doctors from wanting to exceed, and it gives the government more control over our lives”. This will not work because they have already made up their mind. They are going to say something like, “did you hear that on fox news???” I lose….

But when you can force them to think like you want, you can control them. Something that goes like this…

Me: Do you believe that all people deserve the same health care?

Student: Yes of course, it is a human right, and all humans are equal.

Me: Would you say that even a homeless junkie, that only looks to score drugs at all costs, deserves the same health care as you and your family?

Student: Yes of course, he is a human being no more than I am, and he deserves his rightful treatment.

Me: Would you sacrifice your brand new car, your house, all your savings, and your free time, to keep a loved one alive…perhaps your children, parents, or girlfriend?

Student: Of course, I would do everything in my power to save them.

Me: Would you sacrifice your brand new car, your house, all your savings, and your free time, to keep a homeless drug searching junkie alive?

Student: Ahhhh…..I…Don’t…knowwww…

Result: They still completely believe that all humans deserve equal medical rights. However now we have just proven that they would not treat 2 people the same based on their social text. Of course they will be partial towards a family member rather than a stranger at the bottom of their society. Now the student who believed that there was no compromise, is now starting to see differently.

I believe this is tangible to poker. Try to use their emotions to your advantage. I think it works.

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I sent the $30 rebuy yesterday on lock, awesomeeeeeee. Also won about 15 buy ins on my super turbos, so I ended the day up about $5000, maybe more. I was talking to my coach last night and he gave me some pretty solid advice. He said there is nothing worse than people bitching when they have made a shit ton of money playing poker. It puts things in perspective. I’ve caught myself complaining some times when I get horrible beats. But only 1 person can win a tournament, and to believe that you should win it every time is just ridiculous. When I play my tournaments I know I’m one of the best players in them. Even if I was the best, which I’m not, I should only expect to maintain my ROI over the long run. I digress…

It is frustrating to run like god in these smaller buy ins and run like absolute trash in the majors. However that’s life and that’s why they call poker a grind. It would be nice to snap off a Sunday Million and be good for the year. You think its better to win one major or 50 small tournaments?

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I airballed last Sunday. What a disappointing weekend. I guess I just always get so excited to play on Sundays because they are so damn easy. So when I whiff its 2x as bad. Every Sunday is like Christmas for me. I blame it on Pats and Sox losing, tilting me to play so shitty. This is going to be a shitty post because nothing interesting happened this weekend. Obama getting a peace prize, what is that all about? I guess these days, its the thought that really counts.

Anyways I found this good scene/quote, I think its true to poker.

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