Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #13 - Business Card

This business card is designed by my roommate who owns design company called Broad Sighted. I initially provided him ideas for designing LuxuryMaster.net because I wasn't very proficient on CSS during that time. I received basic lesson from him so I am a bit better now but he is really good.

He provided me excellent quality of work designing 5 different front end main pages with various color schemas depicting various mood with amazing amount of details in all places.

I will now be independently working on back-end infrastructure and I am currently planning on the whole infrastructure although I have my idea fairly solid. I remember spending a whole semester designing the architecture in school when I was working on my senior project.

Although the group of 4 spent whole semester of designing basic architecture, we ran into various issues when writing codes for the actual product. I was the team leader of the group and it was very stressful to change the implementation all the time. I learned my lesson from that and I don't plan on quick rushing on this project =)

Anyways, due to his successful performance on my LuxuryMaster.net's front end UI work, I asked him to design the business card and look how it came! I can't upload the actual version of the card because it contains personal information but if you look at it carefully, you will be able to see transparent color scheme applied in different vertical layers and it is simply amazing!

If any of you are interested getting web hosting and design services for your business, I suggest you to contact him. You may visit his website Broad Sighted for more details.

LuxuryMaster says: Engineer Yourself

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #12 - It's my turn to protect

I have decided to stop playing online poker for a while as I have found more joyful and meaningful things to do in my life. I haven't decided how I will spend the money I get from the withdrawal but I am sure I will figure something out =)

I purchased a book called "Real Estate Millionaire: Secret Strategies To Lifetime Wealth Today" by Dean Graziosi. I haven't had a chance to read much about the book it seemed interesting because it seems like anyone can possibly work on trading real estate properties because you don't have to have credit, or investment, or anything.

I also plan to work on my LuxuryMaster.net in the meantime and stay tuned for the updates on the site!

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #11 - We are the ONE

LuxuryMaster says: We are the ONE.

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #10 - Key to My Heart

My roommates designed above picture in the frame and gave it to me for my 24th birthday present. In the picture frame, it says 'carpe shipem'. It is a phrase from Latin meaning "seize the day" and living the moment in your life. I perceived the meaning of the word right when I heard from my roomate. However, I found myself not applying this beautiful message to my life until today.

Looking back and thinking about it, I don't think I have ever slept ever since I got into the college. Yesterday, I had a such a long sleep, when I woke up, my body felt extremely tired and everything seemed empty.



I have recently experienced overwhelming attention in my life that I have never desired for. I was extremely overwhelmed that I had a moment to give up everything in my life. However, I believe Jesus saved my life at my last moment because there are so many options available to you if you have made a decision to fold over yourself.

I have wondered why I have been chosen to go through this hard moment in my life and prayed to Jesus various times why I am going through this challenging flop on my life.






Today, I was working at my job as usual. Recently, I had overwhelming amount of work at my job all the sudden. Ironically, I got my daily tasks done a little early. I went to eat lunch, get some massage on my body, relaxed myself a bit, watched children playing around in the mall, watched beautiful sky, took a deep breath, and came back to work and thought about why I am working in the office at this moment. Everything I was responsible for was finished so why should I be in the office? Why can't I just go outside and whatever the hell I want?

I thought about myself and trying to figure out what I can do to enjoy in the meantime. I first figured out how I can possibly contribute my developers in the team by working extra amount of time which I got done fairly quickly. I honestly felt really good because I feel like I was finally be able to contribute something extra to the development team rather than working 8 hours straight, being lazy about myself, and just get things done like a machine.

I then forgot about work as I have no obligation or given tasks to continue. I then wondered what would be the first step to benefit more people other than people working in the office. Looking back and thinking about it, I had suffered so much in the past living on my own, working towards my future that I had always dreamed - best car, best job, beautiful girl friend, and etc. Those were so important to me and I had amazing amount of passion on various different things I enjoy in my life and I honestly felt it's reaching and I can accomplish that faster than other people. However, I decided to set all these aside and have a moment to think about what would be really is important in my life if I can only live a day.

I finally decided to accept myself that I desire a lot of different things in my life, instead of turning myself in a miserable mode and thinking about future life, I have decided to not to be sad about my life, worrying about tomorrow, or what the hell would happen if I do something. I simply decided to accept everything happening in my life and cope thorough with it regardless of the outcome.

I instantly felt extreme amount of stress going off of my brain and became happy. I am not sure if I will feel happy or sad tomorrow but since I am not a machine, I decided to forgive myself being sad, happy, or whatever but just stay positive on myself and use self discipline and patience not to lose self control.

I believe we all facet different types of challenging moments in our life and the question is how we perceive these different challenging moments in our life. I have decided to use my intuition to figure out what exactly is going on and deal positively instead of being negative and doubtful about myself, other people, or getting frustrated about the situation.



Just being careless about the current circumstance with controlled mind set was a simple key to my happiness. I strongly believe this is the soul that Jesus has given me while coping through my hard time and I will use my best judgment to protect this great freedom in my life so that I can truly 'carpe shipem' in my life with the people I love regardless of the law, money, perception of other people, and future life.

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #9 - Pursuit of Self Tranquility

I have been having this awesome art that I bought from the University of Colorado when I visited there for lunch. I hung it on the wall for a while but never paid attention to the message in the art. It says:

"The poor long for riches. The rich long for heaven but the wise desires tranquility"


LuxuryMaster says: exactly what I need to pursuit.

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #8 - CU KSA Soccer and DMV Gorilla

I think everyone played great and I feel sorry that Jungbin got injured while playing. I promised to buy you guys dinner if you guys win the first game. The game got tied therefore no dinner out of pocket as I promised on our temporary Cyworld website! ㅋㅋㅋ

However, I promised Sung bin that I will treat you guys a dinner for sure if you win the entire tournament so you guys better keep up the good work ^^!

Now, the pictures I promised to post for Korean Students Association in the University of Colorado at Boulder:


- S. Korea vs. Indonesia


- 준모형 - KSA 회장님


- 3명의 유령 - 누가 누군지도 잘 모르겟다는.. -_-;


- 한솔 and ...죄송 이름이(?)알려주시면 고쳐드릴꼐요


- 인경 and 정빈


- 건영 and 성빈 (He went to Google with me!)

Let's have another blast on our upcoming NBA event in Denver Stadium!

I went to DMV in Denver and won this huge gorilla for a bit over 9,000 in a couple of hours of playing. I played the game where you can move the cursor vertically and horizontally and drop the grabber to catch the bottle, If you successfully do so, you get bunch of tickets printed out and I won it when I went there with my friends from the Korean Central Presbyterian Church. Fairly impressively big one with only about 2 hours of playing.

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #7 - LuxuryMaster's Life BluePrint: Long Term Positive Effects

I have been living my life like a mayfly ever since I came to this country. I have recently learned that what pulled my life together to make become what I am today is not because I am born with brain that surpasses others.

I have surely worked harder than other teenagers and went through challenging moments when I was young but I do not think that is exactly the cause of what makes LuxuryMaster today. As cocky as it seems, I feel extremely proud of myself.

I have had a lot of miracle experiences ever since I came to this country on 2000. I have always wondered what actually made LuxuryMaster so lucky in critical stages of my life.

I first thought it was because of people who have been supporting me but after opening my eyes on a lot of things on different things on positive way, I have learned that there is something non-existent entity that has been assisting me - Jesus.

Because of so many miracle happenings in critical stages when I was young, I feel like everyday I live on the continent is blessing to me. I now have no fear of losing anything in my life except people around me.

When I like to make friends or start relationships, I like to view attitude of person's friends to determine if I like to be friend with him/her. I believe it is a lot easier to tell someone's true heart as people can always can fake their true intention. However, looking at his/her friends will tell you a lot of his/her past experience and future life. I can't express how happy I feel once I have no expectation but just do what I love to do.

However, if I lose something in unrighteously, I like to use best of my abilities to fight. This is why I sometimes had to tell my good friends that I can either become your worst enemy or best friend.

I have finally figured out what exactly is "Meaning of Life" is on my heart. I have decided to devote my future brainstorming an idea and turn that into a technology that can potentially benefit millions of lives using technologies just like Google. I have decided to walk through my future career with Translations.com to accomplish this goal.

I think the reason why I applied to Google is because I had gained that envision on my heart by going through certain experiences and perceptions recently. I still feel we shared somewhat vision and I still love Google although they might not like me:)

I perceive my life is simple as this: accomplish something that can positively influence other people while doing something meaningful, technical, and beneficial to others while having fun doing it. This has became very clear to me recently. No anticipation of tomorrow or expectation of result, just live a day like a mayfly while having fun doing it - This is what I call Jesus's blessing and I feel like I have earned it.

I view myself as a mayfly that currently flies in low altitude but I believe some mayfly envisions to fly high altitude with strong determination and positive heart although it is currently flying low. Carpe diem - "seize the day"

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #6 - "Engineer Myself"

I went to one of the Google's luxury office in Boulder, CO (an office filled with rock climbing walls, buffet, guitar hero... and etc) for the full time software engineering position opportunity with Google on last Friday (October 17, 2008).

I solved the problem given and failed to make it more efficient although I received 'A' on the algorithm from Andrzej Ehrenfeucht. I went like “Huh? Binary Search?”. Well, I know what binary tree is and also know a couple of searching algorithms but it wasn't popping up on my head during that time. I wasn't trying to prove my aptitude in this interview so I guess it doesn't really matter as I am fully aware I am not much better than other recent college graduates in that sense.

My teacher on the CU algorithm class was Andrzej Ehrenfeucht from CS department. His lecture didn’t teach me anything much about the CS algorithms and all I did was just doing homework solving some greatest common divisor and some graphs... sign... However, he is one of the distinct professor from CU who doesnt get fired for not walking into the classroom without advanced notice and make all students waiting over 20-30 minutes. I am sure he had his own reasons but I wasn't too happy with it.

I think we are all smart in a lot of different ways and he wasn't extremely smart about his teaching and genius about his research when I was taking his course. I would understand if it was just once but it kept happening and I remember just not going to his class but still got through his course fairly successfully I think =)

I should have studied more about algorithm but my life was too busy to spend extra time into that. I really wish I had John R. Black because he also teaches algorithm and I learned heck a lot from his CS6000 level network security course when I was in CU.

What I have learned in the industry during a couple months is the realization of scalability and performance issues and how to troubleshoot the problems before they even arise and avoid putting myself in a DOO-DOO situation. I am still learning though I ironically had never ran into serious one to research to come up with one on my own =)


LuxuryMaster says: time to engineer myself before attempting to engineer others.

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #5 - "Engineer (Y)ourself"

Alpha Version: LuxuryMaster.net is finally up!
Any ideas or comments are welcome and appreciated!

LuxuryMaster says: Engineer (Y)ourself.

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #4 - My Favorite Song Changed

Dj Encore feat. Engelina - Open Your Eyes

You can't keep me holding on I've giving you some time
I can't make you come along if you don't share your mind
Every time you close your eyes I know you feel the same
Everything you try to fight is drowning in the rain

What does it take to open your eyes
Don't let it fade
You got to let the sunshine through the rain
Open your eyes don't make me wait
You got to let the sunshine through the rain

TEll me why you turn away, whenever I believe
Finally you come to say I'm everything you need
Everytime you close your eyes I know you feel the same
Everything you try to fight is drowning in the rain

What does it take to open your eyes
Don't let it fade
You got to let the sunshine through the rain
Open your eyes don't make me wait
You got to let the sunshine through the rain

I'm not asking of you, to give yourself away
I just want you to hear the words I say
It's only a matter of time
It's only a matter of time
It's only a matter of time
It's only a matter of time
What does it take to open your eyes
Don't let it fade
You got to let the sunshine through the rain
Open your eyes don't make me wait
You got to let the sunshine through the rain


LuxuryMaster says: I've done it.

John O'Callaghan - Big Sky (Feat. Audrey Gallagher)

I know this silence - been here before.
I'm walking blinded through your door.
This is a sense of things to come,
This innocence... oh, oh.

Breathe in this moment - it's come and gone
Further and faster through your soul.
Open your eyes and breathe some more,
Open your mouth... oh, oh.

Release yourself - it's a big sky.
Reveal yourself, it's a big sky.
We love, we leave. We take, we give.
Release yourself - it's a big sky.

It's a big sky...

It's a big sky...

I know this silence - been here before.
I'm walking blinded through your door.
This is a sense of things to come,
This innocence... oh, oh.

Breathe in this moment - it's come and gone
Further and faster through your soul.
Open your eyes and breathe some more,
Open your mouth... oh, oh.

Release yourself - it's a big sky.
Reveal yourself, it's a big sky.
We love, we leave. We take, we give.
Release yourself - it's a big sky.

It's a big sky...
It's a big sky...

Breathe in this moment.
Breathe in this moment.
Breathe in this moment.
It's a big sky!

Release yourself - it's a big sky.
Reveal yourself, it's a big sky.
We love, we leave. We take, we give.
Release yourself - it's a big sky.

It's a big sky.
We love, we leave. We take, we give.
Release yourself - it's a big sky.
It's a big sky.

LuxuryMaster says: I'm on it.

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #3

"I am Feeling Lucky"

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #2

I have defined poker as my secondary job in the previous posts. I believe second job is something that you should always try to have not only because it gains you more money but I think it is doing something meaningful and enjoyful on your spare time. I have confirmed myself today that I have found my new second job and hereby degrading poker as a hobby until I feel like playing again.

I now strongly believe that taking an occasional break and pursue other things to get a broader sighted design on your color helps you shine your own luxury color!

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #1

A box filled with scrap of papers and rocks and two envelops on the very bottom of the box given to my good friend:

Career Potential Challenge: Immediate Impact for Goods vs. Long Term Impact for Goods

(Immediate Impact for Goods):

* Apply to Google



I have decided to further pursue my computer science career as I feel more successful and more enjoyable than winning a lot of money on poker while sitting on my computer fulltime. I have decided to pursue further opportunies in order to strengthen my primary career

(Long Term Impact for Goods):

* Further Develop Personal Engineering Protfolio Website
* Start a Small IT Business with My Smart and Passionate Roomates



I went to the Google Technical Talk in the University of Colorado at Boulder with my friend Seung Bin, who is currently junior majoring in computer science. I was there not only for my personal intellectual reasons or whatever but it was also to help him see the exposures I wish I had while I was junior in the college.

I was on my way to walk into the room and saw a recruiting coordinator greeting everyone. I said “Hi xx (Privacy reason)” and she goes “Hello Jay”. I saw her 1-2 times during the past career events and asked for resume help once. I have never seen her again face to face. It was really surprising to perceive the passion of the people on their job. Everyone had own character and acted friendly while being very passionate and professional on what they do. I mean let’s face it - she probably sees probably over 100 people and she is telling me she remembers (at least tries) to remember everyone and treat each one of them in professional manner. I asked her why my PHD student friend, who got recently employed at Gooogle did not attend to this tech talk because I was honestly expecting to see him again =)

Out of all the Google tech talk I have ever went, I have to say this one was the most informative and well organized one I have ever attended. It is not just because I have received a special greeting from the recruiting coordinator. Everything was well organized and went very smooth. I am taking my time to say thank you to Google and ACM for organizing this and make it actually happen!

Career Prioritizing: $2/4 -> $1/2

I have been through a lot of things during the past a few weeks of my life not only one poker and I have to say it has been tough and traumatic but I am writing this blog to appreciate, record, and remind what I have learned and gained from my past experience.

Now I think about it playing $2/4 is the border line where one needs to decide to play poker pro for living or not. I have decided not to take that path and defined playing poker as my secondary job. However, I love to play too much winning consistently beating the $2/4 game almost 4BB/100 during last 3 months. Let's just say that I figured out the better way to live my life aside from money gained from the job or poker by going thorough my tough time.

I had a same type of decision back in the day when I first transfered to CU from CSU while playing Warcraft III professional sponsored by AMD. I was playing with Dayfly, Fov, Showtime, Lucifer, and other korean programers back in the day. I decided to completely quit playing Warcraft III after messing up the finals. I hadn't spent over 5 hours during that semester and my grade was all good (A-B+) then I messed up the final exam and put my GPA on jeoperdy.

I thought about the outcome of this and I convinced myself that I have to choose one or the other and I quitted Warcraft III (As LuxuryMaster quotes: "All or Nothing"). I have never looked back on myself back ever since same way I have never deposited money again on Pokerstars after losing 2-3 times of $50-100 deposits back since 3 years ago and probaly will not happen anytime on future.

Withdrawing over 75% my online bankroll from my online account was overall smart decision as it makes myself almost debtfree on my credit cards which I was forced to accumulate as I barely managed to pay my last tuition bill from CU. This however, is not saying "I am quitting Poker". I feel like I can never be able to quit as I see this game never get boring to me and socializing aspect is just amazing especially on Las Vegas live tables =)

Good Bye to Full Tilt Poker

I have decided to withdraw entire BR from FT as I don't need that much money sitting on there doing nothing. I still have enough BR left on PS to play $1/2 so it is fine. In the meantime, I will start enjoying more of real life. Plans are:

- Buy Mac Book Pro -> Get compensated with PS concierge service
- Enjoy the freedom of home working engineer -> Work at CU or Starbucks or wherever I want





I have also decided to choose just keep playing on Pokerstars as their support is so great. They have something called concierge service for Supernova player where they offer players to buy anything (no investments tho) and compensate with accumulated FPPs.



I got a MAC BOOK PRO 17'', the best one in the market in order to fully utilize my freedom. It is so nifty and awesome. I hated MAC because it was so hard to use. Now I become industry IT professional and can finally understand why its awesome. Knowledge finally started to empower on myself.

Promoted to: Home Working Software Engineer

I have been working at Translations.com's Boulder office for over 3 months now. I was actually only software engineer in the office as this office recently opened in the Boulder location and we have engineers working oversea and I recently felt no reason to come to office as we always communicate over the internet and I have been fully tranined by my manager over 3 months.

I asked my boss for the permission to work at home where I can feel more comfortable and be more productive. There were some reviews going back and forth with our senior developers on oversea. Based on my productivity and reliablity that I have shown since the first of my job, they granted my request and I am now working at home. Sweet ship it please!



After I hear back from him, I bought myself a top notch recliner that I can just sit back and relax while I am working. Price was little bit aggressive but I managed to bluff raise myself to buy it anyways. I also have realized that due to this, I now have more freedom in my life and no longer need to stress myself on poker income. I will now play poker as entertainment / supplement income value and I think this is very +EV choice for my overall life satisfaction.

I have been actively going to church over the weekend and there was a really famous pester coming from Chicago giving a speech about the topic called "hope". It was really overall satisfactive and he mentioned various quotations from the people during the speech who became really successful and how one should measure the degree of the success. Obviously the factor was not based on how much money they have made. There were one quotation that got stuck on my head, it was from John Pottter. I tried my best to translate into English =)

"The moment I felt most successful in my life is not when I actually climbed to the top of the Everlast, it was the moment I was walking down from the top of the mountain and envisioned what I further possibly can do with my success that I have archieved"

I decided to review my daily life and figure out if I am living my life successfully and it turns out there were so many leaks. I found myself way too busy during my daily life. For example, I work full time 5 days a week, playing heavy amount of poker over the weekend despite my recent success on the job and poker. Actually my friend Dwain actually first brought this up and I appreciate him tellng me this and provide me a reason to think back on myself. I just feel like I made right, strong and big decision on my poker career overall and confirmed myself that I am walking into the right direction with Jesus. As long as I feel myself walking into right direction, I believe I will be able to enrich further and become more successful.

Win Some Lose Some and Click Timebank Button

This August has been very interesting month for my poker career not just because I lost a lot of money but due to my new perception. I have had such a terrible run on my $2/4 (400NL) games during the late weeks of August. I am fully aware that I am not playing most opmital style and making some -EV plays. However, I know I am a winning player and had been winning over 10k/month over past 3 months and disciplined enough to grind from my $100 initial deposit for almost 3 years now to result my bankroll to up to where I am. Let's look at the graph of this month. Consider I average out to play about 2000 hands per day and pay very close attention to the spikes and downs. If you are a professional poker, you would say I am doing fine and its nature but to me, I mean its just insane to me =)

August 2008 BB/100: 1.18, NET: +$5,603.75


As shown above and suprisingly, I still did not end up losing at the end of the month and actually generated almost $6,000 profit on August. One thing to note from the graph is that I have had a big winning day/and small consecutive losing days. I particuallly do not think I tilted or played extremely bad on any of the sessions I played but it was great experience for me to realize the extreme swings on the game. It was frustrating due to just run of cards and I was just getting stressed way too much on my game because I put my chips on even when I am ahead and still end up losing. Now, let's look at some of the hands that I ran into.

PokerStars Game #20180670898: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/05 22:58:09 ET
Table 'Perseus II' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: gomaspt ($2138.65 in chips)
Seat 2: KingKoopa2 ($571 in chips)
Seat 3: Hyi_Vam ($443 in chips)
Seat 4: uYNamron ($400 in chips)
Seat 5: Jschlach ($489.55 in chips)
Seat 6: LuxuryMaster ($848 in chips)
LuxuryMaster: posts small blind $2
gomaspt: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Ac As]
KingKoopa2: folds
Hyi_Vam: folds
uYNamron: folds
Jschlach: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $12 to $16
gomaspt: calls $12
*** FLOP *** [8h Ah 8d]
LuxuryMaster: checks
gomaspt: checks
*** TURN *** [8h Ah 8d] [Jd]
LuxuryMaster: bets $28
gomaspt: calls $28
*** RIVER *** [8h Ah 8d Jd] [7d]
LuxuryMaster: bets $72
gomaspt: raises $128 to $200
LuxuryMaster: raises $604 to $804 and is all-in
gomaspt: calls $604
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LuxuryMaster: shows [Ac As] (a full house, Aces full of Eights)
gomaspt: shows [Td 9d] (a straight flush, Seven to Jack)
gomaspt collected $1693 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1696 | Rake $3
Board [8h Ah 8d Jd 7d]
Seat 1: gomaspt (big blind) showed [Td 9d] and won ($1693) with a straight flush, Seven to Jack
Seat 2: KingKoopa2 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Hyi_Vam folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: uYNamron folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Jschlach (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: LuxuryMaster (small blind) showed [Ac As] and lost with a full house, Aces full of Eights

PokerStars Game #20184312309: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/05 22:59:04 ET
Table 'Caubeta' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: brizzybreech ($398 in chips)
Seat 2: LuxuryMaster ($358 in chips)
Seat 3: iheartcoco ($386.70 in chips)
Seat 4: oceanbillly ($394 in chips)
Seat 5: Laxalicious ($648.40 in chips)
Seat 6: Greakfreak ($484.35 in chips)
LuxuryMaster: posts small blind $2
iheartcoco: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [8s 8c]
oceanbillly: folds
Laxalicious: folds
Greakfreak: calls $4
brizzybreech: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $16 to $20
iheartcoco: folds
Greakfreak: calls $16
*** FLOP *** [Js Ah 3c]
LuxuryMaster: bets $32
Greakfreak: calls $32
*** TURN *** [Js Ah 3c] [8h]
LuxuryMaster: bets $76
Greakfreak: raises $356.35 to $432.35 and is all-in
LuxuryMaster: calls $230 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($126.35) returned to Greakfreak
*** RIVER *** [Js Ah 3c 8h] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LuxuryMaster: shows [8s 8c] (three of a kind, Eights)
Greakfreak: shows [2h Jh] (a flush, Ace high)
Greakfreak collected $717 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $720 | Rake $3
Board [Js Ah 3c 8h Th]
Seat 1: brizzybreech (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: LuxuryMaster (small blind) showed [8s 8c] and lost with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 3: iheartcoco (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: oceanbillly folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Laxalicious folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Greakfreak showed [2h Jh] and won ($717) with a flush, Ace high


PokerStars Game #20185370330: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/05 22:58:44 ET
Table 'Hubei' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Bouge_Todd ($430.10 in chips)
Seat 2: great1974 ($246 in chips)
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster ($350.55 in chips)
Seat 4: miraculix06 ($473.60 in chips)
Seat 5: DaHellRaiser ($569.50 in chips)
Seat 6: sancaetano ($252.80 in chips)
miraculix06: posts small blind $2
DaHellRaiser: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Ad Ks]
sancaetano: folds
Bouge_Todd: folds
great1974: raises $16 to $20
LuxuryMaster: raises $44 to $64
miraculix06: folds
DaHellRaiser: folds
great1974: calls $44
*** FLOP *** [9s 3c 2s]
great1974: bets $182 and is all-in
LuxuryMaster: calls $182
*** TURN *** [9s 3c 2s] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [9s 3c 2s 5s] [3d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
great1974: shows [5c Ac] (two pair, Fives and Threes)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
great1974 collected $495 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $498 | Rake $3
Board [9s 3c 2s 5s 3d]
Seat 1: Bouge_Todd folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: great1974 showed [5s Ac] and won ($495) with two pair, Fives and Threes
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster (button) mucked [Ad Ks]
Seat 4: miraculix06 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: DaHellRaiser (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: sancaetano folded before Flop (didn't bet)

PokerStars Game #20185337793: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/12 4:02:11 ET
Table 'Fornax' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: dave798111 ($1139 in chips)
Seat 3: Itz_ ($644.35 in chips)
Seat 4: LuxuryMaster ($370 in chips)
Seat 5: topgun1026 ($406 in chips)
Seat 6: babyhoss555 ($371.60 in chips)
Itz_: posts small blind $2
LuxuryMaster: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Qd Qh]
topgun1026: calls $4
yymee has returned
babyhoss555: raises $12 to $16
dave798111: calls $16
Itz_: calls $14
LuxuryMaster: raises $52 to $68
topgun1026: folds
babyhoss555: folds
dave798111: folds
Itz_: calls $52
*** FLOP *** [Ks 5h 7c]
Itz_: checks
LuxuryMaster: checks
*** TURN *** [Ks 5h 7c] [Th]
Itz_: bets $101
LuxuryMaster: calls $101
*** RIVER *** [Ks 5h 7c Th] [8s]
Itz_: bets $272
LuxuryMaster: calls $201 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($71) returned to Itz_
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Itz_: shows [8d 8c] (three of a kind, Eights)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
Itz_ collected $774 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $776 | Rake $2
Board [Ks 5h 7c Th 8s]
Seat 2: dave798111 (button) folded before Flop
Seat 3: Itz_ (small blind) showed [8d 8c] and won ($774) with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 4: LuxuryMaster (big blind) mucked [Qd Qh]
Seat 5: topgun1026 folded before Flop
Seat 6: babyhoss555 folded before Flop

PokerStars Game #20187440625: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/12 4:07:21 ET
Table 'Caubeta' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: DarDaugiau ($384 in chips)
Seat 2: daaaaaaan ($90.85 in chips)
Seat 3: G-De-Gus ($330 in chips)
Seat 4: donkydynamit ($540.65 in chips)
Seat 5: Ck1ko ($461.10 in chips)
Seat 6: LuxuryMaster ($775.30 in chips)
DarDaugiau: posts small blind $2
daaaaaaan: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Tc Td]
G-De-Gus: folds
donkydynamit: folds
Ck1ko: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $8 to $12
DarDaugiau: raises $32 to $44
daaaaaaan: folds
LuxuryMaster: calls $32
*** FLOP *** [9d 8h 7d]
DarDaugiau: checks
LuxuryMaster: bets $68
DarDaugiau: raises $272 to $340 and is all-in
LuxuryMaster: calls $272
*** TURN *** [9d 8h 7d] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [9d 8h 7d 5d] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DarDaugiau: shows [Th Ah] (a pair of Aces)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
DarDaugiau collected $769 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $772 | Rake $3
Board [9d 8h 7d 5d As]
Seat 1: DarDaugiau (small blind) showed [Th Ah] and won ($769) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: daaaaaaan (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: G-De-Gus folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: donkydynamit folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Ck1ko folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: LuxuryMaster (button) mucked [Tc Td]

PokerStars Game #20186865314: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/12 4:12:38 ET
Table 'Havnia' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: donkydynamit ($267.15 in chips)
Seat 2: dmbush ($400 in chips)
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster ($386.75 in chips)
Seat 4: LovEva ($595.80 in chips)
Seat 5: Sunking25 ($285.30 in chips)
Seat 6: Noahnick72 ($188.10 in chips)
Sunking25: posts small blind $2
Noahnick72: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Kc Ks]
donkydynamit: folds
dmbush: raises $8 to $12
LuxuryMaster: raises $32 to $44
LovEva: folds
Sunking25: folds
Noahnick72: folds
dmbush: calls $32
*** FLOP *** [9h Jd 4c]
dmbush: checks
LuxuryMaster: bets $64
dmbush: calls $64
*** TURN *** [9h Jd 4c] [6h]
dmbush: checks
LuxuryMaster: bets $136
dmbush: raises $156 to $292 and is all-in
LuxuryMaster: calls $142.75 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($13.25) returned to dmbush
*** RIVER *** [9h Jd 4c 6h] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
dmbush: shows [4h 4d] (three of a kind, Fours)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
dmbush collected $776.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $779.50 | Rake $3
Board [9h Jd 4c 6h 5s]
Seat 1: donkydynamit folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: dmbush showed [4h 4d] and won ($776.50) with three of a kind, Fours
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster mucked [Kc Ks]
Seat 4: LovEva (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Sunking25 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Noahnick72 (big blind) folded before Flop

PokerStars Game #20185487411: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/26 4:17:41 ET
Table 'Malautra' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: gaIad ($544 in chips)
Seat 2: lavidaloca11 ($684.40 in chips)
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster ($783.40 in chips)
Seat 4: Bouge_Todd ($400 in chips)
Seat 5: Duckslayer2k ($400 in chips)
Seat 6: Mentosan ($619.40 in chips)
Mentosan: posts small blind $2
gaIad: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Ks Kc]
lavidaloca11: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $8 to $12
Bouge_Todd: calls $12
Duckslayer2k: folds
Mentosan: folds
gaIad: folds
*** FLOP *** [5c 2d 4h]
LuxuryMaster: bets $20
Bouge_Todd: calls $20
*** TURN *** [5c 2d 4h] [4s]
LuxuryMaster: checks
Bouge_Todd: bets $48
LuxuryMaster: calls $48
*** RIVER *** [5c 2d 4h 4s] [3d]
LuxuryMaster: checks
Bouge_Todd: bets $120
LuxuryMaster: calls $120
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Bouge_Todd: shows [9h Ah] (a straight, Ace to Five)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
Bouge_Todd collected $403 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $406 | Rake $3
Board [5c 2d 4h 4s 3d]
Seat 1: gaIad (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: lavidaloca11 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster mucked [Ks Kc]
Seat 4: Bouge_Todd showed [9h Ah] and won ($403) with a straight, Ace to Five
Seat 5: Duckslayer2k (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Mentosan (small blind) folded before Flop

Imagine this type of situation happens almost simultaneously on 2-3 on my games during the last week of august and I was just getting frustrated on this and the swings are just overwhelming for me to handle. It's like losing my biweekly pay check within 10 minutes of the game and I am just getting way too stressed over this type of situation. I am fully aware it doesn't always happen but I just feel like I need some time off for now. Especially the first hand, it is actually bad beat jack pot if this hand was played on Full Tilt to rakehouse's bad beat insurance!

I have decided to cash out a lot of money from Pokerstars and decide to move down to $1/2 where I can feel confortable and beat the easy games after -$2k swing today. I always thought that bankroll management is the most important thing. However, I perceived that your emotion and managing your comfort zone is as important as bankroll management. I mean, I had this type of situations occuring during last 3 months of play but I always won it back at the end and thats why graph is just spiking if you see on my last post but just losing losing losing doesn't really cut it. I have patience and disciplines on my game but it became just for beyond the control. I actually take this circumstance positively due to this perception of swing on $2/4 and this is probably a very thin and tough border line that I have to across and cope if I were to manage myself to become part time poker professional which is what I am pursuing as my secondary job.

Recent Poker Thoughts

I was playing $1/2 until the end of April then I had to make a big cashout to pay my last tuition bill which resulted me to move down to $.50/1. After I get my job settled, I no longer had to cash out my winnings from my account because I now have full time job secured kicking pay check to my bank every month. This resulted me to play no more of scared money poker tight uh huh rock style anymore and in addition to good run of cards, I moved from $.50/1 to $2/4 within 1 month and half with only 2 hrs of day playing everyday =) Click here to download if you wish to see larger version of the graph.

June 2008 BB/100: 4.49, NET: +$13,992.45


July 2008 BB/100: 2.54, NET: +$11,193.00


Today, I was playing very good session with good run of cards and this one hand came across my mind which caused me to start thinking about my leak some more. The opponent is 15/11 TAG and I have him over 5,000 hands and my notes are saying that he never gets out of the line. Lets look at the hand.

PokerStars Game #19527214670: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/11 - 01:21:26 (ET)
Table 'Frigga II' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: gandi9 ($451.95 in chips)
Seat 2: zawaaa ($240 in chips)
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster ($395.60 in chips)
Seat 4: Marius2910 ($306.85 in chips)
Seat 5: DCal Zone ($425 in chips)
Seat 6: jnpn ($731.30 in chips)
gandi9: posts small blind $2
zawaaa: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [K A]
LuxuryMaster: raises $8 to $12
Marius2910: folds
DCal Zone: folds
jnpn: calls $12
gandi9: folds
zawaaa: folds
*** FLOP *** [9 9 A]
LuxuryMaster: bets $24
jnpn: raises $56 to $80
LuxuryMaster: raises $108 to $188
jnpn: raises $224 to $412
LuxuryMaster: calls $195.60 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($28.40) returned to jnpn
*** TURN *** [9 9 A Q]
*** RIVER *** [9 9 A Q 3]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LuxuryMaster: shows [K A] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
jnpn: shows [7 9] (three of a kind, Nines)
jnpn collected $794.20 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $797.20 | Rake $3
Board [9 9 A Q 3]
Seat 1: gandi9 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: zawaaa (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster showed [K A] and lost with two pair, Aces and Nines
Seat 4: Marius2910 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: DCal Zone folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: jnpn (button) showed [7 9] and won ($794.20) with three of a kind, Nines


I read the book of TJ Courtier and he said: "Making a good fold is same as winning because by not losing the money in the situation where you would have if you had called". I completely agree with his line. He also talks about how good player extracts the most value out of the hand and I felt that the challenge is to find a border line between folding and call/raise.

With this in mind, thinking about this hand back, I think I could have played in two different ways, 3 bet with intention of shoving all in or fold to his raise. Now, considering how tight this opponent is, I should have leaned towards fold. I really don't think 3 bet shove is a bad idea but I felt like I am playing cards this way. You are pretty much committing money into the pot despite opponent's tendency and I didn't feel much of science and skill this way.

In same situation if the opponent is 26/20 LAG, I will more easily put the money into the pot as his range includes any ace, FD. I really think 3 bet + with intension of shove is better in this situation.

Poker is game of intellectual guessing. The reason I belive for my shove was incorrect against TAG was based on the observation of opponent's tendency. I felt like I just talked out of myself on this hand and put the money into the pot. Something to think about. Any comments on this would be great.