Superfish

Wow...... Thought for sure I did a post in December.....

2011-01-19T09:05:00.000-08:00

Well I am truely becoming absent minded as I could have sworn I did a post in December. Maybe I did and blogspot gnomes deleted it!

Anyways, I thought I had done a small post on my casino visits.

While traveling home to visit family over the Thanksgiving day weekend I was fortunate enough to visit 3 casinos : Wheeling Downs in WV, The Meadows in Washington PA and Hollywood at Penn National Race Track just outside of Harrisburg.

The first visit was to Wheeling Downs where I have played several times before. The business in the room seems down from previous years but that is most likely due to the PA casinos opening their poker rooms. Not much has changed at Wheeling and they still managed to have 2-3 tables up till the morning hours. Actually I don't think the second table broke before 2 AM which is pretty good for a Tuesday night. Play was pretty standard with a few true novices sitting down and donating then leaving. There were a few loose players who kept the game going also. I didn't win alot but managed a small profit.

I left about 4 in the morning on my way to the Meadows in PA. Only about a half hour drive between the casinos. I came to find out that no employee or business partner (including suppliers) of any PA casino may play in any casino in PA. They must travel out of state if they wish to enjoy any casino action. I think this is a ridiculous rule for the PA casinos.

The Meadows poker room is very nice and pretty spacious. I believe they had 21 tables in their room and you were not bumping into people at the next table. The place only had one table going when I showed up at 4:30 AM but I did make another visit on the return trip 5 days later. :) Meadows had competent good dealers and the players were for the most part enjoyable. They do drawings after like 3 AM for $50 free money so that is something to look forward to when you are grinding it out in the wee hours before dawn. LOL Again managed a small profit and had a good time.

Left the Meadows around 8:30 AM on my way to Harrisburg PA. I got there around noon and was happy to find the poker room already had 5 tables running. This room has some unusual rules which are different from other PA rooms and even the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg IN (Cinci). I do not recall the specifics but I remember being frustrated with the room. The floor personel even acknowledge the strangeness of the rules but said it was out of their hands. Another thing they allow is for players to run up a stack at one table and then ask for a table change and take $700 of the table and sit back down with $100 at the new table. Missplayed two hand within the first 20 minutes and woud play another 4 hours to end a losing session due to those two hands. Had a decent time with most of my table mates there.

I did not return to Hollywood on my return trip as it was slightly out of the way.

Hopefully I will improve my memory and writing to make my trip reports more interesting to read in the future. :)

WBCOOP

2011-01-18T09:04:00.001-08:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: XXXXXX 160072

Summer is nearly over.......

2010-08-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

Wow... hard to believe that it has been nearly 3 months since I posted on here.... I am getting worse.

But I really haven't been playing alot of poker.... at least not live. Even online due to a decimated bankroll I haven't played alot of cash tournaments. Mainly been playing freerolls. And lots of them. LOL

During most of the month of July I hardly played live at all. Actually I think I only played live poker once that whole month. The month of June helped set up my hiatus as I had a losing month. I should have known I would jinx myself by posting that I had only had two losing weeks for 2010 in my last posting......
Someone please remind me not to brag or be pleased with myself again. LOL

When I have played live since July it has been a mixed bag. Some days playing well after putting myself in a hole early in the sessions. And other days just being card dead and not being able to put any hands together that would hold up. I have been a little better at playing the other players occasionally and not just my cards. So at least in that there is some improvement and a little bit of a silver lining in my grey clouds. LOL

As for online, my play worsened and I also ran bad. I pretty much drained my FTP account though I still have a small amount left. Trying now to just play micro ring games to build it back up but that has been something of a roller coaster for me in the past 30 days.

I have played many freerolls on FTP, PS and UB. I tend to go pretty deep but frequently come up just short of cashing since you have to be in the top .2 to .5 percent of the field. I did manage to place second in a freeroll on FTP. 7500 started I believe.

On Walker poker I managed to have my account drop below $100 for the first time in awhile but I have almost doubled the amount since then. I believe I am playing smarter and also more willing to put my money in when I believe I have them beat even when I don't have the nutz. Many players on there are uber aggressive and will push you off of hands with all ins that are like 10x what the pot is.

I also have an old friend who is now interested in online poker. He is just learning the game so at this time he is only playing play money and freerolls. Just trying to help him play tight to begin with to get a feel for the game and maybe get lucky and cash in a freeroll. He is really enjoying it for now. Will see how long it takes till it frustrates the hell out of him like it does everyone else from time to time. LOL

As for the Columbus poker scene, we are now back to 9 clubs. This is even after 6 have closed. Nick's Shark Tank being the newest on Bethel Rd. Pretty nice club.
There is another new club, The Bicycle Club, but I am unfamiliar with it.
Also, the local Vegas Nights group is running 7 days a week in the same location, so basically they are another club but they still rake the games for charities.
Just under two years till they will complete the casino here in Columbus.

No new trips to any casinos but I am starting to jones for one. Probably will make a trip in the next month or two. Might even go to the casinos in Detroit for the first time.

Almost Summertime........

2010-05-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a few months since my last posting.
For myself, not much has changed. I have continued to grind and to very slowly build my bankroll. I have never quite gotten to the point where I play at least 3 times a week live on a regular basis. If I was able to do that (sometimes just need the desire to do it) I could probably build my bankroll much more quickly.

For 2010, I have only had two weeks that were losing weeks!! And those were the first two weeks of the year!! I have had a few significant losing sessions yet have managed to make a profit every week. Some have been very small but still a profit. This past week nearly saw that streak of winning weeks come to an end as Saturday night saw me stuck over 2 buyins and it was 3 in the morning. LOL Wasn't looking so good. I got extremely lucky on one hand and that hand got me a decent profit for the day. I played A6s in mid position. Late position good player raised to $12 and got one other caller. I gambled and called also. Flop came down AK6 rainbow. Check, I checked, OR (original raiser) bets $30, EP player folds. I CR to $75. He flats. Turn is A. I bet $80, he flats again. River is a Q. At this point I get concerned that he has AQ. I didn't think he had AK because I felt he would have reraised me on flop or turn. I checked. I only had $200 in front of me. He went AI and I called. He had KK! I hit my two outter on the turn for the miracle and a nice size pot. Normally that the A on the turn happens against me when I trap someone with a monster like he did to me. He had me buried and I never saw that hand coming. Got very lucky but we all do at times and I will take it when I can.

As for the poker scene in central Ohio, we have begun to see a shaking out of the clubs. Of the 11 that were open at the beginning of the year one closed permanently and two others closed for "renovations". It remains to be seen if they will open back up. Expecting more "renovations" this summer as the weather gets better.

Gemini Berea Ohio was forced to close for the time being after the city cancelled its occupancy permit after alot of pressure from outside sources. They claim they just don't want it but all of the facts of the club were laid out in the process of getting the permits. Most likely it is the Jacobs group applying the pressure as Gemini put a hurt on their "charity" operations at Nautica.

I came close to winning a $12k package for the WSOP on FTP for $1. I played well, ran well but then got too tight. I was in the top 15 of the remaining 140 players and had been moved to the table with the CL who was abusing the field with his 1.4M in chips. I had 800k. Was dealt 66 in EP and did not want to tangle with the CL because he raised 99% of the hands and CB each time also. Not to mention a few shorter stacks on my left who may have pushed for $150k to $300k to pick up the blinds and antes which totalled over $40k ($10k/$20k, $1k ante). After I fold the rest of the field folds to the SB who flats the call. Naturally the BB (CL) raises but only a min raise. Curious as to whether the raise would have been greater had I entered the pot. Flop was KJ6 of course. Both players got it AI as they both connected on the flop with one pair. The set would have held and I would have had a 2.2M plus stack. I could reasonably have cruised to the ft. They were only giving away 5 of the $12k packages. Not making that play really bothered me and I managed to put myself on tilt and wasted away my chips. I went out 104th. Disappointing as that is the closest I have ever come to winning a seat. Tournament started with nearly 31k players! It is a good tournament and I recommend it to anyone who plays on FTP.

That has been the highlight of my online play. I have been doing miserably online but that is due to poor play and not alot of volume.

In live play I made my first foray to a New York casino. Went to Turning Stone casino in the middle of the state. It is an Indian casino so my friend who is only 18 was able to play there. We had a pretty good time and we were successful also. We did not crush the games as we had hoped but managed to make a profit for the trip. That was only my second trip to a casino in the past few months. The other trip being a two day-one night trip to Belterra in Indiana with a friend. I managed to win both days and for the most part stay away from the slots and pits.

Hope everyone has a succesful and fun summer. I plan to continue the bankroll building. I hope to step it up some as I now have a few extra buy ins to mess around with.

Next.......Month

2010-02-22T13:50:00.001-08:00

Rewriting this as I attempted to spell check it and wiped out my original post..... frustrating.

Well my winning cash game sessions continued after last posting. Nothing huge and no large wins but consistent. Only a couple of losses in the mix. Playing fairly well and have had a couple of lucky hits at the right time. I haven't been playing as much as I used to but feel like I have been playing alot.

Tournaments continue to be my most frustrating point. But I think the main reason for that is I have tried to force myself to be more aggressive to pick up chips in order to try to win the tournaments versus just cash. Of course there have also been plenty of being patient and waiting and trapping people and they just continue to get lucky. When I need the luck in the tournaments it usually doesn't happen. But recently I did manage to get very lucky against a couple of friends of mine who are brothers. All 3 of us got it aipf in a freeroll down at Platinum. I had AK while they both held pairs. AA and 44 !! K on flop and K on river for my official donkey win. :)

Online has seen its better days for me. I have bottomed out two of my four accounts while the third (Walker Poker) is all from freeroll money. I am now trying to rebuild something from practically nothing on PS and UB. Both accounts are under $10 right now. Trying to stick mainly to .01/.02 NL. I really haven't been home as much to play so it is slow going. FullTilt (FTP) is my main account theses days. I have been losing steadily lately as I am playing too many MTTs and not cashing. I did managed a nice score couple of weekends ago. Managed to win a $2 MTT with over 600 players. Guess it was just my day. Entered ft as one of the ss. Got the right hands at the right times.

The new Gemini - Berea is doing very well. 9 cash tables on the weekend usually and 2-4 cash tables during the week. Platinum Players Club has been doing fairly well. They had a $100 tournament this past Sunday and got 29 runners. Good for their first $100 tourney. I have yet to visit Paizan's or Premeire but plan to do so on the next couple of months.

Looks like my first trip to Las Vegas to play poker will be postponed. Didn't jump on the cheap flights when I should have and now the cost of the flight would eat up too much of my bankroll to make it worthwhile going out there. I was really looking forward to it and I am dissappointed but I know sometime this year I will probably make it out there.

New Year.... Same Story...

2010-01-18T08:21:00.000-08:00

Well I ended up having a very good end to December in live play. Made a few final tables of some of the small tournaments I play in here and chopped two of the tournaments. Ring games were also a brighter spot than they had been turning in 7 out of 8 winning sessions.
Things were looking very good heading into the new year.

Ahh.... but then reality woke up and smacked me down. Had a fairly large loss (at least as far as my losses go) the first weekend of the year. I continued down that path for the first 2 weeks of the year.

The good thing is that even with that I am playing well and enjoying myself. Little unlucky and a little card dead I can deal with. When I have been at the tables I have fun so even with the losses I am in a different place now than I was 2 months ago.

Recently booked two winning sessions to put a stop to the losses. They only covered about 20% of the losses but helps so that I can continue with a positive attitude.

Have my monthly big tournament coming up this Friday. Should be interesting.

Also, there is a new club opening up with long time poker players running it. These guys are pros out of NJ. This should make for some very interesting situations in Columbus. They will be opening up the 11th...... that's right..... ELEVENTH club in the immediate Columbus area. They even had a write up in Poker Pro magazine and one coming up in CardPlayer. Summer time will see a shakeout of all of these clubs. There is not that much poker action in Columbus to support them all.

Gemini is opening its second club in the greater Cleveland area this Thursday. I wish them well. They should be successful. I also wish The Platinum Players Club success (NJ pros' club) which will be opening this Friday (tentatively).

Looking forward to the New Year.......

2009-12-21T12:36:00.000-08:00

Well the "fall into the Fall" has stopped but hasn't quite turned around. I had pretty much taken a break from live play after the last posting. During that time I continued to play online. Managed to completely wipe out what little bit I had left on PS and just maintain my br on FTP and UB. Still playing too loosely at times. I think it is due to lack of focus. Having fun though and not caring.

I did make a foray into a casino over the Thanksgiving weekend. Traveled to PA for the weekend and stopped at Wheeling Downs. Hadn't been playing live so I definitely enjoyed sitting back at a table with chips. Also previously had been very card dead in live play for a few months. I actually lost at Wheeling but got hands I was able to play. I enjoyed myself even though I lost and felt a little renewed in live play.

After returning from PA I started playing in the weekly Tuesday night game again. Have not had a losing session yet but most have been because I cut it early due to the smoke. I don't know how I ever put up with the local vegas nights when 80% of the players chain smoked. I get such vicious headaches that even if I am winning I can not concentrate nor enjoy myself so I have to leave after as little as 2 hours of play.

Also started playing in the clubs again. Not weekly but several times a month. Not winning consistently but enjoying myself and getting cards I can play. Did well this past week chopping a small tourney and then doing well at the cash table within 2 hours. Was just getting very lucky most of the night.

And last week I also did well online in MTTs on UB. I really had not been playing much on UB as my funds had not been available to me for some time. (long story) LOL But I played several small stake MTTs and managed two final tables. I got a third which was nice as I had been ss in that tournament for most of the last two tables and then I got extremely lucky and won the second ft. Always feels good to have back to back fts.

2009 has been the worst of the past 5 years and I still have managed to eek out a very very very small profit. At this point I guess I am just enjoying playing even though I am only basically breaking even. I know this is a recipe for disaster financially so I am looking to turn things around in 2010 with a renewed focus on growing an actual bankroll.

The fall continues into the Fall.......

2009-09-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

Well, as the title suggest my fall online continues. I guess it is more of a slide than a fall but at times it feels like it. Through the last 3 months I have lost about 25% of my online bankroll What once was looking very promising to me.... now has placed me back into reality. LOL

Part of the slide (fall) involved trying my hand at ring games I should not have been in. At the behest of a friend who is fairly successful in online ring games I tried the $50NL games on FTP once. Once and only once. LOL Had two tables open. Told myself if he can do it I can do it. Actually I reasoned that I play live 1/2 and 1/3 NL so why not .25/.50 online. I was risking the same amount of money at two tables that I normally risk at a single live table. Didn't do too bad for a while. Just had a few too many second best hands. Including a set over set which felted me on the one table.

I have also been playing probably too many $5 and up MTTs. Including HORSE and PLO and Stud8. Usually run fairly well and then late in the tourney I will have one hand I will horribly misplay (and sometimes just get unlucky) and then the tournament is usually over for me. I will be so short stacked it doesn't matter because the blinds are so high.

I did just have a decent night last night. Managed a 5th in a NL MTT on UB and a 4th in a HORSE MTT on UB. Both were small fields but was happy making two final tables. Didn't fare so well on FTP or PS.

Live I have been running warm. Not hot, not cold.... just warm. Have had 3 recent sessions in ring games where I have broke even. Unusual to break even in any cash game but did it in 3 different close sessions. Haven't been playing enough ring games. Mainly been playing smaller tournaments with decent results. Been pretty happy with my play though I am still probably not aggressive enough.

Haven't been back to any casinos lately. Been fairly busy I guess. Hope to make it a few times in October though.

Dipping Toes Into Bigger Pond..........

2009-08-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

Been venturing to the casinos a bit more these days. Past three weekends I have been to Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg IN. Also visited the Horseshoe Hammond IN and Majestic Star in Gary IN this past weekend before heading south through Indiana to the Hollywood.

First trip to the old Argosy outside of Cincy was a long night. Played for nearly 8 hours and was stuck most of the time. (I tend to be a shorter stack player and do not normally buy in for max buy ins. I play 1/2 or 1/3, whichever is the standard for the location.) At the end of the 8 hour session (5AM) I managed to get a lucky river card and win a decent pot. The pot which pushed me positive for the day and got me up from the table for the two hour drive home. My friend who had traveled with me ( the trip was his idea and request ) was a sleep in the car as he ran fairly poor early (course played a tad looser also).

This trip showed me that even during extended sessions I was maintaining my patience and playing well, not great.... but well.

Second trip was the following weekend back to Argosy (Hollywood).... this time for the Sunday $15k guaranteed tournament. Another friend wanted to play in this tournament as he leans more towards tournament play versus ring games. My original intent was to go and rail him and play some ring games myself. After some cajoling from my friend and an offer to buy 50% of my action in the tournament I decided to enter the tournament. Unfortunate for my friend he was out fairly early. Set over set .... and in these tournaments, most players are going broke in that situation. I managed to play very patient, get a couple of well timed hands and one huge suckout on the river (ss at the time with less than 25 players remaining). I made it to the final table (76 players started) as the short stack. One other player only had a slightly larger stack. Probably had an M of about 20 or 21 at the start of the final table. I played patient while I watched the other stacks do battle. Top 8 were to be paid. After the first knock out from the table a deal was worked out for $400 for the bubble (9th). Being the shortstack most of the day I was elated with this deal. This was one of the larger buy ins I have played with only two other tournaments being equal or greater value, both being WSOPC events 4 years ago. This was also my first tournament at this casino. So anyways, after at least securing a break even day, I proceeded to work my way up the payout chain mainly by allowing the others to fight it out. Found few key hands to pick up chips and I even managed to knock out one of the players myself. I worked my way into a 4th place finish. In retrospect, I should have entertained talk of a chop. At the point I went out the blinds were 4k/8k with a 1k ante (I think... memory is not perfect on this) and the biggest stack was 230k and three of us at 122k, 148k (me) and 159k. Would have been a much nicer pay day for me but was still happy with the 4th place finish. Made a decent profit for myself and my friend.

Third trip was a mini pokercation (poker+vacation). Took off a few days of work to travel with my friend who planned on playing in the HPT $1k event at the Majestic Star in IN. Got there on a Friday afternoon and played a little 1/2. Made a very small profit before they broke down the tables for the start of the HPT event. Went to the Horseshoe to play before the tournament started. Again made a small profit. Went back to the Majestic Star and decided to take a seat in the 3/6 LHE game. Had a very nice run at 3/6 and called it a night. First day of the trip was a successful one..... for both of us as he had advanced onto day 2 of the HPT event. Saturday was a day off for my friend as they were running two more day 1 flights for the HPT. So we played some 1/2 at different tables so that we could get our poker room rate. For me the day was a long long dead day. Played 5 hours and lost about 80. I still was patient and didn't get trapped. Just couldn't put together a good hand with a good pot. Went back to the room as my friend had already returned to the room to sleep. We had been woke up early by the cleaning crew as they thought our room was empty.... we didn't check in till 5 AM. LOL Pretty tired. Original plan was to go back to the Shoe to play in the evening....... well that never happened. Got some much needed rest instead. Third day was the 2nd day of the HPT. After hanging around for a little during the first level of the day for the tournament I decided to get on the lists for the ring games. First game I was called for was the 2/5 game. Now this is where I decided to try and step up my game. I sat down with 320 (max buy in was 500). This was probably for me the most I had put on a table at one time. I have lost more than that but through multiple reloads. The game had pretty good action and I stayed pretty even... up a little... down a little... back up... you get the idea. My friend came up to tell me he got knocked out.... was a little bummed. He got 61st... only paid top 46. Close but no cigar. He was willing to stick around for a little while as I was being patient and my table was good. For awhile I didn't feel like I was out of my comfort zone. I decided to add another 100 to what I had on the table. The action was pretty good and stacks were on average about 600... couple over 1k. Unfortunately the texture of the game changed with two new players coming to the table. Very aggressive and loose players. I should have recognized that this moved me out of my comfort zone and I should have quit. Unfortunately I did not and my play deteriorated. I played poorly. Added another $200 to my stack as it had been chopped away. Ended up calling it a day down $435. So much for a good weekend. LOL We still had a good time.
My friend wanted to play in the first event of the ISPC at Hollywood on Monday so we left and headed south through IN. We get down there in a fairly quick 4.5 hours and go to the poker room for him to register for tomorrow. Unfortunately you could not register till the next morning at 9. So we decided to play some NLHE...... to say the least it wasn't 2/5. LOL It will be a while before I venture back to that level. And the frustrations unfortunately continued for me. Was getting 2 and 3 outtered most of the night. I made good lay downs but still got little respect from the table. The table would chase just about anything. That is what we want but having a losing night makes it hard to take. Ended up losing my buyin of 200. No biggie.... we were tired so we went and got a room. Wanted to get some rest for the next day. My friend got up early to go and register then came back to the room for additional sleep. We got to the casino just as the tournament started. I could still have entered as it was a deepstack tournament but with the way I ran (and played) the day before I passed on the opportunity. Decided to play some more 1/2. Continued with my patience... this time it payed off... but only marginally. Still happy to have a profitable session after the previous day's results. My friend unfortunately got knocked out in the first level of the tournament...... set to a chaser for a gutshot, turned flush draw. Course they hit.... live poker..... so rigged.

Year is half over.....

2009-07-16T06:12:00.000-07:00

Well my live downswing continued but I realized that I was running bad and playing bad also. Horrible combination. Wasn't playing with my normal patience. Fortunately... or unfortunately I decided to take a small break from live play after I was down to the last 10% of profit I still had. LOL

I continued to play online but up until this week I had a horrid 3 week slide. My play online wasn't that bad but was running incredibly bad. I was making the right calls at the right times on overly aggressive players and they were hitting their 3 outters. Such is poker..... and for once I wasn't going horse screaming at the computer screen. LOL I know, I know... hard to imagine me screaming expletives at a computer right? LOL

Well last week was my turn around for live play. But I switched from playing ring games to tournies. I feel I am playing well even when I don't cash so Iam happy with the turn around in my game. I have cashed in 2 out of 5 tournies in the past two weeks and hope to continue to build on that. Also trying my hand at non-holdem tournies which is a nice change of pace.

And this week, I managed to get the monkey off my back online with two back to back positive sessions. I almost forgot what that felt like in the past three weeks. Making deeper runs in micro buyin MTTs. When I finally get the money it can be a bit of a let down because a $1 MTT with 250 players in it just doesn't pay alot unless you get first..... but I settled for 5th and was happy making another ft.

Squeeze One In..........

2009-06-30T06:41:00.000-07:00

......... post that is verses a winning session! LOL

Things continued to go fairly well (online at least) after my last post. Nothing quite as spectacular as the Sunday I had but I have continued to grow my online br slowly and steadily. Few steps forward, one back... few steps forward. You know the routine in poker when you go for the steady slow climb.

Even though I have a decent amount online ( at least for a micro stakes player like me ) I have continued to stick to the $5 and under MTTs and SNGs. I dable in the few larger buy ins.... $8 & $10 SNGs.... but haven't moved up any yet.

I did play a $3 rebuy on UB. Bubbled. Got my money in good with AA when I limp raised the bb raiser. He of course shoved pf and proudly displayed his JJ.... especially when the J hit the flop. We were both in the top 15 of remaining players at the time. He only had me covered by about 10% of his stack. But was rewarded handsomely for his great timing play.

Have made a few other fts in the smaller buyins I play but most of the finishes have just been into the table and not top 3. I did manage to pull off a 2nd place finish but should have been first as I had my opponent dominated in chips when we got heads up, 160k to 30k. He got two quickly lucky double ups within the first 7 hands headsup and I was toast after that.

Live play has decreased in frequency and when I am playing I am playing horribly I guess. I have lost 70% of the profit I had up to this point in live play for the year. That was all within the last 5 different days of live play I have done. Wow..... messes with your head when you run bad (play bad). I am kinda numb to it surprisingly. Just hope this turns around soon.

Well I wanted to get in a post before June ended....... nothing like procrastinating till the last day!

Amazing Sunday

2009-05-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

Well I never thought I would get to write a blog entry such as this.
I had an incredible run this past Sunday morning, one that probably will not be duplicated again.
Now I did not win thousands or just play blindly but I ran incredibly well.
I now know how it feels to run that way and it is a very very satisfying.

I played live on Saturday. Had a decent day but I was very card cold. I had a young friend watching my play and cards after he got knocked out of the tournament and he was laughing at my hands. They were that bad. I would get a red 4 as the first cards more time than I can count. This was a very strange day. I think I documented once before when I was playing 10/20 limit holdem that I received a 4 as my first card dealt 16 hands in a row!! After the first 6 or 7 first 4s I started just turning my first card face up. After the 16th time I sat out until that dealer was off of his shift. LOL Never happened again after that day.

So Saturday I ended up 15th out of 62 players which wasn't terrible except that my last hand I actually flopped and oesfd against two overs. I had 20 outs! We were 8 handed at the time. I was in the small blind with blinds being 1400/700 + 200 ante. I only had 2100 behind and the bigstack at the table counted me down and bet that amount. I chose to call and was fairly pleasantly surprised to find he only held KQo without a diamond against my Jd9d. The flop was 10d,8d,4h. Now any diamond (9 outs), any 8 (3 outs), any Q (2 outs), any J (3 outs) and any 9 (3 outs). Unfortunately he hits a red K on turn though not the diamond obviously, reducing my outs by 6. And the river was a 2h. You know how you see the red of the card... and for a moment... just a moment... you think you have hit. LOL Such cruelness the poker gods can exhibit. No matter I had enjoyed myself as many of the players in this tournament I had not seen for awhile.

After the tournament we drove back to our home city and went to a small home game I enjoy on Saturday evenings ( and many times early Sunday mornings ). This game is only 1/2 NL but sometimes the players are out of control. Unfortunately for my friend (and somewhat myself) this was one of those times. My friend did not fair well for his first visit but I think he will be back in the future. The place can be rowdy bettingwise or one where you simply get called down on everything. But it is a fun social evening with poker the main course. I faired better than my friend but only walked away with a $10 win. LOL A win is a win, right?!?! LOL

So I get up Sunday morning, somewhat expecting more of the previous days slight of cards. I am fairly used to it but one can always hope for a better day. And Sunday proved to be much better. I entered several tournaments on several sites (PS, UB FT and Walker). Yeah yeah... I know... spreading myself around, would be better to concentrate on one site at a time.... but this way I don't wipe out any one account quckly. Don't try to figure it out... it is my own screwy logic. LOL
I ended up playing in twelve tournaments but none of them over a $5.00 buy in. Two were freerolls of which I didn't make if far in either. Another was the lone tournament on Walker I entered..... for .25. LOL another failed attempt. Of the remaining 9 tournaments I cashed in 6 of them. I can not recall if two of the 6 cashes were in SNGs but I believe they were. The other 7 tournaments were all MTTs or 180man SNGs. My friend even talked me into playing in a TurboHeadsUpShootout MTT on FT. I am not a good headsup player nor short handed player. My game is improving but I am truely weak in these areas. The field was 98 players and I went out in 11th place.... good enough for a cash. Was happy to have cashed at least in it as I really didn't think I would do well at all.

The other 3 cashes were in a $5.00 MTT (202 players), a $3.00 MTT (210 players) and a $2.00 SNG (180man). I finished 3, 2, and 1st respectively. It was one of the more incredible runs of my life in poker. No it was the most incredible. I stopped playing. After I finished the final tournament which was the first place finish I just felt I shouldn't push my luck any more. LOL Actually I was more in shock than anything that I had run that hot. I guess I was just satisfied with my day and chose to do other things and get out of the house. Course it helped that it was a very nice day out. I would elaborate more on the games but I don't remember them all that well. Of course many many spots I got lucky but I also played pretty well. But more than anything I was just lucky either to have the best hand to start or to hit.

Now if I could only duplicate a run like that in larger than $5.00 buy ins! LOL

Happy Cinco de Mayo

2009-05-05T06:10:00.000-07:00

Well it has been awhile since I posted.
Poker is just kinda trudging along.
Haven't been doing very well but not losing.... just not gaining any ground.

I have found myself sitting in games I do not really want to be in just to help keep the game going or even start it. There is a new club on the west side of town. But I fear it will not make it.
Everyone thinks they are too good to start games. They will only go once a game is already started. Hell if half the people that called to see if a game was going showed up we would have two tables and a waiting list.

Have decided to mix it up a little and just play in some games I haven't been to in a long time.
Going to the little $20 tournament tonight with the horrible blind structure. They will get over 140 players and it still will be over with in 4 hours. And that is with a 10,000 starting stack!

I think I will also not stay in any game I am not comfortable with. I can't help it if a game doesn't start or breaks because I don't want to play. I am down almost 3 buyins in 3 weeks and that includes a double buyin win in the middle of those 3 weeks along with a few other small wins.

Since it has been so long since I posted I have played in my monthly tournament twice since I bubbled the final table in 10th. I followed it up with a 7th place but then was the 3rd person out in the last tourney. I gambled and took one off for the nut flush draw on a paired board. I should have known I got lucky for a reason, one of the other players flopped quads. LOL

February rolling along.....

2009-02-18T12:34:00.001-08:00

Well unfortunately haven't been playing much in the way of ring games since my bad weekend. I think I have played twice and managed small wins. They were wins, but trust me very small. Only won back maybe 10% of what I lost that one weekend. Haven't really had the opportunity or maybe I should say drive to play ring games since then. Once I get home I relax and don't feel like going back out.

I have played in some tournaments. One of them I just had a good time playing, played crazy bad... but still had fun. :) Nice to just cut loose a little bit like that. Didn't play wacko just looser than normal chasing flushes and inside str8s! Was also helping to run the tournament so wasn't bothered by much.

Played in one of the best live tournaments I have ever had the chance to play in. The structure of the tournament was great. The players were probably the toughest field as a whole I have ever played against. Very few players at this tournament could have been considered dead money. Made it to 15th out of 60. Met a lot of really good guys and gals and good players. Check out http://www.badbeatspoker.net/ for future tournies. Have to be a member of the forum though.

Also did pretty well in my monthly $100 buy in tournament. But I bubbled final table in 10th place. Was still pretty happy with my play. Maybe misplayed two hands the whole night.

Online has been a back and forth thing. Still hovering in the same place for the most part but finding success in many MTTs. What is keeping me in somewhat neutral is I started playing $10 and $20 SNGs and that eats up alot of the profits I am pulling out of the MTTs.

I think I need to start trying to play cash games online but I fear I could take a major swing down like I did last time when I had a pretty good sum on UB and tried playing limit ring games. Wiped most of the $800 out in like 3 weeks. Just couldn't get any traction. I think I will try to stick to MTTs and stop playing the $10 and $20 SNGs. That should help the online roll a bit.

(edit note: You would think I could spell my own birth month correctly)

New Year.......

2009-01-28T10:42:00.000-08:00

Well the new year in poker has started out well for me.... or at least continued rolling in the same direction as I ended last year.

Online I am finding that I continue to be fairly successful. I think I have made 11 final tables since Nov when the tournaments had more than 100 players in them. Some tourneys as many as 2202. Got 2nd in that one. Mainly NL MTTs but a few HORSE and RAZZ tournaments. Just got a 4th place last night in HORSE on UB. Just hoping to continue progressing my bankroll online. Currently is over $500. Has been a long time since I have over $500 online. Struggled all through 2008 with under $200 on all 3 sites I play. Not counting Walker Poker as I have maybe $23 on there... just mess around once in awhile there.

Live ring games have continued to be good .... well up until this week that is. LOL Have lost about 70% of my live bankroll in just 3 sessions. Course that is because I have no true bankroll to speak of. Took a pretty hard beat for all of my money on Monday night (Tuesday morning 6AM!). Got upset but didn't say anything to the player that called $260 ai on the flop into a $108.00 pot (!) but then another player at the table justified the caller's 30% hand call with the statement "He's stuck that's why he called". I kinda snapped off at that statement that that is the way to get unstuck.... call 50% of your stack on a 30% hand when you are getting 1.4 on your money. The more I think about it the more I need to leave it alone. I know I want the player making that call (for a Q high flush draw) 70% of the time ( I even had the K high flush redraw after he hit on the turn). Hell his hand might not even have been a 30% hand due to my redraw. I didn't give the player any crap about it... but the other lucksack chiming in pissed me off. Fortunately the club was closing and I just left.

One positive note in my play is I am not devastated like I used to be when I lose a buy in or two in an evening. This used to majorly depress me and make me pretty hostile for a week or two. Getting better at taking the beats. I just need to work on making more money when I am winning so that when I lose it won't take two or even three sessions to get that money back. That is one of the big holes in my game. I risk $200-$300 to win $100-$200 and am happy. Problem is when I lose I tend to lose the full buy in. I am getting there... just have to keep working on it.

Live tournaments have not been good to me so far this year. Some of it has been horrible play on my part and much of it just card dead. No cashes yet or bubbles.... close but no bubbles. Just need a good cash in Feb to get the tournaments rolling.

Not Tilting........ but still tilt......

2008-12-10T10:34:00.000-08:00

Well been a month again since I posted.... but at least I am hitting it once a month minimum.

Still not playing too much but I did manage to stop by Wheeling for two different sessions.
Managed to prove to myself that I did learn my lesson from the previous trip there. Got there on a Tuesday night about 11:30pm and played till noon the next day. Was a card dead night, no suckouts. But I didn't let it tilt me this time. No pushing of hands I didn't need to push. Lost but only a small amount this time instead of the previous lengthy sessions where I pushed too hard the last hour or so of each session and lost much more than I should have.
Went back the Sunday after Thanksgiving and had a better but shorter session. The badbeat jackpot but up to $58k. Wanted to play more but was up a decent amount and decided not to risk it. Had I been up less I would have played more than the 4 hours I did play as I had planned on making it at least a 12 hour session.

Been doing ok playing small sessions of 1/2NL. Did have a bad session just the other night though. Took what I felt was a bad beat.... well not so much a bad beat as a surprising one based on the player and their knowledge of me. AK beat by Q5os on the river. With the Q5os raising on my flop bet...K106... all spades. And no I didn't have a spade in my hand. The other player knows me well and I had a good read on them they they did not have a hand yet. That they were on a draw. Unfortunately I was not deep stacked enough to make a play that I thought could push them off their draw. I bet-called the flop (was a min raise) and check-called the turn (6c). Checked the river (6s) as did the other player. Only to have their hand turned over to see the 5s that they were betting all the way. Started to tilt..... just kept saying "Wow" outloud but not loudly. I stewed for a little while but managed not to tilt aggressively in any hands after that. Didn't spew chips. I was happy with myself for not tilting... or so I thought.

I previously mainly thought of tilt as angry chip spewing or trying to be too aggressive. I found my other form of tilt that night....... being too scared. Playing hands too passively or totally incorrectly because I fear getting snapped. And of coure this caused me to misplay one hand horribly wrong and get felted. I limped with QQ noting a raise was coming to my left. Planned on just smooth calling to make sure no A (or K) came on the flop. It was raised to $18 with 5 callers before me and I was the last to call the raise. I knew if anyone else that was involved in the hand would have had a better hand or even AK they would have raised. The raiser was a very aggressive player who can raise almost any two and then play fairly well after the flop. I felt their hand wasn't that strong based on the reaction to all of the callers. I should have ended the hand right there and shoved aipf which most likely would have worked. Instead I sheepishly smoothed called. Flop was J43... I think the 43 were clubs. Checked to me with only the original raiser behind me and he looked like he was gonna bet. But I didn't want anyone else in the hand besides myself and the original raiser so I decided to shove my last $120. The pot was already just over $100 I believe. Everyone folded but one player.... the one with 44! He easily would have laid down preflop to a $120 reraise...... but I was tilting.........another lesson learned.

Also played in my monthly big tourney. Big for me is $100. Managed to get a respectable 5th finish out of it. Paid top 8. Ran QQ utg into KK in bb. Not much I could do there as I was in 4th in chips anyways. with blinds being 3/6k+500 ante. My stack was 33k. Made some good laydowns to get to that point. Had a couple of players move aipf in front of me. Woke up with AK, 99, 88 and 55. I think the only hand that would have held up was the 99 but didn't want to flip for half of my stack. Rather keep the shortstacks that way until I felt had them dominated. Ak would have lost to AQ or AJ. The flop was rabbitted and both Q and J was on flop. Might have caught the lucky 10 but we will never know.

So now I have had one tournament cash in each of the past 3 months for $300 or more and I have only played maybe a total of 10 tourneys. I am going to start playing tournaments again like I was doing in the first half of 2007 which was pretty frequent. Had a decent amount of success that year in tournaments but then things cooled off and I cut back my tournament play drastically.

Hopefully 2009 proves to be a good year for me cardwise. Trying to approach it much the way I have in 2008 but with a more consistent schedule of play.

The Weekend that wasn't.....

2008-11-10T08:14:00.000-08:00

Well originally was supposed to go to the WV casinos.... but alas.... plans fell through. I was disappointed but probably was for the best considering my previous visit and tilt sessions there. LOL

Ended up just continuing my latest run at the ring live games. I am still doing well. Keeping the sessions to under 2 hours. Hit and run I suppose but not hitting for big money... just consistent money. I am determined to build a bankroll through slow but steady acquisitions. And so far it is working. I did have one session this past weekend where I played a ring game (after playing in a tournament for 2 hours after going card dead and not cashing) for 7.5 hours! LOL I ended up winning only $47 after tips and fee. But had a good time. I actually enjoyed playing till 4:30 in the morning. Had been a very long time since I had done that. Was easy to enjoy I guess as I didn't play many hands and was never stuck too much and never up much either.

I have been having some success online... nothing great... just different. I have been playing non holdem tournaments and doing ok. Bubbled a Stud8 tournament (50/380+ paid top 48), final tabled a Razz tourney and cashed in a PLO8 tourney. They were all small buyins but was a nice change from the NLH jamfest I tend to get in. I also bubbled a final table in one of the Stars $5 buyins. Was happy but took a so so beat with under 15 left to cripple me. (AK vs Q10o he jammed I called). I think there were over 800 players in that tourney so I faired well. Haven't been doing very good in STT SNGs lately but I think I have gotten away from my usual game in them and have been gambling too often.

Also got 2nd in a live tournament (only 20 players). Was actually very disappointed in 2nd but the woman I played headsup with just outplayed me I guess. Or at least played a style I could not counter. She jammed ai 10out of 25 hands. I never once had an Ace or even two face cards when she did it. I couldn't play against her unless I just wanted to gamble. She had 80-85% of my stack and I wasn't willing to gamble. She finally did it (went ai) after the flop on the last hand and I had made middle pair so I called her. But she of course had the top pair and I failed to improve. I ended up winning the next 3 hands all aipf. But I couldn't keep up the string and went down in defeat. I hope to get her headsup again sometime soon....... I will gamble next time.

Hello Again......

2008-10-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

Well I am getting just as bad as every other blogger who never posts. I spend more time reading others' posts than worrying about my own.

Haven't really been doing much in the way of live poker. Play a few small buy in tournies with less than 50 players. Still not doing well. Go deep, but no cash. Still chugging along in the ring games when I do play them. Play $1/3 and $1/2 for usually 1-2 hours. Cash out $100-$150 and done. Hit and run. Wish it meant I was building up my bankroll but just can't seem to get there. Always something taking the extra cash.

Actually had a decent week last week online. We going deep and made 4 final tables in tournaments with at least 180 players. None of the big ones but was still very happy to make 4 final tables out of like 13 tournaments that size in 6 days.

But then after those nice cashes they "flipped the switch" on me online. LOL Not that I can't win races, I can't win the 80/20s (QQvsJJ) and the 70/30s (AKvsKQ).... much less the AA vs K10os aipf. Just running bad now. Have lost most of what I won from those 4 fts. I am sure there were some hands I pulled out of my $%^ but really been running bad in critical situations. Guess I need to step back to the $1 & $2 SNGs and give up the $5 SNGs and $4 bounty MTTs on UB.

Been awhile.....

2008-09-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

Well not alot very interesting has been going on pokerwise (or otherwise) for me. I have been toiling at the low levels still. One day up, next day down. Pretty much staying even.
Been playing low level ring games but without steady success. Seems I will run into a maniac who just doesn't care and shoves and gets lucky when I have a made hand preflop. I normally fold but there are times you just know you will have to stand up to the jammer or you won't be able to play at the table at all.
Also made and excursion to the WV casinos finally. Moderate success but overshadowed by two sessions that ended in tilting off my remaining stacks. I have learned that 4 hours of being card dead is about where my judgement starts to fail me. I played for 6.5 and 9 hours @ 1/2 NL. I didn't take any badbeats ( and obviously didn't hand any out either) but I just couldn't get much going. And the tables were both so very very soft. Even my friend, whom the trip was actually for, said they were probably the softest he had ever seen in a casino. Within the last 45 minutes to an hour of each session I basically tilted off chips by try to make something happen. Whether that meant calling big bets when I knew I was behind trying to get way lucky or just playing too many hands in any position. And it didn't work. I lost 30 to 35% of my buyins in those waning minutes of each session. I would still have booked losers but they would have been much smaller overall. I was mad when I left but then realized I had no one to blame but myself.

Fishing with the wrong bait.....

2008-08-04T08:49:00.001-07:00

...... well at least that is how I felt last night.
All around me the hooks were in the water and most of the fishermen were pulling in some very nice hauls. I only managed a few small minnows.

After spending the weekend in Cleveland I decided to partake in a little poker at a couple of the church festivals. Well the beer was flowing and plenty of chips were being splashed with the beer.

Way too many ESPN watchers play at the church festivals. Several times one player would make the call and then say "and I raise". Each time the dealer would try to explain that you couldn't do that. It was a string raise. And each time this would be followed by a declaration of "Beer guy!" The player was frustrated and stated how they have played for years that way. God I want invited to that home game.

The next player picked up alot of chirping chips from the "Beer guy, I raise" (BGIR)player. On several flops he would state "Oh yeah, that's what I was looking for. You can believe me or not, but that is what I wanted to see". He got the chips when BGIR player shoved ai on a gutshot draw on the flop and failed to hit. About a $145 all in into a $32 pot! Then the chirpy player proceeded to give back those and a few more chips to BGIR on an Ace high bluff when BGIR flopped a set.

Each of these two player proceeded to pass their stacks or good portions of them off to two other players. Both times on bluffs. Alas, I was unable to pick up either of their stacks. Wasn't really hitting alot. Was up a little so I decided to head out to the next festival.

At this festival I sit down into what I was told was a $5/10 LHE game. Turned out to be a $1/2 NL. Gotta luv a competent floor.
Anyways, I sit down and notice one or two players I have seen before. A few young players that actually look fairly seasoned by the way they handled themselves and their chips and of course the church festival beer drinkers there for fun.
One of the fun drinkers was to my left. He picked up a pot when he hit the river and another player made a comment and the fun drinker stated they should give him some slack based on how much he had spent in the game already. I took that as a good sign.
As we are sitting there I am watching him win pots with 10 3os and J2o. Ok, I can see why he has spent so much money in the game. Then later he complains about some of the bad luck he has had with the monsters he has had snapped off. Kinda funny since he is willing to play just about any two cards preflop and can't get away from almost any draw or pair. I try to sit patiently with my line in the water and only get a few nibbles. The fun drinker to my left was there with a friend down at the other end of the table. That player felted another player and then decided it was time to go. We already had a couple of empty seats and with this player leaving, his fun drinking friend decided to go too. The only remaining players were a couple of grinders and the young seasoned kids. Not a great game so I decided to pack it in. Another reason for this was a 10% uncapped rake! If the pot was $213.00, they got $21.00!! It shouldn't have been called the rake but the rape of the pot. Makes it very hard to beat a game unless you win all the monster pots.

Anyways, I didn't lose any money but I never got to land one of the bigger fish in the ponds. Guess that is the way it goes somedays. At least I didn't get pulled in myself!

Rant post

2008-07-28T11:51:00.001-07:00

Well it has been awhile since I openly criticized someone I was playing with live... but it happened again. Even though it was probably justified (who doesn't think they are in the right when they go off on someone. LOL) I really shouldn't have done it.
Another sad aspect of me going off on him was this was at the club I deal at. Bad move on my part.
Unfortunately this was a kid who I used to have more respect for his game. I always thought he was a little aggressive and lucky but still respected his game.
Leading up to my little blow up I had been losing..... mainly due to playing bad and calling ai when I knew I was behind, praying to get lucky (which I did but they had already gotten luckier. LOL).
Easy for me to laugh about things now but at the time it put me on serious tilt. Funny thing was I was playing better and a bit less passively after going on tilt. Made a few good reads and went with them and they were right.

The situation happened when a tight/aggressive player raised to $20 utg. I flat called with 99 feeling I was probably behind but looking for a good flop. Another smooth caller and then this kid min raises to $40!.
There is no point in min raising any situation where you don't feel you already have the best hand and you hope the original raiser comes back over the top. I have ranted for years that I hate the min raise in NL in almost every situation. You are either begging to get beat or just bleeding money to the eventual winner.
Anyways, it gets back the the original raiser and of course he reraises $100. The kid had a disgusted look on his face. I couldn't call this reraise knowing I was way behind for sure now. So I start in on the kid with "great min raise" " I see you are happy about it too, real good play." The other smooth caller calls (known to tend to be a calling station once he decides he wants to play) and the kid smooth calls. Flop comes J108, two clubs. The original raiser goes ai with about $185. They both just call. The kid only has maybe $34 behind. Gotta love the call but not willing to commit that last 10% of his hand beginning stack. 7d right on the turn and a blank 5s on the river. KK takes it does, mainly due to the min raise. Kid never showed his hand. Didn't even wait to see the utg hand before he mucked.
I was steaming for another 2 hours after that. The tight utg player was ai and after the hand had one and a half racks of $5 chips plus 10 $25 chips. I would have won about 80% of that. I know I should want him to make that play. Hell I even tried earlier limping with KK in ep hoping for a raise from one of the many raisers at the table, no luck of course. I just should have let it go. But I let my tilt get the better of me.

Hopefully I will do better in the future of not letting it get to me. Just have to not tilt myself.

Chugging Along

2008-07-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

Been meaning to post something for the past couple of weeks. Just kept on putting it off.

Not alot has been happening except for a pretty bad run on live tournaments. I think I have played 19 live tournaments since the end of March. Only cashed once for $45.00. Pretty sad. Some of it (probably alot of it) is due to my bad play. But really seem card dead in tourneys when I am playing well. Eh, such is poker life.

In live ring games I have been having a pretty decent streak. Not killing the games or anything but I have played maybe 16 times since the end of March and I have only lost twice. Both losses were fairly small considering the games I was in and length of sessions so I am pretty happy with that. I think for a few more months I will continue to concentrate on ring games and play only an occasional tourney till things turn around for me in tournies.

Been doing ok online in tournies. Won another Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. I must be a huge lucksack because the same day I also won a tourney type I had never played before. Friends of mine are constantly bugging me to try short handed games (6-max). I normally like to grind at 9 or 10 player per table tournies but figured I would give it a try. I think we had just over 200 players. And somehow for a game I am not particularly good at, I managed to end up on top. I must just have been running very goooooot that day.

Been trying to the PLO8 (.02/.05) games on Pokerstars. I am way to easy to tilt in those games. I really have to get that under control. They are loving me at those tables because I keep dumping tons on them. I think I will back off of them for awhile.... or at least only play one table versus the 3 I normally play.

Dealing has been going ok. Dealt a $250 buy in yesterday. They had 103 players for the tourney. Pretty good for central Ohio. Decent structure with 5k in starting chips and 30 minute blinds. Had alot of new players at the club.

There are now 5 gaming clubs in central Ohio. I have been to only two of them but know of 2 2 of the remaining 3 and know that those 2 clubs are very small with not alot of action. The 5th club is further away and I doubt I will ever visit it. It will be interesting to see if the 2nd club I have been to will prosper. I hope they do only because I love the game and there are plenty of players to go around. The Gemini Players Club (www.geminiplayersclub.com) is still the best.

Played some 3/6 over the weekend at a Church festival and one of the local vegas nights. Had a few people talking to themselves with my change up in play. But I was mainly having fun.

Phobias.... and bankrolls

2008-06-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

Still not playing a whole heckuva lot but when I have played I have won small amounts. Just happy to be consistent and not losing at the time. I need to improve my play though because by only winning small amounts it won't take but one or two losing sessions to wipe out six winning sessions or more.

Started to play a little 1/2 and 1/3 NL. I have been itching to get into the games but having developed the phobia that I have in the recent months of losing anything, I have been steering clear of those games. Problem is the games here in Ohio are so loose there is tons of money to be made at the tables. But at the same time that looseness is what scares the hell out of me. I don't have much of a "hitter" and people frequently hit out on me.

Guess if I am to improve my game I have to play in those games. And hopefully along the way build a decent bankroll. I think that is the key to my new phobia....... no bankroll beyond one or two sessions of play. Really sucks.

Something new

2008-06-09T09:42:00.000-07:00

I wanted to try and post this link because this is one of the best blogs I read.
Anyone reading it that enjoys poker but also the many aspects of life around it and life in general will thoroughly enjoy this.
Lets hope I paste this link correctly.

Ok, so I wasn't able to figure out how to put it in this actual post but I was able to get it up to the
right of the posts.

And currently Pauly is doing great daily blogging from the WSOP. Check it out.

He also puts on a great tourney on Saturdays. PLO @ 4:20 EST on Pokerstars.

New Month ....... New Post

2008-06-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

Well still playing tons of freerolls and low low buy in SNGs and MTTs.

I am a member of a website that has freerolls on UB and Walker poker. The freerolls are $300 and $500 respectively. The fields are small (300+ - relatively small for the $ amount) and very weak. I have played in 4 of them and made the final table twice and top 20 players one other time. I managed to get lucky and get $45 on Walker poker through these freerolls. The site is ok... definitely a different look. Traffic on it seems to be picking up. I have only played a few micro ring games on it and I have not done very well but that is due to my very poor play and chasing. LOL If anyone ( if there is anyone that reads this blog.... LOL) wants info on the site that offers these freerolls I can invite you to be a member.

Been playing live limit lately. Not alot but have been winning small sums. Mainly hitting and running... though that isn't what I want to do. Just don't have alot of time to sit at the tables. Only play anywhere from 1-2 hours and then go. Mainly playing up in the Cleveland area which is one of the reasons for the limit on time.

I did finally manage to play in a blogger tournament. It was Dr. Pauly's on Saturdays. It is PLO and there were 28 players. I managed to lucksack my way to a win!!! Only the second, maybe 3rd blogger tourney I have ever played and probably first PLO one. Was pretty happy with the win to say the least. Hopefully I will be able to play in more of the blogger tournies.... just depends on my bankroll (lack thereof) and schedule.

Back to live play.... but as a dealer

2008-05-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

Well have played a little live lately.... exactly twice.... playing limit holdem.
Played 5/10 in Cleveland and 10/20 here. Both for less than 2 hours but book small wins.

When I have been around live cards I have been dealing lately at the local club here. Also there is a new club opening that I may end up helping out at. Been dealing some live 1/3 NL and 5/5 NL. When I deal and watch these games it reminds me of the Wizard of Oz..... when the Scarecrow was singing..... "If I only had a brain......."..... in my mind I am singing .. " if I only had a bankroll..... ". LOL

Still playing online in the low limits. Finally made a good showing on Fulltilt in something other than a freeroll...... though I have done ok in those also. Played a $3 MTT (not the Turbo/Knockout). Got 2nd! I was very happy with that even though it was only 186 players. First decent cash I have had on FT. Also played about 6 or 7 freerolls a couple of weekends ago. Cashed in two, bubbled a third (30th place). Not bad reaching top 1% of players 2 out of 7 tried and another top 2% placing in a third tournament. Also made top 100 in a fourth tournament.

Have also made a couple of good runs at the micro tournies on Stars ($2.50 and under MTTs). No big cashes but best finish was 18th out of 2700 + players. Sucky part is for making better than top 1% of field I only got around 5 or 6 times my buy in. It was only a $1 MTT but I think Stars paying out of top 20% of field sucks because when you do run deep unless you make the final table you don't get crap. Would be like making the top 50 in the WSOP main event and only getting $17k. Stars needs to fix that and quit being so greedy.

Have also been doing well on UB in the small buy in SNGs. Not great just grinding away. Slowly (very slowly) building my account up on there. Love the $0.50 multitable SNGs. LOL

Poker is poker...........right?

2008-04-17T06:22:00.001-07:00

For once I am not going to mention how I have done in poker lately.... this time I need to say something about a comment I saw in another player's blog that has been kinda bugging me. I almost commented in that blog but I think the player and others would take me wrong.

The comment was " Can anyone really do anything THAT wrong in a $10 tournament? I mean, it is a $10 tournament right?"

I find fault with that sentiment in that I feel like it is trying to say the buy in dictates what correct poker is. I have always felt correct poker is not dependent on the buy in but on the particular play needed at that time. The correct play depends on the other player(s), previous actions, cards, stacks, stage of tournament,.... etc. But shouldn't hinge upon the cost of the buy in, not if you are playing poker for the sake of playing poker. At the point where you will play differently because the buy in is insignificant to you it is almost like you are saying I am just gambling (like roulette) versus my normal poker play. Yes I know poker is a form of gambling but most are drawn to it because of the additional amount of control it allows the player over another form of gambling such as roulette where you are at the ball's total mercy.

A statement like the original comment make it seem like a play that is ok in a $10 (which seems to be implying that $10 is meaningless to particular players) wouldn't be acceptable in a $10,000 buy in tournament. If that is the case then plays that would be criticized in a $10,000 should also take into consideration what the player of said play's net worth is..... perhaps he feels "how can I do anything THAT wrong, this is only a $10,000 and I have over $10,000,000 in the bank."

Perhaps I am just being nitty or picking or whatever. It is almost like when a person makes the original comment they are saying that they play differently because the money doesn't matter to them. (Almost a condescension on those whom the $10 would matter to.)

From this point of view correct poker depends on your net worth, not your skill.

Weekend....

2008-04-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

Didn't make it to Ceasar's Indiana. Never heard back from my friend and too lazy to drive the 4 hours by myself.

Didn't play much online on Sat. Can't remember Friday at this point. LOL

I do remember one hand on Friday. Was deep in a $4/180man SNG on Stars. Find JJ late position with 25 left (pays top 18). Decent stack though not in top 10, but not short stacked. As the players start folding or calling I even think to myself "Do I really want to go bust with this hand this close to the money". Always have bad luck with this hand late in tournies. I figure, screw it.... if I want a shot at the top 3 places I need chips. One ep limper, so I raise about 4.4 x bb. Probably a little more. I tend to base my raises on the pot more than just the blinds. Everyone folds to the ep limper who calls. At this point I put him on a Ace/face hand. From comes K,x,2. He checks. Pot is now almost 85% of what I have left in front of me. I have the read that he doesn't have the K nor AA or QQ. I push in the rest of my stack not wanting to give him a cheap shot at hitting an A or Q if he has a hand like AQ or AJ. He insta calls with 22..... and I am out. I should have followed my instincts and not played the hand or at least not raised. Would have been much easier to get away from with the K on the flop and I would probably at least have made the money.

But lately I have tried to get away from the "just make the money" attitude and try to work harder at making top 3. Haven't been too successful with the change though. I should stick with what I do best which is eeking into the money and not losing much of my bankroll. The bankroll doesn't grow much but better than losing.

I did make another deep run in a $1 MTT on stars. Got like 41 out of 2600+ players. Not quite the top 1% of the field I wanted to make. LOL

Poker Purgatory

2008-04-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well I have been feeling like I am in purgatory lately..... and you know what... I am happy about it!! LOL
Happier to be in purgatory than in hell!
(for those of you that don't know what purgatory is, it is supposedly the place between heaven and hell that you get stuck in if you aren't quite worthy of heaven and not deserving of hell)

Lately I have actually been doing decent. Going pretty deep in MTTs but never getting big cashes. But I seem to have improved over just getting to the money and getting halfway through the payout field. Not great but better than bubbling!!

I have been so bad about keeping track of it lately. I mean I have kept track of it by writing it down... LOL but I haven't entered anything in my database for over 4 weeks so I can't give specific numbers. I will eventually get off my ass and do it...... not sure when. LOL

Might be going to Caesar's IN this weekend to play in a WSOPC prelim event ($500). But we will see.

GL to all at the tables.

Back to the living

2008-03-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well made my foray back into live poker tournaments ..... with no success... or is that sucksess? LOL

Friday I played in the one private tournament that is held monthly that is very hard to get into ... and was pretty much card dead. AA, AQo, 66, 33 were my 4 best hands followed by A7s, a few Ace rags, and then K10o. Not much to work with there. Only folded one winner in 2.5 hours, and I think that hand was 63o! LOL The AA and AQ were very the first level of the tourney and I raised and got no callers... so not particularly profitable. I have been card dead in this tournament before but that was probably the worst. No two face cards except the AQ. Pretty sad.... and worst part is the structure introduces antes after 2 hours. By then you know you are pretty much dead if you haven't won two significant hands.

Saturday my initial plans were changed for me so I contacted a friend who has a 20-30 player tournament once a quarter to see if he had any openings and he did. Nice tourney, nice people, not particularly tough field. Was out midway through the tourney of 30.

Yesterday went back to the $20 donkfest I used to go to every week. Actually didn't play too bad. Was inactive for the first part of the tournament but then about the middle started picking up pots and a few hands. Made it down to last 15 out of 121. Knocked out with 44 vs AQ on a K1010 flop.... knew I was dead with that flop. Way too many outs for him. I was one of the shorter stacks and was in the sb. Was folded to me and I made a move. He found a good hand in bb and called. It was also less than 25% of his stack. No suckouts against me so not a bad night. Frustrating but not the usual frustration I experience there with the really poor play. None of it was against me so it didn't get to me.

Been struggling online but that is my own fault for playing too loose and gambling and chasing way way way too much. But at least I have no one to get mad at but myself when I realize I am doing that.

Wow.......

2008-03-13T06:28:00.001-07:00

I SUCK.

LOL I have been so busy I haven't taken the time to even enter any tournies I have been playing into my database at home. I have like 2 weeks worth of tournies recorded on paper. I used to enter them as I played them. But I have found it is better for me while I am playing not to try to enter them into the database I have. I also haven't updated what little bit of live play I have been doing into the spreadsheet I have.

I think this means one thing........ that poker is starting to wane for me. I half feel like that, but then when I review things..... I think... I am still playing tons of tournies (mainly SNGs) per day. (Tons for me is like 20-30). I still play live occasionally... though I have cut way back on the donkeyfest tournies I was playing in. Lately have only played some 1-3NL. I think the big problem for me is just on a down swing. Last year at this time I had already had a significant cash or two. And was feeling good about things. But now I haven't done anything, no good cashes. Course I also haven't play half as many tournies in the first three months of 08 as I played in the same time frame in 07.

I need to get motivated.

I did play in a deepstack on PS. $20+2, 5000 starting chips, 30 minute levels. Definitely caters to my playing style. But I went on tilt early and actually built up a huge stack after I made bottom pair with 75s (the Locksmith)! Went all in for 900+ on the turn into a 11,000 pot and both players who had over 10k that were still in the hand folded. That's right, you read it correctly, they folded getting over 10-1 on their 900 call!!!! Total shock on my part. I was tilting and didn't care. From there I went on a small sick run of cards and moved into 2nd place. I think we started with 460+ players. Top 54 got paid. We were down to about 360 at this point. I stayed in the top 10 for most of the next 3 hours. (remind me never to get into a deepstack tournament on a work night!!! - tournament started at 7PM EST) I played decently for next two hours. Flopped sets twice and couldn't get paid off, not even by checking, then betting small but not min. Totally misplayed AQ after the bubble burst. In bb with AQ, min raise from button, sb smooth called. Flop Q74. Check, check, check. Turn J (still rainbow), Check, check, bet 3k into 9k pot. SB calls, I raise 12k, bettor moves ai for 9k more. SB folds, I call, Button shows 77 !
:( Bigtime dejection on my part. I still have over 35k in T$. We are around 40 players left at this point. I stay in bottom 1/3 of stacks for next 1.5 hours. Down to 22 players. I have to make a move soon but can't find a hand to do it with (combination of bad position and constant aggression at my table). I make good laydowns most would have pushed with, A10, AJo,33. Just a deepstack gives me plenty of room to be patient. I then go on a little run of cards, 1010, 1010, AJ, AK, AK. The first 1010 I doubled up against 99. There was a raise and 3 callers in front of me but I figured now or never. Raise was to 6500, I moved ai with 21k. Only got one caller, the 99. I actually figured I would get at least two callers because one was the chip leader with 300k+. But thank heavens I didn't as an A hit the flop. Two blanks and I more than doubled up. Then next hand I get 1010 again and move ai to pick up a decent pile with one limper in there. Then go for about 25 minutes before I got the AJ. CL raises as he had been doing all tournament even when he wasn't the leader, so I go ai. He folds, says it was KQo. Two hands later I get AK and move ai again. All fold and I am up to 78k. Get AK again in two more hands. This time the CL raises but I am worried that he is slow playing a pp waiting on me to move. So I smooth call, which is noted by the bb in the chat as he folds. I figured if I didn't hit the flop and he bet I could get out cheap and still have 60k+ in chips. Flop K84 rainbow. GIN. He checks I shove... he insta calls. Thought he hit a set. Nope,..........K8o! Turn is a J, river a blank. GG me. Goodnight at 2:30 AM on a work night I totally misplayed the hands. I gave the guy too much credit preflop for being a better player then over played my hand on the flop. One day I will learn. I think it was a combination of tiredness and just my play being affect by my micro donkey tournaments I normally play. I played well up till then. Well.... not great or even very good. Lots of holes I saw in my game last night. Ended up 19th. Sucked bigtime. Should have made ft.

Forgot.....

2008-02-22T10:25:00.000-08:00

Forgot to mention I played in my first blogger tournament. The Tuckfard Open. As I fit well with tuckfards.
It only had 26 players but I managed to get lucky and win two bounties. Got knocked out 6th but I played poorly. Hopefully will play in more blogger tournaments but I don't have any money on FT or Bodog right now.... just have to keep trying to win money in freerolls I guess.

Have done decent in the last 3 real $ MTTs on PS. 47th, 54th and 400 something. All 3 had over 3000 players. Course they were all $1 or .50 to enter. LOL One day I hope the damn breaks and I can get a top 5 cash in one of these.

FishTilt

2008-02-20T06:16:00.000-08:00

Well started playing for real $ again on Sunday. Did ok Sunday but due to the way Monday and Tuesday have been I don't remember the highlights. I guess I need to send my db here to work (where I do the blogging from).

I have noticed I have been pretty tilty as of late. All it takes it losing coinflips at key moments (when I am ahead) or people sucking out when it should have been obvious they are so far behind but they just don't see it.

Good example was Sunday in a $5 2table SNG (huge buy in for me. LOL) on Pokerstars. Down to final 5. I am second shortest stack. And the other guy keeps getting close to felt but then gets the miracle double up like 3 times. But that's poker as they say. So I finally get a decent hand after 20-30 minutes of watching the other short stack. QQ utg, I raise almost 35% of my stack and the next player who is the big stack shoved ai. I figure he doesn't have a made hand but wants to steal it right there. I also figure it is a playable hand... I am hoping for something like AJ or less. Unfortunately it is AKs. I called ai preflop and the K hits the turn. Just seems to be the way I have been running lately.

This has been prevalent in my small buyin multitable SNGs on UB also. Haven't even been making FTs on there and if I do I bust before the money. And then I start playing bad in other tournies I am in. Say to myself crap like "if they wanna play bingo I will play bingo". Then piss away most of my stacks even when I know I am beat. Last night did it on a 9 high flop against the bb when I had 55. He check raised me on the flop then bet ai on turn.... I called! LOL Showed A9 and I am out.

I never was any good at Bingo. LOL

B9

Broken promise to myself..... (big surprise LOL)

2008-02-15T06:18:00.000-08:00

Well the title is pretty sarcastic in case one couldn't tell. LOL

I told myself I wasn't going to play any poker for real $. Only freerolls and play money and fpps. Well made it halfway through the week.

First part of the week was playing play money on Stars since a buddy from work just signed up on Stars and wanted to get a feel for the site.

Wednesday my poker buddy wanted to go to the regular $20 game that he cashes in consistently (like 65% of the time). I have mentioned before it is a horrible structure tournament but the potential win is around $600 for 20 and under 90 players. They also do SNGs for $5 (or whatever amount they agree to). Usually play in one or two of those before the main tourney. We played in one and as usual I took a horrible beat by an idiot that thinks he is a good player. Course he things calling 70% of your stack off with K5s is a good call when the tournament is set up to be winner take all and you are 4 handed. I had 1010 and he spiked a K on the flop. It might have even been 70 or 75% of his stack. But he plays that way all the time and then gets made when his big hands get cracked. Amusing. Didn't get to play much in the main tournament either. Got down to last 3 tables from starting 9 but that was all I could do.

Then we go back to my place as he is going to stay and then play online the next day while I am at work (his computer is currently messed up). We get in a $2 MTT on Stars @ 10PM. My original plan was to just get it started and then go to bed and let him play it as it was on his account. So about 3:30 AM after getting knocked out 16 (out of 2024) I head off to bed. LOL Misplayed 3 hands. One of them was a horrible aggression play on my part that lost me 60% of my stack when we were down to 3 tables. I was trying to get chips and... to say the least... it didn't work out. LOL

But those are the only two times I broke the promise to myself. I have played in numerous freerolls when I have been home. I did get 4th in one of the Greyhound Poker freerolls for $2. Up to $15 now. LOL I will break the $100 mark some day.

Cancelled my monthly $100 private tourney I play in.... bummer but needed to not go.

Will see what the weekend holds. Going to see my girl on Sat so probably go play some $5/10 when I drop her off. :)

FullTilt Freeroll Cash..... finally

2008-02-11T05:42:00.000-08:00

Finally cashed in a FT freeroll. Only $2 but was happy just to cash as it has been over a month. Course funny thing was I think I failed to cash in 100% of the real money tournies I played. LOL Lose $20 over the weekend but win $2 in a freeroll.... go figure.

My own fault. Played poorly this weekend. Kept letting others' plays affect me too much. Sometimes tilty and sometimes just trying to fight a particular player's style when I knew I had him beat but left me open to other players' actions.

Going to try to take a week off from any cash games, live or online. Only going to play freerolls.

Also played in two live tournies Sat. Didn't cash in either. First one had some decent cards early. But then went card dead for 1.5 hours. Went out 12th of 48. Top 10 got points towards a monthly freeroll. Second one I just played poorly the last hand... AQs. Tried to out play a loose player who makes moves but this time had the goods. I attempted a very poor reraise of a check raise for all my chips and it wasn't much more for them to call. Bad bad bad play on my part. Out 20th of 30.

Birthday Weekend....

2008-02-04T06:26:00.000-08:00

Had a pretty decent weekend. Well decent as far as being a fish goes.

Didn't play live all weekend. Last time I played live was on Thursday and I cashed. Cashed 3 times this past week and didn't feel like pressing my luck any further. LOL Played twice at Gemini Club here in Columbus and cashed both nights. Last year I played 13 times there and cashed 7 so I run very goooooooot at that location.

Friday night played on UB mostly. Did ok. Still sticking to 50cent and dollar SNGs. And a few $2 MTTs on there. Didn't play late as I was spending Sat with my girl.

Saturday played a few SNGs when I got home and didn't cash.

Sunday ended up cashing in another freeroll on Greyhound. Guess I need to start playing SNGs on there since I have over $10. Still can't crack another freeroll on FullTilt. I really want to hit a few more freerolls instead of transferring money onto there. I think the closest I made it was 54. Payout is top 27. I have a buddy up in Canada that plays on FT and has been doing very well in the $10/90man SNGs with a knockout bounty. One day hope to be able to play these SNGs myself. I like the formast of having a bounty on each player for a SNG. Tends to change the strategy a little bit.

On Sunday on UB I had a very good day. Well as good as you can at cheap SNGs and MTTs. Ended up making about $46.00. Which for me is a huge windfall. LOL There were a few $1 SNGs mixed in and a $2 MTT. The $2 MTT is where I got almost half of the $46 though. Either way a very nice little day for me.

Oh, I also saw a trailer for the movie "The Grand". This movie looks hilarious. Check it out on Yahoo's movie page.

Superfish..... aka Suckout Artist

2008-01-30T08:45:00.000-08:00

I failed to mention that on my way to the 3rd place finish in the aforementioned $50 live tournament that I sucked out majorly at two key times. First wasn't a huge suck out as I moved ai overtop of what I thought was a midpair raise while I was in the bb. SB was the raiser and a woman player I have known for many years who is pretty solid. She had 99 and I had AKs. Lucky A on flop and suckout number one was complete.

The other suckout was a major one. But couldn't have played it any differently. I was UTG and had KK and raised 2/3 of my stack. Clearly this shows huge hand and I want action from all but one hand...... course that would be the hand that methodically reraised from late position but didn't shove, which totally screamed AA. And he had the two red Aces. But the K on the river was a killer. We were already down to either 5 or 6 players and we were already in the money.... no way I could lay it down after my utg raise. That suckout propelled me to 2nd in chips... maybe even first for awhile.

Just figured I should not forget my suckouts to make up for all the times I whine about suckouts against me.

Ok... ok.......I am horrible

2008-01-29T09:04:00.000-08:00

Well I am horrible on two fronts these days......
First, I am horrible becuase I spend too much time reading tons of other blogs and ignoring mine. LOL Course that is easy to do.
Secondly, my play has continued to slide and I am feel like I am becoming even more of a Superfish.
With my constant obsession (ok really can't afford anything but) freerolls, I make calls I would never think of making normally. And I am noticing that it is flowing into my cash buy in tournaments... both live and online. Not a good thing.

I made two snap calls of all ins last night that I would normally have thought much more about. One was a call of an ai from UTG while I was bb for T$400. I called T$3k more with AKs withouth a even a slight hesitation. I should have at least thought about it. Then another snap call while I was in sb when button shoved and I had AJ.... he had AK. It was for almost half my chips. I should have thought the plays through. Not saying I would have changed the plays.... but the insta call is poor on my part and I used to never do that. Hell I have layed down KK preflop for half my stack before in a $20 tourney!!

Also made another questionable call when we were down to the final 3 against an all in move over my bb. Was a $50 tourney with 78 players starting so I should really have thought about it. But I fairly quickly called T$19k more (BB=T$16k) with J8s. He had AQ and no luck for me. I still had chips but next hand I am ai with Q8s and he calls with J2o.... and hits. Can't blame him as it was only T$14k more to call. He ended up chopping with chip leader after a few hands and that was almost double what I got.

As for online, still not having any luck on Pokerstars. Just holding my own. Account had been going down because I tried a few too many $4/180man SNGs. LOL Tried to be aggressive and it didn't worked. They played too conservatively early and missed some huge hand that would have put me in a better position in the middle of the tournament, so that didn't work. Went out in the 20s and 30s a couple of times and two other times in the mid 60s. Played a few freerolls and cashed for not much and also a couple of $1 MTTs. Cashed but nothing great in those either... so just kinda treading water on Pokerstars.

Fulltilt has been such a frustrating thing lately. I can't seem to cash or make a ft lately. Course I am only playing in the freerolls but I used to at least make a few freerolls of their 180man SNGs and 360man SNGs. The freerolls I can't get beyong the 50s and they only pay 27 out of either 2400 or 2700. I only have $4 on there and want to get it to $10 before I play in any cash tournies.

Greyhound poker. Well I am finally up to $10 from their $25 hourly freerolls. Many times only winnning .30. LOL So it took awhile. But the freerolls are easy to cash in. Not alot of traffic on this site but so far free money... how can I turn that down.

Freerolling and Micro Limits

2008-01-09T07:45:00.000-08:00

Wow, how times flies.... been meaning to create a new post but keep not finding the time (ie lack of effort) to do so.
I think my poker career (LOL) or at least highlights will forever be limited to freerolls and micro limits.
Each time lately when I enter anything other than a freeroll or $1 tournament I fail miserably. Now perhaps that means I am just such a huge donk (hence the name Superfish) that I can only do fairly well at freerolls or.... well I just don't know what. LOL

It is sad to think that I have actually regressed in my playing abilities... definitely in the results. In 2006 I had a very nice year online (prior to the idiots in congress making their wonderful move to protect us). For me a nice year is nothing like most have in one week. LOL But I had a pretty good sized profit. This year I showed a profit but have nothing to show for it and it was about 1/5 of 2006's. I have less than $150 online total. Yet at little as 4 or 5 months ago I had around $1k. I made the huge mistake of playing limit poker on UB shortly after having placed well in two different $5 MTTs. Had won about $700 and thought I could make a little more at the cash tables since I play live limit ring games and do ok. I lost all of that profit in the course of 3 weeks. Hell I play $10/$20 live but couldn't beat the $2/$4 limit games online. I just spewed chips for those 3 weeks and kept telling myself it would turn around......... I was so wrong. So now I am stuck in Freeroll land and micro limits. I am too stubborn to deposit more and with the way I have been running it is probably better I don't. LOL

Have actually been doing fairly well in very large fields. Have made two final tables in fields of 5064(PS) and 5000(UB)! Of course both were freerolls. Also bubbled final table out of a field of 3050. Bad play on my part and my opponent set me up perfectly. It was a $1 tourney so was really hoping to make final table. Figured if I could get there I could at least get 6th place or better. Was very disappointed.
I have still been playing lots of freerolls on Fulltilt but haven't been able to cash lately. Made it pretty deep in the FT freeroll for a "Phil Gordon Final Table DVD". Only pays first place though, out of over 2600! What the hell do you need the DVD for if you can win it! LOL
Recently started playing on Greyhound poker also. They are strictly a flash based server so you do not actually have a program running on your computer. It is all done through IE. Plenty of drawbacks to it but they have a $25 freeroll every hour on the half. Usually fields are anywhere from 350 to 800 (max 1000). Top 18 are paid. Not too tough, just have to be patient and a little lucky. Have cashed twice. Going to keep hitting them up till I win over $10 then play a few SNGs.
Other than the freerolls just been pounding on the .50 and $1 SNGs on UB. LIke playing the 30man and 50man 50 cent tournies. I seem to do better in those than the single table SNGs. Have also made a couple of final tables in the 100 player SNGs.

Quick Update

2007-12-27T10:10:00.000-08:00

Tonight I went and played in the usual Wed game my buddy and I play in. $20/60-80 players, horrible structure but 100% payout. He has an incredible record of cashing 9 out of 13 trys there. Hard not to go back there for him with that ITM %.
Anyways, I end up busting out of that tourney while he again makes final table and ITM (top 7 paid).
So after dropping him off I get home about 40 minutes into the Round 2 PokerAfterDark freeroll on FullTilt. First hand I see is AhKh UTG, and I pot raise. Get two callers. Player to my left and the button call. I have 1700+ in chips, next player has 3000+ and button about 2200. Flop is Jh10h8c. Not too bad of a draw for me, nut nut plus two overs. I check, next player bets 200 into a 400 pot. I figure him for weak draw so I reraise all in. I know I know, donkey play... but hey they do it to me all the time and hit. Course he insta calls with KJo, and I of course brick brick, end of my run. LOL Oh well I knew it was a bad play. Just figured with 15 (18 hopefully) outs I might actually hit one like they hit their two outers on me. But alas, twas not to be.
Remember this is my place to whine. My buddy gets tired of hearing it.... even though he got a phone call immediately at the end of the hand. LOL

Mid Holidays

2007-12-26T09:10:00.000-08:00

Well my liking of FullTilt's freerolls is starting to wane. LOL
Getting tired of the total bingo they play at any point in the tourney. I have still been making it deep fairly often in the PokerAfterDark freerolls but still frustrating. Made several fts on Tuesday. And also finished in top two to advance to Round 2. That tourney is tonight. Hope I do as well.

Been very frustrated with my play on Pokerstars in the SNGs. I haven't played alot but had hoped I would at least money enough to break even. I guess I have done a little better than even but not much. Have tried to play a few $4/180man SNG. Going deep in only one but got knocked out like 25th. Tried one $5/9man SNG. Got all my money in with JJ vs a guy who raised 96o and then called my ai for 65% of his stack. Flop 785 just like it was meant to be. LOL So I swore off cash tourneys on Pokerstars for the rest of the day.
Well that is till 6PM and the $1 mtt (LOL) and the 7PM $1mtt and the 8PM $.50 mtt. Course whiffing in all 3.

Also played in the $500 10fpp freeroll. I still consistently cash in this tourney. For anyone that is broke and doesn't want to deposit, play this tourney for two weeks straight and you should easily get some funds to maybe play a .01/.02 NL cash table. Tournament started with 5013 players, top 801 paid (as usual). Made it very deep in this one. Final Table!! But I went out 9th as I made the mistake of moving ai with A9o just as we were being seated at the final table. Clearly I didn't know that was happening or I wouldn't have shoved with A9. But I also thought the bb had an easy fold if he didn't wake up with a real hand... which he did, 1010. No A and I am out in 9th. $5.55 for like 3 hours of play. LOL One of these days I might actually win the damn thing... I doubt it but I can dream.

Also played in a couple of the $2.20 bounty mtt on UB at 4:30PM EST. Went deep in one without knocking out a single player. That sucked. I think I went out like 27th. Top 50 paid.

Overall been frustrated with my play. Always seems like one or two hands in any tourney where I fold when my first instict was to call, and I would have made the hands and had very good sized stacks. Have to get over that hump. Hopefully the end of the year closes out on a good note. I need it as the last part of my year has been very very flat when the first part of the year was good to me.

Sucky Sunday

2007-12-17T10:22:00.000-08:00

Got up Sunday not really sure what I would do. Figured I would play a few SNGs early then figure out what was for lunch.
Well the play early was bad. Course what do you expect at the .50 and 1.00 level on UB. LOL I Don't even remember if they were multi-table SNGs or just single table. I just know they chased me for any draw they needed. I would raise preflop out of the bb with AA and flop an A. Bet the pot on the flop... praying someone had the last ace. Instead I get called by someone playing a 35o in mp who called my raise and flopped a gut shot. Course came like a scheduled Japanese bullet train right on the turn. Fortunately did not lose all my chips but I didn't last much longer after that. I think I played one more and ended up like 5th. I should have stopped because I know I caught myself playing like they do..... chasing my draws big time. And playing weak hands for small raises trying to get lucky flops. Just doesn't work for me.... well not all that often.
I think I called a couple of friends to see if they wanted to grab a bite to eat.... no takers. LOL no surprise. Found some left over Chinese food from Friday and nuked it. Decided to try my hand at a $4/180 SNG on PS. Went fairly deep but donked off my chips on a hand where I knew I was beat but kept praying to hit after the flop..... out in 36th. Not that deep but close for me. Played a few freerolls on FT (my new freeroll pond) but nothing major. A few ftbs but no advances. And of course not ftbs in the money freerolls, only the round 1 freerolls. Played a couple of other $1 and $2 SNGs on UB..... no luck. I think I only cashed in one money SNG all day! Even for me that is bad. Was frustrating. I should have known to stop. Figured I would try one more $4/180 on PS. Mistake. I think I went out 150th. I call a nuisance raise/pot builder (min) raise from ep player with one other caller in front of me. I was button -2. Had 77. Flop is 278, rainbow. Original raiser bets out min. Caller raises min. I just smooth call. Now gets interesting. Original raiser raises about 50% of pot. Ok... he has a big pair, AA, KK or QQ. Next player reraises again. Not sure where to put him but I put him on some kinda draw. At this point I reraise all in as the pot is significant and I want at least one of them to drop. Original raiser calls ai. Now the midplayer insta calls and has us both covered by like 110. EP has KK, mp has 109 for oesd. Wow.... called two AIs instantly with oesd. I guess. Would never work out for me but he hits it instantly and no filler for me. GG off ; to more cussing at the screen. LOL

Only thing lately that has gone right for me in poker was a small 22 man tourney I played in at a friend's house. This is a weekly game that has some very very good players in it. Many aggressive players with great post flop games also. I have never cashed in this game. One of the few live tournies (not at casinos) that I have played in more than a few times where I never cashed. I normally make it to the point where the antes start and just practically blind off. It is a $40 game. It goes late and even when I get knocked out it is usually around 11:30 so I don't play in it often because it is another half hour to get home. I was off Friday so I decided to RSVP for it.

I should also preface this by saying that I was first out on Tuesday in the $20 / 120 man donkey tourney I play in weekly!!! First out... not sure I have ever done that before. LOL Not there anyways. LOL Didn't want to be there and knew I shouldn't have gone. He had AA in bb and I had AK behind button. I raise, he reraised, I smooth called, flop came top K, he bet, I called... turn a blank, he shoved I called and asked AA or KK, he turns up the AA. I knew I was beat but didn't care. Bad play on my part and I knew it the minute he bet the flop.

Anyways, onto the Thursday night tourney......Early couldn't get a hand to hold up. Only hand I actually hit, was AJ with A on flop.... player bet so just smooth called. Two diamonds on flop of A68. Two callers behind me. Turn is a 7 non diamond. SB who bet flop now checks so I bet out 1k to find out where I am. Both callers call me as does SB. River is a 4. Check, check check and check. SB has pocket 7s!! bet the flop and got lucky and hit. I should have known better. Player behind me had two diamonds, J high and last player had weak A. I guess I could have won this with a reraise on the flop, sevens might have laid down. Oh well, one of the big weaknesses in my game. After that maybe two small pp, dead on flop... easy to let go. Played till we consolidated tables then went on a little tear with about 4 out of 5 hands and accumulated some chips. Then went card dead for awhile again. Losing chips with a few calls and the blinds. Down to about 7 or 6 players (top 3 paid). Get AJ in ep and raise ai because of the stacks and blinds. SS calls with KQ. Course K on flop. I start whining to another player with whom I had had a discussion with earlier in the night about KQ. I pissed off the player that called me. I really have to learn to shut my mouth and just take it. I wouldn't have said a word if he had lost. He was a good player but I had seen a couple of other weak plays from him and I was surprised he called. He did only have about 5x bb (with 4 more hands before bb) but it was for 65-75% of my stack and I was steamed. I apologized later of course. I end up getting down to ss and lost my bb. I was down to $600 in sb. Blinds were 800/1600 with 300 ante!!!!! We were 5 handed I believe. I ended up winning the whole thing!!!!!! Unfortunately it wasn't my skills that got me there. LOL The deck slapped me in the face - ala Jamie Gold without that talking shit and thinking I was playing good. But I was happy to take it down just before Christmas. Need it for my daughter's gifts. :)

Big hands early...... hate em!

2007-12-11T07:31:00.000-08:00

I have always hated getting big hands very early in a MTT or SNG. Played a $4/180man SNG on PS. I played two hands and was out within 20 minutes!

One of the first hands of the tourney I get KK in the SB. 4 limpers + BB + SB = pot of 110. So I raise it to 215. Hoping to move any weak hands out. Get two callers. BB and early mp player. Flop is A7x, two hearts. I check as my Ace magnets have done their job as normal. BB shoves!! EMP player calls!!... I lay down of course. BB has K7s in hearts and EMP has A3o. Wow... good calls preflop. Course maybe that is my problem that I am not willing to gamble with crap... mainly because I don't win many coin flips much less win when I am way behind. A3o wins the hand. Nice hand to double up with immediately.

About 15 hands later I am on the button with AA. Small raise in MP with one caller. I reraise just over the pot. I know most people want action with AA but I prefer only other strong hands call. I think the blinds were 15/30 at this point so my reraise of pot put me down to about 800. One caller(original raiser). Flop is 653, rainbow. MP raiser/caller bets out 100 into a 800+ pot. Don't think he has a set.... maybe an over pair to the board. So I (like the donk that I am) reraise ai since the pot is bigger than my remaining stack at this point. He insta calls and shows 74s in spades. GG me. I wish I had half the horseshoe shoved up my ass that some of these people have. If I win 35% of my COINFLIPs I am feeling lucky... much less calling shit like that and praying for a miracle flop or even river.

Oh well. Always another beat to wait on in the next tourney. LOL

Finally........

2007-12-10T07:29:00.000-08:00

Finally burst the bubble on FT. Got $5 cash in my account now from a RAZZ freeroll. Figures I would do well at a game where worst hand is best. LOL
Have really stayed away from playing cash tournies with all the freerolls I can play lately. My account on PS has stayed about the same except for a transfer I sent a friend. Just haven't wanted to lose any. LOL And haven't had the patience to play in the large $1 tournies on PS.
Actually all this crazy freeroll action I have been doing is hurting my live game. I played on Sunday but found myself not having the normal patience I usually show. I ended up moving all in on a stone bluff ...... just when my opponent hit his set of Ks. LOL Talk about bad timing. Had a small redraw for a 3 but no miracle on the river.

There was something else I wanted to put in here but can't remember now. LOL figures.

Looks like I might be going to WV for a couple of days to play at the new card rooms there. Not sure yet. Will give a short trip report if I do.

New Pond

2007-12-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

Well through some information from a buddy of mine I have found a new freeroll pond to swim in with the other fish. LOL
I have been playing in the $100 freerolls on FullTilt when I am lucky enough to get in them. Some of them fill in under 45 seconds and full is 2700 players!!! You have to be waiting on them as soon as registration opens or you are screwed.
Anyways, I semi discovered and mainly was informed that they run freeroll SNGs all day long. Didn't know that and it is another thing that fills super quick. The freerolls are to feeders into second round feeders into another freeroll.... but hey.....they are free.
The final rounds are for a seat on Poker After Dark and a trip to a tournament in Australia! Either would be awesome to win.
On Wed when I was home from work I made 4 fts in them out of probably 30 tournies. LOL and made quite a few other deep runs. The SNGs are either 180, 315 or 630 players. Teh 180s advance two players while the others advance only 1.

Other than that .... still playing the freerolls on UB... another 41st place. :( And of course a few other top 100 finishes out of 3800 minimum player freerolls on UB. Most are 5000.
And also recommend if you are on FT looking at the freerolls to check out each of the restricted ones. Some of them are just restricted to a certain countries including the US.

The Day After........

2007-12-03T08:57:00.000-08:00

Well it is Monday but somehow still feels like Sunday..... which felt like a Monday anyways. LOL
The big tournament has come and gone and pretty much left me discouraged and somewhat depressed.

Play started out normal.... meaning bad. Players that have no clue about the game they are playing but get super lucky. But then just give all the chips back to someone else or spread them around the table. I really didn't take any bad beats. I can't remember a single bad beat all day. Most hands that I was in (which wasn't many) I won unless they were my blind. Early hand of JJ raised, called in 4 places... flop with a K and turn with an A. Easy lay down as I was in ep and put no additional money in the pot. I played for just over 10 hours. Didn't seem that long except for a 2-3 hour period in the middle where I went extremely card dead. And I don't mean the dead like QJo was my best hand and I didn't want to play it... more like Q2o was looking very good! Unfortunately this was just before my table broke and the blinds had finally started to get fairly high. Started the day with 114 players. I started out about 13th or 14th in chip stacks based on our point accumulation through the year. (see previous posts for how they were awarded). Only got my money in bad once when I raised AKs and a ss called but couldn't even cover the raise and I hit my A.

We started with 11 tables... a few with 11 players, most 10. I was at table 5 and when my table broke I moved to table 1. So I knew I wouldn't be moving again till I was out. (they break tables in order ending with 1) Top 15 were paid. 15-11 each getting $100. I went out 13th. My mind is still somewhat fried by the play that I observed. Most bad play didn't occur against me.... strangely enough. It was almost always something I observed. I can't even begin to remember all of the bad plays. Only one that sticks in my mind partly because it made a huge difference to me and where I finished ( or may have finished). Blinds were at 5k and 10k. I am two behind the button with a total of 16 or 17 players remaining. Super short stack moves ai with only 4300. I have QJ and it was looking good as I had started to go card dead again and two face cards were huge. But it gets folded around to the sb who has over 100k in chips. Grumpy old man who had made many bad plays earlier and still got lucky and knocked out a few players. Anyways, he proceeds to raise the bb out of the hand. Makes it 30K total to go. BB folds... looks at the guy incredulously as if he is stupid with their being an all inner. From comes 7 high and bb would have flopped a pair and oesd. SB raised 108o. Yes that is correct, 10 8 off suit. He hits nothing and the all inner wins with A high.

Now if the all inner had been knocked out here, we either would have been in the money or bubble... not sure but later it would have made a difference to me on another hand. A side note is that I would have won with the J on the turn but knew the old man would play any two and I didn't have enough chips left to move anyone.... maybe 34k. The later hand that would have made the difference was my sb with 33. Only had a total of 26k and the blinds were now 10k/20k. The previous all inner ss was still in the game and there was an all in at the other table of a short stack. There was a raise in front of me and I considered calling but there was already another call. I knew that if both myself and the ss at the other table busted I would have been in the money if we both went out because I had more chips than he did. Hell I would even have delayed my hand a little to see if he got knocked out. But we were still at 17! :( Long story short... the all inner at the other table got knocked out and I would have hit a set of 3s on the river to win the hand. But we were still at 16 at this point. The extra chips would have at least gotten me to the final table of 11. Last time I went to the final table ss I ended up getting 5th. I am much better working a full table with a short stack than I am a short handed game. Now I know many good players would say the old man did the right thing... and you are correct. When you are a big stack you want to keep the super ss in play in the bubble because that gives you an edge over the medium stacks (such as myself... even though I was actually ss also but not the bottom 3 at the time). But this old man had no clue about that type of strategy... he was just playing his monster cards.... 108o.

Sunday was all a blur as I was still in a haze from Saturday's tourney... which I am still in today, just not as bad. Sunday was actually a good day online. Either Friday or Sat night I played in a $2 sat to the $100k on Sunday on PS. Qualified. On Sunday I looked at the tourney lobby and the prize pool was up to $160k +. I actually decided I wasn't thinking clearly enough to play that long to try to get anywhere so I unregistered from the tourney and got my $10+1 tourney dollars put in my account. About an hour later I decided to give a $10 - 9 man tourney a try. A little out of my comfort zone for buy in but figured it was like free money since I satellited into it. One of the first 5 hands I get 55 in mp. I limp. Flop comes 875. 5 players in the hand still. Checked to me and I check. LP player bets like double the bb. Warning signs should have been going off in my head but they weren't. LOL Told you I was in a funk. SB calls, bb folds I reraise pot. LP smooth calls. SB folds. Ace on turn and I bet out pot and he pushes. I call. He has 88. No quads for me but luckily I had him covered by 130!! LOL Now at this point everyone is still in the game..... not one knock out yet! Sucks to be me at this point. I don't remember how but between patience and lots of luck I end up working my way back and then knocking out a few. I end up heads up. Guy has me out chipped pretty good but we go back and forth a bit. Fairly even in chips now when I get K8o in bb and he min raises. So I call. K37, rainbow. I check, he bets I reraise pot, he raises min and I shove. He thinks for a very short period and calls. He will have 390 left with the blinds at least 200/400 at this point if he doesn't win the hand. He turns over 93s and I am thinking yes I have him. Till the 3 hits the turn and I am out. Was a little upset but no biggie as I turned $2.20 into $27.00 and I also had entered into a $4/180man tourney on PS so I turned my attention to that and got over the beat quickly. I ran pretty good in the 180 and finished 4th. Could have done better but I tilted from a beat on FullTilt in the HORSE freeroll. LOL I gotta stop playing multiple game types at the same time. Some donkey (not that much unlike myself) capped the betting on the come in and on 4th in the Razz portion. I had a pretty decent starter (2A,46) so I was pushing back at him. I hit the Q on 5th and backed off as he kept pushing like he had a 7 low. I make my low on 6th with an 8 but didn't want to push things. The idiot had K6, 73, then K! Then A on 6th and 7th was a 2!!!!!!!He was still raising on 5th which is when I just called his raise. So that tilted me when I saw his hand and I didn't pay particular attention to the $4/180 when we were 4 handed. Had a pp and went all in after flop because of tilt and the other player was super aggressive and thought he might be pushing with A high...... not to be the case as he flopped top pair.

Oh well... still a decent day on PS.

But not enough to get me completely out of my funk.

Day before big tourney.....

2007-11-30T06:30:00.000-08:00

Well it is Friday and I have been looking forward all week to tomorrow. At 10AM the year end championship tournament for La Rue starts. I haven't really been looking forward to it because I think I will win it or cash in it, I have been just very anxious to play deep stack poker. I will be starting with 34000 in chips.... and the blinds start at just 5 / 10!! I am one of the top 15 stacks out of about 165 players so I am looking forward to trying a slightly different style than I normally play. Will have a report early next week.

Also played in my usual micros and freerolls..... not much luck. Cashed in the $1 and 0.50 MTTs on Stars...barely. LOL Sucking bigtime at the SNGs except I did make final table of the .050 / 50 man SNG on UB. And also just missed twice in the freerolls on FullTilt... Razz and Holdem..... 70th and 71st. They pay out top 27. There were two hands in Razz that on 4th I seriously thought I should lay down even though I knew I would have a low... just not low enough. Those two hands were the difference... I probably would have made the money. And I have no money on that site and am trying to win money in the freeroll and see what I can actually work it into.

Well , back to work. A good weekend to all.

Donkey into decent freeroll finish....

2007-11-29T11:59:00.000-08:00

Wow.... been awhile since I have posted...

Anyways... I finally broke the freeroll curse on Stars. I qualified for the weekly $2k. I have played many of the Freeroll Qualifiers (Eddington's, Hubble's, Haley's, Copernicus'....etc.) and go deep many times but almost always come up short. They recently changed their payout structure from 24 and 27 to 88 and 99! Course that helped some. LOL
I actually qualified in a Stud H/L game which isn't my strongest game to say the least. One player got upset with a couple of raises I had done but I had a ton of chips and decent draws.... oh well.... I typed F R E E R O L L in the chat window to get my point across. I wasn't just pushing chips... had decent drawing hands.

I have played a decent number of other micro buy in games lately. Haven't done all that well. Did final table $2 MTT on UB. Didn't make much as I went out 6th (134players)

I continue to do well Stars 10fpp $500 freeroll @ 19:40 (7:40 PM EST). I have a cash rate of about 60% of the time on it and actually made it to 26th place the other night. Deepest I think I have ever gone in that tourney. Still only got $0.85 LOL.

Well for all the bad beats I ever complain about I now have one to think about that is perhaps the worst I have ever seen.

Buddy of mine is in a MTT online and has one limper in midposition about 2/3 of the way through the field. Hero has AA in the cutoff and raises pot 4.5xbb. Blinds fold and limper calls. Flop comes AKK (rainbow). Limper shoved ai (and is covered by my buddy's stack). My buddy thinks for a minute but figures it can't possibly be KK as the player never reraised preflop. So he calls. Limper shows 44. Now my buddy is a 99.8% favorite. That is right, he is only .1% to tie(runner runner KK) and .1% to lose. Of course the turn is a 4. He is still a 97.3% favorite to win the hand! River is a 4. Riverstars strikes again. But it was really Runner Runner Stars. This was way worse than any one outter an idiot has hit on me. Mainly because it is such a bad play on the limper with 44. His play makes it obvious he doesn't have AK or KK, at least normal players would try to trap if they had those hands. Granted sometimes you shove to make it look like a bad play but 90% of the time players are going to trap with either hand.
So I now try to think about this hand when I get sucked out on...... but I still managed to bitch about my "badbeat". LOL

Live Tourny Tries

2007-11-15T16:03:00.000-08:00

Well after the long weekend of freerolling... with little success (LOL)... I decided to try a couple of live tournies.
First was a $50 tourney with 26 players. Usually run pretty good at the club with a good record of cashes but bubbled this time. Bad play on my part as I put it all in with AQs figuring the original raiser had a mid pocket pair. Didn't get lucky to beat his 9s. I should have waited as there was at least one shorter stack but there had been 3 short stacks but they kept on doubling up.
Next was a tourney on Sunday that I had been looking forward to. It is one that is part of a series that is held for a 12 month period. Part of the entry fee ($50) is withheld for a year end tournament that only those that make the final 10 of a tournament are eligible for. So I was looking to get some more points towards that tourney. Each place earns points that at the end of the year tourney you get $1000 in chips for each point. Normal chip stack is $2000 starting. Started with 140 players, first hand flopped a set and lost just over $400 on the hand when river put up 4 hearts and 4 to a str8. Played tight for next two hours and stayed about even... blinded down a bit. Started hitting a few hands when we were down to 5 tables... about 3 hours in. Accumulated a few chips to get down to 2 tables but still was in the bottom third of stacks. Was patient and made it to the final table probably in 8th place out of 11. Ended up going out in 5th place... on a hand I normally would have folded UTG. Damn AJs... tried to make a move and ran into AK and QQ, both of them in the blinds and 1st and 3rd stacks! I fold preflop I finish 4th. Got 8 points now for a grand total of 32. I check the list of qualifiers before the tourney and there were only 13 people with 30 or more points and only 33 with 20 or more out of a total of 160 qualifiers. Only one more tourney to go means there will be no more than 177 players to play in the year end tourney which will have about a $20,000 prize pool.
Also played in the usual $20 Tuesday tourney, they had 123 players. Didn't have any hands to play early and just before break I committed 40% of my stack calling a preflop raise with 88 feeling that I had the original raiser beat as I have played against her many times and she only min raised also. This allows the bb to call and he flopped two pair. I went out about 20 minutes later. Pretty much blinded out. But as usual lately, was my own bad play that hurt me.
And of course still been playing tons of freerolls online. LOL I have played 101 freerolls since Oct 1 and have been in the top 5% of 35 of them. But still that isn't good enough in most of them as most pay out less than top 1%. Also haven't been doing very good at the cash tournies online lately either.... but I don't feel I have been playing very well.

GL to all at the tables.

UB Freeroll Deep again......

2007-11-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

Once again went deep in one of UB's $1k freeroll qualifiers, 97th out of 5003.
Tourney started at 7:30 PM EST and it was getting late and I was short stacked (bottom 5 players) so I decided to limp with 6s UTG+1 and go for it no matter if it was raised or not. The raise was for 75% of my stack to like 6900 from the player to my left.... fairly decent player but with a pretty good stack. Player in mp calls 45% of his stack off, maybe even 50%. So a little worried but don't put him on a made hand because he didn't reraise. Just the 3 of us to the flop. Flop is 5,10,10 rainbow. I go ai with about 3600. Now know this really isn't enough to move anyone but I didn't put either of them on a made hand. I did think that perhaps one might have A10 but I was willing to risk it and at least figured I had 2 outs. Original raiser amazingly folds!! Folds for only 3600 more into a 20,000 something pot. And the next player only had maybe 8000 left. Was shocked as the original raiser had about 50k in chips still. Anyways, the mp player ended up calling. He had 10c5c!!!! I was drawing dead. I could have dealt with it if it had been A10.... maybe even Q10 or K10. Still fairly bad plays but I could have lived with any of those hands...... but 105!!!!! wow... oh well it was bed time anyways.... 11:30PM.

High Stakes Poker (HSP) $500,000 buy in......

2007-11-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

So did anyone watch it last night?
So many people are talking about Doyle's lay down when he had the best hand. They are shocked that he did that.
I think they are failing to take in all the play that has transpired between Doyle and Gold on HSP. I feel Doyle has a very good read on Gold, especially when he is bluffing or weak. Previous hands have mostly shown that. Now many would then say: Why couldn't he make the correct read last night then? ........
The main reason is he made the right read! Gold played the hand the way he did because in his mind he had the best hand. He never once thought Doyle could have him beat. He played it like he had the nutz for the hand because in his mind he did. So there was no bluff there to pick up on. Doyle read Gold for having the best hand... because the hand played out that way.

I did something similar in the past..... but it cost me most of my chips in a tournament.
During a 30 man tournament at a friends home, I played a pair of 6s in late position. Got very lucky and flopped a set. On the flop (K,10,6 rainbow) EP player bets 3/4 of the pot. He didn't look back at his hand. Fairly solid player but one I knew couldn't get away from decent pair decent kicker. Next mp player, looks back at his hand... thinks for a little while and calls. Now I know this player fairly well also and put him on top pair but not so great kicker. I chose to raise here..... Seems strange but I get drawn out on all the time. I raise the pot about 2x the pot. Next lp player folds..... original better just calls, still not looking back at his cards. Next player looks at me and smiles and lays down his hand. He knows me too well. So the turn comes up and it is a 9 (if I remember correctly it was still rainbow). But I can tell the ep player likes that card.... he has picked up a draw. So he bets out like a third of the pot. I put him on the draw and a pair. So I figure I better move all in at this point. I reraise over $8000 more and I have him covered. Now he is stunned at this and sits there and stairs at me for awhile. I told him I have the best hand but he can try to draw. He sits and things a while longer. Then he decides to look back at his cards. He jumps when he looks and goes "Oh I call". He had QJ. River was a 2. He thought he had KQ and that is why he took so long. So I actually made the right read on the player based on what he thought he had!!! Just too damn bad he wasn't smart enough to remember his cards correctly!

Doyle laid down because his read on Gold was that Gold had the best hand because that is what Gold thought. Doyle had a good read on him....... Gold just didn't know he was losing and drawing dead if Doyle called.

Freeroll Friday Night....... and Sunday

2007-11-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

Been trying for awhile to make it to the payouts on UB in their freeroll qualifiers to the Sun $1k freeroll. Gotten close many times (41st, 56, 119...) but couldn't quite break that 30 place payout list. I ended up playing 11 freerolls on Friday night on UB and another 6 freerolls on PokerStars. LOL By 6 AM(Sat) I had finally got knocked out of one UB tourney in 25th place and qualified!!! Most of the fields were in the 4000-5000 player range. Smallest one was 3800+. Also cashed in the $500 10fpp on Stars as usual (I cash about 70% of the time in it but usually just barely get into the money which means like 20 or 30 cents).
Sunday came and I had stayed up all night again playing live at the local Vegas Nights here in Columbus. Was stuck most of the night playing 10/20 limit. Really couldn't afford to lose..... and got lucky towards 4 AM and started to pull out of it. Walked out a decent winner... nothing huge. But I needed that win as I haven't been able to win at limit poker in my last 8 or 9 sessions! That gets very demoralizing after the first 5 sessions.
Anyways, back to online....... so after not getting much sleep on Saturday night I got up by 11:30 to run some errands and to get something to eat before the tourney started (1:15PM EST). Ended up going fairly deep into it (top 25%) but played like the Superfish that I am and ended up going out around 887 (if my memory serves me correctly) out of over 4000. Course only top 30 paid. Would have been nice to crack that one. But I did enter into the $2k 50fpp on Stars later that day..... ended up getting 4th out of 2300+ players!!! First final table I can remember in a long time.

First Post

2007-11-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

Well figured I would try this blogging thing. Actually hoping no one reads it as I think it will end up being fairly dull. More to the point, mostly whining by me about my bad beats. LOL
I am a fairly tight nit stuck playing low limts in both NLHE and LHE. And the occasional O8b and Razz game. I have no bankroll to speak of but have been playing for 5 years. So the poker economy of central Ohio has benefited from my full time employment. LOL