Rivered Again!

The End

2011-05-17T11:51:00.003-04:00

In light of recent events my time with online poker is over for now. There is too much uncertainty at this time for me to try and move my bankroll over to Merge, Cake or any other sites still offering play to USA players. Maybe I'll be back when the dust settles and new online poker friendly legislation comes around.

Until then, take care and good luck!

Reboot 2.0!

2011-02-18T23:25:00.000-05:00

I'm back to playing online poker again! Times have changed for me and so has my plan of attack. Will I stay committed this time? I sure hope so.

More details soon.

Plan of Attack for July 2010

2010-07-05T20:10:00.002-04:00

Last month was all about changing my game over to MTTSNG's and putting in some decent volume. Things progressed well but I ended up taking some bumps in the $2 180-man's which I will consider a learning experience.

For the month of July I'm going to crank up the volume a bit more. My goal is to put in 800 MTTSNG's this month. My current bankroll is $188.62 so I will be playing $1 buy-ins until my bankroll exceeds $440; which should hopefully happen by the end of the month if I put in my goal volume and the cards even out.

I also need to begin to review my past tough hand histories on a daily basis. The training site that I signed up for (review coming) offers quite a bit more than I'm currently utilizing, so I also need to find time to take full advantage of all the services available to members.

'nuff talk.

Reflecting on June 2010: Tale of Two Graphs

2010-07-01T09:29:00.015-04:00

June 2010 is in the books and I was able to accomplish my goal of 500 MTTSNG's for the month. As I mentioned in a previous post I'm have some issues with HEM recording all of my tourneys properly, so I'm relying on Sharkscope for numbers at this point.

I started grinding some $6.50 9-man turbos at the beginning of the month before making the shift to MTTSNG's and setting my goal of 500, so overall for the month I play 629 tournaments. Specifically regarding MTTSNG's, I played 554 tournaments with an overall slight loss. I stayed exclusively in the micro-stake buy-ins but my results are quite polar when I compare my $1.10 results to my $2.20 results as shown in the below graphs ...

$1 graph

Trending upward, profitable and decent sample size of primarily 45-man and 90-man tourneys.

$2 graph

My $2 graph is the total opposite of my $1 graph.

Effectively the two graphs cancel each other out, so I ended up just about even for the month after 554 MTTSNG's. I've learned quite a bit from my play and from the training site I've signed up for. I will put up a review soon enough, but in the mean time I'll grind the MTTSNG's, review my hand histories, and continue to learn.

Finally here are my overall results for the month of June 2010. It includes 18+ man SNG's of all stakes including some schedules MTT's ...

Overall Results for July 2010

The large drop in profit began to occur when I started mixing in $2.20 180-man SNG's. In July, I won't be playing the $2.20's until my bankroll is at $440 which if things go as anticipated won't be possible until the end of the month. Currently my bankroll is $188.62 and I'll be working up my goals for July 2010 in my next post.

Later.

Banned from $2.20's

2010-06-30T01:24:00.002-04:00

I'm officially banning myself from playing any more $2.20 MTTSNG's until I have 200 buy-ins for that level, i.e. bankroll of $440. I'm going to have to go over my $2.20 level play to see if I've been just been a bit unlucky or I'm pushing too wide, not wide enough, calling too light, not light enough, etc. At this point I'm down $154 at the $2.20 level after 96 tourneys and getting in the money (ITM) only 5% of the time. If I gave myself an even chance to win one of those tourneys I should expect to finish 1st once in 180 games, so even if I was a total donk, which I don't feel as though I am, I could conceivably have a major downswing before scoring a big cash. That is the nature of MTT's so again, I'm staying with the hard 200 buy-in rule before even mixing in $2.20 MTTSNG's.

Despite my downward trend in the $2.20's my $1.10 game is going in the complete opposite direction, so that is very good. I'm beginning to notice some issues with HEM tracking the results of my MTTSNG play so I suppose I'm going to have to relying on Sharkscope for personal tracking until I can find the source and fix the source of the problem. But as it stands after this evening's grind I've completed 554 MTTSNG's this month, so I've accomplished my goal of 500 games for the month.

I'm not sure if I'm going to get any games in tomorrow night because I've been helping out my mother-in-law with a building project and I have to get the first phase of the project done before this weekend. We will be going out of town for the 4th of July so grinding won't resume until after Monday.

Goodnight.

Almost there

2010-06-29T09:26:00.004-04:00

I've played somewhere in the neighborhood of the mid-400's so far this month which puts me very close to my goal of 500 MTTSNG's for the month. Things have been progressing well so far. I'm learning that the play in these micro-stake MTTSNG's is definitely worse than the single table SNG's. I've been burned by many strange holdings in the early games but it is okay but more often then not my Aces and Kings will hold up against Ace-Rag or Jack-Eight offsuit.

I've played several of the 18 and 27-man SNG's and although I think I have an edge in them, they just don't seem to fit into my schedule too well. The problem with the 18-man tourneys is that they don't have any breaks and they run far too often. So if I'm aiming to keep 20 tourneys open at all times if I even have just 4 or 5 of these tables open I'm not going to get my 5-minute piss break on the top off each hour that comes with the 45, 90, and 180-man tourneys. Piss bottle is great, but to be able to get up every now and then is great also ... maybe I'll revisit the 18-man's at a later date.

The 27-man's are good; I would actually like to play them but currently they are only run in the regular (non-turbo format). This isn't a super terrible thing but what that means is the remainder of my tables are turbos and are pretty much exclusively push-fold tourneys (except for the early levels and when I have 20-30+ big blinds). The 27-man's do have a break (3-minutes to the top of the hour), so maybe over time I'll get familiar to mixing in different tourney types when I'm 20-tabling ... but until then I'll just stick to 45, 90, and 180-man tourneys.

Lastly, I don't really want to be too results orientated but I seem to be struggling in the $2.20 180-man MTTSNG's. I've had several big chip stacks get obliterated near the bubbles to major suckouts and haven't really been able to get much going when I do make it to the final two tables or final table. For the $2.20's I've lost just about as much as I've profited in the $1.10's so I'm beginning to think I should probably cut way back on my $2.20 tables. Having only about 100 buy-ins might be a bit too risky considering it is possible to go on a 50-100 game downswing which would be very devastating to me since I can't reload ... I'll have to do some thinking on this one.

Later.

Nearing the end of the month

2010-06-25T15:37:00.001-04:00

There are about 4 grind nights left in the month and I'm closing in on my goal of 500 games. I've knocked out about 360 games and have steadily increasing my number of tables, I'm feeling pretty comfortable at around 16 tables right now. I've had to shift from tiling my tables to more of a hybrid stacked-tiled layout. Having more than 9 tables tiled is too much hand and eye movement for me. I end up activating my time banks far too often for my liking. Since the tournaments I'm playing are turbo MTTSNG's the play in the early stages is very robotic so I stack them and slide out specific tables that I need/want to track a specific hand in such as an all-in or what someone was pushing with. As the games progress and near the bubbles and/or final tables I begin to tile out some of the deeper tables while keeping newly registered tables in the main stack.

Long ago before I used TableNinja, HEM or even PT2 I wrote a script using AHK that would allow me to setup hotkeys to slide tables out to specific slots or fill any open slot. TableNinja has a similar feature but I can't really use my custom scripts with TableNinja because it seems to override and nullify my hotkeys for AHK.

I've also been messing around with PlaceMint tool which is pretty sweet but incompatibility issues with TableNinja. I haven't been able to get the table movement hotkeys within PlaceMint to work when TableNinja is up and running. Also, when PokerStars releases a new update I seem to have to tweak the table headings for PlaceMint as well as do some other adjusting. It is a great tool but I'm not quite too adept at updating and maintaining it for my use ... maybe I should re-phrase that ... I'm a bit too lazy to devote the extra time to tweaking it.

Anyhow, about another 140 games in 4 grind nights. Should be very doable.

Later.

Reboot!

2010-06-22T00:59:00.004-04:00

I have rebooted my poker game. Since the beginning of this month I've re-focused myself to get back to the poker grind. I've withdrawn some of my funds to pay for a two-month membership to an online poker training site dedicated to high volume lower stake players. In due time I'll discuss my experience with the training site and how helpful the site may have been to me in my own opinion. Starting around the 12th of the month I shifted my focus from 1-table SNG's to multi-table SNG's. After my withdraw my bankroll is at $195.61 so I'm shifting down to $1.10 MTTSNG's on Stars. I'm going to be primarily focusing on 45-man, 90-man, but throwing in a few $2.20 180-man's as well as testing out the 18 & 27-man tourneys. I'm going to be steadily working on the number of tables I'm playing. I'm currently comfortable 9-tabling but hope to get back to 16+ tabling form soon. I will be grinding Monday through Friday in the evenings until 1-2am. So far I've been starting at around 10pm which doesn't leave me much time to play many sets, so I'll be trying to roll back my start time to about 8pm. Of course these grind times are tentative and flexible when and if I need to spend more time on my school studies and/or family commitments.

Nevertheless I'm extremely motivated to get back into the grind and will be taking this quite seriously from here on out. I've even had some discussions with my wife and I think she finally understands my determination to make this work ... so hopefully there won't be any conflicts there with me spending my weeknight evenings grinding the virtual felt.

My goals for this month are simple, put in a good deal of volume at the $1 and $2 level MTTSNG's (18+ man tourneys) on Stars. My goal is to play a minimum of 500 of these tourneys. Ideally I'd like to have a somewhat profitable month, but since I'm changing my main tourney type over I'd be content to make my volume goal and just break even for the month; obviously learning from my mistakes all the while.

For those of you who may have followed any bit of my blog (maybe a soul or two?), I've updated my layout, blog roll, and links. Many links went stale and I've also been following some new and interesting ones, so I figured I'd share them.

Glancing over at HEM, I've only put in about 200 MTTSNG's thus far so I have quite a bit of ground to cover to make my 500 goal for the month.

Later.

Conflicted

2010-05-23T22:38:00.004-04:00

Times flies! I swear it seems just like yesterday it was January and I was putting in several hours of play trying to get SilverStar status for the month. Anyhow, I finished my first semester back to school. Things went pretty well, and I'm right back in for the summer semester. Only difference is I have to actually go to campus for the majority of my classes which sucks. I have mobility issues and sitting in a chair and walking around campus (even if it is only to and from the parking lot) is enough to cause me considerable problems at times.

So school is full-time (more so than last semester), kids are getting ready to be out for the summer from school, house is a shit-wreck, have a zillion things in the garage that need to get sold via eBay or yard sale, finances and my health are in the shitter ... I really need to reassess and focus my energies on making progress.

Progress in school, poker, family, and in life.

Reflecting on January’s Performance

2010-04-13T22:37:00.001-04:00

Okay, it may not be February but I've been BUSY!!! It seems as though there has been hardly any time to rest lately. Despite just coming off of spring break with school, I feel somewhat exhausted. As I mentioned back in January I went back to school full-time, well sort of. I say sort of because 5 of my classes are online and though I wouldn’t liken them to regular campus classes they are all self-paced and require due diligence to stay afloat.

Anyhow, things are going well with school, and if I’ve done my planning correctly I may be able to graduate next summer semester (possibly in the spring if enrollment for my curriculum picks up). Needless to say, family life and my studies poker has taken a back seat, heck it would be an overstatement to claim poker is even riding in the car; more like it was tied to the bumper and in being dragged down the road for the past few months.

While I have a moment I wanted to reflect on my January performance. I’m fully aware that it is now April, but poker has always been on my mind and I really want to try to work it back into my daily schedule. In January, I did manage to just barelymake SilverStar VIP status. I think I earned around 760 VPPs. Achieving SilverStar VIP status was short lived because I haven’t put any volume in since the beginning of February.

My numbers were also down considerably from what I had expected them to be. Originally I had intended to grind the $5.50 sngs but when it became apparent I wasn’t going to be able to put in the volume I needed to make SilverStar with regular sngs, I switched over to turbo $6.50’s. Based on past experience I figured I should be able to come in at around 15% ROI for the month. In the end my ROI for $6.50 turbo’s for January was an abysmal 8.4%, far below what I expected.

Upon reviewing my daily sessions I noticed something interesting. My ROI for the first 27 days of the month for the $6.50 turbo’s was 20%. But for the last 4 days of the month were I put in 166 of my 287 games, my ROI was 4.1%. Some might say, “Well that is an extremely small sample size and you were probably on a heater.” I can promise you I wasn’t on a heater, and though the sample size might be small I have a different idea why there was such a drastic drop in ROI.

The last four days of the month I began noticing several solid players showing up at each and every table that I registered for. When I started each session I always saw 2 or 3 people registered for 12+ sngs waiting to fill up, sometimes more. So just like me, the regulars were trying to get the last bit in before the end of the month to hit whatever numbers they needed to maintain their VIP status. I ran sharkscope on many of them after my sessions and nearly everyone of the mass multitablers that were on my tables were quite profitable, therefore the table tables became tougher I suppose. I’m not trying to blame my low ROI soley on my assumptions but rather I feel that it probably played a large role in the decreased number.

Here are the stats of my play for January 2010. The stats do include the sale of some T$ that were sold when I won tickets using my FPPs. Without the sale of the T$ my numbers would only slightly lower, so for the time being I won’t bother excluding them from the stats. Allright, enough jaw-jacking …

January 2010
Games Played : 287
Total Profit : $178.55
ROI : 10.2%
VPPs : 762.25
Hours : 28.2
$/Hour : 6.34

There is still quite a bit more to be said but I need to look over some material for school before it gets too late. So I’ll save that for a follow-up post … later.

Off to a late start

2010-01-31T12:39:00.003-05:00

There are slightly less than 12 hours left in January and time is ticking. I got off to a really late poker start this month. School started January 6th and the adjustment period was pretty rough. I'm not sure if signing up for 16 credit hours was exactly the proper way to get back to school after being out of the loop almost a decade, but I'm coping with it the best I can. I tried to put in the hours when I finally started getting into a regular routine with school and family life but the time wasn't really there.

At any rate, I'm way behind the mark in terms of profit but I only need another 20 sngs to make Silver Star VIP for the month. I should be able to knock that out before midnight, but then again I have to take a database test, finish homework in 2 other classes, read a chapter and complete lab work for a my networking class, pay the bills, finish taxes, spend time with the kids, and so much more ... oh, sleep is in there somewhere, I think.

See ya in February ... later.

January 2010 Poker Goals

2010-01-04T22:25:00.003-05:00

Aight, I’ve gone into the think tank several times and I’ve worked out my goals relating to online poker. My short term 3-month goal is to build my bankroll to a sufficient level ($2500+) and be 8-tabling either the $33 regular sngs (or $27 turbo sngs) on Pokerstars. I will discuss my short term 3-month goals in another entry very soon but my immediate goals for the month of January 2010 are as follows:

January 2010 Goals
================
Week 1 – Actual Starting BR: $200.00, VPP Count: 0
18 hours of 8-tabling $5.50 sngs @ 18% ROI,
Projected profit $110.88 (112 $5.50 sngs, 308 VPP)
Week 1 – Estimated Ending BR: $310.88, VPP Count: 308

Week 2 – Estimated Starting BR: $310.88, VPP Count 308
18 hours of 8-tabling $5.50 sngs @ 18% ROI,
Projected profit $110.88 (112 $5.50 sngs, 308 VPP)
Week 2 – Estimated Ending BR: $ 421.76, VPP Count: 616

Week 3 – Estimated Starting BR : $421.76, VPP Count: 616
18 hours of 8-tabling $5.50 sngs @ 18% ROI,
Projected profit $110.88 (112 $5.50 sngs, 308 VPP)
Week 3 – Estimated Ending BR: $532.64, VPP Count: 924

Week 4 – Estimated Starting BR: $532.64, VPP Count: 924
18 hours of 8-tabling $11 sngs @ 15% ROI,
Projected profit $184.80 (112 $11 sngs, 616 VPP)
Week 4 – Estimated Ending BR: $717.44, VPP Count: 1540, Silverstar VIP Status

So by the end of January 2010 I hope to have put in 72 hours total (448 sngs), profited $517.44 and have achieved Silverstar VIP Status. With that said …

Time to get to back to the grind.

Looking back

2009-12-30T11:44:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I worked up a long post about how I had been looking back over my past grinding attempts to find out what worked and what didn’t. I also began discussing my current time commitments and what my current availabilities for online poker grinding where and why. Hmmm, do I really need to divulge all that stuff? Naw, not really. So I’ll try and get to the point.

My wife and I are going back to school next week and so are two of our children. Our two other little ones are still at home so grinding during the middle of day is not possible. Daytime is better suited for school, childcare, cleaning, etc. With that being said my only window of opportunity for online grinding is in the evening from about 8pm – 11pm (3 hours) on the weekdays. On Fridays I can probably stretch it to 6pm – 12pm (6 hours). Weekends have typically been off limits in the past but with our current weekday schedule I may be able to put the time in on the weekend with the blessings of my wife. I figure I could put in a 6 hour session on Saturday starting somewhere between 6 – 9pm.

I’m not sure how many weeknights I’ll be able to grind nor the true frequency at which I’ll be able to grind on the weekends but based on the estimations, the maximum number of hours I’ll be able to commit to grinding is 24 hours per week ( (3hrs * 4 days)+(6hrs * 2 days) ).

I did some calculations and 4 tabling will just take way too long to get my bankroll to a workable level to begin cashing out monthly. My ROI will be a bit higher playing regular sngs but they take on average about 1.5 hours to complete versus 0.75 hours for a turbo sng. If my estimations are correct and I don’t run too far below EV I could possibly begin cashing monthly after 8 weeks of bankroll building if I 8-table turbo sngs versus about 12 weeks of 8-tabling regular speed sngs.

Looking back through my past entries I don’t feel as though I made any huge mistakes in estimating the volume of play I could potentially put in. Ultimately it was my lack of commitment to follow through with the path I put out for myself to follow. I can remember on many nights I really didn’t feel like grinding because I was tired, or it was too late, or I got carried away watching something on TV, or whatever it may have been.

My goal was to treat my online poker grinding as a business not a hobby because I have a huge vested interest in the outcome. The outcome of my poker endeavor has huge implications for myself and my family’s financial well being at this time. Yes we are going back to school, but school doesn’t pay the bills right now and I have to come with a solution starting next week.

Time to lay out some goals so I can measure my progress and get started grinding asap.

Later.

Returning To Poker

2009-12-18T01:35:00.006-05:00

Poker has been in and out of my life since my last post. My grandfather's death is still difficult for me to cope with. I don't want to discuss particulars but rather I will just say that my eyes have been opened to so much more about the intricacies of life.

Over the past year I played some online poker off and on. For a short while I had gotten quite interested in shorthanded 6-max play. Right after taking leave from Poker, I withdrew almost all of my poker funds so my 6-max play was relegated to the micros, NL10 and under. IMHO I did pretty well, especially at NL10. I really wanted to keep grinding and build my roll to move to NL25 but I had financial obligations that required me to continue withdraw my winnings each month which really handicapped my ability to rise to NL25.

My play started out pretty tight, well tight for a 6-max table. Gradually my play evolved into a very lag'ish style. Looking back through my histories it seemed almost maniacally laggy at times. Needless to say, I drifted away from poker and withdrew most of the remainder of my bankroll to help pay household expenses.

So that is about where I'm at right now. I have a very low bankroll but I'm in serious need of making some cash to help out with my household bills. It is time to get back to the poker grind. First, I need to evaluate my past grinding endeavors and figure out what went wrong and what worked. Only then can I come up with a legitimate poker action plan.

'nuff said.

Taking leave

2008-08-04T09:19:00.002-04:00

There has been another death in my family and I will be out of town for quite a while. I'm not sure when I'll be ready to pursue poker again. Take care ...

Attack of the min bet and raise!

2008-07-21T14:55:00.004-04:00

Last Friday night's had me scratching my head. I haven't really played a Friday or weekend session in some time but from what I remember most weekends are filled with the worst of the worst. These players are the lowest of the low and oh boy do they put some beats on solid players. Needless to things haven't changed much from what I remember.

I took my fair share of beats and so did every other solid player at the table that I was with. One such character, MelbourneJoe, who was seated at a few of my tables took some bruising beats and man, whew, I know the feeling all too well. It is tough to see your AA broken by an Ace-rag preflop push or your QQ go down in flames to Q3o in another preflop donk fest. I mention MelbourneJoe because of the players I have run into and have noticed to be solid players he is the most profitable and probably most consistent that I have seen seated at my tables. Over a stretch of 36,000 games he has a profit over $82,000 at 7% ROI. This guy is truly amazing! He loads up to 20 tables at a time that I've seen. He is just nuts! One day maybe I'll get back to 16-tabling, but untl then I'll just stick to 4-tabling.

The thing that had me scratching my head was the over abundance of the min bet and min raise I saw. I'm used to seeing it from time to time especially from the weaker players and on occasion from a solid player directed at a loose aggressive player who doesn't seem to observant. But last Friday, I was so confused at the frequency I saw it. Now personally I hate the min bet and min raise. Nothing drives me crazy faster than to get min raised in my big blind, it makes my blood boil. But last Friday there were min raises pre-flop by the hi-jack, cutt-off, button, small blind and even early position. Not by just a couple players but rather it seemed like 70% of the table was doing this crap. Even when the blinds became high in relation to the stack sizes (100/200 and 200/400) there was min betting on the bubble out the ass!

I began to think maybe there was some revelation in sng strategy that I was unaware and suddenly the most profitable thing to do was min bet and raise! It began to puzzle me. Now most weak players tend to min bet/raise garbage or weak hands. In my experience a select few will do so with monster hands but on average the weak player tends to overbet his monster hand. Now when it comes to solid players who very rarely min bet it tends to be opposite. I say "tends to" because if the min bet is directed at another solid player who knows the original bettor has to have a big hand to be min betting with to induce action, well the original bettor may even have 53o because he knows that his opponent knows he can't do it with anything less than a monster, therefore at certain times his trash hands are just as good as premium pairs. That goes into the whole arena of levels of thinking and even though it has great merit in sng play the lack of chip depth is the main limiting factor in reducing the number of complex plays you can make during the course of a sng.

Anyhow getting back to the point, I was caught a bit off guard with the constant min betting preflop with large blinds. Normally when the big or medium stack opens for a raise you need to have a better than average hand to repush especially on the bubble. With that in mind I was a bit frozen far too often and not sure exactly what was the optimal way to adjust to the CONSTANT preflop min betting.

After the evenings session I went over to sharkscope and began looking at the competition, more specifically everyone except the few who weren't min betting/raising like rabid monkeys. Sharkscope backed up what I thought was the case, the vast majority (90%) were losing players. Man it was just weird to be seated at a table of min bettors at the $22 level. Might have been just a fluke to see it and about 2/3 of my tables that night but damn. For a moment there I thinking I was doing something wrong! Ha!

After the session I also loaded up several of the tournaments in Sng Wizard and looked at the different scenarios and feel comfortable that I handled most of the min bet situations correctly and I also feel comfortable that if I get "lucky" enough to draw a table full of these individuals I'll feel right at home in how to combat these types of players.

Back in the $22's

2008-07-16T01:47:00.002-04:00

It has been a while since I've played a $22 sng. Yesterday I started playing at the $22 level on Stars, a week ahead of schedule, and man it feels good. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind grinding the $5.50's but the wins at the $22 level seem so much more meaningful. The losses are equally painful but that comes with the territory the higher the buy-in gets.

I've run into a few solid players already but I feel on average the play is just about the same as the $11 level. Heck, the play is as bad as the $5.50 level at some tables. It is a bit early but I think I just might be able to surpass my goal of maintaining 16% ROI at the $22 level. We will see by the end of the month how things are going, but for now they are good.

I still haven't had a magical night yet. Even tonight on the bubble I had the following happen: KK run into AA, 99 into KK, failed to fold my JJ to an Ace-rag player, lost my fullhouse to a 1-outer on the river, lost TT to J7o headsup at 400/800, chopped at least 3 pots with my big ace versus Ace-rag on the bubble, and so forth. BUT despite the tough luck and coolers I still managed 45% ITM and 25% ROI. When that magical night comes around, oh boy it is going to be fun!

For now I'll just keep improving and playing my "A" game. Back to the tables.

Mid-month checkup

2008-07-14T16:17:00.013-04:00

It is the 14th of July and it is close to the middle of the month. Well actually there is about 2 1/2 weeks of play until the 31st so it isn't quite the middle of the month, but close enough. Anyhow the first two weeks of the month have been going well. With my newly adjusted goals I'm right on target to have a successful month. I've played 63 sngs with a profit of $163.50 (29% ROI). I can't complain about my results thus far despite some brutal bubbling sessions. All I can continue to do is get my money in with the best of it and hope my AJ+ holds up against Ace-rag or my pair holds up against the lone over card. I remain confident that in the end my edge will be realized monetarily.

I've run into some solid players at the $5 and $11 levels on PokerStars over the past few weeks. Some of the names that come to mind are GARDOCK, Reb3186 and bgdg0606. I did a quick search of GARDOCK on Sharkscope and it says that he's played about 10.7k sngs with an average ROI of 15% for a total profit of about $22k. That is quite impressive in my mind, very impressive. Not because he's profited over $22k but because he has an average ROI of 15% over 10,000 sngs. When I have played 10,000 sngs I hope to have an ROI close to his, wow, 10k at 15% ROI is truly amazing IMO.

Back to the tables.

Action plan for July 2008

2008-07-07T16:40:00.010-04:00

Upon further review last month did end in a bit of a failure but not all was lost. There were several lessons learned and I feel as though I progressed in my poker career. My poor results weren't the result of bad play. Downswings happen to everyone and it is how we handle and recover from such events that define us as a player. All I can do is continue to play the best possible game that I can which means making optimal decisions at the right time. In the end things should even out and my edge should realized.

Overall my goals for July 2008 haven't changed much from the previous month. Here they are:

1) Stay within my bankroll guidelines. I'm going to continue 4-tabling sngs on stars using the ultra aggressive guidelines I set forth for myself last month. Upon reaching a bankroll of $225 I'll move up to the $22's. The last week of July I should be able to move up to the $33's when I hit $375.

2) Grind out 156 sngs with a $448.50 profit. I've adjusted the start times for my poker sessions and even though it will take longer to achieve my ultimate goal of building a bankroll to provide the base for a workable income this is the reality of life considering my family. My aim is to 4-table for about 5 hours, 3 times per week (excluding the 4th of July) for a total of 13 sessions ending July 31st. If things go as planned this will bring me through the $22's and end the month in the $33's with a $448.50 profit.

3) Begin posting on forums. I plan to post 3 times per week on the forums. I hope to make the posts helpful and meaningful to others in the poker community.

4) Continue to review select hands after each session. This goes along with my previous goal number because I should be able to pull a hand from my nightly sessions to help with my posting on the forums.

5) Continue with my poker education. I will continue to make use of my Pokerxfactor subscription and review as many videos as I can. I've also received the new book by Rizen, Apestyles, PearlJammer and have started reading it. Even though most of the material is related to mtt's the thought processes and such are related very closely to all poker applications and are quite informative. This is number one on my reading list. It is my goal to have read it by the end of the month.

Time to grind it out.

June 2008 Totals

2008-06-30T20:34:00.005-04:00

Last month was a bit hard. Personally, my family and I dealt with several issues. I stayed away from the poker tables until I was ready to invest myself 100% with poker. When I came back to get restarted things just didn't work out in the end. After a good start things really fell off the deep end in terms of results. My sample size was pretty small, much smaller than I hoped for at the beginning of the month. So let me recap my plans for this past June and my results.

1) Adhere strictly to my bankroll guidelines

I stayed within my bankroll guidelines that I sent forth for myself at the beginning of the month. Again to recap, they were very aggressive, maybe a bit too aggressive while multi-tabling. I found myself failing to cash in a few different sets and was abruptly on the cusp of falling to the next lower buy-in level before recovering. The eventual recovery ended in a bit of a downswing that left me at $77 to end the month. Despite the downswing, I succeeded in staying within my bankroll guidelines.

2) Grind out 264 sngs to the tune of $1038 for the month

Even though I was unable to play poker for a couple weeks out of June I grossly overestimated the amount of sngs I could play over the month. I had anticipated starting my sessions between 5-6pm and running 6 sets (approximately 1.5 hours each) to end the evening between 2-3am. Unfortunately with my children and my wife not getting home from work until much later than I thought on many evenings things just didn't work out. The longest session I was able to grind for was about 5 1/2 hours (16 sngs).

Next month I need to seriously re-evaluate the duration and timing of my poker sessions. I have a feeling that the start of my sessions will come much later (9-10pm'ish) and will end about 2am. That should leave enough time for about 3 sets or about 12 sngs on average. Bottom line is that I failed this goal for the month of June. Actual performance was dismal, 59 sngs with an ending bankroll of $77 (net profit -$33).

3) Become active in forum discussions

I have been trying to get active in the poker forums at Pokerxfactor. But my involvement is far from the 4 threads per week goal I set forth at the beginning of the month. Some of it does have to do with being out of town for a week and a half and trying to recover from the traveling but that is far from an excuse. It was another failure for the month.

On the bright side, I have been selectively noting questionable hands from my tournaments as they unfold. I've been reviewing them at the end of each session in Sng Wizard to help me determine if I made the proper play. Some of the hands Sng Wizard can't really help, so those are the ones I really want to get involved in discussions with because I'm just not really sure what the optimal plays are for those particular situations. Reviewing select hands post-session was something I used to do but got out of a habit of doing for no other reason than laziness. No longer will I be lazy. Reviewing select hands post session is something I plan to continue doing from here on out.

4) Continue my poker education with reading and videos

I did manage to watch several different videos on Pokerxfactor, many from Beanmo. I found his video on Sng Wizard to be quite informative. I used to look at some of my hands in Sng Wizard before but wasn't quite sure what I was looking for and why. It has been a huge help to me. I didn't manage to read too much of Kill Everyone. In it's place I reread much of Sit 'n Go Strategy by Collin Moshman and several problems in the HOH Workbook (Vol III). I feel I continued with my poker education enough to count this as a successful accomplishment for the month.

5) Keep blogging

I think I did okay on that one.

So overall I would have to say the month of June was a bit of a failure for me. I had very poor results and failed to put in enough hours even when I was able to. More than anything I have learned quite a bit from this past month and I sure hope to apply it to next month and beyond.

Time to regroup and set an action plan for July 2008.

Reflections

2008-06-27T15:59:00.003-04:00

Nearly two weeks ago we received notice that my wife's grandfather had passed away. He had been sick for quite some time and had been battling lung cancer. I had met him before and I remember him as a good man, a happy man, a loving man. Nearly every year he would send my wife and kids a birthday card with a dollar and a stick of gum. It always brought such a smile to their faces when they opened the card from him. It was his trademark.

He is survived by his four sons, a daughter, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren, four sisters, and many nieces and nephews. He will be greatly missed.

May his soul rest in peace.

Family matters

2008-06-14T09:20:00.002-04:00

My family and I have to be leaving town. There has been a death in the family. I will be taking a leave of absence from this blog and poker until our family has recovered.

Take care.

Action plan for June 2008

2008-06-11T13:00:00.004-04:00

The year is halfway over but there is still plenty of time to accomplish a lot in 2008. I want to get back into playing online poker but not in a recreational sense. I want to use online poker as a vehicle to generate a monthly income to help provide for my family. There are many reasons why I can’t go into more details about my financial plight but I will just say that things are quite bleak. I remain hopeful that things might change in the near future but as it stands right now, they are less than promising. With that being said, it is time to lay the groundwork and goals starting now in June 2008 so I can be in a position to be earning an income from online poker by the end of the year.

Goals for June 2008 …

1) Adhere strictly to my bankroll guidelines

I’ve done quite a bit of reading about different bankroll guidelines and recommendations and I’ve settled on adapting the Kelly criterion for the basis behind my bankroll guidelines. I’m going to be following a very, very aggressive variant of the unprotected bankroll recommendation. I’m going to try and push my bankroll growth as fast as possible within my expected ROI at each sng buyin level starting at the $11 level. It sounds quite risky (8.36x buyins), but in the event I fall below $77, I’ll drop down to the $5.50’s. There I have to suffer a downswing of 14 consecutive non-cashing sngs before I go bust. Again, it is extremely aggressive and not for the timid. There is quite a bit more to the plan and if you want more details let me know and I’ll share them with you.

For more information about the Kelly criterion you can view this thread here. Also, here is another thread on the Two Plus Two archives. If I remember correctly, Fox (formerly of Pokerfox.net) published a series of articles in regards to Kelly criterion and bankroll building. His articles are in the process of being transferred to Pokerxfactor which has since purchased his site, Pokerfox.net. You can find some of his information about bankroll building and the Kelly criterion here at Pokerxfactor.

2) Grind out 264 sngs to the tune of $1038 for the month

It is my plan to grind 4 evenings a week (except this week which will be 3 sessions). I’ll be 4-tabling the regular sngs on pokerstars starting at the $11 level. My goal for total sng output is 264 games (72 + 96 + 96). As my bankroll increases I’ll be shifting to $22 and $33 sngs. By the end of the month I should be in the $33 sngs and have realized a profit of about $938 bringing my bankroll to $1038 after 264 sngs.

3) Become active in forum discussions

I think we all learn much better through discussion. True, we all can read various theories and what not but without actual involvement in the conversation I think you limit how much you truly can benefit from the discussion. So it is my goal to get involved in at least 4 poker related threads per week. From this I hope to gain some new insights as well as helping others avoid some mistakes I might have made.

4) Continue my poker education with reading and videos

I have several poker books that I haven’t quite read all the way through. One in particular that comes to mind is Kill Everyone by Nelson, Streib and Lee. It has quite a bit of information about MTT’s, Sngs and satellites. The type of information that I really need to read through very carefully and make sure I’m applying to my game. Also, I renewed my Pokerxfactor subscription with a coupon to waive the initial sign-up fee. I plan to make use of some free time I have in the afternoons to watching important videos that are critical to improving my game, particularly the videos in the sng curricula section.

5) Keep blogging

‘Nuff said.

JohnnyBax and Rizen join Ultimate Bet, why?

2008-06-07T00:45:00.007-04:00

Within the past week it was announced that JohnnyBax joined Ultimate Bet's Star Player Team. Shortly thereafter it was announced that Rizen also joined Ultimate Bet. Both players are widely known in the online poker community as highly skilled and well respected online pros. Why would these two top rated players join Ultimate Bet amidst the current cheating scandal?

Let me back track for a moment. If you play online poker I hope you have heard about the big cheating scandals that have taken place at both Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. If you are unaware of it please run a search on the Two Plus Two forums or google it. There is very damaging evidence that the cheating took place over a long period with the amount of actual monies fleeced from unsuspecting players at over 2 million USD between both sites. Interesting enough both sites were recently acquired by the same company, Tokwiro Enterprises. In the case of Absolute Poker a super user account used by a rogue employee(s) was responsible for the cheating according to the site. Ultimate Bet's server software had holes in it that were exploited by probably employees of the previous ownership prior to Tokwiro Enterprises taking over the company. The perpetrators were able to see the other players hole cards at the table as well as being able to make cash outs and transfers that were undetectable by Ultimate Bet's security because the accounts had been flagged as VIP accounts. As far as we know the cheating at both sites took place at the highest limit games.

Tokwiro Enterprises has begun refunding affected players from both sites the monies that they were cheated out of and are taking steps to implement new security features. Absolute Poker has also been fined a mere $500,000 by the KGC which has to be a drop in the bucket compared to how much traffic they see. There have been no actual fines or sanctions against Ultimate Bet at this time but I would imagine that they are forthcoming. I wouldn't expect the possible fines to be any worse than the slap on the wrist that were levied against Absolute Poker. Again, new security measures are being implemented at both sites to help prevent another such cheating scheme from happening. Also, they are supposedly going to be creating new security departments that analyze win rates of players for statistical anomalies to ensure something of this magnitude doesn't happen again.

Tokwiro Enterprises says it is very sorry about the cheating scandals. They are promising to fix the security holes and implement new features to prevent this from happening again. They would like to continue to serve their current customers and invite new players to join their new and improved sites. Should we believe them? I don't know. If you believe not everyone at the site is a bad apple and want to take their words to heart, so be it. It could be possible that their new security features (when implemented) could be a model for the rest of the online poker sites. Hey, what better way to improve and strengthen your site security but from your own mistakes?

We won't know for sure until more time passes whether Ultimate Bet and/or Absolute Poker live up to their promises. Or maybe instead they will merely decide to pay any fines levied by the KGC and upgrade their site security with the bare minimum so they can continue to operate with KGC's stamp of approval. I hope that both sites do carry through with their words and really turn things around for the sake of online poker. Things haven't been particularly cheery in the last couple years and these scandals could really cause major problems for any chance of legalizing online poker within the United States.

Getting back to the point of this topic, why would JohnnyBax and Rizen sign with Ultimate Bet? I'm not really sure what was the driving force behind such a deal. I seriously doubt that monetary gain was the primary motivation for doing so. From what I've read both players are well off enough that endorsements are merely supplemental income at best. Maybe they have information that isn't accessible to the general public at this time that has eased their minds and helped them with their decision to back the site. I seriously doubt either player would make a decision so lightly, they must truly believe that Ultimate Bet is going to turn things around for the better. With that being said, I respect JohnnyBax and Rizen's decisions to join Ultimate Bet and I wish them the best in their future endeavors.

I just hope for their sakes and that of the online poker community things with Ultimate Bet are on the up and up within the next six months. If not the whole thing we know as online poker here in the United States could be a thing of the past. That would be a terrible, terrible thing.

Getting closer to grind time

2008-05-10T00:42:00.003-04:00

Things are going well with our new baby. She has yet to get onto a regular sleep schedule, but we are getting close. I've been gearing myself up for my re-immersion into the poker grind by doing some light reading everyday. I even broke out my HOH's, especially Volume III. I thought I had read the book through already but by the looks of it's spine and how unrecognizable some of the hands are I'm guessing I never finished. Anyhow some of the hands I just don't quite agree with the scoring system for the workbook. I think the HOH series is a must for any tournament player but I really think that you can gain another big edge by finding out what a pro might do in a situation that is similar to something that you will encounter, i.e. Pokerxfactor. Even though I still recall many of the videos I watched when the site first launched I find myself tempted to rejoin with their current promo just to see what else new they might be offering. Until then I'll stick to books and forums.

Speaking of books, I received my copy of "Every Hand Revealed" by Gus Hansen. I'm just about done with the book and must say that I'm pleasantly surprised. Now there isn't anything earth shattering within the book but it is always quite interesting to find out some of the thoughts a pro may have had during their run to a tourney win (similar to Pokerxfactor). The book isn't very math heavy like HOH and does read quite easily. He basically recaps the vast majority of his hands played in the 2007 Aussie Millions Tournament. He definitely calls way too liberally out of the blinds for my taste. I do have one major gripe with the format of the book. That being that not every hand is described, let alone documented. At times it is a little difficult to follow how many hands he has folded before the next detailed hand occurs. A little deductive reasoning and the answer comes about, but I'm lazy and just wish there was table between detailed hands or even a master hand chart as an appendix or something. Anyhow, I got my copy from Amazon for just a little over $10, worth every penny IMO.

Later.

Welcome our new bundle of joy!

2008-04-18T21:52:00.004-04:00

My wife gave birth to our 4th child last week. She is a beautiful and healthy baby girl. Yet again it feels quite weird to be going through the baby days all over again. With our last child I thought that would be the end of the sleepless nights but when you don't do much in the way of preventing another child, well it happens and it did again. That is quite fine with me. My wife and I agreed that when we decided to have children it would be either 2 or 4 kids. We were at 3 so adding the 4th child seemed only natural in a way. It is so strange how time goes by so much faster the older you get. In just another 10 short years our oldest daughter will be graduating from high school and I'll be turning 40! Wow, time flies! I suppose it is just another wake up call that I need to stop waiting for tomorrow and enjoy today while I still can.

In the mean time, pass me another diaper and wiper!

Moving forward

2008-04-06T18:44:00.002-04:00

I've been considering closing down this blog for a quite some time. It is not that I have lost interest in poker but rather I have many more thoughts I'd like to share on all sorts of topics other than poker. Topics such as travel, computers, real estate, health, relationships, family, religon, investing and so much more. So with that in mind, I think that I'm going to try posting about these things when I have time, though I would suspect that the majority of my posts will be poker related, imagine that eh?

When I was looking back through my posts I now realize just how much whining I have done about taking beats. Originally this blog was a project of mine to help me work out my losses and learn from my mistakes. Ultimately a lot my posts became beat stories. I don't mind reading bad beat stories from time to time on other blogs but it is never my favorite thing to read about and here I am subjecting others to the same thing, how disgusting! So in the effort of moving forward, I hereby vow to greatly reduce the number of beat and pity me posts that I put out from here forward. It is my goal to be more productive and positive with my posts and hopefully someone can learn something from my writings, whether it be poker related or not.

It has been quite some time since my last serious post. In July last year I made mention to getting into the groove again which is something that I've been thinking about quite often since then. I hope to be shaking the rust off and getting used to multi-tabling sngs again. It is now no longer something that I would like to do, but rather something I have to do.

Until next time.

Update coming

2008-04-06T02:16:00.005-04:00

This blog isn't dead yet. New thoughts and posts are on the way.

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-20T00:23:00.006-05:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Getting into the groove

2007-07-21T10:25:00.000-04:00

So I've played five different sessions since getting back into grinding sngs. They were short sessions but again I'm feeling out how many different tables I can still handle comfortably before I take a major hit to my play's effectiveness. I've done sets of 10, 10, 12, 4 and 10 games at once. I'm really thinking I felt pretty comfortable at 10 tables but I'll have to try some more sets of 12 and some 8's to see how things go compared to the sets of 10. A few more sessions of maybe 3 set sessions will definately solidify my decision on how many tables to open at one time. My ROI and ITM have been pretty pleasant despite taking the worst of it more often than the best of it in 60/40 and 70/30 races. ROI is just about 40% and my ITM is just above 50%. These are the 5.50 regular sngs on stars which in all honesty is slightly lower than my normal stats for playing just 1 table at a time. So I can't say I'm running hot, because I'm not ... running about even or slighly below even which is just fine with me.

I decided to drop some cash on Sharkscope again for a month of searches. Sometimes late in a sng I'm a bit curious about my opponent and a quick view on Sharkscope gives a bit of insight into their past performance. I can generally make a pretty decent assumption about a player's ability based on what their results are, generally speaking. Low sample sizes are obviously not a great source of information, but to find that someone is on their 12th tournament of the day (not multitabling) and failed to cash in each and everyone can lead to despair and pushing one's hands too far. Also it helps me notice and stay clear of other potential strong players that I might have missed while multitabling. Sharkscope is a great tool and a great time waster for the curious individual.

I've come across all sorts of players in the low buy-in sngs. Even since the introduction of the anti-gaming bill there are THOUSANDS of low buy-in players that have sng sample sizes over 500 with net losses well into the thousands of dollars such as this individual. Many of these players continue to play despite being US based. Obviously we americans can still deposit ( though I haven't since my initial deposit in 2004) and many are doing just that. I don't see the influx of new players coming to a halt any time soon. That is unless another tougher bill is passed which I just don't see happening. And if these low buy-in players aren't US based the exploding asia and eastern european poker markets will provide plenty of new players to the mix.

See ya at the tables.

Time Warner Cable you SUCK!

2007-07-19T21:10:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday I had decided I was going to order the WSOP Final Table pay-per-view on ESPN through my cable provider, Time Warner. Last year I had decided to order the PPV also but I wasn't able to watch the broadcast in its entirety due to issues with the feed from the cable provider. I was hoping things would be different this year ... I should have known better.

The event started at 3pm EST and I wasn't going to be home until later in the evening so I was definately going to have to DVR the event. I was unclear as to how much room I was going to need available on my DVR because I wasn't sure if the event was going to be aired in high-def or not. So I called up Time Warner Cable (TWC) and asked them what type of program it would be, standard-def or high-def. The first operator said she had no idea what I was talking about despite me telling her the exact program name, channel, time it started and the city I lived in. Maybe a fluke, possibly she was new or something so she transfered me to a differnt operator. The second operator had no idea but was able to find the program finally. But of course she had no idea what type of programming it was. What should have been a 5 minute phone call was turning into half an hour with hold times. The third operator sounded like an older later who didn't get her morning coffee and was in a pretty foul mood. At first she guessed the program was standard-def but later in the conversation said I should plan for a high-def event because she didn't really know what it was going to be broadcast in. *sigh*

The last thing I wanted to do was not make enough room on the already packed full DVR by erasing shows my wife had recorded and feel her wrath. She gets really moody when I happen to accidentally erase her shows. Anyhow based on last year's broadcast and the general consensus on various forums I figured it was more than likely going to be broadcast in standard-def and erased a couple of my recorded shows. Purchased the PPV for later in the afternoon and set up all the blocks to record the event until 9Am the following morning (if it ran that long).

So when I get home at about 5PM and turning on the tv to make sure everything is going I'm greeted by a gray screen with channel logo in the lower left hand corner. Just freakin' great! I can't change the channel on the cable box. Heck I can't even turn the thing off with the remote or with power button on the front the box. Just as I go to reset the power to the box it reboots itself. JUST GREAT! I was really looking forward to knocking off a dozen beers while watching some live poker but at the moment I was fuming because that was obviously NOT going to happen ... *sigh*

So I call up Time Warner and of course they say there is a problem with the feed from ESPN and since it's not their fault there isn't much they can do about it. Of course it isn't your fault. Just like last year! Anyhow, I tell them I want the charge to be taken off my bill because I've missed the start and they can't guarantee the feed will be fixed or if the program will be rebroadcast.

This is the second year the WSOP main event has been available for live broadcast via PPV and both times its been screwed up for me. Well the first few hours were unavailbe for me to view but luckily something happened and the feed was corrected so I was able to DVR the remainder of the final table. Still I'm not paying for it because I couldn't view it in its entirety, $20 TWC isn't getting from me.

From what I did watch thus far (DVR and via Internet) I can say the play was very, well, very unusual for a final table. Over the next few days I plan to finish watching the rest of the broadcast before making an intelligent comment on the play of this year's final table. Until then all I can say is congrats to Jerry Yang. He seems like a great guy who is very humble. He will make a outstanding ambassador for poker for many reasons! Moneymaker effect! Yah baby!

BTW, Time Warner Cable, you suck!

Multi-tabling and WSOP Final Table

2007-07-16T14:20:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had a free moment so I decided to try and reintroduce myself to multi-tabling. Over the past year I had done some online play but nothing more than maybe 2 or 3 tables at one time. It was time to fire up several sngs and see if I still had the capacity to play several games at one time. Well it was a bit of a disaster because my laptop was having problems displaying to my Samsung monitor for some reason. So I wasn't able to place the tourney windows in the positions I was used to having them in. Also the new desk that I have upstairs has the monitor set unusually high forcing me to look at the screen a slightly upward angle. But before I knew it I already had 10 sngs open requiring constant attention, so there was no turning back. I had decided to only play the $1 sngs for this trial run due to the fact that my bankroll is seriously low.

Despite the couple issues I had with getting things setup and fighting with the stupid tourney lobbies things went okay. There was an initial feeling of panic when I first started but it went away quickly. I ended up busting out from 2 of the tournies in the early stages when I got too aggressive with a flush draw and took a bad beat with AK versus Ace-rag. Before I knew it I was on the bubble or close to it with the eight remaining tournies and I felt right back at home again.

Bubble play went pretty rough for me. I lost several dominated hands and ultimately lost most my races. Once in the money I continued to take the brunt of bad luck and took 3rd place quite often. Headsup things didn't fair much better, losing several dominated hands. I don't recall getting my money in with the worst of it except on the busted flush draw so all in all I was pleased with my play. Although I would have liked to have been a little more aggressive especially once ITM but the lower the buy-in you generally have to tighten up your pushing requirements because the average player in the $5 calls with a WIDE range of hands. The $1 sngs was even worse in terms of calling pushes.

Ultimately I ended up taking 1-1st, 2-2nds, 2-3rds, 3-4ths, 1-6th and 1-9th place. That made for 50% ITM and a ROI of 12.5% which could have very easily have been 60% ITM and a ROI of 42.5% ROI had I just taken 2 less bad beats. So in my first attempt back at multi-tabling I'm pretty pleased. Not with the results per say but in my ability to still play several tables at once. Thought I need to work on my setup a bit more, things are looking bright.

Speaking of multi-tabling, back before I went on break I had played a few sets of 20 games at a time and routinely knocked out 16 games at time. One of the inspirations for this was a guy named RainKhan (Hevad Khan) who would routinely knock out dozens of sngs at one time. We are talking in excess of 36 games at time, truly insane. I'm not really sure how he got that many games going at once because when I was trying 20 it was a real chore with the lobbies and registering and stuff. Anyhow, there were several people accusing him of being a bot and to make a long story short Pokerstars did revoke his playing right before reinstating it after he made a video of himself playing several sngs at once.

Amazingly enough RainKhan is still alive at this year's WSOP main event. He has managed to survive the massive field of 6000+ entrants and now finds himself at the final table with the 8 other remaining players. I would have to say that RainKhan probably has a pretty good shot at taking the whole thing down based on the number Sit-N-Go's he has played. Ultimately a final table is very similar to a sit-n-go, as they are great practice for endgame strategies. According to sharkscope RainKhan has played 19,477 9-player sngs. Looking at his profit chart by month he was up close to $40k pre-October 2006. Over the next 7 months his ROI took a huge hit and his losses started piling up. I don't claim to know why this happened but I would venture to guess he possibly moved up to the higher buy-ins and encountered tougher opponents and a lot of variance? Again I'm only guessing here but one doesn't amass close to $40k in profits over a 10,000 game sample as a fluke. This guy has a very solid sng game which should translate into really tough final table play. He really knows what he's doing and thus the reasoning behind my feeling that he has the potential to at least make the final three if not take the whole thing down himself.

Go RainKhan!

Back to grinding

2007-07-14T23:13:00.000-04:00

Since taking a break from seriously playing online poker a year ago it seems like there has been a lot of change. First off, the bill against online gaming just plain sucks. It is a shame how it came to be and how it was hastily tacked on to the port security bill. It was even worse how quickly some of the online poker sites pulled the plug on their US customers. I thought Neteller would stick it out for a while but unfortunately I now have funds locked in limbo with them along with tons of other players until things are settled legally.

I'm glad to see PokerStars and FullTilt are sticking to their guns and haven't folded to date. I was pretty confident it was only a matter of time before some alternative 3rd party payment processors came to fill the void that Neteller vacated, enter Epassporte. Even as much as I hate the bill being passed it seems that it will benefit me personally because of the huge influx of players from other sites that folded to US players come over to PokerStars. Over the past year with the occasional games I've played I've noticed about the same level of play in the lower buy-ins, quite possibly looser and weaker in the last 6 months which I would have to attribute to players moving from Party and Pacific (888).

I really want to get back to online poker and use it as supplemental income. But of course I can't generate much cash until I can get back to playing the $20 sngs and above. So that means I'm going to have to get back to grinding out the sngs. As much a I don't want to be donking it around in the $5 sngs that is what I have to do. I'm going to be going back to using 50 buy-ins as my bankroll gauge. So until I can grind my bankroll back to $550 I'll be stuck at the $5.50 sngs. Even the 50 buy-ins rule might be revised based on how many tables I'm going to be playing at one time, but until that time comes I'll be using the 50 buy-ins rule.

Some of you might say, "Hey, why don't you play the turbos instead because of the lower rake and faster pace you should be able to make more per hour?" Well beleive me, I've thought about that. Previously I stated that the play seems as bad as ever in the low buy-in sngs on PokerStars, well for the most part that is correct except in the turbos. From what I've seen the turbos are still full of donks and players giving away their money but there has also seemed like an influx of generally better versed players in regards to push fold bubble play. In the regular sngs I haven't noticed this as much and I think the slightly easier fields will possibly make up for the slight loss in hourly rate when comparing time to complete a regular sng versus a turbo sng.

Moving on to my poker goals, there is going to be only one goal for now. The bank building grind as mentioned previously. Beleive me, I still want to be playing some MTTs and satellites to some WCCOP events. But right now I'm going to focusing on my grinding goal of $550 so I can take the baby step towards getting back to where I was. When and if I find I have time I might try and fit a satellite in here or there but it won't be anything major beyond a FPP tourney or such.

See ya at the tables.

Lurking in the shadows

2007-07-08T23:56:00.000-04:00

It has been a long time since I've posted on this blog. Too long indeed. A lot of things have transpired since my last post. Events regarding my personal life as well as the landscape of online poker. I'll be updating this blog over the next week or so with some bits of what has been going on with me and what I have in mind for my future in regards to online poker and life in general.

Until then take care.

Back from vacation

2006-08-08T09:54:00.000-04:00

So I'm back from vacation! We had a pretty good time in Myrtle Beach and Charleston. Unfortunately it was so hot with heat index well over 100 degrees each day. With the heat it made it really tough on the kids but they handled it really well. I'm so proud of them for hanging in there and tolerating mom and dad's desire to go here and there even in the sweltering heat. We learned quite a few things on the trip, some good and bad things. Prior to going on the trip I had looked online for some action plans of some type but couldn't find much of anything except for all the commercial spam about various tours. I would really like to discuss our trip in great detail in hopes of future vacationers might come across it and pickup even just a small tidbit or two that might make their vacation more enjoyable.

I did my best to put poker out of my brain but by Friday I couldn't help but to check-in and see how the main event was going. Thankfully my two horses were still in the race, Eric "Rizen" Lynch and Allen Cunningham. I made mention of Rizen in a previous post during his $1500 Pot-limit final table. Again I don't personally know the guy but have watched some instructional videos from him as well as read many of his posts on pokerxfactor. I've also railed him in a couple online tournaments so I feel as though I know him in a quasi-sense even though I don't. Anyhow he is a real standup guy and is very humble. He sort of reminds me of myself in a sense and that is why I am cheering for him each step of the way. He still has a few more hurdles today when play resumes to make the final table. I believe he is currently in 19th place out of 27 so he is in pretty good position to make the final table if he can catch a break however it comes. Play at the WSOP ME will end once they are down to the final table, 9 players, so it might be a looong day.

It is interesting to note that their are very few professionals left. The most notable names that I recognize are Jeffrey Lisando and Allen Cunningham. The rest from what I've read are some lesser known online pros and amatuers, or semi-pro hobbyists at best I suppose. The break down of the money for the top 27 players in this years WSOP ME is as follows ...

Place / Prize
1 / $12,000,000
2 / $6,102,499
3 / $4,123,310
4 / $3,628,513
5 / $3,216,182
6 / $2,803,851
7 / $2,391,520
8 / $1,979,189
9 / $1,566,858
10-12 / $1,154,527
13-15 / $907,128
16-18 / $659,730
19-27 / $494,797

The blinds are going to be 30,000/60,000 with a 10,000 ante which makes for some players with pretty low M's. So maybe the action will be fast and furious but I kind of doubt it. Of course every player wants to make the final table and win it but I'm sure there are plenty of players that making the top 15 ($907,128+) would be huge to them. Heck I'm sure there are several players that making about an extra $160,000 may be equally as huge to them. With that being said it will be interesting to see what unfolds today.

I just want to wish the best of luck to Eric "Rizen" Lynch. I'm cheering for you to make the final table as are a bunch of other pokerxfactor members! Take it home man!

Off to vacation!

2006-08-01T11:29:00.000-04:00

The month of July has come and gone very quickly. My casino whoring quest went pretty well, thought it could have probably gone better if I had been a bit more patient and hadn't been playing multiple hands against the dealer. Nothing I can do about it now so I'm over it for good. I did experiment with some 6-max NL cash games and it has opened my eyes to new possibilities. I still tend to prefer sit-n-go play over cash games for some quick action but I did find myself registering for a sng, then unregistering when I found a 6-max game, so maybe that is changing too? I wouldn't say I'm a terribly profitable 6-max player but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe more light than playing sngs? I have to way out the pros and cons of each before I make my decision as to what avenue to tackle this next month for my bankroll maintence/growth vehicle. That is something I don't feel like doing right now but what I have been really missing is multitable tournament play. A fellow blogger, L8bloomer, just took down another $20 180-man sng on pokerstars as well as knocking out a $50 MTT for $5400! Reading about his success is truly inspiring and I can't wait to get back on the MTT trail and put my newly found skills to use in the later stages of some MTTs. Another one of my friends, Gryphon2k5, scored a nice victory in a $4 180-man sng. He's taken a break from poker after diving into a sea of variance and this nice little score looks it my be just exactly what he needs to get his fire started again! Congrats man!!!

Looks like I'm going to be depleting my newly found bankroll for vacation. I already took about a big part of my bankroll but I want to relax and not worry about this or that so I'm going to be putting it too good use. My family and I are going to be spending time in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and then skip down to Charleston, South Carolina to enjoy a bit of the low country. It should be a good time and I hope to relax and enjoy ourselves as much as possible.

I'm going to try and put poker out of my mind as much as possible but with the success that several of my friends have been having online in MTTs it will be difficult. Also seeing several blogs and hearing several podcasts from the WSOP over the past weeks have really, really, really made me want to pursue my satellite challenge more than ever. Ahhhhh, damn I wish I could have made it out there this year but I think this family vacation is more important than that at this time. Next year I will be sure to clear my schedule for July & August and pursue a WSOP prize package extremely hard.

So to all those of you that made it to the WSOP good luck in the main event and I hope to read about your fantastic finishes. And those of you less fortunate I'd really love to read about more MTT victories when I get back from vacation. All the more inpiration I need to have a stellar August when I get back. I do apologize if this post was a bit more confusing than usual. I'm in the midst of getting stuff packed and ready for our trip, so again I do apologize.

See ya next week and good luck at the tables!

Zeke takes on InterCasino

2006-07-24T01:41:00.000-04:00

I'm still waiting for my cashout from OnlineCasino to come through. Feeling pretty sick about the way I tackled the bonuses for OnlineCasino and Casino 365. Playing 5 hands at time really threw a huge wrench in my potential earnings, thinking that I lost out on $200 or more.

The next few casinos I try will be the crypto sites, starting with InterCasino. InterCasino is InterPoker and vice versa. Their poker site is extremely soft but I don't particularly care for their software. Anyways I went to deposit some money at InterCasino to take advantage of their $100 monthly deposit bonus (new and existing users) and was baffled when my account balance was $100 without a deposit? Then I realized I had deposited some money at InterPoker a while back and they had given the $100 in bonus money. Of course I hadn't cleared the requirements for it so thus the $100 in bonus funds in my account. InterCasino's WR is $2500 for a $100 bonus so I figured I'd try and work of the existing $100 bonus at the blackjack tables before making a new deposit.

About 45 minutes and a misclick later I was busto! I was watching TV while clicking and accidently clicked the $25 chip to bet and lost. I was on a terrible run dropping cash ultra fast anyways so the $25 misclick didn't help either. InterCasino's bonus is monthly so I figured I'd go ahead and drop the $100 deposit and see what happened. I wasn't sure if the old promotional bonus would be canceled and a new one would start or what.

Well after the deposit the cashier showed a new promo in addition to the old one but I received the $100 bonus funds instantly at the time of the deposit. So it appears their promos carry over from the previous month(s). So I got to work finishing the rest of the previous bonus and upon completion my account balance was at $240. Shortly before completing the WR I was up to about $320 and then went on a sick cooler, dropping hand after hand before leveling off at my $240. I checked the cashier and come to find out my max withdraw is listed at $200. I guess because it is my $100 deposit and the maximum allowed bonus funds from the previous promo?

So I started to work off the current promo so I could get all $240 out but became bored. It felt like a bit of a waste to sit there and wager another $2500 to get back only $40. And that is only if I didn't hit another massive cold streak. If I'm going to work off another big $2500 it needed to be worthwhile so I went over to the poker side and sat at a $25 NL 6-max table.

I quickly stacked off a guy and short stack and was up to just over $55 at the table. After losing a few pots to a calling station I decided to pull the plug and left with $50. The weirdest thing happened next. When I logged back into the casino side just to check my bonus status to see how many raked hand I played my account balance was higher than it should have been. Prior to the table it was $237 and afterward it should have been about $263 with $200 being cashable. Instead it was $312 with $284 being cashable!!! I have no clue WTF happened nor do I really care. I would be happy to take the $284 and get out the door but decided to hit the blackjack tables anyways. I figured I'd try and see if I could build up the $312 while working off as much of the promo bonus WR tonight. But that didn't last long as I quickly hit another bad run of cards and was soon at $285. Time to cashout, NOW.

InterCasino charges $1 for each cashout so my cashout should be $283 when it comes through. That means my net profit for InterCasino ends up at +$183! I just hope it does come through and nothing fishy comes up. Guess we will see in the next couple days as InterPoker has taken a couple days to hit my neteller when I request a cashout. Until then good luck at the tables!

UPDATE:
Two days after requesting my cashout from InterCasino it arrived in my neteller account. The entire balance was received for a net profit of $183. Not sure exactly what happened, maybe just one time hiccup in their system or possible exploit? I'd prefer to keep my gaming privledges at their site being that the competition is pretty soft so I won't be looking to find out for sure.

Casino Whoring Quest (b. 7-17-06)
===============================
Starting Bankroll $100.00
Starluck +$89.41
Planetluck +$180.00
Casino 365 +$51.50
OnlineCasino +$147.00
InterCasino +$183.26
===============================
Active BR $751.17

Zeke takes on OnlineCasino.Com

2006-07-21T23:44:00.000-04:00

OnlineCasino.Com was next on my list of casino's to hit. They are offering a 300% bonus on a $100 deposit. Their wagering requirement is in the same range (20x) as most casinos so it isn't a bad deal. With my deposit of $100 I had $400 in total funds to play blackjack at their tables with a wagering requirement of $8000. One thing about their promo is that the bonus funds aren't automatically deposited into your account. You actually have to call their support line and request promo A4002 to be applied to your account. After talking with support it took another 30 minutes to before the bonus funds showed in my accout.

OnlineCasino is nearly identical to Casino 365 since they both utilize Playtech software. That was nice because I was used to the button layout from yesterday and was glad I wasn't going to have to re-adjust to another set of button locations. They have several different blackjack options but I decided to stick to multi hand blackjack surrender. Off to the table I went and began playing 5 hands at once. I decided since their WR is quite large ($8000) I decided to bet $2.00 per hand. Things immediately went for the worse. Before I knew it my $400 was down to $350, then $320, then $280 and dropping. Damn this Playtech software! It has me cursed I swear!

By about the $6000 wagering point my balance was somewhere below $150 and dropping! I kept thinking, "Damn, this will be the second big bonus blown in a row!" Something just wasn't right. I know variance will vary but maybe I was doing something wrong. I took a brief break and checked my game mechanics and they were fine. I was considering dropping back to $1 bets per hand, then I remembered a minimum betting article. I thought I was doing the right thing but after rereading the article and searching through a few forums I realized I wasn't.

My whole gameplan in tackling this casino whoring quest was to make the most money possible while minimizing variance at blackjack. By playing multiple hands against the dealer the variance increases considerably. That is not what I want! I figured by playing multiple hands I could clear my WR faster and still keep the risk low but I was wrong. So I went back to playing a single hand at a time and my balance stablized after coming up a bit. After completing all $8000 of the WR my balance ended up at $247, net profit being +$147. It is down quite a bit from the starting $400 but I learned an important lesson. The idea behind clearing these bonuses is slow and steady to maximize EV. By playing 3 or 5 hands at time against the dealer my swings are going to be much larger than I'm ready to handle. I'm not sure but it seems like the dealer might even have a larger advantage while playing 5 hands at once? Maybe it is just me being paranoid but I'm not doing that any more.

One last note is the cashout procedure. According to their email support since I don't have a credit card registered with them I have to provide three forms of documentation to prove I am the owner of the account. So gay indeed. I mean damn, I'm cashing out to the same neteller account that I deposited from so what difference does it make? I have a feeling this site is going to be a slow grind to get my money out of. Tommorrow I'll get my documents scanned and send them in so I won't update this entry until the cashout is complete.

UPDATE:
I did receive my cashout after 3 days. I did have to send them a copy of my drivers license, bank statement header and utility bill. Of course all pertinent information was blacked out which was fine. I'm still feeling pretty sick about only cashing out what I did because I deviated from the minimal loss game plan in an effort to speed up clearing the bonus. I guess something is better than nothing?

Good luck at the tables.
Casino Whoring Quest (b. 7-17-06)
===============================
Starting Bankroll $100.00
Starluck +$89.41
Planetluck +$180.00
Casino 365 +$51.50
OnlineCasino +$147.00
===============================
Active BR $567.91

Zeke takes on Casino 365

2006-07-21T01:02:00.000-04:00

Next, I decided to try Casino 365, also known as Bet365 Casino. They are offering a 200% match on deposits up to $200 with only a 12x wagering requirement. A good portion of casinos offering cashable bonuses have wagering requirements ranging mostly from 20-25x the total of your deposit and bonus, especially the crypto sites InterCasino). Clearing a 12x wagering requirement will go pretty fast and that is what I'm about right now. Building a bankroll quickly.

Cashing in at Casino 365 was a breeze. It is always super easy to give them your money but getting it back can be a different story. So with my deposit and bonus funds my account balance was $400 at the start of play. My wagering requirement was $4800 and I figured since they offer multi-hand blackjack (5) while betting the minimum ($1.00) it was probably going to take me about 6 hoursor less to clear the bonus.

Things started out pretty good, I was quickly up to about $480 after wagering my first $1600. Then the cooler came, I was losing every hand. Every time I doubled down on an 11 I'd be dealt and ace or duece. Everytime I'd have A4 through A6 against the dealer showing 5 or 6 I'd be dealt a 5 or 6. If I had all 5 hands with a 20 the dealer would get 21. If I pulled three 21's and two 20's the dealer would pull a 21. There was one moment where the dealer picked up blackjack 4 hands in a row, then 21 with a six showing, then a streak of 3 more blackjacks. I felt like Clark Grizwald in Vegas Vacation playing against Marty! The variance was kicking my square in the nuts! I had to cover up my balance while playing, the downswing was brutal!

By the time I had wagered about $4000 my account balance had fallen to about $250. I was thinking the variance will vary and I should get back up to maybe $325 before meeting the $4800 WR. Oh how wrong I was! It isn't called it VARIANCE for nothing! Right about the $4500 wagering mark I hit my low of $178. I felt like vomitting in my mouth but I managed to actually win some double downs and splits and began to climb back up a little bit. As soon as I hit the $4800 WR my balance was $247. I said to myself I would stop as soon as I was over $250, hoping to ride a hot streak that should be just around the corner.

The hot streak never came. I had to wager another $100 before I gained just those few dollars that put me over $250. It was pretty pathetic. I ended up calling it a night and cahing out at $251.50, well short of the expected norm. I suppose the little bit of good fortune I had at Planetluck was offset by this terrible run at Casino 365. Thats blackjack, chalked full of variance just like poker.

I did like the software at Casino 365. They allow you to play 5 hands at once while wagering at blackjack. Also I only lost connection one time during play comparted to 5+ times at previous sites. When I reconnected my hand had been effectively paused and resumed right where I left off. Any disconnects at Starluck or Planetluck I believe where treated as autofolds and all bets forfieted. There also didn't appear to be any timers while making decisions at the table at Casino 365. This worked out great because my children were being particularly unruly last night and I had to take several mid-hand breaks to get those rascals calmed down, i.e. discipline them.

Cashing out from Casino 365 was painless. My cashout was in my neteller account within 30 minutes of requesting it. In the end my profit at Casino 365 was only $51.50. Hopefully the variance won't strike me so hard at the next site. Until then good luck at the tables!

Casino Whoring Quest (b. 7-17-06)
===============================
Starting Bankroll $100.00
Starluck +$89.41
Planetluck +$180.00
Casino 365 +$51.50
===============================
Active BR $420.91

Zeke takes on Planetluck Casino

2006-07-20T00:31:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I downloaded and installed Planetluck Casino's software. Planetluck is a sister site of Starluck Casino. Actually when exiting Starluck a pop-up window recommends you try their sister site Planetluck Casino. The same 100% bonus up to $100 is available for new players, even if your a member of Starluck. So I signed up using the "100" bonus code on my $100 deposit and was off to the blackjack tables.

Planetluck Casino's is nearly identical to Starluck's. I started some mindless multi-hand blackjack at about 4:15 PM and by 8:00 PM I had cleared my wagering requirement of $1600. I wasn't able to play 3 hands the entire time while I was at the table because there was an individual playing a single hand also. He was betting some very odd amounts at what seemed like random intervals. Betting $6, then $7, then $10, then $20 or $25, then cycling down or skipping his bet sizes around. There is no count on his chip stack so I have no real clue how he did. But it was pretty cool to see him take down a $100 pot when he doubled down on a $25 bet.

My stack was a bit up to start then moving down and then back up again to about mid way. At the mid way point I went on a cold streak and bottomed out to about $150. I know not bad at all but after hovering between $190-220 it was a bit of a cooler. Then just as I was coming around to clear my WR I went on a bit of run and ended up at $280. I think I was just about $10 to $20 over my WR when I decided to quit. I really wanted try and run my hot streak to the end but figured I'd quit while I was ahead. I'm definately happy with my results at Planetluck, total profit at the site is +$180.

Planetluck Casino's software was identical to Starluck's but I ended up timing out and and lagging a bit more often then Starluck's it seemed. Again I was playing on my wireless connection so I really don't know if it was a problem on my end or not. Also even though I had called to validate my account with Starluck I also had to do the same thing for Planetluck. I found it a bit odd that while talking with EzeCash's support personnel on the phone (Johnny?) he said that they ask their Planetluck players to follow 2 rules. Number 1 don't share your checking or credit card accounts with another individual. The number 2 rule is that you only have ONE Planetluck account. I mean Starluck is a sister site so it seems kind of contradictory on their part to allow players to sign up on both sites. But its free money so I'm not complaining.

At the time of this post my funds are still not available for cashout. Again it takes up to 24 hours after meeting the wagering requirements before your funds are available for cashout so they should be available soon. I'll update this post when this cashout is completed. In the meantime I'm not sure what casino I'm going to be going to next. I'm considering maybe InterCasino or OnlineCasino. I'm curious though if I can sign up for both OnlineCasino and GoldenPalace. They are both offering huge 300% signup bonuses at the current moment. I'll have to do some e-mailing to find out for sure. Until next time good luck at the tables.

UPDATE:
I received my cashout in about the same time as it took to get from Starluck. Everything went very smoothly as was expected. Off to the next casino!

Casino Whoring Quest (b. 7-17-06)
===============================
Starting Bankroll $100.00
Starluck +$89.41
Planetluck +$180.00
===============================
Active BR $369.41

Zeke takes on Starluck Casino

2006-07-18T13:26:00.000-04:00

Last night I embarked on my little casino whoring quest to build my poker bankroll. I'm allocating $100 of my $131.05 poker bankroll to this quest. That is 76% of my entire poker bankroll so I'm going to be sticking to the book on this one. I could have started with less than $100 but I really want to be able to take full advantage of the bonus offers. An extra $50 is huge for my bankroll at this point.

So my first casino experience had to be a good one otherwise I would probably pull the plug on future endeavors. Starluck Casino is a highly respected online casino that is part of the Party network so I decided to start my quest there. If all goes well I expected to turn about $90 profit from playing blackjack there. For new players they offer a 100% signup bonus using WIN100 bonus code. Their wagering requirements (WR) are pretty easy compared to a lot of other online casinos. Starluck Casino's WR is only 8x, so I have to wager $1600 before I can withdraw anything. They also offer an extra 20% if you deposit using their eChecks by iGM-Pay system. It is a system where you can deposit directly out of your checking account. They only impose a 3x WR on that bonus so it was awfully tempting. Unfortunately I had to pass on the extra 20% bonus, I currently only use neteller. If my wife found a withdrawl notation in the checking account for an online gambling site it would be like the goddamn inquisition! I would never hear the end of it regardless of how much money I have made playing poker that has gone towards bills, extra expenses and our upcoming vacation.

Getting back on track, at first the WR seemed like quite an intimidating number ($1600) with only $200 in my account ($100 my investment & $100 bonus funds) but it went rather quickly even only wagering $1 per hand. I started out playing single player blackjack until I became comfortable knowing when to hit, stand, double, and so forth. I quickly moved to multi-hand blackjack and was playing 3 hands at once. That really helped move things along rather quickly. I played a few hours here and there throughout the evening and met my $1600 WR. I think I actually played a little bit over, probably close to $1700-1800. That is one thing I don't like is that they don't have a live tracker to let you know where you stand with your bonus. You have to call, email or contact a live support person to get the information.

Their live support was helpful but dreadfully slow for me. I type pretty fast and I expect a live chat person to do the same. I'm sure I wasn't the only individual on the line at the time but my questions were extremely simple and it took a long time for the 3rd world country worker to respond in the chat box. But they did provide me with the answers to any questions I had so I can't complain I suppose.

I game on my notebook using an internal wireless network card to connect to the internet through my router upstairs. It provides me with considerable freedom to game from just about any location in the house. This is extremely helpful considering I have 3 children and wife who can't stand for me to be holed up in the office. Also I can't tolerate the pain associated with sitting in an office chair for any length of time so this notebook has been a godsend. The point of me referencing my notebook with wireless card is that while playing blackjack I did lose connection probably 5 times during the course of clearing the WR. I'm not sure if these were drops by my wireless connection or if it was indeed internet or site congestion? Thankfully since I was only min betting those lost connection hands didn't hurt me that much.

I started out losing a ton of hands. Doubt began to creep into my mind and I was like, "Damnit, WTF amd I doing playing blackjack!" But once I switched to playing 3 hands at once the variance began to calm down and I began recovering. During the course of my play my low point was around $130 and my high point was $236. If I had a live tracker or a better handle on how close I was to actually meeting my WR I might have ended up with $220 or so. During the last 50 hands I went on somewhat of a cooler and ended up stopping at $188.50.

If you are considering undertaking a similar quest and think you might have a hard time coping with the inevitable losing streaks while playing blackjack you might consider placing a piece of masking tape over your account balance on the screen. Or place something that will obstruct your view while playing if you feel like you will be unable to control the emotional roller coaster you will be on while losing. Remember don't try and make larger bets to make up for lost bets. Stick to a plan. Don't waver it'll work out a huge percentage of the time.

So after I completed my WR I was curious about their slot machines and decided to check them out. I noticed that I could play some of them as low as 1 cent and I did. Here I am at the very first online casino breaking my mantra of staying the course and not playing games other than blackjack. But hey they were only penny slots, it couldn't hurt that bad. I actually ended up scoring pretty good at the penny slots and turned $0.91 profit while playing penny slots. I know it is only virtual but it is still pretty cool to win at the slots, especially when the bells, whistles and flashing lights get going. Man I'm a sucker! Ooooooooo, look at the pretty lights, *drool*.

Another thing of note is that Starluck Casino uses a separate company, EzeCash, to process their cashier transactions. I wasn't aware of this and was a bit uneasy when I received an email shortly after depositing at the casino. The email asked me to call a toll free number to validate my account otherwise it would become inactive. After chatting with the live support personnel at the casino everything checked out and I made a phone call to validate my account. General verification stuff that I do recall doing a long time ago with PartyPoker.

Anyhow my first online casino experience was a positive one. Less my original deposit of $100 my actual profit at the Starluck Casino is $89.41, very close to the expected norm. According to Starluck's T&C my funds will be available for withdrawl within 24 hours of completing my WR. I completed my WR about 1AM EST this morning so I'm currently just waiting for the transitional period to pass before I can request my cashout. After that it looks like its is going to take another 24-48 hours to receive the funds to my neteller account. Maybe less time since I made a phone call and verified my account? I'll update this post as soon as I received my funds in my neteller account.

UPDATE:
I received my cashout to my Neteller account within about an hour after I was able to request it. I probably might have been able to request the cashout sooner but I was unaware that since Starluck uses EzeCash to process their cashier transactions I had to click on the "DEPOSIT" link in the game client. After clicking that a separate browser window opens up. You click on the cashout tab in the browser window to process the cashout. Definately wasn't aware of this and should help when I tackle Planetluck Casino since it is a sister site of Starluck Casino.

Casino Whoring Quest (b. 7-17-06)
===============================
Starting Bankroll $100.00
Starluck +$89.41
===============================
Active BR $189.41

Double, Split, Surrender? Where is the All-In button?

2006-07-18T11:59:00.000-04:00

I haven't played much poker in the last week. Actually it has been almost 6 days since I played a hand of online poker. For me it seems like an eternity! I've had quite a bit of real life stuff going on and its been taking front stage currently. The sad part is that I haven't done anything about the real life issues rather I've been just milling about over them, *sigh*. There is so much I need to do and just really don't have the desire or drive to get motivated and get started. This not typical of myself. I would say that I'm normally an individual with considerable initative and a plethora of ideas. But recently I've been pretty stagnant mentally. There is a lot of possible causes for this, too many I think. I also think I've rambled enough about nothing. So let me get to the point of this post, bankroll building through casino whoring.

If your actually taking the time to read this you might be wondering, "Why in the hell would you risk your money on that crap rather than at the poker tables where at least you have an edge?" That would have normally been my mode of thought also but I continue to read about how easy it is to build a small bankroll $300-400 very quickly casino whoring. The thing is that there are a ton of online casinos that offer some really juicy bonuses, cashable bonuses. Of course you have to wager certain amounts in order to be able to withdraw those bonuses but it can be done pretty safely while playing games that have the lowest house advantage, blackjack.

There are tons of guides and articles floating about the net detailing what sites to try and the techniques to follow so I won't waste time discussing them. I will comment on the issue of safely building a bankroll while casino whoring. There is an inherit risk with any form gambling, period. The idea behind casino whoring through blackjack is that the small -EV you give up from playing blackjack is offset by the juicy deposit bonuses they offer you upon signup. Again there is an inherit risk while building a bankroll through this method but it can be minimized greatly if you stick to a plan and DO NOT STRAY FROM THE PATH. No slots, no roulette (won't generally count toward your wagering requirements anyways), no dice or other such games.

It is recommended to stick with the minimum bet while working off the bonuses to minimize the risk of losing not only your possible bonus funds but your original investment. Betting more than the minimum will speed up the amount of time it takes to clear your wagering requirement but it will also increase your chance of going broke. Here is a link to a post on bonusbug by ScuryDog that illustrates the risks of betting certain amounts. This of course refers to cashable bonuses that I will be focusing on during my short casino whoring quest. Sticky bonuses are an entirely different animal and I might attempt cashing in on those, but only later if I'm feeling lucky and have sufficent funds to risk.

In the beginning I plan on betting the minimum to reduce my chance of losing my $100 nest egg. I'm also going to be sticking to highly reviewed sites with good cashout histories. The last thing I want to do is sink a couple hundred bucks into a site that is notoriously difficult to get a cashout from or is on several blacklists for alleged shady software.

Back tracking a bit, why am I doing this? This month I had planned on taking somewhat of a break from poker. I'm still taking a break but I'm looking ahead to next month. With right around a $100 bankroll I'm going to be grinding out the micro limits. I really want to introduce a solid action plan for developing a 6-max NL cash game but with such a small bankroll I'd really feel more comfortable with something a little larger. I'm also a bit torn if I'm going to split my bankroll between two separte entities, one for cash games & another portion for sng/mtts. Maybe I'll go more into that in the future but for now I'm undecided.

At any rate, if I turn my $100 into $400 to restart me for next month that will allow me to get back to the $11 sngs at the very least and allow me some cushion with my buyins if I do finalize an action plan for 6-max NL cash games. IMHO it is a pretty low risk way to build up a poker bankroll for just pushing buttons. Let's be honest, blackjack is robotic. If you want to play optimally there is no room for creativity. You hit, stand, double, split or surrender when your supposed to, period.

I'm off to the virtual casinos for a little while. I'll be updating my blog with my tales of success or failure (hopefully not). I'll also be sharing my impressions about various casino sites, length of time to clear bonuses and time to receive cashouts. Until next time, good luck at the tables!

Donk 2 Shark Tourney

2006-07-14T11:05:00.000-04:00

Last night L8bloomer put on a private tourney, donk2shark, for fellow PXF'ers and his blog readers. He also added $50 of his own money to the eventual 1st place winner's prize, sweet indeed. The tourney played pretty much like a single table sng since there were only 13 players. I almost didn't make the tourney because my wife was itching to go shopping at 9 o'clock at night. Shopping for what? I dunno, just to shop for shopping's sake I guess.

Things were pretty tight early on except for a big pot between bdgd0606 and incision. Oh yeah, cdbr3799 managed to get his chips in at the same time with 75o. Unfortunately the 75o didn't improve and bdgd0606's KK also held against incision's QQ. Bdgd0606 was now the early chip leader with about 4300 chips in the first level.

I was suprised to see several names that I recognized from last month's 500 turbo trial month. Onaflag and bdgd0606 being the most recognizable names. I'm sure I sat at tables with them on more then probably a half dozen occasions last month. Getting back to the first level of play, I was getting some huge hands. I was dealt AA and AK both twice among other hands in the first level. Unfortunately every time it was from up front and I didn't get any action on my hands. By the end of the first level my PUFF was 96!

From the start of the second level to the point at which the field was down to 5 players (level five) my PUFF was 2! My hand selection was so unbeleivably terrible. during those 4 levels. Fortunately I was able to keep myself afloat and was right in the mix with everyone else. We all had about 4000 chips so it was still anyone's game.

Now at this point some of you may be saying, "WTF is PUFF? How does it relate to poker?" First off, if your serious about online poker I advise you seriously consider signing up for PokerXFactor. Their hand replayer is awesome and there are several new updates in the works at the time of this post. It is great for sharing and reviewing hands. Also the site is home to IMHO two of the best online poker players, JohnnyBax and Sheets. They offer a no holds barred insight into their game. It is particularly interesting to see how they react in certain situation not only to validate your own game but give you new moves to add to your own arsenal. They are also getting some other high profile online players to contribute to their educational library, such as instruction from Rizen. You can register at their site for free and gain access to their PXF hand replayer. Mindwise, the site admin, is doing a great job of keeping new material and features coming in at a steady rate. Check out PokerXFactor, you won't be dissappointed!

Okay getting back to PUFF. It is probably best explained by a fellow PXF member, JC_Saves ...

It is a term that the PokerXfactor team came up with. It stands for Preflop unadjusted Fortune Factor. This takes into account the cards that you got and their relative strength. It has nothing to do with position or any other factors that influence the strength of a hand.

So when you put a HH into the hand analyzer go to the last hand you played and then click on the tab at the bottom that says LUCK.

You will see a break down of all your hands and your PUFF. 50 would be average cards. The higher the number the better the cards that you saw, conversely if you have a low PUFF, say, 1 it tells you that you were pretty much screwed the whole tourney.

So that is PUFF in a nutshell. A sort of luckbox rating for the cards you are dealt over the course of a tournament. Your PUFF rating is on a 1 to 100 rating, 1 being muck city and 100 meaning you sleep with aces. Okay back to the donk2shark tournament.

A bit later after jackofheartz went out with KQ vs AJ we were now officially on the bubble. My PUFF had come up just a bit, it was now 4 and I was still in contention. Then on hand 130 to start level seven it was folded to bdgd0606 in the small blind who pushed all-in with A3o on airdale05. Airdale05 insta-called and flipped up KK and it looked grim for bdgd0606. With my terrible run of cards I was felt relieved to make the money, but I was wrong. The flop came Q A A, the turn brought another Q and bdgd0606 had sucked out on airdale05 and the bubble was still intact. I wonder if bdgd0606 had made a standard raise and airdale05 had come back over the top if bdgd0606 would have folded? In my mind it would have been extremely difficult to call off all my chips against a reraise with A3o. I suppose that is why he just shoved it in so he didn't have to face the possibility of a reraise.

I kept picking up blinds when I could and was shoved in on a few different times. I did pick up a few hands during this time but none of the times I was shoved on did I have anything of substance. Well atleast anything worthy calling off all my chips for. The action on the bubble was typical of most turbo sngs, all about steal pots preflop. I was now short stacked but still in it. My PUFF was slowly getting better. I think it was 9 just before my final hand.

Then my final hand came up. Airdale05 is a member of PXF and knows I am a PXF member. So my thought process on the hand was the he knew that if he limped I would probably be pushing with a large number of hands because I really needed the blinds and antes. If he raised I was probably folding a large number of hands unless I had a huge hand. So with that being my thought process and when he raised 3xbb I repushed against his raise. If he had limped here I probably would have checked here because of my though process at the time. Probably a bit weak but I was going with gut at the moment.

According to PokerStove I did manage to get my money in as just about a 65/35 favorite. Not a huge edge but better than a coin flip at this point. I was really trying to avoid races up to this point because I just have had a extremely difficult time coming out ahead after 5 cards. Anyhow I knew I had to play a race because of my chip situation and figured it was time.

In hindsight I wonder if I had taken the time to really weight the pot odds on his call if I would have pushed despite wanting to go with my gut? I dunno. I feel he was correct to call because he was getting 2.8 to 1 on his call. I guess it all goes back to the fact that I knew I had to win a race and I felt strongly that he was raising with weaker hands here than if he had just limped. I guess it was the wrong move because I ended up busting on the bubble. Baaaah!

Oh well as fate would have it benzibox ended up taking down the tourney. He took $115 for 1st place in L8Bloomer's first donk2shark tournament. Thanks again to L8Bloomer who put on this tournament! I hope to be there next week. I also hope to place better next time, maybe 1st?

Later.

Getting close in $4 180-man SNG

2006-07-13T10:53:00.000-04:00

I've been playing a few tournaments over the past couple of weeks. All of the buyins have been pretty low, $5 or less. I have been single tabling the tournaments I have been entering and my results have been decent. Last week in a $1 rebuy on UB I thought I was on my way to deep finish but was snapped off after a few successive bad hands putting me out in 56/707. I have cashed in 6 out my last 7 single table sngs. The one that I failed to cash I took a pretty bad beat with AK vs KJ in a showdown that I elected to take very early on in the tournament.

Last night I was snapped off pretty early in $1 mtt on stars. I lost a couple big pots going in with the best of it on the flop both times but ended up with the worst of it after the turn & river. I had actually planned on playing a $5 sng to finish off the night but changed at the last minute to a $4 180-man sng that was almost full. By the time the field was down to 18 I was 4th in chips and in decent position to make the final table.

Then I got involved in a hand against the small blind, WorkDogBlues, who had about the same size stack as me. It was folded to him in the small blind and he raised my big blind 2400, 4x the big blind. I felt like it was a steal but I failed resteal preflop. Instead I called and looked to take the pot from him on turn after he made a weak flop bet. When he made another weak bet on the turn I made my move to take the pot. Instead of folding he instantly reraised all-in! I had stubbed my toe and was pretty sure he probably had actually flopped trip 7's, maybe holding A7 or K7. So I gave up and instead of mucking he showed me his K7. He had actually flopped trips on the 7 3 7 rainbow flop. If he hadn't hit the flop so hard he would have given up on the turn a huge percentage of the time. Oh well that is how it goes.

After that I went pretty much card dead. The opportunities to steal or resteal were extremely limited because there was always a raise and/or reraise before it got around to me preflop. At the final table I came in as the short stack and my cold streak continued. Since I was extremely short stacked there were several times I would have been happy to go with a hand, if I could just get dealt a face card or something beside 53o or 73o. As fate would have it my K6 ran into KQ and I was out in 5th place.

That is all for now.

Action plan for July 2006

2006-07-06T21:11:00.000-04:00

I'm still disappointed with my results for June. I have come to a decision to take a break from high volume play for a while. I'm not giving up online poker just cutting back. There will be no plans to hit the 500 sng mark from playing a couple hours each night or even try to hold my Silver VIP status on PokerStars. I'm actually going to take out nearly all of my bankroll except for $100. I'll be using the funds for our vacaction we are planning on taking next month. It isn't that I think I'll tilt my bankroll away. It is because I told my wife last month that I was going to be playing every weekday evening for a few hours to help put aside cash for the vacation. Things didn't work out quite like I had hoped that they would but I'm still sticking to my guns. So I'll be putting the money aside that I had hoped to make last month and this month from grinding toward the vacation next month. Anything that is left over that isn't spent on vacation (hahahaha!) will be put back into the bankroll for next month.

I really had wanted to get into playing some 6 max NL25 cash games but that will have to wait until at least next month. So in the meantime I'm back to having a $100 bankroll. That means playing $5 or less sngs and mtts. I'll also be looking around at some other sites besides PokerStars for some low buy-in tourneys. It looks like Ultimate bet has a $1 Turbo Rebuy with $3000 GTD prizepool. The past couple times I looked at the lobby the tourney was running with between 500-600 people, so definately a lot of bang for your buck, or bucks depending on how crazy you wanna get. So I'll be doing a lot of low rolling this month.

I have been doing some analysis of my profitability while multi-tabling. I'm extremely confident 12-tabling turbo sngs because they are straight forward, very mechanical for the most part. During the sngs & mtts I do play this month I'm going to get back to playing my opponents and not so much my cards. All tournaments are showdown dependent but turbo sngs are they ultimate showdown tournament. There is very little play for creativity even late in the game because you are never deep stacked except very early where risk vs reward is very poor because you are still a long way from the money as opposed to late stages in a mtt. So that means I'm going to be seriously cutting back on my multi-tabling play and focus on 1, maybe 2 tables at time.

I have read a couple posts about playing while having your hole cards covered. This sounds like an interesting training concept. I'm unsure of its usefulness though playing at $5 or below levels as most players you run into are Level One players. Players that only are concerned with their cards and nothing else. Playing position can be useful against them but playing blind and using the board textures is the key to being successful and since they don't think about what you could have it is almost pointless quite often. Still I wonder how well I might do? If I decide to give it a shot I will most definately post my experience.

So this month will be filled with low rolling tourney play. If I can take a big score in $1-$5 tourney that would be great but I'm not setting a specific goal for myself for the month. Just plan on taking it easy and getting my head on straight. I do plan on trying out a few sites this month and I'll be sure to share my thoughts on those sites. Enjoy the summer and good luck at the tables.

Time to relax!

June 2006 Totals

2006-06-30T13:21:00.000-04:00

In terms of results at the poker tables the month of June was a disaster. I took a ton of beats on the bubble time and time again. The number of times I made it down to the bubble and ended up busting for one reason or another became, trivial and almost automatic every game. If I did manage to make it to the money I was almost always destined to go out in 3rd place. It was one of those ill fated magical months were I felt everything was set to go so right but ended up going so wrong. It was a very dissappointing month. I had big plans for this month and finished way behind where I wanted to be starting July. Enough whining, on to my results ...

It was my goal to play in 500 $16 turbos for the month while trying to maintain AT LEAST a 10% ROI. I emphasis AT LEAST because my play up to this point in turbos had always suggested that I would be able to do better than 10% ROI and I was hoping for that at worst. I ended up failing twice at my 500 $16 turbo goal for the month. I was only able to play in 385 $16 turbos while maintain a pathetic 3.44% ROI for the month.

I attribute my inability to reach my 500 game goal to a couple things. First and foremost is my running bad at the beginning of the month. I tried dealing with the swing by cutting back the number of tables I was playing at one time. I also dropped down a buy-in level to try and break the funk. I also tried some sngs at other sites and that didn't help either. Lastly I tried playing in some regular sngs to see if that helped.

The other contributing factor to me not being able to make my last 160+ games in the last week was my family being sick. My wife became terribly ill and my children caught wind of the illness too. Family comes first and with them being ill my playing time was seriously cut in the evening. That is something that was totally out of my control so I have no reservations about putting poker on the back burner until everyone is healthy again.

Overall I did manage to play in excess of 500 sngs for the month across various buy-ins ($6.50 through $30). I also ran extremely bad in the $6.50's finishing the month with a net loss at that buy-in. I was able to make a profit in the regular sngs and that helped pull up my net amount for the month for sngs a little bit. But after 500+ sngs my net profit is, well, pathetic.

I did partake in some MTTs this month. Quite a few more than I originally intended. Most of the tournaments were towards the end of the month where I was experimenting with some of the 180-man sngs on PokerStars. At any rate I was able to make a final table of an extremely small field MTT and take first place. It was a small field so the payout was pretty small but it was an accomplishment nonetheless and will go towards my goals for the year.

The last few days I played in a couple rebuy tournaments which didn't work out. I did manage to get a hold of a few chips early on but I couldn't get anything going once were just outside the money bubbles. The blinds kept gobbling up my stack and with somewhat aggressive tables and total lack of cards I ended up dwindling rather than thriving. I will have to say one of them ($5 rebuy) I actually played hyperaggressive and tried to make a guy fold his kings. Well I didn't know he had kings at the time but it was pretty much a bluff for all my chips against I player I wasn't totally familiar with. I had tried to play the hand like I had aces or possibly a set but he didn't fold and I was busted. Getting back on track with my results my MTT play netted me another loss. After 30 MTTs I was down -$107.47 for the month from MTT play.

I didn't manage to get into any satellites this month because I was trying to stay focused on my sngs goal for the month. I haven't forgotten about my satellite goal by any means. Every time I turn on the TV and come across a WPT event or WSOP rerun I think about that goal that I need to get busy working on.

In May and now again the last couple weeks I've been considering switching to 6 max NL cash game play. It seems there is a lot of money to be made playing these short handed tables. They also offer me a considerable amount of flexibility when I can play versus having to be allocate a 1+ hour block of time to knock out several sngs. Not to say that I expect to play 20 min here, 15 min there, 30 min here and so forth. But that if something comes up unexpectedly I can cut the session short and not forfiet my buy-in like I would with a sng. They also offer the ability to actually play poker and use my ability to read players tendencies (or lack of!) In the first several sessions I played I was actually very happy to actually not have to play showdown poker as is so much the case the sng turbos on the bubble to itm.

My sng game ended up getting the worst of me during one such introductory 6 max sessions. I paid off huge hands when I knew I was beat and chased a draw like a total idiot. A couple times I played hyper aggressive against opponents I wasn't familiar with who ended up being total stations not moving off of 3rd pair for a good portion of their stack. So I ended up down almost 2 buyins at the NL25 tables. I really feel had it not been for me tilting a bit I most definately would have been up probably at least 2 buyins during my very limited 6-max sessions.

So overall this month was particularly trying for me but it could have been a lot worse. I actually did turn a profit after running pretty badly so I guess I really shouldn't be complaining. I also learned a few things about multi-tabling sngs and what my limits are if I'm going to stay profitable. I can and actually did several 16 and 20-tabling sessions over the month but they were by far my most unprofitable sessions. I did go back and review each set of games for mistakes that I made. I did find mistakes that I probably would have normally not made if I wasn't spreading myself so thin over 16 or 20 tables but once again the beats took the brunt of the responsibility for sinking me. I actually made a video of one of my 16-tabling sets. When I played it back it was pretty painful to see myself get the money in the middle as the favorite each time and get cracked. *sigh*, very frustrating but there isn't much else I can do beside get it in the middle and hope for the best.

Below is a recap my performance for the month of June ...

Goal: 500 $16 turbo sngs @ 10% ROI = $800.00
Actual: 385 $16 turbo sngs @ 3.44% ROI = $212.00 (40.22% ITM)
Goal performance: FAILED!

Goal: 12 mtts = $50.00
Actual: 30 mtts = -$107.47
Goal performance: FAILED!

6-max NL Cash
224 hands, 2.65 hours, net profit -$47.20

*Sng results for all buyins including $16 turbos
542 sngs, net profit $298.90 (3.79% ROI, 40.22% ITM)

==============================================
June projected net profit = $850.00
June actual net profit = $144.23
Goal performance: FAILED!

I failed my goals for the month of June. I'm wondering if the goals I set forth were a bit too rigid, "I must play X tournaments while maintaining X% ROI." Maybe I was trying too hard to win. Or playing too soft at times because I didn't want to lose rather than gamble when the time was right to do so? I really don't want to beleive either of those statements are true but maybe on a subconscious level they were. I dunno for sure but I have some serious thinking to do.

This was to be my test month to see if playing a high volume of sngs was something that I could actually do. Playing a high volume of sngs in a limited amount of time is only possible by multitabling. When I play several sngs at once my play because very robotic. Extremely ABC poker to say the least. I know the general consensus in sngs is that there isn't a whole lot of room for creative play because of the starting chip stacks and blinds structures but I still think otherwise. Using position couple with playing off an opponents observed tendencies is a huge edge that most players neglect to use because they are preoccupied with something else (TV, web surfing, multitabling, phone, etc.) I think this next month I'm going to focus more on quality versus quantity. I need to find the optimal amount of tables I can play at and still observer my opponents tendencies. Maybe the answer to that question is 1-table? I'm not sure right now.

For now I'm going to take a break from poker. Thanks for reading and I'll post again soon.

Gunna blow stuff up!

2006-06-30T12:20:00.000-04:00

Admist my frustrations at the virtual poker tables I had an impulse. First it was to kick the couch. Then it was to grab the remote and throw it through the window. Then it changed to punching a hole in the wall. Then I came to my senses and realized what this weekend is, 4th of July weekend. Technically the 4th isn't until next Tuesday but being that it falls on an odd day of the week I think we might be celebrating this weekend and possibly Tuesday as well.

So you might ask WTF does the 4th have to do with your urges to vent your frustrations on inanimate objects? Well since I don't own any firearms (which is probably a good thing) I suddenly opted for the next best thing. Blowing stuff up! It is such a great stress reliever!

At that moment I decided to take a trip southward and pickup some fireworks. I grabbed my brother and had him come along for the ride. After a few hours we finally made our destination. Over 10,000 sq ft of stuff for you to choose from. Stuff that will burn, smolder, smoke, fly, screech, scream and blow up other stuff! The smell of powder was heavenly.

I'm not a pyro by any means. Growing up my parents bought fireworks for the 4th. The state that we live in allows for some very modest fireworks, nothing that is skybound and no firecrackers. Needless to say they made trips southward and picked up the good stuff. Now it was my turn to get the good stuff for myself and my kids. Gotta get them started on the right foot eh? Hahaha!

After I came to my senses I realized there was a law enforcement figure standing to my immediately to my left. My brother proceded to ask the clerk where the restroom was because he really had to go because we had been driving forever to get here. I was like god damnit man, last thing I need is to get busted for taking fireworks out of state before I even buy the fuckers. My brother's statement did get the attention of the sheriff. Great! Quickly I came up with a story and asked where we could lite the fireworks off locally being that we were staying here from out of town for the weekend. Maybe I was just paranoid but I'm quite sure that it is illegal to transport fireworks to another state that doesn't allow the type I was buying.

Now that I have my ass covered I was free to roam the store. Phantom Fireworks has an outstanding selection. I had viewed their online catalog and looked at some of the assortment packages they had to offer. So many choices indeed! What I really liked about their site is that they actually have videos of some of the fireworks they offer. Very sweet because when I'm there looking through the loads of shit they offer you never really know wtf the difference is between one 19-shot repeater and the next.

I actually ended up spending less than I originally intended becuase they have to compete with local shops. I'm glad I had my brother with me because the boxes were heavy, beyond my capacity to lift in my current physical condition. Needless to say I still bought a shit load of fireworks, more than I ever have before. Picked up their jumbo assortment pack, a couple smaller assortments and bunch of other things. I dunno if I'm actually going to be able to light off all the shit even with the help of my brother, my 2 kids, my wife and her uncle. In all I have 5161 pieces to blow up this 4th of July!!!

I think probably 2 cases of Coors Light should do the trick. Hopefully I'll get some pics of us blowing stuff up. That is if we still have all our fingers intact to operate the camera.

Later!

Rizen makes $1500 PLHE final table as chip leader

2006-06-30T11:33:00.000-04:00

I would like to take a moment to congratulate Eric "Rizen" Lynch for making the final table of the $1500 Pot-Limit Hold'Em Event #3 at the WSOP. Not only did he wade through over 1000 entrants to make the final table, he made it there as the chip leader with nearly 1/3 of all chips in play. I don't know him personally but I have been following his blog and the insight into the game of poker that he has provided on various forums and on PokerXFactor have been very valuable. He seems like a genuine individual and I wish him the best at the final table. Granted he has nearly 1/3 of chips in play when they resume today later this afternoon anything can still happen. There are some small bits on the PokerStars Blog about Rizen at the WSOP. I particularly like his response, "There's a long way to go", which is so true. The final table is just another phase in the MTT and there is still a lot of things that can happen.

He does have some decent opponents with him at the final table. Here is the break down of the final table when play resumes ...

Eric "Rizen" Lynch 455,000
Rocky Enciso 247,000
Rafe Furst 222,000
John Juanda 147,000
Burt Boutin 140,000
Can Kim Hua 122,000
Richard Chase 95,000
Alan Gilbert 88,000
George Bronstein 15,700

Last that I read they were about 19 minutes into level 17 with 8,000-16,000 blinds. I'm not sure how long the levels last but with big blinds that high every player is short stacked except for the top 3. Probably the biggest name at the table is John Juanda. We have all seen him on television at various WPT/WSOP events and he is a machine. I think Rafe Furst is one of the TiltBoys and definately has some play to him but no where near the caliber of some of the other TiltBoys IMO. Burt Boutin is fresh off a second place finish at the Mandaly Bay Championship Event. He cashed for over 600k there and has several other smaller cashes so he has some experience with out a doubt. Then there is CK Hua another experienced player. I don't know of any of the other players who are all short stacked. The bottom line is that the majority of the players are going to have to be in there gambling early because of the high blinds just to have a shot. This should be an action packed final table starting with the very first hand dealt.

At any rate Rizen has his work cut out for him. I wish him the best in securing his first bracelet and a nice payday. Possibly as nice as $345,984 if he can hang on and take down this thing. Give 'em hell Rizen!

Day 5 of 5 ... The End

2006-06-30T10:42:00.000-04:00

Today is the last day of my 5 day quest to make my 500 $16 game goal for the month of June. It doesn't appear I'm going to complete my 167 game 5-day quest. I'm also not going to make Gold VIP status for the month. The last few days (and month) have been chalked with variance which has finally led to some tilting. Tilted play is never a great thing and thankfully it didn't decimate me totally. Instead it just left my bankroll stagnant which really isn't much different than the entire of month of June. There have been some other factors outside of poker contributing to me not being able to make my goal. I plan on going over those and my final numbers for the month of June later today.

Day 1 of 5

2006-06-27T02:36:00.000-04:00

I really want to make my goal of 500 for the month. I'm beyond the point where I'm concerned if I come out with a 5%, 10%, or 20% ROI. Of course 20% would be great but I'm trying to remind myself that I can't be totally results orientated but rather focusing on making good decisions and in the long run I will be profitable. Okay with that said I figured I will recap each day.

Today I was only able to play 40 $16 turbos. I managed to make the money only 40% of the time but still suffered a pretty big hit. My losses for the day from $16 turbos was -$167.50, my ROI is sinking indeed. Oh well, I did manage to lost most every coinflip and my none of my dominating hands held. It was sick but what else it new? I think I'm now at 373 for the month which puts me right on schedule if I play 34 tourneys a nights.

After a dissappointing turbo session I figured I would check out the $33 sngs on PokerStars that L8Bloomer, a fellow PXF member, had been discussing on his blog. From what I saw I would have to agree with what he said. There seems to be considerably more creative (polite terms) players in the $33's versus the $22's. Maybe very simliar to the $11's at least from what I saw. In one of my tournaments I ended up getting tangled up with a very creative player who raised with K4 utg and payed off his river flush big with my tens . Shortly afterward I went out against aces which is always nice.

The other $33 I played in I did manage to take it down. I actually ran into L8Bloomer at the table which was a bit unexpected. Anyhow I did get lucky early on in one particular hand with my pocket sevens against a creative early position raiser who held JT. He put me in a tough spot on the turn and I just felt he was either on a draw or holding two overcards so I made the decision to repush and come to find out I was behind against his pair of jacks. I was bailed out on the river when he made two pair which also filled my gutshot. From there on out it was pretty much smooth sailing. I playing position far more often than I would ever dream of in a turbo because no one ever folds in those things, never. I was actually able to play bigstack poker when it was short handed people were folding to me. It was nice to not have to play a showdown on every freakin' hand. I ended up getting headsup with L8Bloomer. He limped into my blind and with the blinds 300/600 I had an easy decision pushing with AJ. He called and showed his pocket aces for the trap play. I congratulated him pre-emptively before the flop. The flop that brought 2 jacks that is. I put a terrible bad beat on his aces and for that I am sorry. If I had lost the pot I would have been about even with him, mabye 1k less in chips and with blinds that high I'mm going to gamble with the chip lead with AJ almost all the time.

*sigh*, so that was it for tonight and I do apologize if this post was a bit frazzled or jumbled more so that usual. My brain if fried from things outside poker and I'm really starting to drag. L8r.

Deeper into the downward spiral

2006-06-26T13:05:00.000-04:00

I'm an unprofitable sit-n-go player because I can't win ...

AQ vs 77,
AK vs 28,
AK vs A3,
KK vs JT,
AA vs KQ,
QQ vs QJ,
88 vs 89,
JJ vs A2.

I'm also an unprofitable player because I can't avoid ...

runner-runner beats,
2 outers on the river,
and AA losing to AK all in preflop.

The end must be near.

167 tourneys in 5 days

2006-06-26T09:49:00.000-04:00

Including today there is still 5 days left in the month. I've been running bad throughout most of the month so I had cut back the number of tourneys I had been playing, making sure I was focusing on each and every decision. That has had an effect on the number of tourneys I have played to date this month. I had really hoped to be closer or already have hit my 500 $16 turbo goal for the month. But there is still 5 days left to knock out 167 tourneys to try and turn around the month.

It wasn't an official goal of mine but by making 500 $16 turbos for the month I'm going to be really close to making GoldStar VIP status for the month. I would really like to pickup GoldStar VIP status because I earn double FPP for all my tournament entries.

My MTT game hasn't been very productive this month. Except for taking down a small members tourney and a few small cashes here and there there isn't much to report. Last night I went out in a couple MTT's early when my AQ ran into AK in both tournaments. I'm still having mixed feelings about playing the $4.40 180-man sngs. I have the bankroll to be playing the $20 180-man sngs but there isn't enough cushion in my bankroll to be playing them comfortably. On the other hand the $4.40's are much cheaper and much looser in the early stages but even with a first place score it doesn't change my financial situation a whole lot. It is kind of hard to justify playing the $4.40's when first place is a bit over $200 when I could be playing a $22 sngs or $27 turbo, take two firsts and make about the same amount in less time. I dunno? Unless something comes along to change my mind over the next 5 days I'll probably have some huge changes in store for myself next month. Well maybe not huge, maybe more gradual but probably a big change nonetheless.

Time to grind it out.

Thank you PokerStars

2006-06-19T23:31:00.000-04:00

I want to thank PokerStars for putting on the 2nd Annual World Blogger Championship of Online Poker. It was a great tournament and I had a good time playing poker on Father's Day while chatting with a few fellow bloggers. Some of whom's blogs I will be reading quite regularly now. So even though I didn't take home a prize at least I have some new reading material. I've updated the sidebar of my blog with links to other blogs I follow.

According to the lobby there was 2247 players at the start of the event. I can't recall what the numbers were for the previous bloggers tournament but I'm sure this year's had considerably more. This year's bloggers tournament also had more sitters (people that registered for the tourney but never showed up). Upon talking with players who shuffled in from other tables it seemed that there was between 3-5 players sitting at each table. I'm guessing there may have been upwards of 750 sitters (250 tables x 3 sitters per table).

All those sitters made for short handed play on a lot of tables for the first hour to hour and half. Everyone was jockeying for those free chips, especially when the blinds started to rise. It was quite intense at moments, but still very enjoyable. I didn't get a whole lot going early, I only managed to hover around average stack throughout the tournament. In the end I really wish I had taken more time before making my decision on the hand that busted me. I played it pretty weak to start and complicated things by pushing when I was a huge dog on the flop to a junk hand that would never have been in if I had played aggressively preflop. I have no one to fault but myself for the exit. I ended up busting 172 out of 2247. If I hadn't played my final hand so passively to start with who knows how much farther I might have gone. Oh well, hopefully they have another one next year. Would be even sweeter if they brought back the 24" Dell LCD monitors too. Hey I can dream about next time!

Mid-month checkup, June 06

2006-06-17T22:16:00.000-04:00

It is now about half way through the month of June and I'm a little behind schedule. My goal for the month is to complete 500 $16 turbos while maintaining a 10% ROI. The last couple weeks the cards have been really badly for me and I'm hovering at just about a break even point after 237 $16 turbos. There have been two nights this month where the cards have actually broke even for me (winning 50% of coin flips, losing only 1 in 5 overpairs to underpairs, only getting hit by 8 runner runners in 24 games, actually only losing 40% of hands where I had my opponent dominated preflop). Those two nights were very profitable but all the remaining bubble busts and tough breaks have negated those two profitable nights.

I know most people consider the bubble down to 4 remaining players but I really feel like in these turbos where there is frequently 4 or 5 TAG players the bubble begins at 5 players. So often in the tournaments I've been playing in there is still 5+ players in at the 200/400 and 300/600 levels that really force the game into a bit of a crap shoot just to make the cash. Anyhow if you consider the bubble to start at 5-handed I'm making it there 71% of the time and if you consider it to start at 4-handed I'm making it there almost 60% of the time. Taking it one step further I'm cashing 42% of the time but such a high number of those busts are 3rd place & it is getting pretty annoying. Even more annoying to me is that I'm finishing in 3rd and 4th place too much. Those two places combined account for 40% of my finishes which is way too high in my opinion.

I guess I should be thankful that I'm still treading water after running quite badly? Maybe I'm focusing too much on my results in a micro sense and need to let go and play through this little bit of a swing. I know the money is there to be made and I can make it damnit! I set my goal of playing $16 turbos for the month and I will complete that goal even if I only break even. In the mean time I'm going to stay focused on making the best possible decision in each and every situation and hope for the best. I only have another 10 days to complete 263 tourneys to make my goal for the month. Now it is time to grind it out!

Going par for the course

2006-06-14T10:09:00.000-04:00

I've cut back the number of tables I'm playing on so that I'm really focusing on my play. I've also been playing some mtt's and some regular sngs to help break the clutches of what ever funk has a grip on me. I also figured a change of scenery might help so I played some sngs over at Absolute Poker. I was really hoping for a break through night but the poker gods had other plans.

In the 7:45pm mtt I flopped trip kings early on to have them beat by a flush chaser. I didn't get much else afterward to work with until ultimately my 88 ran into 99 and AA on the same hand, busted 401/1229. In the 8:00pm mtt I lost a good size pot with AK to AA but managed to not go broke. Held on for as long as I could but with no cards and an aggressive table I lost a coin flip to bust out 256/1156. The 8:15pm rebuy was looking pretty good and I was really feeling like I had a chance to make a run deep into the tourney. That was until my set lost to a bigger set, busted 255/1779. The last mtt of the night was a $22 180-man sng. Once again I didn't get much to work with until my push preflop with AQ was called by the button who would have been seriously crippled with less than 400 chips if he lost (blinds 100/200). He called with AT and was rewarded with a flop of A 3 T, busted me out in 65/180.

My sngs sessions didn't go much better. Two second place finishes after losing 99 vs 86 and KT vs K8. Busted on the bubble when some joker pushed my blind with 96o and I was forced to call with QJ but he caught running cards to back door a flush. In one of the $22 sng I lost 99 to A4 then A5 to 44 to finish in second. On absolute I finished twice in 2nd place when KK lost to KQ and JJ lost to A2. I also busted on the bubble shortly after flopping a set of jacks to lose to runner runner when the guy filled up for a bigger boat. And my last bubble trick on absolute was losing a push with AK to another short stack call with 85o to effectively bust me in 4th. I did sneak in one game at bodog. I got all my chips in preflop with KK and was called down by AJ and A7. The river brought an ace and I was out yet again on the bubble in 4th place.

There were several other 4th, 5th and 6th place busts that happened throughout the afternoon and evening session that brought me to the verge of vomitting upon each exit. People were calling big raises and pushes when they didn't really have to with such trash hands and getting rewarded with straights, flushes or two pair to knock me out. I did pull down a couple first place finishes and I am by no means dissappointed with my play just the results. I was really hoping for a break through night to snap me out of this funk I'm currently in. Instead I ended up basically even for the night. That makes 3 nights of breaking even in a row so maybe things are starting to turn for the better.

I ended the night drinking a 6-pack of Coors Light and watching an episode of MXC. I always get a kick out of watching those idiots crash and burn while competing in stupid human games. The cheesey english voice overs are quite funny also. Probably not as funny while sober but it did wonders to keep my mind off going par for the evening.

The downward spiral begins

2006-06-10T00:53:00.000-04:00

In 3 days I was up over $500 for the month. My move to the $16 turbos on PokerStars seemed like it was turning out to be a great move indeed. My cards were running pretty even and I was taking my fair share of beats. I didn't expect my results to continue that high but I did expect to maintain a 10-20% ROI.

My ROI over the past 3 days has been 10-20% each day, but negative. I'm running extremely bad right now. I pickup a big pair and it runs into aces. I pickup aces and they lose to an underpair or AK. AK loses to A4, A7, A9 and on. I have the bigger fullhouse on the turn and my opponent rivers four of a kind. I could go on and on as I have reviewed my sessions and took stock in the number of beats and truly cold deck situations I have run into. Its quite sick indeed. There have been a few moments when I should have layed down kings when there was raise, I reraised and then someone else came over the top of me. But aside from those couple moments and a few other select borderline decisions the cards are running really bad right now for me.

I progressed from 8-tabling to 16-tabling and after those first few days the wheels have just come flying off! I really figured the more games I played that the variance would be less than playing 1 or 2 at the same time but damn! If your running bad the more tables I play has seemed to multiply the pain by 8x or 16x directly towards my dwindling bankroll.

There is a bright side to this little bump in the road. The positive is that I've come to realize my bankroll is no where close to where it needs to be to handle multitabling 8 or 16 tables in the $16's. I just don't have the funds to weather this downswing if it continues. I've revised my bankroll guidlines which doesn't allow me to play $16's while 8 or 16 tabling at the current moment. So I'm going to be cutting back the number of tables I'm playing but I'm staying at the $16's. If I continue to downswing I will have to drop back to the $6.50's but hopefully that won't happen and I can play through this month in the $16's.

Until next time.

Action plan for June 2006

2006-06-05T19:01:00.000-04:00

Last month was a trial month for me. I wanted to see if I was capable playing turbos, a higher volume of tourneys and multitabling while still being profitable. Things went well enough for me so now I have even bigger plans for this month. I'm going to push my limits further and attempt something that took me close to 20 months to accomplish. It is my goal to play 500 sngs this month. I'm going to be moving up to the $16 turbos on PokerStars now that I feel really comfortable playing 4+ tables simulateneously. Its my goal to maintain at least a 10% ROI over this 500 game challenge.

I've decided to set forth this 500 game goal for a few reasons. First and foremost I proved to myself last month I was capable of playing a higher volume of tournaments than I ever had before in one month. This month I want to push myself even farther and attempt to complete my first full month of grinding sngs. Secondly, half of the projected profits from this 500 game grind will go toward purchasing a new LCD monitor that I have been considering purchasing for some time. Lastly, the other half of the projected profits I will be setting aside for our upcoming family vacaction that we are taking in August. Anything beyond my projected profits for this 500 game challenge will be icing on the cake.

I'm going to be placing my pursuit of final tables and satellites on the back burner in favor of completing my first full month of grinding sngs. I do still plan on squeezing in some time in both arenas but it will be of much less importance for me this month.

So in recap these are my goals to acheive for June ...

500 $16 turbos @ 10% ROI = + $800.00
12 mtts = + $50.00
====================================
Total expected profit = $850.00

Time to grind it out.

Is 16-tabling asking for a brain aneurysm?

2006-06-02T15:53:00.000-04:00

Long ago I didn't even think I could ever be comfortable multitabling four sngs at once, let alone two. I have always had considerable difficulty playing more than one and sometimes two sngs/tournaments at the same time. I always thought it was due to the fact that since my desktop space was limited not having multiple monitors was holding me back. On April 24th, 2006 I decided to seriously try and multitable a sng session even if it meant overlapping the tables. It was a bit hectic at first but it was workable. Something just clicked for me mentally and I began to wonder why I hadn't been multitabling all this time. On May 23rd, 2006 after 38 sets of 4-tabling I decided to give 8-tabling a shot. Yesterday, after 18 sets of 8-tabling I attempted the once unthinkable to me, 16 tables at once. What an incredibly crazy idea playing 16 tables at once is!

I fired up PokerStars and registered for 16 sngs. Sixty minutes later I was finished with my first 16-tabling session. The experience went much smoother than I thought it would. I think my time bank was actually activated and counting down on one occasion when I had to referee my son (I still had 28 of the 30 seconds left in the bank). I did receive the beeping noise on several occasions when I had a decision that was somewhat borderline with several other tables requiring action at the same time. During my 8-tabling I've come across several individuals who say they are really worn out mentally after a 6 or 8-tabling session but I felt very little mental fatigue after my 16-tabling session. I'm unsure how many sets I can actually play back to back before I suffer a mental shutdown. I will test that in the near future for sure.

Probably the most stressful segment of the entire session was actually registering for 16 games. I really wish Multi Table Helper worked for PokerStars but it is currently only working for PartyPoker. I'm going to have to try and find some kind of aid to help me automatically align the tables as I register for each one and am seated.

I'm pretty satisfied with my play over the session. After spending close to 30 minutes analyzing my play I did make some mistakes. I made a borderline to poor push with Q7s from up front. There were a couple times I probably should have called some pushes into my blind. In the end they weren't terrible mistakes, just small technicalities that I probably would have picked up if I had a bit more time to make each decision. If only the cards could have been nicer to me I would have managed a healthy profit rather than breaking even. Still I can't complain about breaking even. Here are my results for my first 16-tabling session ...

5th place: Open pushed with 88 and lost to calling AJo (100/200)
4th place: Open pushed with 55 and lost to calling K9o (300/600)
4th place: Lost QQ vs AJ all-in preflop; open pushed from button with ATo and lost to calling 99 (200/400)
4th place: Open pushed with QJo and lost to calling 99 (300/600)
2nd place: Lost 88 vs T8o all-in preflop; open pushed with J8o and lost to calling J7s (400/800)
4th place: Open pushed from button with KTs and lost to calling AQo (100/200)
2nd place: Open pushed with 87s and lost to calling Q9s (300/600)
4th place: Reraised preflop all-in with AA and lost to calling T5o (300/600)
3rd place: Misplayed QJo from big blind down to 4 players; open pushed from button with KTo to calling 22 (300/600)
2nd place: Down to headsup lost KK to A3o; pushed with K8s and lost to limp calling Q7o (300/600)
2nd place: Pushed with AQo and lost to limp calling J6s; open pushed with A6o and lost to calling A4o (300/600)
3rd place: Pushed A8 and lost to limp calling 55 (300/600)
6th place: Open pushed with A9o and lost to calling A5o (100/200)
7th place: Made a questionable to poor push with Q7 and lost to calling JJ (100/200)
5th place: Pushed with 99 and lost to limp calling Q7o; open pushed with T9s and lost to calling AQo (200/400)
2nd palce: Lost TT to AQo all-in preflop; lost K7o to J7o; open pushed with 87o and lost to calling 95s (400/800)

That is 5 2nds, 2 3rds, 5 4ths, 2 5ths, 1 6th and 1 7th place finishes. Almost 44% ITM but only very close to breaking even. I will give it a shot again tonight. I'm curious to see how I run a second time around. I will have to give it some more thought over the next couple days to see if I'm going to continue playing 8, 10, 12, or 16 tables at one time. I want to try and find the right mix of being comfortable while playing and still maintaing a +EV setup. Later.

I am a bright shining silver star!

2006-06-01T12:44:00.000-04:00

I almost forgot to mention the email I received from PokerStars ...

Congratulations! You have achieved the "SilverStar".

I made SilverStar VIP status but now what? PokerStars' FPPs are nice but I would much rather if they offered rakeback. I guess its still better than nothing? Now that I have SilverStar status I will earn FPPs at 1.5x their regular rate. PokerStars does have a pretty nice selection of electronics in their FPP store but the FPPs required to purchase the really nice items are incredibly overpriced. I did a little analysis on a few of the items in their store that I would like to own ...

SamSung 20" LCD Monitor
=======================

Given: You are a PokerStars player with SilverStar VIP status. You earn FPPs at 1.5x normal rate. This means for every $1 spent in tournament fees your are given 7.5 FPPs. You want this SamSung 20" LCD monitor. It costs 36,000 FPPs (includes shipping) and requires SilverStar VIP status. You can purchase the same monitor from NewEgg for $404.06 including shipping.

Analysis: As a SilverStar VIP player you will need to spend $4800.00 in tournament fees to earn the 36,000 FPPs required to purchase the monitor. If this transaction is loosely compared to an equivalent rakeback program you would be getting approximately 8.41% in rakeback.

Grinding it out as a low buy-in sng player you would have to complete 9600 $5.50's, 4800 $11's, 2400 $22's, 1600 $33's or 960 $55's in order to purchase your SamSung 20" LCD monitor solely with FPPs. Holla!

Sweet Ass SamSung 24" LCD Monitor
=================================

Given: You are a PokerStars player with GoldStar VIP status. You earn FPPs at 2.0x normal rate. This means for every $1 spent in tournament fees your are given 10 FPPs. You want this Sweet Ass SamSung 24" LCD monitor. It costs 68,000 FPPs (includes shipping) and requires GoldStar VIP status. You can purchase the same monitor from NewEgg for $1376.04 including shipping.

Analysis: As a GoldStar VIP player you will need to spend $6800.00 in tournament fees to earn the 68,000 FPPs required to purchase the monitor. If this transaction is loosely compared to an equivalent rakeback program you would be getting approximately 20.23% in rakeback.

Grinding it out as a low buy-in sng player you would have to complete 13600 $5.50's, 6800 $11's, 3400 $22's, 2267 $33's or 1360 $55's in order to purchase your Sweet Ass SamSung 24" LCD monitor solely with FPPs. I serioulsy doubt you could maintain your GoldStar VIP status playing $5.50's unless you were a total robot, holla!

Toshiba 50" Plasma TV
=====================

Given: You are a PokerStars player with PlatinumStar VIP status. You earn FPPs at 2.5x normal rate. This means for every $1 spent in tournament fees your are given 12.5 FPPs. You want this Toshiba 50" Plasma TV. It costs 160,000 FPPs (includes shipping) and requires PlatinumStar VIP status. You can purchase the same plasma TV from NewEgg for $3399.98 including shipping.

Analysis: As a PlatinumStar VIP player you will need to spend $12800.00 in tournament fees to earn the 160,000 FPPs required to purchase the monitor. If this transaction is loosely compared to an equivalent rakeback program you would be getting approximately 26.56% in rakeback.

Grinding it out: As a low buy-in sng player you would have to complete 25600 $5.50's, 12800 $11's, 6400 $22's, 4267 $33's or 2560 $55's in order to purchase your Toshiba 50" Plasma TV solely with FPPs. Try to accomplish this in a month and you will have a stroke, holla!

I don't see myself setting any plasma TV grinding goals in the near future, especially at the $5.50's. Shit, even SilverStar VIP status is the suck in regards to the SamSung 20" LCD monitor. Damn rakeback at PokerStars would be nice. Enough number crunching for the day. Thanks for letting me waste your time on totally useless information. Later.

May 2006 Totals

2006-06-01T00:11:00.000-04:00

We are now officially at the half way point for this year. This past month of May was my second month into my nine month challenge and I'm happy to say that I did surpass my monetary goal for the month. It wasn't particularly easy as I did take countless beats and many a bubbling streaks through out the month. So lets break it down and see just exactly how I did for the month.

At the end of April I began 4-tabling $6.50 sngs with some success. I set a goal for myself to play 96 $6.50 sngs (4-tabling) while maintaing a 10% ROI. By the 15th of the month I had already logged 84 $6.50 sngs and shortly there after I was looking to add more tables to the mix. On the 23rd (my birthday) I played my first 8-table session and have been grinding out 8-game $6.50 turbo sessions ever since. By the end of the month I logged 256 $6.50 sngs with a 22% ROI (44% ITM) even despite some insane bubbling sessions.

I began the month playing a couple sets of turbos followed by a single table $22 sng. About the middle of the month when I began feeling totally comfortable 4-tabling. I tried 4-tabling $22 sngs and things went fine. I did play enough $22 sngs to meet my goal for the month. I ended up putting the $22s on the back burner toward the end of the month in favor of getting used to playing 8-tables at once in the $6.50's. After 33 $22 sngs my ROI is 46%. I can't complain about a 46% ROI (60.61% ITM) but I did take some tough losses to go out regularly in 3rd and 4th place. With that being said I'm quite confident I can play these while 4-tabling and probably keep about a 20% ROI.

I did fail to meet my MTT goal for the month. I was putting so much emphasis on grinding out 4/8-tabling sessions that I didn't put forth as much effort toward my MTT play that I would liked to have. There was only 2 days of the month that I actually played in MTTs and had no notable results to speak about. I ended up with a -86% ROI (10% ITM) after 10 games.

I suppose I did fail at my satellite challenge for the month but that was only due to lack of playing in any satellites. It seemed as though everytime I was prepared to play in one there weren't the right number of entrants (below 60) or I was spending time with my family during the time when there was an optimal field. At this moment there is still about 2 months left to still qualify for the WSOP through a satellite which is plenty of time IMHO. I will have to try harder next month which means actually playing in a satellite!

Below is a recap my performance for the month of May ...

Goal: 96 $6.50 turbo sngs @ 10% ROI = + $62.40
Actual: 256 $6.50 turbo sngs @ 22.34% ROI = + $371.80
Goal performance: SUCCESS!

Goal: 30 $22 sngs @ 10% ROI = + $66.00
Actual: 33 $22 sngs @ 46.28% ROI = + $336.00
Goal performance: SUCCESS!

Goal: 25 mtts = + $100.00
Actual: 10 mtts = - $62.44
Goal performance: FAILED!

Goal: 4 dbl shootouts = + $8.00
Actual: 0 dbl shootouts = - $0.00
Goal performance: FAILED!

Other tourney entries: 23 tnys = - $58.00
(includes various sng buy-ins and headsup)

==============================================
May projected net profit = + $236.40
May actual net profit = + $587.36
Goal performance: SUCCESS!

I'm very pleased with my perfomance for the month of May. Not only has my bankroll grown considerably but I feel my sng game has greatly matured. In my opinion, my biggest acheivement of the month was making the step toward 8-tabling and I'm getting more comfortable 8-tabling with each session. I proved to myself that I am capable of grinding out a high volume of sngs while turning a profit despite some brutal bubbling sessions.

The gears in my head are really turning now! Time to set goals for June. Good luck at the tables!

It was just one of those nights

2006-05-30T01:55:00.000-04:00

Nothing could go right for me this evening. I played a couple 8 game sets and everything I did just wouldn't work out in my favor. I'd get it all-in with AK vs AQ preflop and the river would bring a queen. I'd flop two pair and check raise an opponent all-in who would call with top pair only turn a better two pair. I'd flop two pair with AK when my opponent would flop a set of 6's. I'd get it all-in preflop with KQ and lose to Q7. Each time I pushed in on a short stack with a pair like 7's, 8's or 9's they'd call with only three cards to catch (ex. 77 vs T7 or 99 vs J9) and they'd hit it each time. Every time I had KK, QQ or JJ I'd make a standard raise to open the pot and someone would call with an Ace-rag and they'd hit an ace on the flop or make two pair. The one time I actually got all the chips in preflop with QQ was versus and early position short stack who had A7 to only make a fullhouse. I did manage to pickup Aces twice but never got any action on them. The bad part about it is that these unlucky breaks were on the bubble or just inside the money. Out of 16 games I finished ITM (2nd or 3rd) 6 times and busted out on the bubble 9 times. I don't believe I made any technical mistakes aside from missing two times where I should have pushed. There was one bright spot, I actually picked up my first royal flush ever. My opponent had a piece of the board but not enough to really make it worth while. If one beleives in some kind of quasi-luck theory idea, I wonder if I hadn't made my royal flush if the other hands would have held up? Sort of an evening out of the luck across time and space theory. Yeah whatever! I'm tired and all I can do is laugh at the beats I took. All part of poker and I'll be back for more tommorrow. GG ME!

PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker

2006-05-25T21:18:00.000-04:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

If you have a blog and are the least bit interested in poker make sure you sign up for this!

My first 8-tabling adventure

2006-05-23T13:37:00.000-04:00

I started 4-tabling $6.50 turbo sngs on PokerStars about a month ago and things have been going well. I'm somewhat hooked on the fast paced game of the turbo because in sngs the game can only be lost in the early levels. It can only be won in the later stages and the turbo get you to the end stage very quickly. Of course if you get some monster hands and so does your opponent (or if they are total donks) you have the potential to collect a pile of chips that will put you in better position to win later in the sng.

I'm also hooked on the mult-tabling aspect of playing these sngs. Yes there was an adjustment period that took some getting used to but now quite often playing 4 sngs at once is getting too slow. So often I found myself waiting for action at the tables to catch up to my decision making process and I often find myself reading some forums or surfing the web while 4-tabling. Yes, I know its not +EV to be doing those things while 4-tabling but sometimes I do get bored and my discipline fails from time to time.

So during one of these 4-table sessions I came across a thread (-EV) somewhere about a guy who had recently started 6-tabling and he was talking about his setup. It got me thinking that I'm starting to feel pretty comfortable playing 4 sngs at once even at the $22s that I would like to try adding some more tables to the mix. The only problem is desktop space.

I purchased this laptop after my previous one had an unfortunate accident and failed to overcome Sir Isaac Newton's law of gravity. It is pretty sweet but it's max resolution is only 1280x800 widescreen. At the time of purchase I took the possibilty of multi-tabling into account and decided that I didn't need to go with a higher priced notebook capable of 1600x1200 because I was playing two tables very infrequently. So I bought the laptop because it was a great price and would perfect for what I wanted at the time.

Yet again my desires have changed. I was searching for a way to try and play 8-tables with minimal overlap and work with my current hardware around the house. So I connected my 17" dell monitor to the laptop and configured it to extend beyond the screen. I think it would have been better to have the monitor beside my laptop screen rather than above it but being that the office is more of a junk room at the time I couldn't really manuever much of anything around let alone even get into the room. So I fired up 8 $6.50 turbos and gave it a shot. I took a screenshot of it and there is considerable overlap but it is definately workable ...

After a few minutes of playing I started getting an actual headache. When I first started 4-tabling I never developed an actual headache but I did feel a little bit stretched trying to keep up with all the action. I think the reason for developing the headache was because I was looking at two different monitors with varying brightness settings as well as different refresh rates. Also I think I felt a little bit spaced out because I had to continually look up versus glancing side to side because of the position of the monitor in relation to my laptop screen.

Shortly after the session my headache subsided and everything was alright. The phone actually rang a couple times during my session and I had to referee my son a couple times during the 45 minute span while I was 8-tabling. During the session my time bank was only activated once or twice because of those distractions and I was able to keep up with the majority of the key hands. Only real problem is that playing against 64 other players I can't really keep a handle on how many hands each player is deciding to play. This is where something like PokerAce would come in extremely handy where i could have a few important stats below each player to help aid me in my decision process if I was unsure what type of player I was facing.

I only made one misclick where I meant to actually push in but accidentally just called with a short stack but in the end it worked out. My luck wasn't all that great, maybe somewhat below average and I managed to just about break even for the session. Not much different than recent 4-table sessions in the $6.50's that had been going 4th, 4th, 5th, 3rd. Some very sick bubbling sessions indeed. Here were my results from my first 8-table session ...

4th place: A2o lost to push from supershort stack with 98o; ATs push lost to calling 83o
2nd place: Down to headsup J6o ran into KJo; A9o push lost to calling QJo
6th place: Forced to open push with K8s and lost to calling A8o
5th place: Forced to open push with ATs and lost to calling 66
7th place: Blinds are 200/400 and open push with AKs and lost to calling AQo
2nd place: Down to 3 and pushed on short stack with 88 and lost to calling A4o; headsup with 400/800 blinds pushed with Q5o and lost to calling J7o
2nd place: Down to headsup with 600/1200 blinds and pushed with K2o and lost to calling K8o
4th place: Shortstacked and open pushed with Q5s and lost to calling 46o

Overall I think my first 8-table session went well. If I plan on using multiple monitors to spread out the tables I will definitely have to work on getting a better hardware setup. That of course costs cash so I might have to wait until a large MTT score or something before I actively pursue purchasing a multiple monitor setup. I will probably try another 8-table session soon if I get a chance, possibly with cascading windows next time. Until then good luck at the tables.

A very entertaining episode of THE CIRCUIT

2006-05-23T11:39:00.000-04:00

I don't recall if I mentioned the podcast, "THE CIRCUIT". These podcasts come from various events along the poker circuit and is put on by Cardplayer. The podcast has evolved considerably since its inception and IMHO its a pretty worthwhile podcast especially since they replaced Mike Matusow with Gavin Smith and Joe Seboch as co-hosts with Scott Huff. They have had interviews with a ton of different poker professionals (some bigtime and other lesser known). Some of the conversations are pretty good and others are so so but that is what you get, some people are just more interesting than others and more willing to openly discuss their game more so than others. But again its a worthwhile listen and has kept me occupied while doing some utterly boring and mundane tasks (cleaning up around the house, multitabling sngs, etc). A recent episode from last week during the WPT Mirage Poker Showdown was particularly entertaining. Their special guest was Haralabos Voulgaris and he had me laughing pretty good. He seemed like a really cool guy and I sure do hope they have him back on again. His part starts about 30 minutes into the episode just after bodog's plug. Take a listen to the episode from 5/16/06 or it is also on itunes under their podcasts from cardplayer. I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it, enjoy!

Too many things to talk about

2006-05-23T10:19:00.000-04:00

The past week I've been doing a lot of thinking about all sorts of things. Most of the thoughts have been non-poker related such as my health, wife, kids, finances, our future and a multitude of other life issues. I wouldn't say I'm stressed out currently but I'm getting close to being so. I know the chronic pain I deal with on a day to day basis has a lot to do with my mindset but I'm trying to keep a positive outlook on life and hope that in the near future everything will work out for the better.

Some of my mental ramblings have been poker related. The poker related topics include having a winner's mindset, what to do when you encounter variance and how to cope with it, moving up in limits, hands that I have played incorrectly, multitabling sngs, and so much more. Maybe in the next week I'll come out of the fog and make a comment or two about something that I feel is truly worth while discussing. Until then thanks for reading and good luck in life!

And by the way, happy birthday to me. I'm getting really close to 30. My oh my where have the years gone?

Mid-month checkup, May 06

2006-05-15T00:33:00.000-04:00

So it is the middle of May and I'm right on track to meet my goals for the month. I've actually been playing the $6.50 turbos probably too often when I could be directing my attention elsewhere ($22 sngs, mtts, dbl shootouts). I have already played 84 of them this month and if it hadn't been for several sickening bubbling sessions my ROI would be still up around 40% but instead its still a respectable 18%. For the $22 sngs I'm just about on target having completed 13 tournaments and showing a pretty healthy profit. I didn't set a goal for headsup play but it has been heading south for the month so far. I've been running into huge hands and losing every coinflip or getting out drawn on quite regularly. Thank god my luck has been running super ultra terrible only on Bodog. I'm way behind track on my MTT play. I haven't played in a single one for the month, including missing the CardPlayer freeroll a few days ago that I'm kicking myself about right now. I've also not had time to play in the double shootout tournaments when there was proper number of entrants to make it worthwhile. I'm definately going to try and find time to catch up on some MTTs and double shootouts over the next couple weeks. Hope to see you at the final table!

Milestone: 1000 tournaments completed!

2006-05-11T13:30:00.000-04:00

When I was printing out my records for the month of April I noticed that the total number of tournaments I had played to date (9/17/04 - 4/30/06) just happened to come to 1000. I have played in a lot of poker tournaments and it always seems like everything sort of runs together and it is still kind of hard to think I've actually played in 1000 tournaments. My game has improved vastly from my early days but still has plenty of room for improvement. I consider it a milestone in my poker career. Even though I'm only slightly profitable I can actually say I have not gone totally bust since my original $50 deposit in September of 2004.

It has taken me quite a while to actually get to 1000 tourneys because I hadn't really been multi-tabling with any regularity. I might have had two MTTs running at the same time but that is about it. The number of tournaments I will be playing in will go up at a much faster rate now since I've started 4-tabling turbos on Stars. That will be an interesting stat to take a look at; how long it takes for me to play 1000 turbos. I will have to check back on that stat when it happens. Below are my current stats through 1000 tournaments ...

STTs - 685 tournaments
===========================
41.45% ITM, 11.26% ROI
284 ITM finishes
111 1sts, 102 2nds, 71 3rds

MTTs - 277 tournaments
===========================
25.99% ITM, 77.61% ROI
10 final tables
1 1st, 4 2nds, 1 3rd

Headsup - 38 tournaments
===========================
60.53% ITM, 22.45% ROI
23 1sts

My STT ROI has taken a big hit due to my recent move to the $22s and several out of the money streaks in those $22s. But this month things are finally coming around in the $22s so I can't complain too much. Aside from that there is nothing that stands out as new information to me. I'll just have to continue to play solid poker and make good decisions and let the cards take care of the rest. I will check back in at the next 1000 mark to see how much my game has improved from this point forward.

Hand Discussion No.3

2006-05-08T20:28:00.000-04:00

Playing aces on the bubble.
Click here to view in the PXF Hand Viewer.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (4 handed)

Button (t935)
Hero (t5695)
BB (t5960)
UTG (t910)

Preflop: Hero is SB with As, Ad.
UTG raises to t885, 1 fold, Hero calls t685, BB calls t485.

Flop: (t2130) 8d, 5s, Kh (3 players)
Hero checks, BB bets t5050 (All-In), Hero calls t4785 (All-In).

Turn: (t11965) Kc (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t11965) Td (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: t11965

Results below:
Hero has As Ad (two pair, aces and kings).
BB has 8c Kd (full house, kings full of eights).
UTG has 9c 8h (two pair, kings and eights).
Outcome: BB wins t11965.

I'm not sure what is the optimal way to play this hand. The UTG player had recently taken a big hit to his stack and was quite capable of pushing with any 2 cards in this situation. Anyhow I really didn't want to scare the big blind out of the hand being that I figured I could get atleast 1 extra bet from him on the flop since he had been betting nearly every flop that is checked to him. So I called in hopes of building a side pot between me and the big blind unless the flop was extremely frightening.

The flop comes and I am thinking its a very safe flop so I check hoping to pickup a bet from him on the flop. Instead he pushes in pretty quick and I have no idea what is going on.

He had dragged down 3 sizeable pot before (2k+) and in two of the pots where I saw his hands he played them to trap and mini raise on turn and then value bet on river to get paid off. The one time I didn't get to see his hand he made a check raise on the flop for a sizable amount on a 2 flush flop. I just didn't think if he had a mega-hand it made much sense to push me out being that I was the only player left he could effectively double through.

Considering what I had seen prior I made the call after some deliberation and of course failed to hit my 2 outer after the turn and busted in 3rd place leaving the super ultra short stack to take 2nd place (who went out on the very next hand).

In retrospect I suppose I could have made a reraise preflop to force out his weak holdings (K8o possibly) but I wanted to get some value for my aces if possible. Since I didn't reraise preflop I had no clue as to what his holding was so I should have probably folded when he pushed because there was no sense in going bust if he was pushing two pair or a set like a goon. Still I think its extremely hard to fold aces here. What do you think and why?

In true spirit of being Rivered Again!

2006-05-05T17:03:00.000-04:00

I've been grinding it out over the last week working towards getting a good start on my goals for May and things been moving along pretty smoothly. I haven't made many posts lately about being rivered and thats not to say its no longer happening. I've been having my hands rivered pretty routinely but I've been delivering a few beats of my own, so its all good. Here are some of the more memorable rivers and beats from recent games that I actually managed to grab screenshots of ...

All the money went in pre-flop

All the money went in pre-flop

He limped into my blind and I pushed pre-flop

All the money went in pre-flop; case king falls on the river

He called my push on the turn

He called my push on the turn

He called all-in on the flop

He was dealt kings the hand before crippling me and then dealt kings the very next hand also, geez!

I made an ill advised push pre-flop with 74o but managed to crack his aces!

I pushed on the flop and he happily called with kings but I sucked out!

All the money went in pre-flop and I still can’t believe my hand held up!

Action plan for May

2006-05-01T16:32:00.000-04:00

I was able to accomplish my goal of maintaining 10% ROI in my sng games for April and May will be no different. I'm going to continue through the month playing the $6.50 turbo sngs on PokerStars while 4-tabling. I still consider myself somewhat new to turbos and their structures but I'm adapting well to them in each set I play. My goal is to play at minimum 2 sets (4-tabling) 3x/week which will total 96 turbo sngs for the month of May. I think last months results may have been a bit hotter than normal (53% ROI over 43 games) so I'm going to continue to use a conservative number of 10% ROI. While maintaining a 10% ROI over 96 games it will bring a small profit but plenty of experience while 4-tabling in this new arena.

After playing in several STEP tourneys on PartyPoker I think I've come to the realization that I would do much better staying away from them considering the outrageous rake you pay at the upper levels. For the bankroll builder like myself I think the profit I could be pulling from routinely taking 2nd and 3rd place far outweigh the chance to play at a slightly higher level than my normal bankroll. I've been watching the upper STEP lobbies and they seem to take forever to fill up. That is a big downside for me because my playing time is limited and when I finally have time to play I can't be waiting around for an hour for a lobby to fill if I get to the upper levels of the STEP tournies. I still have a STEP 2 token so I'll play that one out and see how it goes. But after that one I'll probably call it quits from PartyPoker's STEPS.

Speaking of pipe dreams I vow to stay away from the Maui Jackpots on the Noble & Titan Poker networks. My turbo sng game has been improving vastly but these games make the turbo sngs on PokerStars seem tame. Coming in 1st place 5 games in a row in a normal sng on PokerStars is pretty difficult. Playing in the super fast games on Noble & Titan Poker, not to mention I would be paying twice the amount of rake on the tourney fee to the house just doesn't seem feasible.

This leads me to discuss my normal sng game for which my current buy-in is at $22 for single tabling. I really like the idea of the STEP tournaments on PartyPoker and I feel like I can be just as competitive at the higher buy-ins if I just had the bankroll for it. I dabbled with my own home-grown version of STEP tourneys long ago on Absolute Poker and did pretty well. That was long before my sng game had really improved to the point it is now. I'm going to rework my STEP chart to begin at $22 as opposed to $5.50 but it will be pretty much the same. Basically if I win the first level (or take 2nd place in some cases) I'll move up to the next level. After moving up if I fail to take 1st (or 2nd) I'll drop back down a level or out totally to $22 based on my current bankroll within my current run or my place of finish. If anyone is interested in seeing the specifics of how I plan on pursuing my home-grown STEPS on PokerStars give me a shout and I'll be glad to share it with you. I'm going to cut back the projected normal sng games to be played to 30 total for the month while still maintaining 10% ROI.

I'm going to participate in a few more MTTs this month in pursuit of another final table and a big score. Of course I will be staying within my bankroll guidlines which means staying pretty much at the $11 level which means no $22 180-man sngs this month unless I have a large score. CardPlayer magazine is now offering a $3000 monthly freeroll sponsored in part by Bodog which I will be playing in this month. Here is their link, first place takes $400 and it looks like their is going to be bounties on certain players. It is free so I can't lose a dime and plan on being there May 13th unless something comes up with the family.

I'm going to only play in 4 $16 WSOP Double Shootouts for the month (1x/week). I still plan on making a big score in one of these but if my luck doesn't change I will be able to cope with the net loss of $64 versus $100+ if I continued playing as many as I did in the last couple months. At worst if I win one $72 rebate and after 4 $16 buy-ins my net will be +$8.

So in recap these are my projected numbers for May ...

96 $6.50 turbo sngs @ 10% ROI = + $62.40
30 $22 sngs @ 10% ROI = + $66.00
25 mtts = + $100.00
4 $16 dbl so = + $8.00
===============================
total expected profit = $236.40

Time to grind it out.

April 2006 Totals

2006-04-30T10:41:00.000-04:00

The month of April has quickly come and gone. Its hard to beleive the year is almost half gone. It seems the older we grow, the faster time goes by. Oh well enough of that talk, on to my results for the month of April.

My sng results were totally opposite from from last month's even despite a few bad losing streaks. This was my first complete month of playing $22's on PokerStars since moving up and I'm pleased with my results (43% ITM, 17% ROI). Thanks to PXF I finally understand why good sng players play turbo sngs and have since started playing them as well. I've been 4-tabling the $6.50 turbos on PokerStars and things have been going well (53% ITM, 58% ROI).

I also feel my MTT game is much improved since joining PXF. I think my results for the month of April reflect this. I was able to make one final table appearance this month (7th place finish) to move me towards my end of year goal of making 9 final tables. I lost several big hands in my $11 MTT that knocked me out just short of the money in each of the 8 that I played in. Despite not cashing in 8 of tournaments I was still able to finish in the money close to 40% of the time at other buy-in levels. Another big score is coming soon, I can feel it.

While trying out the competition on Bodog I played a headsup sng and was hooked again. Not hooked on the Bodog site, competition or software but headsup matches. I feel like I have an edge over most opponents and proceded to play in several matches pushing this edge. Of course when you lose due to bad luck (2-outers, set over top two-pair, runner-runner straight) I think it hurts worse because its all or nothing. I don't think I'll play headsup matches very regularly because they take a considerable amount of concentration and I think there is more money to be made playing the $22 sngs and 4-tabling turbos.

I failed to cut back on the number of $16 WSOP double shootouts I played in. I played in just as many as last month but I was getting down to 3 or headsup in almost every one of the tables. The cards just wouldn't let me close the deal on the first table and again I struck out at each one. I still think there is a hope in playing these shootouts but I'm going to have to implement some kind of rule. Seven losses killed over $100 in profit for the month, ouch.

So below are the overall totals for each of tournament categories for all sites:

STT's: 49% ITM, 18% ROI (102 tournaments)
MTT's: 38% ITM, -27% ROI (21 tournaments)
HU's: 70% ITM, 34% ROI (17 tournaments)

I made two large cashouts for the month. One to pay for the membership to PXF and another to pay down my credit card bill for this laptop. After the cashouts and a pending bonus from a fellow blogger, DHarrison, I'll end up just about flat for the month. Overall it was a pretty decent month and there is much promise for the month of May.

PokerXFactor

2006-04-26T10:06:00.000-04:00

For quite some time I had been considering joining an online poker training site such as Cardrunners, Realpokertraining or PokerXFactor. After some forum trolling and reading many reviews I decided to give PokerXFactor a try. I really like the fact that they are utilizing a flash hand replayer that also gives me the ability to upload my own hand histories for not only my own review but possible consideration to be reviewed by JohnnyBax and Sheets themselves. Both JohnnyBax and Sheets are titans of online poker IMHO and it has been very informative to see how they play and discuss optimal play in certain situations. If nothing more it validates my own playing ability and gives me a ton of confidence that I'm heading in the right direction with my tournament play. I can't say enough good things about PokerXFactor !

In future hand discussions I will be implementing PXF's hand replayer to give a visual replay of how the hand was played. Here is a beat I took the other night that will act as my test sample ...

Click here to view a larger version.
At least I got my money in as the predominant favorite on the flop and not a big dog on the turn.

Looking for greener pastures

2006-04-17T13:37:00.000-04:00

I decided to look at some other sites and see if I could find some more profitable opportunities. I had read here and there that TitanPoker was pretty soft and the interface looked okay so I gave it a shot. Their online support guys gave me free $20 to play with after a small deposit. TitanPoker is offering some crazy payouts for their sng jackpot tournaments. They payout like a normal sng (50/30/20) but if you happen to make 5 1st place finishes in a row in their $5+1 Maui Jackpot Sngs you win their $15,000 jackpot (currently $29,000). If you make 1st or 2nd for 5 games in a row you can also win $200. Not a bad deal so I registered for their sng to see how they played.

The tables for the Maui challenge are 10-handed and you start with 1000 in chips. The blinds begin at 5/10 and increase every 7 minutes. Let me just say that these tournaments play really fast. I was prepared for a faster sng than I'm used to but it went way too fast for my liking. I'm not sure if it was network delay or what but the blinds seem like they came much faster than 7 minutes. Blinds increase from 5/10 to 10/20, 20/40, 30/60, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400, etc. Another thing that I didn't like was their hand history option, the lack there of. The only hand history window is an observed hand history window that is only active while at the tables and then closes shortly there after. I didn't see an option for them to send you an email of the hands you played in. Also to my knowledge PokerTracker is not compatible with TitanPoker. I played in a few of these tournaments and went out late when the blinds where extremely high in relation to our stacks, but no cashes. I would say the quality of the players was somewhat weak but I just wasn't thrilled with the pace of the game. Overall I wasn't too impressed and think I'll pass at the site.

I made a small deposit at PartyPoker to see how their tournament structure had changed in their sngs. They gave me a bonus code for free $20 that was immediately available to use their tables. I've always wanted to play in some of the STEP tournaments at Party Poker and decided to give it a shot last night with the free money given to me. If your not familiar with the STEP tournaments check out this link. I like the idea of turning $6 into $2000, $11 into $4500 or $33 into $10,000. Of course you end up paying a ridiculous fee for the upper STEPs but I normally wouldn't be bankrolled to play at buy-ins above $30 so that works out for me.

I decided to try their Mini Step and started at level 1 for $6. I held on to my chips until the blinds started to get up there and we were down to 5 handed (assuring myself at least another shot at level 1). Things worked out and I steam rolled my way to a first place victory earning a freeroll to level 2. I proceeded to more or less donk my chips off in the level 2 tournament when I refused to be bluffed by a weak player who unfortunately wasn't bluffing and flopped a monster with Q7o. I did place high enough to not get knocked out totally and earned a token back to level 1. After a couple near wins at level 1 I went out in 6th place when my QQ lost to AK and won a pathetic $4.

I think I will continue to play in these step tournaments for as long as I still have the $20 PartyPoker gave me in free money on my deposit. If I happen to lose that $20 I'll have to reconsider whether I want to continue to chop away at the step tournaments. Until then I'll keep you posted if I get past the second step.

Another poker site I heard some buzz about is Bodog Poker. The buzz mainly comes from their massive marketing program. I've heard/seen stuff for Bodog on card player radio, tons of tv ads, poker magazine ads and affiliate programs. Supposedly they have some pretty good overlays in their tournaments and a good influx of weak players from their sports book side of business. I just happened to check out a blog that I've been following before downloading their software and found a sweet deal. The author of Rags To Riches: My Quest for Poker Glory, dh098017 just recently posted some details about a pretty sweet deal for new sign-up's to Bodog.com. I took advantage of the deal he's offering and free money is always a nice thing. Thanks Dennis! I sat in a play money tournament and seemed to have a hard time adjusting to the screen layout and such but the starting blind structures and 10 hands per level appears to allow for plenty of early play before the sngs become a total crapshoot. Bodog gave me free $40 to play with immediately so soon I'll give their real money tournaments a shot when I have time with no real risk to my bank roll.

Back to PartyPoker for a minute, I just really hate their table layout. I'm sure its because I've grown so accostomed to playing at stars that I have a very hard time keeping track of the action while in game. I can't take it no more! Long ago I remember seeing a PartyPoker Mod that would make the layout/images look very similar to PokerStars but I can't seem to find the link anywhere. So I modded the layout myself and it is a WHOLE LOT EASIER ON MY EYES AND EASIER TO FOLLOW THE ACTION. Old habits are hard to break. Here is a screenshot of what my PartyPoker tables look like now. Its a cheap mod but I don't care, at least I can follow the action easily now.

Still chipping away

2006-04-17T02:44:00.000-04:00

Things have been going pretty slow for the past five days. I’ve been playing pretty decently and been making the right moves overall but I have been the recipient of some bad beats. I think the insane volume of bad beats I took last month is really helping me shrug this off. It is becoming much easier to get over a series of bad beat as opposed to misplaying a hand. When I misplay a hand that ends my tourney life I go over the hand in my head continuously for the next couple days. I get really upset at myself when this happens because its something I could have prevented as opposed to a bad beats, which are generally unavoidable. The following is brief summary of my recent games on PokerStars…

$22 Sng, 7th place bust - Top pair of aces with AK is rivered by 2-pair opponent who called to the river with bottom pair.

$27 Turbo Sng, 8th place bust – Blinds are escalating and button limps and I pushed from the BB with AQ of spades and he makes a bad call with A3 of hearts. The flop comes with two hearts, the turn is blank and the river brings the queen of hearts giving him the nut flush.

$2.20 Mtt, 712th place bust – I’m tied for chip lead at the table with a maniac. The maniac limps from early position and I raise 4x BB with pocket queens from mid position. Its folded to him and he flat calls the bet out of position. The flop comes 9 8 6 rainbow and he leads for 500 into the 1350 pot and I push in on him. I pushed because I knew he wasn’t folding even a very weak hand and I wanted to get all my money in the pot as a big favorite. He called with A8 off-suit, second pair, up against my over pair, pocket queens. The turn was the four of diamond and the river brings the ace of club. I lose on the river to two pair.

$22 Sng, 4th place bust – I make a push with AQ off-suit and the SB makes a bad call IMHO with K9 of spades. The flop comes with an ace but also two spades, the turn comes a nine and the river brings the seven of spades giving him the flush.

$22 Sng, 2nd place bust – Down to heads up I get dealt pocket kings and raise on the button and my opponent calls with queen seven off-suit. The flop comes 7 5 7 with two diamonds, he checks and I push with kings. He calls with trip sevens and I don’t hit the two outer. Ironically the hand prior to that he flopped quad nines, go figure.

$22 Sng, 4th place bust – I’m short stack on the bubble with pocket tens and make a push and get called in two spots by players both holding two diamonds. The flop comes with two diamonds, the turn is third diamond and the river is a fourth diamond. By the river there were eight diamonds out total and I lose to the king high flush (K6o).

$22 Sng, 6th place bust – Nearing the bubble, I’m tied for big stack and pickup pocket kings and play them aggressively towards two opponents in the hand who decide to both call off their chips chasing their straight draw. Both opponents make their straight and I’m severely crippled. I’m forced to push all-in after posting my big blind on the next hand and I’m dealt AJ of clubs and I get two callers pre-flop. One caller folds on the 2 9 J rainbow flop. I’m now facing KJ off-suit liking my chances to triple up. The turn the turn comes a queen of hearts and the river the ten of diamonds. I’m runner-runnered by the straight.

$22 Sng, 8th place bust – I flop two pair, aces and fives, on a flop of A 5 2 with two clubs. I bet aggressively towards a player prone to chasing draws for all his chips. Come to find out he was in the pot from early position with 43 of clubs for the flopped straight and straight flush draw. I still have 590 chips but on the very next hand I’m dealt AK in the small blind. There is a limper UTG and the 3rd seat player raises to 120 (4xbb), I push with AK, limper folds, original raiser calls. My AK drowns on the river to AJ when he spikes a jack.

$22 Sng, 4th place bust – I’m on the bubble with one of the shorter stacks in the big blind. I’m dealt AK and the small blind limps so I push and he calls with KJ. The flop gives him an open-ended straight draw and he makes the king high straight on the river.

I feel like all the above hands were unavoidable except my two pair (aces and fives) losing to the flopped straight and straight flush draw. I didn’t give him credit for playing 43 suited from early position so I went bust. That was my fault. Several of the hands could have gone the other way either and may very well have altered the outcome of the tournament.

My bankroll continues to slide but I continue to press on. I’m hoping my luck changes sooner than later.

Testing the $4.40 180-man sng waters

2006-04-14T23:40:00.000-04:00

The $22 180-man sngs on PokerStars are slightly out of my MTT bankroll guidelines so I register for a couple $4.40 180-man sngs. The play in these $4.40 180-man sngs is just as bad as the 1000+ entrant $3 and $5 buy-in that run late in the evening. Several all-in in the first few levels with very marginal holdings and people pushing 2nd or 3rd pair beyond the max. The straight and flush chasers are so numerous I often wonder how I don't get outdrawn on every hand.

In one of the tournaments it was the first level and I limped utg+1 with 88. The player immediately behind me limped as well and another player in mid position put in a healthy raise. Its early so I decided to call and see if I can spike a set and score a big pot. The player immediately behind me also calls and the flop comes A 8 5 rainbow. I decide to just fire out a small bet into the pot hoping the preflop raiser has an Ace. The utg+2 player flat calls and the preflop raiser reraises me and I call as does the utg+2 player. The turn is a 7 and now the board shows Ad 5h 8c 7h. I probably should have bet out hard with straight and flush draws showing especially since I now had my suspicions that the utg+2 was playing a small ace, maybe A4 or A5, but I elected to check and hope the preflop raiser would do my dirty work for me. The utg+2 fired out 100 into about a 700 pot, curiously small. The preflop raiser comes over the top for another 500. I now felt pretty sure that the utg+2 player was holding probably A6, possibly A6s in hearts with a flush and open ended straight draw. I wasn't going to give a free card so I shoved in the remainder of my 1500 stack into the pot and they both insta-called. The utg+2 player showed 46o with the turned straight and the preflop raiser showed A7s of clubs for turned two pair. I was now drawing to fill my fullhouse and hit a blank on the river. I'm crippled and manage to hang on for a while until the blinds are rising in relation to my stack and I push on the flop with top pair and get called by a guy with bottom pair. He rivers me when he spikes an ace on for two pair on the river.

The other $4.40 180-man sng I played in things went similar to the first tourney but my hands held up a bit more. I was still sucked out on a few times as well but I managed to suck out a couple times too. And before I knew it I was on the money bubble, then the final table bubble, then at the final table.

I took a couple big hits by opponents who made bad calls and got lucky against me so my stack was on the shorter side. Actually when we were on the final table bubble I leaned on the shorter stack to my left at my table SAFC2005. I raised him all-in nearly every hand possible at he was getting sick of it and relayed it in the chat box. I knew he didn't want to bust out on the bubble so I just kept pushing. So if you happen to read this SAFC2005, sorry man. I had to do it.

At any rate the final table action picked up where the bubble action left off and there was a lot of action early on. I didn't pick up any hands and there weren't but a couple blinds passed to me without action ahead so I was beginning to get short stacked even more so then when the final table started. I ended up getting called when I pushed with a marginal hand and lost the race to go out in 7th place. I think it was the right move to make but when moves fail you have a tendency to question them. You just never remember all the moves you make when the work. Anyhow here is the hand that I busted out on ...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t1600 (7 handed) converter

BB (t26694)
UTG (t35951)
MP1 (t120916)
MP2 (t12245)
CO (t19142)
Hero (t13526)
SB (t41526)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Qd, 7s.
4 folds, Hero raises to t13451, SB raises to t35200, 1 fold.

Flop: (t49026) 9c, 3h, 9h (2 players)

Turn: (t49026) 2c (2 players)

River: (t49026) Ks (2 players)

Final Pot: t49026

Results below:
SB has Jd As (one pair, nines).
Hero has Qd 7s (one pair, nines).
Outcome: SB wins t49026.

Let me explain my thought process for pushing with this hand. The big blind was playing tight at the final table and hadn't been involved in a pot. This told me he was definitely waiting for quality cards and wanting to move up the prize ladder. The small blind had been extremely active since making the final table but he had been showing down an unusually high amount of quality hands and not junk hands. Neither player had been at my table prior to the final table so I thought they would have to give me credit for a solid hand when I decided to finally play.

Queen-Seven offsuit isn't a great hand but considering I was down to about 8 big blinds left and 1000/2000 blinds were just a couple minutes away I thought it was a clear push. I needed to pickup the blinds here to stay alive. Otherwise I might not be able to make someone fold the next time it came around to me and would have to win a showdown regardless. If I had to play it here again I would probably push again but maybe I'd win my 35/65 race second time around, lol.

On the plus side I did make a final table in multi-table tournament. Its just too bad it was only a $4.40 tourney with only 180 entrants. I still consider this final table appearance an accomplishment and a step toward my goal of making 9 final tables for the year. Next time it will be a bigger score and maybe my Q7o wins the race.

Destined for a final table!

2006-04-13T14:05:00.000-04:00

The last few days I've been playing decent poker. Early yesterday afternoon I made a few bad plays and ironically all three bad plays were with AK. I gave my opponents the worst of it while they were chasing their cards. When they managed to catch their cards on the river I was married to my hand and payed them off anyways. On the river the board was extremely dangerous and I was facing a variety of hands and it was early enough that I could have layed down my hand to pick a better spot later. I went over the hands in my head several times through the afternoon vowing to myself that I wouldn't get caught in a similar situation later in the evening.

Evening time came around and I was feeling extremely confident of my game. I had planned to make it a multi-table night and was determined to make it to a final table. My first tourney I took a runner-runner beat to lose to straight chaser. I was on the fence whether to call his big bet on the river and not gone broke but I just couldn't fold my set of aces. Out was out extremely early, much earlier than I anticipated.

My second tournament was a smaller $5.50 buy-in with just above 1300 entrants. I couldn't get much momentum going and several hands failed to hold up. I was rivered on the final hand of the tournament by a 3-outer. I did manage to make the money but that was the least of my concerns.

The third tournament I entered was the $3 Rebuy that ended up having a $24k prizepool. Again I couldn't get much momentum and hand to lay down a few big hands to obvious suckouts. I'm not much for letting myself get blinded down to nothing and decided to push with IMO the worst hand in hold'em, pocket dueces. I was called down by the big stack with A9o. He hit a 9 on the turn and I was out. I played this tournament pretty well but just couldn't get anything going. I recovered my buy-in with a small profit since I did make the money again, but no final table.

The fourth MTT of the night was a $5.50 Quad shootout. I felt like things were once again firing on all cylinders as I took down the first table. The second table things didn't go all that well. I kept running into monster hands but kept hanging on. When it was down to 3 players and the blinds rising I opted to push and try and pickup the blinds with my A8o but the shorter stack (who I could cripple if he lost) called with KTo. Not a terrible call by him but I didn't like it in the least. I really didn't like it when the flop gave him trip kings and I was out. Since I did win the first table in the Quad shootout I was entitled to my buy-in back but no final table.

I decided to play one last tourney for the night, a $22 SNG. I felt like I was being punished for something unknown to me. Everytime I had a big hand this fella had one up on me. He kept draining my stack and rivered me 3 freakin' times. I was beyond fed up his luckbox antics but there wasn't much I could do. Down to the bubble with the blinds rising I made a push with AQo and the luckbox, dkhauge84, called my push with K9s. If I had been in his position with the big stack and K9s I more than likely would have passed. I had enough chips to put a serious dent into his stack; enough chips to bring him even with everyone else. Anyhow the flop gave me top pair of aces but also gave him a flush draw. I was instantly sick knowing that when up against a luckbox they will always get there. The turn was a 9 giving him yet more outs. The river filled his flush and I was busted out in 4th. I still feel like I played the hand fine and he just made a bad call with K9s and was rewarded.

That was it for the night for me. I played in four MTTs, cashed three times, and bubbled one SNG. I suppose the night wasn't a total lose because it could have been worse and I might have not recovered my buy-ins for the evening.

Still striking out

2006-04-11T17:04:00.000-04:00

I've played in eleven $16 double shootouts to the Sunday $650 WSOP qualifier and still haven't made it past the first table in a single one. This isn't typical of me . I have been pretty successful in the past with double, triple and quad shootouts. The fields in these WSOP satellites are insanely soft. Playing against players who won't fold any pair or draw can lead to a lot of bad beats and that is what keeps happening to me. I'm routinely getting down to the final 3 or heads-up at the first table but the cards keep running against me. I'm going to have to cut double shootouts from my schedule for the time being to recover some of my losses. A week or two at the most and I'll be back into the mix with these shootouts. I know its only a matter of time before I take down a Sunday $650 WSOP qualifier ticket so I can begin step two of my plan. Soon enough stuff like the below screen shot will stop happening ...

Hand Discussion No.2

2006-04-06T11:31:00.000-04:00

Knowing when to fold big slick.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (7 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Hero (t1235)
Button (t3855)
SB (t1260)
BB (t1645)
UTG (t2800)
MP1 (t290)
MP2 (t2415)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Kh, Ac.
UTG calls t50, MP1 calls t50, 1 fold, Hero raises to t250, 2 folds, BB raises to t1645, UTG raises to t2800, MP1 calls t240 (All-In), Hero folds.

Flop: (t5010) 2h, Qd, Qh (3 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t5010) 6s (3 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t5010) 4h (3 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t5010

Results below:
UTG has Qs Qc (four of a kind, queens).
MP1 has 6c 4c (two pair, queens and sixes).
BB has Ks Kd (two pair, kings and queens).
Outcome: UTG wins t5010.

My table image was a somewhat tight player and had been getting respect accordingly. The UTG player had shown to be a trappy player and I had my suspicions when he decided to limp utg especially since the short stack, MP1, had been pushing all-in 3 times in a row only a few hands ago. I wanted to know if the utg player was serious about his hand so I raised about twice the pot, enough to put the short stack player all-in. I would much rather play my AK headsup against the short stack player who probably didn't have much considering he didn't push as he had been doing in the past.

Much to my suprise the BB pushed all-in super quick and then UTG reraised all-in super fast as well. The short stack player paused for a moment then called all-in. Wow, not quite what I was expecting. I had wanted to pick up this pot or at least play headsup against 1 player but not be facing calling all-in for my tournament life with AK. Especially not against a reraise then a limp-reraise all-in by the big stack. I figured I was up against aces (7% to win) or kings (30% to win) and AK is just not going to cut it in this case. Blinds are beginning to escalate but I will still have close to 1000 chips if I fold and there is plenty of poker to be played. No questions here, it is an easy fold.

I bring up this hand because so often I see players raising with AK in position trying to take the pot but then they meet resistance such as was in my case. They tend to fall in love with big slick and call off all their chips with ace high. Early in the tournament thats all big slick is, an ace high drawing hand. Its an easy fold at this stage in the tournament.

Hand Discussion No.1

2006-04-05T13:23:00.000-04:00

Overplaying pocket jacks.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (5 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Hero (t3520)
SB (t3680)
BB (t1160)
UTG (t2575)
MP (t2565)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Jd, Js.
1 fold, MP raises to t400, Hero raises to t3520, 2 folds, MP calls t2165 (All-In).

Flop: (t6235) 7c, 3d, Th (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t6235) 3h (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t6235) 8d (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t6235

Results below:
MP has Kc Kd (two pair, kings and threes).
Hero has Jd Js (two pair, jacks and threes).
Outcome: MP wins t5280. Hero wins t955.

Leading up to this hand I had been somewhat active preflop, but not overly active. If I remember correctly MP had shown on two occasions that when he opened with a raise preflop that he was capable of folding to a reraise even after opening for 4x the bb. The blinds were only 50/100 so I still had over 20 rounds and there was plenty of time left even though the blinds were going up to 75/150 in the next few hands.

At the time I thought since we were getting down to the bubble that he would fold to my reraise for fear of going broke with probably all hands except AA or KK (possibly AK but doubtful). My jacks were vunerable and I wanted to win the pot right now. I did't want to see the flop considering an ace, king or queen is going to hit the flop a good amount of the time. But I think I could have played it differently without pushing all-in.

Instead if I had reraised him from 400 to 1400 he would have had to call another 1000 for a 1950 pot. He's getting almost 2 to 1 on his money but it requires him commit just about half his stack on this hand. Considering that he has layed down his hand in the past to a reraise, he will likely not call my bet with a decent ace or a medium pair. Of course if he reraises me I know he has aces, kings or AK at the worst and I can cut my losses at 1400 and still have 2200 in chips if I don't feel like gambling at this moment.

I could have also just flat called his raise with position and seen the flop but with pocket jacks I don't like flat calling and giving him a free look to hit a big card. But if I had flat called and seen the flop come ten high with an overpair I probably would have gotten all the money in soon afterward anyways because I didn't make him define his hand more clearly to me.

In the end it was bad luck that he had pocket kings when I had jacks but if I had stopped and thought about a possible alternative to pushing I might have been able to get away from the jacks. Maybe, maybe not?

My 2006 Poker Goals

2006-04-03T08:56:00.000-04:00

Last month I found myself unsure of just exactly why I torture myself playing online poker. I had no goals, nothing in mind that I wanted to actually achieve. I promised myself that if I didn't come up with some poker aspirations I would pull the plug on my online poker play. The time has come to commit myself to these goals I want to achieve and begin my path toward success.

My poker goals for 2006 (thru 12-31-06) are as follows ...

Goal No.1 - Build my poker bankroll to $3000
I will achieve this goal by playing STTs and MTTs exclusively. I will be playing within "my bankroll guidelines" a limited amount of hours per week and thus I feel this is a reasonable goal for the year. Over the next 9 remaining months I will need to average 10% ROI per month (40 tournaments per month) in my STTs and will need to show on average a profit of $100 per month in my MTTs to build my bankroll to $3000 by the end of the year.

Goal No.2 - Make 9 final tables in MTTs
There are 9 months remaining in the year and I will make 1 final table per month in my MTTs this year. I have a good tournament game and again I feel this is a totally attainable goal for the year.

Goal No.3 - Win a satellite to a major poker tournament
I will win a satellite entry to a major poker tournament: WSOP Main Event, WSOP Preliminary Event or WPT Event. I will pursue as many freeroll avenues that I can in order to accomplish this goal. I will also play in cash satellites to these events if they are within "my bankroll guidelines".

Goal No.4 - Maintain this blog with constructive thoughts
The original purpose of this blog was to share my bad beats and document my online poker trials and tribulations. Unfortunately a great deal of my posts have been negative and the same old sob stories. Bad beats will come and go but I will keep my ranting to an absolute minimum and instead focus on constructive thoughts because nothing can come from negativity but more of the same. So this year it is my goal to maintain this blog with these constructive thoughts. I will discuss particular hands that I have played (good and bad) to further educate and enlighten myself about what I may have done right, wrong, or could have done differently. If just one reader benefits from reading my own hand assessments then I have accomplished my goal of contributing constructiive poker thoughts to the online poker community.

Goal No.5 - Continue to stay within my bankroll guidelines
Proper bankroll management is one of the biggest obstacles every serious poker player has to overcome. Fortunately I learned early on the perils of playing over my limits and have not forgotten the past. I will be following the 30x buy-in rule for my STTs and the 50x buy-in rule for my MTTs. Rebuy tournaments are not off-limits but I will make sure that the entry fee, rebuys and add-ons not go higher than my 50x buy-in rule.

I will re-evaluate my goals on a monthly basis to make sure I am doing everything possible to stay on track in order to achieve my goals.

Nine months and counting!

My Paranoia

2006-04-03T08:55:00.001-04:00

In order to convey my thoughts and why I am a bit paranoid I have to backtrack a bit. I began playing online poker for play chips in August of 2004. I had some success and early on and quickly built my 1000 play chip balance up to around 100,000 play chips and thought this was too easy. I was quite niave at the time and thought I could duplicate my success in real money games but I hadn't made a deposit yet. Well I continued to win and finally made a deal with myself that once my play chip balance was 1,000,000 I would make a one time deposit of $50 and try my luck at real money games.

I deposited my first $50 just before I reached my goal (about 800,000 play chips) at the end of September of 2004 and was ready to play for real money. I had some really good success early on in my first couple months at PokerStars and InterPoker. I actually made 3 final tables at Interpoker within my first two months and my STT game was going strong at PokerStars. Two of my final table finishes which were in InterPoker's $300 GTD Freerolls (500 person) at which I took 1st and 2nd. The third final table I finished 5th place in a Carribean Cruise Package Freeroll (1500 person). I wanted to try and take advantage of some deposit matching offers at other sites so I moved most of my funds from PokerStars and tried out Absolute and RoyalVegas Poker. Then I began to slide at PokerStars, I had a lot of losing sessions. I was very green to texas hold'em so I wrote it off as taking my lumps while learning to play.

Fast forward to May 2005, I'm a much improved tournament player with heavy emphasis on STT's. I'm also doing well managing my bankroll and staying within my limits. I take out some large chunks of my bankroll to pay for various things and again my game begins to slide at the end of May and carries through June. I'm constantly getting rivered and runner-runnered. I begin to question my ability to compete and be a profitable player and make a large withdrawl at the end of June 2005 basically throwing in my poker playing towel.

I read HOH II the next month and my passion for the game is rekindled and after selling 5 million of my play chips along with the generous multi-million play chip donation from my friend, the up and coming poker phenom Gryphon2k5, my bank roll is revitalized and I'm back to playing winning poker. I go on a tear and after 20 games in the $5.50s 14-20 ITM (70%), 125% ROI (8-1st, 3-2nd, 3-3rd) I'm full of confidence. I withdraw several hundred dollars over the next couple month for bills and a new laptop (well old but new to me) and again my game begins to slide. I'm not exactly sure what or why it happened (bad beats or poor play I didn't take specific notes about my tourney exits over this period). I was able to recover and then I make another big withdrawl in December and again my game slides considerably. I pull the plug on almost all of my poker funds in early January 2006 to pay for Christmas expenses and I'm left with a pitiful $86.93 in my PokerStars account.

I take about a month off from online poker and then come back in February 2006 and go on another tear almost tripling my bankroll in the month over 17 tourneys. Things continue to run decent into the beginning of March 2006 with my near victory in a $20+2 180-man sng. At this point I take out close to $1000 from my PokerStars account and move it to my Neteller account. The primary reason for the cash out is that when PokerStars has its next redeposit bonus I'll have funds available to take advantage of any promo that they offer. The worst terrible luck and beats that I could never imagine begin to befall me. My game slides uncontrollably. If there is a straight draw on the board against me, they get there. Flush draw, forget about it! My opponents constantly flop 3 cards to their flush and are swimmming in their flush on the turn routinely. Runner runner flushes and back door straight are cracking my made hands constantly. Big pockets vs junk cards or baby pairs all-in preflop are being cracked without mercy. Dominated hands are being broken as well, AK vs A8, AK vs A2, KQ vs K5 ... It doesn't matter I'm getting hammered ALL THE TIME and that is where I'm at now, battered and near broken.

So I begin to think about it. I evaluate my game and I do find some mistakes: lost bets, moments where I should have defined my hand to prevent further loss, some poor decisions against inferior opponents, playing at less than optimal times and environments. As a whole though, I am extremely satisfied with my play and I feel as though I was just getting super unlucky. There is no other explanation I can rationalize. When for the month of March my pocket Aces win 67.50% (27-40) and my pocket Kings win 65.78% (25-38) your bound to have negative swings in your bankroll especially when many of the pots lost where big pots either changing chip leadership or busting me out on the bubble (almost 40% of my finishes in STT's for the month were on the bubble). But damn this is just insane.

So what does all of this mean? Why even mention my withdraws to my Neteller accounts? I'm sure you've heard of the online poker cash out curse before. Anyone who has been playing online poker and has read any forum has heard of the conspiracy theories about online poker being rigged and poker sites penalizing players who cash out large portions with a doom switch making it extremely difficult for them to win anymore. Their are tons of supporting players but those are generally losing players. Players that are going to lose whether its live or online and are probably losing at a much higher rate online because of the total lack of control and the faceless anonymity the internet provides them with while making their truly donkey plays such as calling to the river with their pocket dueces chasing their 2 outer.

Early on in my online poker career I often wondered if online poker was rigged. I recorded several sessions looking for patterns in how frequently each player was to win regardless of the quality of their hole cards, trying to find some kind of pattern or hint that something wasn't right. I did find some patterns here and there but nothing truly concrete, nothing that always repeated. On the other hand if you look long and hard enough for something even if its not there you sometimes find what your looking for and I tend to think my mind was finding these patterns because it wanted to find them, not that they actually existed.

The flops also seemed to come too coordinated or dangerous far too often than what I thought was normal. So I did some analysis, althought it was a small sample size of 10,000 hand histories it was enough to satisfy my curiousity at the time. I found that the flop, turn and river cards weren't nearly as juiced as I thought they were in relation to what is to be expected. There was some small deviations but nothing truly substantial to cause any great concern or for me to cry, "RIGGED!", "JUICED FLOPS TO BOOST THE RAKE!", "4 OUT OF EVERY 5 BOARDS GIVE SOMEONE A FLUSH!", etc. I was satified and ignored nearly every online poker rigged theory I ran across.

Then stuff happens like it did in March and I just begin to think, "Damn WTF did I do to deserve this?" So I think back to my losing months and losing streaks. Several of the sessions came immediately after making sizeable cash outs. Coincidence? I really don't know and as much as I might sound like a nut, I'm actually on the fence about the whole matter.

On one hand these poker sites have too much to lose to tamper with the RNG. They are making millions of dollars in rake each day for basically providing a medium for us to play against other people for own money. Its too easy of an operation to jeopardize by doing something shady.

On the other hand why would the fish come back if they are getting crushed constantly? What if they didn't come back and the tank thinned out and the fish dissappeared? The sharks would most definately starve and cease to exist, thus there would be no reason to for the tank anymore. So as stupid as it may sound why not throw in some super fish flakes that give the fish the ability to KO a shark every now and then to keep the fish coming back and the tank full. Its crazy I know but I'm totally paranoid right now. Its as if PokerStars has my account flagged and they are penalizing me.

So often in the past month the player who would suck out on me would go on to win the tournament. They would also go onto suckout against every other player, hit runner runner, drown their opponent on the river when they hit their 2-outer, beat hand domination, etc. I don't beleive sites would use shills or prop players BUT I'm paranoid beyond beleif right now. I just don't know what to beleive.

So I've got a plan to beat this paranoia of mine. My plan is well under way and I'm curious to see if it works. Of course if I disclosed my plan it would have no chance of success so you'll just have to wait and see if it works.

Now damnit! Where did I put that tin foil hat?

March 2006 Totals

2006-04-03T08:55:00.000-04:00

As much as it pains me to discuss the month of March I will do so and disclose my tournament totals for the month. My STT game was really firing on all cylinders this past month but my records show otherwise. I was cold decked, sucked out on, rivered, 2-outed and runner-runnered more times than I can remember past month. I am officially in a huge $20+2 STT slump, going 1-10 for ITM finishes and that only ITM finish was a 3rd place finish. Also the $15+1 double shootouts to the Sunday $650 WSOP qualifier went terribly as well. I went 0-7 in these shootouts compared to previous shootout finishes where I went ITM in 4-6 of the Wednesday Quad Shootouts. The fields in these WSOP satellite shoots are softer than most tourneys I have ever played in and still remind me of play chip tourneys of my noob days. But a series of bad beats and unlucky breaks stacked one on top of another can cause you to have lose to even the worst players and have huge negative implications on your bankroll. I still feel strongly these satellite shootout fields are extremely beatable if you can just avoid the minefield of noobs and maniacs.

My bread and butter STT, the $10+1 games was also riddled with constant chaos. It seemed so often that 95% to win was never enough to win and I was hit with several long just-out-of-the-money streaks. I did manage to recover and pull my numbers for these $10+1 games into the green for the month, but only slightly, 7.66% ROI after 38 tourneys. Very disappointing but just as the shootouts and the $20+2 tourneys there is very little I'd change in my play save for maybe asking for a new virtual dealer or virtual card deck.

There was one bright spot for the month which was extremely early on in the month, my near win in a $20+2 180-man sit-n-go. If I hadn't been extremely unlucky headsup starting with my cold run of cards for 18 consecutive deals then my pocket Aces losing to pocket Sixes all-in preflop I would have taken down the whole damn thing. That would have been too easy though. Fortunately I had the foresight to see the way the poker gods were intending this tournament to go and made a deal with my luckbox opponent and actually profited $180 on the deal because again I was sucked out on and ultimately lost on a hand that I couldn't get away from.

This month I also realized yet again why I generally don't play the GTD rebuy tourneys on PokerStars; I'm not a luckbox and probably won't ever be one so I should stay out of these chip slinging luckfests. Maybe occasionally I will dip my foot into the rebuy waters to see if my luckbox status has changed but otherwise I'll stick to non-rebuy events.

STT's: 31.25% ITM, -23.82% ROI
MTT's: 1.66% ITM, 287.90% ROI

This is where my paranoia sets in.

12 goose eggs

2006-03-29T14:13:00.000-05:00

Well almost. This month of March has been extremely terrrible to me and after pulling myself out of the red and into the green in my STT game I find myself sliding again. The results for my last 12 tournaments has been utterly disasterous. I've dropped a little over 10% of my bankroll, much of it being lost during 9 tournaments last night. Below are some summaries of how I went out of each tournament ...

===================================

Tny 1 - $16 Double Shootout Satellite
First crack at a WSOP satellite. Field is extremely soft and things look promising. Dissapointing 3rd place finish when AA is cracked by TT and KK is beaten by T5o.

Tny 2 - $11 STT
Virtually card dead playing against a table of LAG's. I manage to keep myself afloat with the blinds rising and then I pickup AA. UTG rasises to 4xbb and I pushe the remainder of my chips and the big blind calls my all-in as does the UTG player. I don't like playing Aces against 2 other players but I can't ask for a better spot with blinds at 100/200 and only 990 chips at the start of the hand. Flop comes 2 K 2 rainbow and the UTG player pushes in for the rest of his 435 chips and the big blind calls it creating a sidepot. UTG reveals JJ and big blind reveals 55. The turn is blank (Nine of diamonds) but the river brings a Jack sending me out in 5th spot.

Tny 3 - $11 STT
I pick my spots and make it to headsup against Quiz2589 and after a long headsup battle and a couple lucky breaks I take down first place

Tny 4 - $16 Double Shootout Satellite
My second crack at a WSOP Satellite and the field looks extremely soft again. Huge raises with small blinds and outrageous bluffs and calls all-in on 2nd and 3rd pair. I try to trap an opponent with my pair of Aces but something doesn't add up and then it looks like I'm being trapped and I ditch my hand. To my satisifaction he shows his hand T5o for flopped two pair and making a fullhouse on the river when a second 5 falls. I'm not crippled but I did lose 1/3 my stack on that hand but its early. Again I isolate a loose opponent and bet my top pair top kicker against him but again I sense something isn't right and I don't come over the top on the river, correctly because he hits two pair on the turn to beat my AJ with J8. Final hand of the tourney I'm deal T8o in the small blind with 4 of the 5 remaining players limping I'm not making a move here to pickup the pot so I limp and see the flop. The flop comes J 9 Q with diamonds giving me the straight. With only 200 in the pot and 1st to act vs 3 other opponents I decide to check raise anyone who makes a bet at the flop. To my suprise the big blind bets 200 and the next 2 players flat call and I push for 910 with a 800 pot. I get 2 quick calls and both players show 2 diamonds a piece, Jack high and Ace high. The turn and river come as running diamonds and I'm out in 5th place. Come to find out the only player who didn't limp in preflop also held a diamond so there where a total of 9 of 13 diamonds out after the hand was over.

Tny 5 - $16 Double Shootout Satellite
My third crack at a WSOP Satellite and once again it is an extremely crazy table. Tons of raising with junk early and calling stations abound. I pickup several hand but every time I catch a hand the board comes with 2 or 3 overcards or 3 to a flush or straight and I have to ditch my hands no willing to go the distance against someone pushing into me. Down to 5 players and I find myself the short stack yet again and pick up ATo in the small blind and opt to just limp in and 2 other players and I go to the flop. The flop comes A 9 4 with 2 hearts and with everyone firing at every pot with or without a hand I again decide to check raise hoping to pickup a bit more than 150 chips. The big blind bets 50 and the button calls 50 and I check raise the pot (250) and the big blind calls, button folds. Turn is a Queen of diamonds and the pot is now 700 and I have only 440 in chips and I think this is a pretty easy push here so I push all-in and if he has a set then I'm out. He calls quickly with K2 chasing his gutshot. The river comes a 10 and I'm out in 5th place, again.

Tny 6 - $16 Double Shootout Satellite
I'm still determined to win one of these satellites and continue to play my game, tight and solid poker against a bunch of loose maniacs. Betting made hands for maximum value and giving them the wrong odds to chase their draws. Well sticking to the plan my opponent calls my big raise preflop out of position with 87o and hits 2 pair on the turn against my AK. The very next hand I flop top pair and with really no draws on the board I plan to do the rope-a-dope against a player betting at me the whole time. Rope-a-dope is working until the river brings a 3 and his bet is larger than I expected, but I call the UTG+1 player's bet and he shows 23o for 2 pair on the river. Back to back hands I'm beat by 2 pair junk hands. Now crippled with less than 150 chips I'm forced to go all-in with Q7o and everyone at the table calls. I'm out in 6th place when pocket dueces make a straight on the river.

Tny 7 - $16 Double Shootout Satellite
I continue to think its only a mater of time before my hands finally start holding up and this drought will be over. This next satellite table is somewhat tamer and after picking my spots here and there its down to 3 players and we are all evenly stacked at about 3600 chips with blinds at 75/150. Then I'm dealt 95o in the big blind and I decide to see a flop, battle of the blinds. The flop comes A 5 2 with 2 diamonds. Now the small blind leads out for 150 (1/2 pot) and I think for a moment. He's been playing extremely straight forward preflop and raising with an Ace or broadway preflop. He has also shown that he will fire two or even three bullets in attempt to take down a pot with nothing. I just don't think he has an ace and I know my five is good so I call and plan to scoop it on the turn from him when he checks. Well the turn is a another 5 giving me trips. He checks to me but now I decide to scoop the pot just incase he was looking for a diamond but he calls my bet. The river is 4 and unless he was chasing his gutshot I have this hand locked. He fires out 450 into 1200 pot and maybe I made a mistake here but I raised him to 1200 and he calls quickly to shot me 83o with a filled gutshot on the river. I just didn't think he'd call my large bet on the turn with nothing but a gutshot, but then again I was wrong. And so was my reraise on the river. Several hands later me and him get our money in the pot preflop and he turns over pocket 9's to my pocket 8's and I'm out in 3rd place.

Tny 8 - $16 Double Shootout Satellite
I continue on with my quest to win one of these satellites and things are going good. Solid play and picking the right spots and we are down to 3 players. My 5.1k is slightly behind the chip leader's 5.6k and the short stack is 1.2k. Then the short stack hits two running diamonds to take 500 chips from me with my pair of Aces, down to 4500. Next hand the big stack catches 2 running cards to back door a straight and I lose another 700, down to 3800. After a few orbits and a failed steal attempt the small stack hits a set of 5's and I double him up, now down to 1850. Wtf is going on! Several hands later my AT runs into AJ, down to 1400 but still keeping faith. I pickup QQ and it holds up to AKo and I'm back up to 3250. Then the short stack raises from the blind and I come over the top all-in with pocket Tens, big blind folds and the short stack shows pocket Eights. I'm a 4-1 favorite but the river brings an fateful 8 I'm knocked back down to 1700 in chips. The cards go sour and I can't get a face card or anything to and I'm blinded down to 885 with 75/150 blinds. I pickup 55 in the small blind and push and the big blind calls with KQo and he flops 2 pair and I'm out in 3rd place.

Tny 9 - $22 STT
I haven't been donking off my chips, nor calling them off in bad spots once its shorthanded but things just aren't working out in the satellites so I move back to some STT to recoup my losses. Four hands into the tournament this hand comes up. The UTG limps, UTG+1 limps and its passed to me on the button with AQo. I want to know where I stand so I raised to 100 (pot was 70). Both blinds quickly fold but the UTG player mini-reraises to 180 and the UTG+1 quickly calls. So now there is 490 in the pot and I have to call another 80 chips, slightly better than 6 to 1 on the call. Well I now know this guy has a real hand but I don't think Aces because if I had Aces i would want to keep it disguised . If he didn't feel comfortable about playing Aces against 2 other players out of position I would feel his raise would have been a lot larger. So I put him on KK, QQ, or JJ and label him as a weak player considering the size of his bet and his position. So I call and the flop comes A Q 9 with 2 clubs and the pot is 570. The UTG (pf limp reraiser) leads out with 300 and the UTG+1 quickly pushes all but 60 of his chips in the pot. What is going on? Well now I think UTG could have KK, JJ, or AK. I'm seriously doubting QQ being that there are already two queens out. But what about UTG+1? I suppose he could very well have pocket 9's and flopped a set and isn't taking any chances. So often in these STT's you see a lot of bluffing and huge pushes very early and I had seen it time and time again in the Double Shootout Satellites and I think I was still thinking that this was one of those satellites. I could have folded here and cut my losses and still had 1320 in chips at 10/20 blinds but I just couldn't really ask for a much better flop. Well maybe a rainbow flop would have been nicer but this is pretty nice and against my conservative thought process I pushed all-in. The UTG player quickly called all-in and UTG+1 called his remaining 60 chips. I was totally shocked when the UTG turned over two Queens for a set, figured he had probably AK if he was making that call there. UTG+1 turned over K6o with King of clubs. I'm not sure if he thought he had 2 clubs and just misread it or what but he was pretty much drawing dead save for runner runner flush. The set of queens held up and I was down to 60 chips. I did manage to triple up once, then double up again, but then my pocket sevens fell to AQo when a Queen hit the board. I dunno about that hand, it was just rough. Hindsight is 20/20 and I probably could have dumped my hand on the flop there but if I dump my hand there I'm playing scared, and well I don't play scared so fuck me.

Tny #10 - $3 Rebuy ($20,000 GTD) now stuck for 1 buy-in, 6 rebuys, 1 add-on
I hadn't played in a $3 Rebuy tourney in quite some time and I thought maybe with all the unlucky events that had already happened something good might come from this tourney. I was playing extremely tight as is my habit during the first hour since everyone is pushing with junk left and right. I layed down KK to an Ace on the flop when a huge stack called my bets to the river and put in a big raise. REBUY! Later a hand came up where I had AK and I raised 3xbb and the big blind who was pushing everyone around raised enough to put me and the other 2 limpers all-in. He had been doing this all game because he had close to 20,000 in chips at 50/100 blinds. I decided to go with my AKo and the other 2 limpers folded and he showed AKo also. Simple enough, chop pot you might think, no. The from came all with 3 hearts and he was holding the Ace of hearts, the turn was a blank but the river was a Jack of Hearts. REBUY! REBUY! I had some guy push all-in with 97o UTG and I decided to gamble it up with AKs. I lost the race when a 9 fell on the turn no thanks to him spamming the chat box for a 9 to fall. REBUY! REBUY! Things did improve a bit and I managed to pickup a monster pot after the break and was at almost 20,000 in chips but nothing materialized after that and I couldn't get any action on any of my hands finally lost a race with AKo vs 66. The guy hit a 6 on the river which was overkill since the board was devoid of Aces and Kings anyway. I went out in 311th position out of 1946 entrants.

Tny #11 - $22 STT
After that hasty exit on top two pair I registered for another tourney and again things are going okay until I get involved in a hand with pocket Tens. The blinds are 25/50 and UTG limps and its folded to the small blind who limps. I really don't feel like seeing a flop and letting these guys outflop me for free so I raise to 200 (pot 150). The UTG player thinks for a few moments then calls and the small blind folds. At the start of the hand I had 1755 in chips and the UTG player had 1045. He had lost his the majority of his stack by raising with a big Ace UTG+2 and firing blanks on flop, turn and to check the river with Ace high. At any rate the flop came J 9 5 all diamonds. This is where I probably should have bet out right but I checked with no diamond and he quickly checked behind me. The turn appeared to be a blank, a 3 of hearts and I bet 250 at him and he called. He's now down to 595 chips and the pot is 950 chips. This is clue no. 2 I missed, it was obvious he wasn't going to fold and he either had something or diamond at the very least. The river was a 5 of clubs and I bet 150 at him and he quickly came over the top for the rest of his chips, another 445 chips. Clue no. 3 I missed, he more than likely wasn't going to go broke with Ace high and it appeared I could only beat a bluff. If I folded I would have still had 1100 chips and perfectly fine for this stage in the tournament. If I had played back the turn of events in my head and actually "thought" about it at the time I probably would have folded but I didn't and I called off 445 chips into 1695 pot and he showed a set of threes with a 3 of diamonds. This hand was just screwed up from start to finish. He called my big raise pre-flop with a baby pair but was going to have position for the rest of the hand regardless and probably figured if he spiked a set he'd double up, which is what I do sometimes if the price is right. I thought I gave him the wrong price to try this? The flop came all diamonds and if I wanted this pot I needed to bet the flop to see where I stood. odds are pretty good he more than likely would have called my bet on the flop and I would have been done with the hand unless some miracle cards fell for me, but I didn't bet it. On the turn I bets out 250 and he called it and he now has 50% of his stack in the pot and he's not going anywhere which just didn't register in my head for some reason. Again on the river I made another mistake by betting when I knew I was more than likely beat and then calling off another 400+ chips. I can rant and rave that he got lucky as fuck to catch his set on the turn but in all fairness it was I who messed this up. He in fact did have 11 outs twice and was in good shape to take me down. Several hands later I'm down to 585 in chips and the blinds are 50/100 and I can't get anything going until I'm dealt AKo and decide to push from 2nd position. The small blind calls my all-in with A8o but as fate would have it he hits 8 on the river and I'm out in a disappointing 6th place. It was very late at this point and I had been playing non-stop for a considerable amount of time and my mind was a bowl of soup. I wasn't able to focus and for that I lost this tournament and made several mistakes that I normally wouldn't.

Tny #12 - $11 STT
I wasn't tilting in the least after my last tourney exit. I got up and walked around a bit and got something to drink before registering for the last tourney of the night. I quickly looked back through the hand history of TT vs 33 hand and realized with a little 3rd party input from Grpyhon2k5 I realized what had happened and was ready to play one more for the evening. I was waiting for another $22 to fill up but no one was registering for it so I got tired of waiting and went to a $11 STT. This should have been my que to call it a night and not play another tourney because I was tired and didn't feel like waiting for another tourney but I didn't. Things went ok, I maintained an average stack down to 6 players and didn't have much to work with and then I was dealt dreaded pocket Aces. I got involved in a pot with the chip leader and it looked like it was a perfect opportunity to double up but fate again stepped in and my AA was cracked by T9o and I was done for the night in yet another disappointing 6th place finish.

===================================

The first several games I played pretty well and was just the recipient of some bad luck time and time again. As the hours passed into the night coupled with the unlucky breaks I received prior I began to make some poor decisions and failed to recognize things I would not normally overlook. Continued bad breaks in addition to my poor decisions made for more poor finishes and a disasterous 12 tourney run.

I still feel pretty strongly about playing in the $16 double shootout satellites to the $650 qualifier. The tables I've played at have been extremely weak with maybe 1 or 2 solid players at most per table. If I can just manage to creep my way through the minefield everything will be fine. I will continue to play these satellites but no where close to the pace I did last night, thinking maybe 3 a week or so.

I've read on some other low stakes poker blogs about how the author's are also weathering some terrible downswings and how they are coping with it. I now too find myself in another downswing. I say another because I've been here before and its not enjoyable by any means but I'm going to learn from my mistakes and press on.

Yesterday was just another speed bump on my road to success. It may slow me down but ultimately it will never stop me.

Till next time.

Going broke with big slick

2006-03-28T13:33:00.000-05:00

I was listening to a past cardplayer.com podcast that took place on day 3 of the WPT Shooting Stars Bay 101 Event. The hosts along with their special guest, NSXT2, were talking about various elements of MTT play and what kind of adjustments there are in regards to live play and online play. They began discussing how great live players play big slick (Ace-King) versus online players. They were referring to the fact that so often online players see AK and think it might as well be a made hand like AA. So much of the time they go broke with AK rather than slowing down and thinking rational rather than just jamming the pot. I saw this 3 times today in 2 STT's (single table tournaments), twice by one player in particular. Both times it was obvious he was beat and his opponent wasn't going to fold but he stuck the rest of his chips in the pot and went broke. The other instance I saw was another classic case of over valuing big slick.

Bean hole decided to raise 11xbb (1100 chips) utg commiting just over 50% of his stack to his preflop raise. It was folded around to the big blind, quiz2589 who had been extremely tight and would have probably folded to even a mini-raise but instead quiz2589 reraised all-in, enough to put bean hole all-in with chips to spare. At this point bean hole clearly had to call based on the way he played the hand, but if he hadn't put so much faith in his big slick he might have been able to get away from his hand on the flop depending on how much of a reraise quiz2589 might have made if there was a more "normal" preflop raise from bean hole originally.

Quiz2589's pocket Aces held up and bean hole was sent packing with AK. Bean hole whined the entire tournament long that he questioned why he played this game because he took top pair no kicker to war against a short stacked opponent who flopped two pair and trapped him on the river, me of course, haha. His AK losing to AA was the event that sent him into a profanity laden typing binge. Better luck next time bean hole, but just make sure you keep playing at Stars, we need to make sure the tank stays full here.

A short time later Quiz2589 picked up pocket Aces again and his opponent held pocket Nines who wasn't willing to give them up preflop and committed all his chips against the tightest player at the table who had reraised him preflop. Quiz2589's pocket Aces held up again and except for a couple smaller pots he had over 9k on basically two hands. I was just amazed! After losing probably my last 4 or 5 hands when I've been dealt pocket Aces I was just awestruck to see them actually hold up (lost the STT prior to this one with AA all-in preflop versus JJ who hit a Jack on the river to boot me out in 5th place).

Several hands later I was headsup against Quiz2589 with my 3.6k in chips to his 9.9k in chips. I still hadn't really picked up a premium hand nor had been dealt really any cards to speak of this tourney. Just kept picking the right spots and got a little lucky versus the shortstack on my A9o versus his AJo. So anyways after a pretty long headsup battle Quiz2589 made a very curious bet by pushing all-in over the top of my bet on the flop. Something didn't seem quite right about the hand and based on the way he had played every monster hand up to this point it just didn't add up to me so I called his all-in thinking my 2nd pair with backdoor straight draw was the best hand. He tricked me and I was a pretty big underdog to his pair of jacks but somehow I backdoored my straight draw and stole the hand. I was sick with disbelief that I had actually sucked out when all the chips were on the line.

After that hand we were dead even, 6750 chips a piece. On the very next hand we got all the money in on the flop and it came down to this ...

My hand held up and it was over. I did manage to get lucky this game when I sucked out against Quiz2589 on my backdoor straight draw. I would like to think that if there was someone deserving of a suckout it might have been just me this time. Good game Quiz2589, it was your tourney and for that my hat is off to you.

Soft satellites?

2006-03-28T01:40:00.000-05:00

I'm still working on finalizing my goals and action plan for my online poker play and hope to have them finished by the beginning of April. One of my ambitions is to win a seat to a WSOP event, preferably not the Main Event. It doesn't appear possible but I would so much rather play in several smaller buy-in tournaments at the WSOP and get some much needed live experience. When I say doesn't appear possible, I mean because PokerStars rules state that any WSOP prize packages are for the Main Event only and there doesn't appear to be cashing in the buy-in amount for several smaller events.

So I was looking into the competition level for satellites to the Main Event to gauge satellites for it and other upcoming major poker events and I was incredibly suprised. I tryed out a $16 Double Shootout Satellite for a ticket to the Sunday $650 WSOP Qualifier and it was extremely soft. I was totally blown away by the quality of play and super looseness. It honestly reminded me of the olden freerolling days, something akin to players in playchip tournament. If this is any indication to the quality of the players in these types of satellites I will definately play more of these shootouts. Maybe I just got a really wacky table draw? Dunno.

Of course the players in the $650 WSOP Qualifier I would expect to be a lot tougher but considering I could unregister myself for the tourney and sell or use $T dollars elsewhere is pretty enticing. Also you don't have to win the whole damn thing in the $650 Qualifiers to win a prize package. I was looking through past Sunday events for the qualifiers and noticed that out of approximately 600 entrants about 30 entrants win the $12,000 WSOP Package and another 15 places win back their buyin of $650. That sounds like a pretty damn sweet deal!

Back to the doubleshootout and the weak players. Weak players can generally lead to bad beats and it did for me tonight. My pocket Aces were cracked yet again by pocket Tens. I limped utg and had the other big stack behind me make a 3xbb raise and then the small blind pushed allin. I called his bet and the raising player behind me folded. So again all the money went into the pot preflop, AA vs TT. The player with pocket Tens even commented that he knew I had Aces and typed the ceremonial "nh" into the chat box. He spoke too soon of course because the flop came with two clubs and he caught running clubs on the turn and river to crack my Aces. I swear this is my all time worst month ever with pocket Aces. Just plain terrible.

To add insult to injury some hands later I'm dealt pocket Kings and if I remember correctly I got the guy to commit to his hand on the flop with T5o when he hit a pair of Tens versus my Kings. The turn brought a 5 and he had his two pair and I was out. *sigh*. What you can you do though?

Great play, terrible outcome

2006-03-27T13:10:00.000-05:00

I just finished watching The Legends of Poker WPT Event (Season 4) and I was both interested and disgusted. Watching the episode gave me flashbacks to all my MTT final tables when I made great decisions and moves to only get outdrawn consistently. Kenna James was making great decisions and was being outdrawn consistently as well. Now granted he was playing for a much larger prize (huge prize) but I felt his pain when he exited in 2nd place. If you misssed it on the travel channel and care to read about it you can view the details of the final table here.

On a side note I'm hoping to pick up some free loot and give the Sit N Go competition a try at PartyPoker. I've always heard its so soft compared to Stars and UB so I'll check it out. Party's interface has always irritated me and I was able to find a mod to get rid of the chairs and people at the table to make it appear a little less cluttered. At least that way it will look a little closer to Stars layout. Some time ago I remember seeing a mod or skin for PartyPoker that made it look very similar to PokerStars, I wonder if it still exists? Guess I'll keep on searching. See you at the tables.

This must be variance

2006-03-24T10:57:00.000-05:00

Last night I took some more bad breaks in my cash game conquest. I was getting called down by 2 or 3 opponents and they were drawing out on my premium hands or made hands. Normally I would enjoy taking their money but everyone was getting their cards on the turn or river.

I stepped over to the Sng games and on the first game I was cruising along and was the big stack and had everyone at the table pegged and was feeling very confident that I was going to make it to the money with a very portion of the chips. That was until I tangled with the 2nd in chips who was totally green in NL Hold'em tourney play. He was the type of player that at 10/20 blinds he was raising to 400 with pocket 4's and 500 with AJo. Anyhow I had flopped 2 pair and I knew if he had any piece of the flop he was going to go the distance for all his chips and he did. He took his top pair no kicker to war and he was dead to all but 2 aces. He hit his 2-outer on the river and I was severely crippled. I tried making a come back but nothing materialized and I went out on the bubble.

The second Sng of the night again things were going well. I really liked my position with 2 tight players behind me with the blinds increasing. I began picking up most post with out a contest and was given countless walks in the big blind. Then a hand came up where the my opponent flopped bottom two pair with 72o again my pair of Jacks. It wasn't a monster pot but enought to put a dent in my stack to bring it from 5.2k to 4.2k with 4 players left. Exactly two hands later I was dealt AA in the sb and it was folded to me. I had originally thought the big blind was a weak tight player but in the last few orbits he had proven otherwise by making plays at pots, preflop reraising, and putting moves on some of the other players.

After taking the 1k hit to my stack I figured he might try and put a move on me thinking I might be steaming about losing to 72o and that if I was trying to steal from him and he came in over the top I'd have to laydown because now there was only about 1k difference between me and him. So with this thought pattern I quickly raised to 3xbb as had been my standard raise and he thought for quite a while then flat called my raise.

The flop came down 8 T 9 with 2 diamonds and I quickly checked to him. He pushed all-in immediately. I had the mouse cursor over the call button but paused for a moment. He had flat called another player's raise from the big blind before and did a similar move by pushing all-in on a flop much less threatening (A 5 3 rainbow) and then showing his 78o bluff when his opponent folded to him. I thought there could be a wide range of hands he could have and with close to 3k in the pot I had to call. Well he turned over QJo for the flopped straight. The turn and river came blanks and I was now the short stack on the bubble with 1845 in chips with the blinds at 75/150. In just 3 hands I lost 3/4 of my stack and my head was swimming.

I wasn't able to recover and was moved of a pot that it was very likely I was beaten on or could be very easily outdrawn. I managed to pick up just 1 quality hand over the next 20 hands. The quality hand came on the 19th hand which was pocket Aces again but I couldn't get any action and picked up a tiny pot of 400 chips. On the 20th hand I was dealt QJo and it was folded to me in the sb. My stack was just about 1000 chips and the blinds at 100/200 it was a pretty easy push but my opponent woke up with pocket kings and I didn't improve and was the bubble boy out in 4th spot. I went out against the same guy who cracked my Aces with QJo, with the same hand QJo that I just went out on, ironic eh?

Needless to say that I wouldn't change a whole lot in my play and again it was just some unlucky breaks that happened to me again. Upon going through my poker tracker I came across a pretty sad statistic. I have been dealt pocket Aces 11 times since March 21st. I've only won with those Aces 6 times giving me a win rate of 54% with my pocket Aces. Pretty sad but each time I was the predominant favorite preflop and my opponent either hit the perfect flop or managed crack my hand with runner runner.

Cheer up! Brighter days are just around the corner!

Good decisions

2006-03-23T10:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday might have normally been a trying day but it wasn't. As part of my self assessement and goal setting one thing I really wanted to do was to keep a more even keel after receiving bad beats or tough breaks. That is because as long as I make good decisions there isn't much else I can do in poker. The cards either fall my way or the don't and I can't influence that aspect of the game in the slightest.

I have since began a cash game quest of which the particulars I will disclose very soon . During a session at the tables last night at which I saw 581 hands I was being dealt a larger than normal amount of good cards. Unfortunately they didn't hold up or were being dealt to me at the same time as another monster hand to another player at the same table and with the flops coming the way they did there was no getting away from the hands ...

In 581 hands I was dealt:
QQ 7 times (42% W$@SD)
AKo 5 times (80% W$@SD)
AA 3 times (33% W$@SD)
KK 2 times (0% W$@SD)
AKs 2 times (0% W$@SD)
(W$@SD = Won $ at showdown)

Normally over 581 hands I'll be dealt the above premium hands about 14 times so I would normally enjoy the swing in my favor but it wasn't fun. AA lost twice to KQ on the river in both instances (flush and straight). QQ ran into AA, KK, 77 who hit a set and Ace-rag who hit trip aces on the flop. My KK's ran into AA twice. Both AKs lost to flushes on the river. I didn't think much else could go wrong and there wasn't really anything I could do to change it so I carried on keeping an even keel and shrugging off what had just happened.

Normally I've done extremely well in the Quad Shootouts on Wednesdays and cashing every time but once so far. So I registered for the $5.50 Quad Shootout and things totally changed. That is I went totally card dead. I was did manage to pick up two premium hands but couldn't get any action on them. Before I knew it I was shortstacked and with the blinds climbing I had no choice but to push with J4s. I managed to suckout against KK but it was all for nothing. No cards came higher than nine high for the next several orbits and I was eliminated. I stole as often as I could but there comes a time in the tournament where you eventually have to win a showdown and I couldn't manage it here.

One last tournament for the night would be my only Sng of the day. It was a clean slate because I feel that each game is independent of the previous game so I was prepared and focused to take down this tournament as I am for every other one I register for.

Things went well in the beginning. I was fortunate to make a king high flush and have someone else make jack high flush and put me into chip leader position. Unfortunately I picked up pocket Queens a few hands later and another opponent picked up pocket Jacks. Well the flop came down and we got all the money in on and he hit a set on the flop and then proceeded to hit a 4th Jack on the river to make Quad Jacks. Now I'm back to average stack at 1500 and still in fine shape.

I try to pick up the pot from a littleskip1 on a 3 3 7 rainbow flop with my pocket 4's but he calls me down and before I know it I'm being put to the test for all my chips on the turn; throw that one away and now I'm down to 1000 chips. Shortly there after littleskip1 makes a monster pot and catapults his stack to 4.5k when his KK holds up against 66 and A5o. Two players are busted that could have easily gotten away from their hands but instead littleskip1 and cjazz have big stacks (4.5k) and we are down to 5 players.

With the blinds at 75/150 and 825 in chips I'm in shortstack desperation mode and ever since my QQ beating I haven't been able to get a spot or cards to make any moves. The two chip leaders tangle when cjazz hits trip Tens on the turn while littleskip1 makes dueces full. Littleskip1 is now the chip leader with 9k in chips and I'm the super short stack with 845 in chips with 100/200 blinds coming fast.

I manage to scoop a few critical pots from the two other players who are playing very weakly just trying to make it to the money. I've been in this situation time and time again and I know what I have to do to make it and have a chance at headsup. Unfortunately for the two other players I slide into second position and now they are jockeying for non-elimination. Littleskip1 busts a player with his KTo vs AJo when he hits 2 pair and the bubble is broken and soon after I bust the other shorter stack . Now I'm headsup with my 2.5k to littleskips1's 10.9k, a large deficit to overcome but not impossible.

Up to this point littleskip1 has been extremely tight and made nearly all his money on 2 monster pots with KK and 22. I'm feeling extremely confident that I will pull back even and take the chip lead. And in exactly 4 hands I am chip leader with 7.1k to his 6.4k, full steam ahead!

Now up to this point I had been able to move him off pots as had other players in the past but he suddenly changes styles and becomes the total calling machine. He starts calling me down every hand and my semi-bluffs don't materialize and yet again I find myself back into a 2k to 10k deficit. I should have adjusted one hand prior but its better late than never. I stop all bluffs and push pairs and made hands for maximum value and he will pay me off.

Again he does exactly like I want him to do and I chop my way back up to 5.7k to his 7.7k with blinds at 100/200. I then manage to get my chips in at a good spot and my TT holds up against his Ace high and I'm back in the driver's seat. I'm now sitting at 8.2k to his 5.2k with blinds now at 200/400.

Three hands later I'm dealt AJo on the button and I come in for 1200 (3xbb raise) and he mini reraises back to 2000 for another 800. At this moment I'm really not quite sure what he could have because this is probably only his 2nd reraise all game but with about 3200 in the pot and only having to call another 800 I make the call. This might have been the only mistake of the game in the matter that I probably should have just pushed all-in here if I was going to call.

Nonetheless I called and the pot is now 4050 and the flop comes 8 Q 6 rainbow. Littleskip1 leads out for 1600 and is left with 1860 in chips. I think for a moment and go back in my head to the dueces full pot where he slow played his hand. There were also a couple instances where he checked top pair in hopes of trapping his opponent for a big pot. There is no real immediate draw on the board and if he has AQ, AA or maybe even KK I would think he wants to trap me being how aggressive I have been headsup, especially since I took the chip lead. If he flopped a set I know he's definately not leading at me right here. During our headsup play he has check called me down to the river where he puts in some huge bet or raise when I'm obviously beat. Things didn't add up so I go with my instinct and fire the bullet and put him all-in.

He quickly calls to my dismay and again in these circumstances you normally think your opponent isn't going to donk off their tournament without a made hand or a good draw by calling all-in super fast but in this case littleskip1 turns over KJo versus my AJo. Now all I have to do is dodge 3 cards or runner runner and it'll be over.

The turn brings a 3 of spades and now he's digging deep, looking for 1 of 3 cards making me a 93% favorite. The river is a blank and its over.

Normally I wouldn't gloat over a victory such as this but it was pure vindication for what happened to me earlier in the evening and over the past few days. I stayed on even keel and I knew that if I continued to play my game and make good decisions the I would be rewarded, with or without the cards.

You too can turn $1 into $20,000!

2006-03-20T13:45:00.000-05:00

Well not quite. I have done some more research on the bluff magazine article detailing a supposed foolproof way to make $28.64/hr playing poker. It seems that Chris "Jesus" Ferguson turned $1 into $20,000 with online poker using a similar system. Of course we are talking about Chris "Jesus" Ferguson the world champion and I would think anyone else's results will vary considerably.

But I feel that I am capable of undergoing a similiar challenge of my own. I still haven't come to terms with the pariculars of the challenge nor have I finalized my goals for online poker for this year. But I will commit myself to setting these goals and so I can start my road to acheiving them.

Here is the link to a podcast interview with Chris "Jesus" Ferguson talking about how he turned his $1 into $20,000 while executing proper bankroll management ...

On Money Management

Foolproof way to make $28.64/hr playing poker?

2006-03-16T18:14:00.000-05:00

I came across a post while reading through the Scary Poker Blog (more on this later). The post mentioned a fool proof way to make 28.64/hr playing poker. I'm a bit skeptical about the whole thing at higher limits and I want to think people will be less willing to call your pushes than he states. But then again in online poker even in the lower stakes this might actually work. I'm tempted to try this out in some of the micro limits to see how well some push play works in cash games. I do have some experience playing NL cash games though only micro stakes. I have actually made a small profit at the NL $0.10 games at PokerStars. About $60 in 24 hours of play but of course 24 hours of play is an extremely small sample size and it is of course, micro limit play. Link to original article ...
http://www.bluffmagazine.com/Magazine/2005_11_42.asp

Back to the Scary Poker Blog that I found while sifting for other fellow low stakes online poker player's blogs. The author, ScaryJerry, has been logging his online poker play and his strides towards his goals that he set forth last December. It seems as though his play has been plenty good and solid but unfortunately he hasn't been able to keep his bankroll management demons in check. I really feel for the guy and have almost been in his shoes several times after losing sessions. For the most part I have resisted the urge to buyin to a higher level in hopes of recovering my losses. Hopefully he has come to realize his own potential and continues to stay within his bankroll guidelines that he set forth for himself. Good luck ScaryJerry.

While reading his blog I began thinking about my own goals and aspirations for my poker play. Why do I bother even playing online? Obviously its not for pure entertainment nor is it to make a living playing online (at least not at the present moment). So what is it? I actually have no clue and that is just sad. Because its difficult for one to succeed at anything if he doesn't know what he's striving for, no goal is attainable because none has been set. I feel like I'm sort of wasting my time now that I think about it.

So over the next few days I will come up with my own goals and commit them to paper (or e-text). I also plan to draft an action plan that will detail how I plan to acheive these goals. Maybe this is what has been holding me back; lack of direction and an actual reason for playing online poker? I sure do hope so.

Make it stop!

2006-03-15T23:26:00.000-05:00

Nothing grand to report today. I was bounced from the 9pm EST Quad Shootout at the first table. After quickly dispatching of most of the opponents at the table it was down to 3, then I was headsup with about a 4 to 3 chip lead, marginal but chip leader nonetheless. I begin to get total garbage and can't seem to make him laydown a hand. We battle back and forth, and then this hand comes up.

I'm in the small blind with Q8s and decide to limp and shots211 (the big blind) checks and we see a flop of A 7 5 with 2 diamonds. He's been folding to most my 1/2 pot bets on the flop and I'm sure he's dyin' to make a move on me. He hasn't been the type of player to limp with a big hand or an ace so I feel pretty confident he doesn't have it so I make my 1/2 pot bet. He quickly comes over the top of me for another 600 to 800 total.

At this moment I know I'm not getting odds to call on my flush draw BUT I'M EXTREMELY CONFIDENT HE'S MAKING A MOVE ON ME. What good is a poker player if he can't trust his instincts so I push back all-in for anotherh 3355. I have him covered by about 1200 chips so if he did sand bag an ace or a small pair and I did make my flush I'm crippled but not out.

He calls super fast and in these situations where someone calls faster than lightning I'm normally thinking they had their mouse hovering over the call button with the nuts. Well not quite the nuts but 24 of diamonds. I'm pretty happy at this moment and been to get up from the couch but the turn brings a 4 of spades. Oh great, the river is a blank and my worst fear is realized. I've been crippled by the inferior hand yet again.

After the hand I said something to the effect that I got screwed again. And he responded by saying not really that he was the favorite. I tried to explain to him that I was a much bigger favorite than him but he would not see my point. Arguing over the internet is like trying to make your way through a brick wall by bashing it with your head, you'll never get through. Unfortunately shots211 was about only about 30% to win on the turn. 30% always seems like too much when I get my money in the middle. If I find out shots211 wins the quad shootout I'll be really angry. Not that I can do anything about it but that just maybe, that could have been me taking down the whole damn thing if I didn't get stung so early.

So I decided to register for a Sng even though I shouldn't. I'm beyond tired, suffering from a massive headache and on tilt slightly. Yeah, I'm just plain stupid. At any rate I make it to the money and I'm the overwhelming chip leader, about 9k vs two stacks under 2500 chips. Another Sng that should have been closed out no problem but the cards wouldn't cooperate. I'm not letting off the gas and keep putting pressure on them trying to force them to win a race but, nothing works they keep folding to me and steal chips back forth amonst eachother until the blinds get up there. I think the bad shit started at 200/400 and just spiraled out from there.

I put the big blind all-in and he calls, my 88 vs his ATo. The flop is pretty bland I'm liking my odds because he's only picked up a backdoor straight draw. But he manages to get to the straight by the river. Not terrible because I'm right back up to the monster chip stack I had a few hands later.

Again I raised the big blind who was practically all-in with my pocket 3's and he turns over pocket 9's. Great, what time for him to get a medium pair.

Again I'm back up and whittled both opponents down to pretty much nothing and with the blinds at 300/600 I try to make him fold but he has a real hand again in the big blind and calls with ATo, atleast I have 2 live cards. HA! He hits his Ten on the flop and trips up on the turn. Greeeaatt.

A couple hands later I raise the other stack (short stack now) with AKs and he calls with A6o. Of course the flop brings two sixes on it and he trips up on the flop and makes his fullhouse on the river. Hooooray!

The shortstack is eliminated and we are now headsup. After some hands the final one comes up. Flop comes A T 7 with 2 spades and I limped in with AQo. Now this joker has been doing a lot of check calling with nothing in hopes of taking down the pot on the turn/river with a big bet so I check hoping to induce a bluff and he bets, I call . Again on the turn when a 6 falls and on the river when another 6 falls I come over the top of his bet and all-in (less than a few hundred chips difference between our stacks) and he calls with 76o. Great he flopped bottom pair, makes two pair on the turn, and the fullhouse on the river all when I make top pair on the flop headsup.

Bad luck and bad timing I suppose. I can't complain I ended slightly up for the day but still down for the month. But damn, someone MAKE IT STOP!

Now that is classic!

2006-03-13T12:04:00.000-05:00

I've taken some days off after my headsup loss at the 180-man Sng to recompose my poker self. Its also given me some time to take care of stuff around the house and visit with the family. Eventually I found my way back to the tables and I picked up right were I left off.

I don't want to rant too much about my the sheer volume of hands I've been getting extremely unlucky on (losing to runner-runner, set over set, losing AK vs Ace-Rag, etc). Instead I'll just disclose a hand from the last tourney I played from this morning's session.

...

I've taken a couple big hits including getting rivered by a 2 outer and somewhat shortstacked now. I'm dealt pocket jacks and the utg limps. Well the bb is somewhat loose against raises and has been flat calling most so I raise to 4xbb and its folded around to the bb who flat calls and the utg limper folds.

The bb and I go to the flop of 5h 4c 6c and the pot is 475. Markpenn (the bb) bets 150 at 475 and I ponder for a moment. I'm short stacked and in a pretty good spot to double up unless he has 78 or something like that and its just bad luck then, so I reraise all-in for another 670 and he calls super quick. I'm thinking I must be behind now if he called that quickly.

Fortunately he has K2o and I'm liking my chances to double up. The river brings a club and which opens the door for his runner runner flush because he holds the King of clubs. I'm still a big favorite, slighly below 70% to win but as has been the situation all day 70% - 92% just isn't good enough.

Markpenn busts me with runner runner flush. I guess I shouldn't feel bad cause he busted another player with 99 vs his 38o, KK vs his 66 (made quads all-in pf), top 2 pair with another back door flush of his that he caught, and for his final trick headsup he gets all his money in preflop with 22 vs 88 and the river brings a duece. Now that is classic! Markpenn you are my hero!

What was he thinking?

2006-03-09T11:19:00.000-05:00

I ran across this article the other day about Phil Ivey playing headsup again billionaire Andy Beal. Andy Beal wants to thrill himself by playing against the greatest in poker such as Phil Ivey, but it comes with consequences to the tune of $16,000,000.

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2006/2/beal-corporation-finished.htm

I get sick just thinking about taking a hit that big. Then again, billionaire with a 'b', what difference does it make to him?

Deal or No Deal?

2006-03-08T13:09:00.000-05:00

Here we go ...

I'd have to say that the three players to have the best chance to win this tournament are myself, Victorious96 and twit38. Some of the other players have had some really good MTT scores according to thepokerdb.com but based on their play up to this point I wasn't really worried about being outplayed by anyone else. Those two other players were going to be problems and I would try and stay clear of them if at all possible.

Victorious96's thepokerdb.com record was less than impressive (8 cashes since last september but no final tables for $182) but his play was maniacal to say the least. He stuck it to me a couple times earlier and I wasn't about to let him suck up chips from me unless he had the nuts or totally outdrew me.

Twit38 I recognized from a previous MTT as being a solid player from watching Gryphon2k5 in one of his MTT's at the final table. Pretty impressive thepoker.com stats IMHO. Since last year he's made 28 final tables and over $25k in winning in a variety of games and buy-ins. He's been here before and I'm banking on him being my toughest opposition. Hopefully he'll take a bad beat and an early exit so I can run the table. That would be nice indeed.

My mark will have to be InFlames86 sitting a few seats behind me. He's relatively green in MTT final table experience and has been playing pretty weak-tight up to this point. If I want to win this table I'm going to have to steal his blinds especially if the cards continue to run cold. Only problem is Victorious96 is seated directly in front of him which could pose a problem. Only time will tell.

After a several orbits and stealing blinds with less than desirable run of cards (83o, J5o, 96o) I'm looking healthy in the 2nd chip spot. Also Victorious96 gets busted and the door is really wide open now with 3 weak players sitting behind me. And then it happens. I get totally outdrawn with my AQ vs KQ on a runner runner flush. Its a pretty big hit to my stack that knocks me back to the middle of the pack. My plan still in effect so I steal the pot preflop with InFlames86 in the big blind with J4o and I'm still safely in the middle of the pack.

With the blinds starting to get up there I get dealt 77 and decide its time to take a shot at putting myself in position to win this thing. Leplusbeau raises and I come over of him for all my chips and he calls and its a race, my 77 vs his AQ. The turn brings me a fullhouse and Leplusbeau is crippled. I'm now back to 2nd chip position (chip leader is InFlames86 who's playing to not lose at this still leaving his blinds ripe for the picking).

Twit38 picks up a big pot and now down to 5 players the table is pretty much where I imagined it would be at this moment. InFlames still in chip leader at 95k, Twit38 and I at 73k, and the too weak shortstacks at 18k and 8k with blinds at 1500/3000 and 150 ante. If I can just get a big hand against Twit38 or have him take a tough beat this one will be mine for sure.

A couple hands later I (71k chips) make a steal for 6k (2xbb raise) with Squeak2121 (18k chips) in the big blind and Inflames86 (91k in chips). Inflame86 flat calls my raise and the big blind shortstack pushes all-in for another 12k. At this point I go into the think tank. Had InFlames86 not flat called my raise I probably made the call automatically. Something just didn't sit right with me when InFlames86 flat called my raise, it just seemed that if I flat called the all-in from Squeak2121 that InFlames86 would be calling no matter what with almost 45k in the pot if I call, giving him almost 4 to 1 on his call.

If I call the all-in with my JTo I'm now down to 43k in chips with the chip leader in the hand who can bust me. And if the flop comes down with something I don't like (any A K Q) without serious help I'm going to have to let go of my hand and be in a chip position I don't really want to be at right now. InFlames86 hasn't gotten involved in really any pot without a fantastic hand so at this point I KNOW I'm behind. I could be really behind, like being up against a big pair. Squeak2121 doesn't bother me, I'm sure I'm getting more than enough on my call with him holding probably an over card at best.

I think it was at this time Gryphon2k5 pipes up that I'm guaranteed atleast $400 or so. I didn't even bother to look at the prize payout and haven't since the start of the tourney. I knew I wasn't playing to move up the prize ladder but that I was playing for first place. And at this particular moment I didn't even want to know what the prize payout would be if I went out.

Then it hits me, even if I am getting the right money on my call and I think the correct move would probably have been to push (or call at the very least); the proper move should be to fold at this point I think based on the hand selection of InFlames86. It pains me to click the fold button, but I do and InFlames86 quickly calls Squeaks2121's all-in.

Squeak2121 turns over AQo against InFlames86's AKs. At this point I'm patting myself on the back for laying down based on the table dynamics even though the odds were there to make the move. InFlames86's AK high holds up and we are down to 4 players. The turn did bring a Ten and had I played my hand I would have lucked out BUT if I had flat called InFlame86 may have pushed preflop then I would have been in a pretty difficult spot. If I push and he calls preflop then I really am disgusted with my position, my JTo vs AKs to survive. In that situation I would have definately looked at the prize payout and would have been disgusted knowing I have to catchup to win. Good move man, good move.

Several hands and steals later we are down to 3 and I'm in second position with 91k, InFlames86 with 110k and Twit38 with the shortstack at 67k. The blinds are now at 4000/8000 with 200 ante so the action is going to be fast and furious. I had hoped to cleanup before it got to this point but I will have to make due and hope the cards don't run against me.

After several more hands Twit38 and I are competing back and forth stealing blinds from InFlames86 who is suddenly whittled down to 51k. Twit38 has been hovering around one hundred thousand but is currently at 80k and I'm the chip leader at 130k. With the blinds at this level small ball is good enough based on my cards and has allowed me to take the chip leadership.

Then I get dealt pocket Tens in the small blind. Twit38 raises 3xbb from the button and I this is the moment. Either he has a legitimate hand and this is the showdown I knew would happen, or he's stealing again and will fold. So I push all-in and InFlames86 ducks as usual and Twit38 calls all-in in a flash and turns over AKo. This is the moment of truth, all I have to do is survive AK. Five cards later I get my miracle when the board stays below Nine high and there is no runner runner for Twit38. Headsup with a big chip lead over a pretty green opponent. Things are definately looking good now.

Maybe it was that exact thought that things were looking good that jinxed me. Headsup play began with me at 226k to InFlames86's 43k. That's over a 5-1 chip lead and with his passive play this should be over, quickly. Well that wouldn't be the case. Over the next 18 hands my hands were as follows: 83o, 93o, 75o, 53o, 83o, A6o (folded to my bb), 93o, 93o, Q8o (folded to my big blind), 54o, QTo (folded to my big blind), 43o, K5o, 97o, 64o, 32o, J6o, and finally the POCKET ACES. Now during this time I didn't let off the gas. I was pushing him but he totally changed gears and started pushing all-in. I can't blame him based on his severe lack of chips but during the first few times I made moves on his blind I just couldn't bring myself to call his push back with 93o, 83o, or 53o. Maybe it was incorrect to not call in those circumstances but I just couldn't bring myself to make it with those junk hands and he's slowly creeping back into the game.

I have lost headsup before in the late stages of a MTT where I was the extreme favorite just like this one. It was sick and I couldn't get that past experience out of my head. I was just curious about his thoughts on making a deal, so I asked him. He seemed very hesitant to make a deal at this point because I was giving him less money than I but based on the chip count I thought it was plenty fair. Finally he said he'd consider it after this hand, if he survived. At that point I was dealt POCKET ACES and I couldn't be happier.

I do my 2xbb raise at this point that he's been pushing back all-in to continuously and I hope he continues his play. And then he does, he pushes back all-in and I relish the moment and delay my call for quite some time. This is a dream hand. I get my opponent to commit all his chips against my POCKET ACES and regardless of what he holds I couldn't ask for a better spot.

The cards are turned over and he has 66 to my AA. I'm a 4 to 1 favorite to end this thing right now and take 1st place. I'm ahead as I have been in EVERY all-in confrontation. I'm not needing a suckout to survive. I'm not looking to make my draw or hit some miracle card. I'm a 4 to 1 favorite but what difference does that make? Evidently none because the flop is just, well terrible.

Speechless. I was so instantly sick that I couldn't even verbally respond with any profanity (not that he could hear it through cyberspace). I just sat staring at my laptop in disbelief. I took a deep breathe and exhaled. Its over now. He hit the miracle and I have to move on. I'm still more than alive with 128k to his 141k.

Over the next several hands my cards come not unlike my first 17 hands that were dealt, total trash and it seems that his hands are good enough to become super aggressive. I'm whittled down after trying to bluff pots, and steal, etc. He just becomes a total calling station and I'm in serious trouble. I regain my footing and the chip lead goes back and forth then I regain it. Each time it seems like I have just where I want him things go sour again.

I just can't catch anything and he's outdrawing me everytime and for some reason I just think that its going to take an act of god for me to beat him. So I finally take a look at the prize distributions and notice 1st place takes $1080 and second place $720. At the next break I have 200k to his 70k, almost 3 to 1 and I ask again about a deal. He seems interested now and I decide based on what presented earlier he won't probably take anything but an even split. $900 each isn't so bad even though I know I'm better than him, have more chips, but at this exact moment there is something I lack. Luck. I just can't seem to compete with him in that arena. So I do the unthinkable, totally against what I was considering before but offer the even chop, $900 each.

He thinks about it for a few moments and then agrees. I figure that if he luck boxes me again and I go out in a disappointing 2nd place for $720 I'd be pretty damn pissed that I didn't even atleast think about taking $900. So the deal is done and none too soon. The hand ensuing after the deal that is made things get really nasty.

I get QJo and have to let go of my hand on a flop of 5 4 7 rainbow. I fold and he takes a medium sized pot and shows his pocket 9's. I get him all-in after flopping top pair and he back doors a flush against me. Now I'm crippled. Two hands later I flop top pair and so does he, unfortunately he has me outkicked. A disappointing second place but on the other hand I feel good. I made $180 when I shouldn't have. I just felt that making a deal was in my best interest after losing those pocket Aces. Some might say that by me thinking that influenced my play but I don't agree. Sometimes the cards just don't fall the way they should and in this particular situation, I just felt that was going to happen and made the deal I thought was right. And it was right, to the tune of an addition $180.

Till next time.

Sour then Sweet? Is that possible?

2006-03-07T15:27:00.000-05:00

Last night was a good night that started off badly. I was hoping to pickup where I left off from February with my Sng go game so I jumped into a Sng. Things were moving along pretty well until and I was the chip leader until I ran into an opponent with the nuts. I recover then my AQ loses to A8. I recover again and I put the big blind to test for all his chips and unfortunately he has AJo, good enough to call and my pocket 5's are in a race. The flop comes T 6 T, I'm liking my chances now. The turn comes a King opening the door for my opponent. I'm thinking don't bring another King, please don't but the river flushes down a King and my pocket 5's are counterfit and I lose on kicker. I'm severely crippled and I'm forced to push it with K9s that loses to A7s and I'm out in 5th place. Not terrible luck but definately not nice.

Maybe its a flaw of mine but when I go out in a tourney with anything but first when I feel like I played a decent game and just got the raw deal (more than once) I just can't leave it alone, I have to avenge myself, so I entered another Sng. Again things are coasting along and when I flop trip kings and I'm involved in a heavy pot with an opponent. Unfortunately so does my opponent who holds K7 to my K6. I ponder a bit on the river when it comes a seven and I think that if for some reason he has trip kings we are splitting this pot, unfortunately I'm wrong and he makes his full house and cripples me. I'm forced to push next hand and my AJ falls to K8 on runner runner for the flush, go figure.

My rule of thumb is generally 3 and since I don't normally multi-table. So I go to register for another $11 Sng, but I unregister when I think of something. I'm just about to unluck my bonus from late last year so I figure I'll take a freeroll and try a $20+2 180-man Sng because I'm really itching for some MTT play but really don't wanna play against a 2500 person field.

I get some decent hands and my stack is slightly above average and then with 88 people left in the tourney I get into an all-in confrontation and bam, I'm the 2nd largest stack with 88 players left. Eighty-eight players left, a lot of play to go I just have to keep playing my game and hopefully the cards will take care of themselves I keep thinking to myself.

Slow and steady and a few small pots here and there and I creep into the chip leader spot with about 70 players left. I've been here before in other tournaments and watched it slip away when I put the pedal to the metal but fail to realize when its time to let up. This time it won't happen I keep thinking to myself.

Players keep dropping but I'm still chip leader down to 45 players and I haven't really hand much to work with since attaining my spot. Again I'm looking to play small ball as much as possible and steal some blinds here and there. As we approach the 30 player mark my stack becomes stagnant and some other players creep up on me and I fall back to 4th or 5th place but still one of the chip leaders.

The bubble in this 180 man Sng started at about the 30 players remaining point and took forever to break. I swear it took two breaks to get down to 18 players at which point I was in 4th place. Hang in there man, you can't win it now I'm thinking. I just have to play for the final table at this moment. If I can make the final table I know I can take this.

Trudging on again we are on the final table bubble with about 12 or 13 players and again it takes an eternity to make the final because no one is severely short stacked. Two short handed tables of 6 and 7 players I'm playing quite aggressively trying to sponge up the blinds and its working, working well enough to stay afloat with the sick run of cards I continue to get.

Eventually we make it down to the final table and I change my mindset and evaluate the table based on the players and their tendencies up to this point. Everyone has about the same sized stacks and the blinds where sort of high for this stage of the game so I felt right at home, just like the endgame in a Sng. With a little research from Gryphon2k5 I'm aware of who I need to look out for and who I will be my mark.

... to be continued

Who's the favorite?

2006-03-05T00:42:00.000-05:00

So its Saturday night and I decent to fire up Stars and hit a couple Sngs hoping to get some softer table draws. But that doesn't happen, atleast not exactly. The first table seems to have a couple loose calling stations and a couple solid players but I don't get to stick around long enough to find out for sure. I raised 5xbb preflop from utg+1 with a limper in front and get a few flat callers starting with the guy in middle position. So we see a flop of 7 7 3 with 2 clubs and a bloated pot. The utg limp caller bets 20 into a 400 pot and I come over the top for 300, middle position flat calls behind and the other two players fold. After the duece falls on the turn all the money gets in the pot and he turns over KK to my 99. Tough luck for me, oh well.

The second table seems to be going average, no big hands and no real major pots. Heck I wish I could get dealt two quality cards more than once in 40 hands. Anyhow we get into the money and I'm tied for big stack and decide to put the short stack in the big blind all-in with JJ. The blinds are 200/400 so I can't blame him calling with K3o with only 800 chips after posting his big blind but when the flop comes K Q T all hearts I'm feeling pretty sick. I haven't hit a flush, straight or set so why should it change now I'm thinking to myself. Heck I was about 72% favorite to win preflop with JJ vs K3o and no with my open ended straight and flush draws I'm down to about 60% to win and two blanks fall on turn and river.

After winning a coin flip (AJs vs 88), stealing some pots, and knocking off the 3rd place finisher I'm the chip leader in headsup play (8900 to 4500). I'm dealt my 42o in the SB and raise preflop and Jasperwolf calls my raise. Well the flop comes 8 7 2 with 2 diamonds and he checks to me and I bet 800 (1/2 pot) and he comes back over the top all-in for another 2900 chips. Something just doesn't sit right with me about his move and I just don't beleive him based on his previous play and I go with my gut instinct and call him down with dueces. He turns over 59o for a gutshot and two over cards to my pair of dueces. I call it right and I'll take a 60% favorite to end this right now, the turn comes a 4d which gives me two pair and with no redraw but to the remaing 4 sixes in the deck I'm a little over 90% to end this tournament. He rivered a 6 of diamonds and hits his gutshot. Isn't that just typical.

Well now he's the chip leader with about 2-1 chip lead on me. After stealing a couple pots and such I'm cutting the lead down and the final hand comes up. Again I flopped a pair and make a move at the pot and he comes over the top all-in. This time I have no choice but to call with top pair (althought its only 6's). Unfortunately he turns over an open-ended straight draw which makes me only 60% to win at this point. The turn comes a blank improving me to a 3 to 1 favorite (75%) to win. Three to one mind you, not a coin flip. But the river brings his 7 and its over. I grimace as I type "gg" into the chat box knowing that I did all I could do. Congrats to you JasperWolf, may you continue to hit every draw when your all-in.

Each time that I lost on the river I was a big favorite to win each time but it seems that doesn't count for much, at least tonight it didn't. I know these are things I can't control but oh how I do hate getting stung when I should be reaping the rewards of the edge I'm pushing. And no, I'm never happy with 2nd place, its the first loser. Good night.

Happy Belated New Year & February 2006 Totals

2006-02-23T13:06:00.000-05:00

This update has been a long time coming. I failed to post anything in the month of December for which I apologize for; though if I had actually posted anything it would have been less than positive. December was an extremely poor month for me, worst on record to date. Nothing that could go right, went right as far as poker was concerned. It was another one of those periods that if I didn't know otherwise I would have threw in the towel for sure, but I stayed the course and I'm still here.

Christmas was another great year for me and the family. My kids were especially excited this year as they are getting older and at the age where they are able to enjoy the christmas and holiday experience. Fortunately for my wife and I we have another year or two before we lose total control of the television in the house to video games (xBox, PS2, N64, etc). The kids are asking 24-7 about when they can play video games and they are 3 and 4. I have to thank video game advertising on Nickelodeon for that one. I suppose it could be worse?

I took off the month of January from online poker. It was, extremely difficult to avoid firing up PokerStars and getting into a Sng, especially after learning that a good friend of mine was doing extremely well in his Mtt ventures. I'm extremely proud of him considering that he had convinced himself that he didn't have what it took to perform well in Mtt's. I knew it was only a matter of time before he made his breakthrough and he did. Congrats Gryphon2k5!

February has been a great month for me. My wife gave birth to our baby girl this month and life has been good. She's so beautiful and its weird, a good weird though to be going through the baby days all over again. Now granted my two other children are only 3 and 4 but they are already becoming so independent and its sort of nice to have a baby that needs your attention and help with everything. At least that seems to be my wife's take on the matter and I agree with her one hundred percent. Oh how time goes by, so fast, too fast indeed.

I did resume some online poker action this month and had to start at the bottom with my bankroll. I made another massive withdrawl at the end of December to help cover christmas expenses. The withdrawl coupled with the huge negative ROI I sustained nearly crippled my bankroll. But I stayed the course and I'm happy to say though my bankroll is still in the rebuilding phase I made great gains this month to get back into the poker action.

My Sng game was right back on track despite some huge suckout losses, and a couple terrible headsup matches at the end. One time in particular I thought I could pull of a huge bluff but the guy wouldn't move from his bottom pair and it cost me dearly. Second place never is good enough when you know your error and wish you could do it all over again.

My friend gotten me interested again in rebuy Mtt's. I never have been a huge fan of rebuy tournaments due to the sheer insanity you encounter before the first break. I decided to try a $3Rebuy with $20,000 GTD prizepool and I performed extremely well. If I remember the field correctly there were just over 2000 entrants with tons of rebuys and add-ons so the prize pool had swelled close to $30k. Nonetheless I was doing extremely well with a large stack when I got involved with another large stack. All the money went in preflop with a short stack also so the pot was big enough to put me to a huge stack. My KK vs JJ all-in preflop. Well as you know I was stung hard; the fellow caught runner runner to back door a straight and put me out at 111th. If my hand had held up I would have cruised down to the final couple tables I'm sure, but next time.

Shootouts have been of interest to me since I play a pretty mean (IMHO) Sng, and I did extremely well in the last Quad shootout I played in. Made it down to the 3rd table where I became totally card dead and ran into monsters on my steal attempts. I finished a respectable 17th out of 1265 player considering my terrible run of luck at my 3rd table. I really like the format of the triple and quad shootouts versus massive fields of some Mtt's. You only have to best 7-9 players at the first table versus having to outlast 90% (or 80% in 20% payout tourney) to make the money. And from there on each table boosts your winning considerably and the game format is just like a Sng which is my specialty. I will definately be playing more shootouts and even some shootout satellites for major events.

Sngs: 52.90% ITM, ROI 63.63%
Mtts: 18.18% ITM, ROI 1.00%

Being that my bankroll was totally drained I actually made a cardinal sin against myself and played in a several rebuys that were above my bankroll. It cost me dearly in regards to profit margin in my Mtt game and is reflected above. Lesson learned, AGAIN. Aside from that temporary lack of judgement regarding buy-in amounts I am pretty pleased with my performance for February. A couple hands that I was a favorite in could have gone another way and things could have been even brighter for me. Oh well, until next time.

Night of the roaches!

2005-11-29T01:26:00.000-05:00

Tonight was one of those nights. Nothing could go right. Absolutely nothing. Several big hands were cracked and when I was shortstacked or forced to make a move my hands ran into bigger hands, i.e. AQ ran into AK twice to send me out on the bubble twice, AJ ran into AQ (another bubble exit), AK lost to A2, QQ lost to Ace-Rag, and so forth.

After a dissapointing 0-4 start to the evening I was pretty much stuck for the evening and I played one more. First place was mine despite numerous runs of bad luck during Sng. Not one coinflip won or did I ever come back to win a hand when I was behind on the flop. Not sure what compelled me to play one more but I did.

Things going so-so and I am chip leader down to 3 players, 8k-2k-2k. Solid hands aren't holding up against these two. I get the money in the pot and have one short stack dead to a 2 outer and here it comes on the river! Next time I get AQ vs A9 all-in pf, and flop comes A9x, and river a 2nd 9! QQ vs A-rag all-in preflop and out comes the Ace on the flop. And the final hand 77 vs 22 all-in preflop, 4-1 favorite to win and he flops a damn duece! No words can describe my miserable 3rd place finish. A finish that should have been 1st place if either of the remaining players hadn't sucked out on me twice each!

Argggggggggggh!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2005-11-25T01:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! My day went pretty decent, did some baking with the family, visited, ate too much, played some cards (poker & hearts), and then ate some more. Oh yeah and drank some beer, lots. Wife and kids seemed to also have a good turkey day but I'm not looking forward to being up in 3 hours to have to go shopping for the doorbuster deals, but thats a whole other topic.

Does turkey day and poker mix? Well not for me. First tourney I make it to the bubble and take a big hit to my stack and I'm forced to fold my hand on a super scary board. Anyways I get all my money in the pot with 88 vs the dealer who's been raising me relentlessy in my blind with 4Ts. I really like my odds of doubling up by the turn because no Ten has fallen. River is a Ten, great. I'm out in 4th place again on a hand I was big favorite to win.

One more for turkey day and its another tough one. Once again we are down to the bubble and the short stack has been playing very aggressively so when its passed around to me in the small blind with the big stack I figure if I limp he'll push with any junk (like he has) and if I bet with QJs he'll fold. So I limp and he pushes just like I thought and I call and its QJs vs 64o. So its about 65/45, not bad. But 65/45 might as well have been 95/5 favorite for him because the damn flop came 66x, leaving me with no hope. I might not have been so bitter about losing the hand but the player, RipHamiliton1, eventually went on to suckout on my Aces headsup to win.

Down to headsup and the RipHamilton1 has been very aggressive post flop when he bets (pot sized or larger). Anyhow I'm dealt AA and the blinds are 300/600 (pretty much push fold size) and I opt to limp into his blind because I have been having to fold some junky hands lately when I've limped and he raises. He raises 3xbb and I smooth call after a delay so I don't loose him. The flop comes 637 with 2-clubs and I check hoping he pulls his normal shit after raising preflop and he does; he puts me all-in! GREAT! FANTASTIC! I call super fast and its AA vs KTo on the board 637 2-clubs; I'm about 92% to win this pot and take back the chip lead of 5-1.

I'm not sure if had to do with the fact that earlier in the evening in our home game when I was headsup and had a huge chip lead over the opposing player that I put him all-in with A2o and he called with A9o. I called for the flop to be AK2, and wouldn't you know the flop came AK2 just like I called it. I was blown away as was everyone else and my 2-pair held up to end the tourney. Maybe it was the whole poker karma catching up.

The turn came a club, and the river came a club. Another big hand headsup was cracked by runner runner. Sick. Sick. Sick. No words can really describe how I feel about taking my latest beat. It hurts to take a bad beat, but it hurts even worse when its for all the money. Just sick.

RipHamilton1 tried to give me all his chips atleast twice and he was extremely lucky to live each time. It is very frustrating when ppl donk off their chips like that and are rewarded by miracle cards (yes plural, CARDS with an "Ssssssss")! Its one thing to get outplayed or not realize your being trapped, but to get outdrawn when someone is trying to give you their chips is very, very well ... frustrating.

The 3rd place finisher was griping about his exit when I caught an Ace to beat his pocket Jacks. He continued to moan long after he exited the tourney. I think what makes my Ace breaking his Jacks truly a bad beat is because not only did RipHamilton1 flop trips while trying to give me all his chips with 64o but he also put a brutal beat on the 3rd place finisher also to make him a short stack. I guess RipHamilton1 was just meant to take this tournament or maybe that was Stars way of feeding the fish in the tank?

The only words I can think of are those of Men The Master at the 2004 WSOP Main Event, "Atleast I went out with Aces baby!"

Karma & Poker

2005-11-23T00:16:00.000-05:00

It was pretty typical evening in regards to poker. Thankfully I made my donkey play early and in a cheap MTT on Stars. Very first hand of the tourney I'm dealt ATs UTG. Normally I fold this quite often UTG but I decided to see if I could sneak in on the first hand with a limp. Near success its folded around to the SB who completes but the BB raises 4xBB. Cheap enough I call as does the SB. Flop comes AKx with 2 cards to a flush. SB checks quickly followed by the BB who pushes all-in as soon as the SB checks. Now curiosity has gotten the best of me and I figure I might be ahead. So often I see this crap with ppl on flush draws in low buy-ins but what would he have raised with pf to make this play? A medium suited ace or better? Maybe but I see this crap more often with underpairs to the board. Hell its only a buck and its the first hand so if I go bust only about 1m 45sec lost otherwise I double up.

Ofcourse he turns of KK and I'm drawing pretty much dead considering my clubs don't go with the diamonds on the board. I actually hit 2-pair but its meaningless to his set of Kings. Donk play out of the way I decided to try out a $10+1 Sng.

My cards are the ultimate defination of trash hands but I make them work with key raises pf and on the flop to scoop several pots. Unfortunately I flop 2-pair 3 times but its counterfieted each time but I still manage to hang on to a medium stack down to 5 players. The UTG shortstack raises 2xBB and its folded around to me in the SB and with the big stack in the BB I chicken out and just call with KQo; BB folds, good. Anyhow the flop comes Kxx, and I check hoping to get a push with any 2 cards from him since he's pot committed with his preflop raise. He pushes and I'm happy to call but he has AK to my KQ. Great, now I'm reduced to the shortstack but wait I turned a Queen, woot! Damn it feels good to come back from the dead. I feel for him for about 1/2 second considering I've been in his spot too many times to have my hand cracked.

Now down to 4 and several hands later and the short stack has been making aggressive preflop moves with real hands and he limps in from the small blind to my BB and I decide to push with 88 (I have him coverd 3 times over). He calls super fast with QQ, damn. I type, "nh", already resigned to the fact I lost the hand but lo' and behold by the river there is a str8 on the board, KQJTA. Woot! Split pot! Again it sucks to be him but I'll take it.

Several hands later we are headsup and I'm down 2-1 chips because I bluffed off and double up my opponent who called me down with Ace high. I still feel like it was an easy fold for him but he did it so I'm faced with a similar situation to my losing bluffing hand. This time I make the same play with a pretty good hand and I induce him to call me with Ace high again. Flop is 53T rainbow with one club and I have JTs (hearts) and he called my all-in with AQs (clubs). All the money went in on the flop. The turn comes Ten of Clubs, I'm still really liking my spot here to double up and be dead even in chip count. He types, "nh", in the chat box obviously already thinking he's lost the hand but the river comes a low club and he hits the river flush with runner-runner.

Disasterous, but then again I did suck out KQ vs AK, and get split pot 88 vs QQ when he flopped a set to chop on the river. I guess it was time to take the beat myself, just sucks it had to be for all my chips. Gotta love that Poker Karma!