Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Almost Ready...

... to actually make an entry about 2010. Since I have a couple days left I'll wait.

I can report that December has been a down month but not near as bad as November was. My computer's hard drive took a dump early this month and I lost everything I had on it. I did have a few things backed up but not nearly as current as I should have. I was able to get most everything either restored or recreated but updating my PokerTracker database took many hours. Hopefully I won't be too lazy about backing that thing up anymore.

I still have to update a few things here and there but I'm up and running once more. Poker-wise I've not run too well but I have had a number of close calls and "almosts", perhaps the next one will get there. I did finally win one of the new "On Demand" super-turbo multi-table SNGs on FTP yesterday and overall that game has still been a good game for me. I haven't played a bunch this month since I've been taking time to recover the computer losses (oh, and I guess time with the family for Christmas) but once the new year hits that'll change. I'll get into that in more detail then (and once I figure out exactly what the details are).

Until then, lets see if I can make the last few hours of this year count.

Monday, November 29, 2010

November

I found some time to write on the blog again at the same time that I actually thought of taking time to do it, so here I am. Too bad I don't have anything good to say about how poker has gone this month, its been a rough go of it here in the last four weeks. Variance is a bitch, I can say that.

I had a few chances for some really nice scores but as it happens they all either blew up in my face or fell a bit short. I was 3rd in a super-turbo MTT a couple of weeks ago and I have done well in the 54-man super-turbo SNGs I've been playing but outside of that its been rough. I did get some solid time in with playing more tables at one time and I can say I had very little trouble with it. I was surprised how well I was able to still make good decisions despite having 4-6 more tables going. In fact, it was fun to have all that extra stuff going on.

Yesterday did help bring me back a little though I still came up short in a couple things. I was deep in a $44 turbo MTT on Stars and ended up getting 3-outted on the river for the what would have been the chip lead, instead I got 13th for about $250 or so. Still a nice result in a 700+ player field. The other almost wasn't THAT close, but I managed $350 in the Turbo Takedown by finishing 225th out of 18000+ runners. That was a bunch of fun, even with all the folding I had to do, LOL. Its not often I get to push 150K and be considered "short" (if you wanna call 14BBs short, that is.)

I had a couple of very strong volume Saturdays, though both days were stinkers profit-wise. All I know is that I have been playing very well, especially with the quality of my reads on opponent's hand ranges lately. Too bad I've been awful at winning those 80/20 flips recently or we could be talking about a whole lot more. As it is, I keep coming to the conclusion that I have to stick to the process and play the games. I've been down before, I'll be back up again.

Since the upswing can start anytime I'll play in the home game tonight and see if I can get the ball rolling again. At the very worst I'll play the best I can and see where it takes me. Since I'll be off from work for a full week after Christmas, December looks to be a big month for getting some volume in. The more chances I have to do good, the better my chances to get there.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Taking Time To Update

Not a whole lot happening on the poker front since the Daytona Trip. One thing of note that I did do was a simple experiment with mass multi-tabling 45-man turbos on Stars. I decided to simply "stack" all the tables in one place so that only the active table comes up. That way I can simply and easily make my decision and wait for the next table... rinse and repeat. I got up to about 15 tables at one point and really didn't have any serious issues with not having enough time or fumbling with decisions. On occasion I had a new table pop up in the wrong spot or issues with games I busted in staying up, but overall I actually did well enough to turn a profit... and even won two of them!

October ended up as a positive, mainly on the strength of the two big hits I had. Outside of that and the steady pace of the 54-man super turbos I've been playing I ran fairly badly in most other things. I'm glad I was able to mostly take advantage of the few chances I did get to hit a score... and often that's what it really comes down to in the end.

Outside of poker, we just got back from a short weekend Bahamas cruise. I love cruises for the most part since everything you really need is included (like food!) and there is always the casino... I know, I'm a degen. I actually didn't spend all that much time down there this trip, not to say I didn't sit down for a while either. Mostly I played bad games like roulette and Let It Ride with my wife (she likes those games). Overall we were up slightly in the casino and had a fun time doing it. I got to play a little bit of blackjack on the last night and turned a small profit there also.

The one thing I sorta half-wish I did was try to play one of the sit-n-goes they had. I really told myself I wasn't going to go to play poker (I do that enough already) so I didn't really consider it. I took a look anyway and had to wonder if I missed out. First, the buy-in was $75 for 1000 chips, OK, I can do that. Then I read further. Immediate rebuy for $40 gets another 1000, hmm alright. First 30 minutes is unlimited rebuys. Hmph. Then the add-on after the rebuy was another $40/1000 chip deal. Wow. That could get expensive. $155 minimum for that game? I don't think I really wanted to take my casino money and blow half of what I put aside on that, no matter what my chances were. One positive that made me consider it was that it was Winner Take All.... now THAT'S a prize pool. I decided to stick to my pre-cruise decision and pass on them.

Ah, but then I made the mistake of actually WATCHING the play in one of these things. I'm thinking I could have won without looking at my cards. I figured these guys that played would be bad, I knew this... but wow, these gentlemen really had no clue. The one I watched, NO ONE took the add-on, even with only 900-2000 chips in their stacks and the blinds about to turn to 200/400. Not one guy. I saw guys bet and fold to all-ins getting better than 3:1 odds more than once, then make sick calls with king-high the next hand. I saw other things I just can't care to mention here. I had to leave before somebody won since I'd have been tempted to mug them on their way out of the casino.

Bah, its OK... no guarantee I'd have won, but they did have 4 of those games at least. I'm sure I'd have liked my chances in winning one of those but I didn't really have the $600+ to find out for sure. Plus, if I end up as the only one doing any rebuys and add-ons, what is my return really gonna be? Then again, I'd have the chips that they wouldn't and could likely survive a few more hits than they could have. Meh, maybe when I have a $50K bankroll I'll give it a shot. :)

Well, that's all for now. I'm hoping to get back to playing online on Saturday and going strong from there through the Thanksgiving weekend. We'll see how it plays out. I may go back to Daytona again in a couple weeks for another run at that same MTT and we have a few movies we wanna see (Mega-Mind and Harry Potter) so a little time gets taken up that way. Still, should be a good month for volume since I plan on doing a couple more runs and the Stars megatabling thing. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Mini Deep Stack MTT at Daytona Beach Poker Room Report

OK, lets see what I can remember.

This Saturday I played in what is called the Texas Holdem Poker Tour's Mini Deep Stack Tournament at the Daytona Beach Poker Room. THPT is a bar league really... where you play for free, etc. However once a month they get with Daytona for this $35 buy-in MTT. The good thing about this is that half the field are these same players I would see playing for free... and they are horrible. That makes things a bit easier to be very blunt and honest.

Anyway, the event is really a $30+25 as I'm sure the $35 is $30+5 of rake. You get 3500 chips for that. But you can add a $10 "dealer appreciation" for 1000 more and "donate" $10 to a charity they have sponsered there are another 1000 chips. Throw in 500 more for signing up early and its $55 for 6000 chips. I did so.

We had 166 runners sign up. I go to my seat and find an older gentlemen sitting in it, so I ask him what seat he was. He says it and its the same as mine! I say "But I bought this like an hour ago" and he replied, "Well, I bought mine on Thursday!" OK, you win, pal. As soon as that is over I hear an announcement that the computer has "resold" some seats and to wait for a new seat to be assigned... great start.

They eventually open up a table for us castoffs to sit at, at least they didn't start without us! Blinds start at 25/50 and go up every 20 minutes... some "Mini Deep Stack" this is! Still, it falls to my favor since it'll become a turbo sooner that these guys will realize.

The fest few blind levels I don't get involved much at all but I do take note that just about everyone is limping in... no raising. I was going to maybe limp along in a few spots but I never really had any cards I wanted to do it with. I did get to raise over a limp a couple times and each time the limper would fold, even this early. Hmmm, as suspected, these guys don't want to take too many risks.

After a while I was able to figure out which ones would limp the weaker hands and which ones would limp the TT/AQ/AK type hands, and not fold it. Generally it was the older players doing so, which, I admit, can be a bit of a stereotype. One guy, when he got a few chips, started limping quite a lot with his A4c and KQ type hands and would spew chips away. Another guy would limp anything suited.

Post flop it sure was fit or fold in the early going, it would check around, maybe even until the river, then a guy would bet and everyone would fold. I hit top pair once from the big blind, bet out, and took the pot easily. This happened for at least an hour.

Blinds up to 200/400 now (level 4) and I still have about a starting stack. One limptard, who had gotten lucky by rivering a higher two-pair and also cracked AA on another occasion, limped in from the CO with a 6BB stack. I find AJo in the BB and push over the top, expecting a scared fold. Instead he makes the "give up call" and flips KTo. Numbered flop comes, then the T hits the turn. Great. But then the river brings the J and I eliminate the young luckbox and win my first substantial pot of the day.

The next level (300/600) one of the older guys limps in and I have AJo in the SB, with about 7200 in chips or so. I've seen him limp/fold before, and he was the guy that had his AA cracked, which he raised. I figured he would most likely fold to a full shove since I had him covered and was right, he folded without much thought. Still, I was a little leery that he might have limped a bigger ace but felt that wouldn't be often enough from what I had seen.

At the next level (400/800) the owner of THPT was moved to our table. There was a bounty on him for a $195 BI to some event, so people might have tried for him since he had about 20K in chips, becoming our table leader. He seemed a capable player, thought would still overlimp a few hands. He did raise 98s once, other times it was TT or the like. I had to keep an eye on him for sure as he was three seats to my left.

At this level, a woman who was moved to our table had this look that she knew what she was doing, but played like she had no clue of how stack sizes worked at all. In one hand, BvB, she raised over the SB limp to 2400, and then the SB shoved about 3000 more. She then tanked and folded after raising about 40% of her stack. Two hand later, she raised half her stack from the button into my BB, where I see ATo. I shove and she calls KQo. I hold and she leaves the table as if she was shot by the bad luck bullet. GG chica.

Just before break, I find AQh on the button. Matt, the owner of THPT is in the BB as one seat is open. I raise 2.5x to 2000 and he makes a flippant call with his chip stack, making a remark that he'll "call with his junk". The flop is junk, like 853 or something, and he check/folds, "missed with his junk". I'll take it.

A couple hands later I took out another short stack and I am sitting around 20BBs, which brings us to break. From what I see only about 40 players have dropped out, confirming some scared play is going on since most players are under 10BB for sure. I compare a few notes with one of my friends that made the trip, Marc, and he notices some of the same things even though his table was a little more willing to play back with calls.

Next level (600/1200) I shoved BvB and got no call, then raised again from the button while Matt was not back from break yet (I had 99). The SB again folded without much thought, confirming that he was a nit. Later I would see that he limp/called with JJ, losing the race to a shorter stack, further confirming my read.

Our table later breaks and now I have to start over with reads. New level now (800/1600) and this table has a guy with a huge stack, playing nearly every hand and luckboxing on the shorter stacks it seems. Clearly he wasn't an overly skilled player by any means, but did seem to understand a little about using some of his bets to scare people. Fortune would have it that I never had to tangle with this gentleman, but it may have helped train the table to be a little cautious as I was able to shove over a couple limps to pick up some pots.

Another good break comes when I shoved the button with AJo and the shortish SB called with ATs. He flops a T and I'm looking to lose half my stack, but fortune shines on me and brings a J on the river to send him packing. I now have about 15BBs and am a bit more comfortable in relation to the table.

An orbit later, I raise AQo from the CO over a EP limper to 6400, another older guy. This time he flats me (!) leaving maybe 4000 behind him. Uh-oh. The flop comes rags and he checks. I make the bet and he calls, we both have AQ! Nice split pot there, old timer. Scared the shit out of me though.

I think we are at 5 tables of 10 players now, 20 pay. Blinds move to 1000/2000 and short stacks are begging to stay alive. Not much happens for me here these next couple of levels, but I do pick up a couple pots with some shoves or raises. A couple people are keeping an eye on me for what I might be doing these "huge shoves" with, but I manage to get to 40K in chips.... just before the blinds move to 2000/4000 now... geez, nice jump!

I win another pot to get to 60K (can't remember how at the moment, I think I won a race with KQ over 88 though when one of the older guys that was "watching me" called me). We get down to about 35 players and I get moved to a new table. Here the chip leader came with me but he was penalized for showing his cards without announcing his action properly or something... so he has to sit 6 hands. Anyway, another guy, maybe a German, not sure, has quite a few chips and is a bit of a talker. He seems to have a little idea and is raising, not limping so much. This may be a problem, so I make sure to watch him closely.

Anyway, blinds are moving up and people are certainly feeling the bubble. I've gone card dead for about 20-30 minutes and my stack shrinks a bit smaller. Under 30 players now and the UTG player, a younger lady, moves all-in for 9000 at the new blind level of 4000/8000. An older guy to my right flats. I look at JJ and decide to push my 45K over him. All fold to this guy, who tanks. Eventually he folds but I lose KK to JJ and am down to 36K now. The flat/folder tells me he had AJh and I said "nice fold", then he reminds me he would have made a flush. Oh, my bad.

More dead hands lead to the true bubble. A young kid to my left has been milking a micro stack the whole time, having caught a set on the river once when AI from the BB one time already. He now is AIPF from the BB again. UTG limps, the German/whatever he is also limps, and I complete from the SB with 97c. The flop is a very interesting 653 with two hearts, giving me a belly-buster draw. We hear that someone busted, meaning the bubble is guaranteed to be broken, but I do not know how short the guy was. The UTG checks, and the German says, "Oh, I was just gonna check down, but now I just bet my hand" and bets about the pot. Ugh.

What does this bet really mean? I'm sure I'm behind, but how many outs do I really have? Eight? Fourteen? Fewer? I can't seem to find out about the guy that busted (where's the lobby?) and I also have the UTG to worry about, which I haven't quite figured out yet. Ugh again. I fold and the AI BB makes his straight to stay in... but I would have split the pot. Oh well. Not being able to find out about the bubble buster was key. Good chance he was another shorty but I elected to play safe without enough information.

We move to 5k/10k blinds and eventually I can't seem to get my chips in. I now have 20k on the button with 14 or so left and see J9s as it folds to me. The German, while lost some of his stack with a bit of a loose play, is now in the BB. I shove and pray that I somehow hit my hand... but wait! He looks at his cards and laughs. "I was gonna call without looking, but then I look anyway," he remarks. He keeps looking at it and eventually says, "but I can't call with this, its just 92!" and he folds! I almost double up without a showdown, hooray for live players! He then goes on the explain that he was going to just call, but when he saw he had a "2" he couldn't call... if it was 95o or something he'd have called.

Anyway, a break for the good guy perhaps. Next hand, I get A5o and turbo shove my 35k now. This time the German snaps from the SB... uh-oh. He flips over KQo, I'm ahead! I hit the ace to be sure and move to 8k. Whew. The German's once formidable stack has been eaten away. I managed to hold at around 8k for a bit and eventually the German busts, losing AQQQ and XX. We're off to the final table!

I find my buddy Marc has also survived to this point. He is about the same shape as I am, looking to make a move to get some chips. I fully expect the FT to be a nit fest but I am quickly proven wrong as chips start flying! One guy, who had hurt the German earlier with a well-timed AA, decided to call an overshove AI from another young lady on an all-club flop with Kc8x, she had limped into his BB with KJh and shoved the JXXccc board and held. They count her chips and this guy says "Wow, I didn't realize she had so much!" Ummm, way to stack off there pal. He goes from the CL to a micro stack and busted out 8th... ouch.

Marc is next to go on a fairly standard he pushes/someone calls right hand but failed. GG Marc for about $230ish or so, good for 7th place. Another big hand then happens where the guy to my right limps UTG and the SB and BB call. The flop is QT9 and the SB leads out for about the pot. The BB (Matt the "bounty guy" from earlier) folds and UTG promptly says "all-in".

I get a great read that this guy isn't too familiar with live poker now. The SB calls and the dealer then goes to count out chips. The dealer asks UTG "What do you have?" and the guy discreetly shows the dealer his cards, LOL. "No, I need to count your chips!" and Marc and I get a nice quiet chuckle out of it. BTW, did you guess their hands? The SB has... AQ! UTG? Of course he flopped the straight with KJo... what else would he have? This is important later.

So now there are five of us left. I get 88 UTG next hand and shove my stack of 7500 or so, I think we are now at 10k/20k. Matt calls me out of the SB and shows ATo... off to the races again, cue Lucky the Rabbit from the dog track! The board bricks us both so I double up. I can tell that Matt realizes I'm not one of your standard bar players (which would be confirmed after the event).

A few hands later a short stack finally runs out of time (I think I took him out with JJ, I can't recall where that JJ hand was, LOL) and we have four left. Matt is next to bust out as the guy to my right takes him out and we are now three-handed, the aggressive young lady to my right being the third. Should be a fun finish between the two of these players.

We get to 10k/15k (yes, you see that right, LOL) and I push on the woman with K3o for a full 10BBs. She instantly says "well, I HAVE to call that" and flips up 87s! WTF? Had to? Really? I admit she had gathered some chips, but snap call a BvB 10BB shove 3-handed? No antes? Wow, just wow.

My heart plummets to my colon as I see the flop: 9s6sX. OMG. Are you kidding me? An open-ended straight flush draw? The turn is a brick.... and I can tell I'm still squeezing my rectum. The river falls... as a brick! I hold with K-high and double up.

A few hands go by, pot here, another there, and eventually the next major hand comes into play. The woman limps the button, the man calls from the SB and I look at JJ on the BB. I'm not sure what the blinds are at but I elect to shove as I now had the woman covered (she had spewed a few chips and I felt she was losing it a little). She makes the call with the T9h! The SB folds and I turn over my hand and can almost feel the woman's soul crush under the weight of my cards. I easily hold and send the now disgusted lady to the rail. We are heads-up!

Problem is... I can't figure this guy out. From what I can tell, and my only read, is that he will bet when he "has it" and call if he "might". Absolutely the worst guy for me to try and play with. Also, trying to count all these chips as we go isn't something I'm use to... there is a lot of them! I know I'm down, and I know what I have, so I'm OK in that regard.

Anyway, first hand HU and I have the button with J4o. I limp and we see a flop. J65 is felted. He goes all-in! I'm like, whhaaaaaaaa? Usually HU top pair of any kind is a big hand, but to a shove? Can he do this with a draw? I don't think so. Knowing what I know, this guy might have just flopped quads. Considering my kicker, I let it go... but I just have to wonder.

I pick another wonderful time to go card dead. Nothing even remotely close to shoving/raising comes my way save one (he limp/folded) and we are generally staying close though I feel I've lost a little to him overall. He makes this overshove play a couple more times, leading me to believe that he has as least TP these times and doesn't want to risk being outdrawn. However I get the feeling he is doing this just a shade too often and I need to catch him doing this. If I have TP, regardless of kicker, I'm going next time.

The final hand comes at 15k/30k and I check the BB with 93o (yep, that hand). The flop is 974, not sure of the suits. I check, and if he goes I'm going also. He checks behind. The turn is... a 9! I now bet out 40k, to which he says, "OK, I'll call". Hmmm. What does THAT mean? I immediately think he might have the draw, not the case 9. At this point I decide that I can't let this go.

The river is a T, no flush is out there. I don't like the card... not at all. I figure that he COULD have 86 here, but J8? Maybe. I could see that. But XT? Maybe. Some sort of two-pair? Sure he could. He could have 65, or X7 for all I know. Anyway, I just CAN'T fold trips here so I shove. He calls and flips over J8 for the gutshot straight. GG me.

A disappointing finish but a good run overall for sure. Taking second place earned me $662 of cold, hard cabbage. I held when I had to up until that final hand so I can't complain. I never saw a huge amount of good hands over that nearly six-hour run (JJ and AQ being the best I saw) and I was able to take advantage of the mostly passive play when I could.

Overall I loved having that "edgy feeling" when I was playing. Not a nervous feeling by any stretch, but I could tell I was ready to play. I had a decent idea of what some of these guys would play like (wearing their THPT shirts was a nice tell, LOL) and having some "experience" with playing at these bar leagues meant I was completely foreign to the live game. The result wasn't too bad either.

I just might have to go next month!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Ouch, that hurt.

I think I just experienced the worst weekend of my life... poker-wise that is (otherwise it was pretty good). Things got ugly on Friday and failed to improve and it really hurt, especially since the month was going pretty well so far. Still, I was reading a post on Pokerology and ended up replying to it with the following. I really liked what I wrote and my mindset about this subject, so I thought I'd cross-post it here:

I don't know the exact numbers, but this weekend I think I played around 60 games and was ITM just twice, and one of those was for a 0% ROI since it was a satty SNG. That other cash was only $40 or something. Considering I probably spent about $1k in buy-ins, I wasn't too happy about it all.

So what do I do? I bitched, I moaned, I complained, I yelled various curses. I considered sacrificing one of my cats to avoid any further dismay. I did these things each time my KK got run over by A3o or my set was chased down by a straight or flush. I then got over it and moved on to the next hand... what else should I do?

I reviewed my play and found nothing unusual. Maybe I could have taken a better line in this hand to save me a bet here or something, but I made no vulgar mistakes, especially at push/fold moments. I even caught a few guys restealing/bluffing on me, but unfortunately they sucked out. Poker sucks when it happens that way, huh?

Based on the decisions I made I had a pretty good weekend actually. My game selection was excellent. I felt confident in my decisions, in fact I would say most of my hands were fairly straightforward, which is always welcome when playing 4-6 tables at once. As I sit here now... I really can't complain.

Times like these are when I really appreciate the fact that I have a bankroll management and cashout plan in place. I still "made" money due to the decent amount of volume I put in, and while my bankroll took a vicious slashing I know I have enough protection in place that I don't have to worry about moving down. If I were doing this for a living, I'd be able to handle stretches like this in stride... and look forward to the next session.

Who knows... the next session I just might run like the gods. You better hope its not against you.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Whoops

Seems I forgot about my blog again. :)

Nothing exciting has really happened since I was last here on the online felts though things have been going OK. I've been playing a number of the 54-man super-turbo SNGs on FTP lately and I have to admit I really like them. They are mostly push-fold games, they don't time a lot of time and most of the players suck at them. Pretty good combination.

The only exciting news I have is that I've been persuaded to do a couple of articles for Pokerology (meaning I'll actually be paid). Tim (who runs the site) really wanted to revamp his content and wanted me to contribute. I won't be doing anything about strategy, I'll tackle stuff like bankroll management, the cashout system I use, and maybe a tutorial on how to use Pokerstove.

We have talked about doing videos both for the two articles and also of me playing. I've done a few videos now and I have to admit its fun to do. Yeah, I curse a bit and I realize I'm no pro, but I think I make enough comments and I'm not afraid to say that I might not be doing the absolute right thing every time. I think doing that is a different approach and even trying to take time to actually go back and try to find the answers to my own questions might be something nobody else really does. I don't know... we'll play with the idea I guess.

Anyway, I hope to play some this weekend and continue plugging forward with my own game. We'll see!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Labor Day Weekend

I was able to sit down for an extra-long session of poker since it was a 3-day weekend due to Labor Day. As I usually do I played all of the Sunday mini-Majors like the Double Deuce on FTP and such. Cashed a couple of those and min-cashed a number of others throughtout the day but it wasn't until Monday morning that I didn't hit anything big.

I started on Friday night by playing for a few hours like I would do on a typical Tuesday/Thursday night gig. The night was successful since I was able to win a $21 super-turbo 54-man SNG for $388. Throw in a few other cashes and the night was a good one with a profit of $366 over 21 games.

Saturday I kept fairly tame, I got some games in but nothing heavy. Had a few cashes but nothing worthy of note though I did profit for the session (about $75 over 17 games).

Sunday was when the volume was coming. I started earlier than normal, around noon, so I could get in the $11 turno on Stars and a couple other things. I played well but ran worse for the next 12 hours or so and ended up down about $500 over the 51 games that started on Sunday proper. I scared a few things and had some chances but nothing really big came out of them.

As we rolled in Monday morning I guess things started going more my way. I took third in a $12 180-man SNG on Stars that I played almost on a whim (Stu talked me into it and he wasn't even talking to me, LOL). But the big score was on Ultimate Bet, where I was able to win the nightly (morningly?) $44 turbo MTT. That score was $1335 and some change. This thing doesn't even start until 2:30am so you can imagine how I was starting to feel when I won it at about 4:40am. Nice way to start your day, so to speak! With that, after playing a little more here and there on Monday I was $1250 to the good over 21 games on Labor Day.

Add it all up and the weekend tally was pretty solid... no complaints here. Since I didn't sleep at all on Monday you can imagine that I took Tuesday night off to try and catch up. I certainly had fun, like always, but its also much more fun when you managed to win.

This weekend, well, really starting tonight, I'm going to try to play a few of the mFTOPS events starting tonight with the 5x turbo 6-max shootout. I don't think I've ever cashed in on of these mFTOPS events before but I haven't played all that many of them either. Maybe this time I take a ride in one and find something big. I'll be sure to let you know in here if I do (or don't).

Monday, August 30, 2010

Yes, I know...

... that I suck at updating my blog.

Not much really happened after that nice win I had, in fact it all went to hell for the most part. I probably dropped about $500 or more in the last couple of weeks in fact. Got close a few times but just never quite winning the key hands. Sure, it happens, but when it comes in big bunches it can really test a guy.

In fact, I almost quit this past Saturday. I got in enough to earn my Iron Man points on FTP and about had enough of the beats. The sequence of events that caused these thoughts happened in about five minutes. First, I lost AA to K2h on the true bubble of the $44 turbo on Stars. I then took a viscious beat of some kind in another hand, and all the while I lost three hands as a favorite in a 90-man knockout SNG I was plaing to go from 2nd with 16 left to out 13th. I'm not ashamed to tell you that it hurt. Coupled with how things had gone the previous couple weeks and I was ready to hit the XBox.

As it turns out I collected my thoughts and continued my schedule, which was to play thru the 5pm slot of games I normally try. Among those was a $26 90-man turbo knockout that I had entered. As it ends up I chopped it for a win with a guy that was having a some internet issues (yeah, I'm a nice guy) and took about $536 from it. That reallllllly helped.

After dinner and a walk I played some more in the evening. I had a few decent games and made the money in a few, a couple on Cake and a couple others here and there. Around 1am I only had a single game left (the $22 turbo MTT on UB, which I min-cashed) so I elected to sign up for a $26 turbo Rush MTT to play along side of it. Rush is fast-paced so I liked the idea of keeping active while playing the other game. I ended up winning it for a slick $923.40! Not a bad cash for a game I joined at the spur-of-the-moment. See, you just never know.

The best thing about it was I decided to record my screen using Camtasia just before it started so I caught the entire MTT in a video. I'm going to let Tim at Pokerology cut it up to post on the site just for shits and giggles (and to learn from, I'm sure there is a few spots I can get something out of). It was more intended to follow the play in the $22 game but as it ends up its the $26 afterthought that made it a show. I'm looking forward to seeing it (and hearing it, probably rated 'R' for language).

Got one more play night tomorrow then we'll wrap up August. As of now I'm up a little over $600 for the month (thanks to this weekend) and here is hoping I might add to that total tonight at the home game and/or on FTP tomorrow. Go me.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Found A Big Win, Yay!

This weekend I played a bunch and Sunday afternoon I finally hit a big score by chopping a $44 Rush Turbo MTT. I really like these Rush tournaments but because of how fast they can be I don't like to have more than one going at a time. Still, I ended up chopping as the chip leader for a shade over $1157.

Here is the final hand that was played in that game. I just wanted to bring this up for a little discussion:

FullTiltPoker Game #22933094581: $40 + $4 Rush Tournament (176978857), Table 9 - 5,000/10,000 Ante 1,000 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:32:44 ET - 2010/08/08

Seat 2: gohockey12 (192,738)
Seat 5: Timitriff (69,164)
Seat 7: Rycky4Poker (83,098)
gohockey12 antes 1,000
Timitriff antes 1,000
Rycky4Poker antes 1,000
Timitriff posts the small blind of 5,000
Rycky4Poker posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rycky4Poker [As Qd]
Rycky4Poker: anyones game
gohockey12 raises to 40,000
Timitriff raises to 68,164, and is all in
Rycky4Poker has 15 seconds left to act
Rycky4Poker raises to 82,098, and is all in
gohockey12 folds
Rycky4Poker shows [As Qd]
Timitriff shows [Ac Ts]
Uncalled bet of 13,934 returned to Rycky4Poker
*** FLOP *** [5s 8d Jc]
*** TURN *** [5s 8d Jc] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [5s 8d Jc Kh] [Th]
Rycky4Poker shows a straight, Ace high
Timitriff shows a pair of Tens
Rycky4Poker wins the pot (179,328) with a straight, Ace high
*** SUMMARY ***
Duration 37s
Total pot 179,328 | Rake 0
Board: [5s 8d Jc Kh Th]
Seat 2: gohockey12 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Timitriff (small blind) showed [Ac Ts] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 7: Rycky4Poker (big blind) showed [As Qd] and won (179,328) with a straight, Ace high

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

I cross-posted this at www.pokerology.com as well.

1. The chip-leader had been fairly active throughout the final table as he has had a considerable edge for some time. He was raising often but only shown reasonable hands when called, including A9 that fell to my AJ reshove earlier. Usually he went 3x but notice here he made it 4x.

2. Considering stack sizes I considered the 4x bet a shove. When the SB elected to shove in as well I had a bit of a problem. At first glance AQo seems plenty strong enough but I wasn't quite sure ICM-wise. Two factors that made me call were these. First, the fact that I did have the SB covered did help, plus while he had been fairly tight I felt I did have his range beat. Second, since the CL had been opening often I figured his range was pretty wide... maybe not as wide as it should be but still enough that AQo is ahead enough to go.

3. The fact that the chip leader actually folded here tells us a couple things: Some people just don't understand odds/are bad at math and that you ALWAYS have fold equity. Even in a spot like this, where all indications were telling me that this guy had an idea of what he was doing, you just NEVER know.

Sure, he likely would have lost the hand but if he was gonna play he should have shoved. With effective stacks at 9BBs I see no reason to 4x/fold 3-handed with over half the chips in play. As it ends up he likely did save himself some cash since we chopped, but if I had knocked him down under 10BBs I might have been much less inclined to do it, despite my headache and general lack of sleep. I was still in the moment and playing sharp so there is argument that I should have taken my chances after seeing this.... but something told me to take the safe route when the deal page came up, LOL.

I checked the hand at holdemresources and if this guy was playing "perfectly" we would be shoving 60% of his hands. Considering that I could have overcalled decently wide myself (66+ A9s+ ATo+ KJs+). Even thinking he was wide I know its likely not 60%... but still enough that AQo easily plays here. I'd have folded 66-88, A9s, ATo, and the KX hands though... maybe even ATs and AJo.

I wish he had called though. :)

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Let's Play A Hand

I haven't done this in a while, so lets play! I'll cross post this on Pokerology also and use the replayer for the hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #22520112225: $24 + $2 Rush Tournament (173904071), Table 21 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:10:48 ET - 2010/07/22
Seat 1: Michael Craig (8,380)
Seat 2: Hero (3,010)
Seat 3: Junior Augusto (5,200)
Seat 4: TourneRunr (5,750)
Seat 5: ballajr (3,680)
Seat 6: muligatani (1,560)
Seat 7: fengschu (4,990)
Seat 8: jba1986 (3,370)
Seat 9: pokerehdingys (2,420)
Hero posts the small blind of 30
Junior Augusto posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [9d 9c]
TourneRunr folds
ballajr folds
muligatani has 8 seconds left to act
muligatani folds
fengschu folds
jba1986 raises to 210
pokerehdingys folds
Michael Craig folds
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero raises to 600
Junior Augusto folds
jba1986 has 15 seconds left to act
jba1986 raises to 3,370, and is all in
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero folds
Uncalled bet of 2,770 returned to jba1986
jba1986 mucks
jba1986 wins the pot (1,260)

OK, as you see I ended up making a very rare 3-bet/fold move in this Rush MTT. This is how I feel about how it went down.

First, the villain pot-raises from the hijack to 210. Since its a Rush game, I have no read on the raise size. Often its a strong hand but not an absolute monster like AA. Sometimes players just hit the pot button every time they raise. We don't know.

I have 99 in the SB and elect to reraise to 600. To be honest, I'm just now noticing that I actually bet a little less than I usually would OOP... I would have thought I'd go 650-700 here normally. Regardless, I'm always reraising 99 against a hijack raise as a standard move and 600 is likely enough to get the message across.

Ah, but now he shoves all-in! Ooops. Now what? As you saw, I elected to fold since I felt 99 wouldn't win often enough against a 4-bet/shove range. I would need to win about 40% of the time here given the pot odds presented (pot was 3670, 2410 to call if I see it right) and unless this guy has 88 or AJ in his shove range, I don't have it. I don't think he does often enough at all, so I fold.

What's the problem you ask? I'm wondering if I just turned my hand into a bluff. If I'm going to be 3-bet folding in this spot do my cards really matter that much? I don't think so. I could have taken a hand outside of my reraising/calling range with a little flexability like T9o and done the same thing.

So what could I have done better here? Well, it seems I didn't plan ahead enough. Granted, its a Rush MTT and it wasn't the only game I was playing at the time, but I do look at stacks sizes. I should have seen that by reraising here I was leaving him a great spot to reshove on me as a re-resteal. Now this guy might not be able to pull that off but the spot is still going to give me fits (obviously).

This leaves me to believe that due to the stack sizes involved here, reraise/fold is just not smart here. That leaves 4 other options: fold, shove, call, or 3-bet/call a shove. We are just too strong to fold, that's out. Shove, while perhaps Nash-friendly and/or coupled with fold equity a potentially viable play, seems really spewy this deep... you tell me. So that leaves call and 3-bet/call.

Calling is reasonable to me. Generally I'll be playing fit or fold with my 99 like I would have with 33, either I hit a set or I'm done with the hand. The odds are there to set-mine so that's not an issue. I think this is the best option unless I decide that 99 is too strong to fold to that 3-bet, which leads us to that last option. Is 99 strong enough to go all the way here?

I'm thinking a stock 4-bet/shove range might be something like TT+/AK, but I gotta wonder if other hands just don't show up enough here to make 99 a call. Are guys really coming over the top of me with 66? AJ? KQs? Are they actually tighter (JJ+) or a combination of this? How wide does he think I am here? That would change his range also. I could be going 77+/AJ+ here... what would he go with against that type of range? Is 99 or AQ in there? If so, I still think I'm behind... but is bullshit in his range enough to change that?

If we had 1500 here I'd shove easily and just take my chances. Being this deep changes things. What do you think?

Monday, August 2, 2010

Bye July

I see I've been doing real well updating the blog.

The past two weeks haven't been the best but I feel I'm still playing well. Every time I check a spot in hindsight I can very rarely find anything I could have done differently. I'm happy to see that I still don't let all the coolers and the bad beats affect the way I go about my business.

I've been close to a few things lately. I've made the final of the $22 turbo on Full Tilt twice in the last couple days. I almost won a small turbo MTT on UB yesterday and I've been picking up some other deeper runs along the way. I just haven't won that key hand to get into the big money in a few weeks. I'll keep trying.

Outside of that, not much happened. Oh, I did pick up a 7-9 split bowling on Friday... that was very cool. :)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

More updating

I really gotta remember to do this more often.

Been sorta busy with both poker and other stuff so it is hard to find the time when I do remember. Anyway, the weekend was a good one even if I did have issues with my internet again. I got deep in the big $11 turbo on Stars but ran out of chances to finish 21st out of about 2800. I did take 2nd in a $26 90-man knockout and won a $13 version over the last few days though. Sprinkle in a few others cashes and things are doing fine.

Saw two movies over the extended weekend (I took Friday off to spend some time with the family). First we saw "The Last Airbender" as both the kid and the wife really wanted to see that as they are fans of the Nick cartoon. Too bad M. Night screwed up the movie and made it too serious. Fail.

The other movie was "Despicable Me", the animated flick with Steve Carell and the chick from "iCarly" (Miranda Cosgrove? Damn, I shouldn't know that). Funny film indeed, we enjoyed this quite a bit. Probably one of the best things I've seen all year to be honest. I haven't seen "Toy Story 3" yet but its better than "How To Train A Dragon" (though it was pretty good also).

We might go see "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" tonight since I really rather see "Inception" this weekend as save my time to play poker Saturday night, especially since its my birthday. Also worth mentioning: tomorrow is my wedding anniversary. Better throw that in here just in case she ever reads this. :)

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

July 4th Weekend Recap

Despite some more internet troubles I was able to get in about 60+ games over the big weekend. Not a profitable weekend but it was fun to do all that playing. I scared a few things along the way. I took 4th in the $11 bounty on UB for my best cash ($350) and I was fairly deep in the Double Deuce but busted around 130th for $160 there.

I played well for sure and that's what mattered most. I didn't get crushed but when you add it all up I'm only down about $70 for the month so far. Compared to how May and June each had started that's pretty good, LOL. All told it was a full weekend, though not much sleeping was involved as I stayed up thru Sunday to Monday playing poker or NHL10 or whatever. I managed to cash both games at Marc's house Monday evening and I don't really remember all that much of it. :)

Anyway, it took a couple days but I think I'm back on track sleep-wise. Tonight I'll hit up Gator's for some nonsense poker fun and get back to the real stuff Thursday.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

End of June

Its pretty much the end of the month since I merely have a single HUST to play tomorrow (for the one-a-day freeroll on FTP) so we can close the book on a really volitile month of poker. I don't think I've even been so up and down before, especially if you throw May into the mix.

Funny how a week or so can really change the way everything looks. About 10 days ago I was getting crushed. Just crushed. You've seen the posts I've made here. I've stayed positive for the most part but I'm human too. I was fearing the worst was happening. I had lost nearly 30% of my bankroll after hitting my all-time high and I felt like I had no answer for it.

Then all of the sudden it turned around. I was making the same type of decisions but suddenly I was either winning the flip or holding as a favorite. I started to actually catch a few timely breaks when I needed it. Sure, I still found the bad beats and the coolers, but they didn't seem so devestating once I actually saw that it wasn't happening EVERY game. Before I knew it I had my bankroll back to where I started after closing out another solid week of play, ending with a very satisfying $26 turbo knockout SNG win on Sunday and a pair of wins in the home game on Monday night.

So, what happened? Why did things change so quickly? Did I find some karma? Perhaps, but not likely. I think the biggest thing I did was simple. I did nothing. I didn't change what I was doing because I hadn't found any evidence that what I was doing was wrong. I played the best I could every time. I reviewed any hands I felt were troubling and sought out opinions on them. In short, I believed in myself and what I was doing and just accepted the short-term results. As long as I continue to play my best the long-term picture will be just fine and I'll continue to do so whether July ends up as feast or famine.

This wasn't the first time I've dropped 25-30% of my bankroll... just the first time the dollars were this noticeable. As I always have before I've come back from it as a player better able to handle the adversity... at least I'd like to think that's the truth. I've picked up a couple more tricks along the way and have already seen the dividends from them. Hopefully I'll keep picking up a few more.

The first half of 2010 is deemed a success, even though The Plan was pretty much rewritten (or even discarded!) over that time. Reality set in and it was that simple. I am happy with the results to this point and I feel that I like the direction I'm heading in. I'm hoping I'll be able to build on these last six months and have an even bigger second half of the year, starting July 1st. Wish me luck.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Father's Day Update

Despite my blog absence I have been continuing to try my luck with poker during that time. Things have been rough since May but at least the last week or so hasn't been too bad (if breaking even qualifies as such). With this weekend being Father's Day I thought I might try to get some good volume in and see if I couldn't make something happen.

With that in mind I started out on Saturday afternoon for a couple hours since the family came up with the idea of going to see "The A-Team" at around 6pm. Probably was a great idea as the afternoon set was a disaster. I did everything right from what I could tell, just can't seem to hold when I get in as the favorite. Going to the movie at this point might have been a great idea since I was pretty much lost for ideas on what to do at that point. Granted, looking back, there wasn't anything to do different... except for building a time machine or creating an alternate reality.

After the movie (which was fun) I decided to try my luck again. Sometimes you just have to get right back on the horse and just play your game. A few things went my way early, nothing huge, but at least I wasn't getting killed. I got deep in a few things and even had a short final table appearance in the $33 turbo on Cake, so things were going in a positive direction.

Finally, I started getting a few breaks. Winning a flip, a suckout on a 3-outter, overpairs holding to draws, and a few timely resteals here and there helped me win the $22 turbo MTT on UB for $1022! Suddenly I found myself feeling the rush again. I also won a seat to the $215 on UB in a $22 turbo satty right before going to bed... at 4am Sunday morning. I didn't care, I finally had something to be happy about.

I couldn't sleep. Well, not like "sleep", I took what seemed like 50 naps for the next 4 hours. Finally I just laid there like an idiot and eventually got up in time to talk a morning walk with my wife. The sun felt foreign to me and I felt like shit, but I somehow didn't really care. When we got back we went out for a nice lunch and returned in time to sit down for a couple hours of poker.

Things continued to go well. I hit a $320 score with a 4th in a $26 turbo rush MTT and won a $13 turbo knockout 90-man SNG for about $300 more. Throw in a min-cash in another game and some good fun in a private game and I found myself up about $1400 or so for the weekend. What a relief! I'm now suddenly up for June and at least feeling as if I might have an idea of what I'm doing again.

I'm still a good chuck off of my high point and I still have some work to do in that regard but at least I was able to stop the bleeding for a day or so. All this really proves is that you just never know when things might go your way. I've continued to study and work on things with my game and I've tried to make sure I've always played my best... and I really feel like I have. I've felt really comfortable with what I'm doing, its just nice to see a couple results once in a while.

We'll keep on keeping on tonight, I've got four more nights of grinding on Full Tilt to quality for Iron Man (so I can get the mid-year bonus) and I'd like to keep the mo on my side while I can. Wish me luck.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Weekend Report, June 5-6th, 2010

In a word... crushed. I wasn't outplayed though, that's for sure. Because of that fact times like this can be very frustrating without the proper mindset going in. When you repeatedly see your opponents doing fundamentally poor things time after time yet beat you to a pulp its tempting to either give up or try the same bad plays they are making. I'm not sure which option would be worse.

I came close to a couple things but nothing that really stands out. I placed 7th in a $13 turbo 6-max MTT on Cake for $42 and picked up a few other middling cashes here and there. Overall this was my worst weekend results-wise that I've ever had. The highlight? I won a bracelet event in the WSOPokerology Stud Hi freeroll, luckboxing my way thru 16 others to a big $12.50 freeroll win, LOL. I had never played 7-card stud in a tournament before and if I have played it at all it was a looooooong time ago, probably as part of a dealer's choice night with friends and I certainly didn't know how to play then.

Last night I did chop the first home game at Robin and Phil's so I was up $30 for the evening. I made a huge fold in the second game with AKo preflop and after checking ICM/Nash I confirmed it was correct to do so, given what I knew of my opponents ranges. I keep making great decisions but getting horrible results as I still bubbled it. Oh well.

Tonight I'm back at it on Full Tilt, maybe with a little bit from other sites thrown in for fun. We just can't give up now.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Can I Start June Over, Please?

Wow, horrid start to June so far as I've managed to cash 1 of 24 games so far (not counting KOs). I think I might have played one hand that I regretted the line I took, other than that its just a case of the run bads/ugly variance. At least I hope so. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win with KK vs. QJ more often than not however.

I did win the main tournament at Gator's Wednesday night and actually got a couple decent breaks there. Perhaps I just have bad timing since I'd much rather get the breaks when playing for money. Eh, maybe I ask too much.

Still, its been fun playing a mix of 90-man turbo KOs and those Rush MTTs and SNGs. I've run awful in the Rush games ever since they started but eventually my hands are gonna hold often enough to win a few.

I also think the latest tweak to my game is going to eventually pay off big time. After talking about some game theory with Jen earlier this week I've become a bit more aggressive with my opening hand selection once antes come into play as well as picking spots to open raise as opposed to shoving certain hands with certain short-but-not-too-short stack sizes. I've seen a difference in how I've maintained/accumulated chips in these spots and I can just imagine how it might help if I actually win a hand at showdown once in a while.

We'll have a full weekend coming up to try to get this thing turned around. All I know is its a good thing I'm practice good bankroll management... no panic here. While I can't play ant $55 MTTs at the moment I've seen enough to know I can play them well. I just have to earn my way back into them.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

On To June

May sucked overall. I was down more this month than any other month in my career. However, I'm not concerned. I understand the reasons why it happened so no panic will enter my mind.

The reasons? There are a couple. One, my volume was down so that gives me less opportunity to hit a big score. Two, I didn't play any single table SNGs again, those tend to flatten out the variance a bit. Three, since I'm playing all MTTs and larger-field games, large gaps between those nice scores can get pretty wide if you don't run well.

With all that in mind I understand how some online pros could start pulling their hair out when this goes on for a few weeks or months, espeically at the volume those guys might play. This is why having a cashout system makes it a bit easier to deal with. While those guys complain about not being able to pay for things if they don't hit a score, I could just keep plugging along. If I ever do play for a living I'm sure I could handle it... I think.

As I've said before, the only way to break out of a downswing is to keep playing. These next couple of months I'll be playing a good bit on Full Tilt so I can cash in on the mid-year Iron Man Bonus. It'll be tougher without the HUSTs but I should be able to pull it off. Assuming I make it I'll have a $300 or so bonus to clear in July... that'll mean a lotta poker for the next 60 days.

Seeing that my wife managed to convince me to book a short cruise for the end of October I'll need that extra money to pay for it. Naturally I was able to parlay this fact into the "need" to play that much more poker until then. Unlike May, where I had quite a few things impeding my play, this summer should now be wide open since I have a goal... and my wife knows it. Lets just hope I make something from it.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Tuesday Night results

Forgot to post this earlier... as usual. I did get to play some on Stars Tuesday night and it was a virtual wash, though I was $9 to the good overall. I had two sick bubbles in a couple of 180s, finished 19th in a $12 and 22nd in the $36 one I played. Ugh.

I did win a $12 45-man and tacked on a third in another, but that was all I managed. At least that was better than getting zilch. I'm really hoping that once this weekend is over with I'll be able to start back with a more consistant schedule as far as running these Stars sessions.

May hasn't been the greatest but its not over yet. Not sure I'll really get the chance to fully make up for it as I'll be away this weekend, however I will have the laptop with me in case the urge for online poker hits me too hard to deny. The Turbo Takedown is Sunday and I have the points for it, but I'm not sure I can get away THAT long. I plan on winning ya know.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Breaking Even

As the title says I pretty much broke even over the weekend, ended up down about $30 technically. I had a couple of "almosts", the most notable of which was a 6th in a $44 turbo on Stars that was good for about $505 or so. Unfortuneately that was the bulk of my winnings.

I came close, even real close, to a few more deep runs in a few other games but I either couldn't win the race or found a monster and forgot to suck out. May has been a down month for sure, in fact it'll be my worst one ever unless a good bit of serious run-good comes my way in the next week or so.

Despite this, I'm still in a great frame of mind. I played well all month, in fact I've had very few "OMG WTF do I do here" moments and even those I felt I handled very well and with no regrets. Maybe I could have played a few hands here and there a bit differently if I were given the chance, sure. Overall I really don't have a ting to complain about (other than the fact that I'm losing).

Outside of poker, we went to see the latest Shrek flick, it was enjoyable at the least. A couple of good moments for sure, we enjoyed it. I've started up with the bowling league that my wife's company has each summer also. I hadn't bowled since the last one ended in August but I held up fairly well, rolling a 189, 173, and a 183 for the night. Better than expected.

Tonight its off to Marc's place for some social poker for money, then tomorrow I'll hit up Stars in order to clear the rest of a bonus and hopefully erase some of May's losses while I'm at it. We'll see how that goes!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Is This Thing On?

Wow, been some time since I've posted on here! I've been pretty busy with other things outside of poker so this is why I haven't really been on here in the last few weeks. What I have played hasn't been noteworthy as I'm down for the month. However I feel I've continued to play well so I really can't complain about it too much.

I put in a good 30 game session last night and ended up down aout $300 overall but I came close a few times. A break here or a card there and I could have come out of this little downswing in a big way. I ended up 13th in the $33 Turbo on Full Tilt and 10th in a $44 Turbo on Stars while also taking 5th on Cake in the $22 Turbo Bounty. The first two in particular could have been really big if I could just win a hand deep.

I had a few other smaller cashes along the way but once again it was Poker Stars that really denied me anything special. No matter how well I'm playing it seems something always goes against me when I'm deep in a game there. Sure, 10th in that $44 game is pretty decent but I'd like to actually win something eventually. I have everywhere else, why not there? One day I'll get it.

I was going to play today as well but the life of a family man is never clear. Looks like I've somehow committed to other things and I'll miss out on the usual Sunday afternoon schedule. I might still play in the Pokerology freeroll but that's about it since I may need to leave the house at a moment's notice.

With luck I'll play some 180s this week and hopefully get a full weekend slate in as well. If I do I might just remember to post something again.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

More Fun Times

I managed to play about 30 or so games on Saturday and came out pretty happy with it all. I had a couple of deep runs, most notably in the Daily Double A on Full Tilt and the $27.50 turbo MTT on Stars. I made the final table in both but came out 4th and 9th respectively. I also FTed the $13 turbo MTT on Bodog for the second week in a row but ended up at 7th this time.

Played in the home games last night and also fared very well there, chopping the first game heads-up and outright winning the second one, both times against our friendly co-host Phil. We actually had 12(!) people for the first game... talk about a crowded table! All in all there weren't any problems though.

With jai-alai being finished, I suppose the wife and I will be heading to the movies for the next few Saturday mornings. Got plenty of stuff coming out that I personally wouldn't mind seeing. The Losers, Kick-Ass, Iron Man 2, the new Shrek, Robin Hood, and a few others I can't recall off the top of my head. Should be an entertaining summer of movies.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Catching Up

Wow, didn't realize it had been two weeks since I was here. I've been fairly busy with things like taxes, poker, homework and even the last weekend of jai-alai. Overall things have been good so don't fear the worse because of my absense here!

We'll skip anything about taxes except that I am getting a refund, yay. As far as jai-alai went we finally came out ahead, and by a good margin too! Maggie hit on a trifecta box bet and Marc and I also hit on a shared one. My friend and co-worker John came with us and he hit a couple bets as well. Good times.

OK, poker has been solid also. I've managed to grow the bankroll high enough that I've played my first $55 MTTs this past weekend, one of which I just missed cashing on, ugh. Anyway, I had a couple nice hits on Bodog with a win in the $11 Super Turbo at 2:30pm on week for about $150 and a win in the $13 turbo $2K GTD this past weekend that was worth $600. I also nabbed second in the $35 turbo there ($448) and also had some good cashes sprinkled around most of the other sites.

I've also tried to take time to review some of my games and see if I can't get a little better at taking advantage of leverage situations late in the 45 and 180-man games. I think the biggest adjustments I need to make is just learning with of the players are good regulars and how they would respond to different spots. Also, I feel ICM comes into play a little differently than I'm accustomed to since I'm really more tuned to a 9-player SNG. Speaking of those, I haven't played the first one of those games this whole month... I wonder if its time I left those behind.

OK, that should catch everything up. I'll see if I can't do a better job of keeping this updated now that I'm back on a more normal schedule.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Simple Update

I have been playing my HUSTs but really not much else this week. I elected to throw in two 7.50STx45 and a 15STx45 games yesterday to mix it up since they don't take all that long to play. I busted the two 7.50s but I won the 15 for $240. Yay! I think I won as an underdog vs two players when all-in at least twice in the win. I also managed to 66>88 6-handed but almost found a way to blow it HU but I got it done somehow. I'll take it any way I can.

I've been busy screwing with Camtasia and took the last couple of nights to record a review of the hand history of that MTT win I had on Saturday. All of them are going to end up being posted on www.pokerology.com via YouTube, so if you have any interest at all listening to an idiot babble about poker, be my guest. I'm really doing it for my own benefit since reviewing games and such is something I should be doing. As it turns out I think I found at least a few spots that I could have played differently or learn from so I'm glad I did it.

Tonight I might get to play, but I wouldn't be surprised if I won't be able to until Saturday. I have a couple freerolls then and I'm looking to put in a full day and night of games. Maybe something interesting will happen again!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Chugging Along

Made it through another weekend and I did manage to play a good amount of poker again. I think I ended up playing about 50 games and came out with a profit, which is always nice. The one that made the weekend was on UB where I won a MTT for $750 on Saturday. This was one of the promotional MTTs from their Leaderboard Challenge. I doubt I'll be able to play anywhere near enough of these to qualify high enough to get anything for it but with a win already under my belt, who knows.

I've also continued to play around with Camtasia, which is the program I'm using to make the videos. Pretty neat little gadget to use to film what is on your computer screen. I'm letting Pokerology host whatever I record so if you wanna take a look, be my guest. I'm by no means claiming to know what I'm doing or talking about but its been a lot of fun doing it.

In other news, I thought "Clash Of The Titans" was good but not great, we did win a bet at jai-alai again (but still burned money overall) and I've just come to the realization that I really should go ahead and do my tax return. Ugh.

Friday, April 2, 2010

My Video Is Up

The video is nothing special, I just did it to do it. I just explained how I do my cashouts using Jennifear's system and showed the spreadsheet for it. I had to cut it down to under 10 minutes so I just winged it quickly but it came out pretty well considering the lack of planning.

If you want to see it the video is in a post on www.pokerology.com under http://www.pokerology.com/forums/sng-mtt-strategy/2040-bankroll-cashout-system-video.html#post14085 this link (if that works). I'm hoping to get a video of me playing some up soon but we'll have to see about that.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Grinded Out SilverStar, Yay!

The past two nights I concentrated on grinding out on Stars so I could reach SilverStar and had fun doing so. I ended up just the slightest bit down overall for the two sessions. The biggest blow was the last 180-man game I was in last night. I made the money and had a decent chip stack. What was even better was that I had everyone to my left covered, all of which had no more than about 11BB stacks. I couldn't ask for better.

So, it folds to me in the SB, I shove trash, he folds. That's one. Folds to me on the button and I shove 97o, both blinds fold. Two. Folds to me again and I go with ATh, another pot for three. Folds to me again with KJo and I shove, all fold. Four. We are six-handed now and I get to open for the fifth time in a row... with AA! I get called by 77 and *whack* he flops a set on me. Finally someone took a stand when I had the goods and STILL I can't take advantage, LOL. I ended up limping into the final table in 9th and that's where I ended up when I shoved K2 into 88 SB vs BB at the end. Meh.

Tonight I'm going to try and edit a couple of videos that I made. Yep, that's right. I recorded the last 30 minutes or so of my Tuesday night set for all to see. I did it for fun but there are quite a few spots that I believe can make for great discussion. Tim from www.pokerology.com is going to see about posting it thru his site so I'll post something here when that happens in case you wanna hear me bitch, moan, and cry about getting beat.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Big Weekend Report, End of March 2010 Edition

As I hoped I was able to play quite a bit this weekend and things came out fairly well. All in all I played in 74 events, including all of the small majors on Sunday. Those didn't go too well except for a min-cash in the $11 bounty on Cake. One day I'll make a run in one of these... just don't know when.

I did have a couple "almosts" as it were. On Saturday I took second in a $27.50 MTT on UB for $412 and on Sunday I was second in the 4:50pm $5.50 turbo on FTP for $677 or so. That last one was a bit heartbreaking as I fought from being 9th at the final table all the way to about eliminating my opponent heads-up, but he sucked out on my 3 straight times to come back and win. Considering that I could have been knocked out well before that point myself I can't be too upset though.

I had a couple other spots come close, took 5th in a 6.60 bounty on UB for about $200 and a number of other cashes as well. I ended up placing 18th in the weekly SNG TLB on UB also, that was worth $20 for me. Overall I think I put in close to 24 total hours in over the two days... was fun times.

In other news, on Friday night we actually won once at jai-alai so not all the money I brought with me got thrown into that gasoline fire. Monday I took the family to a place in Orlando called The Fun Spot, which is really just a carnival thing that took up a permanent address. Their big selling point are the four multi-level go-cart tracks. Cameron enjoyed himself though and that's what counts.

Tonight and tomorrow night I will be hitting Stars heavy as I want to make Silver Star. I'll probably concentrate on the 45-man turbos but I'm sure I'll add a few 180-mans because I like them. I think I need about 43 total games over the two nights and I should be able to do it without any trouble. Wish me luck!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Big Weekend

Nothing special is coming up this weekend but since I'll be taking Monday off from work I'll be able to play all the "mini-Majors" on Sunday. I haven't really fared all that well in them to date but its still fun to try. Plus I'll play most of my normal schedule and I'll also have a good chunk of Saturday to play as well. I'd estimate that I'll get into at least 50 games, probably 60+ over the weekend.

Played a few SNGs earlier this week, Tuesday night wasn't great as I only nabbed a second out of six games. However, last night was pretty good. I got in 16 games and won three, got second five times and ended up third in two others. I don't know what it is but I can't seem to hold with the best hand heads-up in those things lately.

Since I did pretty well over that set I'm in position to take a shot at winning some TLB prizes. I have a 6-game set left to try and improve on both the weekly and the monthly boards so hopefully I can get a solid set in. I think I'll try to do that tonight after.... jai-alai. Ugh, I know. Again. Why I do this to myself I have no clue. Well, yes I do. My wife likes going. Who am I to dare say no?

I'm kidding of course. I like getting out and doing stuff like this, even though I could better serve society by donating that burned cash to the Red Cross or something. Then again maybe some degen (other than me) at the fronton could use it. :)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Fun With Aces

I played a couple friendlies over at Marc's place last night and experienced both the highs and the lows of holding pocket aces. Here is how each hand went down.

In the first game with blinds sitting at 75/150, I sat on the button with AA when Phillip raised from the hijack. The stack sizes were absolutely perfect to flat call in this spot, so I did. To my surprise, Bob in the SB then shoved all-in! Things couldn't be better! Phillip wisely folded and I ended up facing Bob's KK. Naturally he hit the K on the turn and knocked me out. Ooof. I harassed Bob with fake threats and curses for the reminder of the evening, LOL.

To the second game. I was faring much better as I was the chip leader with only three of us left. Since we only pay out two spots I was in a favorable position. Marc was to my left and quite short in third... I would rather have him in second so I can beat the hell out of his big blind, but we can't be picky.

So, on the button I push an Ace-rag hand. Marc then says, "I'm looking for one of two hands here", looks at his cards and quickly says "call". Robin folds and my hand loses to Marc's pocket kings. Since he was so short to begin with Marc is stayed in third and I have still Robin covered by about 2000 chips.

The very next hand Marc looks at his hand on the button and tanks. Lamenting on how close he thinks it is, he finally elects to go all-in on my big blind. Robin then goes all-in also! Whhhhhhaaaaat? Knowing her I figured he has to be hugegantic there so I naturally pick up Marc's line and say "I'm looking for one of two hands here" and peek at my cards.

"Holy shit, I call!"

I flip over aces and hold against Marc's KJo and Robin's tens to win. Easy game.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Reversal Of Fortune

I haven't played all that much in the last couple of weeks but when I have its been brutal. Standard variance, yada yada. I know it happens. Times like this can wear on you if you aren't careful and everyone feels it in some regard. Taking some time to do some reading probably was a good idea considering how I'd been running lately so I'm glad the timing of it worked out that way. Still, I was eager to get a full slate of games in this weekend.

I had a couple of freerolls to play from the rakeback site so I started around 2:30 on Staurday. Got in plenty of games and just concentrated on playing well as always. As it turns out, I was able to get few things to go my way and I ended up hitting a huge score by winning a $22 turbo MTT on Full Tilt for $2030! My big hands were holding, I was winning the races and when I did lose a hand it didn't cripple me. I was so excited about winning that my hands started shaking, LOL!

I had other games going so I recovered my senses quickly. I ran well in a few others and such but nothing huge happened until Sunday, where I took 6th in another rakeback site freeroll for $270 there. I feel like I stole about $160 of that since I lost a big hand early at the final table, dropping to 9th. However I folded my way around and three players got knocked out before I did... pretty fortunate for me!

Now my bankroll is at an all-time high but I still have a long way to go before hitting some of my goals. Tonight is the fun home game and I'll get in a set of SNGs on UB on Tuesday (I haven't played those in about two weeks, I'm behind). Wednesday I'll do some more reading and then play the rest of the week. Well, except for Friday night... damn jai-alai has me by the balls. :)

Friday, March 19, 2010

More Reading Than Playing Again

I finished up the new PXB book (it was good, not great) and I'm not currently reading some other material that was given to me as well. This means that I haven't played too much lately. I did play on Tuesday and bubbled the mFTOPS $22 turbo while taking a goose egg on everything else I played also. Running bad stinks.

This weekend will be a full one though, I have a couple more freerolls and I'll also hit all my favorite MTTs along the way. Should get in 50+ games overall, maybe more if I decide to grind 180-mans on Sunday. Monday will be the home game again, where I'm reallllly overdue... yes, I'm running horrible "live" too.

Hopefully I'll pick up something useful in all this reading I'm doing. I have a feeling that the stuff I'm reading right now will take a few reviews or rereads before I can properly apply any of it. It has more to do with deep stack cash games than MTTs, but I've already seen stuff in this that would make me a better player with deep stacks post-flop. I just hope I can do it right.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Quick Update

Since I've been reading that book I haven't really thought about updating the blog. I'm almost finished with it but I'll probably go thru it again to review a few points I wanted to review.

I did take time to play this past weekend but other than a 3rd in a Bodog $11 turbo MTT not much went my way. I played well but its tough to win when your big pair get cracked or you bump into them and don't suck out. I did have a good run in the One-A-Day Freeroll on FTP Saturday, finished 17th out of 1400+ runners... for $7.50 in prize money. Wow. At least the experience was good... its not often you get that deep in such a large field.

I'll be playing the $22 turbo mFTOPS event at 9pm tonight so I'll likely run and bunch of 45s and 180s on Stars while I do. Wednesday I'll hopefully finish off my book and then we'll hit the SNGs on UB Thursday and possibly Friday... unless my wife drags me to jai-alai again. She doesn't even bet that much, she just lies going. Now if I can convince her that poker is more fun (and profitable!) I'll have something good.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Another Weekend In The Books

Was a fun weekend by any standard, and even a little profitable as well. We'll run down the highlights of the weekend past here and then we'll get into what the future could bring.

Friday night was jai-alai night with my friend Marc, my wife Maggie and my son Cameron. Other than Marc's win I simply burned money (as predicted) but its always fun yelling at the players and what-not. Good times. We'll go again this Friday, true degenerates we are. Hopefully I'll get to meet up with Vincent, another one of Jen's student/friends.

I did manage to play some SNGs on Friday night and about broke even. I did improve to 15th on the weekly TLB with my efforts so it was worth the time. More on the TLB thingy later.

Saturday morning the clan went to go see Alice In Wonderland (in 3D of course) and I came away satisfied. Is it the best movie ever? No. Was it worth seeing in the theater? Yes it was. I thought they did a good job with casting all the parts and voices... it all worked for me.

The rest of my Saturday was poker. I mixed in more SNGs with the other MTTs I wanted to play and got a nice bit of volume in. While I didn't make a killing with the SNGs I did manage to creep up to 8th in the TLB. That was good for a $50 prize. As far as my MTTs went I had a few "almosts", a 3rd in a $11 super-turbo on Bodog, another 3rd in a $13 turbo there, and also took 4th out of about 400 runners in the $2 turbo rebuy on Full Tilt. I had a couple of other cashes here and there, including a 31st in a $27.50 MTT on UB. Overall I came out ahead... not by a huge margin but its in the correct direction.

Sunday was some more poker but I kept it fairly small. I cashed a couple times here and there but nothing big. I played in the mFTOPS Turbo Warmup and bubbled and also bubbled another MTT on Bodog. I was gonna play some SNGs on UB but too many regulars/grinders were out and I saw no need to fight them for anything. Having two of them in a game is not a big deal but four of even five? Why? I'll wait for the donks to play.

Tonight is an off night assuming I get to play in a home game, if not I'll try some SNGs on UB again. I'm hoping my new book shows up in the mail though and if it does I'll be making time for that this week so my volume could take a hit. However, this weekend will be quite busy with the poker with a few freeroll events I'm qualified for and a mFTOPS event on Sunday. Could be a lot of fun!

Friday, March 5, 2010

Yay Me!

The last two nights I decided to play on Stars like I had planned. Wednesday night didn't go great as all I did was min-cash a couple of times over 12 games of the 45 and 180-man games, I think I played six of each and cashing in one of each as well. Played well, had a couple fun spots that didn't work out well in the end but overall just another typical losing session.

Thursday night was better. I played 16 games, all but 4 were 45-man games. However I made the final table in two of the four 180-man games... and won for the first time! Took me long enough but I finally got the first one. The other finish was just a 9th but still it was a good feeling to go deep in two of them. As far as the 45-man games I had a couple vicious bubbles but I did scrap out a 3rd and a 7th along the way. Overall it was a success, that's for sure... but a $594 win tends to help.

I also played a single SNG on UB with Marc and ended up winning it, extending my cash streak to six. The plan today is to get in a set of about 6-8 games this afternoon after I visit the chiropractor. After that we are off to dinner and then to the jai-alai fronton again to burn some money. Really, it would be easier just to take some bills and simply light them on fire but admittedly its not as much fun as watching some dudes with funny-looking curved contraptions strapped to their hands give you false hope that you might actually win something.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Tuesday SNG Night

Seemed like a good night to sit down and play some SNGs on UB last night since I didn't see very many of the "regulars" out there. As usual I started a little slow but ended up doing fairly well. I played 15 games, winning three and taking second in five more.

I don't know what it is lately, but until these three wins I had lost ten (!) straight HU portions of these SNGs. Almost every single time I've had at least one chance to win outright and nearly every time (maybe EVERY time?) I was favored in the hand. Pretty sick to be able to manage to lose all of them in those spots. Anyway, I have won the last three out of four of those so at least I know I can win.

Got a few nice "trophies" last night from a couple of fish/nits, one guy asked me why I "didn't just call and see a flop" when I shoved with QQ over his late-position raise (I lost the race to his AKo). Two other guys commented on how "dumb" I was to shove T9s in a very obvious shove-like-its-my-real-job spot, blind vs. blind, on the bubble of another game. Guy called me with A6o, which was pretty dumb if he even had a clue about ICM or thought I would be much tighter than T9s, and lost. He managed to finish third somehow after being crippled. I won this one for those keeping score.

The last comment I got was a compliment. Heads up in one of the victories "she" said that I had "a really nice (Sharkscope) graph". Hmmm. I say its a girl because of the pic (it was "real", not a professional/magazine/whatever pic), she plays tight/passive (ok, so I just stereotyped this person, sorry Jen!) and also I based this on a few other things I saw her say in the chat box. Either its a girl or someone doing a GREAT job with a number of reverse tells... I'm sold.

Anyway, looks like I'll do another set of at least 15 games on Thursday, especially since I cashed in my last five in a row. That has the potential for a very good 20 consecutive game score for the weekly TLB... in fact I'm not too bad off now since I can pretty much toss the first four games of this set. Hopefully I'll start off really well this time and keep it up... I'd love to post a big score for the monthly TLB also.

Monday, March 1, 2010

March Goals

Jen said she wanted to compare goals for March and I said I'd post them on my blog.

1. More SNG and MTT volume. This is where the money is and I need to go get it. The cutting down of the HUST time will help and this is the main reason I'm doing it.

2. Read the new PXF book. I can't remember the name of it (Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand At A Time? Maybe.) but the first one was excellent. A second one is now out and Amazon should be shipping it to me this week. I'm going to make time to read it.

3. I want to put in more volume in the 180-man SNGs. I'll also try to play a decent about of the 45-man ones as well.

Outside of that I'll try to keep doing what I'm doing.

Weekend Report Time

I played a bit but not as much as some other weekends past. I did manage to get in some SNGs on UB and solidify my standing on the monthly TLB so I'll be in the freeroll. I also finished off my HUSTs when needed. Overall February wasn't great but I feel I played well. The SNGs were solid but I never did land enough strong MTT scores this time around.

Saturday I had a couple family related things going on so my volume got hurt by that, however it was worth it. Life>Poker and all that ya know. My wife and I went to see "Shutter Island" and I think it was the best movie I've seen since "The Dark Knight". I can argue its a better movie but we are comparing apples and oranges here so I won't say that. I'm not going to compare this movie to anything else, you just need to go and see it for yourself.

Sunday I went to go play in a quarterly tournament for one of the local poker leagues. They have free games in some of the bars, etc. in the area and I managed to play a few and win a couple times so I was invited. It was a "weighed" tournament were people who play more (and generally win more) get more chips. I thought of it as a handicap since, to be honest, most of them are fish.

Anyway, they split it up into two days and each day has about 200+ players in it so its not small. Only the final 11 wins anything so its a very top-heavy payout so you gotta get in there and find any good spot to pick up some chips. I found such a spot fairly early when I got all my chips in with AKs on a QT9 board that had two spades on it... but I bricked out and busted. Would have more than tripled my stack if I had caught, but no one ever accused me of hitting draws.

One of the sponsors of the event was Deep Stacks Unviersity, an online training/teaching site that started last year. The guy that started it is from the area and he has managed to partner with Mike Matasow. He also has a few big name instructors, one of which is T.J. Cloutier. He was there signing a few autographs and was also "entered" into the tournament as a bounty prize... he got busted before I did.

I'm not big on following poker players but I did go shake his hand and chatted briefly with him. He seemed to be enjoying himself and as far as I know no one asked him about the WSOP bracelet of his that was supposedly in a pawn shop in Texas somewhere. Maybe its true but I decided not to bring it up. :)

Tonight is a home game at Marc's so we'll have some fun with that. The rest of the week will be hitting the online felt. I'm cutting down on the HUST volume so I can more easily bring up the SNG/MTT volume now. I've already played them for today (I went 16-13 so we're up!) and it was easy to do this morning. I'm going to like getting those completed quickly, I can already tell.

Friday, February 26, 2010

A Quick Update

The HUSTs have been brutal but after reviewing them I can see that I'm getting in with the best of it too often for it to continue. I'm happy with the way I'm playing them so sooner or later they will turn back around. Its happened before as just before this bad swing I had a full week of positive sessions.

On Wednesday I played on Stars and again caught the worst of it. I bubbled at least 4 times (depending on where the bubble really is, maybe more) but I did escape with a win in one of the 15 45-man games I played. I also scrapped out a 4th in another. Unfortunately I was shut out in all five of the 180-man games.

Last night I went back to UB for some SNGs and had decent results, except HU. I played 11 games and got heads-up in four of them, had the chip-lead and the best hand AIPF at least once in all of those but still managed to lose them all. Still, coupled those with two thirds and it was still a positive night. I'm now fairly solidly in the top 100 for the monthly TLB (like 57th) so I should qualify for the freeroll pretty easily. I might have an outside shot at the weekly if things go right so I'll probably give SNGs one last turn tonight.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Rethinking My Plan Again

The biggest worries I had when I made my plan were these. First was time. I solved that by pretty much just letting myself play without so much structure and its worked out well.

The second concern I had was the HUSTs. Not the actual game play itself, I'm really comfy playing them and I have pretty much all the ranges I need memorized so I can take time to observe any tendencies my opponents may have and adjust. This month as gone OK since I've gotten to this point so its not results I've been worried about... its the grind.

I knew it was a simple game to play but man, it takes too high of a percentage of my time. The payout is nice, I sure generate a good chunk of it and if I actually played more hours per week (like a pro would) then I don't think I'd notice. But right now I feel its taking away too much time that I could be playing other things.

I'm not sure we could call it "boredom". But the game is pretty bland when you play over 100 a night, every night. I like the fact that it is a simple way to make Iron Man on FTP, but I'm really wondering if its worth the time investment in them. If I were playing 50+ hours a week like a "pro" probably would then yeah, I can see it as a small part of the overall plan. But as it stands now I think running as many as I do now just isn't optimal for my time.

What I think I'll do is finish out the month at my current pace. In March, I'll cut back on the HUST play, maybe just enough to qualify for the lowest level of Iron Man (Bronze). Even on the mornings I don't really have "time" I'll have time to do that and if I don't it still won't be a big deal in the evening.

I think this will open up my evenings to be able to get an extra set of SNGs or 180s in on the nights I play. I'll have time for dinner, a walk, homework help, and whatever else I might have to do. Plus the "normal" games are a bit more fun to play. My cashouts might go down a little but I think the bottom line will be better too... and maybe that's more important anyway.

Speaking of normal games, I did get in 12 SNGs on UB last night and came out OK... had a win, three seconds, and two thirds. I thought I made the weekly TLB last week but it ends up I finished 21st by exactly .01 points.... are you kidding me? How did the rounding work out in the math to do that? Uuuughhhhh! LOL

Tonight I'm looking at a session on Stars for the 180s and 45s, I've already played half of the HUSTs set so I should be able to get in a good amount of games in.... which is the idea. I gotta win a 180-man soon... I can feel it.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Catching Up

Going into the last week of February and it looks like I'm a little behind on a couple volume goals. I still need to get in two strong sets of SNGs on UB and at least two sets of multi-table SNGs on Stars to get to where i wanna be. The good news is I already have that planned. I'm just hoping other stuff doesn't get in the way (like homework help or whatever).

This weekend was a mixed bag. I didn't play much on Saturday but what I did play went well. I found time to play some SNGs on UB since I was in reach for the weekly TLB. Two wins, a second and two thirds out of seven games was enough to earn 20th place, which was the last payout spot on the board. Its only worth $20 but everything counts. I'm now looking to work toward making the top 100 foe the monthly.

Outside of winning the Pokerology freeroll not much else was positive. I had a 5th in a 180-man for a decent score but not much else. Played a good bit on Sunday though and I played well so that is all that matters really.

Tonight I was invited to a home game so I'll be in that, the rest of the week I'll be grinding online.

Friday, February 19, 2010

The Winning Streak Ends

Last night I had my first losing set of HUSTs in about a week... rats. Still it was a nice run and one that I needed for my own sanity.

I ran short of time again but I did get in six 45-man turbo SNGs on Stars, only cashing in a $6.50 one for $12. The worst finish I had was 17th and I also had a 9th and a 12th in there also. A couple more breaks here and there and we might have done something big... maybe next time.

No HUSTs tonight, probably no poker at all in fact as we are gonna go to Opening Day... of jai-alai! Yep, I'm gonna go make extremely -EV bets on shit I know nothing about and see if I get lucky. Now THAT'S gambling!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Sidetracked

The kid needed homework help tonight so my planned set of 180-man SNGs got moved back to tonight. I managed to get in six SNGs, winning one and taking third in another. The HUSTs went decently as well.

I did have a strange occurance in the SNGs though. I had 5 tables up and I tile them on my laptop screen so none of the tables overlap. On one table I had QQ in the BB and got all-in, lost the hand. No big deal. The little box comes up that I went out in 6th, blah blah ok. I closed that box and found another one. Huh? I wasn't in a hand anywhere else. I go look and see that I had gone all-in on another table too!

Now, I didn't even see what hand I had on that table yet (it was A3c) but as it ends up I shoved over a raise and got looked up by AQ and busted. I was in good shape in this SNG (3rd out of 6 with maybe 2500 chips at 75/150) so I certainly didn't need to make a move. How did this happen? Did I miss the guy's raise and shove on the BB? I was the SB but the BB had about the same stack and I'm sure I wouldn't have shoved blind on blind with that big of stacks. So I'm wondering if UB had a glitch that had me make the same action on multiple tables.

I emailed UB but they found nothing, not that I thought they would. They were still nice enough to credit me half of the buy-in so I have T$11 to use. Still, I wonder what happened here. I'm confident I didn't do it intentionally and I just don't see how I could have accidently either. I guess I'll just be even more careful.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Tuesday SNGs

Started the evening off by putting in a good set of HUSTs and also a min-cash in a Super-Turbo Knockout MTT on Full Tilt. After dinner and a walk I sat down to play some SNGs on UB. I was hoping to get in about 15-18 but I only played 11 games.

The results of those games were good, I won two and took third in three others with all the cashes coming in the final seven I played. With that in mind I'll hope to have a good run in the next 13 I play this week so I can make a run at the weekly TLB (which takes your best 20 consecutive results in a given week).

Tonight I plan on playing the 180-man games on Stars and if I'm online in time I may also play the $16.50 turbo on Bodog and even the $2.20 turbo rebuy on FTP... we'll see.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Meanwhile....

... the rest of the extended weekend wasn't all bad.

On Friday I shipped two small MTTs. Saturday started off horrible but I took 3rd in the Bodog $35 turbo and 2nd in a $26 turbo knockout 90-man SNG. I had a few other cashes, a 9th in the $33 turbo on Cake being the other 3-figure score. All in all I played 49 games and profited around $250 or so.

Sunday and Monday were much slower, other than that Million all I did was play my HUSTs but both sets were on the plus side.

Tonight I will finally play some SNGs on UB as I really need to pick up the pace there. I'm in the mood for some action there so hopefully things will go well.

In other news, I'm on a 22-game winning streak with my team in NHL 10. I'm a right winger/power forward type so I basically camp in front of the net when I'm not filling the slot on the rush. I also get to try and pin opponents to the glass since I also have a high "checking" rating... its fun when you hurt people on the boards too. :)

Sunday, February 14, 2010

That Didn't Take Long

As you may recall, I was to play the Sunday Million today. See exhibit "A" below:

PokerStars Game #39756554374: Tournament #284020010, $200+$15 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level II (50/100) - 2010/02/14 16:46:29 ET
Table '284020010 473' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: lubor74 (10025 in chips)
Seat 2: mmoermans (6860 in chips)
Seat 3: RyckyRych (9580 in chips)
Seat 4: davyg (9700 in chips)
Seat 5: Marijo03 (8600 in chips)
Seat 6: inhidonks (10600 in chips)
Seat 7: Apt555 (9725 in chips)
Seat 8: eeeooor (10360 in chips)
Seat 9: Qsypal (14550 in chips)
inhidonks: posts small blind 50
Apt555: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RyckyRych [8d 8s]
eeeooor: raises 200 to 300
Qsypal: folds
lubor74: folds
mmoermans: folds
RyckyRych: calls 300
davyg: folds
Marijo03: folds
inhidonks: folds
Apt555: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [Tc Ts Qh]
Apt555: checks
eeeooor: checks
RyckyRych: checks
*** TURN *** [Tc Ts Qh] [8c]
Apt555: checks
eeeooor: bets 500
RyckyRych: calls 500
Apt555: folds
*** RIVER *** [Tc Ts Qh 8c] [Kc]
eeeooor: bets 1900
RyckyRych: raises 2850 to 4750
eeeooor: raises 4810 to 9560 and is all-in
RyckyRych: calls 4030 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (780) returned to eeeooor
*** SHOW DOWN ***
eeeooor: shows [Kh Ks] (a full house, Kings full of Tens)
RyckyRych: shows [8d 8s] (a full house, Eights full of Tens)
eeeooor collected 19510 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 19510 | Rake 0
Board [Tc Ts Qh 8c Kc]
Seat 1: lubor74 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: mmoermans folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: RyckyRych showed [8d 8s] and lost with a full house, Eights full of Tens
Seat 4: davyg folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Marijo03 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: inhidonks (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: Apt555 (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 8: eeeooor showed [Kh Ks] and won (19510) with a full house, Kings full of Tens
Seat 9: Qsypal folded before Flop (didn't bet)

So much for that idea.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Big Weekend Has Started

Saturday is here, which might just be the biggest day of poker I've played to date, we'll see just how much I get in after we're done.

Yesterday I ended up taking a half-day off from work and I decided to play a few small MTTs while waiting for everyone to get home from school/work. I didn't play a ton but I did do well. I won two, a $5.50 turbo bounty on Carbon that had 42 players and the $5.50 turbo on UB with 53 entrants. Both scores were only about $70 but they were fun games to play. I also took 3rd in a $15 super-turbo 45-man on FTP for $100 and had a min-cash in a $13 turbo on Cake. Not bad for eight games.

The HUSTs were also decent, was up about $30 for the games I played. I'm gonna try to get a few in now before I start entering all the MTTs I wanna play so I'll end this entry right here. I'll try to update how things went tomorrow if I have time before the Sunday Million gets going. Good Luck to everyone playing this weekend!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Something Different

Last night I decided to try something that I've been wanting to do for a while now and that was the super-turbo 45-man SNGs on Full Tilt. I figured I could get in 15-20 of them relatively quickly and I like my push-fold game too. The one thing I forgot to do was run well, I only cashed twice in 20 games. The beats are brutal in those things! People generally call too light (which is good in the long run) but I get tried of losing to their 3-outters after a while. :)

The other half of my session was the 7.25 HUSTs and I was slightly up on those. Still my overall downswing continues for February. Things can change pretty fast in this game and I've seen it first hand several times in just the last few months. However my bankroll is down close to $1000 from the start of the month so I could use a break or two to go my way.

Tonight I really should play my SNGs on UB and in a way I'm kinda looking forward to it, so I probably will. I'll try to get in about 15 or so and maybe we'll do some damage on the TLB at the same time.