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!

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. :)

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.

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. :)

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.