Poker - It's Life

2005-11-29T20:55:00.000-05:00

Everyone Loves Graphs

I stopped my sng challenge and moved back to ring, only this time I'm at the 6max games. Below is a graph of my first 10k hands at the 6max NL games. Poker Tracker logs me at 7.13 PTbb/100 and I usually 4-6 tables which is why I've been able to log 10k hands in 5 days (says 13 but thats just when the DB was created).

2005-10-29T21:37:00.000-04:00

Battlefield Poker (Prima Network)

Incase you hadn't noticed I've added my own Battlefield Poker banner above. As soon as you click the link and register an account you automatically begin receiving 35% of your rakeback! As a super-affiliate to Battlefield I'm able to offer such a high percentage. Near the bottom of the battlefield interface is a button called Poker Action and inside this section you can view the amount of rake you generated and the 35% which is yours. You can cashout your rake once a day if you want! If you're a high volume player looking to play on Prima you can contact me at support@highestrb.com and we can work out a better deal!

If you refer a friend you get a piece of their rakeback also and you can set your own rate! You can give your friend 25% and keep 11% for yourself or give them the same offer of 35% and keep 1% for yourself, up to you.

2005-10-23T16:25:00.000-04:00

Out in 1369th

Dealt to z0d1ac [6h 6c]
z0d1ac: calls 15
Ribs: raises 1330 to 1360 and is all-in Obviously he doesn't have much
*** FLOP *** [2s 3c 4h]
*** TURN *** [2s 3c 4h] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [2s 3c 4h 8d] [Td]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
z0d1ac: shows [6h 6c] (a pair of Sixes)
Ribs: shows [Ac 5h] (a straight, Ace to Five)
BigSlickNut said, "wow"
Ribs collected 2720 from pot

EDIT: Turns out the guy I was supposed to eliminate, Ribs, went on to get 3rd out of nearly 1500 and win a 24' LCD! Hah!

2005-10-19T16:57:00.000-04:00

Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure

So I haven't been playing too much poker lately since I've been too consumed in making HighestRB.com. I am however planning on returning to my SnG challenge very soon. I played a set of 4 yesterday and won 2 of them, took my little profit and finished for the night, quick hit and run. I'll probably end up resuming the challenge this weekend and I think I can fit in at least another 250 by the end of the month.

Next month I'm going to start concentrating on trying to win a seat into the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure (PCA). A friend of mine won the $170 double shootout yesterday and two others are going either way so I think I am too. I'd really like to take a vacation from this place. I've been going to school since January without a break and going down to the caribbean would just be great. At least I know that if I don't win a seat into the tournament, I can at least crash in my friends hotel room. So wish me luck that I win a seat and save myself some money, and see you in the caribbean!

2005-10-17T21:25:00.000-04:00

HighestRB.com Opening

I'm pleased to announce the opening of HighestRB.com. It has taken me awhile to program all the background coding but is now complete and running. If you play online poker and do not have any kind of rake back plan you're definately missing out on a lot of extra money you could be making. HighestRB.com offers many poker rooms including the brand new Ultimate Bet skin, PokerShare. Not only do you receive your rakeback from HighestRB.com but you also receive a share of the profit PokerShare makes depending on how many points you earn. The more you play the more you earn.

HighestRB.com - Get Back Whats Yours! Please visit the site for more information and contact me if you have any questions.

2005-10-13T23:24:00.000-04:00

Pokerstars Blog Tournament!

Just found out about this tournament. Looks like its going to be a real hit.

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

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 1761362

2005-10-13T23:17:00.000-04:00

Working Hard

I've been working quite hard the past couple of days working on my affiliate site and it's still going to take awhile before its fully up and running. I'll be renting some server space and buying a domain soon also. I'd like to make the site as automated as possible, after everything is done I don't want to have to do lots of work updating stats constantly. It'll become a real hassle especially if the player base grows very large.

In poker news, my STT challenge is going quite poorly. While my ITM is not too bad at around 38%, my 1st and 2nd place finishes continue to slack. I've completed a bit over 250 SnGs and am currently in the minus. My profit chart looks like a roller coaster, it is constantly going up and down...and up and down. The bad run of cards and horrible suckouts are taking their toll on me so I'm taking a little break. I will definately finish the challenge but for the next few days I'm going to concentrate on getting as much of the site coded as possible. When I hit my half way mark of 500 SnGs I'll post my full stats and charts here. Hopefully by then my results turn around.

2005-10-07T16:34:00.000-04:00

Thanksgiving Weekend

It's thanksgiving weekend and I took a couple days off of school to come home early. I took the early morning train yesterday, arrived home 5 hours later and spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping. I won't be playing as much poker this weekend but look forward to playing a ton when I get back. I've logged around 150 SnGs so far and I must say that my results are quite swingy but I look forward to seeing the end result when I've completed the full 1000 tournies. I've noticed a trend in my placing though and that is that I end up in 3rd place way too much and don't have nearly as many 1st and 2nd like I should. I know that I have been a little unfortunate and deserved some higher placing when I've reached the money but I'm sure it'll even out soon enough. My 3rd place finishes count for 25% of my total placing, while 1st and 2nds are around 7-8%. Brutal, eh? I'm not sure if I'll be able to complete all 1000 by the end of the month since I'm spending almost a week here at home where I won't be playing nearly as much as I would be. I'll keep posting with my progress though.

After Thanksgiving weekend I'll begin designing and coding my rake back site. After looking over many of the other websites I've noticed that many affiliates take quite a chunk off the top. Many of them are earning up to 35% but giving back only 25%. All poker players are looking for any additional income they can get their hands on, and if you're not playing with rakeback you're making a mistake. I plan to give a much larger % back to the player, if not THE largest among the popular rakeback sites. Currently I'm signed up under my own affiliate for Party Poker and receiving 20% since I'm the only user. I saw how much more can be earned (30%+) and decided it would be best to start my own affiliate on other sites for myself as well as other poker players that are looking for a better deal. I have some friends who are big players and I know they'll be helping me kick it off when its done. I'll post any updates on the site as well. I hope it'll work out great.

2005-10-04T03:31:00.000-04:00

SURPRISE!

I'm alive and doing well! I've been looking at some old blogs as of late again, mainly Poker Chronicles and DoubleAs. They were always my favourite writers, and get this, they both have a book coming out. I'm not sure if anyone even reads this site anymore, I know I've been taken off many fellow bloggers sites since it has been inactive over the summer time.

I'm still playing poker but with a much smaller bankroll (still quite big though). I've recently started a STT quest and look forward to seeing my results. I'll also post them for anyone still here to see. I plan on starting off by playing 1000 $20+2 STTs. My new Eurobet account with rakeback has been setup and, along with 4 tables at Party, I can 8 table until the quest is done. I figure I can get in around 40 STTs a day and plan to finish the quest at the end of October. While I easily have the bankroll to play the $100+$9's, I'd really like to start off slower. I have a lot to learn about STTs since it's a completely different game than the ring games I've been playing since I first started poker. If there are any SnG'ers that play the Party games in the $20 range leave a comment and I'd love to go over some games, even sweat you as you play. As my quest progresses I'll post the results here. I import all tournies to PokerTracker and then import those stats to SnG Tracker which is a great little tool for SNGs played on the Party network.

If anyone is still out there, leave a quick little comment, just so I know I'm not typing to myself.

2005-04-23T14:07:00.000-04:00

Omahahahaha

So it's back to Omaha again for me. I played this game strictly for a few days before but I have to admit I really didn't know how to play that well. This time around I made sure to study more and really stick to the game. Since I'm quite new to the game I had to move down in stakes a lot. I'm playing the 100 and 200 tables on Party right now and in the past 3 days I've made a little under $1,000 which I think is pretty damn good for a start. Since it is based on having the nuts, or very close to it, the variance can be quite crazy since people are always 'drawing to the nuts' and they really enjoy putting in their money with wraps. The game is still good nonetheless and the players on Pary are horrible as usual. I'm going to stick to Omaha for awhile because I really need a break from Hold'Em, it's just gotten to the point where every hand drives me crazy.

If you haven't already done so make sure to reload at Party Poker for a 20% reload bonus using the code BONUSAPR. $500 deposit and 700 raked hands nets $100.

Also check out Check Raise Poker, a site made by Poker Gamer, with a lot of different strategy articles.

2005-04-06T21:55:00.000-04:00

Tired of all this Crap

To be perfectly honest, I'm getting fed up with poker. I spend tons of my time playing the best poker that I can, work hard to get to a point then some donkey puts all his money in with a garbage hand and rivers his miracle card to take my entire stack. The people in the chat laugh at my misfortune and I say "nh" to the player but inside I'm cursing God. It always happens when we're all-in on the flop or turn and it's always the same outcome. So while I've tried to keep my happy face on, laughing about it, telling others everything is going swell in poker, I've finally come to a point where I'm fed up. This has been going on for 3-4 months and my close friends just shrug in disbelief at all the garbage I've taken and don't know what to say. I've gotten to the point where I believe poker is mostly luck and little skill.

I have around $7700 on Party Poker, I'm going to play the $1000 $5/$10 tables and when I bust out I am done with poker. I'll withdraw the other $2,000 I have in Netteller and adios. To the rest of you, good luck, because if you don't have any luck you're going nowhere.

2005-04-05T11:56:00.000-04:00

Post Coming

I'll post something soon, sorry to the 3 of you that actually read this site for not posting for awhile.

2005-03-19T16:28:00.000-05:00

Feeling Good

It feels so good to have things go the way they're supposed to. After months of constant suckouts and barely profitable poker I've finally had some great poker days where my monsters held up and I played great poker getting the most out of my opponent. The 600nl tables have been good to me and the players there are absolutely horrible, those two combined make for a great profit. I completed around 900 of the 1400 raked hands to get my bonus and I'll be able to finish off the bonus by tonight. A few more profitable days and I'll have my best month ever. Winning feels great.

A big part of the game is figuring out what your opponent is thinking. River play should be consistant with how you played the rest of the hand to add deception, making your opponent think that their hand may still be good. Here is a hand where I kept the play consistant so that I could more money of out my opponent on the river.

In this hand I know my opponent has a marginal hand but nothing strong enough to handle a raise, he is aggressive though and that's what makes this hand work. The only way he's going to win it is by betting. I was thinking of raising the turn but I was sure he would fold since his turn bet was so strong and I believe I'm still ahead. The river is where I follow up with my pre-river play. I've been checking and calling the entire way so if I come out betting on this 8s he folds right away putting me on either an 8 or the backdoor flush somehow. He doesn't have QQ or JJ because he didn't raise preflop so I do have the best hand and the only way I can get more money from him is to play like I was before, check. He bets $100 on the river believing that his KQ, QT is still best and that's when I can pop him.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ Denis (9 handed) converter

saw flop|saw showdown
MP2 ($537.95)
MP3 ($806.15)
CO ($642.35)
Button (Villian)/ ($674)
SB ($707.1)
Denis ($833.25)
UTG ($559.8)
UTG+1 ($601.25)
MP1 ($513.8)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Qd, 8d. SB posts a blind of $3.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $6, 4 folds, Button (Villian)/ calls $6, SB (poster) completes, Denis checks.

Flop: ($24) 8h, Qs, 2c (4 players)
SB checks, Denis checks, UTG+1 checks, Villian bets $15, SB folds, Denis calls $15, UTG+1 folds.

Turn: ($54) Js (2 players)
Denis checks, Villian bets $50, Denis calls $50.

River: ($154) 8s (2 players)
Denis checks, Villian bets $100, Denis raises to $300, Villian folds.

Final Pot: $554
Results in white below:
Denis has Qd 8d (full house, eights full of queens).
Outcome: Denis wins $554.

This next hand was one that had me really confused. The initial raiser was aggressive and had re-raised me preflop with JJ after I had raised with AKo. When he limp-reraised I put him on the hand that everyone limps re-raises with, AA or KK. KK isn't very likely since I have them obviously. The caller that limped and then called the big raise could have any pocket pair, this player would call with high cards or any pair. I called to take a look at the flop and decided I'd make a decision if the flop was Ace less and based on the other players actions. When he bet this big on the flop and was smooth called I decided I had to bail. He most likely had AA and the other player may have hit a set. The only hands I was ahead of at the moment was QQ and JJ, I didn't like my chances.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (9 handed) converter

saw flop|saw showdown
MP2 ($600)
MP3 ($514.55)
CO ($1180.6)
Button ($1530.05)
Denis ($955.25)
BB ($759.8)
UTG ($359)
UTG+1 ($580.95)
MP1 ($888)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ks, Kh. Denis posts a blind of $3.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $6, 1 fold, MP2 calls $6, MP3 calls $6, 1 fold, Button calls $6, Denis (poster) raises to $21, 1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $60, MP2 calls $54, MP3 folds, Button folds, Denis calls $36.

Flop: ($198) 3d, 2s, Th (3 players)
Denis checks, UTG+1 bets $150, MP2 calls $150, Denis folds.

Turn: ($498) 5s (2 players)
UTG+1 calls $370.95 (All-In), MP2 calls $370.95.

River: ($1239.90) 7c (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $1239.90

What do you think they had? Was the fold right?

2005-03-18T17:37:00.000-05:00

Birthday Boy

One more week until it's my 20th birthday, horrahh! I turn 20 on March 25th around 8:00pm. I won't be able to spend it with my family but that's alright, I'll go out and party with my friends since my birthday falls on a friday, perfect! I was thinking of what I wanted for my birthday, too bad that 'luck' doesn't come in a wrapped gift.

I've been playing the $3/$6 $600 NL on Party lately and boy is it swingy. I am winning though so that's a good thing. I'm still sour from some of the losses I've been taking lately and that's why I've been lacking in my posts. I'm very close to hitting the $20,000 earned mark but I continue to think about how much I should 'really' be up and boy it hurts. I need to cut back on my whining though or I'm going to turn into a Hellmuth really fast. Someone posted a comment that I should take a break from a month and come back playing lower stakes. Personally I don't think I'd be able to take it seriously. After I graduate a certain level it is very hard for me to go back, it's like I have to relearn the game. I could move down to $2/$4nl but anything lower wouldn't be good for me. I'm getting used to the swings and even though I complain a lot I know that I'm a winning player and can continue to play where I'm at, it's just I could be up so much more if it weren't for the horrendous beats. Note to self: STOP WHINING!

Party Poker is still by far the best site now with the new NL structure and the massive amount of bad players. If you're not playing there you're missing out on a lot of free money. Speaking of free money, Party released this months 20% bonus up to $200. Deposit any amount up to $1,000 and receive a 20% bonus using bonus code BONUSMAR . I deposited as soon as I saw it and I'll have the bonus cleared by tomorrow. I'll take $200 for free anyday!

I'll try to post some hands that I play through some future sessions and analyze them, I think it would be good for me to clearly write out my thought process for some hands, and maybe some readers would like that too.

Back to the tables...

2005-03-14T12:41:00.000-05:00

Bad Mood

I'm in a very bad mood. I've had some of the worst luck in poker, both live and online lately. Everytime I think I've had the worst of it and things are changing it just comes back around and gets even worse. I went to Turning Stone casino from Thursday until Sunday morning and dropped around $1,000 playing 2/5nl, 10/20, and 15/30. Thursday and Friday were fine but Saturday absolutely destroyed me. I went so card dead and when I did get some nice hands they got cracked half the time to runner runner flushes or a gutshot draw on the turn that filled up on the river. Some of the stuff just made me want to puke. I really need to take a break from this game. I always say that though and I just keep on playing and keep on losing, when is this going to turn around? I watch my friends play online and live and they get great hands or flop monsters. They hit their 2 outers when they need to and win. When will my luck change? As time goes on I'm beginning to believe that poker is more of a game of luck than it is skill, and I have barely any luck. When I was sick of poker I went to the blackjack tables and lost 6 hands in a row. I stopped playing every game and just waited to go home. Can a person be this unlucky? Looks like it, I'm a perfect example.

2005-03-07T01:34:00.000-05:00

Love When This Happens

After having an incredibly rough night where most of my great hands got 3 outered and I lost a ton I finally had a hand where I was pretty sure I was the winner. Don't you just love that turn? Should I have re-raised on the flop, do you think I could've doubled up?

Party Poker Pot-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (9 handed) converter

saw flop|saw showdown

MP3 ($517.95)
CO ($643)
Button ($733.25)
Denis ($791.8)
BB ($1545.35)
UTG ($3399.12)
UTG+1 ($605.1)
MP1 ($600)
MP2 ($361)

Preflop: Denis is SB with 6h, 6d. Denis posts a blind of $3. MP2 posts a blind of $6.

1 fold, UTG+1 calls $6, 1 fold, MP2 (poster) checks, 2 folds, Button calls $6, Denis (poster) completes, BB checks.

Flop: ($30) Jc, 6c, 6s (5 players)

Denis checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP2 checks, Button checks.

Turn: ($30) Js (5 players)

Denis checks, BB bets $10, UTG+1 folds, MP2 folds, Button folds, Denis raises to $30, BB raises to $100, Denis calls $70.

River: ($230) 2h (2 players)

Denis bets $227, BB calls $227.

Final Pot: $684

Results in white below:
Denis has 6h 6d (four of a kind, sixes).
BB has Jd 9h (full house, jacks full of sixes).

Outcome: Denis wins $684.

2005-03-06T21:26:00.000-05:00

Spring Break - Over

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm back from visiting home for a week, sorry for not being able to post. Over spring break I went with my friend to the new Fallsview Casino and played 5-5nl for about 7 hours. I was in for $700 total and lost it all. The player there was absolutely horrible but I just couldn't catch a break. The raises were to $40 and $50 preflop and crazy action with measly pairs. I finally got AA in MP and re-raised to $160 after a $40 raise from UTG and a cold-call in between. The cold-caller went all-in for around $200 after UTG folded and showed QJo. Flop is T high, turn and river are 8 and 9 to give him a straight. Wow great start. Later on I limp in with 78ss and about 6 of us see a flop of 9TJ rainbow. UTG bets $25 into the $30 pot and I re-raise to $80. She calls fairly quickly and I have to fold after the turn bring an 8 to counterfeit my straight. She shows me Q7o for an open-ended and laughs, just my luck. Then a player raises to $15 UTG and I re-raise to $50 with AKo after a couple of cold-callers. Two people call me and we see a flop of A95, UTG bets out $60 and I re-raise all-in for my remaining $200. The other person in between us thinks for a bit and calls turning over 95o for a flopped two pair. Wow, you play g00t. I get up and leave, just horrible :)

I made $1,000 the night before on the Party tables playing the $400PL, players were just horrible. Now that I'm back at my apartment I can pay more attention to poker and hopefully win big. I need a good winning month so hopefully it's this one. I'll post some more but for now I have to rest, had a long train ride.

2005-03-01T17:03:00.000-05:00

Oh Party Poker How I Love Thee

They finally did it! They increased the buy-in amount to 100x BB and increased all the games they have. They now have 400nl, 600nl, and 1000nl with 2-4 blinds, 3-6, and 5-10 blinds. They also added 30/60 tables so the lines aren't AS big. WOW, that's all I can say, WOW!

If there was ever a time to go to Party Poker NOW is the time!!!

I'm afraid that they may take down the tables when they see how many people lose their money so quickly. I've seen a guy drop 8k at the 1k NL tables already. Some people just like losing their money.

I LOVE PARTY POKER!!

2005-02-24T12:31:00.000-05:00

$300 BONUS!

If you're looking for a bonus to do then here's a recent one for you. PokerRoom is having a reload bonus until February 27th (Sunday). It is 30% up to $300 which means you deposit $1000 and get $300 to work off. PokerRoom gives you points for playing and you get 2100 points to clear the $300. If you're a low limit grinder (1-2 and less) then this bonus may take long for you because you get 1 point once the rake is over $1 ($20 pot). 2-4 and up then this is a go if you multi-table. You have 60 days to clear the bonus!

If you do decide to play at PokerRoom and haven't signed up yet please sign up through me. You'll also receive a 20% up to $100 ($500 deposit) on your first deposit.

2005-02-22T18:15:00.000-05:00

Poker Night

Hey all!

It's Tuesday night and while Wednesday is usually poker night at the club this time they switched it over to Tuesday. So I'm gonna head off to the game around 8:00pm and see if I can make some kind of score this week. The game is the usual weekly $2-5 $400 game with lots of crazy wackos playing.

The Turning Stone trip went well for me and my roomate but my other friend who plays the much higher games after making his score in a large tourny didn't do very well at all. It just wasn't his trip this time, and I keep telling him that he will hit a streak of bad luck sooner or later since he's been running so good. He had AA KK and QQ all in one orbit at the 30-60 game and they all lost. Had some flushes lose to higher flushes and that kind of thing. The next day at the $5-$10 NL game he lost his entire stack when he called an all-in and lost set over set on a harmless looking board. The board was 67A with no big preflop raises and he knew that the only hand that the player could have that beats him was pocket 7's, turns out he had them. He managed to lose $3k over a couple days. I managed to win around $300-$400 at the 10/20 and my roomate made around $500 at the $2-$5 $200 NL game. Fun times, I can't wait to turn 21 to head to AC and Las Vegas, we're already planning the trip :D

Online poker has been kind of slow lately. I had a big hit to my monthly profits the other day but then managed to pull a very nice win yesterday to make myself up about 1k since the beginning of February. I've been mostly playing on PokerRoom. I'm not sure how many of you have played at PokerRoom but while the tables can be a little on the tight side sometimes, they are usually quite soft. The software is quite nice looking once you get used to it (I have to get used to every new site I play at, even starting with PartyPoker and PokerStars). The graphics can hog the computer memory a little bit also but otherwise it's fine. They recently added in new stats option and a 'Session Browser' that lists all your recent sessions and all the hand histories and stats for them, good stuff. They have a 20% bonus up to $100 which isn't too hard to clear in my opinion if you're multi tabling. As long as you're a player who can actually win and doesn't depend on the bonus to make a profit then it's a good deal. If you do want to sign-up for PokerRoom please use me as an affiliate by clicking the link, it would help me out a lot.

I read both The Poker Chronicles and Iggy's site on a regular basis (more of TPC simply because he updates more often) and it seems like they've really began hating each other. They don't usually mention names when they're posting but it's obvious for the most part. I know that Matt likes to smack talk at the table and he has a large ego but that's who he is. Nothing wrong with thinking you're a good player when you really are and bashing people who suck, it's fun too! He seems to get under people's skin quite easily. I'm not really sure why people let him though, it's just part of his game plan. Fellow bloggers and readers who have had trouble with Matt, don't let someone you don't even know get under your skin, he's messing with you. And Matt, if you want, you can bash me whenever you'd like, as long as I get a discount on your book! :)

Anyways, going to have some food and head out to the game, wish me luck!

2005-02-17T15:33:00.000-05:00

Roooooooad Trriiiiiiiippppp!

And we're off to Turning Stone again. Another 3 hours trip, another 2 night stay, another action packed weekend filled with poker. Are we addicts or what? I'm bringing around $1,000 and I'm going to use it to play 10/20 limit at first. Depending on how that goes I'll either stay at the game or lose a few hundred, get pissed off, and go back to trying to grind out some kind of shitty profit at the 1/2 $100 NL game. If I make a big score tonight I'll play in the $5/$10 ($20 bring-in) NL game on Friday, but that probably won't happen. I hope they don't hassle us at the border but I doubt they will.

Last night I went to the club to play 2/5 $400 NL. Within the first hour I lost around $200 when my AK was beat by AJ on an AJ8 rainbow flop. A bad player had raised and I check-raised him on the flop, he had bet $50 and I raised to $150 but the other player in the hand which I though would probably fold because he had limped in in early position called my re-raise and went all-in for another $50 which I had to call. That took a nice hit to my stack and I spent the rest of the night rebuilding the $200 I lost. I ended up making $100 profit for the night but I had I made a few calls without getting the proper odds I easily could've made a profit of more than $500. That's poker though, sometimes you fold and your card comes, and sometimes you call and your card doesn't come. It's luck of the draw and that's what makes this game so appealing. My roomate made a nice score in the game and cashed out up $700. The players in this game are horrible and their money is so easy to take. Ex. EP raises to $20 with AJo, 3 callers and the flop comes low cards with two diamonds. Checked around to the button who bets with his flush draw $50. EP calls with his AJ, two overcards. Turn brings the diamond to give the button his flush, 7 high or something. AJo (with the A of diamonds) checks and the button bets $100 into the 180 pot. EP calls the $100 with his flush draw on the river and hits. He shakes his head, lets out a large sigh, says "Damn diamonds", and checks to button expecting him to bet. The button wasn't THAT stupid though and checked behind, smashing the table in the process.

Another fishy hand. EP raises to $20 with QQ and MP calls with JJ, 1 more caller who later folds comes in, flop comes KJ8 and it's checked to JJ who bets quite big, QQ calls. Turn is another rag and JJ bets 3/4 of the pot again, quite a large bet and most of his stack......QQ calls. River is a Q and they both go all-in. JJ punched the wall and smashed the table, QQ laughed, good game.

A fight almost also broke out after this hand happened. UTG raises to $20 with KQdd, this player is a little loose but a good player for the most part. MP calls with AA, he is a rock. Flop comes low rags with two diamonds and UTG bets out $40, MP raises to $160 and UTG re-raises all-in for around $400 total (more than MP has). AA thinks for awhile and finally calls. UTG does not reveal his cards but says he is on a flush draw and has 9 outs. MP tables his AA and they both wait for the cards to come out. The turn is a K but the river doesn't help EP and he loses. Now he takes his cards, which he hasn't revealed yet and throws them towards the muck. MP who's raking in his chips asks to see UTG's cards! How rude and disrespectful is that. After winning a monster $800 pot he asks to see the persons cards, like a kick in the nuts. UTG starts to swear, takes his remaining chips ($37) and literally throws them at MP saying, "Here, have the rest of them too, you fucking asshole!". He got up and left and everyone else was stunned. If MP has been seated closer to MP he probably would've punched him. Everyone later said that he was correct in asking to see his cards, while I tried to tell everyone that it wasn't rish and if he wanted to see his cards he shouldn't have turned his cards over but waited for UTG to show first. Either that or ask right away to see his cards before the turn and river were dealt. After this the owner of the club made a rule that when two players are all-in they must turn their cards over right away before the rest of the board is dealt even though it's a ring game. This is to prevent future occurences like this one.

This game is great and the players are quite easy to read and put a hand on. Lots of suckouts though, but that's what happens in a loose game, right? It's held every Wednesday and I intend to play it every week, just need some nice cards and need to play my A game and I'll come out a winner.

Well, wish me luck at Turning Stone, I hope I win big!

2005-02-16T13:56:00.000-05:00

Be The Aggressor

When you think of all the top players out there and pro's that are making big money in the cash games in Vegas and around the world, what do they have in common? They're aggressive. I don't see Negreanu or Ivey playing like calling stations. The key to being a very successfull poker player is aggression. I bolded very because you can be a successfull poker player without being aggressive, you just won't win as much.

I won't lie, up until now I've been playing a very weak-tight game and I'm sure that this has impacted my winnings a lot. Everytime you make a big hand you won't get payed off, especially as the stakes get higher. This is where aggressiveness plays a huge role between winners and losers, the winners win some big pots and many small pots, and the losers or breakeven players win a few big pots and no small pots. You need to be able to pick up a lot of small pots using post-flop aggression, even when you don't have the best hand. Other players are just as afraid of certain cards as you are, however you need to take the pots away from them when the card scares both of you. Weak-tight players are the best to steal pots from because they're only in the pot if they have the goods. Put in a decent sized bet and they'll fold top pair like it's nothing. If a flush hits the river and you bet or check-raise them big, they'll fold two pair and sets. Poker has a lot to do with playing the scare card and I've been really trying to improve my game using it.

I'm not sure how well this works in lower limits but try to find a game that isn't too loose (yes, I know, it's probably really hard) and just be the aggressor. Win those little pots because they are what really add up and using those winnings you can then play a draw aggressively also. When you play a draw aggressively and it hits you cash in big.

When you believe your opponent and you have the same hand like a 4 card straight 9TJQ and you both hold the K, when the river brings a flush you can bet big here. You both may have the exact same hand but he'll have a hard time calling if he doesn't have the flush. Many big pots can be won this way (a couple can be lost) because the pot was built up on the turn. Take advantage of your opponents weakness and scare cards.

2005-02-14T15:37:00.000-05:00

Emotions, Emotions...

I was a little upset when I made my last post. I've been pretty upset in general over the past 2 months with poker. I was finally winning again and then it all went downhill a second time. Over the past 2 months my bankroll progression has barely move. It goes up, it goes down, but at the end it just goes back to where it started and it gets frustrating. 2 months and nothing to show for it is disappointing, but that's poker. I'm too emotional with this game and I wish I wasn't.

When I started this blog I wanted to have a log of how I moved along. I'd post the stakes I was playing, a couple of hands, and my progression so one day I can look back to see where I once was, how I once played. I'm still playing poker and I should still post on how I'm doing, not just for the few readers out there but for myself personally. Learning how to play poker, improving my game, moving up in stakes and increasing my profit is an adventure for me that I enjoy doing even though I can become an emotional wreck sometimes. In the end it's all worth it.

I'm going to try to concentrate on not only posting about my progress and what's been going on, but on strategy that works very well for me. So if there's anyone left out there, don't worry, I'm not gone completely.

2005-02-07T04:55:00.000-05:00

3rd Place Finish

After having a great day at the table ($750+) I decided to relax and play a $5 PL rebuy tournament on Prima. Only 65 people entered so with the field being quite thin and Prima's tournament structure being pretty good I thought I'd have a good chance at making it far. I finished 3rd! Go me!

2005-02-07T01:44:00.000-05:00

Good Start

On Thursday I went with a couple buddies down to Turning Stone until Staurday afternoon. We got the poker room rate so we could sleep in the hotel for $75 a night which was pretty good. On the first day I played the $100 max game and didn't start to make good money until much later on in the night. My friends went to sleep around 3am because they wanted to wake up and play all day the next day. I on the other hand stayed up all night playing, from 12am until 12pm. 12 hour session with some breaks for food and stretching, and I cashed out around $500 for a $400 profit. I took my money, headed upstairs and went to sleep. When I went to sleep my friends woke up, so it was kind of like taking shifts.

One of them signed up for the usual Friday $5/$10 NL ($20 bring-in) game but by the time he got to the board the list was already 17 people long. That game started at 5pm on Friday and he finally got on around 9pm. I woke up at 6 and went to play the 2-5 ($200 MAX) game. I cashed out after a couple hours only up $75. My buddy at the $5/$10 game made a couple grand and he was very happy, especially after making 1.4k at the 20/40 the night before.

On Saturday I played the 1-2NL game again for about 15 minutes before taking my seat at the 10/20 game but it turns out both my friends wanted to head home while it was still day light out. I only played for about 20 minutes and made $20, woo hoo. I really wanted to stay, the game was a bit on the tight side so it was easy to steal pots, just had to be aggressive. ex. I raise UTG+1 with AQo, 3 callers. Flop is 822, I bet, 1 caller, turn is a blank, I bet, he folds. We took off after a bit and I finish up about $300 for the trip after paying for the room, gas, and food. My roomate finished up around the same, and the high roller finished up around 3 grand, not too shabby.

In online poker news, I'm having a great start to my month. I've played the Party $200 tables again for a couple of days and made a killing. The table selection is small but the players are still horrible there. I'm up around $1200 this month, and going strong. I hope it continues because I've gotten pretty sick from losing on a consistant basis. Winning is feeling great right now.

2005-02-02T10:55:00.000-05:00

January Review

As I mentioned before I have just recently finished the worst run I've ever had. Back in December is when it started. By the end of the month I had posted a $2600 profit however the bad run started near the 20th of December and without that hit I would've been up around 3.5-4k for the month. In January I took a nice dip but managed to come back. On the 31st I played a $30+3 3-table tournament on PartyPoker. TheVenetian was at my table when we started but the cards didn't seem to go his way and he busted out quite early. I went onto the final table with a little below average stack. The blinds continued to increase and I had to push with Q9 in the CO when there was 7 of us left. The BB called me with pocket aces, but I cracked them after I flopped a Q, turned another Q, and even rivered a 9 for a boat. I picked my spots nicely and got into the money when the I eliminated the shortstack (same stack as mine) with AK vs his QT. Another shortstack busted out and I got QQ against an all-iner to knock out 4th. Soon after it was heads up, I played very aggressive picking up all the little pots and Ihad the player outstacked 19k to his 11 but he doubled up when his KT beat my AK (rivered a T). He knocked me out after a few more hands when the blinds were too big and I had to push. That netted me my final $200 to make me just shy of even for the month and I was very happy to make a comeback.

Through the rough times I just tried to continue playing my A game, even though sometimes I noticed I wasn't playing my best. It just got so frustrating after awhile of consistantly losing, not because I was playing bad but because either my cards weren't holding up, or I'd always have a nice hand when someone had a better hand. It was tough, but I noticed that I played better after I had taken my break, and things did turn around. I managed to win back all my losses starting on the 26th of this month, about 5 days, not too shabby.

Below I posted my bankroll progression chart starting in September when I moved away from home and started living on my own.

As you can see I just consistantly lost from days 105 to 135. Hopefully now that it's over I can continue my normal ways as shown from day 0 to 90. If only it could always be like that :)

Tonight is the World Poker Bloggers Tour! It starts at 9pm EST on PokerStars. Under the Tourny tab click Private and it will be listed there. It is a $20 tournament and the password if you'd like to enter is thehammer. My PokerStars username is z0d1ac so if you'd like to say hi, don't be shy. I look forward to playing and eliminating as many bloggers and readers as I can, especially DoubleAs so that I can rename his blog. Check out the official WPBT website here.

Good luck to everyone, see you at the final table! :)

2005-02-01T03:23:00.000-05:00

Even

It's really late now but I've been playing pretty much all day and had an okay day putting me very close to even for the month after being down almost 2k. I'll post tomorrow with my stats and I may post my bankroll chart which shows how it's been progressing.

2005-01-29T23:42:00.000-05:00

Bad Beat Jackpot

My friend was playing the 15/30 tables and the bad beat jackpot was hit. He reluctantly folded his J8o in MP1 after UTG raised. A bunch of callers and the flop comes AJA, LP bets and a couple callers including the initial UTG raiser. Turn is a K and the same betting happens. River is another K and UTG now bets, LP raises and they cap it. UTG had AA and LP had KK, quads vs quads. Runner runner perfect, what are the odds of that!? The loser of the hand got $100,000 and the winner got $50,000. My friend received $7,200 for folding his J8o. One person at the table was incredibly pissed off because he was sitting out at the time of the hand, bummer.

2005-01-29T20:02:00.000-05:00

Back In Action

Alrighty then, I haven't posted in quite a while because I haven't been playing much poker. I took a break where I stopped playing poker for around 4 days. Then when I decided to play some poker, I only went and played the $1/2 $200 NL game. Before taking my break I had gone on the worst run. 2 outers here, 3 outers there. I was down around $1,500 when I decided it was time to take a break. The final hand that did it was when I called a min-raise in EP at a 2/4 game with TT. Flop is T high and he bets half pot. I call and the turn is a blank. He bets much bigger this time and I raise 4x his initial raise, committing a lot of my stack. He calls and the river is a K. He takes the $800 pot with KK. That set me off and I was just so frustrated and fed up I couldn't continue playing.

During my break I watched a lot more T.V., went out with friends, and tried to teach myself some more graphics programming (I'm going to be a game programmer one day :) ). When I went to the poker club with my friends I decided not to play the big 2-5nl game they had going there. It was the first time they had it running and by the end of the night there was some pretty deep stacks playing. I honed my pool skills and played some XBOX instead. I finally decided to play some poker online because I was craving it just a bit. Over the past 3-4 days I've made around $1,000 and maybe, just MAYBE I can pull myself out of this months hole by making another $500 before the month is over.

Yesterday I even played a qualifier for the Friday NL $200+$15 Special on Party Poker and won. I ended up placing 211 out of around 700 when my semi blind steal all-in with A9o in the CO got dominated when the big blind woke up with AA. Wouldn't that be a nice return to turn $26 into a $30,000 payday if I had won the tournament. I played some of the $200 tables on Party today and managed to scrape up a $200 win when my KK cracked UTG's limp-reraise with AA. I flopped a K and check-raised all-in on the flop.

I was reading through the usual blogs and noticed that SirFWALGMan posted that he had nearly busted out his entire bankroll ($3,000) over the past couple days. I actually watched him play a couple times at the 5/10 6max tables and cheered him on. The other day I noticed he wasn't playing his usual 5/10 6max, but instead was playing a 10/20 6max table. He looked to be playing a lot of hands, calling down with marginal hands that most likely weren't winners. I knew something was wrong and messaged him about what was going on. He claimed he was tilting and blowing his money, this was exactly what he was doing and it hurt to look at. He knew what he was doing but didn't want to stop even after I told him he should. There's a lesson to be learned from him and many others that have gone through the same thing as he has. Poker is not just about playing cards, at the same time, it has a lot to do with bankroll management. On top of that it can do crazy stuff to your head and that's what he went through. You need to be able to control yourself, stop when you're supposed to, and continue when you're supposed to.

Bankroll management is crucial to being a successful poker player. You need to know which limit you can play, which limit you can't play, and which limit you can take a 'stab' at. I can personally tell you that 5/10 6max is a crazy game with HUGE variance. While most people say you should have 300BB for a limit, in 6max games I think you should have almost double that, or around 600BB. Unless you get off to a good start you can lose a 2-3k bankroll playing this game even though the players there suck REALLY bad. Sometimes, a downswing just hits you so hard and there's nothing you can do about it. Make sure you're playing a limit that you're comfortable with and that your bankroll is comfortable with. Move up when you have some cushioning so that if you do lose you can still easily fallback a limit and be comfortable again.

What happened to him can and has happened to the best of them, many pros claim to have gone broke several times. After all, poker does have luck and gambling sense to it. Everytime you play you're risking money and if you lose control you risk losing a lot of money. Everyone has tilted, everyone has blown money away. You need to learn from your mistakes and others mistakes. Learn, practice, play your A game all the time. I wish Sir the best of luck and if he does decide to continue playing poker I'm sure he'll make a great comeback. It's always hard to see a fellow poker blogger leave the community.

2005-01-28T02:49:00.000-05:00

Post Coming Soon...

I'll post a CocaCola-fueled uber-post tomorrow.

2005-01-17T18:29:00.000-05:00

Break Time

I think it's time for a break. It might be a short break, it might be a long break, but a break is needed. I'll let you all know when I come back. Until then, I wish you all the best of luck at the tables. Keep cracking those rockets with the hammer!

2005-01-15T11:53:00.000-05:00

Poker And Zen

I'm sure I'm one of the many people who get too involved with the wild game of poker emotionally. I'm trying to work on it, one hand at a time. Trying not to concentrate on the bad beat I just took and concentrate on the hand I'm playing right now. I came across an article written by Howard "The Professor" Lederer. You might want to check it out, it can apply to other things besides just poker.

Poker And Zen

2005-01-15T03:58:00.000-05:00

I Think I'm Lazy

I haven't posted in awhile, mostly due to being lazy, but that's me! School is taking up a bit of my time, and even though it's not that much, I still manage to skip classes. Poker has been lame as usual, I'm still running bad and having a losing month which is just horrible for me. This is the first month since I started playing poker where I'm in the minus, I hope I can pull through and end up by the time February rolls around.

I was reading the 2+2 forums and ran across a ton of posts on the new 'TILT' show on ESPN. Sadly, we don't have ESPN in Canada unless we get satellite. The people bashed the show, saying that it shows people who don't play poker that the game is all about cheating. Does this help poker or will people be less likely to now learn to play poker and feed the aquarium with fresh blood. Personally, I think anything to do with poker is a good thing. If people don't watch the show, they're not going to know about poker anyways, at least the show feeds some people's curiousity about the game.

Last night I went to the new poker club that opened up here in Ottawa. I've been there a couple times and love going there not for the poker, but for the pool table and XBox with a HUGE TV. I'm getting better and better at pool each time I go and it's such a fun game, I can't wait to buy a pool table. I didn't win much and wasn't getting many cards at all during my time at the table. One hand made me some cash where I called an EP raise to $8 with AKo (1/2 blinds). 3 other callers and the flop comes A9rag. It's checked through to the button who bets $50 into the $40 pot, folded to me and I re-raise all-in to around $75, he had AT and didn't improve. I didn't get any high pocket pairs, no sets, and no straight for the entire night, that's poker though, right? There are a ton of bad players there though, so if you do get some nice cards, it's easy money. My friend finished with $500 from a starting stack of $100, he hit some nice hands and got payed off.

My online poker has been slow. I've been working off the new Party Poker bonus and playing the Bad Beat Jackpot since it was so high, $750,000+. It's 15% up to $100, deposit around $750, play 1000 raked hands and you get $100 added to your account. The deposit bonus code is JAN05REL! Free money while you win at poker, what could be better? The BBJ was hit today though so no more of those tables for me. I'm halfway through my raked hands and I'll probably finish them off at the $50 or $100 NL/PL tables.

Over at Prima I'm still battling it out at the 2.5/5 tables. I've slowed down with the 5/10 while I'm on this bad run, once it passes and I'm back to normal I'll continue play there. The games can be really good sometimes. The players love to play uber-aggressive, and almost always follow up their preflop raise with a pot sized bet. I find myself constantly check-raising in this game to get more money out of my opponents. Aggressive play is usually rewarded and I've been trying my best to improve my game in that category, but when you play too aggressive like a lot of the players in the 5/10 game you end up losing a lot of money by betting your missed hands and getting either called down or raised.

Oh yea, I received my PokerStars stress stars in the mail. They're too damn hard! I'm going to end up pulling a muscle of something by squeezing this stress star. I guess they built it for those people who are overly crazy. I use my stress star to play catch against my wall, with its odd shape you never know where it'll go! ;)

2005-01-11T20:57:00.000-05:00

Writing Material

What do you, the readers, want me to write about. What do you think would be interesting to read?

2005-01-10T13:59:00.000-05:00

I'm So Fucking Frustrated

I can't even tell you how frustrated and pissed off I've been lately with poker. I've consistantly been taking beats when I'm a huge favourite and I wouldn't mind if they were small pots, but it's always those huge pots where they suckout on the river when they only have less than 20% chance of winning. Why, why does it always happen to me! I feel like Matusow in the WSOP and I seriously just want to cry like him sometimes too, I can't stand it! I play perfect poker and people call me with their dumb hands, chase their dumb straights without getting any odds whatsoever and they hit their miracle card on the river. I jsut want to explode.

FUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HATE POKER!

2005-01-09T02:27:00.000-05:00

Expectations For 2005

I've been running bad lately and it's been for an extended amount of time. Today was my first day where I booked a nice win of $700 which made me happy. While in the drought I had those thoughts run through my mind of if I wanted to quit, what I needed to change, where is my poker going and so on. I enjoy playing poker not so much for the game but more for the money. I still like the game, I just love the money more. Of course I decided not to quit and to continue playing because in reality, the money coming is in great, and it just keeps growing. With that in mind I thought about the future and what I expect to happen.

Currently I'm playing all stakes between 2/4 and 5/10 regularly, depending of course on who's playing and how the table action is going. My bankroll did recently take a hit when I withrew a large part of it for dental work, yes, dental work! Currently I have around 8k online and intend to continue playing the stakes I'm at and rebuild the bankroll. This year I am definately looking to move up to the 10/20 NL games online, I know I can do it and I will, it's just a matter of time.

Also I'm looking forward to going on a poker trip of some sort. One of those large tournaments in the caribbean or on a cruise. I need a break from this awfully cold weather here in Canada and way down south is perfect for me. My friend who won first place of $17,400 in the $30 rebuy which I mentioned in an earlier post is looking to do the same, we'll probably end up going together. He's going to play in the Canadian Poker Tour in Edmonton at the end of January but I told him I wouldn't be able to make this trip with him.

Finally, I'm going to spend the money that I'm earning this year from poker on a pool table for my apartment and a new car. Since I was accepted to school again I need transportation, and while I can use public transportation it probably looks a bit better to the ladies if I'm driving a nice car. I love playing pool also and it would be an awesome addition to my apartment so I can take a break from poker and just shoot some pool with my roomate or friends. I just need to focus on improving my game, playing consistant poker, and increasing my earn rate. Once those three are done everything else will fall into place and I'll have a great year. I'm looking forward to it, aren't you?

What are you looking to buy with your poker earnings this year?

2005-01-07T16:15:00.000-05:00

Lucky Dozen

I just wanted to remind everyone of the promotion that Check 'N Raise poker is having. They are offering freerolls into WSOP seats, all you have to do is play regularly enough.

This is how it works. When you play on their site they track how many hands you've played, how many Check Points you've earned, and how many Frequent Tournament Point you've earned. There are 3 weeks remaining and every week on Sunday the stats are reset for the new week to begin. The top 50 players from each category listed above gain entry into the freeroll based on how well they did for the week. If you were 1st out of Hands Played for the week then you get a freeroll into a 12 player tournament, winner gets the $10,000 WSOP Main Event seat + $1,000 spending money. If you placed 2nd to 10th in any of the categories, you gain entry into the freeroll for the $5,000 WSOP seat + $1,000 spending money. Finally, 11th to 50th play in the freeroll for the $1,000 WSOP seat + $1,000 spending money. The players on this site are horrible and you'd have a great chance at winning a seat to one of these tournaments if you qualified.

Stats are reset and the new week begins this Sunday so clear your bonuses at Check N' Raise and become one of the Lucky Dozen to win a WSOP seat!

2005-01-04T22:32:00.000-05:00

New Year Blues

Everyone around me is winning big, am I the only one who hasn't had an amazing start to the new year? I've read many blogs, Matt at The Poker Chronicles, Predator at Poker Quest, and SirFWALGMan at Online Poker Thoughts all seem to have brought the new year in with a bang. I on the other hand came back to my apartment in Ottawa and on my first night managed to drop $800 fairly quickly after having my AA cracked by a flush in a 2.5/5 game and my set of 9's cracked by a straight in a 5/10 game. It wasn't looking pretty but I managed to come back and only finished down $250 for the night.

I've started to play some 5/10 6max again. I have around $1,000 at Party that I left in there and I'll be using that to only play the short handed games. Maybe I can build a bankroll there just from short handed games, we'll see, this is my third attempt. I seem to get annoyed with the variance that the SH games bring. I'm just going to take it slow and 1 table there and work on slowly building it up if I can, if not I lose $1,000 and move on. I've read a lot of posts on 2+2 in the SH forum but ofcourse since I'm new I usually don't know what to do in certain situations after I've raised preflop and the flop has missed me. I follow up with a bet but shutdown after I'm called and checked to again on the turn. I'm also not sure about starting hands, those marginal hands that I've always taught myself not to play such as A9 or KT. Does anyone ever limp or are the games beaten by almost always raising and pure aggression? It would be nice to have someone who also plays these games to chat to on MSN and discuss certain hands that were played. Maybe I'll look around for one. Back to the tables for now, I have a lot of catching up to do.

2005-01-02T18:09:00.000-05:00

Holidays Are Over

The holidays are over and I'm back home from home. I'm pretty exhausted from the trip but I need to get back into the swing of things with poker soon. Just need some rest and I'll be back to posting.

2004-12-21T01:25:00.000-05:00

PokerStars Millionth Hand

Every millionth hand until the 1 billion hand is hit, players in the hand are payed out $500 each and $1500 to the winner, plus every gets a $500 seat in a PokerStars tournament. I was watching one of the $160 WPT shootouts when the hand was hit. I quickly went to the table to check out the winners and guess what I saw. The two players were sitting at a 1-on-1 Omaha PL table, stakes were .01/.02 I scroll through the display box and see the obvious pattern. They sat at the table when the hand got near and literally pressed fold as fast as possible until the hand hit them. There chat in the box was, "Yes, it worked, we won". Other players flooded in and obviously caught on to what they did. PokerStars manager Lee Jones came in shortly after, told them congratulations and gave the player who was big blind that hand an extra $1500 because he pressed fold quick enough to hit the hand. They both got their seats and a ton of money for exploiting the millionth hand and PokerStars didn't complain or do anything about it. I suppose they'd rather pay out two players instead of an entire table, right? Gotta love it...

2004-12-20T15:19:00.000-05:00

Trip Recap

The holiday season is here and I'm heading to my parents house for Christmas break. My friends and I went to Turning Stone again this weekend so we can play as much poker as our hearts desired before going home for a bit. We left Friday night and got there around 10:00pm. Suprisingly the poker room was pretty empty. It looks like all the college kids have gone home for Christmas break and it was pretty noticable that there weren't as many young people around. As it turned out, this weekend was pretty bad for me. The night started off with me playing at the 2-5NL table, not getting many cards and when I finally did get a set of 8's on the flop I got flushed on the river. I ended up being down $250 the first night.

On Saturday I woke up and played the 5-10NL game that was running. The structure there is a little weird, the blinds are 5-10 but to limp in it costs $20. In other words, we were pretty much playing 10-20NL. I ended up losing $400 there before cashing out and heading to the 10-20 limit game after deciding against playing in the 20-40 game. I had some horrible 2 outer on the river suckouts and my $400 stack crumbled down to $40. I was preparing to bust out and leave when I picked up black aces in the SB, I raised it up and all of the limpers 5+ called. I ended up going all-in on the turn with the entire table still in the pot. Suprisingly I took it down and 4-5x up. I went on to build that stack up to $500-$600 and cashed out for the night. We rented a motel room and got some very needed sleep.

Sunday morning we arrived back at the poker room and it was pretty much completely dead. Two tables were running so we goofed around and played some 1-3 limit and 1-5 stud. I dropped $80 at those tables playing stupid mainly because it was fun. Sometimes it helps to cap it preflop with 72o and showdown your hand at the river with 7 high. I later went to play at the 1-2NL game when the cardroom began to fill up around noon. I lost most of my stack when I was in the big blind with J4c, lots of players limp and 6 or 7 of us see a flop of 789, all clubs. SB bets $5, I call, and MP raises to $25, it's folded around the SB who thinks for quite a long time and calls, I re-raise all-in and the MP player goes all-in. SB folds and the dealer deals out the turn and the river bringing the 2c on the turn. MP shows AA with the A of clubs and I throw my cards away with disgust. This was the last hand I'd play this weekend simply because I was sick of being outdrawn by people who grossly misplay their hand and still end up winning. Yes, this is the kind of things that I want, but when it continues to happen and I know that I'm on an unlucky streak I just cannot continue to play.

My friend entered the $100+$20 buy-in tournament and ended up placing 2nd in the 70 player field. He took home around $1400 for his efforts and was really happy after having a horrible live streak. My other friend played the $65 tournament the day before chopped with the final 8 players out of 170 and took home around $1000 for his efforts. Everyone had a very successful trip this time besides me, but that's poker, right? You can't win everytime :)

Some people commented in my last post wondering why I hate PokerStars so much. To tell you the truth, it's not that I really hate the site, it's just that I've had an enormous amount of bad luck there. PokerStars has great support, the best out of any other site. Their software is simple and fast. The players there are a little bit better than the average internet poker player, BUT they still suck. I withdrew all my money from that website simply because I was fed up with the bad luck that I was getting there. I played there mostly for tournament and out of all the tournament I played I ended up getting knocked out by some horrible suckout that sent me into a rage. I did well in one of the $10+rebuys $20,000 Guaranteed tournaments where I was only sucked out on once, I eneded up placing 12th or 13th out of the huge field. Every other tournament I would build up a very nice stack and then lose it to the only other player at the table with a stack somewhere close to the size of mine after they stupidly call and runner runner a flush or straight, or river their 3 outer.

So there it is, I 'hate' PokerStars because I have very bad luck at the site. Unless you're as unlucky as I am, you should be playing there, at least for their tournaments.

2004-12-17T14:23:00.000-05:00

Dutch Boyd's Blog and PokerStars

A little while ago I ran across Dutch Boyd's blog that he recently started. I looked it over once and completely forgot about it. I ran across it today again and he's been blogging a little more often. Now I know that lots of online poker players hate Dutch because of the incident that happened with PokerSpot. If you don't know what happened, Dutch had opened an online pokerroom but the company that managed the money fell through and ended up not giving back any of the money to the players and Dutch. Dutch was left with nothing and all the people who played at his site were not given their online bankroll back. People blamed it on Dutch and while it was partially his fault that he worked with a company that wasn't established and had a reputation, he probably didn't see it coming and didn't mean for everyone to lose their money. It's not like he ran away with all the money that was deposited on his site. Becuase of this, Dutch has gotten an awful reputation and many people do not want to associate with him any longer.

PokerStars banned him from their site, not because he did something awful to them, but because of the person that he is and the reputation that follows him. I've said it before and I'll say it again, PokerStars sucks! If Dutch wants to play there, he should be allowed. He's not causing anyone harm or doing anything bad, he just wants to play poker. There's plenty of theifs, drug dealers, and criminals playing on PokerStars, but you don't see their management trying to find them and ban them from the site. I just don't think it's fair to the guy. A couple of weeks ago I withdrew all my money from PokerStars and I doubt I'll ever be going back to play. I truly hate that site.

I've added Dutch Boyd's link on the left.

2004-12-16T13:12:00.000-05:00

Grinding Back Up

First of all I just want to state that PartyPoker is having a 20% reload bonus, bonus code is DECBONUS, you heard it first from DoubleAs but incase anyone missed it I'll put it up also.

The past couple of days I've been running quite bad. I've lost the most I've ever lost in my entire poker 'career'. This is mostly due to the fact that I've moved up in limits and I'm now regularly playing 3/6nl and 5/10nl. I've rarely seen premium pocket pairs and when I do get them it's folded to me in the blinds or nobody calls my raise. My AK has hit maybe 5% of the time and my medium to low pocket pairs that are looking to flop a set very rarely hits. Last night after being down nearly 1.5k I finally hit a couple sets and they both paid off pretty big which helped me out a lot.

When you're running cold like this what do you do? For the first time since playing limit I almost found myself tilting but managed to not do the evil sin. The woman told me to stop playing, to play when I'm winning and stop playing when I'm losing but I don't think that will change anything, poker is poker, right? Instead, while I was losing a lot of money I just opened all my tables and continued to play normally and just adjust my play a little more. If you can't do this then go and play a different game for awhile, for a change of pace. I played very weak-tight, as to minimize my losses while I was in this stage. I think this is the best when you're on a downswing that you're trying to wait out. Nothing is hitting, or you keep running into bigger monsters when you flop your own monster, you need to not invest your money into the pot until you're sure you're a winner. I've began limping with AK since it is just losing me a lot of money during this period so if I don't hit I just get out. Analyze your play and really pound into your head the mistakes you've made. At this stage you usually begin to overplay your big hands, when you flop two pair or get a premium pair you feel on top of the world and don't even consider what your opponent has when he smooth called your flop bet and min check-raised you on the turn.

When you're running really bad, it's not going to go away if you go away, you need to play though it, so grind it out and adjust your play to lose the least amount from your drawing hands. Always play the best poker you can play and don't forget to think. That's poker for ya!

2004-12-15T18:16:00.000-05:00

Running Bad

I'm running bad, and as most bloggers know, when you're running bad you don't like to post.

2004-12-13T15:07:00.000-05:00

Turning Stone Again

On Saturday night my friends computer broke down and he had to head over to my place to use my roomates or my computer to play in the Million Guaranteed tournament on Party. He busted out half way through and we decided to just make a trip out to Turning Stone for the night and next day, just a spur of the moment thing.

We took off and arrived at Turning Stone around 10pm, I sat down at the $200 2-5NL game they had running and finish up around $300 after I hit a set of 8's in a raised pot, a player turned his gutshot straight after I checked to the initial raiser who also checked to give a free card, but I rivered quad 8's (second time I've had quads at Turning Stone and both times were quad 8's). So I dragged in a huge pot there.

I played the $120 tournament the next day at noon and outlasted about 2/3 the field and got knocked out when I was getting shortstacked and went all-in vs a shortstack but an early limper, who had me covered by just a bit also called the all-in with his TT vs my AQs. I hit my Q on the flop but he also hit his T, the other shortstack had 88. I needed to win that pot to make it to the final table. The tournament structure was pretty quick and blinds went up before you knew it, if you couldn't build a stack quickly you'd be blinded out. My friend ended up placing 2nd and winning $1100 even though he should've easily taken 1st, his opponent sucked out on him more than a couple times to stay alive and win. My roomate and I got our buy-in back from his winnings though since that was the deal.

I played some $100 1-2NL after I got knocked out and managed to win around $300 playing mostly short-handed. Flopped trips and a player I knew was horrible but would call with his draws continued to call my huge bets when I flopped trips. He missed his flush on the river like I guessed. Later on I flopped a set of 7's vs an EP raiser but check/called the flop to trap him. Turn brought a J and I check-raised him but he quickly called. River came and A and he went all-in for the rest of his stack, around $50-$60 and I had my chips in there faster than he did. He had AJ for runner-runner two pair but I took it down. The game broke up shortly after and we went home around 5pm on Sunday.

We hadn't slept for 30 hours so it truly was a poker marathon. We managed to keep our driver alive by hitting him and putting snow down his back from the back of his pick-up. We got to Tim Hortons (best coffee ever) once we crossed the border to the Canadian side and he woke right up for the rest of the trip. Roomate finish up $21.11, I finished up about $400 and my other friend finish up $2,000. $1,000 from the tournament and another $1,000 from 20/40 where he got a lot of nice cards that held up and dragged in a HUGE pot where it was nearly capped on every street with two players with KK, a player with a set of 7's and him with a stright flush 7 high. He was as happy as a 4 year old on Christmas day. Another fun trip for 3 degenerate poker players.

2004-12-11T13:24:00.000-05:00

$100k Guaranteed Today

I'm going to be playing in the $100,000 Guaranteed on Prima today at 3pm. Buy-in is $100+$10 and my friend and I are dividing profits if we get far since we'll both be playing. Maybe I can make a big score, we'll have to wait and see.

No real news in the ring games. Yesterday was a bit swingy at the 5/10NL tables. One hand I pickup KQh in LP and call a min-raise, flop is perfect for me, Qs7h3h giving me top pair and flush draw. Initial min-raiser preflop bets $30, MP min raises to $60 and I re-raise to $180. He calls in an instant and the turn brings another blank heart. I think I'm golden at this point and the player only has another $60 or so left, he checks to me and I put him all-in. He calls with ATh for the nut flush, no idea why he was min-raising and calling a re-raise with just the A high flush draw but it worked out for him.

Couple hands later I pick-up KK in MP and raise it to $40, 4 callers see the flop of K97 with two diamonds. I bet $120 into the $160 pot with my top set and LP calls. Turn is a Q of diamonds putting the flush on the board (why does the flush ALWAYS come when I have a great hand like a set or top two pair?). I check and so does he, I pray for the board to pair and it does putting another Q on the board and giving me a boat, K's full of Q's. I bet $250, get called pretty quickly and take down a nice $900 pot. Ended around even for the day.

Wish me luck in today's tournament, I'll post the results late on.

2004-12-09T13:03:00.000-05:00

5/10 NL Hands

I was playing 5/10 NL this morning again and have a couple of hands I'd like to post. First hand occurred against another player who also bought in for a shortstack of 50BB's like myself. I had around $500 and the main opponent had around $400. About 3 limpers to me in LP and I call $10 with KJs, the big blind min-raises and everyone calls. 5 players to the flop for $20 each, $100 in the pot. Flop comes J2J two hearts. A horrible player who is also in the next hand min-bets, which means he's on a draw, the player directly after him raises it to $40 and I re-raise to $120. Everyone folds to the initial raiser and he calls. Turn is a T and he checks to me. The pot is around $350 and at this point I believe I'm ahead so I figure since our stacks are quite short that if I do bet around $200 and he calls we're just going to be all-in anyways, I decide to go all-in which is just putting him all-in for $300. He calls, river is a blank and he turns over QJ, I win a bit pot and I'm up to $1,000.

This next hand is the one where I'm curious what others think. I pickup KK in MP, before the action gets to me the 'horrible player' (UTG) min-raises to $20 and the player directly after him (UTG+1) re-raises to $60, I know that the raiser wants to isolate this bad player which means he doesn't have to have an amazing hand, I decide to just smooth call the $60. The button also calls as does the min-raiser so it's 4 to the flop for $60 each.

Flop comes 972 with two spades, pretty good flop I guess. UTG bets $10 as he always does into the $240 pot and UTG+1 calls, I raise to $150 hoping to either take it down or go headsup on the turn with someone. Button calls and so does UTG, UTG+1 bails and 3 of us go to the turn with $690 in the pot.

Turn is a nasty looking Q of spades putting the flush on the board. This scares the shit out of me as I know that UTG will bet minimum and call big raises with draws no matter what the price. What scares me even more is that he checks, I check and so does the button, free river card for them :( Oh, I have the K of spades.

River is a 2c and UTG bets $10 so now I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a flush or a 2 because he would've actually bet a good size if he had anything worth betting with. I, however am still concerned about the button and want to see a showdown cheaply so I call the $10. The button comes out firing some random bet in the area of $350, something like $341.94 and UTG folds. I'm trying to put this player on a hand.

I've watched him play before and have seen him try some bluffs into big pots, I've also seen him call down huge bets with 1 pair, mid-crap kicker and hands like that heads-up. I don't believe he was on the flush draw since he called my large raise on the flop and he acted directly after me. With the flush out there I believe he would've raised the flop if he had a set. Maybe he flopped two pair with 97 or the Q with Q9 but the 2 on the river gives me a higher two pair. I don't put him on a hand that beats me and decide that he either has a small piece of the flop or is completely bluffing me. I call and he flips over a garbage hand with a 7 in it for two pair, 7's and 2's and I take the $1400 pot down. He says he can't believe I called and another person comments that he thought it was full house vs flush and didn't expect those hands. I suppose I should've also bet the turn but I was very afraid of UTG, not the button.

So, what should I have done differently, and do you make that call on the river?

2004-12-08T10:56:00.000-05:00

That's No-Limit, Baby!

After dabbling around in 10/20 for a bit I couldn't stop myself from coming back and playing NL. Everything processed fine at The Gaming Club and I deposited $2,000 for starters, playing 2/4 and 5/10. I guess I'm the new generation in poker because limit is not my game. NL appeals to me much better, and people actually have to pay to draw out on me. I'm a no limit kinda guy and I'm sticking to it.

Playing in the 5/10NL game earlier today I had position on a very aggressive player who loved to raise preflop and bully you out of the pot. I only bought in for $500 and not the max $1000 stack so at the time of the hand I had about $470. The aggressive opponent who has me covered raised to $50 preflop in MP and it was folded to me in the SB with AKs, I called. The flop came T43 with two of my suit, I have two overs and a flush draw, a favorite to pair which he most likely he has, if not AK or AQ. I check it to him and he bets $100, I of course check-raise all-in since I believe I'm the favorite right now and at the same time I have some folding equity since this player doesn't get played back at often so this move can make him fold too. He calls though with 88 (dumb call on his part?) but I hit a K on the turn and double up. So it's been a good start to my morning and I'll continue playing later tonight, hopefully when the tables are a bit juicier.

I haven't been posting too often recently and my sleep schedule has been a little screwed up. Going to sleep at 10pm and waking up at 4am or 5am is not normal for a guy my age. Going to sleep at 5am and waking up at 3pm is more like it, so I hope to work back to that schedule soon. The bankroll is nearing 16k, I took a hit at the end of November which set me back a bit so in my eyes I've been making slow progress, not nearly as fast as I'd like (I bet it's the same for everyone though). What I really need right now is a big score, a nice tournament win would be nice, I'll keep dreaming though.

2004-12-05T09:48:00.000-05:00

Playing in the High Stakes

Well at least they're high stakes for me, kinda. After having stopped playing the NL/PL games on Party I had to find somewhere else to play or 'something' else to play. I've been getting some issues fixed with The Gaming Club and Prima Network, sending in documentation and that kind of stuff so I decided to put NL on hold for a bit. I looked at the limit games and sat down at the 3/6 for a bit on Party, it was pretty boring there, I think I finished up $50 but it seemed quite small. I didn't want to bother with the 5/10 so I went ahead and played some 10/20, finishing up around $500 or 25BB. That was a couple days ago and I'm still playing, only 1 table of course since I don't want to lose too much money if I were to hit a harsh swing starting off.

Contrary to what some people have said in the Mid to High Stakes HoldEm forum on 2+2 this game is very easy. In one post, a person asked what the main differences were between 5/10 and 15/30 full ring games, many people responded and someone posed the question, why would you jump from 5/10 to 15/30, what about 10/20? Forum regulars jumped at the chance to respond and tell this person that the 10/20 on Party is a tough game and 15/30 is much easier, all that's needed is the roll. The players at 10/20 are truly horrible though and as long as you can hit a hand here or there the rest is easy. These morons will bluff at any chance they get, and chase their gutshots and open-enders no matter what kind of action is before them. Some players were capping the flop with their non-nut flush draws and many people bet and call raises with their bottom pair. These are just certain players, but there are always 2-4 of them at a table, and usually when you're in a pot, you're facing one or two of them. It seems like they enjoy giving their money away and I like it.

I'm not sure how long I'll play at the 10/20 tables but for now I'm grinding out a pretty nice profit so I'll stick with it, I hope that I can continue to win and not run into a rough patch that takes me for a lot of money. I've sorted out the problems with TGC and Prima so I can start NL like I planned but I'm going to continue keeping it on hold for now and see how this higher stakes limit goes.

One thing I noticed is that when I first sat down to play 10/20 the money seemed big, "Wow, $15 an orbit", or "Jeez, I can lose $240 on one hand", and "Damn, $20 just to see a flop with 22?". Within half an hour all that was gone though. Whenever I first hit a new level I think, well, that's a lot of money, but once I play for a bit it doesn't even seem like money anymore. When I think about it now, it almost never feels like I'm even playing with real money. Money has lost so much value to me since I started playing poker. I get upset a bit when I lose a couple hundred dollars here and there, but it never occurs to me that I technically just lost a months rent, or that I could've paid for my utility bills and groceries with the bet I just made. Do any of you readers feel like you're not really playing with money at all, or that the money you are playing with isn't really worth what the poker software is showing you? I guess I've been desensitized, and some of my friends who have taken poker a little more seriously feel the same way.

I was reading some blogs this morning and noticed that many of them had posted the blogger $25 NL game that was played last night. I saw some of the Party names used and added a couple. SirFWALGman is playing 3/6 right now but he won't respond to me, how rude! :) Maybe I'll find some more bloggers on Party in the future, I wouldn't mind playing around in a small limit NL game once in awhile.

2004-12-03T20:30:00.000-05:00

A Death In The Family

I've recently had a death in the family so things have been a little rough. Poor ol' Party Poker has died for me. I've been playing Party Poker for about 7 months and have moved up to the final level in NL/PL when I made the move to the 200's. Some of you may have noticed that Party Poker has stripped a lot of their 200NL/PL tables. Instead of the 15 tables they had before, they only have about 6 full ring tables running now, 3 NL and 3 PL (I almost always play PL now). The waiting lists, which were usually 1-5 people long before, are now almost always 15+ people long. It takes forever to get on a table and when you finally do get on, the tables are usually pretty rock solid, all the sharks are bunched together.

From reading posts on the 2+2 forums it seems that Party has closed a lot of the tables because they want the bad players to play lower limits, which makes them lose their bankroll and a lower rate which in turns allows them to generate rake for a longer time. It makes sense in a way since Party Poker is just about making money, but I think they should also care about their players want. By the looks of it, I won't be playing much longer on Party Poker and will have to move to a new site.

What sites are there to play mid-high NL/PL games? Well UB is out of the question for now, the games are usually rock tight which doesn't really suit my play. PokerStars is a maybe, I've been playing some of the 3/6NL there when the games are juicy and it's bumpy that's for sure. Check N' Raise would be good if their player database was larger. Right now they usually have the limit games running, sometimes even the high ones, but there isn't enough players to continually keep the games going. The NL games that run are usually the micro ones and not any of the higher ones I usually play. I've been looking into the games on the Prima Network and will probably end up playing there. They have games running from all limits from the micro to the big 25/50 games. The only thing that is slowing me down right now is the trust issue with that network. I've heard a lot about people's bankrolls being suspended while they 'investigate' something and sometimes even end up confiscating large sums of money because they believe the person was playing with fraudulent money. I've sent in my documentation to the site so withdrawls can go smoothly and once all of that has gone through and has been processed I think I will start playing there.

The month of December is now here and poker in November is done with. I only ended up with a profit of around 2.5k for the month of November after having two big losing days ($500+ losses) which really set me back and made this month disappointing for me. The holidays are approaching and with all of the family get togethers, dinners and all that stuff, I don't know if I'll be able to get in the poker time I usually do. That means I'll probably have another 'bad' month. I hope the rest of you finish off the year strong though.

2004-11-29T21:58:00.000-05:00

Juicy Live Game

I haven't posted in a couple days, I've been a bit on the busy side and online poker has been slow for the most part. My last post was about going to Akwesasne Mohawk Casino for the 3rd time, only this time I was going to play limit but the 2/5 NL game instead. When we got there we put our names on the list but the game hadn't started yet. They were waiting for a dealer to come in at 6pm and when he arrived they called all the people on the list to get on the table. I sat down and bought in for only $300, others bought in for the maximum of $500 and a couple bought in for a measly $100.

I got off to a great start when I flopped a set of 8's on an 689 board. I was afraid of the straight when the BB went betting out very hard and called him down but he showed two pair, 9's and 6's. An orbit later I picked up 77 and called a raise to $15 along with a bunch of other players. The flop came K74, I checked and before it got to the initial raiser someone had bet $50. There was 1 caller and I raised to $150, the bettor thought for a couple of seconds and called, the other caller bailed. Turn brought a 3 completing the rainbow board and I went all-in for the rest of my stack, I had my opponent covered. He took a couple of minutes and called with a set of 4's. I'm not sure what took him so long, that was pretty much the only hand I could've had to beat him.

Two orbits later I raise with KK in the BB, I flop top set on a KJ8 board, bet out but everyone folds. I still take down a nice pot from all the callers to the raise. I limp UTG with KK the next time I get it but it isn't raised preflop which is surprising. Flop is 9 high and BB comes out betting, I call and most of the others bail. He bets the same bet on the turn and I raise it up. He calls and we check on the river after another spade comes to put a flush out there. He only had K9 though. Finally I get AA and win a small pot after my opponent folds on the turn to another bet.

By this time I had already brought my stack from $300 to around $1200 and was sitting pretty. But ofcourse after this rain of great cards I went card dead. I bled away a couple hundred from having some cards but not hitting and lost a $400 pot when my QQ lost to KK on an A8A board. I didn't put him on an A so my read was right, but I certainly didn't put him on KK either. By the end of the night and around 9 hours of playing poker I finished only up around $400 which wasn't too bad but I'm sure I could've done a lot better. I was still pleased with my winnings and finally ended my streak of losing at this casino.

No real news in online poker. I'm pissed off that Party clsoed down a lot of the 200 tables so the waiting lists are pretty long now. I haven't made much progress lately and it looks like I'm going to finish up only about $3,000 for the month of November. I'm also a little disappointed in CheckNRaise poker. I really don't like that it is browser based for now and believe they should've waited until they were done the stand alone software before going live. I hope they release their software soon and then it might take off, it just needs to be advertised better.

I'm going to go play some 3/6 on PokerStars for a bit now, maybe I can grind out a win.

2004-11-27T03:08:00.000-05:00

B&M.......AGAIN!

Looks like me, my roommate and my friend are headed to the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino tomorrow afternoon for another day full of poker. I'm not playing stupid limit this time, maybe just while I wait for a seat at the 2/5NL game, that limit game just irritates the hell out me. I have NL in my blood so I'll play much better there.

Seems like some of us bloggers are running bad all at the same time. DoubleAs as well as Wired Aces have hit some pretty rough patches in the past little bit and I'm feeling the same pain, thankfully not to the same extend. I haven't lost nearly as much as they have. However, I have been getting some pretty bad beats put on me which ends up setting me off and I end up smashing my desk with my fist repeatedly. I wish I didn't get angry when I'd lose, but that's just the way I am.

I've been playing some 3/6NL on PokerStars lately and suprisingly I've made a profit. I had some nice hands early on but got pretty upset when my KK was called down by AQ (no pair, no draw) and ended up hitting an A on the river. Some of the players are pretty bad, they're way too aggressive and overvalue their hands way too much. I had a person raise me all-in after I check raised the flop of 22T with Q2, he had AT and I took down a $700 pot. Trapping in this game works great and because of the aggressiveness I can almost always depend on the player after me to bet, which sets up a lot of check raises. I'll continue to play when the game is good and see how it goes. Maybe I'll move to 3/6 for a short while before jumping to 5/10.

2004-11-26T15:04:00.000-05:00

Same Old

There isn't much news to post about. Poker has been slow lately and I've been having a similar run as DoubleAs where there's a swing upwards followed by a swing downwards, it wasn't nearly as big though. I had a nice winning day on Tuesday where I brought in $850 but Wednesday night was full of bad beats and I ended giving $550 of it back. Every high pocket pair that I got ran into a low set and my sets would run into straights or flushes. That's poker though, right?

I've setup PlayerViewNET that many people have been talking about. This is a small program that connects with your PokerTracker database and your Party skins. It then uses whatever stats you'd like to paste from your PokerTracker database and pastes it beside each players name on your Party table. This is very convenient, this way you do not have to go scrolling through your PokerTracker database each time you're up against an opponent but aren't sure how they play. I have PlayerView setup to show each players Voluntarily Put $ In Pot, Preflop Raise %, Hands Played, and Win % At Showdown. This tells me how loose they are, what their range of hands are that they raise with, and how often they make sure to go to showdown with the best hand. I was aware before which players to stay away from, however with these stats constantly on the table I have found some other players that I'd want to stay away from too (high win % at showdown). I hope that this can help me with some of those tough decisions.

This month has been slower than I had expected. I'm only up about 2.8k but was expecting much higher. I still have 5 more days until the end of the month to make a bigger profit though so I'll be working hard on that.

I'm also looking forward to CheckNRaise's poker room opening up tomorrow. I wonder how many people will sign up and be playing.

2004-11-23T17:19:00.000-05:00

Check N Raise Poker

Just want to quickly note that I have added a banner on the left side for the new Check N Raise poker site which will be opening up on Saturday! If you preregister before Saturday 27th you'll get a 50% bonus up to $250, otherwise it will just be 50% up to $150. While I was in the Toronto area for a tournament there I talked to one of the people involved with this site. He said that they're working very hard to make sure everything is perfect with this poker room. Fast transactions, fast support, and fast play. Out of all the new sites coming up this is the only one that is promising. I think it'll eventually be butting heads with Party, Stars, and UB. It's worth a try at least.

2004-11-23T13:57:00.000-05:00

Turning Stone Report

Friday morning I woke up and headed to the bank to change my colourful CAD into USD. All you Americans out there, your dollar SUCKS right now! While this is good for exchanging my canadian money, it is really bad for my online bankroll. I used to withdraw $100 US and get $5,000 CAD for it, now it's almost even! We left around 4:00pm and weren't held up at the border for too long. I didn't have my passport or birth certificate on me so he was trying to figure out if I was a Canadian citizen or not. Ummm, I'm a 19 year old, white male, with dirty blonde hair and no foreign accent, do I LOOK like a terrorist to you? He finally let me in and told me to make sure to bring those documents next time, meh. We finally arrived in the good ol' USA and were greeted by lots of billboards along the highway and a toll booth. Why am I paying to drive on this highway? Another 93 cents down the hole, damn this trip is getting expensive. We left our stuff at The Inn and headed to the casino.

When we arrived I was surprised there were no security around carding people, there were kids in this casino that couldn't have been over 16, I swear. We walked right in, ignored all the other games and people and headed straight for the Poker Room. It looked like the stock exchange. There was a man with a marker and a microphone at the front of the room, quickly writing down initials and taking orders from other, people were scrambling around and yelling letters and number, "BJ on 3-6!, give me 5-10 and 100 too!" . I made some hand movements and gave the signal to make a buy but he looked confused. I signed up for the 100nl and was seated in about 10 minutes.

I sat down and doubled up early on when I raised to $10 with AA, the EP limper called, flop was T63, he check raised me all-in. I called and he had 64o, nice hand sir *shrugs*. I had a couple more hands like AK and AQ that didn't hit so I was just getting blinded out. I played for a couple hours, took a break and moved tables. Nothing eventful happened there and we left around 5:00am to try and get some sleep before having to be back at the Poker room around 9am to sign up for the tournament.

We came back the next morning around 9:30am and the person taking care of the tournament registration told us it was sold out. How did they sell 152 tickets in 30 minutes? We were disappointed but went to play the ring games. We later found out they had miscounted and still had 60 tickets to sell earlier on, dumbasses! I got some really nice hands early on at my table. I was dealt 33 and limped in with a bunch of others. I flopped a set and bet it the whole way and was called down by a player, no clue what he had but it was a nice pot never the less. An orbit later I picked up KK and raised to $10, 2 callers. Flop came K22 but I bet out $15 to not set off any alarms, 1 player called. I checked the turn which was a blank, he checked behind. On the river I bet $25 and he called with TT. Another okay pot.

I took a break and had some breakfast at an $8 breakfast buffet. They served eggs, eggs with ham, sausages, more sausages, hash browns, donuts and dessert, oh and eggs and sausages! It's 10am, who eats ice cream and cake at 10am. Just as I said that a chunky woman walked up to the dessert bar and helped herself to a large piece of cake. I rolled my eyes and laughed, no wonder the majority of americans are fat!

Back at the tables I took a nice bad beat. I was dealt TT, limped and called the BBs raise to $10 along with 2 other players. Flop came QT4 and I went out betting $15, the BB check raised me to $40 and I re-raised all-in $90-something. He called and turned over AA, river brought an A, yay! A couple of hours later and at another table I'm dealt 88 in EP and limp. Flop comes A8A and I bet $10 into the $14 pot (7 players in the pot). I'm called by the player to my left. He was a young kid, looked 16 years old, maybe even 15. He had stacks of $1 chips, I'm guessing he was playing at the 1-3 table earlier on. The turn brings another 8 giving me quads. I check to him but he checks behind. River is a J and I bet $15, he raises to $30 and I re-raise all-in because he obviously has the A and will call any bet with the boat. He does call with AQ and the tables goes "oooooooh". I rake in the pot but I'm kind of pissed off because now I have a shitload of $1 chips. The rest of the night I get cold decked and can't do much. I only end up a little bit and we head home. I was exhausted but we had a really fun trip. My roomate dropped $500 but my friend who won $17k in the tournament I mentioned in an earlier post won $700 playing 10-20, 15-30, and a little 20-40. He's a big roller now, hah.

I can't wait to go again, maybe this weekend, who knows!

2004-11-22T19:51:00.000-05:00

Sweet Revenge

Party Poker Pot-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (9 handed)

saw flopsaw showdown

Button ($732.2)
SB ($327)
BB ($179.8)
UTG ($200)
UTG+1 ($226.3)
MP1 (Dumbass) ($268.2)
MP2 ($196)
Hero ($242.9)
CO ($200)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with As, Ad.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 (Dumbass) calls $4, MP2 folds, Hero raises to $16, CO folds, Button folds, SB folds, BB folds, MP1 (Dumbass) calls $12.

Flop: ($38) Qc, Ts, 5c (2 players)
Dumbass bets $36.1, Hero raises to $80, Dumbass raises to $252.2 (All-In), Hero calls $146.90 (All-In).

Turn: ($517.10) Qd (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($517.10) Js (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $517.10
Main Pot: $491.80, between Dumbass and Hero. > Pot won by Dumbass ($491.80).
Pot 2: $25.30, returned to Dumbass.

Results in white below:
Dumbass has Qh 8d (three of a kind, queens).
Hero has As Ad (two pair, aces and queens).
Outcome: Dumbass wins $517.10.

I punch the wall and scream. I'm having one of the worst days in poker and he decides to do this to me. What a dumbass. I promise myself I'll get my revenge on him. And here it is.

Party Poker Pot-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (7 handed)

saw flopsaw showdown

BB ($142.9)
UTG ($509.05)
MP1 ($133.8)
MP2 (Dumbass) ($448.1)
CO ($354.8)
Hero ($442)
SB ($314.5)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Ah, Ac.
UTG calls $4, MP1 calls $4, MP2 (Dumbass) calls $4, CO folds, Hero raises to $20, SB folds, BB folds, UTG folds, MP1 folds, MP2 (Dumbass) calls $16.

Flop: ($54) 2s, 5s, Jc (2 players)
Dumbass bets $51.3, Hero calls $51.30.

Turn: ($156.60) 6s (2 players)
Dumbass bets $153.6, Hero raises to $370.7 (All-In), Dumbass calls $217.10.

River: ($898) 3c (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $898
Main Pot: $898, between Dumbass and Hero. > Pot won by Hero ($898).

Results in white below:
Dumbass has 5h As (one pair, fives).
Hero has Ah Ac (one pair, aces).
Outcome: Hero wins $898.

2004-11-22T15:45:00.000-05:00

...

Poker is pissing me off. I'm getting the worst beats imaginable. I don't feel like posting. That is all.

2004-11-18T15:45:00.000-05:00

When To Move Up?

I've been reading around on forums and blog comments and noticed a lot of people are afraid of moving up, or just too cautious when it comes to taking the next step. So I was wondering when is it the best time for a player to move up. Is it when a player has a big enough bankroll that taking a big hit at that limit wouldn't jeopordize it? Or maybe it's when that player can sit down relaxed and without getting butterflies or playing scared. In my past I had always waited until I had a very safe bankroll for the next level. Starting out in poker I didn't deposit any money, but played the free 10 cent giveaways on Victor Chandler. Growing this bankroll was tough and everytime I wanted to move up I'd be too afraid because taking a step higher could have blown my entire roll. I did the same thing when I finally moved to Party Poker. I stayed at the 25nl tables way too long, and when I finally did take a shot at a higher limit then it turned out to be just that, a shot. I'd hesitate and play scared until I was comfortable.

So back to the question, when should someone move up? Well, it all depends on what type of a player you are. A nut peddler like myself doesn't need a big bankroll to move up. I play really tight, wait a monster hand, and get paid off. I've never dropped more than 6 buy-ins from my bankroll peak. A loose player needs a much bigger bankroll to take the swing, but as long as you're a winning player you can make the move.

A little pointer to everyone reading this. If you can make the move to a higher limit, do it! Don't wait! Don't tell yourself, "Oh, well I have the bankroll, but I think I should get 'x' amount of hands before moving up", or "I know I can beat the next level, but I'll be too afraid to play, let me just keep building my bankroll slowly at my current limit".

Why are you playing the game of poker? Unless you answer is to lose your money, then there is no reason not to move up. I play poker because I love winning money, and at the same time I am playing a game. I like the challenge of playing vs others and winning. When you move up you can win more money than before, and you are challening yourself just a bit more (not a lot, for the most part, each limit is filled with dumb players). So if you know you're a winning player, you play tight, and your bankroll can handle it, then make the move!

With that said, I'm going to be making the move to 5/10nl soon. I've been playing the 200's for about a two and a half months and have made more than twice as much as the first 7 slow months. I haven't been playing a lot lately but I will put in a bunch more hours after my Turning Stone trip until the end of the month, then I'll move to 5/10nl. Time to step up to the plate and take a swing (not a poker downswing ;) ). After all, if you don't take a real stab at it, you'll never know if you can do it or not.

P.S. I'll make a post on Sunday/Monday as to how my poker trip at TS went. Have a good weekend everyone!

2004-11-15T13:12:00.000-05:00

Another Akwesasne Disappointment

We left Ottawa and headed for the border around 4:30. A tournament was scheduled for 6pm but we wouldn't be able to make it in time due to traffic and border delay. When we arrived we played a little craps at first but no big rolls there. I signed myself up for 3-6 and 5-10 and REALLY regret not putting myself on the 2/5NL list. After the tournament finished it filled up really quickly and no one left for the entire night. When I was called I chose to play 5-10. It was very swingy and every 2nd or 3rd hand was a KILL pot (10-20). I only ended down $100 for the night so it wasn't too bad, my roomate dropped $300. Early on I saw JJ a couple times but other than that I had no other high pocket pairs. I did not hit a set at all and I never made any flushes. It was very disappointing because this is my 2nd time going there and both times I was completely card dead and couldn't win. On our way out when the casino was almost dead, we went back to the craps table for a little play and started right when an old native man started rolling hot. I watched while my friend made about $90. Not too bad when someone else is doing all the work :) Next weekend I hope the deck hits me in the face at Turning Stone. I'm going to destory that 1/2nl game!

I had an upsetting day in poker on Saturday, all my high pocket pairs would lose and good hands (TPTK) would end up getting flushed or something similar. I didn't tilt but ended up getting so frusterated that I took my deck of cards I had on my desk and threw them at my monitor. I guess it was just one of those days. I only ended up losing $250 because right before leaving I had AA finally hold up to win a large pot. I received my money from the casinos I whored which added $500 to my bankroll, that helped a lot after taking those beats.

2004-11-12T14:20:00.000-05:00

Akwesasne Mohawk Casino

A couple of my poker buddies, Rich and Martin, decided to go out tonight to the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino which is located just on the other side of the US/Canadian border in Cornwall. It's about a 1.5 hour trip and I've only been there once before when a couple friends came to visit me in the summer. The casino itself is nothing special but they do have a poker room and that is all that matters. We'll be leaving around 4pm to get there for the tournament that starts at 6pm. I'm pretty sure that their structure hasn't changed since last time so it may turn into a crapshoot but I'm there for the fun anyways. After the tournament I'll go play the ring games, maybe 3/6 at first just to have some fun with the fish who bet their gutshots and backdoor flush/overcards and if I do manage to win even a little bit I'll move to the 5/10. If I'm feeling really daring I'll even go play some 2/5NL but we'll see. In real life I am so much more conservative with my money. Online however it doesn't even feel like money anymore. I lose or win hundreds, and while I do end up either sad or happy with my results, it doesn't really feel like I've won that amount of money. To me they're just 'chips'. I'll post tomorrow on how the trip goes and if I end up going on tilt and losing the rest of my money shooting craps :)

2004-11-08T08:20:00.000-05:00

Always Room For Bonus Whoring

Last night I made some good money at the 200's even though the tables were dead for the most part. A couple orbits in I get AA on the button. UTG min-raises to 8, MP makes it 15, MP1 calls and I make it 50. UTG re-raises to 85, MP goes all-in for about 85 and I just call. Flop comes T high and UTG goes all-in for his remaining stack around $140. I call and take down the pot after UTG shows AJo (?!?) and MP shows JJ. That brought my stack up to around $450 which I needed to take down my next big pot with. A couple orbits later I'm in the SB with KK. MP makes it 15, Big Stack (1k) call, and I make it 40. MP reconsiders and mucks but Big Stack comes along for the ride and calls. Flop comes K77 which couldn't be any better. I bet $50 into the $90-something pot and Big Stack calls. Perfect! Turn brings a 6 and I check to him to show weakness. It worked out great because he bet the pot which was around $195. I re-raise all-in for the rest of my stack and he calls. River brings another 6 and he shows 76o, flopped trips and turned boat. I couldn't have asked for a better situation. His huge stack really payed me off and I later left the table with around $900.

I played in the $3 rebuy satellite to the $350k guaranteed on Pokerstars. I made it down to the last 80 but was knocked out after a big stack and I were all-in on a K high flop, he had QQ and I had AK. Pokerstars, being the rigged site that they are :Insert Smiley Face:, rivered a Q to give him a set. In the $10 re-buy I had a stack of around 70k with the blinds at 3000-6000 and 65 people left when MP raised to 18k and I re-raised all-in with QQ. *clears throat loudly* Pokerstars, being the rigged site that they are, turned him his 3-outer to knock me out. I'm about 95% sure that I've been knocked out of every PokerStars tournament I've ever played in (besides 3 or 4) when I was a huge favourite and my opponent caught a 2-6 outer on me. Riverstars, what a great site! :)

I tried to go to sleep but couldn't so I go up, got on my computer and browsed the internet looking for something to do. Poker was kind of dead and I didn't really feel like playing so I while browsing the 2+2 forums I came across the thread about a couple casinos with 100% deposit bonuses that were easily whorable. I quickly deposited $200 from my Neteller account and got to work playing Blackjack 3 hands at a time. Brought back some memories (I played strictly Blackjack before discovering poker). I cleared the wagering requirements and cashed out $475 ($200 deposit + $200 bonus + $75 Blackjack profit) for a profit of $275 in just about an hour. Not too shabby, eh? I'm waiting on the other casino to give me my full bonus because I guess they need to be contacted before crediting the account with the extra $200. Hopefully everything goes smooth and the casino don't give me any trouble, which is what they do best.

2004-11-05T20:20:00.000-05:00

Poker Trip Announced

I am pleased to announce that within a couple of weeks I'm going on a Poker Trip down to Turning Stone Casino and Resort in NY for a weekend full of non-stop poker action. I doubt I'll be getting any sleep that weekend, I'll just be sitting at the tables, 100nl most likely, and grinding out a profit. So far there's 4 of us going, my friend with the car, his buddy, my roomate and I. This friend of mine won the $30 rebuy $60,000 Guaranteed on UB the other day netting himself $17,400 US. He was chip leader when the last 50 people remained and didn't move much. I believe he dropped down to 2nd in chips for a brief moment but quickly regained the lead and took home 1st place. He had some nice cards and hit his draws when he needed to. Damn, $17,400 US, damn! He withdrew most of his winning and took the rest to the 25/50NL table to play against the regulars there. He lost a $4k pot to Donkey Style, who people claim to be Ben Affleck but he ended up winning his losses back a little later on. He played some 30/60 also and finished up a bit, limit sure is swingy though!

I played in the $50+5 Large Caps tourny last night and finished 32nd out of 750. So close, yet so far! I won $209 for my troubles, so it was better than nothing, but I'd really like a nice MTT win sometime soon, especially after seeing that $17,400 win. That would do wonders for me. Until then I just gotta keep grinding it out.

I can't wait until Turning Stone, woooohooooo!

2004-11-03T16:03:00.000-05:00

Rake Return

Some wanted to know about the rake return I mention once in awhile. Any poker player that puts in a lot of time playing online should have one. The way a pokerroom goes about making their profit is through rake. This is usually a percentage of the pot up to $3. Everytime you play in a pot, you give to the rake, win or lose. In an effort to market themselves, most pokerrooms give out a deal to those who refer players to their site. If you refer a player when you've signed up as an affiliate, you get 20% of that player's rake that they have generated. This affiliate deal wasn't made to give players back their rake, however they don't really have a way of stopping it. What you can do is sign yourself up as an affiliate (Affiliate link in the top menu bar on PartyPoker.com) and then make a new account at a PartyPoker skin using the affiliate link. You can let someone else do the affiliate work, just sign up under their affiliate with a new account and recieve a certain percentage of what they get, usually 90%. If you'd like for someone else to do the work then you can visit www.RakeReturns.com for more information.

2004-11-02T17:17:00.000-05:00

Dreaded Downswing

I'm having that damn poker downswing everyone always talks about. I haven't made any money over the past 3 days and I can't wait for it to end. Yesterday, after moving back to the 200NL tables, I hit one set which won me $10, and flopped one straight which ended up getting counterfeited on the turn, no other action the entire night. I'm currently waiting for this month's rake money which will end up replacing most of my $500+ losses over the past few days and hopefully I can get back on track and start winning again. I need the money now more than ever since I'm going to have to withdrawl around half of my bankroll to pay for something that I need done.

Last night I watched DoubleAs finish 6th in a $20 rebuy tournament on PokerStars. He played good poker and he would've placed even higher if some fool who was getting lucky didn't beat Double's AJ with 67. He still ended up taking home around $1,000 and made his fellow bloggers proud. Well done!

It's a miserable day today and some miserable things have happened recently so I'm going to eat and watch some tv, I'll hit up the tables later tonight and try to grind out SOME kind of profit. Wish me luck.

2004-10-31T20:12:00.000-05:00

Alright, I Give Up!

I tried to give a shot at the 5/10 6max tables once again and the game is just not beatable. Maybe it is and I just have the worst luck in the world, which sounds about right. In general I am just a very unlucky person and bad things always happen to me, I guess that's just how I was born.

I cannot win at the 5/10 tables and I have no clue how others like Matt at www.ThePokerChronicles.com does it. If I have any other pocket pair besides AA an overcard ends up coming by the river and one of the other 5 fish at the table are there with that card. If I hit top pair top kicker with AK one of the other 5 fish at the table calls me down with mid or bottom pair and turns or rivers his two pair or trips. If I hit a set one of the other 5 fish catch their runner runner straight or flush draw. What am I supposed to do? There's nothing to do. I give up. With the way the garbage NL tables have been lately I don't even know what to play anymore. This game sucks!

2004-10-30T18:08:00.000-04:00

Changes

The 200 tables at Party have been pretty bad as of late. Most of the time the average pot doesn't even get over $120. On occasion there will be two big pots back to back and spike the average pot up to 180 or more, I'll get all excited, take a look and see the table back to it's original rock form. After browsing the Shorthanded forums on 2+2 I decided to change up what I've been playing a little and went to take another stab at the 5/10 6max games. While the players are very bad at these tables, they also suckout a lot, which sent me packing last time I tried to play (if you remember from my posts a long time ago). I believe I ended up down a couple hundred and decided to give up. This time around I got off to a nice start and finished my first day up around $400, yesterday was a break even day and today I'm up another $100 or so.

The problem I find is I lose a ton of money when I go on a string of cards that simply do not hit. The AK-AT's hit nothing and when I follow up with flop bets everyone calls me down and I have to give up on the turn. The players at these limits will usually call you down with any pair, and with my bad luck, they always end up turning or rivering two pair. I seem to lose money a little at a time but then make a killing when I hit a nice streak of cards that hold up. Maybe I'm supposed to loosen up a bit, I'm not sure. My VP$IP for my first 1,000 hands is 17.6 which is at the bottom of the scale according to 2+2's standards (17-23%). I do know for a fact that my aggression is horrible, I'm just not that aggressive of a player and never was. I won't 3bet preflop with mid pocket pocket pairs (77-TT) and I don't continue the aggression post flop unless I have a monster. If there are any callers I usually shutdown. I really have to improve this part of my game if I intend on winning more. So far I'm at 4.67 BB/100 but I'm sure that'll be dropping soon.

Last night I played in the $5 rebuy on UB with DoubleAs. We made a little bet to see who would last longer and he was ahead of me in chips but his downfall came when he bluffed with the almighty hammer but was played back at on the turn and lost a huge chunk of his stack. He was then forced to pimp my site on his blog.

"Wish I had his skills. Check out his site everyone...I'm sure you'll learn something. He has mad skills. He is da bomb." - doubleas

Hah, that gave me a good laugh, there's nothing to learn here! I ended up busting out in 80th out of the 1900 field when I pushed my shortstack with KJs and lost to A7. I found the payout structure on UB to be very top heavy. 1st place received 25% ($7,100) while 10th place only received 1% ($285). This gap is just ridiculous and out of the field of 1900 how could there be such a huge gap between 10 spots like that. They should really redo the structure because that wasn't fair in any way. Damn UB!

I'm going to go back to getting bad beated and losing lots of money at the 5/10 tables!

2004-10-29T04:11:00.000-04:00

Hitting My One-Outer

For your viewing pleasure against a complete maniac. I thought he had pocket 2's or something :)

Party Poker 5/10 Hold'em (6 max, 5 handed)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Ac, Ad.
Hero raises, MP (maniac) calls, Button folds, SB folds, BB folds.

Flop: (5.40 SB) Jd, Ts, Jc (2 players)
Hero bets, maniac raises, Hero 3-bets, maniac caps, Hero calls.

Turn: (6.70 BB) As (2 players)
Hero bets, maniac raises, Hero 3-bets, maniac caps, Hero calls.

River: (14.70 BB) 4s (2 players)
Hero bets, maniac raises, Hero 3-bets, maniac caps, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 22.70 BB
Main Pot: 22.70 BB, between Hero and maniac. > Pot won by Hero (22.70 BB).

Results in white below:
Hero has Ac Ad (full house, aces full of jacks).
maniac has Ah Jh (full house, jacks full of aces).
Outcome: Hero wins 22.70 BB.

2004-10-27T20:07:00.000-04:00

The Big One That Got Away

I was playing some more 5/10NL last night. I was up a $200 and my stack was sitting at $700. I pick up AA on the button. EP limps, MP min raises to 20 and I re-raise to 60. Both EP and MP call and we see a flop. The board brings 226 and they both check to me so I bet $120 into the $180 pot. Suprisingly they both call and 3 of us see the turn card which was a blank. Again they check to me, and with the pot at $540 I bet $350 into it. EP calls and MP drops out. The river brings a T, no flush, no straight, I must be golden! EP puts me all-in for my last $170 and I call. He shows TT for the rivered boat! He took down a huge pot, around $1600 which was supposed to be mine *sobs*. I suppose I'll live though. That was the biggest pot I've ever been in I lost it on the river, how sad. So I just wanted to tell you the story about the big one that got away.

2004-10-25T01:44:00.000-04:00

Update

While surfing the internet earlier a webpage had somehow installed a trojan virus on my computer. My virus protection software kept complaining about it but didn't do anything. I scanned a bunch of times and had to end up manually removing it at 4 hours of battle. It was everywhere and whenever I got rid most of it it would somehow re-install itself and continue its evil rampage. I finally got it fixed in time to go play the St. Maarten satellite on Party at 11:45pm. I won a seat through a $6+1 that fed into a $24+2 which I won. After getting AA twice early on and getting almost no action, the cards went dry. I tried to steal as much as I could but I just couldn't get anything going. I finally ended up pushing in LP with ATs but the button woke up with AA. A T flopped as well as two of my suit but I didn't river him. So much for my vacation to the caribbean.

Someone posted a comment about updating my bankroll which I did on the left. This month has been quite profitable for me again even with some downswings. The move up to the 200 tables bring in more money which is always a good thing. I've past the 12k mark and have average around 3-3.5k each month over the past 2 months. I'm trying to continue to build the bankroll and a little more and then I'll finally make my move to the 5/10 nl game once I feel more comfortable, maybe another month or two.

I played 5/10nl yesterday night for a bit. I had KK a couple times early on but got no action. First time everyone folded to my raise to $40 and the second time someone called preflop but folded on the flop bet. In the BB I picked up AJo and see a flop with MP and SB. Flop is J high and I bet $20 into a $30 pot. MP min raises to $40 and SB smooth calls, I also call. Turn brings an A to give me top two pair. Again I bet out and this time MP only calls, SB drops out. River is a blank and I value bet to try to get whatever I can out of him, he called and mucked and I took down a $500 pot.

A player directly to my left continued to run into bigger hands and had dropped a lot of money in a short amount of time. After reloading back to $1k he dropped around $450 when his hand ran into AA. A couple hands later I'm on the button and a player in EP limps. The player who was obviously getting annoyed raised to $220 into a $25 pot. I was incredibly glad to see AA and re-raised his bet to put him all-in. He took about 2 seconds to call and I'm sure his fist was going through his monitor when he saw what his QQ was up against.

Sadly I lost a hand when my AK TPTK ran into a set of T's but fortunately he was a very shortstack and only managed to lose about $200 on the hand. I ended up cashing out around $450 and was pleased with my little taste of 5/10NL. I look forward to playing in it once my bankroll can handle it. Until then I'll just continue to grind it out at the 200's on Party.

2004-10-22T20:11:00.000-04:00

Another Final Table

I just finished playing in the $10 rebuy ($11,000) Guaranteed tournament on the Prima Network which consisted of 616 players and a $13,760 prizepool. I didn't rebuy, not did I add-on. My entire table didn't even bother rebuying off the start so neither did I. By the first break I couldn't make anything happen and after winning a pot early on I was blinded back to my starting chip stack. With the blinds at 75-150 I pushed all-in with KTo UTG and got two callers, AQ and 66. The flop came K high and I tripled up. Some hands later I doubled up again with KK vs a maniac with the chiplead's 66. I had some nice hands and kept picking on small stacks. I was in the top 10 chip leaders 20 minutes after the first break and never left those ranks. As we got down to the money I picked on the shortstacks who tightened all the way up. After the break I knocked out shortstack after shortstack and was in 2nd place when I went up against a slightly bigger stack who had AK to my AA.

With about 14 people left I raised to 3x the blinds with TT in MP. A stack who was slightly below average went all-in and I called and was sure he had overs. He had AQo and hit his A on the flop, doubling him up and knocking me down below the average. I hung on and stole some pots but was severaly crippled. I squeezed into the final table with 5 BB's left. A player got knocked out shortly after the final table started so there were 9 of us left. I pushed UTG+1 and UTG with ATo and ATs respectively and both times I was able to steal the blinds, which nearly doubled me up. After another player got knocked out I finally picked up QQ in the BB. The chip leader who I hadn't seen any of raised on the button, and I went all-in ofcourse. Sadly he had AA which ended up knocking me out.

I was really happy with my play throughout the tournament, picking the right spots to take certain pots and slowly but surely building my stack to stay in the top 10 almost all of the time. I wasn't mad at all when I got knocked out because for the first time I had actually lost to a player who had the better hand. I said my gg's and nh's and left with my 7th place prize money of $480.

In other poker news, I had a really nice day at the tables making around $800 at the 200's. I made some nice reads which really ended up paying off. Along with that, the usual set vs two pair also paid me off really well. A player who ended up losing half his huge stack on a bluff looked to be steaming that he was called down by mid pair. The next hand I picked up KK and raised the usual 4x, he called along with another player. The flop came AK9 and I bet $20 into a $40 pot. He min-raised me to $40 and I smooth called. Turn brought an A giving me a boat, but AK and A9 could make higher boats. I checked to him and he bet $125 into the 120 pot. I re-raised him all-in and he called with KJo. I just love getting paid off by those horrible players.

I have to continue this nice rush today so I'm heading back to the tables.

2004-10-21T13:27:00.000-04:00

A Night at the NL Club

My friend and I decided we'd go to the NL club about 10 minutes away to play some 1-2NL $100 max buy-in with the fishies. We waited outside for our transportation to come, he deals at the club for tips so usually whenever we go he'll drive us there. We were standing on the side when I noticed some dog shit and told my friend to eat it, he laughed, said he never even noticed it and could've stepped in it. When our drive finally arrived we sat inside the car and after a couple of minutes I noticed that it started to smell really bad, like shit! I asked them if they smelled it also and they concurred. I checked the bottom of my shoes but couldn't find any shit. I asked my friend if he stepped in it but he denied it almost immediately. I told him to check the bottom of his shoes and he said he did. A couple of minutes passed and I couldn't take it anymore, I opened all the windows and even took my own shoes off, carefully inspecting them with my eyes and nose, no shit!

We finally arrived at the club and I told my friend to show me his shoes because I was almost positive it was him, he turned one shoe up and there it was! He got it all over the drivers floor mats and I couldn't stop laughing. We headed up to the 2nd floor where the tables were while Mr. Shit Shoe went to the bathroom to clean himself.

A couple of old men were already there playing some card game that they always enjoy playing. When the table started they came to play with us. 3 hands in I get AQo UTG+1 and limp. The two old men obviously play since they play almost any two. Flop is AQ4 rainbow. I check to the old man who bets $10 into the $6 pot. I call. Turn is a J which completed the rainbow. I check to him and he bets $15 this time, I raise him to $40, he thinks for 2 seconds and calls. River is another 4, I put him all-in and he calls me with Q4, bottom two pair on the flop and the rivered full house. My friend next to me told me he folded the other 4 which means he caught his 1 outer on the river, that's my kind of luck. I rebuy and continue play.

I got incredibly bad cards and didn't hit whenever I had some high cards or a pocket pair. I had AA twice and suprisingly I got paid off each time and was either all-in or put my opponent all-in.
I ended up exactly even for the night, buying in for $200 and cashing out $200. A horrible player across from me bought in for $100 and cashed out over $1200. He caught everything and it must've been the luckiest day of his life. He had A8 on the button, flop was A54, he bets and a player re-raises all-in. He called and his opponent had a set of 4's. Turn and river were 5 and A giving him a higher boat. He called that same players all-in on the flop with the K high flush draw for $200 into a $40 pot and rivered his flush for a $400 pot. He did everything wrong and everything went his way, I loved it! It was very entertaining and wished I had a hand to play against him, but never got one. I can't wait until a couple hands go my way, I'll cash out a big winner there.

I believe the blogger tourny is tonight but I don't have any money at PokerStars so I'm not sure if I'll be playing. I guess I should since I'll be playing with a bunch of fish, right? It's easy money!

(Nothing like some good smack talk..)

2004-10-19T16:31:00.000-04:00

$100,000 Guaranteed

I just finished playing a 75 player MTT satellite on the Prima Network into the $100,000 Guaranteed this Saturday. It was $10+1 and I nearly tripled up early on when MP min raises, button min re-raises and I call in the SB with 77. Flop top set, button bets all-in, I call and MP calls. I turned the boat and MP went all-in on the A on the river with his AK. Button had KK. I sat at 5k in chips for awhile and got another 2k when someone tried to bluff an AAx board, I had AQ and rivered quads. Then with the blinds at 300-600 I went all-in 4 hands in a row, AJ, AK, AK, AQs, nobody called any of them and I built my stack just from taking all the blinds. With 2 tables left and a stack of 11k, I raise to 2400 (400-800 blinds) with AA in MP. Button calls me and flop is J high, I bet 4k, he calls. Turn is a blank, I go all-in and he calls with AJs. River is a Q to double me up and put me in 2nd place. Final table a couple short stacks bust and the last 7 of us get seats. I then lose my entire stack to A7 with AQ on an A high board when he rivers a 7, but it doesn't matter. I ended up finishing 3rd and can't wait to play on Saturday. I'm still deciding if I'm going to rebuy. Obviously it is +EV but while I do play high enough stakes that $100 isn't a lot of money, I still seem to be quite stingy with my money. I guess we'll see..

2004-10-19T13:51:00.000-04:00

I'm Going Pro!

Just Kidding! So many fellow bloggers are though. I'm currently waiting to get re-accepted into University and don't have a job for a source of income. My only income in online poker and when people ask me where I work while I'm not in school, that's exactly what I tell them. They're quite surprised at how I can support myself through it (and make more than most of them do, too!). But for now I don't consider myself a pro, and only will once I finish school, get a job and then leave it for poker. Until then I can only dream.

In the ring games I've been pulling in a few bills on average every night which is pretty good. I get very upset with myself when I make the wrong moves and everynight could've been a ton more profitable if it wasn't for one or two bonehead moves (calling when I'm beat, and not calling when I'm the winner. A hand came up a couple days ago which went something like this. I get 66 UTG and limp, LP plays along with the blinds. The flop comes 6h 9s Ts. Small blind bets 2/3 of the pot, and BB re-raises 3x his bet. No reads on either opponent. What could BB have to reraise there? Higher set, top two pair, straight maybe? I fold with LP still left to act and he smooth calls along with the SB. I'm glad I folded when the turn brings the Jh now putting more straight draws and the flush draw out there. All the players slow down and start betting these puny little bets and the SB drops out. River brings another J to pair the board up. And the winner is...*drumroll please*.. ATo! Huh? LP had Q9o. So it looks like I'm giving some of these players too much credit. Maybe I'm just too weak tight but that board looked awfully scary especially with the action from the blinds.

Later on I get KQs in LP and limp in with a bunch of others. Flop comes K66 rainbow. Checked to the aggressive button who has been buying pots all day long with pot sized bets and I knew he'd try for this one. He pots it and it's folded to me. I call thinking that he wouldn't pot it with a 6 and if he had AK he would've potted it preflop. Turn brings a 5, again I check, he bets and I re-raise all-in. He has 56o for the turned boat. What a horrible read on my part! :) The one time I decide to play back at this aggro he ends up with a boat.

It's plays like these that set me back and I really have to work on getting better reads on my opponents so that I don't make the wrong move which ends up costing me a lot of money.

2004-10-15T08:09:00.000-04:00

$5 Party MTT

I finished 4th for a net of $343. I'm pretty disappointed as I know I'm soooooo much better than the last 3 players. I was going to write a tournament report but I only got 4th out of 1157 which isn't good enough for me. I got busted out when I had AQs on the BB, button min raises and I re-raise. He hits his 3 outer on the flop and I'm done. I was really looking forward to the 1st place prize money of $1150, too. This is the first final table I've made on Party, but at all the other sites I've made final tables at I've lost every time to a horrible suckout. AQ vs AJ in this tourny. AJ vs A2 in a $30 UB tourny which knocked me out heads up, and AJ (top two pair), vs AT's runner runner straight in a $20 rebuy on Prima. The MTT Poker Gods hate me!

The tournament just finished and the player who knocked me out went on to win it by going all-in preflop with Q3 vs AQ and hitting his 3 on the flop. Good for him, he really deserves the victory *rolls eyes*.

2004-10-15T06:28:00.000-04:00

Dry Poker

Past few days I haven't logged very many hours because of the woman, and when I do the cards are incredibly dry. I got all excited today when I saw AKo, I was reraised which I called. Flop came K high and we both checked. Turn brought another K, I bet, he called. I bet on the blank river again and he called with AA. He completely misplayed the hand after the flop. That was my only big pot ($300) of the day and I only won by fluke. I just figured out that the September party bonus was still working which is very odd since the October one has already stopped. I deposited $700 to get the $100 bonus and will work it off within the next few days. Nothing better than free money, right?

Over at RhymerWithJoker.com, LordG has finally decided to get a job, hopefully now we can see him get back into the swing of things by logging some hours with a playable bankroll and start updating his blog a little more often. I wish him the best of luck and hope things look up for him especially now since he has backup support.

DoubleAs wrote on his site that he'll be watching to see how the 200 tables go for me. Wow, I actually have a reader! He's played a bit on those tables and I'm sure we both agree that when the tables right people are on, it's a very profitable game. I've seen him logged on Party a couple times but it didn't show him sitting at any tables that I could join. Don't hide from me DoubleAs!!

Right now I'm finishing a $5 MTT on Party. 1157 entrants and it's down to 30. I'm shortstacked so I don't expect a huge win but I'm really pissed off that this isn't a larger buy-in tourny. Both the $20 and the $50 I lost earlier when I got sucked out on in both. The $50 MTT was the worst since I had a playable stack and was all-in on the flop with AA after a nice preflop raise against AK who flopped his straight. Party likes to screw me over quite often. Hopefully I'll have another post tomorrow after a good day at the tables.

2004-10-13T10:37:00.000-04:00

It's Official

I have officially made the move to 200nl/pl on Party and will not be moving back down. The first night I played I made a hefty amount, but over Thanksgiving weekend I lost a hefty amount also (1k). My bankroll is big enough to take the swings of the 200 tables and I know I can easily beat this game so I'm going to make it permanent. I told myself I was going to try the tables temporarily but I've found myself playing nowhere else but there since the 100nl tables have gone to shit in my opinion. I played 1 table at first and now play at least 2 tables, usually not going more than 3 since there isn't a wide selection anyways. There are lots of regulars there but that's good because I have been building notes on all of them and know how most of them play. There's lots of money at these tables so I expect to build my bankroll a lot faster now. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

Thanksgiving weekend was a disaster for me in poker. I lost enormous pots because I either lost to a very good drawing hand that put me all-in or was beat on the flop. I had lost a 1.3k pot to a set over set which really set me steaming. It's just one of those streaks where whenever you have good cards or hit the flop hard, someone always has something better. I have been trying to repair those damages over the past few days and have accomplished that, bringing my bankroll past 10k again and hopefully I can steadily continue progressing forward with only minor set backs once in a while.

In tourny news I haven't had any good placings lately. Cards just haven't been there and can't seem to win those 'tourny at stake' coin flips. My good friend on the other hand placed 2nd in the Empire Sunday $50k Guaranteed tournament this past sunday, netting himself a 7.5k profit. He always tries to squeeze into the money so his play is super tight. After he got down to the top 40 he doubled up with KK, and shortly after doubled up again with 88. He played tight again and placed 1 or 2 well timed bluffs to steal a couple pots. He went into the final table with a mid sized stack but it grew quickly after he nearly doubled up when he helf AA vs another players KK. The chip leader was one lucky son of a ***** and either got amazing cards or brutally outdrew his opponents. He knocked out a large portion of the final table and when it got heads up he showed almost every hand (AA, AQ, AK, 88, 99, 44). My friend didn't stand much of a chance and was knocked out shortly after. But still....7.5k!

Back to the tables..

2004-10-10T20:23:00.000-04:00

RiverStars

I hate PokerStars more than any other poker software out there. Yes, they have an easy layout, great support, but their actual poker software is garbage to me. No wonder they call it RiverStars, it is probably the software that hands out the most beats. I see myself starting to sound more and more like Phil Hellmuth. I know I'm better than most of the players on the site yet they always manage to river me when they have a hand that is completely dominated. In Yesterday's 20k $10 rebuy tournament on Stars I was up to 50k when the blinds were 1k/2k. It's folded around to me in the SB with KK, I raise to 6k. The BB re-raises allin for 30k and I instantly call. he flips over KJo. The board brings a J and two spades, turn brings another rag spade, and ofcourse the river brings yet another spade to give him the K high flush. This would've put me around 90k with around 140 people to go and I would've been in the top 10. Every tournament I play the best I can possibly play, almost always going in with the favourite hand but lose when the pots are huge. I have around $60 left on that site which I can't wait to lose so I can stop playing their completely. If they didn't hand out such beats to me I would've won one of those big MTT's by now. What a garbage site! Down with PokerStars! Down with PokerStars! UltimateBet is the best site for MTT's I think, they just need to do more rebuy tournaments.

//End Whine

2004-10-09T15:42:00.000-04:00

"If there weren't any luck involved, I guess I'd win every one"

The poker brat Phil Hellmuth said that after he got knocked out of the WSOP with the better hand. It seems to happen to me all the time. I always get knocked out when I have the best hand but get sucked out on. The one tournament where I won when I was dominating the opponents hand I ended up in 2nd place, after I got 3 outered on the river when it was heads-up.

Yesterday was no exception. Right off the start I rebought to get myself to 3k in chips but during the first hour I got no hands and only won one pot to bring myself to 3.6k. I took the add-on for another 2k in chips and was heading into the tournament with 5.6k in chips. Shortly after the break I got QQ UTG and raised my standard 3x. I got the BB to call and the flop came T high. He bet out and I raised him, he called. Turn and river were both rags and I ended up all-in, he turned over JTo and I doubled up to around 12k. For awhile I just stole some blinds and didn't do much, picking up a few small pots and building up to 16k. I was browsing 2+2 when the PokerStars window popped up. I was in the BB, UTG had raised to 12k, the button had called and the SB was all-in for 11k. My hole cards showed QQ so I pushed in my stack of 16k. Both UTG and Button called. They checked it down and no A or K showed on the board so I was sure I was good. They all mucked and I nearly quadrupled up to 60k and in 6th position.

An orbit later I get AKs in the SB. MP limps and I raise to 4800 (800-1600 blinds) and MP calls. Flop is Q high with two spades and I bet almost the pot, he calls. Turn is another low spade, he checks and I bet away 15k into a 30k pot. He calls again and I'm pretty sure I'm beat now. River is a blank and he checks to me, I check behind. A couple seconds pass and he mucks, I win a 60k pot with A high.

This is where it gets ugly. I'm dealt QQ again in MP. The blinds are 2000-4000 and I raise it to 16000 after 1 limper. LP player calls as does the original limper. Flop comes Jxx, perfect! The pot is around 50k and I plan on betting 40k into it, however I make a mistake when typing in the number and instead of 40k, I only bet 4k. LP calls and the original raiser check-raises to 12k. Thank god he check-raised! I re-raise to what I wanted before, 40k, and I'm stunned when LP calls again. The original check-raiser folds. Turn is a harmless 3s and I go all-in for my remaining stack. LP calls and flips over ATc for 1 overcard and the flush draw. I'm 75% to win this but OFCOURSE the river brings a damn A to give him top pair. If I had won that hand like I was supposed to I would've been chip leader. Instead I bust out in 57th, after going all-in with my 20k shortstack with JTo UTG with the blinds at 3000-6000, and only make a $50 profit.

If there weren't any luck involved, I guess I'd win every one!

2004-10-09T01:23:00.000-04:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

No, not you americans! Just the Canadians. I took the train home yesterday afternoon so I can be with my family for this Thanksgiving weekend. The train ride was way too long and much too uncomfortable. I slept most of the time though since I made sure not to go to sleep the night before. I haven't played much poker but had a chance to play in the 2+2 25nl on party. It had to have been the tightest table PartyPoker has ever seen. I lost my AK to a KK when we both hit our K's on the flop, so I got wiped once. Right now I'm playing in the $11+rebuy on PokerStars. Around 900 people entered, there is 110 people left and I'm in 11th place right now. I'll post a report if I actually make it far. That's all for now.

2004-10-07T07:15:00.000-04:00

Moronic Poker Players

I can't vent anywhere else but here so this is where I'll do it. Yes, I know, you're supposed to make money on people making stupid calls in the long run, but sometimes I just can't take it. I'm playing on the Prima Network, 1/2 NL, I've built my initial $200 stack to around $280 and get KK in MP. I raise it to $8 and get 4 callers. Flop comes 8c 7c 8s. I bet $30 into a $40 pot and get one caller, the only other big stack. Turn brings a harmless 3s and again I bet out 2/3 of the pot. He now reraises me to $150, I think for a second and can't see him on an 8 so I re-raise all-in. He calls me with Td 9d for an open ended straight draw with 1 card to come. Oh you guessed it!!!! J on the [censored] river to take down a $580 pot! I don't even know why I bother playing vs big stacks, it's always them who suck out on me. From now on I fold to big stacks and only pick on smaller stacks unless I have the nuts or very very close. He quickly apologized because he realized what a complete moron he is and I guess what he was trying to say was, "Sorry that I was born, I was a mistake in this world".

Sometimes I love poker and sometimes I hate it, and right now I really hate it!

2004-10-06T18:43:00.000-04:00

Unlucky when it Counts

Yesterday at the 200nl tables I had built my stack to 800 at one table but the other table was lacking, I knew I should've left it. I get 77 in mp and limp, MP3 raises to 15 and 4 other people call so I call as well. Flop comes AJ7 rainbow and I'm dancing that I finally hit a set in a nice big multi way pot. I check it to the raiser who goes all-in for over $200. The pot is $80 at the time so it looks like he's protecting his AK or AJ and just wants to take down the pot right there. I call and am disgusted when he turns over JJ, what a time to get set over set! A couple hands later I get QQ in the BB, 1 limper and the SB raises to $20, I call. Flop is 9 high, it's checked around. Turn is a T, SB bets $35 into a 60 pot, I min-raise to $70. He re-raises all-in and I knew I should've just folded right there and saved myself $130 but I call and he flips over KK. I made some bad moves and could've saved myself around $300 last night had I not played stupid. Instead I only ended up $150 after being up almost $600 at one point.

Later that night in an MTT I made it to the final 20 in a 200 field. I get KK and am on the verge of being shortstack. The player to my right min raises preflop and I push all-in. He calls me with QQ and flops quads, I go out next hand when I push with TT and BB comes alive with QQ. Entire table started to laugh at my misfortune. It always seems to happen when I get closer to the bigger money I get an ugly beat on me which sends me spiraling downwards and out of the run for 1st. I hope my luck changes soon because it would be really nice to make another final 6 sometime soon.

2004-10-04T15:34:00.000-04:00

Luck's Not On My Side (in Live play)

I went to the asian poker club again last night to play some 5/10. This game is really bad, which means it's supposed to be really good right? Everyone chases their straights and flushes and two pair and so it seems to me, after playing their twice, that unless you get lucky and go on a hot streak, that this game is hard to beat. I ended up losing $200 after not hitting any of my low pocket pairs, AK/AQ, and having my AA cracked by Q4s who chased his flush and QQ cracked by 97o after he chased his 2 pair to the river. I decided not to buy back in and waited for my friend to finish so we could go home. I'll be going to check out the new poker club soon, which I hear is nice. They still need to improve some stuff like getting some new couches and tv's for people lounging but otherwise I hear it's really nice.

After I got home from the asian's I sat down to find that the games online were really shitty. I waited and the 200's started getting juicy around 3am so I sat and played. I quickly lost a buy-in when I had 58o in the BB and see a flop of 367 rainbow. I call the SB's min bet and call MP's minraise to see a 4 hit the turn giving me the nuts but putting two diamonds on the board. I bet 2/3 the pot and get called by both MP and SB. River is another diamond and end up losing $100 on the river when MP raising me with 97s of diamonds for the flush.

I went on to win some mid-sized pots with a set and a couple high pocket pairs. With each stack at my two tables sitting at around 280 I went on a rush. First I got AA in MP, I raised the pot after some limpers and get reraised by the button. I re-raised almost all-in (this was PL) and he puts me in the rest of the way with KK, my AA hold up to double my stack. Couple hands later I pickup KK and take down a $200 pot on a rag flop and turn. As soon as that hand finishes I get AA on my other table and go all-in on the turn with a board of rags, I double up off my opponent who was holding JJ.

AA was a losing hand a couple days ago, with a net of -$0.90 but over the last two 200nl days it has shot up to +$1,072.75. The only hand that is slacking now in winnings is KK and JJ. KK has the highest win %, JJ is horrible though, probably because I play JJ so passively, only raising in position and not pushing it like I have AA or KK. It only wins 34% of the time.

Over the past month I have seen my bankroll sky rocket. With a 2nd place MTT tournament netting me $1,000 I started off great and the 100nl tables treated me well. I had made around 3k but the end of the month saw me get cold carded and lose some big pots. Considering I was in a downswing for at least 2 days I'm very surprised I had only lost around $200-$300, when it gets to that point where I can't hit anything I become incredibly weak-tight hoping for the streak to end. The beginning of this month started off great and I've made almost 2k from the 200nl tables. My bankroll is getting close to 11k as opposed to the 6k I started with at the beginning of September and things are looking up.

Hopefully this continues, because I'm liking it, a lot. I'll update my bankroll status on the left.

2004-10-03T07:32:00.000-04:00

The Streak has Ended!

After about 3 days of horrible cards, and losing when I had big cards, I finally broke out of the streak with a great day today. AA actually pulled through and as I began writing this I won a $400 pot with them. I moved up to the $200NL tables and ravaged them. Winning around 1.2k.

I was seat to the left of a maniac, bluffing and throwing his money around. He bluffed well though and when he had a hand he got paid off also. He had his stack around 400 and mine was around 600 when this hand occured. I was dealt 44 in MP and a lot of the table limped. The flop came Jc Th 4c. I bet 2/3 the pot with my bottom set and got 2 callers. The turn brought another a harmless card and this time the maniac came out betting, I re-raised him to pot size which he called. The other opponent bailed out. The river brought the Tc giving me the 4's full of T's. He bet the pot ($200). I thought for a split second and didn't believe him, he was on another one of those river bluffs where he hopes to pick up the pot. I didn't reraise him all-in though. I just called and he flipped over QJ for top pair. This brought my stack up to around $960 and made me a very happy man.

I also placed 8th in two tournaments. One was a satellite where top 7 out of 70 got a seat (damn!) to the $50k guaranteed on empire. The other was the $5k guaranteed at 2am on empire, I made off with $150 for the $10 entrance fee in which around 400 people participated.

A new poker club opened up near me and it's grand opening was earlier today. I'm going to go check it out one of these days. It's run by a guy I met at the last tournament we had. So far he only has 2 tables, but is buying 2 more. He'll be running 2 limit tables and 2 nl tables. I'd really like a nice poker club that is close to me. The old asian underground club was too dark and gloomy for my liking, and, well, they're all asian! Half the time I don't understand what they're saying, or maybe they don't want me to understand, damn colluders!

I's 7:45am and I'm going to head to bed soon I think. I didn't sleep tonight because I slept a lot during the day. I've caught a bug which made me feel really tired and sick during the day. Hopefully it passes soon.

2004-10-02T03:59:00.000-04:00

Rockets a good hand? Nahhh

AA has got to be the worst hand in poker or I'm the unluckiest mofo on this planet. We can take a look at my PokerTracker database and see that AA is my most losing hand. It wins 60% of the time, and wins money 30% of the time at showdown. Why, you ask? You thought AA was a great hand? NO. Consistantly my AA lose to flush draws, straight draws, and yes, I've lost 4 times to people chasing their gutshot and hitting. If there was one hand I wish I could take out from all the hands I played, it would be AA, what a garbage hand for me.

2004-09-29T19:05:00.000-04:00

Extreme Stakes Poker

Some of you may have heard of Andy Beal, an incredibly rich man that loves to play poker for incredible amounts of money I could only dream of. Top pro's have put together a team called The Corporation that play against Andy Beal. They had to make a team because individually they don't have the money to play the stakes he wants to play, $100k-$200k limit HU. Andy recently wrote a letter to the pro's he plays with challening them to another game to prove to everyone that he can beat them. You can read the letter at CardPlayer Magazine
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_magazine/archives/showarticle.php?a_id=14268

I wish I could play, anyone want to stake me? :)

Yesterday night I went to the local club here to play some 5/10. I started off good and was up $200 but just went downhill from there. I had all my high pocket pairs cracked, my sets cracked, and top pairs and two pairs losing to straights and flushes on the river. I ended up losing my profit and even though I'm embarassed to admit it, I tilted away my own money at the end. So I finished down $180. I'm up 2.7K US this month online and with my 2nd place live finish I don't mind losing some money once in a while.

Tomorrow I'm going to a $100 1-2 nl game. Hopefully I can pull in some money there to make up for my 5/10 loss, I'm a NL player after all.

2004-09-26T18:36:00.000-04:00

Another MTT Finish

Yesterday I played in a live $50 freezeout tournament. There was about 50 people signed up. I didn't get any cards the entire time, no high pocket pairs but I managed to get to hang on with a REALLY short stack.

Going into the final table I had 1.1 BB left with the blinds at 500/1000. I pushed UTG with 33, folded around to the blinds who both called me and checked it down. I got up ready to leave when the board came all high cards but the blinds flipped over 85o and 76o and I took it down. I kept raising to steal blinds and when it came to my blind it would usually fold around. I had about 4BB and the CO raised to put me all-in. I had to call with T7s, he had A3o. Board came with a T and I even rivered a straight to make sure I won. 1 orbit later I pickup AJs in the SB, the button raises and I re-raise all-in. He shows KJ and the board doesn't bring a K. We are now down to 6 players after the other shortstacks get knocked out.

Two more players quickly go and it's down to 4. I'm 3rd in chips with some fat indian kid with the chip lead and an old quiet guy in 2nd. 4th place shortstack gets knocked out by the indian kid to some hand I wasn't even paying attention to. Final 3 and I get 77 in the BB, old man in the SB raises and I reraise allin. He calls and flips two overcards over but they don't come doubling me up and severely crippling him. He has about 2 BB's left but makes a comeback after a string of coinflip allins, and he wins them all. I have a garbage hand in the BB and the indian kid limps on the button as does the old guy. Flop is all spades 367, old guy is first to act and pushes allin, I muck quickly and the indian guy calls with AA. Old guy had K6 and gets knocked out.

It's head's up and he has me outchipped by quite a bit. I go allin with 55 and he calls with AKo, no help to him and I double to 40k, we're about even. We talk about a deal and decide that unless one of us loses within 10 minutes when the blinds go up, we'll chop. I have 40k with the blinds at 2k/4k. It's a fold fest most of the time, one person pushes all-in the other folds. The timers about to go off and I call a raise to 10k with 9To because I believed we were going to chop, I fold after the flop comes A high and he pushes all-in. I talk about chopping again and he says no because he has more chips now, ummm ok? We continue to play and I keep going all-in every 2nd hand to take his blinds, I went mostly with garbage, I felt like it was a crapshoot with the blinds so high and the stacks so low. Finally he goes allin and I call with ATo, he has KQo but flops two Q's so I get 2nd and take $510.

Looks like I've been running well in MTT's, I guess I've just been getting lucky in winning some coinflips, things finally went my way when I needed them to. I really wanted to win this, and I knew I was better than but there's plenty of luck involved. That's poker!

2004-09-19T15:07:00.000-04:00

Trying 5/10 6max

Yesterday night I decided to try out the 5/10 6max tables. I've heard all the stories of 300BB swings in 6max but I don't believe it. I think I'm not as crazy as those players who will go to the river with A high a lot of the time, and bet their pocket 2's to the river with a bunch of face cards on the board. I guess I'm more of a 'tight' 6max player. I'm generally passive preflop and aggressive post flop when I've hit my hand. I will follow up with bets when my high card combos like AK and AQ don't hit but I won't go all the way to the river betting it while getting cold called by other players. I have 2k at Party after withdrawing 2.5k so I decided I'd just single table some 5/10 6max tables to see how it is.

It's hard to get used to since I usually don't play with such high blinds but the players don't seem to good at all. Calling to the river with bottom pair or a gutshot is a common occurence, and this is good, until of course they hit one of those draws or pair up their other card along with their bottom pair to suckout on me. Bets are respected a little more than in the 2/4 I was playing. I finished with 6k hands there and about 70 hours under my belt.

So last I tested the waters and ended up winning $80 or 8 BB's which wasn't too bad. I'm playing again now and lost a bit but that's just the way it goes I guess. I'll just single table for a while until I get comfortable. I'll put all the hands into PokerTracker and go from there.

I've also updated my bankroll stats on the left.

2004-09-18T03:28:00.000-04:00

Rivered At The Wrong Time

Today I played another $30+3 UB MTT since I've been doing pretty well in their mid-sized fields as opposed to huge fields (1k+) like on other sites. I'll give a little tourny report.

In the first hour I sat and got absolutely nothing, I had AKo once but the flop was A and K-less so I won nothing. After stealing some blinds and staying around 800 (1k starting chips) I almost tripled up after the first break when I went all-in with 99 UTG and got two callers, one was shortstacked. The blinds were 50-100 so I was shortstacked also and decided it was best to push. They turned over AJo and AKo. A K on the flop had me getting ready to leave but the river brought a 9 to give me a set and I was still alive. I had around 2.5k and got AA in MP. A maniac who was doubling people up left and right with his big stack went all-in in EP and I called, he actually had a hand this time but his QQ didn't hold up. I was up to around 6k.

I got some blinds and built a stack by knocking out some smaller stacks calling all-ins with AK and such against weaker hands. Going into the final 20 I was in the middle of the pack around 12th place. I didn't do much because people were getting knocked out quickly. I sat back and only played really strong hands, folding anything even close to marginal against any raise. When I got to the final table I was shortstacked, as I usually am but I play this position well. I got some nice hands like AA and AK and won some okay pots even knocking someone out, the only other shortstack besides myself. I was now in 3rd place out of 8.

I got AK in EP and raised, flop didn't help me and some other person took me off my hand. A couple hands later I was in the BB with KK when MP min-raised. I called hoping to check-raise the flop. It was AQQ and he put out 1/2 pot bet which scared me to death so I folded. A few more people were knocked out by other players while I stole blinds once in awhile to keep me afloat.

At the final 5 I was in in 3rd with around 25k in chips. Chip leader had 50k and the person below me had around 17k. He was knocked out when two people with AT went all-in and so did he with A6 so they split his stack. I stole some more pots to bring me into 3rd position and raised on the button with AKo, BB went all-in which would've left me with 10k if I lost but I was going for gold and didn't think he'd play AA or KK like that so it was either a coin-flip or I was dominating. I called and he flipped over KQ which didn't improve.

Final 3 and we all have pretty even stacks around 50k. One of the players was super aggressive and stole a lot, I stole some back and the other player was left out in the cold to have his chipstack slowly dwindle away. Finally super aggressive guy knocks out Mr. Passive with A5 against K9 when the flop is AK8 and Mr. Passive didn't believe the bullier.

We're now heads up and he has a small lead over me but I win the very first pot and we are equal at 80k each. He raises my BB, I raise his, we see a flop once in awhile but none of my cards are hitting. He raises my BB again and I call with 9To. Flop is 259 rainbow and he bets, I call. Turn is a T giving me two pair and I'm dancing. I check hoping for a check raise but he checks behind. River is a blank and I bet out 2/3 of the pot. He thinks for awhile and calls flipping over 22 for a flopped set. What confuses me is why he only called and never raised, I would've been all-in in a second. There was no flush or straight on the board so he was good 99% of the time. Very weird play by him.

A couple hands later after being severely crippled by that hand and having around 40k I have KT and call his raise again, flop is AKT. Same drill, I check, he bets, I call. Go for the turn check-raise but it doesn't happen. The turn and river were both 2's so I was afraid he had the A and beat my two pair. He bet really big and after much consideration I called and won, he had garbage. I'm back to 60k and get AJ, I raise his BB and he calls, flop is Axx and I go out betting which he quickly calls. On the turn I bet again 2/3 of the pot which he calls. The river brings a 2, and I will never forget this 2 as it will haunt me in my sleep tonight. I bet big again nearly putting me allin and he re-raises me allin. I call and he flips over....... A2 for the rivered two pair and it had to come right at this moment when I was battling it out for 1st! *cries*

So I finished 2nd out of a field of 163 and won $980.00. This is the farthest I've ever made it in an MTT but hopefully it won't be that way forever. I was talking to my friend at the same time and was complaining how I lost. He told me he never saw some so upset after winning almost 1k. While the money is great I really wanted that win, so I could say I outlasted and entire field of 163 and ended up winning a tournament. 2nd place is just....2nd place! It's still a payday though! Cha-Ching!

2004-09-16T23:17:00.000-04:00

Hooked on Limit

I've been playing a ton of SH limit lately and, while it is incredibly swingy and a SHIT LOAD of suckouts, I like it. I just started so I only have about 3.5k hands in the PT database, im seeing around 21% of hands but I don't think my aggression factor is up to par. The tables I play at are really loose so a raise won't be knocking anyone out, so I usually don't raise when im in the SB or BB and everyone limps. Aggression factor with preflop numbers included is sitting at .92 (.70 = passive, 1.5 = aggressive).

After reading ThePokerChronicles (I can't post in your comments, I sign in but it doesn't recognize it, weird) I'm really eager to go play some live limit. Tomorrow I'll be going with a friend to a new club that has opened up here. They have 5-10 with lots of rich folks that throw their money away, which I like. On top of that I'm going to try and get a job there as a dealer because rich people tip well :). Soon we'll also be having a little trip. We'll most likely be going to Turning Stone, rent a room and stay the weekend. I can't wait!

I got 4th in another $30+3 MTT at UB and won around $250. I've been doing pretty well in the UB tournies, I believe it's because the number of entrants is much smaller than the usual 800 or 1000 at Party and PokerStars. With a field between 100 and 200 I usually make it quite far each time, I just don't get as big of a payout ;)

2004-09-12T15:48:00.000-04:00

Site Update

I updated some links and my bankroll. It is at 6.5k but with the PartyPoker rake money that is coming in soon I should be nearing 7k.

2004-09-12T15:16:00.000-04:00

I'm Alive!

So I've moved to Ottawa and got myself settled in. I haven't gotten back into school yet and it looks dim, I don't think they'll accept me and I'll have to apply back in January.

In poker news, I've been playing shorthanded limit lately. Mainly 2/4, it's not too bad when things go your way but when all your good hands don't hit and your high pocket pairs get cracked by K4o or A3s it gets kind of lame. I know it's a 'in the long run' thing so I'll keep at it and see where it goes.

Yesterday I finished 4th in a $10 MTT tourny with 227 entrants on UB, even though I know I could've got at least 2nd but I had to start going all-in every hand because I had a live tournament to go to. In the live tournament I finished 13th out of around 50.

I later went to the side game, 1-1 NL. First hand I posted the blind and got 86s. My friend told me to attack the fish in the corner because they were horrible (betting $20 into a $4 pot with mid pair). One of the fish raised to $4 and I called along with his fish buddy. Flop came 963 rainbow. I check and so do the other two. Turn is a 2, I check again and the fish raiser bets $15. I call. River is another 2. I check to him because I know he's going to bet being the fish that he is. I'm positive he has nothing, A high, I was thinking ATo or something like that. He goes all-in for $40 and I call with my measly pair of 6's with 8 kicker. He turns over A8 and I take it down. That pot got me my buy-in from the tourny back and I was happy.

I still have to get a job. One of the players at the tournament is a dealer for a new club that just opened up here. They have a lawyer and said they're perfectly legal to run the club as well as other games like bingo and sell lottery tickets if they want. I talked to the guy a lot and he makes a killing. The people that player their are filthy rich so he makes great money from tips. I'm going to go play their a couple times and see if maybe I can deal for them too, that would be the best job I could ask for right now.

I'll try to update a little more often now if there are any readers still left out there.

2004-09-01T17:24:00.000-04:00

Rough Times

I haven't posted in about 2 weeks, I doubt many people miss it anyways. I've been having some rough times so I haven't been able to play much poker, and while playing I seem to always lose. To summarize, I've been kicked out of school, I'm moving away from home in 2 days, and am not being supported by my family anymore so I have to go out and get a job. I'm not sure if I'll be able to play much poker since I'll have to withdraw most of my poker bankroll, around 6k to pay for rent and everything else I need. We'll see what happens.

2004-08-16T22:47:00.000-04:00

The Name of the Game is Pot-Limit Omaha

So I've decided to start playing a new game and take a break from the usual NLHE. I've decided to start learning and playing PL Omaha High. I looked around on the web to find some quick tutorials on how to play and starting hand suggestions. It took me a bit to learn how you have to use 2 cards from your hand and 3 from the board, that lost me some money but wasn't too much since I was playing pretty low stakes. As soon as I felt comfortable with the game I moved up to .5/1 and 1/2. That first night I managed to make $300 just from waiting on nice hands like high pocket pairs, hitting top sets, betting the pot and getting paid off.

I didn't play much poker yesterday but started on Omaha today again. I've made another $300 quite easily. This game seems very profitable if you're patient and make the right calls, depending on your odds and what cards you have. Since you are dealt more cards, 4 instead of 2, you also make better hands more often. Today was a special day because today was the day I made my 2nd royal flush ever! Below is the hand history. Sorry that it's not parsed butI don't bison's hand converter doesn't parse PL Omaha hands yet.

***** Hand History for Game 851872119 *****0/0 OmahaHiGameTable (PL) -
Seat 6: kwm1234 ( $238.75)
Seat 9: B1GF1SHY ( $95)

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to B1GF1SHY [ Th, Kc, Tc, 3s ]

** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ac, Qc, Ad ]
kwm1234 bets (6)
B1GF1SHY calls (6)

** Dealing Turn ** : [ Jc ]
kwm1234 bets (22.80)
B1GF1SHY raises (45.60) to 45.60
kwm1234 calls (22.80)

** Dealing River ** : [ Qs ]
kwm1234 checks.
B1GF1SHY bets (41.40)
B1GF1SHY is all-In.
kwm1234 calls (41.40)

Creating Main Pot with $195 with B1GF1SHY
** Summary **Main Pot: $195 Rake: $3Board: [ Ac Qc Ad Jc Qs ]
kwm1234 balance $143.75, lost $95 [ Ks 8c 2c 7d ] [ a flush, ace high -- Ac,Qc,Jc,8c,2c ]
B1GF1SHY balance $195, bet $95, collected $195, net +$100 [ Th Kc Tc 3s ]
[ Royal Flush -- Ac,Kc,Qc,Jc,Tc ]

2004-08-11T12:55:00.000-04:00

Casino Rama!

Yesterday my friend and I decided to make the journy up north to Casino Rama for an evening (and early morning) full of fish infested texas hold 'em. We left my house around 5pm and arrived shortly before 7. I got on the waiting list to 2-5 limit and was seated 10 minutes later. My table consisted of about 5 guys in their early 20's and that came together on a bus, a couple older gentlemen, and a few asians. For the most part they weren't very good players and they all played way too many hands besides the player to my left who was very tight and passive. I saw him play 3 hands, he hit a set on one of them and just called all the bets to the river.

As the night went on I picked up a couple nice hands early on, AA pulled through to win me a nice pot but my JJ got cracked on a 34T board when the river brought a 5 and my opponent showed A2, nice hand. When our table was asked if anyone wanted to switch tables I jumped at the opportunity, I watched the other table earlier and there were some horrible players there that I wanted to take advantage of. This table was a lot better, especially since one of the players was a good looking blonde. Not only was I getting to look at good cards but I got to look at her also (good thing my gf doesn't know about this site). The worst beat I took was when I was dealt KK UTG. I raise and half the table calls. Flop comes K73 rainbow, perfect! I bet out and I'm raised by MP, I 3-bet and he caps. 2 other people were in there for the ride. Turn brings a Ts and I bet out $5, he raises again and I 3-bet, he just calls. The button was still riding with us. The river comes a 3s, putting 3 spades on the board. I bet again, I'm raised and just call. The button mucks, I show my set of Kings and my opponent flips over AKs for the nut flush. His friend to the left of him even mentioned to him that it was obvious I had AA or KK and he was lucky to get those runner spades. After this hit I was down to $60 from my original $100 buy-in.

I kept going strong, playing tight for the most part but also limping in with Ax suited since I'd be taking down huge pots if I were to hit a flush. Again I got KK in the BB and raise. The entire table calls. Flop comes K73 with 2 hearts. I bet, 3 callers. Turn brings a 2 of hearts putting the flush on the board. I bet $5 and the blonde raises me, I stare her down, but not because I wanted to get a read... I call the raise and the river brings a beautiful 2 to give me the boat. It's now heads up so there is no capping. I bet, she raises, I raise, she raises, I raise, she raises, I raise, she mumbles that I have to have it and calls. She flips over AKh for the nut flush but it's no good and I take down a HUGE pot.

Sitting pretty and prety much doubling my stack I went to eat a late night dinner around 12pm. I had a cheesebuger and a Mars bar that stuffed me up good. Took a quick bathroom break and headed back for the tables for a few more hours of poker.

For the rest of the night I waited for some nice cards and got them. I ended up getting AA twice, QQ once, TT once and some low pocket pairs. I hit sets with 99 and 55 and they both pulled through suprisingly even though the board came with flush and straight draws.

My very last hand was played at 3am. I was dealt AA and raised, 2 callers. Flop was Q95 two spades. BB bets, I raise, button calls and so does he. 7c comes on the turn, I bet, both call. River was a low spade again putting the flush on the board that I'm sure someone was chasing. BB and I check, button bets. The BB looks in disgust, calls and waits to see the buttons hand. I also call. The button showed 67 for a pair of 7's. I look at the BB who quicly mumbles, damn he got the straight and mucks his hand. I show my AA and take it down. My friend who was waiting for me to finish my last orbt saw the BB's hand when he was looking at his cards. He said he had Q5 for two pair and that I was extremely lucky he mucked thinking the button had the straight. I luckily took down that pot and ended up $140 for the night. I cashed out, put two crisp $100 bills in my wallet and headed for the door.

My friend had ended up $50 for the night, bought into Casino War (play against the dealer, higher card wins) and put down a bet of $25. He was dealt a 2 and obviously lost. He quickly put in his next $25 and again drew a 2 and lost again. He got up laughing and casually blaming the old asian lady who sat down to his right, right before the cards were being dealt, saying that if it wasn't for her he wouldn't have lost. We both had a good laugh on the way out and headed home.

I won't be going back to Casino Rama for awhile since I'm heading back to University in Ottawa in a couple of weeks, but the poker tables in their casino should be put in in December so I'll get to play there, and it's a lot closer.

2004-08-06T17:00:00.000-04:00

Running Dry

I haven't posted lately because I haven't had much to post about. The NL tables in general seem pretty dry, low avg's and not that many fish as before. I played around with limit a little bit which was fun but I stopped that also. For now I'm just playing a little bit of NL but mostly MTT's (which I'm losing a lot of money on, but they're just so damn fun!). I play the $30 MTT's on Party some nights and regularly play the $10 rebuy on Stars. I haven't placed anywhere really high in them but I'm working on it.

Yesterday in the Party tourny I was doing great, 3.5k stack with the average at 2.2k. I got AA on the button and the limper in MP called my 4x raise, he also had a stack the size of mine. The flop was 68T rainbow, I bet the pot, he called. Turn was a brick, I bet the pot, he calls. River another brick, I bet a little bit less than the pot and he raises all-in. At this point I've already put plenty of my chip in and had to call, and he took it down with 97o for the flopped straight. Sometimes I don't understand what these people are calling big raises with. Two hands later he knocked someone else out who had KK and called their raise with 98o and flopped another straight. I guess he was just getting really lucky that day.

Hopefully with the WSOP 2004 Main Event coming up shortly more fish will join the Poker craze and blow their money online.

2004-07-29T17:35:00.000-04:00

Mid-Limit

Yesterday night I ended up being really bored. All of the NL tables seem incredibly bad, the players aren't as loose as they used to be and there's not enough action on my big hands anymore. I decided to try some limit for fun, but I didn't want to play the low-limit 1/2 or 2/4 games so I went to the 5/10 games. I played in the Bad Beat Jackpot section just incase I got quads and lost ;) I two tabled and found that the players weren't very good and at the same time there weren't tons of them in the pot trying to outdraw me. I'd play with maybe 4 to the flop and drop down to 1 or 2 on the turn and river, and this was very profitable. I played good hands and took down large enough pots that I was happy and I wasn't worried about the entire table being in the pot with my AA or KK and getting outdrawn by someone sticking around with their runner runner flush draw. I won about $175 last night and so far I'm up $125 today.

So while the NL tables are dry I'll be playing some limit as well as MTT's which I've been playing a lot of lately. I haven't made any noteable places but hopefully that'll change soon, they're just so much fun I don't mind spending money on them.

Next week I'm going to Brantford Casino to play some poker. Their lowest limit is 5/10 so I'll be playing that, and if my friends and I don't like it we'll go down the street to a 2/4 NL game we know about.

2004-07-27T16:55:00.000-04:00

Three Table Party SnG's

Lately my friend and I have been playing more and more of these. They're fun and bring in the large MTT aspect to the game. In the 5 that I've played in I've placed in 3 of them. Two 3rds and a 5th. I haven't been able to get heads up but I will eventually. Yesterday I ended up playing against colluders though and they couldn't have made it anymore obvious. It was the three of us left and I was slowly climbing up, but a dent in one of their stacks and then lose a big pot when I'd tried to steal. Whenever one of them would get on the shorter end of the stack they'd play a heads up pot, make sure the shortstack is way ahead and then bet while the big stack would call with bottom pair. I didn't report it but I'm sure someone will eventually, it was just too obvious.

I also just finished off my PokerStars 20% WCOOP bonus. I deposited the full amount of $600 and had to make 600 FPP's to release the $120 bonus. While making these FPPs I played the .5/1 NL games and made around $300. I also played a bunch of MTT's for fun but haven't really placed very high. I guess with all the FPPs I have I'll get myself some more shirts since I already have the hat (which SUCKS), a shirt, and the deck of cards which is in the mail. I'll diversify my wardrobe by getting the shirts with different colours like white and grey :)

2004-07-24T18:16:00.000-04:00

$100,000 Guaranteed

Today I played in a $100k Guaranteed tourny which I gained entry to through a $5 MTT Satellite that I won. Almost 600 people registered but there was still a very large overlay. First place was 23k.

I started off really well in the first few rounds when I doubled with KK vs 33 and got to 3k in chips. A couple hands later I tripled up with AA and had around 9k in chips. A couple rounds later I found AA in MP. blinds were 200/400 and the player to my right raise to 1.2k I just called to try and get 1 more player in. The SB then re-raised all-in, initial raiser called and I re-re-raised all-in. SB showed QQ and raiser showed AKo, I took it down when they didn't improve and was up to 20k in chips, chip leader!! I had my sights set for the 23k first prize. There were still around 250 players left.

After I hit my peak I couldn't get any cards if my life depended on it. The blinds got pretty big pretty fast and after having my AK not hit 3 times in a row I was down to 14k. I was pretty annoyed that nothing was happening but I stuck in there. My JJ lost to A3o shortstack who pushed and another AK didn't hit bringing me down to 5k. I doubled up to 10k when my AQ beat a person stealing on the button with QT.

The came the hand that knocked me out. With around 10k in chips and the blinds at 1.5/3k I was on the button with AKo, UTG went all-in for around 6k and I re-raised allin for my 10k. The SB who has a little less than 30k calls 1/3 of his stack with QJo (???). The flop comes AKT, great for me at first until I notice that he flopped the nut straight! UTG had A-something and I would've taken him out but I couldn't pair up for a boat on the turn or river and I was out in 52nd. I was upset because I would've been in good shape if it wasn't for his flopped straight and I could've had a chance to make it much further. 52nd out of 600 isn't too bad and I won $250 for a $5 investment, that isn't too bad either.

Still though...$23,000!! I'm going to play in this tournament next weekend again, the players are quite bad and it's not too hard to make it in the money. Top 130 pay at least $100.

I'm also taking advantage of the 20% bonus on PokerStars, I deposited the full amount and I'm playing through my FPP's to release the bonus. I ordered a set of the plastic coated playing cards too. My friend has them and they're pretty good.

That's all for now.

2004-07-19T17:45:00.000-04:00

No Material

Sorry for not posting but I haven't had much material lately. Everything has just been the same and I'm slowly bleeding my money away to blinds and bad beats. Yesterday I played for a bit on the 200NL tables at Party. The one hand that really pissed me off was when I had AA in the SB. About 5 limpers so I raise it to $20. 1 person calls and another re-raises to $100. I call to try and get the other caller to call too and put more money in the pot. He folds and the flop comes 235, I put the guy all-in. He waits for a bit, types 'AKs no good?' and even after saying that he calls the all-in with A high. The river brings a 4 for a split pot. I don't understand what the hell he was doing but it really got me going because I'm tired of having such a great hand but somehow the person manages to make a split pot or even catch his runner-runner flush or 2 outer on me. It just happens all too often.

I played in another $20 MTT on Party and placed again but not that high. 110 places paid and I came in 90th for a $20 profit, you don't really make anything in those unless you get to the final table but I don't know if that will ever happen to me. What happens is I play tight early on, pick up some pots and try to stay around average, however when we get close to the money I just start to get blinded out because the blinds are huge and every hand you have a player pushing all-in. When I do make my move it usually turns out to be a coinflip and I always lose, hopefully one day I'll get lucky and win all the coinflips, that'll be the day I win a multi :)

Bankroll is just under $6k but hopefully soon I'll have a good night and fly past that mark.

2004-07-15T17:30:00.000-04:00

Party Poker MTT

Today I entered a 20+2 MTT on Party with my friend. I started off with nothing and couldn't make much happened. I finally got QQ with 2 callers. Flop came K high, all hearts. I had the Q of hearts so when EP bet I raised all-in and he called with... AJo? I doubled up and continued. I later got AK in LP and called a raise from EP. Flop came K high and I bet, EP raised all-in and I called, he had QQ and I doubled up again to around $3500. I won some more hands and knocked a couple people out with KK and grew my stack to $4000. I was blinded down to $2000 and close to the money. Top 80 paid. I had AQs and had to make a stand or I was going to get blinded out. I pushed all-in and 2 large stacks both called, flop was 744 and they checked it down, turn 8, river 3. They had AJ and AT and I tripled up to around $5500.

I made my peak when I called with 88 and hit a set. LP made top pair and had a huge stack so he had no problem raising and calling my re-raise all-in. I doubled up to $11,000 and wouldn't make it further than this. The blinds were 750/1.5k and after two orbits of not seeing anything I finally got TT in MP. UTG pushed all-in for $4k but he did this UTG all the time to try and take his blinds. I raised all-in and one of huge stacks ($60k+) called, he was getting nice cards all day and had shown AA twice and KK once in 1 orbit. He had AK and of course the flop brought not only one but two K's to knock me and UTG (he had 67o) out of the tourny.

I placed 28th out of 700 entrants and took $91. This was the first MTT I have ever placed in, even though I don't play them very often at all. I think I played fine and made the right calls throughout the tournament. It was fun but it's back to where the real money is made, in the NL ring games :)