And In The Beginning...

Filed Under: Poker

LifesAGrind saw the challenge, and it was good.

The first day of my new adventure was a little exciting. I'd almost say I became a little giddy but I don't want to sound like a girlie man. I took the endeavors seriously and really tried to make the best decisions I could during my short time of playing.

I ran two sessions. The first for 102 minutes and the second for 63 minutes. I also wanted to have some fun and donk off some chips so I played in the WWdN:not last night. I had fun playing crap and showing it most of the time. Didn't amount to a long tournament for me, but fun none the less.

Challenge Stats:
Bankroll start: $1,000.00
Level: NL1/2
Hands: 272
Hours: 2.75
Win/Loss: $242.60
Bankroll end: $1242.60

I felt I missplayed a few hands which I plan on posting to the CardRunners forum for some analysis. If I get anything interesting from that I may post them.

For a hand that gives a nice example of betting telling a story I present the following:

PokerRoom No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (5 handed)
MP ($142.60)
Button ($195.80)
SB ($202.50)
lifesagrind ($339.30)
UTG ($238.60)

Preflop: lifesagrind is BB with 7s, 7c.
1 fold, MP raises to $4, 1 fold, SB calls $3, lifesagrind calls $2. - Yeah it was a min raise but I'm out of position with a middle pair so I'll wait and see what the flop brings.

Flop: ($12) 9h, 4s, Qs (3 players)
SB checks, lifesagrind checks, MP bets $11, SB folds, lifesagrind calls $11. - It's a pot sized bet. I figure I'm looking at two possibilities here. He's either protecting a Q against the flush draw, or he's merely continuation betting. Under normal circumstances I fold here with so many draws on board but this player had been making some bizarre plays. My decision was to float him and see what developed on the turn.

Turn: ($34) 3s (2 players)
lifesagrind checks, MP checks.

River: ($34) 3c (2 players)
lifesagrind checks, MP bets $32, lifesagrind calls $32. - The problem I had with his bet at this point was, why would he make it? I was willing to call a pot sized bet on the flop. The flush completes on the river and I check. I would consider my play to tell him, I'm either slow playing a monster, or I have nothing. Based on that, his pot sized bet makes absolutely no sense. If he actually had a huge hand he'd want to bet an amount I may actually call. A pot sized bet is not that. I read it as a defensive bet intended to make me scared and abandon my hand.

Final Pot: $98
Results below:
MP has 6d 6c (two pair, sixes and threes).
lifesagrind has 7s 7c (two pair, sevens and threes).
Outcome: lifesagrind wins $98.


Boy am I happy to see this river card! (no analysis needed)

PokerRoom No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (5 handed)
UTG ($200.40)
MP ($568.70)
Button ($318.00)
lifesagrind ($187.40)
BB ($212.20)

Preflop: lifesagrind is SB with Ad, As.
UTG calls $2, 1 fold, Button raises to $5, lifesagrind calls $4, 1 fold, UTG calls $3.

Flop: ($17) Ac, 7c, 7h (3 players)
lifesagrind checks, UTG checks, Button checks.

Turn: ($17) Ks (3 players)
lifesagrind checks, UTG checks, Button bets $7, lifesagrind raises to $14, UTG calls $14, Button calls $7.

River: ($59) 4c (3 players)
lifesagrind bets $35, UTG raises to $70, Button folds, lifesagrind raises to $133.4, UTG calls $98.40.

Final Pot: $360.80

Results below:
UTG has 4s 7s (full house, sevens full of fours).
lifesagrind has Ad As (full house, aces full of sevens).
Outcome: lifesagrind wins $360.80.

Challenge Me Coach!

Filed Under: Poker

For the past 4 years I've been coaching my sons baseball team. As the boys got older and the drills became more involved the players would try to outdo one another. The repetition of the drills would wear on them and then we would here it..."Challenge me coach!"

They wanted to ball...higher, faster, farther...anything to make them struggle that much more, to prove themselves. As adults we sometimes lose that drive. The monotony of the day is just tedium that must be endured. This leads to laziness and eventually apathy.

My poker game has gotten to that point. My need to withdraw from the bankroll has left me grinding the same limits, year after year. I need to break this cycle. I need to instill excitement back in the game.

While going through the blogroll I came across the stakes challenge that Blinders in planning on doing. It's a variation of the one DoubleAs has in his book. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it. I need a spark to light a fire under my ass and get me moving up in levels.

Since I lack any originality I'm going to steal his formula and start with a $1,000 bankroll and move through levels using the following criteria:

.50/1 nl - Bankroll >$800
1/2 nl - Bankroll $800-1600
2/4 nl - Bankroll $1600-2400
3/6 nl - Bankroll $2400-4000
5/10 nl - Bankroll $4000+

In an effort to learn as much as possible I'm going to limit my play to one table at a time during challenge play. I also will not count rakeback when considering my bankroll. I will move up and down based solely on my play. I also will take note of any interesting hands I come across and mention them the next day.

Lost Wages

Filed Under: Poker

After getting the kids to bed on Tuesday night I found myself in a tournament kind of mood. I decided to make it Guarantee night so I signed up for the 20K on Full Tilt, 12.5K at UltimateBet, $11 Rebuy at PokerStars, and the 40K at Party Poker. Right of the bat things were going my way. I was in a zone and collecting chips early in each event.

When things went bad, they seemed to go bad all at once. I took my 4,200 chips at Full Tilt and went into the first break with only my starting stack. My 4,500 at UltimateBet turned into slightly less than a starting stack. The 5,900 chips at Party turned into busting out before the first break. The 6,200 chips at PokerStars became, well, 6,200. PokerStars was going ok.

The blinds left me without many options at Full Tilt and UltimateBet so it was time to try and make some moves. At Full Tilt that led to busting out, but at UltimateBet I managed to start collecting chips. By the second break I was firmly within the top ten. Within the second hour of PokerStars I kept pace and maintained about twice the average chip stack.

The road to the third break brought some changes in both tourneys. I went very card dead at PokerStars but my stack allowed me to ride it out. At UltimateBet I had become the table captain so I focused my efforts into accumulating chips. This was working nicely and I was trading places with the chip leader for a while before entering the break in second place.

I had a rather unique table in the PokerStars tourney. I wasn't moved once and neither were most of the other players. The aggression was up a little bit during the rebuy period but it was never in the normal maniac mode you usually see. Instead I saw players who were paying attention and were really able to play the game. With about 15 minutes left until break I still wasn't seeing any decent cards. All the folding I was doing had brought my stack down to an average size. Knowing the players I was facing were paying attention I decided to start trying to make some steals. Every time I raised, I'd get popped back. Never by the same person and I always felt that the opponents actually had a hand. I never felt anyone was making a move on me so my chips continued to dwindle until I had to play for all of them. With everyone at the table having rather large stacks I got several callers and I was out before the third break.

With only one tournament left and with complete focus I continued to increase my stack. The chip leader kept doing the same and at exactly 12:30 a.m. two event occurred. We dropped to the final twenty, and my cable went out. At first I thought it was a delay because we had dropped to two tables, but a glance at the cable modem told me differently. I did the usual hard reset and nothing happened. Grabbing my cell phone I called the cable company and was informed that they were doing maintenance and had to move some cabling for the city. I asked when I'd be back online and all he could tell me was at some point before 6 a.m.. I was fuming. I was about to pack it in when I remembered that this is the exact reason that I pay $10 a month for my Juno account. I quickly ran a long phone cord to the outlet and...no dial tone. Damn, the phone was out too. Twenty players were left, I was second in chips with 64,000, and I was going to be blinded out. This really started to irritate me when again I remembered an additional communication backup. My cell phone. I had used it as a modem once about two years ago but had long since uninstalled the drivers.

I had never really had a use for googles desktop searching tool but I have had it installed for a long time. Now I was glad that I had. I did a search for "LG" and within seconds I found the install information in a long forgotten folder. At 1:02 a.m. I was back on and at the final table. My stack was now decimated at a mere 19,700. The blinds were 2,000/4,000 with a 400 ante and I didn't have much time left. I explained the situation to my table mates and they were all sympathetic but not enough to dump chips to me.

In the big blind I found AKs and doubled up against K8. Then in the small blind I push when the button raises. He calls and my A8 is up against A7. A seven on the river sends me out and instead of fighting for the $3,000 first prize I'm left with $504 and seventh place.

Man I hate my cable company right now.

My Poker Rig

Here is my Poker Rig. You'll notice two laptops on the desk but only one of them is actually being used. The laptop on the left is my old Toshiba Satellite featuring a Pentium 166MMX and Windows 98. This baby struggles just to surf the web and the battery no longer holds a charge. To bring some of the hardware back to life I came across a program called MaxiVista. This program allows you to use a computer on your network as an additional monitor. Using this program I run three monitors on my system.

The laptop on the right is my main system. It's a Dell Inspiron 5100 with a P4 2.4Ghz and 640MB of Ram. The monitor is an old Gateway 19" running at 1600x1200 so I can get four tables up without overlap. The Dell screen is used for the web browser and the Toshiba screen handles iTunes and chat.

The desktop system you see in the lower left is an old PIII 350MHz with 256MB of Ram. It's attached to the monitor on the far right and this system is used only as a bit torrent server.

A Hoy Matey!

Filed Under: Poker

I finally got around to playing one of the Hoy tournaments last night. I feel I played pretty well up until the last hand. I went heads up with High On Poker and managed to bluff into his flopped nuts. I'm ok with the second place finish considering how badly my tournament play has been lately.

With the kids back in school I should start to have a little more time to spend playing some tourneys at night. With the added time I expect to be back in form before too long.

Not A LAG

Filed Under: Poker

The FTOPS Main Event came and went for me without even making the first break. With a first place prize in excess of 100K a win would have been a life changing event. The only debt I would have had left would be a mortgage payment and that would have made me a very happy boy.

I wanted it so bad that I changed the way I played. A few hands in I'm in the cutoff with J9o. It's folded to me and I take a stab at stealing the blinds. It folds to the BB who bumps it up about 3x my raise and with deep stacks I make the call. The flop comes K 8 10 and the BB bets out for half the pot. In my normal frame of mind I put in a raise here. I'm looking at an OESD and considering I called the preflop reraise I couldn't have asked for much of a better flop. If I reraise I can define my opponents hand based on his action.

That would have been the old me. The new intimidated by the prize pool me decides to just call and hope to catch on the turn. I don't catch and we check to the river. My opponent shows AQh for a runner runner flush and if I had raised on the flop I'm pretty sure I win the hand. Instead I'm down to just over half my starting stack.

Fortunately for me I realize that I'm not playing my normal game and switch modes. I manage to grind back up to just about my starting stack when I get QQ in the cutoff. I make my raise and it's the BB who again plays with me. The flop comes J high with two diamonds. My opponent bets, I push, he calls. He shows AJd for top pair and the flush draw. I'm chanting, "No Diamond, No Diamond, No Diamond". The poker gods grant my wish of no diamond and instead produce an Ace on the river to end my hopes of being debt free.

I then fire up a NL cash game and over aggressively give away a buy-in. The I give another buy-in away when I hit TPTK vs. my opponents set. My third buy-in goes away when I actually have the best of it. QQ vs. 10 10 but a 10 hits the turn.

I finally decide it's not my day and call it quits.

(of course I'll probably play again in a few hours)

Whew!

Filed Under: Poker

In what was to be my final attempt to qualify for the FTOPS Main Event I managed to finally pull it off. 50 players signed up and the top 6 got seats while 7th received $240. I managed to stay in the top 4 or 5 spots throughout the tournament and I eliminated the 7th place person with a horrible beat.

It was folded to me in the cutoff and I had A 10 of hearts. I raised 3x to 1,500 and it folds to the big blind who pushes all in. I have him outchipped by a little over 3,000 and the last time I raised he made the same move. I figured he was trying to push me off my hand so I made the call. He shows pocket Aces but the board brings my flush and I have my seat.

He wasn't a player willing to go quietly into that good night and he spewed forth the following:
ImYourRake: NH #@ !#@&
ImYourRake (Observer): hey nig, hu anytime
ImYourRake (Observer): you hear life?
ImYourRake (Observer): hu you dumb fck
ImYourRake (Observer): figured, no balls
ImYourRake (Observer): sucka co ck moron
ImYourRake (Observer): that ni g g e . r can suck a di ck
johnnyc55 (Observer): oh stop crying you little @&##$
ImYourRake (Observer): hu?
ImYourRake (Observer): pick a table fckface
ImYourRake (Observer): youd be doing the same thing you ignorant piece of sh it

Ah the famous heads up challenge. The last bastion of hope for the donkified. I probably should have taken him up on it as his massive tilt would have made it easier to bust him. I was having trouble staying awake while playing though so after throwing this up it's off to dreamland.

It's Official...I Suck

Filed Under: Poker

In one of the saddest displays of poker playing since , well, since the last time I played, I managed to finish 1,667 out of the 2,000 that played in the FTOPS Event #1. I started out by overplaying KQ, getting myself in trouble, and then not being able to let it go when a Q hit the river. The Q was a heart which gave my opponent a runner runner flush.

I went out when I flopped the nut flush draw heads up against the original raiser. The flop came 9 high and I check raised all in. He had trip nines. I didn't catch my flush and there are now 42 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

Satellite Hell Or...

Filed Under: Poker

How I Learned To Hate Sets

After a successful few days early this week in the cash games I decided to spend the last few days concentrating on getting my seats for the FTOPS. I wanted to play in three events and managed to qualify for event #1 after 3 attempts. At a total cost of $60.80 for a $216 seat I consider that a success.

Next on the agenda was event #6. Seven attempts and $147.60 later I'm still not qualified. I've come close twice but I need to decide at which point do I stop trying. Technically if I could qualify before reaching the actual cost of the event buy in, it would be a success. I have no plans to buy into any event directly unless I manage a decent cash in the first event. Since I have no plans to outlay the money I'm going to adopt a semi-flexible rule of spending up to half of an events actual buy in on satellites. If I can't qualify within that amount I won't play the event. With a buy in of $216 I've already surpassed the half way point. With that I'm giving up on this event.

My sights are now set on the Main Event. So far I've played in three satellites and spent $176 without success. The buy in for the main event is $535 so I've still got a few shots left.

Taking into consideration the value of the one I'm qualified for... I'm still in the hole $168.30. If I can't manage to get into the Main Event these attempts will be a bitter disappointment.

The sets I mentioned earlier... I ran into 7 of them yesterday when I had an overpair and we got all the chips in preflop. In one satellite my opponents outdrew me 3 times within five hands to send me packing. It was truly a statistical nightmare.

Around The Horn

Filed Under: Poker

Remember to visit Pauly today for Live Final Table Updates!

Then go to the For Peyton charity site to bid on your favorite poker collectibles. I did last time and quickly received my DVD package.

Lastly I've managed to satellite into the first event of the FTOPS. One down...two to go.

Half As Goals: August Edition

Filed Under: Poker

The last month was a bizarre one for me. I've had two negative months this year and July was one of them. Overall I feel I recovered from the early losses and was playing well toward the end of the month, so I don't feel bad about it. Let's see how the goals were last month and look onward to this month.

Half As Goal #1:
July: Win a multi-table tournament - "Survey says!"...X A combination of bad play and bad luck resulted in my worst month in tournament play to date. These losses attributed to my overall down month in bankroll as well.

August: I don't think I'm going to keep shooting for a win month after month. I don't think listing it as a goal has hurt my mindset any, but I'm shifting focus to satellite play right now. For the first half of the month I want to satellite into the NLHE, NLHE 6-max, and the main event of the Full Tilt Online Series of Poker.

Half As Goal #2:
July: Satellite my way into one of the big Sunday tournaments going on at one of the major sites - This I accomplished on my first try. I won my way into a PokerStars Sunday Million tournament through a $3 rebuy satellite. Didn't do squat in the actual tournament though.

August: Continue playing satellites at PokerStars but now for the WCOOP. I want to qualify for the Razz, $530 No Limit, $215 HORSE, and the Main Event.

Half As Goal #3:
July: 65 table hours at NL games - Only managed to play 46.88 table hours last month. The first 18 hours were spent losing 5 buy-ins at the $100 NL and the rest were spent recovering that loss at the $50 tables. I ended the month virtually even and I'll move back up to the $100 NL Probably next week.

August: I'm going to stay moderate and shoot for 50 table hours this month at the NL games. The kids start back to school in the middle of the month and my oldest goes back to Germany at the same time. After that my play should be able to increase but I don't want to put any pressure on myself to play more for now.

Life After

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Dang it's been an entire week since I last posted. Haven't really been playing much poker so I guess there hasn't been much reason to post either. Between Baseball, Football, and Soccer the kids have us running pretty ragged right now. Baseball ended last night for my middle boy. They won their division this season and went out last night in the single elimination playoffs. They were one game away from the finals so that was a little disappointing.

The blogroll has finally been merged with my bloglines feeds so it will stay constantly updated with whatever blogs I'm subscribed to. It's a nice feature and I should have done that a long time ago.

With the loss of the Eurobet rakeback deal I've been playing on UltimateBet to clear an old and rather large bonus I had built up. I'm still running good in the cash games so I'm debating between staying and clearing the bonus, or signing up for the new rakeback deal that RakeRebate.net has offered at PokesPoker. I've never heard of this site but it's an OnGame skin so I'd be back on the same network that Eurobet was on. I liked the play there so I'm torn.

Were planning a weekend trip to the Cosmosphere so there probably won't be too much poker in the near future. I'd like to say I'm missing it... but that's just not the case right now.

Not Cool

Filed Under: Poker

There goes yet another attempt to enjoy rakeback. My government is really pissing me off.

Email I received this morning:

Dear Eurobet Customer,

Please be advised that in the light of recent actions by US regulators, Eurobet has regretfully taken the decision to cease taking any business through its websites from U.S. residents with immediate effect. U.S. residents will no longer be able to transact with our websites and all accounts held by U.S. residents have now been closed.

We are contacting you because we believe that, based on the personal details you have provided us, you are a US resident and therefore affected by this decision.

Where we already have your payment details we will refund any outstanding balance using that method within 7 days from today. If we do not have the necessary details please contact us on +44 1483 773224 or via email at uscustomerservice@eurobet.com to confirm how you wish any existing balances on your account should be repaid including the appropriate financial details.

We commit to processing such refund with 7 days of receiving your payment instructions.

On behalf of the entire Eurobet team we apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your previous custom.

Kind regards,

Emma Jordan
Head of Services
Eurobet.com

Introspection

Filed Under: Poker

This month has been a disaster. When things are going as poorly as they are right now it becomes very difficult to get up the motivation necessary to post. I'm hoping that taking a closer look at what's gone wrong and putting it down may help me overcome my current rut, or at least put it in perspective.

I'm going to need a two prong approach here so let's talk about tournament play first. The cold hard fact is that I haven't cashed in a single money tournament. I'm quantifying that with the "money" designation because I have placed in a few token and satellite tournaments. The last time I had a month without a cash was in January, and in that month I only played four tournaments. This month I've played in 17 so far and been completely unsuccessful.

I track my average finish position as a percentage of the field size and I'm averaging 60% right now. That means that if every tournament had 100 players my finish would average out to 60th. My best month was April and my average finish percentage was 28%. In that month I played 32 tournaments. If we extend my non cashing streak I can go back into June which puts me at 24 tournaments now without a cash. Up until the beginning of my bad streak I had averaged a cash every 4.34 tournaments in 2006.

Why now? The answer to this is easy. It's the cause of the answer which just now dawns on me as I'm righting this. I'll start with the answer. I've been playing like crap. I've had a severe lack of patience in the first hour of these things and that is a requirement. I only have one event where I felt I played the best I could and that one ended in back to back beats.

The reason I'm playing poorly is because, deep down, I know I shouldn't be. I have a son who lives with me during the summer for about 2 1/2 months. Instead of taking the 4-5 hours out at night to play a tourney, I should be spending it all with him, and the rest of my family. I believe this has led to my lack of patience and poor play. I'm going to remedy that by cutting down my play at night. Unless I have an event that I really feel the need to sit down for I'm not going to bother. I've gotten into a habit of playing a few of the guaranteed tourneys about 5 nights a week but that will stop for now.

What about the ring games? This one is a lot easier to deal with than the tournaments. I spent the first week of July playing to almost exactly dead even finishing down $11. I play my cash game almost exclusively while at work so the distractions are different than my tournament play and I can always sit out if I need to.

Sunday the ninth is when it happened. I went on tilt. I tossed out 5 buy ins which goes well beyond my normal tolerance. On July tenth I made the decision to drop down a level until I felt I had my mind and game back in order. It has turned out to be a good move as I haven't had a losing session since and have finished up 6 buyins on the week. With the money being half as much I still haven't recovered from the Sunday Tiltathon. I've decided that when I get up an additional 6 buyins I'll move back up a level.

I'm used to playing my cash games in shorter sessions which will lead to me playing more cash games for the rest of the month. I generally stay up an hour or two after the rest of the family has gone to bed so that will lend itself to picking up more ring games at home. I'll throw in a few token satellites and probably just focus on that for the time being.

In other news Actyper has finally qualified for the WSOP main event in the eleventh hour so go wish him well.

ehhh

Filed Under: Poker

It's been a real blah type week. I'm down in both tourneys and cash games but if you take the last two weeks into consideration I'm even. I've finally gotten to a point financially that my bankroll should now be my own. I'm not anticipating having to withdrawal from it anymore to pay bills so I was really looking forward to a good building week. Instead I lost a little and I'm feeling rather indifferent about it. Usually I'm really bummed when I have a down week. Not having to count on the money each few weeks apparently has an effect on me. Problem is I don't know if it's a good effect. I seem to have lost a little drive. We'll see what happens next week.

July Half As Goals

Filed Under: Poker

It's the end of the month and time to review my Half As goals. I may as well spout some new ones as well.
Half As Goal #1:
June: Win a multi-table tournament - Didnt' happen. Made 3 final tables but couldn't seal the deal this month. That extends my win drought to 2 months. I had several other money cashes which contributed to my 3rd best month in tournaments cash wise.

July: Win a multi-table tournament - May as well stick with this one till I get the monkey off my back.

Half As Goal #2:
June: Satellite my way into one of the Full Tilt Winner's Choice tournaments - Didn't even try this. I should have researched a little before making this one. The only satellites they are running right now start at 11:30 pm and that's just to late for me. All the WSOP stuff going on has taken priority for them so I'll have to wait till next month to try this one again.
July: Satellite my way into one of the big Sunday tournaments going on at one of the major sites. I know that's a little vague but I'm not sure which site I want to try to play at right now. I need to look at the various satellites running at the various sites. Then I'll make my decision.

Half As Goal #3:
June: 100 table hours logged at the NL games. - Ended up with 92.97 table hours this month at the .5/1 NL tables. I would have hit the goal but this last week I decided to start playing shorthanded. It's new to me and I found I do much better if I only play one table at a time for right now. On the money front it was my best month at NL tables. I just about doubled my take from last month and I feel as though I'm finally coming into my own in the NL cash games.

July: 65 table hours at NL games - I'm really liking the shorthanded games right now and I'm not sure when I'll start adding multiple tables to my sessions. In consideration of that I'm going to drop my expectation for the next month and see how it goes.

Well that covers it. I ordered my copy of DoubleAs new book. Go to his site and check out the details.

Cynic?

Filed Under: Poker, Commentary

While digesting another uber-post brought to us by the Blogfather, I followed a link to a mention of good old ZeeJustin. Go read the ZeeJustin post about his wish to do charity work, then come back.

Did you manage to struggle through it? Good.

I don't know this kid, never met him, don't know anything about him except for the scandal that was centered around him. I think what he did was very wrong and it was correct of the poker rooms to ban him. That said, the kid obviously had some talent and could have been a big name for his playing ability as opposed to the scandal.

In his latest post he makes a comment that I believe would have been the proper way for him to come back from his past transgressions... then he ruins it by continuing the sentence and revealing his true intentions.

"I thought I could just keep to myself, play on a new site under a secret identity and keep everything to myself,..." That would be a good idea. Your a good player, use your skill to make money. Continue to be the best player you can be.

Unfortunately he continues with...

"but I donÂ’t want to have to resort to that."

And the true intentions are revealed. It's not about the game. It's not about an apology. He can't stand the idea of not being the center of attention. The rest of his little letter is all a smoke screen to allow him to sweep his past under the rug. He wants to be proclaimed a hero to whom we must all bow to and worship. This kid simply doesn't seem to get it. He's young, and as is often the case at that age he lets his life be controlled by his ego. When he gets older and learns to keep that ego in check I hope he can be happy as just a "secret identity". That's when he will receive the respect that he so desperately wants.

A Game Called Razz

Filed Under: Poker

When I woke up this morning I didn't know much about the game of Razz. I still don't know a whole lot, but I know I kinda like it. I've been seated at a table when Razz was played on two occasions before today. Both were in HORSE events and I pretty much just folded through the Razz portions. With the WPBT Razz event on tap I decided I needed to learn more about the game and I headed off to the play money tables of Full Tilt.

I've never condoned the use of play money tables in the past due to the poor play you'll see. When you don't know the rules of the game though, it's a good place to learn. I knew Razz was a game of having the lowest hand and that the hand was dealt like 7-card Stud. I mistakenly thought that you had to use your best 5 cards, to make the worst hand. This meant that I thought pairs, straights, and flushes counted against you. This was wrong. You get to use your five lowest cards regardless of suits and straights don't count. The best hand is A2345. Ace is always counted as a low card.

Most people despise the game because it is easy to have your hand decimated by the later streets, but god help me, I enjoy playing it. The game requires concentration and maybe that's why it held my interest. I have no plans to play it on any regular basis but I might play the odd tourney every now and then.

At any rate, the reason for learning more about the game today was for the WPBT event. I'm happy to report that I finished a strong 2nd out of 17. I went into the heads up battle with lucko21 as a major underdog but fought my way back to just about even before the cards abandoned me and I was eventually eliminated. Since lucko21 was ahead of me in the points race already and the points leader, S.T.B. went out in fourth, I imagine I'll still be sitting in 3rd place. I missed playing in two events this year and I can't help wondering if I'd be a little closer to the lead if I'd played in them all.

A Love Hate

Filed Under: Poker

Wednesday afternoon I fired up Eurobet for an afternoon session and just as I logged in the site crashed. Thankfully this isn't a too regular occurrence but I wanted to play so I took a look at my spreadsheet. I found that I still had about $500 in bonus to clear at UltimateBet so off I went to play.

The first online site I ever played back in '03 was UltimateBet. It was there that I honed my early knowledge of the game so a soft spot in my heart will always be reserved for them. It was also a site that I came to despise last year. It wasn't crashes that caused me to hate them, it was the way I played.

Now I don't play every site out there but I've flung virtual chips at a rather large number of them so I feel confident in saying that at the lower limits the level of competition is greater at UB than most other sites. With that knowledge in hand, it wasn't that I couldn't beat the competition either. In fact, I was able to take advantage of them on many occasions by knowing that my opponents were, for the most part, able to make a good laydown. This led to a bad bought of fancy play syndrome. If I could bluff a hand every now and then, why not try it more often. Time after time I would start a session with a plan of keeping myself under control, yet by the end I would fall back into the same bad rhythm.

I quit playing ring games their altogether for a while but found myself going back earlier this year when they were offering reload bonuses on a constant basis. My play didn't change though. Same players, same rut.

Wednesday I made a breakthrough. I managed to not get tied up in the FPS that I was susceptible to and managed a decent session. Then another reason I dislike UB came up. The inability for a table to stay open for more than an hour. It never fails that one player will sit out, then two, and suddenly their is a mass exodus which leaves me all alone. This is enough to prevent me from playing ring games their on a regular basis.

It's good to know I can go back now with the knowledge that I've taken a big step in overcoming an old nemesis.

A Bad Idea

Filed Under: Poker; Commentary

I hadn't planned on making multiple posts today but I finally received an email I have to go off on. On an almost daily basis an email arrives from some company or website wanting me to "mention" their product or place an Ad on the site. A majority of these are deleted immediately but a few I'll hang onto until I check the site out for myself. I may have mentioned one or two of these sites in the past but 99.9% of them never make it onto these pages.

I'm going to mention one now but I want to make it very clear that I think this group of people is doing a great disservice for poker. I'm more sensitive about this than I probably should be, but with the state of Washington passing an online gambling ban and now the Federal Government attempting to do about the same thing I've become a bit worried.

The email in question was from the folks at MissPokerFace. They are on a mission to attain the following:
"...Poker lacks glamour and the launch today of the worlds first “Miss Poker Face” seeks the worlds most beautiful girls who can also handle themselves on the poker table."
This in itself wouldn't be so bad but then they go on:
"Girls who submit their details to www.misspokerface.com will be short listed based on looks to play in poker tournaments to find national winners."
So it doesn't matter how you play the game, it's just how hot you look. Don't get me wrong, I'm a strong advocate of enjoying the site of a lovely lady but this does nothing for poker. It actually cheapens it and provides fuel for the shortsighted lawmakers that look to downplay pokers merit in relation to games of chance.

The people responsible for this are based in the UK and even though they may not be bound by the US Government, they certainly would be affected by it. It is obvious that these people are running a beauty pageant with a twist. They stated in the press release that they are looking for a sponsor with global ties. A vast majority of online players, and thus the largest potential audience for this group, are from the US and may have to go away. Granted players like myself would still find a way to play but the average Joe will find the next new thing and move on. That means his/her interest in poker will go away. For this person, and myself, having to watch some vapid beauty try to play a game she can't fathom beyond knowing simple hand rankings will not be appealing. In fact it may be tortorous.

I usually can't fault someone for trying to make a buck, but in this instance I'll make an exception.

Leave Your Message After The Tone

Filed Under: Poker

Tonight could be summed up by this previous post. (Warning: run on sentence coming) I could just sit here and bitch about losing four races in four straight tourneys tonight and then donking off chips in SNG's to try to break even just so I wouldn't have to post a negative number in my new posting format...But I won't do that (or did I just do it anyway).

At any rate I dumped my hard earned money into tournaments that produced bupkis. I'm looking for feedback on my posting of daily results. I used to do it way back in the beginning of this blog but I'm pretty sure no one is riveted by my penny ante results. Drop me a comment and let me know if it's compelling or revolting. The only upside I see to it is it forces me to update on a daily basis. Quantity over quality is not something I've been known for in the past.

I haven't exactly been known for quality either but lets just let me have my dreams, 'kay.

A Week In The Making

Filed Under: Poker

Cash Games: $139.60 / 8.65 table hours

The week long drought of cash game wins finally came to an end yesterday. I really felt back in the groove and played pretty well. If not for an ugly set over set loss my profit would have been a bit more impressive.

I feel like I'm ready to move up a level but I've managed to withdrawal a big chunk of my bankroll again so I'll be staying here for a while.

Totals:
Week: $98.35
Month: $1882.50

Futalitarian

Filed Under: Poker

Tournaments: -$41.25

WBCOOP was a disaster as I tried to make someone lay down their top pair. I was actually lucky to make it as far as I did since my JJ sucked out on AA before the first break. Out in 425th of 2247.

Next up was a two table token satellite at Full Tilt. I like the $6.60 tournaments where the top 4 get a $26 token and 5th gets back $4. As has been my MO lately I was the chip leader then donked off trying to eliminate someone and I go out in fifth.

I haven't played the UB $12,500 guarantee in a while so I fired it up last night and played a pretty decent game up until the end. As we sat on the bubble I had a slightly above average stack and another average stack at the table started getting frisky with the blind stealing. For some ungodly reason I decided it was my duty to put this person in their place. On my first decent hand I called and took the lead on the flop. She wasn't going to go anywhere though and after committing most of our stacks she managed to river me. I barely squeaked into the money for a $35 profit.

The Turquoise at Paradise was an effort in futility and I went out just minutes before the second break. 56th place out of 177.

Finished up with the Coral and busted out in an unimpressive 259th place. 382 players started so I couldn't even outlast the donk bubble in this one.

Totals:
Week: -$41.25
Month: $1,742.90

We Don't Need No Stinkin Laydown

Filed Under: Poker

Cash Games: -$212.30 / 4.65 table hours

I failed miserably in my attempt to tighten up early. It would be easier if I could attribute the loss to that fact, but I cannot. It all boiled down to three hands which define what I believe to be the most important factor in poker. The ability to lay down a hand.

I dropped an entire buyin calling down a player when all I could beat was a bluff. I struggled early at the table and wanted to chip up so bad I ignored every obvious warning sign. This was followed up by my KK vs. AA. The preflop action told me he had Aces but I refused to let the hand go. The final blow came in the form of my flopped flush vs. a turned full house. Wouldn't have been bad had I forced the action on the flop but again I called down even after the board pairing sent off large red warning lights all around me.

I may just not play today. I'm thinking of doing a little studying up on my game tonight and waiting for the PokerStars Blogger Championship on Sunday.

Totals:
Week: -$340.88
Month: $1569.85

Breaking Even

Filed Under: Poker

Cash Games: -$.10 / 7.6 table hours

Played two sessions today and had a rollercoaster ride in the afternoon that ended in a loss. Lost two big hands on two separate tables but in similar situations. Each table had a very big LAG type player and I was looking for opportunities to bust them. In each situation where I made my move they actually woke up with the nuts. Shame on me for being greedy.

The night session (which occurred after my son was awarded the team ball in his baseball game) was a combination of two up tables and one down for a break even day.

I did notice in the night session that I'm beginning to be too loose from the early positions. My goal for today is to concentrate on that and tighten up a little bit in early position.

Totals:
Week: -$128.58
Month: $1,994.45

Format Change

Filed Under: Poker

I've been riveted by Lee's Poker Blog lately as he gives daily updates to his race to $200K. I'm actually enjoying his format so much that I'm going to copy it for a while. (that is until I get bored and move onto something else.)

With my son arriving back from Germany last week I took several days off and didn't play any poker. I finally started playing again 3 days ago and I should have waited a few more days. I wasn't really in the mood to play, I just felt I needed to get in some time at the tables so I could hit my 100 hour goal for the month.

I was asked why I'm playing Eurobet exclusively for my cash games now and the answer isn't that Eurobet itself is special. I simply wanted rakeback and Eurobet was the only option available to me. I already had accounts at all the other PokerRoom skins. I've found that I'm thriving on that network. My style (or lack thereof) of play seems to be suited to the players I encounter on that network.

Without further ado, onto the new posting format:

Cash Games: -$214.95 / 12.86 table hours

Couldn't get anything going so far this week at the tables. The losses were attributed to bad bluffs and playing while exhausted. I'm actually pleased that I kept the losses to such a small amount considering my state at the time.

Tournaments: +$86.47

Played a Full Tilt $6.60 18 player token satellite to warm up for the evening and found fellow blogger easycure seated across from me. I didn't get crap for cards the entire time and wasn't paying enough attention to make any moves. Easycure himself knocked me out in 8th place when he donked a straight on me. No token for me.

The Paradise Palmtree was an interesting tournament tonight. I invested $50 into the rebuy and ended my run in 433rd out of 835. I called a min raise from an early position player with my AJ. The flop came 4J4 so I pushed my shortstack into my checking opponent. He responded by calling with his flopped quads and I was gone.

Things fared better in the Paradise Coral. I can't say this enough times, this is the softest tournament in online tournaments. The strategy for this tournament is Tight Is Right. There are always players willing to pay you off. The only issue I have with their tournament structure is the blinds are so huge at the end it becomes an all-in fest. I ended up 8th in this one when my pocket 8's couldn't hold up against A9. As is my trademark the money didn't go in until the 9 high flop came out.

Totals:
Week: -$128.48
Month: +1,994.55

GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLL

Filed Under: Annoying

This is not a post about soccer. I don't even like soccer. Football is a man's game. Futbol is a girlie man's game. Now all of you World Cup net surfers can go somewhere else, the title wasn't meant for you.

Ok, it was meant for you. With the World Cup in full force I figured the title may garner a few more hits and nothings better than wasting some World Cup fans time. World Cup World Cup World Cup

Won A Tournament

Filed Under: Poker

I can't really count it as a goal though since it didn't end up being a multi. Had everyone shown up for the live event of Friday night we would have enough for two tables. As it turns out only eight arrived for the $40 buy in event so it was more like a SNG. I felt like I was playing badly for over half the tourney so I'm more than happy with the win.

I've made Eurobet my new cash game home. Thanks to Actyper and WillWonka for the referrals. Since the offers were basically the same and AC responded first I signed up under him and am already enjoying the rakeback.

Low...Meet High

Filed Under: Poker

Just when you think things are really in the crapper something completely unexpected happens.
Today I managed to beat my alltime money win in a single session by a whole dollar. This proved enough to completely wipe out the pissiness that came from my earlier post which went up last night.

Yeah Me!

Follow Up

Ok, that was a little extreme.

Note to self: Take a cooling off period before blogging in the future.

Vent

Fuckity fuck fuck fuckin piece of shit game douche bag fucking donkey shit craptastic fucktard morons playin shit and wasting 4 hours of my life I'll never get back. FUCK!!!!!

Close But No Cigar

Filed Under: Poker

Almost completed one of my goals tonight. My death blow came in the form of the chip leaders 85o vs. my KJo all in preflop. An eight hits the flop and bye bye me.

No Muss, No Fuss

Filed Under: Blog

The two year anniversary of this blog came and went without any fanfare or notice, even from me. I was fixing a slight sidebar problem with the template that was showing up in Internet Explorer when I noticed I began this blog back on April 14, 2004.

Back then it was all about posting my results and trying to log everything. Now I feel like I need divine inspiration just to post sometimes. I suppose if I ever get real bored I may go back and read everything again someday. It will either prove to be a very interesting or a very depressing read. I'm not sure which.

Half As Goals

Filed Under: Poker

I was reading the fine blog by DoubleAs this morning and it's led me to revisit my often tumultuous relationship with goals. I like the fact that he sets general monthly goals and just tries to follow through with them. I would like to do the same type of thing, but since I don't play at the monetary levels that he does I can't very well do "DoubleAs goals". I'll just call mine "Half As goals". I'll make these a monthly deal so lets get started.

Half As Goal #1:
Win a multi-table tournament

Half As Goal #2:
Satellite my way into one of the Full Tilt Winner's Choice tournaments

Half As Goal #3:
In the month of May I had 100 table hours logged at the NL games. For the month of June I want to maintain that pace.

That should do it. I'm going to start with baby steps and we'll see how the month goes.

Say It Isn't So

Filed Under: Poker

I'm going to end the month of May without a tournament win. I had a nice streak going and now it will come to a bitter end. I still have one tourney going right now but I've already had my Kings cracked by Queens so I see the end is near. From a bankroll standpoint it wasn't a horrible month in the multi's. I managed two final table appearances and I'll end the month in the black, but damnit, I wanted a win.

On the bright side I think I've found the softest tournament known to man. It's the Paradise Coral that runs at 9:30 pm central. I've cashed in it the last five times I've played, including my two final table appearances.

PokerStars Blogger Goodness

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

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

Registration code: 7330476

Give You A Referral

Filed Under: Poker

I'm looking to sign up for a rakeback program with a PokerRoom Network site. I already have accounts with PokerRoom, Hollywood, and CheckNRaise. I would like to get signed up with another room on the network by the end of this week or early next week with a rakeback plan. If anyone wants a referral I'm looking to sign up. Whoever has the best deal gets my business.

Does It Make A Difference?

Filed Under: Poker

Played the WPBT multi table tournaments tonight and it left me pondering the above question. You see during the first hour of both I played a pretty good game. I was firmly within the top 10 and making proper decisions. The break came and went then things took a slightly ugly turn. In one tourney I continued to play a good game and felt I had a decent grasp on all my opponents. On the other I couldn't make a good decision to save my life.

Once we hit the 1 hour 40 minute mark I managed to get my money in with the worst hand and out I went. In the other (my good tourney) I ran into three straight suckouts and I was out. I finished in 14th and 15th places. Times like that really make you wonder if it matters how you play sometimes.

Tiltabilly

Filed Under: Poker

I was going to answer the questionnaire that's making the rounds but I decided to play poker instead. I would have saved myself a few buyins if I'd just answered the damn questions. If anyone isn't over saturated with answers yet, leave me a comment and I'll answer them too.

I went on what is becoming a more increasingly less frequent bout of tilt last night. What surprised me is what triggered the tilt as I've never experienced it this way before.

Everything began innocently enough but I quickly found myself down two buy-ins. My decision making wasn't flawed (beyond my rudimentary knowledge of the game anyway), things were just going the way of my opponents by the time all 5 cards hit the board.

I dug in for the long haul and had worked my way back to within striking distance of even. That is when a player, seated directly across from me, called me out for sucking out on him in some huge pot. This had presumably happened within the last few days and he just kept hammering away in the chat box. Calling me the usual "donkey", "fish", and "luckbox". I suggested to him that with his hostility level so high, perhaps poker wasn't his game. This didn't deter him though and I finally decided to peruse the Poker Tracker database for proof of his allegations. The only record I had for him were this night, at this table. I decided that he was simply trying to goad me so I'd play back at him since I was one of the two largest stacks at that particular table. He later began in on the chip leader himself so I figure I was correct in my assumptions.

Eventually I was dealt the grandaddy of starting hands in pocket aces. Being horribly out of position (under the gun) I threw out a 5x bet and the only caller was my best friend across the table. The flop came K6J rainbow and being supremely confident I made my standard 3/4 pot continuation bet. A call from him and the turn brings another Jack. I'm a little worried at this point since he would definitely call me with something like QJ in this situation preflop and on the flop.

Again I fired about 3/4 the pot and now he raises about 2.5 times my bet. At this point I make a huge (I did say huge) mistake in the hand and just call. My opponent only has about 1/4 the pot left in his stack and it's obviously going in on the river. My proper play, based on my read, should have just been to fold. Instead I see a second 6 hit the river and I check fold to what he has left.

I feel I really misplayed the hand but then my opponent shows me pocket deuces and asks if the board is good. I know what your thinking... of course you went on tilt. I did not. Not yet anyway. I chalked it up to just being outplayed. He figured he could take the pot away from me and he was right. Granted my confidence was a little shaken but I continued to play relatively well. A few orbits later he leaves the table.

That was the trigger. I'm not entirely sure why. Could be I lost the opportunity to get my money back (I know, once it's in the pot it's no longer yours). Could be that the earlier hand finally got to me. 3o minutes later and 3.5 buyins down from the start I finally forced myself to bed. I still don't know why, but I do know that this morning I was still fuming when I woke up. I'm also not sure if I should play tonight. We have a cub scout fundraiser to go to so I'll decide when we get back.

I'm sure there was something other than my horrible play that I should have learned from this experience. I haven't figured it out yet. If I ever do, I'll let you know.

Nirvana

Filed Under: Poker

I've found a new home. The players at this site are so soft that it's really seemed like taking candy from babies (including the whining and crying). I'll spare you the hand histories but in one table tonight within less than an hour I won 156BB with a set of queens, 172BB with a pair of Aces, 382BB with trip nines, and 57BB with a flopped full house.

Granted those are big hands but these players were more than willing to toss all their chips in even after my betting told them they were beat. Everyone was so afraid of being bluffed they just had to see what I had. After showing them what they already knew to be true they would shout their expletives and leave the room.

You Know Your NOT A Donkey When...

Filed Under: Poker

realizing that your making bad decisions you take a break from the tables for a while. Upon your return you make correct decisions and not only recoup the earlier losses but turn a profit.

You Know Your A Donkey When...

Filed Under: Poker

You flop top two pair, then whisper "Show me your set" under your breath, while clicking on the call button for the all-in bet on the turn.

Back Home

Filed Under: Life

First I want to thank everyone for their kind words. It's nice to know people are out there pulling for your family when things are tough.

It turns out he had two different bacterial infections at the same time. The doctors were a little confused because they had different incubation periods. It was finally decided that he was an asymptomatic carrier of one, then contracted the other. He's back to about 80% now and will be going to school on Monday. Life should be normal again and I'm looking forward to getting back to some poker playing.

Turns out that my daughter did not have strep and it was just a 24 bug. Thanks again to everyone for their support.

Children's Mercy Hospital Rules

Filed Under: Life

I planned a post about how I once again screwed up the chip lead heading into a final table situation. This led to a 3rd place finish in the Coral on Paradise Saturday night.

Instead my days have since been a succession of 3 ER visits resulting in the eventual admission of my 9 year old to the hospital. The doctors can't give us a definitive answer on exactly what's wrong with him other than to tell us they think it's a bacterial infection of his colon. The test results for this won't be back until Tuesday night. We hope one of these comes back positive because the alternative is a disease that he will have to deal with for the rest of his life. Since he's already on morphine for the pain I can't fathom what a lifetime of this type of pain could result in.

In fact just typing that statement sickens my stomach. It's been a frustrating experience because the first ER we visited said it was just a bad case of diarrhea. When his pain didn't go away we visited our pediatrician's office and the on-call doctor prescribed immodium and a McDonalds Happy Meal (because these don't digest easily and will hopefully slow down his bowel). When Sunday came and he just seemed to be getting worse we finally visited the Children's Hospital Urgent Care. They believed it may be appendicitis but wanted a CT scan to confirm. They lacked the equipment onsite so we were shipped to the main Hospital downtown.

After 10 hours of tests and waiting around we were told he would have to be admitted and will be in the hospital for at least a few days. Also it turns out that the pediatrician prescribed the worse possible thing we could have given him.

I have to say that Children's Mercy has been extremely attentive to our entire family's needs. We found out today that the doctor we saw in the ER a few times was actually the Chief of Medicine for the entire hospital. It was nice to know we were in the care of the best they had. I'm not sure how he managed to decide to take our case, it was probably because it presented as so many different things and was difficult to diagnose. It is a teaching hospital and we saw a minimum of 10 different doctors at varying times. Having to recite the entire case history each time is a tedious process that really wears on you.

They won't let siblings stay in the hospital overnight so my wife is staying with him while I stay home at night. To top it off we think our youngest may now have come down with strep. This means another visit to the pediatrician in the morning before heading to the hospital.

Do you smell that?

Filed Under: Poker

That would be the smell of dogshit, which is the best way to describe the way I played tonight. I thought I was all psyched up and ready to play but my head just wasn't in the game. I dropped a buyin in the first two hands I played before the first orbit was even done.

This is what I'm sure sent me a little over the edge. I just wasn't paying attention to chip stacks and who was pot committed. I bluffed way too much and no one ever folded, unless I actually had a hand. I was playing with my hand face up at all times.

When you expect the worse, you always get it. I'm lucky enough that I know when to call it quits now. In the past I would have blown through at least 25% of my bankroll trying to get even. Now I managed to get away with only losing a little over 2 buy-ins.

Flacidity

Filed Under: Poker

Nuts are good... but when they get no action it really just feels like blue balls.

Spoils Of War

The DADI V reward arrived today. It came as quite a suprise that the words every blogger knows were layed out accross the side. Sweet Deal.

The deaf dealing instrument has already been put to use as my wife has decided it's oh so cute. She felt she deserved to receive some of the spoils so I have conceded the device to her. She has been so supportive of my poker playing that she really did deserve to lay claim. (Besides this gave me an excuse to purchase a nano which I've been jonesing for.)

P.S. I decided not to purchase the nano with the PokerStars points. It was just going to take to long to collect that many points. Yet another goal in the crapper.

WPBT Stud Event

Filed Under: Poker

I'm not a stud player. I've played stud, but I'm not a player. My limited experience has involved a few home games where we've done a couple rounds and that's about it. With this rudimentary knowledge of the rules in hand I had zero expectations last night. I cracked open Doyle's Super System 2 in the hopes of learning a thing or two, but the section covering stud involved high/low. We were only playing high. I didn't want to muddy the waters for myself anymore than they already would be so I didn't even bother scanning it. I was fully intending to rely on my reads and hope for the best.

Fortunately it became evident rather early on that no one else seemed to have a firm grasp on the game either. We were a collection of hold em and omaha players trying to make due. It amazed me how often 7th street was deciding the outcome of the hands. I would imagine that this was because of our collective lack of experience. I'm sure experienced players have a tendency to not chase as badly as a lot of us were doing.

Feeling confident in my reads, I was making good decisions. By the time we were a quarter of the way through the field I had a big chip stack. At this point I decided to let that stack do a lot of talking. I became as big a bully as I felt I could get away with and it was working.

Going into the final table my stack was impressive. As has been the case in several of these WPBT events though, I can't seem to seal the deal. Marginal play trying to bust the remaining players left me crippled and I finished in 5th.

Better than I expected, or hoped. This combined with a productive afternoon at the tables made for a very nice day. My finish should move me up a spot or two in the rankings. I'll still be a long ways from the leader but without something to shoot for it wouldn't be fun.

Now We've Come 3/4 Circle

Filed Under: Poker

Since starting this poker odyssey in mid 2003 the game has brought both triumph and sorrow. More often than I care to remember I experienced them together within the same session. The emotional gambit can be difficult to deal with at times but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Right?

Limit hold em was my game of choice in those early days. Starting at .01/.02 with my $30 ultimatebet deposit I continued to grind my way to 5/10. I'd dabble in the occasional tournament but I always knew where my bread was buttered.

My focus shifted in the early part of 2005 as I began my first, and completely unsuccessful, foray into the no limit arena. The no limit ring games were the perfect place for me to bleed off my bankroll. Lacking the fortitude necessary to learn a new variation of the game, I tucked my tail between my legs and went back to limit play.

At the same time I also began focusing more of my time on no limit tournaments. As it turns out I felt much more comfortable playing in these events than I did the ring games. I met with moderate success and managed to win a few throughout the year. These provided a big boost to my bankroll and by the end of the year I had begun focusing on SNG's.

By mid February I had abandoned ring games entirely. My diet consisted solely of single and multi table tournaments. My tournament game has improved dramatically since taking that step, but then fate would intervene. Ok... it's not that dramatic.

PokerSourceOnline announced a $10,000 freeroll that they would be hosting at Poker Rewards. Not one to miss a chance at free money I decided to make myself eligible to play in this event. The catch is that you have to play 750 raked hands to qualify. Not having played a ring game of any kind in about two months, I really didn't want to start now. Biting the bullet I bought into low limit, no limit games and I discovered I was no longer the same player that had tried and failed once before.

I was now enjoying the ring games and not sucking. It was reinvigorating to know that I had managed to actually learn something during my tournament sabbatical. Granted a ring game is a different beast than a tournament, but my play during the middle stages of a tournament is translating well to ring game play.

This long story short... I'm hooked on ring games again. Not the limit variety but the no limit. Not quite full circle, but close enough.

2nd Best Video Ever

Filed Under: Music

Is this a music video... or commercial... either way... I'm buyin

Thanks

First... thanks to Dugglebogey for the new banner which adorns my blog.

Second... thanks to everyone else who was supportive of my decision in the WPBT event as well as all of you that have reached out through messenger. I look forward to chatting with everyone and will work on updating my links to include you over the next few days.

Third... well there is no third. It just didn't seem complete without one more.

Is 2 My Lucky Number?

After my second place finish last night in the PSO freeroll I have followed it up with another 2nd.

I sat down for the DADI 5: DADI does Vegas tournament which sends one lucky blogger to a $1500 WSOP event of their choice. I missed the first 6 hands due to arriving home late for work but I was rarin' to go. At the half way mark I took the chip lead and didn't look back till we were down to 5 players. TonySopran0, who had been going on a bit of a rush, was seated to my immediate right and he got all in from the small blind with 77 vs. my Ad9d. I wouldn't improve and he took the lead. He then ran that into a massive lead as he eliminated the remaining players leaving us heads up. His chip stack stood at 195,347 to my paltry 38,653.

I did manage to build up to 45,000 but this was going to be an extremely hard hill to climb. TonySopan0 offered me $400 to give up and let him have the seat. Since I didn't figure my odds were good against that stack, and I'm not 100% sure I'd be able to afford to get myself to Vegas even if I did win, I took the deal. Combined with the $100 that paid for 2nd I netted $500 dollars out of the deal.

I'm happy with the outcome and I hope that no one else from the tourney is upset that I gave in. I do have to say though that it was a little disconcerting when everyone at the final table seemed to have someone cheering for them but me. I am a hermit in the blogging community but maybe it's time for me to venture out into actual communication with others. In an effort to help me come out of my shell I'm going to announce my yahoo messenger ID. I hope some of you decide to send me a message every now and then. ID is lifesagrind and my email is lifesagrind at yahoo dot com.

Is PokerSourceOnline the Best Referral Site?

In a word...

Yes

In addition to the tremendous offers they give for the sign up of a new site, they also provide the best freerolls in the industry. The customer service is top notch and last night proved it.

PokerSourceOnline has given away multiple trips on poker cruise freerolls as well as numerous cash freerolls for their existing customers. I was fortunate enough to win one of these cruise trips in 2004. It was a tremendous time and my wife enjoyed it even more than I did. I had the opportunity to meet the owners of PSO along with several members and everyone was a real pleasure to be around. The PSO staff made sure we had a great time and that all of our needs were met.

Last night PSO continued to impress me as they hosted a $10,000 freeroll on Absolute Poker for anyone who had ever done a promotion with them. When I went to register for the freeroll Absolute reported that I was not able to participate. A quick trip to the PSO chatroom and within 10 minutes the problem was resolved and I was registered for the event.

With only 281 entrants this tournament provided even more value. I have to boast a little and say that I played about as close to an "A" game throughout as I could. I wasn't able to pull out the win as I lost the heads up battle but it was still a very nice $1,600 win on $0 invested.

They have another $10,000 freeroll coming up in May with Poker Rewards. This freeroll will require that you signed up for Poker Rewards through PSO though. If you don't have an account there yet, and you can play 750 raked hands before May 7th, get there now.

The Sound of a Suckout

Filed Under: Poker


(Sung to the tune of Simon & Garfunkels The Sound of Silence)

Hello ring games, my old friend,
I've come to sit with you again,
Because a vision of slowly winning,
Left it's seeds while I was whoring,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
it was a lie
Within the sound of a suckout.

In restless dreams I clicked away
Narrow margins in array
’neath the halo of an LCD,
I turned my attention to the enemy
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of
A runner board
That split the hoard
And touched the sound of a suckout.

And in the lobby light I saw
Ten thousand players, maybe more.
Players betting without thinking,
Players clicking with endless energy,
Players making hands without a care
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of a suckout.

Fools said i,you do not know
Suckouts like a cancer grows.
Hear my words so that I may teach you,
Online pokers rigged and it might reach you.
But my words like silent mucking fell,
And echoed
In the wells of a suckout

And the players bowed and prayed
To the Poker Gods they made.
And the screen flashed out with warning,
In the hands that it was forming.
And the players said, the words of the bloggers
Are written on the chatroom walls
And mansion halls.
And whisper’d in the sounds of a suckout.

Draw is a Draw is a Draw

I'm playing the PSO League tournament last night and I managed to take an early chip lead at my table. Then in late position I'm dealt pocket 10's. Two limpers to me and I raise it up to a standard 5x the BB. Fold around and a middle position player (second in chips) calls me. The flop gives me "Thirty Miles of Bad Road" and I'm eccstatic. Checked to me, I bet, player raises, I push. Now the player barely thinks about it and calls. I'm ahead but my opponent has a Q high flush draw that completes on the river.

In a previous post I reviewed the power of an all in with a flush draw and when it might be the right move. This was not it in my opinion. Now every player plays a different game and my opponent may have been looking to gamble. You have to weigh the pro's and con's of every decision at the table. It was early, and he was risking his tournament on a draw when he had a ton of play left in his chips. It is also one thing to be the aggressor and push all in with a draw, but it is almost never correct to call off all your chips with a draw.

**************************************

So I'm playing in the Stars Deep Stack tourney and I double up within the first 10 hands. I build up to a top ten chip stack within the first 30 minutes, then give it all away and spend the next 4 1/2 hours stuck at my starting stack size. That's right... 4 1/2 hours. I float between 4,500 and 7,000 but never amass any kind of run.

No fears though as this is a deep stack tournament and the blinds are not forcing me into any decisions. Were finally down to about 40 players from the money when I get a nice mini run and build up to 17,000. This whole time I've been planted at the same table, with the same players. We have two open spots that others rotate in and out of until they are busted, and then a new player is rotated in. Through it all most of us have played together for a very long time and I'm feeling very comfortable. I have some tough and successful players sitting next to me but I've garnered enough respect to take a blind every now and then even though I'm getting crap cards. The way things were going I thought for sure I'd make the final table with only my original 5,000. But the run came and I started building.

The inevitable happens and I'm unceremoniously moved to a new table. I'm the short stack but I only need to take a moderate pot to assure myself a coast to the money. Fisrt hand at the new table and I'm dealt AQo. Two limpers so I make a raise and it folds around to my immediate right who has me well covered. He calls. The flop comes 10 high, but all hearts. My opponent checks and I bet the pot wanting to take it down right then.

My opponent has other plans and pushes all in. I really have nothing, but my Q is a heart. I make the call and leave my fate up to a draw.

**********************************

Two draws...two all in calls...why is one right and the other not?

Although these plays have the same result of calling off all your chips on a draw, the situations were completely different. The original call was made while the player was left with a ton of options. With so much play left with his chips there was no need to make the play. A flold still leaves him with about his starting stack size. With it being so early in the tournament there would be plenty of opportunities to double up when you have better possibilities. Remember the player wasn't even drawing to the nut flush, just a flush.

The second situation differs greatly in that the pot size was already bloated. If I make the fold I will be forced to go all in within the next several hands. I wouldn't be left with enough to survive the blinds and antes for more than a round. We were still 20 players from the money so my best opportunity to survive was now. By making the pot size bet at the flop I had, for all intents and purposes, commited myself. I still had what I believe to be the best draw as well. My opponent could have very well called me preflop with a J 10 and now hit his top pair. He saw me as a short stack and wanted to run the chance to eliminate me. I also felt I had the draw to either a heart, or Ace for the win.

The turn would bring my heart but my opponent was already there with a flopped K high flush. I made my hand and still lost. That's poker and I had no read on the players. I'm convinced it was the right move, just the wrong time.

Any thoughts?

Bluffer

Filed Under: Poker

While playing the WPBT WSOP Sat. the other night I was also playing in the WCOP state qualifier. Having made it down to the final eight in the WCOP I was managing to keep my opponent at bay and had a nice chip lead. Then out of nowhere he says, "Your so scared of being bluffed that you bet completely erratic. It's funny"

Now I didn't think my betting was "erratic" but I certainly try to keep heads up opponents guessing. I find it disguises my hand strength and since I like to be the aggressor it seems to work out for me. Even having my own rationale for playing the way I do, I couldn't let go of what he typed in the chatbox.

Am I scared of being bluffed?

Recently I've discovered a small, yet very important leak in my SNG play. There is a particular bluff that I have found to be effective in the later stages, say when down to 4 or 5 players. Thist involves being headsup to the flop, out of position, and the board pairs. This also only works if your against a post flop aggressor who is capable of making a laydown. Granted this situation doesn't happen all that often but when it does I can make (more often than not) a play that will win me the pot.

The problem has been that when this situation occurs and I'm on the other side of the equation, in position and the post flop aggressor, I automaticlly assume my opponent is running a bluff on me. When in fact, 90% of the time he/she actually has the goods. I see my opponent play in the exact same manner I would, if I was bluffing, and subconciously I have to pay this player off. I take the stance that, "I would run this bluff, so they must be also."

When the hand is over I've usually managed to cripple myself and now I have to struggle just to make the money.

In a way, I guess I am scared of being bluffed.

My heads up opponent may not have actually thought I was "scared" of the bluff, but what he did accomplish was getting inside my head. The next thing I knew I was horribly short stacked and end up going out in 5th place. Just two matches short of the win. I believe I could have won if my opponent hadn't put the voodoo mind trick on me.

Bluff Tour Answer

Filed Under: Poker

Since I've received several inquiries about whether I will be playing in the second season of the Bluff Poker Tour, I may as well answer them here.

The short answer is, no.

The long answer involves my feelings about how I think season one was ran. With the rule changes after the fact, numerous venue changes, having to play on sites who's software is abysmal, severe...severe...severe lack of communication by the operators of the event, and a less than stellar solution to the final event debacle, I simply cannot send my business to them. I could go into specifics but all that would do is make it look like I'm picking on them.

I'm sure many players had an enjoyable experience with the tour, but I did not. Best of luck to all of you that play in season two.

WPBT Final Table Live Blog

Since I'll never get around to writing up a recap I'm going to live blog the final table.
Here are the chip counts at the start:
smizmiatch - 42,415
S.t.B. - 34,502
lifesagrind - 19,275
catclock - 18,680
statikKling - 18,238
claire danes - 16,780
jerge88 - 8,958
otisbdart - 5,779
joanada1 - 4,191
Drizztdj99 - 3,682

11:15 pm- Final Table is underway

11:20 pm - no free ride for my big blind, too bad

11:22 pm - clarie danes hand is caught in the cookie jar and Joanada1 doubles up

11:27 pm - Folded to me in the SB and I take the Big blind with A4

11:28 pm - On the button I call a raise with 98c and the flop comes all overs...no clubs...so I have to let it go

11:29 pm - Otis is the first to go out but since I was typing I completely missed the hand

11:32 pm - A blind steal from early position goes horribly wrong and now I'm a short stack...happy, happy, joy, joy

11:33 pm - I fear that Drizz, who is sitting out and only has 546 chips is going to outlast me

11:34 pm - We just lost StatikKling but again I was typing and completely missed the hand....I need to start paying attention.

11:36 pm - I'm all in with AcKc vs. Qd9d and a Q hits the flop....I'm gone in 7th. Claire danes went out the hand right before me when her 55 lost to A7. smizmiatch has become a one man suckout machine and is taking everyone out.

Drizz did in fact last longer than me so I apparently can't even beat someone who doesn't bother playing the final table.

My first and probably last live blog of a tournament has ended in complete failure. Go Away I'm Pissed.

Goals in Poker Or Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Filed Under: Poker, Commentary

Is setting goals for your poker play a good idea?

The Genereal Goal: "I want to become a better poker player." "I want to build my bankroll." Everyone should have general goals. A broad stroke of what you expect from playing the game is good. This may be just wanting to have fun and taking part in the social aspect of the experience.

The Specific Goal: Since the player I'm most knowledgable about would be myself, let's take a look at a post I wrote on December 31st that outlined my goals for the coming year.
"For the immediate future if I don't have a bonus or some other incentive to play at a site, I won't be playing there." Well that went out the window sometime in February. I was having an abysmal run at the limit and no limit ring games. This was due to my achilles heel of poker. Fixation on the bankroll. My funds were low to begin with and I placed so much pressure on myself that I was cracking. I had to get out from under it and start having fun again. Since February 25th I haven't even sat in on a ring game. I'm now playing Sit-N-Go's and Multi-Table tournaments exclusively. This is where my talent lies so that's what I'm playing. At the levels I'm currently playing there really is no profit in bonus whoring unless the site I'm comfortable at is offering a reload.

"To go along with the bonus whoring, I've also decided to not play any ring games at a site if it is not supported by Poker Tracker." Well I'm not playing ring games anymore. The sites I'm playing at do support Poker Tracker though so I'm still on track, kinda.

"I've always been a devout proponent of having 300BB's at a limit before playing that level. I've fluctuated the levels I've played at in the past based on it. Having said that though, I'm going to break form and play $1/$2 with my $400 bankroll." What's the good in having an achilles heel if you can't suffer from it's affects every now and then. Right?

"In order to feel comfortable with that decision though I'm going to have to make some sacrifices. Namely my recent Sit-N-Go adventures will now have to go on hiatus. I also can't afford to spend money on many multi-table tournaments." Oh yea of little faith.

"I will also play the monthly KCPC live tournaments but I'm going to have to give up my monthly Casino play until I can get a live bankroll going." That one I've stuck with.

"Once I have been able to establish each of the bankrolls I will begin to use my online ring game roll to delve more into the no limit arena." My impatience led me to the no limit games before I was ready to take the swings. Noticing a theme here.

"Of course all of this will be dependent on my doing something I've never been able to do before. That is to leave my bankroll alone." Couldn't do it. I ended up taking $1,500 out of my $2,000 win last week to pay some bills.

General Specific Goals: This may seem odd but here is what I'm getting at. Last year I made it my goal to win the Bluff Poker Tour. I failed in this and came up a little short in the end finishing second. This type of goal is more specific than the general "be a better player" type but specific enough to warrant it's own place. A common goal of this type would be to win your way through satellites to the WSOP or WPT.

I've learned that I can live with the general specific goal but not the specific goal. The game of poker is a fluid entity and conforming to rigid guidelines doesn't fit my personality. My game suffers when I put to much pressure on myself. Oddly in my day job I flourish in pressure situations and gain exhileration from them. It seems a contradiction that one situation presents itself so differently for me, but that leads to my answer of whether setting goals in poker is a good idea. In order to know if its right for you, you really need to know how well you respond to that type of pressure.

Or you can just insert the answer for everything poker: It Just Depends

Blogger Poker Tour

Filed Under: Poker



I play poker at Poker.com

Even more chances for bloggers to get to the WSOP

Who's Bad

Filed Under: Poker

In an unmatched display of poker prowess I managed to be the second player eliminated from the WPBT-POY tournament last night. In fairness to myself though I got all in with the better hand and was outdrawn on what I would consider to have been a bad call on my opponents part.

In a very nice twist of fate this drove me to play in the $10 tourney starting at 10:40 on Stars. I managed to Play Like A ChampionTM and win the the event. It is the largest field I've managed a win at so far with 1051 players. It was also the largest single cash win in a tournament for me but only by about $100.

Once down to three players the short stack asked us for a chop. I agreed as long as it was based on a chip count. I had over half the chips in play at the time and the short stack agreed. The other player didn't want to chop though so we played it out.

The damage:

PokerSourceOnline

As you may or may not have heard by now PokerSourceOnline has reached over 25,000 members in it's poker forum. The forum has a large diverse group of posters and there is usually something for everyone.

I haven't touted these guys lately but if you've never checked them out, or just haven't been back in a while you need to go there now. I can't say enough about them as I've been fortunate enough to recieve several chip sets, PartyPoker gift certificates, poker books, and oh yeah, did I mention a CardPlayer Cruise paid for by them. They have a poker league thats running right now as well as their many poker room promotions. In fact I finished third in the last league event. A blogger freeroll is also being setup by them but I'll mention that in another post when I've finished signing up for it. Having the opportunity to meet these guys in person on the cruise I can personnally vouch for them. If you've always been warry of poker room affiliates you need worry no further. PokerSourceOnline is the place for you.

New Record

Filed Under: Poker

Set a new personal record in most consecutive losses without a cash in Sit-N-Go's tonight. In stunning fashion I bested my previous record of 7 with a new score of 11. Losing that many in a row made me a weak tight bitch towards the end of the night. I'm going to have to reach up into my gut tomorrow and pull my balls back down so I can play with some level of confidence. Sometimes poker really is a kick in the junk.

Champ or Chump

Filed Under: Poker

I couldn't help myself so I had to check in on the Champ vs. Chicks tournament at Stars. I've only been observing for a few minutes so no comment on the play.

It has amazed me how quickly the "Champ" has managed to turn the blogging community against him. I'm really hoping that two weeks from now, after all the hoopla surrounding him has begun to subside, that he'll come out and say he is some psychology student working on his doctoral thesis studying mob frenzy. That would at least give a happy ending to the train wreck that is his life.