Christmas always seems to come and go so fast. When I was younger it was worse! These days the whole year just slips by. It has been very exciting though, and I hope 2006 is just as fun, and profitable! I remember when I would wake up and open all of my gifts and then call my friends to see what cool toys santa brought them...it's still the same, just different "toys". All of my friends got pretty cool gifts, but my friend Chris got an extra special one!! He and his wife are going to have a baby!! So that's pretty cool...
I haven't really played much poker the past couple days, mostly because it has been so hectic trying to get everything situated for Xmas. But I did get to play a quick SnG last night (which I got second in) and also spent about an hour on a $2/$4 Triple Draw table (left the table +$40). It was so late when I was finishing up my SnG that I just donked off all of my chips. I just HAD to go to bed. It was a little frustrating because I had my opponent out-chipped about 5-1!! I just kept going all-in when it got down to heads-up and he ended up getting all the right cards. An interesting note is that the "Kill Phil" style of play online says to do just that - go all-in every hand...
I have been studying "Kill Phil" quite a bit recently and am putting its concepts to use, but I haven't really tried it out in a mtt. I am looking forward to the new year to do just that.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Cardplayer Tournament of Champions...
I am a little jealous of all you +1'rs that made it to the TOC. I should have been there...hell, I could've been there if I didn't go brain numb and put all of my stack in w/ a nut flush draw! Oh well, I will be rooting for everyone today. I just watched poor Necco get an all-in called where he held KK and the other guy had AJ of clubs...he hit an A on the flop and Necco was crippled. He went out in 85th. Right now I am watching Snadly do his thing though. He had a nice hand against JRLoomis and got him to put all of his stack in with a pair of Q's...Snad had a set and it held up. Then I go away for a bit and he's lost a bit of his stack, and now JRLoomis has him covered. This tourney is filled with P1MP's!! Anyway, Good Luck to all of you!! Take it down for +1!!
I played a $10 SnG earlier and won it! It was a battle at the end, but with my new "Kill Phil" stategy that I have been working on, I never felt like I would be out of the money! Oh yeah, I also got my first straight flush!! Here's how it went down. I am on the button w/ A6o. I have about 2400 in chips with 5 left. UTG min. raises to 300 and I call. The UTG player had really switched gears in the last 5-10 hands and built his chips up to about 3K. The flop was A45 (4 and 5 were diamonds). I had an A w/ a 6 kicker and a weak backdoor flush draw. UTG bet about 50% of the flop and I thought about jamming, but hated my kicker, although his post-flop bet felt weak, it also could've been a trap. I didn't want to fold so I made the call. The turn brought beautiful 8 of diamonds. A good card, but also a bad card for me. If he had the flush already I was drawing to one card only. This time UTG bet about 1/4th the pot...there was no way i was folding so I called. River was a pristine 7 of diamonds. The pot was about 1500 and I was going to get it, but how much of his stack? He bet 500, I raised to 1000, he thought and thought then pushed...he had the A of diamonds too! Sick feeling to win/lose that hand, as I can now say I have been on both ends! Once it got down to 3 players I started to really "JAM" and just put people to the test. One guy took the other out, and I proceeded to just go all-in with every hand. One time I showed my opponent a weak hand that I had pushed with it was something like J7 or something. He had raised pre-flop and I came over the top of him...he had A2. The very next hand he did the same thing raising pre-flop and I came over the top again, but this time I had AK...he called very quickly w/ AQ and he got no help on the flop. I wasn't thinking that showing my bluff would end up working out on the very next hand, but i'll take it!
Tonight my Mom, Dad, and Sister are all coming over for a pre-Xmas dinner. I need to clean up a bit since Mo is out getting some last minute shopping done with her brother. This year has gone so fast!!
I played a $10 SnG earlier and won it! It was a battle at the end, but with my new "Kill Phil" stategy that I have been working on, I never felt like I would be out of the money! Oh yeah, I also got my first straight flush!! Here's how it went down. I am on the button w/ A6o. I have about 2400 in chips with 5 left. UTG min. raises to 300 and I call. The UTG player had really switched gears in the last 5-10 hands and built his chips up to about 3K. The flop was A45 (4 and 5 were diamonds). I had an A w/ a 6 kicker and a weak backdoor flush draw. UTG bet about 50% of the flop and I thought about jamming, but hated my kicker, although his post-flop bet felt weak, it also could've been a trap. I didn't want to fold so I made the call. The turn brought beautiful 8 of diamonds. A good card, but also a bad card for me. If he had the flush already I was drawing to one card only. This time UTG bet about 1/4th the pot...there was no way i was folding so I called. River was a pristine 7 of diamonds. The pot was about 1500 and I was going to get it, but how much of his stack? He bet 500, I raised to 1000, he thought and thought then pushed...he had the A of diamonds too! Sick feeling to win/lose that hand, as I can now say I have been on both ends! Once it got down to 3 players I started to really "JAM" and just put people to the test. One guy took the other out, and I proceeded to just go all-in with every hand. One time I showed my opponent a weak hand that I had pushed with it was something like J7 or something. He had raised pre-flop and I came over the top of him...he had A2. The very next hand he did the same thing raising pre-flop and I came over the top again, but this time I had AK...he called very quickly w/ AQ and he got no help on the flop. I wasn't thinking that showing my bluff would end up working out on the very next hand, but i'll take it!
Tonight my Mom, Dad, and Sister are all coming over for a pre-Xmas dinner. I need to clean up a bit since Mo is out getting some last minute shopping done with her brother. This year has gone so fast!!
Friday, December 16, 2005
Triple Draw $1/2
I lose $ everytime I play this level! I win when I play $2/4 and .50/1, but this level is killing me. Honestly, last night, the guy sitting to my right got lucky and hit perfect cards on me beating me for $50. It was scary...he was up $100 from the time I sat down to the time I left, which was about 45mins.
So last night I lost $90 on UB. I played TD 1/2 for a while, lost the $50 and then played two $20 SnG's and in both I made SILLY plays. Once, w/ KK where I was slowplaying in a sb vs bb situation where I just let the guy make his set on the turn...he then trapped the trapper. The other time I can't exactly remember the hand, but I believe I had no business making the play sitting in third place w/ four left and making a play at the chip leader...NO BUSINESS!!
Like I said in my previous post, I am going to really try to play some smaller tourneys and try out this "Kill Phil" strategy. It is really cool, and at the very least I want to incorporate it into my own style of play. I don't really believe that anyone should necessarily copy a specific strategy.
In my next update I want to seriously examine my goals and more specifically why I am playing online poker in the first place!
So last night I lost $90 on UB. I played TD 1/2 for a while, lost the $50 and then played two $20 SnG's and in both I made SILLY plays. Once, w/ KK where I was slowplaying in a sb vs bb situation where I just let the guy make his set on the turn...he then trapped the trapper. The other time I can't exactly remember the hand, but I believe I had no business making the play sitting in third place w/ four left and making a play at the chip leader...NO BUSINESS!!
Like I said in my previous post, I am going to really try to play some smaller tourneys and try out this "Kill Phil" strategy. It is really cool, and at the very least I want to incorporate it into my own style of play. I don't really believe that anyone should necessarily copy a specific strategy.
In my next update I want to seriously examine my goals and more specifically why I am playing online poker in the first place!
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Compulsive, Degenerate?
Why didn't I do what I said I was going to do!??!! I said I was NOT going to play blackjack anymore, and they sucked me back in...good thing I withdrew most of my $$! Anyway, after losing a couple hundo, I took what was left out and have deleted Party Poker for now. I have a couple reasons for this, and they don't all have to do with their blackjack button... 1. I just do not like their interface. After playing on Ultimate Bet since 2003-2004 (I started w/ play money of course :) ), and then switching to the PP tables, it really is a step down. I know, I know, but all the little fishies you say...EFF it...I must be one of them. I have to admit I have seen some pretty BUNK plays on there, but it's been about 2 months and I can't figure it out. 2. There Sit-N-Go structure is absolutely HORRIBLE. I just don't understand why they can't use a structure like UB's or 'Stars? Actually, I know, they don't want games to go longer than 45-60 mins, because they are only getting their one time rake for these tourneys. Because I absolutely LOVE SnG's and I feel I am a better than average SnG player (at least w/ good structures), why should I play on the site? 3. No Triple Draw games. I know that is really asking alot, but I am a better than average player in that game and I want to have my $$ somewhere where I can play it.
But, god bless PP and the business they are getting...40-60K players at anytime during the day?? That's absolutely SICK! So, maybe one day in the future I will put some more $$ on PP and try it again, hell, I'm sure they will be offering me something in the future...they'll probably just put $30 in my account. Right now, I'm sticking with Ultimate Bet...and here's why...Multi-table Tourney's have an excellent structure, Sit N Go's also have a great structure, Triple Draw is offered (although hardly ever any 2/4 games anymore :( ), and all of my friends play on their as well as the P1MP's.
I am going to be focusing on tournaments for a while now. I will still play Triple Draw as much as possible because I am so intrigued by this game. But I really want to build up the 'roll even more and go for some WSOP satelites. I think it is just stupid of me to use any of my online bankroll to buy-in to any of these events, not even the $1500 event. I will probably try out Pokerstars or another site at some point in the future, but that is going to go back on the long-term goals for now. It's just not that big of a deal to me. But Pokerstars is probably going to be the one I go to next.
I have been browsing through the new book by Blair Rodman and Lee Nelson called "Kill Phil". This is the newest book on Tournaments, and I REALLY like it alot! I want to put their strategies into use right now! So my plan is to play $5 and $10 MTT's and really go for the Kill Phil approach. Once I actually get the book and read it a couple times I will see if it is a strategy that is right for me. I really don't believe that any one strategy is correct, but having a couple different ideas in your mind certainly will help. We'll see what happens!
But, god bless PP and the business they are getting...40-60K players at anytime during the day?? That's absolutely SICK! So, maybe one day in the future I will put some more $$ on PP and try it again, hell, I'm sure they will be offering me something in the future...they'll probably just put $30 in my account. Right now, I'm sticking with Ultimate Bet...and here's why...Multi-table Tourney's have an excellent structure, Sit N Go's also have a great structure, Triple Draw is offered (although hardly ever any 2/4 games anymore :( ), and all of my friends play on their as well as the P1MP's.
I am going to be focusing on tournaments for a while now. I will still play Triple Draw as much as possible because I am so intrigued by this game. But I really want to build up the 'roll even more and go for some WSOP satelites. I think it is just stupid of me to use any of my online bankroll to buy-in to any of these events, not even the $1500 event. I will probably try out Pokerstars or another site at some point in the future, but that is going to go back on the long-term goals for now. It's just not that big of a deal to me. But Pokerstars is probably going to be the one I go to next.
I have been browsing through the new book by Blair Rodman and Lee Nelson called "Kill Phil". This is the newest book on Tournaments, and I REALLY like it alot! I want to put their strategies into use right now! So my plan is to play $5 and $10 MTT's and really go for the Kill Phil approach. Once I actually get the book and read it a couple times I will see if it is a strategy that is right for me. I really don't believe that any one strategy is correct, but having a couple different ideas in your mind certainly will help. We'll see what happens!
Friday, December 09, 2005
The Goose is Getting PHAT!
And so is the bankroll!! Thank god for Necco telling me to play the $2/$4 Triple Draw on Ultimate Bet!! Until last night I had not had a losing session in about two weeks. Of course, the gambler in me had to try out the $3/$6 game for the second night in a row and lost $150, although I won about $50 the night before. But I really played pretty bad, and those guys were a little better than I expected. I think I could definitely play that high, it's just my 'roll on UB just doesn't support it. I would think to play perfect (ie not scared to lose the cash) I would need about 2-3K. I don't like buying into the 3/6 game with anything under $300, but I could buy-in for 1/2. My buy-in might seem kind of pointless, but because the game is played 6-seated (and it is not always full on UB), the blinds go by much faster and I think you get tied to hands a lot. The swings can be pretty enormous in this game and the suckouts can be horrendous...but I love it!!
I did something the other day that I should never have done, and I feel sick about it to this day! Party Poker has BLACKJACK on their site now. They actually have had it on there for a couple months, and it was too enticing to have it on there so I figured out how to delete the files. I went for a couple months, and then I had to re-install Party Poker because I was having some trouble with my laptop. Well, when I re-installed it, up pops the blackjack files. It's funny, because whenever I go to a Brick & Mortar Casino, I cringe at the thought of playing blackjack. But, I have it on Party and I HAVE TO PLAY. So Tuesday night, I fall asleep on the couch after work. I wake up after my 1 1/2 hour cat-nap and log on to PP. Mo isn't going to be home until 9pm so I'm thinking i'll play some .50/1 shorthanded or maybe the $25NL. But as soon as I see that "BLACKJACK" on the left hand corner of the screen I click on it...deposit $10...and go to work. Needless to say about 3 1/2 hours later I'm up 2K!!! I logged off and just felt entirely sick and embarrased. I've never won that much money ever, and I don't want to tell anybody, and I feel almost BAD about it...LOL!! So now the bankroll is pretty hefty...the funniest thing about the whole situation was that as soon as I logged off I had two immediate thoughts; 1. SWEET, Now I can buy-in to the $1500 NL WSOP event. 2. SWEET, Now I can afford more WSOP Satelites!! What a degenerate! I actually came to my senses...I could really use the money for things other than my online bankroll, so I withdrew a good portion of it.
We got or new computer last night! My in-laws got it for us as an early Xmas gift, and it really is nice. Not top of the line, but perfect for what we use our home computer for. I really want to fix up our office a little better, and I am considering getting a new desk. The one we have is "OK", but I think we need to get a little more organized. Maybe my parents will hook us up. I know Mo doesn't want to get something big because we will hopefully be moving sometime soon, but I think we need it anyway.
Tonight, I will probably play some tournaments on Ultimate Bet and some Triple Draw...(but only if I get busted out early!).
I also plan on DELETING ALL FILES THAT CONTAIN THE WORD "BLACKJACK"!!
I did something the other day that I should never have done, and I feel sick about it to this day! Party Poker has BLACKJACK on their site now. They actually have had it on there for a couple months, and it was too enticing to have it on there so I figured out how to delete the files. I went for a couple months, and then I had to re-install Party Poker because I was having some trouble with my laptop. Well, when I re-installed it, up pops the blackjack files. It's funny, because whenever I go to a Brick & Mortar Casino, I cringe at the thought of playing blackjack. But, I have it on Party and I HAVE TO PLAY. So Tuesday night, I fall asleep on the couch after work. I wake up after my 1 1/2 hour cat-nap and log on to PP. Mo isn't going to be home until 9pm so I'm thinking i'll play some .50/1 shorthanded or maybe the $25NL. But as soon as I see that "BLACKJACK" on the left hand corner of the screen I click on it...deposit $10...and go to work. Needless to say about 3 1/2 hours later I'm up 2K!!! I logged off and just felt entirely sick and embarrased. I've never won that much money ever, and I don't want to tell anybody, and I feel almost BAD about it...LOL!! So now the bankroll is pretty hefty...the funniest thing about the whole situation was that as soon as I logged off I had two immediate thoughts; 1. SWEET, Now I can buy-in to the $1500 NL WSOP event. 2. SWEET, Now I can afford more WSOP Satelites!! What a degenerate! I actually came to my senses...I could really use the money for things other than my online bankroll, so I withdrew a good portion of it.
We got or new computer last night! My in-laws got it for us as an early Xmas gift, and it really is nice. Not top of the line, but perfect for what we use our home computer for. I really want to fix up our office a little better, and I am considering getting a new desk. The one we have is "OK", but I think we need to get a little more organized. Maybe my parents will hook us up. I know Mo doesn't want to get something big because we will hopefully be moving sometime soon, but I think we need it anyway.
Tonight, I will probably play some tournaments on Ultimate Bet and some Triple Draw...(but only if I get busted out early!).
I also plan on DELETING ALL FILES THAT CONTAIN THE WORD "BLACKJACK"!!
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
ABORT, ABORT...
Seriously, I can't be this bad!! The SnG mission on Party Poker is over. I'm not going through with 50 of these things. The beats I have been taking have been brutal. I did place in the money just two days ago (3rd place grrrrr), but before that I probably averaged 4th or 5th place. The structure of these mother-effers is so messed up that it forces you to play kinda bad. But the beats....ARGGGHH! This is one of my favorites and sums up the play in these $10+1's;
Middle of 2nd level of blinds (15/30). AKo on the button (730 chips). One MP limper (about 500 chips), one player next to him raises to 100 (he has about 300 left), and I seriously knew I had the lead here. I put in a 350 raise to shut out the limper and let the raiser know i mean business. The limper goes all in, as does the raiser!! Wonderful i'm thinking...but for some odd reason I knew I was in the lead. This is what I was up against: MP limper - JTo, MP raiser - AQo...of course a Jack hit and I was down to a little over 200 in chips. The best thing is the limper says in the chat box "there's a lesson for you, sometimes Jacks are better than Aces". Thanks retard. I told him I didn't have aces and that if I did he'd have been out, but thanks for the lesson.
So, it's cash games only on Party Poker from here on out. I thought about trying out the 20's, which i've heard great things about, but I don't want to have to re-deposit after taking these kind of beats.
Thanks to NeccoWafers on plusone, I have been on a roller coaster of sorts playing $2/$4 Triple Draw. On Sunday I had my worst run and almost lost a buy-in. I think I left with about $15. I really got absolutely no cards to speak of and tried to make hands out of crap. Then last night I turned $84 in to $205 playing what I consider to be close to flawless (and a little lucky). By lucky I mean I was defending my bb (which was almost always raised) w/ 23xxx,24xxx and hitting perfect cards. I think I drew out of position three times in 2 hours. I do have to stop pushing hands like 268xx out of position. That is just awful. But at least I know it now. In the .25/.50 and .50/1 games these didn't hurt as much so I didn't realize how bad they were. But when you lose a $25 pot because of a rough draw, you start to see things a bit more clear.
Here's my favorite hand of the night, before I went on the $2/$4 run!
Hand #9779145-3394 at Saint John ($1/$2 Triple Draw 2-7)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 28/Nov/05 21:18:29
graysonf150 is at seat 0 with $100.
jamfreek is at seat 1 with $105.25.
scottpoker04 is at seat 2 with $25.50. (This guy bought in for $100 i believe)
Zebulon300 is at seat 3 with $10.50.
worldcup2010 is at seat 4 with $70.50.
GreaterThanU is at seat 5 with $18.50.
The button is at seat 3.
worldcup2010 posts the small blind of $.50.
GreaterThanU posts the big blind of $1.
jamfreek: 8h 5c 7d 3s 4s
scottpoker04: -- -- -- -- --
Zebulon300: -- -- -- -- --
worldcup2010: -- -- -- -- --
GreaterThanU: -- -- -- -- --
First Round:
jamfreek raises to $2. scottpoker04 re-raises to $3.
Zebulon300 folds. worldcup2010 re-raises to $4.
GreaterThanU calls. jamfreek calls. scottpoker04
calls.
worldcup2010 takes 2 cards. GreaterThanU takes 2
cards. jamfreek stands pat. scottpoker04 takes 4
cards.
Second Round:
jamfreek: 8h 5c 7d 3s 4s
scottpoker04: -- -- -- -- --
worldcup2010: -- -- -- -- --
GreaterThanU: -- -- -- -- --
worldcup2010 checks. GreaterThanU bets $1. jamfreek
raises to $2. scottpoker04 re-raises to $3.
worldcup2010 folds. GreaterThanU calls. jamfreek
re-raises to $4. scottpoker04 calls. GreaterThanU
calls.
GreaterThanU takes 1 card. jamfreek stands pat.
scottpoker04 takes 2 cards.
jamfreek: 8h 5c 7d 3s 4s
scottpoker04: -- -- -- -- --
GreaterThanU: -- -- -- -- --
Third Round:
GreaterThanU checks. jamfreek bets $2. scottpoker04
raises to $4. GreaterThanU calls. jamfreek
re-raises to $6. scottpoker04 re-raises to $8.
GreaterThanU calls. jamfreek calls.
GreaterThanU takes 1 card. jamfreek stands pat.
scottpoker04 takes 1 card.
jamfreek: 8h 5c 7d 3s 4s
scottpoker04: -- -- -- -- --
GreaterThanU: -- -- -- -- --
Final Round:
GreaterThanU checks. jamfreek bets $2. scottpoker04
calls. GreaterThanU folds.
Showdown:
jamfreek shows 8h 7d 5c 4s 3s.
jamfreek has 8 7 5 4 3.
scottpoker04 mucks cards.
(scottpoker04 has As 6d 4c 3c 2c.)
Do you fold a $50 pot w/ an A? Of course right. And trust me, he didn't think it was A-5....I saw this guy push hands and raise and re-raise w/ 45789! He called people down with Q high after they were pat after the second draw. He must have been on some serious TILT!
Middle of 2nd level of blinds (15/30). AKo on the button (730 chips). One MP limper (about 500 chips), one player next to him raises to 100 (he has about 300 left), and I seriously knew I had the lead here. I put in a 350 raise to shut out the limper and let the raiser know i mean business. The limper goes all in, as does the raiser!! Wonderful i'm thinking...but for some odd reason I knew I was in the lead. This is what I was up against: MP limper - JTo, MP raiser - AQo...of course a Jack hit and I was down to a little over 200 in chips. The best thing is the limper says in the chat box "there's a lesson for you, sometimes Jacks are better than Aces". Thanks retard. I told him I didn't have aces and that if I did he'd have been out, but thanks for the lesson.
So, it's cash games only on Party Poker from here on out. I thought about trying out the 20's, which i've heard great things about, but I don't want to have to re-deposit after taking these kind of beats.
Thanks to NeccoWafers on plusone, I have been on a roller coaster of sorts playing $2/$4 Triple Draw. On Sunday I had my worst run and almost lost a buy-in. I think I left with about $15. I really got absolutely no cards to speak of and tried to make hands out of crap. Then last night I turned $84 in to $205 playing what I consider to be close to flawless (and a little lucky). By lucky I mean I was defending my bb (which was almost always raised) w/ 23xxx,24xxx and hitting perfect cards. I think I drew out of position three times in 2 hours. I do have to stop pushing hands like 268xx out of position. That is just awful. But at least I know it now. In the .25/.50 and .50/1 games these didn't hurt as much so I didn't realize how bad they were. But when you lose a $25 pot because of a rough draw, you start to see things a bit more clear.
Here's my favorite hand of the night, before I went on the $2/$4 run!
Hand #9779145-3394 at Saint John ($1/$2 Triple Draw 2-7)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 28/Nov/05 21:18:29
graysonf150 is at seat 0 with $100.
jamfreek is at seat 1 with $105.25.
scottpoker04 is at seat 2 with $25.50. (This guy bought in for $100 i believe)
Zebulon300 is at seat 3 with $10.50.
worldcup2010 is at seat 4 with $70.50.
GreaterThanU is at seat 5 with $18.50.
The button is at seat 3.
worldcup2010 posts the small blind of $.50.
GreaterThanU posts the big blind of $1.
jamfreek: 8h 5c 7d 3s 4s
scottpoker04: -- -- -- -- --
Zebulon300: -- -- -- -- --
worldcup2010: -- -- -- -- --
GreaterThanU: -- -- -- -- --
First Round:
jamfreek raises to $2. scottpoker04 re-raises to $3.
Zebulon300 folds. worldcup2010 re-raises to $4.
GreaterThanU calls. jamfreek calls. scottpoker04
calls.
worldcup2010 takes 2 cards. GreaterThanU takes 2
cards. jamfreek stands pat. scottpoker04 takes 4
cards.
Second Round:
jamfreek: 8h 5c 7d 3s 4s
scottpoker04: -- -- -- -- --
worldcup2010: -- -- -- -- --
GreaterThanU: -- -- -- -- --
worldcup2010 checks. GreaterThanU bets $1. jamfreek
raises to $2. scottpoker04 re-raises to $3.
worldcup2010 folds. GreaterThanU calls. jamfreek
re-raises to $4. scottpoker04 calls. GreaterThanU
calls.
GreaterThanU takes 1 card. jamfreek stands pat.
scottpoker04 takes 2 cards.
jamfreek: 8h 5c 7d 3s 4s
scottpoker04: -- -- -- -- --
GreaterThanU: -- -- -- -- --
Third Round:
GreaterThanU checks. jamfreek bets $2. scottpoker04
raises to $4. GreaterThanU calls. jamfreek
re-raises to $6. scottpoker04 re-raises to $8.
GreaterThanU calls. jamfreek calls.
GreaterThanU takes 1 card. jamfreek stands pat.
scottpoker04 takes 1 card.
jamfreek: 8h 5c 7d 3s 4s
scottpoker04: -- -- -- -- --
GreaterThanU: -- -- -- -- --
Final Round:
GreaterThanU checks. jamfreek bets $2. scottpoker04
calls. GreaterThanU folds.
Showdown:
jamfreek shows 8h 7d 5c 4s 3s.
jamfreek has 8 7 5 4 3.
scottpoker04 mucks cards.
(scottpoker04 has As 6d 4c 3c 2c.)
Do you fold a $50 pot w/ an A? Of course right. And trust me, he didn't think it was A-5....I saw this guy push hands and raise and re-raise w/ 45789! He called people down with Q high after they were pat after the second draw. He must have been on some serious TILT!
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Triple Draw...Playing Over My Bankroll...
So Necco, on PlusOne, gave me this crazy idea that I could play 2-7 at the 2/4 limit. I really think I am a good enough player for this limit, but boy is it frustrating. I really shouldn't play that high, mostly because I might play a little scared, since $30 pots come and go. And, with a game like TD, suckouts happen so much. Regardless, I played 2/4 Sunday night for the first time and lost like $50. I was just completely card dead for almost all of the 2 hours that I played. But, as Necco said, the play wasn't that great. For the most part, it was pretty straightforward. So I decided to play again last night. I again saw the same straightforward play, people pushing their one card draws and decent two card draws. One thing that is different, is that you don't see a pot that hasn't been raised before the first draw. Occasionally there will be a limper, but 95% of the time the button is raising or the CO. I also see a lot more rougher hands winning. I've never seen so many rough 9's. But these guys pay attention. I am the king of the value bet and aggression after the last draw. I almost NEVER check OOP after the last round. If I am pat I want them to be confused and scared to call with there 8. So I got called down one time value betting a pat 9 and lost a decent pot to an 8. But now I know that he knows that I might do this and I can exploit it. I don't think it's all that bad to be aggressive like that. It mixes up your game so that they will call you down. I just have to control it a bit more. Necco is the king of this (not the control part but the aggression). I was watching him play last night (10/20), and he would either have the nuts or a completely ridiculous hand. Now he was playing 3 handed which will open up your starting hand requirements, and he too was playing over his 'roll, but I saw so many times he would get called down and win his biggest pots with his good hands. He was about break even though, and a little tilted. I'm going to keep playing it though, although I may step down a level. I just can't stand the .25/.50 table. I've had great sessions there, but winning 30 bb's in 1 hour (which is a great winrate) is only like $15, while last night I won about $80 in 2 hours. If I am averaging 10 bb's an hour at the .25/.50 level, I think I can make a jump.
I also played in two tournaments last night. One WSOP super satelite (my first), and the $5 7pm that I took down a couple months ago. The super was really a spur of the moment thing. It was a turbo tourney, and I seriously hate those things. I played pretty bad though, only lasting about 30 mins. The 7pm was great until I busted! I had an above average stack the whole tournament until the ante's kicked in. There were about 600 that played, and I think I went out around 130 or so. I had JJ UTG, and raised to 1500 (my stack was about 10k blinds were 200/400 w/ 50 ante). UTG +2 re-raised to about 4-5k. The button called. I pushed. I really should've layed it down looking back, but I just can't do that with that much in the pot. I figured the re-raiser for AK, but the button smooth calling was sooooo weird. So the re-raiser goes all-in and I know I'm toast now, as he had to have an overpair to JJ, and surprisingly the button calls. I think this was about a 30k pot. It turns out I was up against QQ and ATs<--WTF. I guess he was priced in, but seriousy the smooth call!!
Anyway, i'm glad I had a decent night playing Triple Draw to make up for the tourneys and the $50 from the other night. The Turkey Tourney is one day away, and I can't wait to play live. If only I could get my friends to play some other games besides hold'em!!
I also played in two tournaments last night. One WSOP super satelite (my first), and the $5 7pm that I took down a couple months ago. The super was really a spur of the moment thing. It was a turbo tourney, and I seriously hate those things. I played pretty bad though, only lasting about 30 mins. The 7pm was great until I busted! I had an above average stack the whole tournament until the ante's kicked in. There were about 600 that played, and I think I went out around 130 or so. I had JJ UTG, and raised to 1500 (my stack was about 10k blinds were 200/400 w/ 50 ante). UTG +2 re-raised to about 4-5k. The button called. I pushed. I really should've layed it down looking back, but I just can't do that with that much in the pot. I figured the re-raiser for AK, but the button smooth calling was sooooo weird. So the re-raiser goes all-in and I know I'm toast now, as he had to have an overpair to JJ, and surprisingly the button calls. I think this was about a 30k pot. It turns out I was up against QQ and ATs<--WTF. I guess he was priced in, but seriousy the smooth call!!
Anyway, i'm glad I had a decent night playing Triple Draw to make up for the tourneys and the $50 from the other night. The Turkey Tourney is one day away, and I can't wait to play live. If only I could get my friends to play some other games besides hold'em!!
Friday, November 18, 2005
Need an update
Man, it's been a while since I posted anything on this blog, so I figured I'd see what comes out. The last thing on here was our 1 year anniversary picture, which was a great night. We had a lot of fun and ate a ton of excellent food. Eating is like our hobby. My gut proves it! I finally got a bunch of new music though and actually went to a show last night at the 9:30 club in DC. Mo got me a $100 gift card from Tower Records (one of my favorite all time stores of course!), and I have about $20 left on it. I bought the newest Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon CD, The Bad Plus' newest release, Trey Anastasio's great new album called "Shine", Drew Emmitt, and Robert Walter. Chris and I went to see Umphreys McGee last night, as I said, and it was rockin' as usual. I have been listening to the show all day today since I bought it right after the show. These guys are seriously on fire! They just don't produce a dud of a show ever! It was Chris' second UM show and I think he had a good time...i don't know, didjya Chree? We spent a lot of the preshow chatting and drinking beers. I love that the 9:30 has such excellent brews on tap. Of course at $6 a pop, it can get pretty expensive.
I have realized something this month and October in that I really haven't played much poker, or should I say as much poker as usual. I have actually been doing a little experiment on Party Poker, and I have played nothing but $10 SnG's. I haven't had a very good run after about 15-20, but I think I am in a little bit of a funk. I believe I know the best course of action in these things, it's just my hands aren't paying off as much as they should be or I am getting a little unlucky. It's weird, but I don't think i'm paying enough attention as I should either. I will look at my results after about 50 and see what comes up. I really want to get 100 under my belt to really look at my PokerTracker statistics, which should be interesting. I did get to play two live home tourneys though, one of which I placed second. It was a really good mix of players about 20 or so, and three of them I had played with before. This was a $100 buy-in tournament that was possibly going to have a couple of "The Junkies" of WJFK playing in. Somehow they were all friends with these guys so I was looking forward to playing with them, cause they are funny as hell! Alas, they didn't show, but I took down 2nd place in the first tournament for a payday of $300. I was pretty pissed at myself when it got down to heads up. I feel like i've played so many SnG's and HU SnG's that I am comfortable with the cards and how to play in that situation. The problem was that I can't remember a time when i've played heads up live. I felt that my opponent had an excellent "read" on me and could tell when I was weak or when I was strong. At least I read the last hand correctly and got all of my money in with the best hand. It went down like this. I was sitting with a little less than my opponents stack, he had me covered but only by about 300-600 chips. The blinds were 500/1000 and I was in the sb/button with J5s. I doubled the bb and my opponent re-raised me to 4x the bb. Here I sensed that he sensed that I was weak, which I was...LOL. I thought it out and decided I'd call and see a flop, leaving me with about 1/2 my stack. The flop was an insignificant rainbow except for a 5 that gave me middle pair. My opponent immediately went all in and I beat him to the pot and called. He turned over KTo and I was ahead at the moment, but he had 6 outs to beat me. He turned a K and I got no help on the river and it was over. Not a bad beat really, but unlucky nonetheless. I went on to play the second tournament, but went out after something like 10-12 hands. My JJ ran into AK after an A Q x flop that I had to muck (he later told me he did indeed have AK). And then I was left with a short stack that I donked off when I had top pair to a made straight. I was just happy to play some live poker and actually make a profit. I can't wait for another chance to play with those guys though, they were a good group of players and nice and friendly to boot.
So I look forward to playing some more online soon, as well as the much anticipated poker night with our good buddy Aman. He is in town with his wife for Thanksgiving and we a tournament scheduled the day before. I really don't care how well I do, I will take it seriously, but I am just looking forward to watching "Shmee" in action!
I have realized something this month and October in that I really haven't played much poker, or should I say as much poker as usual. I have actually been doing a little experiment on Party Poker, and I have played nothing but $10 SnG's. I haven't had a very good run after about 15-20, but I think I am in a little bit of a funk. I believe I know the best course of action in these things, it's just my hands aren't paying off as much as they should be or I am getting a little unlucky. It's weird, but I don't think i'm paying enough attention as I should either. I will look at my results after about 50 and see what comes up. I really want to get 100 under my belt to really look at my PokerTracker statistics, which should be interesting. I did get to play two live home tourneys though, one of which I placed second. It was a really good mix of players about 20 or so, and three of them I had played with before. This was a $100 buy-in tournament that was possibly going to have a couple of "The Junkies" of WJFK playing in. Somehow they were all friends with these guys so I was looking forward to playing with them, cause they are funny as hell! Alas, they didn't show, but I took down 2nd place in the first tournament for a payday of $300. I was pretty pissed at myself when it got down to heads up. I feel like i've played so many SnG's and HU SnG's that I am comfortable with the cards and how to play in that situation. The problem was that I can't remember a time when i've played heads up live. I felt that my opponent had an excellent "read" on me and could tell when I was weak or when I was strong. At least I read the last hand correctly and got all of my money in with the best hand. It went down like this. I was sitting with a little less than my opponents stack, he had me covered but only by about 300-600 chips. The blinds were 500/1000 and I was in the sb/button with J5s. I doubled the bb and my opponent re-raised me to 4x the bb. Here I sensed that he sensed that I was weak, which I was...LOL. I thought it out and decided I'd call and see a flop, leaving me with about 1/2 my stack. The flop was an insignificant rainbow except for a 5 that gave me middle pair. My opponent immediately went all in and I beat him to the pot and called. He turned over KTo and I was ahead at the moment, but he had 6 outs to beat me. He turned a K and I got no help on the river and it was over. Not a bad beat really, but unlucky nonetheless. I went on to play the second tournament, but went out after something like 10-12 hands. My JJ ran into AK after an A Q x flop that I had to muck (he later told me he did indeed have AK). And then I was left with a short stack that I donked off when I had top pair to a made straight. I was just happy to play some live poker and actually make a profit. I can't wait for another chance to play with those guys though, they were a good group of players and nice and friendly to boot.
So I look forward to playing some more online soon, as well as the much anticipated poker night with our good buddy Aman. He is in town with his wife for Thanksgiving and we a tournament scheduled the day before. I really don't care how well I do, I will take it seriously, but I am just looking forward to watching "Shmee" in action!
Monday, October 24, 2005
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Now What?
Since my big win this week, I have been struggling to figure out what to do with my new and improved bankroll. But, by doing this I achieved a few of my goals. So after doing some research I decided to deposit on Party Poker, basically after hearing everyones comments. I played my first few hands on the "beginner" tables and these things are seriously a joke, as I have already won $30 in less than 1 hour playing .50/1.00 limit. I guess I get to play these very fishy tables for the first 45 days of play on PP. Another one of my goals was to buy Pokertracker, basically because of the high praise it gets on just about every poker forum on the net. Since I was making a first time deposit on Party, I signed up for the bonus through pokersourceonline.com and once I play 250 raked hands I will get PT for free. What a deal! It looks like I have 60 days to complete it. This looks like such a fantastic site and they have great products to choose from like chips, tables, cards, etc. Maybe if I want to open up another account I will sign up for another one of their bonuses. The great thing is that you not only get their bonus for the cool products, but you also get the bonus for that specific card room. Pretty Sweet!
I bought some new KEM cards with some of my winnings and I really like them. We played with them last night and I think everyone was happy with them. The cards were a little on the expensive side, and if I wasn't so impulsive, I could've bought them for much cheaper online. They take some getting used to because they are so slippery, but they will last forever. Speaking of last night we had a nice 7-8 person game over at Chris and Tiffany's house and it was a lot of fun and I won a little. I was down a little when Tiffany called my all-in bet where she held top two pair and I had top pair with a flush draw. She made a GREAT call and I although I was dissapointed to lose my first buy-in, I was happy with the way she played the hand. Chris couldn't believe how well she played it! I also had a huge hand at the end of the night against my buddy David where I had AA. If I remember correctly I was in the cut-off David was on the button and Chris was to my right. Chris put in a standard 3 1/2xbb raise and I re-raised the size of the pot. David called, which worried me a little, and Chris folded. The flop was Jxx with two spades. I made a big pot size bet and David just smooth called. This worried me even more since I felt like he would make this play with everything from a set to two pair to possibly a flush draw. The turn was another spade and I was sure that I had the A of spades. I didn't have that much $$ left compared to the pot but he had me covered so I went all-in, he did not call quickly so I felt like I had the best hand. He reluctantly called w/ KJo (though he did have the K of spades) and he got no help on the river. All-in all it was a fun night out with the boys (and girl). I really wish we could play more, but everyone is so busy with kids and work that it's really hard to make it happen. I guess we play about once a month so that gives everyone their poker fix.
I missed the Cardplayer freeroll which I am pretty dissapointed about. I actually was supposed to miss it since we were going to go to the Maryland Million (Horse Races), but that was cancelled due to the constant downpour we have had since yesterday. I remembered that I had not unregistered for the freeroll, but I came to find out that you actually have to register for it before you can unregister..LOL, what a bummer. I hope there is one more cause I would really like to play in their "tournament of champions" and I need a big payday to get close to that.
Well as far as my goals are concerned, my short term goals have almost been met. I opened an account in the pond known as Party Poker. And, I should have Pokertracker by the end of the month. I have only played one $20 SnG, and although I won it, I want to continue to play the $10's and occasionally play the $20's. I really didn't see much of a difference, and since I have enough $$ right now, I want to play it pretty conservative with my tournament buy-ins. I will eventually play those $20's exclusively. If I can consistently beat those I will be a happy man. The real problem is keeping track of my progress. I need to figure out how to keep track of my SnG's. Since I won a large MTT, that satisfied that goal, but its not like I will not be playing anymore of those.
I will think about some new goals this weekend.
UB Stats:
9/27/05 - 10/8/05
Starting Balance: $408
Cash Games: +$23
Tournaments: +$681
Cash Out: $400
Ending Balance: $712
Party Stats:
10/7/05 - 10/8/05
Starting Balance: $250
Cash Games: +30
Ending Balance: $280
I bought some new KEM cards with some of my winnings and I really like them. We played with them last night and I think everyone was happy with them. The cards were a little on the expensive side, and if I wasn't so impulsive, I could've bought them for much cheaper online. They take some getting used to because they are so slippery, but they will last forever. Speaking of last night we had a nice 7-8 person game over at Chris and Tiffany's house and it was a lot of fun and I won a little. I was down a little when Tiffany called my all-in bet where she held top two pair and I had top pair with a flush draw. She made a GREAT call and I although I was dissapointed to lose my first buy-in, I was happy with the way she played the hand. Chris couldn't believe how well she played it! I also had a huge hand at the end of the night against my buddy David where I had AA. If I remember correctly I was in the cut-off David was on the button and Chris was to my right. Chris put in a standard 3 1/2xbb raise and I re-raised the size of the pot. David called, which worried me a little, and Chris folded. The flop was Jxx with two spades. I made a big pot size bet and David just smooth called. This worried me even more since I felt like he would make this play with everything from a set to two pair to possibly a flush draw. The turn was another spade and I was sure that I had the A of spades. I didn't have that much $$ left compared to the pot but he had me covered so I went all-in, he did not call quickly so I felt like I had the best hand. He reluctantly called w/ KJo (though he did have the K of spades) and he got no help on the river. All-in all it was a fun night out with the boys (and girl). I really wish we could play more, but everyone is so busy with kids and work that it's really hard to make it happen. I guess we play about once a month so that gives everyone their poker fix.
I missed the Cardplayer freeroll which I am pretty dissapointed about. I actually was supposed to miss it since we were going to go to the Maryland Million (Horse Races), but that was cancelled due to the constant downpour we have had since yesterday. I remembered that I had not unregistered for the freeroll, but I came to find out that you actually have to register for it before you can unregister..LOL, what a bummer. I hope there is one more cause I would really like to play in their "tournament of champions" and I need a big payday to get close to that.
Well as far as my goals are concerned, my short term goals have almost been met. I opened an account in the pond known as Party Poker. And, I should have Pokertracker by the end of the month. I have only played one $20 SnG, and although I won it, I want to continue to play the $10's and occasionally play the $20's. I really didn't see much of a difference, and since I have enough $$ right now, I want to play it pretty conservative with my tournament buy-ins. I will eventually play those $20's exclusively. If I can consistently beat those I will be a happy man. The real problem is keeping track of my progress. I need to figure out how to keep track of my SnG's. Since I won a large MTT, that satisfied that goal, but its not like I will not be playing anymore of those.
I will think about some new goals this weekend.
UB Stats:
9/27/05 - 10/8/05
Starting Balance: $408
Cash Games: +$23
Tournaments: +$681
Cash Out: $400
Ending Balance: $712
Party Stats:
10/7/05 - 10/8/05
Starting Balance: $250
Cash Games: +30
Ending Balance: $280
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
I WON, I WON, I WON!!!
Well the bankroll is juicy now, and I achieved one of my goals. To win a large online Multi Table Tournament. It was Mondays 7pm $5 + .50 $2500 guaranteed on Ultimate Bet. I beat out 560 people for a nice return on investment of $680! I really feel that this was MY tournament to win. I will post some hands and analysis for everyone's enjoyment. It gets pretty long, but this is the first big tournament that I have won so I really want to preserve this.
This was the SIXTH hand of the tournament!!
BB-10
AA in CO, min. raise from EP, I reraise to 150, SB goes all-in for 1415, i call and pull a wheel straight to take it down.
Hand #26:
BB-20
AA in 2nd pos., min. raise from UTG, I re-raise to 200, UTG calls, Flop is 938 rainbow, UTG bets min., I raise to 300 and he folds.
An interesting one: Hand #44
BB-40
Ac 4s in CO, 3 limps in front, I call and SB calls and BB checks. Flop is A42 all hearts. Checks around to me, I bet 240 and get 1 caller. Turn is a black 3, checked to me again and I bet 225 and get called. River is a black T and it's checked to me and I check to. I take it down with A's and 4's to his (obvious) flush draw (he had had the Qh).
Hand #50:
BB-40
QQ UTG, I raise to 150, one caller and it folds around to the chip leader at the table who goes all-in, I think and say my usual "woah" out loud, and fold.(GOOD FOLD??)
Three hands later I pick em' up again!! At this point I'm thinking there's no way they will hold up a third time!!
Hand#53:
AA in the CO, folds around to table chip leader who limps as does one player to the right of me. I go all-in and say "hey it's all the rage", since for the last three hands there was someone going all in. I felt it also looked like I may be on a bit of tilt, since I got raised all of my chips with the QQ hand. I really didn't care much if everyone folded, as I said earlier, I seriously didn't think they could hold up AGAIN...LOL. Well, I did get what I wanted with one caller who showed JTo?!!?? He picked up a straight draw on the flop, a flush draw on the turn, but blanked out on the river and I was now in REAL good shape!
I am pretty proud of this hand...
Hand #72
BB-100
9sTs in SB. I call a small raise from MP along with the BB. Flop comes 7 8 J w/ two diamonds. I bet the pot, worried about the flush draw, BB folds and MP just calls. Turn is a 2 of diamonds. I bet 500 and get another call. River is an offsuit A and I bet 500 again, he raises me to 1K and I call, praying that he didn't have the flush. He ended up with a set of 7's on the flop. I'm actually surprised this guy didn't go broke on this hand on the flop, LOL, that's probably what I would've done.
Hand #75:
BB-100
KK in the CO, min raise from EP, I re-raise to 1200, min raiser goes all-in for 1350 and I call, he has JJ, K on the flop and I win!
Hand #90:
BB-150
77 in EP, I limp with one other in front of me and someone in LP goes all in, it's only 335 so I have to call, he's got AK, K on the flop, A on the river and I lose...
Here's another hand I'm pretty proud of:
Hand #101
BB-200
3s4s in BB, short stack who only has 145 left calls so he is all-in, SB completes and I check, flop is 3 A T with two spades, SB bets 200 and I call. Turn is a offsuit 9, SB again bets 200 and I call. Now at any point does this guy put more pressure on me, I have to fold, but just betting the minimum into a dry side pot just doesn't seem right. River is an off suit 4. SB checks and I bet 1345 and he calls and shows down A2, my two pair wins the side pot, the short stack had A9.
After the following hand I knew something was up with this tournament!
Hand #110
BB-200
I post the BB and am dealt 93o. 4 limpers and I check, flop is 9 3 3. I check it down to the river after an A falls and bet 1/2 the pot, the button calls showing A7o.
How about AA a fourth time!!
Hand#135
BB-300 Ante-25
AA in 3rd pos. I raise to 1600, short stack goes all in for 220, and I get one other caller. Flop is A J Q rainbow, I bet 4120, I have the other caller covered, he calls for 1600, he shows QQ and I take both pots down with my set over his set...a 8300 chip pot.
Then I get moved to a tough table which included the chip leader who was really on a tear.
BB-300 ante-25
Dealt 99 in the BB, folds around to a late position player on a short stack who goes all in for 3135. I thought and thought, and really felt like this player was ready to make a move regardless of his cards, I put him on AT initially, but said aloud AK? I felt like I had to call. He turns over TT and I get no help on the flop.
So now I’m still sitting in about 25th place. I was waiting and waiting to steal blinds with some decent hands, but everytime I got one it was raised in front of me and I couldn’t call or re-raise. I finally picked up the blinds and antes with 55 in MP. We hit the break and I look to see that things are ok, but not great. I am third in chips at my table, but still at the end of the pack. After the break I decided I now had to make a move and go for the win. I wanted to get aggressive and really put pressure on the guys at my table, but all I could seem to do was stay at or around the chip average of 18000. The cards really started to get cold for me, but I wasn’t standing for going out in 20th place! Card’s?? Who needs cards??
Then this hand:
BB-400 ante-50
AQ in BB. Folds around to SB who limps, I raise to 2400 basically hoping he folds and I can move on, but totally not expecting a re-raise all-in for 6435, which is what he does!! So now I feel I have him and if not I probably have overs. I call and he shows A2o. I take that pot down and get my stack to over 25000. Now I feel good!
The bubble came and went and we were all in the money. Things got real tricky as the blinds rose and my cards were cold. Everytime I tried to steal I met resistance so I really had to sit back and wait. At one point I was WELL below the average stack, but not desperate yet. I then tried to steal with QTo and was re-raise so I had to give it up. But, this fold was tough as the guy who raised me was doing it almost everytime I raised, like he had some read on me. Well, I almost went all-in, but decided not to be a donkey and go out with QT. So I waited. I was now at a little over 10000 in chips and pretty desperate. Thankfully, I picked up QQ the very next hand.
BB-1200 ante-125
QQ UTG, I raise all-in to 10770. I get called by a TT and I get my set on the flop and don’t get sucked out on. I am now sitting pretty with 24300 chips.
A couple hands go by and I pick up AQo and re-raise the second place chip leader all-in (about half of his chips) and he folds. At one point I got to as high as 35000 in chips, and then picked a bad spot to steal and lost about 8000 in chips, putting me back down to the bottom of the pack at 14000. Well that didn’t last long as I pick up the bullets for the FIFTH TIME!!!
Hand #271
BB-2000 ante-200
AA in 3rd position. Min raise from UTG who I have covered, I go all-in for 14165 and he calls showing AJo, I take it down AGAIN!!!
So I get back up to over 35000 and can breath a little easier. We get down to 18 left and I am comfortably in the middle of the pack. I end up stealing a bunch, mostly with Ax (A-6,7,8, etc). And then pick up AA for the SIXTH TIME!!! This time I get no callers preflop so I am stuck with the blinds and antes…phew, no worries, I have 57000 in chips. Then I go on a string of blind steals one after the other, but everytime I had decent hands (AK twice). Basically everyone was playing tight as hell trying to get to the final table at this point we started playing hand for hand. I built my stack up to about 75000 once we got down to the final 15 or so. We reach the final table and I can’t believe how well I’ve played and how lucky I had been to get such great cards and for them to hold up. I got to the final table in 5th position and just adjusted to the full table. I stole a bunch of blinds and got my stack up to over 80000 when this HUGE HAND CAME UP!!
Pocket Aces – SEVENTH TIME!!
BB-6000 ante-600
MP1 goes all in for 52440, MP2 goes all in for 42720…I call hit a set on the flop and fill up on the turn and I go from fifth to second in a matter of seconds.
I end up taking the lead with about 7 left but I go up and down for a while. Then this interesting hand comes up.
BB-6000 ante-600
QJo in SB. Button raises and I call as does the BB. A big pot develops and we see a flop of 7 2 Q rainbow. I bet a little more than half the pot 25000 and am raised by the BB who goes all-in for 84K. I think for a bit and decide to call after he says “222 good?” He shows Q9 (the hellory), and he gets no help and I win another huge pot and take a huge chip lead. We then get to six and I stick with my chip lead after people actually letting me see cheap flops and hitting them with top pair, or just enough of a hit to take down the small pots. At this point the pots really were not “small”, but were substantial enough. Another interesting hand came up that I was quite surprised to see, and glad I did not take part in. Three people got all in after some preflop raises with a flop of 874 with two diamonds. The hands were KJ of diamonds, QQ, and JJ. Of course the diamond got there on the river and Mr. I’ll put my whole tournament on the line with the second nut flush draw wins almost 500K and takes out one player and cripples the other (who ended up w/ a straight). So now I’m sitting in second place with a huge lead to 3rd and 4th. 1st place has me covered but only by about 100K. We lose our short stack two hands later and the 3rd place player goes out the very next hand…and I’m sitting there almost in disbelief that I made it this far!
I tell my opponent “gg” and we proceed to go to war. He has me covered by about 2-1, so I don’t feel too worried. First hand headsup I unfortunately get a walk over w/ AKo. Second hand I get J8o and raise preflop, he re-raises and I call, he bets the size of the pot and I fold, he opts to show AKo…LOL! Third hand is another walk over where I hold 92. I can’t understand how you cannot play position playing headsup. It’s really the only thing you have going for you as I believe the cards really don’t matter. Fourth hand I get J8o again and call from the button, we see a meaningless flop, he checks, I bet, he folds. Again I get a walkover on the fifth hand. Sixth hand I get 77 and bet the size of the pot, he folds. I’m thinking this guy must be a real weak headsup player, because here I am with the shortstack bullying the big stack. The seventh hand I picked up Q2o and folded to a raise from him. The eighth hand is where this match gets interesting. I pick up J8o AGAIN! I limp, he raises, and I call his raise. Flop is J93 w/ two spades. He checks, I bet a little less than the size of the pot, he goes for the checkraise, raising the minimum and I pump him and go all-in on him. He folds and I take about 150K of his chips. We are now almost even in chips, and I am on a tear. The ninth hand is another walkover! I can’t believe this guy didn’t like the button…LOL!! Hand #10 I limp w/ 73o he checks his option and we see a flop of 229 and he proceeds to go all-in…I of course have to fold. Hand #11 is another walkover. Hand #12 I get J4o and raise preflop, he of course folds. Hand #13 is a walkover. Hand #14 I limp w/ 93, he checks and the flop contains a 3 so I bet and he folds. Another walkover the next hand then in Hand #16 I raise w/ 52o, he calls preflop and he trys to put me allin after another meaningless flop. I fold. I start to get the feeling that he is ready for this thing to be over. Hand #17 he again trys to put me allin this time preflop, I have QT, but fold. Hand #18 I raise w/ AJo, he goes all-in and I call, but he has the same hand and we split. Hand #19 is another walkover. Then this intense hand. Hand #20, I get K4o and minimum raise to 16000. He calls and we see a flop of K 7 5 rainbow, he goes all-in. Now I have to think…was he slow playing a K with a decent kicker, did he get two pair? I go back to my read that I feel he wants to end this so I call and he shows 79o. He gets a 9 on the turn, but I get another K on the river and double up leaving him with only 140K or so. I can’t believe that the best hand held up!! What a lucky River!! Well I end up doubling him up the very next hand when he goes all-in with A8 and I call with KQ, he gets an 8 on the flop an 8 on the turn and an 8 on the river. Basically UB is telling me not to count my chickens!! I still have him outchipped 2-1 and the next hand get AKo and raise him and he folds. We go back and forth a bit for the next few hands, and it seems he has some life in him. Then the final hand, Hand #28: Th6h on the button. I raise to 25600 and he reraises to 43200. I call and the flop is a beautiful T T 2 w/ two spades. He goes all-in and I quickly call. He shows AQs and he gets no help on the turn and river, and I take it down!!
This was the SIXTH hand of the tournament!!
BB-10
AA in CO, min. raise from EP, I reraise to 150, SB goes all-in for 1415, i call and pull a wheel straight to take it down.
Hand #26:
BB-20
AA in 2nd pos., min. raise from UTG, I re-raise to 200, UTG calls, Flop is 938 rainbow, UTG bets min., I raise to 300 and he folds.
An interesting one: Hand #44
BB-40
Ac 4s in CO, 3 limps in front, I call and SB calls and BB checks. Flop is A42 all hearts. Checks around to me, I bet 240 and get 1 caller. Turn is a black 3, checked to me again and I bet 225 and get called. River is a black T and it's checked to me and I check to. I take it down with A's and 4's to his (obvious) flush draw (he had had the Qh).
Hand #50:
BB-40
QQ UTG, I raise to 150, one caller and it folds around to the chip leader at the table who goes all-in, I think and say my usual "woah" out loud, and fold.(GOOD FOLD??)
Three hands later I pick em' up again!! At this point I'm thinking there's no way they will hold up a third time!!
Hand#53:
AA in the CO, folds around to table chip leader who limps as does one player to the right of me. I go all-in and say "hey it's all the rage", since for the last three hands there was someone going all in. I felt it also looked like I may be on a bit of tilt, since I got raised all of my chips with the QQ hand. I really didn't care much if everyone folded, as I said earlier, I seriously didn't think they could hold up AGAIN...LOL. Well, I did get what I wanted with one caller who showed JTo?!!?? He picked up a straight draw on the flop, a flush draw on the turn, but blanked out on the river and I was now in REAL good shape!
I am pretty proud of this hand...
Hand #72
BB-100
9sTs in SB. I call a small raise from MP along with the BB. Flop comes 7 8 J w/ two diamonds. I bet the pot, worried about the flush draw, BB folds and MP just calls. Turn is a 2 of diamonds. I bet 500 and get another call. River is an offsuit A and I bet 500 again, he raises me to 1K and I call, praying that he didn't have the flush. He ended up with a set of 7's on the flop. I'm actually surprised this guy didn't go broke on this hand on the flop, LOL, that's probably what I would've done.
Hand #75:
BB-100
KK in the CO, min raise from EP, I re-raise to 1200, min raiser goes all-in for 1350 and I call, he has JJ, K on the flop and I win!
Hand #90:
BB-150
77 in EP, I limp with one other in front of me and someone in LP goes all in, it's only 335 so I have to call, he's got AK, K on the flop, A on the river and I lose...
Here's another hand I'm pretty proud of:
Hand #101
BB-200
3s4s in BB, short stack who only has 145 left calls so he is all-in, SB completes and I check, flop is 3 A T with two spades, SB bets 200 and I call. Turn is a offsuit 9, SB again bets 200 and I call. Now at any point does this guy put more pressure on me, I have to fold, but just betting the minimum into a dry side pot just doesn't seem right. River is an off suit 4. SB checks and I bet 1345 and he calls and shows down A2, my two pair wins the side pot, the short stack had A9.
After the following hand I knew something was up with this tournament!
Hand #110
BB-200
I post the BB and am dealt 93o. 4 limpers and I check, flop is 9 3 3. I check it down to the river after an A falls and bet 1/2 the pot, the button calls showing A7o.
How about AA a fourth time!!
Hand#135
BB-300 Ante-25
AA in 3rd pos. I raise to 1600, short stack goes all in for 220, and I get one other caller. Flop is A J Q rainbow, I bet 4120, I have the other caller covered, he calls for 1600, he shows QQ and I take both pots down with my set over his set...a 8300 chip pot.
Then I get moved to a tough table which included the chip leader who was really on a tear.
BB-300 ante-25
Dealt 99 in the BB, folds around to a late position player on a short stack who goes all in for 3135. I thought and thought, and really felt like this player was ready to make a move regardless of his cards, I put him on AT initially, but said aloud AK? I felt like I had to call. He turns over TT and I get no help on the flop.
So now I’m still sitting in about 25th place. I was waiting and waiting to steal blinds with some decent hands, but everytime I got one it was raised in front of me and I couldn’t call or re-raise. I finally picked up the blinds and antes with 55 in MP. We hit the break and I look to see that things are ok, but not great. I am third in chips at my table, but still at the end of the pack. After the break I decided I now had to make a move and go for the win. I wanted to get aggressive and really put pressure on the guys at my table, but all I could seem to do was stay at or around the chip average of 18000. The cards really started to get cold for me, but I wasn’t standing for going out in 20th place! Card’s?? Who needs cards??
Then this hand:
BB-400 ante-50
AQ in BB. Folds around to SB who limps, I raise to 2400 basically hoping he folds and I can move on, but totally not expecting a re-raise all-in for 6435, which is what he does!! So now I feel I have him and if not I probably have overs. I call and he shows A2o. I take that pot down and get my stack to over 25000. Now I feel good!
The bubble came and went and we were all in the money. Things got real tricky as the blinds rose and my cards were cold. Everytime I tried to steal I met resistance so I really had to sit back and wait. At one point I was WELL below the average stack, but not desperate yet. I then tried to steal with QTo and was re-raise so I had to give it up. But, this fold was tough as the guy who raised me was doing it almost everytime I raised, like he had some read on me. Well, I almost went all-in, but decided not to be a donkey and go out with QT. So I waited. I was now at a little over 10000 in chips and pretty desperate. Thankfully, I picked up QQ the very next hand.
BB-1200 ante-125
QQ UTG, I raise all-in to 10770. I get called by a TT and I get my set on the flop and don’t get sucked out on. I am now sitting pretty with 24300 chips.
A couple hands go by and I pick up AQo and re-raise the second place chip leader all-in (about half of his chips) and he folds. At one point I got to as high as 35000 in chips, and then picked a bad spot to steal and lost about 8000 in chips, putting me back down to the bottom of the pack at 14000. Well that didn’t last long as I pick up the bullets for the FIFTH TIME!!!
Hand #271
BB-2000 ante-200
AA in 3rd position. Min raise from UTG who I have covered, I go all-in for 14165 and he calls showing AJo, I take it down AGAIN!!!
So I get back up to over 35000 and can breath a little easier. We get down to 18 left and I am comfortably in the middle of the pack. I end up stealing a bunch, mostly with Ax (A-6,7,8, etc). And then pick up AA for the SIXTH TIME!!! This time I get no callers preflop so I am stuck with the blinds and antes…phew, no worries, I have 57000 in chips. Then I go on a string of blind steals one after the other, but everytime I had decent hands (AK twice). Basically everyone was playing tight as hell trying to get to the final table at this point we started playing hand for hand. I built my stack up to about 75000 once we got down to the final 15 or so. We reach the final table and I can’t believe how well I’ve played and how lucky I had been to get such great cards and for them to hold up. I got to the final table in 5th position and just adjusted to the full table. I stole a bunch of blinds and got my stack up to over 80000 when this HUGE HAND CAME UP!!
Pocket Aces – SEVENTH TIME!!
BB-6000 ante-600
MP1 goes all in for 52440, MP2 goes all in for 42720…I call hit a set on the flop and fill up on the turn and I go from fifth to second in a matter of seconds.
I end up taking the lead with about 7 left but I go up and down for a while. Then this interesting hand comes up.
BB-6000 ante-600
QJo in SB. Button raises and I call as does the BB. A big pot develops and we see a flop of 7 2 Q rainbow. I bet a little more than half the pot 25000 and am raised by the BB who goes all-in for 84K. I think for a bit and decide to call after he says “222 good?” He shows Q9 (the hellory), and he gets no help and I win another huge pot and take a huge chip lead. We then get to six and I stick with my chip lead after people actually letting me see cheap flops and hitting them with top pair, or just enough of a hit to take down the small pots. At this point the pots really were not “small”, but were substantial enough. Another interesting hand came up that I was quite surprised to see, and glad I did not take part in. Three people got all in after some preflop raises with a flop of 874 with two diamonds. The hands were KJ of diamonds, QQ, and JJ. Of course the diamond got there on the river and Mr. I’ll put my whole tournament on the line with the second nut flush draw wins almost 500K and takes out one player and cripples the other (who ended up w/ a straight). So now I’m sitting in second place with a huge lead to 3rd and 4th. 1st place has me covered but only by about 100K. We lose our short stack two hands later and the 3rd place player goes out the very next hand…and I’m sitting there almost in disbelief that I made it this far!
I tell my opponent “gg” and we proceed to go to war. He has me covered by about 2-1, so I don’t feel too worried. First hand headsup I unfortunately get a walk over w/ AKo. Second hand I get J8o and raise preflop, he re-raises and I call, he bets the size of the pot and I fold, he opts to show AKo…LOL! Third hand is another walk over where I hold 92. I can’t understand how you cannot play position playing headsup. It’s really the only thing you have going for you as I believe the cards really don’t matter. Fourth hand I get J8o again and call from the button, we see a meaningless flop, he checks, I bet, he folds. Again I get a walkover on the fifth hand. Sixth hand I get 77 and bet the size of the pot, he folds. I’m thinking this guy must be a real weak headsup player, because here I am with the shortstack bullying the big stack. The seventh hand I picked up Q2o and folded to a raise from him. The eighth hand is where this match gets interesting. I pick up J8o AGAIN! I limp, he raises, and I call his raise. Flop is J93 w/ two spades. He checks, I bet a little less than the size of the pot, he goes for the checkraise, raising the minimum and I pump him and go all-in on him. He folds and I take about 150K of his chips. We are now almost even in chips, and I am on a tear. The ninth hand is another walkover! I can’t believe this guy didn’t like the button…LOL!! Hand #10 I limp w/ 73o he checks his option and we see a flop of 229 and he proceeds to go all-in…I of course have to fold. Hand #11 is another walkover. Hand #12 I get J4o and raise preflop, he of course folds. Hand #13 is a walkover. Hand #14 I limp w/ 93, he checks and the flop contains a 3 so I bet and he folds. Another walkover the next hand then in Hand #16 I raise w/ 52o, he calls preflop and he trys to put me allin after another meaningless flop. I fold. I start to get the feeling that he is ready for this thing to be over. Hand #17 he again trys to put me allin this time preflop, I have QT, but fold. Hand #18 I raise w/ AJo, he goes all-in and I call, but he has the same hand and we split. Hand #19 is another walkover. Then this intense hand. Hand #20, I get K4o and minimum raise to 16000. He calls and we see a flop of K 7 5 rainbow, he goes all-in. Now I have to think…was he slow playing a K with a decent kicker, did he get two pair? I go back to my read that I feel he wants to end this so I call and he shows 79o. He gets a 9 on the turn, but I get another K on the river and double up leaving him with only 140K or so. I can’t believe that the best hand held up!! What a lucky River!! Well I end up doubling him up the very next hand when he goes all-in with A8 and I call with KQ, he gets an 8 on the flop an 8 on the turn and an 8 on the river. Basically UB is telling me not to count my chickens!! I still have him outchipped 2-1 and the next hand get AKo and raise him and he folds. We go back and forth a bit for the next few hands, and it seems he has some life in him. Then the final hand, Hand #28: Th6h on the button. I raise to 25600 and he reraises to 43200. I call and the flop is a beautiful T T 2 w/ two spades. He goes all-in and I quickly call. He shows AQs and he gets no help on the turn and river, and I take it down!!
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
VARIANCE!!!
Or, how to lose $130 in two weeks!
Yep, the 'roll has taken a swing downward and it looks like it might be time for a quick break! I guess these things happen, you lose a couple buy-ins at the $25 NL tables and thats where you are. The truth of the matter is that I got up so high in the last month that it was like me against the world, with me winning no matter what! It wasn't like I played hands rather bad, I just put myself into pretty bad situations.
Here's an interesting hand from this past weekend. I sat down at the regular .1/.25 table and after about 45mins I was down about $10, not too bad, but I was about ready to get up or re-buy, I decided one hand in MP would do the trick, so I waited for something decent. I got A8 of hearts in the CO and limped into a pot with about 4 other limpers. BB checked and we saw a flop of Q 4 9 w/ two hearts giving me four to the flush. Check, Check, Check, I bet about 1.50 and get one caller then one guy checkraises me the minimum. I decide to call that. Turn is a blank and it gets checked to me and I happily take the free card. River is a wonderful heart, it gets checked to me and I put out a value bet of about 1/2 the pot. The checkraiser goes all in and I take it down with the nut flush. Turns out the guy also had hearts, JT of hearts. Anyway, that gets me back up to about $26-27 and I feel great. It goes around for another round when I get in the BB with two red 4's. One guy in 2nd pos. min raises my BB after UTG limps, it folds around to me and I call as does UTG. We see a flop of J 9 4 with two spades I decide to get tricky (not a good idea here), and check raise. UTG bets the minimum, 2nd Pos. raises the size of the pot, I re-raise, UTG calls 2nd Pos, goes all-in as do I and UTG. I was figuring that both were on a straight and flush draw...turns out that I had bottom set, UTG had 34o!! and 2nd pos. had pocket 9's. The funniest part of the whole hand was that I thought i was dead after the turn because another spade fell, and to make matters worse, another fell on the river! Funny right, even funnier because no one even had one spade! Anyway, that one hurt a bit, but I have since shrugged it off. I feel pretty good about my play, but as the title states, it's just variance.
On another note, I have done pretty well in the $10+1 SnG's. I haven't played enough of them to show much of my results but lets just put my ITM at roughly 45%. Though I haven't won one in the last two weeks I have a couple seconds and thirds. So I will continue to play these as well as the $5's and the MTT $5's and 10's. Triple draw was even kicking my butt a little, but i'm not too worried about that game, I really like it and am still in the black in it.
As far as music, I still have not bought the new Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon CD and I really need to get it. The Martin Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan is on again tonight (the first half was on last night) and I thought it was fantastic. My buddy David let me borrow the "soundtrack" which I have been listening to all of the last two days. In the car right now is: Leo Kottke live album, Bob Dylan "No Direction Home", Widespread Panic, Tribe Called Quest!.
UB Stats:
9/14/05 - 9/27/05
Starting Balance: $532.50
Cash Games: -$130
Tournaments: +$6
Ending Balance: $408 MAN THIS IS DEPRESSING :)
Yep, the 'roll has taken a swing downward and it looks like it might be time for a quick break! I guess these things happen, you lose a couple buy-ins at the $25 NL tables and thats where you are. The truth of the matter is that I got up so high in the last month that it was like me against the world, with me winning no matter what! It wasn't like I played hands rather bad, I just put myself into pretty bad situations.
Here's an interesting hand from this past weekend. I sat down at the regular .1/.25 table and after about 45mins I was down about $10, not too bad, but I was about ready to get up or re-buy, I decided one hand in MP would do the trick, so I waited for something decent. I got A8 of hearts in the CO and limped into a pot with about 4 other limpers. BB checked and we saw a flop of Q 4 9 w/ two hearts giving me four to the flush. Check, Check, Check, I bet about 1.50 and get one caller then one guy checkraises me the minimum. I decide to call that. Turn is a blank and it gets checked to me and I happily take the free card. River is a wonderful heart, it gets checked to me and I put out a value bet of about 1/2 the pot. The checkraiser goes all in and I take it down with the nut flush. Turns out the guy also had hearts, JT of hearts. Anyway, that gets me back up to about $26-27 and I feel great. It goes around for another round when I get in the BB with two red 4's. One guy in 2nd pos. min raises my BB after UTG limps, it folds around to me and I call as does UTG. We see a flop of J 9 4 with two spades I decide to get tricky (not a good idea here), and check raise. UTG bets the minimum, 2nd Pos. raises the size of the pot, I re-raise, UTG calls 2nd Pos, goes all-in as do I and UTG. I was figuring that both were on a straight and flush draw...turns out that I had bottom set, UTG had 34o!! and 2nd pos. had pocket 9's. The funniest part of the whole hand was that I thought i was dead after the turn because another spade fell, and to make matters worse, another fell on the river! Funny right, even funnier because no one even had one spade! Anyway, that one hurt a bit, but I have since shrugged it off. I feel pretty good about my play, but as the title states, it's just variance.
On another note, I have done pretty well in the $10+1 SnG's. I haven't played enough of them to show much of my results but lets just put my ITM at roughly 45%. Though I haven't won one in the last two weeks I have a couple seconds and thirds. So I will continue to play these as well as the $5's and the MTT $5's and 10's. Triple draw was even kicking my butt a little, but i'm not too worried about that game, I really like it and am still in the black in it.
As far as music, I still have not bought the new Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon CD and I really need to get it. The Martin Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan is on again tonight (the first half was on last night) and I thought it was fantastic. My buddy David let me borrow the "soundtrack" which I have been listening to all of the last two days. In the car right now is: Leo Kottke live album, Bob Dylan "No Direction Home", Widespread Panic, Tribe Called Quest!.
UB Stats:
9/14/05 - 9/27/05
Starting Balance: $532.50
Cash Games: -$130
Tournaments: +$6
Ending Balance: $408 MAN THIS IS DEPRESSING :)
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Triple Draw
Lately I have been playing many hours of Triple Draw 2-7 on UB. I am really enjoying this game, it's so much fun! The problem is that it is really a grind to eek out a profit. Last night I played over two hours and was +$16. Now this isn't bad considering it the limit (.25/.50), but this game has some major swings. I was playing with a couple forum members (NeccoWafers and OutOfOrder, and then Corona1-formerly known as Seanstack later on), and OoO really said it best in that your stack fluctuates pretty drastically, but your profit comes from your "runs" where the deck really hits you. This is exactly what happened to me last night as I was going back and forth, up $10 and down $5 until I hit one wheel followed by a draw to #2 that hit after the first draw, followed again by a pat rough 8 that I never thought would hold up but did. I did have one interesting hand where I had a draw to the wheel. Pre-draw there was major raising and I think it got capped. I had 2345 and hit my 7 after the first draw. Two other players in the hand were also drawing, one drew 1 the other drew 2. I was in EP (can't remember if it was BB or UTG). I bet out and it got capped and I of course was pat for the second draw. My opponents drew 1 and 0 collectively and here I was sitting with the straight up nutz. Of course it got capped again before the last draw, but this time the one guy who was still drawing dropped out and it was down to the pat hands, I bet out and re-raised until we capped and showed down my wheel. I don't know what the other guy was thinking I think he had a 23568! Which is in trouble and he just kept jamming? Anyway, that was a fun hand and I was positive that we would be chopping, but I later got a good read on this guy because he would go pat with real rough hands.
So my bankroll is back up and I am pretty happy. It's funny how great August was for me, and I attribute that to my cash game play. I really want to get better in the big tournaments, but I haven't been able to play many and they take so much time! I can see how it is so important to have stamina and I can't imagine how hard the WSOP main event is. The first couple months I mainly played SnG's and worked up my bankroll with many 1st and 2nds, and I cashed in 40% or so. The last month and a half I have only played a handful of SnG's. I know I wanted to track my play on these, but I haven't played more than 3 I think! I did play in one $10+1 on Sunday and got another dissapointing 3rd place, where I should've at least got 2nd. The problem was that I was playing triple draw and the SnG at the same time. I worked my stack up real big, but then with 4 people left made a bad call to an allin w/ an A9s (Chris' favorite hand!) and was up against AK. That crippled me and I was left struggling for third place.
In other news, Chris and I lost our first fantasy football matchup against Phil! :<
It was kinda flukey since Phil had the Bills defense and kicker who put up 37 points collectively. Cut that in half and we had a chance going into the Monday Night Football game with T.O. going, but he didn't score so it probably wouldn't have mattered. We still feel good about our team and feel that it is one of the most solid in the league. Brian won his matchup with a pitiful performance from Chris/Jesse. Football season is the best!!
Chris responded to my "Talking *hit" post! It was funny. Chris you're my boy, and I meant it all in fun. He seriously is the hardest working guy i've ever known. And thats why he makes the big bucks, and i'm sitting here wasting time on a blog that maybe 3-4 people read! He did make a point to invite me to play in the golf tournament on friday which I am so very grateful! I can't wait to play!
So I need to summarize my short-term and long term goals, mainly for myself:
Short-term:
A. Open account at Party or Stars - I would like to get my 'roll up to $800 before doing this.
B. Move up to $20+2 SnG's.
C. Buy Pokertracker - This will be essential because I am awful about keeping notes on my opponents. Cost $55
Long-term:
A. Win a MTT online or Live (buy-in irrelevant / pay-out irrelevant)
B. Bankroll at $2500+
C. Buy-in for WSOP prelim. event.
UB Stats:
9/5/05 - 9/14/05
UB Starting Balance: $484.38
Cash Games: +$39.12
Tournaments: +$9.00
UB Ending Balance: $532.50
So my bankroll is back up and I am pretty happy. It's funny how great August was for me, and I attribute that to my cash game play. I really want to get better in the big tournaments, but I haven't been able to play many and they take so much time! I can see how it is so important to have stamina and I can't imagine how hard the WSOP main event is. The first couple months I mainly played SnG's and worked up my bankroll with many 1st and 2nds, and I cashed in 40% or so. The last month and a half I have only played a handful of SnG's. I know I wanted to track my play on these, but I haven't played more than 3 I think! I did play in one $10+1 on Sunday and got another dissapointing 3rd place, where I should've at least got 2nd. The problem was that I was playing triple draw and the SnG at the same time. I worked my stack up real big, but then with 4 people left made a bad call to an allin w/ an A9s (Chris' favorite hand!) and was up against AK. That crippled me and I was left struggling for third place.
In other news, Chris and I lost our first fantasy football matchup against Phil! :<
It was kinda flukey since Phil had the Bills defense and kicker who put up 37 points collectively. Cut that in half and we had a chance going into the Monday Night Football game with T.O. going, but he didn't score so it probably wouldn't have mattered. We still feel good about our team and feel that it is one of the most solid in the league. Brian won his matchup with a pitiful performance from Chris/Jesse. Football season is the best!!
Chris responded to my "Talking *hit" post! It was funny. Chris you're my boy, and I meant it all in fun. He seriously is the hardest working guy i've ever known. And thats why he makes the big bucks, and i'm sitting here wasting time on a blog that maybe 3-4 people read! He did make a point to invite me to play in the golf tournament on friday which I am so very grateful! I can't wait to play!
So I need to summarize my short-term and long term goals, mainly for myself:
Short-term:
A. Open account at Party or Stars - I would like to get my 'roll up to $800 before doing this.
B. Move up to $20+2 SnG's.
C. Buy Pokertracker - This will be essential because I am awful about keeping notes on my opponents. Cost $55
Long-term:
A. Win a MTT online or Live (buy-in irrelevant / pay-out irrelevant)
B. Bankroll at $2500+
C. Buy-in for WSOP prelim. event.
UB Stats:
9/5/05 - 9/14/05
UB Starting Balance: $484.38
Cash Games: +$39.12
Tournaments: +$9.00
UB Ending Balance: $532.50
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Aces Suck!!!
I've seen a shirt with this exclamation on one of the guys in "the crew" in a WSOP broadcast, and I always thought it was humorous. But, never would I have thought it was true! The other night I decided to play in UB's Katrina Relief Tournament. It was the lowest buy-in $5 + 5. From the beginning of the tournament until the end, I got AA and KK about 10! times. They say that with these big pocket pairs you usually only win a small pot, but lose the big ones. Well, that is exactly what happened. I was actually pretty impressed that I made it as far as I did since I was down to 325 chips after the first 30 mins. Each time I lost these big pots it wasn't because I played it bad before the flop, in fact, there was absolutely no reason for these donkeys to be in it against me. Of course, the first hand I lost with KK, there was the dreaded A on the flop and of course the guy behind me had AQo. I was UTG and was re-raised by this donk, I re-re-raised and he calls. Too bad I didn't have AK! After getting my stack up to just under the average stack after the first break, I ended up getting all of my chip in the pot on the turn with this board Q 9 9 J. He of course had A9s! No business!! So while I was dissapointed in not making it in the money, I was impressed that I had made it that far. Later, I played in a $5+.50 with $3500 guaranteed and ended up getting 45th. Going out in a blaze of glory with pocket sevens.
So the 'roll has taken a bit of a hit, though nothing out of the ordinary. I have not had a winning session in cash games, but the losses have been small. My tournaments haven't been that great either (SnG's, MTT's). Today is the Cardplayer Freeroll, which I am glad to be playing in again. I need another money finish to have any chance of playing in the Championship tournament. We still don't know what the big prize is, but it's Cardplayer, so I have faith that it will be nice.
So the 'roll has taken a bit of a hit, though nothing out of the ordinary. I have not had a winning session in cash games, but the losses have been small. My tournaments haven't been that great either (SnG's, MTT's). Today is the Cardplayer Freeroll, which I am glad to be playing in again. I need another money finish to have any chance of playing in the Championship tournament. We still don't know what the big prize is, but it's Cardplayer, so I have faith that it will be nice.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Talking *hit!
I got a call from one of my longtime out of town friends today, and he tells that he had just won his first poker tournament. That's right, Shmee has caught the poker bug! I am so proud of him! Shmee, if I lived that close to casinos, I would be in so much trouble! I can't imagine Shmee at a poker table. I think that is one thing he has going for him, little Indian guy, fidgeting around, smelling everything...People must think he's a real loose cannon! So if you ever see the best looking Indian on earth at your table, be scared, be very scared!
Shmee actually was upset that I haven't "talked shit" about any of my friends. I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but I could go on and on about my friends. He actually was most concerned about my friend Chris. Chances are he will never read this journal because he is probably the busiest, most hard working accountant on the planet. I mean, i'm pretty busy at work, but I always have some time to bs w/ my boys! Chris spends more time in the office than any of my other friends, aside from maybe Brian and Rob who are in front of a computer probably just as much. But, you know, Chris has a pretty important job so I can't really fault him, he just needs to work on his ADD. Which it seems that he must be doing since you can hardly talk to him on the phone during work. So NEVER call Chris at work...NEVER. It will only lead to listening to yourself talk and listening to Chris say things like..."really,...wow..., that's crazy...", etc, etc. One time I called Chris and was having a conversation with him...I asked him some question, only to hear silence on the other end. Instead of asking Chris the question again, or asking him if he was listening, I just waited...and waited...and waited. Finally, after about 30 seconds, Chris goes "oh my god...that's crazy..." as to reply to whatever he thought I was talking about. I probably should've just hung up on him, but I know how it is! Or the time that I was on the phone with him and in the middle of the call, actually in the middle of the sentence, Chris whispers "dude, I gotta go, my boss is coming". Man, it's not like you are downloading porn or something. What, are you gonna get fired? Anyway, that's Chris, and I can't really mess with him to bad since he's my fantasy football partner. Speaking of fantasy football, we need to come up with a new team name. I can easily do it, so I guess I will, I wanted Chris to come up with something, but as I said, he's busy at work.
So Shmee wants to set up a poker tournament! He's so into it, that he's ready to play in NOVEMBER! Since Shmee lives in CA, he isn't coming back into town until Nov. 18th. And he has already told me that we are playing so that he can "take all of our money". I love it, he's already talking smack!
I received some comments to this blog, which at first I was excited about, but upon review, they are mostly spam. It seems I didn't set up the comments section to defend against this, but now it is. I did get one comment by an annonymous user "Oh my god!!" I wonder who this was from, and how thoughtful it was. Really, thanks for the input, keep using that big brain of yours! I figure it's probably one of my buddies who I told about this little journal, and he probably thinks it's "gay", "stupid", or a waste of time, but whatever.
I'm on a bit of a losing streak on UB these days, mostly because I haven't been playing very well or paying attention enough. I really have been making bad decisions and need to plug some of my leaks. These will need to be addressed: Trouble hands out of position: AT, KQ, KJ, KT, QT, QJ, JT, and dare I say it Axs. I think I have been loosening up a bit and think I can outplay my opponents, but I seem to get into more trouble than I should. So I need to fold these in early position and either raise or fold in MP. It's just that the ring games seem so loose that these should be played. Folding good hands: they say that good players are able to muck good hands when they smell trouble. I have a hard time folding big pocket pairs after the flop or after being played back at heavily. Most of the time I run into a set or two pair, or even a higher pair. Regardless if these opposing hands should've been in the hand or not, it shouldn't matter. The hardest is sniffing out the set. It seems that most low limit online players slowplay sets. So if I get checked to and bet my overpair or even top pair good kicker, and I get raised big, I should assume i'm beat? This happened this weekend when I got felted by my buddy Phil in the home game we were playing. I had KJo in MP, and since we were playing shorthanded (5), I made my standard preflop raise. Phil called from SB I think, and we were heads up taking a flop of 4 J 7. Phil checked and I bet about the size of the pot, Phil raised pretty big and I re-raised all-in and he called quickly, turning over pocket fours. It was a good hand for phil as I had beaten him earlier that night with pocket threes, and David beat him after that with pocket deuces, each time we flopped sets. Now Phil was playing pretty aggressive that night and I figured he could make a move with just about any hand when he raised my opening flop bet. I thought there was a 50/50 chance that he was on a bluff or had just a small piece of the flop. He has no problem putting all his money in on a draw. But the thing is, I got blinded. In fact, I should've folded or at least only called after the raise for many reasons other than sniffing out the set. I should've thought of the hands that he would call a raise w/ pre-flop. Pocket pairs, Ax, Suited connector. I should've been mostly worried about AJ. Also, I think Phil had tightened up a bit since he was down a good bit from previous hands and had rebought twice I think. Anyway, Phil is a good player and he made a good play. Another interesting hand occured online. It is only interesting that I read it perfectly and went broke anyway. Obviously another leak. I read a quote from Antonio Esfandiari today that said basically, if you have any inkling of a thought that you are beat, fold. I was in a SnG and had just doubled up to a pretty decent stack with KJ (Interesting that these hands always involve KJ). Anyway, I get KJ again and call from LP. We take a fourway flop of T J K. A EP limper bets very little and I immediately think AQ? Quickly, I rule that out because most people would raise with that right? Then I go with either I have the best hand and am up against a smaller two pair (JT and KT could certainly be limped with in these games this early in the tournament), or I was up against the same hand as myself and that we would chop. I ended up going all in, and he quickly called with AQo. So I read it right, just ruled it out!
As for music, these days I have been listening to a lot of bluegrass. In my car today is Yonder Mountain String Band's latest live CD. These guys really bring it! They are playing three venues in the area come Oct. Mo and I are thinking about hitting one of em', just have to decide which one! Also in my car is the last Umphreys McGee show I attended at the Recher Theatre in Baltimore. I think these guys are my favorite band right now. This was a SICK show! The third CD that is getting the most playtime is an advance copy of a David Axlerod album, due out this month. I went to my favorite record store Joes Record Paradise, and got into a conversation with one of the guys that works there and he recommended this one. It's called "The Edge", and is basically a "Best of", but what is interesting about this is that so much of it is recognizable because he has been sampled by so many rap/hip-hop artists. It's really jazzy and fushion-esque. The other two CD's in the car are Ryan Adams Heartbreaker and The Grateful Dead Reckoning, both excellent and I highly recommend. Next purchase for me is the new Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon CD.
Shmee actually was upset that I haven't "talked shit" about any of my friends. I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but I could go on and on about my friends. He actually was most concerned about my friend Chris. Chances are he will never read this journal because he is probably the busiest, most hard working accountant on the planet. I mean, i'm pretty busy at work, but I always have some time to bs w/ my boys! Chris spends more time in the office than any of my other friends, aside from maybe Brian and Rob who are in front of a computer probably just as much. But, you know, Chris has a pretty important job so I can't really fault him, he just needs to work on his ADD. Which it seems that he must be doing since you can hardly talk to him on the phone during work. So NEVER call Chris at work...NEVER. It will only lead to listening to yourself talk and listening to Chris say things like..."really,...wow..., that's crazy...", etc, etc. One time I called Chris and was having a conversation with him...I asked him some question, only to hear silence on the other end. Instead of asking Chris the question again, or asking him if he was listening, I just waited...and waited...and waited. Finally, after about 30 seconds, Chris goes "oh my god...that's crazy..." as to reply to whatever he thought I was talking about. I probably should've just hung up on him, but I know how it is! Or the time that I was on the phone with him and in the middle of the call, actually in the middle of the sentence, Chris whispers "dude, I gotta go, my boss is coming". Man, it's not like you are downloading porn or something. What, are you gonna get fired? Anyway, that's Chris, and I can't really mess with him to bad since he's my fantasy football partner. Speaking of fantasy football, we need to come up with a new team name. I can easily do it, so I guess I will, I wanted Chris to come up with something, but as I said, he's busy at work.
So Shmee wants to set up a poker tournament! He's so into it, that he's ready to play in NOVEMBER! Since Shmee lives in CA, he isn't coming back into town until Nov. 18th. And he has already told me that we are playing so that he can "take all of our money". I love it, he's already talking smack!
I received some comments to this blog, which at first I was excited about, but upon review, they are mostly spam. It seems I didn't set up the comments section to defend against this, but now it is. I did get one comment by an annonymous user "Oh my god!!" I wonder who this was from, and how thoughtful it was. Really, thanks for the input, keep using that big brain of yours! I figure it's probably one of my buddies who I told about this little journal, and he probably thinks it's "gay", "stupid", or a waste of time, but whatever.
I'm on a bit of a losing streak on UB these days, mostly because I haven't been playing very well or paying attention enough. I really have been making bad decisions and need to plug some of my leaks. These will need to be addressed: Trouble hands out of position: AT, KQ, KJ, KT, QT, QJ, JT, and dare I say it Axs. I think I have been loosening up a bit and think I can outplay my opponents, but I seem to get into more trouble than I should. So I need to fold these in early position and either raise or fold in MP. It's just that the ring games seem so loose that these should be played. Folding good hands: they say that good players are able to muck good hands when they smell trouble. I have a hard time folding big pocket pairs after the flop or after being played back at heavily. Most of the time I run into a set or two pair, or even a higher pair. Regardless if these opposing hands should've been in the hand or not, it shouldn't matter. The hardest is sniffing out the set. It seems that most low limit online players slowplay sets. So if I get checked to and bet my overpair or even top pair good kicker, and I get raised big, I should assume i'm beat? This happened this weekend when I got felted by my buddy Phil in the home game we were playing. I had KJo in MP, and since we were playing shorthanded (5), I made my standard preflop raise. Phil called from SB I think, and we were heads up taking a flop of 4 J 7. Phil checked and I bet about the size of the pot, Phil raised pretty big and I re-raised all-in and he called quickly, turning over pocket fours. It was a good hand for phil as I had beaten him earlier that night with pocket threes, and David beat him after that with pocket deuces, each time we flopped sets. Now Phil was playing pretty aggressive that night and I figured he could make a move with just about any hand when he raised my opening flop bet. I thought there was a 50/50 chance that he was on a bluff or had just a small piece of the flop. He has no problem putting all his money in on a draw. But the thing is, I got blinded. In fact, I should've folded or at least only called after the raise for many reasons other than sniffing out the set. I should've thought of the hands that he would call a raise w/ pre-flop. Pocket pairs, Ax, Suited connector. I should've been mostly worried about AJ. Also, I think Phil had tightened up a bit since he was down a good bit from previous hands and had rebought twice I think. Anyway, Phil is a good player and he made a good play. Another interesting hand occured online. It is only interesting that I read it perfectly and went broke anyway. Obviously another leak. I read a quote from Antonio Esfandiari today that said basically, if you have any inkling of a thought that you are beat, fold. I was in a SnG and had just doubled up to a pretty decent stack with KJ (Interesting that these hands always involve KJ). Anyway, I get KJ again and call from LP. We take a fourway flop of T J K. A EP limper bets very little and I immediately think AQ? Quickly, I rule that out because most people would raise with that right? Then I go with either I have the best hand and am up against a smaller two pair (JT and KT could certainly be limped with in these games this early in the tournament), or I was up against the same hand as myself and that we would chop. I ended up going all in, and he quickly called with AQo. So I read it right, just ruled it out!
As for music, these days I have been listening to a lot of bluegrass. In my car today is Yonder Mountain String Band's latest live CD. These guys really bring it! They are playing three venues in the area come Oct. Mo and I are thinking about hitting one of em', just have to decide which one! Also in my car is the last Umphreys McGee show I attended at the Recher Theatre in Baltimore. I think these guys are my favorite band right now. This was a SICK show! The third CD that is getting the most playtime is an advance copy of a David Axlerod album, due out this month. I went to my favorite record store Joes Record Paradise, and got into a conversation with one of the guys that works there and he recommended this one. It's called "The Edge", and is basically a "Best of", but what is interesting about this is that so much of it is recognizable because he has been sampled by so many rap/hip-hop artists. It's really jazzy and fushion-esque. The other two CD's in the car are Ryan Adams Heartbreaker and The Grateful Dead Reckoning, both excellent and I highly recommend. Next purchase for me is the new Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon CD.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Long Weekend
This past weekend was full of relaxation and a little poker here and there. Saturday, since there was no cardplayer freeroll, I decided to play a $5 MTT, and didn't even make it to the break. I think I came in like 180 out of 300+. Oh well, it was funny because I think I made some extremely good laydowns and good reads, but lost too much of my stack to recover. Oh well, thats poker. The cool thing about this was that before the tourney started, I thought I'd play some cash games and bought in for the max at a .05/.10 NL ($10). I ended up cashing out up about $6 just before the start of the tournament, so I had my buy in back and was basically on my own "freeroll". Saturday night was pretty dissapointing since we were suppose to have about 7-8 people for the game with my buddies, but only had 5. I had a good run early and had doubled my stack but ended up giving it all back. It was a good time anyways since I got to see my friends new house and his beautiful little girl. I'm sure that one or two of my friends were happy to see me out early, probably because all I talk about lately is poker and they must love the fact that the guy who plays more poker than any of them was felted, but they are all awesome players and great friends and that's all that matters, in the end, well, I just flat out got outplayed! I don't think I am any better than any of them, I just play more and that is all. You know some days you win, and some days you lose! I really looked at that game as a night with the guys and some fun poker, and I was happy to give them my $20!
Monday I played a little $25 NL on UB and won about $6-7 in about an hour, though I was up about $20 before I folded a BIG pot w/ KK when I was sure that the villain had either AA a set or a flush. Sometimes you have to fold big hands, which I haven't been able to do much. Later last night I played $5+.50 single table SnG and came in a dissapointing third. I played with one of the cardplayer forum members (DUI) who is a good player. We got into some trash talking which was fun, and I think he actually took me out. He probably went on to win the thing. So it was a weekend in the black online, and live I ended up in the red. Thats Poker!
9/2/05-9/5/05
UB Starting Balance:$469.81
Cash Games: +$13.57
Tournaments: +$1.00
UB Ending Balance: $484.38
Monday I played a little $25 NL on UB and won about $6-7 in about an hour, though I was up about $20 before I folded a BIG pot w/ KK when I was sure that the villain had either AA a set or a flush. Sometimes you have to fold big hands, which I haven't been able to do much. Later last night I played $5+.50 single table SnG and came in a dissapointing third. I played with one of the cardplayer forum members (DUI) who is a good player. We got into some trash talking which was fun, and I think he actually took me out. He probably went on to win the thing. So it was a weekend in the black online, and live I ended up in the red. Thats Poker!
9/2/05-9/5/05
UB Starting Balance:$469.81
Cash Games: +$13.57
Tournaments: +$1.00
UB Ending Balance: $484.38
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Played some $10 NL yesterday on UB. I like to play this limit when I am multi-tasking and not really paying attention. You know, watching tv, writing e-mails, and listening to music all while surfing the web is not the best way to play winning poker. But that is why I play this limit. So I played about an hour and lost a little. Most of it came on this hand: I get dealt 66 in middle position. The table was playing pretty passively, so I knew that I could get in cheap and possibly hit a set and take it down. Well I limp into the pot along with 4 others including the button. I get the perfect flop, all low cards and one 6, although there was a straight possibility. It gets checked to me and I bet out the pot. The big blind raises me big. I didn't have top set, but there was no way I was going anywhere and I was definitely not going to slow play, so I reraised. The big blind goes all in for about 1/2 my stack and I call, turn is a K, river pairs the board, and I lose to pocket Kings. Well i'm pretty sure I've made a ton of $$ off of people slowplaying big pocket pairs, so $6 was not a big deal, but suckouts...well...they SUCK! I went on to basically lose about $6 more bucks, I think because I got real passive in my play. I don't really know why, but I think I waited a while to re-buy back to my original buy in, so that may have had something to do with it.
Later on last night I decided to play a $10+1 SnG. I love the $5 and $10 SnG's! I really want to move up to the $20's but I think I need to track my performance in the lower buy-ins before I do that. I feel like I cash in about 40%, but I could be off. I think I'll try to track that this month, and look to move up to the 20's by October. So I pretty much crushed this SnG! There were a few hands that were pretty interesting. I had gotten my stack up to about 2400 (start w/ 1500), and this hand came up; I am dealt Ac4c in MP, usually I would throw this away in this position, but i felt that since I had accumulated enough chips, that I could afford a limp or two out of position with marginal cards, try to get in cheap, hit a good flop or get out. So, Ac4c in MP, I limp in for 40 along with one other player behind me and both the Small Blind and Big Blind. The flop comes 6 7 8 with two clubs, giving me a gut shot straight draw, and the nut flush draw, plus I also have an over card, though not really an "out". The SB, BB and I both check and I am sure the guy with position is going to put out some kind of bet, which depending on the amount, I was preprared to check raise. Well, the original raiser bets 40, the minimum. I'm putting this guy on two high cards, but both the SB and BB both called so I figured the pot odds were so great that I had to just call. The turn came an off-suit 10, and it gets checked to me so i put out a feeler bet of 140, a little less than half the pot. The guy behind me raises the minimum of 280. The SB and BB both fold and I am faced with a decision, which was pretty easy. I figured at this point I was beat to the straight or even A10, but I had to call 140 into a 740 pot. I now had only 9 outs to the nut flush which I needed 4 to 1 odds. Well I was getting about 5 to 1 on my money so like I said, it was an easy call. The river brought the dream Kc. I hesitated and put out about 1/3 of the pot in 300. Thankfully, the other guy raised me to 800, and again I hesitated and re-raised all-in. He calls and I win for a final pot of 2785. This gave me about a huge chip lead that I never really gave back.
Another fun hand was when I had pocket 9's in MP, the under-the-gun player minimum raises and I of course call. This is such a classic move that screams AA or KK. I really am always weary of that move and it is a sure fire way to have a big hand cracked. Anyway, the flop brought my set, and UTG thought he was slowplaying after the flop, he ended up going all-in on the turn drawing to two outs, and I filled up for the boat and sent the AA to the rail. I was pretty pumped about that hand because I read it perfectly. So i went on to win this SnG for a payout of $39 (minus the $10+1 entry fee). Ending my day in the black for a total of $29.
So today I was planning on playing the Cardplayer Freeroll, but I just checked to make sure I was registered, and sure enough, it's next weekend! DUH! Oh well, I'll probably try out a $5 or $10 Multi Table Tourney. Later tonight the boys are hopefully getting together for a cash game so that should be fun as always!
9/2/05
UB starting balance: $444
Cash Games: -$12
Tournaments: +$39
UB ending balance: $469.81
Later on last night I decided to play a $10+1 SnG. I love the $5 and $10 SnG's! I really want to move up to the $20's but I think I need to track my performance in the lower buy-ins before I do that. I feel like I cash in about 40%, but I could be off. I think I'll try to track that this month, and look to move up to the 20's by October. So I pretty much crushed this SnG! There were a few hands that were pretty interesting. I had gotten my stack up to about 2400 (start w/ 1500), and this hand came up; I am dealt Ac4c in MP, usually I would throw this away in this position, but i felt that since I had accumulated enough chips, that I could afford a limp or two out of position with marginal cards, try to get in cheap, hit a good flop or get out. So, Ac4c in MP, I limp in for 40 along with one other player behind me and both the Small Blind and Big Blind. The flop comes 6 7 8 with two clubs, giving me a gut shot straight draw, and the nut flush draw, plus I also have an over card, though not really an "out". The SB, BB and I both check and I am sure the guy with position is going to put out some kind of bet, which depending on the amount, I was preprared to check raise. Well, the original raiser bets 40, the minimum. I'm putting this guy on two high cards, but both the SB and BB both called so I figured the pot odds were so great that I had to just call. The turn came an off-suit 10, and it gets checked to me so i put out a feeler bet of 140, a little less than half the pot. The guy behind me raises the minimum of 280. The SB and BB both fold and I am faced with a decision, which was pretty easy. I figured at this point I was beat to the straight or even A10, but I had to call 140 into a 740 pot. I now had only 9 outs to the nut flush which I needed 4 to 1 odds. Well I was getting about 5 to 1 on my money so like I said, it was an easy call. The river brought the dream Kc. I hesitated and put out about 1/3 of the pot in 300. Thankfully, the other guy raised me to 800, and again I hesitated and re-raised all-in. He calls and I win for a final pot of 2785. This gave me about a huge chip lead that I never really gave back.
Another fun hand was when I had pocket 9's in MP, the under-the-gun player minimum raises and I of course call. This is such a classic move that screams AA or KK. I really am always weary of that move and it is a sure fire way to have a big hand cracked. Anyway, the flop brought my set, and UTG thought he was slowplaying after the flop, he ended up going all-in on the turn drawing to two outs, and I filled up for the boat and sent the AA to the rail. I was pretty pumped about that hand because I read it perfectly. So i went on to win this SnG for a payout of $39 (minus the $10+1 entry fee). Ending my day in the black for a total of $29.
So today I was planning on playing the Cardplayer Freeroll, but I just checked to make sure I was registered, and sure enough, it's next weekend! DUH! Oh well, I'll probably try out a $5 or $10 Multi Table Tourney. Later tonight the boys are hopefully getting together for a cash game so that should be fun as always!
9/2/05
UB starting balance: $444
Cash Games: -$12
Tournaments: +$39
UB ending balance: $469.81
Friday, September 02, 2005
My First Update!
As I said previously, I have been playing almost all of my poker these days online at Ultimate Bet. I started in April after many months of wanting to give it a try. I finally put $150 in Firepay and deposited $50 immediately into my UB account. I set goals for myself, firstly making sure that I don't go broke, but secondly, I wanted to get to $200 so that I could withdraw my original "stake" and play with "other peoples money". I had been scanning the Cardplayer.com forum and contributing regularly for about 8 months, learning the in's and outs of online poker. This forum is full of very nice people and there is a wealth of information there for all forms of poker, but mostly NL Hold'em, my game of choice. Well, I had some very early success and by June I had that $200! In May I won Krampy's Forum tourney so that helped. It was a $70 win, which was the biggest payout so far I think! Actually, before that tourney, I had been doing very well getting my stake up to about $140. I then had a pretty bad run and got cold decked for the remainder of the month until Krampy's. I actually had to dip into my initial deposit of $50 to buy-in to the event. It was only $5.50, but it was the first time since my first sit-n-go on the site that I had to do this. I was very pleased with my play that night, and felt like I got lucky in a few spots, but played well enough to beat two excellent players from the forum at the end in fengshuiuser and snadly. For the most part, I had been playing sit-n-go tournaments exclusively, with occasional cash games. I really like the set up with UB, how you get 1500 in chips and you can choose how fast you want the blinds to go up. I always go with the 10 min. blinds, as I hate to be rushed into the pot with marginal hands just because I HAVE to. Well, July was the worst month for me. I was down about $120, and it was my first losing month. I really believe that it was just poker. I had the best hand when all the $$ went into the pot, but took some horrific bad-beats. I'm talking runner/runner quads type stuff. I took a couple days off, and tried to right my mind. I came back with a new philosophy. I was going to move to playing cash games exlusively in August. Well that has been the best thing i've done so far. I have been moving between the .05/.10 ($10 NL) game and the .10/.25 ($25 NL) game, depending on how I am feeling and the mood that I am in when deciding which to play. These games are very loose and with my tight/aggressive approach I have been able to clean up! My Bankroll stands at $440 today, and I have withdrawn what was left in my Firepay account ($100). So I am in the black for about $400, not bad for 5 months. They say that UB's players are some of the best online, but at the low-limits that I play I think this could not be true. Of course I have never played on any other site, so I can only go with what i've heard. I would like to eventually open up another account on either Party Poker or Poker Stars. That is one of my next goals. The problem is I LOVE UB's interface and tournaments. So my goals for the time being are this. In the short term (2-3 mos), I would like to move up in stakes and get my bankroll to $800. With this, I would withdraw $400 and put it on either 'Party or 'Stars. My long term goal, one that I have pretty much only told my wife about, is to get enough $$ to play in one of the low buy-in events at the 2006 World Series of Poker. $1500 seems attainable at the rate I am going, even considering the variance. But I would rather not take all of my $$ out of my accounts to do this. So the long term goal would have to be at the very least $2500. Can I do that in 10 months? We shall see!
YAY for me...My first Blog!
My first blog entry!
I consider myself a very addictive person when it comes to my interests and hobbies. For the most part, when I find something I like, I become immersed in it!
Music was and is my first love. When people ask me what kind of music I like or what my favorite type of music is I tell them my favorite is LIVE music. The first concert I ever attended was Janet Jackson. I went with my Mother, and I remember loving it. I got into a lot of Rap/Hip-Hop throughout my middle teen years and then I found Pearl Jam. There was something about that band that made me listen to music a little differently. I was completely obssesed with that band for a good part of my high school and early college years. To this day 4/8/94 remains one of my most memorable concert experiences ever, and still stands as one of the top 5 shows I've ever attended. This was also the day that Kurt Cobain died so it is also memorable for that of course! I remember my freshman year when the guy living across the hall from me in the dorm would blast hardcore heavy metal whenever I played Pearl Jam on my little rinky dink stereo. He of course had about $500+ invested in his stereo...what an ass! Anyway, around the time I got out of the dorm system at Monmouth University (in NJ), I moved into an off campus house with a couple of friends and one friend of a friend that at the time seemed to me to be the biggest hippie I had ever seen. Sadly, I made fun of him as soon as we moved in because he was a huge deadhead and Jerry Garcia had just died that summer. I posted on our living room wall the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with Jerry's face...underneath I just wrote in big black letters...DEAD. I still feel bad about doing that. The funny thing is that I credit this guy for getting me into my favorite band of all time...PHISH! I loved to just hang out in his room and listen to all of these different, interesting sounds coming out of his speakers. My first show was October 1996 at Madison Square Garden, and I was (pardon the pun) hooked! I went on to see a ton of shows over the years and got into many of the so-called "jambands"!
Poker has become my next hobby/fixation... I am one of the millions that caught on to the wonders of the World Series of Poker in 2003. Although, I do remember watching a bunch of the older WSOP's on ESPN whenever they were on. But as they say, if it were not for the hole cameras in 2003, I probably would not be as in to poker as I am. So I have been playing poker for a long time, because my friends and I used to have many poker games at each other's houses before the Texas Hold'em boom. I even remember at age 10 playing poker with one of my oldest friends David. We would play 5 card draw, but it would be like triple/quadruple draw and would have all kinds of "wild" cards. I have since been playing mostly No Limit Hold'em online at Ultimate Bet, and I have played in Vegas and Atlantic City a handful of times. Luckily, many of my friends are also big poker players as well so we have a poker night at one our houses every month or so.
I have focused on my hobbies in this, my first blog entry, mainly because that's probably what I will be concentrating on, but I'm sure there will be much more than that in the near future, since I am also a huge sports fan. Football season is about to start so that should be fun!
I consider myself a very addictive person when it comes to my interests and hobbies. For the most part, when I find something I like, I become immersed in it!
Music was and is my first love. When people ask me what kind of music I like or what my favorite type of music is I tell them my favorite is LIVE music. The first concert I ever attended was Janet Jackson. I went with my Mother, and I remember loving it. I got into a lot of Rap/Hip-Hop throughout my middle teen years and then I found Pearl Jam. There was something about that band that made me listen to music a little differently. I was completely obssesed with that band for a good part of my high school and early college years. To this day 4/8/94 remains one of my most memorable concert experiences ever, and still stands as one of the top 5 shows I've ever attended. This was also the day that Kurt Cobain died so it is also memorable for that of course! I remember my freshman year when the guy living across the hall from me in the dorm would blast hardcore heavy metal whenever I played Pearl Jam on my little rinky dink stereo. He of course had about $500+ invested in his stereo...what an ass! Anyway, around the time I got out of the dorm system at Monmouth University (in NJ), I moved into an off campus house with a couple of friends and one friend of a friend that at the time seemed to me to be the biggest hippie I had ever seen. Sadly, I made fun of him as soon as we moved in because he was a huge deadhead and Jerry Garcia had just died that summer. I posted on our living room wall the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with Jerry's face...underneath I just wrote in big black letters...DEAD. I still feel bad about doing that. The funny thing is that I credit this guy for getting me into my favorite band of all time...PHISH! I loved to just hang out in his room and listen to all of these different, interesting sounds coming out of his speakers. My first show was October 1996 at Madison Square Garden, and I was (pardon the pun) hooked! I went on to see a ton of shows over the years and got into many of the so-called "jambands"!
Poker has become my next hobby/fixation... I am one of the millions that caught on to the wonders of the World Series of Poker in 2003. Although, I do remember watching a bunch of the older WSOP's on ESPN whenever they were on. But as they say, if it were not for the hole cameras in 2003, I probably would not be as in to poker as I am. So I have been playing poker for a long time, because my friends and I used to have many poker games at each other's houses before the Texas Hold'em boom. I even remember at age 10 playing poker with one of my oldest friends David. We would play 5 card draw, but it would be like triple/quadruple draw and would have all kinds of "wild" cards. I have since been playing mostly No Limit Hold'em online at Ultimate Bet, and I have played in Vegas and Atlantic City a handful of times. Luckily, many of my friends are also big poker players as well so we have a poker night at one our houses every month or so.
I have focused on my hobbies in this, my first blog entry, mainly because that's probably what I will be concentrating on, but I'm sure there will be much more than that in the near future, since I am also a huge sports fan. Football season is about to start so that should be fun!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
