Lumpy's Blog

Nevada Jacks

2008-10-23T19:11:00.003-05:00

I’m going to assume that anyone that reads this blog is an avid poker player(quite a stretch I know). Any serious player should take a stroll to www.nevadajacks.net and consider getting themselves a nice poker chip set for their home game. We use their chips in our home game and they’ve survived a few years of hard use.

I’ve been tempted in the past to order some badass custom chips with my name on them but I can never seem to pull the trigger.

They also sell poker tables. I’d give my left nut to have this badboy in my basement

In addition to the poker chips and poker tables they’ve got pretty much every other poker accessory you could ask for including plastic cards, tournament dealer buttons, and even custom made poker plaques.

If you get a chance head over to www.nevadajacks.net and take a look around.

I'm back

2008-10-23T19:06:00.002-05:00

All moved in to a new city and a brand new house. New job is going well. My 401k sucks. I'm playing no online poker but I am playing weekly with friends. I now live about 10 min from Seneca Niagara casino and about 20 min from Fallsview casino. There was a WPT event here a week or 2 ago. I was tempted to stop by and see who was playing but I've just been too busy.

I haven't watched a single minute of WSOP coverage on ESPN. Not sure why, there's just too much other TV to watch that poker is about the last thing on my mind when I sit down to watch TV.

Kicked in the nuts

2008-06-26T22:09:00.002-05:00

Step 4 tourney ($200+$15 buy in)

3 left and I'm the chip leader, I have 2x as many chips as 2nd and 3rd.

3rd in chips pushes with AK sooted, I call with AA

I lose.

2 hands later I'm out in 3rd, 1st and 2nd advance to a step 5.

I love poker

I blew it

2008-06-26T21:43:00.002-05:00

Got a SWEET blackjack bonus from a sportsbook where I've dumped a bunch of money.

Deposit $100 get $100...ran it up to $1100 and then blew it all betting $250 a hand trying to go for a big score. This was probably a bad idea because

1) I lost $1000 in profit
2) I'm at the end of my worst month of gambling ever

Here's the cool thing. I've got the $100 for $100 bonus offer twice a day every day from today til July 15th. So I redeposited and lost another $100($200 with their free money) but I'll be back tomorrow and the next day and I'm going to grind it out oldschool. $10 bets, no varying and just pound out the 20x rollover. So I'll grind out 8k a day playing blackjack for the next few weeks. This is easily one of the best bonuses I've ever received even going back to the golden days of BJ whoring.

Maybe I'll keep a running tally...

Day 1 -$200

Still running like shit

2008-06-25T22:43:00.001-05:00

I'm getting it in good, I'm semi-confident that things will turn around.

these mother fu$#in turbo tournaments

2008-06-20T23:29:00.002-05:00

I just don't know when to push. Sooted Ace, shove...BB has QQ. Get it all in with KK vs K9...flop 99xxx. Terribly frustrating. Between the turbo's and the WSOP qualifiers I'm eating about $600 so I can get......wait for it.....$600 in gift cards. Just feel like I'm wasting my time.

Flopped royal flush

2008-06-17T21:56:00.002-05:00

first time I've ever flopped one. Tried to get a screen capture but it didn't work.

AQ of hearts

Flop was KJT of hearts, I checked it down(beginning of a tourney) and got no action.

I'm done with steps

2008-06-16T21:01:00.002-05:00

0-16 in step 1's tonight....not even a 3rd place to get my money back. Just when I think I can handle variance I get on a streak like this that seems almost impossible.

Spoiled by my early success

2008-06-15T22:02:00.001-05:00

I can't even win a ticket to a step 2 now. Guess I didn't realize how hot I was running last week. Now into these steps for $340(and that's all at the $7 level step 1's)

Need to get to the cash games and try and win some of that back.

Done with the steps

2008-06-13T21:18:00.002-05:00

Step experiment is over. I'm blowing through money like crazy and I just bowed out of a step 4 when I got KK all in vs 99 and lost to a river straight. It happens but I have no unused tickets left so it's time to play games where I may see a profit. Spent about $300 playing the steps but cleared a $120 bonus in the process so not to bad.

Just getting owned now, AA vs 33, flopped a 3. AQ vs KJ on a Q high flop, runner runner flush....brutal night tonight.

heater is OVER

2008-06-11T21:50:00.004-05:00

Got slaughtered tonight. Couldn't win any races. Oh well. I've ended the last couple of nights with 3 or 4 tickets at the various steps. Tonight I'm cleaned out. I'm currently playing in a step 4 and a step 2 and if I don't place in those I'm starting all over at step 1.

These steps are tough. A player buying in at step 1 has to run hot like fire to get any money out of these. I'm plowing through VPP's but I'm also plowing through my bankroll. I've dropped $250 on these tourney's and I've racked up about 2300 VPP's. The problem is the only way to cash is to get to Step 6 and then place in the top 6. If I could have I definitely would have bailed on the Step 5 and taken the $700 into my stars account so I could keep pounding away on these things.

another step 5

2008-06-10T22:04:00.002-05:00

Ended up 5th so I get a step 4 ticket. Couldn't get lucky when I needed it. Got all in with AJ and was called by TT. Nothing I can do there, just need to win that coin flip and I double up. At least I come away with a Step 4 ticket which is another 150 VPP's. I officially made Silverstar tonight on Stars so I'm on pace to get to Gold by the end of the month and then I can cash in my VPP's and get some gift cards to get a new TV.

Damn I wanted to win that coin flip. I'd probably be quite nervous playing in a step 6 tourney knowing 1st place is a trip to the main event.

Running hotter than fire

2008-06-09T21:51:00.002-05:00

Won another step 4 tonight which involved Ax sucking out on KK not on the flop but on the gut wrenching turn. A few hands later I called this same players all in, he had Qx I had Ax, he flopped a Q and yet again I turned an A. Poor Bastard.

Another table saw this hand with 3 of us all in.

KK(not me), KT(not me) and TT(helloooooo)

For those of you keeping score at home I have 1 out....I decided to take it easy on the guy with KK and hit the T right on the flop. THAT is how you hit a 1 outer!

$700 tourney

2008-06-08T21:40:00.002-05:00

Played in the step 5 tourney tonight. Nothing exciting to report. I played like a scared little girl and people picked up on it pretty quick. Tried to steal the blinds with 89 sooted and got looked up by QQ. Flopped a 9 but none of my suit and nothing else came so I went home in 6th. At least I get a step 4 ticket out of it with another shot at a step 5. I also got 300 VPP's which is money. At about 1k for the month and I have a step 3 and step 4 ticket to use which will get me another few hundred VPP's and I'll be a Silverstar and well on my way to Gold. Hell just getting to a step 6 tourney somehow would net me 1000 VPP's.

HELL YEAH!

2008-06-05T23:37:00.003-05:00

Got lucky again...AT diamonds and I pushed, got called by AQos. Flop had an Ace, turn was the beautiful T of spades. 2 hands later it was over(My AK vs A8) and I received this email.

Dear lumpy19,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.

You have won an admission ticket to 'WSOP Step 5'. This ticket allows you
to participate only in a tournament of this type. Tickets are not redeemable
for cash or Tournament Dollars (T$); if you register and then unregister from
the tournament, your ticket will be returned.

To view your available tournament tickets, go to Requests > Tournament Tickets
in the main lobby.

And now I'm headed to NYC to see the Yankee game on Saturday so I probably won't use up that ticket til Sunday night. Spent $6 tonight on tourney's and earned about 300VPP. I need to make gold by the end of this month!!

suck......RESUCK!!!

2008-06-05T23:25:00.001-05:00

Step 4 - $215 SNG

Summary

2008-06-04T23:08:00.002-05:00

Bought in to 7 Step 1's plus had a freebie from last night, 0-4 in the first 4 and then 3 wins in the second 4. Played the 3 Step 2's and went out 6th(sonofbitch) 3rd(so I get another step 2 shot) and won.

Right now I have a step 3 ticket and a step 2 ticket. I've spent somewhere around $125-$130 on this. I'm hoping I can build up enough tickets to keep playing the steps without buying in at the 1st level but that means I have to finish top 5 or 6 in every tourney I play which isn't happening. Either way I'm enjoying this and I'm accumulating double VPP's so I'm content with that. If it weren't for the 2xVPP's I probably wouldn't be playing these tournies so nice job Stars.

Stars WSOP Step Tourneys

2008-06-04T14:01:00.003-05:00

I'm addicted....I mean really addicted. I friggin love these things but I'm burning through money. I guess I don't have a master plan but I probably should. The only way I'll get cash is to make it to a Step 6. A couple more days of these crack inducing tournies and we'll see how I do.

Here's the stars steps setup

http://www.pokerstars.com/wsop/qualify/steps/

Bring on the Steps and 2xVPP!!!

2008-06-03T21:45:00.003-05:00

I played in 5 step 1's tonight and the 4th one got me this...

Dear crappy poker player,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.

You have won an admission ticket to 'WSOP Step 2'. This ticket allows you
to participate only in a tournament of this type. Tickets are not redeemable
for cash or Tournament Dollars (T$); if you register and then unregister from
the tournament, your ticket will be returned.

To view your available tournament tickets, go to Requests > Tournament Tickets
in the main lobby.

So I cashed that bitch in and headed for my Step 2

Dear less crappy poker player,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.

You have won an admission ticket to 'WSOP Step 3'. This ticket allows you
to participate only in a tournament of this type. Tickets are not redeemable
for cash or Tournament Dollars (T$); if you register and then unregister from
the tournament, your ticket will be returned.

To view your available tournament tickets, go to Requests > Tournament Tickets
in the main lobby.

And 50 FPP's to boot! Need to hit Gold Star this month to cash in my FPP's for a new TV for the new house and I now know exactly how I'm going to do that. I'm going to pound the living hell out of these step tournaments earning 2xVPP and laughing all the way to the main event bitches!

Just played the step 3. Went out in 6th, had the chip lead with 6 left. Got into a pre-flop battle with AK sooted and lost to QQ. It was over quick when a Q hit the flop. Got the rest in the next hand with K9 vs 66 and couldn't pull the suckout.

WSOP got me fired up to play some poker

2008-06-02T21:57:00.001-05:00

Might have to pound out a few sessions on Stars this month if I can find the time. Reading about the beginning of the WSOP and listening to the podcasts has me all jacked up about poker again. It's been a while since I've had th itch to actually sit at the tables.

Not sure how I haven't mentioned this yet

2008-05-28T21:46:00.002-05:00

New house is a 10 minute drive from Seneca Niagara Casino and poker room and about 15-20 min from Casino Niagara and Fallsview poker rooms. Pretty excited about that. I'm starting to get the poker itch again after listening to a bunch of the 2+2 pokercast shows on my ipod the last couple of days.

Of course I just cashed out everything from pokerstars(which wasn't much) so I can't scratch that itch quite yet. Probably won't be scratching that itch for a while with the whole move going on and temporary living with the in-laws for a month and a half. Then I'll be getting settled into the new house. Yeah poker isn't going to be happening for a while.

I can't believe the WSOP starts this weekend.

House is sold....maybe

2008-05-20T21:24:00.003-05:00

Got a decent offer on the house from buyers who have sold their house. Looks like this could happen. Pretty excited about that.

I'm actually actively watching the NBA playoffs without betting on the games for the first time in a long time. Something about these final 4 teams I find intriguing.

I haven't watched a minute of hockey.

I've got money on Archuleta to take down idol. I don't really watch the show but I read Change100's recaps and she said he had value so I threw down $50 to win $75 on Mr. Archuleta a few weeks ago. I thought betting on it would get me more into it but they drag it out so much that even with money on it I can't take it.

Updates

2008-05-14T21:20:00.004-05:00

-Loving my new job and everyone I work with, my first career move and 2 months into I'm really happy about the decision I made

-They broke ground on our new house, I'm insanely excited about the whole process of building a new home

-I started training for my first marathon and my wife decided to join me so we're going through the 18 week training together. I've wanted to run a marathon since I was a runner in high school and I'm finally doing it at the age of 30

-I think the WSOP decision to delay the final table is good for poker and I'm excited about it. I haven't been excited about anything to do with poker on TV in a few years. I figure this is a good thing

-Full Tilt offered me a $300 reload bonus and I still haven't deposited. Just not feelin it right now. It's embarrassing that they're offering me a $300 bonus and I'm not taking it. It's free money

-We've had our house on the market for 2.5 months now, we've had 3 different contingent offers in that time and not one single non-contingent offer. Pretty frustrating. It's like living in a museum, I can't be lazy and leave clothes laying around just in case someone decides they want to look at our house.

-Haven't had the boat in the water yet....that's ridiculous, I usually get a ride or 2 in April and here it is halfway through may and it still hasn't touched the water

I suck at poker

2008-04-21T21:48:00.002-05:00

I get that I'm not gods greatest gift to poker but you'd think that I'd be able to get 1 winning session in the last month just by sheer dumb luck yet it hasn't happened. In fact I'm not even close, just obliterated everytime I sit down at the table. I feel like the other players are looking at my cards.

Bodog 100k

2008-04-20T16:28:00.007-05:00

Still alive here. Tripled my stack, now at T6500 with the avg stack at 3600 and 521/756 left.

Biggest hand was 99, flop 5-8-9 and a player with JJ went a little nuts and I doubled up. Rest of the chips came from stealing and grabbing small pots that nobody wanted. It's amazing how carefree I can play when it's not my $109 on the line for the tourney buy-in.

Just looking at the payout structure for the first time, a FT appearance would guarantee me $1600. Sure could use that money to buy some nice accessories for the new house!

I'll just keep editing this post with bodog 100k updates.

I got below average stack and started to get into push or shove mode. Got back some chips and then doubled up on a guy who tried to slowplay his AA. I had KJ in the SB and completed after a bunch of limpers. Flop was KJ8, I checked and it was checked around to AA boy who bet 800, I raised it to 2400 and he immediately pushed and I immediately called. Avoided the other 2 Aces and coubled up to T15000. Average stack is not T9600 with 195/796 left. Top 63 pay.

Down to 159 players left. Just made it to T23000 with AK vs AT

Just horribly misplayed AQ from the SB, down to T16k with 123 left

Out in 97th after totally fucking up a KQos hand against the chip leader. Terribly frustrating.

I'm going to try and play in this tourney more often, really nice overlay today. I'll be hitting up the satellites during the week to try and qualify for this bad boy.

Blackjack tilt

2008-04-20T15:45:00.003-05:00

Is there anything sweeter than going on blackjack super mega tilt throwing down $250 and hitting a Blackjack? The only possible thing that even comes close is to then ride that blackjack wave into more profits!!

Still chugging along in the bodog 100k. I'm at T2005 chips. Just bleeding them off while I keep myself occupied with blackjack.

Thanks Bodog

2008-04-20T15:01:00.002-05:00

In honor of the many tournies that I play at bodog they gave me a nice juicy bonus. Deposit $500 and get a free $109 entry to their Sunday 100k guarantee...DONE. How could I turn that down.

Playing in the tourney right now.

Pokerstars is the bomb

2008-04-15T22:42:00.002-05:00

Screwed up my reload, emailed support and had a response solving my problem in a few hours. Not sure if that should be noteworthy or not but in the online poker world it definitely is.

Bodog also sent me another reload. Same deal as last time, max $500 with 30 days to complete. Last time I tried this I got through $60 of bonus because there are never Limit poker games going at the 2/4 and 3/6 level. Plus you can only 3 table at that site. I'm probably gonna pass.

Pokerstars Reload and house stuff

2008-04-09T20:53:00.004-05:00

Sweet a free $120. Clear rate is 20VPP's/dollar, whew they're pushing it. Used to be 5 back in the good old days of bonus whoring. Then it went to 7x, then 10x, more recently 15x and now they're up to 20x. Guess what? They're the best game in town so even if it was 50x I'd probably still do it. Just can't get the bonus whore out of me.

Changing subjects here. My wife and I are in the beginning stages of building a "dream" house. Tonight we spent an hour at our builders design center going over every little thing that's going in our house. It's a touch overwhelming walking around in there with the millions of different things that need to be selected for the build. We nailed down the floor plan pretty quick but this is going to be a painful/enjoyable process selecting every little detail and trying to imagine it assembled together in the house. Crossing my fingers that it all works out. Closing date is late August.

Selling our current home that we've only been in a year is an entire different beast. We got 2 fantastic offers immediately(both contingent). We accepted the best one and now for the past month we've had at least 5-7 showings every week where we have to leave our house but not a single non-contingent offer. Just this past weekend we had to leave our house twice on saturday and 3x on Sunday. House is getting a lot of action but not generating the offers. Oh well, it'll all work itself out. I wish the contingent buyers would sell their damn house!

Sweetness

2008-04-03T21:43:00.002-05:00

I love baseball season.

Found something to use my FPP's on. $200 gift cards to onecall.com I've got enough FPP's to get (3) $200 gift cards which I can turn around and use on a new receiver for the new house the wife and I are building. Can't wait to get the house wired up and be able to run audio for the whole house from one stereo.

Just need to figure out the video now. I'd love to have all the directv receivers in the basement and figure out someway to control the receivers from the different rooms.

Nothing new in poker, just chugging along.

Started training for a marathon that I plan on running in september. Running a marathon has been a long time goal of mine and a friend finished one last year and it got me motivated enough to start training this year.

Can't keep up

2008-03-24T22:41:00.001-05:00

It's tough to grind out the hours at micro stakes to get my bearings back.

Yay I won $10!! (dripping sarcasm)

Nice little layoff

2008-03-18T22:22:00.002-05:00

Super busy with the new job and selling the house.

We got a contingent offer on the house for our asking price within a week which was nice. Now they just need to sell their house.

Been playing a little poker, taking shots here and there. Nothing too awesome.

I did sit in a nice 5/10 game and make a few bucks, kind of a hit and run.

That's about it, playing in some nice 2/4 and 3/6 games right now. Of course I'm playing like an idiot.

update

2008-03-05T22:08:00.001-05:00

made up for some of the losses at the BJ table again. nice little sickness i have going here.

12 sessions

2008-03-05T22:02:00.001-05:00

every one of them a losing session.

i'm just awful at poker

taking a shot, you know how it worked out

2008-03-05T12:10:00.003-05:00

sitting at a 5/10 table, post my BB, 77. Board comes 7,9,T.

Large pot, 15BB, river completes donks flush, game over.

both fishes leave the game, I'm down 8BB and I leave when it gets 4 handed.

Ohhhh limit poker

2008-03-04T07:57:00.002-05:00

Last night I pulled off the miraculous lose way too much money playing poker, go on crazy tilt and bet the rest of my account on blackjack move.

This accomplishes a couple things. Here's the logic. My account dipped low enough that I was going to have to reload to play the games I need to play to clear the Bodog bonus. If I'm going to have to reload might as well take a shot at the Blackjack tables to save myself the trouble of reloading AND I could make up for my losses. So I'm actually killing two birds with one stone. 5 minutes later all poker losses had been erased and no need for a reload.

I'm having a tough enough time that I decided to suck it up and give deucescracked.com a shot and signed up for their 7 day free trial. I need some help. I just feel like I'm getting run over at the tables.

Last hour

2008-02-29T23:07:00.001-05:00

Trying to push through this last hour of double FPP/VPP.

Looks like I'm going to clear $175 in bonus money and still end up in the red.

Ahhh Limit poker

2008-02-29T17:07:00.003-05:00

Now I remember why I hate this game.

6 tables, 20 mins, -52BB

It'll take about 6 months to make up what took 20 mins to lose.

2008-02-26T08:45:00.001-05:00

Whew I’m rusty. Got stacked playing $100 PLO8 after about 50 hands. I raised pre-flop with A357 double suited, flopped a baby flush with the 2^nd nut low redraw and ended up getting it all in to see the nut flush and the same 2^nd nut low redraw, best case I get ¼ of the pot, not good. Nothing came on the turn or river and that was it.

Decided after that to play some limit hold’em. Full ring 2/4 and 3/6 and really really enjoyed it. Of course I felt lost because it’s been so long since I played full ring. I lost about $50 and folded a few winners which sucked but for the first time in a long time I’m looking forward to getting back to it tonight. Actually I’m playing in a home game tonight so probably won’t get back to it til tomorrow night.

Back at the tables

2008-02-25T19:49:00.001-05:00

Plowing through a $500 bodog bonus. Feels like 2006!!

Two things

2008-02-20T15:15:00.002-05:00

1. Bodog sent me what looks like a pretty decent reload offer, looking forward to trying to pound that out, love the games on Bodog but it's a pain in the ass for me to get money on there. Guess I'll have to figure something out.

2. I got a new job. I've been at my current job since I graduated from college in 2000, it was time for a change. The job requires a small relocation(an hour away) but my wife already works there so she'll no longer have the hour commute. This also means we have to sell our house that we just bought a year ago and that I JUST FINISHED painting every damn wall in the place. We're actually talking with custom builders but most are out of our price range. Looking like I might have to start grinding away at the tables again to make a little extra $$$ for a new house.

Back at the tables

2008-02-11T09:03:00.000-05:00

I did it. I sat down and played poker last night for the first time in a while. I decided to play some tournaments but when I opened Pokerstars there were no tournaments available. I finally found a few(apparently there were some software issues so there weren’t a lot of tourney’s going off) and sat down in a $5 6 max tourney, a standard $10 buy in tourney and a $10 with 1 rebuy and add-on.

Results

Coolered in the 6 max tourney, on a flop of 3 rainbow low cards I pushed with my QQ and got called by AA

I don’t remember how I went out in the $10 rebuy but I do know that I got the money in ahead so that’s all I really care about

The $10 had 5,913 entrants and I was still playing 7 hours in. I was 2^nd in chips with 22 left. I had 1 MAJOR suckout along the way hitting a runner runner flush(I had AK, flop AQT and called an all in from a guy who had AQ, horrible call and he baited me pretty good but it was already deep in the tourney and I wanted final table money). People just kept getting eliminated and we were down to 12. 8^th place was the magic spot where the money hit the magic 1k line with $7300 going to first place. Unfortunately I ended up going out in 10^th when I got it all in preflop with A2 sooted and was called by J8 sooted and an 8 hit the flop. Sucks to go out like that but I had a lot of luck to get to where I was so I’ll take the $295 cash. It hurts to be so close to good money and miss.

Time to get back to the tables

2008-02-07T09:30:00.000-05:00

I've played a little here and there but now it's time to get back to the games and clear the $175 in Stars bonus I have sitting in my account. I just can't let go of free money. I also need to level up my VIP status so that I can actually use all those FPP points I have sitting in my account.

I'm pretty much ignoring the FTP bonus I got offered last week, I probably shouldn't but I just don't see myself playing enough poker to clear a Stars bonus and an FTP bonus.

Guess I'm going to have to take a break from Halo 3 for a while. Even with GHIII in the house(which the wife and I beat on medium in co-op mode the other night) I still find myself playing ALOT more Halo 3.

Super Bowl Props

2008-02-04T09:24:00.000-05:00

Somehow I've never bet super bowl props before. Last night in a last minute move of degeneracy I put some money down on the following:

Coin flip - tails(-110).......WINNER

First score a FG or safety (+180).............WINNER

First TD scored will be a Rush TD(+130).........WINNER

A Patriot will score 2 TD's(+160)..........LOSER

I'll take 3-1 any day of the week.

Broke even in the 5 billion squares pools I was in, no surprise there.

As for poker, still no play. FT sent me a $100 bonus offer but I'll probably pass. I have to get started again this month to clear a few Stars bonuses but still no motivation to play, just can't stop playing video games with my late night free time.

LOST

2008-01-31T15:44:00.000-05:00

Starts tonight. I wish I had caught more of the 2 hour recap from the end of last season.

I got home from snowboarding last night(awful night to go, all ice from the heavy winds and huge temp changes over the past 24 hours) and just caught the end of it and i don't remember much of it.

Honestly if I had time i'd like to go through and watch the show from the beginning but that'll never happen.

the xbox 360 blog

2008-01-22T09:45:00.000-05:00

Full addiction. Played GHIII all weekend. Wife and I had some friends over and they brought their guitar and we basically put GHIII in, selected co-op mode and rocked out the entire night.

Let me tell ya, playing GH while drunk makes the easy levels seems like the expert levels. I can't believe how much harder it makes things.

I'm on the hunt for a Wii, if anyone knows where to get one drop me a comment, it would be much appreciated. Unfortunately it's not for me but it's going to a close friend so I'll at least get some use out of it.

I'm going to have to sit down and learn to play poker again. I've got a bunch of points I want to use in the Stars store but I'm not at a high enough level to buy anything. Kinda sucks that I earned the points but i'm not allowed to purchase anything because my playing time has slipped.

2008-01-15T15:23:00.000-05:00

Drizz thanks for the heads up on the PLO games, I figured you’d chime in.

I tried to deposit at Bodog today to play in the Blogger tourney tonight but it wouldn’t take any of my CC’s. Oh well. I really wanted to play in the tourney tonight because I think there’s a bit of an overlay and I like having money on bodog because I can blow everything in their casino section but they can’t find a way for me to get money on there, oh well.

I’m totally addicted to two things and every night it’s a battle between the 2. GHIII and Season 4 of The Wire. The Wire just keeps getting better and better. Both of these things are contributing to a serious lack of sleep every friggin night.

Played more poker

2008-01-14T10:24:00.000-05:00

Some heads up tourney's. Not too shabby but I gotta think it's almost impossible to beat the rake on these on the smaller tourney's which is exactly what I'd be playing.

Back to the PLO8 tables. I'm just gonna say fuck it and start playing at tables way above what I should be because it just doesn't hurt to lose a $25 stack. A $50 stack maybe so maybe I'll play PL$50 but most likely I'll sit at the $100 or $200 tables and hope for a good run. This is an epic demonstration in bankroll management.

Iggy says it better than I

2008-01-11T09:40:00.000-05:00

He says it so much better than me. It’s odd to put a link to his site here because I highly doubt anyone that reads this blog doesn’t read his blog but still, really great post today by Iggy

http://guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com/2008/01/bonus-code-iggy-on-party-poker-damnit.html

He even mentions The Wire at the end. I started watching season 4 last night. I finished the first episode at 12:42 am and really REALLY wanted to watch the second episode but I knew if I did that I’d then watch the third and basically never get to bed so I cut myself off.

Enough Already

2008-01-10T10:19:00.000-05:00

I love sports. In my house the TV is locked into ESPN and if there's a Sabres/Mets/Bills/SU Bball game on it's locked on that channel. If one of my teams isn't on then I'm usually watching some other random game.

It's retarded that the government is playing around with this whole steroids in baseball issue, what a giant waste of time/money by our government. Doesn't the government have better things to do than police the use of steroids in baseball? Why isn't it a bigger deal that the government is wasting so much time/money on this issue? It's a SPORT!!! It's entertainment!!

In other news I played poker online yesterday. I lost $3 and it was quite uneventful but it got the juices flowing again. I earned 6VPP in about 30 minutes, only about 2k VPP more to go to clear my bonuses.

the wire and GHIII

2008-01-07T11:28:00.000-05:00

season 5, the final season for the wire, started last night. I remembered at the last minute and caught it on the DVR but if you missed it it's available for free on itunes. I'm actually a full season behind, i haven't seen any of season 4 so I got that coming from netflix this week and I'll plow through it and move on to season 5. great great show and one of the better shows on TV right now especially with the writers strike still in full force. Not much new tv for a while now.

Got Guitar Hero III this weekend. My first GH experience. I enjoyed it but it's not nearly as addicting as I thought it would be. I actually am more excited by the fact that my wife enjoys playing, anytime I can get her to play video games or watch a TV show it's good.

Back from vacation

2008-01-03T09:11:00.000-05:00

Wedding and honeymoon were awesome. Aruba is gorgeous, great weather and unbelievably soft sand on the beaches. No internet or telephone for an entire week was absolutely what I needed.

Now back to the grind. I’m looking into getting a VZW wireless USB modem so I can get some more playing time in when I’m not sitting at home in front of my computer.

I don’t really have any poker goals for the year other than to make money and help pay for some of the wedding bills we still have left to pay. I have absolutely zero interest in playing anymore limit hold’em. Actually I have zero interest in really playing any hold’em at all, limit or no limit.

I haven’t gone through my PT database from 2007 but I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t lose a little bit of money on the year. Buying a house, getting married, and discovering Halo 3 on the xbox really put a stop to my poker playing time.

I’m sure that the Guitar Hero III game I have showing up tomorrow won’t be helping my poker game either.

I'm outta here

2007-12-19T11:18:00.000-05:00

Last day of work today for 2 weeks. Longest vacation I've had since I started working full time right out of college in June of 2000. Getting married on Saturday and leave for Aruba on Monday(Christmas Eve)

There's a casino right across from where we're staying in Aruba. My future wife doesn't gamble and I've said I'll stay out of the casino but I imagine her being super tired everynight and I'm still ready to go so we'll see. Worst case scenario I'm at least hitting up the casino for a $1 chip to add to my chip collection.

Happy Holidays to everyone.

Enjoying the trip reports

2007-12-14T14:13:00.001-05:00

Does anyone play blackjack anymore? All I read about is Pai Gow, I've never even played Pai Gow. Is it really that great?

Pokerstars deposit bonus

2007-12-10T10:22:00.001-05:00

Pokerstars sent me the nice echecks bonus, I’ll take the free $50. I haven’t played any online poker in well over a month now. Things have been really busy with Christmas coming, getting married and lots of work, uh, at work.

I’m hoping after the wedding, Christmas, honeymoon, new years I’ll have some time in January to crank out some hands so I can knock off the $125 bonus and the $50 bonus I have sitting in my pokerstars account.

I haven’t deposited with echecks yet but I hope it’s as easy as I’ve read. Hopefully this will loosen up the games. Of course I’m going to be playing in PLO 50 so the games should be pretty loose anyway.

The cheating scandals just keep coming

2007-12-06T11:21:00.000-05:00

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2007/12/online-poker-sorel-mizzi-chris-vaughn-speak-one.htm

Seems like every weekend there’s a new cheating scandal in online poker. Ridiculous.

(side note: this is my 500^th blog post)

Less video games, more poker

2007-12-04T13:16:00.000-05:00

I need to break this gaming curse, it’s eating up all of my free time! I have this nice computer, comfortable chair, dual 24” LCD monitors, and money in my poker account. I should be 12 tabling and racking up the FPPs and $$$.

The girlfriend(wife in 3 weeks) goes to bed and I start to play Halo 3 and next thing I know it’s 2am, I’m all hopped up from the game and I have to work in 5 hours.

I miss my poker addiction, it made me money!

Fantasy Football

2007-12-02T23:36:00.000-05:00

Playoffs start this week in my main league. Luckily thanks to the UIGEA gambling on Fantasy sports is 100% legal.

Glad to see The Purple Jesus come back with a big week this week, gonna need him next week.

Didn't play any poker this week. I did go to the Syracue/Tulane bball game Saturday night and that was a blast. If I were to bet on the game I would have had -12 and the line at tipoff was -13. SU won by 13 so if I had bet I would have won.

Having trouble getting started

2007-11-29T16:26:00.000-05:00

I mentioned it a few weeks ago but I withdrew most of my money(which wasn't much) to pay for wedding stuff. My online bankroll is now $150. It's pretty discouraging to be back at this point after all the time I've spent playing online poker. I get home and I have the choice of playing Halo 3 or a $25 PLO game. I'm always choosing Halo 3.

Then I stumble over to 2+2 and see these people pulling in 100k/month and wonder why am I wasting my time playing Halo 3!! 2 years ago I was so ambitious to play poker, get better and make gobs of money. Now I'm content to play video games and not even play poker.

I haven't even come close to clearing any of the last few bonuses I've been offered. We're talking free $$ here that I'm just ignoring. I guess now that my bankroll is so small I can't ignore that free money anymore.

They took my CC

2007-11-26T10:29:00.000-05:00

Had a great Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving dinner with the future in laws and then Thanksgiving night I drove 5 hours to my parents in MI and we spent the weekend with them.

I had my phone off all weekend and when I got the in the car Sunday to head home I had a message from VISA fraud dept for a debit/credit card on an old bank account that I keep around with a few hundred bucks in it. Apparently as I made some phone calls and gathered some info I found out someone has a copy of my CC in CA and is hitting up Home Depot, Sears, and best of all Victoria’s Secret trying to use the card. The sharp folks at Visa caught this somehow and blocked the card so right now the account only got hit up for $260 which I can handle. I should get it credited back in the next few days it just creeps me out that someone out there is signing my name on my CC and getting away with it. I hardly ever use this card so I have no idea how they got the # and I’m a little freaked out at what would happen if they somehow got the # off the card attached to my main bank account.

$1million/month playing poker

2007-11-21T13:36:00.000-05:00

Wow….I really should focus more on poker. These graphs make me sick.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=13056415

Kudos to FT and Stars

2007-11-19T16:24:00.000-05:00

Requested checks from both last week, in my hands today. Exactly 7 days for both, that's about as fast as I used to get my money when I had neteller.

I haven't played any poker, things are just so busy with holidays, wedding, house, etc I can't seem to catch up. When I do get a free minute I've got loads of TV shows to catch up on and I find myself arguing over TV shows or Poker and lately TV shows always wins out. I'm figuring that will end shortly when the writers strike kicks in and there are no new TV shows to watch.

If betting were legal I'd need Ten +7.5(part of a 6 pt teaser I imagined) to come in tonight.

Starting Over

2007-11-14T08:53:00.001-05:00

Starting over. Due to my upcoming wedding I’ve cleaned out my FT and Pokerstars accounts except for $150 in my Stars account. I’ll be using my poker bankroll to help pay for the wedding. I’m looking forward to the challenge of building things back up so that I can play in any low limit game any night.

When I first started playing poker online 3 years ago I had all these dreams of a $100k bankroll and swimming around in money. That never happened and that’s probably never going to happen. I don’t put the time in at the tables to get to that level. Between a full time job, a new house, and a soon to be new wife it just isn’t happening and I’m completely fine with that. Sure I’m jealous looking at the graphs of some of the players on 2+2 with gorgeous graphs at giant win rates at the higher level games but they also put in countless hours day in and day out.

The UIGEA really fucked things up for everyone, including me. Most of my poker winnings were in the form of bonus money. The highest limit I ever played was 5/10 and even at that level I’m not going to make a ton of money.

Look for me at the micro-micro limits for the next few months!

The third barrel

2007-11-07T20:37:00.001-05:00

I'm unable to fire the 3rd barrel in NL tournaments.

That is all.

PLO

2007-11-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

Played some $100 PLO last week because basically I got bored at the $25 level. I'm violating every poker rule by jumping up in levels before I'm probably ready but why waste my time. I like poker and there's no excitement at the $25 level.

I did OK, games were FANTASTIC. Lots of limpers, nice pots.

I made a call that probably wasn't the smartest call in the world but it worked.

Hoping to get some more hands in this week since my girlfriends is out of town on business.

Home Game - Sphincter

2007-10-31T08:30:00.000-05:00

We play a game in our home game that we call sphincter. Here’s how its setup.

It’s basically 2 card guts with a bitch hand but the monster difference is that after the players decide if they’re in or they’re out there’s a 5 card board put out just like hold’em. The bitch always plays and it usually generates some incredibly large pots.

The first time we played this game we had several pots over $100 and we play with a $10 max pay. If the pot is $80, 5 people stay in and the bitch somehow pulls out a win everyone throws in $10 instead of having to match the pot. If we played this game uncapped I’m sure we’d get $500-$1000 pots every once in a while and honestly we’re just playing a friendly home game so no one is interested in seeing that kind of money on the table.

So last night we played this game and it’s incredible to watch how many times the crappiest hands suckout for the win. I stayed in with AA, another player with A2, and the bitch had 26os. The bitch won with a 2 on the turn and a 6 on the river for the runner-runner 2 pair. Here you thought online poker was rigged.

Happy Halloween.

Poker Scandals

2007-10-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

This whole absolute poker thing is quite a mess. Here’s a site with the most up to date stuff without having to wade through all the posts on 2+2.

http://www.absolutedetectives.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome

Going on in parallel is the WCOOP main event winner being disqualified for multi-accounting. Not the first time we’ve seen this either.

I guess you have to figure with this much money involved the scum are going to come out of the woodwork to get their hands on it.

Rockies let me down last night. If betting were legal I would have wagered on the Rockies +205 and some in-game betting of Rockies +600. Luckily I’m only wagering fake money so I didn’t really lose anything.

I won the poker tourney we played the other night at the home game which locked up the overall series title for me for the 3^rd year in a row. I felt like I got an insanely hot run of cards every tournament and out of the 6 tournaments so far I’ve finished 1^st, last(7 card stud), 3^rd, 1^st, 3^rd, and 1^st. Pretty good run and I’ll take the extra cash I’ve made from it. Making it even sweeter I had all my buy ins paid for by two other players who I beat in a weight loss contest earlier this year so I was freerolling in every tournament.

In 2 of the 3 tournaments I won I had major suckouts that allowed it to happen. One was a 3 outer that I hit on the river to get a straight and the other was a 2 outer on the turn. To be fair on the 2^nd suckout it was a re-suck since I had KK, he had QQ and flopped a Q.

I mentioned before that this is the 3^rd year in a row I’ve won this tournament series for our home game and it makes me wonder if I should be spending more time playing tournaments online instead of cash games. I despise SNG’s so that’s not happening but MTT’s might be a nice change. I’m enjoying the PLO games but I feel like I’ll have to put in some major time before I’m playing at limits where the $$ matters. I can play an MTT and get lucky anytime, got to hit that big payday!

Poker?? No thank you

2007-10-23T14:24:00.000-05:00

I've got an xbox 360 and Halo 3.

I'm a little late to the Halo phenomenon but damn is this a fun game.

Tonight is another one of our weekly tourney's, NLO. Kind of a weird game but with our group any NL game is a fun one. Right now I'm leading the points race(next week is the last tourney) and it looks like 1st is going to pay out $200+ which will add to my $25 PLO bankroll.

2007-10-16T09:35:00.000-05:00

I missed the big blogger tourney on Stars. I was home sitting on my ass watching football so I easily could have played. I just can’t get down with scheduled poker tournaments. When I want to sit down and play poker I’ll do that but it’s such a pain to mark down a time that I have to be in front of a computer.

Playing a PLO8 tourney tonight in the home game. I really really enjoy PLO8 ring games, not really sure how a tourney will work.

How sick are the Rockies right now? I’m glad. Colorado has always supported that team and it’s a bunch of likable guys. I hope Cleveland gets in the series with them though I don’t know if it matters who it is with they way they’re playing right now. 21 of 22 wins!?

I doubt anyone that reads this watched the Sabres game last night but the 3^rd period/OT was some of the most enjoyable hockey I’ve ever watched. Leafs are up 2-0 going into the 3^rd and then the Sabres score 2 goals in 37 seconds to tied it up. Toronto comes right back and takes the lead 3-2, buffalo comes right back and ties it 3-3. Toronto comes back and goes ahead 4-3, buffalo ties it with 3 minutes left 4-4. Into OT and the Sabres finally score with 3.6 seconds left for the win. I’m really starting to love hockey, especially with VS HD.

Bachelor Party

2007-10-15T21:25:00.000-05:00

Headed up to Fallsview Casino this weekend for my bachelor party. Had a blast. First time at Fallsview and I was impressed, nice casino. I'd heard it was similar to the Vegas experience but that's crazy talk, you can't have the Vegas experience in Niagara Falls.

First bet of the night all the guys donated $10 to me and I had to put it on a Roulette color to try and double up. I chose black and everyone got on my case to choose red since one of the guys in the group has the nickname red. It landed on black.

We took over a Blackjack table early, it was everyone from my group. I sat in the right seat and in about an hour at a $15 minimum table I was up a grand. I had a non-gambling friend behind me and everytime I got a black chip he'd tell me to put it in my pocket. I was obviously drinking and after about an hour I had no idea how much was in my pocket. I busted through what I had left on the table and walked to the cashier cage. $11xx and I bought in for $190. Not too shabby. I took $500 back to my room(we stayed across the street at a Days Inn, much cheaper) and we headed out for some local entertainment.

We headed back to the casino after that and everyone got slaughtered. I lost the $500 I had brought with me in about 20 minutes at a $25 table and everyone around me was busting out too. I thought about sitting down in the poker room but the entire night there had been huge waiting lists and only 1 5/10 Limit table, everything else was NL and I'm not much of a NL poker player. I actually don't even enjoy NL ring games all that much.

The next morning we had some breakfast and headed back over to the casino so I could cash in my $80 in chips I had left. I of course lost it trying to double up on roulette.

Great weekend and I came home $500 richer.

2007-10-04T09:40:00.000-05:00

Couple of fun hands last night at the PLO 6 max tables.

I’ve been at the table only a short time when I get AA33 double suited. I min raise and right behind me comes another raise. BB calls and I re-raise and guy right behind me pushes in the last of his chips, BB folds and I call. The board comes pretty safe for me 4Q6 rainbow but on pokerstars I can’t see his hand even though we’re all in and there’s no more betting. Turn is a 6 and river is another blank. I actually feel pretty good about my top 2 pair here and I watch the pot go to his stack and see a hand of 26Q8 rainbow. Yay Omaha!!

Second hand is at another table and I get this urge to gamble and end up getting all my money in pre-flop with AQT8 with the A8 being sooted. Rainbow flop, turn K, river 8 with a spade flush out there, my opponent’s hand mucks and the chips go to me with two pair. My opponent had KQT4 rainbow. I’d run into him many more times this night.

Third hand I get AA22 double suited and AGAIN get all in preflop with the same guy as hand #2. Another dry flop, turn 2 river 3 giving me bottom 2 pair, good enough, ship the $80 pot my way. He had an even worse hand this time.

I stayed at the table with the guy from hands 2 & 3 for a while and eventually with 5 players at the table four of us had stacks of 3 buy-ins from this one guy. We basically stayed out of each others way and just drilled him with our good hands and he wasn’t getting lucky at all. I ended up winning just shy of a buy-in on the night which I’ll gladly take.

I’m playing 3 tables of shorthanded PLO right now and I’m thinking I could bump it to 4 tables and see how it goes. Omaha is MUCH slower than hold’em but at the same time when I get in a big hands at different tables it’s a lot more math at each table to figure out what my opponent has, what I’m drawing to to win, and how many outs do I have. I would like to bump it to 4 tables simply because I want to earn more $$$ and more FPP’s. I’m only earning about 40FPP’s an hour right now and I want to try and make Silver this month so I can use my 28k FPP’s to buy in to the Sunday million tourney.

PLO live tourney

2007-10-03T10:49:00.000-05:00

Played a PLO tournament last night for our local tournament series. Managed to finish first putting me in the overall points lead after 3 weeks. Week 1 was limit hold’em and I won, week 2 was 7 card stud, I got eliminated either first or second earning no points and then last night another win. I really really really like PLO. For some reason the game is much more enjoyable to me and I love the Pot Limit structure. It fits the game of Omaha perfectly.

I basically folded for the first hour last night and then because of blind pressure I was forced to mix it up with some sub par hands. I made what I consider a large laydown against one of the table maniacs. I had potted before the flop with KJJT double sooted and been called by crazy guy in the big blind. He plays a ton of hands and he plays very aggressively, it’s very tough for me to play against him. Flop comes 345 rainbow and I honestly thought my pair of jacks was good here. I HATE that flop, terrible flop for my hand but this guy could have anything. I still had some chips left and I reluctantly folded. He later told me he had flopped the straight. Final hand of the night I raised with J99T double sooted and got called. Flop was 393 and I checked, he bet the pot, I re-raised him all in and he called. He had a naked 3 and I’m pretty sure he was drawing to the last remaining 3 which did not come.

We then played a cash game for a while. I lost every chip on an incredibly stupid play where I flopped a straight(we’re playing limit here) and just kept going with it all the way. I decided to sit out and play Halo 3, changed my mind and got back in for $10. I started out with a quick high card for $3.25 with 2 other players and drew a King, ship it. Then another high card for $10, drew a 9 vs a 2, ship it and I was back to even for the cash game. It’s all skill. Should be getting some online poker in tonight while I watch the baseball games.

The New York Mets

2007-09-28T13:34:00.001-05:00

The mets. Sigh. They just can’t get it together. Offense explodes, bullpen can’t hold it. Pitching is stellar(thanks pedro) offense can’t score. 3 games left to determine the NL East champion and who gets to go to the playoffs. Should be a great weekend of baseball.

Hockey starts this weekend. Looking forward to another great season of sabres hockey.

What a weekend of sports, Baseball, college football, hockey, and then finish it all off with NFL games. Whew I’m going to be watching a lot of TV this weekend.

Played some more PLO $25 6 max. Still treading water. The swings are so small at this level I sometimes make calls and bets without thinking too much. I need to correct that. I do enjoy the game so much more than hold’em. A lot more math involved trying to figure outs, draws, etc. Sat with a player last night who played 90% of the hand and had a $160 stack at a $25 table. He stacked me once when I got frisky in a large pot with top 2, nut flush draw and nut straight draw. I’m not sure I made the right call but I knew exactly what he had and called anyway with only 1 card to go. Probably a mistake but I’ll have to plug it into one of those online calculators and see how much of a dog I was. Last night towards the end of my session I got the exact same hand on two tables at the same time. Kind of odd to see in Omaha I would think. Missed the flops on both boards.

They’re having a WPT event at the Fallsview casino in a few weeks. I’ll be up there for my bachelor party before then and I’m going to see if I can play in some super satellite or something to qualify. I highly doubt it will happen but it’s worth a shot.

One last night. Rent the Friday Night Lights Season One DVD set. One of the best shows on TV. Season premiere is next Friday, I can't wait. Awesome show.

4 of a kind

2007-09-25T17:41:00.000-05:00

I guess it's something I have to expect to see a little more often at PLO. Ran my nut full house into quads and almost got stacked. After his 3rd raise where he somehow didn't put me all in I figured I was cooked.

Other than that I've bumped it up to 3 tables now that I'm starting to understand the game a little better. The only thing that sucks is that I don't earn FPP's at anywhere near the rate I did at 2/4 limit 6max.

2007-09-18T10:34:00.000-05:00

Nothing to write about, haven’t played poker in a while. Pokerstars has a reload bonus running that I’m hoping to take advantage of. I’ve got $300 of FTP bonus that has to be cleared by Thursday(NOT happening). I’m playing $25 buy-in PLO, I earn an FTP point about once every other year. As for the Stars reload, I’m going to try and get to it but I’m not sure how to fund the account.

I won both of the weight loss prop bets I was in last week. In my final push I lost 11lbs in 3 days including a whopping 8lbs in a 24 hour period right before weigh in. This involved an hour of bball, a 5.5 mile walk, and a 3 mile run with a hooded sweatshirt on all while consuming minimal food and no water. It was quite painful but quite worth it.

Tonight my local home game starts our annual tournament series, should be fun. We’re playing a limit hold’em tournament tonight. Sounds quite boring but it’s usually a pretty good time.

Stacked 3 times

2007-09-11T11:10:00.000-05:00

I played pretty shitty Omaha last night.

First time I flopped the nuts, got counterfeited on the turn and still put the rest of my $$ in.

Second time was decent, turned the nuts on a dry board, bet, was re-raised and I pushed. Got called , he had a bunch of outs to split and hit the right card to scoop(was playing some O8)

Third time I was completely retarded and would rather not discuss my play in O8 with bottom set on a connected and suited board.

Still in the green though. I don't think it's a coincidence that I had my worst session when I bumped it up to 3 tables and was watching football. I need to try and keep it to 2 tables for now because I'm just not good enough at the game quite yet.

I think it's sustainable

2007-09-04T21:49:00.001-05:00

Omaha Hi and Omaha 8

2007-09-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

Love it. I’ve enjoyed Omaha more than hold’em for a while now. It’s pretty much all we play in our home games. We play several different variations but I’d say 80% of the game is some sort of Omaha. I’m still not sure which I like better, O8 or just Omaha hi but either way I’ve decided to focus on Omaha for a few months and see where it takes me. I’ve already read a few books on Omaha so I have a good idea of starting hand requirements and how to play the game and now I just need to pound out the hands. I’m looking to play only PL, no NL or Limit. PL seems to be the game I enjoy the most while playing Omaha and I think it’s the best suited bet structure for Omaha.

I downloaded PT Omaha last night and played about 100 hands and got them loaded into my first PTO database. Green numbers which I haven’t seen in FOREVER!! I misplayed 2, maybe 3 hands out of the ~100 hands I played. First hand was getting all in with a small full house on a 7AJJ board(I had 77) only to see my opponent holding XXJJ and I hit a miracle river card to take the low half. The next hand I screwed up wasn’t too much of a screw up, I had the nut low, nut flush draw on the turn and I THOUGHT I had a straight and pushed and got called and only got half the pot was all said and done and couldn’t figure out why. I had to use the hand replayer to realize that I had misread my hand. The third hand I think I screwed up I pushed to hard with Aces full and I think I could have squeezed a few more bucks out of the pot but I wanted the whole thing and didn’t want to split with a low if it came on the river. I’m actually still not sure if I misplayed that one.

I’m in very strange territory here. I know I’m calling WAY too much pre-flop. Just like in hold’em I’m quite sure aggression is key. I tried to push some edges last night when I thought I had the best hand and for the most part they worked out but it’s still just a weird feeling not really playing robotic poker online. Over the next few months I’m going to try my hand at this game and see how it goes.

Playing some Omaha

2007-09-03T22:16:00.000-05:00

This was nice

Time to find a new game

2007-08-28T13:13:00.001-05:00

Over the last couple days I’ve been thinking about a bunch of things. Here’s the list.

Concentrating only on MTT’s
Concentrating only on shorthanded NL
Concentrating only on shorthanded Limit

Why have I been thinking about these things? Even though limit is the game I enjoy the most and WAS the best at that’s no longer the case. After looking through my pokertracker and running my database through PokerEV I’m apparently a break even player. I’m not in this to be a break even player. I want the cash. Since I’m now realizing that I’m a breakeven player at SH limit I’m thinking I might as well take this opportunity to learn a new game and start all over.

I’d love to attack Omaha but I don’t think there’s a large enough player base, maybe I’m wrong, I have no idea.

MTT’s peak my interest simply because of the large payoffs and losing a fixed amount. I actually tend to do well in MTT’s and I think there’s enough dead money that it would be worth my time. I’m leaning towards focusing on these. I can handle the long droughts of not cashing because I don’t really play all that much.

Shorthaned NL would be fun to learn and I have a general idea of the concepts already but I’m not sure I can ever be a NL player. I’ve dabbled in the past and I’m really quite bad at NL ring games.

Looking back on everything I’ve done since that first deposit in Jan 04 I realize that the only reason I played limit back then was because it cleared bonuses faster than any other form of poker. Since bonuses are so far and few between now I can branch out and play whatever I want without the concern of pounding through bonus after bonus.

I have enough FPP’s on stars for a couple of the Sunday million tournaments so I’m planning on playing those sometime this fall, should be a fun experience. I don’t think I’ve ever played in a tourney with a buy-in of more than $125.

Learning the game all over again

2007-08-27T07:41:00.000-05:00

Another terrible weekend at the poker tables. I got a lot of hands in on Fri/Sat and I just don’t seem to be getting it. The downswing has now reached 500BB’s over 4 months. I decided to download PokerEV software so it could tell me how bad I’ve been running and the results were more than surprising. This software somehow calculates the EV of every bet you make at the poker table and gives you your expected outcome and your actual outcome. I figured it would show me running ridiculously bad but in fact it actually showed me running a little on the lucky side. This was quite a shock to me.

I’ve been a winning player since I started online in 2004. I’ve only played low stakes the entire time so I haven’t really won all that much money but I was always in the black(green, whatever) This year has been a different story, I’m now in the red on the year and this is after a red hot start to the year where I was pulling down 3BB/100 for 20-25k hands.

There’s not much I can do at this point but re-dedicate myself and think more about the game when I’m sitting at the tables. I know the games are good and I’m confident I can beat these games I just need to change a few things up in my game to adjust. I’m going to for the first time in my life start posting hands at 2+2 and I’m going to try and contribute more to the threads in the small stakes short-handed forum and hopefully right the ship and get back on track.

My bankroll is quite depleted and in a sad state of affairs. It’s small enough that I probably shouldn’t be playing 2/4 but I’m not sure what to do about that. Replenish it from some of my own money or drop down? I know the answer is drop down and learn but I’m a little stubborn and the games are good at 2/4 so it’s all or nothing from here on out.

Recovering from a loss

2007-08-22T07:41:00.000-05:00

Last night after my losing session of poker I did what every smart degenerate gambler does, hit the blackjack tables to makeup the losses.

Hand 1 - $25, LOSS
Hand 2 - $25, LOSS
Hand 3 - $100, WIN
Hand 4 - $50, double down on 11, WIN

Up $150, game over.

Why waste hours of my precious evening playing poker when it's so easy to win at blackjack?

That didn't take long

2007-08-21T22:06:00.001-05:00

Lost back everything I won last night.

I unfiltered my PT database, since the UIGEA I've played 45,752 at a bunch of different levels. Total profit $46 for the year.

Feeling really good about my poker game right now.

A winning session

2007-08-21T13:48:00.001-05:00

I posted a winning session last night. Unbelievable. I got run over by the deck but I’ll take it. I opened up 2 tables to start the night, pocket pairs on both tables, a set on the first table took down a small pot and a flopped set and rivered quads took down the pot on the other table. Got AA, KK, KK all right away, although I lost both pots involving the KK hands and lost another giant pot later on with KK. I won a really nice pot in a blind battle. I was SB with KQ and raised, BB re-raised and we saw a flop of KQ6, betting capped, turn was a Q, betting capped, river was a blank I bet and he just called. He had 66. Got lucky there.

WSOP Main Event on ESPN tonight.

Playing live with friends tomorrow night and I’ll be playing a bunch at FT all week. $410 of bonus left to clear in 25 days.

Hmm that last post was good

2007-08-20T12:00:00.000-05:00

No poker all weekend and actually I haven’t played in about a week. I need to pound out the hands over the next 3 weeks to clear my FT bonus. I’ll be on vacation with no internet some of that time so my time is even more limited. Of course if I keep losing I’ll have no $$ to play with anyway.

Played live poker last week and had a nice night winning $52. Our annual live tournament series is fast approaching so I’m looking forward to that. Kind of helps to take the sting away that summer is over and the boat is coming out of the water.

I haven’t watched one single minute of the 2007 World Series. I don’t know why they’re airing it in the summer, who stays inside and watches TV when it’s 80 degrees outside? I actually didn’t even DVR it because I didn’t realize it was starting so soon. I did read that this week is the Main Event so I’ll probably tape that and watch it. I’m not really upset that I missed any hold’em on TV because there’s nothing really that exciting about hold’em on TV anymore. I would like to see any Omaha or anything other than hold’em though so I’m hoping ESPN re-airs them 17 million times like they normally do.

I'm done

2007-08-11T22:38:00.000-05:00

I can't take it anymore. Lost another 30BB tonight. I just can't seem to fix this shit.

2007-08-10T08:28:00.000-05:00

Played two sessions of 2/4 6max last night. The first session saw me lose enough that my bankroll on FT couldn’t support playing 4 tables of 2/4. I decided to cash out everything from Pokerstars(not that much) and temporarily play on FT while I grind out the current bonus I have. I’m sure I’m going to regret cashing out when I want to go back to Stars and play because funding will be a bitch but I didn’t have much of a choice. I need that money in the Stars account to be working for me not just sitting there doing nothing for the next 45 days.

After the first session I was frustrated so I sat down to watch a movie. I popped 300 into the DVD player and it was good but I’m not sure what all they hype was about. Maybe the Mortal Kombat like fight scenes? I have no idea.

Back to the computer for the second session and it started out with more of the same. I know two things about my game. I’m too tight and I don’t raise enough pre-flop so I’m working on that. At the same time I think I go to showdown a little too much but every once in a while I’ll make what I think is a good fold only to see that I was ahead. This is definitely the weakest part of my game. I also seem to struggle against very loose players. I call them down with as little as K high and basically decide right on the flop that I’m taking the hand to the river. These are all little things I noticed last night that I need to work on. I had a nice run of cards(and loose tables) towards the end of the session to get me back to +$7 on the day which I’ll take. Of course I cleared $20 in bonus so really I was -$13 but after the first session I consider that a win. My bankroll on FT is still way too small to be playing Shorthanded 2/4 but if I have to I’ll reload it with some of the Stars money.

I do feel good being back at the tables and even though I’m playing and running like crap I’ve been keeping my eye on the 3/6 and 5/10 games.

380BB over my last 18k hands

2007-08-08T21:58:00.000-05:00

Poker is just beating me down. I don't play a ton of hands so I'm looking at 3 losing months in a row and a total of 4 months. I haven't had a positive month since April.

Back to the tables

2007-08-07T08:03:00.001-05:00

I’M BACK! Reloaded my FT account last night, got $490 in bonus to work off and I’m excited about poker again. FT’s software seems much better since the last time I played there.

I sat down at a few 2/4 6 max tables and fired everything up again. No updates for PokerTracker so that was good. Tried to run PAHud and it had expired so I downloaded the latest version and couldn’t get it to install. As I was getting frustrated with that I had lost over $100 on 2 tables. Ahhhhhh great to be back. I finally fixed the PAHud(the date on my computer clock was wrong) and opened up a few more tables. I came back and made $9. I lost back $50 more in the second very short session but I wasn’t paying attention and had to jump out early so I’m not too disappointed with that.

I made a few dumb call downs and I raised when I was behind and folded a few hands I was ahead but other than that just kicking off the rust. I took a little over a month off and it’s amazing how much I lost from that little time off. I was referring back to my trusty hand chart and very unsure in a few situations. I’m sure it’ll slowly come back over the next month.

THANK YOU FULL TILT

2007-08-01T07:32:00.000-05:00

50% up to $500 bonus and I can use a credit card!?

45 days to clear?!

I'm in heaven. The timing on this is absolutely perfect. I want to get back and play some poker. I have no VIP status to keep up at Pokerstars since I didn't play at all this month. Most importantly I really need that $500 so hopefully I can just play break even poker. I'll be getting the bonus and rakeback for all the hands I put in.

Now I can't wait to get back to the tables.

I also love this time of year. I've got a bunch of scheduled vacation coming up in August, baseball races are heating up, and best of all, football season.

I've got 3 different weight loss bets running right now for a total of about $250. I needed to get my fat ass back into shape, money is always the best incentive.

The Poker Mindset

2007-07-27T12:30:00.001-05:00

I'm reading this book called The Poker Mindset and today I got through the chapter on tilt. My 2 month downswing(May and June, haven't played 1 single hand of limit hold'em this month) I'm realizing that I've been on what the book calls Passive Tilt. I'm expecting to get sucked out on and instead of being aggressive and getting an extra bet here and there or folding when I'm beat I call down.

Taking this month off has helped. The desire to play poker is starting to creep back in. I'm bummed that I'm going to lose my Gold Star status on Pstars but once the weather cools off and things slow down a bit I'll get back into it. I'll probably be online poker free most of next month too and pick back up in September.

Youwager.com

2007-07-24T10:32:00.000-05:00

This is not paid or anything just wanted to give some credit to youwager.com. I've cashed out a couple times from there and I get a check within 2 days. I cashed out Sunday night and Tuesday morning Fedex is at my door with my check. Sure it costs $40 to cashout(up from $30) but I still think it's so ridiculously fast it's worth giving some credit. The money will be in my account faster than it would have in Neteller days.

I'm also running red hot on their blackjack tables so That's helped pay for the $40 withdrawal fees.

No poker, playing another home game next week at my place. Going to introduce 6 card Omaha. Never played it before, should be fun, big pots.

PL Omaha H/L

2007-07-20T08:42:00.000-05:00

So much more enjoyable than hold'em. Played in a $50 ring game the other night, I won a couple bucks. Also played in a $15 tourney, went out about 150th out of 800 something. I was shortstacked basically the entire tournament and my only move was to push or fold. Got AA and QQ a few times and pushed but no callers. Pushed with J8s on the button and the small blind came over the top with QQ and no help for me.

I have played almost no online poker this month. That's usually the case in the summer so no big deal. I did peruse the FPP store on Stars to see what I could buy with my 28,000 FPP's. Nothing I would keep that's for sure. The 80Gb iPod would be nice but I have an 8GB Nano already so I'd probably just ebay it for cash.

Had my 30th bday this past week. My future wife(hate the word fiance) got me a trampoline. Seems odd to get a trampoline for a 30th bday present but it's exactly what I wanted. Got it together last night and it's more fun than I remembered as a kid.

CASH games....using real cash

2007-07-13T12:51:00.001-05:00

Hosted a game last night and we played using real cash. So awesome to scoop a pot of real cash. The last 2 hours we played some NL and it did get annoying counting out all the bills whenever someone went all in. It was a nice change of pace.

I'm involved in a weight loss prop bet with 2 other friends. The winner of the bet gets their entry fees paid by the two losers for a series of tournaments we play in the fall. The winner basically gets about $120 in tourney fees paid for over several weeks.

My 30th bday is coming up this week, looking forward to leaving my 20's. Not really but I really don't give a crap about age.

Final hand from our cash game last night.

I have 2s6s, called a $4 raise and see a flop with 2 other people of Q26. I checked, pre-flop raiser bet $10, fold, and I pushed with $24 and he called with QT. Turn T, river blank. It really sucks losing on the final hand like that. It was only about $30 but when it's real cash and it's lost to my friends it's so much more annoying.

I love Mountain Dew

2007-07-11T11:58:00.000-05:00

This just showed up at my house today. Nice to hit a 100-1 shot every once in a while.

2007-07-05T09:05:00.000-05:00

I highly doubt this is an accurate intelligence test but it makes me look smart so I'm passing it on.

I haven't played any poker the last few days so nothing to talk about there.

I did finish reading Winning In Tough Hold'em Games and thought it was a pretty good book for shorthanded and high stakes poker. I realized about 5-6 books ago that the best way to get better at poker is to play over...and over....and over. I do still enjoy reading the books though. I'm now working on The Poker Mindset. After that I may dabble in some No Limit books

2007-07-02T09:25:00.001-05:00

I set a new personal record on Saturday. I played somewhere around 4000 hands of 2/4 6 max limit hold’em. I was up, I was down, I was even, and my last session was pretty bad and I ended up down around 50BB from the start of the day. My winrate has now dropped to a miniscule .9BB/100.

It’s terribly frustrating. I’m not a pro so I don’t bust out 4k hands/day very often. I’ve had two awful months in a row now and I’m really questioning what I’m doing wrong.

I’m going to just keep pounding out hands until I can figure this out. The one benefit is that Saturday was June 30^th and I was still considered Platinum from last months double promotion on Stars so I was earning 2.5FPP’s for every VPP. I also managed to make it to Gold Star at about 11:55pm on Saturday night so for July I’ll be earning 2x FPP’s.

Lose....Lose....Lose

2007-06-27T19:07:00.000-05:00

Same old shit at 2/4 6max. This is frustrating.

Out in 11th

2007-06-25T08:40:00.000-05:00

Pushed A2 from the CO at a 6 handed table, chipleader on the button called with KQ which is about the best I could hope for.

Flop had a K and no A came so I went home in 11th. Like my play there and I'd do it again. Blinds were 4k/8k with 300 ante so I was quite shortstacked along with most of the rest of the players in the tourney.

After that tourney last night I'm going to play some more MTT's to get away from the limit ring games for a while. I also donked around in some $50NL 6 max and PL Omaha H/L. I love PL Omaha H/L. I'm not good at NL ring.

This is poker

2007-06-25T00:49:00.001-05:00

I'm deep in an MTT right now and my heart is racing when every hand shows up.

First place is $3200

UPDATE: 8th in chips with 12 left, we're on our 4th break. I've watched Sportscenter twice and Baseball Tonight twice