20 June 2006

A Definite Upswing...

...and I am hoping it lasts! Had a very good day today. Spent about 7 hours working at home, had a chance to catch Germany's final preliminary game at the World Cup, plus bits and pieces of the UK/Sweden game, and profited nicely at the tables in my two hours there. Let's just hope the Angels can beat the Giants tonight for a perfect day!

Germany 3 Ecuador 0. Germany played a masterful game and dismantled Ecuador on both ends. Meanwhile Sweden loses a star player to injury and despite a very late goal giving them a 2-1 lead, the Swedes rally and tie it up. All four teams are headed to the elimination round.

  • Playing two hours, I manage another great win at CD Poker, slowly repairing my bankroll there from the $33.72 it was at yesterday. Yesterday's 27BB win coupled with today's 17.75BB win, sees my B/R there at $122.60.
  • At Sun Poker I was bobbing between 5BB down and 7BB up. I finished up by a little more than 5BB for the afternoon.

Today's results: +$46.25

19 June 2006

Signs of Life?

After blogging on Sunday, I played some NL2 at UB and Paradise. I did quite well at UB, making $3.62 there [almost doubling through twice] as well as $0.64 in bonus. This isn't bad NL-wise. I mean, I don't play the higher NL games yet. I was just playing around without getting hurt. At Paradise, I managed to lose $1.79.

Sunday's results: +$2.47

Today, I managed a bit more than two hours after work. I'll be making dinner shortly, then my team is in town [the Angels] to play the Giants. My wife manages to hoard the remote most nights, but I let her know last week, that the TV is mine for the next three days, lol.

  • Sun Poker. I couldn't hit squat here, losing on both tables I played. One hand I did manage to hit, I had AQs under the gun, and raised preflop. Flop came A45. I caught an A on the turn and got re-raised. I re-raised and he called. Blank on the river. He checked, I bet, he showed 32o. Yup! 32o calling raises preflop. I almost came unglued. Lost $39.52
  • CD Poker. Only had a little more than $33 here, but was ready to reload if I needed it. WOW! Finally got my good hands to hold up. And like I thought, all it took was average luck and I knew I would be taking these poor player's money. And I did. Finished up $53.38.

Today's results: +$13.86

18 June 2006

Friday and Saturday Roundup


Friday was a scorcher! Mercury hit 98, which is quite hot here in the Bay Area.

After work, I played some Holdem, both during the afternoon and on into the sweltering evening. Took a small loss on CD Poker, then got embroiled in a $1250 Guaranteed there and finished out of the money. I played a little at Sun Poker and Pokerroom and did markedly better. Pokerroom continues to be very fruitful to my bankroll. I made 20BB in an hour there. Virtually broke even at Sun, up $3.38. This wasn't a bad result, considering I was behind most of the session.

Friday's results: +28.43

Saturday found me and my wife, Susan, off to the Isleton Crawdad Festival. Yeah. The day after the hottest day of the year, and we're going to go somewhere in the Central Valley [which is synonymous with heat] and mill around a small town with thousands of others. Think mini-Mardi Gras west, except the women aren't showing off their breasts for beads. :( Never been to this crawdad festival before. They, unfortunately, had but one crawdad vendor. You had to wait in a line of about 100 people to buy your crawdad food tickets. Then jump in the food line, numbering another 100 or so, to get your food. In the 100 degree heat. Of the outdoor foodcourt. In the sun. Where propane heat was coming out of every corner of the court. Nope, ended up getting a beer and a smoked hotlink. I think me and Sue will go up there in a few weekends and eat lunch at one of the local establishments and eat crawdads without the hassle. They had lots of beer and soda vendors, lots of other vendors. Not bad, but overrun with bikers, and just too damned hot.

We got home relatively early, and ended up eating dinner out after I got some NL cash game time in at CD Poker. No hands, no flops, and I finished down $17.80 Came home from dinner, house still sweltering, but outside had turned cool. So we opened some windows and doors. Sue took the computer in the dining room to play her latest arcade games on, I went into the office and was delighted I managed to get into a $3+$0.30 tournament on Stars. As soon as it started, I realized it was a Fixed Limit tournament. Uggh. Half an hour in , I decided I needed some NL action, so I started a NL tourney on Royal Vegas. Folks, don't play two tournaments which are on separate break schedules! Especially if you need a bathroom break....Anyway here are my results:

  • PokerStars $3+$.30 FL Tournament. Top prize, $418, field of 558, I manage 28th, despite not playing FL tourneys all that much. Won $7.54, netting $4.24. Lost when my 77 all-in against AJo, sees a flop of J74, runner AA. Uggh.
  • Royal Vegas, $3+$.50 NL Tournament. Top prize for a field of 76 was $68. Really thought this one would fill up more. I'll remember this in the future. I feel I am a shoe-in for the money despite only 10 places paid, and still mid-20 left. I get AA against a player who built his chipstack on crap hands getting lucky. Blinds are 150/300, I have 3800 chips left. I raise to 900 first in. This player and the BB call. Flop comes Q64. BB checks, I go all-in, luckbox calls [he has 250 chips left], BB folds. Luckbox shows QTo. Hits his T on the river. I wasn't happy. In fact, I called him a f*** idiot. Got warned by the tournament manager to watch my language. Basically told the tournament manager to either ban my chat function or STFU, but not to threaten me. Don't know if he turned my chat off or not, haven't been back to see, lol. Lost my tourney buy-in.

Saturday's results: sigh, -$17.06

15 June 2006

More Mayhem at the Tables


If you like vampire type movies, or if you saw the original "Underworld", believe me when I say, Kate Beckinsale is the most drop-dead gorgeous vampire ever! Unlike many other undead/vampire/werewolf movies, these two movies are very well put together, fun-to-watch and visually exciting. Unfortunately, there is a rumor going around that Kate Beckinsale won't be in the third one. Meaning quite probably that it won't be as good as it's predecessors.

After I posted in my blog on Monday, and after dinner, etc., I ventured to Empire and played a $5+$1 SnG, which I placed third in for a $4 profit. This made me feel a little better. Well, until Tuesday...


Tuesday. Played exclusively at CD Poker. I had 3 tables going, and got clobbered once again. My Showdown/Won percentages took a beating as well. How can I put a donkey on 63, on an A75J4 board when the putz had to have voluntarily called three-bets cold preflop? Set losing to garbage, K-high double spade flush lost when A of spades hit on the river. Flopped two straights and lost to a 3 and 4 outer river fullhouse. I cannot afford to leave here. Ultimately their hideously good luck will even out and CD Poker will turn into an incredible goldmine.

Tuesday's result: -$96.00

Wednesday. I decided to move some money out of Pokerroom after reloading for another $100 bonus. I did markedly better. After losing two $2+$0.40 "Dirty Dozen" SnGs at CD Poker, I settled down to play some cash games there. I was about 2BB up, when I got dealt J4o in the BB. Three people limped in and I saw a flop of A44, two clubs. I checked, and one player bet, while another raised. I re-raised, and the man who had checked behind me, capped it. Uh-oh, I'm thinking, do you have the case 4, with a better kicker or did you limp with AA? All of us call the cap. Next card off is another club. Great! Going to lose this big pot to yet another flush. I check, flop capper checks. Whatthe...? Guy behind him bets, fold, I raise, re-raised by guy behind me. Call, call. The last four hits the river. I bet, called by guy who kept raising, fold by other guy. I scoop a huge pot. Guy next to me didn't even have a flush. He had ATo. With the two SnG losses, but up on the cash game table, I finish up almost $16 at CD Poker.

I venture over to Sun Poker to work some hands off towards their $40 monthly bonus. What a weird session this turned out to be. First off, I play there only about 1 hour. I only manage, in this hour, to earn 10.25 points towards my bonus. This is way below the norm for $1/$2 there. However, I kept getting dealt good pocket cards. What happens is that I am well ahead preflop, my opponent outflops me, but I have a hand I have to stay with, and I end up outdrawing my opponents. Again and again. In an hour I manage a $38 profit.

Wednesday's Result: +$54.20

Today being Thursday, I haven't played any poker. I go to breakfast with my Dad every Thursday morning [unless he has a doctor's appointment], and then go to work. I'm working for an online company, so my poker playing time is affected. I still usually manage a few hours daily. Perhaps I'll play tonight. If I do, I'll make another blog post tomorrow.

May there always be a road - Louis L'Amour

12 June 2006

In a downturn. Hopefully it will be shortlived


All the signs are there. Good starters missing flops. Good starters hitting monster flops and losing. Big pocket pairs losing to utter rubbish. Nut straights and flushes losing to fullhouses. I;ve been down this road three times before. There is damn little I can do about it, but fight through it. I've looked at my stats these last few weeks and notice no glaring leaks. I'm simply getting beat while having the best of it. Now I know today my stats show me as not having raised enough preflop, but I had one of those days where preflop raise opportunities were few and far between. I was on some aggressive tables. Tables where I was hitting all kinds of great flops and losing anyway.
  • Sun Poker. Here was the only place I had won today, and it was a major feat. I hit the nut flush here on the turn, only to lose when a pair of 7s managed to hit a fullhouse when a 3rd 4 fell on the river/ I was almost ready to leave until that setback. I fought back and managed to clear a 1BB profit.
  • Pokerroom. I started up on a roll. Up almost 10BB, I came crashing back to earth swiftly. Hands simply wouldn't hold up to absolute trash hitting wildly lucky outs. Finished down 9BB.
  • CD Poker. What a horrible place this is turning out to be. This place is so full of fish. This is what makes it so frustrating. I know I am better than 90% of the players I am facing at $1/$2, yet my results are absolutley dismal. I've lost almost $160 since starting here last week. Nothing was holding up. QQ lost to K5s who cold-called 2 bets twice preflop [capped pot]. Of course, he hit his K on the flop, and that was that. I lost 28BB in 2.5 hours. Dismal.

Today's results: -$60.87

There is also the problem with today's World Cup results. The American team played flat, disconcerted and lackadaisical. The Czech Republic destroyed them 3-0. Add to this a Ghana loss to Italy [a tie would have been a good result here], and the US is already on the ropes. They have to beat both Italy and Ghana for any hope, but losing 3-0 hurts with regard to tie-breakers. At least the German team [my pick on the Pokerroom reload bonus] won their first game against Costa Rica. Perhaps they will light the way?

Take Care!

11 June 2006

Bad Time at the Cryptos


I'm posting this to show how poorly my June at the Cryptos [Sun Poker and PokerPlex] has been. I realize my PFR% is low, and I am probably not playing optimally. This is as much an exercise in playing around with pictures in my blog as anything else. My losses here have been extreme. Elsewhere, like Pokerroom, I am doing better.

Saturday Tournaments & Sunday Miscues


Yesterday, 6/10, I sat down to play the CD Poker New Member freeroll. I got hammered pretty hard. Not in the mood for ring cash games, I decided to play a bunch of MTTs:

  • Yet another CD Poker freeroll. This one was open to players who had accumulated at least 100 raked hands the day before. The field had 190 players, with the top 20 receiving cash prizes. I managed 15th due to the fact that when we got to the bubble, despite me being the table short stack. Everyone was sitting around trying to fold into the money and I stole everything that wasn't nailed down. I managed to build up to about 6K and cruised into the money. However, when we were down to 15, I got all-in with AK versus QQ, and lost the coin flip. No problem, I was quite happy with my results.
  • $5+$1 Party Poker $15K Guaranteed. I was doing quite well and had built my stack up the first hour from my starting 3K in chips to a little over 6K. I was in the BB when a slightly bigger stack on the button raised preflop. We ended up all-in preflop, him with QQ, me with KK. He flopped a Q and that was all she wrote. Out 1540th of 2756.
  • Full Tilt $5+$.50. I haven't played a tournament here in ages. I saw this one was close to starting so I entered it. Field size was somewhat small at 390, paying top 36 players. I wasn't doing very well. I never really could build a stack here. I was getting utter garbage, and I couldn't steal because there always seemed to be either too many in limping in front of me, or someone making significant raises that I couldn't come over the top with garbage on. Despite this I found myself still in it when we got down to 40 players. I thought I might be able to fold into the money, but then everyone slowed down, themselves deciding to fold into the money. I got AK, and decided to make a my move, figuring everyone would fold to me. Unfortunately, my only move I could make was the all-in. I did so, and got called by AQo and ATo, both hands I dominated. Unfortunately, with 6 outs between them, I lost when a Q flopped. However, it came with a T, giving me the four jacks as outs along with my K. I missed and was out in 39th. I wouldn't change my play on the bubble at all.
  • Party Poker 250 Player Point Freeroll, with a $1250 prize fund. Top 20 places paid. 1017 player field. I manage to get down to about 300, when I get AJo in the SB. Three limpers, and I raise 5xBB. Two of the limpers call. Flop comes J87 rainbow. I bet half my stack, and both call. J on the turn, I go all-in, and both call. I lose to T9o. The other player lost all of his chips on a flushdraw. T9o called all that money off preflop. Uggh!
  • PokerStars $1+$.10, no guaranteed prizemoney. I did pretty well in this one, although the money won isn't significant. The field had 1077 players in it with top money being slightly more than $210. I won a lot of hands where I was the favorite. Sure enough, I as soon as I managed to get the table chiplead, I got moved to a table where I was 8th in chips. Why? Why? Despite this, I managed to build my chips up to 30K. I was easily in the money. I wasn't even paying attention to how many were left. I started running into my regular card dead mode that I always run into, but I was stealing quite nicely. However, the blinds were going up faster than I could steal, and I ended up all in when it was down to 25 of us. I can't remember what I had, but knew I had to make a move. It might have been QTs, being the best hand I'd seen in a while. I got called by a monster chipstack who had some lower suited crap, who flopped apair which held up. No matter. I managed a $3.89 win which is a decetn win considering the buy-in.

Saturday's totals: -$10.86

Sunday, 6/11. I have decided I want to take a crack at the PokerStars $15K Guaranteed $3 R&A every day. I think I'll do a buy-in each day, and if I am still around by the break, make an add-on. I don't want to go over the $6.30. Average prizepool in this is over $3K. Bottom payout is usually at spot 198, which usually is double the $6.30 buy-in I will make.

  • With that said, I did dismally today. I was in the BB with JJ, when a very loose-aggressive re-buy nut [he'd already rebought 4 times] went all-in in the cutoff. I called. For the first time all day he actually had a hand - QQ, which held up and knocked me out 37 minutes into the tournament. Sticking to my gameplan I left the tournament.
  • I decided from here to go to PokerPlex and try to playout the final 75 points I needed to clear my $50 monthly bonus. Everything started well enough, and half way through the required hands, I was up £29, and very happy. Then the parade of suckouts and missed flops happened. It got ugly very fast. I ended down £38.25. I managed to lose $163.85 at PokerPlex this month.

Today's results: -$24.70

09 June 2006

Day Two and Three at CD Poker and beyond


I four-tabled CD Poker yesterday, 6/8/06 and completed more than the 500 CD Points I needed for my 3 free books. I also claimed my first $10 in bonus. I was up about 20BB, but only finished up around 8BB plus the $10 bonus.

Yesterday's total: +25.75

Today, I decided, after watching the German soccer team beat Costa Rica, to play some more hands at PokerPlex and CD Poker, playing one table at each for about five and a half hours. What a horrendous result. Players calling raises with hands like T8o. Raising with 42o. And even when I caught flops or started with big pockets, I was getting beat severely. I just cannot understand how other players that play as well as me can have their hands hold up against these fish, when I can't.

Although I may play more today after dinner, or perhaps play a few SnGs or a tournament, I'll report my huge ring-game losses, nonetheless.

Today's results: -$103.64

That trashes yesterday's results, and means I have lost money this month so far.

07 June 2006

Signed Up at CD Poker...

...and had a rotten first day. I managed to get beat by some gawd awful hands early, and was quickly down half my buy-in at $1/$2. I righted that ship and built it up by 11-13 BBs, when I caught AA in EP. I lost that hand to a BB calling a capped preflop pot with 99 and spiking his 9 on the flop. I heard an earful for how bad I played the hand. The player on 99 capped a turn early with A-high. I could not know he had a set considering how poorly he played earlier and throughout the session. Later, I lost Q9 on a QQx flop to QT. I tried to steal the blinds with KQs [which isn't really a steal attempt considering how goo dthat hand is late], and lost to 64o hitting his straight. I managed to clear 192 CD Points. I need 600 CD Points for each $10 of this $300 initial deposit bonus. Once I hit 500 CD Points, I get to claim 3 free books from ITH.

Today's poker results: -$62.00.

06 June 2006

I'll Try To Keep This Short


I really wish I had more time in the day to keep this up-to-date. Between my new part-time job and playing poker, the recently completed WiFCON, trying to get into the gym daily and everyday chores and family commitments, it's hard to maintain a blog. But, not being a quitter, I really am going to try to update my blog at least 5 times a week. If I can keep my posts down to smaller sized jam-packed posts, I will be able to fit it in. This post will probably be longer than I really want, but I want to keep everyone up-to-date!

I got back from WiFCON West on Sunday the 28th, right before Memorial Day. WiFCON stands for World in Flames CONvention. World in Flames, for my non-wargaming readers, is a WWII Strategic wargame. Encompassing the entire world and war, it is truly a game that plays out like a labor of love. Anyway, I placed second at the Con, with my teammate winning first. Two things I learned there [and you non-wargaming poker players can skip this part!]:

  • Only those units at sea that were committed to the last round of naval combat need to abort when the owning side voluntarily aborts.
  • Self-propelled artillery always has it's printed combat value, unless it is out of supply.

OK, poker players, you can turn your attention back! I missed poker for those 11 days I was away. And with my new part-time occupation, I'm having to squeeze it into the time I have allotted. Here's a quick rundown of my results since I have been back:

  • Monday, May 29th. -$2.00, Paradise Poker.
  • Tuesday, May 30th, -$25.31, William Hill. This despite making £25.00 for my monthly bonus.
  • Wednesday, May 31st, -$48.75. Lost $1.95 at Absolute; lost $22.50 at Full Tilt; lost $24.30 at PokerStars.

How's that for a crappy return to poker?

  • Thursday, June 1st, +$35.82. Lost $3.55 at Gaming Club; lost $10.00 at Paradise [tournament]; lost $4.23 at Sun Poker; won $53.60 at Pokerroom. Looking better!
  • Friday, June 2nd, won +83.37. Won $3.67 at PokerPlex; won $79.70 at Pokerroom. Nice back-to-back wins at Pokerroom. I reloaded on the 1st, with only $177 in the pokersite, and have managed to give myself enough of a leeway, that I don't have to keep the reload money there.
  • Monday, June 5th, won +$66.85. Won $35.75 at PokerPlex; lost $15.60 at Pokerroom; won $10.25 at Sun Poker; won $36.45 at Ultimate Bet.
  • Today, Tuesday, June 6th, lost -$76.72. Most of it, $79.37 at PokerPlex; won $2.65 at Pokerroom. Overall, a horrendous day. Kept getting sucked out by some extremely poor players. I welcome them at my tables, everyday!

Is that short enough for you? Hopefully, I will see you at the tables. Oh, and by the way, I ran into chillrob from ITH today. Not sure if he knows who I am though! Shhh! Keep it between you and me! ;)