Close but no cigar

Fresh off of Sunday's success I managed to get some 180s and 90s played before bedtime. Don't know if I was just running bad or going for the chip accumulation and push to the final tables, but in 2 of the 180s I finished 19th. Call me bubble boy. I also managed a 20th in a 90. Overall loss of just over $25. I think I played well enough. Did have a hand in one of them that really blew my mind. I had AA and raised from UtG. Folded to some novice [literally, this was the 2nd MTT/SnG he played on the site] and he flats me. Flop comes KJ2, two diamonds. He checks and I C-bet to just a bit over pot. He pushes. This really has me wondering, but he's showing 80/26/Inf for stats after 54 hands. I call. He has J8o. You know how this story goes. Running diamonds and I'm history.Certainly he still has non-running-diamond outs, but c'mon now. Does it really have to get this stupid?

SnGs and MTTs

Friday, February 26th - Multi-table SnGs. I played two $2 90-person SnGs and a 27-person SnG at PokerStars. I also played two $1 90-person SnGs at Full Tilt and a 30-person SnG at Cake. Didn't do well overall. Busted the bubble of one of the Full Tilt SnGs. I did manage a final table appearance at a 90-person PokerStars SnG, but finished in 9th when I ran QQ into AK and lost the flip. Overall lost $5.40 for my trouble.

Sunday, February 28th. Ah MTTs. Haven't played many lately. Last time I played was on 7th of February and I didn't do very well. What a difference a few weeks make. I managed a 6th place finish in a Full Tilt 180-person scheduled tournament for $79.20. I also managed a 179th place finish on PokerStars' $7,500 Guarantee, which was a bit more than $10. Finally, I decided to play a bit more poker after dinner and landed a 17th place finish in a 8-Max, $2,000 Guarantee tournament. I was so dead in this tournament at one point. I had roughly 25K in chips when I pushed with QQ and was called by AKo by a slightly shorter stack. He managed to outflip me and there I was saddled with 3500 chips and blinds of 800/1600 fast approaching. I doubled when K8 beat AK. Before I knew it I was up to around 100K at one time. Card dead in abundance, aggressive opponents led me down to around 10BBs. I get all-in on a J high flop with AJ versus QJ, but he hits a 3-out Q to knock me out. Easily could have made another final table without that beat there. Overall, I profited by $81.21, so I'm happy overall. Let's hope the next time I play some MTTs that I can hit some more final tables and actually win one.

Single Table Woes

I ran bad on Tuesday in single table SnGs. Managed a 3rd on a Bodog Beginner which paid $4.00, but didn't cover both Bodog buy-ins. A PDC Poker $2 ended in a 7th place finish. Added to that was a final table appearance on a 3-table Stars $3. I finished 8th, a few spots from the money.

Wednesday was much better. I managed to load up a Full Tilt $1 90-person and a $2 90-person on PokerStars. The Full Tilt tournament SnG ended very badly. I had a good size stack at about 14K versus 200/400 blinds when a loose guy in the cutoff decided to push all-in with his ~6700 chips. I was dealt KK on the button and there was a rather loose player in the small blind. I figured if I just call, he's coming along and I don't want a raggy ace in with me. So I push all-in to isolate. SB snap calls and yup, he has AA. That's been happening a lot lately. But nothing I can do. In any case I'm probably seeing all my chips gone no matter how it gets played preflop.

So I concentrate on my sole 90-person SnG at PokerStars. I run very well in this. I get KK beat by Q3 at one point and am left with 370 chips far from the money. I push my next hand K8o and manage to double up on AK. Next hand I get AK and double again versus JJ. In fact, between my aggression and picking my spots I get to the final table in 6th position. I start raising, pushing and beating up the table. A few times I knock people out, a few times short stacks get my number. In the end I go out 4th for a decent profit. I get KdJd in the SB. The BB is a bit of a weird player. He's aggressive int he wrong spots, passive in the wrong spots and generally hard to read. After two folds, I limp, which is about as horrible a play as I can make here. I really should have raised. He raises 3x and I flat the raise, another mistake. Flop comes 643 with two diamonds. I push. He snap calls with Ac3c. Now, I think this is a horrible call by him, but he made it and I didn't manage to pick up any of my 15 outs. Not that this isn't the normal outcome anytime I have a strong draw....I suck at draws for some strange reason. I just shook my head atthe call, but what can you do?

Another Set of 6 Bodog Beginner SnGs

Still playing the $2+$0.20 Beginner Bodog SnGs. Started off pretty horribly. I quickly ran decent hands into better hands after getting initial reads off players, One such was a player who called a 5xBB bet preflop from another player with 75o. He doubled when he flopped two pair vs JJ. I ran AQs into his AK. I know, I know. Never go broke with AQ. Sigh.

Another poor choice and another SnG down. I loaded up another pair bringing me up to my 6.

Meanwhile 2 of my originals went pretty well. The first saw me lose raising AKs first in while 6 handed. Shorter stack pushes on me [I have him covered by 380 chips]. I snap call and he shows J8o. Flop comes Q75, 2 on turn, 8 on river. Smacked. I push next hand with K4o. I get called by A8. This time I double. A few hands later I get all-in with QJs and triple. Managed to salvage a bad situation. Long story short, I end up 3 handed. Chipleader has a massive stack. He's pushing every hand, but I'm sitting on a stack of 2200 chips with 200BB, so I have 11 BBs. The 3rd player gets impatient and calls with Q8o. Chipleader has AQ and stacks him. He continues to bully me. I pick up A8s and limp [complete]. He pushes I call, he shows A4 and I double. He has about 10K to my 5K. I lay in wait again and wait for him to push. This time I'm on KQo and he pushes Q4. I double again. He now slows down and I win a few small pots by 3-betting his completions. I get AKs and complete, He decides to push and I call. He shows J8o. Rivers a J to double. Uggh. I go down a few hands later when my A5s goes down to his A3o. 2nd.

The other original table sees me dominate from start to finish. I knock a player out on hand 3 and never look back. Certainly get challenged a few times, but overall, this table is easily manipulated and I cruise into the top finish.

My two added SnGs go horribly awry. I bust KK into AA in one and finish 10th. The other I manage to get nothing going. Flop top pair with KQ on K84 flop and villain has 84. Did manage to save my stack. Later I lose to same villain when I flop a set of 3s. He flops a set of 7s.

Overall $11 profit, but $13.20 in buy-in/fees. Running ROI through 12 SnGs: -5.30%. Still real early for my SnG play this year. Let's see how it is at year's end.

Bodog Poker's Beginner Sit and Gos

I like Sit and Gos [SnGs] because they allow for a lot of poker action in a large variety of situations. You get the early stages, the mid-stage where being good at bubble play is important and the late stage where, hopefully, you get heads-up with another opponent for the top prize. Certainly, SnGs don’t pay the top positions nearly as much as a real deep final table run in a multi-table tournament, but the added benefits of SnGs more than make up for the larger fields of MTTs. Good SnG players can make a good living at poker and most of the time with less variance than the typical tournament grinder.

An added benefit of a SnG is the field size and start times. Heads-up, 6-Max, fullring and anywhere from 1 to 20 tables are all available to the SnG player. The ultimate benefit, however, is the start times. You register, wait for the SnG to fill up with opponents and start play. There is no necessity to put the family on hold for that special 8PM tournament you like. You don’t have to worry if that late breakfast with your dad is going to make you late for that morning’s $100 rebuy. In the era of high-speed internet connections and rapid lifestyles, SnGs are the ultimate in plug-and-play poker.

This brings me to Bodog Poker’s “Beginner” Sit and Gos. When I first found their Beginner SnGs I initially thought that players would only have access to them for a limited amount of time after signing up for a new Bodog Poker account and depositing. This is not the case.

The name is a bit of a misnomer. They are listed as “Beginner” SnGs due to the very different prize structure. Rather than pay out to the top 3 spots as per traditional SnGs, the Beginner SnGs pay out the top 5 spots of players [10-person tables]. This is very user-friendly for players who are new to SnGs….and to good players who are looking for a little less variance. I know what you are thinking. Aren’t these basically just Double or Nothing SnGs where the top 5 players earn double their buy-in sans fee? On the surface, yes. The top half of finishers get prize money, while the bottom half do not. Where they vary is in the payouts.

In a Beginner single table Sit and Go, the prize pool is split 30%-25%-20%-15%-10% paying out 1^st to 5^th, respectively. Players get less variance, but at the small cost of less of the prizepool when they finish in the top two positions. The added benefit of the Beginner SnGs is consolation prize money when they hit 4^th or 5^th place.

So how do Beginner level SnGs compare to regular SnGs? If you were to play ten $2 SnGs of each type and finished in each of the 10 possible positions, both SnGs would garner you a return of $20. This would give you a Return of Investment [ROI] of -9.09% in each type of tournament. Keep in mind that even though you won as much in prizepool as you paid into it, you gain a net loss of $2 because that is how much you paid in fees to play. Now, let’s switch it up a bit. You play ten $2 regular SnGs and ten $2 Beginner SnGs. This time you win twice, finish 2^nd and 3^rd once each and finish 4^th twice and 5^th once in each. The other 3 times you finish somewhere between 6^th and 10^th. Here is what your results would look like:

You’d make an extra $1 in profit playing the regular SnGs under this example with an ROI of 36.36% compared to 31.82% for the Beginner SnGs. However, just finish one more time in 5^th place and the ROI for the Beginner SnGs increases to 40.91%. These “bubble” finishes in regular SnGs won’t pay off like they will in the Beginner SnGs.

Like anything else, players need to find what they are comfortable with. I like both regular and Beginner SnGs. The key, however, is that Beginner SnGs are only available at Bodog Poker, so when I play there I like having the opportunity to play them.

Single table Beginner SnGs are available in the following buy-ins: $2+$0.20, $4+$0.40, $8+$0.80, $16+$1.60, $32+$3.

Beginner SnGs are also available in 2-Table $4+$0.40 and 3-Table $2+$0.20 variety, paying 8 and 10 places, respectively.

I played a set of 6 of the $2+$0.20. I managed to win $14, meaning a measly $0.80 profit. For having not played any SnGs in probably 2 or 3 months, I'm happy with the roughly 6% ROI. Let's see how I do in the future!

Been a Very Long Time....

...but I'm reclaiming my blog. I'll be posting here as often as possible. Why? I've been granted a slot on the front page of InternetTexasHoldem.com where I'll be talking about anything and everything poker. I'm uncertain if I'll do 100% cross posting.

I plan on using the space on the front page at ITH mostly for announcing new things in the online poker world. Stuff like Full Tilt Poker's new Rush NL tables, Bodog's Beginner SnGs [look for that today] and anything else that jumps out at me. Look for a blog post here and on ITH regarding the upcoming $4 Million Guarantee that PokerStars is running on Sunday, February 21st at 4:30PM EST. This is going to be a huge donkfest. Between the normal $200 buy-in and the absolute insane numbers of satellite qualifiers, I expect a prizepool somewhere around $5 Million. We'll see if this becomes a reality.

Nominally, however, I am going to get back to posting about my experiences in playing online and live. I haven't played as much poker as I had in the past, but I have played most days since my last blog post. I'll post the Bodog Beginner SnG post here and add a few comments about my 6-SnG session in them from yesterday.

Sunday: What a weird day

I didn't start playing poker until late afternoon. I decided on a £2+£0.25 MTT at William Hill Poker that had 206 players. This figured out to be $4.30. I was doing quite well, getting aggressive at the right times, winning some hands. Ultimately I lost a confrontation with JJ getting called by AK, and I was out in 23rd place. This was good enough to arrive in the money. However, for some inexplicable reason, the final payoff spots [21-30] only paid £2.06! I've seen satellites that have paid whatever was leftover from their awarded seats that had less than the buy-in, but this is just plain idiotic for a regular cash tournament to pay out less than the buy-in at the lowest payout tier. Unreal. So, despite finishing in the money, I lost $0.37

Following this, I decided on a $5+$0.50 HORSE SnG, and didn't fare too well. I missed the change from Razz to 7-Stud High and chased a great low of A234 on a Stud High game and lost my stack. I felt like a donkey.

Sunday's results: -$5.87

Some very good days

After blogging on Wednesday, I managed to clear my $100 bonus at Pokerroom and an additional $12.20 in the process. Nice jumpstart for August.

Thursday, August 3rd. Played the $3, $10K Guaranteed at 11:10AM PST on Stars, and once again ousted with the better hand when the money went in. I am having such horrible luck in MTTs. Played three $5 SnGs, one at Holdem Poker, one at Party and one at Poker Stars. Lost the Holdem one and the Poker Stars one, but won the Party one despite starting headsup with a 16,000 to 4,000 disadvantage. That was a very nice win for me, increasing my return on investment [ROI] significantly.

Thursday's Result: +$1.70

Friday, with no wargame night in San Jose, I went to Casino San Pablo rather than commute all the way to Bay 101, and settled in for day at the $3/$6 tables there. I won a small pot early and was soon on my way to up $80. Flopping a straight I lost a large pot to a player who had KQs and who rivered his flush. He had odds the whole way, so I wasn't upset in the slightest. Just one of those things. Later I lost a huge hand with KK when a players decided his Q7s was worth 4 bets preflop. Uggh. I hung in there. In my final hour I won three really good hands in a row, including 32o on the button [players post a $2 blind on the button] when I got 20-1 to call the extra dollar. Flopped A45 rainbow, and got chastised by the BB who had AA and didn't raise preflop. That's the reason you raise, buddy. Finished up $180 live. After dinner with my wife, I played a $2 rebuy at Paradise, a $5 $1500 Guarantee at UB, and a $5 MTT at Pokerroom, getting nowhere. I did manage third in a $5 SnG at Full Tilt for a $3.50 win.

Friday's Result: +158.50

Saturday my wife, Susan, and I went to a mall in Concord and roamed after eating breakfast at Carrows. We wanted to go to the Bath and Bodyworks and the Select Comfort. My back has been hurting severely for a month now, and my chiropractor isn't doing any good. So we spent an hour at the Select Comfort, having been already pre-approved and receiving our card from them. We ordered our bed, found our sleep numbers and will be in receipt of it after the ITH Convention. We then attended one of our friend's daughter's birthday. Got home around 10:30. Sue settled in to read and quickly fell asleep. I went online. Lost a $10+$1 MTT on Full Tilt when I lost my JJ all-in coinflip against AKs. I always lose coinflips. I played the Riptide $2 R&A on Paradise for the second straight night. I was out after the break in consecutive hands. I called a shortstack's all-in for a third of my chips with AQ. He showed KQ, I had him dominated. Flop was A43, he hit running J then T for the straight. Very next hand, now at about 3500 in chips I again get AQo. This time in the SB. One player limps, I go all-in, BB folds, limper calls with QTo. Yes!, once again I am dominating. He flops a T, and it's over. Two dominating hands, and I lose both. Unbelievable. Having had enough, I go to UB and play at a NL25 table. I play a little over 1.5 hours and leave up $42.87. I hit a straightflush with 87s [losing hand had the nut flush], I hit a set of Qs and stack two players. I was over $60 up until I hit a JT7 flop with my TT and get all-in with another player who just happens to have JJ. Uggh. No worries.

Saturday's Results: +19.87

August Totals: +$304.17

Where You Been?

Not doing my blog, that's for damned sure. Funny how well-intentioned things slip by so fast. Here I promised to update daily and I got side-tracked. My online job requires constantly looking at and reviewing things on the internet. When I'm done and I decide to play a few hours of poker, before you know it, I just want to turn the damned computer off.

The picture above is of a player I ran into during my $100 Party Poker bonus chase last month. This is the epitome of a maniac in all regards. And he kept getting very lucky against me. How lucky? I lost $108 chasing that $100 bonus, and he was partly to blame.

But, that was the low-side of July. I managed to clear [including bonuses] over $700 during the month, including a rather lucrative $50 casino bonus at Party as well as $100 casino bonus at Sand of the Caribbean [Sun Poker's casino].

I won't go into any more details, as it would consume too much time. Hopefully, I will continue to blog away.

Take Care!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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! ;)

OK! So it has been awhile

Started some freelance consulting work on 4/20, so my time for updating my blog was severely crimped. Once I get everything back on track, like my daily gym workout, consulting work, daily poker play, and my responsibilities to my house-husband work, I will also set aside at least a half hour daily to do my blog.

So other than the consulting work, what have I been up to? Well I have an upcoming World in Flames Convention [WiFCON for short], commencing 5/19 through 5/28. Every two years I attend the convention, which has been held in Seekonk Massachusetts or Lansing Michigan since I attended my very first one in 1998. This year a friend of mine is running a West Coast version in Lodi Ca [about 70 miles away], so I opted to play that one this time around. This is a board wargaming convention where we have control of various major nations [Germany, Japan, US, Britain, etc.], and playout the war from 1939 until the Axis are conquered, or the game finishes on the July/August 1945 game turn.

So, what does this have to do with poker? I am proud to say, that my convention fees, gas, hotel room and food will all come out of poker profits. Won't impact my wife and me one iota. Also, ITH, www.internettexasholdem.com, is running their annual convention in August,and I figure it will run me around $800 for the full four days there, so I will also attempt to pay for all of this in poker funds. Who knows, maybe I can money in one of the four tournaments we will play.

I finished April up a little over $500 in profits, including bonuses. I was real happy, because I was only up $150 on April 26th, and this was because of bonuses. That day, I took a long hard look at my game and realized I was playing very poorly. My preflop aggression was horrible, my postflop aggression was horrible. So I re-tooled. I have been raising a lot and really taking the wood to my opponents. Much to my amazement, not only were they folding to my aggression more, but the fish and calling stations started to fold when they missed also. Since April 27th, I have had one losing session in 11 days. I have made over $600 playing $1/$2. Almost $10/hour. Phenomenal.

Today I worked off some hands towards both Pokerroom's $100 reload and Poker Stars' $100 reload.

Today's Total: +$19.35.