My bankroll has been flucuating. At one point, I was below $100 when I decided to play a $20 SnG, which I took first in and brought me close to $200. Right now, I'm sitting at $177 and not enough bonus points to qualify for the 7k Freeroll that FullTilt is having at the end of the month.
I've played in a few more 500 point tournaments, but I can't seem to finish better than the 30's, which is where I've placed in every single one of them. I'm going to keep trying and see if I can get lucky at least once.
Live Play Haven't done any live play since my last entry, but will have two tournaments the next two weekends. I think I might tank in my boss's tournament, because if I win again, that will make 4 times in a row that I've taken first, and we've only had about 6 or 7 tournaments. I don't want people to stop coming, and it's only a $10 tournament, so it's not that big a deal.
As stated before, I plan on being more aggressive in the Poker Club tournaments, which is on the 13th. Wish me luck with that.
My live play was less than stellar this weekend in our Poker Club tournament. I went out fairly early. It's basically the same story it's been the past 3 or 4 months: crap cards early in the tournament, I finally get a decent holding and push and get beaten by either a better hand (my KT vs KJ) or sucked out on. I think my multi-table tournament play has slipped into the realm of weak-tight. That's the only reason I can determine that my play has suffered so badly in these tournaments. I'm going to try to make the appropriate adjustments, such as raising if I'm the first in the pot in middle or late position and I would normally call, re-raising known loose players from early/middle position with decent calling hands, playing fewer hands from early position, etc. If anyone has any suggestions to improve my play in general for multi-table live tournaments, I'm all ears. I'm pretty much out of the points race, unless I place first in the next two tournaments, something that I have done before in the past. But, with the way my game has been going lately, I don't feel too confident in repeating that feat.
I've started reading Sklansky's Tournament Poker for Advanced Players. So far, it's fairly decent, although he does suggest folding AK or TT in middle position to an early position raise. I'm not sure if I would be able to lay a hand like that down for a standard raise, but it would depend on the initial raiser, I guess. Has anyone else read this book and, if so, what are your thoughts?
Online Since my bonus period is over on Full Tilt, I decided to play a couple of Sit and Go's. I played in three $5+.50 and took fourth, first and seventh. I also played in a 500 point multi-table tournament with the final 9 getting a $26 Satellite token. There were 195 players in the tournament and I forgot about it until 18 minutes after the start time. By the time I logged in, I was down to 1350 in chips (starting amount was 1500). I managed to stick around for a while and busted out 30th. Not much to really report, except the lack of basic observational skills by several players. At one point, we had 3 players at our table that were obviously not present (they folded everything and always checked in their unraised big blind) and they were all sitting next to each other. With this knowledge, why would the cutoff fold when the only players in the pot were the three absent players behind him(on the button, the SB and the BB)? I can't believe he didn't realize they were gone. Also, everytime I got moved to a new table, the chip leader was ALWAYS in the BB when I had the button, making it virtually impossible to steal the blinds, especially when I only have 3k and he has over 20k and is calling or raising everything. This happened at 3 of the 4 tables that I ended up getting transferred to.
I'm going to play in a few more of these 500 point tournaments and see what happens. I think I did pretty good, considering that I basically started with 1350 while everyone else started with 1500 and I still outlasted over 3/4 of the field. We'll see what happens.
More Live Play I have a live tournament scheduled for 08/06/05 at the boss's place and our Poker Club is scheduled for 08/13/05. I've also thought about maybe trying a tournament at Harrah's. They hold one every Tuesday night, a $40+4 40 person max NLHE tournament every Tuesday night at 7pm. The only problem is that you have to register pretty early on Monday in order to get a seat (registration begins at noon on Monday, when I'm a work). I might try to work something out where I take an extended lunch break to get registered for it, but we'll see.
I can't seem to break out of the $200's. My high point is around $276 and the low being just below $200. I've been playing a lot of online poker lately, trying to clear as much bonus money as possible. The funny thing is, it's the bonus money that's keeping me roughly even, especially over these last 5 or 6 sessions (all losing sessions). I moved from the limit games to the NL ring games. I've been playing 4 tables of .10/.25 NL games. After a couple or three losing sessions, I downgraded to 2 tables, but the results have been the same. Just your typical terrible beats that I won't bore you with. I have until midnight on Friday to clear the remaining $300 bonus, which we know is impossible, so I'm just grinding away trying to get what I can. After this week, I think I'll try to focus on the Ultimate Poker Challenge tournaments they have for points. Also, I'm currently in the running for the FullTilt monthly freeroll tournament, which let's the top 1500 point earners for July compete in one of three tournaments (1-500 compete for $28k, 501-1000 compete for $14k and 1001-1500 compete for $7k). I'm currently in the 1400 range, but it's free, so I'm not complaining. I just don't know if I can keep up my current pace of play, but we'll see.
Live Play I played in a 10 person tournament at my bosses house and took first again. I think I'm going to have to stop winning these things if I want to get invited back. I think I've won 3 of the 8 tournaments we've had. And I don't even play my normal, serious tournament strategy since this group is casual. I loosen up my starting hand requirements and tend to call more raises than I normally would.
We have our monthly Poker Club tournament this Saturday and I'm looking to redeem myself from last month, as is the wife (she placed 2nd, she should have taken first). We'll see how it goes.
That's it for now. Be sure to check out Pauly's Site for all of your WSOP needs. Looks like Phil Ivey and Greg Raymer are doing pretty well. I'm rooting for Ivey, but I'm mainly hoping Matusow doesn't win. In fact, I hope he doesn't even make the final table. Granted, I'm sure it would be entertaining if both he and Raymer made the final table, but I can't stand the thought of having to listen to and watch Matusow ham it up for the cameras. He actually might contest Phill Hellmuth for the title of "Biggest Ego in Poker".
I just played a little poker on my lunch break and my online bankroll is sitting at $217, $20 of which is bonus money. I started the session with $154, so it was a pretty profitable lunch. It was one of those rare sessions, where the deck was just smacking me in the face. Almost all of my pocket pairs (AA, KK, TT, 66 and 55) flopped a set, and the one pocket pair that didn't (77) still ended up winning when everyone checked the flop, I bet the turn and everyone folded. I even rivered quad 5s. It was really hard to leave the tables, since these types of sessions seem so rare. Unfortunately, I had to get back to work.
I played a Multi-Table Tournament at FullTilt that was a 50 point buy in. There were 284 players and I busted out at 102. I'm not too upset about busting out. We had a maniac with a huge stack at our table who was basically going all in on every hand. Everyone folded to me on the button so I raised to 300 (blinds were 50/100) with 99, he re-raised to 500 out of the small blind, BB folds, and I went all in (about 2k). He, of course calls and flips over K6s. This was my plan the whole time, to pick up any semi-decent hand and get heads up with him for all my chips. He flopped a 6 and rivered another. I'm going to try a few more of these points tournaments to get used to playing in larger tournaments. My ultimate goal is to win an entry into one of the big buy-in tournaments, right now that would be the Ultimate Poker Challenge, being held at the Plaza Casino in Las Vegas on July 25th. I hope to do this by winning one of the points tournaments and moving up the ladder. I think I might try the higher points tournaments, though, to eliminate one of the steps.
Live Play We have a poker party at my bosses this Saturday and the Poker Club next Saturday. My Poker Club as also started doing weekly online tournaments at Ultimate Bet. They've only had one so far, but another is scheduled for tomorrow night. I'll eventually participate in these, I just don't know when, yet.
I also played in a small, 8 person tournament last Thursday with some guys from the Poker Club. I took second in the first tournament and was the second one out in the second tournament. Not too bad, but I could have done better.
That's it for today, my next post will probably be after the weekend.
I played in our monthly Poker Club tournament this weekend. I didn't do very well, busting out fairly early. The wife, however, went on to take second, although, she should have taken first. By the time she made the final table, she had more chips than the remaining 8 player combined. A couple of loose calls brought her down, and the hand that crippled her was in heads up play. She was in the small blind and caught 92 of hearts. She raises and her opponent comes over the top, all in. She ends up calling, which cost her all of her chips except one. He ended up with K4 offsuit and it held up. She has no idea why she called with that hand, but she's been beating herself up over it ever since. Hopefully, she'll redeem herself at the next one, which is scheduled for July 16.
I also got to meet Life's a Grind and even played in the cash side game (NL Hold Em, $10 max buy-in, .25/.50 blinds) with him, where he got to witness yours truly lose his entire stack (about $16) when I got outplayed. I held A8o in the BB, all fold, except the button, who calls. I check and the flop comes A4x. I check, he bets a dollar, I raise to $2 (should have raised more). He just calls. Turn comes 8, I bet about the pot, he raises me and I go all in. He calls and flips over pocket 4s for the flopped set. None of my 4 outs come and I'm busted. After he just called my check raise on the flop, I put him on A with a mediocre kicker. Guess I should have adjusted my read.
I'm going to be playing in a couple of live tournaments tonight with some of the guys from the Poker Club. Hopefully, I'll be able to pull off a win. We'll see.
Online Play... I'm still hovering in the $90's. I shouldn't complain, since I was down to about $63 before I fought my way back up. My bonus expires on July 15th, and $400 is still unclaimed. I'm going to try to play tons of poker before the deadline, but even if I do, I'll still only be able to release $40, if I'm lucky. Full Tilt's bonus program is brutal.
So far, I've turned $13 into $75 plus a $20 bonus, so my bankroll is sitting at $95 right now. I've been playing 2-3 tables, still at the $0.25-0.50 level, with the occassional $0.50-1.00 table thrown in every now and then. I'm not playing as much as I would like, but if you don't have the time, you don't have the time. My wife will most likely be getting a job within the next week or so, which means she'll probably be working evenings, which will free up some time to play more poker. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy hanging out with my wife, but we've come to a point where we need a second income. If I had it my way, she would work during the day so we can hang out during the evening, but I don't see that happening for a minute, so I'll make the most of our time apart.
I'd like to wish Pauly good luck in today's $1500 No Limit Hold Em event, scheduled to start at 2pm CST. He has 20 people backing him, which means they'll split %50 of his profits. Considering the kick ass coverage he's given everyone of the WSOP this year, he deserves a win, a finish in the money at the least. So, GOOD LUCK, PAULY! If you want to keep track of his progress, the people at Poker Wire promised to list his chip count as the event progresses. It's event #22 $1500 NL Hold Em.
DEEEEEETROIT BASKETBALL My wife is from Michigan, so she loves all sports teams from there. I'm pretty much a nomad, so have no home state. My favorite baseball team is the Cleveland Indians, my favorite football team is the New Orleans Saints, I don't have a favorite hockey team and I didn't have a favorite basketball team up until last year. After watching the Pistons play in the playoffs last year with my wife, I became a fan. Not because they won, but because it was fun to have both of us rooting for the same team. We could discuss the games, yell at the TV, cheer and clap together. It's fun to share something like that with your significant other. Prior to me becoming a Pistons fan, we would cheer for each other's teams, as long as they weren't playing each other, but it wasn't the same. You don't get quite as excited or upset when it's not YOUR team.
So, we've been watching the playoffs this year, and it's been quite the rollercoaster. I thought for sure Miami was going to eliminate them in game 7, but Detroit pulled it out. The loss they suffered in game 5, at home, was devastating, especially considering it was such a winnable game. But, Rasheed redeemed himself last night and Prince finally showed up. Ben has been playing his ass off in the past 4 games, and if he brings the same type of game tomorrow, and they win, he should be the MVP. Most people say that Billups will get the MVP for the second year in a row if they win, and it's hard to argue with that, but I feel that Detroit didn't start playing until game 3, when Ben stepped up his game and everyone followed suit.
Before last night, Detroit hadn't won at San Antonio since 1997. No team has ever come back from 3-2 to win the Championship where they had to win both games on the road. If anyone can do it, it's the Pistons. It seems like they thrive on situations like that. It almost seems as if they put themselves in those "do-or-die" situations on purpose. Plus, this current San Antonio team has yet to play a game 7 in any playoffs, which means this will be Duncan's first game 7, as well as Popovich. Granted, they have home court advantage, but the Pisotons have the experience. Should be a good game and I can't wait to watch it.
Yes, two posts within a few hours of each other. I think Pauly is having a bit of an effect on my blogging habits. Anyway, I'm sitting at $57.25 plus a $20 bonus, putting the final number at $77.25.
I've noticed that I tend to fold the winning hand more often than I do when I have a comfortable bankroll. I need to figure out how to quit doing this with my small bankroll, as it is extremely detrimental to the overall bankroll progress. But, I have to make sure that I'm not making too many crying calls, as that can be equally detrimental to my bankroll. Such a fine line.
I think I tend to give my opponents more credit than is warranted at this level, but it seems that every time that I try to catch them, they end up holding the goods. I have to learn how to read my opponents better, which seems impossible at this level, but I'll try none the less.
Unfortunately, I had to withdraw $400 of my $413 in my FullTilt account due to unexpected and unavoidable costs. This leaves me with $13 and $420 in unclaimed bonus money. My mission is to turn this measley $13 into a fairly decent bankroll by grinding it out at the low-limit pits and accumalting my bonus money along the way. A formidable task, no doubt, but I've done it in the past without the help of bonus money, so I feel fairly confident that I can do it again. Right now, I'm sitting at a little over $20 and on the cusp of releasing $20 in bonus money. Oh yeah, I've only got until July 15th to release all of my bonus money, something I don't think is possible, but I will try to release as much as possible before the deadline. It seems I have quite a bit of low-limit hell in my near future, so wish me luck.
Under these conditions, I've been playing pretty damn tight. I seldomn bluff, if at all. I can't afford to risk money on speculative hands. I also don't raise preflop with anything except AA, KK, QQ, and AK (depending on the situation of course, but in general, this applies). I hope this doesn't affect my play in the long run, causing me to play more passively down the road. Once I've got a decent sized 'roll for the level I'm playing, I'm hoping to open it up a bit. But, considering the circumstances, I think this is the right way to play.
On a seperate note, go check out Pauly's Site for all of your WSOP converage and a bit of drama thrown in for good measure. It's good stuff. He's breaking his back to bring us degenerates live coverage, and if I could afford it, I would throw a C-Note his way to back him in his own WSOP endeavor. If you can afford it, I request that you help stake him. He's more than deserving considering everything he's going through to bring us live updates and great stories from Sin City. Thanks, Pauly. You're an inspiration.
I didn't realize this when I made my last post, but Pauly is updating his site live with WSOP news (yes, I'm a bit slow). Great stuff, so be sure to check it out.
As I'm sure all of you know, the WSOP is underway, and here are the sites that I'm checking for updates: Las Vegas and Poker - Gives tournament reports and provides pictures as well. Great site. Poker Wire - Gives periodic updates to tournaments taking place as well as an accurate chip count for the remaining players.
I'm very anxious to read the trip reports from the various Poker Bloggers that were in Vegas this past weekend. Check out Pauly's Site for some great pics and write ups of the past weekend.
As for my own play, I've built my FullTilt bankroll up to a little over $400 and took first in a 6 person home tournament this weekend (and was first out in the second tournament, but my wife won that one, so it didn't matter). Instead of 4-tabling it, I've been playing two 2-4 tables and focusing on people's betting patterns and keeping notes on them. So far, it's paid off. Thanks to Curtis-E for the advice. I'm still about $420 away from earning back my bonus and only a month and a half to get it done. I think I might have to start putting in some marathon sessions. Wish me luck.
Well, I'm back. I've been still playing poker, both live and online (FullTilt). I'm not doing so hot online. I deposited $600 to take advantage of their 100% match, and my bankroll is down to $300, and that includes $140 of my bonus that's been released. It took me a minute to get used to the different structure they have for their SnGs, but once I adjusted, I was able to consistently beat them. The only problem is that I rarely have time to invest in a SnG, so I've been playing a lot of ring games (usually 4 tables of 1-2 or two 1-2 tables and 2 2-4 tables). I've been hovering around the $300 and $400 mark for a few weeks now, playing strictly ring games. Hopefully, I'll have time to start playing some SnGs in the near future, but with summer starting, I seriously doubt it.
My live play has been pretty consistent, though. I'm a regular fixture at the final table of our monthly, 30-45 player tournaments, and just took first place twice this past weekend in a couple of friendly 6 person tournaments. With my current schedule, unfortunately, my only live play has been confined to the monthly tournaments, which are getting harder and harder to attend. I had to miss the one in April due to our Annual Booze Olympics. I was torn, but since we had friends from out-of-state coming in to attend, I felt obligated to forgo the tournament in favor of binge drinking. In case you were curious, I received a silver in the 16oz w/straw competition and two bronze medals for the 16oz relay and Dirty Bowl events. Not a bad showing, and I beat one of my best friends, which was my main goal.
Our monthly tournaments are getting tougher and tougher, as the players are steadily improving. It's funny to see people that used to play any ace and face pre flop now check-raising people and showing down strong hands. I've been able to pick up a few tells on a couple of people, which is pretty exciting for me, since I usually don't tend to look for them, mainly relying on betting patterns and the numbers. Our monthly group also decided to hold a 10 person, $20 buyin tournament with the top to finishers taking their winnings and entering the WSOP event at the local Harrah's. I played in the 10 person tournament and placed third. What really sucked is the person that beat me out of it was an awful, AWFUL player. He frequently went all in with 75o, J10o, etc. and always caught the cards. Needless to say, he was one of the first people bounced in the Harrah's tournament.
Anyway, I'll be posting periodically, but not as often as in the past, as my playing time is pretty limited. I also need to catch up on my Poker Blog reading, which will take a chunk of time. I've also got some ideas I mentioned previously that I still intend to implement soon.
Thanks to everyone that is still reading. Going forward, I plan on making this site better by leaps and bounds.
Won't be posting here for a minute. My online poker bankroll is dried up, so I won't be playing online for a while. When I do decide to come back to online poker, it will not be at Party. I'm ready to try a different site, I just don't know when that will be. I've got a pretty steady stream of live poker to keep my hunger sated, though, so I should be alright. I have the option of a live tournament every Wednesday night (around 12 players, usually), I have my monthly Poker Club (around 35-40 players, usually), my boss' monthly dinner party/poker party (around 12 players, usually), a fairly regular Saturday tournament (around 12 players) that I don't usually attend, but could if the desire strikes me, a $50 tournament every two weeks (around 16 players, usually), not to mention the sporadic friendly games we have occassionally. I also have a meeting this weekend with a bar owner who wants to start offering monthly tournaments and is looking to me to help him get it started and probably run the first couple. So, as you can see, my life is not lacking in the poker department.
Also, I have a milestone birthday coming up on March 4th. Usually, when these milestone birthday's come up, I always start reflecting and evaluating my life; where I'm at, where I thought I would be, what needs to be changed, etc. Considering this is going to be the biggest milestone birthday in regards to evaluating my life, I thought a little time off would be needed. For some reason, turning 28 really hit me hard, so I'm a bit scared of the effect that turning 30 will have on me. Where does the time go?
I'm still actively working on stuff for the website, so I'm hoping to have those ready by the time I return, which I anticipate to be the week after my birthday, 3/7/05-3/11/05.
It's been so long since I've taken a first in a tournament, I don't think I'd know how to act if I did. Played in a new home game last night, and took second out of twelve, which would normally be a good thing. However, this was a winner-takes-all tournament. I don't think I've placed first in a Party SnG in a few months, which is why my bankroll is sitting at just under $50. I've taken several second places, which I guess I shouldn't complain about, but when you've got 3x as much as the other guy, and still take second, it's a bit disheartening.
Superbowl weekend is coming, which means poker, beer and football. It's like Christmas for guys. We're trying to get a big tournament going this Saturday, but it looks like it's only going to be around 16 people. We're hoping to bump the buy in up to $20 instead of the normal $10. My expectations on my performance are pretty low.
Inspired A couple of posts by BG here and here has made me think about this here blog. Why I do it, why I started it, etc. etc. I am one of the guilty parties he describes when he mentions just posting hand histories, home game updates and bad beat stories. Not very entertaining. A long, long time ago, I fancied myself a pretty good writer. Of course, this was many years ago. Now, I have no problem pounding out papers discussing the pros and cons of using a Cisco ITP instead of a Tekelec Eagle within an SS7 Network based on the industry trend of everything becoming IP-based, and it will sound professional and impress all the right people, but when it comes to anything remotely personal, for some reason I choke. BG says to be entertaining, and I have to agree. If I weren't the one writing this blog, I probably wouldn't read it. It's nothing special, just some schmoe complaining about poker, mostly. I originally started this blog for a creative outlet, but it's mainly become a dumping ground for bad beats and whining. Not what I originally intended, but something I'm hoping to change.
Like I said, BG inspired me, and I've already began working on a few things to make this site a bit more entertaining and unique. When will it be posted? If you know me, then you know that I'm no good with deadlines, so I'll just say soon. I hope most of you stick around long enough to check it out.
Played in some friendly home tournaments this weekend, two total and placed second in each one, which means I made $20, putting my live play results for the year at -$75. Since my wife played as well, we actually ended up breaking even, but I've decided to keep my stats and her stats seperate for accuracy's sake.
New Blog If you look to the left, you'll see a link to a new blog, Phallis With The Nuts. This blog belongs to a buddy of mine. I introduced him to poker last year and he's been cleaning up ever since. I've loaned him most of my good poker books, which he has been studying. Come to think of it, I've yet to get them back, the bastard. In his Monday, Monday post, he mentions telling someone his goal of making $10,000 this year playing poker, and that someone laughing. That someone is me. We've made a deal between us that we'll play in the WSOP within the next three years. Although I doubt we'll do it, we'd like to play in one major poker tournament within the next three years, whether it's the WSOP or a WPT event. It will most likely be a WPT event, as these tournaments are easier on the bankroll. If I were able to make $10,000 at poker without spending any of it before the WSOP, I would have an extremely hard time putting all of that money into one tournament. Ideally, I'd like to win my seat via a smaller buy in tournament, but I'm sure that's everyone's plan. Anyway, you should check out his blog, he's a much, much better writer than I, so it should prove to be entertaining.
Party My Party bankroll isn't flourishing as it should. I played in, I think, 6 or 7 $10 SnGs on Friday, and ended up at exactly what I started the night with, $93. I played a few last night, and ended the night down to $79, which is better than the $49 it was at until I placed second, a tournament that I should have easily won, but stupidity and impatience got the better of me.
No live play scheduled for anytime soon. There's the $50 tournament this Friday, but I won't be attending. We might have some friendly home tournaments this weekend, but other than that, nothing. My next dinner party isn't until Feb. 15th, and the Poker Club tournament isn't until the 27th, so live play will be pretty limited for the next few weeks. I'll keep myself occupied by playing Party as much as possible and, hopefully, turning this bad run I've been having into something positive. We'll see.
I am now a firm believer in card karma. The best cards I got during my Saturday Poker Club tournament were 55 (folded to a reraise on the turn) and AKs (which picked up the blinds for me). Somehow, I still managed to make it to the final table (9 players) in the 27 person tournament. I busted out seventh when I went all in with A6s (UTG, the upcoming blinds would have left me with about T300) only to be called in two places, one of them all in. The hands I was up against were KJo and Q10o. The KJo caught a K and busted us both out, me getting seventh instead of sixth due to having fewer chips than the other player. My wife, however, took fourth, which was worth $40. We also had our first female winner, which is always good for poker. I just wish my wife was the first to win it, but at the rate she's going, she will eventually. It wouldn't surprise me if she won the Player Points Race, either. She's been to 4 final tables in a row (the tournaments usually have a little of 30 players in them), took second in the Ladies Night Tournament last week, and continues to kick ass on Party. Plus, she just ordered Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, hoping to improve her game even more. Has anyone else out there read this book? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I remember seeing something in there, saying to fold AKs and 1010 in middle position to an early raiser. Granted, I didn't read the whole section, so I'm saving judgment until I've read the book, but if that is the case, it seems a bit tight for tournament play
We also had a friendly poker gathering on Monday, which ended up being 7 players. We played 2 $10 tournaments with the wife winning the first one and me taking third (no payout for third) in the second one. This means my live play is off to an awful start, already in the hole for $95.
I haven't had time to play on Party for a while, so my bankroll is sitting at $93. I've been getting an itch to play some cash ring games, but the only level I would be able to sit down in would be $.5/$1, which I'm not a big fan of. Plus, SnGs have been my bread and butter, so why try to fix something that's not broken. I don't know, but I'm going to try to play some tonight, and I guess I'll decide what type of game when I sign in.
My Poker Club tournament starts in about 1.5 hours. Just thought I'd drop a quick post. Based on the cards that I've been getting at Party, and if you believe in card karma like Boy Genius, the deck should smack me square in the face tonight. I put $100 into my Party account and lost $20 last night. I've played 2 $5+$1's today and went out 6th and 5th. I'm currently playing a $10+$1 and my stack is sitting at 1325 at level 3, 7 players left. My stack is where it's at because I finally got a hand (AA), and it actually held up, making the straight on the river. I had a caller the whole way, who turned a pair of 10s with his 103o. Haven't seen a single decent hand since those aces, so I'm a firm believer in card karma, at least tonight.
Just got AA again, raised before it gets to me. I reraise enough to put him all in. He calls and shows AJo. The flop: JJx. The rest is irrelevant. Why doesn't my AJo every stand up like that.
Okay, now I'm getting worried. I've gotten aces 3 times at this table. They held up twice, the aforementioned straight and after everyone folded to my pre-flop raise.
Alright, I took first, but it might have cost me some premium hands in tonight's tournament, going by card karma. For those of you not familiar with card karma, it basically means that it's possible to use up all your good cards prior to a tournament if you decide to play any card-related game such as poker or blackjack. The converse also applies, where if you're getting terrible cards prior to your tournament, you should get good cards during the tournament. I guess we'll see how well this theory stands up tonight. Wish me luck.
I ended up playing in two live tournaments this weekend. The first one was a $50 buy in on Friday. There were 13 players, which meant one table of 6 and one table of 7. The very first hand set the tone for the rest of my night. In this particular home tournament, they have the odd rule of burning a card before you deal the hole cards, as well as the common rule of burning before the flop, turn and river. I'm UTG, and peek at my hole cards, which happen to be AKo. Before I can say raise, someone at the table asks if the dealer burned a card, and of course, she had not. I flip up my cards and state that "This will be best cards I'll see all night". Of course, at the time, I was just joking. Unfortunately, that was the case. The next best hand I got that night was QJo, which had to be folded due to a raise and reraise before the flop. I ended up playing exactly two hands the whole night.
Others at my table had no problem finding playable hands. Of course, playable hands to them only had one requirement: the cards had to either have black or red on them. One guy in particular caught 5 full houses during my time at the table. Five. With hands like 104o, Q3o, 33, etc. I, of course, mucked starting hands like this, and even if I had decided to play them, the board never hit them. I think the best hand I would have had all night, had I played every hand, was two pair on a flush and straight type board. It just wasn't in the cards for me to win that night, literally.
On Saturday, I had the dinner party and poker tournament at my boss's house. We had 13 players, a few of them playing for the first time. I sat at the table that had more of the experienced players (translated: this was their second time playing, the first time being last month's tournament) while my wife was stuck at the table with the 3 new players. Play at my table was pretty sedate compared to her table. Two of the new players would get into preflop raising wars with garbage. One of them called two allin raises before the flop with Q3s. His fellow newbie held something like A4o, while the other, more experienced player held pocket 10s. Of course, the Q3 rivered the flush, so he was now the big stack. It's one thing to have a big stack and another to know what to do with it. He eventually busted out 5th or 6th.
So, my live play as started off pretty awful for the new year, down $60 within the first two weeks. I have the poker club tournament this weekend, which the wife and I are really looking forward to, since we'll be playing against players that actually know how to play the game. We both seem to do better against knowledgable players as opposed to novices.
Which brings up a question that the wife and I have been discussing lately. How do you adjust your game to beat clueless players? In the last two tournaments, almost all of the players were completely clueless. They called down raises to the river with bottom pair, which means that it's pointless to bluff in these games. They play pretty much any two cards and will play to the river if they catch any piece of the flop. Her thought was that maybe we should loosen up a little and see more flops with suited connectors and small pairs that we would normally fold in early or middle position, as long as we could see the flop fairly cheaply. Then, if you flop a good hand, bet it hard, knowing that you'll be called and paid off if your hand is the best. I've always understood that if the table is loose, you should actually tighten up, but I think that's for ring games where you have the luxury of time.
I'm open for any suggestions on how to handle the "Tournament of the Clueless".
I have to admit that I'm not too happy with the results. Granted, my live results aren't factored in, but I thought I had a better year, poker-wise, than this. Even if you do factor in my live play (which I can't accurately do, since I don't really keep records of my live play, something that I will change this year), that's probably only an extra $300 or $400. Still pretty underwhelming. The bright side is that it shouldn't be too hard to improve upon these stats this year, which is, of course, my goal. And like I said, I'm going to start keeping records of my live play, even the friendly games I have with my friends.
The above stats also do not include my most recent play on Party, since most of that was done by my wife. I think I'm going to deposit money in my own Party account (Userid=Guppy33) and have Pokertracker filter out her account, so I can keep better records. If I do this, will this eliminate all past records already collected for the second ID, or just not record future hands? Does anyone know if Pokertracker is capable of keeping seperate records for different account names, or would one need to purchase another key to do that?
Poker Reading I've been reading Daniel Negreanu's Trip Reports, and I have to admit that I really like them. I like the fact that he explains why he makes the plays that he does. It's extremely helpful for subpar players such as myself, who tend to play on auto-pilot a lot of the time, making me actually think about the game while it's happening and not just reacting. As long as he keeps writing the reports, I'll keep reading them.
That's it for this week. I have lots of live poker lined up within the next two weeks, so my next update will most likely be next Monday or Tuesday.
My wife and I decided to deposit some money into Party, a mere $50 plus a $10 bonus. So far, we've turned that $60 into $278. We were at over $300, but a string of losses and third and second place finishes depleted our bankroll some. I say we, but it's mainly been her that's playing and winning. I've only played in a few Sit n Gos, and I've lost more than I've won. Here lately, it seems like it's harder to get first than even a few weeks ago when we initially deposited the money. We're hopting to get the bankroll up to around $500 or so so that we can play in the $20 tournaments. Hopefully we can keep the money in the account and no unforseen incidents force us to withdraw it (knock on wood).
As far as live poker, we have the dinner party this weekend, which will, hopefully, have more than the 11 players we had last time, which I think it will. I can also play in the $50 tournament this Friday, but I think I'll skip it this time around. Then, next Saturday, we have the Poker Club tournament, and the wife has the Ladies Night Tournament next Thursday. After that, I don't see much live poker in our future until February, unless we get the crew together for some mini-tournaments, which I really don't consider "real poker" since it's more about the drinking and socializing than the poker.
Anyway, I hope everyone's new year has started off on the right foot, and if not, I hope things turn around for you soon.
I'm looking forward to seeing how 2005 treats me poker-wise. I hope to play more live poker, and more poker in general, this year, and hope to make it a more profitable year. I'll be going over my records for 2004 to see how I made out and so that I have a measuring stick for 2005. If they're not too embarassing, I'll post my 2004 numbers here after I've sifted through them.
Chris, if you're still interested in reading something on poker, Kohl was kind enough to recommend the following links:
And just to share a pearl of wisdom from one of my readers, Easy Cure, "Drink like a fish, play like a fish." Definately words to live by, at least for me, anyway.
The wife and I played in the Poker Club tournament this weekend. Thirty two players showed up, meaning first place took home $310. Unfortunately, yours truly didn't come close to grabbing that prize. I busted out shortly before the final table (9 players) was formed. It was a stupid move on my part. The blinds are at $200-$400, I'm sitting on around $2100. I get AJo under-the-gun. The table had tightened up pretty well as of late, so I go all in, hoping to steal the blinds. At first, it looks like I might succeed, until the small blind decides to call the additional $1900. The big blind folds, and SB flips over 78s. I'm feeling pretty good about my chances, until the flop brings an 8. Needless to say, the turn and river bring no help for me and I'm out. I should have known better, as there was no reason for me to go all in on such a speculative hand. I think, since I hadn't seen hardly any cards prior to that, that I fell in love with them and acted impulsively. I need to learn to actually take some time and think these situations through. I guess it was payback for an earlier hand, where I had QQ in middle position, it's raised before it gets to me, I reraise, everyone folds to the initial raiser. He states "If you have kings, which I think you do, you have me beat" and goes all in. I deliberate for a moment, and see that I have him covered, so call. He flips over AKo. Of course, a K comes on the flop, but, for once, the river is good to me and brings me the Q.
My wife did make it to the final table, making it three final table appearances in a row, where she finished second, sixth and seventh, respectively. She was pretty upset on how she went out. She had A7o in the SB, flop comes rags, but two clubs (she does not have a club). It gets checked around. The turn brings the third club, she goes all in, representing the flush (keep in mind that everyone is playing pretty tight at this point, since the next person to bust out would not make the money). Everyone folds except a guy holding a pair of 9s (one in hand, one on the board). The A does not come on the river, so she is out. She beat herself up over that hand for the rest of the night. I can see why she is upset, as I usually tighten up when it gets that close to the money, but sometimes you have to take a chance, and that looked like a good opportunity. The guy that called her even said that he knew she had the flush, but he had to see it. That call, had he lost, would have left him with only $500, so if he was sure she had it, I have no clue why he would call in that position.
Anyway, we both felt we made mistakes that cost us a better outcome, but I think we both learned from them, and I guess that's the important thing.
A friend had asked about learning basic hold em strategy. I was supposed to find some basic strategy articles, but after a bit of searching, I really didn't find anything that I felt comfortable referring him to. Most of what I found was way too lose in regards to starting hands. After seeing their loose standards for starting hands, I decided not to venture any further on their sites.
Does anyone have some good, solid sites that would be helpful to a complete beginner to Texas Hold 'Em? If so, post them in the comments or email them to me, I'd be very grateful.
And Chris, if you're really interested in learning this game, I recommend purchasing Winning Low Limit Hold Em by Lee Jones (located almost at the bottom of the page). This is the first poker book that I purchased, and is solid for low limit cash games. I can't really recommend any tournament, NL books, as I have not purchased any. I've mainly gained my knowledge of NL tournament poker through playing and reading forums, such as Two Plus Two. I'm not sure how serious you are in regards to poker, but hopefully some of the readers out there can direct you to some solid articles for novices.
I hope to have something more substantial for you in the near future.
I don't know if I'm going to be able to squeeze in any poker over the holidays, but there has been talk amongst the group about getting together at least once to play some poker, so we'll see what happens. If not, no big deal, as January looks to be pretty poker-filled. I have the $50 tournament available to me on the 7th, my boss' dinner party/poker party on the 8th, the wife has a Ladies' Night poker game on the 13th (hosted by the Poker Club group) and then the Poker Club tournament on the 15th.
I'm also hoping to get back into online playing. I'll probably start with around $100 to $300 and see how long I can make it last. With my new, self-implemented rule of not drinking during serious poker, I feel I can make it last for quite a while. The only time I really drink during poker anymore is during the $10 tournaments that we have with our close friends, and even then, I try to keep it to a minimum. The results have been very eye-opening. Before, I used to think that drinking didn't affect my game, but after I quit drinking, I took first place in back-to-back 30+ people tournaments and my play at the friendly tournaments improved, as well. My wife was the one who pointed out that when I started this whole poker thing, I refused to drink at the tables, and I was consistently winning, both at the casinos and online. After I started drinking, winning at the casino became close to impossible, and my online bankroll pretty much disappeared. Going forward, I plan on keeping poker and beer completely seperate, with the rare exception for the friendly game.
I played in two new home games this weekend. When I say new, I mean not with my normal friends or the monthly $20 Poker Club game.
On Friday night, I played in a $50, 13 person tournament. The bad news is I finished 7th, well out of the money (top 3 paid). The good news is that, out of all the regular tournaments that I play, these guys and gals are the worst poker players. Don't get me wrong, they're a great group of people and I had a really good time playing with them, but they're just lacking in the poker skills department. They hold tournaments roughly every two weeks and invited me to join them anytime, so, needless to say, I'll be going as often as I can manage. The location is a bit out of the way, but the set up is second to none. It's held at a guy's house, who has it in his basement. Down there, he has 3 beers on tap (Guiness, AmberBock and Coors Original), a full wet bar, two poker tables and even a dance floor. The the host is a hell of a guy.
On Saturday night, we attended a dinner party/poker party at my boss' house. Most of the participants (11 total) are new to poker, so I explained the game to them and coordinated the tournament. It was a $10 buy in with top 2 getting paid. I finished third. My boss hopes to do this on a monthly basis, and there should be around 22 people attending the January event.
So, even though I've put playing online on the back burner, I still have plenty of poker to keep me busy. With the spontaneous small tournaments with close friends, the monthly Poker Club, the bi-weekly $50 tournament and the monthly dinner/poker party, I'm actually turning down invitations to games (such as last night for a small tournament amongst friends).
That's probably it for this week. I've got the Poker Club this weekend, so I'll post my results in a week.
What's a Poker Tournament Amongst Friends? Total Chaos!
I played in 3 "Mini" poker tournaments this weekend, getting two second places and one third. The second places came in a 9 person and 10 person tournament, the third in a 6 person tournament. Not bad, except the payout was such that I actually ended up losing 10 for the night. Our first game, which was 9 people, took over 3 hours to play, thanks to people not paying attention, leaving the table to smoke and flapping their gums instead of actually playing the game. This caused us to lose 2 players, since they busted out and got tired of waiting around for the game to finally finish so that we could play the second. We did pick up three new players for the second tournament, due to late arrival.
I've gained the nickname "Poker Nazi" among my friends that play poker with me. My wife is the one that coined the name. They (mostly the women. The men tend to side with me) call me this for various reasons, a few being: I always try to make sure that people put their bet in front of them instead of splashing the pot, I encourage them to make their intentions known verbally (raise, fold, call), I request that they push their bets into the pot after all betting is done to avoid confusion in future rounds, I'm always having to remind people to post their blinds, I offer to shuffle the cards for those that aren't coordinated enough to accomplish this feat on their own, and encourage people to actually stay at the table while they're still in the game (I know, a crazy concept!). My intention is not to take the fun away from the game, it's actually the opposite. When I fold and have to wait 10 minutes for the next hand to be dealt, I'm not having fun, and neither is anyone else who folded. With the blinds being increased every 20 minutes, and a single orbit of 10 people taking 30 minutes, this is not fair to everyone. This causes us to delay raising the blinds, which makes the games take forever. It gets to a point where someone will be so frustrated with playing for so long, that they'll simply push all in just to get the game over with.
One of the main reasons for all the chaos during our games is that everyone knows each other really well. When we get together, and alcohol is involved, rest assured that a lot of alcohol will be consumed. A side effect of mass alcohol consumption is a shortened attention span. Now, I'll probably draw quite a bit of heat for my next few comments, but keep in mind, these are just my observations and experiences. Your opinions and experiences are probably different, but this is what I've noticed: The men, when drunk, will still keep the game moving at an acceptable pace. Granted, they (and I) play looser and crazier, but the game keeps moving. It almost seems that the desire to win grows with each swig of booze, and this makes the guys more anxious to get the next hand started once the previous one has ended. The women, however, are almost completely opposite. They talk more, get up from the table more, yell more, shuffle the cards endlessly while chatting away and generally slow the game to a snail's pace.
Don't get me wrong, I love all the women that play in our games, but they really take away from the game whenever alcohol is involved. Me and one of the girls that plays with us who isn't guilty of the above mentioned transgressions discussed banning alcohol from future games. Of course, after a slight pause, we both burst into laughter. This is simply not an option. Another option that I've thought about is increasing the buy in from $10 per person to $20 or more. This may force people to take the game seriously enough to actually want the game to progress at a normal pace. I fear this might alienate some players, though, as most of us are a couple, which means we're basically paying a double entry fee and none of us are rich (yet). However, I feel that we need to come up with some kind of solution, as the games have gotten progressively worse. I'm really at a loss, as I want everyone to have fun, but if we're going to play poker, let's play poker. If everyone would rather stand around, drink and socialize, I'm all for that as well.
If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. I usually enjoy these get-togethers, but the last few have been very frustrating, so I'm open to all ideas, no matter how off the wall they may seem.
Obviously, I didn't get to go to New Orleans last week to watch the Chiefs play the Saints from Joe Horn's suite. He called his mom the week before the game and cancelled. He felt that he needed to focus solely on football, since the Saints are trying to make the playoffs (I don't see that happening, but I can still hope), and he didn't think he would be a very good host. He promised to make it up to us. Can't really blame him, I'm just glad I hadn't purchased my tickets at that point. It would have been soooo sweet to see the Saints beat the Chiefs, though. Oh well, maybe next time.
Fantasy Football I won in both leagues, but I didn't move anywhere in the standings. I guess I should be happy that I won and didn't move down.
In one league, I'm fighting to make the playoffs. I'm currently in 9th, and top 8 go to the playoffs. There are only 2 weeks left, so I have to win this week and hope the guy in the 8 spot loses. We then play each other in the final week (13), so if I win and he loses this week, I don't think next week will matter since I have a lot more points than him. However, if he wins this week and I lose, my season is over. Of course, if we both lose, it will all come down to week 13.
In my other league, I'm in sixth and we don't have a playoff structure. Top 3 teams with the best record win money, so I still have time to make up some ground. I'm trying to convince the other players in this league to have a playoff structure next year. I've spoken to most of them and they all seem to agree. It just makes it more fun.
I played in the monthly home tournament that the wife and I have been attending for the past few months and took home first again. This translates to $350 (35 players), and the wife won her $20 entry fee back by taking sixth. The only bad thing about this tournament is that I didn't have enough cash to join the poker club that they were starting with this tournament, so I forfeited 7.5 points that would have counted towards the Player of the Year award. We plan on joining next month.
I have to admit, I'm more than shocked to have won this tournament. As I was discussing the tournament with a buddy while waiting on my carry out order at the local Japanese Steak House/Sushi Bar, I came to the realization that these were my best hands the entire tournament: 1 full house (95o in the BB, free look at a flop of 99x. SB checks, I check. Turn is a rag. SB checks, I check. River is a 5. SB hesitantly checks, I go all in, trying to make him think I'm buying the pot, he shows 105o and folds), 1 flush (last hand of the tournament, I have Ah7s, four hearts come), 1 two pair (final table. 8c3d in BB, free look. Flop brings Qc8hxc. SB checks, I bet he calls. Turn is 3c, he goes all in, I call (guy was extremely loose and loved to bluff), he has As4c. Rag on the river and I bust him). That's it. All my other hands were top pair, or pocket pairs. Hell, I barely made the final table. It was down to 10 players (final table is only 9 players), and I had to go all in and luckily doubled up while someone at the other table got busted out.
My boss wants to do a poker night/dinner party at her house, so I told her I could organize the poker game. So, that means I have two tournaments next month, one on the 11th and one on the 18th. It's a good thing I have all these live games to play, as my online play has come to an abrupt halt. Just don't have time right now. Hopefully, after the holidays, I can start playing online again.
Lifesagrind asked about joining the monthly tournament, and, unfortunately, it's currently on an invite only basis. We had 35 at the last tournament, and that's the max that they will allow due to space. If a position opens up, I'll be sure to let you know and have the organizers get in touch with you. Just shoot me an email with your email address.
I don't know how much I'll be updating this site before the 11th due to lack of material to update it with, but I might get together with some buddies over the holidays to play some poker, so, if that happens, I'll post an update. If not, I'll see you next month. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
The tournament that I just got first in, and my wife go second in, is proposing a Poker Club format. Basically, anyone who wants to participate would pay a membership fee of $10 and $5 for each tournament that they want to count towards the Player of the Year awards. Half of the contributions collected will go towards paying the top 5 players with the most points. The rest will go towards the Championship Tournament, which will be held in October of 2005. Each regular tournament gives the following points: .5 for attendence, 1 point for a final table appearance (top 9), 5 points for 1st, 4 points for second, 3 points for third, 2 points for fourth, and 1 point for fifth. The Championship Tournament is a $100 buy in, but you get a discount if you're a part of the club. If you have 40 Player of the Year points, you get $40 off of your $100 buy in to the Championship Tournament.
I've already decided to participate in this Club, I just wish it would have been implemented before the last tournament. Had that been the case, I would be sitting on 6.5 points. That's okay, though. I really enjoy these tournaments, so look forward to having a reason for participating on a monthly basis.
Played some poker on Saturday. We decided to head back to Harrah's so I could try the NL game. I got put on the list and played some $3-$6 while I waited for a seat. I was only there for about 30 minutes, up about $30, when my seat became available. It was $2-$5, not $1-$3 as I originally thought. I sat down anyway and proceeded to do fairly well. I was up a little over $300 when I'm dealt pocket aces. It's folded to me, and I raise it to $40. Everyone folds to the button, who raises it to $100. I reraise to $200. He goes all in and I call. It's my AA against his KK. Of course, a K flops and I go from being up over $200 to being down $70. I proceed to lose the remaining $30 when my AQ gets cracked by something, can't quite recall what it was, maybe because I was seeing red at that point.
Meanwhile, the wife has already busted out and is playing some slots and manages to win $100. Once again, the wife cuts our deficit in half. Of all my visits to Harrah's, I don't think I've ever left there a winner. This makes me hate the place. I think I'm going to see if Isle of Capri or Ameristar has a NL game, as I can't stomach going back to Harrah's.
Football I made yet another coaching mistake. I benched Plummer and started Leftwich, I left McGahee on the bench, and I started Wiggins over Pollard. Had I started the appropriate personel, I'd be looking at a W this week instead of losing by 60 with one player (C. Chambers) and my defense left to play tonight.
In my work league, I'm currently down by 12 with Pennington and J. Abraham to play tonight. He has Zack Thomas going, so it doesn't look good for yours truly.
Detroit didn't pull off the upset that I was sure they would. Had I known Roy Williams wouldn't be playing, I would have changed my pick. I did pick Pittsburgh over New England. I'm just glad the Saints had a bye this week, because if they didn't, I'm sure they would have lost.
Like I said, a bittersweet weekend, minus the bitter.
Since we have a 'sitter for this Saturday, the wife and I discussed going back to the boat so I can check out the $100 buy-in NL ring game at Harrah's. If that happens, I'll be sure to post my results. It might not happen, since we were wanting to go see Saw, visit a friend who recently had a baby and attend my bosses Halloween party. I'm really not one for dressing up on Halloween. The way I see it, I dress up five days a week to come into work, the last thing I want to do is put on another costume in my free time. This attitude earns me the title of "Stick in the Mud" from family and friends.
Football Trip On November 15th, the Chiefs travel to New Orleans to battle the Saints, and I have the pleasure of getting to go watch that game live. Not only live, but from the comfort of Joe Horn's suite. My brother-in-law's brother-in-law happens to play high school football with Joe's little brother, and was invited to attend the game. Since I'm a huge Saints fan, he picked me as his one guest. Should be a very entertaining time. Can't wait. I'm still trying to find plane tickets under $200, but the cheapest I've found so far is around $270 before all the taxes. If anyone has any suggestions or websites for cheap airfare, I'd be forever in your debt. You can either post a comment to this post or email me at ls at liquid-swords dot com.
Fantasy Football The trade deadline in my main league is Nov. 5th, so I'm trying to shore up any weaknesses in my starting lineup before then. Here's my current line up:
QB Byron Leftwich (Starter) QB Jake Plummer RB Clinton Portis (Starter) RB Mewelde Moore (Starter) RB Willis McGahee RB Duce Staley WR Chris Chambers (Starter) WR Drew Bennett (Starter maybe) WR Antonio Bryant WR Santana Moss WR Nate Burleson (Starter maybe) TE Courtney Anderson (Raiders) TE Marcus Pollard (Starter) K John Carney (Bye Week) K Jay Feeley (Starter) DEF Miami (Starter) DEF Indianapolis
I've got a lot of depth at RB, but I hate my WRs and TEs. I'm trying to work a trade to get rid of either McGahee or Staley and a receiver for Hines Ward and a low level RB, but I don't think the other coach is going to do that. I've got an offer from another coach for McGahee, Moss and Anderson for David Givens (NE), J. Wiggins (MIN TE) and either Tony Fischer or Justin Fargas, I forget. I'm not real big on Givens, especially since Patten is still on the wire. I have the fourth wire pick this week, so if he falls to me, I'll grab him and reject this trade. I'd really like to have Wiggins, but I don't think he's worth a starting RB. However, if I can't get someone else to trade with me, I might be forced to pull the trigger. There's only 6 games left in the regular season for this league and the top 8 go on to the playoffs. I'm currently sitting in 10th with a 2-5 record, so I can't afford to drop too many more games if I hope to make the playoffs. We'll see what happens before the trade deadline.
Man was I wrong about my Rudi Johnson prediction. The bad thing is, I traded him and J. Walker for Duce Staley and Drew Bennett in one of my leagues. I was worried about Walker's health and felt I needed a more consistent back than Rudi. It would figure that he would have his best game after I trade him, and Walker puts up huge numbers as well. I guess that's why I'm 2-5 in that league. I still have a chance of making the playoffs (top 8 of 12 go), so my season's not over yet, but it is on life support.
Friday Night I decide to play some poker at Party, and end up losing my remaining $47. Thirty-six of it was lost at the .5/1 game and the NL $25 game. I took my remaining $11 and entered an $11 SnG and, of course, I'm the first one out. My pocket Jacks fall to a rivered gutshot straight. At this point, I'm livid and tell my wife that I won't be playing in the home tourney that's scheduled for Saturday Night.
Saturday Night... My wife talks me into playing in the home tourney and comes along to play, as well. After finally finding the place, we put up our $20 a piece and sit down with 29 other players (31 total, for the math-impaired). I start out tight and get a few hands, and begin to slowly build my stack. I then receive pocket tens in late position. It's folded around to me, so I raise to $150 (blinds are 25/50). Guy to my immediate right calls, everyone else folds. Flop comes Jack high, I bet again and am called. Turn is a Jack, so I'm fairly confident that he doesn't have one, and after I bet and he calls, I'm almost positive he doesn't have the Jack. River is a rag and I bet again, he calls again. He turns over his J8o. I ask why he didn't rasie me and he thought I had the other J with a better kicker. This cripples my stack.
The wife, meanwhile, has built herself a nice stack. I proceed to go all in a few times, rivering a straight on one of them. I slowly build my stack up to a respectable amount when our table is broken up. My next table, I begin getting cards and play them aggressively, which has me winning several pots. Before I know it, we're down to the final table (8 players), with the top 6 placing in the money (1st: $310, 2nd: $140 3rd: $60 4th: $45 5th: $25 6th: $20). I continue my aggressive ways and become the chip leader. The final three is between myself (chip leader), a guy (fairly short-stacked) and my wife (medium stack). First hand of three way action is my against my wife. I bluff her out of a pot and she's now the short stack. I end up busting him, than her, out in back to back hands. So we walk away with first and second and an extra $450. I'm glad she talked me into going, now.
Sunday The New Orleans Saints (my team) beat the Oakland Raiders. The Detroit Lions (the wife's team) beat the NY Giants. The Boston Red Sox (neither of our team) beat the St. Lois Cardinals. I originally thought I would be rooting for the Cards. My reasoning is that if Boston wins, the Boston fans would have nothing to bitch about, and Boston fans bitching about "The Curse" is just as much a part of baseball as peanuts and crackerjacks, in my opinion. However, while watching the games, I can't help but root for the Sox. Both of my fantasy football teams lose. I was actually expecting to lose in one league, but had I started Chris Chambers over Drew Bennett, I would have won and probably pulled off the upset of the season. In the other league, I actually planned on winning, but Tory Holt, Shaun Alexander and Santana Moss (had to start him due to Plax having a bye)decided not to show up, and my opponent had TO and the foresight to start Emmitt Smith against Seattle (for a team that a lot of people picked to be in the Superbowl, they sure are looking crappy). I'm down by 31 with only Rudi Johnson going tonight. He'll be lucky to get 50yds rushing, in my opinion.
Visited the local Harrah's this past weekend and dropped $200. Luckily, the wife won $105, so that took away some of the sting. My live play has been terrible lately, bringing me to the decision to only play online for the forseeable future. I might give the $1-$2 $100 buyin No Limit game a try at Harrah's, but will no longer play $3-$6. My online poker is going pretty decent. My bankroll is now up to $47. I've been playing the $.5-$1 limit games, with the occassional foray into the $25 NL game. I'm trying to take things slow and not get impatient, and it seems to be working, so far. I've got a home tournament to attend this weekend, the top prize paying around $320, so I'm hoping to finally post a win at one of these things. We'll see what happens. Most likely, I won't be playing online tonight, since I'll be hopefully watching the Red Sox make history against the Skankees.
Haven't really made any progress with the bankroll. I got it up to $40, and now it's back down to $28. I'm hoping to play some more tonight, but I also plan on watching Farenheit 9/11, so there might not be enough time. I'll post tomorrow if I end up playing.
Thanks Just wanted to thank everyone who suggested some alternate sites, as well as listing all the available bonuses for those sites. I'm going to do some research and probably give one of them a try. I'll keep you posted.
So I've been grinding at the $.50-$1.00 games, and have pushed my bankroll from a meager $28 to an astounding $40. At this rate, I'll be at my original buy in of $100 in a short 3 years. Gotta love these micro-limit games.
I've placed outside the money in six SnGs in a row. My bankroll is sitting at $28, which means I've been banished to the $.25-.50 pit that is poker hell. I doubt I'll be able to make anything happen with my remaining bankroll, as Party simply hates me. But that's okay, because I hate it right back. I'll be looking for another site to play at, as it's obvious that I stand no chance of winning at this site. Hopefully, I'll be able to finally take advantage of some bonuses. If anyone has recommendations for a site to play at other than Party, I'm all ears. The bigger the bonus, the better.
Since my last post, I've played in 11 $10+1 SnGs and I have yet to place first. Here's the breakdown: 2 second place finishes 3 third place finishes 2 fourth place finishes 1 fifth place finish 1 sixth place finish 2 eighth place finishes
So, needless to say, I'm not playing winning poker. Not quite sure what, exactly my problem is, but I think it might be that I'm playing way too tight/passive. I'm going to dive into Poker Tracker in hopes of solving my problems. We'll see if I'm successful or not.
Fantasy Football In league A, I'm 0-3. I've consistently put up big numbers, it's just that my opponents always put up bigger numbers. I got zero production out of Dominick Davis this week, which killed me, as Javon Walker and Jake Plummer had the best games of their season. Rudi Johnson didn't help much, either. My decision to pick up Corey Bradford (he was playing the Chiefs) and start him over Antonio Bryant proved stupid, as Bradford had only 1 catch, while Bryant had 3 for 63 yds. I'll have Santana Moss back this next week, so I hope I can actually pull out a win, but I'm not counting on it.
In league B, I'm 1-2. This is only because of bad match ups. The past two weeks, I would have beaten everyone in the league except for two teams, and I happened to play one of them each week. I'll have Pennington and S. Moss back in this league next week, and I play a very week team, but I count on him putting up the most numbers of his season against me, as seems to be the theme for this year.
I'm currently working, but if this gets over soon enough, I might try my luck at poker again, but we'll see.
I played in three more $10+1 SnGs last night, and placed 5th, 6th and 4th in them. The one I placed 4th in could have been a 3rd place finish if I would have been paying attention. The blinds were 200-400, I was the small blind, and only had 320 left after posting. I get something awful like 86s, everyone folds, and I decide to go all in. Had I been paying attention, I could have just folded and the other small stack would have been all in on the big blind in the next hand. I'm kicking myself for missing that one.
So, after starting off 2-0 in money finishes, I drop 4 straight. Maybe I should stick with the $5+1 SnGs until I build on my bankroll, but I just hate paying 20% in entry fees and only being able to win $19.
I'm currently working, but if I finish early enough, I'll probably hop back on and give it another try.
I finally made another deposit into my Party Poker account ($100). I played in three Sit and Go tournaments tonight, two $5+1 and one $10+1. I placed third and first in the $5 tournaments and fifth in the $10. I must have used up all my good hands for the night in my second $5 tournament, as I got a lot of very playable hands (AA twice, AKo 4 times, AQo once, a few middle pocket pairs and several other call-worthy hands). In the $10 tournament, I think I got a total of 4 or 5 playable hands, at best. At least I showed a small profit ($12) on my first night back at online poker, so I'm extremely happy.
I have to do a little work tonight, but I might be able to squeeze in another tourney if it work doesn't take too long.
I played a small home game tournament (11 players) and took second. I got into trouble early and was down to about 300 (out of 1000), but won two all-in pots to make me big stack. The reason I ended up taking second is because it was 430 am, and we began playing at 11 pm. I was tired of playing, so went all-in with J5 offsuit. The game took so long because everyone refused to raise the blinds early in the game, and then we were raising them every 5 minutes later in the game. We were really unorganized, but it was still a good time.
There was also a bachelor party and football draft this past Saturday, which was pretty good times. I got the 10th pick overall (12 man league), so here's my team, in the order I drafted them:
RB Dominick Davis HOU RB Rudi Johnson CIN (Could have had Randy Moss here, but feared not having a 2nd RB when it got back to me, since the first 16 picks were all RBs) WR Santana Moss NYJ WR Steve Smith CAR (At this point, I realize that Moss and Smith have their Bye in week 3) WR Javon Walker GB WR Charles Rodgers DET QB Jake Plummer DEN TE Marcus Pollard IND QB Byron Leftwich JAX RB William Green CLE RB Willis McGahee BUF K John Carney NO TE Stephen Alexander DET DEF Miami K Jay Feely ATL DEF Indianapolis RB Lamont Jordan
I'm not too happy with my team, especially my QB. I'm also kicking myself for not taking Moss in the second round. I'm sure it'll come back to bite me in the ass. I like my receivers, my RBs are ok, my TE is weak, as is my K and DEF. Either way, I'm glad it's football season again. I'm looking forward to tonight's game. I picked NE to win in our office pool.
Comic Still inking Episode 3. Should be up soon. I'm having problems drawing a character from a profile (look at panel 3 of the last panel I posted). I'll eventually get it right and posted.
I've been drawing on a semi-regular basis, and have been trying to post the sketches to my other blog. I still have a few other sketches that I need to post.
Football We've completed the draft for my work Fantasy Football League. It was a keeper league, and we kept two players on our squad from last year. I kept RB Shaun Alexander and RB Rudi Johnson, since RBs are at such a premium. Here's the rest of my roster, (I had the number 2 pick):
WR Tori Holt WR Anquan Boldin (I didn't realize that he was out for most of the season with an injury) WR Santana Moss QB Chad Pennington RB Deshaun Foster RB Charlie Garner WR Donte Stallworth WR Andre Davis TE Jim Kleinsasser TE LJ Smith QB Byron Leftwich K John Carney DL Mike Rucker LB Andra Davis LB Scott Fujita
Overall, I'm pretty happy with my squad, with the exception of the Boldin pickup (my round 2 pick). I could have had Joe Horn and still been able to pick up Santana Moss in the third. I'm going to hold onto Boldin, however, since he'll be back around October/November. Not sure if anyone cares about Fantasy Football, but I felt the need to post it somewhere.
Poker Still dead on the Poker front. I hope to get back into the swing of things in September.
Below are a couple of links. They're to a pretty cool comic that, I think, is set in an alternate reality where it's the wild west with robots. Pretty weird, but pretty interesting. Page 16 is where the Poker story starts. Check it out.
I played some live poker at the casino this weekend and am happy to report that my bad streak of losing live poker is officially ended. Granted, I only posted an $11 win over 4 hours, but a win is a win. Comparing it to my wife's win of $215 over the same span, at the same table, it has me questioning my abilities as a poker player.
We decided to forego the Ameristar Poker Room in favor of checking out Harrah's new Poker Room. They were running a promotion where if you got a flush or better, you received two entries into a drawing for the opportunity to play in a tournament agains Chris Moneymaker. I, of course, didn't end up winning a single entry, but my wife was able to attain 14 of them. Granted, most of them were from other men at the table, but that's neither here nor there.
Pros of Harrah's Poker Room over Ameristar: You can buy chips at the poker room desk Much better customer service Players seemed to either be very weak or new to the game Nice, big flat screen televisions throughout the poker room They page you when your seat is available, which can be heard throughout the casino They spread a NL game (not sure what the blinds or the buy-in was) They actually use the shuffle machines that are built into the table
Cons of Harrah's Poker Room compared to Ameristar: Room is much smaller, which means the tables are extremely close to each other The wait for a waitress is comprable to Ameristar Dealers aren't as experienced (in two seperate hands, the dealer tried to give the pot to a flush even though another player showed a full house. Both times, players had to point this out to the dealer) Nice, big flat screen televisions throughout the poker room (very distracting, making it hard to focus on the game, at least for me) Not necessarily a con of the poker room, but the casino overall was tiny compared to Ameristar, which made the hour wait much more boring, as you could literally walk around the casino in five minutes (upstairs and downstairs). They only had two bars that you could sit at, and they were tiny, and unless you were playing one of the poker machines at the bar you weren't supposed to sit there Another con of the casino overall was the lack of hot women, both in the server department as well as the customer department. I saw 2 hot women in the 5 hours I was there. Yes, I'm shallow.
Overall, a good experience and I do plan to return. However, the next poker room we'll be checking out is the Isle of Capri. I haven't heard anything about this one, so I'm very interested in seeing if it can hold it's own agains Harrah's and Ameristar.
I'll be watching the Redskins/Broncos game tonight. Granted, it's only a preseason game, but I'm still excited that it's football season again. I'll be participating in two Fantasy Football Leagues again this year (one for work, one with friends). My work league is having the draft this Sunday, so I need to start researching. My friend league's draft isn't until 09/04, and will be promptly followed by a bachelor party, so I'm really looking forward to that one. Talk about a perfect day: football draft, beer and naked women. If we manage to squeeze in poker, I think my head might explode.
Episode two is now posted, just look to your left. I know, I did a shitty job inking it, but I felt I had to hurry to get it up or else it would never get posted. I'm already working on episode three. I'm hoping that I'll eventually settle into some continuity within the strip. Right now, I'm simply drawing things that I find funny or relevant to poker. Episode two is based on my most recent home game, which I had to hold in my garage due to my basement being occupied. That particular day happened to be one of the hotter ones, and having only one AC vent in my garage meant that it was hot as hell. The fact that we started playing while the sun was still out didn't help matters, but once the sun went down, we opened up the garage and back door and got a good breeze going. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and I hope to have Episode three posted real soon.
Poker I felt like I haven't played poker in forever. My wife is back in school, which means she isn't working, which translates to limited disposable income. I've also been busy with home improvements, since it is summer. I've been keeping myself busy by actually going to work and riding my bike about 40-50 miles a week (20-25 on Tuesday evenings and 20-25 on Saturday mornings). I then (try) to work out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for about an hour. Yeah, I'm huge. The hunger for poker is still there, though. I'm hoping to deposit $50-$100 into Party and see if I can parlay it into $1500 like I did last time. I'll keep you posted.
The home game this past Sunday was good times. My performance, however, was not. I placed second in the first tournament, but couldn't do anything in the remaining tournaments. Appropriately, I lost the first tournament to my arch-nemesis, who always seems to get the better of me. I did, however, river my brother-in-law in back-to-back hands, busting him out of the first tourney.
I blame my poor performance on the booze. The booze and the heat. We ended up having to play in my garage, since my downstairs is now occupied, and I didn't want people smoking in the house. Unfortunately, my garage only has one vent, and the temperature was up in the 90s, which means it was in the low 90s in the garage. After the sun went down, we finally opened the doors and got some air circulating. Couldn't help but feel bad for the non-smokers that were present, as the air was pretty thick with smoke.
I'm hoping there won't be such a huge gap between now and the next home game. I'm hoping to put something together for early August, but we'll see if I can round up enough players.
The last three times I've played live poker, the results have been less than stellar. I've played one live ring game ($3-$6 Hold 'Em) and two tournaments (one $20 NL Hold 'Em and one free NL Hold 'Em), and, combined, I've won one hand. And it was the blinds in one of the tournaments. I'm not even close to kidding. I played 4.5 hours in the ring game without winning a single pot. In the $20 tourney, I won the blinds once, and busted out early (before my wife). At the free tourney, I got two playable hands, 88 and Q10o. My 88 got beat by a pair of Jacks and I went all in with Q10o, only to find myself up against AKo. So, in about 8.5 hours of live play, I've won one hand.
This has got me feeling pretty damn confident for my home poker game this Sunday. I expect to clean up. What's even better, it should be our biggest game yet, with the amount of players reaching double digits. I'm looking forward to folding and losing. You gotta stick with what you know, ya' know?
Sorry for the unannounced, extended absence. Haven't really had much of a chance to play poker. Just enough to drain my Party bankroll (current Party bankroll: $0.28). I've played a bit more live poker, both at the casino and at a home game. I lost $100 at the casino after playing for 4.5 hours and not winning a single pot, not even the blinds, nothing. At the home game, it was a $20 NL Hold 'Em tournament, and I had the pleasure of being outlasted by my wife. There's a $30 home tourney on the tenth of July that I'll probably be attending, but I don't expect much from myself, considering how rarely I play poker these days. I've been pretty busy with home improvements and work (lots of training), which is why I haven't updated in a while.
Comic The good news: I finally purchased a scanner. The bad news: My kids got a hold of my sketch book, pretty much ruining the two strips I had drawn, as well as everything else in the sketchbook (including penguins). I currently have half of one of the strips drawn, and should have it completed and inked soon. I'm not going say when I plan on posting it, since I never finish anything when I say I'm going to. Just know that it's coming.
The wife and I took advantage of a free night by sitting in the same (respective) seat for 6 hours throwing dirty clay chips and plastic coated cards around, throwing back icy-cold brews and power-smoking cigarettes between hands. Needless to say, it was a blast.
We managed a late start to the casino, which is par for us. A call to the poker room at 1115 pm revealed 25 names on the $3-$6 list, and a new policy to NOT accept phone-ins to be added to the list. So when we arrived at 1145, I fully expected a good 2 hour wait. You could imagine my surprise when we were offered two seats the moment we stepped up to the desk. We raced to buy chips ($100 a piece) and returned to the room where I scouted the tables. Table 1: A rock garden. All men, most in their mid-thirties, a couple of older men, all looking either pissed, tired, bitter, or all three. No table talk going on at all and only one drinker at the table. Table 2: A nice variety in age and sex. Lots of table conversation and the booze is flowing freely. I direct the wife to table 2 and take my seat at table 1, bracing myself for a long night.
The first two hours are pretty uneventful, with me only getting a few playable hands, which either lost at showdown or were folded on the flop. In an attempt to loosen up the table (not in the sense of the cards that they're playing, because they're playing some awful cards, but in the sense that it's a graveyard, with no chatter or fun going on at all), I announce that I will play the next hand to the river, blind. I do so and flip over J5o on the river, giving me a rivered pair of Jacks. I'm beat by someone with a rivered two pair, jacks and 3s. Oh well, I lost a few bets on that hand, but the table did loosen up and become more talkative.
At this point, my initial $100 is down to about $35, so I make another trip to the cage and plunk down another $80. I refused to be short-stacked at this table when I finally hit my ha
