Tyson's Blog

What would I do with the $5000 Best Blogger Prize?

2012-02-12T16:24:00.003-06:00

That is the question posed by Pokerstars at the moment to anyone that blogs.
What WOULD I do with $5000? First off, I would play higher HU SNGs. At the moment, I am playing $3.50's, I would definitely play the $7.00's, I would play more MTTs and I might even go play one of Regina, Saskatchewan's tournaments at their Station Poker Classic in just over a months time. That is where I had my biggest cash. I had went to play the $500 tournament a few years ago, busted out just before supper. Played a few satellites for the $1000 tournament the next day, and I won my way into it in the last one of the night. And I finished 8th out of 212, for a payday of just over $6200. It is a tournament I won't forget. And then, I would spend the rest of the stuff on fishing equipment....A couple new rods, a couple new reels, get a fly-tying vice and all the appropriate material, and tie my own flies. And if there was anything left over now, then I would take a weekend and go to Florida or Louisiana and do some redfish fishing.

As you probably can tell, I love to fish. I work at a fishing lodge during the summer, heading back up there this summer for my seventh year. I get to go out fishing whenever I please, which is a huge benefit. And this winter I went ice fishing for the first time in December. I have been out virtually every weekend since the middle of December. I spent all of New Years Day fishing.
Back to the original task at hand here, talking about the $5000 that Pokerstars has decided to give me. Another thing I would end up doing is possibly finding someone that has good grammar skills, and I would write up my blogs and have them check it for me, and make sure they are telling me to blog. As I will do it for awhile, then other things come up and I push it to the back burner. For example......Fishing.
Now if you happened to look at me, you wouldn't think that I am an outdoorsy type of person, but I am. Fishing, campfires, biking in the woods, getting into hunting are all part of my life. (wow, I never knew outdoorsy was an actual word. Spell check isn't telling me to correct it. Hmm, you learn something new everyday).
Why do I start writing about the $5000, and then all of a sudden I go back to talking about fishing? I must have it on my mind right now. Or it could possibly be the fact that I haven't been out in almost 2 weeks.....Must be going through withdrawal right now. I hope it isn't that.
I can't believe I managed to type all that in a matter of minutes, things seem to flow really well when you are really passionate about something. Now looking at this blog post, I am thinking that it is at least 500 words. I wonder what Pokerstars would do if I was one word short. Disqualify me? Try it. Besides, I don't actually know how many words that is, and I am NOT gonna count it. I am just hoping that it is good.
Tight Lines & Big Pots.....
TDoodle

Its been awhile

2011-11-25T15:44:00.002-06:00

Its been over 6 months.
What have I done since then?
Went to the lake a few days after the last post, I was up there 2 weeks before the office staff showed up, and then a few days after them, the rest of the staff showed up. This season was another great year. In my 6 years there, this was the best year for first years. I stayed for bear camp again. This is the second year in a row that I worked a 130 day stretch.
After I got back, I bought a brand new vehicle. A 2011 Mazda Tribute.
Then took a couple weeks off. Went to Edmonton for Thanksgiving weekend.
Started working again the tuesday after Thanksgiving. I'm currently working Mon and Tue mornings at the Saskatoon Club, Wed and Thurs morning at Las Palapas, and a couple nights a week at Don Cherry's bartending.
Moved into a condo in the south part of town with Clayton again.

Now the plan?

Keep working. And my goal is to play minimum 100 HUSNG games in the month of December and have a profit. No 4man/8man shootouts count towards this. Or not any Saturday duels, or the HU KO Turbo tournaments. Just 2 man HUSNGs. Normal speed or turbos only.
I've said this before, but, I'm gonna try to keep up to date more on posting.
In december I will do a daily post as to how that days games went. And I'll do a more in-depth weekly post.

Why?

2011-05-15T01:37:00.002-06:00

I just wonder why I make things so hard on myself. I wish I never had AA (and I'm not talking about alcoholics anonymous), or at least I wish it wasn't as bad as it is. Half of this would be awesome. I gamble, its a gamble, why is it tough? I just need to vent. I just need (prolly WANT is the better word) to get this monkey off my back. There are other people worse off than I am, but how they can cope with it, is beyond me, I commend them. I know to relax, and not to put so much pressure upon myself, but its tough seeing it come so easy to other people, and here I struggle. I know negativity is not the answer, and people don't like negativity, and I honestly don't think I am. I sure hope this summer goes well for me. Back to the lake on tuesday. Then thats 2 weeks where I can pretty much stop thinking about this, then on the 30th, I will be thinking of it again, but this time as a game plan. I need to go shoot some gophers tomorrow. But the wind is gonna be out (30km/hr) which sucks. We'll see.

Feeling confident!

2011-01-29T12:57:00.002-06:00

Well, I had a HU condensed course with Brokerstar at TagPoker, and a week ago I had a 1 on 1 leakfinder over skype with him. I was playing the $2s before that skype. Then I was playing the $5s and last night I was taking a few shots in the $10s. I didn't put in a lot of volume, reason why I jumped so fast is because I had T$ to use and that helped build my account. Before my session I would rarely make it past round 2 of the $10.50 HU KO Turbos on Stars, In the past week, I have played 2 of those $10.50s, First one I lost in the 2nd round. I just finished another one and finished 2/256 (good for a cash of $291 (including bounties)

Slacking....

2011-01-27T17:51:00.002-06:00

Guess I haven't been updating as much as I should. Since my last post, not much has changed. Had a session with Brokerstar for the HU SNGs, and I have been doing pretty good in them. I'm about 65% win rate for the year (thats about 75 games). My session with The Maven is next week.
I was signed up to play the blog tourneys this week, I forgot about it for the first couple tourneys, then played a NLHE, was playing well. After awhile a guy got moved to my table that had been opening up quite abit and being just really loose (he was a SuperNova Elite). He raised PF, I 3bet shoved he snaps with AQ, he turns the flush. Then I have 1 more ticket to use. I know I can't use it friday or saturday, so it was either wed or thurs. Thurs, it started at 1pm (I am still at work) and wed starts at 9pm (my bed time), so I used it on wed. But the tourney on Wed was a PLO8 (pretty sure the first time I've ever played that game) I was getting unbelievably lucky and running hot. I ended up finishing 88/489, I got an $11 SCOOP seat, and a seat into the blog main event on sunday.

The start of my re-blogging

2011-01-10T20:02:00.002-06:00

Like I said, I'm gonna try to blog more often (hopefully once a week)
While typing this, I'm watching the BCS Championship game (Auburn v Oregon), Go Auburn. The owner of the lodge, one of his sons is the back up long snapper for AU. And Auburn just hit their 2nd interception. This will be a good game!
What else is new?
-I watched a few HU SNG videos, and since watching them, I am 7-3 (I should be minimum 8-2, but I called an over shove with bottom pair against a fish when he held an over pair)
-I have been playing alot of Call of Duty: Black Ops lately, I am currently level 3 prestige. Its gross how far some people have played (I've seen someone at level 14 prestige already)
-Gonna start going to the pool on Friday nights, starting this friday. I am looking forward to that.
-Sometime next week I'm gonna be doing my training session with The Maven. He's busy this week with playing and training other students.
-I've got the place to myself for the next week (actually for the past couple weeks I've had the place to myself), since my roommate is in Texas doing sports shows for the lodge.
Other than that, I'm not sure if anything else is new.

It all changes now!

2011-01-03T15:06:00.002-06:00

Oh ya, I should prolly say what the graph is about. It is my graph on Full Tilt (this graph is nothing but Regular Speed NLHE HU SNGs)

2011 New Years Resolutions

2010-12-31T19:51:00.004-06:00

In no particular order, it is the way they came to me:

1) Make money and save money (not spending it frivolously, like eating out alot etc)
2) *** ** ****** ****** (that means, only I know what it is)
3) Get a new PB pike (little bit out of my control though, but the more I go fishing the better the chances are)
4) **** * **** ** ****
5) Get my 1st 5 figure score
6) Gain weight. I’m thinking an increase of 2 lb/week is a reasonable idea/shot. I’m gonna weigh myself every night before I go to bed. With that....instead of eating 2 big meals throughout the day, I’m gonna eat 4 small meals/snacks and 2 bigger meals. Also make them healthy meals.
7) Exercise more, and make them be more intense, than what they usually are
8) Beginning of 2010 I did cut back on pop/sweets, but late in the spring I started back on the sweets more, I also had the occasional pop. So I’m gonna keep this one going.
9) Blog once a week
10) Not play any table games this year
11) ********* **** * ***** ****

That seems like enough to keep me going, and if you ask what the stars are, I will not tell you. So don't even bother asking, and no they are not dirty (if that is what you are wondering why they are only in stars)

2010 Resolutions...How did I do?

2010-12-31T16:49:00.001-06:00

1 ) Run like a god - however, someone says that will be broken within 5 minutes, and I don't doubt that at all. - FAIL!
a) stop complaining about how bad I run - FAIL
2) Stop saying FML so much, I will keep saying it, but I won't say it as much. In the past 2 weeks, I have actually started it and haven't said it quite abit - I still say it, but it is rare now.
3) Stop (atleast not as much) complaining about bad beats, and letting them get to me. - FAIL
a) Especially if I get it in with the dominating hand and lose (ie AK v A7 and lose), and you know who you are, you should try this as well..... LOL - FAIL
4) By the end of the year to be regularly playing the $30 HU SNGs and DoNs. FAIL
5) Get my first 5 figure score FAIL
6) Start going to the gym....and go regularly, to get into shape FAIL
7) Get an overall positive outlook on life not really a fail, but not really a win

Hmmmmm, maybe 2011's resolutions will be better.

It has been a looooooong time, hasn't it?

2010-12-29T18:43:00.002-06:00

It was only a couple days ago that I realized that it has been a few months since my last post. So, I think it was about time that I did an update as to what has been happening in my life and poker.
Currently writing this, I am typing it up in Pages as I don’t have access to the internet as I am on my way back from Vegas (more on that later in this post or in a post in a few days)
Also as I’m writing this, I’m not exactly too sure when my last post was (and I’m not planning on fixing it when I get online), I think it was September sometime, as I somehow vaguely recall that I did a post about bear hunting at the lake, and my sick new PB pike (45” long) that I caught.

Pretty sick huh?
Have to thank Clayton for that, as he took me fishing to the north part of the lake for that.
So I was at the lake for 130 days (I had 1 day off in that whole time), I definitely can’t complain about the weather though, we didn’t have more than 3 inches of rain for when guests were there.
After I got back to the city from the lake, less than a week later, Clayton and I started renting a condo together in Warman.

It’s kinda tough to write this while having How I Met Your Mother playing in the background. So I guess its gonna be on pause until I am done writing this, or at least writing a lot of it.

Less than 2 weeks back, was the Dunes’ big October tournament. I was playing really well in it. Never got myself in many ugly sticky spots, until about a level or 2 before the supper break, I won the hand when I called a shove from the BB, when I bet the flop with middle pair out of the SB. Then lost a key hand that would have taken me to a nice sized stack, the guy over shoved flop. We both had top pair, his kicker was better though. Then lost out the last hand before the supper break, when my 77 lost to A9ss (went running flush)

I went back to work at the University for a couple shifts, then there was no other shifts for me, so I called up Joel (the head chef at the lodge last year) and he got me a job at The Saskatoon Club cooking breakfasts again. It does suck waking up early, but I am done work early though, which is a nice thing. That is one reason why I enjoy doing breakfasts at the lake.

Nothing for poker had really happened in the few months. I never made any money in the Dunes’ sunday tournaments, but two weeks in a row I bubbled the bubble. I made it really deep in a couple $2 tournaments on Poker Stars a few weeks ago. Making it all the way to final 2 tables (when over 300 tables started).

One of the big things that has happened to me in these few months though, is that one of my buddies that lives in Las Vegas, hooked me up with a complimentary training session with David ‘The Maven’ Chickotsky. So the next time I would be in Las Vegas I can use that. Well, I was talking to David via PM last week and he was going back to Texas for Christmas, so I missed him the whole time. I suggested that we could possibly do it over Skype, and he said that could very well be arranged. Hopefully that can happen in the first couple weeks of the new year. Also, I have had some winning days, and more losing days since the lake, and I decided that if I was gonna have lost money by the time that I depart for the lake next spring, I was gonna quit playing poker, as there is no way that someone can run bad for that amount of time, that it has to be me and my playing (since the spring, however, I didn’t play any cards while at the lake) Then I decided that if I have 12 consecutive losing months, then I would quit. Right now I am on 4 month losing streak. I’m still undecided what I’m gonna do. I’m atleast gonna wait until my session with David is done. Speaking on my session with David, yesterday, my day at the poker table and the craps table (early in the day), went horribly bad, so I decided that I’m not gonna play anymore poker until my session. Another thing I decided on was that in the new year, I am not gonna play any more table games....No more Blackjack, No more Baccarat, and no more Craps (which does suck, as I really do enjoy it). I’m not gonna play any any of those games until I make money in poker.

I wish I had what my 2010 New Years Resolutions were in front of me, then I could go over them and see if any of them happened, or if I broke every single one (which I’m pretty sure had happened) I know of a few that I am gonna make for 2011, but I’m gonna wait before I post them. I want to have the full list before I do.

Summertime is gone

2010-08-31T19:07:00.002-06:00

Well, I was gonna read my last post as to what I said so I wouldn't repeat myself, but I forgot to. Oh well! But the fishing guests left on the 22nd. Shutdown....I mean "shooter shutdown" happened (reason for that, is that I wanted to get rid of alot of my booze for shooters), and I did. Then the staff that stayed for shutdown left. Then there were 10, then 7, and now for the past few days its been 6. It is wonderful with that few people here, really quiet.
Last saturday, I went out for a boat ride to the north end of the lake. It was rainy, and windy. The boat ride back (took about 2 hours, normally 1.5 hours) We were in 4-5 ft waves, my back was sore the next day.
Went again a couple days later (yesterday) and it was super calm weather! I also got my new PB pike as well. Measured 44.5x18" Its a fatty!
Going out fishing all day on friday.....Can't wait!
As for poker.....still haven't plyed! I'm not planning on plying until the Dakota Dunes big tourney the first weekend in Oct. I usually do good the first few tourneys when I get back. I still haven't decided if I'm gonna ply the regular sunday tourney just before that (the last one in Sept)

Summer/long overdue update

2010-08-18T16:04:00.002-06:00

Aug 18............................
Today is day 101 that I haven't plyed any poker. It is also day #95 of my work week. I am here til near the end of september for bear camp. I will be working almost 130 days in a row. I will be in need of a well deserved break when I get back.
I have done alot of fishing since being here. And with bear camp, there will be alot more in store! YAY!

Past month (very little poker related)

2010-06-15T17:17:00.003-06:00

I have been at the lake for the past 30+ days. In these 30+ days, I have seen 2 different snowfalls that have dropped an accumulative 7 or so inches of snow on us, in addition to roughly a 22 hour power outage. The first guests showed up June 10th. Since being here, I have went from cooking for ~12 people to 10 to 8 to 5. There was 5 of us here at one point. It was a great, and quiet time. Then we were up to about 12, then a few more stragglers throughout a few days, then all of a sudden on the 4th of June there was over 50 of us here.
I haven't played any poker since May 9th. I can truthfully say that I haven't missed playing, and I have had the urge to play a few times but haven't. I have however, been following the WSOP. I was hoping that durrrr won that event.
Dunno if it is a good thing or a bad thing, but I have drank everyday being up here. Which by my usual standards, is very high. I actually finished a bottle of wine off by myself in about 3 and a half hours without feeling a buzz.
I have also started exercising the first day of guests showing up here. I started with a bike ride that turned from a 30 minute ride into a 'so-called' 3 hour ride. Funny story behind that.......Since we are in the middle of the wilderness (bears, wolves etc) we are to tell someone that we are going for a run/bike ride. Well I did.....I said "if I'm not back in an hour consider me dead" then did a little laugh. I came back about 25 minutes later, then me and 2 other staff went fishing (they also had to break a new motor in) Well, I didn't say that I came back, they sent a search party out for me. Oops.
We are also desperately needing rain. Since the snowfall, we have had less than an inch and a half of rain. Which is bad seeing as there are all the trees around us, and it is really dry right now. So we don't need a forest fire. I really really hate shore days (when the guests can't go on the lake due to bad weather, and I have to cook lunch for all the staff and guests), but I would rather deal with one shore day than have to deal with a forest fire near by (where the camp could possibly be shut down), but before a camp shut down would happen, there would be a fire ban put on by the government Environment section.
Today is the 15th, it is just another 16 days til I can play poker again.

AQ is the last hand

2010-05-10T09:23:00.002-06:00

So, I plyed a few more SCOOP tourneys this past week. In particular all the low events on tues (PL 5 card draw, HU tourney, then the $11 NLHE) and in all of them I busted fairly close to the bubble, except for the HU tourney, where I had the first round bye, but busted in the 2nd round. Then plyed the knockout tourney on thursday, and lost a big pot in the early going w QJ on a QJx flop and the guy had JJ. Then plyed the shootout on saturday and lost 66 to a guys 98. Then the FLHE saturday evening (this one I went fairly deep, but still busted shy of the money)
For the SCOOPs I am atleast up money (due to the 6max tourney)
As for AQ as the last hand, I went and plyed the Dunes tourney last night for the last time for the summer since I'm heading to the lake this coming friday. And I lost a big pot w AA when I folded to an all-in on the turn on a board of 4c3c3h-5c. Still putting him on A3. Then an orbit later down to 1750 in chips on BB of 100, guy raised to 300, two calls, I shove a AQhh, big stack (the possible A3 guy) calls it. Has 44, and he holds.
That is my last hand of poker until minimum July 1.
So by that, you prolly won't see many posts here either.
Til then.....Bye!

SCOOP update

2010-05-02T21:27:00.002-06:00

Plyed the first tourney I was registered in. The medium ($215) 6max. they had 6783 runners, I finished 167 for $841.09. Dece, but I wanted first of $203k. But I am atleast up for the SCOOPs. Pretty good from the blog tourney a few months ago (which was a freeroll)
Next one is Tues the HU event.

Summer SCOOP

2010-04-30T11:42:00.002-06:00

Found out this past week that I might be going up early to the lodge. They asked me if I would be willing to go up early, and I said yes. Thursday I found out that it is 95% sure I'm going up on the 15th of May as opposed to June 4. Which is an extra 20 days of working. I am excited to get up to the lake. I have almost everything purchased for it, just a few little things to buy. I am planning on drinking ALOT as I have already spent about $700 on alcohol. And if you know me, I don't drink that much to begin with. But that is for the whole summer. Reason why its so much is because it is alot of wines and premium vodkas (I like my vodka and caesars) Speaking of caesars, I am planning on making a caesar slurpee sometime this summer. Lets hope that works out well. LOL.

And now onto poker news, since Vegas I have played two or three times. The one day I played a couple of the rush SNGs, and a couple days played a bit of cash on Ultimate Bet (I want to either run that account up or go busto) I don't have much in there anyways.
Now the SCOOP events I'm playing are:

May 2 - 11am(MT) - SCOOP-01-M $215 (NLHE, 6max - $1M guaranteed)
May 4 - 3pm(MT) - SCOOP-07-L $16.50 (NLHE, Heads Up - $100k guaranteed)
May 6 - 3pm(MT) - SCOOP-12-L $27 (NLHE, Knockout - $100k guaranteed)
May 8 - 12pm(MT) - SCOOP-16-L $22 (NLHE, Quadruple Shootout, 10max - $150k guaranteed)
May 8 - 6pm(MT) - SCOOP-18-L $22 (FLHE, Turbo - $25k guaranteed)
May 11 - 6pm(MT) - SCOOP-26-L $11 (NLHE - $100k guaranteed)

Event 1 - I won my ticket via the blog ME a few months ago
Event 7 - Actually won a seat into one of the HORSE SCOOP events, and just unregistered and then registered for this one instead
Event 12 - Bought into it
Event 16 - Got a $22 ticket from Pokerstars by doing 5 different things in the past couple months (the 4 blog posts and becoming a fan of theirs on Facebook)
Event 18 - Won a $5 FLHE satty
Event 26 - Finished 4th in a competition that the PokerRoad Forums were running during March Madness where a few people put up stakes to the top 6 people. Top 3 were $24+2 stakes, and 4-6 were $10+1 stakes. I finished 4th, and got a stake from someone and he said (before the games started) his stake is 70 player/30 backer, so I hope I can make him some money.

One of my buddies is running a $200 HU tourney this saturday, I wish I could play it, but after deciding to take a break I am not, he asked if I wanted a horse, I said I would but I'm also working that day. So that is out. Oh well, even though I'm trying so hard to push for a HU tourney at the Dunes (I know that will never happen :( I told him maybe next time.

I'll try to update before I leave for the lake, on a recap on my SCOOP tourneys. Hopefully, there will be a really good post where I finished with a very nice chunk of change.

Badugi

2010-04-24T12:33:00.003-06:00

Someon asked me a couple days ago how to play Badugi. This is another one of my favourite games, I was getting pretty good at it a few years ago, then kinda stopped playing it, and now I suck. Haha. Its a 4 card lowball with pairs and flushes counting against you, with Aces low. So by that I hope you understand that the best possible hand is A234 rainbow. I've found videos help me to learn stuff so here is How to Play Badugi
Again thanks to PokerStars for doing up the video.

8 Game

2010-04-24T12:27:00.002-06:00

This is one of my favourite games. Not one of my best, but it is one of my favourite.
It goes through 2-7 Triple Draw, Hold Em, Omaha 8/b, Razz, Stud, Stud 8/b, PLO, NLHE. I could explain it more in detail but this is How to Play 8 Game Mix. Thanks to Poker Stars for generously doing that video up.

Update

2010-04-17T18:57:00.002-06:00

Well, Vegas was good and bad. Bad I lost, but what else is new? haha. The good....Can't say yet.
But after that run in Vegas, I have decided to quit playing poker for awhile (my current date is July 1), reasoning is I just need to get my head cleared of it. There are a few times I will play til then. They are a few of the SCOOP events that I am already registered in. A couple of them are the 16.50 HU SCOOP-L and the 22 FLHE SCOOP-L, I also have a 215 entry (from that blog championship), I just dunno what event I'm gonna ply yet. And I should have another 22 entry coming (the previous couple posts)

A new event in the SCOOP

2010-03-27T13:28:00.003-06:00

Was just released today that there is a new event that Pokerstars announced would be in their SCOOP Poker Tournament series.
It is Connect 4.

When I first heard that, I was ecstatic. As I am a beast in Connect 4. It is like this, Moorman1 is to MTT as TDoodle is to Connect 4. Since Xmas time I am something like 49-8. Half of those games were against kids aged 7-16, the other half against an adult.
Thank You Poker Stars!!!

The Great Debate

2010-02-23T00:39:00.002-06:00

Ever since the invention of fire (well, maybe not that long), since the invention of the modern day deck of cards. There has been a debate of whether poker is a game of luck or skill.
People who don't play, think that it's all luck and gambling, especially since its played in casinos.
People that play it (especially the ones that have winning records) will say its skill with a little luck tossed in. In the short term, there IS more luck involved, however, when you play live and play against the same people quite abit, you get to know each of their individual tendencies. From their betting patterns, their tells, and even the way their breathing and/or pulse can and will change to their individual holdings. When you play online, you are blocked of one thing.... you can't see your opponent. So you are to rely on your reads of their betting patterns and their timing tells.
A great example of this would be Annette_15, when she won a 180 man SNG without looking at her cards the entire time. Well not entirely true, she supposedly looked at them once.
Another example is look at the leaderboards of Sharkscope, the winning players have a consistent 40 degree angle (minimum). They must be doing something right....they just can't run goos all the time.
Which is why playing poker is clearly a game of skill.

Like a great man once said..... "Why do you think the same five guys make it to the final table of the World Series of Poker EVERY YEAR? What, are they the luckiest guys in Las Vegas?" -Mike McDermott (Rounders, 1998)

Past 2 weeks

2010-02-15T15:30:00.003-06:00

Lets start off with how my NY resolutions are going....
1 ) Run like a god - however, someone says that will be broken within 5 minutes, and I don't doubt that at all. - Since this one is beyond my control, no comment
a) stop complaining about how bad I run - I am still doing this, however, not as much
2) Stop saying FML so much, I will keep saying it, but I won't say it as much. In the past 2 weeks, I have actually started it and haven't said it quite abit - This one I say roughly 2-5 times a week, which isn't bad IMO
Speaking about FML, when I was going to work on Valentines day, I saw something that made my day....
I saw a licence plate that said FML, here is a pic of it (I blurred out the numbers though) the quality of the pic isnt great.
3) Stop (atleast not as much) complaining about bad beats, (In January, I was doing it still quite often, but in February I have complained about I think 2 maybe 3) and letting them get to me. - This one I have done really well with, I'm not tilting as much and as easily
a) Especially if I get it in with the dominating hand and lose (ie AK v A7 and lose), and you know who you are, you should try this as well..... LOL - See previous note
4) By the end of the year to be regularly playing the $30 HU SNGs and DoNs. - Still too early
5) Get my first 5 figure score - Still 10 1/2 months to go, I'm not worried yet
6) Start going to the gym....and go regularly, to get into shape - BIG FAIL, I did a couple times in January, and since then, not so much, However, when I go back to the lake this summer, I am planning on buying a bike and taking it with me
7) Get an overall positive outlook on life - meh. LOL. I don't know what to say here, its not fantastic, but its not shitty.

Onto other stuff:
- Played the tournament last sunday (Super Bowl Sunday) and they got 47 runners, and I finished 2nd for 981. In the first 4 levels I was being a bully at the table, raising roughly 5 out of 7 hands PF, and built my stack up to 6000 then within 15 minutes dropped back to 3000, then in 10 minutes brought it back to 4500 at the first break. When we were down to four the blinds were ridiculous for the stacks, So we did a 4 way chop of 981 then left 400 for the eventual winner (I was hoping to get HU to ply HU, and I did and when we got HU he had me outchipped roughly 3 to 1). I should have said that 3rd and 4th each takes 981, then 2nd gets an extra 100 then 1st gets 300. Oh well. Hindsight is 20/20.
- Dropped my contract off at the office beginning of Feb, so I tentatively leave for the lake on June 4, but they asked if I would be willing to go up early, so I said I would. Right now, it is unsure as to when I will go. There might be a side "task" (if you wanna put it that way) for me while I'm at the lake....Details to come soon.
- I was planning on going to ply in the first $1K event at the WSOP on May 29, and that would take me to fly back on the 3rd of June and leave the 4th. But instead I'm planning on Vegas Apr 10 for 4-5 nights. Also planning on plying in a $340 HORSE tourney at the Venetian Deepstacks when there.
- Haven't plyed many DoN's lately, but plyed quite afew HU SNGs, and as of writing I am on a 10 game win streak. I'm trying for a Sharkscope star for longest streak (dunno if I can make it to 66 wins, as the leader has 65 wins)
- LOST. WTF? They need to answer some questions soon. Atleast this is the last season and they should be answered.
- There was something else, but I can't remember. If I remember, I will post it next time (hopefully, I will do it sooner rather than later)

WBCOOP 2010 Recap

2010-01-31T22:15:00.002-06:00

I registered for all the events, ended up having to work mon-thurs. Played the 8game tourney on friday, and busted out in the first NLHE level when a guy had K8 beat my AK.
Played saturday in the NLHE event, I busted out about 50 away from the money when my AA lost to TT.
Played the Main Event sunday planned on plying and then hopefully trying to make it to the Dunes tourney by 6, didnt end up happening when I ended up finishing 17th (out of 2062) Payouts were: 1st: 3100 SCOOP entry, 2-9th: 2100 SCOOP entry, 10-36th: 215 SCOOP entry. I lost a few key pots a guy open shoves I call w AQss, he has KJ, QJx-T-A. very next hand, I raise w AQ guy 3bets, I shove and call, he has AK. I now am shortstack (still between 25-30 BBs) I fold for a long time then 3X w TT, guy shoves and I call he has KQ. Binks Q on river. GG me.

WBCOOP 2010

2010-01-19T14:13:00.001-06:00

I have registered to play in the WBCOOP PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! You too can Play Poker Online at PokerStars.com and take part in the WBCOOP which is open to all Bloggers by registering on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 807208

An open letter.....

2010-01-17T22:28:00.002-06:00

Dear poker gods,

I would like to know what I have done to you guys to piss you (all) off.

I am sick and tired of getting it (my money) in with the best hand and not being the best when the last card is dealt. I realize that bad beats/variance is unavoidable, but when I have the person crushed AIPF with a hand like AQ v A8, AK v KT, KQ v KJ, do you get the idea, I should be winning 3 out of 4 of those, NOT 1 out of 8. I also realize that I can't win them all when I am ahead or when I get it in behind, but when I get them in behind, LET me suck out sometime.

Another thing is to stop teasing me. Like tonight for an example, ok so what I lost a flip (AJ v 77) but when I get crippled to 8 BBs, I find QQ on BB with a MP limp, a SB completion, then I decide to ship it in, and the MP calls, SB re-ships, and MP calls as well. So its me (QQ) v MP (88) v SB (AA). and the flop gives me top set and then the river gives the 88 a 4 flush to scoop the pot. That is just cruel and unusual punishment.

So, a plea.....
please tell me what I can do to make you stop deciding to fuck me over without lube.
Thanks

Random letters

2010-01-11T15:03:00.003-06:00

Saturday:
WLWLWLLWWWLWLWWLWWWLWLLLLWLWWLWLLWWLLL (19-19)
Monday:
WWWWLWWWWWLLWWLWLWWWLWWWWLLLWWLWLLWWWWLWLWLWWWLWWWLWLLLWLWWLWW (63-37 as of 6:30pm - I decided to quit at 100 games - Total profit today of $42.00)

Total: 82-56
These are all at $2 HU on FT, oh ya, they are superturbos.

New Years Resolutions

2009-12-31T13:02:00.002-06:00

So these are them (minus a couple that are for my eyes only), They aren't all related to just poker:
1 ) Run like a god - however, someone says that will be broken within 5 minutes, and I don't doubt that at all.
a) stop complaining about how bad I run
2) Stop saying FML so much, I will keep saying it, but I won't say it as much. In the past 2 weeks, I have actually started it and haven't said it quite abit
3) Stop (atleast not as much) complaining about bad beats, and letting them get to me.
a) Especially if I get it in with the dominating hand and lose (ie AK v A7 and lose), and you know who you are, you should try this as well..... LOL
4) By the end of the year to be regularly playing the $30 HU SNGs and DoNs.
5) Get my first 5 figure score
6) Start going to the gym....and go regularly, to get into shape
7) Get an overall positive outlook on life

Then there are a couple more that only I know, and I won't tell. :)
As for poker, I didn't play much over Christmas, I thought I was gonna play quite abit, but I didn't. The past two days (Dec 29/30) I went on a crazy run (in the way I run, I was running good :D), I went 32-15 in the $5 DoNs, for a profit of $75.
And played a few HU SNGs, and made a little bit of a profit, but not alot.
Now its NYE and I do not want to work tonight. However, I am excited to wear my pin stripe suit I rented. Should be a fun/busy/shoot-me-now night!!

Oh So close

2009-12-25T14:50:00.001-06:00

Like Really?
2 hands earlier I was button I minraised, Flop was whatever, I cbet button, he check minraised I folded. I decided to do the same thing here (sans folding)

Merry Xmas!

2009-12-24T21:46:00.002-06:00

Saturday - BIG DAY!

2009-12-20T00:30:00.003-06:00

I went over to a buddies place to grind all day, and in 11 hours, I got out of the chair maybe 3 times. I pretty much had atleast 1 game going at all times. I started off with the Double or Nothings, then played some HU SNGs, then realizing how many games I played already, I decided I was gonna play 50 total games (which by me, is alot).
So I finished 19-20 in the DoNs and 6-5 in HU SNGs. I decided to quit while FT was letting me win. LOL.

But the 'big' (if you want to call it that) news for the day, was I had played a total of 2205 hands (which again by me, is alot)
Out of those 2205 hands, I had got dealt an astonishing 147 pocket pairs. Here is the break down, and how many times I won with each of them:
Pair - # times had - Win/Push/Loss - bb/100 (I realize it doesn't matter for tourney $ but its still cool to see how much I won)

AA - 12 - 12/0/0 - +1555.17
KK - 5 - 4/0/1 - +77.80
QQ - 18 - 12/0/6 - +108.17
JJ - 8 - 5/0/3 - (435.00)
TT - 7 - 3/0/4 - (187.29)
99 - 14 - 8/0/6 - +381.64
88 - 9 - 6/1/2 - +240.56
77 - 10 - 4/0/6 - +235.70
66 - 9 - 4/0/5 - +72.11
55 - 12 - 2/1/9 - (64.92)
44 - 14 - 5/3/6 - +163.86
33 - 18 - 3/2/13 - +11.06
22 - 11 - 2/2/7 - +622.18

So I only lost on three of them, and they weren't really that much. I only decided to keep track after I had got dealt AA a few times, then I realized that I had quite a few pocket pairs as well. Then I loaded up Poker CoPilot (HEM but for Mac) and loaded up the hands and looked. It is quite sick. The chances of you being dealt a pocket pair are 5.9%, I was at 6.8%, so its not much more than normal. And for AA is 0.45%, I was at 0.54%. So looking at the odds/chances, I was getting them slightly more than normal.
I have decided that I am gonna take atleast 1 day off from playing every week from now on. As I took thursday and friday off this week. I was on a 20 day stretch, which it doesn't seem like a long time, but after thinking about it, by day 15-17, it seemed like I had played atleast one session everyday for the past 40 or so.
Now, I hope I can ship the tournament at the Dunes on sunday.

A hand

2009-12-14T11:04:00.002-06:00

This hand just played out vs a fish. The hand replayer wasnt loading up, so I'm just gonna post the hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #16795409885: $5 + $0.25 Heads Up Sit & Go (125007314), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 12:01:04 ET - 2009/12/14
Seat 1: kwgrant (1,970)
Seat 2: TDoodle (1,030)
TDoodle posts the small blind of 15
kwgrant posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TDoodle [6s 6h]
TDoodle raises to 60
kwgrant calls 30
*** FLOP *** [6d 3c 6c]
kwgrant bets 30
TDoodle calls 30
*** TURN *** [6d 3c 6c] [9d]
kwgrant bets 180
TDoodle calls 180
*** RIVER *** [6d 3c 6c 9d] [7h]
kwgrant checks
TDoodle bets 760, and is all in
kwgrant calls 760
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TDoodle shows [6s 6h] four of a kind, Sixes
kwgrant mucks
TDoodle wins the pot (2,060) with four of a kind, Sixes
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,060 | Rake 0
Board: [6d 3c 6c 9d 7h]
Seat 1: kwgrant (big blind) mucked [Ks 9c] - two pair, Nines and Sixes
Seat 2: TDoodle (small blind) showed [6s 6h] and won (2,060) with four of a kind, Sixes
Won the match a few hands later when he potted on the flop of K9x, I min raised, he pushed and I called w KQ, he had Q9. I held.

Interesting HU game just played

2009-12-13T02:22:00.002-06:00

So, I just finished an interesting game. Played a bad player from Netherlands. He was betting virtually every flop, I was calling him down with 2nd, 3rd pairs, and winning. Finally an interesting hand (one of many came up)

Interesting Hand 1)

I snap called that river bet.

After that hand I was down to about 750 in chips. He chipped away at for quite awhile, At one point, I was at about 440.

Then about 60 after that one, this one came up:

8 hands later:

Not only that right after this hand, we had the following conversation (well, I guess it was one sided):

him: justice

me: for what?

me: your 4 outer against my flush?

me: for my pair holdiing in a flip?

me: for donk shoving w K4?

me: ur choice...

(a couple hands pass through)

me: yup, thats what I thought

(about 5 hands go by)

me: so? I'm not exactly sure about the justice

And he didn't respond

Then the final hand:

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Not sure if I could have gotten away from that last hand, but I wasn't full on tilting, but I was slightly steaming. What made me cool down abit was venting in the chat box.

Couldn't resist....

2009-12-10T12:14:00.002-06:00

Some of these you prolly have heard, but some funny Tiger jokes...

What's the difference between a car and a golf ball?

-Tiger can drive a golf ball 350 yards.

Why did Tiger hit a tree and a fire hydrant?

-He couldn't decide whether to hit a wood or an iron.

Ping just made Elin an endorsement contract for a set of drivers, to be named Elin Woods.."Clubs you can beat Tiger with"

TigerWoods game is slipping....He only finshed 11 holes....

Gatorade dropped their Tiger Woods sports drink. Because it'd be tasteless to say, "Is it in You?"

Why does Tiger like woman more than golf?

-Because he can play more than one hole at a time.

Its funny how many jokes have came out. I've read some realy stupid ones that aren't funny, I've read some (the ones above) that are really funny.

Has it come down to this?

2009-12-07T12:43:00.002-06:00

In the past, if someone would ask me whether I would rather play live or online, I would instantly say 'live.'

I went out to the play the tournament last night, I showed up right when they were calling people to be sat. So I didn't miss anything. In the first 4 levels, I was splashing around quite abit, winning small pots, losing small pots. At the break, I was down to 2800 (starting stack of 3K), I busted out in 18th (10+bubble paid), first hand after the second break, I pushed UTG+2 w/ A9o, got a re-shove by AK. AK holds. I went and watched the cash games for a few minutes and decided I was gonna play, so I write my name on the list at 7:45 and I'm first, but there were a couple people showing up at 8pm. I decided I'm gonna wait until 8:30, if I'm not on the table by then, I'm leaving. I go and sit down at blackjack with $40 and play the rest of the shoe out (about 1/3 of it) and made $10, while shuffling they call me over that there is a seat. So I sit down with that 50 and top it up 50 more for an even 100. I am playing fairly nitty (atleast nittier than I normally would at 1/2), an orbit passes me and I raise on the button with Q8, BB calls. Flop is AQx. He checks, cbet, and he calls. Turn is a brick. He checks, I check behind. River another Q. He bets 15, I raise, and he mucks. Next hand, a woman who likes to see alot of flops, and bets 95% of the flops when OOP raises, I call in the cutoff with Q8dd. a couple more callers. Flop is 87x. She bets 20, I call, call. Turn K. She checks, and figuring she missed and is playing something like AQ, AJ. I bet 45, and they both fold. Up about $80. A while I haven't seen much for cards, I end up being back to 100ish. Then in MP I call with A9hh, then virtually everyone behind me calls, BB makes it 20, so I call, and everyone folds. Flop is AK9 two diamonds. Check check. Turn offsuit 3. He bets 50, I push for 80 something, and he calls with AQ. I hold. A few hands later in SB, I complete with KTo, BB checks. There are about 5 in. Flop is KJ8. I bet 10, call, woman raises to 30, I tank and ask her how much she has behind, I call, BB calls. Turn brick. I bet 56 (putting her all in), BB folds, she tosses it in, and has K8, and holds. Next hand, there was a raise to 12, a few callers, I call on button with 33. Flop is 236. Guy bets 20, call, I raise to 56. Folds back to the AQ guy, and he tanks, looks at my chips and calls. Turn brings a high card. He asks how much I have, I say 55, he bets 55, I toss it in. He has 55, I hold. Now almost 290 infront of me. I leave in 1 orbit, when an uber LAG player sits at the table. Over all for the day, I am up $70.

So going back to the first part of this post....

I found playing live cash to be boring. I still enjoy playing live, but after playing online for the past 2 months (with maybe 5 live sessions - all tournaments), it was slow.

Huge Win!

2009-12-03T11:09:00.002-06:00

No, I didn't ship a big tourney for thousands, upon thousands of dollars.

I put in a big day yesterday, even though at the end of the day, I was down. I finished 10-16 in the DoNs, and 10-8 in the HU SNGs.

It was one match in the HU SNGs, that was the big win. I beat a shark! In the early goings of the match he took the lead, I came back to virtually even, then the one hand (following hand) was the turning point in the match.

It was just a big confidence booster.

As for my goal of tripling my rolls on PS and FT for the month of November. Didn't quite get there. I didn't play much on FT, and I was about $24 shy of doing it on PS.

My December goals:

To be regularly playing the $10 games by years end. I'm confident I can do it!!

Gross

2009-12-01T16:20:00.001-06:00

Played a guy, lost, we both accepted a rematch.

First hand:

This upcoming weekend

2009-11-28T01:53:00.003-06:00

To get ready for the Grey Cup weekend, here are some pics that are Rider-oriented:

GO RIDERS!!!!!

Weekend

2009-11-23T12:18:00.003-06:00

For the Paint Dryers I was playing on the weekend, the donkeys were out in full force on saturday. I went 3-1 when I got home from work from friday nights shift, then in the morning I had went just about even, then made a late day comeback and finished the day at 12-10. Then on sunday, I virtually couldn't get going, ran KK into AA twice both times AIPF. Ran JJ into AA, again AIPF, but this time I hit a set on the river. 99 v AK, A on flop, but the board ran out a wheel for a chop. AQ v TT. A on flop, T on river. I ended up the day 5-6, my first losing day in the paint dryers in 13 days, which I can't really complain about it.

I went out to the casino last night for the tournament, and felt really good about my play and had great confidence going into it. And I was playing like a SUPER NIT!!!! Nittier than normal for me. I played 4 hands in the first 4 levels. First hand I raised in LP w KTo, 3 callers. Flop was 69x check around. Turn 8, again check around, river 7 check to me, I bet 250, two folds and old guy raises it to 875. I tank, and count out the call, ask the dealer and he confirms it, and I call. Guy flips ATdd. Chop it up. Less than an orbit later, there are awhole bunch of limpers to me on the button, I raise it with AA, and virtually all the limpers call. Way too many people in there. Flop was J3x two hearts, check, guy bets 300 call, folds to me, I snap push (an over push), folds back to the original bettor and he calls, fold. He shows QJ, and I am saying to myself 'fuk, I'm not doing so good in these spots lately' Turn 3h, I look at the 3 hearts and see if either of us have a heart, I did. River Q. I started saying 'fuck my.......' then I stopped and realized I had the better two pair. I don't remember many other hands I played.

Blinds were 100/200, UTG minraises, I call in LP w A5hh, flop is Ten high, check check, turn pairs the 8 and gives me the flush draw, check, I bet, and he calls. River a brick, he checks, I bet 775, he tanks cuts out the call, and finally calls and insta flips AK (king plays), my jaw drops that he called a river bet with Ace high.

Knocked out one of my buddies that raised min raised UTG (I was BB w 98hh) I called, flop was KJ9 two hearts, I checked, he pushes, I say 'loose call' and toss it in, he has AJ, I bink heart on river. A while later, there were limpers to me in the SB, I had 85dd, BB checks. Flop is 9d6dAh, I bet, and have 3 callers. Turn is 7s, I bet again 2 callers. River Td, I push and have 1 caller, I show and he shows a rivered set of tens. I take huge pot. Down to 13 or so (6 get paid), guy pushes for slightly more than a min raise on the button I have AKdd in SB I jam, and BB folds, button has A2, 2 on turn. Few hands later I raise UTG+2 w AJo, BB calls, Flop is J22, he pushes for 8000+ into 6k, I tank for the longest time and finally muck my J face up, he shows a Jack as well. I don't let it get to me. Down to final table, we lost 4 guys in 9 hands. I opened up quite abit and stole whenever I had an ace in my hand. 5 left, I push on the button w A2 get called by one of the big stacks to my left and he has QJ, I flop 2 pair. Next hand I have AKcc, I raise and TID. After the break, I knock out the person in 5th holding KK in the BB when she didn't even have enough for a min raise, a couple hands later I have 88 on button, SB (the earlier QJ) pushes for another 20K, I count out a call, and put it in, and ask if he has a pair, he says yes, I ask a big one? he shows 66, I knock him out, a couple hands later, button pushes, while the SB is tanking, I look at AQo, as soon as the SB mucks, I snap call, he has A5, and I hold with a pair of Queens. HU, I have roughly a 3:2 chiplead, maybe 2:1. We play out for about 6 hands, and we decided to each take 1500, and play out for 150, I counted my stack before we made a deal I had him covered by about 10K (153k in play), so it was back and forth, last hand, I minraised button with J6, he calls. Flop is 478, he checks, I bet 10K, he minraises to 20K, I call. Turn A, he checks I push, and he says ' I think you might have me, but I call' and shows KK. Oops. River bricks. GG me. The guy that won, was the guy that I doubled up AK v A2.

Wow, sorry for the long post, sometimes, when I start typing about hands, I just can't stop.

Now, gonna play some more paint dryers, try to recover some of my sunday DoN losses.

As of right now, my stats in the $5 DoN turbos (not including games I already played today):

160-118, win rate of 57.55%, profit of 154.40, ROI of 10.68%, and profit/ game is 0.56

Goals and a Random Cartoon

2009-11-19T12:02:00.004-06:00

I have had quite a few goals recently, I just don't remember what most of them were. LOL. One of them I had made at the beginning of the month was that I wanted to atleast triple my Stars and Tilt accounts. Well I have just about tripled my Stars account. At the time of writing this, I need another 26 and change to do so. As for Full Tilt, F them. LOL, just kidding, I haven't had any luck on their site in quite awhile playing the HU SNGs. So I have taken a break from playing them, and focused on the Double or Nothings (or as OhWowReally puts it - "the paint dryers") on Stars. Which leads me to another goal, while checking out Sharkscope, I was looking at the leaderboards, and I was originally gonna try to be regularly playing the $10 paint dryers by the end of the month, but instead, I am going to try to get one of the spinning stars on Sharkscope. I'm going to try for the avg profit per game for the $5 games. At the time of writing, I have an avg profit of 62 cents (after 220 games), I need to make it to a minimum of 96 cents, to tie the guy in 20th. I feel like I can do this, I just have to make sure I don't make any stupid plays, and not play many hands in the first 2-3 levels of the game.

Also, here is my Sharkscope graph from playing the $5 Paint Dryers:

My Stats:

128-92, Win % of 58.18%, ROI of 11.89%, and avg profit/game is 62 cents.

Cartoon that was in yesterdays paper:

Almost doubled up

2009-11-14T01:50:00.002-06:00

Well, I was wrong with most of my WSOP ME FT picks. Too bad Ivey couldn't get anything going. Who know what would have happened if he called with his JJ vs Saout's 77. I am glad Moon and Begleiter didn't win.

Anyways, I have always had minimal amount in my online accounts, usually no more than a couple hundred, as it was there just for me to mess around with. I always preferred to play live. I haven't played live in about 3 weeks. I took 6 days off from playing between the last few days of Oct and the first few days of November. Then I decided in November I want to try to triple both my Stars and Tilt account. I am tilted with tilt. I can't seem to get anything going in the HU SNGs, so I am stopping playing them for awhile, and focus on the Double or Nothings on Stars. As of Nov 1, I had 75.54 in my PS acct. At the time of me writing this post, I have 145.74. Almost doubled it. Increased it by 92.93% to be exact. My goals for these are to be regularly playing $10s by the end of the month, and $20s by the new year (or atleast Valentines day) I haven't really decided how many buy-ins I'm gonna have before I move up in limits, I am gonna move up when I feel like I am ready. I am thinking around the 20th, I may take a stab or two in the $10s, providing I am playing as well as I am right now. For the month of November, I am ITM 59% of the time, with an ROI of 4.73%, So there is room for improvement, but I am doing fairly well right now. I would like to put that ITM % above 62, if I can.

Updated Nov 9 picks

2009-11-05T00:37:00.001-06:00

This is what I had last time (a month ago I think)

Predictions:

9th: James Akenhead

8th: Kevin Schaffel

7th: Antoine Saout

6th: Darvin Moon

5th: Eric Buchman

4th: Steven Begleiter

3rd: Jeff Shulman

2nd: Joe Cada

1st: Phil Ivey

I'm gonna change a couple people this is the new picks:

Predictions:

9th: James Akenhead

8th: Antoine Saout

7th: Steven Begleiter

6th: Kevin Schaffel

5th: Darvin Moon

4th: Eric Buchman

3rd: Jeff Shulman

2nd: Joe Cada

1st: Phil Ivey

Yesterday

2009-11-04T13:39:00.002-06:00

Even though I have really not worked the past few months ( I have though), monday I finished a 6 day work week, and was really excited for my 3 days off.

Went to a buddies place last night for some online grinding. He went sumthin ridiculous like 12-1 in the $30 HU SNGs on FT, and was 8-0 against 1 guy. I was playing the DoNs on Stars and from the time I started playing them yesterday in the morning to the end of the night I went something like 16-5 (even though it was in the $1s, I'm gonna start playing the $5s), at one point I was on an 11 game win streak. Felt good.

But last night, one hand I had JJ on the SB the button raised, I 3bet he min 4bet I called, flop was 10 high, the money went all in he had A7o. He hits an A on river crippling me. That would be something that I would be pissed off at, but I wasn't, because I hit one of the ultimate suckouts last night. I raised PF with AK a guy 3 bet I pushed and he paused for abit (but didn't press TIME) then called showing AA. Flop was 33x-K-K. So I think from now on when someone hits a sick suckout against me, I am gonna think to that and keep a level head.

Hey, how's it going?

2009-10-31T15:42:00.002-06:00

I know what I want to type in this post, but I am not sure how to start it.........

I guess, as for poker, I had a dece day this past monday, played tuesday and went pretty much even in the games (lost to the rake), I was playing between FT and PS. And I haven't played since then. Currently on day 4 of not playing.

And other news, I got a new job being a front of the house night supervisor at a restaurant that opened up a couple months ago.

Great video

2009-10-17T13:50:00.000-06:00

How about Phil Ivey playing Pac Man.

Possibly

2009-10-11T00:20:00.002-06:00

I think I may have figured out why I am losing in cash games lately.

It could possibly be one of two things. I'm gonna experiment with them for the next 2-3 weeks, and we will see what the outcome is.

Also, finished 95th out of almost 2300 people in a 6max tourney on Stars tonight. I've had little to no luck with tourneys on stars. At the same time I finished 18th in a HU tourney on stars, top 32 paid.

Nov 9 predictions

2009-10-06T14:30:00.002-06:00

I'm gonna do my Nov 9 predictions now, before ESPN starts airing the later stages where we see more of them.

Current seats and stacks:

Seat 1: Darvin Moon - 58,930,000
Seat 2: James Akenhead - 6,800,000
Seat 3: Phil Ivey - 9,765,000
Seat 4: Kevin Schaffel - 12,390,000
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter - 29,885,000
Seat 6: Eric Buchman - 34,800,000
Seat 7: Joe Cada - 13,215,000
Seat 8: Antoine Saout - 9,500,000
Seat 9: Jeff Shulman - 19,580,000

Predictions:

9th: James Akenhead

8th: Kevin Schaffel

7th: Antoine Saout

6th: Darvin Moon

5th: Eric Buchman

4th: Steven Begleiter

3rd: Jeff Shulman

2nd: Joe Cada

1st: Phil Ivey

Between the last airing and it being played out, I will do another one to see if I have changed it in anyway, after watching the 9 play somewhat.

SIGA Championship

2009-10-03T19:53:00.003-06:00

Started with 5K in chips. First hand of the tourney, I'm SB with J2dd, there were 4 or 5 limpers, I checked, BB checked, flop of J4J. Check to cutoff and I call, BB calls. Turn 5d (I now have the diamond draw) I bet 350, BB raises to 800, I call. River A. I check, he bets 1K, I tank and fold showing my J. I figure I can get my money in a better spot. Was card dead til the break, and still after the break I pick up AQo in the BB, a few limpers I check. Flop QJ5, I bet 400 call, a LAG raises to 3500 (pretty much putting me all in - I had 3550), I tank for the longest time, and end up mucking, not needing to go broke that early with 1 pair. Got to the break with 2050 in chips.

In 5th level, I pick up TT and get doubled up by J9s. Last hand at my table, UTG pushes for 2000ish, and I figure him to be trying to steal. I have ATdd and call. He has AQo. I hit T on flop.

Up to almost 6K and new table. Which was stacked. Got to the break with 5800ish. Level 7, I push with A3o, get called by the SB (I had him covered), and he has AQ. Flop was 3 clubs (I had the Ace of clubs), turn bricks, 3 on river.

A little while later while tweeting, one of the floor staff from PA gave me shit for texting on my phone in the middle of the hand (even though I didn't have cards, and was standing behind my chair), he said as soon as the cards are dealt, my hand will be dead.

Just before the supper break, the guy UTG pushes for 5200ish, I jam in LP with 99 for 8200, he has QQ. Board ran out A24-3-5. Chop it up.

Right after supper, I stole the blinds and antes a couple times within an orbit. Finally on SB, there are 2 limpers (600/1200 a100), I pick up KK, I make it 4900, BB pushes, fold fold, I call it. He has AJo. Board ran out Jxx-x-A. Fuck I'm out with about 110 or so left, he had me covered by about 2K. If I held, I would have been up to almost 35000, with the average stack at about 18000. I'm not too upset, I still think I played well. But the 30K +seat for 1st would be nice.

As for me, I'm gonna take a break from playing. I don't know what is going on, but I can't seem to win at cash games. Its in tournaments where I am doing well, and with the remaining 80 players going back sunday to play (one of them is a horse for me (we swapped 5%)) they aren't playing the regular sunday tournament. I don't even think I'm gonna play online. I need to get some exercise soon, and the main thing..... a job. Especially if I am considering going to Vegas end of November. Don't know if I'm gonna go to Regina or not.

A couple more Keith Urban pics....

2009-09-27T23:51:00.002-06:00

above: His guitar lit up. He changed guitars virtually every song.

below: Another one of how close we were to the stage.

The Past Week

2009-09-27T23:18:00.004-06:00

Pics from the Keith Urban concert:

above: A stage he has set up just past the sound boards.

below: His band members on each of the screens.

above: Keith Urban playing his guitar on a ramp (he never had the barricades like every other artist does for concerts), he even went out into the crowd to sing and play.

below: That is how close we were to the stage.

above: another shot of how close we were.

As for the rest of poker...... I have cleared my 25 days out of 50 for the Take 2 promotion of Full Tilt. And played the tournament tonight. First hand in I pick up KK in MP, I raise and have 3 callers, flop is 88x, check to me, I bet 325 into 500, everyone folds, I show that I'm not raising with a junk hand. Less than an orbit later, I'm on the button, and a woman who I can sense is a weak player, raises to 100, there are 2 callers, I want to isolate her and make it 325 w/ T9o, BB calls, woman folds, and the two callers call. Flop is T9J all hearts. BB bets 225, call, guy pushes for 925, I tank and observe them, and re-push for just over 3K, BB tanks and mumbles stuff about 'set, straight, too much in there', and calls, the other guy calls. BB shows KhJd, guy shows AJ or QJ (dont remember), and 975 guy shows AhTs. I yell to hold, Heart on turn. F. River a king, I am crippled with 75 in chips. If I hold, I would have almost 9K in chips (chip leader) and knock 3 people out. Next hand I decide to push with any 2 I see (blinds are now 25/50), I have Ks6c, flop A23 all spades. There are 6 to the flop. Turn and river brick, I am out, and I put my name on the cash list.

Off to 2/5NL I go, first hand I have AQo, and win a decent pot when flop is A34.

Little while later I limp with 22, 6 to flop of A24 all hearts, guy bets 20, I call, next guy raises to 60, we both call. Turn Q, I check he bets 175, I push for 385, he calls, and has J9hh, river doesn't pair.

I rebuy short for 100, and fold my BB to a raise, and on the SB almost everyone limps, I complete with 32o, BB checks, flop is 33J, I check someone bets 25, I call, a couple more callers. Turn a blank. I push for 65, BB calls, everyone else folds, BB has Q3, I leave saying 'If I run this bad.....'

Now I am gonna take a week off from plying until the SIGA championship on saturday. You can follow me as to how I am plying, my chip stack, and whatnot at my twitter page. I'll try to do a comprehensive post following the tournament.

The Past Couple Weeks

2009-09-27T20:40:00.002-06:00

Well, to start.....I'm lazy. I haven't went to look for a job yet, or done any exercising.

Next off, Went to my first country concert on thursday, when I went to Keith Urban. I went because one of the guests at the lodge this summer, is Keith's manager, and hooked staff up with tickets. We had pretty good seats, section U (side stage).

Onto poker....

My tournament after finishing 3rd, I made a pretty good run, I ended up finishing 14th when blinds were 1K/2K, I was BB and UTG+1 made it 7K, folded to me, I had 33, I pushed for 7800, and he called with AA, he held.

Last week... first hand I had JJ, won a decent pot. Then they moved me to another table, and I shipped some chips off on a straight draw that didn't materialize. I was down to 1400 or so at one point, and I doubled up with QQ on the BB against someones JJ. The guy to my right a few hands later raised, I called with 88 in cutoff, button calls, SB jams for 2K, original raiser folds, I hesitate and call, button folds. He tables AJ, and flops the gutty, I hold and knock him out. They break that table, and I get moved back to my first table (just different seat), I take a few pots uncontested, and go on a break. First hand after the break I have ~6K in chips and the blinds are a25-100/200, I make it 450 UTG with JJ, folds to the BB, she makes it 900, I just call. Flop 789r. She checks, I bet 1K, and she raises to 2K, I push and she calls with AA. I am out. The rest of the week events later....

Back to Back FTs.

2009-09-07T12:01:00.001-06:00

As the title suggests, I went and played the Dunes tourney last night, and made the final table for the second week in a row. This time finishing 3rd for $840.

Key hands from the night that I remember:

Was playing tight, as I wasn’t seeing many cards. Then UTG+2, I get AKo, I make it 375 (blinds are 75/150), a couple folds, and a guy pushes for 1800, folds around and a guy goes all in for 1900. I tank, and I finally call. 1st all in has A2hh, other guy QQ. Flop was xxx 2 hearts. Turn brought the next heart. Crippling me to 825.

Next hand, I am UTG, I decide to push with any two cards I see. 32o. Another guy pushes for 1400. Everyone folds. I stand up ready to leave, he tables QQ, I flop 2 pair, and river a full house.

Stack is sitting about 1200 after the first break. A couple limpers, I push on SB with T9o, one limper calls with T5ss. My 9 plays.

Next hand, cutoff makes it 600, I call on button with AQo. Flop was QQ5, he asks me how much do I have, I move my hand and show him. He bets 2000. I push for 2200. He calls showing TT. I double up. So within 5 hands I went from 1400, to over 6K.

I won a decent pot with AA vs. JJ in the BB.

A couple limpers, I am in the SB with AKo, I raise to 1500ish, BB pushes for 3K, another call, I call. I have them both covered. First all in has AsJh. Second all in has JJ. Flop QTx (two spades), turn 8s. River Js. Giving me broadway, but giving AJ the spades.

Nothing exciting happened til the final table, when I doubled up the first hand. I was BB, the SB completed I checked with Qx. Flop was QJx. He check raised me all in, I called, he had J9. I held.

Down to 3, blinds are 3K/6K, button min raises, I call on the BB with 22. Flop QT8 two hearts. He bets 12K, I tank and watch him, and looked really weak. I pushed, and he snap called me. Showing Q9hh, for the gutty straight flush draw, he held. Crippled me to 5500, I went all in on the SB blind, and lost.

Oh well. I can’t complain, when I was behind like my 32o, and won. Also when I make back to back final tables. In the two weeks, I got paid out $2790, and a $330 seat to the SIGA Championship. I just wish I didn’t get run over at the cash tables on Thurs-Sat. So I have decided, for now, my poker schedule is gonna be: Sundays - Tourneys; Everyday (but mainly Mon-Thurs/Fri) - Online play; Fri/Sat - Live Cash, with the occasional day off. But for now I want to get the 25 days of play in for the Take 2 promotion on Full Tilt to get the $50. It's a good boost.

Quick small brag

2009-09-04T13:34:00.001-06:00

I played in a $2 limit tourney yesterday (120 plyers) and finished 3rd.

Just finished a $3 KO - 90 man SNG and finished 3rd as well. When chip leader being LAG, and he raised, I shoved with A8o, he has QQ.

Lets hope this tourney run continues for awhile.

Leak and Milestone

2009-09-04T11:39:00.002-06:00

I am 99% positive I have found one of my leaks. Now I just have to try my hardest to fix it.

As for the milestone....This is my 100th blog post. Weeeeeee.

Welcome Back Me!

2009-09-01T09:53:00.000-06:00

Welcome Back Me!

Was supposed to leave the lake at 5 a.m. Saturday, however, they asked if we could be ready to leave 7 p.m. Friday night, and we said that we would be able to. And so we arrive in Saskatoon about 4:30 a.m. saturday morning. I spent saturday, unpacking and doing random stuff, sunday again finished unpacking and screwing around online.

Sunday afternoon I went and played the tournament at the Dunes (I had been planning on it for about 2 week prior before coming home from the lake) and after 75 entrants, I chopped with another guy for $1950.

Welcome Back!!

A few key hands that I remember:

--I’m on button, blinds are 25/25, woman in MP makes it 75, there is a call. I know she is a weak player as when she was previously on the BB she was gonna fold it. So I make it 325, everyone folds to her, she calls, and the caller folds. I now have isolated her, and have position. Flop: A-Q-5 rainbow. She bets 300. I know she has the Ace and if I hit, I’m gonna get her stack. Turn 3. She bets ~400, I stop for a few seconds and push all-in, she hesitates and calls. I flip 4-2 for the turned wheel, and she flips A-10. I stack her.

--On BB in the 50/100 level, there are 5 limpers, I have KK, I make it 650 more, everyone folds.

I have 99 in LP and have the 2 calls. Flop 8-7-7. Guy bets 300, next guy makes it 900, I think for about 10 seconds and finally fold, call. Turn 8. They get the money in here, and it was 55 vs. J7. River didn’t matter.

--About 18 or so left, blinds were 400/800, I raised in MP to 2100 with 2d4d, guy to my left goes all in for 4100, everyone folds, I call saying nice hand and he flips 77. Flop: 2-3-5. Turn 4. River bricks and I knock yet another player out.

--A stack gets moved to my table that could put some hurt to my stack, and I know him to be an aggressive player. I was SB, He raised to 425 (blinds were 75/150), folds to me I have 22, I call, BB folds. Flop A9x all spades. Check check. Turn a red card, I check he bet about 500, I hesitated and called. River J of spades, I stopped and I knew the only way I was gonna win this pot was by betting, I bet 1025, he tanked for about 30 seconds and folded, I didn’t even remember if I had the 2 of spades, I flipped my hand up for everyone to see, and I did.

--After that the guy got busted out, another big stack (the person that I eventually chopped with) moved to that spot. He was in the BB, and I was in MP, I raised with A4 in clubs, he was the only caller (he was playing fairly loose already), flop 2-3-5 rainbow. He checked, seeing that there was no possible flush out there, I checked behind. Turn an off suit 8, he bet 1K, I tanked and called. River was a 4 (quite possibly the worst card for me to come on the river). He checked, and in my head I was thinking that since I wasn’t showing any aggression in this hand, he didn’t plan on check raising me here, so I was good. I bet 1625 (one of each color of the chips) and he insta called. I showed my flopped bike, and he mucked. I think of all the hands I played, this is the one that I probably played the worst. Letting a 4 card straight get to the end and holding the idiot end of it.

--Down to 13 players, there was an all-in #1 (not enough to cover the BB), another all-in #2 (slightly more than the BB), folding to a raise #3, and then another all-in #4. The hands were #1: 77, #2: A7, #3: QQ, #4: AJo. Flop was 5-8-9. Turn Q. River 10. Giving #4 the best of it, him and #3 had the exact same chip stack, so he knocked out 3 players at once, and at the other table another guy got knocked out. Down to the Final Table. The first one I had been at in over 8 months.

--Nothing really exciting happened until we were down to 3, when the button folded, I had ~40K, and I raised to 11.5K (blinds were 2K/4K) on the SB with 55, BB was huge stack and pushed, I wasn’t still done putting my raise in there yet and sat a few seconds later and called. He had AJ, Flop was A-9-5. Ship me the pot and the chip lead.

--I kept chipping away at them and took a nice sized lead, then the other two guys got it in on a flop of AJx, previous chip leader had JT, other guy had J9. JT held, and we are heads up, we were pretty close in chips, and I offered a deal of 1800 each and play for 300. Then someone decided since we were relatively even we should just chop it up. So it didn’t matter to me, I mainly wanted a seat to the SIGA Poker Championship on Oct 3-4 worth $300+30, in which 1st and 2nd got a seat. So we chopped it for $1950 each.

I was pleased with my play all night, making the proper reads when someone was weak, or strong. I didn’t pay anyone off all night. I didn’t make any crying calls, just to see what their cards were. Its always great to play like that, and puts a boost into your game.

Again, Welcome Back Me!!!!

Now the SIGA Poker Championship has a prize pool of 132K (if it sells out) and first gets a seat to the 2010 WSOP ME, and at least $25K. Lets hope that works out for me.

You can follow me for that SIGA tournament, or at any tournament/cash game that I play at: http://twitter.com/TDoodle1 (I also put random things on there as well)

Monday, I did a whole bunch of running around, and with my mind busy on running errands, I didn’t have the urge to go play. It was nice.
In other news, I am thinking about buying a new vehicle, currently at the top of my list is a 2009 Mazda Tribute GT. It is very nice. Brand new, has 10 km on it. Not sure if I will be getting it yet or not. I would like to get an SUV, or at least a 4 door car, instead of a 2 door like my current Cavalier.

Summertime

2009-08-26T17:27:00.003-06:00

Well, the summer at the lake is just about over for me. Today the last guests left the lodge for 2009. Now starts camp shutdown for the next couple days. I head home on saturday and looking forward to the casino's tournament on sunday.

As for poker while here, I played 5 games at night, and won 2, finished 2nd twice, and busted 4th or 5th in the other game. Made a profit of roughly 200. And the HU games, currently down 2 to one guy, and up 1 in the other series.

Other than that, nothing else is new.

Quick Update

2009-07-27T18:13:00.002-06:00

Been just hanging out working, not playing at all. I believe the last times I played were that last nightly game (my last post) and a few HU games with one of the dock staff. Of all the games, I am up ~$200. GOOOOOD! Today is day 4 of one of the groups, it was the first group where there hasn't been a shore day. YAY! But tomorrow, Paul Brandt (Canadian Country Musician) and Rhett Warrener (NHL Calgary Flames player) are coming up to the lodge to do some fishing. I believe Paul will be doing an acoustic show for us again (he did last year and a few years ago). Which is always a great treat. Now off to supper, then bed. I hate going to bed early and waking up early, but its good getting off work early.

I'm batting .750

2009-07-21T20:00:00.002-06:00

A couple newsworthy points.

First one, WAY WAY WAAAAAAAAAY too many rain days at the lodge. Can we have like 2 straight weeks of nice hot weather? It can rain in the evening though, just so I don't have to do a shore lunch. Too much work for me.

Secondly, I have played 4 of the nightly games, first one I played, I won. I was playing well, and hitting. Second one, I finished second (second place gets $20 back - realize I didn't say 'gets their money back', well - the first orbit if you go bust, you have the option to rebuy), third game I won - which was last night. Then played another one right after it, and went out in 4th out of 7. Went to bed at 11pm - which is way past my bedtime of 8ish. Today, I was kinda tired. Good thing for Red Bull. So I am ITM 75% of the time. I am currently up over $200, for playing. GOOD!

Lastly, has anyone heard of TheMavenVT.com starting up yet? I need to improve my MTT game. I figure that might be the best way to do so.

Good night.

Finally.....

2009-07-12T15:59:00.002-06:00

Well, the fishing ban is finally off, I went that day, and caught a whole lot of nothing. Went a few days later and caught nothing again. The river has been fished too much this year, so the fish are afraid to come out.

About a week and a half ago, my PC decided to be a bitch and give me a crazy amount of Blue Screens, I'm not sure that it deserves to be capitalized, but oh well. And so it quit working on me and give me a screen saying "Hardware malfunction" - Is that like a wardrobe malfunction? HAHA. Anyways, last sunday I bought a MacBook Pro online and it showed up here on Thursday, and I have been playing around, things are different as I have been used to PC's for the longest time. I have just downloaded PokerStars a few days ago, I can play on there, but for some reason Full Tilt doesn't want to download for me. I'm gonna keep trying until I get it. I played some live HU a couple days ago when I was playing against one of the guides, I went 2-1. But we didn't play all NLHE, what we decided to do was assign a different game to a different card in the deck, ex A is NLHE, 2 is Omaha, 3 is Omaha Hi/Lo, etc, and we played Stud8, NL, and Razz. I won the Stud games, but lost the NL as I had 8-7 and the flop was 8 high, turn was an 8, not sure how the betting went, but the money went in here, and he had 8-9.

I haven't yet played any of the nightly games. Soon though.

I have been thinking about Regina in November though, and want to play the $1K event. If there is anyone that wants some action let me know. My previous results in any of their $1K event is the first time I played it, I won my seat the night before (the last one of the night) and finished 8th place (out of 212), for a cash of 6200. Then played another satellite (year and a half later) and went HU and decided to buy the seat from the guy, this time there were ~200 players, and I finished 10 outside of the money. So I can go deep in that event.

Lately

2009-07-05T16:43:00.002-06:00

The biggest news for me lately is, my computer has decided to quit. I have just purchased a mac online today, however, I won't be getting that for atleast a week. Which means I haven't played any games online in awhile, and haven't played live. Not really missing it.

Read a post on P5s a couple days ago, can't find the post anymore, but it was about random comments people type in the chatbox of online games, here are a few that I enjoyed:
- 'Please deposit more coins to continue'
- 'Players only at the table, please'
- 'Be sure to take advantage of the reload bonus'
- 'I'm sorry did you say something? I can't hear you over the sound of me stacking your chips'
- 'Please don't tell me you operate a motor vehicle'
- 'oops sik misclick'
- 'You've lost more money than I'll ever win' - I've adjusted this one so its funnier
- 'What does that 'observer' chat mean?'

I still haven't went fishing yet, still too much ice on the lake. One of the pilots believes that within a couple days it should be good enough that the guides can get to their fishing spots, and one of the guides thinks that it will be about another week. All I can say is.....I WANNA GO FISHING!!!!! :(

GL to Jordan playing the ME today, as well as Sol and Rob. Saskatoon represent!!!

Randoms

2009-06-29T19:29:00.000-06:00

To start things off, Happy Early Canada Day.

Tonight is the last night of the third group here at the lodge, and they have went by fast. I still haven’t been gone fishing. Half of the year has passed and there is still ice on the lake. Not too sure when it will disappear. I think soon I’m gonna go on a flight with one of the pilots over the lake to see the ice (the way I put that, it sounds like I’ve never seen ice before). Every day I have been getting up just before 4am, and every 4th day I am up just before 3:30. L However, I am done work just after lunch. It is great when it is nice out; I am usually done just after 1pm. But when its gross and rainy outside, the planes don’t fly out, and the guests are IFR (In F***ing River – there is a river just behind the lodge that they fish when the weather is terrible), in the past 12 days, there have been 5 shore days. Way too many. My first year on breakfasts, there were about 7-8 all year. And the next group is not gonna have a great group, as the weather is rain for the next 4 days. Not too sure what is going on here, but the mosquitoes are HUGE, and the black flies are bad. I found 4 mosquitoes in my room today, and they are tricky little buggers as they always get away from me, well not always, as they are lying on the floor. HAHA.

As for poker, I haven’t played much live or online. When I play online, it is usually 1-2 games in a day, as the wireless isn’t the greatest. I am a ways away from the router, so the signal has to go through many walls. And with that, I am getting disconnected often. Been following the WSOP, gotta give props to Lisandro for winning 3 bracelets in one year, in each of the stud aspects of the game.

Now to wish my buddy Jordan good luck in the Main Event as he is going down to play it. TID!!!!!

The Meaning of Running Good

2009-06-20T16:27:00.002-06:00

Last night I have found the meaning of running good....scratch that, I mean, running insanely GREAT!!!!!!
Played 5 games (2 NL, and 3 HORSE - all at the $5 level still, don't think I will hit the $10's for another month or so) I went 1-3, then the last game was the running good game.
A little background info....at the lodge I am working at (yes I had to put in a plug ha ha), they got wireless internet in the animal house (the staff dorms), and the router is in the middle, my room is the second room from the end, so I don't have the greatest of reception, but it still gets me by, and moves a little slow sometimes, and will disconnect occasionally. Oh well. As well as that it is not an uncommon occurence for the power to go out (even if it is nice out)

The last game I played last night was a HORSE game (I'm really liking that game lately). About 3 or so minutes in, I had (all chip counts are approximate) 1250 in chips (start with 1500), and I got disconnected, a minute passed and still not in, and I decide to give up on the game and call it a loss. I finally get back in, and I have about 240 in chips with about 2 minutes left in in Omaha. Within 5 hands I went from 240 to over 1100. I flopped flushes, sets, and not once was I all-in.
Finally in Razz (prolly the worst razz player I have ever played against - he would cap it with a pair showing and 2 high cards) I finally run my stack to 2400, and get disconnected once more. FML!!!! I get back in about a minute later, and my stack is just over 1300. I once again build it up to about 2700, and even though I could have put a 3bet in to get an extra 2bets out of him (he would have capped it), the power flicked off for a mere millisecond, just enough for me to see it, but not enough for the router to stop. I said "Don't do this to me" while in Stud H/L, I had 2 pair on either 3rd or 4th street, and on 5th is where all the money went in. After 7th street was dealt, the chips were pushed towards me, and that is when the power actually kicked out, and stayed out for about 20 minutes. IMO that is running good!!!!!

Otherwise, the first group of guests have shown up a couple days ago, and the first day they were supposed to be here, their plane didn't leave Winnipeg til about 10am (when it is supposed to leave around 5am), and they got rained in yesterday, today however, was/IS still a gorgeous day out. Should be some good fishing for them. There is still alot of ice on the lake, and because of that, there is a fishing ban on for staff, and I have yet to go fishing. :( Soon.

Back at the lake

2009-06-11T20:20:00.002-06:00

Showed up back at the lodge on monday, ready for another summer at the lake. On wed they had to cancel another group. Still way too much ice on the lake. Ya, in the middle of June. It won't all be gone til about the first week in July. Apparently some places the ice is still about 5 ft thick.

As for poker, I have been following the WSOP. Haven't played live since saturday (and I'm not really sure when I'll be playing live again in awhile, there are some $20 SNGs that staff have, and a couple buddies that I'll prolly play heads up against again this year. Right Clayton? We should play an 8-game HU to see who is the all around better player. Huh? Whattya think? :)

A few minutes ago I just played my first online game in a week. It was a HORSE game, and I won. The guy was fairly good in the Hold 'em but weak in Omaha, and BAD in Razz, didn't even get to the Stud game.

I played an interesting hand in Omaha when I had 8s 7h 2c 7s, he completed and I checked.

Flop: Qc 8h As

check, check

Turn: 9c

I check, he bets, and I tank, and finally call seeing I'm playing 87 for hi, and 72 for low. Something about his check on the flop made me think he didn't have the A or Q. I decide I'm only check calling the river, really no matter what card hits.

River: 3h

check, check

I scoop. I look at hand history and he has Jd Kh 6d 3s. Was pleased about the way I played that hand. I just wish I knew exactly everything I was thinking about during that hand.

Below is a picture of my sharkscope graph since the beginning of the HU games:

Really? Like Seriously - Really?

2009-06-07T11:55:00.002-06:00

The past week:
Tuesday, went to a $20 SNG home game, I had played this game about a year and a half ago, and won it, decided to go back. About 5 hands in (I'm on the SB) I call a LP raise with 56o. Flop is AK6. I check, LP raiser bets, I am figuring him for AQ, so I call. Turn 6. I bet out, he raises me, I re-raise him, he pushes, I snap call. He shows AK. I hold, and take a huge early lead, I steal a couple times in LP, back to me in the SB, I have AQ, I raise it up, BB re-raises me, I jam, he snaps. Uh-Oh? He shows AA. I am back to just above the starting stack. All in all, I left in 6th (out of 10), after I run 44 into the same guys AA.
Wednesday, played the casino, and I was card dead for the longest time, then had A10 in cutoff, raised PF, had one caller, Flop ATK, guy bets, I push ~65 (I was shortstacked), he calls with AJ, Q on turn.
Thursday, supposed to leave for the lake but still too much ice, now not leaving til Monday. Watched the 2-7 Single Draw NL FT online. Was hoping Ivey was gonna win, and he did so.
Friday, played casino again. Was playing well, ran a couple hands into bigger hands, and had a few draws that didn't finish.
Saturday, went and watched 'The Hangover' - Very funny movie, definately recommend it. Went to the casino aferwards. Lost my inital buyin when I made a button 3bet with A6o, and pushed on flop of J87, guy held TT. Rebought, and was down to ~50, I decided to straddle and just push blind when it came to me, so I did so, and had the tightest player there call (he had 30), I flip 6s2s, he had KdTd, I flop a deuce, he turns the open ended straight flush draw, has half the deck to help him. I hold. Manage to build my stack up and double up with AJ vs AT, on a board of A79-6. Turn is where the money went in, and the river bricked. Little while later, I stack the same guy, and I have AT he had AQ. Flop was J7x, turn 10, he checks, I bet he pushes for ~25 more, I call, and I hold. I built my stack up to ~450. I straddled, button raises to 15, BB calls, I call with 78o. Flop 9-10-J rainbow. Check around. Turn a low card, I bet, button calls, I figure him for AJ, KJ, something along those lines. River pairs the J, I bet he tanks for about 5 seconds and pushes, I snap call, and he asks if I have the full house, I show my straight, he shows KQ. F! A little bit later, I am UTG (guy straddles), I raise to 25, with 99, call call, straddler jams for ~200, I tank for a couple minutes, and finally say fold (but hold onto my cards), both callers, call. I show my 99. Straddler has QQ, next guy has TT, short stack at end of table has KK. Flop 96x. F! Turn 8. River 7. Wow, do I ever get away lucky. Another hand I have A2 in straddle, I call a PF raise of 15, flop AKx, check around, turn bricks, I bet, guy pushes for 33, I call, he has K8, 8 on river. I go on tilt, and decide to leave a little while later with 45.
Today, writing this, letting some of my last stuff download, and getting the last bit ready for the lake, as I leave tomorrow at 7AM. I had decided I am going to take this whole week off from playing, even if there is a game that the guys are gonna play up north, I'm not gonna play until atleast Day 1 of the first (3rd - the first 2 groups have been cancelled due to too much ice still on the lake, yes in June) group.

The Weekend

2009-06-01T12:47:00.003-06:00

Played Fri through Sunday live at the Dunes, these are all 1/2NL.

Friday - bought in for 120, 4 and a half hours later I cashed out with 800. I was playing well, and hit when I needed to hit and got paid off. A few key hands I remember:
I limp MP with KJ, a few callers, flop 10-9-6 (two clubs), I bet on my gutty, one caller, turn red Q for my straight, I bet, the caller pushes, I snap call, he flips 7-8 for the flopped straight.
Another hand, guy to my right raises PF I call with AcQc, a couple other callers, flop bring a paired flop (don't remember what it was), check around. Turn a brick, he bets 25, I tank and call with Ace high, everyone else folds. River K, he bets 25 again, I tank and think we are gonna chop, so I call. He says "nice hand" and mucks. I take it down with Ace high, I ask him what he has, he said deuces. I was shocked, and showed him my AQ. I scoop the pot, since his cards hit the muck.
I am BB, UTG straddles to 7, MP calls, I call with 55, straddle raises it 35 more, fold, I had ~600 at this point and I know if I hit my 5, I will stack him off. So I call, flop 10-9-7, check check, turn 9, I bet 41, he tanks and calls, I figure him for AK, maybe AQ, possibly JJ. River K. I tank and bet 41 again. He tanks for the longest time and looks at me, his cards and the board a few times, and finally mucks saying 88.
Saturday - Bought in for 120, and got stacked for about 60 when my AQ didnt materialize vs KK. Bought in for another 100, and was playing really tight since I wasn't getting much to play. Finally guy raises to 10, I have AK and decide to ship it in. Folds back to him and tanks and finally calls with JJ, Board ran x-A-x--x--J. I decide to leave.
Sunday - Played the tournament, and busted out in half an hour, when I was SB, and it was folded to the button (people will know him by the name that rhymes with loose, because he is also loose), he raises to 150 I am SB with AQ, I re-raise to 525, BB calls, button calls, flop K33, I decide to push for ~1200, BB calls, button folds, and BB flips K8. Dunno why he called a raise and a re-raise with K8. GG me.
Played cash, bought in for 110 (just cause I bought in for 100 at blackjack and made 10), was playing well, I stacked a guy off when I raised pre with KK, he re-raised me, I jammed it he calls, showing JJ, I hold. I made a couple squeezes with 52s, and 10-5o, just picking up the limpers.
Once I had 66 in MP I don't remember if I had raised or not, but there were a few of us to the flop, of 7-6-3 (two clubs), I bet the JJ player raises me, I call. I turn quads. I bet 95 into about 170, he tanks asks how much I have left, he counts out enough to put me all in, finally calls, river 10h. I decide to get tricky and check to make it look like I missed the flush, and he quickly checks behind. An hour later, UTG raises to 5, a whole bunch of callers, I am on SB with 44. Flop is Q94(all diamonds). I bet, button calls. I turn quads again. Weeeeeee. :) I check she checks, river bricks, I bet she folds, I show anyways.
About 3 or 4 orbits later about 6 limpers I am on button and pick up AA, I raise, and have 4 callers. More than I want. Flop Qc-Kc-Ah. You are thinking 'how am I hitting so many sets?' well, I know the secret to flopping sets. Check to cut off, she bets 20, I raise to 70, everyone folds, and she mucks as well showing me a King. I ask to see the turn to see if I turn quads, not this time.
So I had a pretty good weekend, played 1/2 for a total of 15 hours, and made a profit of 840. I like to think of it I had an hourly wage of $56. Too bad not all sessions are like that. But I will take it.
Other news, I am pretty much ready to head back to the lake for the summer. I leave on Thursday, not really looking forward to the 10 hour drive up there though. I am planning on playing live at the Dunes one last time on wednesday, til I get back.

Some People Make Me Laugh

2009-05-29T13:26:00.003-06:00

This is the chat history in a recent HU HORSE game I had. The italics are what happened in the hand:

I was dealt Td8cTs9s, I raised on button, he 3-bet me, I called. Flop: 8s4sAh, he bet I called. Turn: 9h, he bet, I called. River: Ac, he bet I called. I took the high pot, he took the low.
XXXX: lol
XXXX: keep it up dnk
TDoodle: im not the one thats 3betting with 7324
XXXX: keep it up donk
XXXX: i'll take care of you
TDoodle: like i said, im not 3betting with 7234
XXXX: i am
XXXX: no but u are peeing down ur leg with pocket
kings - Don't know what he was talking about I didn't have pocket kings.
---This is where I decided to mute him---
XXXX: donkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
XXXX: wowoowoowowoowowowo
XXXX: peeing down ur leg with jacks
Here I held Jh9cJc4d, he held 5sAhJsTc. Board ran out 2c3c5h-Qd-Td
XXXX: again such a donk
XXXX: i alawys have thebetter hand u draw
---This one was funny, I had Q26K, he had J934, board ran out 9sQc9d-Kc-Kh
XXXX: u hit u don't draw
XXXX: lucky $!@
XXXX: adsfka;fkdlasd
---This is where I decided to unmute him and start to have a laugh---
XXXX: luck box
XXXX: start with 3 8
---Here was Stud Hi; I had hit the flush on 7th street, after starting with 99 in the hole, and he had hit trip 3s on 4th street.---
TDoodle: i find the term luck box insulting
TDoodle: i prefer luck sac
XXXX: u would prefer sack
XXXX: destroyed the whole way
XXXX: nh

Still makes me laugh.

WSOP

2009-05-28T13:41:00.003-06:00

Started yesterday.
Thats not news.
I'm reading an interview with Jeffery Pollack (the Commish) of the WSOP and a couple questions and responses are great:

Q: The Champions Invitational is going to be a great event. It’s going to be good to see most of them in the same room, but maybe not Russ Hamilton. If he did show up…
A: He won’t show up.

But if he did…
He won’t show up.

As for me, I haven't played much online lately as I've been getting ready to head back to the lake, and I've played abit live as well. Had a couple good sessions at the Dunes, I was flopping sets, like crazy. On sunday, played the tournament, busted out sometime just after the first break. Played some cash (1/2NL). I played 3 hands to showdown, all three were pots over $450. A little while after sitting down, there were 7 players to the flop (pot:$14), I was SB with Ac2c, flop was Q95 (two clubs) I bet $10, a woman min-raises to $20, another woman called, I called. Turn was 3s, now giving me a gutty, I bet 26, woman raises me to 66 (right there I knew she had two pair - figured her for Q9), other woman calls, I call (leaving ~50 behind) river 4c, I go all in, and they both hesitantly call me. The raising woman had two pair, I just wasn't right on the one of pairs - she had Q5. The other had KQ. Ship the pot.
A little while later I had, 10-10 in MP I raised pre had 4 callers, flop was K10x (two clubs), I bet 35, he calls, everyone else folds. Turn is 3c, now I know he has the flush, I put him all in, and he says "really? OK" he has KcQc, river doesn't pair.
Then yet awhile later I was BB, and there was 2 limpers, a guy raises to 10, call, re-raise to 20, fold, I have QQ, I re-pop it to 91 (I like the odd numbers) limpers fold, the raiser calls, fold, and the re-raiser calls. Over 280 in the pot PF. Flop is Q-10-6 (two diamonds). I push all in for 131, call, and the last guy says "Jacks no good, someone has Kings" and mucks. I say I've got the nuts right now and show my top set. He cringes and shows Ad8d. Turn Ah. River 4d. F him.
I leave.
Played last night and bought in for 200, and nothing happening for awhile, then I get dealt 88 in MP, I raise it up and have 3 callers. Flop is Q65 (two diamonds) check I bet 25, call call. Turn 8d. check I bet 25, raise to 100, push for ~75, back to me. I tank I know the guy hit his flush, I know I need the board to pair, and I look at his stack and has ~65 left, I tank count the pot, and decide to call. River pairs the 5, I bet enough to put him all in, and he finally calls, I show and scoop. Takes me to over 630. I lose a big pot when the flush guy hits a boat on the turn and I had the flush draw and straight draw, board ran out K8K-7. I knew he had the King just wasn't sure if he had hit his kicker yet. I got my second putter last night, in the SB I had 6s10c, flop was 4s5s7s, giving me open ended straight flush draw, turn 3s. Wasn't a big pot though. Left up 55. weeeee.

A day of running good

2009-05-17T12:32:00.002-06:00

At the last minute on saturday I decided to go out to the Dunes to play. Called in at 3 for a 4pm seat. I showed up at quarter to 4 and there were two people ahead of me, so I waited, talked with one of the floor staff as I am trying to convince them to run a Heads UP tournament. They have laughed it off, and my persistance could be paying off as two of the floor were trying to figure it out if it could work. Hope it does, if so it won't happen for about 6 months.

Anyways, while waiting for a seat I played some blackjack. Bought in for 40, 5 minutes later I got a seat and had made 15. So at poker I played my 55 and bought another 100. Was playing fairly tight, picked up a few smaller pots, I was playing a very solid game. At the game there was abou 6 regular 2/5 players and someone put on a $5 straddle, a couple limpers, I'm on the button with AKo. I pop it to 25, and have 3 callers ($100 in pot PF), Flop is AQx (two hearts), LAG (was BB) bets 15, call, call, I tank and raise it to 100. BB folds, MP calls after 30 seconds, cutoff folds. Turn a low diamond, he checks (~330 in pot) I push for 190, he tanks and finally folds. They are trying to figure out my hand, saying a set of Qs, or a high ace, the cutoff asks what I had, I said I don't remember. I was playing a tight/aggressive game (one I haven't been playing lately) I don't remember how I did it, but I had my stack at over 900 at one point.
I made two bad plays. I decided to play 7-2 twice. Each time lost about 40-50 on each hand.

Finally at about 11:15 I decided to call it a night, and UTG I straddled to 5 saying this was my last hand win or lose, just so they don't think I'm hit and running. No one raised my straddle, and the BB called blind and thought I was gonna check blind (cuz I did that a couple times already, I decided since it was my last hand, I have to look, looked at 84o. Flop Q84. Check to me, I bet 20 (into 30), guy at the other side of the table raises to 60, folds back to me, I ask how much he has left and says 81. First hand I thought he could have was Q8, I put him all in, and he calls showing Q4. I brick turn and river. I double him up, and left with 700, I made 560 for the whole day. My first winning session at the Dunes in 2 months I believe. But I don't go out every day (about 1-2 times a week).

Nut Flush on River, and I Can't Bet It

2009-05-15T13:06:00.004-06:00

Last night I headed out to the Dunes to play some live cash. Bought in for $160, was up and down, went down to about 80, in the early goings, lost a decent pot to put me there, then the next hand I had 88 on button, I raised (this was the 3rd button I had raised in a row), flop was 87x, checked to me (I had 60 left, pot was 50, didn't want to push overbet), so I checked, turn was a 10, guy bet 30, I pushed, he called, I flipped my flopped top set, he flips 10-9, I hold.
Less than an orbit later either UTG or UTG +1, I had JJ, I raised and had 3 callers. Flop was KxK, I bet, 1 caller, turn low card, I bet again he calls (now I'm figuring him for a king, and unless a J hits river, I'm checking. River, another K, I now figure him for not having a king, I bet again, he tanks for about 30 seconds, and finally calls, flipping AA. Hmmmm. Not much else happened til later (I moved seats). Played extremely tight as I wasn't getting any cards worth playing, finally I decided to see a flop with Ac9c in the cutoff, after one person (fish - loose player, sees 9/10 flops, doesn't bet unless he hit somehow) limped, button folds, SB raises to 15, fish calls, I decide to see a flop - QcQsJc, SB checks, fish bets 15, I tank (when I say I tank, it means that I'm not insta-calling/insta-raising - I'm thinking things through), finally call, SB calls. Turn 2s, SB checks, fish bets 15 again, I finally call, SB calls, river 2c. SB checks, fish hesitantly checks, I tank, thinking if I can value bet it, I'm thinking that the SB could have something along the lines of AQ wanting to check-raise the river, I'm thinking since the fish likes to see flops he could be playing a deuce, so I finally shrug my shoulders, say I can't bet and flip my cards for the nut flush, and they both muck - fish showing a J, after the hand, the SB says he had Kings.
I spewed some chips off, finally after one limper, one guy raises to 10, I have KK, and re-raise to 35, folds back to him and it looked like he wanted to re-raise but he flats, flop 10 high, he checks, I bet 40, he puts me all in, and I snap call, he has QQ, I hold. Folded for another orbit, I have KK again, I raise to 12, a LAG asian, re-raises to 25, folds to me, I re-pop it to 82, he calls, flop is Q22, I go all in for ~140, he snap calls, shows QQ, FML. I leave, but I wanted to stay, as one of my buddies moves right beside me and we were gonna play "What Lodden thinks", I think it would be fun to play that.

Full Tilt Hates Me

2009-05-12T15:03:00.003-06:00

Something I have started doing, is when I can see I am running bad in my first 2-3 HU games, I will only play max 5 games. Yesterday I played 4 games (1-2 in the $5s, and 0-1 in the $2s) The only reason I played that $2 game is because I thought I signed up for a $5 NL game, but I ended up playing a LHE, and it wasn't until I put my results into my excel sheet that something didn't look right, and I sharkscoped my recent games, and saw it was a $2. Oops.
As for today, when I was on either the 2nd or the 3rd game, I decided I was only gonna play 5 games.
I only played 2 different people, the first guy, he kept changing his emotions. The guy played bad, he sucked out a few times. A6 (him) vs AK (me). I have JJ has K8, hits king, I have K7, flop is 72J, check I bet he calls, turn 2 I bet he calls, river 3, I bet he tanks and finally calls, shows 73. Another one AQ vs 7x, flop AQy, turn 7, river 7. The one that really got to me, was this (I blocked his name, but I will call him 'losing Joe' (that's what Sharkscope has him as):

Losing Joe (2,255)
TDoodle (745)
Losing Joe is feeling happy
TDoodle posts the small blind of 15
Losing Joe posts the big blind of 30
Dealt to TDoodle [Js Jc]
TDoodle raises to 60
Losing Joe is feeling normal
Losing Joe is feeling confused
Losing Joe calls 30
*** FLOP *** [2s 2h 9h]
Losing Joe checks
TDoodle bets 90
Losing Joe is feeling normal
Losing Joe is feeling confused
Losing Joe is feeling normal
Losing Joe has 15 seconds left to act
Losing Joe is feeling confused
Losing Joe calls 90
*** TURN *** [2s 2h 9h] [5h]
Losing Joe checks
TDoodle checks
*** RIVER *** [2s 2h 9h 5h] [8d]
Losing Joe is feeling happy
Losing Joe bets 420
TDoodle raises to 595, and is all in
Losing Joe is feeling confused
Losing Joe has 15 seconds left to act
Losing Joe is feeling angry
Losing Joe is feeling normal
Losing Joe is feeling confused
Losing Joe calls 175
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TDoodle shows [Js Jc] two pair, Jacks and Twos
Losing Joe shows [Ad 2d] three of a kind, Twos
Losing Joe wins the pot (1,490) with three of a kind, Twos
Losing Joe is feeling happy

I think that was the first game we played, we both accepted a rematch, then the next match I asked him why he slowrolled me, he replied by asking 'didn't you see the flush out there?', I responded, ' Answer my question first', then this the rest of the conversation:

him: just did idiot
him: u could have had a flush
him: so therefore a set might not be good
TDoodle: if u though i had flush y call?
him: pot odds my friend
TDoodle: im not ur friend
him: i know more like my poker atm
TDoodle: really? 1 game

Wow, I haven't tilted like that in awhile.

Figured it out

2009-05-07T13:27:00.005-06:00

While playing around on Sharkscope on the weekend, I can do a search with a whole bunch of different criteria, so I managed to do a search from the Mar 18, all my HU SNGs, and this is what my graph looks like:

Its great to see this coming together. A little update: I am 442-332 (win rate of 57.1%) avg ROI of 5.63%. Weeeeeeeee.

Atleast I can say that my graphs don't look like these:

I'm not gonna say who they are, all I can say is that I think these two guys (or girls) should quit poker. They both have the cute little fishy jumping out of the bowl on Sharkscope.

First guy has played 5300 games, avg stake of $2, avg ROI of -27%, for a total of -$3542

Second guy has played 890 games (30 more than me), avg stake of $5, avg ROI of -58%, for a total of -$2970.

Huge Day

2009-05-01T19:32:00.003-06:00

Like the title says, I went on a great run today. I had went 14-7 in the 2s, and 8-1 in the 5s. I am a mere 8 or so dollars away from having black on my sharkscope graph for total profit, as opposed to red. Currently I am sitting ~$180 in FT (up over $120 from when I started)

The following picture is my Sharkscope graph:

The circle is approximately where I started the HU games on FT, the arrow is where I started TODAY at. I was getting hands, and they were holding up. Which is ALWAYS great for it to happen.

FT custom avatar HERE I COME!!!!

2009-04-30T19:25:00.003-06:00

So, I just figured it out, I am trying for a custom avatar for myself on Full Tilt. If I keep getting the same amount of FTPs every month as I made in april (I'm going on average), it will take me 1395.37 months to get to 1 000 000 FTPS, or another words over 116 years. Boy, do I have a lot of playing ahead of me. LOL!

Plane Landing

2009-04-30T17:29:00.004-06:00

Saw this on P5s, could you imagine being in the plane?:
Click here

Meanwhile, I started wed on FT with ~$157, by midday (when I stopped for the afternoon) I was up to about $168, went over to Clayton's to watch Lost and play some more, when I left I was down to $129. Uggh. After Lost I went 0-6 (2 $5 games, and 4 $2 games) I just was running gross there, had KK cracked by Q8 (money went all in on flop of 8 high) spikes trips on river, lost JJ to K7, 7 on flop, K on river. It was gross. I think the whole day I went something like 2-10 in flips.
I played 2 $2s today, and went 1-1, I just don't feel like playing at all today. I originally was gonna move up in limits when I had 20 buyins for the next level for the $5s I was gonna move up at $105 ($5+0.25), but I decided I am gonna move up in limits when I hit 25 buyins, figure it wouldn't be as bad when I hit the bigger limits with the better players, I may even move it to 30 BIs. When I hit 20 BIs I will play a game or two in the new level just to get accustomed to it.

Milestone

2009-04-28T14:31:00.002-06:00

I have made over $100 in my HU SNG challenge on Full Tilt. I am currently playing the $5 games, with the occasional $2 tossed in there. As soon as I win ~$20-25 more, I will play a $10 to sample that level.

Short post

2009-04-27T15:40:00.003-06:00

Binge still continues, it all is still downloading. I think after all the shows I'm downloading finishes I will have downloaded over 60GB worth.

Sunday, I played the first day of nothing but $5 HU SNGs (no $2 games).

Saturday, I also watched the new episode of High Stakes Poker as GSN released it online early, and a few someones managed to copy it, before GSN realized they made the mistake and took it down.

Since I have an account with Full Tilt, there MAY be a way I can get rakeback without starting a new account and not playing on the current one, I'll keep you updated.

Binging

2009-04-25T16:57:00.003-06:00

I'm on a big binge right now. But don't worry, its not anything bad, I have downloaded a whole bunch of poker shows. Stuff ranging from all seasons of HSP, 2007, 08 and 09 of NBC HU, I Bet You, PPT, APPT, a series called Tilt (dunno, but we'll have to check that out), WSOPE 07 and 08, Aussie Millions, HSG (High Stakes Golf), I would also like to watch WSOG (World Series of Golf) - but I can't find that, also downloaded the BC Poker Championship (the one Negreanu won last year).
I have alot of shows to watch. And its great because I just bought speakers for my laptop, so now things sound so much better. But I'm not sure if I'll watch them before the summer, just so I have some new things to watch while at the lake. Speaking of the lake, I'm gone on June 4th (maybe a week earlier if mgmt lets me go up with them like I did last year.

As for my HU games on FT (I started this on Mar 18):
$2s : 305-223 (total 528) - win rate: 57.8%; ROI: 7.47%
$5s : 27-29 (total 56) - win rate: 48.2%; ROI: -8.12%
total: 332-252 (total 584) - win rate: 56.8%; ROI: 4.25%
I have made a profit of 74.55 since I started this. I just need that one good streak in the 5s. I am usually going like 2-3, or 1-0, or 0-1, or 4-8 or 9-6. It just gets discouraging when that happens, so I just jump back to the 2s.

The weekend's tournaments

2009-04-20T13:23:00.002-06:00

Played saturday's tournament at the Dunes, and went out early, lost JJ to AA on a 10 hi flop.

Went out to North Battleford on sunday for their tournament, 5K starting stack, 20 minute levels, NO ANTES!!!! In the first couple levels I had my stack up to about 5300, then was at 3500 at one point, when UTG limped, I limped behind with KJ, button limped, SB completed, BB checked. Flop KJJ, check check check i check, button bets (don't remember what the pot or bet were) folds to me, I call. Turn Quads. I check pretty sure that he was gonna bet again having a K. He bets 600, I call. river blank, I thought he might bet it again, so I check, he checks behind showing a K, I say quads and scoop a nice pot putting me to almost 6000. At the break I was at 6600, Didnt get anything going in the next hour was down to 4800, then stole a few pots in a row, stole the blinds on button, 2 hands later UTG limps, I raise with KQ, folds back to him he calls, and flop of ATx, he checks i cbet and fold. break in a couple hands, I get up to 7400. After the break, I had my stack up to 8800 ish (average stack) then UTG I raised with AJ (wanting to just take the blinds) finally the SB (shortstack) tanks and finally pushes, BB folds. he has QJ, AJ high wins. He tells me that is the third time I have knocked him out of tournaments. An orbit later, I was on SB, button open limps, I have QdTd, I complete, BB checks. AT3 I bet 1300 into 2400 (blinds were 400/800) BB calls, button folds. turn Q, it crossed my mind he might have KJ for the straight, but didn't think he would call terrible odds to chase it down (esp since he had a big stack), So i thought he had a weak Ace, A9 A8 something like that. So I bet 3100, he min raises me (I have 7K) I put it all in, he calls the extra 1K, I say two pair, he says straight, I bust. If I would have won, I would have ~20K and alot to bully the table around. Instead I was driving back to Saskatoon. I wasn't upset because I was pleased with the way I played, even my quad hand. I only think I should have led out on the turn, but I thought about it on the break but by me checking on the river, everyone else at the table seeing that i check on the river, I can get a chance to check on the river with a mediocre hand later in the tournament and have a better showdown value, that they may think I am checking with a big hand in the likes to check raise. However, that didn't happen.

FT HU challenge:
didn't play yesterday since I was in NB, but on saturday I played my 500th HU game on FT. MY record so far is 283-217. Win rate of 56.6%

The Mouth's two books

2009-04-18T11:23:00.002-06:00

Mike Matasow is gonna be releasing a couple books. 1 being an auto biography, which I can understand will be called "Check-Raising The Devil" and the other being a strategy book. Below is a synopsis of is auto-biography from amazon:

Hang on tight as Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, poker player extraordinaire, takes you with him on a breathtaking, true-life roller coaster ride from his humble beginnings in a trailer park to a rock and roll lifestyle full of hot women, sex, wild drug-filled parties and million-dollar wins and losses. Yet behind the glamour and glory of his high-stakes poker career lurked the flip side: a person torn between two debilitating mental illnesses?—?bipolar disorder and ADHD. To dig himself out of depression and suicidal despair, Matusow turned to dangerous street drugs to self-medicate a problem he didn’t understand, and spiraled deeper into the darker world of addiction, police narcotic stings, and jail time.
In this revealing and tumultuous autobiography, the combustible Matusow holds nothing back. You’ll get a mouthful of the man behind the infamous Matusow Meltdowns seen on national TV.
Riveting, exhilarating, sexy, sometimes shocking and always fascinating, this voyeur’s look into the world of high-stakes poker, mental illness, and ultimately, Matusow’s inspiring redemption, will keep you glued to your seat until the very last page!

This should be a good read.

Dream, Tournament, Betting, Yoga

2009-04-17T12:44:00.003-06:00

First off, if none of you have seen this yet.....do so.......
Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent
Like WOW!!!! Before she start singing you can see everyone in the crowd just shrugs her off due to her looks, then after she hasn't even finished the first sentence, they are all into it. I think the best part of it is right around 3:15-3:20. WOW!!!!

Planning on going to play the tournament on saturday (they switched it to saturday this week for some strange reason) They are planning they are gonna be getting more players this week just since its on saturday. Lets see I can go deep this time. Sunday is NB's tournament, haven't decided if I'm gonna play in it or not yet, if I do really well on saturday, then I will. If I don't, then we'll see.

I watched the first two seasons of 'I Bet You' in 2 days. Great, funny show, hope Unabomber, and Esfandiari do more episodes.

Went to my second yoga class last night (2 within 1 week), the class started at 5:30 and ended at 7, after the class, the instructor says to me "I was gonna ask you at the beginning of class, but, have you ever did any yoga before?" I said, "This was my second class, but I have done some before that" She replies "Well, this was an advanced class, But you did really well." YAY, even though near the end, while I was doing a shoulder stand, my left calf cramped up. While doing yoga, I always ask myself, why am I doing this, I can't do this, but as soon as its over, it is a great feeling, and I look forward to doing it again.

DDC tourney last night

2009-04-13T13:36:00.002-06:00

45 players, I busted out in about 32nd ish. But I felt I played really well.
Won the second hand of the tournament, where one guy raised pre I called with A10 and position, and two other callers, Flop was KJx, checked all around, turn A, checked to me, I bet and everyone folded. A little while later there was one guy he doubled up KK vs AQ (not against me) where there was a Q on flop. The KK had raised about 8X big blind. Anyways, later in the 25/50 level, there was a limper, I had JJ and raised to 125 (I like to play small ball poker, or atleast try to play it) and the KK guy from earlier had the whole table covered, and grabbed a stack to put me all in. The limper folded, and I thought for awhile and finally said "I'll give you some respect" and folded face up. I figured him for AA, KK, AK (in which I didnt want to flip quite yet), or even figured him for TT.
A few hands later they broke my table, and I get moved right into the BB. There was a big stack #1 to my right, someone I had never seen/played against before, and another big stack #2 about 4 to my right, another person I had never seen/played before. As well as an above average stack to my left, and I know him to be a solid player. In the SB, another fairly solid tournament player raised preflop, Big stack #2 called, folds to me, I have AA, I just smooth call, BB folds. Flop was a great un-coordinated board for me, something like K84 rainbow. I check figuring the original raiser was gonna c-bet it, but checks, big stack bets, I raise it just over minimum, they both fold. A couple hands later in cutoff, or hijack position, there was a limper, and I get AA again, I make it 250 (blinds were 50/100), everyone folds, and I lift my cards up saying that I've got a great image, and right when I lifted my cards up I see a single 100 chip ahead of me, not realizing that there was another person in the hand. OOPS. Luckily he didn't see my cards, but he ended up folding. Next level at 75/150, about 2 minutes to the break, big stack #1 (UTG tosses in 200, and gonna grab his change, dealer tells him not to. I have 88, I raise it to 350, folds back to him he re-raises me to 1700, I pause for about 5-10 seconds, finally push for 3800ish. He finally calls after 30 or so seconds. 88 vs AQo. Flop JKK, turn A. F! River was a 9 I think. I was out. Overall I felt I played really well.
I probably will play the tournament on saturday as they are expecting alot of people, but I decided I won't go to NB, unless I do really well on saturday.

As for online:
I kinda gave up on PStars. But I'm still going strong on FTilt in my HU SNG challenge. The other day, I built it up to 125ish, then had a bad streak going in the 5s so I dropped down to the 2s again and hovered between 90 and 105. I also cleared the $25 bonus in the Take 2 challenge (you have to 2 table cash games, earning a total of 1 FTP. If you play for 5 of the 10 days, you get $5, if you play for 10 of the 10 days, you get the 5, plus another 20, in which I did). I was down $10 playing .25/.50 LHE (BTW I HATE LIMIT!!!!! lol) So after the $25 I am up $15. I am sitting with about 115 in my FT account. I'm gonna play in the 5s next time I play.
Speaking of limit, I like limit stud games (even though 7 card stud hi is my worst game with omaha a close second) anyways, I have a few bucks on Doyles Room, I'm gonna try to build on there playing nothing but Limit, see if I can try to make money at that game. Who knows.

While typing this, I was thinking, in order what is my best games.....
I would probably have to go with .......

1) NLHE/Razz (both are so close that it would be tough to put one of them ahead of the other)
3) Stud Hi/Lo
4) Limit Triple Draw 2-7
5) Badugi/PLO
7) Omaha 8
8) Limit Omaha Hi
9) Stud Hi

Holy Long post!!!!

Yoga - hummmmmmmmmm!

2009-04-10T13:04:00.003-06:00

I have decided I am gonna play the Dunes tournament on sunday, as well as the 18th, just to get a feel for MTTs again as I have decided I am gonna play in the North Battlefords tournament on the 19th. So if anyone that lives in NB, and frequents the casino there, let me know as I would like you to register me, and when I show up that day I will pay you back. Its terrible that you can't register over the phone, or online, or even at one of the other SIGA casinos.

As for my bad run, its still happening, BUT, I'm being optimistic since today and yesterday they aren't sick ones. I will flop top 2, they person will hit their open ender on the turn. Perhaps, it could be coming to an end? Lets hope so.
Tonight, I maybe attending my first yoga class. I need persuasion to go, since I am a very lazy person. I probably will end up going.

SCOOPs update

2009-04-06T16:33:00.002-06:00

Well, didnt didn't fare too well in either of the tourneys. In the 2-7 Triple Draw I finished 1084 out of 1801, while 330 paid out. And in the HU, I didnt even win one match. To win the tourney you would have to win 14 consecutive matches for a pay day of over 16K. I don't even know what happened. One of the first hands, I flopped top two pair, and didnt get paid off, then after that nothing was hitting for me. Currently playing a $10 Razz tourney. I'll wait til early wed morning to decide if I'm gonna play in the Razz SCOOP - LOW.
In my FTilt adventure, it is/was going good. Yesterday, I was on a crazy run in the twos, built my roll to about 105, then played some 5s and went 5-1 (or 4-1, can't remember, and I don't wanna look it up right now) As for today, I am 1-4 in the 5s and 2-0 in the 2s.
I can beat the 2s and for some reason I can't get a grasp of the 5s. Even the players aren't much better.
Hmmmmmm.
I was hoping that the poker gods may have smiled on me today to go deep in either of the two tourneys, but not so much, perhaps they want me to go through a bad run, then miracously I will win my way into a big tourney and win it? HEY, I can dream can't I?

SCOOPs

2009-04-04T17:15:00.003-06:00

I just registered for 2 SCOOP events on PStars. I possibly will do another one.

Event # 9 Low - $22 Triple Draw 2-7
Event# 10 Low - $16.50 HU

The one I probably will play, but will decide at the last minute will be Event #13 Low - $22 Razz.

Wish me luck.
If you want a piece of me in any of them, let me know BEFORE the event starts.

WTF, FML, and other random letters

2009-04-04T14:57:00.002-06:00

WTF?? How can anyone run this bad?
I flop boats, lose to a higher rivered boat.
I flop straights, lose to runner runner full houses.
I flop two pair, lose to runner runner straight on board (and the guy holds the a card to have a higher straight)
I flop sets, lose to flushes.
Money goes in on flop of 885, I have JJ he has KJ, BAM, K on turn.
This is really pissing me off lately.
I realize that I have sucked out on people too, but 90% of the time it is when the money is all in preflop, or I have been the aggressor in the hand.
Ha, listen to me, I sound just like Chainsaw.
I think the only thing that is keeping half sane right now, is the cool handwriting tool on MSN messenger. LOL.
I just wonder what I did to piss off the poker gods.
Please gods, if you are listening, please oh please stop with these bad (I mean SICK, GROSS, make me wanna vomit) beats, or atleast tell me what I did to deserve them. So I can stop them.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Movin' on up!

2009-04-02T15:44:00.005-06:00

Went out to the casino on tuesday, first time in 2 weeks. I decided I was gonna buy in for 60 (max 3 times) I think the discipline is working, as I folded some hands that I would have normally played.
hand 1 - limped MP with AQ, guy to my immediate left raises to 13, and there was 2 callers, then someone raised all in for 21, call, I had about 50 total, I wasn't planning on calling, I was either folding or pushing. I ended up folding. Flop Q9x. there was betting, in the end the guy that intially raised to 13 had 99.
hand 2 - I called a PF raise with KQ in LP, 4 to flop of QTx, SB goes all in for 38ish, call, the PF raiser raised another 70 or so. I folded, figuring he had either AQ, two pair or a set. The guy in the middle folded, saying he had a weak Q. SB had JT, other guy TT for a set. Turn J, river brick.
Within half an hour I went broke, lost JJ to AA. about 45 minutes or so later broke again. Don't remember what happened. Finally I had AJ PF I raised and had 4 callers, Flop was A25. Chk I pushed, everyone folded but the guy to my right who had called. He had 4-6 for the gutshot. I held. Little while later had JJ UTG and had every one fold on the flop. An orbit or two later I was BB, and there was a $7 straddle on, I think everyone called except for 2. BB I have AQ. I squeeze to 35. 1 caller. Qxx flop - 2 spades. I bet 41 he calls. Turn bricks, I push for 96, he tanks and finally calls, I truthfully didn't want him to call. He had 10-10. I hold and double up. I left after they made the Las Vegas draw which I didnt win. I was up $120. Felt good.

Last night I started off terrible on FT, going 2-4 when I stopped to watch LOST, came back afterwards, and finished the night off, 16-8. I have broke the $110 mark, and will now be playing the $5 HU SNGs. I started playing two weeks ago, and have played 292 $2's (record of 169-123), and played 4 $5's (record of 3-1). Since starting this: My Overall Win Rate is 58.1%, and my overall ROI is 8.82% (not the negative it says on Sharkscope, that has previous SNGs that I played awhile ago.

My goals for this are as follows:
-By the time I head to the lodge (May 31) I want to be playing in the $10s.
-By summers end (there is wireless at the lake this year, so I can play online) is to be playing regularly in the $20s (with the occasional game in the $30s)
-By Halloween playing regularly in the $30s (with the occasional game in the $40s or $50s)
The following two can and probably change when that time comes around:
-By years end playing regularly the $40s or $50s (with the occasional game in the $80s or $100s) - I will decide which I will be playing when I get there
-By Apr 1/10, playing regularly in either the $80s or $100s. (with the occasional game in the $110s - if I'm playing in the 80s, or in the $160s if I'm playing in the $100s)

I don't think those are unreasonable goals, something that I could easily do. I'll keep you updates as to how that goes.

Lets see, here.....

2009-03-31T11:26:00.001-06:00

This past weekend at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas the 2nd Annual Dream Team Poker Challenge took place, $500/head, teams of three. I am looking at possibly entering it next year, anyone interested? Let me know.
Off to the Dunes tonight to play live for the first time in just over 2 weeks. Hopefully I learned some kind of discipline from the past two weeks. Also, hope I win the trip to Vegas.
Online update:
PStars: I did some stupid shizz; I am currently up 0.82 from when I started 2 weeks ago. I WAS up almost $12. This past Wednesday, I took some bad hits, and dropped a bit, and then I took a few days off from Stars and played again yesterday. Was up about .30 after 5 hands or so, then about an orbit later, there was a King high straight on board, I bet a tiny amount, and the person pushed, I was thinking “Did they get there with a runner runner broadway?” I didn’t see it and called, and ya, they got there with the ace. *See note in FTilt update* So after 15 hands I dropped another $3.
FTilt: After a bad start last Wednesday, I kinda turned it around Wednesday night. Then at work Thursday morning, I decided I was gonna take the day off from playing, but as usual, as the day dragged on, I decided to play. And I was glad I did. This is how I did on the weekend:
Thursday: 15-5 ($17)
Friday: 13-11 ($0.40)
Saturday: 29-16 ($19.25)
Sunday: 18-15 ($1.05)
Monday: 16-16 (-$4.80)
Yesterday, didn’t go that great, I think my highest streak was +2. In alot of my matches, I had people down to less than 400 in chips (3K in play) and I would double them up, and they would come back to win it. One guy, kept pushing with 40, 60, 100 in the pot, finally, I asked him if he would like to gamble, or play poker, then he stopped. The guy had less than 1000 in chips. He pushes on the button, I call. AQ vs Ks8s. He flops flush. Very next hand, I min raise on button with AhQh. He pushes again (putting me all-in), I call. He has AsJs. Flop : Qs4h8s. Board ran out: Ts 2s. After thinking about it, yesterday, I should have been atleast 18-14. Ya, I got lucky to win some of my matches, but I had a few people down to the nitty gritty and they got lucky short stacked, and came back to win.
*PStars hand: In one of my FTilt matches, the board ran out 10-9-7-8-6, I had the J, for the higher straight, my opponent, bet about 1/3 the pot, and I snap pushed, knowing they were gonna call thinking they were gonna chop. And they did call. Afterwards, they typed to me saying that they didn’t think I had the Jack.
So far after almost 2 weeks of this, I am not getting tired of it, in the past I would be, wanting to play higher stakes. I am currently up $43.25 on FTilt after 253 HU matches.

Weeeeeee

2009-03-28T16:04:00.002-06:00

I have played quite abit today, I went 26-15 in the $2 HU games, and I have broken the $100 mark in my FT account. Get this.....by 5 cents!!!!! $9.95 to go til I play in the $5 games. I have a profit of over $15 for the day. And an overall profit of $43.60 (I am 111-75 in $2 games - win % of 59.7%, and an ROI of 11.03%), I think maybe next session I will play in a one or two of the $5 games. But not regularly play in them, til I get over $110.

I have found the secret

2009-03-28T14:20:00.002-06:00

To flopping sets. As crazy as it sounds, I would say it works about 65% of the time (disclaimer: that's a rough number, not exact). Now, I know you are yelling at your computer screen, and saying "Well, what is the secret??" I'm sorry, but I can't divulge that information, I don't need you guys flopping sets against me.

Discipline update:
FTilt: Currently playing (this session, I am 18-12) - Overall I'm 103-72 in the $2's. If I win this match I will have a profit of 35.25 from when I started last wed.
Observations I have made in playing the $2 HU:
1) If the pot is atleast 4X the BB, and the OOP player bets the min, and you call, and bets min on turn you can pop it and have a good chance on taking the pot down.
2) If you win a big pot (whether sucking out, having a big hand or making a big call), more often than not, they will push on the next hand
PStars: I haven't played on there since wed when I took a beating, may play later today there, not sure.

As for playing live, I'm gonna be heading out to DDC on tuesday, since they are giving away a Vegas trip, and I've got entries in the drum. I wish I had went down to Regina this past weekend for their Station Poker Classic, but, I took a fairly big hit earlier in the month, so I decided against it, guess I will make it down in November (Can't in July for two reasons, I will be at the lodge all summer, and there is a rumour that they are renovating and won't be running the tournaments.

Turnaround and gotten worked

2009-03-26T15:31:00.003-06:00

After going 3-7 the other day, I turned it around on tuesday with a 7-3, then wednesday in the afternoon I went 4-10 (this is all in the $2s), Last night went over to Clayton's for LOST, and to play some more, I turned it around to 15-17 (2-3 in HORSE), and accidently clicked a $5 game, which I won.
But yesterday on Stars, I got worked, between the afternoon and evening I lost 7.11 in a matter of 75 hands. So instead of being less than $3 away from moving to the 2c/5c NL level, I am now 10.02 from moving to the next level.

Interesting Article and Update

2009-03-24T13:18:00.002-06:00

Mucking AA pre-flop?

Discipline Update:
PStars:
1c/2cNL:
The other day I had a 162 hand session, and was up 3 or so dollars at one point, and the one hand UTG I had AA, I raised to 6c, call, guy re-raises me to 18c (I think), call, I re-pop all in, fold guy calls, board ran out QJx-x-Q, ya he had AQ. But I managed to rebuild a bit. Then today played 32 hands, and made a profit of 3.22, I only won 2 hands, had KK on SB and had 2 people to flop of KJx, bet call, fold. turn 8, I bet he calls, river 8, I bet he calls, showing KQ.
Then in LP I open raised to 6c with 6d4s, and had 3 callers, flop was AKQ (with one diamond) checked around. Turn Qd, I bet 1/2 pot, one caller, river another diamond, I bet again and they folded.
So after 9 sessions (8 of them winning sessions) and playing 478 hands, I am up $10.93 (only $2.91 til I move to the 2c/5c NL

FTilt:
They make me wanna go on tilt. Saturday I went 3-7, got my money in with the best of it, and they sucked out, I flop top two, guy flops bottom pair, money goes in on flop, he turns he other pair for a higher two pair. Or a guy will hit trips on river. I have AJ vs KQ, flop Axx, turn 10, river J. I have JJ he has 33, flop is 3 clubs, turn another club (neither of us hold a club) river is J of clubs.
Today was abit different though. I raise on button with As9x, he min-raises me, I call, flop is Q high all spades, turn another spade, I now have the nuts, I check the 'check' box, and he checks, river is another spade (the nuts out there is Js9s, or 9s7s for the straight flush) pot is about 500 or so, he goes all in for ~1200, I snap call, he has 77 (with the spade)
Currently I am 42-25 in the $2 HU SNG (Haven't played anymore of the $5 yet) and have a profit of $18.70

Quick Update

2009-03-22T13:32:00.004-06:00

After starting my discipline challenge. I am currently 33-19 in the $2 HU (profit of $20.20) and decided to take a stab at the $5 and went 0-1, for an overall profit of $14.95 from when I started on wednesday.

As for the Pokerstars bankroll building challenge, I started with just over $11 in my account, after 7 sessions (320 hands) I am up $7.09 While writing this, I am in my 8th session, 18 hands in and up $1.55. I am just over $5 away from moving to the 2c/5c NL level.

So far it is going well on my discipline, you would think by moving down to the micro limits I would be playing every single hand, but seeing how big pots are, it isn't worth playing every hand, and going broke.

I wonder how I am gonna be when I get back to playing 1/2NL, or 2/5NL live, will I go back to my regular playing style, or actually use some of this discipline?
For example, I regularly would play suited connectors in MP, even in EP, but playing 1c/2c, I am folding them in EP, and playing them in LP (as I would do in live games)

Discipline

2009-03-19T16:59:00.003-06:00

I think the thing that will help me through my funk right now is to be more disciplined. So for now, no more live games, as boring as it may sound, I'm gonna play $2 HU SNG on Full Tilt, and play .01/.02 NL on Stars. Nothing higher, until I hit $110 on FT, then I'll move to $5 HU SNG, and $25 on PS then I'll move to 2c/5cNL. I started the HU SNG on FT on Wednesday the 18th, had three sessions
1st session: 4-4
2nd session: 10-3
3rd session: 4-0 (I was gonna play more, but the last match I played I started to gamble more (game went 90+ hands) So I decided to play some 1c/2cNL instead.

And after 2 sessions at 1c/2cNL I am up 1.64 (108 hands) And while writing this I have played 5 hands (just started) and already up 34c. I am hoping playing micro limits, I can stop playing hands that I normally would fold.
I just stacked a guy, MP raised to 8c, button calls, I have AA in SB, I make it 24c, BB calls, MP folds, button calls. Flop is Td 4h 5c, I bet 30c into 80c. BB folds, and button pushes. I call. 2c. Qd. AA holds. He has TcJh.
So now after 9 hands I am up 2.48, At the rate this is going, I might be at 2c/5c, right away.

Til then......

Totally unrelated to poker

2009-03-15T15:58:00.003-06:00

Here are some videos I found on youtube. Funny as hell.

Sleepwalking dog

Seth MacFarlane's Calvacade of Cartoon Comedy:
Super Mario Saves The Princess
The Frog Prince
A Dog on $25K Pyramid
Backstage with Bob Dylan
Adopted

Phil Ivey Banned Fult Tilt Commercial

Is it over?

2009-03-15T11:14:00.003-06:00

After having put in three consecutive wins last week, I was looking optimistic that my bad run was over, however, I think its not. These are a few of the hands that really got to me this past week.

Sunday:
JJ vs KK
JJ vs AT (A on flop)
JJ vs 88 (8 on flop)
A7 vs A9 (I was SB, I completed flop A78, I bet 5, call, raise to 20, I re-raise to 105, fold call. I put the guy all in on the turn blind, turn K, he calls shows A9, river K)

Thursday:
6s7s vs 88 (flop 8s-9s-10h, I bet half the pot, call, turn A again half pot, call, river A, I put him all in he calls)
AK vs KQ (flops two pair)

Friday:
KTo vs 3 players --- Flop is Ah-Qs-Js, I bet half pot, call call call. Turn Q, check bet 20, I pop it to 101 (I like betting the odd numbers) guy goes all in for ~60, SB calls, bettor calls. Pot is now at over 450. River 9, SB goes all in for 105, call, I gotta call (I had only 60 left) SB tables Q9 for running full house, other suy shows KQ, first all in mucked.
J9 (BB) vs AJ - flop is KQx, checked around, turn 10, I bet he minraised me, I pushed he calls.
I left after I tilt massive re-raised when I was SB and the button raised (he had JJ, And I don't want to say what I had)

Saturday:
AK vs K10 - KQx flop, brick on turn, 10 on river.
7h5s vs 10h6h - we both turn flush.

I know I have put bad beats on people before, but 95% of the time its when the money has went in preflop and it was inevitable. Or when I would be behind on flop and I was the aggressor in the hand and people are trying to trap me, but I get lucky (see last weeks post about my 8-5 hand)
It just seems this past week I would have a hand, someone had just slightly better than me.
Now onto the title of the blog: Friday night on the drive home was the first time I've ever seriously thought about quitting playing poker. Instead I am gonna take a week off from playing whether it be live or online. I'm still gonna keep reading forums and watching it, but not gonna play, I want to clear my head of this sick beats.

Last night and Razz.

2009-03-11T14:11:00.004-06:00

As I'm writing this, I am playing a $10 Razz tourney on FT, and the hand that spinks said nh to, I had (10d-6d)3c-6s-10s-9s(5d) the other guy had (x-x)4d-7c-8c-Jd(x). I took it down on a 7th street bet. There is 5 left and I am jumping between 1st and 2nd in chips. Payouts are $160, 100, 64, 44, 32.
Any ways onto last night, Played 1/2 bought in for 100, and it was a pretty good table, some soft spots, and a couple tough players, Some memorable hands, early in the night there was a few limpers, I limp with 7c5c, flop is AcJcxc. Soft player bets 10, I raise to 25, he calls, turn is a low red, he checks I push and he finally calls. He has a set of Jacks. I double up. My stack hovered between 120 and 200 for quite awhile. Finally there was a straddle to 5, 1 or 2 limpers, on the button I instantly raised to 22, just the straddle calls. flop is 6Q6, he checks I bet 25 and calls, turn is 4 check check, river is a beautiful 7 - now you are thinking I have 77, think again. he checks and I ask him how much he has, and replies with about 70, I put him all in and he tanks and finally call, I table 85o. :) I then lost a decent pot and sitting with about 260.

And right here is where I busted out of the Razz tourney in 3rd place.

Back to last night....

One guy raises to 5 in EP, a few callers, I call on the button with 7s2s. SB calls, BB pops it to 16, there is 4 callers and I know SB is calling, so I call. flop is Ks10sxs. GIN. check check UTG bets 25, folds to me, I thought he was allin for 25, so I popped it to 75, fold fold, and I start to grab 50 back, but he says all-in, and I snap call. He tables AK (with the Ace of spades) turna and river brick out. I double up. Now sitting with just under 600. Finally left at 11 with 570. Pretty good night. I made some good plays and got lucky when I needed to.

It felt good.

2009-03-10T16:25:00.004-06:00

Just finished a $2 shorthanded MTT on FT, I bought in at the last possible minute during late registration. Finished 3rd (out of 339) for a payout of $75. After such a long drought for online play, it felt good to finish that deep in the tournament. My last hand I lost As9s to 10-10, guy flops set I river an ace. Oh well, I played really well, and got lucky when I needed to.

Let's Go Golfing. YAY!

2009-03-08T12:56:00.003-06:00

Played all weekend, finally had 3 consecutive winning sessions. The first two weren't that big (75 on thurs and a measly 25 on friday) - but after a bad run I was on, I'll take those. Then headed out on saturday and sat down at the start of the day (noon). Bought in for 100, and built it up and down then a few hands came up, guy to my right raises to 6, I re-raise to 20 with AA, one caller. Initial raiser asks me why I did that, and finally pushes (~115) I go all in for about 95. other guy folds. AA vs AA. Weeeeeee. He four-flushes on the river. Oh well. I move past it, I am now going to try to stop complaining about bad beats and suckouts. I rebuy for another 100, and fold for a few hands finally AQ in EP, I limp, guy two to my right raises to 6 (I've seen him do that with suited aces, and dry aces as well as suited connectors. One guy calls and I re-pop it to 20. He calls other guy folds. Flop is 554 (two hearts). I c-bet 20, he min raises me, I think for a few seconds and push for 80, he calls. He flips Ah9h. My AQ holds.

We were shorthanded for awhile, just because there were hardly anyone to fill seats and people got up to take a walk. So I limped with 5c3c. 3 to flop. 7c4c3h. Checks to me, I bet 3 and both call. Turn 6c for my straight flush (At the dunes if you get a straight flush, you win a putter). I win a small pot.
I went card dead for quite a while then turned things around when I c-bet a 10 high flop with AQ, one guy min raises me, and I push, he folds. I had built my stack up to about 350 at one point then spewed chips off, finally went down to 107, and I'm ready to leave. UTG I raise to 7, a few callers and the BB re-raises to 20 (I've seen him 3bet and 4bet with AQ, AJ, small pairs already, overvaluing big cards) I decide to push for 107. Folds back to him and he says "You got aces or kings? I gotta call." He flips AQ, and I say "good call" and flip 10s7s. I flop the flush. :)

I re-built my stack up to about 300, and I'm now ready to leave at about 9pm, however, about 5-6 people I've never played against before sit down and all buy in for 50-100 and they look like fish, so I decide to stay. I got up to about 400, and I raise pre with K9o, and have 3 callers. Flop is QJ10. Checked to me, I bet 10, guy to my left raises to 25, folds to EP and he pushes for 70ish, I re-push putting them both allin. The 25 raiser thinks for awhile saying he can't fold and has gotta call, pump fakes it, and finally puts it in. First guy has KJ, I had K9, next guy had QJ, turn and river brick, I win. Got my stack up to just under 700. I play small pots til the end of the night and leave when the poker room closes at 2:30am. A nice 14 hour session (minus a few walks and a supper break). Left up 390 and a putter.

In another news, I maybe going to Vegas in April to play in one or two of the Venetian Deep Stack tourneys. Not sure yet, need to pay for my glasses and a few things. Ya, I will be wearing glasses soon, however, I won't be needing them all the time, just to watch TV and movies and drive at night.
Til next time, have fun.

Ugggh

2009-02-23T14:08:00.002-06:00

As with anyone, I hate losing. Especially when I flop trips, and lose to runner runner straight. Here is an example.....tight 1/2NL table, I bought in for short and was down to about 35 I raised MP to 14 blind. LP calls, flop is JJK. I push (still blind) pot sized bet. He asks if I have AK, and finally calls tabling K10, I say that I played the whole hand blind. I flip them over one at a time. 4s. Js. Turn Q. River 9. Later. I was getting sh*t on. Min raising to 4 with QQ, person to my left raises to 20, SB calls, I re-pop it to 83, he calls, SB pushes for 116. Call Call. flop 10 high. I push he hesitates finally calls, SB has JJ, me QQ, other person KK. Kings held. Then was down to 55 on a $5 straddle. tight player calls, then guy grabs one chip to call but goes back and grabs a raise to 15. I sensed weakness, I decided to push with any 2 cards. QJ. $55 all in. tighty folds (found out on the flop he folded AJ) raiser finally calls. flips A10. dealer decides to put the flop out there one card at a time. Door card is J, next card A, last flop card J. Tighty folded the full house. Turn 8. River - case ace. I decide I'm not playing for a couple weeks.
I go back saturday. I just had that urge to gamble, and play loose. I win 1 pot in a matter of an hour and a half. and it was only a $12 pot. I am taking off playing til Fri Mar 6 (just because the guys of 'Whose Line is it Anyway' are doing a show at the Dunes) I also know when I need to take a break when I start playing/ wanting to play every hand. I realize I don't update often. But don't expect anything for the next couple weeks.
In another news, I started going to the gym just over a week ago. And startinf to feel good. I would like to get into going every couple days, but I'm still lazy and only going when I feel like it. so far in 10 days i've went 3 times.

LA Part 2

2009-02-05T16:41:00.003-06:00

I probably should have done updates awhile ago, cuz I don't remember much. Other than was one card away from having the winning hand in the Bad Beat Super Jackpot. i had 99, guy had 22, flop was Q92-2-x only if the 9 on the river. And had suffered some sick beats. 77 vs A10 vs 89. flop 10-7-x. SB is all in for 30, BB calls, i push BB tanks and finally calls. turn A, river A. another As9s vs 89o. flop 8s6s2s, turn 6, river 6. ran KK into AA. I had fun while in LA. Would definately go again. As for now, I am trying Negreau's challenge, however, I am doing it on Doyles Room, since thats the only site that I have money. I started on Feb 1st with $92 and change. I'm gonna follow Daniel's rules (the ones he does for moving up in limits) I won't be keeping an extensive results as he does though, but I'm currently in my 3rd session (all of them at .05/.10NL) and from the $92 I have 105.08, will be moving into the .10/.20NL next time. I may stay at .05/.10NL til I get to roughly $125, just since I didn't play much at the lower levels.
I'll try to keep you up to date more frequently.

LA Part 1

2009-02-01T13:40:00.003-06:00

Arrived in LA mid afternoon on saturday. And United didn't put my luggage onto my flight from Denver to LA, so I could either wait at the airport for it, or have them deliver it to the hotel, which is what they did. I didn't get it til the next morning though. Commerce is a great place to play.
But I went and played a $40 satellite, where the winner get 3 - 100$ tournament buyin chips and $35 in chips. I went HU and the other guy had a 2-1 chip lead. I offered a deal of him taking 200, me 100, and we flip for the 35. he counters with him taking 235, me 100. I said that we'll play it out. I just pushed a few times chipping up. Then when the blinds are 300-600, I was BB with 6d7d. he min raises on the button, and i'm not gonna fold suited connectors to a min raise (maybe if it was an uber tight player that only plays 1 hand every 2 hours) so I call. flop is 10c9d8d. GIN - flop the straight and the straight flush redraw. I bet (not sure how much) he raises, I push he snap calls. I show, and he flips out at the dealer and shows 10-2. turn 5d for the straight flush, now he has like 1200 or so. I fold my button cuz I know he's gonna push with any 2 and i had something like J high or Q high. next hand I have Q4, flop brings rags. check check. turn 4. before I could do anything he checks out of turn, I bet 700, he pushes I call. he flips K high. river bricks and I win with a pair of fours. I win the satellite. Maybe he should have taken the deal.