Wild Swings

I think everyone gets these “Wild Swings” but it is crazy. I had a swing of almost $100 playing .50/1, three tables. I was down $50 to about $350 and now am up to $430 or so. Image how life would be if the downswing did not happen? Sweeeeet!!

I wonder if my swings are average or really nasty. 100BB seems like a lot! It really is just busting out on two tables, and then doubling up on three. It seems like a lot though. Probably some of it is playing some hands too hard or too long. I have a fetish for sooooted cards. I am trying to curb it a little, and only play the small ones in late position. A little of it is the sway of the game.

I had nice cards that never worked out like one table this morning where I had AA three times, KK twice, and AK, AJ, AQ a few times. I think of all those hands I only won AA twice.

I had bad cards that ruled. The soooted Hammer worked out well for me. I never know how to play the board when it looks like a straight or flush, but I have good cards. I had AA earlier and it tripped up. A straight draw was on the board. I checked and called down to the river and took a nice pot. I had times when I said “No Freaking way he called a raised pot with 85o!” and the patsy beat me with the straight. Twice even!

I was down to the last 4 people in a 5/1 tourney and raised all in with QQ. In hindsight it might not have been a good idea when the guy in front of me raised a decent amount. He had A3o and beat me with AA333.

I know I have holes in my game that cause major swings and also that is just Poker. The crazy, wild, anything can happen, kick you in the balls and then pick you up and brush you off game we all love. It is why discipline and money management are so important to the game. If you want to win long term these thing matter.

As a side note just one more day and I can get rid of that horrible reminder that I lost $700 this month! Ack! I like plus $1 better!

Mini-Bloggers tourney

I had a decent day today. The most fun though was playing with ICP (Intrepid Card Player) and Doubleas on Empire. It is always fun playing with other Bloggers. I never connected ICP’s handle with his site until he mentioned it tonight. He was playing first. Once we connected up, I checked out the buddy list and invited Doubleas to come on down. I think he likes NL better but he joined the party. We were the top 3 at the table for a while. I was up and down. I was down to six bucks at one point then up to 40 and finally ended up 7 BB. Our Blog-team all ended up winning. **WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS ICP** ICP and Doubleas were about 25BB up. So I guess Bloggers rule! **END WARINING** It was fun bluffing people too. I usually try not to bluff at .50/1, but this table was weak, and I made trips on the flop once, which gave me a lot of respect when I bet out with nothing. I think my favorite bluff was a straight on the board. I just kept betting into it even though I still needed a final card. I got the last guy to fold on the river. Sweeeeet!

Everyone played well tonight. Different styles, but everything worked. I think ICP and I were tighter, and Doubleas was having fun, and doing some bluffing, and betting his hands WAY up. I would be interested in peoples aggression. One hand that was interesting was KJ sooooted? Doubleas raised it up to two bucks and won a NICE pot. I am too chicken to bet that up. Doubleas says he does not always do that but it seemed to work well. I wonder if I am not aggressive enough. I started never betting hands until I had something. I then added more aggression, making value on each hand that I was drawing to. Basically taking the tack of bet, raise or fold. I think my aggression levels are still really low. I have never really read much about how many BBs someone would bet pre-flop with different hands depending on position. It would be interesting. I am also interested in some Blog-Feedback on my play. I think I did alright but it would be interesting to hear other peoples view of me.

I have one thing to say about bluffing since it worked so well last night. The way to bluff is to commit to it and then execute. On my bluffs that worked I instantly clicked the bet option. So when my turn came it automatically bet. I did this on each round even when it was clear I might be beat. As long as it SEEMED like I was not worried about a high card the bluff worked. If I paused then it did not work. Nobody bought it. It is really effective with straights and flushes. Obviously if someone raises your bluff you either fold, call, or keep bluffing. I would suggest folding because if someone is not scared of what you say you have you are probably screwed.

I did a little slow playing last night too. Usually I hate to slow play. I will just bet out and get what I get. No sense in letting people get their draws. My criteria for slow playing a hand is that there are no straight or flush draws. It usually means I will start playing hard at the turn. The effect of this is that people do not believe I have whatever the flop made. It made me a lot of money with trips especially when an A or some higher card came out on the turn.

Variance is a Bitch

Been up and down and I am up now. Remember my posts about 2 table-ing being confusing and dizzying. I am now up to 3-4 tables a night. It keeps the ease of the .50/1 tables down. I like it alot now. It also makes the BB per hour go way up. I played 6 tables this morning and doubled up on all of them. Sweet.

I have a question: Is it only me who always misses with AK, AQ, AJ? I ALWAYS raise these cards and almost never win with them. Is it just me? I usually know when to lay these down after the flop so I do not think they cost me THAT much. Once I get my bankroll up again I need to get Poker Tracker and see where I am bleeding BBs.

I should be back up to $400 in a few minutes. I am on my final table and once I get it up to $50 I will be hanging the cards up for the night. I spent a long time playing last night. I want to play some more 20/2 Limit tourneys. I have come to the conclusion that I like ring games MUCH better than NL. In NL your always asking yourself "Does he have something?". You also need to be a little lucky. I could have AA and call you with 23 spades and you could easily make your straight or flush knocking me out. I could have (and did have) trip JACKS with a KING kicker and was beaten by you guessed it TRIP JACKS with an ACE kicker. On the other side I went all in with A8 and was called by AK. I am dead, right? WRONG! The board made a boat and we tied. HA! I like the small safety net that a ring tourney provides. I can make mistakes. It is why the WSOP is just as easily won by a Moneymaker as a Lederer. Until the end of the tourney they do not end my chances. I could play 100% perfect game in NL and lose it all.

On the other side of the game NL is MUCH MUCH MUCH more of a rush. Your heart starts pumping as the cards are about to be revealed. Did you miss something? Does he have the 4 2's to beat your Aces of 2 boat? What is to happen? Exciting gambooler stuff!

Immm bacccck....

I hath returned. I am refreshed and ready to play. I am getting creamed though. Not from bad play. I get 3 Qs beat by a straight KJ when I have KQ. Nice. Winning pair beat by a 4 high club flush on the river. My AJ flush draw not making anything. Flush beat by house. Stuff like that. Every hand I fold seems to make good stuff. I dropped 9-7 and would have had a house. Flop was something like 977. I drop a straight draw. It was runner-runner. I would have made it. Oh well, sometimes poker is crewel. I went through $25 in ring play REALLY fast. I am slowing it down and doing a tourney to see if I can turn things around.

I was going to do reports about my vacation but nothing really exciting happened. I basically got to sit on the beach for a week and enjoy “some” relaxation. I had it all planned though:

“As I sit upon the beach the mists of Avalon part and reveal the City of Gold. Atlantic City.”

And

“My sunburn is really red like the Ace of Diamond on Empire”.

See you’re lucky I decided not to write up my trip. I never did make it to AC or any poker tourneys. I could see AC from the beach though. Only on clear days. It would have been fun but the babysitting never worked out. It was nice to get a break from everything I am involved in. I feel somewhat refreshed, although riding home with two kids is a HUGE ordeal! At least the older one had a DVD player to watch.

Last Post for a Week

My final post until I get back from NJ. I am looking forward to a week away from everything. It is too bad the weather forcast is so bad! At least through the weekend it is chance of thunderstorms.

I think the Blogger banner thing is really bad. The "Next Blog" options give you random Blogs which can be fun, however half of them are not english and you need to go through alot of boring blogs to find something interesting. I was surfing today and came across http://marriedsexaddict.blogspot.com/. It is wicked funny. It is just all about some guy having affairs and regreting it but still continuing on. At least I have some self control on that front. It is a good read though.

Online Poker Thoughts has shot up in value from .70 to over six bucks on www.blogshares.com. It is funny. I bought 2000 shares at .70 and then sold them all for 11K making a nice 9K profit I think. Sweet! I have the following stocks in my portfollio now:

Site              Shares  Buy Price  Value

============      ======  =========  ========

Dead Money          2      $151.56   $151.56

FeliciaLee        100      $  1.25  $  1.42

me                  ?      $   .70  $  6.70

Poker Grub        200      $   .40  $   .47

Sloe Times          6      $   .71  $237.42

I sold all my Online Poker Thoughts and cannot buy back in until 5:30 or something. If I miss then I am screwed. I want to buy back a decent amount of shares in that stock because I think it is going to keep going up in value!

I might go play some Poker in AC. I have been thinking this over and have not decided yet. I have talked to alot of people about the differences in live and online Poker. If I do get a chance to try it out I will post my opinions also. It seems as if you play alot tighter in live ring games because the game is alot slower, and it might take a while to make your money back if you lose a big hand. I will let you know.

Good luck all. I expect some winning going on out there while I am gone. Keep up the good posts. I will read them all when I get back.

*** HAHA! We decided to leave tomorrow. I played some .50/1 and a touch of 1/2. I cannot wait until I start playing 1/2 regular. I need to wait though. I had a good couple of sessions. Up about $20 for the night.

Exceeeelent

Had a nice night. Doubled up in .50/1 in about an hour. I then won 3rd in a 5/1 tourney and won a few more bucks at .50/1 to end up at $350. It was really fun because the table was friendly. I did not want to leave. We were all talking and joking and having a good time. I hardly ever find any friendly tables, but it is nice when I can. I am on the way back up. I am leaving for Ocean City tomorrow night so this might be the last post for a week. How will you all survive? heh. Go read Anisotropy, Sloe and Bad Blood while I am gone. They rock.

Discipline, Blog Links, and more…

I know I have spoken on this before but I really think discipline is more important to Poker than perfect play in the long run. If you have no discipline it is only a matter of time before variance will cause you to fail.

I lack a lot of discipline in a lot of areas. I sometimes can wait for the good cards, and other times I do not. I never wake up at the same time in a day. I never seem to be able to make the time to exercise. I do not force myself to stop on a bad day. I have not stuck to my two days a week Poker promise to the wife. There is a lot of lack of discipline. It is something I need to really work on.

On a happier front I got a huge spike in viewer-ship from http://www.evhead.com/. His blog is about .. well .. him. He mentions a lot of interesting blogs and had this to say about the site

“Ramblings about my Online Poker experience, including games I play in, and thoughts about strategy."

”Neat blog idear.”

I thank him for the plug and the spike in readership by about fifty! Best day so far for the blog. I did wonder where all these new people came from, and hopefully some can stay and enjoy my pain. I usually have about 40 unique readers a day which is interesting. I also think that because the Blogger software has that banner and the next Blog button I am getting alot more first time hits.

One upsides and downside of being a Poker Blogger is the recognition factor. People can really smoke you when they have read your Blog. It is funny. I do like the pseudo 5 minutes of fame, however when you make a bad move you really get held accountable. You take the good with the bad I guess.

Bad Night

It was a bad night. I blew over 100 bucks. Back down to $305 or so. Sucks. Oh well. Rebuilding again. I could not catch a card if my life depended on it. At least I did not go up levels. That is something.

Contrary to Mr. Sore Loser's (Anonymous) thinking it was just one of those nights. The kind of nights when your trips are beaten by higher trips. Every AK missed the flop. No matter what you play your on the losing end. AA Limps in to the left of me in a 5/1 tourney. I have JJ. Raise all in. I was getting slightly short stacked. Probably did not need to risk everything. Everyone folds. He calls of course. That is the end of the tourney for me. KK getting dominated by AA. Stuff like that. We have all had these kinds of nights. It is usually better just to go to bed and try again the enxt day.

I hate nites like last night. I think I showed a little more restraint than usual. Normally I am prone to try and win it all back with higher stakes and worse play. I did not fall into that. I however have a ways to go. I still have not bought into the whole "It is one long session" and need to. I hate to leave the tables down. I need to get over it. At least I have things to work on.

I jumped back on the horse this morning and played a little .50/1 with some succes. Ended up $10. At least it was a positive short session. I will be going on vacation Thursday night so tonight will be my last chance to play. It should be fun!

Corrections and Omissions

I used to be eighteen years old. It was a good time. I was young and stupid. I had the memory of an Elephant. In computer class I was the guy who was “Sorry teacher but the correct scale of a double is 1.81673+e15 not 1.81672+E15”. I have since become wise instead of smart. I do not know the precision of a double anymore but I know how to find out. I may not remember every fact, tidbit, and bit of data but I know how to negotiate for a good pay rate. I know my memory may not be as good at 35, but my use of that knowledge is much better.

Now to set the record straight I called a $3 raise with an 8-3 of diamonds. I then proceeded to make worse calls all the way down to the river. Once I hit the river I made the only good choice with my flush: Raising my remaining .40 cents.

I will tell you all right now though, I do not write down my poker hands. I tend to write this Blog freestyle, saying what is on my mind. The only accurate hands you will ever see here are my live tourney reports. If you are depending on me for great poker advice please read someone else. I bet many of the Bloggers out there can give you better advice. I have been doing this for two months.

If you want total accuracy please read the New York Times.. check that, “Free Kevin Mitnick!”.. umm.. the Boston Globe or some newspaper like that. I am sure they have many editors that check the facts out.

All I promise to provide here is entertainment and my personal view of how my Poker career is going. For the most part I write the Blog for internal reflection. I hope you find my trials and victories inspiring or amusing. I hope some of them get you to think about poker concepts. Perhaps a few might give you a nice push in the right direction. If you require 8 degree decimal precision the 18 year old version of me would be glad to help, but the current edition does not see the need. I hope you all enjoy what I write.

General Notes

The Blog Roll was getting too large to cycle through in a normal day. I have now split it between Blogs I read every day, and the ones that I get to on days like today. The entire company is on a picnic, and consultants are not invited. I still need to be here to support my application(s) and do some java thingies but I can Blog more. If your not in my reading list too bad. It does not mean your Blog is not worth reading, it either means you update too infrequently or you just got added and I have no opinion of your site yet.

On such site I have not read enough of yet is Poker on Film. The posts I have read so far are excellent and I enjoy them. It will probably make my list sometime soon. For some reason I like reading how people play hands. It is amusing and informative. Sometimes much more so than reading a book.

I am pissed at my best buddy. His home game was going to be my first live experience since I started playing poker alot. I have been waiting for over two months for this game and he schedules it while I am away. Jackass. Oh well. I guess my live game will have to wait. I still think I am a walking tell so maybe this is a good thing.

I am going to start trying more of the 2-5K NL and limit tourneys. You cannot beat an ROI of $6 to win $2500. If my rate remains consistant it would take me 2.5 months to win $2500. Hopefully my rate increases, but you get the point. It would be nice to take one of the decent sized tourneys for a few hundred bucks!

I am getting ready to go on vacation. I start this Thursday. I will be Pokerless and Computerless which is bad, but I will be soaking in the sun and getting a much deserved break from the grind of work and Poker.

Not to whine or anything but my typical Monday goes like this. Spend 8 hours at the day job. This can be fun or boring depending on how much work I can scare up and what type of work it is. I enjoy doing the Java stuff since it is sort of new. I tend to be a Microserf in some ways, my main languages being C# and Visual Basic, but I also love Tech and like to do new things. It causes me to be a Generalist which is good in a downturn when people want to hire someone who can do it all. Once I spend my eight here I go to my two day a week night job. The job was originally a start-up where I was anything from CTO to lowly grunt. I was working 80-100 per week for the promised payout. One note: If you are going to be in a startup get something in writing first. I was way burnt out. The only good part of the job is I was making consulting rates and getting full time benefits. The company then decides that it wants to average out salary and I need to take a 26K pay cut or leave by the end of the month. Now I had done a lot for this company but no way was I working 100 hours and taking a pay cut!! I was kind of worried about finding a job. I got lucky and got a job with the last place I contracted with in about a day. I then went to my boss and said “Cya”. No notice. Nothing. Bite me. It is amazing in life as in poker how the tone changes when the balance of power shifts. I was now the Big Stack. He backtracked on everything he said and tried to guilt me into believing he did not mean any of it. You have to understand, I spent a year of my time building every system they made and now I was going to disappear into the ether. I told them I would work nights to help them out for a while. So I was pulling down 4K a month from them, and making a good rate during the day. I have since scaled back to two nights a week and around 2K on a good month. Once I get home from the night job it is time for the Poker Job. I get to play Monday and Thursday nights. The wife is getting mad at me playing all the time. I am trying to scale back down to Monday and Thursday but it is hard. I really enjoy playing.

So there you have it. A typical day in my life. I am REALLY looking forward to resting a little. It will be hard to not play any poker for a week, but I can probably do it. I am vacationing like 20 minutes away from AC soooo... I will have to let you know.

Poker Gods Revenge

This is the Poker Gods Revenge post, or tribute to vanburenUCB. Now those of you who read my posts often will remember I was trying to get into a 25K tourney. I was dealt AA and got sucked out by a flush draw even though I bet HEAVY into the hand before he made the draw. I was kind of pissed about this. Ok fast forward to earlier this afternoon. I am watching the kids and playing some 25NL. I have mixed feelings about 25NL. It is probably because I am not very good at it. If I have patience I do well, if not I will call alot of potential bluff hands and lose. For me it is more a game of luck. VanburenUCB is to the right of me. I beleive he raised the pot slightly and I call him with J-10 soooted. I do tend to be a bit of a flush runner. The flop is all rags, BUT two diamonds. I check. VanburenUCB makes the correct move and bets $5. I think a while and call. I was up a little and wanted to see another card. Next card is a rag. VanburenUCB KNOWS I am on a flush draw and wants to knock me out. He bets $10 on the hand. Now I think really hard. I say to myself "This is a horrible call but I am going to make it.". Bam Baby! Diamond on the river and flush running river rat Sir beats .. you guessed it .. AA! Poker is weird. I was beat on AA with a Diamond flush draw a few days ago, and I beat someone with the exact same draw today. I appologized to VanburenUCB. Several times. At the time (I think) he was so mad at me he did not say a word. Either that or he was stunned by my bad play since he reads my blog. At least he was still up. Later in the night he caught me playing a little more solid on a .50/1 table and told me I owed him his own post. I agree.

NL Tourney Tweak

I have been reading again and decided to make an adjustment to my NL tourney game which seems to be a +EV proposition. I was reading the Texas Holdem book listed in my book section by Brad Daugherty and Tom McEnvoy, and read the part about short stack. I really like anything Tom McEnvoy writes. He has a simple way of explaining things that is good for starting out. I have usually tried to "Stay in the game" when I become short stack. The book suggests this is incorrect play. The adjustment it says I should make is if I am in critical stack position if I am going to bet, I should just go all in. Here is a portion of the chart:

Round       Move In Stack

1           50

2           100

3           150

4           250

5           500

6           750

I could go on. The only point I am making here is that when you have that few chips and the blinds are a decent size you MUST risk it all to have a chance to win it all. I played 5 tourneys today to test this. I placed in 4 of 5. Two of these I would have been blinded out or made little money if I did not go all in with a good yet move in stack left. I doubled and tripled up in a tourney this way from a $450 stack at 5th level with six people left! I ended up in second place. Not bad. Normally I would have made small bets and maybe made a little money. So all of NL tourney guys out there be prepared to GO .. ALL .. IN!

Fun and Work .. Not Good

I had one of the most amusing 10/1 NL sessions ever. If I was having a little less fun I would have come in 1st place. Basically I put someone out on the first hand. I was then joking and playing around with people on the table, and promptly lost some more, won alot more, and lost the rest. Oh well. It was only 10/1 NL.

The good thing about tonight is I capped $400 so I am in the green again. It feels good. I had two nice $25NL sessions and a $5/1 NL 1st Place win to do it. I also made $10 at a .50/1 table. I really want to get to $600 and start playing some $1/2. I am making sure I stay within my limits. I think that 300xBB is a good metric and I am not going to play higher tables until I have the money.

The Patriots are kicking the Eagles butts! Ya Baby! It is going to be a good year me thinks.

FFL

Poker Distraction started up a Blogger FFL. Fantasy Football League for those of you who do not know. I have never participated in one of these things, but figured it might be fun. I am already being called a liar and a windbag and the season has not even started yet:

"SirFWALGMan has decided to join the fray in the FFL. He says he's never played, but is a fan. He could be sandbagging... we'll see. Either way, I've added a link to his blog on the right, it's "Online Poker Thoughts", go check him out. He posts very frequently... and frequently posts long."

- Roberto Roundtree Rogelio
Poker Distractions

Now I might not care too much about Fantasy Leagues and all of that even if I love football. One think that is important to me though is winning! Yes! I think this has alot to do with why I like Poker. I think I have a good chance of being a consistently good and winning player. So I spent the end of today scouting out a team. From what I understand you need like 2 QB's, 3-4 Receivers, 3-4 Running Backs, a Tight End, a Kicker and two defenses. I do not know how many people you get to take overall maybe these are the limits? If Roberto is reading this maybe he can fill me in. I have chosen 9 defenses, 7 QBs, 15 RBs, 8 TEs, 14 WRs, and 6 Kickers that I like so far and ranked them in order. Hopefully this is enough of a pool to make a team from? If I need some more let me know.

The only other useful information I have figured out so far is that you should pick your running backs early in the draft. You MUST have two good RBs to succeed. I will continue my research. I probably will not do a full post again because this IS a Poker Blog, but you might get it slipped in every once in a while especially if I am crushing my opponents! Die Pagan Scum!

I like my choices so far and hope that I can get one of the choices I have made. It is the only one I really want. I am not going to say who it is, but I am going to get it as quickly as possible without jeopardizing my team. Wish the Boston Bullets luck this year! See I tied Poker into this post after all.

Road to 25K

Possitive affirmations as Sloe would say. I started warming up for the NL tourney to get into the 25K NL tourney by playing some $25NL. I was up to $70 at one point, and ended at $50. I had 99 and was raised $43 on a $6 raise I did. The guy has A4 offsuit, but I was not going to go away from my warmup table a loser for any reason. A $25 profit on the night is decent at my bankroll level. The table was incredable passive. I would try to bet .50 on my straight draws and everyone would fold. Thank God initially there was a maniac ATM machine who called me all in when I had a REALLY high flush. Not the ace, but it was good enough.

Now on to the NL tourney:

Round 1: 193 entrants. $965 prize pool. 8.7 entries into the 25K NL tourney on Sunday. If I win that one I am cashing out 15K. 10K for the wife to buy furniture (this will get her to stop nagging), 5K for savings, the other 10K is my working bankroll. What are my chances of winning? As good as anyone else I would say. Our table starts with 9 players. I am taking it easy. Getting crap cards also. The first
person has already gone out on our table. I like NL! I just bet $60 to try and steal a pot. Everyone stayed in. This is going to be a good table if I can keep my excitement down. Down to 192 players now. Sweet. Pair of 4's for me the SB. Nothing on the flop. I lay it down. Good thing because the J's just trippled up. Not to mention the flush on the river. The eight high flush takes it. I LOVE this table. K9 on the button. Three hearts on the flop. Ouch. Folding. Folding to a $125 bet. Too early. Too much. It is down to 186 left. I am slightly below average stack. Being a little more aggresive. Probably want to take it easier. The top 11 pay off, with the top 8 getting the entry into the Sunday Tourney.

Level 2: Start with $865. No luck so far. Not a big deal though. I will make my moves when it is time. I am used to starting with $800 usually, so the extra is like winning a hand. Called $60 with KJ and the flop is 234 garbage that makes A6 a straight. I am out. AA. Pocket Pair. A jackass calling J7d to the river when I raised him $800 before the river. Man I am pissed.

So I play 2 $25 NL's and 1 10/1 NL after I get these lousy cards. My luck does not improve. I dropped $52 in a short period of time. Really not good. My stack which was doing well from my NL limit is back to $316. I then go on the most incredable run of cards I have ever had. I was double tabling and ran my $25 in .50/1 up to $65, and a $25 NL up to $42. Sweeeet. The .50/1 was the hot table. In less than 1/2 hour I made the 40BB or so. I was dealh 6 flushes draws in a row and made 5 and won the last on a pair made on the river. This is how good this table was. I swear I won 10 hands in a row. It was scary. It is now 12AM so I am trying to leave the table. I just cannot lose so I do not want to leave. I am up to $70.75 since I started typing this. I leave when I lose enough to go under $70. Might get blinded out now! 9-5o on the BB. Folding to a raise. The SB will knock me out next hand unless I win it. 5-9o now. Heh. Scary! And Sir is out with $69.75. Hold on! I am four to a straight! Damn. Would have missed it. heh. Sir is going to sleep.

Poker Gods Missed Me

I took a night off. It is for the better. Wife is really getting mad at my playing. Sometimes if I am having a losing night I try and stay up until I get even or make a little. I need to stop doing that and just call it a night.

The Poker Gods must have missed me because I have played all of 3 minutes this morning and am up $10 at this point playing .50/1. Not bad. Wish I could make that BB per hour all the time!

One of my readers had a decent idea (Piper_bt). He says and I quote "It would be nice to know some of the Bloggers names on different sites". If anyone wants to send there site names I will either create a new section here to keep track or post them next to your Blog name or something. It is kind of fun to get someone saying "Hey, are you SirFWALGMan from the Blog?"

Tonight is my official Poker night. I have agreed with the Wife to limit myself to Monday and Thursdays and sometimes on the weekend. I am going to play a little NL at 9ish, and then enter the Sunday Night NL Poker Qualifier for one dollar. If I win that I get to try the 25K Sunday Night NL game. It starts a 9:00 on Empire. Anyone who wants to harass me come on down.

One Dollar Entry for $5000 Friday Night

Level 1-3: Kept an even keel. Was up $500 on AA, and a flush caught on the river. I am slightly over average.

Level 4: Got some good cards. Trips. I had Q high and A high, and got called to the river with both. I even had the guys jump in to see my cards. I am now up to $4500.

Level 5: Switched tables. Got KK and got trips on it. Bet it up. Got 1 caller. Ended at $4800. Now back down to $4400 on 55, and some other misses. Blinds are 75/150. Average stack is $2294. High is 8K! 119 left. Top ten get the qualifier and 11-13 get like $10.

Level 6: Blinds are 150/300. No action yet. Playing solid and getting enough cards to stay near the middle of the pack. Folded K2s to a raise. Fours spades on the flop. Red. Red .. and .. Red. Saved alot of money. Can not beleive Q-10 is raising, but maybe I am too passive? 101 left. 12:26AM. The time sucks since I have been up 3 nights in a row to 3AM and worked 19 hours yesterday. Folded A-8. Not interested in going in on anything less than 20 in blackjack right this minute. That might change in a little bit. Only 99 left. A milestone? Have not played a hand this round. Sweet. Two large stacks are beating each other up! One stack just went up to 11K!
Get me off this table!!!! KJ beat K6 and I folded K7. Ouch. I told you all, 20 or above in BJ. Blinded down to $4110. Average stack is 3K. I am still in the right area for now. Only 91 left. People are falling like flies. Q-10 in the BB. Folded to me. Only win this round so far.

Level 7: Bet KQ up. AA got a pair of 8's on the board and I am dead. Down to 2K.
Aggresion is not always good? Bah! I should have won that!!!! GRRRR!!! I should have slowed down when the 8's showed up too. I did slow down. But it was 2 BB to the river.

AQ suited. Lets see if this does anything besides kick me out of the tourney. Ok. Won $600 on that one. $2385. That last hand pissed me off, but I am not on tilt yet. heh. Deep breaths. I notice sometimes when I have the nuts I forget to see what is going on around me. I need to be more careful before I raise someone. I knew he had Pocket Rockets and I barely even looked to see the 8's until the river. Then I am like... whoooahhhh what am I doing!

"The Hammer" should I play it. Probably. But I cannot afford the fighters. Crappy flop for 27. What a surprise. Only seventy five people left out of the original 270.

Q7 suited. Was going to play but got raised. Flop sucked for it anyway. I have suited connectors. I have a good feeling about these. 7 and 8 of spades. I had four to a straight but nothing happened. I probably could have stolen it. I just got four flush draw cards in a row. Passed on all of them. Not chasing it right now.

Raise A-9. Crappy flop. I have to fold. Win a small pot with K9 suited. Take someone out. Down to $1400 on a straight draw. It was my blind so no choice. I think I am in trouble. I might be able to get back in it with a good hand. I need to figure out what to do. There are 65 people left and I need to make some money with 200/400 blinds. Damn 8's!!!

My A8 buddy just lost a huge pot. Ha! Does not mean anything if I do not get some chips and stay in longer than him.

Level 8: 300 and 600!!! Damn! I am out in like a few rounds if I do not get cards.
Waiting for a few good cards and I am going to play them and hope for the best. The blind is almost to me. I feel its weight. K4 clubs. Raised. I have a caller! Out of the tourney. I am 60th place and pissed off. Beat by AJ. Damn! Nobody made a single card.

*** UPDATE: Finally found someone on Empire who reads me. Shout out to lich52! He played a decent game of 25NL. Our table had several maniacs to start. I got my stack up to $50 with him there. After taking a big pot from the Maniac, I told him the story about the guy on tilt who I baited into calling me by raising exactly what he had. A couple hands later I get trip Ks and bet 7.01 which is everything he had left. He pauses. Thinks and then calls me. I think he had the J. Another J came on the river giving me the boat just to rub it in.

TILT

No No No it is not me this time my friends. Someone else. I want to show you how evil I really am. I am playing $25NL. The guy to my left has kicked my ass a little, I am down from $50 to $37. I am not too happy with him. Deep breath. Wait for my revenge. He goes all in with AQs. He did not have to do this. The pot was $16 and he had a chance to steal it. Instead one person calls him with K9 and makes KK99. He was extremely pissed. So what does he do besides whine. He goes all in again the very next hand with A10o or something. Good hand yeah. Not as good as 99 when nothing hits though. So 99 brings down a huge pot, and the former $90 big stack is now down to $14. Here is my part. Bahhahahaha! I call a normal .50 bet with 9/5. Actually I think I was the BB. The flop is 9-J-5. Now I know this guy could have JJ but I do not think so. So I decide to tweak him and bet exactly what he has left. I mean I waited .. said to myself "If I bet his exact amount the guy to my right will fold, and he will call me because he is on TIIIIILLLLT!! If anyone recognizes the signs it is me. He played into my hands. Sir is the spider. Making his kill. It makes up for me getting shanked by 2-6 when the flop was 266 then A then J. I went all in like a rube. Idiot! Freaking two pair! Moron! Oh well. I am back to a good number. I am a little over $300 right now. Hope to make it to $325 or so tonight. We will see.

Slow playing KK right now. Raised to $3. Looks good. Flop is A34. Have to fold to a $5 raise. Damn! Oh well. I am hanging in there.

One question to you all. Do you think slow playing monster hands is a good idea? I never bet up my AA, KK, QQ, sometimes maybe QQ or JJ. Never AK suited, AQ suited. I know I can steal $2 pots, but when my flops make it I can be devistating in NL. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

UPDATE: AA played slow. Flops A-3-5. Two aces bets $4. I call. A 5 on the turn to make my boat. He bets $9. I raise. He calls. Now he is suspicious. Damn! I get two bucks out of him at the end just because of the size of the pot. Nice.

Got sucked out for $6. Was going for Ace High Club Flush!!! Missed it. Oh well.
Still at $68. Just waiting for my 1$ hold em entry into the $5000 friday night tourney. I really would like to be in that!

NL is my Friend Again

The Night started dismal. I was playing .50/1 ring. My A-10 trumped by AK, trips by trips with a higher kicker. I could not make a flush if my life depended on it. I folded a $30 pot. This was a BIG mistake. I had a trip tens. It would have cost me $3 to see it to the end. There was a straight and a flush draw on the board and people were going after me like crazy. In hindsite this was a bad fold, not because I would have won, but because the amount I would have to put in was MUCH less than what was in the pot.

I then decide to try a 10/1 Tourney. I play really careful until five are left and then I make two mistakes. One was calling a big bet pre-flop with a small pair. I told myself not to call any raises and then clicked the button anyway. Had to fold on the flop. The second mistake was when the board flopped QQ6. I had the 6, but someone else had the Q. Bad move on my part calling them. Damn!

So then I played some $25 NL. The deck slapped me in the face. I COULD not miss. 66 became 666. Boats. Flushes. Everything was running for me. One hand I remember and feel sort of bad about. KQ Spades. Flop is A-10-3 spade. One guy bets out three bucks. I type "No way you have it!". I call. Next card is a 6 diamond. He bets out $10, I raise him another $5. He calls. Last card is a 4 of spades. He bets $5 I raise $19, he has the smarts to fold. I felt bad for taunting him, but I guess it worked.

Overall good night. I had a few losing sessions, so I am back under $300 to $295 after tonights wins. Overall I think I am playing well. Not going over my head. Steadily growing my stash. If I have some more good NL sessions I will be up to 1K in no time. Still want to do well in my .50/1 and tourney. I want to try some multi table tourneys. Empire does not have alot to choose from though. The $5/1 is never full when I look.. and the rest are entries to other contests. These are good, but I have to win two tourneys to get anything I think. I may try one of the big ones just for the hell of it. Would be nice to win 50K! heh.

Crazy Ass NL Table

I was on the craziest most intense Gamboolerz table for three hours last night. It was a hell of a ride. Here are some of the highlights.

Big stack likes to bully people around. He had like $180 and liked to go all in. The flop is AAA and I have KK. I slow played it. I know this is probably stupid, but I have come to the conclusion it is better to trap someone with the absolute nuts, then scare them off with something less. Anyway, the pot was a decent size and he goes all in with Q high. I mean he put his $180 into the middle. I called him with my $40 because I did not believe him and I got lucky and won a huge pot.

He was in another one where he puts his whole pot in against $60. Two other people call. I fold. Freaking $180 pot. The big stack has something like AAKK. The first called had a pair of threes. Not sure what the second guy had. Guess what comes on the turn and river? 33. Heh! He said "I just had a feeling" .. So I stand up for him and say "Well, he had pot odds, he only needs to make his trips one out of 120 times and he is ahead.". Ok. So my math is a bit off but it was like that all night. I ended up about $50 for the night. The people at the table were really nice. We even would warn each other not to go in sometimes when we had the absolute nuts. Not all the time, but on occasion.

I am still up in the air on what I think about NL. I think treating it like a tourney, and only playing one per session is a good idea. I think playing it like a tourney, and waiting for the NUTS is the best strategy. Peeking at pots when it is cheap works too. I let someone limp in for .50, and the flop is 442, and he has 24! Lucky I only lost about five bucks on that one. I vary my strategy, in that sometimes with some people you just have to call without having the absolute NUTS or else they will walk all over you all night long. Other times it is never right to call. It seems like NL is all a game of waiting and good timing and luck. You can get the NUTS and only win a buck, or you can have a pair of twos and win a nice pot. It is definatly a RUSH!!

I am thinking I need to get on Party instead of Empire. I see all of the Bloggers play together on Part and frankly I am jealous. Ok, I am probably not going to play in most of there games.. maybe some of the multi's or something.. but I never get to play against anyone I know!! Wahh Wahh Wahh!

State of Mind

I want to talk about state of mind a little in the context of Poker. Normally when I play Poker I start out very calm. I might be a little excited to play. Now excitement can be your worst enemy. Have you every felt the little anxious jump? Maybe your leg is shaking a little. Your a bit excite or nervous or jumpy. I think a lot of times this little feeling can spell your doom. It is sometimes a tell of wanting to make things happen. Poker seems very much a game of calm. I suppose this is why many people mention zen and meditation when talking about Poker. Basically I think you need to find your center and wait for the cosmos to give you a turn. Forcing things to happen will cost you. So I am going to take a few breaths and jump back into a nice NL table. I am up like 8 bucks and am waiting for my cards.

Just as a side note: It really sucks when your K high flush gets beaten by A, much better the other way around. Earlier today this happened. I do not think you fold a K high flush in NL, but it still sucks. I was on a table. I got the K high. Someone bets 8 bucks into me, I raise another 8, they go all in, and that's the end of me. Damn! I hate it when the chips are supposed to slide to you and they somehow go the other way, that is disconcerting.

Finally Made it

I made it up over $300. I am now standing at $302. I did this by solid .50/1 play and the deck smacking me in the face until I cried. It started off badly. The cards were cold. The good cards never made there potential.. AK beaten by 6's. Some bad play on my part being too commited to a few draws when the pot odds were not there. I was down to $4 of my original $25 buy in. I got a few hands to hold up and bring me up to a safe .50/1 level of like $10. Finally I got 5 hands in a row that were something like 2 x 4 of a kind, Flush, and two pair. Ended up at $37. The four of a kind flopped Q88 and I had the Hilton sisters. I just bet out instead of playing sneaky guy. I got called by two. Next card was a Q to make my 4 of a kind. Possible flush. I bet again. Last card is a K. I check. Get a better. 3rd guy calls. I raise. I get both of them to donate an extra two bucks! Yeehaww!

It has been nice to be playing solid poker and getting the cards. I have had 1 losing session in the last 10 .50/1. Probably because the competition sucks. I also had a losing session playing multi table. Now any of you who have been reading this Blog know multi table usually makes me ill. Dizzy. stressed. bad. I was able to play this time without feeling any of this. I lost, so I was probably not playing as well as I do when single table, but it is a step in the right direction.

Just when i started hating NL

Ok. First of if you have not done so already, go to the Cards Speak and read the write up on NL. It is very good. It had a few ideas I had not seen. It is very well written unlike my drivel.

If you remember I was trying to get to $200 in my bankroll for this weekend. I am now almost at $300 and probably have a chance to make that. I played two excellend NL tables. One I was up to $61 at and then I switched tables and brought this one up to 116. Nice job for NL. I had people calling my flushes with nada. I got lucky and had a K high flush call his whole stack into my A high flush! Bahhhhahahaha! I just could not do wrong. One thing I would like to say about NL when you get a stack over $100 in a $25 NL. You can really bully people around. You can make $4 bets on Q high nothing and win. Just choose your places to do this, bet consistantly, and make them buy it. You can get alot of blinds this way if you want. Not sure how this fits in with playing the premium cards only, but being a bully is fun.

Back to trying to destroy my bankroll

Well I did not do any damage, but I did play higher stakes than I should have. Tried a little 2/4 last night. I definatly do not have 300BB. I actually really should not be playing .50/1 by those definitions but thats all there is. One of these days I will get a little self control.

It was a decent night. I placed 3rd and 6th in tourneys. I was down in .50/1. I played a little NL. I am not patient enough for that game. It is losing it's allure. I killed the 2/4 game I was in. Not alot of good hands, but good callers. Ended up $76 or so. So my roll is now slightly over 200. Sweet.

Almost forgot. I only had one good hand in my 6th place tourney finish. It was a tight table. One of my early hands, I am the BB and limp in with K8. The flop is KKK. I checked into $200 of bets. The next round was another $200. They checked around to me and I bet $15. I probably should have bet like $100 since the pot was large.. maybe $50. I did not want people to fold. Oh well. That was the only playable hand. I went out on Q8, flop Q85. Turn 6. River K. Beat by a straight.

Interesting Statistics and other mundane things

The Blog is healthy and apparently alot of people view it. Not sure why. I find it pleasing on some level though. Here are some statistics:

.78 cents a share valuation on Blogshares.com.

International appeal with 53 US hits, 9 Canadian, 1 Sweden (HDouble?),
and 1 Australian.

Average browser resolution is 1024x768. Good screens to read the Blog on.

Unique visitors over all time is 260. I get about 5-10 unique visitors per day. I also average around 40 repeat visitors per day. This was a very surprising stat since I have only every heard from like 5 of you.

For whatever reason peak usage seems to be on Thursdays. Need something to get you guys over the hump?

I find these stats totally meaningless but good for the ego.

I wonder if any of you like the live hand-by-hand play reports I do every once in a while when the mood strikes me. I prefer to be more profound if I can, but the play-by-play I think gives you a look into my thought process in hand selection and game play.

One other thing I wonder is if I play aggressively enough. I am always the guy at the table with the K on a 55K flop that is thinking: Does he have the other 5? He must? I mean he is calling me right? He is not chasing an Ace? Nahh.. he must have the 5! Aggresion is funny. I used to be VERY passive. Never raising. Always calling. I then started playing more aggresivly on the advice of a Blogger. I forget who now, read my Archives. I think it is called something like "I like Agggresion". My idea of agression now is raising pre-flop with a good hand. Betting down to the river. I still do not raise alot. I will rarely every get it up to 4BB even if the other guy lets me. So I guess I am agressive for me, but maybe still not there. If any other Bloggers want something to write about I would like to hear there idea's on how to play aggresively. It is a facinating subject.

Night Action

I might be playing a little less. The wife is getting on my case. We will see. She says I play too much poker. I think she really does not like to see me happy. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

Anyway.. started a 10/1 tourney nicely tonight. I had AA. Round one. I bet 4BB or $60. Most people fold. I get a nice flop. 10-9-4 rainbow or something. So I try and push the guy next to me out by betting $100. He calls. Q on the turn. Now I am sorta worried on the straight. So I bet $250. Calls. Ends up with a 2 at the river. I put him all in with $450. He calls me!!! He must have put me on AK. He flips 10-J and loses. Now was I too agressive? Probably. But he never raised me. I guess he felt pot committed and thought the 2nd high pair would be a winner? Go figure. So I have doubled up to $1600 in the first round. Going to try and cruise to the money. Make more moves with good cards or at the 4th level.

Got an A8 diamonds. It was raised to me. I call. Flop is a scary 10-10-8. I check. Everyone checks. Next card is a 9d. I check. Second guy checks. Agressive guy bets $175. I call. Second Guy Checks. Last card is a 3s. Now I would have liked a diamond. I am scared. Agressive guy checks. I check. I win with 10's and 8's against AQ. Up to 2K. No need for me to make any moves until the end now.

Ended up in 3rd place. Called KQ against A6 and could not make a card. Called A8 against a pair of 3's and could not get a card then either. Man!

Playing some .50/1 now. May break $150 tonight! May not. We shall see. Good signs. First hand everyone folds to me. I win .75 with 10-5o. I guess I want a table that calls more though. Six people in the next one. We will see.

Lost a few bucks on a flush draw that never made it. Probably a bad bet because of there being only 2 people in. Need to think before I act.

K2s gets 3 callers. Diamond flop. Nobody stays in. This is a WEAK table I think. I think I need to be more aggresive against this table.

Played AQ aggresive. Someone flops a KK and I never improve. Oh well. Cost me $4. Should have known this tight ass had something.

Table has changed over. Hope it is better for me. $8.50 called to the river and everyone folds. I think the table is better. Got screwed on 2 Aces by 3 4's. He played with 4-5 offsuit. This table is getting better.

AJ stood up for a $4 pot. Ace High. Bet a pair of 10's to see what if someone had the Aces. Got called and folded. Played 10-9 for a quarter. Do not really like straight draws for some reason. What do other people think? Anyway, flopped 10-9. Couple of 7;s showed up, but played it anyways. Won a nice sized pot. Up to $26.25.

Played a flush draw. Then became a straight draw. Had pot odds. Missed it. Cost me a few bucks. Got AK now. Raised. Now I have to fold it. Flush flop, as well as some betting on the turn. Nothing paired up. Good fold I think. $22.25. Up and Down. Round and Round. Family guy is making fun of Mr. Peabody. Like it.

This table is definately much better. Just not getting the cards. Yet. Folded 4-2 rag. Nothing to play. 5-2. What a rag! I am the BB. Watch me flop 552. Oops, not getting the chance. It was raised. 8-10-J anyways.

Soooted connectors. 6-7. Nada on the flop. Cya. $21.25.

A6 sooted. I like this one. I feel good about it. 4 to the flush. Have Aces. Aces and Q's. Lost to AK!!! Screw me! $18.25. Aces and Queens with a K kicker. Where is my 4th club damn it! I hate kickers.

8-J diamonds. Let's see what happens here. Flopped trips. I bet them. Is this a mistake? Do I milk people more? I got one guy to the river. Hmm.. Maybe I did misplay this hand. $24.50 now. Yo-Yo night for me so far.

9-3 suited. Have 5 callers. 4 to the diamonds. I am betting it out. Lost. $22.50.

A-10 suited. Is this a raising hand? Lost this one too. Almost made a straight. $21.25.

Pair of 6's.. Set? Nahhhh.. Folding out. 6's and 2's on the board. Someone has a 2! Yup. A-2 wins it. Down to $21.

Someone takes a monster pot with 77 when it flops 227. AK finally holds up for $8. Up to $27.25. It is nice to be on the upswing for the moment. I called the raise to my AK. Should I have re-raised? I was comfortable with calling and then betting out when I made the pair of aces.

Folded A-10 suited when the board is 55J. Trips takes it. 6-7 suited. 4 to a flush and straight. Missed both of course. $24.75. Call .50 on an A-7. Like a bigger kicker if possible. Folded it. $23.75. yuk yuk yuk.

A3 checked into as the BB. Folded on flop. Would have gotten a straight to the 6. Winning hand. But I do not lie runner-runner straights. AK again. Raising it. K on the flop. One bet. I raised it. What the heck! I have the K with the kicker. I bet it to the river. I win! What a surprise. $29.25. Finally a noticable amout ahead. Ok. it is only $4 but I like it. Moved a tad over the $150 mark. See if I can keep it. Futurama has a spoof of Star Trek Vulcan Love episode.

K2 suited. Flop is a rainbow rag. Not going any further with this hand. $28.25.

Q2 played with a 1$ raise before it got to me. Made the flush and the ten bucks. $38.75!
Had trip 2's if I did not fold. Damn! Oh well. Aqua Teen Hunger Force is going off the air. I like that show. I used to hate it.

AA -- Raising it up! I got table moxy now so I am getting people to fold. AA wins $7. I am up to $45.75. Things are on a roll now baby! Rapid Angle always calls me to the river. He is great. If you see him on Empire let me know. Played 4-10s. Beat by the kicker. Tried to fake the flush when the spade came. Nobody bought it. This is good for me. I am going to make money at this table. My 99 just boated up. I paused. Then bet. One guy was too smart, the other one raised me, I raised him and walla $50. I am going to sleep in 12 minutes. I am going to play it slow until then. Fight to the death on futurerama. Fry can either die or get to make love to a crab lady. Ouch.

Gonna play a Q9. I do not usually play this. Maybe I should? Folded to a possible flush. $49.25. Sigh. Q7 suited. I love the flush draws. Called a raise. A and some rags. Good time to fold. $48.25. So much for low aggression. Have the low end of QJ10K flop. Damn. Someone MUST have an Ace. I fold. Someone does. $46. J-10. Playing alot of hands for low aggression. Two pair loses to a straight. Had 4 to a flush on that too. Screw me! Down to $43. I should bail. I have 4 minutes to lose some more though. Some people do not realise you should fold AQ when it makes nothing. Oh well. It cost that guy 5 bucks to see he lost to someones jacks. 94 sooted. I know I suck. I had to fold them when the wrong suit rears its ugly head. All diamonds. Pair of sixes again. This could be a good last hand. cmon. Let me check. Damn! Have to fold. $42. Did not make it anyway. KK wins it. Ok last hand. Bad hand. 24 diamonds. Ok. Leaving with $40. Up $15 for the session and a $9 win from 10/1 tourney. $161.50 total. Not too bad. Almost back up to my buyin.

BTW - I went to Blogshares and now lay claim to my blog!

Doom III

WARNING: This is an attempt to recreate a story that the Blogger ate. The original was excellent and I am kicking myself for closing the Word Document before seeing if it was online. The one thing I hate about rewriting is the rewrite is never as good as the old one in your mind. NEVER! Anyway enjoy the second rate version. I finally got it back to at least a readable form.

DISCLAIMER: All of you that think I am the cool guy, with the rock hard abs and women on each arm must not read any further. In reality I am the computer nerd stuck in his basement with no lights on until 3AM playing .. err .. Poker. I know this will come to a shock to all of my female readers and you probably will never read my Blog again but I am prepared to suffer for my art.

I was over at Bad Bloods site reading about the much anticipated release of Doom III. Blood mentions playing the previous versions of Doom and Doom II. I can relate. I have spent many sleepless nights in loving arms of a computer game. He neglects to mention the granddaddy of them all: Castle Wolfenstein, although I can see him playing that also. All of this brought back a funny Doom related story that I am inspired to share with you all for some reason.

My best friend John was trying to start a new business. What he was doing I do not know. Being a good friend though I offer to let him crash at my place rent-free for a few months until the business takes off. He ended up spending more time at the pool than the job. I do not want to give the impression that John is a deadbeat because he is not. One tip for people wanting to start a business: Summertime is not the right time, especially when there is a nice young talkative blonde lifeguard named Julie. Does anyone know the percentage of businesses that fail due to flirtation?

I met John on a BBS system. For those of you youngins out there, the BBS was the modem predecessor to the Internet. It had it all: message boards, chat, porn, all the good things of today’s Internet except at 1200bps. One night around 11PM we decide to fireup a multi-player session of Doom. Our systems were hooked together through a NULL modem cable and some wire. Really high tech stuff.

For those of you who have never played Doom it is a very loud game. There are missile launchers, gattlin guns, and all kinds of monster noises. Do not even get me started with the BFG. It stands for “Big Freaking Gun” and it lived up to its name. If you heard the whirring sound of it warming up you were already dead. It also probably did not help that my speakers were on the floor.

So we are playing for a few hours, having a great time, speakers blaring, when I hear a WHAM! Of course I thought this must have come from the game and did not stop for a single beat. BANG! BANG! BANG! Ok. It was not the game. Must have been the door. Who the hell is knocking at my door and disturbing my game? How inconsiderate! I hide my guy in some remote part of the world to avoid being killed and go answer the door.

At the door is every young twenty-something’s fantasy come true. There is a real cute looking blonde girl standing there. She is wearing a skimpy nightshirt looking very fine! Her pert .. little .. nipples .. but I digress. Now, if you read paragraph one of this post, you have probably figured out by now that I am not going to get any. Well, I did get something, an ear full of curses and things better left unwritten. Apparently she had work in the morning and I was keeping her up. Cmon lady, it is only 3AM! Needless to say the game ended quickly.

The next morning she tried to get her revenge. She came upstairs at 6AM and starts pounding on the door. Now little did she know she was messing with a guy who fell out of a bunk bed at age eight, woke up briefly, and went back to sleep. I am literally the sleeping dead. John on the other hand does not have my great ability. He got up and answered the door. She said something to the effect of “How do you like that” and left. Bitch? Or am I being sensitive?

So that is my Doom contribution. It just so happens that my name on the site comes from a grandchild of Doom called Quake, or more accurately “Team Fortress”. I will leave this for another day though.

Excellent Cards

Tonight has been fun. I was going to play a 5/1 SNG. All the tables were full, so I did a 10/1. I find the competition to be basically the same from 5/1 through 20/2 so far. Possibly a few less maniacs. You usually do not see 4 people out in round one at 20/2.

I bought the NL Holdem book (listed at the bottom) and have been trying to improve my game. Basically he says “Before level 4 only go in on ultra-premium hands”. I.E. JJ or better. AJ or higher. Nothing with any loss potential.

So I put it on deal me away and prepare to wait until level 4. The game would not let me wait. I got like 3-4 AK, AJ, Hiltons, etc.. before level 4. My Hiltons held up against AK. My AJ’s flopped good stuff, or my table image was good enough that I caused many people to fold with my 4BB raises with good hands. So around level 4 I am middle of the pack. The competition is especially good and tight up to this point. I get crappy cards from then on in. Only like two hands worth calling. One call I made was KQ against 66, and lost. I folded K10 and would have won that one.

As the blinds got more expensive the maniacs came out of the woodworks and gave me 2nd place. I basically folded to 2nd place. It was a nice win.

I am now in a .50/1 tourney. First hand Aks. Get’s raised around. Flop is A-rag-rag. I get two callers. Turn is a rag. Last card is a K. Had both callers to the river. Made $10 on my first hand. I then got Aks a little later. By now any raise I have people fold. So I am hovering around $33 right now. Folded Q5s, the turn would have tripled my 5’s. Oh well. It was a good fold if you ask me.

I am at a nice table. They let me check a straight draw to the river. Sweet. Did not make it, but did not cost me either. Bet I would have gotten 6 callers if I bet at the end with that straight. At $32.75 now. Just waiting for my next hand. Folding a lot.

Had 99. Raised coming in. Knocked a few people out. Three left. 8-10-Q flop. Not so good. Checked around. Three on the turn. Bet by two. I call. I do not have pot odds, but wanted to see the last card. Jack-Baby! Oh yeah straight! No flushes. Possible higher straight. I check knowing the twos is going to bet. I raise. Both people call me. Straight beats two pair. It has been a good night. $40.25 right now with KQ. Caught a straight on the river. So did my partner. We raised it to 4 bets. Got one sucker in with us and went up to 43.50. Lost with 10-J suited. Down to $43. I am going to play a few more hands. Stop if I fall to $40, or get a nice few hands to push me up to $50+.
AQ gets me a win. Sweet. I cannot tell you how many times I have lost with this. Up to $45.25. Like it. It is soooooo nice to have a really winning night. One that I do not screw up with bad play, higher pots, or some other stupid idea. I like the idea of playing a 5/1, and $25 on .50/1 every night. If I am doing really well, maybe do another 5/1 tourney or something. I think if I stick to this plan I will steadily grow my bankroll again. I may stay at .50/1 forever though. I like these people! Only $50 left to go until I am back up to my re-buy level. Hope to hit $500 this month maybe. Not going to push anything this time though.

Bluffed someone off of a hand. I had Q-10. Flop was 77K. I wait a little. Then check. A K shows. I Check again. He bets. I call. A 5 comes up. I decide to screw with him and bet a buck. He folds like a blanket on laundry day. Up to $43 (or down if you read the prior paragraph). Since he bet out I put him on a small pair. Smaller then 5's it seems.

A-9 puts me back up to $44.25. 66. Cmon Set! Satans helpers? Missed the set. Oh well. J-10 off suit. Nada. Rags. Rags. Rags. 9-3 .. Sooted! Cmon, It is ok to play. 744. Ok. I am not that stupid. Besides, only one heart. I like 4 hearts in my flush draws. Also like alot of callers. 10-2 diamonds. I told you I like flush draws. Raised. I call. Had to fold on the flop. Hilton Sisters! Go Girlfriends! Slow betting. Nobody has anything? Raised the bitches. Everyone folds out. Oh well. $1.75. Back down to $41.25. Getting blinded down a little. One nice win and I think I call it a night. Table seems even tighter than when I started. Only two in on the flop. K8. Getting impatient. Not a horrible hand. Like a better kicker however. Flop is 4-5-8. Turns into a straight on the board to give me a tie. 77 does not do anything. 55 on the next hand. Presto! Lets have some magic. Crap. 10-10. A queen appears. The other guy has the Q. I am down to $37. Up $12 for the session. Not too bad. So net-net up $37 for the night. I will take that.

Another Day Another Post

I feel like I have been droning on about the grind every day. Probably gets fairly boring to read. It is kind of boring to me. Ahh how I wish I had that 1K back.. oh well.. I will try and post some nice content for all my loyal readers. Althought the RSF was kind of cool I had never seen one on Empire to that point.

Grinding away last night. It was a weird night. A flying squirrel gets into our house when I am playing some .50/1 or NL. This is around 1AM. So I put the game on pause, and go and chase this little rodent around my son’s room for an hour. I finally figure out I am never going to catch the bastard, and my juicy .50/1 table is waiting for me. So I call the local Animal Control Officer. Apparently he is on vacation but they would be more then willing to recommend a service. It ends up costing me $350 to get someone to come and catch this guy. Unfortunately he cannot find the tricky flying rat. So I go back and hit the tables for a little more. Actually ended up being a good night. I had some good games on .50/1. The night started really badly. I just could not put two cards together. I did get 3rd in a 5/1 tourney. Promptly went out on the next hand after. I forget what I had. It was a decent hand to go all in on, but I missed it. I played some 25NL and broke even in that for the night. Played a 20/2 tourney. Came in 4th. The next hand after that the 3rd place guy goes all in and loses. I may just stick to 5/1 tourneys and .50/1 for a while. I had a fantastic night in .50/1. I doubled up my first stake and won 15$ on my second, and 3$ on my third. I had one bust out because everything I got never hit anything. I had AK and the flop is some 2,4,9 rags and never got better. I had a flush beaten by a higher flush when the final card was the 4th spade. The rest was rags and flops not connecting.

So at 3AM the rodent makes another appearance, this time in my bedroom. We call the animal control guy back, and he finally catches it and tosses it out the window. I did not look outside the window today to see if he could really fly. Oh well.

Anyway, the bankroll ended up about even for the night. I think I was maybe up a few bucks when all was said and done. One good thing about losing my bankroll is that I have become much more interested in playing 10 sided, instead of 6. I always liked 6. It seemed to me like my better hands would hold up, my flushes would hit more, it was just an all around easier and more profitable situation. Now that I have been forced to play more 10 sided games I am liking them. In 6 sided I would probably see 2-3 people in on any hand. Possibly 4 if the table was decent, and occasionally all 6. In the 10 sided (at least at .50/1), I was on tables where all 10 people were in on the flop. So the net gain is 10SB instead of 2SB. This is nice. Yes. I like this. On the turn in .50/1 you can take 5-6 people with you. Sometimes more. Six sided your usually down to 2 others. So 5BB vs 2BB. Sweet. I think my attitude towards playing with a lot of people was flawed and I have adjusted my thinking. Once my bankroll is in a healthy range again I am going to try some 2/4 10 sided instead of ½ 6 sided I think. Here is to better times!

RSF and other assorted things...

Here is the RSF:

***** Hand History for Game 805788986 *****
0/0 TexasHTGameTable (NL) - Mon Aug 02 00:14:35 EDT 2004
Table Table 15374 (6 max) (Real Money) -- Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 1: MrPink04 ( $146.74)
Seat 2: IllinoisTroy ( $38.75)
Seat 4: rory300 ( $32.05)
Seat 5: SirFWALGMan ( $24.25)
Seat 6: Superchlb ( $22.75)
Superchlb posts small blind (0.25)
IllinoisTroy posts big blind (0.50)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SirFWALGMan [ Jd, Kd ]
rory300 calls (0.50)
SirFWALGMan calls (0.50)
Superchlb calls (0.25)
IllinoisTroy checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Td, Ad, 9h ]
Superchlb bets (0.50)
IllinoisTroy folds.
rory300 raises (2) to 2
SirFWALGMan calls (2)
Superchlb calls (1.50)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 7d ]
Superchlb bets (1)
rory300 calls (1)
SirFWALGMan raises (2) to 2
Superchlb calls (1)
rory300 calls (1)
** Dealing River ** : [ Qd ]
Superchlb checks.
rory300 checks.
SirFWALGMan bets (1)
Superchlb folds.
rory300 calls (1)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $15.20 Rake: $0.80
Board: [ Td Ad 9h 7d Qd ]
MrPink04 balance $146.74, sits out
IllinoisTroy balance $38.25, lost $0.50 (folded)
hillbillbob balance $25, sits out
rory300 balance $26.55, lost $5.50 [ Ah Jh ] [ a pair of aces --
Ah,Ad,Qd,Jh,Td ]
SirFWALGMan balance $33.95, bet $5.50, collected $15.20, net +$9.70 [ Jd
Kd ] [ Royal Flush -- Ad,Kd,Qd,Jd,Td ]
Superchlb balance $18.25, lost $4.50 (folded)

AND Here is the status of the Hat:


Dear Sir

Thank you for contacting us.
With regards to your query, we congratulate you on getting the rarest hands in the game of Poker, which is a Royal Flush.
However, we do not have amy promotions in EmpirePoker.com wherein we can award you with something on getting such a rare hand.
We wish you good luck and hope you have an enjoyable gaming experience on our tables.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Care Department at any time. We are here 24/7 to assist you via email.
Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!
Sanjana G
Poker Customer Care

Nice Morning

Well,

I think I will end with a winning session at $25 NL. Barring any accidents. It all came down to one good hand. KK. Cowboys. Cowboy up baby! I bet them hard at the pre-flop. Got raised all in by #3, called by #4. Everyone else folds. Get a nice flop. No high cards. Bet hard. All in for #4. Call. Tripple up on the turn. River is nothing. Sir is up $35 in about 5 minutes. Sweet! Now only $965 to go! Wahhhh! heh. Oh well.. Nice to have a good session.

*** UPDATE: Left the $25NL with $66 in hand. Nice little session. Then went to a .50/1 for some safe small action. First hand is Poket Rockets. Raised full 4 bets. Flop is a dangerous 223 with two clubs. This round is bet up to 3BBs. Next card is A. Sweet! Someone caught there runner-runner flush. Made about $40 in 1 hand in .50/1. Maybe I have been avoiding the 10 person tables for no good reason. I really like playing 6 sided, but hmm..

*** UPDATE: It is funny how short term my poker vision is, and how long term my dreams are. Will have to write about that. Ended up keeping my winnings at NL, and gave back a few bucks at the .50/1$ table. Very pleased to have a winning session after a while of bad beats.

Anyway, the update is a call for any Java Applet programmers in the NH area. I need two that specialize in Applet Animation. I can pay $200 for each person that gets hired. No Agencies please. So if you know anyone tell me.

Frustrating

It is really frustrating starting over. It is kind of like trying to start a fire with a stick and some flint. The $100 that I bought in for doesnt help against any kind of variance. If you lose a couple of sessions you are buying in again.

Anyway, not too much to report. I need to have a good session and just walk away. I was up 20$ in 1/2 and pissed that away. Was up $15 this morning in NL and pissed that away. The call I ruined it on was really bad. Had 10's on the flop. High Card. So I bet the pot trying to push people out. The turn was a Q. And the river was a 8, to make my enemies boat. It was really stupid to call this. REALLY! About the only good thing that has happened in the last couple of days is a nice RSF.  I will post the hand history but it was easy to play. I flopped 4 to a flush, hit the NUT flush and then made the RSF just to rub it in. Someone said Part gives hats for this. I was on Empire, No Hat! Was I falling for a newbie joke or something?

Anyway, cards are running cold. Getting fed up. I think I might go back to how I built my bankroll in the beginning. Play some easy 5/1$ tourneys and try and jack it up a little. I really hope I can get a nice winning session. Not much. Just a few bucks to feel better. 

 

Starting Over

Well, I finally did it. I blew my bankroll out. On the good side it was only $50 to start with. On the bad side it took a while to get up to 1K. Spent a few hours yelling and screaming, and sleeping, and being depressed. Got over that. Feeling sorta bummed about killing my entire bankroll, especially when there were some good times to stop doing so. Like when I brought it up to $600 again with some good play. I think it is good that this happened for my long term career however. I think doing this just cements home the fact you need to play at levels your bankroll can support. I did the "Higher Level Fixes All" thing too many times for my own good. I guess I was fortunate in some ways that I got away with it 2-3 times, but the fact that I now know I can lose it all is a good thing.

Anyway, I am going to cash in another $100 this week sometime. Jump back on the horse. I think I am going to play a little less. I think I was playing so much that the challenge and excitement of the game was dimished somewhat. Not to mention the wife giving me a hard time. Going to work on making my game solid again. I played some really solid poker on my downfall, and some bad poker also. I like the solid play. It resulted in small downturns as I lost blinds and folded quesitonable hands, and big upswings as I milked my good cards for every dollar they deserved.

I am going to try and get into the August Freeroll. I am not sure what I need to do to qualify, but that would be a nice win, and it does not cost anything. I know coming in 3rd was somewhat luck and somewhat good play, but if I can do it again, it would be a nice start to me new run.

Wish me luck in my climb again! I am starting at -300 instead of +800 now. Not very good, but I am excited to climb back on the horse and play solid Poker again.

I might as well share some of my asperations at this low point. I *think* it should be possible to make $2000 a month playing poker at some point. I think I need to get my bankroll up to like $5K-10K or something first. Then I can play some more worthwhile levels of Poker. It is a nice dream. The extra 2K a month while not enough to support me, definatly goes a long way to making the bills. It should be a pretty easy goal at some point in time. Once I get there I can see what the next goal would be. I think it *might* be nice to do Poker as a career, but I am not sold on that yet. It is nice to have a good IT salary coming in every month, but I also have been a bit less amused with the whole IT thing lately. It has gone from something that was enjoyable to something I have to do to pay the mortgage and support the family. With all of the outsourcing and downturns in the industry it has not been a fun few years. I have been more fortunate than many others in IT, but who knows how long that is going to last. It would be nice to have a good backup career. The wife says I can do it as soon as my bankroll reaches $360K! I guess that will be my next goal. Talk about a sweet dream! I would guess this would take a very long time (if ever), but we will see. You need some goals and dreams to play this crazy game.

Anyway