Thanks!

Wow. I am tearing up again. I REALLY appreciate the Blogger community. I am on the comeback trail. Quadrupled my bankroll in a few days which feels ok. Shut Up! I do not care if the $50 from Party was Free! I earned those EP points for the $25 from Empire! Hell, at least I am not counting the cost of the Hat!!!

I got so many good responses from everyone that I wish I could say April Fools. Some of the highlights were (although I appreciate them all):

Hugs from various chick bloggers like April and Shelly!

The crippled, withered, little arms of Iggy typing out a nice “Been there, Done that” comment in his Vicaden and Guinness haze! That really means a lot!

Bastard Studio who didn’t have the balls to yell a little louder at me while he watched me piss away my Bankroll, and then has the nerve to insult me! (heh, just kidding dude, some things you just cannot stop).

Pauly still reading my Blog. I thought he put it into the pile of “Not so good Blogs” and discarded it.

I appreciate everyone else who said a kind word too. It really means a lot. The puke-in-my-mouth feeling has finally subsided and I have gone back to work. I am definitely going to take it slower. I do not think playing every night was fair to the wife. So this week you can find me at the Blogger Invitational and hitting the tables on Wednesday Night, and Friday night grinding it out on the .50/1 tables. So far I have had the best run on Party so I am going to keep trying to build that roll. I am sure Empire is going to get mad and send me a bonus code or two, and now that I have both accounts I can switch back and forth a lot. So maybe this was not such a bad thing. The Nerd expects it to take me another few months to get back to 3K, and I think that is possible.

I blew my last Bankroll on August 01, 2004. If you want to read that tear jerker it is this location. So it took me about 4 months to hit the 4K level. So that puts me into May. We shall see. It is funny reading the old post because it has a lot of the same themes in it as this one. Very interesting. Some of the same comments too from Bad Blood and Chris Have-the-heck-do-you-spell-his-last-name!

My real goal when I rebuild is to stop being nightly-results oriented. I have real issues with that and it really effects me when I hit the higher levels. I really need to cap my play at (x) hours a night, no matter if I am up or down. Stop peeking at the cashier. She is cute, but cmon! I also need to learn when to leave. If I am a couple hours into a session and way up, I think it is a good idea to say “If I lose 5 bucks I am leaving”. Why not? Sessions tend to ebb and flow and there is no shame at leaving near the highpoint. Tables change, suckouts happen, protect your earnings, you, well, earned them.

So I will see you guys on Wednesday. I have already paid for the entry and would LOVE to win! I do not know if I have the mad tourney skillz people like Otis have but we shall see. Just remember there is always a percentage of luck involved in these things! On Friday I am thinking of hitting the Blogger Tables. I know it tends to be –EV but it is fun and I have actually won a few times.

Growing Slowly

Well.. I busted out of the Talking Poker tourney on stars tonight. I also blew a few bucks there. I am registered for the WPT event on Wednesday! It should be fun! The bankroll stands at just under $100 on Party and just under $50 on Empire. So it is growing I suppose. The little poker I have played has been fun. The play is different and being too aggressive at the .50/1 level can cost you some money. However you get paid off to the river on almost every hand. It sucks when they hit there 3rd 9 on the river, but normally it is fine. Only $500 more until I can play ½! Woo Hoo!

I have been thinking about why I tilted out and I think it has to do with a small thing that was going on: My House was Leaking! Yes. The water started coming through the ceiling. Not fun. So it kind of got me a little stressed about money, and then I lose my Poker Payday, and one thing leads to another and I am back to grinding out a living. Oh well. I guess it is a good thing that I KNOW I can TILT and LOSE A LOT of money no matter how long I have played or how big my bankroll gets. It is probably a lesson worth 3K. Or not.

We shall see how I do with the WPT event. Hope to win it. Not sure if I will or not. I tend to get a little liberal with my betting in NL sometimes. I just hate when people fool me. Instead I should be thinking “Ok, I will fold, but one time I will get your ass!”. I guess it is a fine line.. Wish me well anyway! I think a little birdy might come by and cheer me on!

Welcome Back Jack!

Welll.. first off if you are looking for me on Party Poker its FWALGMan without the Sir. The hat sold me and I am trying them out a little. So here is the welcome back to Party I received. I know for a fact before this is dealt that I am going to get Pocket Rockets. It was like ESP. First hand I was dealt. Names not changed to protect the innocent. Fuck them:

***** Hand History for Game 1515536146 *****
$0.5/$1 Hold'em - Sunday, January 30, 14:47:59 EDT 2005
Table Table 11431 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: DJM88 ( $8.34 )
Seat 2: jim317us ( $23.75 )
Seat 3: bklynslim ( $41.25 )
Seat 4: viper4157 ( $23.08 )
Seat 6: doslobos ( $20.83 )
Seat 7: spicyrqb ( $29.25 )
Seat 8: g3131g ( $45 )
Seat 9: Volsfan22 ( $9.75 )
Seat 10: FWALGMan ( $25 )
viper4157 posts small blind [$0.25].
doslobos posts big blind [$0.5].
FWALGMan posts big blind [$0.5].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to FWALGMan [ Ac Ad ]
spicyrqb folds.
g3131g calls [$0.5].
Volsfan22 has been reconnected and has 10 seconds to act.
this is annoying
Volsfan22 did not respond in time.
Volsfan22 folds.
FWALGMan raises [$0.5].
DJM88 folds.
lol
every hand he disappears
jim317us calls [$1].
bklynslim calls [$1].
viper4157 folds.
doslobos folds.
g3131g calls [$0.5].
** Dealing Flop ** [ As, Tc, 7c ]
g3131g bets [$0.5].
FWALGMan raises [$1].
jim317us calls [$1].
bklynslim calls [$1].
g3131g calls [$0.5].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8h ]
g3131g checks.
FWALGMan bets [$1].
jim317us calls [$1].
bklynslim calls [$1].
g3131g calls [$1].
** Dealing River ** [ Qh ]
g3131g checks.
FWALGMan bets [$1].
jim317us raises [$2].
XXXX
bklynslim folds.
g3131g folds.
FWALGMan calls [$1].
jim317us shows [ 9s, Js ] a straight, eight to queen.
FWALGMan doesn't show [ Ac, Ad ] three of a kind, aces.
jim317us wins $16 from the main pot with a straight, eight to queen.
lol


So I decide to go with it. I say “I hate Poker!”. I just play to torture myself for my indiscretions of my youth. I had incestual relations with my Kitty Cat when it was under age.

That got a nice round of Ewwwwwss!

“She had the best tongue ever!”, and a tight little ass.

So about now I am laughing my ass off. I think I might have scared a few people away though. Oh well.

“Hey, its not so bad, at least I remember her name: Mrs Fishy!”.

So anyway, I ended the session up a few buck despite having AA cracked twice, once with the J9 and once against 10-10 when the lucky bastaaad hit his 2 outer on the turn. Not saying he should have folded but it really was not very fair. So is life. So is Poker. So Shall it be. I have a theory on why I collapsed but I will keep that for the next post. So stay tuned loyal readers.

That's Nuts!

BigSlickNuts was saying that nobody is going to let me win the Iggy PokerStars tourney! Damn Straight! As nice of a gesture as it might be for everyone to fold me there pots to me one night or let me win something I always have to do things the hard way and would not accept this. I work with people who have there jobs because they know people. It must be nice. I do things the old fashion way. I earn them. I will never hit the megabucks, or be the guy who has Ed McMahon laughing at his door. Nope. As a matter of fact the only reason I think I can win at Poker is because it is NOT EASY! It is freaking hard work! So if I see you at the tables I will take your money the old fashion way! I will kick your ass for it. You have been warned.

Rapidly Rising?

Well besides getting a Free Party Poker hat and 50 bucks with no strings attached, yeah, no raked hands to play, nothing. I cashed in my Empire points for another $25. So the bankroll stands at: $75ish at Empire and another $50 at Part. Not too shabby. lol. I am a big roller now! I am also going to have to deposit $50 on Poker Stars for the Iggy thing. I might do that today and play in the Talking Poker Invitational tonight at 7:30.

Little Play

I have to say it again; the best thing about Poker is the Blogger community we have built. I appreciate all of your comments. I jumped on the tables for a min today to get my feet wet. The kids and wife were out at a party. I have to say I respect you low limit grinders. With all the weak play it is harder in some ways than the higher levels. A guy has AK and does not 3-bet it, he hits his K on the flop and does not bet/raise it? Whats up with that? WEAK! A guy hits his gutshot on the turn and does not raise the river!!!!! These people suck me out by accident I think. Oh well. It feels like more fun than before. The money is small. The players are passive calling stations and I hope to be able to grind out some wins. It is definitely not guaranteed though. I do want to cut down to two days a week. I am going to deposit to Poker Stars and play in the Iggy Invitational too. There are actually some good players here too. I am sitting with a TAA! Interesting. I ended up down seven bucks.

I doubled my bankroll though. Party is offering me 50 bucks, no strings attached, to come back to them. So I will have fifty on each site as soon as I can figure out how to install Party on my machine again.. It will be a while before I can hit the BBJs though. Oh well! I wonder if they have any freerolls. I am going to see if I can win the Iggy Invitational too!

Oops, I did it again!

Well I hate to say this but you all deserve the truth from me: I blew my bankroll again! You know the old story. I started on a small downturn to around 2200 and decided to really screw-up. The old tendencies came back and before I knew it I was out. Well, not totally. I think I have 50 bucks to rebuild with. I did take out some money before the crash too. Not nearly enough though.

If you want to hear the play by play as I am sure you do here is the basics. I was down to about 2200 around 12AM. I decided to stay up and play through it and kept going down more and more. I then make the great decision to try higher levels to get back to a decent number faster. Things were not happening fast enough I suppose. So the end of the story after a 30 hour binge that included skipping a day of work I ended up with $50+ left and very disappointed in myself. Oh well.

Work: F
Home: F
Family: F
Poker: F
========
Life: F

There were plenty of times I could have stopped myself probably. I was down to 1K, brought it back to 2200 and could have left. I probably should have stopped at 500 left. At least I would have enough to start rebuilding. I let my inpatients get the best of me though and blew that too.

At least I was good at something for a period of time. I have not decided if I am going to try and rebuild the bankroll or not. I am not sure if I want to. I think maybe I was playing too much and ignoring other things. I tended to play every night. The shine was wearing off too. Even before I did this I think I was getting a little disenchanted with Poker. Probably why I gravitated to the short tables. More action. Less waiting. Less real Poker. I am not so great with keeping with hobbies and this might go into the pile of things that are exciting for a while. The game is called the GRIND because that’s just what you do. You grind out a small win, lose a little, grind some more, and eventually over the long-time you can be very successful. It gets a little old sometimes. It is exciting sometimes. I think I might be back again. I almost got up at 4AM this morning and hit the tables again. After I crashed at 6PM last night I only slept until then.

Either way I have a lot of decisions to make. If I do decide to grind it back up to 3K and beyond I need to figure out how. I am not too keen on putting more money in. So the choices are pretty slim. Try and grind out some more buffer room at .50/1, with a high chance of busting out. Try some ½ 6 sided. Do some 5/1 SNGs or 10/1 to get some breathing room. Give it up. Not sure what choice I will make.

So for the weekend I think I will wallow in self-pity, smack myself a few times, and spend very little time playing Poker, or none actually. We will see about the comeback trail later on.

I do want to thank everyone for all the support they have given. I have always enjoyed the community we have here. It is definitely the best part of the grind. If this ends up being the end of my Poker career, well, there are worse things in life. I am sure I can find other ways to financial freedom. The money was still in chips so that part does not bother me that much. It is the stupidity part that hurts the most. So if this is my tombstone than let the epitaph read “Be Patient”, or else perhaps “I’ll be back”.

Giving it back to the Fish

Poker. Bah! Some nights it can be kind of frustrating. Last night was one of those nights. Did I lose? Hell no! I could have won a lot more though. Instead of a nice $200-$300 dollar night I settled for a bit over $100. That old song is right:

“You got to know when to walk away,
and know when to run”

I never know when to leave. The night started so well too. I doubled my buyin in about an hour. I then spent the rest of the time giving most of it back and scraping for a modest nights profit. I think a few things happened to me last night. One, I should have left. I had doubled my buyin and then some. I started sliding downwards. I should have just said “The heck with it” and gone off and played some NL with the Chief or something. The other thing was a little more profound. I started playing like the fish. I know. I know. I suck. I know you all want to know why?

There are two types of players who throw my game off, one is the maniac, who causes me to take more chances, and the other is the stone cold bluffer! Yeah, you know him. He will bet you down with second pair, bluff with 10 high nothing, and even raise your bet on a scary flop. So what do you do? Well, you always show down with him, right? WRONG! Let him have his puny pots. DO NOT call down with 3rd pair just because it was good against him last time. He is the fish not you! So play your game. I forgot this last night and it cost me some money. Oh well. There is always tonight!

Stop Losses

I think when playing the 5/10 short tables a stop loss is good for me. This weekend I had a terrible session on Sunday and ended up down like $700 somehow. Now I can make this back, but if I had just realized it was not my day, perhaps after my AA was cracked by 69o or something like that. It is the “bad” days that always screw me up. I am sitting at 2868 after doubling my buyin last night. I was up to 3050 briefly, but gave some back. Possibly a stop-win would be nice too, but I am not ready to commit to that. If I had stopped myself at one buyin on Sunday I would be sitting pretty at 3500 or so. I can hardly every remember a session where I kept pushing and it worked out well. Ok, sometimes when 3AM hits and the fish get drunker but besides that. So from now on it is 1 5/10 Buyin a night and then I hit the Blogger tables or some 10/1 tourney or other low-loss crap.

I have terrible news my readers. I have slipped back into frowny face land. I am not too concerned. I think it is the right way to be on the tables I am playing. Remember my strategy: pick low aggression tables, small pots. Well, when you do this you get instances like last night. I am dealt pocket 4’s and I am in the middle. The flop is 376. So I have a bad draw at 11-1. I however have four people in the pot with me and have roughly enough for the draw. So I call the flop bet. It misses with a 10 or something. The turn is checked for free! Woo hoo! The river is a sweet 5, and someone bets, and I raise, and they pay me off! Thank you people!

The point. I played this passively. I checked/called, but since my table was so passive I ended up getting a free card and making my straight. Sweet! I could never have called a bet on the turn. I did not have the odds. So being slightly more passive is ok right now. I am still being somewhat aggressive with my good hands. Hopefully I can get my smiley back.

I want to give a shout out to Studio Glyphic. He is the man! I am not sure if it comes out in his play or on his Blog but he is one smart dude. I have had the fortune of talking to Glyph several times in AIM and seeing him and Shelly go at it in chat and he would be a great teacher for someone. He really knows his stuff. Sometimes I disagree with his reads, but I respect his knowledge and ability to communicate. I am a much more intuitive player. I look at the odds, figure out what my opponent is going to do, and wing it. He is a more by the book player. He can explain why he does something much better than I can. If you ask me why I called down second pair against someone it’s going to be more of a feeling that he did not have it, based on past play, and how he bets maybe. I am likely to be wrong as much as I am right. It is probably why NL is hit or miss for me. While I am going off on a tangent, I think I would be a far better player if I trusted my intuition more. I am right more than I am wrong, and if I rammed the pot when I almostforcertainknew what my opponent had then I think I would make more money. I have much to learn.

Last but not least go read my posting on the Big Lick. It is not very good but I do what I can. I promise you Al my AA post will be a lot better should you decide to take the bet! Come on! How can you not believe in your Iggles!!!! Baiting works in Poker, we shall see if it works in Poker Blogs!

Just had to Share

I bet Al has better stories but these are pretty freaking funny! I think I know what to get Al for Christmas too!

Tucker Max

Can Someone say MTT?

If I want to go to the Pats game I need to hit a nice MTT, probably
the 200K one. I could also buy a REALLY nice high definition TV.

Club Level Between the 35 Yard Lines
up to 4 tickets together
Fixed Price $8,250.00 each

LOWER 40 to 50 YARD-LINE
up to 15 tickets together
Fixed Price $8,500.00 each

Club Level Between the 35 Yard Lines
up to 4 tickets together
Fixed Price $9,000.00 each

ENDLINE SUITE
1 ticket
Fixed Price $170,593.00 each

Give us Victory or Victory!

Smell that.. mmm.. Smells good. The smell of victory! Sorry if I have been a little slow in posting this weekend, I am working on posts for two sites. It gets to be hard work sometime but I will make the sacrifice for my loyal readers. Sometime later this week you can read my posting on the Big Lick!

So now we wait two weeks until the Super Bowl. I really hope some Eagles fans will take the Blog-Takeover challenge. I mean could you imagine an AA post on AlCantHang? That would rock!

Poker this weekend was a little slow. Everytime I say that 5/10 short is a cakewalk I get spanked. So I am down a bit over the weekend and have vowed to not say it is easy anymore. It is hard! Reward me O’Poker Gods, I hath shown proper respect. Man is Poker a fickle mistress! I think I will go work on my other posting now. Lick, how do you want me to send it to you? You can post your email address in my comments and delete it, or point it out to me, or something. Let me know.

I had a fun commute this morning. The car ran out of windshield wiper fluid. So I go to open the hood and add some. Well, the hood opening doohickey decides to break at this moment. So my commute ended up being drive 3 miles, pull over, throw snow on windshield, drive 3 miles, and repeat. It was not very much fun. However I did not feel all that stupid when I saw three other people pulled over in front of me doing the exact same thing! Woo Hoo for the stupid people hanging together!

Two feet of snow is incredible. It brings back the memories of when you were a kid, and any decent snow seemed to create giant ice cliffs and you could build massive cities of snow! King of the Hill was fun too!!! I stuck the kid in the snow and it was up to his waste. He loved it! So bring it on! I am all for massive snow storms.

GO PATS!

Hey! Bob at Poker and other Random thoughts responded to my comment in his post! Yay! He is a very smart player. He plays fulltime for a living at the 15/30 level. He contributes to 2+2 a lot too. I am the second comment in the Clarifying my Goals post.

The 5/10 6-Max continues to treat me well. I did go on a small downswing the other day, but was able to make it back and then some. These tables rock! I was on a table with a VP$IP of 66%! One guy had a 93% VP$IP!!!! I got sucked out bad but they paid me back with interest!

I cannot stress enough the keys to winning consistently at these tables for me. Pick tables with low average pots and play slightly loose poker, very little chasing, no thinking 2nd pair is good. Only protect your blinds with good cards too. You need to do it enough so people do not automatically try to steal your blinds but do not just do it because it is a steal. Why pay the guy more when you usually cannot play past the flop? I might just be on a lucky streak but in the last few weeks I have 17 winning session, 4 loosers, and a BB/100 of a respectable 2.70. No too shabby. It reads even better if you look at individual session. Last few BB/100 are: 9.54, 12.44, 9.29, 33.63, 14.81, 25.60. Sweet! I hope it lasts!!!!! Like I have said before it might not be world class Poker being played but it pays the bills! I am going to try a full table just so my lack of confidence can say, “Hey, I beat some good players too”. I think I might need Shelly and April there to help out! Heh.

Oh yeah, and GO PATS! I tried to get Mean Gene to take up the bet or some other Pittsburgh Bloggers but only Canada rose to the occasion. I hope Al and some of the Eagles Bloggers will rise to the occasion should it happen next week. I think the Pittsburgh guys really know in their hearts that they are going to blow it. I may end up eating my words but I said it and I wont take it back. I predict a really close game with Adam winning it or something like that. I will accept a Patriots crushing defeat of the Steelers however if I must.

Back in Black

It was an interesting night. I started off by hitting the bank, I mean the 5/10-6 Max tables. I ended up losing over $150 so I decided to take a break and try the 10K Friday Night Guaranteed. Little did I know CJ was there! Well, he did much better than I did placing in the money. I saw two playable hand the entire thing and went out in 199th place out of 512. The two hands were AJ, and 10-10. With the AJ I threw out a pot sized bet on the flop and got re-raised all-in. I decided to wait a little more before I busted out with TP ok Kicker. I then was down to $500 or so with the blinds at 50/100. I got long-distance and put out a $200 bet. I was called by the big stack. The flop was an awesome 259 or something. I got all in. He calls. It was only another $300 and he had about 3K. It was a good call. The K hits the turn, and just to rub it in a Q hit the river.

I went back to the bank and the teller was finally in. I ended up almost doubling my buyin again. It was mostly from small pots thought. The table was loose pre-flop, and tight post-flop. I was able to steal a lot of 20-30 pots and they added up. I then get April telling me to get my ass over to the NL tables. Well who am I to dissapoint a Southern Bell. So I hop off with my profits and head on over. I take a peek at the Bankroll and it is at 3050 or so, and since I am only donating one or two buyins tonight I am back to 3K! It has been a month since I trashed my bankroll playing 5/10, not to mention my confidence. I really feel like I have come out of it as a much better player thought. I turned my frown upside down.

So I start off the night by donating half my stack to Otis. Evil. Cunning. Otis. I can not seem to find the hand history for that one. I ended up getting him back though. I remember that hand. I am down to like 14 bucks, I get pocket 9's! Shelly's favorite nemesis! I bet out two bucks and surprisingly get like 3 callers, and then Otis decides to Gamboool and raises me seven bucks. Wellll... not to be undone by Otis I re-raise him all in! At least I am all in. The other wimps part ways as Otis stares me down. He looks into my virtual eyes and takes the measure of my soul. Liking what he see's he says "Let's gamble" as he calls my raise.

We both come out shooting! The flop contains a 9, good thing too because the turn was an Ace. Otis's heart must have jumped for a second before I crushed him with my set! AK no good again! Bahahahaha! Oh well, 2-3 more buyins and we might be even. Cursed Otis!

Another female sat down and this increased my luck quotient exponentially. I like to show off for the ladies and man did I put on a show. I must have gotten pocket pairs like every hand. Not little ones either, Kings, Aces, Jacks, Queens, etc.. Ok, you want specifics: 1 AA, 4 KK, and a JJ. All in a short period of time. I ended up winning with all of them too pushing my stack a little over 4xbuyin. I ended up giving one buyin back before I decided to leave. Leaving the bankroll just shy of 3100 bucks. Not bad! I think I might try my luck at some 5/10 full table action tonight. After I win at the short tables of course. It was nice to leave the NL tables with a profit tonight. It has been a few days.

Hamburgers...

"If you would lend me 5000 today I would gladly repay you on Tuueeesday."

http://www.boston.com/sports/nesn/programming/shows/party_poker/

I think I would look very good in a Tao of Poker Shirt or an Up4Poker Shirt. heh.
Interesting though.

Poker is weird

So I start the night like I always do playing 5/10-Short. If I have not told you before it tis juicy! I play for two hours and end up making 1.82 BB/100 for a profit of $50. Um. Nice but not THAT nice. So I go and blow all my winnings on the –EV Blogger tables and a small SNG. I just was not being patient and got a couple of minor suckouts. The I decide to hit a 5/10-Short table again for a short time. In 66 hands I am 33.53 BB/100! Every flop hit. I even had AA vs 10-10, flop is 10xx, turn is a rag. The fish is not betting hard at all. The river is an Ace and Sir is happy! I could have made more but there was a straight on the board and he did bet. I was going to put one more bet into the pot in case I was good. I know. I am weak and should smack myself. Thanks to April from the non-poker blog for hanging with me for a few hands! She brought me a lot of luck!!!! Sorry for cheating on you Shelly but you were not around!!!! So tonight I experienced the essence of Poker. You can play two sessions exactly the same and sometimes you feel like the NUTS and sometimes you don’t!

Gametime+

Gametime+. What do you think about this? A tool or cheating? I mostly have used Poker Tracker to keep track of my hands. I tried out G+ last night and found it interesting. I like the icon representation of the people I am playing against. It gets easier to tell between a taz and a maniac for instance. It was also funny to see my entire table with the lowest VP$IP of 42%! Tell me that is not a money making table or a suckout horror fest. Lucky for me it was the prior. It was fun seeing Iggy as a Taz too! I am pretty sure he plays slightly different on the NL tables than the 15/30’s, and I only have about 2K hands on him which 2+2ers will tell you is statistically insignificant!

One stat that disturbed me was the fact that I let people steal my blinds 77% of the time! What the hell! Here is my thinking: Why defend your blinds with crappy Q2, and find out $70 later that, hey, ya, he did have Q7 to beat you? Or even better A2 when he actually does have the AK! I just have a hard time thinking the $5 is worth it. However I think 77% could be too high. A little.

April from a Non-Poker Blog is looking for a Poker mentor. I mention this because I know all the top Bloggers read this and wanted to help her out. Heh. However it got me to thinking. It would be so cool to have a student. I have thought about it before you could be proud of them, or embarrassed if it was G-Rob. Heh. Just Kidding man! I know I am not ready to take that leap yet. I have trouble enough defining why I am a winning player. It would be extremely hard to make someone else a winning player. Heck, I am not even sure I have played long enough to say I am a winner! I also need to get back on the full tables. I love the short ones but I need to prove to myself I can beat 5/10 full games. It is fun shooting fish in a barrel but I have some pride! Don’t laugh! A little pride! Tiny. Bit. I am going to wait until I get the roll up to 5K and give it another shot.

So far one taker in the rule Sir’s Site for a day contest! The Big Lick! Just think about what I could post on a site with that name! What the hell is a Canadian doing betting on American football anyway? Does he know it does not contain a round ball? Someone who has a stake in the Steelers needs to pick up the mitten! Oh well. Maybe Sebas should come back and give it a shot! He could show me how to write some interesting material or something. I am loving the idea of an Eagles vs. Pats game! My wife is an Eagles fan!!! Tickets to the Steelers game are surprisingly cheap. I can get a seat for $189. Probably standing room only. The good seats are only 1K. Not too bad. I bet I could make that in a week. I cannot wait to see what Super Bowl tickets are going to cost!!!

I am thinking of stopping the 2AM, this is how I did tonight posts. I am way to tired to post anything interesting at that time of night. I think the “It is almost lunch time and I am bored” posts are a little better. Of course it is fun to tell everyone how good might night is going! Oh well.. I guess quantity over quality is about all I can handle. Have fun tonight.. And, hey - let's be careful out there.

Quickie Bet

Well.. I had a nice night. It was fun. I am back around where I was before yesterdays downturn. The first five minutes of my game I had 3 sets of Hiltons! I won with two of them. I played a 5/1 qualifier for the 200K NL tourney. I am dissapointed it only pays like 55K! Come on now! I made it to 17th place, went all in with my Jacks vs AA and got nothing for my time. I think I will just buy into the 200K next time. It was fun to compete though.

I am thinking of offering a bet for any Bloggers on the Steelers vs Pats game. Anyone who wants to take the Steelers to win. If you win you get one post on my site. Anything you want to say as long as it does not contain Porno or explicit language. I know I am a prude! It also needs to be 1 page or less in Word with Arial 10 font. Any takers? Al? Mean? If you lose I get to do a post on your site!

I lost two buyins at the Blogger tables. Against trips both times. Dummy! The second one was not that bad. I had a straight and a flush draw vs trips. I had about nine bucks left (one bet in my game) and figured I would call since I had a great chance to take it with my draws. I however missed everything.

I tried GameTime+ tonight. Very Interesting. Saves me having to look a player up. It also notes when the table goes from fishy to average. Sweet tool.

Wacky, Wild, Tweety, Stinky, Up and Down but Mostly Down Night.

Well the night started off bad. I even said to myself “Self, you should quit while you are behind”, after playing Q8, flopping trips, and losing to KQ! WTF! It is only six sided! How many freaking Q’s are there in the deck. I end up losing my entire buyin at this table somehow.

I then try a 20/2 and 10/1 SNG. Busted out of those with some really good hands.

The next memorable hand was with a not to be named Blogger. I have AQ, raise pre-flop, and bet all in on the flop of Axx. The Blogger thinks. I believe he then calls the Psychic network and calls me. The turn is an AEWSOME A! YES! Trips!!! If he had two pair I am safe, right? The River is a harmless looking 3. Flip. I show my awesome, fear inspiring AAAQx! Bamn Baby! Your going down Blogger! He show’s his even more Awe inspiring AAA33! I believe I yelled a few curse words at him. I apologize to you Blogger buddy. I was having a bad night and was not all that mad at you. So I decide to drop another buyin at the Blogger tables and I am running at –432. Owie!

So what do I decide to do? Go to sleep and call it a night? Noooooooooooooooo. Not me. I decide to stay up until 4AM! Playing Poker!! When I need to work in the morning!!!!

I hit Quad 2’s tonight after hitting Quad A’s last night. Both hands were mucho paid off. This was nice. I happened to be on the looooooooooooosest, funniest, craziest tables ever. Glyph and Shelly were smoking me into the wee hours of the night, until Glyph stole Shelly from me and started talking about an NL game they were in. Take my word for it, Shelly knows a lot more about Poker than I ever will. One guy threatened to report Shelly and Glyph for talking at our table! Shut off the freaking chat dummy! I threatened to report him for swearing at players, calling them idiots, and being a jerk. I think that is a little worse.

Our secret word for the night was tweet. Ha! It worked a few times. One time a wicked loose player insulted me, calling me a superstitious idiot. So I said to him “I invoke the power of the TWEET! It shall call it’s vengeful wrath down upon your head!”. Next hand I basically busted him out with the Quads! “Fear the Power of the Tweet!”. I had the whole table tweeting before the night was over.

I also ran into some serious idiots. I mean they raised pre-flop A2 and bet, and bet, and bet no matter what. I was sucked out on a lot, and I eventually was able to make a huge killing! I was waiting all night for it! I mean these guys would see a flush on the river, and check-raise you with A high!!!!!!! I loved them except when they really had hands. This caused a lot of variance and I was grinding most of the night. Finally I ended up a wee under 500. I could have been a wee over but the table I was on was WAY to crazy to leave. The one thing I was disappointed with was the fact that I chased a little more than I should have with these guys. I bet I could have been A LOT further up if I was willing to drop some hands when the flop missed me and I had an over card or something. I am usually good at this.

So the net destruction for the night was limited to –182. Very easy to recoup. I do need to get this playing until the sun comes up thing under control. One long session. Blah Blah. It is easier to say than do some days. Other times I am ok with leaving with a loss. I cannot imagine a professional like Iggy playing through the night to recoup his losses. At least I am a smiley now! Wahhh! Go Figure. I am either going to crash tonight or play again. Hope to get a run of cards. Code word for tonight: Donkey. Lol. When we need good cards we say: Hello Donkey!

I am insane

I keep finding new Blogs. I wonder if they are continually expanding like the Universe, or is that shrinking, astrophysics go figure!. Anyway a nice link to an article about RFID technology in chips a As I Please. A lot of interesting content there.

The Latest Google search to find me: Why did the Jets Lose! Lol. Sorry Guys! I was rooting for you! The site is pretty healthy. I get peaks of 350 hits with unique visitors hovering around 150 per day. Not too shabby! Total hits for the past six months is just over 21K. Poker is out of control! Of course I am unable to parlay this into any kind of profit. Bonus Code Iggy is just too powerful! I have no affiliate signups, no book sales, nothing, nada! Oh well I mostly write the Blog because I like to hear myself talk. It is soothing.

I am getting obsessive compulsive about collecting every Poker blog in the world. I used to collect comic books. I think I should stop. I guess I might get bored in a day or so and go back to surfing for sleek, thin, sexy, laptops! It is also amazing how many sites do not have a link to me! The nerve!

Ok. This is just strange. I was checking out all the poker Blogs when I came to a link to NY Escorts, so it was kind of weird, but the Voyeur in me decides to read more. I guess that when you are an escort you get asked to have sex with dogs every once in a while. Interesting stuff. Very well written and actually not any sex in the few posts I have read. Thanks to Found in Translation for that link. Actually Pauly has informed me that he is a friend with NY Escort Lady and he originally posted the link on his site. So give Pauly at Tao of Poker or Tao of Pauly the street cred and screw Found in Translation!

Ah while I am wasting your time get this Gem from The Poker Chronicles

I made it through all my links! Yes all 176 of them! No I am not crazy. Perhaps a little bored. I even got some work done today. Well. Hope this gets the Blog link collecting out of my system for a while. I do not think I could read another blog.. for oh say ten minutes!

47ohhhhhmyyyyyyyyyyyy

Was this a terrible play? I think it was fine. Pre-Flop I am the BB. I flop a straight draw with 8 outs. I am getting 4-1 for every buck I put in. I think it was ok. Anyway: Go PlatyMango!

***** Hand History for Game 1452939089 *****
$5/$10 Hold'em - Monday, January 17, 22:49:36 EDT 2005
Table Table 15222 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 3: scshore ( $142 )
Seat 6: SirFWALGMan ( $318.5 )
Seat 8: Gamblini ( $503.5 )
Seat 10: ScaryEnigma ( $163.5 )
Seat 5: Hoopty05 ( $69 )
Seat 1: dashadd ( $187 )
Hoopty05 posts small blind [$2].
SirFWALGMan posts big blind [$5].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SirFWALGMan [ 4d 7h ]
Gamblini calls [$5].
ScaryEnigma calls [$5].
dashadd calls [$5].
scshore folds.
Hoopty05 calls [$3].
SirFWALGMan checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jc, 5d, 6h ]
Hoopty05 bets [$5].
SirFWALGMan calls [$5].
Gamblini calls [$5].
ScaryEnigma calls [$5].
dashadd raises [$10].
Hoopty05 raises [$10].
SirFWALGMan calls [$10].
Gamblini calls [$10].
ScaryEnigma folds.
dashadd raises [$10].
Hoopty05 calls [$5].
SirFWALGMan calls [$5].
Gamblini calls [$5].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9d ]
Hoopty05 checks.
SirFWALGMan checks.
Gamblini checks.
dashadd bets [$10].
Hoopty05 calls [$10].
SirFWALGMan calls [$10].
Gamblini raises [$20].
dashadd calls [$10].
Hoopty05 calls [$10].
SirFWALGMan calls [$10].
** Dealing River ** [ 3d ]
Hoopty05 checks.
SirFWALGMan checks.
Gamblini bets [$10].
dashadd calls [$10].
Hoopty05 calls [$10].
SirFWALGMan calls [$10].
Gamblini shows [ 5h, 5s ] three of a kind, fives.
dashadd shows [ Tc, Js ] a pair of jacks.
Hoopty05 doesn't show [ Jd, 7s ] a pair of jacks.
SirFWALGMan shows [ 4d, 7h ] a straight, three to seven.
SirFWALGMan wins $228 from the main pot with a straight, three to seven.
YES!

Follow the Blogs...

Just tooling around today at work. I have a weird job. Normally I take pure development jobs since I like to code. However I was looking for a job and my old place just happened to have one so I took it. It is more of an IT job. Not fun. In an IT job with a company of any size there is WAY too much paper pushing. I think your most needed skill is avoiding paper cuts some days. It has been good in one facet, as I have been exposed to more Java/Struts/BEA/Tomcat/Ant stuff, which really rounds out my already vast array of knowledge well.

So I hop on and take a look at Paulies site. He has a few new links. It is CRAZY how many Poker sites exist. Like Dirk said to me last night “Your site sucks”. Who cares? Poker people have such a voracious appetite for either avoiding work or reading about Poker or both, that I will never run out of readers. Have you every played the follow-the-blog game? It is really fun. Take a Blog, say one from the right hand side. Go to said Blog and read the comments. Click on a users name and find their Blog. Repeat as you rack up points for the high score of connections to new Blogs. It is really amazing how many links down you can go. I currently have 171 sites listed in my Blog roll and I even added 6-7 today from Paulies list. Hey man! I gave you credit!

I hope Pauly goes to Foxwoods again soon. I really want to hook up with him. I need someone to show me the ropes of the live experience. He needs a fish to give money to him. It is perfect. Unfortunately when he decides to go I am usually busy. Ahh, the single life, when you could do things at the spur of the moment.

When I started playing 5/10 I had a little goal. I figured I could pretty easily make 4K a month. Is this out of line? I know that variance is going to kick me in the balls a lot but I do not see this is being even a particularly aggressive goal playing 3 hours a night and some weekend time. I am not sure if goals like this are good to have. It is really more of a note. I am also not sure how reasonable this is. However I would assume it is not too far out of line. I think I have moved up the rings too fast to get a real sense of what an average month might be. I know how much I have made in 6 months playing 5 levels of poker. However I do not know lets say how much I would make playing 5/10 for three months. It will be interesting figuring this out. Hopefully I come close when Poker Payday comes at the end of the month.

I have to thank Poker Quest for the idea of Poker Paydays. I think it is a good idea once your Bankroll gets to the 5/10 level. Settle in for a while. Learn the ropes. Grow your Bankroll but take something out for yourself. You have earned it. I am currently taking 25% of all my earnings in a month out. I started this month at 2K. So no big payday yet. I have a good amount of time to go though. Last month was my first payday and it felt good. All the money is going into my savings account for now. I chose a monthly payday because Poker variance is way too much during any given week. A month gives you a chance to accumulate something before get paid.

Some Interesting Poker Notes

I have a lot of ground to cover and most of it has to do with Poker and some observations I have made in the past few days. It might be interested stuff. However we need to get something out of the way first. Shelly asked if she or Poker Den looked better. Well.. I would really need some nude photo’s of you.. umm.. and Poker Den to really tell. You know how close can disguise a myriad of faults. So if you really want me to judge fairly I will send you my address. (Perv Score: Sir 1, Shelly 0).

On to the Poker. I have been having a really good run lately and it feels good. Really good. Poker has kind of been a lot of down sessions intermingled with a few winning ones lately. Hopefully the winning will continue. I was thinking about my play with my kings and it really bothered me. I think I came under the influence of something I would call Poker Fever. It is when the actions is hot and heavy, and you’re just betting without really thinking. It is like you put your brain on autopilot and just call or re-raise everything that comes your way. Finally coming to your senses when you have lost a lot more money than you should have. I am not sure what the cure is. I am going to try and watch myself and if I keep hitting bet/call as fast as the button pops up it is a good sign I should take a deep breath, think, and figure out if I really do have a good chance at the pot or if I am blinded by the size of the pot or the fact that I had pocket rockets and they never lose post flop to 23o!

I took a few posts to semi-joke about people bringing me luck. I am sure this is going to backfire as Crocodile showed up today from Poker Hack and I am sure others will be emboldened to come find me. Now any Poker Trolls can stop reading now because this is not conventional wisdom. I do believe there are instances where having someone help you with friendly banter and good conversation can help. I think it relaxes you. You’re not trying to push so much. You play a better game. I have seen this when Glyph sweats me in games, and the couple of times that other Bloggers have stopped by. Not sure what you might call this effect but I think something is there.

The Pats CRUSHED the colts. It was a fun game to watch. Hopefully we can repeat it against the Steelers next week. So until tomorrow may the Cards be with you!

Different Rail Bird

Shelly might have some competition! Poker Den came by my table this afternoon and I went on a crazy rush. I got all bunches of playable hands and won them all. I was up to $680 at one time and seriously thought I might cap 1K for the first time ever! I ended up giving back $200 instead and called it a day. A lot of my profits came from Josh from Just a Fish. Nice guy. I hope I was not screwing with him too much while I was on my rush! Sometimes the blood starts flowing and you lose your mind! Shelly’s run was more consistent but Poker Den’s was higher. Although I started in a deficit with Shelly. Hmm. I wonder what would happen if both of them watched me from the rail… hmm..

Shelly my Lucky Horseshoe!

OMG! Not only is Shelly a geek. A Poker player. She says she can out perv me! (I have my doubts). She also is the best good luck charm I have every had! Unbelievers! Well I do not care what you say. The two times she came to my tables I went on massive runs and made over $400 today!!!! Still do not believe. I was doing ok at one table. Not up, maybe down a little. I suddenly see in the chat window: Hey Sir! How is it going! Hope your having a better night than me. As soon as she says that BAM! AA! Huge pot against an unbeliever! So we chant our secret word to bring more good cards. I type in the chat: "I bet you I am up $100 in the next ten minutes"! More secret words. BAM! The next cards are A6 s000ted, Diamonds for the lady. So the flop Axx with two diamonds! So not only do I have Aces with a weak kicker, but I also have the nut flush draw. So ya know Shelly is better luck than that. BAM! A six on the turn and I am getting bet into. Ok. So ya know, Shelly is even better than that! BAMAMARAMAMABAM! A six on the river and I am up over $150 in the five minutes she has been there. I decided to call it a night shortly after because she was leaving and I was getting sleepy.

So go visit her Blog and maybe she will make me some more money! Hella Holdem is a great site! I need my lucky charm too! Thanks to her my bankroll is back over 2K now. I am hoping things will keep going well and I will soon be flirting with 3K again. We shall see. Until then if you ever see me chanting secret words at your table and talking to someone you better run for the hills!

I am Beat!

I am soo tired. Had a nice night though. Lost the 5K tourney on two bad beats. AQ vs Q6 and he hits a 6 on the river, and then A-10 vs A-5 and he hits his five to knock me out! Same guy. Back to back hands. Bastaaaad.

I placed 6th in an SNG too. Another dominating hand that lost. Sounds like the start of a bad night. However I got on the most juicy 5/10 I have every seen. I easily could have made 600-700 bucks. However I made two stupid plays:

A. Played KK when there was massive raising on the flop. Lost my shirt on that one. Down from 380 to 280 or so. Ouch! I knew I was beat but refused to fold.
B. 9-10 calls me pre-flop when I have A-K. Flop has a K and 9, but turn is a ten. People again raising like crazy and I lose. That brought me down to $214 from my initial buyin of $250.

However I did say this was a juicy table and so within 10 minutes of my bad plays I was back up to 400, and ended at like $450. Not a bad night winning over $200. I loved this table and could have stayed all night. Around 3AM I folded and decided to lose a few more bucks to CJ and Josh from Just a Fish. It was fun. I only lost one buyin there. So basically the bankroll is on a climb and it feels good. Going to sleep now.

BTW - I got to Nerd around with Shelly from Hella Holdem. I will have to throw her blog up on the right side. And figure out how to put an outstanding warrent for Randy on the DMV in Illinois! Bahhhahahha Evil Hacker Laugh!

House Cleaning

I removed a couple links from my primary Blog link. One was Stripper by Night. I did not do this because of the Blog issue or the Felicia comments. I think someone felt my comments on her Blog were kind of wimpy too? I speak up when things really bother me. When she first started making the Felicia comments I mentioned it because that does annoy me. The fact that she does not get "The Hammer" does not so much. It is a thing for "our" community and if she does not want to be part of that it is her choice. I keep the right hand Blog list for Blog's I read daily.. and hearing about Pat or how Felicia is a mean bitch just is not a daily thing. Every week will do.

If you have not read the comments section of her site on playing "The Hammer", there is some very insightful stuff in there between the Troll and Bitch comments. CJ especially hit it on the nail. As a matter of fact it is probably the best "Poker" content I have read on there. I am not sure I am at the level of Poker Player CJ is in order to use "The Hammer" as a weapon. I use it more for the fun and sense of community it brings. I hope to be the type of player that plays people instead of cards some day though. I usually read the site to get an idea of what being a professional player is like.

I also added a few more Blogs. Will these things ever stop? I finally got around to putting Studio Glyphics site up. I play with him so much I need to keep tabs on what he is saying about me. April's Blog has also been added. Just in case I ever win the Porsche! ;). A new and promising Blog is A View From Barad-dur
. The guy actually seems intellegent and makes some good points. Very thoughtful stuff. I think he is into Lord of the Rings though. Do not hold this against him.

It's Sooooper Dooooooper!

Ok. I just found the most wonderful Poker Blog The Sooper Dooper Poker Adventure. It helps that a woman writes it. I always like those. Although certain ones lose there appeal over time. However this woman is truly special. She has a job called a Mystery Shopper and I am enthralled, as I have never heard of such a thing before. I posted this in her comments section:

“I am fascinated beyond words. What the hell is a Mystery Shopper (I get the general idea) and how the heck do you become one? Is there a Mystery Shopper Web Site where you put out your name as a professional Mystery Shopper and people come and hire you? Is it a bunch of pervs who want to make you go places while they secretly watch and dream up weird dating fantasies? I am truly fascinated by the whole thing as I have never heard about anything like it before. Sounds like a great job. And oh yeah, I like the Poker content too. I am definitely Blogging about this site!”

Of course my version had more typos and spelling issues. So anyway I am a simpleton and the littlest things set me off! Go and rack up her hit counter because she deserves it. Give her some good advice too since she is just starting off in the low limit world.

The Winds of Tourney Victory?

I am not the type of person to usually wax poetic about the sun, the moon, the stars, the pretty sunset. One exception to this is the wind. I love the wind! When I was a kid I used to control the wind with my mind. Ok, So I was a weird kid. Either that or I had mad powers and have forgotten how to use them. Today is a wicked windy day as we here in the Boston area say. The cold front has moved out and the warm front is coming in like a Banshee. It is Boston however and by Sunday we will be back to below freezing for Payton.

No Poker last night. I decided to catch up on sleep after two days of pressing while behind and catching up by 3AM. I think Glyph was laughing at me when I told him I needed to catch 3 hours sleep to function.

Tonight will be Poker. Glorious Poker! I am going to play in some kind of Tourney tonight for sure. I am going to try and hit the tables around 8AM. See if I can make a quick hundred playing either 5/10 short or a 20/2 tourney. If that works out I am going to see about entering the 200K Friday night tourney. If not I guess I will try the 5K again. Saturday and Sunday should be Football! I cannot wait! Whatever the outcome the Pats vs. Indy should be a great game! The Falcons came should be a close one too. I think the other two are going to be blowouts but you have seen how good my predictions are!

I almost forgot! Its decision time again. The Polo Shirt or an Entry into a WSOP qualifier. Last time I lost the Porche on a bad play by my opponent! I am not sure how many WSOP entries they are giving out either. If it is only one then I might be better off with the shirt since I have yet to place first even in a baby tourney. Although it is free! I make 2000 VIP points about once a month so it is not a huge deal spending them. However if the tourney pays out 4-5 place then I might have a shot!

Treading Water

Last night was very unfulfilling. I did however get on the kind of table I loved and ended up doubling my buyin and then some at the 5/10 6-MAX. Unfortunately this just brought me up a few bucks for the night. I had a few of my favorite characters at the table.

I had Mr. Your Bluffing And I Am Going To See Every Hand To The River. I love these guys. We call them calling stations for a reason. Be careful if they raise. However any pair they make will guarantee they see it to the river, or any Ace they have in their hand because it could pair up. Never mind that there is a flush and a straight on the board.

A brief appearance was also made by Mr. I am going to lose as much money as quickly as I can. You know the type. Maniacs that bet/raise everything. Not even a pair? That is ok! Check-Raise? Ok. I am going to re-raise with 3rd pair! I mean who would not fold against that! I ended up taking two very nice pots from this one. Once I had TRIPS and he was ramming and I was jamming. The other time I had a pair of queens. I saw an Ace on the flop. I bet he raised. It did not feel right to me though so I check-called all the way to the river and made a nice pot.

I saw some good players come to my table too. Someone who “set the table” for the game. I think he was doing this although I could be wrong. He gets to our table and immediately raises the first hand. He shows down to the river and flips up something like 89o. He does this a couple more times. He then slows down a little, and his next raise is with AKo, and nobody believes his pre-flop raise, so he takes a nice pot. I being a good doobie stayed out of most of that. I really think he was a good player. Aggressive. Showing down bad stuff ever once in a while. Really good. He was up a few hundred by the time I decided to leave.

Besides the 5/10 tables I decided to play a few tourneys with mixed results. On the good side I placed 2nd twice. One time I was HU with a VERY good aggressive player at the end. I was short stack but the blinds were so high we just kept fighting back and forth. Every hand was either all in or fold. Every time I thought I had him he snuck away, and the same with me. Finally he gets me in the end by catching his six on the river. Oh well.

I got extremely lucky twice. I had 10-10 both times and I was all in vs KK. I spiked my 10 both times and ended up with a nice sized pot. Both of those are the games I ended up finishing second in too. Hmm. Interesting.

I was too impatient at 25/NL tonight and dropped two buyins there. Some nights it doesn’t pay to play. I also was very distracted towards the end as my 5/10 stack was approaching $600. It never made it there but I was hoping.

So all in all I feel pretty much like I am stuck in a rut. I have not had a good run for a while with the exception of the week I took off. I am hoping to get another good run at the 5/10 tables and get the bankroll to where I can feel comfortable playing them. I am at least $300 short of that and probably more like $1300 or more. I really think 5/10 short requires more than 300BB to keep comfortable with the swings. So why do I keep playing it? I dunno. It is just so damn juicy!

A Little more on Aggression

The art of playing against aggressive people is a tricky one. It is a big reason why I try to be tighter and play more passive at the 5/10 6-Max tables. Last night I tried running with the aggressive people and quickly found myself down a bunch. I had two players at my table that were raising a lot of hands, calling down with nothing, and raising with nothing. It was very annoying. So I decide to play with them. Call the raises with marginal hands, call down with second pair, etc.. Re-raise them with very little in the way of a hand. Chase the Ace. Needless to say this is not the way to go at least for me. I dropped about $150 in the first hour I was at the table. I then took a deep breath and swore to myself that I would play my game. My game might not be the best strategy in the world but it works for me. You know what happened? Yeah, I went on a nice run. Got a bunch of nice flops. People calling me to the river with second pair. You get the idea. I ended the session up around $50.

Ending an abysmal night down only $60 or so. Not bad. I really could not hit anything last night as the 99 vs 53 should prove. Even though I would have preferred being up for the night I will take it. I lost 3-4 SNGs, a little at 5/10 6-Max, and really could not get much going besides the Blogger table before my big loss, and a little 1/2 6-Max to cool down with. Nights like this happen.

At least I had fun playing with Glyph, a reader, Iggs, Pauly, and a whole host of others. I think the stripper even made an appearance to take some of the 72o money off our hands. Speaking of that I made a nice pot on the Blogger table busting 72o. I had TPTK but had a feeling the all in bet was a bluff so I called and ended up winning the hand. I felt kinda bad.

Maniac Style

Ok. Fighting against aggressive people is sometimes a bad thing. I played with the Bloggers tonight, and after the table broke up a guy comes on and goes all in with things like 96o, 68o, etc.. I mean a real jackass. So everyone obviously wants to bust him but nobody is calling. I finally get a bit tired of it and call him with 99. I get 2 callers after me which sucks! The flop is all low cards! My 99 was good.. except the maniac had 53o and hit his 5 and his 3. On the flop. It kind of hurts when you make the right call and lose. I know 99 is kind of a weak play. However in my defence I thought everyone else was going to fold after me like they had the hundred times past. If I knew I was going to get multiple callers I would have folded. My hand ended up beating 3 of 4 players, but not the one I wanted to beat. Oh well. What can you do? Probably should just have left the table with my $81 instead of my eventual $37. Sucks.

Random Thoughts..

Oh Wait.. that’s another site! My site is Online Poker Thoughts. Oh well. I am in a weird tired mood today. You know the ones where everything seems like your living it in a dream recap. Where you start imagining your co-workers doing strange and wonderful things to you. Hell I was driving in and had this thought, “I pray to God that I get a good parking spot”. I am not even sure if I believe in God so this is a weird thought. I then eyed the handicap spots and thought, “Maybe it is better to believe in Satan!”. Heh. Oh well. I did pass up the blue spots because I at least like to think I am a nice guy.

Mucho Congrats to Hdouble at the Cards Speak. He is embarking on a brand new career. I will let him tell you about it since he is a much better writer than I am. I was thinking about that while reading his wonderful post about his life change. How some people just enfold you in their stories. Instead of saying “I got a job”, they wrap it in mystique and anticipation until it seems like you are the one going on the interview.

Some day I hope to be able to write half as well as that. For now I will stick to the raw feelings of Poker. I think there is some value in this. Some sites have great writing, or excellent tips. Some days you might get that here. I think the value I add to this community is much more in the every day Joe aspect I bring. I am one of you. I am not a super-uber-poker guy who kicks ass all the time. I go through the same trials and tribulations you do. I feel your pain because I am there. I have not gotten past the deflating feeling of a bad week or the jubilance of a super session! I battle with the emotion, the discipline, the doubts of poker. If this Blog was to have a mission statement it would be to validate other players who have started on this road. I have been there. Read about it. You can improve. You can work your way up the stakes. You will have times of doubt and you will come out triumphant some day if you keep at it, keep studying, keep learning, keep paying attention.

I told you I was in a sleepy-dreamy mood. This is what you get for reading on past that. So keep up the grind and keep reading. Tomorrow I will be back to whining about my bad beats.

My Thoughts on 5/6 Short

I think I have mentioned my strategy tips for the 5/10-6 MAX tables. I am sure they go against common sense and probably suck but they have worked for me so far. Here is a recap of how I play these tables.

1. Choose the right table

The one thing I have trouble handling is outright aggression for aggressions sake. I am not talking about throwing out a bet because an Ace is out there, or steeling blinds. It’s the guys that 3-bet anything. That never slow down no matter what their hand is. The ones who use aggression as a weapon and your only choice is to try and guess when they are lying.

So the first step in my nightly 5/10 journey is to find tables with small pots. I know. I know. This is against common wisdom. I mean more money on the table means a better table, right? Well not for how I like to play. I like tables that let me limp with pretty good hands. If every round is raised pre-flop then you start having to decide if that J-10 s000ted is good enough, or if you should play your A3 s00ted because you have not seen a hand in a while. It is just a recipe for disaster for me. So I find the weak tables and exploit them.

2. Play Tight

I know people say you need to loosen way up on these tables. I have seen players here that pre-flop raise any Kx, Ax, Qx hand and bet/raise to the river if they hit. I hate hands with bad kickers. You just never know. I know you can get beaten with a good kicker but somehow I guess it feels better the sneer at your opponent’s choice instead of your own. I play pretty tight for a 5/10 table. No high card bad kicker crap. I have no problem folding hands. Now you have to modify the starting hands for the table. You only have six spots so early-middle-late position kind of gets blurred. So as a compromise I will pretty much play anything you would play in normal-tight middle position for a single bet. I end up seeing the flop with a lot of A3 s000ted, which I get away from if I miss the flop. I play a lot of pocket pairs. S000ted connectors down to 9-10. All the premium cards of course. I play smaller connectors in the blinds and things like Q-10, etc..

3. Know your Enemy

This is important. At any given table your going to have different types of players. The guy who plays his K3o like it is AKo on a K-x-x flop. These are the guys you are looking for. Just make sure you have a decent kicker and let him pay you all the way to the river. Be careful of the same move against better players. There are very good players mining these tables too and they are smart enough to not play crap. Get a feel for your opponents and try and extract as much money from the idiots as you can before they run out.

4. Know how to Fold

I try not to chase too much on these tables. If my A-10 or AK misses the flop I am willing to wait for another shot. If I am HU it is not really worth it for me to chase too many hands down. I might be playing too weak here and should do some chasing, but normally it seems to cost me more than I gain.

5. Know when to Leave

Sometimes you will get a good table where nobody pays attention and they just keep paying you off over and over and over. Other times they will catch on and fold anytime you bet unless they have monsters. Sometimes it is profitable to stay at these tables. You can open your hand selection up and bluff when you only have a moderately good hand. Steal some blinds. Get a few pots. However normally when they are on to you it is good to leave. Take your winnings and go. It is more likely you will end up giving back if you stay too long.

So those are my basic guidelines. So far they seem to have worked well. I have a moderate BB/100 playing this way. I am profitable so far. I hope this continues. I have been splitting my game out a little more lately though. Not just playing the 5/10 short games. I have been playing a lot more SNGs, O8, and MTTs. Somewhat because I am playing the tables with a smallish bankroll. I hope to grow my bankroll to the appropriate amounts soon and play these juicy little tables a lot more. I will say it is nice to beat the 5/10 level with some consistency. I really lost a lot of confidence when I took my first shot at it. I think I am recovering now and hope to be more steeled against variance this time around. Only time will tell.

Football Picks

Well I decided to post the picks this morning. Why the heck not. My opinion is not likely to change. I guess I could wait for the point spreads to finalize but with my record so far I think I need them to be off a little.

1/15 4:30 ET At Pittsburgh -9 NY Jets

The Jets are just outclassed here. I thought San Diego should have won that game. The Colts choked and give the Jets credit, they took advantage. The Jets have never won in Pittsburgh and I do not think they are going to start now. The Steelers have been anointed the winners of this year’s Super Bowl. I think it is a bit early. I really would love to see a Jets upset! I would not stop laughing for the whole week!

1/15 8:00 ET At Atlanta -7 St. Louis

I will take Atlanta. I might have picked St. Louis last week if I had done my research and saw that they beat Seattle both times they met in the regular season. Oh well. I think this is as far as they are going.

1/16 1:00 ET At Philadelphia -9.5 Minnesota

Go Eagles! I think Philly is going to beat them. The spread seems to say it's not even going to be close. I tend to like that idea. I think the Purple Selfish-People have gone as far as they can this year. Ok. The fans are cool but any team with Randy Moss deserves to lose.

1/16 4:30 ET At New England -2.5 Indianapolis

Hmm.. This is a tough one. Now I know everyone out there is going to scream at me for picking New England. I think I have history on my side. Five games of it at least! The drunken kicker has already started mouthing off also which is a bad thing for Indy. I trust Belichick, even if I cannot spell it, and he has played Payton so many times that he will come up with a scheme to defeat him. His offence is good but the defense can be really bad. Keep Payton off the field would be my choice. I hope for snow and a great running game from Dillon or something. Anyway I totally respect the Colts and what they have accomplished this year. I do not think this is a slam-dunk game. However I do think we will win it. I predict a Payton meltdown as the coach gets into his head and causes him to give us the game. If I am wrong I await the laughing and teasing I so richly deserve. Tune in next week where I hope I will be predicting an Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl! I have been waiting four years for this! I want it more than a Royal Straight Flush!

Little Slow and Tired..

Well.. been falling asleep so not as much poker. As a matter of fact I missed two days this week! What is wrong with me! Anyhow I played tonight. It was fun. Josh at Just another Fish, has started a new blog. He was a "reader" that was hesitant to start Blogging. I encouraged him to do it if he got something out of it for himself. So I guess he did. Feels like I had a baby! heh. Anyway glad to welcome him to the fold.

I have been slightly down this week. Brough the roll back up to around 1750. Down about $100 for the week. Nothing really bad happening. Just normal variance. Dealing with it well for me. Meaning I get slightly depressed and pissed off and wait for it to change. Some day I will appreciate the swings in the game. I will be Bulletproof!

I played some 5/10 6-Sided tonight. In 15 minutes I made $70 and the table broke. So I left. I decided to use it for a 10/1 O8 tourney. (3rd). I then used that for a 25/2 5K tourney. It started out aewsome and I was up to 3K about as fast as I have ever been. Like before the first break. I played like 5 hands. AQ: Trip jacks let me slowplay into the flush. AA,KK,QQ,AA: All winners. I busted out two people with one set of AA when they had JJ and Q-10. Sorry. I was then put on a very hard table and missed all my flops until I was down to 1400. I was then dealt AA again and went all in. There were the blinds, and two three hundred dollar bets in the pot. I get called by someone with 3800 left and KJ. S00ted maybe. So obviously, since it is Party, he hits his straight and I am out. I even hit my trips! Lol. I should have missed them! Cry me a river. Right? Next time.

I needed to blow off a little steam after that and went to a semi-blogger table. Alli was there for a little until she passed out. Josh and Glyph were there also. Not too bad. I ended up at least winning my buyin back and then some. A nice $35-$40 buck profit. I made most of it one some really bad plays. A guy flops trip 2's, and only bets one dollar into me. I call, hit my flush, check, and then he decided to go all in! What a nutjob. He should have gone all in on the flop and then I would have had a decision to make. Either that or he should have had the boat. lol.

The other moron I played tonight see's someone bet three bucks. He raised to five. I have AA and so I raise to 8. First guy folds so it is heads up. He calls. The flop is some 10-4-6 garbage. I go all in. He thinks. Calls. Shows his KK and is a looooooser. Oh well. Pretty good night overall. I guess his call with KK was not too bad. It was 30 bucks or so to go though. TPTK is not something to call for thirty bucks if you ask me. Of course I probably should not have bet it either.. oh well..

My football picks were a disaster. Did you see those games? Man! I guess thats why they play and do not just give the trophy to the Patriots! Oh well. I will post my next set of bets not to make sometime during the week. It is going to be an interesting playoffs with 3 of 4 wildcards advancing. I am happy that we are playing Indy. I know there good. But we know them well and have a 5 game winning streak against them. Here is hoping for number six!

Calling all Tourney Masters

I have a question for those of you tourney players out there. Now that I am a smiley, ok I just like saying that, and have done reasonably well in my last few tries at the 5K tourney I want to expand my horizons. So for those of you who play on Empire poker what should I take a shot on? Are the qualifiers good? I have to win two in a row for those to pay off. Are the 100/25 tourneys a lot harder? I would assume less people enter them, so instead of beating 249 people to make nineteen dollars, I could beat 75 to make a few hundred with a possibility at thousands?

My plan goes as follows for the next month:

1. Keep playing 5/10 short to grow the bankroll
2. Play O8 10/1, 20/2 or 30/3 games and parlay the winnings into
entries into MTTs, either the 5K, or whatever people think is good.

Hopefully if I keep taking shots at it one of these days I can say I came in first at something. The wife would love a cruise.. So get off your duffs and let me know what I should play. Should I stick to the 5K until I can consistently beat it? Is there any ability for consistent winning in these things or is it too much of a skill+luck thing? It seems like you could make a lot of money playing these if you got good.

Jack Shit

Well I tried another 5K tourney. Alot of fun! There were 249 entrants. I never really got a run of cards so I waited down until I hit the money and then next hand afterwards I went all in with JJ. I got called by KJ and he hit his K. I think I did the right thing. If I had doubled up on him I would have been able to make the final table probably.

The best hand of the night is thanks to Iggy and got me to the 30th spot. I had KK and I was raised all in by the guy to my left. I had to decide if he had AA or something lower. Iggy said "Go For it Dummy!", I did, and he showed QQ for the losing hand. It was that hand that got me to the money.

So what was my total profit: $19. Oh well. I tried. I just never got any cards I could push with. I did fold a couple of possible hands while waiting for 30th place. I am a bit dissapointed that my jacks got busted the first hand after I made the money, but I made my move and I can live with it.

I almost forgot the best thing! I decided that my PT stats did not properly show where I was at. So I delete the first 4 months of data, leaving the last two months. It changed alot. I actually show a nice profit in 25/NL, AAAAANNNDD I am a Big Yellow Smiley Face! Wahooooo!

Football Picks

Since I sometimes dabble in Football I figure I should throw my picks for the first round of the playoffs. Just as a disclaimer if you run out and place bets and lose too bad. My FFL team came in 7 out of 10. I am better with teams than players and it gets really hard to keep your concentration about mid-way through the season. That cursed Al came in first! So here they are:

1/8 8:00 ET At San Diego -6.5 NY Jets

I think San Diego has this easily. The Jets did not exactly inspire confidence the way they backed into the playoffs. I think it is one and done for them this year. The Chargers are on a hot streak and playing well. They should easily win this one.

1/9 1:00 ET At Indianapolis -10 Denver

I really want to pick Denver here but I cannot. I mean they barely beat the practice squad for Indy. On turf. At Home. I think Denver is in trouble. I think they have a very small chance to cover the spread but I am going with Indy.

1/9 4:30 ET At Green Bay -6 Minnesota

Green Bay all the way. ESPN had an article on how the Vikings might upset GB but let’s get real. If you want to sum up the Vikings just look at Randy Moss leaving before the game was over. He is a loser and the Vikings are going to be too. If that is not enough take GB’s record, at home, in the cold, in playoffs, against Minnesota. Need I say more?

1/8 4:30 ET At Seattle -4 St. Louis

This is probably the toughest one to pick. Neither team really inspires much confidence. Since I have been picking the favorites I guess I will go with Seattle. No upsets this week. St. Louis is just not that good. I do not think Seattle will have a problem shutting them down. To be fair I have not seen much of either team this year but what I have seen leads me to this call.

So there you go. Fire up your Web Browser and get your picks in before the Indy line move’s up even higher! You know Vegas is going to have to move the line again to get someone to bet on Denver. It started at 7. Now it is 10. I would not be surprised to see it move to 13. We shall see how I did next week. Even if I miss all four I think this is going to be a regular feature for the rest of the playoffs. Guess who I am picking next week!

The Bad News Bears

Not too much going on. I actually did not get a chance to play at all last night. Fell asleep on the sofa and called it a night. I did get a calendar on Poker for Christmas. It has some interesting stuff. Today’s note is on how to make it into the Binion’s Horseshoe Poker Hall of Fame.

· Must have played Poker against the most competitive players in the world

I do no think the Party fish as 5/10 count.

· Has Played for High Stakes

Again I do not think 5/10 would qualify.

· Has played consistently well and has gained respect of peers.

It’s not looking any better for me is it?

· Has stood the test of time

Okay. Another 0’fer. I am trying to improve the content of my site. It sometimes gets too bogged down in “I won this” or “I lost this”. I would like some more quality posts. Stuff like Otis has. Well.. ok, that could be shooting too high. How about stuff like G-Rob? I am not proud. I will take second best. Hell maybe we can make a loveable losers group to rival the Up For Anything group. G-Rob could be our leader. Hell, I am only 5’7”, you could beat me in basketball dude! We could all sit around talking about why we suck and how Otis is such a jerk for being so gifted. Yeah, this is starting to sound good! Sort of the like the Bad News Bears of Poker. Some day when we catch our 2-outer to win the 1K Party Tourney we will know we have reached the top of our abilities and can retire with the satisfaction that we are definately second best.

Day Extra: Running luke warm

Well I got to work today and found out we had another day off. So I go back home and play Poker. Been running slowly downward for the past few days. Everything has dried up. Tourneys. 5/10. NL. Oh well. I am down to 1800 from 2K which is not too bad. I guess the epitome of my running is when I went all in with Q9 s00ted, hit my Q, and get sucked out on the river by – you guessed it, “The Hammer”. The guy spiked his 2 on the river. Oh well. I love it when these guys call me down with nothing. I am sure things will get better. I had a nice 200+ session tonight at 5/10 6-Max which was fun. I even made a little profit at 2/4 full. Anyway I hate losing but I think I am becoming a little more accepting of downturns. We shall see.

Poker Pay Day

Well I ended up cashing out $350 for my first Poker Payday. Not a bad start. Brings my bankroll back down to 2K, but it is in much better shape than it was a week ago. I am happy about how it is working out.

I got some pretty bad beats in some SNGs today. I had AK and A7 spiked the river on me. Happens. I also had AJ and AQ beat me on an AAx board. He actually turned the Q on the turn.

I have been doing well in O8 SNGs. These things are a crap shoot. However you can easily give yourself a chance simply by waiting until the blinds get high to start betting hard. It is sort of the same principle as not steeling blinds in NL until it is worth it. Just play good hands. People stay in long enough in split games that you wont have to worry about the blinds. Around about level four I look to start making some moves. I wait for good hands, but I am looking to knock people out now. If I do not have a good scooping hand I will wait and let everyone else fight it out. O8 is such a long game that waiting for the blinds to get crazy is a great strategy for these SNGs. I have tried six so far and placed 1,2,3,2,3,out. Not a huge sample size but it seems like it is working so far.