State of the Union

I LOVE poker and I hate poker. Right now it is on my good side. It is like a relationship where one day your woman is smacking you with a frying pan and the next day she is giving you the best oral of your life with one of her cute girlfriends helping out.

I did lose it a little last night. I don’t know what happened. I think sometimes I can shrug off the bad beats. However, when they happen right in a row, like last night it gets hard. Here is the situation:

I am up about $30. I am playing two tables and have high pockets. Kings I think. On both tables. So I bet two buck because the fish normally will fold to these “large” bets. I guess I got the special-ed ones today. I get called on both tables. Ok. Fine.

The first table progresses with the flop being 996. I am somewhat concerned someone may have called me with a nine, but whatever, I bet out the pot of four bucks. It is HU between me and a fish with a lot of chips. The turn is a seven. Now I am concerned someone might have a straight so I decide to end it. I bet out the pot again at eight bucks. Now follow along with me children. I have put fourteen bucks into a pot on a 25/NL table and been cold called all the way. Does he have the nine? No. The river is a five. Now I know I am in trouble. He checks and I check behind him. Yup. J8o. Hits his f-ing straight on the river. Ok. So I am a little ticked but under control. Just a quick “Nice catch fish” and were off.

Back to table two. You remember. Another set of big pockets. The flop is a couple of diamonds. So again I decide to bet out the pot. I get called. The turn is a third diamond. My opponent now comes alive and starts betting. I call down. I know. Stupid. Sometimes I want to see though. Yup. Moron calls six bucks with Q4 diamonds and catches his hand on the turn. HELLO?!?!?! ANYONE HOME?!?! What fucking hold em book did you get that from? What? You can not read because every time you try your redneck teeth fall out of your head? In case I am no good at expressing myself I was EXTREMELY angry at this point. I forget what I said but it could not have been too nice. I am now down to break even for the night. What started as a good night has turned to mediocre crap.

So now I am angry as hell. I get pocket K’s again. Hey, I was catching good starting hands. I say to myself, if you f-ing fish wanna play then let’s play, and I push five bucks into the pot. Now the fish that I got sucked out on does not call. However I get TWO callers. TWO CALLERS! I mean what the hell? Do you all have AK or pockets? Do you really want to suck out on me so bad that you will call any size pre-flop bet I make? So the flop is a semi-scary, semi-coordinated, non-ace, alotta low card, flop. I figure I am good for the moment. I am done fucking around too. So I push. Nobody calls. I take the pot.

At least this calms me down for the moment. Although I still want to put a hurting on a fish. Rip his little fishy fins off and dunk his head in the air until he turns (What color do fish turn when they forget how to breathe?) blue, and then let him in the water for a couple seconds to catch his breath, before I fry him up in a pan for dinner.

I never get the chance on my second table. So I fold that break even. My second table starts to look up again though. I end up hitting a straight on the river. I bet a buck. The fishy raises me to three. Now I have the nut straight. You did not make me pay for my draw. I am going to re-raise you to six. Ok. The fish loses his mind and goes all crazy ass on me and pushes all in. I am expecting to split the pot and pay a huge rake. Bastard fish. However all he had was a miserable two pair. Ok. Suckah! I took his whole stack. All twenty five of it. Sweet. A drunk fishy came on a little later too. He mostly donated to others but I got a few bucks from him. Ended the night a little over doubled up.

The state of the stack is good. The SNGs cooled off last night, losing two in a row, but the cash game has been hot. The bankroll has eked up to 467+ and is fast approaching: 500! I will probably be switching to the 50/NL tables soon. See how they run. I think I will play one a night. If I seem to be losing then I will go down to 25/NL, if I go on a good run, I will stay and start two tabling the 50/NL when I get a few hundred more. I am going to wait until 2K or so to start playing the 100/NL. No rush. It is not that I think the talent is any better, I just think that with variance, I would like a big chunk of padding. Once I reach 1200 I will try limit again. Not that I want to play 2/4 limit all that much, but I REALLY want to play 5/10 6-MAX limit again. It destroyed me once. I want some revenge. I need the practice of 2/4 and 3/6 in order to attempt it though. Either that or I can stay with NL. I find it very exciting. However risking your entire buy in on a single decision is a little risky. Especially when your decision making process is iffy like mine. So keep reading. Someday I may be Sir 3K and more again. Until then I am grinding with the guppies.

State of Poker Affairs

Poker is a strange beast. We all want to win every hand. If we lead out with the best hand we expect to win. The funny thing is that even in the height of my winning streak I was only winning around 54% of the time. The edge to being a winning player is very thin. Over time, as the bankroll builds and you can play higher stakes the edge you have can actually make you some money. So it once was so it shall be again. I hope. I have started climbing up the hill a little. I bought in a few weeks ago for $200 and have doubled my investment. I have not had any really bad nights. Tilt has been under control. I have been playing a lot of different NLHE games including tourneys, SNGs, and cash games.

I tend to be doing very well in the SNGs. Especially the 5/1 version. I seem to be able to take first every 2-3 games. I have yet to have the same consistency at the higher level games; however I play them far less. I will probably switch to the 10/1 games once the roll gets over $500 or so. I also intend to start hitting the 50/NL tables when the bankroll gets over $600 or so. The key to SNGs is absolutely playing tight and catching a few hands.

The cash games can be fun. I am becoming a true believer in fish tagging and hunting. It is amazing how much money you can make off of certain players. Hopefully they have good jobs and will not run out.

I have given up on limit for the moment. I just have no patience for the .50/1 level of limit. Seven people in on every flop and someone calling a draw to the river EVERY SINGLE TIME just does not appeal to me. I think my style of play is too passive for this level. I see the evil hands that can beat me on every flop and do not re-raise people enough. So screw limit for now. I will try and revisit it at the 2/4 level since I truly believe that 5/10 Short limit games are ATM machines IF you can control yourself.

Veneno has told me I used to write more Poker strategy posts and now I just cry all the time. Probably true. However it is hard to advise other people when you are a LOSER. I used to have A LOT of confidence that you could build a bankroll and be successful at poker. Just play the correct way and everything will work out. I have lost a lot of that confidence and will need to really prove to myself that I can do it. I know certain bloggers are very good at making money playing poker. I used to think I was one of them. Now I feel like it remains to be seen.

Fun Fun Fun

God. Does my wife have to be so screwed up. I mean if she is paying a therapist I want my money back. I have this great idea today. Take the kid swimming. He said he wanted to play in the hose, and that just sucks, so I tell him we will go. Couple mins later the [c] walks in and goes and lectures me about him wanting to go now and not to get his hopes up. Blah blah blah. So I make sure I can find the place to go and she runs off to sell a house or something. Unfortunately she takes the car seat. So I can either call her with clients or take a small risk and drive him with a seat belt and not the car seat. Perhaps not the smartest move in the world but not like riding with him at the Indy 500. So we have a great time. He swims. Laughs. Tries the dog paddle. Very good efforts. I am very proud. Hell, he even does 1st grade math in kindergarten. Wonderful kid. So we get out of the pool and his mother is out in the parking lot in the car bawling her eyes out. Ok. I can understand being slightly upset, but what the hell? I mean he is fine. Nothing happened. Just like the 100,000,000 times I have driven before. Not something I want to do often but it was fine. She threatens to call the cops on me if I do this again. Yeah. Why don’t you do that? Your pretty good at it you [c]. I mean who the fuck screwed you up that much that you’re that afraid of your own shadow. So anyways. Needless to say I am not happy. Thanks for ruining another nice day with my son. It’s not like I have them all the time, so why nor ruin them for me.

Anyway.. ranting.. raving.. I know you are all used to it. I kind of am feeling like my flop with a gutshot straight draw and backdoor flush is coming down to Ace high on the river hoping nobody has the ,K,Q,J, 8 or 9 that is on the board. It is so hard when you have kids. The big [D] is going to be hard financially, emotionally, in every way. I know if we did not have the kids we would not still be together. The big question is what to do.

I have a lot of stuff tonight. We start with:

Moron. noun {C} INFORMAL a very stupid person:

I met one today. OMG was he a bad Poker player. On the bad side he calls my raise with A7o vs AK diamonds. I had pushed my stack up to 100 on a nice payoff with a set. The flop is A7x. With two diamonds. I bet the flop, he raises me a little, I call. Slightly loose. Whatever. So the diamond hits the turn. He pushes. I got the NUTS! I call. Of COURSE the river is a 7. So I am a moron. I always bet strong with the best hand and I ALWAYS (well almost always) lose. STUPID ME.

Hell, I just did it again while typing this. KQ s00ted. All in on the flop of K56, two hearts, in an MTT. I had low chips. AJo with a J of hearts calls me. Hits his heart and that’s it for me. MORON.

At least I met some nice guys at the first table. The moron gave me back a half of what he sucked out on me. I was a little angry. I kept calling him a moron. However, never let it be said I am not fair, I told him when I won back $25 more from him I would just call him stupid. Unfortunately he busted out twice before I could do that. So he is forever MORON.

I also used “The Move: to take a lot of cash from a guy who I respected somewhat. He was a decent player. He had a K high heart draw. I had the Ace high draw. I kept betting like $2, like I had a hand, and he kept trying to draw the K high flush. On the river the flush comes and I check it. I KNEW he was on the heart draw. Knew it. So he bets $3. I raised to $15 which is about the pot. He pushes and I have to try and stop him from crying. Actually he was a good sport. I made the comment that with the K high flush and me showing aggression that a re-raise of my $15 was not the best move. I think he should have called or folded. If someone is that aggressive when I am betting at them, I best have the NUTS.

On a more positive note I need to give congrats to Team Veneno! We rock at MTTs. Chief has made the money in several Freerolls and the 2/0. I believe he had a 6th or 7th place finish. I had the 5th place. Now the leader of our merry band has taken her rightful place at the head of the pack with a 3rd place finish in the 2/0 MTT! Way to go Veneno!

The SNG world has been up and down. I had 4 4th place finishes in 10/1’s and a 2nd in a 20/2. A couple firsts in 5/1’s. So far the 5/1 has been a pretty consistent money maker. I have changed my style. I used to bluff a lot and be a little loose. Now it is rare if I have played 6 hands by the 100 level. If so they were all good ones. Once it hits 100, I decide what to do next by how many are left, how many chips I have, and other things. Basically if I have won a battle and chipped up to 1500-1800 I usually just hand out a little and see what is going on. If I however have 600-700 then I look for an all in to carry me to the money. It seems to work well.

OMG! What is in the water? All in with an OESD draw? I had AK. K flop. She pushes all in. I call. She rivers a straight. Oh wait, she is a he. whoops. I hate that top Party Person.

Ug

Well.. My 2/0 experience tonight was pretty bad. I had 4K in chips. I get the excellent cowboys. I am like 100 from the mooonay. All 1.36 of it. So I push. The blinds were low enough that I did not have to. Unfortionatly for me I pushed against AA. Suck. Oh well. I am happy with my play.

I also got killed in a 5/1 SNG. Usual shit. Played two hands. AK s00ted. K5 S00ted calls my huge raise and catches a 5 on the flop. I then get my chips up to 1500 with 5-6 left. I have 99. I bet huge. She calls me again. The flop is ALL LOW CARDS, lower than a 9. I bet hard. She raises. I PUSH HER ALL IN, AAAAAND she calls. With? QTo of course. Anyone wanna guess what the river was?

My next one was even better. Everyone is checking down hands to the river. I catch a 5 for a set, and push, only to be called by 24o. Straight. Of course. Was not expecting that one.

6-MAX Again..

So I was playing 5/10 6-Max last night.. oh wait, I do not play 5/10 anymore. I forgot for a minute. I tried out the 25/NL 6-MAX last night, somewhat on tilt, and I liked it. I tried to find some passive tables. It is nice when every hand is not an all in decision. I ended up making about $100 profit. It is also nice when people buy in for $6 and go all in trying to double up with weak hands. I took several $5-$10 pots when people pushed there JJ's and 33's vs my KK's and 99's. The second call was kind of loose on my part, but it was based on a read of the player. He was playing weak hands extremely strong and I thought I was ahead.

I know 6-MAX has alot of variance (or can) but it was fun. I really killed a few people, and only got sucked out on once or twice. Glyphic showed up too. He was following me around like a stalker. Shh Glyph. Do not mention the 50/NL table. Shhhh. Anyhow, he is still out of country. Doing well. It was nice to see him again. I will let you know if the 6-MAX experiment keeps going well. I also played with Team Veneno. Joos and Veneno tried to do as well as me, but I ended up the champ. We were trash talking up a storm. It was excellent.

A day in the life

I have been playing NL again. If anyone wins at .50/1 limit let me know. I can not see how. Ten people in pre-flop. Anyone with a chance at a runner-runner anything plays to the river. No matter what strength you show nobody pays attention. Suckouts. Suckouts. Suckouts. I am trying to stop my knee jerk reactions in NL. They cost me too much. I made a nice laydown today. I had TT, he had JJ. He raised pre-flop. The flop was 742. He bet pot ($3). I raised double ($6). He pushed in. I folded. Nice fold. Not sure I always would have done that in the past. I am trying to be a good doobie. Somedays are easier than others. I think I should buy Super System

Oops. 2 pair vs a set of 2’s. hmm. Maybe I shoulda known? Oh well. Something to work on. Every wonder why blind hands get you in so much trouble, lol.

On the upside I have been crushing the 5/1 SNGs lately. I have in the last 10 games probably won 1st 4 times, 2nd 2 times, and 3rd once. I have Joos to thank. He said I was excellent at 5/1 SNGs according to some online poker DB. Something like 91% win ratio. I wanted to prove him wrong. DAMMIT!

And its off to the nightly 2/0..

Ug. Nasty night. Got blinded down. Made a couple bad calls. Went out before the first break. It has been a while since I did that. AJ vs AA doomed me. Oh well, I do this every night.

How many times..

How many times do my NUT boats, with a 6 high flush against me, have to be rivered by Straight Flushes when the guy is capping my bet the whole fucking way?

How many times must a boat spring a hole,
before you can blame party poker,
and how many times must your sets get rivered,
before you can blame party poker

the answer my friends,
is blowing in the algorithm,
the answer is blowing in the algorithm

The Power of Positive Thinking

I am playing limit. I have Q5. The flop is J45 with two diamonds and this thought comes to my head. Every time I see two diamonds I envision a third one to ruin my hand. It always comes. Why not think good thoughts. A queen will hit the turn. No diamonds. There’s no place like home.. there’s no place like home.. and WALLA! A two of diamonds on the turn. Sir-F indeed.

Some good content..

If you want some good reading on the World Series of Poker read the following excellent coverage:

World Series of Poker Live blog

World Series of Poker

World Series of Poker News

World Series of Poker Podcast

You [Insert explicitive here]!

Well I started another run of MTT wins with a 1.60 victory in the 2/0! Woo hoo! I am VERY disappointed by my finish though. I started out with AA and KK doubling me up twice. Not much more you can ask for than that! I finished with KQ s000ted and the flop come Qxx with two spades. So I bet hard. The turn is nothing. I know the [Insert C word here] is on a flush draw. I know for sure. How? I am very good. I am so good it hurts. So I put her in for the rest of her stack. Like you are suppose to do, right? Read above. I am good. So she of course calls, rivers the spade, cripples me, and I go out shortly after. It is hard to play so well, have a large stack, make a great read, make the right play, and be made to pay for it. Oh well.. nobody said Poker was easy.

I have about a $235 roll now. I bough back in for $200 and got a bonus. Played a few MTTs, a little up, a little down. I think I am going to stick to the 2/0 and 5/1 SNGs and the .50/1 limit game. Playing pretty solid poker I guess. Nothing bad to report.

Went out for ice cream with the kids today. That was cool. Got a really nice card from my son too. I can not help thinking that life is never as good as when your young though. I mean cmon. The first three Star Wars or the last three? Peppermint Ice Cream was aewsome! Chocolate. MMM! Does not compare now. Are we destined to wear everything out and have life become a faded image of what it used to be? Is there some Magical Paint to restore the color? Or are we left to self medicate ourselves with Booze and Weed and hope that things will be fine? Ahh well.. whatever.. does it really matter in the long run?

New Dork Times Best Sellers List?

Poker. How aptly named. Red Hot Poker up your ass. Fun for a boy and a girl. Oops, did I say that out loud. Oh well. I am on a semi-hiatus right now. I want to play a live game to see what it is like. For the most part though I am just going to hang out and take some time off. Sorry for the lack of posting. I have just not had much to write about. I am thinking of turning this blog into a book. It seems like a cool idea. I could name it “A Year in the Life of an Internet Poker Player”. People tell me they enjoy reading this trash so it might be fun. Hell, it has all the components of a good book except one. It has Intrigue, Suspense, Pain, Loss, Joy, Winning, Strife. The only missing part is the good guy winning in the end. American’s hate a sad ending. Although when it is a true story we do tend to like peeping in and feeling superior. I really have no idea how one goes about getting published and I will probably lose interest fairly quickly but it could happen. I could then say “I made money playing Poker”. Now that would be cool.

Your are now entering a dimension..

The exceptions to the laws of statistics are fascinating. I had two examples where statistics just went out the door this week and chaos reined supreme. The first one I was sweating Veneno in a 350K qualifier. Now the people who play these tend not to be too bright. One example of this early on is Veneno has AK clubs. Turn brings four clubs, no scary cards, our opponent bets into us, and I think, judging by the size of his bet, and how bad he is, that he has nothing. So I tell Veneno to push with A high nothing. Put the guy all in. Make him crack under pressure. She does it and he thinks. For a very long time. He calls. He turns KQ for K high nothing and a gutshot straight draw. She rivered the flush so we were ok anyways.

Shortly after we took a nice pot from a sucker. He got chipped down to about 2K by betting into our NUT hand. Anyway he then proceeds to make a pact with the devil and goes all in seven times in a row, winning every hand, and chipping up to 40K. People had him dead to rights. High pockets against his crap. AK vs KT. He always spiked the winning cards, be it a straight on the river, or a T to beat out AK. He was unstoppable. Welcome to the twilight zone.

Tonight I was trying to play tight. Empire gave me $25 for free, so I figured I would play extra solid and see what happened. I was getting a little bored, so I started watching the cards falling. I swear to you twenty hands in a row two straight cards fell, and the turn was the card needed to make the straight. As a matter of fact a few times the river made runner-runner straights. I mentioned this to the table:

Sir: Did you notice that the last twenty hands were all possible straights and the last twenty turns made the straights.

Stupid fish were not paying attention.. so silence.

Sir: Flop T93, I guarantee the next card is a 8,J, or Q

The next card was an 8 as a matter of fact. When my next prediction was wrong I typed

Sir: It must know I know it is putting all straights on the board

The next flop was TJ.Q

Sir: It is just messing with me now!

Anyhow.. it is kind of funny how statistical anomalies can bubble and cause weird things to happen.

Same Ole

I figured out what I do wrong in Poker. I always get all my money in with the best hand. See if I bet small then Party Poker would let me win, because it would not hurt enough. I call it the PP Pain Factor. The equation is (best hand * most money in) = worse suckout.

On the good side, I keep tilting, and running into readers-and-or-bloggers where I should not be. I was playing a 50/SNG and ran into a reader. I then played a 100/NL another night and ran into the Guiness swilling dwarven one. It was a blast. He was kind of mad the table was so tight so he kept raising with crap and showing. It loosened up nicely after that. It just goes to show it’s not the cards, it is how you play them. Having no fear helps a lot too.

I have been staying up way tooo late playing Poker with Joos, Chief and Yo. I have a headset now. Yahoo! Chat is pretty cool. We help each other a lot in the MTTs. A lot of the game there is being patient, and when your having good conversation that helps.

My MTT streak of wins for two weeks ended. Oh well. Easy come, easy go. I will have to start another streak.

I lost most of my cash on Party: AA and KK finished me off. Yes I had them. Yes I raised them a lot. Yes I got called by A6o and A5o and yes I lost. I think more in frustration than anything else.

That is Mr. Bubble Boy to you!

Bubble boy in the 5K last night. Stupid. Stupid. Play. I had AQo. I was tired. It was 6AM. I was 57th, I had 7 to go until the money. I did not want to bubble out and yet I did not want to laydown my AQ. So in my sleepy stupor I figured limping and calling an All-In would be the way to go. Umm.. No. Started out well enough. He flips K2o I flip AQo. Then the turn is a K and the River is a K and I am out in 57th place. Oh well. I beat 2463 people. I guess that counts for something. A little tired of being bubble boy though. If I had won that hand I would have had 50K and a great shot at the final table. Alas, as my Talking Poker footer says: I hate Poker.. and Poker Hates me.

SO ANGRY

14K CHIPS
13 TO MONEY
KK. 2K PRE-FLOP RAISE.
AJ CALLS.
J FLOP.
I PUSH ALL IN.
AJ CALLS.
OF COURSE HE RIVERS HIS A.
OF COURSE.
WHY NOT.
IT
ALWAYS
HAPPENS.
AGGRESSION IS DUMB.
PARTY POKER
PLAYERS
ARE
TOO
DUMB
TO FOLD.
SO MAD.

Wacky, Wild, World

After last night I am beginning to think that anything can happen and usually will at party poker. I have had 3-2 Outers against me, seen two quad hands in one SNG, including one where the hand was QQ vs AA and the flop was Qxx the turn A the river Q! LMAO! I mean what are the odds against all these things happening in a year let alone three days. The fates conspire and anything can happen. Statistics are only good along a HUGE time sample and any give hour or day any unlikely thing will happen. Fun. At least I am still on a decent streak. Keeping around $300. Having fun.

ChiefTokem Shoots and Scores!

First off Congrats to BigChiefTokem on his 8th place finish in the 2/0 MTT. If he had listened to me more he might have finished 5th like me. Ha! Just kidding Chief, you did goot! Of course I am dragging at work now. The whole crew was there for a while, Joos, Veneno and I. Only the Chief made the money this time though. In a weird fluke he was placed at my table for about 5 hands.

I wanted to amend my guidelines a little bit. When I was talking about how many chips you should accumulate each break it was very general. I mean if your on that pace then good. It makes the rest of the game easier. If not, do not panic. All you really need to do is stay enough ahead of the blinds to let you see a few limping hands. Once the blinds catch you, it becomes all in or nothing, and sometimes you need to go all in with weak hands. Not much fun, and eventually it will catch up to you. I am still enjoying the MTT circuit and briefly went up over $300 in my bankroll last night. I fell back to $288 when my KK crushed a JJ but in turn was crushed by AA. Blah. I actually got a little annoyed by the AA player. He waits 2-3 minutes before calling my all in. I hate to tell you people, but just play the game. There are standards in the Poker rule and doing crap like that is un-cool. Intentionally slowing the game down or adding “Drama” is for morons and jerkoffs. I hope he loses his whole bankroll. I can teach him how if he wants.

I want to keep my MTT streak alive. I have placed ITM in 5 MTTs in the past two weeks. I would like to keep it going this week. We shall see if I am able to. I really feel my game has gone to another level though and I have a shot. Wish me luck.

I am the King

What a fun night. Yours truely finally made a nice score. Unfortionatly it comes on the heels of a bad week. Tilt boy strikes again. I will never learn. SO basically after 2-3 bad days I went on tilt. I put my last 100 on a 100/NL table. Hit a 40 buck win against a tool. Very next hand. I have Pocket Kings. I bet huge. The flop is 7xx. I go all in. I am ahead. I know it. He calls. Turns over J7o. YES! I am going to double up and get my bankroll back to sweety niceness. Turn junk. Of course the river is a 7. Of course. So in disgust I leave with my last 40. I bring that down to 20. Wipe that out on 5/1 SNGs somehow. I have 2 bucks left.

I enter the 2/0 NLHE with my last two bucks. I also entered the 1250 Party Points Freeroll and 5K Party Freeroll. Now for those of you with little money and who like to play MTTS, these are great. There is a 1$ 0 rake and a 2$ 0 rake contest. Every day. First prize is a nice 900 bucks. So if you have no roll go for it. Needless to say I did well. 2000 Entrants. 5th Place. Who your daddy! The other freerolls I never caught. The hand I went out on was interesting though. AJs. I bet 30K. Get called. The flop is 89T. Now I am pretty sure I am good. If I am not then I have a good draw. So I push 140K. The blinds are 15K. I get called. by one guy. He flips A7o. I was ecstatic. I made a move. I was ahead. I am the king. Until the 6 falls on the river. WOW! Damn! Out in 5th. I think it was the right move though. The dummy who called me ended up winning the whole thing. Like I say, I always make freaking aewsome reads with weak hands, and get sucked out on by morons. Anyway, if you can not tell, I am a little frustrated.

Thanks to Veneo and Gordo for sweating me until 6AM. The bankroll is back up to 200 with that MTT win btw. I also thank Surflex for sweating me for a few hands. I love when my readers come by, say hi, we adore you, and then leave me to play. lol. I am getting very good at these low level MTTs. 5 Finishes ITM in the last 2 weeks. I really enjoy the challenges they pose. Felicia was probably right again that I am more made for MTTs. Hmm. Will she ever be wrong?

One Year

Wow. A year. I actually have 23 more days until my official year so you guys can find a really nice birthday present. I remember when I started playing Poker. So wide eyed and excited about the easy money. Man have things changed. I think I have a more realistic view, if not a better outlook towards the game. The very first post. A declaration of my goals for my game.

I decided to start playing online poker for several reasons.

A. It is fun. The excitement when you call all in is amazing. You never know if your hand is really going to win, and as those cards start appearing, your heart starts racing, the endorphins kick in, it is a real rush!
B. It seems easy. Watching on television, and then playing in free tournaments online it seemed very easy to win. Before I ever picked up a book and tried to figure out how to play, I was winning in free tournaments.
C. You can make money. I am still trying to get to the point where it would be profitable. I will keep everyone posted as to my win/loss state as I progress in the game, but I think you can make decent amounts of money online.

Jeeze what a gambooler. Lol. Man how things have changed too. It’s less fun. It’s not easy. I am still not sure if I ever will make any money playing this game. Who knew that people would actually be reading the blog back then. I went around to all the good guys, the Iggs and Paulies of the world and scrounged up links, and slowly, but surely, build up a small loyal following. Thanks Guys!

Saturday June26th: Over 175 now
After hovering around 140 for a while, I finally had a good day. Pushed myself up to $175 playing 5/1 tourney. I seem to do well in these. I have finished 3 1st, 1 3rd, and a few out in the last few days. I am going to move up to $10 for a hand or two. Try and take some bigger pots.

Wow. I am back there again. I have about 196 online. It somehow doesn’t seem as exciting.Once you have had a stack it is hard to go back. Can you see the patterns even back then. Good Night. Yay. Bad Night. Blah. Up/Down/Up/Down. It is amazing I ever made any money at poker.

Thursday July22nd: My First MTT Win
Ran down the river. Some bad calls. Had trips against A5 straight. Went out at 3AM. 3rd Place. $225. Not too shabby for a free roll. I think I did the Bloggers proud!

This is one of my biggest scores in an MTT so far. It was a limit MTT and it was a freebie. Almost half the field never showed up so I ran up a 10K chip lead before I have to play anyone. Very nice! Anyway I played well and won. It was a lot of fun. You should really read July if you have not. MUCHO TILT TALK. Man. Not too much has changed either. Lol. Oh well. Whatcha gonna do.

Tuesday August 3rd: Royal Straight Flush

I do not get many of these. Actually two in probably over 100,000 hands of Poker. I may have played more. Not sure of the exact numbers. A lot of the time these do not pay off. Make sure you ask for the Party Poker Royal Flush Club Hat. LMAO!

Sunday August 1st First Bustout

This is fun to read. There is nothing worse than busting out. It usually happens after an all night bender, or late into the night. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth and you keep smacking yourself mentally. Why did I do that? I am getting a little more used to it as I have gone through three rolls to date. When I busted out my first roll I learned my lesson. For a very long time. However, eventually, it came back. The first roll had gotten to about 1200 at one point. Very nice stack. I recently busted out another 1200 stack. However that one only took a few weeks to make. I had a nice NL run ending in a horrible one. Nice. The first one definitely hurt more. The first one really got me to play within my means. Too bad it didn’t last.


Friday December 11th: MTT Score
Well.. I think I was abandoned by all the Bloggers. I finished 4th place in the 5K guarenteed tourney. Pay day: $450. Minus Glyphs cut. I was 4th place with 50K left. I had a flush draw and decided to go all in. I did this mostly because I was tired and was not thinking. I really needed someone there to keep me focused.


You bastards! Heh. A very nice finish for me. I think this actually is my second best win in an MTT. However it could be the top score. I now have Gordo and Joos and even YosoyVeneno to keep me company at my final tables. It makes a big difference.

Friday January 28th, 2005-06-03
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.


This is the big one. The huge bustout. Wow. Still hurts. I am not sure I am totally past it. I think so. It would be so nice having 3K now though. Oh well. This is what going up levels and trying to win quicky buys you. I am not sure if I can ever get to the point where the winning does not matter. I am way too competitive or something. I hate to lose. It effects my game in a lot of little ways. Calling bets when I know I am beat just to see. Wild swings sometimes. A lot of things. Who know’s if I will ever overcome these short comings and actually be a serious player. I will have to wait and see.

I have probably blown over 5K in bankrolls in a year. Not bad! It HAS to be a record. However I have also made over 5K in bankrolls. With the exception of a few Bloggers I believe this also could be a record. On the good side of things I have only invested $300 cash in the whole thing. So I am basically dead break even over a year. Not too bad for a year of entertainment.

Oh yeah, the name thing.

Sir: Met a chick (probably a 12 year old boy) on Empire poker back in the play money table days. Her name was Lady Somethingorother, so when I switched to Party with her I changed my name to Sir.
FWA: My Clan from the old Quake Days. Fraggers With Attitude. John came up with it. Lame ass. BTW: A frag is a kill in Quake.
LGMan: The Lone Gunman. Sniper of the team. Nothing better in Quake:Team Fortress then lining up that red dot on someone’s head and pulling the trigger. Man did I love that game!

So you’re all probably disappointed but at least it really does have some meaning. It’s been a crazy year. The best part is all the people I feel I know through the blog. The worst part is probably the Poker, lol. The jury is still out on your good pal Sir and we shall see. We shall see.

Not da Bubble Boy

Well another MTT money finish. Geek why didn’t you tell me this is so easy? Lol. It was a cheap finish. I placed 30th in the 1250 Freeroll. Only 30 paid. I beat out Hot_Cock for the honor of not being bubble boy. Unfortunately I had about 9K left after that and ohhhhh 9K worth of blinds with three hands to go. So I had to settle for QTo, push, and hope. Nope. I won a whole 12.50 too. Woo hoo! Otherwise last night was kind of crappy. I do not think I had a lot of patience. Oh well. Tonight I sleep and tomorrow night I play again! I almost forgot too, it has been a year of Blogging I believe so I owe a nice post and the origin of my name.

The Great Blackout of 2005

Wow! All of the Party Skins down in one night. Nice. I got kind of angry about that. However it happens. It would have been nice to have played in my tourney last night but whatever. Are we going to be talking about this as the great Party Poker blackout of 2005?

So what am I really steamed about? Party Poker. They refunded my money for the hand I was in when I became trapped. It was cool. I appreciate that. Thanks guys. I then inquired about my Party Points. I earn these points as a loyal Party Poker player who hits their tables every night. My question:

From: SirFWALGMan
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I am somewhat upset by last nights server events. I lost .50 cents in the hand I was in. Not a huge deal. The cards started dealing, I called a small raise, and the server hangs. Again, not a huge deal. The other thing that is upsetting is that I signed up for the 1250 Freeroll and basically lost the 200+ or so Party Points because the server went down and I was never able to even play a hand in the tourney. It would be a nice gesture to refund at least the entry party points if not more for my trouble. Anyway, as someone who plays almost every day I am sure you will make good on your problems.
=======================

The response was totally unacceptable. Up to this point they have done nothing to make me happy. I work hard for my Party Points and if I can not participate in a tourney that I spent hard earned points on because there server died they MUST do something to make good.

From: Party Poker
=======================
Dear Sir,

Thank you for contacting us.

With regards to your concern of refunding the party points, I would like to inform you that the party points cannot be refunded as the system automatically adds points to your account.

Hence, we cannot add the points manually to your account.

Note: Please do not disclose your password to any individual/organization claiming to represent us. We will never ask you for the password to your account. If you receive any email or phone call from anyone requesting you to provide your password please report it to us immediately.

Our Customer Care Department is available 24/7 to assist you via email.

Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!

Jayant
Poker Customer Care
=======================

So I guess that I might just be joining team Stars or Full Tilt in the near future.

From: SirFWALGMan
=======================
Ok, So basically you are telling me that as a loyal customer who plays every day you are ripping me off. Thanks. I really appreciate it. I know that Full Tilt and Stars will appreciate my business more so than you.

Oh and by the way, you can read about my dissatisfaction with your service on my Blog. It is www.sirFWALGMan.blogspot.com. It only gets 200-300 hits a day, but I am sure my readers will be happy to know how Party Poker likes to rip off it's loyal players.
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Oh and btw, I am a fair Blogger. If they do SOMETHING to make good on this then I will print it here immediatly. I am sure they could do alot of things, anything from giving me a free bonus to entering me into a Freeroll to any number of nice things that would make me feel like they care. Right now I feel used.