Saturday, March 31, 2007

Royal Flush

Second one ever.

PokerStars Cash game, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit, 6 players
Hand History Converted at http://www.talkingpoker.com/hh

SB: $28.40
BB: $28.55
HERO (UTG): $23.30
MP: $5.50
CO: $15.45
Button: $37.10

SB posts Small Blind $0.1
BB posts Big Blind $0.25

Pre-flop: Ad Jd ($0.35)
HERO raises to $0.95
MP folds
CO calls $1
Button calls $1
SB folds
BB folds

Flop: Qd As Td ($3.3)
HERO bets $2.2
CO calls $2.2
Button folds

Turn: Qd As Td Kd ($7.7)
HERO checks
CO checks

River: Qd As Td Kd 4c ($7.7)
HERO bets $4.7
CO calls $4.7

CO shows Ks Js
HERO wins $16.50 with a Royal Flush

Monday, March 26, 2007

Neteller News

Well, this article was just posted on the Talking Poker forum. It looks like Canadians will no longer be able to use Neteller to fund gambling sites.

It sucks a little. I had pulled all my money out of Neteller (because of the US issue), but I kept them around as they were the easiest way to move money from site to site. I doubt I will play anywhere but Pokerstars now, but the hard part is how do I withdraw my money and put it back into my bank account? Ok, maybe this sucks more than a little.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Good Cash Game

Rob and I hosted our monthly home game today. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to work until midnight, so I wasn't in for the tournament, but the cash game was still running so I joined that.

I was quite surprised by the play this month. Typically, it's just call, call, call, min bet, min bet, min bet and then showdown. This time, there were quite a few hefty raises and actual laydowns. I decided to donk it up a bit since it was just a $10NL game, and was calling with any suited cards or any paint. I got all in with a weak hand and knew I was behind and ended up with only 40 cents left. I then push with K2s and catch a flush and triple my stack. I get short again, and go all in dark for 60 cents total. I didn't look at my cards until the river when all of us still in showed. Surprisingly, I had ended up with a pretty decent hand--I had A5o and had caught two pair. I built my stack up and get all in on the flop with a pair of Kings, Jack kicker. Brett calls me with a 7 high flush draw--he too was donking it up and he usually does for the cash games. He doesn't complete his flush but catches his two pair instead--sevens and threes. Yuck. Anyway, the game doesn't last too much longer and I end up only down about a buck. It seems Jeff made the best of the cash game and he walked away with over $20.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

I'm out.

Out in 384th. My AA was no good against 47s--he was of course defending his blind and hit. Bah! Well, I paid a total of $15.30 for the tournament and 384 was good for $27.58. So a small profit.

Sick Hand

Ok, I had to post this. It's from the tournament.

PokerStars Tournament game, buy-in $3.00+0.30, Level XIII $1000/$2000 No Limit, 9 players
Hand History Converted at http://www.talkingpoker.com/hh

SB: T$17930
BB: T$21115
UTG: T$60514
UTG+1: T$25518
MP1: T$37745
MP2: T$91635
HERO (MP3): T$73945
CO: T$39936
Button: T$38870

Players post T$100 ante
SB posts Small Blind T$1000
BB posts Big Blind T$2000

Pre-flop: 5c 3d (T$3900)
UTG raises to T$6000
UTG+1 calls T$6000
MP1 folds
MP2 folds
HERO folds
CO raises to T$39836
Button folds
SB folds
BB folds
UTG raises to T$60414
UTG+1 calls T$19418

Flop: Qd Kh Js ($129568)

Turn: Qd Kh Js Qh (T$129568)

River: Qd Kh Js Qh Jd (T$129568)

CO shows Kc Ac
UTG shows Ad Jh
UTG+1 shows Qc As
UTG wins T$28836 with a full house Jacks full of Queens
UTG+1 wins T$80154 with a full house Queens full of Jacks

$3.30R $10000 Guaranteed

First attempt at a serious rebuy. I just made it to the money at the $10k guaranteed at Pokerstars. I'm sitting in 47/588 right now. I will update once the tourney is done on how I did, I just don't want to jinx it.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Bonus Cleared

I actually cleared the bonus at UB. It was long and tedious and the play at $2 and $10NL is awful, but that helped me make a few bucks along the way as well. I've withdrawn all my money from there and will be putting it on Stars, I don't plan on doing much more bonus whoring, I have a decent enough 'roll now and grinding has been getting to me the last little bit. Maybe I should take some more money out of my account and find a few more Wii games to buy and focus on playing those instead.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

LOL at Paranoia

I recently stumbled on this article about online poker being rigged. Wow. I have no background on how legitimate this site is for "learning" poker, but seriously how paranoid can you get?

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Trip Report

So last night Rob, Adam and Jason and I headed towards Strathroy for a NL hold'em tournament that Adam heard about. After about a 40 minute drive it was clear it wasn't quite in strathroy and to be honest, I have no idea where we were. It was definitely an out of the way town especially since I had never heard of the place before.

We took two cars, Rob and I followed Adam and Jason. Jason was the cellphone contact as Adam was the only one who knew how to get there. And when we pulling into the drive of what was probably a farm, I said to Rob, "You know, if Adam is actually a serial killer, this is the perfect place to lead us to." We park and Adam leads us into a barn/shed. It probably at one point held a lot of farm equipment but was mostly cleared out except for the tables and chairs for all who were going to play.

The buy-in is $26+4 (we think). From what I gathered from Adam, it was a "charity" tournament for the local Optimus Club. It really wasn't clearly advertised what the rake was, so we have no idea how much the real buy-in was. In fact, it wasn't a very organized tournament; it was more like a very big home game.

The blind structure and chip counts kinda sucked. They started the blinds and 1/2 and then doubled them every 20 minutes(for the most part, there were a couple stages where it wasn't a double). And we only started with 150 chips. Definitely not a structure I'm used to. There were 30 players and 4 ended up paying out. First was a cool $312.

It was slow for the game to start. Everyone seemed to know everyone else--if they weren't related--so there was a lot of chatting and catching up on news before everyone was ready to play. When we did get going, Jason and I ended up at the same table and Rob and Adam were at two others. The best way to describe the play is "LOL, donkaments!"

It was bad; it was worse than the play at our home game. Everyone at the table would limp in. Although, if there were raises, it still didn't thin the field, it just sweetened the pot. The betting typically consisted of min bets, ocassionally someone would bet 2XBB but that was rare. And if they had an Ace in their hand, that was good enough to call down to the river. So, my strategy was to wait. I didn't want to get into to many pots with so many players. It was tough though, because of the blinds, waiting also meant worrying about being short stacked. As well, if I was in the BB or SB and I hit TP or better, I was staying until the river as my hand was likely good.

I really didn't have a choice about waiting for hands, though. I was not getting very good cards either way. So I folded and folded and folded. Blinds are about 5/10 and I look down and see TT. My stack is so-so, so I decide to make a hefty raise and re-evaluate on the flop. I get two callers and the flop is 34Q rainbow. The only thing I am afraid of is a queen so I push and hope neither player has one. One calls and one folds. When she flips her cards I'm happy to see A7o. The turn is a 5 and I'm now dreading a 6 on the river, but I hold up when it's just a seven. I scoop the pot and I'm good for a couple more blind increases.

My friend, Jason, is eliminated shortly after that and as he is busted he says to me "I hate the Mooney tables." Mooney is the worst player at our home game. I nod to Jason in agreement as I'm a little frustrated as well.

Part way into the 10/20 blind stage, I looked down to see KK in the BB. Time to make a move, I need to get more chips if I want to get to the final table let alone to the money. The whole table limps in, so I push. Everyone folds except for one caller. He flips A6o. I laugh and just feel an ace coming since I do have the kiss of death. Amazingly, my hand holds up.

Later, I double up a short stack when my TT ran into her QQ. Then next hand I call another all in with AKo and he flips QQ again. I'm beginning to hate the ladies. I end up lucking out and the two of us split the pot when the board made a straight.

During these hands, Adam goes broke and then later I see Rob come by my table so he's out as well. It's up to me now to represent.

Finally, the "tournament director" yells out that we will be going on break and after break we will be at final table! Blinds will also start at 20/40. I count my chips and I'm hurting. I have just under 200 chips. Once the game was one again, I check the chip stacks at the table there are 8 of us and only one other player is as desperate as I am. I was definitely going to have to push with any type of good holdings.

First hand is dealt and I'm UTG. I check and see QQ. Perfect, I'm sure to get a caller with this hand, so I push my stack in. Nope, everyone folds. Okay, the ladies really are a crappy hand for me tonight. In the BB I check and see 94 both spades. Sigh, with 60 chips coming off my stack this and the next hand, I'm not likely the looks of how things are going. So before the flop is dealt, everyone but one person limps in. As the cards are dealt, I see spade, then spade and finally a third spade. I flopped a flush. Not a great one, but it's all I have, when it's my turn to act, I push my stack to the center again. I get one caller again and when he flips his cards, my tournament is over. His K3 of spades, makes his King high flush better than mine. My only hope is a runner runner for a straight flush. It doesn't happen and I end out in 8th place.

I head over to where Rob and Jason are and the three of us wait until Adam finishes playing a Sit and Go that had started up. His game ends and he tells us he finished in first, so at least one of us were able to leave with a small profit.