Jesus Fuck!

This thing is driving me insane. Check out these hands.

My bustout hand:

PokerStars Game #18557702993: Tournament #94328712, $1.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2008/07/03 - 15:39:39 (ET)
Table '94328712 2' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: cattaraoul (4690 in chips)
Seat 2: N1kita (1180 in chips)
Seat 3: googootz (1645 in chips)
Seat 6: tieske77 (1390 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 7: lordofthee (730 in chips)
Seat 8: D Mave (1595 in chips)
Seat 9: 250615 (2270 in chips)
N1kita: posts small blind 25
googootz: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to N1kita [Js Jd]
tieske77: folds
lordofthee: folds
D Mave: folds
250615: calls 50
cattaraoul: calls 50
N1kita: raises 350 to 400
googootz: calls 350
250615: folds
cattaraoul: folds
*** FLOP *** [9s 2d 5s]
N1kita: bets 780 and is all-in
googootz: calls 780
N1kita said, "omg"
*** TURN *** [9s 2d 5s] [Ks]
N1kita said, "nh"
*** RIVER *** [9s 2d 5s Ks] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
N1kita: shows [Js Jd] (a pair of Jacks)
googootz: shows [9h 2h] (two pair, Nines and Deuces)
googootz collected 2460 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2460 | Rake 0
Board [9s 2d 5s Ks Ac]
Seat 1: cattaraoul (button) folded before Flop
Seat 2: N1kita (small blind) showed [Js Jd] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 3: googootz (big blind) showed [9h 2h] and won (2460) with two pair, Nines and Deuces
Seat 6: tieske77 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: lordofthee folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: D Mave folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: 250615 folded before Flop


The hand two before it:


PokerStars Game #18557625378: Tournament #94328712, $1.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2008/07/03 - 15:36:31 (ET)
Table '94328712 2' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: cattaraoul (1040 in chips)
Seat 2: N1kita (1655 in chips)
Seat 3: googootz (1645 in chips)
Seat 4: bluegill23 (1095 in chips)
Seat 6: tieske77 (1390 in chips)
Seat 7: lordofthee (730 in chips)
Seat 8: D Mave (3350 in chips)
Seat 9: 250615 (2595 in chips)
250615: posts small blind 25
cattaraoul: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to N1kita [Kc Kd]
N1kita: raises 150 to 200
googootz: folds
bluegill23: folds
tieske77: folds
tieske77 is sitting out
lordofthee: folds
D Mave: calls 200
250615: folds
cattaraoul: calls 150
*** FLOP *** [Ts 6s 9h]
cattaraoul: bets 50
N1kita: raises 525 to 575
D Mave: calls 575
cattaraoul: raises 265 to 840 and is all-in
N1kita: calls 265
D Mave: calls 265
*** TURN *** [Ts 6s 9h] [Ks]
N1kita: bets 615 and is all-in
D Mave: calls 615
*** RIVER *** [Ts 6s 9h Ks] [2s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
N1kita: shows [Kc Kd] (three of a kind, Kings)
D Mave: shows [6d 6h] (three of a kind, Sixes)
N1kita collected 1230 from side pot
cattaraoul: shows [As 8s] (a flush, Ace high)
cattaraoul collected 3145 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4375 Main pot 3145. Side pot 1230. | Rake 0
Board [Ts 6s 9h Ks 2s]
Seat 1: cattaraoul (big blind) showed [As 8s] and won (3145) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 2: N1kita showed [Kc Kd] and won (1230) with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 3: googootz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: bluegill23 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: tieske77 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: lordofthee folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: D Mave (button) showed [6d 6h] and lost with three of a kind, Sixes
Seat 9: 250615 (small blind) folded before Flop


If my hands would just hold up, I would be killing these games. I'm pretty sure I'm playing well over all, it's just my opponents play is utterly ridiculous, but I'm not lucky enough to make it to the money. I'm tired of the micro stakes. I want to move up, but right now my bankroll is at $113.38.

See-Saw

First off, the Toronto Zoo was amazing. One of the exhibits lets you pet stingrays. That was one of the coolest things I have ever done. They were soft and squishy.

So I was up and down with the bankroll today. I would play HU be able to move up and then not make the money. Then repeat. So time for update.

Games Played - ITM - Net:
5 $1.20 18 man - 1 - $-4.20
4 $1.75 18 man - 0 - $-7 (I know, not $1.20s, but these are turbos so they are faster to play and I've been sticking a few of these in when I'm short on time.)
2 $5.25 HU - 2 - $9.50

Total Bankroll: $113.93

I Thought I Knew How To Play Poker

Total Bankroll: $110.88

Enough said.

Another Kind of Play Time

I didn't play any poker today. I took my two boys to Storybook Gardens today. If you don't know what that is, just google it, it'll probably show up near the top of the list.

We had a blast. Looked at a few animals, went on one ride--they had age restrictions and my oldest was only able to go on the one. Then splash pad time! We lathered on the sunscreen all day, but the back of my neck is still beat red.

This week-end the family is going to the Toronto Zoo, so I will try and get some more poker in tomorrow as I probably won't play any on Saturday or Sunday.

Bad Day

The 9 man SNGs are sending me into super donkey tilt. I've never been sucked out on so much. Hands like my AT vs A9 no good, my AJ vs AT no good, my KK vs QQ no good (well this one is a no brainer).

Games Played - ITM - Net:
3 $3.25 45 man - 0 - $-9.75
3 $6.50 9 man - 0 - $-19.50
3 $6.50 6 man - 2 - $16.50
1 $11 9 man - 0 - $-11.00

Total Bankroll: $135.93

I Should Update

But I'm tired and I'm heading to bed soon. Nothing really exciting happened anyway, I was up some and down some. My total bankroll right now is $159.68.

Shoot Me Now

Apparently, I have lost the ability to play SNGs. Or this is just the cruel joke of variance. Either way, my fucking god, I want it to end. I've had to move down--for real, not because I'm reading the board wrong. Look at those beautiful stats, those ITMs are all 3rds.

Games Played - ITM - Profit:
5 $6.50 9 max - 0 - $-32.50
5 $11 9 max - 3 - $-1.00

Total Bankroll: $160.88

Hopefully, once I work my way back up I can start winning again, otherwise I'm stuck in an endless loop. It'll just be like banging my head against the wall. I still have to laugh though, before I started this challenge, I was running a 26% ROI on the $6.50 9 man turbos (this is from the 151 games tracked in my PT).

I'm Dumb

I've been over $200 in my bankroll a couple times, and I don't know why, but I was thinking that meant I had to play the $11 or less 9 max square. But that square FINISHES at a bankroll of $200! I was playing those SNGs unnecessarily. This really sucks too, because I've been running bad at them and now I'm back below $200. Urgh!

I'll quickly update, but I'm going to try and get a few more games in today. Also, I've been looking at the board, the next square I play is the $11 90 man KOs, which is on Tilt. I've been playing this on Stars as I am broke on Tilt (boy do I run bad there). I like KO tournies, but I don't want to play both Stars and Tilt. I will have to substitute a different game that I can play on Stars.

Games Played - ITM - Profit:
1 $6.50 6 max - 1 - $16.90
2 $6.50 9 max - 0 - $-13.00

Total Bankroll: $194.38

Suck-out City

No online poker yet today, but I did play live last night. Of course, it was just our monthly home game.

I ended up busting out of the tournament 6th, so no points that way, but I did have two kills so some points there. Good thing, because Brett is in second for the overall league and he came in 3rd to start catching up to my 1st place in the league.

The cash game was awesome last night. At one point, there were 10 of us at the table--it was very crowded. I started out well early, doubling my buy-in, then later losing most of it too Mooney. I will have to admit, Mooney is developing a LAGgy style that is beginning to work for him. He's starting to place high in the tournaments and last month, he made about $100 at the cash game.

Anyway, it gets to the end of the night, most of the people had left and we still had 5 people playing cash, but it was pretty much everyone's last hand. For the last two hands, Mooney had been going all in dark. Since, I only had a few bucks left in front of me, I decided to do the same.

So the hand is dealt, I'm UTG, the guy to my left folds, then it's Mooney, already all in, then it's Jeff, since he's the SB and he's up against two random hands, he calls, then Brett in the BB states he's all in too! Wow, this is turning into a crazy hand. Jeff calls, since most of his chips were already in the pot. I had 94s, I forget Mooney's hand, Jeff had something like Q9s and Brett? He had AA! What a hand to get at just the right moment.

The board is dealt and we are all laughing. My suit was spades, I get two on the flop, either Jeff or Mooney pair, the turn is blank, then the river.........another spade!!!! I burst out laughing, I was expecting to go broke and I come away from the end of the night with a good profit. Since I was short, there was a side pot, so Brett didn't lose too much with his AA as his hand held up against the other two.

Poker night is always a blast and this was another great night with a funny ending. We are looking forward to next month's. It's our BBQ too and we will be switching the game from freezeout to $2 rebuy. We are expecting a bigger prize pool than normal. Let's hope I win that and get closer to a lock on first for the league. :)

Saturdays Are Busy

Rob's work was having a BBQ today, so we spent most of our time there. Plus Saturdays are grocery day. That means, not much poker played. But still there's a small update.

Games Played - ITM - Profit:
2 $6.50 6 max - 2 - $23.00

Total Bankroll: $190.48

Let the Running Bad Begin

Haha. I knew it couldn't last. So I was playing both $11 and $6.50 9 max games today. It didn't go well--Blibbity Blabbity will be happy. ;)

Games Played - ITM - Profit:
5 $6.50 9 max - 1 - $-21.70
3 $11 9 max - 1 - $-15

Total Bankroll = $167.48

Yuck. Gotta move back down a square. Hopefully, the trend doesn't continue and I move back to square one. That would suck.

That Was Quick

So I'm up anywhere from 5-6 AM in the morning for feedings and since at 7 AM there is a $11 tournament, I played that for my Chance square. I didn't make the money, my JJ ran into AK, otherwise I would have been in good shape to go deep. I then moved onto the $6.50 6 max. I'm playing on Stars and all the 6max at that level are turbos. I wasn't too concerned since I play a ton of the 9 man turbos at the same level.

Games Played - ITM - Profit:
1 $11 MTT - 0 - $-11
1 $6.50 6 max - 1 - $16.90

Total Bankroll = $204.18

I was quite surprised I finished first in the SNG. I was crippled early when my KK ran into ATs. We got all in of a rag flop, he was on a flush draw that got there. It definitely goes to show you that push or fold mode can turn a tournament around and win it for you.

So, I'm quickly off to the next square. The $11 or less 9 mans. I prefer the turbos, from past experience, I have a better ROI on them, so I may play the $6.50 9 man turbos for this. I'm not sure. I may test the waters at the $11 ones and see how it goes. My SNG skills have improved since I last played a non-turbo 9 man.

$4.40 180 Mans

I've completed the $4.40 square and I actually lucked out and did well in one of them. So here's an update.

Games Played - ITM - Profit:
1 $3.25 45 mans - 0 - $-3.25
3 $4.40 180 mans - 1 - $72.48 (I finished 3rd in the one)

Total Bankroll = $198.28

So following the board, I can skip the first blue square ($3.25 or less 45 mans @ $150) and move onto the $6.50 or less 6 mans @ $175. In fact, I'm less than $2 short of moving up. Plus I can still play the Take a Chance square.

Another Square Done

So I've completed the $1.20 18 mans. The bad players definitely made this easy.

Games Played-ITM-Profit:
4 - 3 (2 1st and a 4th) - $11.40

Total Bankroll = $126.65

I suspect after the next two bonus squares, I will have to play the $1.20 again for a bit. I'm not worried about the $3.25, but I suck ass at the $4.40s. If I don't make it to the money for any of those, I will be below the $125 requirement and will have to move up again. Good thing I only need to play that $4.40 square once.

No Love on the MTT Front

Alex decided he wanted to play "racecars" all day(that's Mario Kart Wii) and Ryan was actually asleep when the tourney started so I was able to get a game in. Unfortunately, I finished 568/2218. Only 324 made the money. It just wasn't a lucky day for me. My AA was no good against 66 and then later when a guy pushed all in 3 hands in a row, I pick up AQo and of course call when he does it again. He then flips over AA. I flop a KJ but don't end up cracking his aces. Luck just isn't my forte.

So my bankroll is still $115.25, since the $5.50 wasn't part of the intial $100.

Square One Done

Just finished another HU match and won. Woohoo! It's nice to run hot, too bad it can't happen all the time. So that puts my total bankroll to $115.25, so I can move on. There's a $5.50 ($5000 guaranteed) MTT later today so I might try to squeeze that in. That is if Alex doesn't want to go for a swim. He comes first of course. And then after that, I can hit up the $1.20 18 mans.

I Don't Like Head's Up

Quick update for today, since I'm not sure if I will be able to play anymore tonight.

Games Played:
5 $5.25 HU sng - ITM 3 - Profit: $3.75
1 16 man $5.25 HU sng - ITM 1 - Profit: $6.75

Total Bankroll: $110.50

I'm not a fan of HU. All that work I've done and I've only made $10. I do hope to finish this level tonight, I really want to be able to play something other than HU.

Monopoly Challenge.

Since I've been having fun with poker lately, I've finally stopped procrastinating and have started the Monopoly Challenge. I definitely think this will be good for me. One, it will help me build up a roll and two, it will force me to play games I've never played before. So here are the details for those who aren't aware.

The board:


The rules:

* Start at the "Go" Square and try to move around the board.
* Each property square has a value on it, your heeb bank roll must reach that value in order to have access to the next square.
* You must follow the bank roll rules for that square.
* If you have compleleted a property square, then you have access to that square and can play those levels any time you want (for example, once you have passed $112.50 and can move to square 2, you can still play the heads up games for square 1 if you choose).
* You cannot play any squares for which the bankroll has not been met.
* Non property squares such as Challenges, Take a Chance, Series, Cash Challenges, etc, are 1 time gigs. You do them the first time you reach them and they are not to be repeated.
* If the bankroll at any point falls below the value of a property square, you lose access to that square until you have reached that value again. Losing that square does not allow you to redo Challenges, Take a Chance, Series, Cash Challenges, etc When you repass them.

The starting bankroll is $100.

Let's see what I can do with this. Updates will follow.

I was right

Well, I said it. I mentioned out loud that I was doing well when I played. Well, not so much anymore. Blah.....! I guess I just have to ride it out and wait for the upswings to come back.

Busy

As expected, I'm getting very little sleep. I am getting some poker in, but not much and nothing serious.

I hit up a few micro tournies on Stars, but have been having a horrible run at though. More often than not though, when I have time to spare, I've been hitting up the $10NL cash tables. Cash is so much easier to shut down on a moments notice, you know, when a one month old starts loudly protesting the lack of food in his stomach. I'm running well so far, of course, by posting that I've just jinxed it and I'm now in for a major downswing.

I've also been thinking about trying out a poker Monopoly challenge. Check out the pokernutz blog as BlibbityBlabbity is running it right now. I figure this would be a good way to build up a bankroll, but I've been procrastinating about getting it started.

Announcement

Just a quick announcement. I'm back from the hospital. Our newest addition to the family, Ryan Gordon, was born on May 11, at 8:35 PM. He was 8 lbs 3 oz. We are both doing well and he is very healthy and so far seems happy.

I will be very busy for the next little while taking care of the new one, so I don't expect too much playing. So it may be some while before another poker update.

Update

Hey all. I am still alive, although it seems otherwise with my lack of posting. Nothing really exciting is happening for me in the poker world right now. Plus, even when I do play, I'm not really focused on it.

If you are a regular here, you should know I'm pregnant and well, the due date is May 11. So, I'm close to popping. That's my main priority right now, that and the fact that being 9 months pregnant is very uncomfortable. I might not even go to this month's league game. It's at the end of the month, but by then I will have a new little one and I'm sure I will be on zero sleep. We will have to wait and see how I feel.

So, the poker playing is down, but I haven't quit the game yet. Even when it seems the poker gods are out to get you. :)

Baby Points

League night again last night. I made 5 kill points! WOW! :)

Anyway, not much exciting, I got a nice chip lead early then donked it off in a couple hands. Once against Rob where I called his pre-flop raise with KJs and hit top pair. I intended to check raise him on the flop or turn, but he never bet. I bet on the river and so only lost the bare minimum in chips when he flipped over AA.

I didn't make points or money this time, but it was still fun. I donated my final chips to Mooney allowing him to make 2nd place. A rare occasion for him. And Brent took the tournament down.

There was no cash game last night, it was a small turnout to begin with, only 12, so not too much interest in the side game. Although, that did leave more time to play Rockband!

Shoot Me Now

Ugh. My losing streak continues. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm a total donkey and I was just getting lucky before. So last post, it took me 12 tries to make money, well, since that cash I've now gone another 8 with no cash. Blah.

FUCK YOU POKER!

Ongoing Fun

My luck at poker continues in the same manner as at poker night. Over the last two days, I've missed the money for 7 SNGs in a row. For 4 of them, my opponent had QJ and was drawing. Of course, they hit everytime. Check out the HH below. I think that's my favourite of the recent beats.


PokerStars Tournament game, buy-in $4.00+0.40, Level I $10/$20 No Limit, 9 players


SB: T$1100
BB: T$1500
UTG: T$1480
UTG+1: T$1500
MP1: T$2320
HERO (MP2): T$1500
MP3: T$1500
CO: T$1500
Button: T$1100

SB posts Small Blind T$10
BB posts Big Blind T$20

Pre-flop: 8d 9d (T$30)
UTG folds
UTG+1 calls T$20
MP1 folds
HERO calls T$20
MP3 folds
CO folds
Button folds
SB calls T$10
BB raises to T$50
UTG+1 calls T$40
HERO calls T$40
SB calls T$40

Flop: 6h Ts 7d ($230)
SB checks
BB bets T$40
UTG+1 folds
HERO calls T$40
SB raises to T$1040
BB folds
HEROcalls T$1000

Turn: 6h Ts 7d Ks (T$2350)

River: 6h Ts 7d Ks 9c (T$2350)

SB shows Js Qs
SB wins T$2360 with a straight Nine to King

EDIT TO ADD: Ok, so the final tally. Twelve in a row. So the last time I made money to when I finally made the money again, it took 12 tries. I think I'm quite sick of poker right now.

Running Bad

So, last month's league night, I was hot, hot, hot. This month, I couldn't have been colder.

During the tournament, I was crippled by Adam's QJ (I think it was)after I called his all-in with AK. I was basically left with one BB, so I was done.

When the cash game finally got going, there were a ton of straddles, so it was definitely a big pot poker game. So, I was able to get all my chips in ahead with 99, to be called by K2 and Q9, the Q9 won by catching a straight. I got it all in with AJ. I don't remember the opposing hands, but I didn't win.

The sickest hand was when my AA was cracked by A9 and QT. I raise UTG and get three callers. The flop is J99. The pot is so big and there's only a couple of hands I'm behind, so I push. And all three call again. As you can see above, there was an A9, a QT, the third had J7. QT actually took the whole pot, catching runner, runner tens for the better boat.

My final hand of the night was KK. I get it allin preflop against 55 and 22. The deuces spike their set on the turn, winning the huge pot.

Bah, poker is the devil.

Poker Site

I was stumbling on the internet when I came across this site: www.parttimepoker.com. From what I've read, there are some decent articles. It also has an RSS feed that I've made sure to have it added in my Reader.

Wii Time

So poker has been on the back of my mind lately. I think I'm averaging about 2 or 3 SNGs a day and that's dwindling. I haven't sat a cash game in a while. I think I'm gonna take a break since it's not a focus for me right now. It probably has to do with the huge downswing I took at Full Tilt so I'm not really in the mood. I do have to say I barely tilted at all, which is good for me.

Rob and I picked up Super Mario Galaxy today so I think I will work on beating that instead. So far, very good game, but I only had a chance to try it out for an hour and a bit before I had to head to work. Also, for the Wii, Brawl will be out soon and we want to pick that game up too. So a bunch of games to work on for a while before I go back to poker.

On Fire

I don't think I've ever run so good. I was hitting, I was winning, it was very nice. I even set a few records for our league night. Most kills in a night and highest score.

I ended up taking out 8 of the 13 people in the tournament, plus I won, so that gave me massive points towards the league (99 total). I was hitting hands huge and they were holding. Plus, I was able to get called or call all ins and have the hand hold.

So two months in and two wins. Definitely a good start to the points. Hopefully, I can get a good lead early, just in case I start running bad later in the year.

Leaving Cake

Not permanently, as it was always easy to find a table with one or two fish, but for some down time. It's against the ToS to use a HUD there and I'm finding it difficult without one. Mostly, it's because I don't watch the table while I play. I'll surf, I'll watch TV, whatever. So I'm not really picking up on patterns.

Part of the reason I'm taking a break is, surprisingly, Full Tilt offered me a $75 bonus, so I broke down and deposited and I'm working to clear that. I'm pretty sure I don't have rakeback, but I could be lucky and have actually signed up through TP. That would be very nice if it turns out I did though.

I'm trying a little datamining there as well. Not as aggressively as others at the forum, but I plan on opening up 4-6 tables before I start to play and then once the stats populate, then join the waiting lists of the best. As well, if a seat opens out of position of the table fish, I can stand up and try again.

I have been using a website to find fishy tables, but I've been finding that as soon as I get to the table, the fish are all gone or I'm on the wrong side of the bad player. Not easy to win that way.

Stud H/L

Omg, what a boring game for a tournament. It was TalkingPoker league night and the game was Stud H/L. I made it to 8th, but after having played for almost two hours by then, I was so freaking bored, I wanted to gouge my eyes out. Ugh. I don't think I will be playing that game again unless it's for a league.

Donking it Up

So, as you can tell, I've been playing mainly at Cake. Mostly their $20NL tables, but every once in a while, taking shots at $50NL. Well about a week ago, I was playing SnGs at Stars and running really badly. I mean super bad. Nothing was working for me, and it wasn't even really to super donkey people, a lot of it was good play the cards just didn't want to be my friend.

Because of that, I started to tilt. So, for me so I don't start making stupid plays or move up to chase losses, I withdraw my money when I tilt. So on Stars, I took out everything except for $80, enough to last me for the league games at TalkingPoker.com and quit poker for the day.

Well, last night, I was bored and knew I couldn't focus much on Poker, but there wasn't much else to do, so I decided to donk it up at the low limits at Stars. Well, I have a bit more money on Stars and for a quick session a sick BB/100 (see the pic below). Too bad that wasn't a higher stakes game. I guess Stars realized how bad it had treated me and decided to give a little back.

Poker Night

I've come to the conclusion, I suck at talking about our monthly poker night. I don't put the effort into keeping track of the key hands. I really should keep notes, but it's just a friendly home game so I don't think I ever will.

Anyway, last night was a small group, but still fun. Only eight of us total. A few people forgot, a few couldn't make it. And one guy, Mike C, broke his toe, he lives outside of the city so he couldn't drive in for the game.

So it was really a one table sit 'n go. I was getting the cards which is always nice. I was dealt KK three times. AA once and a few other pockets, one of which hit a set after several limpers. It also helped that while I was getting dealt hands, I was getting some decent hits to the flop. Especially since one of our regulars, Chantel, was fairly predictable in her betting. If it was checked to her on the flop, she'd bet. She was pretty consistent on 3-barreling it too. So, with my weak and medium strength hands, I would mix it up with calling down, or leading the flop. And with my strong hands, I would call it down to the river, then check/raise.

It ended up her, myself, Brett and Rob in the final four. The money and points bubble. We played at that stage for a while. I did most of my chipping up here, slowly taking the chips from Chantel. She was the first to go out of the four. I forget how the hand played out, but, later, Brett ended up really short, he had literally seven chips in front of him. Except for blue (which he had one of) that was pretty much only a couple of each denomination.

Then Rob and I get into a big pot. He raises in front of me. I look down and see KK so I think about smooth calling, but decide to reraise. Actually, I had reraised Rob a few times during the tournament and I think he was getting tired of it, so he pushed. I insta-called and he shows AT. Surprisingly, my hand holds and it's down to Brett and I.

First hand HU, Brett goes allin. I look down at KQo and insta-call this too. He shows KT and it doesn't improve. Woohoo!! First league of the year and I take it down and with two kills!

There was a cash game going, but I wasn't in the mood for it. It turned out that Rob and Brett didn't either, so we suggested a $5 buy-in turbo. We would halve the length of the blinds and lower the number of starting chips. Everyone decided to join, so we had another 8 person SnG running.

The game was definitely set up to go fast. Within a couple hands, there was a allin and Mooney was out. The players were dropping like flies. It played almost as fast as a Turbo online. This time the final four were myself, Brett, Rob and Mike H. Almost the same players as last game. I don't remember the specific hands, but Rob goes out first, I then suck out on Mike H and I'm heads up with Brett again.

This time, there's a few more hands. Both of us trying to steal blinds from each other. The final hand came when I had KJs. I raise and Brett goes allin. I immediately call and he flips A7o. We both cross our fingers and watch the cards come. He spikes a 7, but I pull ahead by hitting my J. Then, I think it was Mike H, who says something like, "Well it looks like Nikki has won this again, unless the another 7 comes!" So, as if on cue, the 7 comes and I'm out. Brett just barely had me covered. A second is almost as good as first and it was tons of fun too. I'm definitely looking forward to the next months.

OMG!

Amazing! I finally got a gold card from Cake! It took damn well long enough!!

Running Bad at $50NL

I'm playing at Cake and doing very well at their $20NL tables, but every time I move up to $50NL, I run bad. I mean really, really bad. Just check out this hand below. I guess it's a good thing he was a shorty!

HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.25/$0.5) - 2008/01/15 - 14:09:06 (ET)
Table 'Cake: Pebble Beach (6-Max) 11423' 6-max Seat #10 is the button
Seat 1: rjstaats ($7.15 in chips)
Seat 2: bluffarini ($68.10 in chips)
Seat 3: alfredo59 ($5.70 in chips)
Seat 8: Aviendha ($60.95 in chips)
Seat 9: JeNNiBaBii87 ($7.65 in chips)
Seat 10: wolfen ($110.00 in chips)
rjstaats: posts small blind $0.25
bluffarini: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Aviendha [Ah As]
alfredo59: calls $0.50
Aviendha: raises $1.75 to $2.25
JeNNiBaBii87: folds
wolfen: folds
rjstaats: calls $2.00
bluffarini: calls $1.75
alfredo59: calls $1.75
*** FLOP *** [Ad Jc 4s]
rjstaats: bets $4.90 and is all-in
bluffarini: folds
alfredo59: folds
Aviendha: calls $4.90
*** TURN *** [Ad Jc 4s] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [Ad Jc 4s Ts] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
rjstaats: shows [Jh Kd] (Straight, Ace high)
Aviendha: mucks hand
rjstaats collected $17.90 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $18.80 | Rake $0.90
Board [Ad Jc 4s Ts Qh]
Seat 1: rjstaats (small blind) showed [Jh Kd] and won ($17.90) with Straight, Ace high
Seat 2: bluffarini (big blind) folded folded on the Flop
Seat 3: alfredo59 folded folded on the Flop
Seat 8: Aviendha mucked hand
Seat 9: JeNNiBaBii87 folded before Flop
Seat 10: wolfen folded before Flop

Happy New Year!

I just realized that last year, I made a post on New Year's Eve. I was planning on doing that again, but of course, I forgot. So I will post something now. If you need a reminder here is the post.

It's so funny reading that now. I'm definitely not micro-grinding anymore. I typically play $25NL or sometimes when I find a good table $50NL. I would love to post a graph as it's been a good year, but if you've been reading my blog, you'll remember I lost my database when my computer crashed.

I don't play tournaments as much as I want to, but it's really hard with a 2 year old running around. I can play after he goes to bed, but I only have a couple hours before I go to bed myself. I could stay up late to play them, but then I wouldn't really get any sleep and that's no good either.

Well, here's to next year and hoping it holds good things for all of us.

Brag: X-box!

I just won an X-box and Guitar Hero 3 from Cake poker. A nice 2 chip freeroll that I started while working on dinner. Glad I joined it. Of course, I already have both the X-box and GH3, but we have friends that are X-box-less and we needed another guitar for GH3 anyway.

Edit to add: I forgot to mention. Early in the tournament, during the 15/30 blinds, I took a chance against a donkey that backfired and ended up being crippled down to 300 chips. So I made a comeback all the way to second. Also, the donkey was the guy who came in first!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Omaha H/L

Wow, what a crazy game. And I am a super donk too! It was a TP league night last night and the game was O8.

Unless it's for the forum, I don't think I ever want to play that game again. I couldn't see my straights, I missed a few flushes. I would think I had a low when I didn't. And what's with not being able to use more or less than 2 cards in your hand?

Although, there was one good thing about the game. I came in second! I'm sure I sucked out a lot. I know I made TP crazy with my plays, but it's all for fun anyway.

First!

Last night was the final game of the Poker at Rob's league. It was definitely a smaller game with only 11 people turning out. But of course since it's almost Christmas, it's understandable we didn't have many players.

I started out the game well. Last couple of games, I've tried loosening up preflop and limping with hands I normally fold. This is for the early stages only though, I tighten up later on. I think based on the type of players we have, it's helped me get deeper in the tournaments. Even with being loose, the hands I am playing are still stronger than those most others are playing. Plus I'm in more pots and getting more chips early, which is definitely a plus.

The game started out fast. We were down to four players and still at the 20/40 blind level. We were all joking that we would have to start another tournament since this one was lasting not much more than an hour.

All of us spoke too soon. Until the blinds reached 250/500, we were still at 4 players. No one was able to die. There were all ins and calls, but the chips just seemed to move back and forth between players. I finally ended up eliminating Rob with KQs. I had raised, but he was so short that essentially put him all in, so he pushed. I of course called. My hand held and we were finally three.

The game finally sped up after that. Blinds are 300/600 and Brett goes out and it's me and Mike H head's up. It only took about 3 or 4 hands, but I took out Mike with A2o. He had AKo. We were allin preflop and I ended up sucking out a 2 on the turn. So a nice FIRST for me.

Unfortunately, even with a strong finish at the end of the league, I still finished 5th for league points, so bubbling the money for that. First ended up being Adam, Rob was second, Brent came in third and Mike C was fourth.

The league was great fun and we are going to do it again next year. I'm looking forward to it and maybe next year, I will finish top four for the league.

Time to Bitch

It's time to bitch about Cake again. If you've been keeping up with my blog, it quite upsets me that I don't have a Gold Card and, yes, I am STILL cardless! But that's not what I want to bitch about.

I read 2+2 on a semi-regular basis so I knew from posts on there that withdrawing via cheque was a hassle. A lot of personal info had to be mailed in first to be verified. Mostly, this was to protect Cake from credit card fraud. I understand that, it's a huge issue with online poker sites.

Well, I didn't want to go through those hoops, so I set up a Moneybookers account and tried a test withdraw for $50 from Cake to the new account. And then I waited and waited and waited and waited. Four days later, I gave up on waiting. Something was obviously not going through and I was worried it was my Moneybookers account as I didn't plan on funding it first. I already have money in the poker sites I play at, I don't need more.

So anyway, I emailed them. Now, I'm actually impressed with their response time. I think I received an email back within a couple hours. What I'm not impressed with is even with a Moneybookers account, I have to send in a whole bunch of crap. Photocopy of my credit card, front and back, copy of my statement. Copy of a utility bill. Ugh. I didn't want to have to do this. And what the hell? Why did it take an email from me first about my withdraw before they tell me how to get it processed? Why not an auto email or notes on the withdraw page so I didn't have to wait four days to find out I couldn't get my money?

Now this doesn't really piss me off--too much--what really makes me mad is that yes it's to protect against fraud, but I was only taking out $50. Now I'm not saying small amounts should go through, but what gets me is I have a ton more money still in my Cake account. So if they really did have an issue after my withdraw, they still have the rest of my funds to confiscate. There is no risk letting me take that $50! Plus, I deposited ages ago. If there was going to be a dispute on my deposit, it would have happened already!

Let me have my damn money!

Back Up and Running

Almost. I have a new Hard Drive, replaced under warranty, so I'm back on the internet. The only thing I don't completely have set up is PokerTracker and PokerAce. I just need to get new registration codes for them and then everything is complete.

Well, except it will be a brand spanking new database. I can easily request all my tournament summaries from Pokerstars, but from the looks of it, I can only request HHs for cash games for the last 100 hands. I think I'm going to email support and ask if they will send histories for my lifetime or even the last year would be really helpful. Cross our fingers and hope they will help me out.

Lost Everything

Everything is gone....

Sorta. Yesterday, I was surfing the net when my computer froze. Suddenly, I was blue screened. Oh oh. I do the usual reboot, but when the computer comes back on, it doesn't load properly. Not even the screen where it says, your computer was improperly shut down, do you want to go to safe mode. There was a message on the screen. On the top left corner all it said in regular text Err1 Err3. I have never seen that type of thing before.

After showing my screen to Rob and his fiddling with it for a bit, he tells me my hard drive is dead. I've lost everything. Booooo.....

There were only a couple things I'm disappointed in losing and can't just reinstall to get back. One is Quicken. Not the program of course, but the data I had downloaded to it. And the other is PokerTracker. Again, it's easy to get the software, but I've lost my entire database. That's a real piss off. All my stats are gone and all the hands on other players as well. Really, really, crappy.

Sunday Million

So I didn't make it to the money. I started off well, keeping my chips ahead of the average. I had a great table. Very laggy, but passive. Then about 900 left before the money, I get moved. This table sucked. It was very aggressive, and I was not getting any hands. I tried to make a couple moves but they failed. Finally got short and had to push or fold. The final hand is below.

PokerStars Game #13325612193: Tournament #66640473, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (750/1500) - 2007/11/18 - 19:25:01 (ET)
Table '66640473 680' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: bergerdart1+ (65874 in chips)
Seat 2: highplaya (31047 in chips)
Seat 3: pomax6 (28620 in chips)
Seat 4: JBT449 (42032 in chips)
Seat 5: AcesGoPlace (111630 in chips)
Seat 6: lucaduc (43170 in chips)
Seat 7: SweetRellie (65869 in chips)
Seat 8: N1kita (7923 in chips)
Seat 9: Aces baby AA (34687 in chips)
bergerdart1+: posts the ante 150
highplaya: posts the ante 150
pomax6: posts the ante 150
JBT449: posts the ante 150
AcesGoPlace: posts the ante 150
lucaduc: posts the ante 150
SweetRellie: posts the ante 150
N1kita: posts the ante 150
Aces baby AA: posts the ante 150
bergerdart1+: posts small blind 750
highplaya: posts big blind 1500
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to N1kita [6c Ac]
pomax6: folds
JBT449: folds
AcesGoPlace: folds
lucaduc: folds
SweetRellie: folds
N1kita: raises 6273 to 7773 and is all-in
Aces baby AA: raises 7227 to 15000
bergerdart1+: folds
highplaya: folds
*** FLOP *** [8d Ad 8h]
*** TURN *** [8d Ad 8h] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [8d Ad 8h Kh] [3s]
N1kita said, "nh"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
N1kita: shows [6c Ac] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
Aces baby AA: shows [Ah 8s] (a full house, Eights full of Aces)
Aces baby AA collected 19146 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 19146 | Rake 0
Board [8d Ad 8h Kh 3s]
Seat 1: bergerdart1+ (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: highplaya (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: pomax6 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: JBT449 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: AcesGoPlace folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: lucaduc folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: SweetRellie folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: N1kita showed [6c Ac] and lost with two pair, Aces and Eights
Seat 9: Aces baby AA (button) showed [Ah 8s] and won (19146) with a full house, Eights full of Aces

I felt I could have gone deep, but I guess it wasn't my night. I'm glad I had the chance to play. The players were no better than what I'm use to at the levels I'm at. I might have to invest on some Sattys, as I'm sure I can make some decent money from the tournament, if I keep trying.

I've Been Staked

So, The Storm from the Talking Poker forum, offered to stake anyone he felt was a winner at tournaments and was trustworthy for the Sunday Million. I'll just quote his post directly from the forum.

I'm in the giving mood. Here's a good deal for you.

I'll stake you for the Sunday Million next Sunday if you can meet the following requirements.

1. Can prove that you are a winning player. Pokertracker lifetime screenshot or sharkscope graph will do.
2. have at least 50 posts prior to this post


That's it. You meet those, I stake you for Sunday Million (I get 70 % of profits + stakeback).

Lets win some money!

EDIT: just want to add that I will refuse staking anyone I deem to be too sketchy/untrustworthy.

So, I posted my stats to give it a try. And I was staked. So this Sunday I will be playing Stars' Sunday Million. Sure, I have to give away most of what I win, but I wouldn't have won the money in the first place, if I hadn't been staked. Of course, I could bust out early too, but I'm hoping for going deep. That would be awesome!

Finally!

Home game again last night. And finally made it to the points and the money. It also moves me up a spot in the league, but I think that just bubbles me for the league payout. Maybe I can do well next month too and boost my score even more. Getting a few kills will help too, since I didn't even take anyone out this month. Still, making second without taking out anyone is pretty good.

Annoying Cake

Ok, so when I do get a chance to play poker online, I play at Cake. I've got a bonus to clear there, plus the rake back. But playing there can be annoying, at least for me. And because of one of their promotions, not for how the players play, or the crappy software or anything like that.

One promo is frequent player points, which get you gold chips. They can be used to buy-in to tournaments, or buy stuff from their catalog. You get a certain amount based on the amount of rake is for each hand you are dealt into. This one doesn't bug me.

It's the other damn promo that's pissing me off. The gold card promo. This is where when you play the cash games one of your cards can become a gold card. There's not much you can do with them, but sometimes you can "sell" them back for cash. Now getting these cards is random. And it's only for raked pots. But you are supposed to get them once in a while. I've been playing about 1-2k hands a month (yes not a lot compared to pros, but still) for the last 3 months and I've got ZERO!!! Rob played for half a month maybe 500 hands and he got one about halfway through that!!! This is what is annoying me. I want a freaking gold card, dammit!!!!!!

I Suck at Posting

It also doesn't help that I've only been playing about once a week lately.

Out Early

It was our home game last night. As you can tell from the title, I was out early--second one out. My AA got cracked by 67o, bleh. I've come to the conclusion that when it comes to live poker, I suck. So, home games will be to have fun only. If If want to make money, I'll play tournaments online.

We did get a cash game going, but there was never more than four playing and even that ended fairly early in the night. I think everyone had left by midnight, maybe later, but it definitely wasn't one yet.

I was up and down in the cash game. I took a couple big pots from Rob, which sucked. It's both our money, so there is no reason to get it in against each other, but then if I'm in a hand, I'm not going play poorly just because it's Rob. I ended up about seven bucks but Rob ended down $15. Oh well, it all about having fun and it was still a great night.

Poker Hates Me Today

So, please note, I'm short because Cake software takes forever for reloading chips. The villain had been at the table for maybe 2 or 3 hands at this point and he has gone all-in for all of them. So I was pretty sure he was just a push bot and my hand would be a favourite against his range. For the rest of his time at the table, he'd push 3 out of 5 hands, so my read was right. Gotta love when reads are right, but you still lose.

Hand #1292012207000769: Paris (6-max) 12207
Seat 1: future dr (2.42 in chips)
Seat 2: Moray (5.45 in chips)
Seat 3: cjlerra (4.15 in chips)
Seat 6: Hank1970 (36.94 in chips)
Seat 8: Takhisis (4.18 in chips)
Seat 10: Smurfmeister (6.00 in chips)
Moray: posts small blind $0.05
cjlerra: posts big blind $0.10
Smurfmeister: posts big blind $0.10
Dealt to Takhisis [ Jh Ah ]
Hank1970: calls
Takhisis: raises to $0.55
Smurfmeister: calls
future dr: folds
Moray: folds
cjlerra: is all in
Hank1970: folds
Takhisis: is all in
Smurfmeister: folds
Takhisis: returns uncalled bet $0.03
*** FLOP *** [ Qc, Tc, Ks. ]
*** TURN *** [ 2s. ]
*** RIVER *** [ Kc. ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cjlerra wins $8.55 with Royal Flush

Edit to add: Just noticed it didn't show his hand. It should be easy to figure out, but if not, it was AcJc.

Rewards of being a Blogger

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 6194542

Busy

I haven't been playing too much poker lately. I've been working extra hours at work since we've been busy and they are offering overtime. It makes me pretty tired when I come home and not able to focus to play.

I have played some, but at Cake poker. I've got 33% rake back through Talking Poker there so I deposited $50 and figured I'd grind an hour here and there when I'm not exhausted from work. Small stakes means not very much money back, but there is some money coming back so it's still a benefit.

I could have moved everything on Stars over, but I still want to play SNGs and tournaments--not that I have time--so that's what I will play there and Cake will be for grinding out the cash games.

Totally Unrelated to Poker

I already posted this on the surfergeeks.net page, but it deserves announcing here too.

So I went to the Doctor on Monday. It was a nice hour long wait just to see him, only to be directed to the lab for a blood test. That itself only took 5 minutes max. It’s great to have to take that long when I can get the same answer by peeing on a stick for a few seconds, it’s just that way is not “official”. We got the results yesterday. Which was a call to the Doctor’s office and about 10 minutes on the phone mostly on hold.

If you didn’t figure out what I’m referring to yet, Rob and I are having another baby! I am pregnant. We don’t know the due date or the sex yet, but as we find out, we will update everyone.

We are both very excited and have been trying for a second for a while. We would like a girl, so that we have one of each, but we will be happy no matter what happens. Besides, if it’s another boy, we already have everything we need!

I can't win

Poker at Rob's night again. I'm kinda pissy right now. Absolutely none of my hands held up--not counting where everyone folded preflop.

It started with KK, you know, the kiss of death. There was a raise and a push allin. The allin didn't really have much more, maybe twice the raise, so I push. The initial raiser folds, after thinking. I turn over my KK, Mike H turns his A3s. He catches his Ace on the flop. At least it wasn't a stupid flush. But, as it turns out, it was the case Ace. Adam, the first raiser lets everyone know he folded AJ and Tim said he folded an Ace as well after the action in front of him.

Next hand was AKo, I limp early and it ends up being a family pot. The flop is two spades and an A. There's a bet and a call, so I push. I still had a decent stack even with the butt kicking I'd taken earlier. Scott calls, but I have him covered and Mike C who bet first calls. Scott has a straight draw, Mike has a flush draw, his high card? A five! He turns his flush, now I do have the Ks, but another spade does not show up on the river.

I'm out so I move to the cash table. Again, I'm not winning. After folding my chips away for a while, I have AKo again but in the BB. There's a raise and call in front of me, so I reraise. Both call. I catch my A on the flop again and it's not a very scary board. I move all in since the pot is now huge. Just Tim calls. He flips JJ and hits another J on the turn.

I rebuy and the very next hand I flop two pair on a 343 board. Two of them are diamonds. Brett was the one who bet. He thinks and goes allin and said, "I hope I don't bust you again right after you buying back in". I fold figuring him on an overpair. He shows a flush draw, and we rabbit hunt. Glad I folded, the flush came.

Last hand where I gave up was ATo. I can't remember what position I was in, but I flopped top pair with the T and there's a flush draw again. You know what's coming. A bet and a call so I push allin to try and get people to fold, but no good. Jeff shows his draw and it completes on the river.

Some are standard beats but overall it made for a very frustrating night.

Bah!

So I was able to play the CFL tourney, but really it didn't matter if I did. Everyone was gone by 3pm and, yes, it was voluntarily. So I put Alex down for a nap and turned on the laptop. I was a couple minutes late and only played three hands at my first table and then I was moved.

At the new table I was getting kick-ass hands. First hand 77, I raise everyone folds. Next hand, AA, I raise, callers, bet the flop, everyone folds. Next AJo, I call a 4xBB raise, but fold when someone goes allin on the flop and I didn't hit. I fold the next two hands preflop, then I get AKo and I raise and get one caller. The flop is a K and two suited cards. I bet, he raises, I push. He flips AKo, the A is a heart, the two suited cards are hearts, so, the turn comes a heart and the river comes a heart. Yay! No choppie choppie, my opponent scoops the pot. I'm still in, but crippled. Next hand, I have A5o, I go all in, I barely have 100 chips and it's still the 10/20 level, but the guy who calls me has AA, and I'm done. That really sucked.

Brag and Beat

Last night I played in the CFL $1M Round 1 Satillite.

Brag: I finished 161/7500, so I made it to Round 2.
Beat: Round 2 is on Sept. 2nd @3 PM, my son's birthday and smack dab in the middle of his birthday party.

So, I probably can't play Round 2. I hadn't realized this until I was in the money otherwise I probably wouldn't have joined as it was over 2 hours of play and top prize other than the satellite was only $25. I'm considering asking someone to play for me and work out some sort of deal if they make any money for me, but the person I trust most is Rob and well, he's my husband and Alex's dad.

Maybe we can just kick out all our guests at 3? Or I can just play while everyone celebrates? Grrr...

I fold alot

League time again last night. Great turnout; a total of 17 people. Four who traveled long distance. Jen and Mike who just recently moved to Waterloo and Rob and Julie, Invigilator and Oceanwaves, from the TalkingPoker forum and just outside of Windsor.

As you can tell from the title, I basically folded all night. I just wasn't getting any cards. I'm actually quite jealous of Robbie Robb, he said he was dealt AA twice, KK once and other nice premium hands. I didn't see a single pocket pair.

I did make it to the final table, though. First hand there, I completed in the small blind with 2h5h. It was actually a family pot, hence the reason I called. The flop came all hearts! Since it was a weak flush, I pushed. I was starting to get short anyway since blinds kept increase and I wasn't playing. I don't know if it was a good or bad thing, but everyone folded. Although, Mike C stated if any of his cards were a heart he would have called.

A couple hands later I finally get another good hand, AKo. There's a min raise UTG and two callers. I push hoping to take the dead money. Every folds around to Tony, who called the first raise. He goes into the tank and says as he calls, "This is probably a mistake," and flips Ad5d. And no one else stays in the pot. It's me and Tony. The flop comes two diamonds--of course. And the turn is the dreaded third diamond, I'm now drawing dead on the river and Tony takes me out.

I decided to deal for the tournament a while since the cash game was pretty full. There were already at least nine people sitting at the table. The tourney was down to final three before two people lost all their money at the ring game, so I hand the deck to Jason, one of the bustees to let him deal and I join the other table.

I think I only played for an orbit before the table broke up for the night, but it was enough. In middle position I limp with JTs. The flop came T9x, it checks around to me and I bet around 3/4 pot. I get one caller and Mike H min raises me. It folds back to me, so I push. The caller folds and Mike shrugs and calls. He flips his cards saying he's chasing a gutshot. I cross my fingers as the turn and river are shown. My luck holds and Mike doesn't catch his 4 outs. Nice big pot for me.

So at the end of the night, Robbie Robb finished third in the tournament and I finished up $3 in the cash game.

New Links

I've added a couple of new links to my blog. First The HedgeHog, it from Studiopet. Ando05 started a trend at the forum and there are several people trying a bankroll building sit and go experiment. Check out the details here.

The next is Vegas Trip Report. This one is 2Tone's. He's lucky enough to be able to hit the strip quite a bit and he always makes a report at his blog.

Enjoy!

Another Final Table

I really wish I had more time to play tournaments. I'm sure I win more money from them in the long run than I do ring games. After Alex went to bed, I joined a $7.70 PL Hold'em tournment. I did well throughout the entire game and was able to reach the final table. I was THE short stack though, so I had to work hard to keep in the game. I was finally eliminated in 7th (out of 191) when my TT ran into KTo, the King spiked on the river and I received a pay day of $46. Oh well, since it was a PL tourney, even at final table, it was only 3 hours into the tournament.

Windsor Trip

Rob and I went to Windsor on Saturday to meet up with a few people from the Talking Poker forum and to play a little poker. Invigilator's post here pretty much says it all. But there are a few posts after that add some opinions, so if you want to read the whole thread click here.

I had a great time, it's always great to meet new people and I hope we are able to meet up again sometime.

TP Open

Ok, so the TP open was played on Wed night. Just a $5 private tourney on Stars set up by TP himself. But he had a few bounties for the tournament. First out, got their buy-in back. Going out with AA got you cash; winning at showdown with the hammer, busting TP and top 3 finishers also won extra money.

There were 35 people total and I was running great. I usually do well in these anyway, but it's nice to sit top 5 for most of the game. I was able to win the 72o bounty, I played it nice and passively, had to make sure it went to showdown.


PokerStars Tournament game, buy-in $5.00+0.50, Level I $10/$20 No Limit, 8 players
Hand History Converted at http://www.talkingpoker.com/hh

SB: T$1440
BB: T$1440
UTG: T$1910
UTG+1: T$1500
MP1: T$1350
MP2: T$1470
CO: T$1670
HERO (Button): T$2720

SB posts Small Blind T$10
BB posts Big Blind T$20

Pre-flop: 2c 7s (T$30)
UTG calls T$20
UTG+1 folds
MP1 folds
MP2 folds
CO folds
HERO calls T$20
SB folds
BB checks

Flop: 3c 8c 7d ($70)
BB checks
UTG bets T$60
HERO calls T$60
BB calls T$60

Turn: 3c 8c 7d 2h (T$250)
BB checks
UTG bets T$140
HERO calls T$140
BB folds

River: 3c 8c 7d 2h Qs (T$530)
UTG bets T$220
HERO calls T$220

UTG shows 9c 5c
HERO wins T$970 with two pair Sevens and Deuces

It was $20 for that bounty, and I also got a $10 bounty for placing 2nd, then the 2nd place pay out of $42 was quite nice as well. So for a fun game with a few friends from the forum turned out to be quite profitable. I always like that.

I Need to Make a Post

There was a TalkingPoker open on Wednesday that I played in and I need to post the details of how I did, but I'm just not finding the time. July is actually a busy month. I figured I would make this post to remind me to make a real post when I have time.

Finally Some Points

It was poker night again at our place last night. It was a very small turnout, only 9 played. It turned out that most of our regulars had other plans that day, a trip to Jamaica, a Stag and Doe and a White Stripes concert were the main culprits.

As you can tell from the title, I finally made some more league points. I earned a kill for taking out Mike C and was able to finish in 2nd. I'm still only 5th overall in the league though.

The first 3 people out were done before the first orbit was done, none of them even got a ch out.ance to deal. The fourth was shortly after that. Then it was five, for a loooooong time. It wasn't until about the 200/400 blind level or maybe the 150/300 level before anyone else went

I was short most of the game, early on I called Mike down with middle pair, knowing he was capable of betting a weaker hand, turned out he had top pair. I didn't hit too many hands for a while after that. I lost a lot more chips to Tim when I had trips on the turn and a boat on the river, unfortunately I had the J in my hand and he had the Q and the board was QJxJQ. I knew he had probably had the Q, but I couldn't fold my boat.

I was then into push or fold mode. I pushed first with K7o and it was folded to me, next hand, UTG I have KT both of clubs and I push again. Scott looks at me funny and calls. Tim thinks about it but folds and so does the rest of the table. Scott flips his cards and has KK, oh-oh, now I know why the look. I don't remember the exact cards, but it's club, club, non-club, the turn is the another club and I crack the Kings. They are the Kiss of Death. Especially since after a bit more play, Scott is the next one to go out and he was one of the big stacks for most of the game.

Jen goes out on the money and point bubble and it's Mike C, Tim and myself. Mike had been a chip leader early, but had whittle most of his chips away by being in pretty much every pot. I bust him when he pushes on the Button. I'm in the BB with KTo and since Mike was playing every hand, he could have any two cards. When I call, he shows, 34s. When we saw the flop, it didn't look good, he hit both a straight and a flush draw, but it didn't get there. Next hand was Tim and I head's up. He had probably 90% of the chips and the blinds were 250/500. First hand I have A9s, Tim raises so I push as I need to double up to have any chance to win, he calls and shows AJo. Well, neither of us hit and Tim takes another tourney down.

There was a cash game again, but I quickly lost my five bucks with a bad call and went to bed afterwards as I have to work today. The night was fun as always and I'm looking forward to the next one.

50 FPPs

So, I decided to play in a 50FPP $1000 freeroll today. It was a limit hold'em tourney so I figured there would be a smaller field so bigger final table payout. Not that I'm the greatest at limit, but I can hold my own.

I was hitting the deck huge. If I was able to see a flop with pocket pairs, I would flop a set. There were only a couple times I didn't and it was usually when I had AA and QQ, so I didn't mind not getting the set with those hands. Also, as is typically with a lot of limit players, I was getting called down a lot with middle pair or worse.

So I grinded my way through the field, hovering around average stack until I made it to the money. Then I actually started picking up speed. My stack grew and grew and I stayed around top 10. As people were eliminated, final table looked easier and easier to get to. And I did. It's been a while for me to final table a tourney so it was a nice feeling. And people continued to be eliminated. It was finally head's up. But I had a third of his stack. I tried, but he was hitting the deck harder than me, so I finished second. I'm not complaining though, second paid $132.50. Not bad for 4 hours play and 50FPPs.

KQ is EVIL!

Another great home game last night. There were about 12 of us for the tournament. So smaller than usual but still a great turnout. I got lucky early against Mooney. I pushed with ATo on the flop with TP against him. I figured it was the only way to get him to fold the crap he usually has. When he called and flipped over his cards, he actually had me beat with two pair, A2! There was a 2 of course on the flop. Luckily by the river, a ten came. After that I basically spewed chips. I was able to make it to the final table, but I points bubbled. I really need to make some more points, I'm not in a spot to win any league money now.

I drank too much last night, so I don't really remember a lot of the details clearly, but again, the cash game was more prosperous than the tournament. I was hesitant to join the game as I had an early shift at work the next day and I kinda wanted to sleep. My gambling problem got the better of me though and I bought in for $5. I'm glad I did, I was able to walk away with $20 after everyone left for the night. I was getting card lucky though. But I'm not complaining, that doesn't happen enough for my liking anyway.

There were a couple of big hands that I remember clearly. First one, I was in the SB and I call dark. The whole table had limped in before me, so I had odds to call with pretty much any two cards. I was also playing a little loose and reckless since it was just a friendly home game. Then Mike in the big blind raises to $2. I'm like crap, now I have to look at my cards. Everyone folds and I look down and see JJ. Well, I had to push. I do and Mike calls and shows 22! Of course, he was pretty drunk too. My hand held to boost my stack a lot.

The other big hand was when I was UTG, I have AQo so I raise to 80cents. Two positions down, Brent raises all-in. Now one thing to note, is the whole table had decided this would be the last orbit for the night; we were actually on the second last hand to be played, so I figured Brent was just feeling ready to GAMBOOOL! And with the way the players play at our game, AQo was a strong hand. Anyway, I call and he flips KQo. I've got him dominated, so of course what come on the flop? A freaking Queen AND a King. Goddammit, I'm beginning to hate that hand, busting me last tournament and now this. Well, I pull the patented resuck and catch runner, runner Ten then Jack to have a straight and keep my money and take Brent's.

Next poker night is also our BBQ, so it should be a great event and hopefully it brings out more people.

Needed a Change

So, I've not been enjoying hold'em too much lately. So I decided to switch games for a bit. I tried Omaha for a bit and failed miserably, then I tried Razz. I'm not great at the game, but can easily break even. I think I might hang out at the low limit razz games for a while. It was quite fun. Especially when I won a hand with 9 high against a person who kept raising me every street and had a hand of JJxxx at showdown. Gotta love people who sit at a table and don't know the rules.

Silver Star

Woohoo! First time I've ever made it to Silver Star status on Pokerstars. I was just able to squeak in the the last few points at about 10 o'clock tonight. Not that I'm going to do anything extra with the new status, but it's cool to make it one level up either way.

Big Slick Suited

So another home game at Robbie Robb's and my place last night. Rob was worried we'd have a poor turnout, but we ended up have about the same as any other night.

My tournament didn't last long. During the 30/60 blind levels, Mike to my right raises all in for about 900 chips, I look down and see AcKc, so I re-raise all in for about 2500 total. Then Jason to my left starts to think. You can tell he really wants to call, but he's hesitant. Unfortunately, he makes the call and has me covered. We flip our cards, Mike has QJo (I forget which suits), and Jason had KdQd. I have them both dominated...so what comes on the flop? A Queen and a Jack! I catch a flush draw on the turn, but the river is a blank and I'm out.

The rest of the night, was filled with waiting, the cash game didn't get started until about only 2 or 3 people left in the tournament. Although, that ended up us having our first full table for the cash game, usually we play short-handed.

I started off well. First hand I'm dealt QQ, there's a limp, so I raise to 50 cents, a bunch of people fold, Mike raises it to $1, Mooney calls and I decide to push, both players are fairly loose and I figure I'm good here. Both call and we reveal. Mike has 88 and Mooney has JJ. No one improves with the board, so right away, I'm sitting with $15 in front of me. Live poker is so rigged!

FPP Satellites

So, I did use those FPPs I won to try and win entry to the Sunday million. I first tried the 1800 FPP 30 man turbo. Four places won entry. I ended up busting out 7th on that one. This was about a week ago so I don't remember how I busted, but I was getting short so I was in push or fold mode and my hand just didn't hold when I was called.

Today, I tried the 2700 FPP 20 man turbo. Again, four places paid entry. The deck was hitting me nicely throughout the tournament. Pocket queens a couple times, both times I was able to get all in and they held. Jacks held up when I called an all in. Pocket tens eliminated another opponent. Even AKs won a couple hands. I was chip leader for most of the tournament. It only took about 40 minutes to play. So quick is nice, especially when you never know when the little one is going to need your attention.

I think I like the second satellite better of the two (and not just because, I won). Sure, it costs more, but more places pay per entry. But since the two satellites combined work out to 4500 FPPs (fortunately, I had earned a few at the $50NL tables), it will be a while before I can play this one again.

I've already unregistered from the tourney. I really want to play, but I don't think it's a good idea. One, it's in the middle of the afternoon when I have to worry about getting supper ready for Alex and two, there's no guarantee I will make it to the money. I will probably sell the T$, but I might wait a bit. I told Rob if I could win two Satellites, I'd play the Sunday million with one and sell the T$ I get from the other.

Bored

I was bored tonight and didn't feel like playing serious poker, so I first decided to join a 400 FPP WSOP qualifer. That turned out ot be a crapshoot with people going all in with marginal hands. I raised with AQs and was raised all in. Since I know I was probably a favorite based on previous hands he shown down, I quickly called. I soon learned that A9o>AQs, he had flopped his nine and I caught nothing.

Still bored, I then joined a 40FPP rebuy WSOP qualifier. I think I had to rebuy something like 7 times. I was just not getting lucky tonight...maybe a carry over from yesterday? There were actually a couple people yelling at some of the players for going all in preflop. I guess they had never played rebuys before since that is the basic strategy for the game. After rebuys were over, I folded alot. I did try to suck out on someone when I called with A3 versus their 55, I was already in the BB and it was not much more for me to call.

My luck finally turned though. On the button, I have KQo and it's folded to me. I move all in which isn't even enough to cover the BB and pray (it was a turbo, blinds were hurting everyone at this point). The flop comes 4Q4 and I win a much needed pot. After that hand, although I wasn't getting too many hands preflop, if I did see the flop, I was hitting. I was able to coast my way through the rest of the tournament and was able to qualify.

I've actually unregistered from the other tournament. I'm working when it starts, but it was worth 4000FPPs. Not too bad, but I have no idea what I'm going to use them for. Nothing I'm too interested in in the store right now. Maybe I'll use them for Sunday Million qualifiers.

Major Downswing

I'm either getting hit hard by the variance stick or I just plain suck at poker. No matter what I did yesterday, I just could not win a hand. I was dealt KK several times and every time an A flopped and I was up against major aggression. I had AA not cracked by AJo, but a split pot when the board showed a seven high straight. I later caught a couple more straights and got my opponents all in, only to find they had the exact same hand so more spit pots. So I was either losing or splitting the pot, either way, because of rake, I was losing money. Grrr....It was a very frustrating day.

Extra Traffic

I've noticed some extra traffic to my site lately, which is really cool. Most are from google searches, but I'm sure they are searches intended to find my page. At least I like to think they are specifically to search for my page. But a search for "micro poker grinding blog" and "nikita poker" proves I'm not being too egotistical. I'm so glad you guys are searching for and finding me.

The funny thing is, the traffic has seemed to increase the most this month and I think the is the month I've posted the least. I've just haven't had much to say. I've been grinding the $25NL tables but not as much. I've played a few SNGs, but nothing substantial. I think I've maybe averaged an hour of poker a night.

I guess I will update my poker exploits a little for everyone. It's not that exciting though. My grinding is barely break even right now. I'm sure I've got a few leaks that are causing issues. I've posted a hand or two at TalkingPoker.com. I need to post more. I've been running decent at the SNGs. For the month of April, I have an ROI of 25% with a finish in the money of 43%. I doubt this is sustainable, but I'm willing to ride the rush.

If you have been searching for my site, feel free to comment. I'd like to know who you are. Any suggestions are welcome too.

WWdN Final Table!

Rob and I decided to play a tournament together tonight and since it was Tuesday, we joined the Wil Wheaton dot Net invitational. I've played a few of them, but have usually been quite unsuccessful at them. Although I did knock out Wil once.

Well, tonight was the night. I finally made it to the final table. Made it to the money! Woo hoo! Ended up 6/51 for a cool $33.15 payout. I would have done better but AK is no good against AJ.

Poker Graph

Here is a graph of my month of March. A little up and down, but overall up for the month. It's amusing to see the huge dips at the end of the month. I started out playing $10NL and then switched to $25NL. I'm fumbling around at the limit a bit, but I think I can beat it overall.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

iPod Freeroll

Ash posted this on his blog and I'm always up for a good freeroll so I registered too.

Poker Sites

Home Game Report

It was poker night again last night. We had a couple new players players, but still only about 13 in total. I ended up at the donkey table; no one was raising pre flop and post flop the bets were typically just min bets.

I was having difficulties with my hands holding up. First, I slow play a set to have Jen catch her better set on the river to win a lot of my chips. Then I hit TPGK and bet hard to have Julie (new player to both our home game and to the game of poker), call me all the way to the river. She was calling with A high, but unlucky me the Ace did come. The funny thing, she would call my big bets with A high, but earlier, she had two pair and wanted to fold it when Scott was betting hard into her.

I was finally crippled at the final table when I called Mooney's allin with A4s on a 567 rainbow flop. Mooney is perfectly willing to push with air so I was 90% confident my A high had him beat and I knew if I called other similar hands would fold. When I called Mooney turnd over 79o. I did catch an A on the turn, but another 7 came on the river. I'm left with 25 chips when the blinds are either 75/150 or 100/200 (I'm not sure exactly which). I'm allin the next hand and with lots of betting and calling I know I'm toast. And it's confirmed when Jessie turns over quads.

Jason came in third, Adam came in second. And a surprising first was Jen. She was definitely excited. She knows how to play poker, but she also knows she's not very good at it.

Also, Adam invited Rob and I to a tournament in Strathroy. It's a $30 buy-in and he says usually about 80 people buy-in, so we agreed to go. I've never played in a real live tournament, so this should be fun. I believe it's next week, so I will have to write up a trip report.

Computers Suck

So my computer has been acting a little weird lately. And the other day I got a BSOD (blue screen of death), when I turned my computer back on, all my default settings on firefox had returned and all my saved passwords were gone. As well, every time I opened a program, I'd get a little pop up that a file was corrupt and to run chdsk. I've reloaded my setting for firefox, but everytime I shut down my computer, they disappear again. Rob thinks my hard drive is going so that sucks huge. We weren't really looking to get a new computer anytime soon, but mine might not last much longer. Stupid computers. Plus if my computer does go, I won't be able to play poker until we get a new one.

Poker Night at Rob's

Poker night at our house is next week-end. Anyone we know and lives nearby is invited so feel free to head over to our house. You can get more info here.

I like Talking Poker Tournaments

It was a small turnout, likely since it wasn't a league game, just a spur of the moment game. I started off well. I quickly got my stack up to over 2k. I wasn't chipleader, but I was a strong second. In fact there was a point where it was just studiopet (1st) and myself who had over 1500 chips. Then, I did a good job of doubling Robbie Robb up, made a stupid call on the flop with air. I knew deep down he had hit, but because he was so short at this time, I felt like risking it. And shortly after that, I helped to double Robbr up. I tried to be cute limping UTG with TT (only 5 of us left at this time), when Robbr raised (also quite short by this time) I re-raised, essentially putting him all in. When the cards were flipped, he shows JJ--D'oh.

The shortest I ended up was around 800. I was actually THE short stack for a while. I figured I would end up bubbling. Then Robbr was nice enough to give back my chips back when he raise, and I moved all in with AQo. He called with A7o, and my hand held.

After a ton of hands Bunny and Studio are eliminated and were HU. It was quick. First hand, Robbr folds his SB to me. Second hand, well here it is below:

POKERSTARS GAME #8397933803: TOURNAMENT #42508903, $10+$1 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL IV (50/100) - 2007/02/11 - 22:28:55 (ET)
Table '42508903 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 8: Robbr25 (4500 in chips)
Seat 9: N1kita (4500 in chips)
N1kita: posts small blind 50
Robbr25: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to N1kita [6c Ah]
N1kita: raises 200 to 300
Robbr25: raises 600 to 900
N1kita: calls 600
*** FLOP *** [Ac 6d 6h]
Robbr25: bets 900
N1kita: calls 900
*** TURN *** [Ac 6d 6h] [4s]
Robbr25: checks
N1kita: checks
*** RIVER *** [Ac 6d 6h 4s] [7c]
Robbr25: checks
N1kita: bets 2700 and is all-in
Robbr25 said, "well you prob have me beat, but KOD"
Robbr25: calls 2700 and is all-in
N1kita said, "ouch"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
N1kita: shows [6c Ah] (a full house, Sixes full of Aces)
Robbr25: shows [Kd Kh] (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
N1kita said, "yeah i did"
N1kita said, "gg"
N1kita collected 9000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9000 | Rake 0
Board [Ac 6d 6h 4s 7c]
Seat 8: Robbr25 (big blind) showed [Kd Kh] and lost with two pair, Kings and Sixes
Seat 9: N1kita (button) (small blind) showed [6c Ah] and won (9000) with a full house, Sixes full of Aces


And as you can see, that was game. YEAH ME!

Oh and here is an amusing screen shot of the table as the game ended. Please note from this picture you can tell exactly how long the tournament lasted (and no, it's not because of the clock in the bottom right hand corner).

Back To Basics

Ok, so I decided not to take a break. I've been playing a little bit, but not much. A few Sngs, a couple of tourneys. I played a $25PL table at Stars the other day. Anyway, I think if I'm going to keep playing, I need to get back to the basics, back to continuously working on my game. I haven't read a poker book in a while and I think I need to start up again. I plan on re-reading Harrington on Hold'em again. There are a few I haven't read yet that I think I should. The "Book of Tells" and "Kill Phil" are on my list. I've been content to stay at the level I'm comfortable at. It's time I get serious about moving up again. I may not do well everytime I take a stab at moving up, but that's normal. And that's where bankroll management comes in. Get rolled for moving up, try it, if need be move back down, if not, build the roll and move up again. It may be a long time before I'm playing $1/$2 since I don't play very many hands, but I should eventually get there.

Break from Poker

I haven't been too interested in playing poker lately. Once in a while during January, I picked up my laptop to play. But it was more out of habit than an urge to play. I had fun, but not as much as I usually do. I'm also doing well this month, so I'm not sure why I don't feel the poker itch. It's funny, I'm almost getting the hang of the cash game grind. I think I'm starting to get better at it than tournaments.

Anyway, I've started pulling my money out of the sites I'm currently playing at. I think I'm going to take a break again, probably a month; that seemed to work last time. I'm not 100% sure I want to break though. If I don't feel like playing is a break really necessary? I will probably pull my money off either way. If I don't take a break, I think I will just go back to where I started from. Most sites won't let you withdraw change, so I have to leave some money in the accounts. I don't mind grinding out at the penny tables. And even though they are donkaments, freerolls can actually be fun.

We will see, let's see how the beginning of February goes.

League Time

So, Rob and I hosted yet another poker game at our house last night. This time we've also started a league. Anyone is welcome to join but doesn't have to be in the league to play. There were 13 of us last night and pretty much everyone committed to the league, which will run for the entire year.

It was fun as always, but that's the main point of Rob and I running these. We just like our friends coming over and hanging out. I started out really well. Of course it helped I was getting the hands. Fairly early in the tournament, I'm dealt AKs, I believe I was UTG so I raise. I get one caller, then Jeff re-raises. Jeff is a decent player so I know he doesn't have a weak holding. I opt to call, as does the person who called my initial raise. I'm looking to hit an A on the flop, big pockets are a definite concern. Fortunately, the A does come, so I bet out. One fold, then Jeff raises me. Oh oh. Well, I figure AA is a definite possibility, but two A are already out. I'm thinking he quite possibly has AK as well. The other two cards on the flop were blanks, so there are not very many hands I am behind. I decide to risk it and move all-in. Jeff hits the tank to think. He does call and he flips KK. Ouch, depending on the turn and river, I just cracked kings. My hand does hold up. Fortunately, for Jeff he had me covered, but unfortunately, not by much; he's left with 40 chips.

This is a little disappointing because we get points for the league for kills. So if I had taken Jeff out I would have recieved a quick 5 points for the league. And worse, with only 40 chips, it's very easy for anyone at the table to eliminate him. Although, Jeff caught a great hand and was able to get the whole table to call his all in to get a decent stack back. His pocket tens held up against the table. I did double him up shortly after that when my AJ rand into his AQ. By this time he was back up to something like 500 chips.

With a huge stack early in the game, I decide to see more pots than I usually do. I limp with a lot of crappy hands. That works well for me too, as Craig ended up sitting to my right. He's very loose and tends to bet with nothing. So if I hit the flop, I was content to call him down. I did this a couple times and quickly scooped the pot when he showed nothing.

I was able to eliminate two people at our table and after a few others went out, we merged to final table at 8 left. When I sat down, it was apparent I was chip leader. The final table wasn't very exciting. Most of us were fairly tight. Although, there were a few short stacks who were willing to push their entire stacks into the middle when they needed to. I was dealt the great hands when I needed again. Brett moved all in when I had 88. I knew pocket pairs were a possiblitly but so were overcards, so I quickly called. He showed AK and it didn't improve. Then later Brett moved in and I had AA, I slowly called this one. I was in either the SB or BB and the others at the table had limped into the pot. I was hoping if I showed hesitation, one of them would also call. No one else did. Brett showed KQs or QJs, I can't remember which. My hand held up again.

I never really took a hit to my stack once I built it. Rob was also at the final table and he had done well. This was nice for a change, since the last few games, the both of us have been having a hard time making it deep. Adam ended up in third place, and it was Rob and I heads up. I was willing to go all in every hand, since although additional league points would be nice, who won 1st didn't matter much since the money would both be ours in the long run. Rob was against it, so I played serious for a few hands. Then I decided meh, it's getting late and I'm tired, so anytime I got a strong head's up hand, I would push. It only took two all-ins from me before Rob was in too. It was K7 vs JT. I had JT. I didn't improve and Rob won the first league game.

Finished

Ghost Recon for the 360 is complete. I have defeated the game. Next I need to work on finishing Zelda for the Wii. Then maybe I will get back to more serious poker.

Everybody say Wii!

Woohoo! The Wii is finally here. A friend of ours, Mike, was able to find one in Kitchener. He bought one for himself, one for us and a third for another friend of his. The place had just recieved their shipment and Mike took half of them.

I'm soooo happy. I can't wait to play the new Zelda. And the Wii sports are supposed to be really fun too. Now, we just need to find a store that has a Wiimote and nunchuck in stock.

Oh and I don't think I updated that Rob has his Xbox360. I've been playing Ghost Recon on it for the last couple of days. It's the game that came with the system. It's actually a really good game, I was off yesterday and I don't think I did much else but play that game.

Sorry poker gods, but for the next while I will be worshipping the gaming gods.

Bounty Tournaments

UB has these bounty tourneys running now. Basically, there is the regular tournament buy-in and then an extra fee that goes to the bounty pool. Everyone in the tournament has a bounty on their head. If you eliminate someone you get their bounty. They seemed interesting, so I joined a $2.20 last night. So, $1.20 for the tournament and $1 for the bounty. They of course ran like just a regular tournament, but they were much more enjoyable, especially since I took out 6 people. So, before I even made it to the money, I had won $6! I did make it to the money, but not by much. Ninety places paid, I made it to 54th for a $2.56 payout. At least I made more from the bounties. I'm thinking I might do a few more of these.

Back to UB

I cleared my Stars bonus the other day and since I have a bonus still at Ultimate Bet and they've fixed their hand history issue, I decided to put some money back into that site and continue to whittle away at it.

Now, I think I've found another reason to hate UB. Suckout city! I lost two buyins to the same donkey (V$PIP:80%, WSD:50%)! I had strong hands, he just kept outdrawing me on the river. Big pockets like AA and KK were no good. Flopping a set was no good. AK and flopping a K against AJ no good (good ole runner runner J). It was frustrating, especially because he was so eager to spread the money he won from me to everyone else at the table. He was a gold mine, but just not for me. And stupid me uninstalled Ultimatebuddy, so I didn't think to add him to my buddy list to follow him around, as I know once his luck runs out, I'll easily get my money back.

Some Updates

Well, so far this year, poker has been what you expect from poker. Some ups, some downs. I've played a few $5.50 SNGs; those did not go well at all. I did not make it to the money in any of them. And after checking Poker Tracker, well, I think I need to stop playing these. Although it's a small sample, it's still very telling. I've played 16 (lifetime, not just this month) and only made the money once and that was a second. Yuck!

I'm back to cash games for a bit, my work schedule lately has made it hard for me to find the time to put into tournaments. So far, $10NL is treating me well. I'm up, but knowing me, that could change. My cash games are chock full of swings. I guess it's to be expected, but I'm sure they are bigger than normal variance. I think I get impatient after folding and folding and folding, then when I finally get a hand to play, I don't want to get off it since I've been waiting so long to play. I also think I'm way too tight, but at micro-limits it's probably better to be too tight than too loose.

And finally, the Wii will be coming soon. I think Rob and I will start hunting for one anytime we go out now. Hopefully, stores will start to have them in stock. Plus Rob won a $3.30 triple shoot-out on stars so he's using that money to buy an X-box 360. I'm thinking poker will soon be taking a back seat to gaming.