Back to Playing

Well, I'm back playing poker. Not a lot and actually, not tournaments either. I haven't deposited any money, but someone was offering $50 on Stars for depositing in a sports book. So I did that and then withdrew the money to Neteller. Then, yesterday, Poker.com offered a 100% reload bonus.

So, I was able to deposit $60 in total there and will slowly grind my way to getting an additional $60 from the bonus.

I played a few hands last night. It was NL since all their Limit tables were full. It wasn't that exciting. Basically, I folded my hands for about 3 orbits until I was dealt AA in the cut-off. There were 3 limpers in front of me, so I raise. Only about 4xBB, I should have raised more, but I guess I was expecting too much from the table to notice this was the first hand I had played since sitting at the table. I, of course, get four callers. Lovely, I didn't narrow the field at all. The flop comes 865, two are spades. Neither of my aces are a spade. Although, not too bad of a board, at $25NL, there are plenty of donkeys that will call a raise with hands that could have hit it. There is a min bet from the first position, a couple of folds and a caller. I, of coure, pot raise it. It's the only way to see where I am. Both players call--Great. The turn is and eight, I forget which suit, but it wasn't a spade. All I'm thinking is one of them has to have an 8. But they both check it to me. This was tough, do I bet or check? I bet half the pot, thinking if one of them move all in on the river, depending on the card, it would be very hard for me to call that. Fortunately, both folded and I scoop the pot. And that was it for me, Lost was on last night and it was time to watch some TV.

Amusing

While surfing I came across +EV. It's an amusing comic about poker. I've read a few of them and they weren't bad. Good enough to start reading on a regular basis, but I wouldn't cry if he stopped creating them.

Break's Over

So, it's been a month since I decided to take a break from poker. I'm glad I did it. It was needed and I think I feel better about my poker game. When I get back to playing, I don't think I'm going to play as much before I stopped. I think I will also go back to playing tournaments more. I enjoy them and have been quit successful as well.

Next decision is do I deposit more money? I have a few dollars spread throughout a few sites. Some sites won't let you withdraw the change. I also have approximately $25 in Neteller. Not much of a bankroll, but that's what I started with when I first began playing for money.

I also think I should start posting HHs more on TalkingPoker. It's really the best way to improve my game and I never did it enough in the first place. I just never know which ones I should post, which would create a good discussion.

Well, back to playing poker, maybe. I haven't even really felt like playing the last week. The only time, I think of the game, is when Rob opens up a table at Party.

Talking Poker Radio

Well, I'm willing to shill for Rob.

He's just launched a new side-project, in conjuction with the Talking Poker forum. It's called Talking Poker Radio and he's hoping it will be a weekly podcast bringing you the latest in forum news, poker news and gossip, and poker strategy from around the internet. You can download the first episode by visiting the forum and looking for the Talking Poker Radio thread. It should be right at the top.

There will soon be a RSS feed up that you can subscribe to using iTunes or your choice of Podcast aggregator as well.

Article

Since this was both poker related and interesting, I figured I would post this article here.

Clicky.

New Look

Well, since I'm not playing poker all day now and I was looking for something to do, I decided to update my blog. My page should no longer be broken in IE. If you use IE and see anything amiss, please leave a comment, I'll try and fix it.

I've also switched templates. Since I'm making changes, I might as well, change everything. I like the new template, but Rob says he prefers the old one. What does everyone else think?

Taking a Break

I've been having a really bad run of cards lately and losing quite a bit of money due to suck outs. Since this was pissing me off to no end and I've been playing poker non stop for a year now, I decided I would take a break. I have qualified for a couple freerolls at Poker.com for Wednesday and Sunday this week, so I will play in those, but other than that, no poker for a month (at least). I've withdrawn my entire bankroll from all online poker sites. I'm even moving that bankroll back into our bank account from Neteller. That way I have no way of depositing.

I'm hoping a break will do me good and clear my head. I also hope to make sure that I'm not addicted to the game. Hopefully, I don't struggle to not play, but if I do, I have Rob to kick me in the ass to smarten me up.

IE is crap

Ok, so I didn't realize until I tried pulling up my site at work, but in Internet Explorer my site is slightly broken. All the links to the right have been pushed to the very bottom after all my posts. I think it has to do with where I've put the google ads. I'm not going to worry about fixing it right now as once the WSOP is over, I'll be moving them back to the top of my page and things seem to work fine that way. So, if you are using IE, scroll down if you need the links or better yet, switch to Firefox, it's a much better browser.

Too Much Tilt

Ok, so as you are aware, I've been playing 25c/50c Limit at Poker.com. I started out well, I was up $25 in about 2 days. Which for me is really good. Then I quickly lost that profit in one session the next day. Alot of it was variance. If I'd catch trips, someone would have the case card with a better kicker. If I would catch a straight, the guy chasing a backdoor flush would complete on the river. But, I've come to realize the rest of the loss was due to tilt. I hate losing. I REALLY hate losing. Rob can attest to this. I am an extremely competitive person and in any game I play, I have to be the winner. I do realize that in poker you can't win every session, that it's the long term you have to think of. But man, when you play well and an idiot wins due to luck, it's hard not to get angry. I'm working on not tilting, but this last week has made me realize I have a long way to go. But, the good news is, if I do get better at not going on tilt, I will lose less and likely win more.

Recommendation

Okay, to all you bonus chasers out there, I have a site recommendation for you: Poker.com. Right now they have a 100% deposit bonus up to $100 and entry into a $500 freeroll for the next seven days. The freeroll has a pretty decent pay out. About 80 people play and top 10 pay out. First is $150. Rob started playing at this site before me and ended up winning $190 from just the freerolls alone. The bonus seems relatively easy to clear even at 25c/50c limit. And there seems to be quite a few fish. Alot of chasing and calling down with just a high card (and not always an ace). So far, at the 6-max tables I've joined the average stack is only about $5. And, if I'm able to make money at the 25c/50c tables, it can only be due to either variance or really bad players. :)

I've been thinking...

Ok, so last night, I finished clearing my "last" bonus at Doyle's Room. I say last in quotes as I do have some to clear still, but I gave up on Titan and Full Tilt. I just play too small of limits to make it worth while. As well, for whatever reason, I was losing more money than I would make in the bonus at both sites. If I ever get a bigger bankroll (not likely in the near future as I withdraw a lot of what I win to put in our bank account), I might go back if they have reload bonuses.

Although, working on these bonuses have really made me wonder. What is my true skill level at poker? At Doyle's Room, I would play mainly 10c/20c limit, but if no one was playing those stakes I would move down to 5c/10c. As an aside, you can tell how small the site is compared to others when at some times during the day there was no one playing 10c/20c limit. Anyway, when playing those limits, I would just cream them. A couple times I doubled my buy-in and I think I left down only once or twice(suckouts are fun! :) ). But playing at these limits, the bonus wasn't clearing very fast. It wasn't as tedious as at Full Tilt or Titan, in which I had to play 25c/50c, but still relatively slow. So, if I was up $10 or $15 I'd move up to 25c/50c limit. Yeah, that never worked well. Everytime I did, I'd lose that $10-$15 I just won at the lower levels. Grrr....

So what does this mean? Is my skill level set at 10c/20c right now? Should I keep trying 25c/50c? Even though it is costing me money? I don't know. I do know that I have to wait before trying again, the last attempt definitely put me on tilt at that level. I also wondering if I should go back to NL, I do prefer it to limit. But, with my bankroll, I couldn't even think of playing at a 25c/50c NL table. The safest limit would probably be 5c/10c or just pushing it at 10c/25c. Poker just sucks sometimes.

Final League Game

Well, I didn't end up making any points in last nights league game. My Queens ran into Kings and I was crippled. I did end up doubling up a couple times, but it just wasn't enough to stay in. I'm happy either way, as I still ended up getting enough points from the rest of the games to end up in the Tournament of Champions. So I've got a chance to win some money with this freeroll. And if not, I did a lot better in the league than I thought I would, so it shows that at least some of my poker winnings are due to skill rather than luck or variance.

Party Bonus

Party Poker was offering up another deposit bonus, so of course I took them up on their offer. I've built up my roll quite a bit from this bonus whoring, so I was able to deposit $140 for a $21 bonus. I just had to play 210 raked hands.

The first couple bonus' I had at Party, I was able to play at their beginner's tables. Well, it turns out, you can only play at those tables for a limited period of time and I guess my time has run out. So I had to chose between 0.50c/$1 Limit or 0.10c/0.25c NL. I haven't really played at these limits before so I wasn't sure if I should try to clear the bonus or not. I didn't want to be playing with scared money.

I tried the limit first and within an hour ran through almost $10. Yeah, that wasn't good since my roll right now is just that $140 (I have almost $200 on Stars as well, but I need one buy-in for the league tourney and I've also decided to buy a share of TP for the WSOP, so unless TP cashes, that money is gone). So I figured I would move to the NL and just play super tight.

That seemed to work. I think it also helped that I was dealt QQ 5 times, AQ 3 times and KK 3 times within about 200 hands. And the key to getting those hands, is they actually held up! So when I finally cleared my bonus, I was also up $36. So that profitted me $57! Not bad for one day of playing poker.

New Addition

I've added a new feature to my blog. Since it's WSOP season I've added the headlines to the top of my page. All of the updates come from Pokerstars with their permission. Feel free to click on the links for updates.

Need a Cash Game Break

Today I decided to join a tourney at Stars. It was a $1.10 PL game. Funny thing, this is the first tourney (other than the league games) I've played in about a month. I've been bonus whoring and most sites those are easier to clear at cash tables.

I'm kinda tired of the cash games right now, so this is a good break for me. And the previous PL tourneys I've played I've done well on.

So I did make the money, but just barely. I seem to do well at the start of tourneys, then when it's getting close to the bubble, I go card dead so I can't really step it up and steal blinds. I was actually, almost eliminated with 20 left to go before the money (stupid play on my part) but was able to claw my way back and make it to the money. But, I still wasn't catching many cards. Finally got eliminated in 33rd, for a whole $2.40 pay-out! :)

The Dreaded Kiss of Death

Bah, eliminated in 7th in the league tourney all because of KK. This hand just never stands up to any hand it has dominated (although, I will admit he had a few outs on the flop). I'm just going to post the hand history, it's easier that way. Two hands later I push with big slick and get knocked out when someone with QT calls me.

PokerStars Game #5436106004: Tournament #26062027, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2006/07/02 - 22:21:30 (ET)
Table '26062027 2' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: eeejit101 (3300 in chips)
Seat 3: JDpoker$tar7 (1460 in chips)
Seat 4: N1kita (2690 in chips)
Seat 6: mcash2 (2585 in chips)
Seat 7: PShabi (3015 in chips)
Seat 8: MathBabe (2535 in chips)
Seat 9: gemini_J (2415 in chips)
JDpoker$tar7: posts small blind 50
N1kita: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to N1kita [Kh Kc]
mcash2: folds
PShabi said, "that's the least of my concerns"
eeejit101 said, "i can get 130"
eeejit101 said, "it just wont happen"
PShabi said, "I need to beat eej, decoder"
PShabi: calls 100
MathBabe: folds
gemini_J: calls 100
eeejit101: folds
JDpoker$tar7: calls 50
N1kita: raises 300 to 400
PShabi said, "mean, mb, and rr are chasing me"
PShabi: calls 300
gemini_J: calls 300
JDpoker$tar7: folds
*** FLOP *** [4h 8h 6d]
PShabi said, "yep"
PShabi said, "nik too"
N1kita: bets 800
PShabi: folds
eeejit101 said, "then he wants me in for as long as possible surely"
PShabi said, "I'm worried about TOC"
gemini_J: raises 1215 to 2015 and is all-in
N1kita: calls 1215
*** TURN *** [4h 8h 6d] [7d]
PShabi said, "and possibly top 4, that'll take at least a win and another cash probably"
*** RIVER *** [4h 8h 6d 7d] [Qh]
eeejit101 said, "ouch"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
N1kita: shows [Kh Kc] (a pair of Kings)
gemini_J: shows [5d 4d] (a straight, Four to Eight)
gemini_J collected 5330 from pot
mcash2 said, "i missed too many games"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5330 | Rake 0
Board [4h 8h 6d 7d Qh]
Seat 2: eeejit101 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: JDpoker$tar7 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: N1kita (big blind) showed [Kh Kc] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 6: mcash2 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: PShabi folded on the Flop
Seat 8: MathBabe folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: gemini_J showed [5d 4d] and won (5330) with a straight, Four to Eight

Canada Day Home Game

Rob and I hosted another home game tonight. As usual, it was a $10 freeze out tournament. And since it was also a holiday for us Canadians, we also hosted a BBQ before the game got started. The food was plentiful and great. Hot dogs, sausages, hamburgers. Potato and bean salad, caesar salad. Corn on the cob and deviled eggs. We fed our friends well.

The tournament itself didn't last long for me. I ended up being the second one out. Unfortunately, I went all in with was I considered to be the best hand, but turned out I had been trapped (although, it was an unintentional trap) by my opponent. A min-raise in MP gets called by the button and myself in the SB with KJ. The flop came rag, rag J. I wasn't worried about AJ because the initial raiser wouldn't min raise with that hand (his min raises were a weak attempt to steal). I bet about half the pot and both the raiser and button call. When the turn came another rag, I knew I needed to make a move. I was out of position and if the min-raiser had a A, K or Q he would call to the river on smaller bets to try and catch a pair. The button was a tight player but he sometimes over values hands like QJ or suited cards. I decide to push, sure that if either call, I will have the best hand. The raiser folds and the button asks how much I have. So not an instant call. In fact, he was determining what his stack was going to be if he lost. So, before I state his cards, I did almost get him to fold. So, knowing that, guess what his hand was.....


Well, if you guessed QQ, you were right! When he didn't insta-call there was no way I would have thought he had an over pair. I dunno maybe it means I'm either a really good player or a really bad player, but if I had an over pair to that flop, I wouldn't pause to call. Anyway, my hand doesn't improve and he goes on to take second in the tourney. At least he put my chips to good use.

As for Rob, he won the whole thing. So that makes up for my not making any money AGAIN in our home game. This better not turn into the norm. I liked it much better when Rob and I both made it to the money pretty much every game.

TPFL II: Game 17

Well, I came in second again. I'm actually surprised I made it that far, considering Monday morning I woke up sick and have been getting steadily worse as time passes. While playing, I would be struck with fits of coughing and my head was throbbing. I was also extremely tired. I wanted to nap in the afternoon before the game, but my body didn't seem to want to co-operate.

Even with all that, I feel I played a good game. At final table, I got seated to the left of TP. At first, I was worried. Last time that happened, he kept stealing my blinds and I couldn't defend (actually, I wasn't defending well). This time, I did a much better job of fighting back and even doubled up off him once because of it.

Head's up didn't last long again. This time it was against Quint. I was short stacked yet again. I gotta figure out where I need to change my play here to get a better stack going into the final two. Quint had been playing super aggressive even during final three, so I knew yet again, that I would have to find a hand and push with it. I folded my SB the first hand. Second hand I was dealt 56s. Quint raises and I push. He called and flipped over Q8o. I did end up flopping a 5, but he caught an 8 on the turn. That eliminated me in second.

This means I finished in the money and because of a bigger turnout this game, quite a few league points. I'm not quite in the top four yet, but 4th, 5th and 6th (me) all have points in the 140s. Third has about 160. So all I need to do is get at least 20 points in one more game (and the other to not get any) and I'm in the top 4!!

Oh and Robbie Robb also finished in the money last night. He came in third. This means for at least the next two tournies, I don't have to transfer him the buy-in!

TPFL II: Game 16

Ok, I've made points in the last two league games. This one and the last one. The last league kinda frustrated me. I was doing really well, and on my way to win, when I made a stupid call against de-coder, to end up out in fourth.

I definitely made up for it this game. Unfortunately, the field was much smaller, being scheduled for a Saturday. I made it to second place. I know I played well, but I can't believe I made it, I think that being there was only 7 players really helped. I was massively card dead for most of the game. I was running poker tracker during the game, but my VPIP didn't end up in the double digits until about 3 or 4 of us were left.

I knew when I ended up HU, it wasn't likely that I'd win. I needed a couple double ups as I only had about 1400 in chips and of course, eej had the rest. First hand I was dealt QTo. HU, I figure this isn't a bad hand and decide to push with it. It was funny when eej flipped AA. Of course, he gets dealt the best starting hand in our first hand of HU when I need to make a move as soon as possible. Oh well. Second is still good. I will just have to keep trying for that first place and it'll be better when it's a bigger field of players.

WBCOOP

Played in the Blogger Championship today. Started out okay. Kept my stack size up. Then was able to eliminate someone after the first break. Held my stack at well over average for a while. Then after second break, dumped a lot of chips on a steal. Because of that, had to go in push mode for a while and try to double up. Mostly getting folds to my all in bets, but I'm okay with that. My stack started slowly creeping up, but still not ahead of the blinds. I then pushed with K7s and was called by JJ. He caught a J I caught two 7s. His boat beat my trips. Out 313th.