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Friday, September 30, 2005 

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my birthday so sorry I didn't post. Had a nice relaxing day and was extremely surpised by one of my presents. My first present I knew about as my wife had me pick it out :)

I got a nice money clip which I picked out about a month ago so I knew that was coming. Inside the box, there were a bunch of papers inside my money clip already. So I'm reading threw the little papers my wife made..."Where else better to use your new money clip..." and then there's a page with an iternerary on it for a flight to Vegas near the end of October :) My wife and mom apparently were plotting for a while and I had absolutely no clue whatsoever. They rock. So Vegas here I come!

Played in the chiptalk.net tourney last night and didn't do very well. I got some good hands early and I then had A6s on the button with 75/150 blinds and about 1300 chips left. There was one limper and I felt I had the best hand so I went all in hoping to steal the 425 in the pot right now. The blinds folded, the limper thought a while and called with KTs. I still had the best hand but the flop killed me with a T and 2 clubs and then I got killed by the flush and I was down to 430 chips or so and went out a few hands later. Oh well.

I was about +$28 playing 1/2 full and some 1/2 6 max. Tomorrow I'll post my monthly report and some charts :)

That's it for now...may the flop be with you!

Wednesday, September 28, 2005 

Don't give up

As a wise man (chipper) in my comments keeps telling not to give up. So I plugged away with some more sit and goes after going 0-4 on Sunday. In the last 2 days I played 7 of the $6 sit and goes on stars and won 3. I also played a $10 sit and go on PartyPoker and finished 3rd. So 4 cashes in 8 tourneys of which I won 3 :) Not too shabby.

Played in a $15 tourney on Pacific Monday night as well hoping for a big score in the 10k guaranteed. About 750 players and I made it to about 120th place when I had to push JT on the button and get called by 86 who hit their 8. Oh well. One of these days I'll make a nice score.

Trying to clear a $50 bonus on PokerRewards as well and almost done. Up +68 in the process with about 50 more raked hands to go. Going to try to finish that up tonight and then hopefully join Bet365 for a good bonus there as well.

That's about it here for now. Time to get away from the laptop and take a walk :) May the flop be with you.

Monday, September 26, 2005 

The weekend

Saturday was our 4th live tournament at my house over the past year or so. The new table that I got along with the Poker Genie from PSO went over really well :)

I kind of feel a little bad because I've now won 3 out of 4 of the tournaments (finished 4th in the second tourney) and my wife has finished 2, 3, 3, 3. We've had at least 8 people each tourney and I'm the only one who has really played online a ton and read anything about NL tourneys. Most of my friends just play way too many hands and some don't understand that their pocket sixes while a great hand in certain situations (like some of the ones they see on tv and try to mimic), it is a hand you really have to throw away if you don't flop a 6 and the board shows KQT. This wasn't a hand from Saturday's tournament - it was a previous one, but you get my point. Some play middle pair against 3 opponents like it can't be beaten.

So after the victory I decided to play some $5 and $6 Sit and go 1 table tourneys on Pokerstars. I finished 9th, 8th, 6th, 4th, 3rd in that order. 3 of them I lost on hands where I was a big favorite. 822 rainbow flop. I had K2 in BB. It checked around...pot had 800 in it and i only had 800 chips so I wanted to get someone's chips in the pot with me. Td shows up on the turn and i bet guy calls and hits diamond flush on river. The one I finished 4th in, blinds are 50/100 and guy raises to 1200. I reraise all in with 1450 and KK. He shows JJ. He hits the J on the turn to knock me out. sigh.

I played well at 1/2 and 2/4 and ended up $11 ahead overall. I was up $60 at one point but my 2/4 table was so good I had to stay but ended up not catching anything good after that.

The PSO freeroll where top two win a cruise was last night. I played pretty well and got hammered as usual as a big favorite. I pushed all in with AK and called by JT ...flop Q83. river was a 9 and he hit his straight to knock me out in 47th of about 190 or so I think. Oh well.

Football:
My fantasy team almost has a chance to win! I am up by 4 points and my opponent has one WR going tonight. He's not a main guy so I don't even remember his name at the moment so hopefully he won't get any TDs!

I went 2-2 with my bets yesterday:
W - Pats +145
W - Browns +14 (-115)
L - Bills -3 (+110)
L - Giants +6 (-105)

That's about it for now...may the flop be with you!

Friday, September 23, 2005 

Back in the ring

The chiptalk.net tourney was last night and I played pretty well for the most part. Unfortunately for me, I picked up QQ at the wrong time. Blinds were 100/200 with 25 ante and I picked up QQ in late position with a stack of about 2700. I was about 10th of 15 in chips I think. UTG raises to 1000 (and only has 600 chips left), guy in middle position calls (has about 7000 chips) so I push all in. Both guys call. UTG has Ax, MP has AA and that was it for me. We both got knocked out and I finished 14th :( Oh well. The flop would have been a good flop for me anyway and I would have gotten all my chips in no matter what. Other than folding preflop which I really had no reason to, there was nothing I could do about that one. If MP had raised, I might have thought about laying down QQ there, but I had no reason to think MP had AA or KK. I figured if anything, the short stack guy would have had it and I would at least have had part of my stack at the end of the hand. Oh well.

I think I may try to find more casinos to whore. It's funny that I'm now playing at casinos online because when I started playing poker I always thought it was too easy for sites to rig their games at casinos whereas in poker there is no reason for the house to rig anything since they make money no matter what with the rake. So here I am about 18 months later and just played at my second casino. Both are owned by Party Poker so I felt really safe playing at each. Starluck and Planetluck each give you $100 to play with right away when you deposit $100. You then need to Wager $1600 to be able to withdraw their bonus. So now the math:

If you wager $1600 worth of hands on a game like blackjack which only has a 0.5% house edge, you will lose $0.50 each $100 wagered.

So 0.005 times $1600 = $8 lost.

Based on long term expectation, you should come out $92 ahead with the bonus. The only thing that changes is your standard deviation and risk of ruin based on how much you wager per hand. If you wager $50 per hand, you could bust out really easily. I generally start with $2 wagers and move up to $3 wagers. I threw some $5 wagers here and there but about 90% of my bets were $3 each.

At Starluck I ended up keeping the $100 bonus plus winning another $150 for $250 total win.
At Planetluck I ended up losing $50 but still ended with $50 profit from the bonus.

On top of that I got $30 from bonusbonus.net for using their affiliate link for Starluck and I should also get $30 from them for Planetluck as well.

I haven't kept up much with sports lately so I'll try to get back into the swing of things this weekend with my sportsbetting and hopefully get my Fantasy Football team on track as well.

Tomorrow I am having a live poker tournament at my house. It's a 10 person tourney and we get to use my new poker table that we got PSO points (well I got a party poker GC and used the cash to buy it from overstock.) Eventually I may try to build a nicer one, but this one does the job since I really have no carpentry skills and I don't have the tools or space to build one anyway. Here's a pic: http://www.scottwire.com/images/pokertable.jpg

Hopefully I will play better than I did today. I saw a really nice 3/6 kill table today and jumped on. I played 2 kill hands really poorly with AJo and managed to lose $72 just on those 2 hands. I ended down $92 :( I'll get it back though!

That's about it for now. May the flop be with you!

Thursday, September 22, 2005 

Back from the happiest place on Earth

Yes Walt Disney World's slogan is "the happiest place on Earth". It was a lot of fun. My wife found a great package deal that included 8 days of park tickets and 7 days of of lunches and dinners on Disney's Dining Plan.

We hit Epcot 3 times, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom twice and Disney-MGM studios once. We also hit the water park Blizzard Beach and the 5 floor arcade DisneyQuest. All a great time. Great rides of note: Disney's Philharmagic in Magic Kingdom, Soarin in Epcot and the Safari in Animal Kingdom.

The dining plan was great too as we had a few really nice and expensive meals all on Disney. The steakhouse at the Canada pavilion at Epcot called Le Celliar was my favorite as it was one of the best steaks I've ever had in my life. Of course the almost $100 bill that we didn't have to pay for our meals was great as well. Each meal came with dessert and drink and dinners came with an appetizer as well.

I still haven't played poker yet. So it's been a week now and I'm about to play for the first time in the chiptalk.net tourney on Pokerstars. I did do another casino today though. Deposited $100, got my $100 bonus and had to play $1600 worth of hands to get another $30 as an affiliate bonus. I ended up losing $50 of the bonus, so I am up $50 on the site and I'll get $30 extra once it is confirmed that I linked through bonusbonus.net correctly. :)

That's about it for now. Have to get ready for the tourney. May the flop be with you!

Tuesday, September 13, 2005 

Vacation...

Time to take a break from life and say hi to Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and the rest of the Disney gang. I probably won't post for about a week or so but I may if something exciting happens in the next few days.

I have barely played poker the last couple of days. In two sessions I made $20 on paradise and $25 on ultimatebet so the upturn has begun (despite a couple of bonehead calls).

Thanks Chipper for your comments and encourangement and thanks to everyone else who has been reading. My charts yesterday actually didn't even include my downswing on Titan Poker but I also missed a +100 on Pacific so add another -$50 or so to that chart. The downswing on that chart is all from my play on UltimateBet where I usually don't get pummelled like that.

Good luck to everyone and enjoy the week. May the flop be with you!

Monday, September 12, 2005 

Maniacs are owning me

Granted some of my loss is just playing too aggressively and paying the price at times, but I swear that I just keep getting destroyed by turns and rivers killing my hands.

-140 yesterday :(

Since august 1:

Click to expand

Since March 1:

Click to expand

So hopefully this "blip on the radar screen" will be part of the past and I can continue along on my winning ways.

We are going on vacation in a couple of days so hopefully that will give me a nice needed break.

Hands from yesterday:

1)
KTs raise in CO
BB who is a maniac calls
Flop KK5 with 2 spades. we cap the flop
Turn is another spade. Of course i keep raising him cause he is a maniac.
He happens to have a flush already :(

2)
I finally get KK
I 3 bet good player who raised UTG he calls
Flop JTT
Yes you guessed it, he flopped quad Tens

3)
33 on button and I limp in with 2 limpers behind me.
Flop (board: Ad 3d Ts) checked to me, i bet, first guy check raises other guy calls
Turn 7h we cap
River 9d sigh

i have a third best hand. one guy has TT, other guy hits flush on river



I am just getting punished with all my decent hands.

I'm not sure if I'll play today. Probably later on tonight. I'm reading lots of forum posts and trying to see what I can improve.

Sportsbetting:
2-2 yesterday on NFL.
I have a bet on the Eagles tonight.

that's it for now.
May the flop be with you!

Sunday, September 11, 2005 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good:
I played pretty well in the Titan Poker new player freeroll Saturday night. I finished 12th out of about 280 and made $10.

The bad:
$10 barely makes up for my horrible day at the tables.

The ugly:
-$93 for the day

My day basically looks like this-
1/2: -148
1/2 6max: +45
Freeroll: +10

I keep getting pummelled by loose players hitting their longshots.
Highlights include this hand:

Ultimate Bet 1/2 Hold'em (10 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Scottwire is UTG+2 with 8h, 8s.
2 folds, Scottwire calls, 1 fold, MP2 calls, 2 folds, Button calls, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: (5 SB) Js, 8c, 7d (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Scottwire bets, MP2 folds, Button calls, SB folds, BB calls.


Turn: (4 BB) Qh (3 players)
BB checks, Scottwire bets, Button raises, BB calls, Scottwire 3-bets, Button caps, BB calls, Scottwire calls.

River: (16 BB) Th (3 players)
BB bets, Scottwire calls, Button calls.

Final Pot: 19 BB

Results in white below:
Button has Qd Kh (one pair, queens).
BB has 3h 9c (straight, queen high).
Scottwire has 8h 8s (three of a kind, eights).

Outcome: BB wins 19 BB.


I keep getting manhandled like this as of late. Outside of a couple of good tables, this has been what its like for me the last few days. Hopefully it is just variance. I don't feel like I'm making a ton of mistakes. Just all their draws hitting and none of mine coming through. Guess we'll see as we go.

Sportsbetting was a disaster too.
went 0-3 today
-4.42 overall 29-31

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day :)
May the flop be with you.

Friday, September 09, 2005 

Ahh Pacific...

Yesterday I was getting frustrated with my up and down play the last few days. I continue to lose at Titan Poker for some reason and even at the sites I normally win at. I know it is just variance and that I keep getting drawn out on but it is still hard for me to not tilt once in a while. I still feel like "this is my pot and I'm not giving it up" sometimes. This is yet another thing I must work on.

But then it happened. The table where it all comes back. I decided to play at Pacific for the first time in a couple months. Pacific Poker is filled with bad players but you can only play one table max. So I fired up a 2/4 table right before the Chiptalk.net tourney and away I went. 2 of my first 5 hands were nice big pots. I won a $20 pot on my first hand with A6o in the CO where I posted. The button had raised preflop but 5 people in the pot and it checked around all 3 streets and I won with a pair of 6s I hit on the turn. Then I hit the motherload with a straight and an $80 pot. A few hands later I won with AQ against a maniac playing 66. After all was said and done I left the table up $195. That was awesome.

It didn't help my chiptalk tourney play though. I was doing well and getting great cards. I had JJ twice, KK twice and AKs all in the first 20 hands or so. I was doing fine after the first break until I got 99. I called a min raise and was half paying attention because I was watching the Raiders/Pats game as well. Flop was 872. Guy led out and I raised big. He reraised all in. I had half my stack in the pot and was now getting 4:1 to call. If I had thought about the minraise from early position from this guy for another second I probably would have layed it down. But I made a bad call and he showed KK. Oh well. I finished 23rd.

I played a couple more tables of 1/2 at UltimateBet and Pokerstars and it was back to the runner runner flushes and 2 pairs on the river against me. Such is poker. Still came out ahead about $120 for the day so all was well.

Sports:
2-3 yesterday.
Rockies should have won that game. Raiders should have played better. Oh well. I am now +0.60 overall. Isn't that exciting! I can retire soon! I guess I need to find my own system.

That's it for now. May the flop be with you!

Thursday, September 08, 2005 

Another down day

Played a bit of 2/4, 1/2 and 1/2 6max. I ended down about $50 overall. Lost about 80 playing 2/4 and made back the rest playing 1/2 and 1/2 6max. I was just not getting any cards today and when I did I got hammered. Two hands that killed me at 2/4:

Hand 1:
KK in CO. MP2 raises, I 3 bet, SB caps, we both call.
Flop J52. SB bets, MP2 raises, I 3 bet, SB caps.
Turn J. SB bets, MP2 raises, (I should have folded in retrospect. What was the chance that they both QQ, TT or lower at this point.) I call, SB calls.
River Q. Checks around.

SB has KK
MP2 has AA
I have KK
sigh

Hand 2:
MP1 raises, I 3bet with JJ in MP2. CO calls 3 bets cold ( i knew that wasn't looking good)
Flop T83 with 2 hearts.
MP1 checks, I bet, CO calls
Turn Ah. MP1 checks, I bet, CO calls ( I figure he has an ace but is scared of flush? maybe has Kh?)
River is a 4 and we all check. CO has KK and beats my JJ. Should I have fired a bet here? especially with the original raiser still in?

Maybe I'll try to find the hand histories and post them on the forums.

SportsBetting:
2-2 last night, +$2.45
23-23 overall
+$3.93 overall

tonight -
Rockies +140
Cubs -1.5 @ +150
Nationals +104
Tigers/Indians Under 9 @ -120
Raiders +280

Wednesday, September 07, 2005 

Treading water

The last couple of days have just been treading water at the tables. Pretty much even playing both days but I've cleared another couple hundred in bonuses. I've been playing a lot more aggressively with decent results. I would have been up yesterday but I made a couple of stupid moves near the end of my session last night.

I even made some kind of $50 bonus just for playing Let it Ride the other day. On top of that I hit a full house yesterday so I'm now up almost 300 at the casino. Once I get the $30 bonus for signing up through bonusbonus.net, I'll withdraw most of that and just play a little here and there with some of my winnings just as a quick escape for something different.

Sports-
3-2 yesterday
21-21 Overall
+$1

That's about it for now. May the flop be with you!

Monday, September 05, 2005 

Weekend in Review

Yesterday was our first wedding anniversary and we decided to go up to Bushkill Falls for the day. It was a really nice hike and we took some nice pictures of some of the falls.

Poker-
Ended up +25 on Saturday and even for the day yesterday. Finished off a $100 reload bonus on partypoker to make it a good day though. I'm working on a $100 bonus from Gaming Club and then I have to finish my Titan Poker promo through PSO for free Nevada Jacks poker chips.

Oh and I forgot to add I won $0.29 from a bounty in the chiptalk.net tourney that Yeltzen put up for knocking out stank1000. THANKS YELTZEN!

Sportsbetting-
Went 4-0 yesterday which helped me pull back to almost even.

Totals: 17-16, -$2
I'd be up but I lost a double bet on one pick.

Today's picks-
Mariners +115
Reds -133
Phillies -110
Phillies -1.5 , +185

Sunday, September 04, 2005 

Happy Anniversary

This post is dedicated solely for my wife.

I don't often express how I feel but today I want to share it with the world.

Today is our first wedding anniversary. One year ago today we got married in Las Vegas at the Monte Carlo. We both love Las Vegas and we wanted a small wedding so we invited a handful of friends and family to join us. It was a nice short 6 minute ceremony followed by a great dinner at the Paris buffet. It was the official start of the rest of our lives together.

It is amazing how great this past year has been. (Of course knowing someone for almost 4 years and also living with them for almost a year before marriage helps things go smoothly later on.) We have our little tiffs and our own bad days just like any couple but have never really had any big arguments. Let's hope we never do. It is amazing how well we get along and how similar we are in almost every aspect. I respect you, I love you and I cherish you.

Thank you for putting up with me when I'm a pain in the ass. Thank you for doing all the little nice things you do. Thank you for being you.

Every day that passes makes me realize even more just how great you are and how great we are together.

You are very special to me and I want the world to know it.

I love you with all my heart.
Scott

Saturday, September 03, 2005 

quick synopsis

Poker-
+25

sports 3-4

today's picks:
Cubs over Pirates -1.5 -105
Twins over Indians -1.5 125
Orioles
Win 155
Astros Win -106
Nationals over Phillies -1.5 145
Reds Win 150
Yankees Win -110

Friday, September 02, 2005 

Almost won another tourney

I played in the Chiptalk.net tournament last night. I played very well and was able to build a huge stack in the middle of the tournament. There were 49 people and with about 25 left I had the chip lead and at one point more than twice as many chips as the number two guy.

Top 9 got paid and once i made it to the final table I was 3rd in chips. I won a couple of hands and was back on top with about 6 left. This other guy then went on a tear. He knocked out a medium sized stack with QQ against TT and then knocked out 2 short stacks in one hand. The guy had 42k chips while I had 13k in second place. Other two had 10 and 7k. I won a small pot getting up to 20k and then big stack guy knocked out the other two.

Now we were heads up. 52k to 20k chips or so. I got knocked down to 11k chips and then won a small pot and then I got AA and limped in. I slowplayed it into doubling my stack and we were even in chips. Next hand though I had J8 and he ended up having QQ on a 862 flop. He bet I reraised all in and that was it for me. So I finished 2nd and won $98. Not bad at all :)

The rest of the day was the usual roller coaster ride. PSO has a special code for the first 100 people to sign up for certain poker rooms to get a 300 piece nevada jacks chipset. So I signed up for Titan Poker right away. I began playing a couple of 1/2 6max tables and couldn't hit anything for the life of me and was down $70 right off the bat. I was not a happy camper.

I went to my father in laws for dinner and ended up taking a nice nap that did wonders for my head before a good burger off the grill. I came back and played the chiptalk tourney and played 2 1/2 6max tables at the same time. On one table I was -30. The other table I was about +104. So that made up for the crappy loss earlier. So a nice start to the month. Basically the tourney win is my profit so far. There was also a Party reload and a Pokerstars reload so I am working those off now.

Sportsbetting -
Thursday I was 1-1 with my 2 picks.
Overall - 8-7

That's about all...may the flop be with you!

Thursday, September 01, 2005 

August Recap

Poker:
$721.36 in Profit
$570 in bonuses

Total: $1291.36

Sports betting:
7-6
Loss: -3
(I bet $10 on one game that i lost, all other bets were $5)

Casino:
Profit: +130
Bonus + 100
(yeah I jumped into casino whoring too. Have only done one so far. Might do another couple)


So about a $1500 month overall :) Not bad at all. If I can double to triple that in the coming months I'll be an extremely happy camper.

Last night I ended the month clearing a $50 Gaming Club bonus and about $30 on Paradise. Unfortunately I lost just as much on paradise so that was a wash. I made about $15 or so on Gaming Club.

August stats:
1/2:
10324 hands
won: $333.85
1.62BB/100 hands

Since moving up to 1/2 permanently:
11340 hands
won: $457.33
2.02BB/100 hands


Sports betting-
Yesterday I was 1-2. I still have a winning record but the last two days have been brutal. Hopefully I can do better today. I'll post picks later.

EDIT FOR PICKS:
Mets/Phillies Under 8.5 (-115)
Tigers over WhiteSox (+150)

I still have to put up pictures of the new poker table! I played my wife heads up on it last night. That was fun. I was lucky enough to flop the nut straight against her top pair and win most of her chips in one hand :) It should be fun playing a full tournament on it in 3 weeks.

That's about it for now. May the flop be with you!



  • NL = No Limit Holdem
  • PLO = Pot Limit Omaha
  • CP = Crazy Pineapple
  • TD = Triple Draw
  • UTG = Under the Gun (first to act)
  • MP = Middle Position
  • LP = Late Position
  • CO = CutOff (one before the button)

About me

  • I'm Scottwire
  • From NJ
  • Hi there. I started this blog mainly to keep track of how I'm doing playing poker as well as to vent, share my thoughts and feelings, and allow friends and family to follow along. Thanks to everyone following along whether I know you or not. About me - I am currently a web developer who is trying to become a successful Entrepreneur with my wife. We love to travel and are trying to become successful enough to do that as we please :) That's us in a nutshell.
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