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Monday, July 31, 2006 

The roller coaster continues

Don't get me wrong, I'm up and happy to be so. Variance is at its finest though.

Saturday I was +40. Then I was -30. Then I was -90. Then I was -40. -60. -10. +40. Until I finally ended the day -10.

I played 3 tournaments the last few days. Bubbled in the first two, each time getting knocked out when I was a 70/30 favorite.

Thursday night at the Pokerstars Chiptalk tourney, I got to the final table and with 8 of us left I have KK. I raise 3xBB get called by the big blind. Flop is 732 or something like that. Big blind pushes all in and i call. He has A9. of course the Ace comes and I get knocked out. Won $26 minus my $11 buy-in.

Saturday night I played a $5 tourney with $250 added. 26 people and top 3 get paid. There are three of us left and the blinds are 400/800 and I have 9k chips, other guys have 14k and 8k. I push 88 on the button. Big blind who is chip leader calls with 77. The river brings the 7 and I'm out in 3rd place. I won $78 but still I should have been on my way to first.

Oh well.

I don't really have time but I was thinking about challenges and with the WSOP and both pokerstars and full tilt doing $200 buyin tourneys for series type events, maybe I could start one of my own. My idea is to start with a bankroll of like $50 or $100 and play in 10 $5 or $10 tournaments.

Do something like
4 NL
1 Limit Holdem
1 stud
1 stud hi/lo
1 omaha
1 omaha hi/lo
1 horse

The idea is then to hopefully win enough to move up a level and try it again.

Granted it will be a lot harder as multi table tournaments are extremely high variance. It sounds like something that could be fun though. Maybe assign rankings to the finishes and you can compare to future ones you do or maybe even with other people. What do you guys out there think?

As for my other challenge, I'm up close to 400 now on Titan and doing well at 100NL. let's hope that continues. Until next time, may the flop be with you!

Thursday, July 27, 2006 

Up and down and all around

The bankroll has just been bouncing back and forth with a slight uptick.

I haven't really played a lot but I got stacked a couple times at $50 NL so I'm up about $80 or so from play at Poker Fantasy. I need another couple hundred points to get my $120 bonus there and I almost have enough points to get a Movado watch :) (Yes I really play there too much)

I finally got back on Titan last night to continue the challenge. I played on one $50 NL table and one $100 NL table. I won $15 at 50NL and $50 on 100NL. So I'm now up a little over $300 overall on my Titan Challenge. Curatio started his own challenge and flew by me since I haven't really played much. He's doing pretty well so check it out. Hopefully I'll catch up soon.

I'm thinking about playing Sun Poker at PSO for another Nevada Jacks set. I have a 300 set already but I made it a cash set with the low denominations. I want to get enough for a tournament set as well so I can say goodbye to my dice chips :)

That's about it for now. May the flop be with you and good luck to you guys who were fortunate enough to win seats to the WSOP Main Event!

Saturday, July 22, 2006 

My WSOP memento



I figured it would be nice to have some kind of keepsake from my experience. My wife talked me into spending a little of the money on this nice shiny card guard.

If you happen to be playing in the WSOP, you will get a special Harrah's Total Rewards card that has the WSOP logo on it. You can use it in the WSOP stores at Rio for 10% off merchandise as well.

Friday, July 21, 2006 

ECD experience

ECasinoDeals.com

I've actually known about ECD for over a year but PSO has always been great and when I've had the time/desire to knock out a new promotion, there has always been one at PSO for me to do.

I still have Sun Poker left at PSO, but I decided to try the Dream Poker promotion at ECD for $60. I seem to have picked the wrong time or wrong promotion at ECD. I've always heard good things about them. I had no worries about being paid or anything, I already knew I could trust them. However, I did not realize how long it would take to get approved. I started my promotion on June 11. Dream Poker apparantly only sends report to ECD every 4 to 6 weeks. They got a report June 13 and I wasn't done yet! I finished a day or two later and then the long wait begins.

HELLO JULY 20! Yes earlier today I checked my CompTracker and I got my Comp Points. Now we get to see how long it takes to get my order filled. I think I'll go with a gift certificate to amazon and hope I get it quickly. Reading the forum, they've been very slow because of growing pains with some poker chip set promotions.

I pretty much have given up with Dream Poker. I deposited $300 for a $360 bonus which pays out in 25% increments. However, the bonus is based on contributed raked hands which is taking forever! I haven't even gotten my first payment yet. So I may just play a tiny bit more to get $90 but I think that's going to be it.

ECD is still realiable but just be prepared to not have the speed and customer support that PSO provides.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006 

Befuddled

There are always situations in hands where you just don't see them often enough to know what to do or perhaps have just never seen them at all even after playing thousands of hands. I also seem to have a problem holding on to overpairs too long.

.25/.50 NL

Last night I had TT on the button with $40 left in my stack.

UTG raises to $2 and has us all covered. UTG is a loose aggressive player and can have anything from AK, AQ, any pair, suited connectors.

3 callers and I call.

BB reraises to $5 and only has $10 left behind.

UTG calls, so I narrow his range down to AK-AJ, pairs 99-22, maybe suited connectors. The pot is $17 at this point and I'd have to think AA-JJ reraises here and TT is unlikely because I have the other 2 tens.

The rest of us all call.

There is now $30 in the pot.

Flop comes 742 with 2 hearts.

Now the befuddling part:
BB bets out $2.25 - I'm thinking now maybe he only has AK/AQ?
UTG min-raises to $4.50 ? 88? 99? set?
??????
Those are some weak ass bets into a $30 pot.

Now I have my overpair with TT. I have $35 left. My first thought was raise to $15 and fold to a push. But then I thought, the pot is so big maybe the other guy pushes with 88 or 99?

So I do reraise to $15 and BB calls and UTG pushes. Now its a $20 call for me to win over $100. Is folding really a good move? I call.

BB has QQ
UTG has 77 for the flopped set.

I go busto

I'm still not sure what the best play here is. Any thoughts? I think I'll post this hand on a forum somewhere.

Luckily I've made that $40 back already so no biggie :) May the flop be with you!

Monday, July 17, 2006 

Vegas Trip Report

If you didn't read my last post, you should now :) That has my Monday log and my WSOP experience.

The rest of my trip didn't go as well at the Poker tables. I played 8 sessions of cash games and was in the red in 6 of them.

Saturday Night - Imperial Palace 1/2 NL $100 buy in
---------------------------------------------------
Started out playing half decent, up $20 at one point but staying around even. Then new guy comes to the table and becomes the BB. I'm the SB and I find AA and raise to $10 - BB calls, another limper calls.

Flop J72. I lead out $15, BB raises to $45. I think about it for a minute and finally reraise all in. He calls with KJ and hits the K on the river. And thus my demise begins.

I buy back in for another $100 and I don't really hit any other hands and end up down $130 altogether.

The Imperial Palace poker room isn't great but I was staying there so it was easy to just play at night and then go right to bed.

Sunday Night - Caesars Palace 3/6 Limit
---------------------------------------
The NL games were full so I got on the 3/6 list so I could play for an hour and check out the Caesars card room. It was nice and secluded but wasn't spectacular.

I played well and was up $20 until the table got shorthanded. My demise came when hyper aggressive player raises, I call on the button with AQ. Flop comes 742. He leads out, I raise trying to push him off overcards, he reraises (sigh), I call. Turn is a 7. I'm sure he has an overpair though so we go check check and he leads the river and I fold. He shows KK. So I leave Caesars -30.

Monday
---------------------------------------
Besides playing in the WSOP, I also got to meet up with RiverRun27 from the PSO forum. Unbeknownst to me, he was having breakfast with MikeJ who also showed up with his girlfriend, Dugglebogey and (sorry I forget the whole name) Luckyone? Lucky something. My apologies if you read this. MikeJ decided to join in Event 17 as well and he and Riverrun ended up as alternates on the same table. They finally got on tables around 1 and got knocked out an hour or two later. Riverrun stuck around most of the day (thanks!) and Dlk9s from PSO showed up to do WSOP coverage. We all went to dinner at Gold Coast buffet which was pretty good and uncrowded which was beautiful. Thanks for the meals and the company.

Tuesday afternoon - Venetian 1/2 NL $200 buy in
---------------------------------------
The Venetian has a beautiful card room. Right up there with, if not better than Bellagio and Wynn. The game was nice too. There was a guy who was just feeding the table his chips there and I finally got to take advantage.

3 limpers and I check the BB with 88. Flop came T86. I lead out size of the pot $10 and button raises to $20. I call. Turn is a 7. I check and he doesn't look excited and checks his cards. As soon as he had to look, I knew he didn't have a 9. He bets $20 and I reraise to $50. He calls. River is a blank and he shows KK.

I finish +58 yay

Tuesday night - Imperial Palace 1/2 NL $200 buy in
----------------------------------------
Nothing goes right and I hate straddles. -$99

Wednesday - Luxor 1/2 NL $50 buy in
----------------------------------------
We stayed at Luxor Wednesday and Thursday so I was there and all they have is $50 NL. You can actually buy another $50 once you have below $50 but I decided to just fart around as the small stack.

Afternoon - Played well and finally hit a couple of hands. +$75

Night - Played like crap and gave back $100

Thursday - Mandalay Bay 1/2 NL $200 buy in
----------------------------------------
Session 1 -
Started out on a bad note with my first hand. JJ in BB. SB raised to 10, I called. Flop comes T82. He bet out 10, I raise to 30, he calls. Turn A, check-check. River Q, check-check. He has AQ.

End that session -$92

Session 2 -
Good - I finally hit a flush with Q9 of diamonds.
Bad - Other guy has the AK of diamonds.

I lose $145 :(

Total damage about $465 in the hole. Ugh. Thank goodness for the WSOP cash!

--------------------------------------------------------

Things I learned this trip:
1) I like playing online cash games much more than in the casino. Online people make smaller raises, min bet and it is much easier to bluff for me.

2) I like playing live tournaments more than online. I like the extended blind rounds and it was easier to get people to lay down hands.

3) It is so much easier to raise with junk and steal blinds online. I felt like some of these guys could see right through me.

4) Playing live was a lot of fun but I still have a lot to experience and learn.

---------------------------------------------------------
Other stuff:

With the WSOP cash I decided to get a keepsake so I got a nice shiny card guard that has WSOP Tournament Player written on it as well as a cheap t-shirt.

Got a whole lot of free t-shirts from the online poker room setups at Rio. I also got Greg Raymer to sign the free t-shirt I got from Pokerstars.

Harrah's and the hotels they own are having a promotion where you get a card stamped at each hotel and you get a gift at the 3rd and 6th. So we ended up with 7 sweatshirts, 2 jackets, 2 t-shirts and 2 beach towels I think.

That's about it for now. I'm probably forgetting something, but that's it for now. May the flop be with you!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 

WSOP Report - Event 17 - $1000 NL Holdem

2891 entries. 270 players get paid.

Almost a 3 million dollar prize pool.

The room could only support about 200 tables with 11 players at each table, so about 600 of those entries were alternates who came in as players got knocked out.

We started at noon. At my first table, there was no one of note which was nice. A few pros were at tables near me.

LEVEL 1 - 25/25 blinds, LEVEL 2 25/50 blinds
----------------------
I pretty much just waited for good hands and my stack which started at 1500 chips just fluctuated between 1200 and 1800 for the first hour.

LEVEL 3 - 50/100 blinds
-----------------------
My first confrontation came in the second hour when I was down to about 1000 chips at the 50/100 blind level and I found QJs in middle position. I raise to 300 and the button calls. Flop comes Q42 and I push my last 700. Button folds.
I don't see any good hands for a while and I get blinded back down to about 1400 or so. This time I find TT and raise to 300. Button calls again. Flop QT4. BINGO, I hit my set. I lead out 500, she calls. Turn is a 9. I put the rest of my chips in the pot and she folds. I have about 2500 chips now.

LEVEL 4 - 100/200 blinds
-----------------------
I'm in middle position with J-J, and I raise it up to 700 and the button calls again. The flop is J-8-9. I bet out 1,000, she pushed all-in to 2000, and I call. She turns over A-10 for an open ended straight draw and on the turn got more outs with the flush draw but she never hit and my set holds up. That built his stack to around 5,400.

I then raised with A-J, got one caller, Q42 flop. He checks, I bet 1000 and he folds.

LEVEL 5 - 100/200 blinds with 25 ante
-----------------------
Going nowhere fast, no cards and just getting blinded off. The guy to my left gets knocked out and in his place they move the winner of Event #2, Brandon Cantu.


LEVEL 6 - 150/300 blinds with 25 ante
-----------------------
Still bleeding chips, going nowhere. Ted Forrest is moved to my table 2 seats to my right. He gets in a huge pot with the player to my right and Brandon Cantu on my left. All 3 players end up going all in and Ted knocks them both out. A few hands later, I get moved to a new table where Humberto Brenes is now 2 seats to my right.

Right before dinner break, I raise AJo UTG and pick up all the blinds and my stack stands about 3700.

LEVEL 7 - 200/400 blinds with 50 ante
-------------------------------------
I got really lucky when a short stack pushed and I picked up AA in the big blind. I went from 3700 to almost 8000 I think. The guy was on a blind steal and called my reraise with J8o.

A couple of hands later it folded around to Humberto Brenes who raised to 1200 (200/400 blinds 50ante). I find JJ in the CO and ihatejacks on my mind so I just called hoping not to see an ace or king on the flop.

Flop comes QT4 rainbow.
Humberto checks, I check.

Turn 7, he bets 2100, I call.

River K.
He checks, I check. He has ace high and I take the pot.

I'm now over 10k chips and they break the table a couple of hands later.

LEVEL 8 - 300/600 blinds with 75 ante
------------------------
After a couple of rounds at the new table, I took blinds/antes with a couple of big hands and then called with 77 against an UTG raiser who check folded to me on a TT8 flop.

At this point I have 14k chips and then I forget to raise once in a while. I was having a hard time pulling the trigger raising to 2000 with junk to try to steal blinds. And I was truly getting junk. During this stretch, the one time I actually had 2 high cards was when there 2 all ins in front of me.

I bled off blinds and antes for a few rounds and was down to about 8500 chips at the 10pm break. About 305 players left.

LEVEL 9 - 400/800 blinds with 100 ante
--------------------------
I bought blinds a few hands in with AA.

Then around 11pm they make the announcement that we were IN THE MONEY and there was much rejoicing.

Unfortunately, I made two suspect plays shortly thereafter and I was done around 11:15pm

I got AQo UTG and instead of pushing or folding, I raised to 3000. CO calls. Flop 986 all spades. I check, he pushes all in and I fold. He shows 54 of clubs. Sad. So that was mistake one.

A couple of hands later guy in late position who was pushing all in once or twice each round did so again. He had me slightly covered. I look down in the SB and saw 99 and figured I had to call and he shows AA and I was done in 237th place for a nice $1,578 win.

When I was in line to get the cash, Ted Forrest got knocked out shortly thereafter. The guys in front of me were all enjoying the fact that the guy plays 4k/8k and super high stakes games and he's standing in line with the rest of us (for almost an hour) to collect his $1578. Good times.

I was hoping to make it to day 2 but I am very happy with the way I played and making the money.

YAY! Thank you PokerShare for having those extra seat added tournaments!

MikeJ from PSO and Riverrun27 from the forums played as well as alternates but unfortunately only lasted a couple of hours.

Thanks to dlk9s and Riverrun27 for sweating me most of the day. It was nice having a cheering section :)

Thursday, July 06, 2006 

Warm Up

I was hoping to go to Atlantic City on Wednesday to get in some live practice. However, the state government had other plans as the casinos had to shut down because the state is having problems passing a budget. So all state employees deemed non essential were on hiatus until the budget is resolved. The casinos themselves are not state run, but the state monitors are employed by the state and the casinos are not allowed to be open without monitoring.


I decided Wednesday evening to play a $5 rebuy on Pokerstars. In the third orbit or so 4 people decided to go all in with me while I had AA. It actually held up and I now had a 7500 chips stack from 1500 starting chips.


I managed to work my way up to 22k chips which was an average stack with about 450 players left. 150 make it into the money.

Blinds are 400/800 and I raise to 3000 I think. SB calls.

Flop comes QT6. SB checks. I bet 6000 into an 8000 chip pot. SB check raises me all in (he had 55k chips.)

I call.

Turn 8

River J giving him 2 pair and I'm out of the tournament.

On a good note, the cash games are going very well and I'm averaging a little over $100 a day so far this month :)

If I get anywhere in the WSOP tourney on Monday, I'll try to have my wife post here with updates. (FINAL TABLE HERE I COME)

That's it for now. I may not have another post for a few days. Leaving Saturday and then Monday is the tournament. Until then, so may the flop be with you all!


Monday, July 03, 2006 

June Report

The month of June went pretty well. Started out winning a $1500 seat in the WSOP prelim tourney which I'll use for event 17 ($1000 NL hold'em) and use $500 to pay for the plane ride.

Profit: $940.76
Bonus: $203.11
---------------
Total: $1,143.87

Slightly better than May although bonuses that month were half my take.

BBQs and fireworks activities gave me the day off Saturday but today I started the month off on the right foot. I won about $130 on the NL $50 tables and played a 50 man $10 tournament on paradise where I finished 3rd for $73. I had the chip lead with 5 left until 3 guys went all in and the biggest stack won. I then pushed with pocket sixes and he called with JT and hit the T.

I've been trying to finish up NL Theory and Practice so I can read Harrington's book before I go to Vegas. I'mm about 3/4 done with the NL book. There's some good stuff about going all in and calling all ins. Much like Harrington's "M" and "Q", there are charts with the hands you can call with or push based on your stack size.

My Titan challenge is now up to about $200. Didn't play there tonight but I'll check tomorrow and hopefully move up to $100 NL if the tables are good.

I was hoping to go possibly go down to Atlantic City Wednesday to get some live practice in before going to Vegas this weekend. Unfortunately the state of New Jersey is having budget issues and they've shut down the state government. They are planning to close beaches, parks and even the CASINOS! Hopefully they will have it resolved in the next couple of days.

That's 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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