On the Scottwire

Ultimate Hoodie

2008-09-26T20:22:00.001-04:00

I ordered the Full Tilt scottevest hi-tech Ultimate Hoodie for 14k points. I'm hoping the FT logo will be easily removed. If not I'll just wear it around the house to keep me warm in the winter.

I'll post pics once I get it.

I had a winning night

2008-09-20T01:03:00.001-04:00

I think its been a few weeks now.

I won about $60 or so playing 50nl.

I finally got the 14000 full tilt points I wanted to get for the Scottevest ultimate hoodie. However, I'm not sure if I still want it. I forgot there was going to be a full tilt logo on it. Will I actually want to wear it outside? Is it easy to get the logo off? Not sure what I want to do.

Hopefully my downswing is over. Since March I've been running a bit poorly in NL, limt and tourneys. Somehow I'm down like 700 across 3 sites. 200 was from a shot at 1/2 NL. About 300 at 1/2 limit. The rest is 50NL 6max and some heads up.

I guess I should stay away from limit. I was pretty much break even raking up frequent player points when I had one night that was just horrible. Sets getting killed by flushes and straights left and right. My favorite hands are the ones like KQQ flop with AQ, turn A and then river K.

It is so much easier getting points playing limit, although most of the stuff in the store I can just buy without blinking an eye anyway. Not sure why I put so much value in it. I guess I just consider it free stuff and I like the sound of that. Of course my free stuff actually cost me a few hundred bucks in reality. As long as I have a net gain its still free in the long run right? Just a smaller per hour earn. I hope that consistently becomes positive again.

I also got the new tournament book by Rizen, Apestyles and Pearljammer today. Not sure when I'll get a chance to read it but I'm looking forward to it.

i can't take this brutality anymore

2008-08-24T16:49:00.001-04:00

PokerStars Game #19868193279: Tournament #102283101, $3.00+$0.30 Hold'em No Limit - Level X (300/600) - 2008/08/24 - 16:46:42 (ET)
Table '102283101 155' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: ziutekxxx (15783 in chips)
Seat 2: Redwood9 (23027 in chips)
Seat 3: Sephirot88 (36505 in chips)
Seat 4: BarryHuckle (20515 in chips)
Seat 5: Totti1974 (35631 in chips)
Seat 6: Dontata (15636 in chips)
Seat 7: scottwire (17240 in chips)
Seat 8: Tist07 (16382 in chips)
Seat 9: Belzebub75 (5120 in chips)
ziutekxxx: posts the ante 50
Redwood9: posts the ante 50
Sephirot88: posts the ante 50
BarryHuckle: posts the ante 50
Totti1974: posts the ante 50
Dontata: posts the ante 50
scottwire: posts the ante 50
Tist07: posts the ante 50
Belzebub75: posts the ante 50
Tist07: posts small blind 300
Belzebub75: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to scottwire [Kc Ks]
ziutekxxx: raises 600 to 1200
Redwood9: folds
Sephirot88: folds
BarryHuckle: folds
Totti1974: folds
Dontata: folds
scottwire: raises 2400 to 3600
Tist07: folds
Belzebub75: folds
ziutekxxx: calls 2400
*** FLOP *** [5c 9h 6h]
ziutekxxx: bets 12133 and is all-in
scottwire: calls 12133
*** TURN *** [5c 9h 6h] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [5c 9h 6h 2d] [Td]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ziutekxxx: shows [Th Ts] (three of a kind, Tens)
scottwire: shows [Kc Ks] (a pair of Kings)
ziutekxxx collected 32816 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 32816 | Rake 0
Board [5c 9h 6h 2d Td]
Seat 1: ziutekxxx showed [Th Ts] and won (32816) with three of a kind, Tens
Seat 2: Redwood9 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Sephirot88 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: BarryHuckle folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Totti1974 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Dontata folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: scottwire (button) showed [Kc Ks] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 8: Tist07 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: Belzebub75 (big blind) folded before Flop

for now

2008-08-23T17:49:00.000-04:00

I will play cash games.

I want the Scottevest Hi-Tech Ultimate Hoodie

need about 1700 points to get it.

Make it so

Where do I go now?

2008-08-23T13:35:00.000-04:00

I haven't played much lately.

I played about 6 tournaments last night and cashed in 2. I won a $26 token in the $6 tourney where top 37 got tokens and I cashed in the $3 rebuy on Full Tilt finishing 37th.

I've played maybe a few hundred hands of cash poker in the last week and a half. Nothing exciting.

My trial version of Pokertracker 3 ended and I have been pushing off buying it. On Matt's recommendation, I decided to try Hold'em Manager. I really like it but I can't get it to import my Full Tilt hand histories. I haven't spent any time troubleshooting that yet though.

I'm trying to figure out what my poker goals are. I like tournaments but I hate having to sit down for 5 hours straight to go deep in them. I then hate that after 5 hours I may still have very little to show for it unless you finish at the top.

I like cash games but the swings are starting to kill me. Volume is necessary at the lower limits and I'm not sure how far I want to push it.

I used to rock sit and goes but looking at hourly rates, do I really want to just start playing the $16 turbos again and have to play more than 4 at a time to make any kind of decent money?

Do I want to join another training site? Do I even have time to watch any of the videos?

A part of me wants to play bigger tournaments and finally win one that has a field over 100 players. As many cashes as I've had, I don't think I've ever won one in a big field. I had a second in a 180 man and I finished 19th in the $11 rebuy once. I yearn for the cash and glory.

The cash games have pretty much been one thing for me this year. They have been a way to get points to get free stuff out of their stores. So far I've gotten a Full Tilt hockey jersey and an Ipod Touch. Do I want to just keep putting in the volume there to get more?

Do I really want to put the volume in for tournaments? It's fun playing big events here and there but to really handle swings, I'd have to play a lot more. I said my best finish in a 180 man sit and go is 2nd. But I've probably only played 60 or 70 total in the last few years. I'd need to play hundreds to see any kind of statistical significance for ROI.

I may play a bunch this weekend but the next couple of weeks playing will be sparce. In mid September I'll figure out whether I want to stick with PT3 or Holdem Manager and then decide on training as well.

Maybe I should stop thinking of poker as a way to make money and enjoy the game for what it is.

Or I can win the $11 rebuy tonight (please) and my questions will be answered.

Why am I stupid?

2008-08-10T12:51:00.003-04:00

I have an overpair or top pair top kicker.

I get check raised.

I somehow call the guy down or reshove.

Every fucking time the guy has flopped a set.

I did this not once, not twice, but three times this morning.

In other news, I lost $30 with QQ against a donk who called my $8 3 bet with K3 and flopped a king. He was a nut and just shoved the flop after calling out of position. It was a pot sized bet so I called and byebye money.

Last night I lost a buy in when I had JJ on 873 flop with 2 callers. I bet $5 into $7 pot, one caller. turn is a 5, I bet $12, donk calls. River is a king. Pot is like $36, he has $24 left. I check figuring I'll only get called by a better hand so I might as well let the guy bluff. He shoves, I call...he shows me AKo :(

I'm now up $10 for the month in cash games after losing $230 the last two days. I keep making stupid mistakes. ARGH

The new aggressive me - results so far

2008-08-08T21:08:00.003-04:00

Before we look at the stats please note the following:

The first set of stats I was mostly 1 or 2 tabling. After my aggression increase, I started playing 3 or 4 tables and sometimes even 5. So you will see my BB/100 go down, but my hourly rate go up.

My BB/100 has gone down because of the multitabling, partly because I have sometimes gotten a little too aggressive and picked some bad spots to bluff. Some of it is variance as well (like AA losing to KK), but I can think of 3 or 4 buy ins that I lost because of overplaying my hand.

The stats:

So I've basically gone from 20/10 to 21/14.5

My aggression factor has gone from 1.65 to 3.5

I still think there is room to play more hands preflop. I have been on a few tables with some nuts or really loose players on my left that I didn't want to open up as much on the CO. I'm slowly adding more hands and hoping to play around 22/18ish. One place I can add hands a little perhaps is from the blinds. I've gotten overly tight in the blinds so that I am not playing out of position as much.

I have been 3 betting more instead of cold calling depending on position and type of opponent.

My went to showdown has gone down a little as I've been winning more pots preflop and my won money at showdown has gone down as well as I've tried bluffing (poorly) or semi-bluffing more. Two of my big river bluffs that I lost I still think may work enough of the time to show a profit but unfortunately that's high variance.

As I've been playing more hands, I've gotten into more marginal post flop situations so I think there is still a lot of improvement to be made in figuring out when to hit the breaks. I can think of a number of times where I figured a guy's most likely hand and I still tried to push him off it but alas it was not to be.

In general my biggest mistakes seem to come when I just don't believe people when they check raise or limp reraise. I inevitably seem to always have TT, JJ or QQ and I lose to a slightly higher overpair or set. Some of this is just acting too fast and overplaying hands.

This is all a great learning experience and it even got me to play a little more aggressively in the Thursday night chiptalk.net tourney which I managed to win this week! Not an easy victory though. I was chip leader on the bubble with 4 left, took a nice beat with QQ vs JTo to drop me to last, then managed to win a race with AJ vs 99 and crippling the other short stack (sorry Ten!) and finally get into the money. Went up and down, got the chip lead back with AK vs A2 and managed to hit a set heads up to cripple Links_Slayer. Woo!

Ok back to the tables...

oh and I got my Ipod Touch from P* FPP! wheeeeeeeeeee

Aggression is key

2008-08-03T00:55:00.007-04:00

So the 2+2 thread here really reminded me of how key aggression is.

When I started playing NL again a few days ago, I slipped back into my old passive ways. I was calling with marginal hands out of the BB to defend and then check folding. I was calling a lot of hands in position trying outplay people post flop but not really pushing people out of hands. And i was definitely not opening enough pots from the CO and button.

And as the graph below shows, I have really been losing a lot when not getting to showdown. This says I wasn't buying enough pots, firing second barrels, raising people off medium weak hands and definitely not 3 betting enough.

Now maybe its just variance but I the graph makes it looks like I've learned how to stop the bleeding. Hand 2911 is the first hand of the session where I got my aggression back on.

It was another swingy day though. i was up $70 after a few hundred hands. I lost a buyin back after getting all in on the flop with over pair vs flush draw and then I played 3 hands really really horribly. the first two made me lose $100. I got too aggressive and lost $50 when i got check raised on a QT9 flop when holding AJ. for some reason I needed to shove and get called by QT. Need to reanalyze that hand.

The second big loss there was a badly played AQ I guess. I raised out of the BB to 7 after a button raise to 2. flop came A74. I led out and he min raised me. I shoved and of course he calls with AK.

The third hand I played really really horribly was my luckbox hand of the day after being on tilt from those other 2 hands. This all happened in a 5 minutes span by the way.

I raise from the BB to 3 after 2 limpers with AhQs. flop comes J63 all hearts. I bet 7 and they both call. Turn is 6s. Over $30 in the pot so I say "well I still have outs and fold equity." I shove and get called by both. One has me covered, the other only had $10 left. BOOM ACE ON THE RIVER. One guy had KcKs, other guy has 2s2h? So I won $70 back there and that got me focused again. I guess continuing to bet is a lot better than calling off there at least. So maybe this has better EV than I think it does. Will analyze this as well.

Now I paid more attention to what I was doing and made sure everything I did was done for a reason. It paid off and I ended up winning 137 for the day. Nice comeback.

I'm feeling good again about how I'm playing. I just need to keep focused and not let frustration overpower reason.

swingy day

2008-08-02T01:32:00.002-04:00

was down over $110 after my first session

read some threads on twoplustwo where people posted their charts and stats and got feedback. The feedback was excellent and I realized I've been playing passively.

I've been 20vpip/11pfr and I really need to get a lot laggier.

slowly getting adding more hands and raised a lot more instead of cold calling.

ended up +30 for the day.

Ok back into the bread and butter

2008-07-28T20:47:00.002-04:00

Thanks to chipper and jojo for their replies.

I've started playing 50NL again and so far so good.

1189 hands
6.28 hours
+$125.95
10.59 BB/100

We'll see how long before I get bored or so on a downswing and not enjoy it anymore.

For now, onward and upward!

Motivation

2008-07-23T22:53:00.002-04:00

My wife is reading a book called "Finding your own North Star" which is about figuring out your passions and true callings in life.

This led me to think about 1) if poker is still a passion and 2) why I play poker.

Is poker still a passion of mine? I play a few times a week still but I am no longer playing the 25+ hours I used to. I no longer have the urge to jump on the tables every chance I get.

I still love the competition and I believe that I can continue to be a winning player. I enjoy winning and seeing my bankroll rise. I hate the losing streaks and having 10 buy ins disappear and have to grind it back. I am at peace with variance now. I know that this is a 2 steps back, 3 steps ahead kind of game in the long run.

I believe that I am intelligent enough to adapt and learn as I go and continue to succeed at higher stakes.

I still sit in the low limits. The only time I put any kind of volume in is when I find things in the reward points stores and grind it out to get them.

I enjoy playing. I really do. I think part of the problem is money. I don't want to lose the bankroll I've built up. I shouldn't care really. If I lost it all tomorrow I wouldn't be any worse off than I am today. Yet losing a hundred dollars in a night really has an effect on me. Losing $6 in a tournament I play poorly does too. I don't like the mood it puts me in.

It is good in a way that poor play irks me. It is what makes me a better player in the long run. Do I have what it takes psychologically to play this game?

If I took all the energy that I used playing poker and applied it to creating a viable business, I might be pretty well off today. But poker is so much more fun. Grinding it out for a few dollars an hour is just losing its luster and getting more and more frustrating.

I have many times told myself to step it up and take bigger shots. Each time I look, I see a $30 or $50 tourney I want to play and then my inner self tells me "you really don't want to lose that much in one shot". So I continue to play low stakes and the highest I have gotten comfortable with is the occassional $11 rebuy and $16 sit and goes. I've done just fine in both and I'm sure I'd do just fine in most other tourneys. I've never felt outclassed in any large tourney I've satellited into.

Now you can ask "why don't you play more satellites?". I play satellites occassionally but again I have it in my head that it doesn't make me any immediate money because I see my bankroll go down without any immediate reward.

My first $11 tourney ever was the chiptalk.net Thursday night weekly one. In my third week I had one my first multi table tournament ever. In the three years I've been playing them I have beaten fields of 25-45 players. I have won 45 man sit and goes. BUT I am still looking for that first big win. Granted I don't have a large amount of volume in big fields, but my best finishes I guess have been 19 out of 1600 in an $11 rebuy and a 2/180 in a sit and go.

I would love to put in volume in big fields but finding the time to play 4+ hours in a shot is difficult and even when I do, sitting for 4+ hours does not always wet my appetite.

So what is the answer for me? I enjoy the 9 and 45 man sit and goes but I feel like they are a grind. I enjoy the big tourneys but I don't seem to have the time. Cash games only seem to motivate me for frequent player points which in and of itself isn't bad. I've jumped around so much I don't know what my best game is anymore.

Back in the day limit holdem was definitely my best game, followed by NL tourneys. Cardrunners improved my NL cash play. I like stud hi/lo but that feels even more like a grind. I'm just not sure what will make me happy anymore. I played 11000 hands of 1/2 limit holdem to get enough FPP on Stars to get an Ipod Touch. I was breakeven for the first 10k and then lost $180 in the last 1000. Variance and losing big hands to suckouts sucks. What will make me happier playing? Play higher cash games and win more money? Play 180 man tourneys until I win one? I need direction and goals.

Maybe I'll just win my next big field tourney and that will answer my question for me :)

What would you do?

hi riverrun

2008-05-14T22:06:00.002-04:00

>Riverrun has left a new comment on your post "poker haiku":
>"are you alive? "

I was pretty much breaking even / losing a little for a couple months and then I went on vacation in March.

Since then I have only really played the Monday and Thursday night Chiptalk.net forum tourneys, last week's PSO league tourney and a couple of Pokerstars WSOP step tourneys (on step 3 currently).

Haven't really had the urge to play month. Been nice having more time to do other things.

I guess I'm just kind of burned out on poker. I've even stopped listening to all the poker podcasts. Only forum I really check now is chiptalk.net a few times a day and PSO maybe once a day.

Hope you are doing well Ryan and everyone else who still checks in on this blog!

I probably won't update much unless something exciting happens. Good luck to everyone at the tables!

poker haiku

2008-02-27T22:47:00.001-05:00

bankroll going down
need to start winning again
going the wrong way

Downswing fun

2007-12-31T22:21:00.001-05:00

my biggest downswing ever unfortunately

All hands played at $50 NL

The top of the mountain was Thursday night when I won $90 and then I
seemed to have gone to sleep then woken up Friday and forgotten how to
win :(

The last 3 days I've started up about +$30 and then the downward
spirals took hold. Down 100, 177 and 162 the last 3 days. The nice run
before that was from the 19th to the 27th where I didn't have a losing
day. Still up for the month at least so all is good (kind of!)

So I've lost almost 10 buyins and I attribute probably 4 buyins to
tilt. I was running great and about to move back up to 100 NL but I've
got some work to do now.

Variance sucks but this is why bankroll management is your friend!

Click the graphic to see it larger!

November Report

2007-12-05T23:17:00.001-05:00

Made about $500 for the month of November + about $150 in rakeback. Not bad but it was a rocky month at $50 NL

$25NL : 6582 hands : +$294.80
$30NL : 141 hands : -$58.20 (got on a deep stack table and didn't realize)
$50NL : 8310 hands : +$255.20

Played well in tournaments with a win and a second in thursday night chiptalk.net tourneys which was nice.

December has started out rough as I've made some bad plays and gotten my money in bad. Sunday was my first day playing and I was quickly down 3 buy ins, made it all back, was even up $80 only to lose that and the 3 buy ins again. Still down a couple of buy ins for the month and hoping that will turn around.

Just lost another buy in with 87 against a maniac with Q8 on a JT9 flop. No way I'm not getting my money in there but oh well.

The ups and downs

2007-11-23T10:36:00.001-05:00

Thanks guys for the comments. The variance just kills me sometimes. Especially when I'm crushing $25 NL and I can't seem to get above water at $50NL.

My Full Tilt bankroll hit a low of $340 but I'm back up to around $575 now. It should be even more but of course I lost a huge pot with a straight to a rivered full house. Board Q9983. I have TJ and bet the flop and turn against someone who called out of the small blind. Said person was a loose passive who only bet pot or shoved river, no in between. Earlier saw this person overbet shove river with 82o on a 52JAK board only to get called by AJ. So here is the hand history fun:

FullTiltPoker Game #4261671712: Table Holmes (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 15:23:14 ET - 2007/11/22
Seat 1: scottwire ($66.60)
Seat 2: cali_king_805 ($99.35)
Seat 6: olibof ($40.40)
cali_king_805 posts the small blind of $0.25
olibof posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to scottwire [Jh Tc]
scottwire raises to $1.75
cali_king_805 calls $1.50
olibof folds
*** FLOP *** [8d 9s 9d]
cali_king_805 checks
scottwire bets $3
cali_king_805 has 15 seconds left to act
cali_king_805 calls $3
*** TURN *** [8d 9s 9d] [Qs]
cali_king_805 checks
scottwire bets $8
cali_king_805 calls $8
*** RIVER *** [8d 9s 9d Qs] [3h]
cali_king_805 bets $86.60, and is all in
scottwire calls $53.85, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $32.75 returned to cali_king_805
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cali_king_805 shows [9c 3c] a full house, Nines full of Threes
scottwire mucks
cali_king_805 wins the pot ($132.70) with a full house, Nines full of Threes
scottwire is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $133.70 | Rake $1
Board: [8d 9s 9d Qs 3h]
Seat 1: scottwire (button) mucked [Jh Tc] - a straight, Queen high
Seat 2: cali_king_805 (small blind) showed [9c 3c] and won ($132.70) with a full house, Nines full of Threes
Seat 6: olibof (big blind) folded before the Flop

So sick. I was down $130 in this thanksgiving session but managed to get 80 of it back thankfully.

Anyway, on the other side I've been doing really well in tournaments lately. I've finished first and second in the last two weekly chiptalk tourneys plus a 3rd place finish in the HORSE monday night tourney of champions.

Last night I went deep in the $11 rebuy on stars and finished 40th for $192 (Net 160 after one rebuy and the add on). So annoying though to play 5 hours and then get knocked out with AQ vs KQ with all the money going in preflop and the board comes 288KT :( One of these days I'll get that big tourney win dammit.

That's about it for now. Good luck at the tables

Moving up not going well

2007-11-14T20:39:00.001-05:00

So I'm down 5 buy ins at $50 NL now.

My $700 bankroll is now around $400 after some tourneys as well.

I've been getting money in bad for the most part along with a KK vs AK all in preflop that an ace hit and a couple of coin flips not going my way.

I still feel like I can beat $50NL, I'm just overvaluing my one pair hands on the flop. I should fold to most raises at this level instead of reraising with TPTK and losing my stack to sets and flopped straights against tight players :( I need to get the "but they could be bluffing me" cry out of my head and just realize that YES YOU ARE GOING TO GET BLUFFED. It is part of the game and risk losing 100 big blinds when you only have maybe 10 invested in the pot is not usually a good idea unless you have a lot of information on a player to tell you otherwise.

Chiptalk.net tourney win

2007-11-09T19:08:00.001-05:00

This Thursday I was a man on a mission. A win in this week's chiptalk.net tourney would put me into the Quarterly tournament of champions. Second place meant a week off. Who wants that?

So I played to win and that I did. When it got to heads up we chopped the money with even stacks but played out for the points. $96 and 1st place woo! It was nice after bubbling last week.

So far at the cash tables this month I've played 4400 hands and I'm up $120.95 which is 5.45bb/100 at $25 NL. Hopefully I can get that win rate even higher.

Away from the tables I'm halfway through medium on Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii! This game rocks

Time to move up

2007-10-30T00:09:00.001-04:00

I've been grinding $25 NL on Full Tilt for the last couple of weeks in my quest to built my bankroll back up.

After reloading Full Tilt with $50 I'm pleased to say I'm up to over $500 now and I'll throw in some $50 NL. I figure I'll throw in good tables with 10 buy ins for the stakes.

I got up to a little over $200 through tourneys and sit and goes and here are my stats from the cash games this month:

Hands: 5735
Amount Won: $247.60
BB/100 hands: 8.63
VP$IP: 18.66
PFR: 11.67

I'd still like to open up a little more and get get the vp$ip above 20 and pfr higher. I'm slowly working in more hands and good spots into the mix. I'm not as tight as I used to be but I think I can still push a few more edges.

Hopefully I'll run well in my first stint back at 50NL. Can't wait til I get back to 200NL and beyond!

Hate when this happens

2007-10-17T23:48:00.001-04:00

Full Tilt Poker Game #3888272607: Table Sunray (6 max) - $0.10/$0.25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:14:56 ET - 2007/10/17
Seat 1: JohnnyScotch ($57.85)
Seat 2: nobarefeet ($17.65)
Seat 3: phoenixdan8 ($24.25)
Seat 4: ManchesterFreak ($13)
Seat 5: scottwire ($25.10)
Seat 6: waswas12 ($26.25)
phoenixdan8 posts the small blind of $0.10
ManchesterFreak posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to scottwire [6d 7d]
scottwire folds
waswas12 raises to $0.85
JohnnyScotch calls $0.85
nobarefeet folds
phoenixdan8 folds
ManchesterFreak folds
*** FLOP *** [5d 4d 8d]
waswas12 bets $1.50
JohnnyScotch has 15 seconds left to act
JohnnyScotch folds
Uncalled bet of $1.50 returned to waswas12
waswas12 mucks
waswas12 wins the pot ($1.95)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $2.05 | Rake $0.10
Board: [5d 4d 8d]
Seat 1: JohnnyScotch folded on the Flop
Seat 2: nobarefeet (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: phoenixdan8 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: ManchesterFreak (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: scottwire didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: waswas12 collected ($1.95), mucked

Back in the right direction

2007-10-03T23:25:00.000-04:00

So until this past week I've pretty much been going the wrong direction.

I also took a nice vacation (yay Disney World) which was a nice week away from the computer :)

My Full Tilt challenge went kaput again as I added another $50 and went busto on a fun hand.

I raise button with AK. SB calls, BB is a maniac and pushes all in for $60 (just did the same thing with 97 offsuit last hand). SB calls with TT, BB shows QQ. flop QTx. No jack to save me and I go busto.

Deposit another 50 and it is time to get back up. The following Tuesday after I returned from vacation, I deposited another $50 and there was a $33 tourney for Chiptalk that I said what the hell. Luckily, I finished 3rd for about $70 and up to almost $90 in my account.

I then had a nice 2nd place finish in the Thursday night Chiptalk Tourney :) I got all in with TT vs 55 and he rivered a 5 to cripple me :(

Last night I played in the $3 rebuy tourneys on both Full Tilt and Stars and cashed in both for $24 and $30 (I paid $9 in each). It's nice to cash but I'd love to finally get to a final table.

Played a bunch of sit and goes on FT as well and now up to 130 yay. I'll probably play sit and goes mostly for now to get the roll up as I seem to do best in them.

good luck at the tables!

Rakeback is your friend

2007-09-09T10:18:00.000-04:00

The Full Tilt challenge continues and it almost ended again.

I made what I guess is a stupid play in hindsight. Even the maniacs hit the nuts once in a while right?

I found a nice $25 table. I have 95s in the big blind. Maniac and 2 others call preflop. Flop comes JT6. It checks around. Turn is a 8 now giving me a gutshot and flush draw. Maniac bets out $2 into a $1 pot. Another guy calls and I call closing the action. River is the 7 but doesn't make my flush. So I hit my gutshot. Only Q9 beats me. So I bet out, maniac raises of course and I call, he shows me Q9 and I'm crippled :(

I was down to my last $3 and worked my way back up to $12

Luckily I have rakeback at FullTilt and a few days ago I got a nice $15 back in my account. So I was back up to $30.

Sat at a $25 table last night and doubled that :) Back up to $55. yay

Stop cracking my aces people

2007-09-02T10:24:00.000-04:00

FTP bankroll challenge update:

The bankroll is now currently $20 up from $15.

I reached a high of $30 but unfortunately my AA got cracked by 77.

UTG raises, I am UTG + 1 and reraise. He calls.

Flop 855. He checks, I bet the size of the pot on the flop, he calls.

Turn 9. He pushes all in? I call

Guy has 77 on the gutshot semibluff and hits a 7 for the full house on the river. SIGH

I played an $11 tourney with about 400 people on Bodog last night. I finished 28th and cashed for $20. Not great but considering I haven't been cashing a lot lately, I'll take it!

New Challenge - Take Two?

2007-08-31T22:30:00.000-04:00

Well I started a new challenge.

However it is already almost over :(

Speakeasy started a challenge to keep moving up stakes as his bankroll grew, throwing proper bankroll management to the wind.

I had $35 on Full Tilt and decided to try the same type of thing.

I started on an NL $25 table and promptly worked my way up to $60.

I moved up to $50 NL and hovered between $65 and $60.

Tonight I found a nice table and I had AQ with a QJ8 flop and my opponent only had $30. He check called me all the way down and showed AK after a 5 and 3 on the turn and river. Huh? OK we'll make a note about him and now I'm to $75 on this table :)

I lose a little bit back and I'm at $65 when it happens

BAD BEAT TIME

I raise UTG to $1.75 with AA

Same guy as before is in BB and raises to $3.50

I reraise to 10.50, he pushes all in (he has me covered)

I call DUH

He shows QQ

and the flop has a..............Queen of course

bye bye bankroll

I have about $15 left. Down but not out. I'll get on a $10 table and try to work back up. If not, I'll deposit another 50 and try again.

I have rakeback there as well so I'll get a little bit back middle of next month.

Only 19000 more points until I can get a Full Tilt Hockey Jersey!

YAY PSO LEAGUE WIN

2007-08-06T00:30:00.000-04:00

$5.50 tournament on Absolute

I only have $9 left in my account. Before the tourney I just prayed I would cash so I would not have to transfer.

I am pleased to say that I outlasted 55 other players and won $84 woo!

I was down to 600 chips at 75/150 and managed to work my way back up the leaderboard and took a nice big lead with 5 left.

The tide almost turned 3 handed.

I had 52k chips and the other two guys had 10 and 15k.

20k guy raised to 4800 on the button and I had 55 so pushed all in. He called with AJ and managed to hit the J on the turn. We were about even in chips now.

I managed to suck out on the small stack and got into heads up with a 47k to 37k lead.

Heads up lasted all of one hand when his set ran into my nut flush :)

So I won $84 + PSO gives PSO points to the top 5 and I made 10k points (equiv $100) yay

finally a nice tourney win. man its been so long :)

----------------------
Table: 3 (Real Money) Seat #7 is the dealer
Seat 7 - SCOTTWIRE ($46750 in chips)
Seat 4 - PATBATEMANFM ($37250 in chips)
PATBATEMANFM - Ante $150
SCOTTWIRE - Ante $150
SCOTTWIRE - Posts small blind $1000
PATBATEMANFM - Posts big blind $2000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to SCOTTWIRE [9s As]
SCOTTWIRE - Raises $5000 to $6000
PATBATEMANFM - Calls $4000
*** FLOP *** [Ks Jd 5s]
PATBATEMANFM - Checks
SCOTTWIRE - Bets $6000
PATBATEMANFM - Calls $6000
*** TURN *** [Ks Jd 5s] [4s]
PATBATEMANFM - Bets $15000
SCOTTWIRE - Calls $15000
*** RIVER *** [Ks Jd 5s 4s] [9h]
PATBATEMANFM - All-In $10100
*** SHOW DOWN ***
PATBATEMANFM - Shows [5d 5h] (Three of a kind, fives)
SCOTTWIRE - Calls $10100
SCOTTWIRE - Shows [9s As] (Flush, ace high)
SCOTTWIRE Collects $74500 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($74500)
Board [Ks Jd 5s 4s 9h]
Seat 4: PATBATEMANFM (big blind) HI:lost with Three of a kind, fives [5d 5h - B:5s,P:5h,P:5d,B:Ks,B:Jd]
Seat 7: SCOTTWIRE (dealer) (small blind) won Total ($74500) HI:($74500) with Flush, ace high [9s As - P:As,B:Ks,P:9s,B:5s,B:4s]

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

Broke the losing streak but I hate this game.

2007-07-22T18:20:00.001-04:00

So I finally got to a final table and finished 7th, but I made 2 really bonehead plays as the chip leader and out I went shortly thereafter.

I got in the money again today and I need to start reading this zen stuff because I am frustrated beyond belief.

I just cashed again and busted out to this:

PokerStars Game #11078907915: Tournament #56177804, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2007/07/22 - 18:15:44 (ET)
Table '56177804 2' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: hurtkr (11843 in chips)
Seat 3: wulli315 (16005 in chips)
Seat 4: Sheesha2 (30128 in chips)
Seat 5: jlee1414 (39707 in chips)
Seat 6: scottwire (19457 in chips)
Seat 7: UplandsChamp (9080 in chips)
hurtkr: posts the ante 75
wulli315: posts the ante 75
Sheesha2: posts the ante 75
jlee1414: posts the ante 75
scottwire: posts the ante 75
UplandsChamp: posts the ante 75
wulli315: posts small blind 400
Sheesha2: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to scottwire [Qd Qh]
jlee1414: calls 800
scottwire: raises 2400 to 3200
UplandsChamp: folds
hurtkr: folds
wulli315: folds
Sheesha2: folds
jlee1414: calls 2400
*** FLOP *** [2c 6d 8c]
jlee1414: checks
scottwire: bets 4800
jlee1414: calls 4800
*** TURN *** [2c 6d 8c] [Jh]
jlee1414: checks
scottwire: bets 11382 and is all-in
jlee1414: calls 11382
*** RIVER *** [2c 6d 8c Jh] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jlee1414: shows [Qc Kc] (a pair of Kings)
scottwire: shows [Qd Qh] (a pair of Queens)
jlee1414 collected 40414 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 40414 | Rake 0
Board [2c 6d 8c Jh Kh]
Seat 1: hurtkr (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: wulli315 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Sheesha2 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: jlee1414 showed [Qc Kc] and won (40414) with a pair of Kings
Seat 6: scottwire showed [Qd Qh] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 7: UplandsChamp folded before Flop (didn't bet)

So frustrating

Yes I'm still here

2007-07-21T00:11:00.000-04:00

Not running well as of late.

I snapped the sit and go downswing and then just kind of hovered around even.

While I liked the return I was getting on the $16 turbos, I go to the point where I just don't like the grind anymore. I realized that I needed another challenge and what better challenge than multi table tournaments.

I have won a few MTTs with 30 to 50 people but never anything bigger than that.

So I've started playing more large MTTs and 180 man sit and goes.

I am continuously getting deep only to lose all my chips near the button, usually with the best hand. I'm on another downswing though and haven't cashed in my last 20 or so. My last 3 180 man tourneys I've finished in the mid 20s when top 18 get paid.

No worries though. I know I'll get deep sooner or later and the bankroll is still doing ok.

If I ever start running well again I'll post more!

Posting about winning is the kiss of death

2007-05-29T23:31:00.001-04:00

Just a quick update

I'm 0 for my last 9 sit and gos

no love

Sit and Go Challenge - update at 100

2007-05-27T23:48:00.000-04:00

Played a bit this weekend and reached my 100th sit and go.

Had a nice run including testing the waters at the $27 turbos.

So here are the stats:

I ran really well :)

Played 2 of the $27 turbos and won them both :)
All the rest are $16 turbos

Total Profit: $641.50

Total SNGs: 100

In the money: 47

Return On Investment: 39.5%

Finishes:

1st:					17
2nd:					16
3rd:					14
4th:					18
5th:					10
6th:					7
7th:					12
8th:					2
9th:					2

I have cashed in 14 of my last 24 (which is my total for May).

My longest stretch without a cash was 8 tourneys.
My longest stretch in the money was 5 tourneys in a row.

47% in the money is just sick. I doubt it is sustainable long term but it is a nice number to see :)
When I started, I was hoping for at least a 40% rate, so we'll see where that number goes in the long run.

Wish me luck in continuing on this nice pace :)

Back in action

2007-05-13T15:11:00.000-04:00

Wednesday night I played in the PSO league $5 tourney on Absolute.

I had a wake up call when I called down a player with second pair and he ended up having aces. I realized how passive I've been playing lately and it was time to get back to the tight aggressive winning way.

Thursday night I went into the Chiptalk tourney with a winning attitude and an aggressive mindset. I put away other distractions and focused on the tournament instead of multitasking like I usually do. Boy did it pay off.

45 entrants and with around half the field gone, I broke away from the pack with some good hands. I broke 10000 chips at the 100/200 level and was the chip leader while second in chips only had about 6k. As we got down to the final table, I picked my spots and knocked out some small stacks as mine built up to about 17k while the next biggest stack was about 8 or 9k.

I was really happy with the way I played the big stack until we got to about 4 handed. The other players were very aggressive with their short stacks and I think I didn't try to steal blinds enough.

When it got down to heads up we were about even in chips. I lost a few hands and then got all in with A3 and was called by KQ. My ace held up and I was up about 55k to 10k. Unfortunately I couldn't put him a way at that point and he built back up to even. I reraised him all in again with A6, he thought a while and called with A8. I almost didn't even notice the board pair and a couple of higher cards than his 8 gave us a split and saved me from being down to 5k chips.

We battled a while and as blinds went up I managed to trap him with AA and finally put it away with my 3rd Chiptalk tourney win :)

I've played a little over the weekend so far as well.

My Sit and Go challenge is partially resumed as I played 4 of them, with finishes of 1, 3, 4, 4. The two bubbles sucked.

I also played a little bit of the NL cash games on UltimateBet and made about $60 :)

So a nice few days at the tables and hopefully more to come!

Hi everyone

2007-04-16T20:59:00.000-04:00

Life has been hectic lately. New job leaves little free time to play poker. I've been playing the chiptalk tourneys but that's about it.

Last week was actually excellent as I won the Monday night stud tourney and finished 2nd in the Thursday night tournament.

The SNG challenge has been on hiatus unforunately. I may try to pick it up again next month.

Hope you all aren't flooded. The northeast took a pounding and it was fun finding a route to work that wasn't underwater.

I'll try to post more here!

Sitting and Going Update

2007-03-05T23:40:00.000-05:00

72 SNGs

Profit: $319.50

ROI: 27.7%

ITM: 44.4% (32/72)

1st: 11
2nd: 11
3rd: 8
4th: 10
5th: 8
6th: 6
7th: 11
8th: 3
9th: 2

I may start throwing in some $27 turbos soon. I think I want to get a bunch more at the $16 level just to rule out variance and running well.

SNG update

2007-02-26T01:47:00.000-05:00

All $16 turbos still.

51 SNGs

Profit: $196.50

ROI: 24.1%

ITM: 41% (21/51)

1st: 8
2nd: 9
3rd: 4
4th: 8
5th: 6
6th: 4
7th: 8
8th: 2
9th: 2

Makes me wish I had the drive to play 8 tables at a time for 6 hours a day but I'm not nuts :)

SNG challenge

2007-02-21T00:57:00.000-05:00

Chipper did a SNG challenge and I was getting frustrated playing NL cash games so I thought to myself "ok it's my turn".

I have played 29 so far and boy has it been streaky for me.

All 29 have been $15+$1 turbos on Pokerstars

The numbers:
ROI: 36.7%
ITM: 41% (12/29)

Streaky:
4,8,4,2,6,2,9,5,2,4,3,2,1,7,1,1,5,9,7,5,4,8,4,5,2,1,4,1,1

Yes that is a crappy 8 in a row without a cash followed by 3 wins in 5
ROI and ITM are pretty good so far. Still a ways to go to see if I'll be a long term winner but generally a good player at this level can make 20-25% ROI.

1st: 6
2nd: 5
3rd: 1
4th: 6
5th: 4
6th: 1
7th: 2
8th: 2
9th: 2

This is pretty much what I was hoping for as a distribution. The style is to keep a decent sized stack and push for 1st place. This means bubbling a lot, but winning more than sneaking into the money. 2 of my 2nds were caused by horrible bad beats but that's poker and in the long run that will happen. Hopefully the next 29 go just as well if not better :)

No love in the FTOPS

2007-02-10T01:54:00.000-05:00

On a whim I decided to jump in a $26 satellite for Event #1 in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series and managed to win a seat into the $216 event.

The satellite was beautiful as people just decided to give me their chips in the beginning. I doubled up the second hand and then a few hands later took someone else's stack too. I was chip leader for a while and in the top 10 most of the way. got shortstacked with around 20 left but doubled up at key times and managed to finish in the top 8 for a seat :)

The tournament itself started out well and got my starting stack of 3000 quickly up to 3900. And then everything went to hell. Two orbits in a row I raise from the cutoff and the button calls. First time I have 88. I forget how it exactly went down but it was like a KJT63 board by the end and I folded to a river bet. Next orbit I raise with KJ and button calls again. Flop J85. Turns out button has set of 5s and my stack is now down to about 2400.

Hover around there a while as blinds go up to 50/100. I get JJ UTG+1. CO and BB call. Flop QT9. BB checks, I decide I'm making a stand bet the pot, CO raises, BB folds, I call the rest of my stack off. CO shows AQ and it holds up. I really don't know how to play that one. Ranges of the other players are large and if I play it weak I won't know where I stand or get bullied. Do I just push in and hope AQ folds? Don't think he's going to fold since he had twice my stack. Oh well I finished around 1200 out of almost 1900 players so there was a ways to go.

I'll do better next time. I haven't played the $11 rebuy in a couple nights but Wednesday night I did finish like 99th and cashed for $106.

I also finished off the Chiptalk Quarter strongly with a 5th place finish as well as our challenge team had 5 players at the final table and we won the 3 team challenge :)

Hopefully I'll play the $11 rebuy tomorrow. I probably won't try any of the other FTOPS tourneys.

Almost to the final table!

2007-02-07T03:53:00.000-05:00

PokerStars Tournament #42106565, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
1613 players
Total Prize Pool: $66570.00
Tournament started - 2007/02/06 - 22:00:00 (ET)

Dear scottwire,

You finished the tournament in 19th place.
A $286.26 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Dammit I got close but couldn't win my last race. Should I have pushed?

18th place paid $386 so if I wait I may get into that payout

I was really playing for the win

Wildman was super table captain raising every hand so we know he most likely doesn't have a premium. If I'm in a coin flip I have tons of pot equity with the extra money in. Blinds are coming fast...yada yada yada...too tired to open Pokerstove...you make the call...

PokerStars Game #8320362239: Tournament #42106565, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level XXI (15000/30000) - 2007/02/07 - 03:47:27 (ET)
Table '42106565 179' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: scottwire (178131 in chips)
Seat 2: advi (488294 in chips)
Seat 3: Cooper671 (195222 in chips)
Seat 5: JaspudUF (1070246 in chips)
Seat 6: WiLDmAn75 (748392 in chips)
Seat 8: Tstrick4 (195228 in chips)
scottwire: posts the ante 1500
advi: posts the ante 1500
Cooper671: posts the ante 1500
JaspudUF: posts the ante 1500
WiLDmAn75: posts the ante 1500
Tstrick4: posts the ante 1500
Cooper671: posts small blind 15000
JaspudUF: posts big blind 30000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to scottwire [As Kc]
JaspudUF said, "i folded A5 on that hand advi lol"
WiLDmAn75 said, "q5 off suit esp good pre flop"
JaspudUF said, "that would have been ugly"
WiLDmAn75: raises 35000 to 65000
Tstrick4: raises 55000 to 120000
scottwire: raises 56631 to 176631 and is all-in
advi: folds
Cooper671: folds
JaspudUF: folds
WiLDmAn75: folds
Tstrick4: calls 56631
*** FLOP *** [5h 9d 7d]
*** TURN *** [5h 9d 7d] [9s]
*** RIVER *** [5h 9d 7d 9s] [2s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Tstrick4: shows [Th Td] (two pair, Tens and Nines)
scottwire: shows [As Kc] (a pair of Nines)
JaspudUF said, "gg"
Tstrick4 collected 472262 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 472262 | Rake 0
Board [5h 9d 7d 9s 2s]
Seat 1: scottwire showed [As Kc] and lost with a pair of Nines
Seat 2: advi (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Cooper671 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: JaspudUF (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: WiLDmAn75 folded before Flop
Seat 8: Tstrick4 showed [Th Td] and won (472262) with two pair, Tens and Nines

Closer to the final table

2007-02-03T02:52:00.000-05:00

PokerStars Tournament #41630066, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
1708 players
Total Prize Pool: $71340.00
Tournament started - 2007/02/02 - 22:00:00 (ET)

Dear scottwire,

You finished the tournament in 55th place.
A $164.09 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

I did 1 rebuy and the add-on so I was about +133. Made about $30 on the cash tables too so not a bad day.

I felt really good today and thought I played really well. Made the good plays when I needed to, some timely resteals and won the races I needed to.

Thought I was done around 170 when I was in the BB with AJ. I had about 29k at 2k/4k and smaller stack with about 20k pushed all in. I called, he showed AT and hit the T on the river.

SB I get junk and fold to a raise up front so I have about 8500 chips and luckily on the button I get AKs against 2 hands which turn out to be 99 and 77 and boom a K hits the flop. Back in business with about 33k.

Built my stack up to about 140k at 4k/8k, went card dead a while and finally got QQ in the SB at 6k/12k. Huge stack with 500k kept raising to 30k, he raised with any ace and had a decent sized range. I push all in to 98k and he calls with A9. Of course the ace hits and I'm done in 55th.

My deepest finish yet in the $11 rebuy. Its nice but I really felt like I could have made it to the final table. STUPID ACE. I'll just have to get there tomorrow night!

oh to win again

2007-01-30T19:42:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I was playing really well and was +918 over two days playing 1/2 NL

I have since lost that all back :(

On a good note, I'm now Goldstar status on Pokerstars but I would much rather be up again.

I have cashed in a couple of tourneys but I haven't won over $100 in a tournament in a while. I will keep playing the $11 rebuy at 10pm and hopefully one of these days I'll make it deep in the money.

I finally had a better than average finish again in the Chiptalk thursday night tournament but I bubbled, finishing 10th. Pushed KQ and ran into KK :(

A few of the guys on PSO had a .5/1 NL session on Full Tilt that I joined in on so we could discuss strategy. I unfortunately haven't had a chance to look over the hand histories. I saw some of the stats and I was the second tightest of the bunch. I do play a little looser than that but I was multitasking and folding some hands I may normally play if I were paying more attention.

I'm still up a few hundred for the month thanks to bonuses but hopefully the wins start coming again soon.

Fun Fun

2007-01-19T12:20:00.000-05:00

The last week or so has seen many ups and downs. My last few Chiptalk tournaments has ended in misery. My $11 rebuy tourneys are not fairing well but I managed to cash in one on Tuesday night.

The only thing going in the right direction at the moment are the cash games. I've been playing 1/2NL on stars and seen lots of ups and downs there too but right now I'm on the up side by a couple hundred or so.

I played with a bunch of PSOers last night at a $100NL table on Full Tilt so we can discuss strategy and plays after we swap hand histories. I made $2 woo! I made a couple of bad plays and a couple of bad non-plays where I should have taken the pot away but didn't. I was amazed by the number of reraises preflop. I wonder if everyone was just getting hit with the deck or making moves. Maybe next time we can add in using video capture software like camstudio and record the table and audio while we give our thought processes. Guess we'll see!

Up and Down Day

2007-01-11T00:56:00.000-05:00

Cash games were going well. I was up almost $80 and then disaster happened.

.25/.50 NL

99 in the BB

UTG raises to $1

bunch of callers

I call

A93 flop with 2 clubs WOO

I check, UTG bets $2.50, every folds to me and I ...

scottwire: raises $7.50 to $10

Skyhand: raises $45.90 to $55.90 and is all-in

I should have known he had AA sigh.

Played the $11 rebuy but sucked it up and I finally got KK all in against AT who hit the AA55x board.

Played a 180 $22 SNG and I was 2nd in chips at the 50/100 level with 7100. Then I lost every coin flip and got pushed off hands left and right and finally lost AK to TT :( Finished 45th. sigh again

So instead of being up like $50+, I finished the night about -$10.

Snuck into the money again

2007-01-10T10:53:00.000-05:00

Almost had a nice stack brewing at one point. That is, until I raised with QQ in early position, guy in late position pushed all in and he was a loose reraiser so I called. He shows AJ. Flop Jxx, river J and I'm down to 3400 at 100/200. I luckily got aces at the right time a few hands later when UTG goes all in for 4k, another guy calls, I call and BB calls. so AA holds up and I quadruple up + to around 16000.

Work my way up to 25k at 600/1200 but that was as high as I got. Lost another chunk at 800/1600 and then snuck into the money. 270 paid and I finished 260 when KJ runs into KQ. Another cash though which is always nice :)

PokerStars Tournament #39824499, No Limit Hold'em

Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00

2134 players

Total Prize Pool: $86810.00 

Tournament started - 2007/01/09 - 22:00:00 (ET)



Dear scottwire, 



You finished the tournament in 260th place.

A $86.81 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Getting closer

2007-01-08T02:22:00.000-05:00

After a couple of days of ugliness, I got into the money in the $11 rebuy tonight. Getting closer to the final table at least.

PokerStars Tournament #39376885, No Limit Hold'em

Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00

2304 players

Total Prize Pool: $89120.00

Tournament started - 2007/01/07 - 22:00:00 (ET)

Dear scottwire,

You finished the tournament in 128th place.

A $98.04 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

90 man Double Stack Sit and Go

2007-01-06T16:06:00.000-05:00

After the nice start to the new year, I went 3 multi table tourneys in a row without a cash.

On a whim, I decided just to check out what was happening on Full Tilt. I only had $4 left on the site after getting creamed there lately.

I saw a $22, 90 man double stack (start with 3k chips instead of 1500) SNG filling up with a pro in it, Lee Watkinson. I decided what the hell and quickly deposited and jumped in just in time.

I played pretty well and disaster almost struck. My wireless network decided to wreak havok on my laptop and I couldn't get back on. My wife installed Full Tilt on her machine just so I could keep playing. Blinds were 400/800 and there were only 12 of us less, 9 make the money. I had 12k chips and we had 6 at the table so blinds were coming around fast. I finally got on her computer with a little over 10k.

I had ATs on the button and raised to 2k. SB was an aggressive player and reraised to 6k (he only had 8500). I thought about it for a while but my gut told me he was just making a play. I reraised all in and He called with K4s and my hand held up :)

We finally got into the money on the final table. 8 of us left and then the hand of fate happened as usual. I always seem to get busted this way.

blinds 600/1200.

Folds around to SB who raises to 6k (he has me covered with 26k, I have 20k).

I have AK in BB and push. He thinks about it a long while and calls with 44 and his hand holds up and I'm done in 8th for $54 :(

I WILL WIN ONE OF THESE ONE DAY DAMMIT

My first 180 person SNG

2007-01-03T23:48:00.000-05:00

I played a $22, 18 table SNG tonight. 18 players get paid. First one I've ever tried. I was thinking this may suit me well as I enjoy multitable tournaments and I want the payouts to be meaningful but not have to take 6 hours to play an entire tournament.

I didn't play all that great but I got my money in when it counted and a couple of nice suckouts help too. 64s owns JJ when you suck out a flush :)

I snuck into the money then I had JJ hold up against AQ. I then got nothing else good and the table was very active and I never really had a chance to steal blinds. At 800/1600 I got down to 12k and we were down to 10 players. 18-10 all get double their buy-in then the money moves up from there.

5 handed on the table I have K2s on the button and decide to push but SB wakes up with AK. Turned a flush draw but the river didn't help and I bubbled the final table.

My $22 won me $43.20

I played the $3 rebuy again too but got my QQ all in against AK who hit the ace and I was done somewhere around 1100th I think.

Tourney play it is! Might hit a couple of cash tables now though. Going to try to get Silverstar and maybe Goldstar on Pokerstars. I have a bunch of bonuses to still work off anyway. Must win!

Multitable fun

2007-01-03T14:23:00.000-05:00

I got close last night but not close enough.

I outlasted almost 3300 people but still came up short in the $3 rebuy, finishing 77th.

Not a bad finish at all, but it only paid $64.98. The 6k first place money looked a lot better :)

I have now played 4 rebuys in the last 3 days and finished in the money in 3 of them.

1/2/2007 - $3 rebuy - (spent $9) - 3360 players - finished 77- paid $64.98

1/1/2007 - $3 rebuy - (spent $6) - 3734 players - finished 671 - paid $19

12/31/2006 - $11 rebuy - (spent $22) - 2273 players - finished 203 - paid $72.93

So I'm up about $100 after 4 rebuy tourneys but I've lost that and more at the cash tables.

I'll post a 2006 year end report soon, but I can't seem to find my groove on the cash tables these days. I've been calling down too much it seems.

I am going to play a lot more rebuys and maybe some $22 180 person tourneys. Maybe I should get back to NL cash games instead of limit as well. Guess we'll see!

Pokerstars Rebuy Tourney

2006-12-31T01:59:00.000-05:00

I just got knocked out of the $11 rebuy. Only took the add on so I was in for $21 total. I got lucky a couple of times on the river to stay in it and managed to finish in 203rd.

I pushed KT and got called by AJ

Flop KTx

Turn Q to give him the straight

No help on the river and I was done.

Won $72.93 though so not too bad. Damn that straight!

6 max is not nice to me

2006-12-28T17:28:00.000-05:00

Dropped $50 at 1/2 6 max yesterday.

Guy to my right was mister over aggressive check raiser. If we were heads up and I was in position, it didn't matter what the flop was, I got check raised. It sucked because if I called down he would catch a better hand on the river and screw me.

My favorite hand against him was this:

I have AA

Villian raises, I reraise, folds back to him he caps, I call.

Flop 652. He bets, I raise, he reraises, I call.

Turn comes an 8. He bets, I raise, he reraises, I cap.

River is a Q and my stomach turns. He bets, I call.

He shows QQ for rivered set.

I mean come on people. The poker gods were not with me. Hopefully I'll make it back tonight!

Back with a vengeance

2006-12-26T23:49:00.000-05:00

I've slowly gotten back into playing. I've been playing 1/2 on Full Tilt and a little 2/4 on Pokerstars to slide back in. I'll start playing some more NL as well and hopefully do some damage.

I've played about an hour each night the last few nights and am up about $80 overall. Its a nice start but that number needs to skyrocket.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

ECD Update

2006-12-18T15:12:00.000-05:00

After 6 months, ECasinoDeals has finally made good on their word and I have received the Amazon Gift Certificate I ordered in July. Problem resolved for me and I hope everyone else who took part in ECD offers get what they have ordered as well.

Thanks for the comments Chipper and Murf. Glad to see somebody still out there checking in.

I didn't have time to comment but last week I played a HORSE tourney Sunday with the PSO guys and managed a 2nd place finish and a NL tourney with the Chiptalk guys and pulled out a nice victory Monday night. That was a nice one as I was down 3:1 in chips as we went heads up and I managed to fight my way back for the win.

Unfortunately the Thursday night tourneys have not been going as well. Week 1 I had a nice 6th place finish. I've finished as high as 20ish the last 3 weeks though. My last 3 knockout hands have been KK vs JJ, AK vs A9 and AJ vs KQ. Somebody tell the underdogs to go away!

I may play a $5 HORSE tourney tonight and I'll hopefully post tomorrow and get back in the posting groove. If you're not on chiptalk.net yet, come join the great forum! Good luck out there!

Oh Poker, How I Miss Thee

2006-12-11T14:04:00.000-05:00

Playing once or twice a week in $10 and $5 tournaments just isn't doing it for me.

I so want to play in big Multi Table Tournaments but I don't have time to block out 5 or 6 hours for them.

I get an urge for cash games now and then but I seem to want to go for the big score.

Hopefully one of these days I will have more time to play and actually have something exciting to write here.

On a side note, I am busy working on a new travel site at the moment which I will announce here within a few days hopefully. Maybe that will free up some time once I'm done :)

Hope everyone out there is doing well. Happy Holidays!

Chiptalk Challenge

2006-11-18T13:15:00.000-05:00

We have a 3 team challenge with 9 players each for the next quarter. Week 1 started on Thursday night and thus dawned team 3, TNT - Thursday Night Titans.

It was a successful week as I finished 6th out of 51 and my teammates JM finished 7th and TheMightyJim took it down finishing 1st.

So far so good :)

I also played the Monday night $5 HORSE tournament and came in 2nd of 16 players there. I almost made the valiant comeback going into heads up down almost 4:1. It was not to be though.

I tried a Turbo $16 SNG on Pokerstars this morning. TURBO??? This was the slowest tourney I've ever played in. I don't know if it was their internet connections, but 3 guys continuous took forever. It was 75/150 blinds after 22 hands played and no one was knocked out yet. I finally had to push with QQ and got called by A3 who promptly flopped K33 and I was done in 8th place.

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

Chiptalk Quarterly Tournament of Champions

2006-11-11T01:02:00.000-05:00

Last night was the QToC for our Thursday night tournaments.

9 players, $22 SNG.

Tough game that almost took 2 hours to play. I managed to outlast 7 of the players to finish in 2nd place for $55 and I will get either a 300 piece clay chipset or $75 in gift certificates. The first place finisher gets to pick between the two and I get the other one. I was down 10k to 3k in chips going into heads up play at the 150/300 level. I managed to get even a couple of times but it was not meant to be.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you who saw my post on ECD yesterday, I am not happy that my post on ECD was "accidently" deleted. That is all I will say for now. I am looking for resolution soon or the fun will begin.

Tournament Reports

2006-11-07T09:43:00.000-05:00

Chiptalk Tourney Thursday night went well. I managed to finish 7th and 7th overall for the quarter to get to play in the Quarter Tournament of champions this Thursday. Bonus prizes have been added for 1st place with $70 worth of gift certificates and a 300 piece clay chipset. Back to back wins are hopefully in the works!

Last night I played the Chiptalk side tourney where I found KK in the big blind. UTG had raised and had been a loose raiser but has me covered. It folded to me and I decided to just call since I was down to about 1150 chips at 25/50. So the hand:

UTG raises to 150...folds to me in BB with KK, I call.
Flop 965 rainbow.
I bet 200 into a 325 pot, hoping to get raised.
UTG calls.
Turn is J of spades putting 2 spades on the board.
Maybe I should have just bet out, but I figured he still didn't have much so I checked, planning to check raise.
He bets 300, I check raise all in to 800ish chips.
He calls with AT of spades and hits the spade on the river.
I'm out 14 of 15.

Oh well.

I then decided its been a while since I've played a big tourney so I got in the $11 rebuy and addon at 10:15PM. The rebuy period didn't go well. Get all in with 88 vs Q5 and board double pairs AA499 giving me an 8 kicker and him a Q kicker. So frustrating. I rebuy and get it all in with AQ against 88, 55 and K4. No love for me, I rebuy again. I'm at 1600 chips at the break. I take the add on for 2000 more chips.

I now have $41 invested in the tournament. My 3600 chips slowly builds up to almost 10k at the 100/200 level.

At 150/300 I get AA in the SB. Folded to me and BB is hyperaggressive. I decide to limp, and as usual, he raises. I have him slightly covered and I really want to get all my chips in here because I know how nutty he is. So I smooth call and flop comes QJx. I check, he pushes all in, I call. He shows KT, gets no help and I have a nice healthy stack around 17k.

I didn't make any big mistakes until around the 400/800 mark. I was sitting with about 40k chips and I have QQ UTG. I raise to 2400. MP guy calls, button pushes all in to 11000. I thought about it and had seen him push in this same position with TT or JJ. MP guy has been tricky so I decide just to call in case he does have a monster and decides to push here. He calls which does not make me happy.

Flop comes T85. Check, check.
Turn comes A. Check, check.
River comes 2. Check, he bets 6k into a 35k pot. Ugh. I figure he has the ace but the pot is too big and other guy could still have some other mid pair.

I call, he has AJs (wtf who calls those raises with that).
Button shows KK and I'm down to about 24k.

I work my way back up to about 30k.
A little while later I get QQ in the SB. Guy in MP min raises to 2400. I reraise to about 8000. He calls. Q64 flop. I lead out half the pot and he pushes all in. I call. He has AQ and I double up.

I got my stack as high as 70k at the 600/1200 level, but I couldn't build after that unfortunately. I fluctuated a little here and there but I never won any more big hands. I got into the money with 180 players left around 2am and had about 65k chips.

Mostly just buying blinds from here on out and at 3k/6k I had about 36k chips and pushed with ATo, got called by AQ and I was done. I finished 104th for $80 ($39 net win) about 4 positions from an extra $40 :( Oh well. One of these days I'll get closer to that 1st prize (which was about 18k last night!).

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

October Report

2006-11-02T12:02:00.000-05:00

Down about $200 overall. I didn't really play a whole lot. Played a little bit of everything from 1/2 to 5/10 limit and tournaments at Absolute for PSO and Pokerstars for Chiptalk. Not even a single bonus cleared. I'm about to clear $120 of bonus money soon at Pokerstars though.

I was also successful in getting my Full Tilt account switched to a rakeback account with RakeFreeze.com yay! Too bad I don't really play there much.

PSO just announced they added Poker.com for a $60 bonus after 5000 comp points. I love PSO but I must tell you all that Boogster is giving a much better deal. $80 bonus after getting 2500 comp points.

Not much else exciting going on here. Still looking for web development work. I have a bunch of my own projects I'm trying to get off the ground as well.

My main Scottwire.com site will be redesigned and useful again soon as well :)

Good luck and may the flop be with you!

This Week in Poker

2006-10-22T15:03:00.000-04:00

Wednesday night I forgot to play in the PSO league tournament.

Thursday night Chiptalk tournament I finish 19th. As usual, I make the right play and get the wrong results. This has been my last 2 months or so. Late position player raises like he has done many times in the last few rounds. 75/150 blinds he raises to 450. I reraise all in to almost 1900 with A8s in the small blind and figure I can take it down. He calls with KJo??? He hits the K on the turn and knocks me out.

Won $50 at 2/4 and 3/6 on UltimateBet.

Lost $120 on WPEX at 5/10

Won $40 on WPEX at 2/4

And that's about it this week.

Congresswoman Shelley Berkley was on the Circuit this week. Worth a listen.

I've been busy working and I need to find more web development work. That's about it for now. Not much time to play but I'm trying to keep from being rusty!

The onslaught continues

2006-10-13T22:31:00.000-04:00

Both in my game and for the state of online poker.

Chiptalk tourney Thursday night.

Blinds are 50/100.

I pick up AA in the perfect situation. UTG+1 raises to 300 and I am in Middle position with 1700 chips.

UTG+1 has 1500 chips and had just raised and folded to a reraise so I raise to 800 to get everyone else to fold and hope he takes a stand. He thinks and calls.

Flop K55. He pushes all in for last 600something and I call. He shows 77 and I'm like yay.

Then the river comes a 7 and I go booooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I have 170 chips left in BB and pick up 88, folded to SB who raises and he has QT and guy hits T on turn and I'm out.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
-------------------------------

So now all the sites are dropping like flies.

Party usually has 10k to 15k real money players on a Friday night. According to pokersitescout.com, they only have about 3000 right now while Pokerstars still has about 9k players.

If you signed up with Absolute or Full Tilt before you found PSO or another affiliate, now may be your chance to add rakeback to your existing account.

PSO may be able to get you rakeback on Absolute
Rakefreeze.com may be able to get you rakeback on FullTilt

This will only work if you never created your account through an affiliate link.

I have already written rakefreeze which I found out about on the Rounders podcast.

Hopefully they will switch me over :) That's it for now...may the flop be with you!

First week of October

2006-10-08T16:11:00.000-04:00

An uneventful first week of October.

Played the first PSO league game Wednesday. I got all in with KK only to run into AA and knocked out in 39th.

Played the Chiptalk tournament on Thursday, nothing was working and finished about 20th.

Played the PSO freeroll at UltimateBet last night and UltimateBet sucks. They preregister all 3000 players that have ever signed up through PSO, only about 105 actually showed up. So after the first couple levels, they remove the non existant players and we all end up in the money. This is nice of course and I got knocked out like 70something for a whole $7.50 win. Maybe I can parlay that into a lot with a new challenge on UB or something.

Tonight is league game #2. Hopefully I'll finish better than the last. I haven't really felt up to playing after all this legislation crap plus personal stuff. Maybe I can make something happen tonight.

Good luck to everyone

September Report and Ramblings

2006-10-03T02:02:00.000-04:00

I barely played at all in September. I mostly played tournaments and I cleared one $100 bonus at Party Poker and a $10 bonus at Absolute.

Tournament play was pretty decent. In the 4 Chiptalk tournaments with about 50 people each, I made 3 final tables with one 8th place finish and two 6th place finishes.

The big money comes from the Mansion no risk promo where I made $1000 on the Steelers! woo!

Cash won: $21.39
Bonuses: $110.00
Mansion: $1000.00
-----------------
Total: $1121.39

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

And now I want to say that it is bullshit that a Senator can just tack on unrelated legislation on page 200 something of the port security bill and destroy our hobby. It is absolutely ridiculous and hopefully there is some ray of hope that the Poker Player's Alliance can still get the government to make poker exempt from this new legislation.

I've already started pulling money out of some sites. I will most likely leave money in major sites until they say I can't play there anymore. I still have many goals to achieve and I'm not giving up yet. I want that big score in a multi table tournament and I'll get it one day.

If you want to check out the responses from the poker rooms, the list of links can be found here on 2+2.

I guess we'll see how this pans out, but it isn't looking good. Maybe you guys will have to start reading about trips to Atlantic City here soon instead.

The PSO league starts at Absolute Poker Wednesday night so at least there is something to look forward to in poker. Hope to see you there!

You've got to be kidding me

2006-09-29T10:23:00.000-04:00

Pokerstars $11 Chiptalk.net weekly tournament

50 entrants

Early on I had some issues. My AA lost to 88 which hit their 8 on the river. My QQ had a Kxx flop and I got raised on the flop and decided to throw it away. So I was down to about 400 chips at the 25/50 level. Folded to SB who pushed all in and I woke up with AQ. He shows K7 and I double up when the ace hits on the turn.

Doubled up a couple more times and managed to take a bunch of chips off a weak player who kept min raising from late position.

With 7 players left I luckily doubled up when I pushed all in with 55, Megabit woke up with aces and I hit a set on the flop.

Now to my nemesis. This guy that never plays the tournament was a nutty player. Earlier he was one of two limpers at 200/400 and I pushed all in to 2800 from the Big blind and he called with J4s (he had about 12k chips). That was a nice double up for me.

So here is my knockout hand for your viewing pleasure. I sometimes half expect this in the beginning of a tournament, but at the final table?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t600 (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

saw flop|saw showdown

BB (t18344)

UTG (t13290)

MP (t14334)

CO (t13577)

Button (t10500)

SB (t4955)

Preflop: Scottwire is MP with Ks, Qs.

1 fold, MP raises to t1800, 3 folds, BB calls t1200.

Flop: (t3250) Js, 6d, Qc (2 players)

BB checks, MP bets t4200, BB calls t4200.

Turn: (t11650) Kc (2 players)

BB checks, MP bets t8284 (All-In), BB calls t8284.

River: (t28218) Ac (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t28218

BB has 8c Tc (flush, ace high).

Scottwire has Ks Qs (two pair, kings and queens).

Outcome: BB wins t28218.

That is the worst flop call ever. Oh well I'll save my energy for the PSO freeroll Saturday.

I want to play!

2006-09-26T22:38:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update. I haven't had any time to play at all. I've been keeping up with forums and podcasts but that's about it.

I got a 20% up to $100 reload from Party so I'll start working on that soon. I still have a Party Monster tournament entry that I have to play one of these Saturdays as well.

I will hopefully play a tournament or two tomorrow night but if not, I will definitely get to play Thursday night in the Chiptalk tournament on Pokerstars.

Good luck at the tables!

Pokerstars $11 R&A

2006-09-20T13:38:00.000-04:00

I played the 10:15PM $11 rebuy tourney on Pokerstars last night. I was mostly card dead for the first hour but I was on a great table with almost every hand all in. I finally got A8s and that was good enough to call a nutty all in with and the guy happened to have A8 also and we split the pot.

I had crap cards the whole time and at 50/100 I pushed my last 1200 with A7. Unfortunately the guy with A5 flopped 2 more fives and I had to rebuy.

Again no cards and I decided to not add on since I only had 1400 chips left and I didn't feel like putting more money in.

And then the chip building began. Second time around after the break I pushed 88 from UTG and got called by 2 players. Board came all rags and I managed to triple up against AK and A7.

Not much doing again for a while and at 100/200 I had about 2400 chips left. I had 77 in the small blind and there were 3 limpers. I thought about pushing but something told me to just limp in. BOOM A76 flop. I check, guy leads out like 1800, another guy calls, I push all in, they both call. I triple up and then some to about 8000 something chips. YAY

Got a couple of timely overpairs and managed to then eventually get my stack up to about 80k chips with KK. Unfortunately the next hand I get AQ, BB calls my raise and flop comes Q high. He pushes the flop and I call he has KK now. So I went back down to 50k. Went back and forth a while but I had plenty of chips to get into the money now.

Worked my way back up to 75k, and at 1500/3000 I raise to 9k with TT. Short stack pushes all in for 16k more and I have to call. He shows KK and I'm down to 50k again.

Work my way back up to 75k and I raise to 9k with A8s. Button calls. Flop is 422 and button only has 20k left. Last time this happened my continuation bet took it down. This time he called me with JJ and I was down to like 50k again.

At 3000/6000 it became push time and I managed to take down the blinds a few times but I finally had my A7 run into AQ and I was out.

98th place - $108.93

I was really feeling good after getting my stack up to 80k but I just couldn't get over the hump. Not bad though for only having $1400 chips after the rebuy period when there were guys with 50k at my table. I want that final table!@# may the flop be with you!

Finally have time to play a tournament and

2006-09-19T01:03:00.000-04:00

I join a limit tournament by accident. ARGH

Very first hand I limp in and hit a set and its my turn to bet and I'm wondering where the damn slider is. DUH

So most of these players are horrible calling stations and I never got over 2500 chips.

About 180 joined and top 18 get paid. $16 tourney on Bodog.

I keep getting nailed on the river by people who call or raise with nothing.

Final 3 hands - about 30 players left, 18 make money:

I raise with A8 in MP3 and chip leader calls on button. Flop JT4. I bet he calls. Turn is Q. We both check. River is a 9. I check, he bets, I call..he has K5. WTF

I raise UTG+1 with KQ. chip leader calls again and so does the BB. Flop 553. SB checks, I bet, they both call. Turn Ace, SB checks, I bet again, leader folds, SB calls. River is another 3. We both check. SB shows K2 and we split the pot???? WTF again

Final hand I raise UTG with ATs, leader calls again, BB calls. Flop T82. BB bets, I raise (and I'm all in), leader calls, BB reraises, leader calls...yada yada yada, river 6 and chip leader shows 97 for the straight and I'm done in 30th...sigh

I also played a 4 player stud tournament with some chiptalkers. Finished 3rd there ...paid $11 to get in and got $8 back so no biggie there.

Hopefully I'll get to play again before Thursday. Guess we'll see!

Home game tournament

2006-09-18T11:51:00.000-04:00

Saturday night I hosted a $15 tournament that we had 8 people for. It's hard to get all my friends together so we hold one about every 4-5 months it seems. This was our 7th tournament in a little over 2 years.

We start with 300 in chips and 1/2 blinds.

I accumulated some chips early and got up to 360 or so off the bat but then nothing was working after that. I just kept running into bigger hands. I finally had to push with TT and my friend Mike woke up with QQ and got quad Queens to knock me out.

What a crazy game this ended up being. Mike wasn't done there, he then flopped quad Kings on a KK2 flop and a few hands later had Ax on an AAA flop. He had a couple of full houses and another set too. NUTS.

Then there is the flip side. Almost every all in we had, the underdog won.

AJ lost to A7
A6 lost to KQ
Ax lost to K9
another Ax vs Ax where the lower x hit runner runner flush
sorry I don't remember them all but the list goes on...

When it got down to 3, Mike took a nice chip lead when Mark pushed AK and Mike woke up with Aces to knock out Mark in 3rd and get to heads up. Mike couldn't hold on unfortunately and let Keith sneak in for the win after getting lucky a couple of times in the long heads up battle. Mike went all in with the best hand as the short stack and Keith caught a pair to win the tourney.

My weekly tournament

2006-09-15T17:50:00.000-04:00

The one constant in poker for me lately has been the Chiptalk.net weekly Thursday night tournament. I've been busy working on a lot of different projects so I'm not sure if I'll get to play a whole lot this month, but I will make it a point to play Thursday nights.

I had another good showing last night. My second final table in a row and a 6th place finish out of 52 I think. I played well until I let myself get blinded too low. With 8 left I didn't really have an opportunity to steal blinds and when I did have a hand someone in early position already raised and I knew I was a dog. I finally had to push with 44 and got called by KJ who hit turn and knocked me out. Oh well.

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

I forgot that I used my Poker Share points to get a book. I only had 1100 points so my choice was limited and I have to use them by Sept. 19 I think. I got "How good is your Pot Limit Omaha?" by Stewart Reuben. I probably won't be able to read it for another month or two unfortunately.

So my poker book collection now:

Read:
Theory of Poker - Sklansky
NL Theory and Practice - Sklansky
Small Stakes Hold'em - Miller
Hold'em for Advanced Players - Sklansky
Super System 1 and 2 - Brunson
Harrington on Hold'em Vol 1 and 2
Psychology of Poker - Schoonmaker
Play Poker Like the Pros - Hellmuth
Championship No Limit & Pot Limit Holdem - Cloutier
Little Green Book - Gordon

In the Middle of (oops I get sidetracked a lot):
Harrington on Hold'em Vol 3
Weighing the Odds in Hold'em - King Yao
Caro's Book of Poker Tells
Tao of Poker - Phillips
Tournament Poker for Advanced Players - Sklansky

Of all the books I've read, I think I've taken the least from Cloutier's book. I know a lot of people hate Hellmuth's book, but while his Hold'em sections suck, I did take some things from his sections on stud and omaha, so not all is lost.

Tomorrow I'm hosting a tournament at my house so hopefully I make a good showing :) Wish me luck and have a good weekend.

I started a directory

2006-09-12T01:36:00.000-04:00

I haven't had time to play but I am still trying to keep up with all the forums, news feeds and strategy articles.

So I decided to start putting them all on one page so they are easily accessible.

If you want to make use of it, you can find it here:

http://www.scottwire.com/feeds/

The left column is links to the sites I go to and the right two columns are RSS feeds that will automatically update every 15 minutes.

If you use it please let me know if you have any suggestions for good sites or feeds!

Thank you Steelers!

2006-09-08T02:35:00.000-04:00

Steelers 28, Dolphins 17

Thank you Mansion!

Quick tourney results:

$11 rebuy Wednesday night: finished 260ish of about 1500

$11 Chiptalk tournament tonight: Finished 8th of 48 - won $20

No time to play

2006-09-06T15:37:00.000-04:00

Haven't had any time to play the last few days. I played one heads up tourney for an hour on Monday night with a couple of chiptalk guys. Only 3 of us signed up and I luckily got the bye and went on to win the tournament.

I've started reading King Yao's Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Poker and so far the first few chapters are just just a refresher course on odds and counting outs. He does add one new way to figure out if the pot is big enough to continue on with your hand but it seems a bit overkill. I'll let you know if I find any good nuggets in there.

Mansion closed the doors on the sportsbook promo. They reached 5000 people so there is now a potential 5 million dollar payout for them if the Steelers win big. I got in at Steelers -5 but some were lucky enough to get in at Steelers +1 after big Ben had his appendectomy. Good luck tomorrow night to all who got in on this offer. If you're still looking to hedge you may want to try Sports Interaction through Boogster. $120 bonus from boogster...the catch is you have to wager $500 in the sportsbook. So depending on how much you want hedge, this may or may not be advantageous to you.

GO STEELERS!

August Report

2006-09-03T12:05:00.000-04:00

Playing: -$138.70
Bonuses: $422.16
------------------
Total: $283.46

It finally happened. My first losing month at the tables since I started taking the game seriously. It was a month of best hands on the flop disintegrating by the river. $100 of my loss was from two $50 NL buyins where I had trips and a set. Most of the rest of my play was from 2/4 limit and tournaments. where was about even on both.

I did win the ChipTalk Quarter Tournament of Champions which was a $22 sit and go and I managed to cash in an $11 rebuy tourney. Other than that I just got hammered all month long. Murphy's law in full effect.

Maybe I should go back to the NL cash games. I think I want to keep trying the big tournaments though for the chance at a big score. Not sure how much time I'll have to play this month though.

I jumped on some 3/6 tables and even a 5/10 table once this month and actually held my own and showed a small profit. I then went down to 1/2 6max and got reamed by all the fishes. Runner runner flushes were the bane of my existance there.

Oh well. Enough complaining. We all have bad beats and streaks. I don't feel like much of my game is off. When I start to tilt I know I'm making some mistakes though. I'm finally going to break out Weighing the Odds in Hold'em by King Yao, which I earlier this year but never read as I was making my transition to NL at the time.

I'm about 2/3 the way through Harrington on Hold'em Vol. 3. This book is a goldmine. I have gotten a lot of the book in terms of how to think about certain hands and situations. I'll have to go back and reread the first two volumes as well. I wish I had time for everything.

I wish I had the balls to move up in stakes. One of these days I'll move up permanently. I just still don't like losing more than $100 in a day. At my bankroll level, I should be playing way higher than I am, but I'm using some of the money as supplemental income at the moment. Once I have a full time gig again, maybe I'll feel more comfortable taking my shots.

Quick Atlantic City Report

2006-09-01T11:59:00.000-04:00

I went down to Atlantic City yesterday for a friend's birthday to play in the $60 Showboat 2pm tourney.

Man these players are horrible. 2 people on my table called every big raise with crap.

An hour into the tourney:

I have 3700 chips (start with 5000) and blinds are 100/200

4 limpers, I raise to 1000 from BB with AA and get 3 callers. ( I should have raised more I guess)

I push all in (about 2700 chips into a 5000+ pot) on a T42 flop and one nut calls with 55 ...Turn 3...River 6 for the runner runner straight.

Pushed as the short stack a few hands later, got 4 callers and no love.

I'll put up my August report soon. I think this is going to be my first losing month :( not counting bonuses.

Thank you to all signed up for mansion through the PokerSavvy link! Greatly appreciated! GO STEELERS GO!

Sportsbook bonuses

2006-08-28T14:54:00.000-04:00

Someone emailed my BonusRoundup account with a site that does bonuses for sportsbooks.

If you're planning to hedge your Mansion bet, check out http://biggerbonus.com/ or http://www.bonusroundup.com/sportsbooks.aspx

Most are $50 bonuses

If you're unsure about the reliability of a sportsbook, check out http://www.sportsbookreview.com/

Mansion Sportsbook

2006-08-26T16:07:00.000-04:00

I just made my biggest bet ever.

"Pittsburgh Steelers 2006 Superbowl Champs Promotion

Simply visit the MANSION Sportsbook and place a minimum Point Spread (Handicap) bet of USD 1,100 to win USD 1,000 (or currency equivalent) on the Pittsburgh Steelers for their game on Thursday 7 Sep 2006. (00:30 GMT 8 Sep 2006)

If your bet is not a winner, MANSION will refund your losses of USD 1,100 (or currency equivalent). "

I signed up for Mansion through pokersavvy.com for an extra $90 bonus.

Good luck!

Rough night

2006-08-22T02:22:00.000-04:00

Quick synopsis:

Played Pot Limit Omaha hi/lo Chiptalk tourney - Finished 10th of 13

Played $11 Rebuy tourney - rebought twice + add on. At 400/800, guy raises to 2k, I push all in for 8k in the BB with 99. He thinks a while, finally calls with QJo. Flop Qxx and I'm out. :(

PartyPoker Mini Step 2 - Second hand - KK in BB. 2 Limpers, 20/40 blinds I raise to 200, First limper reraises all in, other guy calls, I reraise all in, he calls.

Me: KK
MP1: AQo
MP3: T6s

Flop T6x of course

I'm knocked out in 8th and win a token back to mini step 1

I play mini step 1

Second hand again - Another guy pushed on first hand with T7 and spiked a 7 to beat a guy who called with Ax. Now its my turn. I have AQ UTG, I call, he pushes, folds around I call.

Me: AQ
Him: A3

I'm ahead until the river which brings a 3 and I'm knocked out again.

Not my night I guess.

Almost a good showing

2006-08-19T12:16:00.000-04:00

I played the $11 Rebuy and Addon Tournament last night at Pokerstars. After seeing Hit21Hit from PSO being on the leaderboard at Paradise, I took a look at some of the tournament tracking sites and holy crap. The guy has made like $60k plus since May playing the $30 and $100 R&A tourneys.

So I decided it is time for me to step it up a notch and start playing some of these bigger prize pool events more. First place for this one pays 13k and I've probably played in about 10 of them before and I've cashed once.

I started off not getting any hands to play. I managed finally to triple up near the end of the rebuy period when I got KK in against JJ and KQ. I then had almost 4k chips and the addon got me to about 6k.

I picked my spots here and there and was somewhere around 16k chips at the 400/800 level when this hand happened:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t800 (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

saw flop|saw showdown

Button (t71415)

SB (t29913)

BB (t16010)

UTG (t65448)

UTG+1 (t10845)

MP1 (t59550)

MP2 (t26652)

MP3 (t8680)

CO (t28480)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 2c, 5s.

UTG calls t800, 2 folds, MP2 calls t800, 3 folds, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: (t3200) Qs, 4c, 6c (4 players)

SB checks, Hero checks, UTG checks, MP2 checks.

Turn: (t3200) 3s (4 players)

SB bets t2400, BB raises to t7200, UTG raises to t64598, MP2 calls t25802 (All-In), SB folds, Hero calls t7960 (All-In).

River: (t111160) Ad (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: t111160

Hero has 2c 5s (straight, six high).

UTG has 6h 6d (three of a kind, sixes).

MP2 has 3d 3c (three of a kind, threes).

Outcome: UTG wins t60080. Hero wins t51080.

After that I called a couple raises and missed the flop. Then I tried to reraise a button steal with 33 out of the BB and he called. Flop came KQ8, I froze and checked and he bet big like usual and I folded. He was running over the table, I tried to make a stand and it didn't work, sigh. I then had about 37k chips left. I should have just called to try and hit the set. Instead I lost 1/4 of my stack.

Waiting for a hand I finally got TT with 27k chips at 1k/2k. I raised to 6k and another guy min reraised me to 10k. I call. Flop Q86. I didn't think I had the best hand but the pot was the size of my stack so I pushed and he called with AA. I luckily hit the river T and doubled up. He had the last laugh later though.

We got into the money and I was UTG with QQ and 67k chips at 3k/6k. I pushed and guy i had beaten earlier with my tens called his last 20k with AQ. He hit the Ace of course and I was down to 40k.

Next round I'm on the button with A8 and the CO open raises and I push. SB comes over the top all in, CO calls. CO has 99, SB has TT. Flop comes...Ace...9...7 and I'm screwed and the river is a Ten just to rub it in more. I finished 85th place out of like 1400 for $90. I maybe should have waited the orbit and moved up another pay level and hope for a better spot but I was tired and needed to either double up or go to sleep.

-------------------------
I finished the Sun Poker promo for PSO. Now I just have to play 250 more raked hands for the August reload bonus. Hopefully I will get my Nevada Jacks set soon!

I'm going to play a live game today with a bunch of people in the area from Chiptalk.net. Hopefully it will be a lot of fun. $25 tournament of which $5 is a bounty on each person. Should get to see a lot of cool poker chips too.

Lasseters Casino risk free promo at Boogster

2006-08-16T20:55:00.000-04:00

Boogster.com has increased their bonus for Lasseters Casino to $100 until the end of the month.

You can deposit $100 and get a $100 sticky bonus so basically the promo is risk free!

You will have to wager $500 for the boogster bonus. After that you will have to play a bunch if you want to withdraw. The bonus is sticky so you can only play with it, you can never withdraw it. You'll have to end up with more than $100 left after the casino wagering requirements to withdraw (either $2000 or $10000 depending on the game you play). Check the Terms and Conditions for full details.

I'm going to hopefully do this in the next few days. Good luck!

Poker in general and my new site BonusRoundup.com!

2006-08-14T22:32:00.000-04:00

First the new site -

BonusRoundup.com

I came up with this idea last year but never had the time to get it all together.

The site is 98% done and features listings of all the big affiliate sites so you can compare their bonuses. Check it out and let me know what you think and how I can make it better!

Now to poker-

I decided to play in the 7 card stud tournament with the chiptalk.net people. Monday nights they just get a little side game that usually fills up one table and the game changes each week. I made it to the last hand before break when my 2 pair got smacked by a flush on the river and I was out in 8th out of 8 players.

I realized how bad a stud player I am. Either that or I was just really card dead. I need to brush up on games other than hold'em. It is also strange how out of place I feel on a 7 stud table because I feel very comfortable on a 7 stud hi/lo table and pretty comfortable on a razz table.

I may pick up some books on stud and omaha. I have Super System 2 and Play Poker Like the pros but I think I really need in depth books for them.

I mostly played 2/4 on Sun Poker over the weekend and was about even overall. I have about 680/1000 points needed for my PSO promo. I've almost worked off the $150 deposit bonuses and will deposit again for the August $100 bonus after that. I'm still down without the bonuses but they should keep me in positive territory once I clear them.

That's about it for now. Check out the new web site! I hope you all find it a nice resource.

Chiptalk 2nd Quarter Tournament of Champions

2006-08-11T17:57:00.000-04:00

Last night was the Single Table Tournament of Champions for the 2nd quarter which I was fortunate to sneak into 1st place in points last week with a 2nd place finish.

Last night was a single table with the top 9 points earners.

It started out well and I was picking up lots of nice hands early. We started with 1500 chips and I worked up to 2100 early.

I see AKo UTG and to my left is a short stack of 500 chips at the 25/50 blind level. He is a very aggressive player and I know he will push with any decent hand. So I decide to try a play that I recently read in Harrington on Hold'em 3. He says many top pros like to limp reraise with AK UTG. This gives the appearance that you limped with aces and even if you get called you still have AK and are only really dead to AA. AK vs KK is still only a 70/30 underdog.

So I'm hoping either I can pull this limp reraise off OR short stack goes all in with a dominated hand.

Short stack indeed pushes, folded to me and I call of course.

I have AKo he has KTs

Of course he flops a flush draw, I hit my ace on the turn and then he flushes on the river. Oh well. The play worked as I had hope and I was just on the wrong side of the percentages that time.

I'm only about a third of the way through HoH3 but I feel like between that, my experience at the WSOP and some things I've picked up in some of the podcasts I've been listening too that I've really gotten better at reading the action. I guess paying more attention helps too. I think I've been doing less multitasking while playing also.

So anyway I managed to get my stack back up by stealing some pots and I got into the money with 3 left as the short stack. Didn't really see many good hands but I managed to push and not get called for a few rounds. I pushed almost every time I was on the button but mostly folded in the blinds unless I had something half decent. Luckily I then find JJ in the BB and the SB pushed all in with 63s. JJ held up and I was second in chips now. I managed to knock him out and then first hand I check raised a flop all in with a flush draw and took the pot down. I was now up 8k to 4k in chips and I raised to 600 with ATo, opponent reraises all in. I call he has A5 and my kicker holds up and I win the tournament yay! Net $68 win (It was a $20+2 tournament).

As added prizes I get a $20 gift certificate from abcgiftsandawards.com and a custom dealer button from palmimports.com :)

Thanks to Curatio for pointing out my stupid hand history that I posted (and now fixed). Man I need to get my challenge going again. You are doing so well keep it up!

I have about 400 of the 1000 points I need on Sun Poker to get my Nevada Jacks set. Hoping to get it by our next tournament in mid September.

Have a good weekend!

Sun Poker and Chiptalk tourney

2006-08-07T17:43:00.000-04:00

I started the Sun Poker promo for the Nevada Jacks chips over at PSO. So far things have not gone well and I'm down about $75 on the deal. I have $150 in bonuses to work off though. My No Limit play is just getting me killed. On my first table I got all in with KK on the turn and he rivers 2 pair (UPDATED CAUSE MY MEMORY SUCKS)

Game #3123141524: Hold'em NL ($0.25/$0.50) - 2006/08/04 - 20:55:45 (ET)
Table "Bialystok" Seat 1 is the button.
Seat 1: Digger62 ($39.50 in chips)
Seat 2: mookie99 ($32.55 in chips)
Seat 3: cmarston sits out
Seat 4: scottwire ($49.25 in chips)
Seat 5: Duxer ($65.57 in chips)
Seat 6: ticsmon ($75.63 in chips)
Seat 7: basse.dk ($30.35 in chips)
Seat 8: luntunone ($13.92 in chips)
Seat 9: SigEp200 ($20.55 in chips)
Seat 10: TehNutz ($28.30 in chips)
mookie99: posts small blind $0.25
scottwire: posts big blind $0.50
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to scottwire [Kd Kh]
Duxer: calls $0.50
ticsmon: calls $0.50
basse.dk: calls $0.50
luntunone: calls $0.50
SigEp200: calls $0.50
TehNutz: folds
Digger62: folds
mookie99: calls $0.25
scottwire: raises to $4
Duxer: folds
ticsmon: calls $3.50
basse.dk: folds
luntunone: folds
SigEp200: folds
mookie99: folds
----- FLOP ----- [3h Ts 8c]
scottwire: bets $7
ticsmon: calls $7
----- TURN ----- [3h Ts 8c][Jh]
scottwire: bets $20
ticsmon: raises to $64.63 and is all-in
scottwire: is all-in $18.25
Returned uncalled bets $26.38 to ticsmon
----- RIVER ----- [3h Ts 8c Jh][Qs]
DPChrist joins the table at seat #2
----- SHOW DOWN -----
ticsmon: shows [Qd Tc] (Two Pairs, Queens and Tens, Jack high)
scottwire: shows [Kd Kh] (A Pair of Kings, Queen high)
ticsmon collects $98 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $101 Main pot $98 Rake $3
Board [3h Ts 8c Jh Qs]
Seat 1: Digger62 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: scottwire (big blind) showed [Kd Kh] and lost
Seat 5: Duxer folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: ticsmon showed [Qd Tc] and won ($98) with Two Pairs, Queens and Tens, Jack high
Seat 7: basse.dk folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: luntunone folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: SigEp200 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 10: TehNutz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
****HAND ENDS****

I'm doing a little better on the limit tables. 2/4 is tight as hell but its a lot faster gaining points of which I need 1000 of to clear my promotion.

Thursday night was the Chiptalk.net tournament. I built a big stack in the middle of the tournament and had a huge chip lead until the final table. I got heads up with the guy who runs chiptalk and we battled hard back and forth. It looked like I was about to win when we got all in on the flop and I outdrew him on the turn only to see him redraw on the river. I then managed to get sucked out on and my final hand I had JJ against his A8 and he ended up hitting the ace and two pair on the river. So a 2nd place finish for $100 and the chiptalk 2nd quarter points victory :) I wanted the win though...sigh.

That's it for now. No more flop be with you...I need to think of something else...

July Report

2006-08-02T01:23:00.000-04:00

Online Cash Games: $1,079.02
Bonus Money: 25.74
----------------------------
Total Online: $1,104.76

WSOP event cash: $1,578.00
Vegas Live games: -$500.00

Not a bad month but could be better. I mostly played on PokerFantasy where they were running a promotion that if you got 1500 points you would get a Nintendo DS Lite or $120 bonus and you wouldn't even have to use up your points to get it. So I emailed them today to find out if I got enough for the month. WOW I got 1500.92 points. Talk about cutting it close. My wife wants to get the DS and we'll buy Brain Age and Mario and maybe something else.

I just started the Sun Poker promo over PSO in order to get more Nevada Jacks chips. I got my first set as a cash game set with only 25cent to 5 dollar chips. i've only ever used it once though so I've decided to get another set and be able to use them for tournaments as well. Byebye dice chips yay :) Hopefully our next tournament will be mid September or so.

Not much else to report that i can think of. Hopefully SunPoker will bring good fortune and may the flop be with you (and me).

The roller coaster continues

2006-07-31T16:50:00.000-04:00

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!

Up and down and all around

2006-07-27T13:38:00.000-04:00

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!

My WSOP memento

2006-07-22T16:05:00.000-04:00

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.

ECD experience

2006-07-21T01:48:00.000-04:00

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.

Befuddled

2006-07-19T14:47:00.000-04:00

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!

Vegas Trip Report

2006-07-17T00:51:00.000-04:00

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!

WSOP Report - Event 17 - $1000 NL Holdem

2006-07-11T14:30:00.000-04:00

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 :)

Warm Up

2006-07-06T22:07:00.000-04:00

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!

June Report

2006-07-03T00:26:00.000-04:00

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!

Poker podcasts

2006-06-29T14:30:00.000-04:00

I listen to a few poker podcasts and thought I'd share them with you. There aren't many good ones out there and even some of the ones I listen to aren't extremely exciting. However, I do like to have something to fall asleep to sometimes :) If you don't know what a podcast is, it is basically just an mp3 file you can listen to on your computer, Ipod, PSP (like me) or other portable media device.

Rounders - This is by far the best poker podcast around. It is actually an hour long radio show out of Vancouver and they've most of the big poker pros on their show. Their entire show archive is on their site.

The show is Sunday nights and the podcast is usually put up on the website on Monday or Tuesday.

Full Tilt Poker Learn from the Pros - There are only 10 episodes so far but these are usually 8 to 10 minute Q&A shows discussing a specific topic with one pro. Ferguson, Lederer, Bloch and others have done shows on bankroll, SNGs, Heads up, tilt and more. Usually they have about one a month.

Poker Diagram - This is a show by two gentlemen from England named Henry and Zog who play in tournaments and commentate hand by hand as they are playing. They aren't pros by any means but it can be fun listening in on thought processes as they go through the tournaments. Some topic discussion sometimes as well. Usually about an hour or two.

Poker Edge with Phil Gordon - This is by ESPN and is an hour long show which I just found a couple of weeks ago. So far I'm really impressed and they've had a lot of good content. Recent guests have included Chris Ferguson, Annie Duke and Clonie Gowen.

Those are the ones I listen to. Most of the others I've tried either aren't updated anymore or just annoy me for some reason. Maybe I'll start my own!

Quick Update

2006-06-28T08:39:00.000-04:00

I haven't had a whole lot of time to play lately.

On Titan I've worked my way up to about $120. Sticking to $50 NL still.

I have a new website I've been working on that I'll announce in the next few days. Just putting the finishing touches on it.

I really need to start playing some big tournaments to get my feet wet for the big one in two weeks but I haven't really had time. Hopefully soon.

The Challenge

2006-06-24T16:39:00.000-04:00

Titan gave me a free $20 last week. I decided to see how far I can go with just that $20. I have decided not to worry about bankroll management at stakes I feel comfortable with. My risk of ruin is higher but it will also make the challenge faster.

I started with 20 and played a little .25/.50 limit hold'em and lost a few dollars. I moved to the NL side and played .05/.10 NL and got back what I lost. For a few days it was mostly those stakes but I saw a nice table at .25/.50 NL and decided to take a shot with my $23 bankroll. I managed to double up plus a little more and am now at $73.

I will stay at .25/.50 NL as long as I find good tables. Once I hit $200 I plan on hitting a $100NL table if the conditions are right. I'm not sure how far I want to go with it and how long but the Chris Ferguson 10k challenge sounds like a nice figure.

If you don't know, Chris Ferguson won $2 from a freeroll on Full Tilt last month. His challenge to himself was to turn it into $10,000 before the WSOP main event. As of last week he was at around $200.

Heart racing moment of this challenge so far: I was in the big blind with KJ. I clicked on the window to get focus. I accidently hit the ALL IN button. OOPS. One guy had raised to $4 preflop and had a caller too. He thought a while and finally folded. WOW I got lucky. That would have sucked. Back down to like $13 if I lost that.

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

I am now booked for Vegas. Staying at the Imperial Palace for 4 nights and Luxor for 2 (got 2 free nights yay). Event 17 on July 10th is when I will be playing. Hopefully I won't get RiverRun at my table!

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

For all of you who may be going to Vegas in July, check out Harrah's dining promotion:

http://www.dreamlinesavings.com/harrahs.asp

You can get up to $30 per person per day in credit for most of harrah's properties for free. Paris buffet here we come!

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

Try Try Again

2006-06-21T22:03:00.000-04:00

Ok first I need to talk about tonight's $50 WSOP qualifer. Top prize is a $1500 event entry and there are 20 players.

Second table orbit. 10/20 blinds. I have JTs. I raise to 60 one off the button. Button raises to 140. I call.

Flop is JJ5 with 2 clubs.

I check.
He bets 220.
I raise to 600.
He pushes all in.
I call.

He shows....... 22 yay

The turn....... 2 booooooooo

The river is no help and I'm done in 20th place.
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

-------------
Last night I played in a $26 event on Full Tilt with 268 entrants and finished 25th. I reraised all in with AKs, he showed TT and no help for me. Top 3 got a seat in that.

Looks like I'm going to do event 17 on July 10th. Now its time to win some spending money!

Dream Poker

2006-06-18T14:56:00.000-04:00

I signed up for Dream Poker a few days ago through ECasinoDeals. It is a Prima site and the signup bonus is 120% up to $500 bonus. I deposited $300 and have $360 to work off. They release the bonus in 4 equal portions they say but I haven't gotten my first one yet.

They also have special promotions like the top 80 point earners each week get to play in a $2000 freeroll. Every other week they have a freeroll for the top 30 point earners and the winner gets a Dream vacation. The points are based on contributed raked hands and you need more raked hands per point at lower limits.

I won a $2.50 satellite for the Wednesday night $55 WSOP prelim event qualifier on PokerShare. I also won another $26 token on Full Tilt which I will probably use tonight to try to win another Prelim event as well.

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

20k

2006-06-16T12:49:00.000-04:00

After a week of stagnation, I finally crossed the $20,000 bankroll mark.

I estimate about $7,000 of that is from bonuses. It took a little over 2 years

So far:
2004 total: $3,622.15
2005 total: $9,015.86
2006 total: $7,420.37

I'm on pace to continue the nice upward trend. I'm up about $650 so far this month but the next few days I think are going to be concentrated on tournaments. I would love to win another WSOP seat with extra money added so I can pay for the Vegas trip.

I had a good day at the tables yesterday but I made one stupid stupid mistake. I hit my flush on the turn, raised the guy's bet and he called. The board paired on the river and he checked. Alarm bells went off in my head and for some reason I decided to bet anyway. I bet big too, and then got check raised like an idiot. CHECK BEHIND! So I lost $30 more than I should have there as he showed the full house.

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

Going Nowhere Fast

2006-06-14T19:49:00.000-04:00

For the past week or so I've been pretty much breaking even. I'm hoping to break the next rung in my bankroll soon though. The cash games have been paying for the plethora of satellites I've been playing trying to win more WSOP tourneys. No luck as of yet but I have another tonight on PokerShare. Only 1 seat this time though. Wish me luck.

I'm about halfway through No Limit Theory and Practice. While there is some good info here and there, I am so far not thrilled. A lot of the information is haphazard. For instance, I've just gone through a lot of preflop content. They tell you to make a big raise from the big blind with nothing once in a while with weak hands as a bluff just to pick up the pot. They unfortunately don't tell you if its worth betting the flop if you miss or anything.

Hopefully the book as a whole all comes together but skimming through I'm not sure it will.

Next up will be Harrington On Hold'em 3 which I will hopefully start by the weekend.

The week that was

2006-06-10T12:48:00.000-04:00

Tuesday and Wednesday I played for another $1500 WSOP seat but it was not to be. I'll try again Sunday night at Full Tilt.

My bankroll has gone up slightly the last few days but nothing exciting other than big hands getting killed by variance.

This is a fun hand from yesterday:

Me -UTG limps for 50 cents with AA
UTG+1 min raises to $1
MP2 calls
MP3 raises to $2
CO calls
Button calls
SB folds
BB calls
I reraise to $15

everyone folds except Button who is my favorite player ever (I've probably taken a few hundred off this guy this year)

He calls all in his last $11.64 with 22

Pot is $33.78

Flop A J 8 (BEAUTIFUL)

Turn 2

can you feel it...

can you...

River 2

Ahh runner runner quads...

Luckily I was up a good bit and he was short stacked so it doesn't sting and no tilt factor.

----------------------------
Another one from yesterday:

I noticed this guy just bet and raised everything.

UTG raises to $1.75
I reraise in Middle position with the black aces to $5
He calls

Flop 854 all spades.
He bets, I raise, he pushes all in, I call.

He has 86 off suit, no spade.

Turn 7 giving him the straight of course.

River is no help. :(
--------------------------------

I still made about $20 yesterday but it could have been much nicer. Oh well.

I received No Limit Hold'em Theory and Practice as well as Harrington on Hold'em 3 the other day. I'm reading the No Limit theory book first. So far I'm about 60 pages in and a lot of the concepts I already apply which is a good thing. Most people will hate it, but I love all the math for calculating expectation. While I have learned some things, I'm still waiting for some golden nugget in there to make a lightbulb go off in my head. Its a well written book so far though.

I also received the PSP game I ordered with my Party Poker Points. Burnout Legends is a really cool racing game. I like having to crash opponent's cars :)

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

Sit and Go weekend

2006-06-05T22:52:00.000-04:00

Friday night we hosted a 7 player tournament. 3 get in the money.

My friend brought his father in law who dominated the game from the get go. It took a few hands to realize that he was an extremely loose aggressive player. By the time I could mark him, he had already built a big stack and he never looked back. I was second in chips most of the way.

With 3 of us left, blinds are 10/20. My friend's father in law, my wife and I are left. I pick up KQ in the small blind and raise to 50. My wife folds and he calls. Flop is K84 or something like that. I bet 75, he calls. Turn is a 2. I bet 75 he calls. River is a 9. I bet 75, he calls. He flips over 42 for 2 pair :(

There went half my stack. I had 275 chips left with 25/50 blinds. I picked up A6o on the button and pushed. He calls with Q8s and hits the Q. The end. I finished third and my wife finished 2nd.

------------------
My cash games this weekend was full of variance but somehow I ended up a tiny bit.

I played a bunch of qualifiers. I played 4 $4.40 Sit and goes on Full Tilt and won 2 of them for two qualifier tokens into $24+2 tourneys.

I also won another qualifier to the Wednesday tourney I won my $1500 seat in last week on PokerShare.

I'm hoping to win something with money added. The Pokershare one if I win again I can take the $1500 as cash instead of the seat which would help expenses a lot.

As it is, I'm thinking of doing what Riverrun did and take $500 cash and play in the $1000 tournament on the 10th or 11th (sorry I forget which day it is). I'm going to start playing more main event qualifiers as well.

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

Pokerstars Blogger Freeroll

2006-06-03T15:18:00.000-04:00

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: 1203245

May report

2006-06-02T11:17:00.000-04:00

Thanks guys for the support. Now it's all your turns!

I was at BodogAri's table for the first hour and got to sit on his left. He was pretty quiet most of the time until he doubled up with a flush. About 15 minutes later I got moved to another table sandwiched between two big stacks. Luckily for me, the the big stack on my left donked away most of his chips so I could be a little more liberal with my raises.

The nice thing about these tourneys is that you start with a huge stack and the blinds are very gradual, much like full tilt. The only problem is that it makes the tournaments last forever. We were 4 handed for almost an hour I think. Only a handful of people were out after the first hour.

I am thinking of playing in the July 25th NL event so that I can stay the week and go to the PSO party. I'm hoping to still win a main event seat or another $1500 seat. I really need to win something that includes extra cash though to make it worth it with all the other costs of travel that go with it.

Once we get near the date, I'll let you all know my full name and you can follow along (I hope that didn't just jinx me into losing early day 1).

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

After my crappy weekend and then the satellite victory, the momentum continued yesterday morning. I played on Pokershare and PokerFantasy and make a couple hundred to start the month of June off right.

On Pokershare, I saw a $200 NL table that was nice and juicy and decided I'd jump in. Of course, one of my first hands I got killed by the guy I noticed was a maniac. AK with a flop of T55. I had just seen him min bet the flop with gutshot and he did it again this time, so I raised. He reraised and I decided to call. Turn is a blank and he min bets again. I call. River is my K. He bets $43. Ugh. I got toyed with but I hit my K and couldn't lay it down against him, he showed the 5.

Luckily for me I caught a set of tens against a guy with a draw and he doubled me up. So I ended up winning $40 on that table and I made another $150 on 50NL and 100NL tables on fantasy.

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

May Totals:
Profit: $608.13
Bonuses: $515.78
----------------
Total: $1123.91

I was almost at my monthly $1500 goal when the last weekend of the month pummelled me. I can't wait for the NL Theory book by Sklansky. I'm really hoping it helps me in situations that I'm still unsure on.

I've had Tao of Poker for a while but I never finished it, so I'm trying to get through it. It's pretty much a bunch of helpful tips to help situational awareness in all aspects of play. I'm halfway through and I'll try to put up a review soon. I still have Weighing the Odds by King Yao that I've never read. I'll probably wait until after NL Theory and Harrington on Hold'em 3. I've ordered both from Amazon but who knows when they'll ship.

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

Tonight I'm hosting a $15 NL tourney. We're only going to have 6 or 7 people though. We usually get these together every 3 months or so and it still ends up being tough finding a day where we can get 10 people. We did it once, hopefully next time we can do it again.

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

BOOYAH

2006-06-01T08:46:00.000-04:00

I must announce that last night on PokerShare...

Congratulations on winning a $1,500 PokerShare World Series Package!

We’re delighted to welcome you on board the PokerShare World Series team. Your WSOP package includes:

· WSOP Lead-Up Event buy-in, to the value of $1,500

· PokerShare Merchandise

WOOHOO!

I finally did it! What a long battle but well worth it.

Tournament goals:
1) be aggressive, steal lots of blinds, but play smart and back off if it isn't working
2) pay attention to each player and keep an eye on who lets me pick on their blinds
3) Don't be afraid to play back against late position raises
4) Accumulate chips without putting your stack at risk
5) Recognize when to change gears
6) Don't get too tight as the players dwindle down near the bubble

I unfortunately get into a habit of sometimes doing too many things at once (working, surfing the web, watching tv...) and I'm not paying attention to the game. I did do a little of this last night but for the most part I was intent on picking up the patterns of other players.

Number 1 - be aggressive B E AGGRESSIVE. When I'm not paying attention, I turn into this tight nit who plays top 10 hands and never steals blinds because I'm not paying attention and am afraid to lose chips.

As I moved tables, I adjusted as I generally stuck with good hands to steal with against the huge stacks who liked to play back. I did a good job of folding a while then using my Number 5 goal to change gears and raise a few hands in a row and pick up some good chips since I had been so tight.

Number 4 - Don't put your stack at risk.
I think I did a great job at this. I think I was all in maybe 4 times the whole tournament.

Some play by play:

Blinds start at 10/20 and each player gets 2500 chips.

Earlier in the day, I lost a $50 buyin on PokerFantasy when I flopped a set while my opponent flopped a straight.

I thought luck was still not on my side early in the tournament:
I have AK in the SB. I think stakes were 30/60
MP1 raises to 180. CO calls. I call.

Flop comes K93.
I check, MP1 bets 400, CO folds, I call.

Turn 9.
I check, MP1 bets 800, I raise all in.

MP1 only has 800 left so he's pretty pot committed. The only hand I'm worried about at this point is AA or KK and based on his past play I didn't think he had either.

He calls and has KJ.

River: 9 (ARGH) giving us both KK999 and spliting the pot.

My first good spot to get chips and it went down the tubes.

20 left - I get AA near the button. 3xBB raise and SB pushes all in with AQ and my stack is finally getting somewhere.

7 left - 6 of us between 11 and 13k and one guy at 21k

5 left - 4th in chips

300/600 blinds
SB raises to 1800, I call with KJo

flop K65, 2 clubs
he bets 1200 i raise to 3000, he calls.
turn: J clubs, he checks i push he calls with A6o ??

3 of us have 22k, other guy has 31k

76s i raise in SB, flop 544
i bet BB raises all in i call
he has 99 - 3 on turn and my straight holds up
take 2nd place in chips

This was the first time I got my money in with the worst hand, but I had the odds to call on the draw as long as he didn't have the flopped boat. Lucky for me :)

At this point also, we had made a deal to have the $450 3rd place prize money become 3rd place gets $300 and 4th gets $150, while the top 2 still get the seats. So I was winning something at least if I got knocked out. And if I didn't, I'd be chip leader!

won a nice hand
SB raises again, I call with T9s
flop KJ8 2 diamonds
he checks, I check
turn 7
he checks, I bet 3000 he calls
river 2 of diamonds
he checks, I bet 3000 he calls

blind battles keeping my stack in good shape
600/1200 blinds
K8d
sb calls, i check
Q83 rainbow.
he checks i bet 1200, he calls
turn 7 of diamonds
he checks, i bet 3600 he calls
river A of diamonds, check check he has 98 i win the pot

3 left
I have 48k vs 22 and 28k

The small stacks almost take each other out. One has 38k, other has 10k after a big hand. 10k stack goes all in and I'm yelling CALL CALL. He does but small stack doubles up

I get AKs in the SB I make my standard 3xBB raise.
BB pushes all in. I have 46k and he has a little over 20k. I think for a sec and call.
He has A7s and my hand holds up! What a long 5 hours!

WOO WOO

I'll post May results in a separate post later or tomorrow. Until then MAY THE FLOP BE WITH YOU! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Crappy weekend

2006-05-30T15:16:00.000-04:00

Friday night was good as I won a $5 qualifier to the $50 "WSOP $1500 qualifier" on Poker Share which will be Wednesday night. Wish me luck!

Other than that I bubbled like 3 tournaments, and got wrecked in the cash games.

Hand from yesterday at $50 NL table on Poker Fantasy:

UTG+1 I have AK and raise to $2. (I have about $48)
UTG+2 raises all in to $5.00.
CO calls (deep stack has me covered)
SB calls all in his last $4.
BB calls (has like 10 left)
I RERAISE to $30 to hopefully get the dead money and be up against the 2 all ins.

UTG+2 calls, other guys fold.

flop K74 rainbow.

I push my last $18 or so. UTG+2 calls with TT.

Turn: T (GO FIGURE)

river is no help

I LOSE :(

That pretty much sums up my day yesterday.

One of my tournaments I finished 360 of 1300. Loose aggressive guy min raises in mid position and I was short stack on button and pushed with JTs. He thinks a while and calls with T9s. He hits the 9 on the river :(

Oh well.