Online Poker Zero to Hero

Poker and The Sunday Million

2008-04-14T09:49:00.004-06:00

April 13, 2008 Update

My weekend consisted of poker, more poker and then... some more poker. I played so much poker that I even had dreams of playing poker. It was a sickening weekend as far as play goes, but I gained some great experience. I played soooooo much poker that my account is nearing Gold VIP status on PokerStars (400 VPP away).

The week started out pretty rough when I experimented with some different levels of play. My limit game has been strong and I wanted to see if I could capitalize on this at a higher level. If your beating up the games at lower levels the same strategy should work for bigger games. So I decided to scope out the 3/6 limit games to where I ended up on a WILD table. The game was raised about every hand. I stuck to my same style of play, premium starting hands and aggressive play. Turns out this was a disaster on this table and I end up down $200 in short amount of time. I believe the loss was due to the "looseness" at the table and perhaps not being in the correct state of mind after taking a few beats (TILT). The competition should be the same at this level as with the 2/4 level so I don't believe that to be a factor, but after loosing a couple hundred I had to go back down to a more comfortable level. That's the key, being comfortable at the level your playing in respect to your BR.

I also experimented with higher level SNGs. As you can see from my previous post, I was able to just kill the $50 SNGs for some mad money. I played one more after my previous wins and bubbled. Even though I found success at this level, I couldn't manage the possible losses of $50 a pop at this level. The swings had the potential to be disastrous, so I decided to lay off the big buyin SNGs for the time being. Perhaps when my BR is a little healthier I will venture back to this level. When I did win the two SNGs at $50 my BR was in the thousands, but the one loss was after the BR was in the 3 digit range which effected my mindset and I tightened my game up where I should have taken chances. Again, a BR related effect to my game.

I've been playing a ton of bigger buy in tournaments, when I say bigger I'm talking $20 - $50 range. It's not a huge amount of money, but much bigger then stakes that I was previously playing. The bad news is that I have not found the same success as I had last week. I've been going out in quick fashion in a lot of these and only making small cashes in the ones that I make the money. Perhaps my previous play was just a fluke or maybe my game works better with smaller fields. It's too early to know the determining factors of going deep in tournaments or if there is just too much variance to consistently go deep all the time. Only time will tell if I have what it takes to compete at this level.

My major gaol since playing on PokerStars is to play in the Sunday Million. I've always wanted the opportunity to play in this tournament and have the change to play for 200k+. When I woke up Sunday I was determined to satellite into this tournament. I tried a few $8.80 double shootouts, but never made it past my first table and the turbo structure does not work with my game very well. Finally I found a satellite with normal 15 minute levels for a $39 buy in which resulted in the following:

Which automatically did this...

I was stoked! This was my first opportunity to play in a tournament that I have been trying to play since the beginning of the year. I love going to CardPlayer to find out which lucky recipients were lucky enough to take down a 100k+ prize in this weekly tournament. This was my chance to make a cash in one of the biggest tournaments online.

Everything starts out alright and I win pot number 1! Some people are superstitious of pot 1 and believe this to be a bad omen. As for myself, I love winning the first pot in live tournaments as it builds up my confidence and allows me to say "No one can knock me out in the next hand". Little comments that I like to make at the table in live action that makes me seem like I don't take the tournament too serious while in reality I am super competitive and love to stack chips. The tournament goes on and I take a few pots and give away a few chips, but never get any serious momentum. We near the first break and I look down UTG at JJ and make a standard raise. All fold except my neighbor in the BB whom calls. Flop brings nothing higher then a 9 with no possible draws. BB checks, I bet out 3/4 of the pot and BB calls. Now there is quite a bit of money in the pot and the turn brings a blank, but opens up the possibility of a flush or straight draw. BB checks and I make an overbet of about 120% of the pot to hopefully eliminate any draws, BB counters with a raise which would leave me about 1000 chips left of my original 10,000 chip stack. I deliberate and put him on maybe a pp, or a nine. After much deliberation, I push and he calls after a short hesitation. We table our cards and I am the unfortunate recipient of pp over pp when my opponent shows the QQ to dominate my JJ. The river doesn't bring me one of the two suckout cards left in the deck and my Million tournament in over in a disappointing 5638th place. I replayed the hand in my head for the next few hours. It was a tough hand to play as I had no read on his hand while in the BB with the smooth call before the flop. Now if position was different and he was first to act before I was able to raise my jacks, I would have surely laid this hand down or cut my losses to his play at the pot. UTG was a horrible place to pick up this hand and it took me out of the tournament. Oh well, there's always next week as I am now determined to cash in this tournament and eventually make a deep run.

The days not a total loss as I did enter the 100k again this week in hopes of making another deep run. My good friend on the virtual felt, Mondo, stopped by my limit game to show some support and check out my mad suckout skills in the 2/4 game. I watched his unfortunate short exit from the 100k, but I was lucky enough to build a nice chip stack going into the 2nd break. I was out of the Million, but had a 24th place chip stack in the 100k and felt good about another deep run. We get back from break and I push my stack around as we are about 300 places from making the money. My loose play and constant stealing was running great until I pushed one person too far. I have about 65k in chips and the closest person at my table has 30k. Looking down at A-10 off I make a pf raise to where only the BB calls. The flop comes 10xx and now I have TPTK and continue to fire at the pot. BB calls, turn comes and I fire again and BB calls. River comes, I fire and BB goes all in to which I eventually call. BB tables QQ and I am disgusted as this was the same scenario as in the Million that caused me to leave the tournament. All is not lost as I still have over 30k, but now I have to slow down my game as there is always the possibility of bubbling. Safely in the money I start to get aggressive again and build my chips back up to over 60k while taking out ppQ's not once, not twice, but three times with AJ, AQ, and even A9. It was like I was taking revenge on ppQ's after that hand killed me on two occasions. We near the 1000 player mark of the initial 21,425 players and I start to battle with one of the big stacks on the table. We eventually get all our chips in the middle and I am way behind as he has AK to my AQ. Nothing happens and I exit the tournament in 1057th place for a cash of $43. I was disappointed not being able to best the cash from a week before, but it does seem like a feat to cash in this huge field two weeks in a row.

Now as many of you know, I make my money in the limit games to compensate for my tournament entry buyins and other ventures. Of course, when you get knocked out of the two biggest tournaments on Sunday, you get dealt the triple whammy with a loss in a 2/4 game. I ended up blowing through $120 in a short amount of time and my tilt factor was off the chart. Finally I leave the table and buy into a 1/2 limit game to slow things down and buy into a $10 SNG. I am winning in the 1/2 limit game with $100 on the table from a $40 buyin. I end up taking down the $10 SNG for a first place prize of $45. Seeing some success I buy into 2 more $10 SNGs and proceed to immediately take a chip command in both tournaments. Play continues and I look down at KK in one of the SNGs in the BB. Middle position player raises and later position re-raises and I push. Middle position player folds and late position player calls and has me covered by about 100 chips. We table our cards and again I am the unfortunate recipient of pp over pp as he tables the AA to best my KK. I never improve and bust out. It's funny as I did the same thing on the other SNG, except I had the AA over someone else's KK. ...and it's even more ironic that this was the same hand that took me out of the Heartland Poker Tour qualifier about a week ago, except I had my AA cracked by KK. I saw this happen 5 times this day throughout the many tournaments that I played which didn't seem to calculate. This doesn't happen that often, but to see it 5 times and twice while being on one end or the other is very improbable. Not to mention I saw a guy in the Million get dealt ppA's three times in 17 hands and still had only half his starting chips. I end up bubbling the second SNG and at the same time drop my $100 on the 1/2 game to about $25. I get out of all the other games and concentrate on the limit game solely as I was not about to invest any more money for the night. A rush of cards finally come and I build back to about $100 and leave.

Overall it was not a good weekend financially on the virtual felt, but I did get to play in the Million, which was still a great experience despite my result. The BR took a beating with all the tournaments that I played, but I'm still positive overall. The good thing about poker is... there's always tomorrow. Good luck on the virtual felt all!

SNG Madness

2008-04-12T11:55:00.005-06:00

I've been playing a ton of $20 - $50 tournaments, but haven't had the same success as during the beginning of the week. The good news is that my SNG play and 2/4 limit play has been more then enough to compensate for my tournament entries.

After playing a few SNGs at the $20 and $30 level with little success, I decided to try out the $50 SNGs. For some reason I seem to be running well at this level. My first 2 resulted in huge leads with three way action only to end up taking 3rd both times for a small win. Then one in the middle for an early exit. The next two have been monsters to where I have overcome a 4-1 deficit in chips to take first and then totally dominated the last one with 10k in chips to my opponents 1000 each for nice wins.

If I can keep up this kind of run at this level I'll have a real shot at the Battle of the Planets... and check out the spike in the old SharkScope after these two wins which is bigger then the spike after winning one of the 4/180s.

Lot's more poker to come this weekend. Good luck on the virutal felt all!

First Major Cash

2008-04-09T10:03:00.010-06:00

Wednesday, April 9th Update

Where do I start? I get home after work on Tuesday night just in time to sign up for the PS 55k that has become my new goal to win after my disappointing 41st place outing on Monday night. Of course, why not also play a limit game and a $30 SNG at the same time. I proceed to exit the SNG in record fashion when my set of 10's get rivered by a straight (did I mention the 10 on the river also made the straight for the other person). At the same time I'm just taking money from players in the 2/4 limit game. I actually do very well in the 50k and even take the chip lead for a short amount of time. The new changes to my game are working great and allowing me to keep at above chip average throughout the tournament. Then it happens. I get my PPK's cracked by AQ on a horrible river card. Even after this disaster my chip count is just at the average with just over 300 people left in the tournament paying out the top 180. My emotions get the best of me and I end up trying to bluff the BB while in the SB when the BB has a made hand. I exit in 304th place on a BLUFF!

Well, the nights still young and I've already more then recouped the cost of the 50k in the 2/4 limit game. I decide to buy into another $30 SNG and proceed to make the money. Eventually I get HU and blow a small lead and exit in 2nd place for an $81 cash, but still unsatisfied with anything but a 1st place finish.

It's now 10:30PM and I contemplate calling it a night and going to bed with a still profitable evening of about $150, but my thirst for a 1st place finish drives me to check out the 180 person SNGs. I check out the $20 buy in of the 180 SNG and it just fills starting over at 0 persons registered. Damn, if I was just a little faster. Then I see a 360 person max $33 tournament which is just as good as a 180 person SNG at a decent stake. I proceed to buy in and it's now 11:15PM; what am I doing?

Now I don't want to just "blow" $33, so I also get into another 2/4 limit game and proceed to play the $33 tournament which ends up with 270 players and paying the top 27. I double up almost immediately and then stack a few more players in record time. I'm now chip leader with about 6k in chips in the first 10 minutes. It's amazing, as I end up 2nd in chips after the first break, 1st in chips after the 2nd break and 2nd in chips after the 3rd break. How often are you able to take the chip lead and hold it throughout a tournament? It doesn't happen often and I played the big stack with perfection. At one point I raised pf 6 times in a row to which a player finally re-raised my 6th raise when I held cowboys, oops. Play starts to dwindle down to the top 50 and I change my style a little as my top 50 play has not been the greatest. The adjustments seem to work and after the 3rd break, well in the money, the field looks like this:

Then the final table where I still hold a 2nd place chip stack:

Then the final 6 where, I'm still 2nd in chips:

Then we get down to 3 way action to where matkinson has been taking the table and winning all the pots. I end up short stacked and throw out a "3 way chop?" to which I get the reply from matkinson of "only if you give me $2000" and ROMDOD says "doubt it". Always worth a try when it's the top 3 (and your the short stack).

Here I am at the 4th break with hardly any chips and know that I am going to have to get aggressive soon and push with almost any paint as matkinson is raising every hand.

We get back from break and I finally look down to find J10, one of my favorite limit hands. matkinson makes the usual raise with position and I go all in to which he almost immediately calls and tables AQ. Shit! It's all over I think to myself after the flop comes blank, blank, blank. Turn brings another blank and I physically close my eyes and pray to the poker gods for the one suckout per tournament to be right here... on the river... PLEASE!!! To my amazement, when my eyes open I see that the river was a J and I more then double up. Unbelievable! Thank you poker gods, I will worship you forever or until the next bad beat you place on me! Like others have said, you are almost surely due a suckout at least once in these MTTs and I had been sucked out on at least 3 times during this tournament. This was my first suckout in the tournament and it happened at just the right time, when I needed it most... on the river of all things! This puts me in great position and on the next hand I get 66 to where matkinson makes a pretty big raise. I make the call and the flop is AA9, I check and he makes a pretty small bet at the pot which says to me "please call". I'm sure my 6's are no good, but I'm allowed to draw to a six for a very cheap price and make the call. Turn brings one of my two outers and I check my boat. Just like clockwork, matkinson goes all in and I insta-call to where he tables A2 for a set and I take the chip lead HU with my sixes full.

I become very aggressive HU and raise about every flop with my chip lead. Eventually I wear down ROMDOM down to 100k. He fights back and gets back to 125k. I turn on the aggression and eventually dwindle down his stack to 50k, then 25k. Finally I get 10s and the flop brings J high. He bets and I put him all in to which he calls and has a pair of 5's. I yell at my monitor, "Hold! Hoooooooold!" The 10's hold and I pump my fist in triumph. Wow! What a feeling to finally take down a worthy first place prize. It was so hard to get to bed after this as it was after 4AM. I leave you with these AWESOME screen shots. Good luck on the virtual felt all!

Nightly $50,000 Guarantee run

2008-04-08T09:51:00.002-06:00

Monday, April 8, 2008 Update

My MTT play has really picked up lately. I've been weeding through huge fields and made tweaks to my game that just seem to work. My new strategy worked in the 180 player SNGs so I took this same strategy to the Sunday 100 Grand yesterday to where it was a top 0.5% finish. I decided to try out the nightly $55 50,000 Guarantee tournament, AKA the PokerStars version of th FullTilt 50-50 tournament.

I buy in directly and on my second hand of play look down at PP10's and make a decent raise and get one caller that has position on me. Flop comes all diamonds and a 10 to where I bet out the pot and get called. Turn is a blank and I make a huge over bet to hopefully get this person off the hand to where I get called. Now I only have 1100 of my original 3000 starting stack and pretty much committed but I'm trying to figure out if this person already has a flush or drawing. The river is a blank and I can only be beat by a flush. I check to where my opponent goes all in almost instantly. After deliberating for a good minute over whether he has the flush or not, I call and take down the pot after my opponent tables AQ with the A of diamonds. My thought is he would have raised me on the turn if he had a flush and why go all in on the river. The only thing that I thought was maybe he had a small flush and was ensuring that he did not get beat until the river, but he played the first hand very aggressive to which helped me ensure that my hand was good. It just goes to show that you can get a decent read on a player just by one hand. I may not have made that call if I was unsure of this persons play and range, but that first hand solidified it for me. Always pay attention to what's going on at the table.

One round goes by and I notice the aggros and the tight players. I test the waters and buy a few blinds to see the range of players at my table. One person re-raises my initial raise not once, but twice. I called once to feel it out and he bets the flop automatically to where I lay down. Now my stack was doubled by aggro player number 1 and feel that I can easily stack this guy with the right hand, then it comes. I get dealt PP2's in the BB. Aggro player makes a raise from UTG+1 all fold and I make the call. Flop is 10 high and now there are three over cards to my pair of ducks. I check he bets out the pot, I take my time and eventually call. Turn is a number card and I check and he bets out the pot again, I call. River is another number card and now I have 5 over cards to my deuces and check, he goes all in to where I insta-call. Aggro player tables KQ and my ducks take down a nice sized pot. Players wonder about my insta-call there with 5 overs, but when you have a read on someone you know your golden. My streak continues and I end up taking out 4 aggro fish in the first round and have a top 10 chip stack at the first break.

Play continues on and I am also playing a few $10 SNGs and a 2/4 limit game. I keep getting shifted to new tables in the 50k and never have time to adjust or display my table image in order to pick up some blinds. I end up losing a few SNGs and for some reason just thought I would buy into a $30 SNG (it was almost full and ready to go). Immediately I triple up on the first hand with a rivered flush. We then go on break in the 50k and I sit out of the SNG and limit game to go out and have a cigarette (just like up the hill I have to smoke outside, lol). When I come back I notice AQ soooted in the BB of the SNG with a raise already from another player. I immediately hit the "I'm back" button right before another player went all in, just in time as it 's now my turn. I re-raise all in trying to isolate to where I get another caller. I'm up against PPJ's and PP7's. Flop brings the A and they are history to where I sit on the majority of the chips. My wife brings me dinner as I am starving, but have any of you tried to play 3 games and eat BBQ chicken without getting your mouse greasy? It's a tough task and I really do believe it hurt my game. I end up taking out the next two players in the SNG to where we are now in the $$ with 3 players left and me sitting on 10k in chips. The blinds are only at 25/50 and one of the other two players comments on my recent run of cards and that they believe this may be the fastest final 3 ever in a SNG clocking in at only 20 minutes of play, lol. It was a nice run and yes, this was the quickest that I have ever been in the $$ in a SNG, but I doubt it was the fastest EVER. Play slows down here, but I am still trying to eat my BBQ chicken and play all three games. Then in the 50k I get AQ and get involved with another player. I totally miss the flop and my opponent goes all in to which I eventually call as I have pot odds to make the call and still leave myself with some chips. He tables AA and I am drawing dead on the turn. At the same time I'm giving money away in the 2/4 limit game and giving chips back in the SNG. Finally I just sit out of all games and chow down my chicken in record fashion so that I can get back to concentrating on the games at hand. As soon as I get back I aggressively work on the SNG and eventually have both opponents down to less then 1800 chips and eventually get HU. HU goes for a while as we have plenty of play because blinds are only at 75/150. finally I slow play my AK knowing that my opponent will make a move and when the flop blanks out for me I still call his all in with AK high. He tables 67 and my Ace high wins to where I take a nice 1st place prize of $135. Not bad for a $30 investment. With this game out of the way I get my head back into the 50k and slowly build my chips back up to an average chip stack. I play well and eventually get into the money with 180 players left with an over average chip stack. I remain here for the majority of the tournament and never get under a 45th place chip stack. We get down to 50 players and my aggression finally gets the best of me when I attempt a move on a shorty with a pf raise. Shorty goes all in which would dwindle me down to 12k in chips and I'm only sitting on 97 diamonds. This isn't the greatest hand and eventually I let it go, but I don't believe I would have been a huge dog and most likely have two live cards (should have called in hindsight). This drops me down to a short stack as the average is now 80k and I have 38k with 45 players left to go. Then the killer hand. In middle position I get AQ hearts and UTG makes a standard raise, I go all in and the BB (which is the player that raised my 97) comes over the top all in, UTG calls and my AQ is up against the BB's AA and UTG's 77. The case A flops and I'm basically done and can only pray for runner runner flush. The turn gives me the flush draw, but it's not to be as the river blanks and I exit the tournament in 41st place and $114.60 cash (should have played the 97).

I play another $30 SNG which goes no where, but I win it back in 2/4 limit. Eventually I call it a night, but I'm still disappointed that I didn't final table the 50k. This tournament was a lot of fun and once you make it past the few donkeys at the beginning it becomes a well played tournament. Now all I need to do is adjust my top 50 play in huge MTTs. Good news is the BR has grown to a massive $700+ since my $10 investment a few weeks ago. Look for good things to come soon! Good luck on the virtual felt all!

Constant Cashes

2008-04-07T12:33:00.006-06:00

Well for the third row in a week, I've had a decent sized cash. Two weeks ago it was $142 for 2nd in a 4/180, then last week was $216 for a 1st place finish in a 4/180 and this week was the biggest field of them all.

Let me start by mentioning that I will not be attending the Heartland Poker Tour main event as I was unable to qualify this weekend. Unless, by some miracle I get the money and qualify in one of the five remaining qualifiers this week. To make a long story short, my aces got cracked by kings in a devastating flop after we got it all in preflop. It happens, but did it HAVE to happen here? Dammit!

Moving on to better news. I've been playing SNGs most of the week and doing pretty well. I love checking out my Sharkscope to see my ROI and total profits. It's a great way to evaluate your SNG play and compare which stakes work best with your play. Things are looking great and my $10 SNG play has been pretty solid. Now I know some of you hate limit games, but the 1/2 limit games seem to be my real bread and butter. These games are what keep my BR positive and allow me to take risks with higher stake MTTs. Just recently I have moved to 2/4 limit at which I've been killing it. The swings can be higher, but if you just play a pretty solid game and get away from calling second pair (unless you have a great read on your opponent) then these games are easy money. I have noticed that the 2/4 limit games are much looser then the 1/2 limit games. Another thing that I have found about my game is I get bored if I play just 1 game and if it's a limit game I have the tendency to widen my starting hands out of boredom. So the key is 1 limit game, 1 SNG and a MTT.

I wake up on Sunday after a horrific amount of drinking the night before (after getting knocked out of the HPT qualifier) and decide it's an internet poker playing day. My goal was to get into the Sunday Million on PokerStars. I invest heavily in the $8.80 double shootouts to where I not only lose, but never make it past my first table. I also attempt a $39 turbo structure tournament to the Million which gives seats to the top 59 of which I go out in 171 place. Wow I suck and finally give up on satelliting into the Million. Check my Sharkscope to see that I am now on "Super Tilt" as buying into these shootouts counts against my Sharkscope and shows that I went on a $100 downswing. Super Tilt, lol. Next goal a couple of $10 SNGs and buy into the 100 Grand and the $11 Rebuy tournament. Make a second place finish after being chipped down to 300 chips early in the SNG and take out a donkey ass trash talker in 4th place (love karma). After 2 rebuys and an add-on I still exit early in the $11 rebuy. My play in the 100 Grand is decent and I stay at the chip average through most of the tournament. Finally a breakthrough close to the bubble and now I sit at a chip stack of just over twice the average. The bubble breaks after I steal a ton of chips from everyone and we go on our second break to which there is about 3300 players left of the initial 22,287, that's right, over 22,000 players! I am just happy to be in the money and keep playing. The structure is horrific as blinds go up every 10 minutes. Next break comes and the tournament is down to about 650 players. Now I start to feel like I have a real shot as I break into the top 10 chip counts for a few moments and remain within the top 50 for the most part. First place is over $20,000 and sounds sooooooooo sweet! The next hour goes by slowly and I steal the blinds about two times a round with just mediocre cards. Every once in a while I'll get called down or re-raised to where I have to make a lay down, but for the most part I am winning about 4 of 5 steals making this a positive tactic. With about 200 players left I make my standard raise with AQ soooted clubs and another player pushes, I call and feel good about my hand against the A5 soooted spades of my opponent. Of course, the flop brings two spades and there is no waiting as the turn card is also a spade. This hurts and leaves me under the chip average for the first time since the money bubble broke. I survive all my all-in's until the following hand:

PokerStars Game #16540907178: Tournament #82580233, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level XXV (20000/40000) - 2008/04/06 - 20:05:31 (ET)
Table '82580233 47' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Rockman43 (359848 in chips)
Seat 2: jdmcherson (397188 in chips)
Seat 3: DahHerbie (1110136 in chips)
Seat 4: EZ-scratch (62892 in chips)
Seat 6: sagedecarte (227761 in chips)
Seat 7: pruhurvu (140020 in chips)
Seat 8: ScrupBoy (302520 in chips)
Seat 9: AplusB (799114 in chips)
Rockman43: posts the ante 4000
jdmcherson: posts the ante 4000
DahHerbie: posts the ante 4000
EZ-scratch: posts the ante 4000
sagedecarte: posts the ante 4000
pruhurvu: posts the ante 4000
ScrupBoy: posts the ante 4000
AplusB: posts the ante 4000
ScrupBoy: posts small blind 20000
AplusB: posts big blind 40000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ScrupBoy [Qh Qc]
jdmcherson said, "you suicidal"
Rockman43: folds
jdmcherson: raises 120000 to 160000
DahHerbie: folds
Stude25 is connected
EZ-scratch: calls 58892 and is all-in
sagedecarte: folds
pruhurvu: folds
ScrupBoy: raises 138520 to 298520 and is all-in
AplusB: folds
jdmcherson: calls 138520
*** FLOP *** [7d As Ah]
*** TURN *** [7d As Ah] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [7d As Ah 3h] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ScrupBoy: shows [Qh Qc] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
jdmcherson: shows [Ks Ac] (three of a kind, Aces)
jdmcherson collected 479256 from side pot
EZ-scratch: shows [Th Ad] (three of a kind, Aces - lower kicker)
jdmcherson collected 248676 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 727932 Main pot 248676. Side pot 479256. | Rake 0
Board [7d As Ah 3h 5s]
Seat 1: Rockman43 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: jdmcherson showed [Ks Ac] and won (727932) with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 3: DahHerbie folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: EZ-scratch showed [Th Ad] and lost with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 6: sagedecarte folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: pruhurvu (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: ScrupBoy (small blind) showed [Qh Qc] and lost with two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 9: AplusB (big blind) folded before Flop

This takes me out of the tournament in 115th place and paid me a cool $222.88. I really did expect a top 50 finish but hey can I really be upset after going this deep in a tournament of 22,287 players? This comes to about the top 0.5% of all players! The numbers are staggering for this tournament and being that the blinds were 10 minute levels meant I had to win a lot of races and try to see the flop as much as possible. Another thing I wanted to mention in this tournament is that my computer crashed when there was about 160 players left. My USB connection to the WiFi went dead and I tried fixing it for about 10 minutes before I went downstairs and installed PokerStars on my son's computer and started playing again. At the time this happened I called my sister to update me on where the blinds were and my position at the table. Luckily, play slowed down and I only missed one blind round but I wondered if I had missed any potential big hands that may have projected me back into contention. Just one of those variants that comes with internet poker.

I played a few more SNGs at the $20 level that went nowhere, but again made a nice cash in the 2/4 limit game of about $80 in 45 minutes. Also made a deep run in the $4 7PM limit tournament that I love so much. Thought for sure I would make the final table but a few bad beats with 30 players left negated that idea and I made my exit in 18th place for a small win. I leave you all with a couple screen shots of the 100 Grand from yesterday. Good luck on the virtual felt all!

Weekend Recap

2008-03-31T15:26:00.003-06:00

March 28 - 30 Update

Since padding the old BR with $10 last week things have been running well. Throughout the week the single table SNGs have been running well. I've been consistently cashing in $5 and $10 SNGs for small profits. Consistency is key and I feel good about my recent play.

Friday comes and I am disappointed that I won't be playing in any of the Heartland Poker Tour satellites at the Golden Gates Casino that are currently taking place in Blackhawk. The ME isn't until the 12th and 14th, but I would love to be up there trying to qualify early. Looks like I may be able to get into a few satellites next week though.

I play a few SNGs with a little success. At about 10PM I decide to buy into a 4/180 while at the same time playing a few SNGs. I triple up almost immediately in the 4/180 when I get ppK's and two other players get it all in. One has ppJ's and the other AK. The case K flops and I take down a nice pot. After this it is poker 101 and I only get involved with good starting hands. It's amazing as I was picking up cards at an unbelievable rate and not only was I getting cards, but they would hold or I would flop a monster if anyone called. For the next 2 hours I must have knocked out about 30 players without risking many of my chips. Not once did I fall below chip average and not once did I get sucked out on. We get to the final table and I have a second place chip stack. This table is pretty timid with only the chip leader seemingly stealing pots. The other players are playing pretty tight and pushing all in preflop from time to time. It's still any ones tournament and a few doubles will get anyone in contention. A few players get knocked out and we play 5 handed to where the game tightens down and it turns into a blind stealing game. I have not gotten any cards, but steal from time to time and have to lay down when others push my raise. Then I get KK in middle position, I do a 4x the BB raise(I've been raising 4x the entire tournament and betting out 3/4 on the flop regardless if I hit or not) to which everyone folds. Next hand I'm dealt 88 and raise 4x and everyone folds. WTF? Do they all have poker radar. Immediately after the 8's I get dealt AA and raise 4x the BB and I anticipate a call as this is my 3rd raise in a row. All fold and I get the blinds again. It was pretty sickening to get three pp like this in a row and get no action. I almost thought about just betting 3x the BB, but it makes more sense to stick to the same raise amount to not give anything away. It was time to start playing mediocre hands as the short stacks were starting to slowly climb and chip leader and I were starting to fall from out 4x chip stacks over 3rd in chips. I call an all in with Qd10d to an all in raise. Opponent shows AQ and I am dominated. The miracle 10 flops and I take him out in 5th. Next up I get Ah10h against AKo. Flop brings 2 hearts and there is "no waiting" as the turn is a heart. Three way action and I get dealt pp8's in the BB, short stack doubles the bet to which I push. Opponent immediately calls and tables KK. What happens? The 8 flops and I take down the pot. It's now heads up and I have about 170k to 100k. The last few players knocked out are on the rail talking about my lucky play and that there was no way I could lose as it is just my night. About 6 hands into HU play I get dealt A7 on the button. Opponent raises, I call. Nothing on the flop to which it is checked, turn brings the 7 and I make a pot sized bet. Opponent thinks for a moment and calls, river is the A. He checks and I put him all in, after a short deliberation he makes the call and shows A6 and victory is mine!

Of course it is now 2AM and I am pumped. The only thing I could think of was getting on the Pokerincolorado forum and posting my win in the "Brag" section. My first official 1st place finish. Now I've chopped a tournament and taken down plenty of single table SNGs, but placing numero uno all by yourself is just a great feeling. Especially after taking second just one week ago. I thought about some of my suckouts on the final table and I can justify all the calls I made. When it comes down to the final table, it's important to take chances when you have a decent chip stack. I didn't want any of the short stacks to gain any momentum and had to eventually take a stand with my chips. There was a much wider variety of hands that I would call due to only one person on the table that did not have less then 50% of my stack. Yes, I did get lucky with the worst hand and yes I did call mediocre hands, but at the time it turned out to be good strategy. Of course, If I would have lost 1/2 my stack I would have needed to change my strategy and control the pot. Altogether I believe my play throughout the entire tournament to be near perfect. Some days, everything just seems to go your way.

Saturday is a different story. I enter the 100 FPP $20,000 freeroll tournament for Silverstar members to where I end up busting right out of the money when my aces get cracked. I play a few $10 SNGs with no success. The day continues of SNGs and a few 180 person tournaments to where I get aces cracked 6 times total. I'm not sure what the math is but I would think that getting aces cracked 6 times with the best of it each time to a suckout is pretty rare. I was steaming which effected my play tremendously. The entire afternoon was a disaster and eventually I dropped $150 from the bank. It's so odd how you can run so well one day and immediately the next day run so bad.

Sunday I am entered into a 1000 FPP Silverstar tournament for a WSOP seat. The tournament ends up with nearly 3000 entries and top 4 get a seat to the WSOP while the top 100 get a cash prize. I run well and then it happens. I get sucked out on with AA again. I never recover and don't even get close to the $$. How can this possibly be that I lose with aces again after the horrific beats from Saturday. I try not to let this effect me and decide to play ring games. I find a couple 1/2 limit games and try to build up. Play is very tight at many of these games and I do find the same people on multiple tables. One guy is playing in 14 different games and he actually plays very quickly. I'm surprised at how he is able to play with no hesitation, but I do use this to my advantage as I know he is playing the cards and not the player. If's funny how many of these players I have played with prior. The players that I notice at multiple tables are the tight players (sharks) while the occasional fish shows up trying to buy every pot in the game. After losing $40 right away on one table I get things rolling. I win $40 on another table before it busts and have a nice steady flow on another table. At the same time I'm playing in $5 SNGs and make the money in 5/6 including a first. When all was said and done I ended up a $100 winner for the day without playing any MTTs. Not bad for a days work at the micro limits (but I'll keep my day job).

I did invest in 5 step 1 tournaments as well. I made it to step 2 three times, but could never break away. It really is a lot harder to make the final 2 as the turbo structure gives no room for error and becomes a crap shoot with the final 4. If I could just get to step 4 where 6 places are paid.

Overall it was a good start to the weekend on Friday with my first official solo win. The rest of the weekend ended in a $50 loss, but with the Friday win I'm well on the way to bigger, better things.

Best of luck on the virtual felt all!

2008-03-26T10:33:00.004-06:00

March 25, 2008 Update

The challenge is over! Last Wednesday, March 19, 2008 marks the day that my PokerStars account hit $0.00 and 7 FPP points. It was a fun ride which peaked at $400+ and ended with a losing streak that stretched over 20 tournaments without a cash. I'd like to thank those that chose to ride along and read the blog (Mondo and the good folks at PokerinColorado).

I quite enjoy the blogging so I will continue to do so. Perhaps it's time to change the title to something more suitable and make this a place to blog about my poker live play as well as online play. Look for a new title description to come soon.

The good news is that I still enjoy playing online and loaded my account Friday with a whole $10, the minimum rebuy. I also purchased some playing chips on FullTiltPoker as well ($100). My play at FullTilt was horrible and I ended up playing in $10+ tournaments with no success. The daily doubles was a fun tournament, but I could get nothing going and ended up busting from both tournaments. The KO tournaments are fun as well and I actually made a little money in one of them and KO'd 6 people. Always nice to make it to the final table on basically a freeroll. In the end, I ended up blowing the majority of my $100 buyin on FullTilt.

The PokerStars roll was on fire though. I played in a 4/180 and squeaked into the money for a $8 payday. Nothing great, but at least the BR was up to $14+. I decided that single table sit-n-go's seemed to work well with my game. Played about 5 of these and placed in all 5 including 2 wins. Then I decided to up the limits to the $5 sit-n-go's with similar success. Now with a little padding in the BR I buy into another 4/180. My play is decent and I'm pretty much at the chip average throughout the entire tournament. Finally we get down to the final table and I am 8th in chips. I get 56 sooted in the BB and all fold to the button who doubles the bet. SB calls and I call. Flop comes 556 and gets checked to the button who goes all in. SB folds, I insta-call with my boat. Button flips over AA and comments on my lousy call. I laugh as his mediocre raise was just asking for a call. There were antes in the pot and his small raise did not give me enough reason to fold. A raise of 4x the BB would have been reasonable and got me off the hand. This pot puts me in good position and a few hands later, the monster pot. I am dealt J-10 sooted and limp. All 6 remaining players call. The flop is Q-8-3 and two clubs. I am in middle position and it's checked, I check and both players to my left check. Turn brings the 9 completing my straight and giving me the nuts. I bet out 3/4 of the pot. player to my left smooth calls and late position player raises all-in and has us both covered. Rest of the players muck and I insta-call to show strength and hopefully get the guy to my left to fold a flush or straight draw. Player goes into the tank and eventually calls. Player to my left shows 88 for a flopped set and late position player shows 99 for a turned set. Wow! I'm relieved to see no club draw and that each player basically has taken a few outs from the ability to pair the board. River brings a club but no pair giving me the outright chip lead. I thought the play by the player with the set of 8's was very poor due to the pot being plenty big already and checking down the flop to give the rest of us a free draw. Almost any bet in his position would have taken down the pot. Luckily, he did not play this way and allowed myself and the other player to catch the miracle card to beat him and in my case hit the nuts. I take out the next 4 players to make us heads up to where I have a huge lead over my opponent with about 200k to his 50k. This player is very tight and lays down almost all hands to my minimum raises, but then when he's about gone, he doubles up to stay alive. This goes on for about 30 minutes and it is now 4:30 AM Sunday morning. I am tired and try to offer him a deal at the break offering him $20 extra for second place. He seems to ignore my offers, but wants to chat it up about his play and other tournaments that he will be playing. He was from Sydney, not sure of the time frame there, but perhaps it was the afternoon for him. Twenty more minutes go by and at one point I have him down to 23k, but he doubles up again and we repeat the process all over. Usually I have the patience to wait it out and let the blinds do their job and eventually win the tournament, but I cannot stay awake any longer and just decide to push every hand. This works for the first 3 or 4 hands then he calls. He doubles up 3 hands in a row and takes me out in second place. I did receive $142 for my second place finish, but lost out on another $74 by not being patient.

Now my single table sit-n-go play has been the major factor. Over the last few days this is about all I've been playing with the occasional MTT tournament. My Sharkscope has been peaking and my total profit is above $200. My stakes have increased to $10 sit-n-go's to where I have had great success. I did try to move to $27 sit-n-go's to where I did not fare as well. Perhaps it was the turbo structure and I should attempt the $20 tables. I exited the tournament just out of the money.

Now with all this sit-n-go fun, it was time to try a few "6 steps to the WSOP". I start out great in step 1 and move on to step 2. I just miss the top 2 in step 2 and get a token to play step 2 again to where I get AQ against AK and go out early. A few more tries at step 1 and I give up with a loss and 5th place $1.50 cash. This is a great way to get to the ME and even cashing at step 6 is profitable with $500 being paid for 6th place. I will definitely try more of these in the near future,but I do wish that they were normally structured and not turbo.

Well the freeroll may be over but I am lucky enough to turn my first $10 buyin into $200+. We'll see how my new strategy will fare. Good luck on the virtual felt all!

Long time, no post

2008-03-17T12:08:00.002-06:00

Yeah, yeah... What's going on with the blog? When are you going to post? I've been getting a little lazy and it's so frustrating to post after a losing session. Funny how quickly things show up when all is well.

The BR is terribly low and my MTT play has been very poor. I've now played about 8 of those 70 FPP sit-n-go's where winner gets a seat in the 100k. Out of these 8 I have taken first 4 times. That's 50%, not bad! The other 4 times were 2 3rds, a second and a 8th place finish. It sucks when you make the top 3 consistently, but have to place first in order to get anything. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my single table sit-n-go play.

This amounted to about $44 worth of tournament money. I never played the 100k and elected to unregister for this tournament and use the tournament dollars elsewhere. Now my MTT play has been horrible. Last month, I was ITM about every other tournament. Even though I only had a few final tables, this consistent cash would keep me funded. Out of all these tournaments I was only able to make minimal cashes. Saturday night I went deep in the $1 limit Omaha H/L tournament. Then I busted in 15th place out of 500+ after 4.5 hours for a whopping cash of around $4. I played the tournament well and was in the top 10 for the majority of the last two hours only to get sucked out on the river with 20 people left and lose 80% of my stash to a 2 outer. *SIGH*

On Sunday I decided to try some $1 single table sit-n-go's since I seemed to be doing alright in those types of tournaments. First table, make a score of 3rd place for $1.80. Not much, but a cash and positive cash flow. Let's do it again... and again... and again. My success must be gone as I failed to cash in another sit-n-go after the first one.

With only $0.75 left in my account there was only one thing to do. I buy into the first .04/.08 limit ring game that I can find. After an hour of grinding it out in the micro stakes I cash out a $2 profit. Yes boys and girls, that's about $1/hour. Now with about $2.75 in the bank I move the stakes up to .05/.10 limit games and cash out an additional $2.50 putting the BR at just over $5. I play the $1 7:00PM HORSE tournament to where I exit in quick donkey fashion and another limit .05/.10 ring game. After all was said and done the BR stands at about $5. Can I build it again? If I have the patience yes, otherwise I may just fund this thing and get into bigger games.

Bankroll Total: approximately $5.00

The "Status"

2008-03-08T18:54:00.003-07:00

Saturday, March 8th Update

I haven't posted in a while and thought I would tell everyone the current status. It's not good... I went on a terrible run and haven't been able to cash in anything I play. Also, the ring games have been poor. Last night I played a .02/.04 ring game with my last $2 and left it all on the table. Current BR is... $0.03

The good news is that during this slump I've accumulated about 1000 FPP points with the new Silverstar VIP status. Earlier today I used 100 FPP points to enter the $20,000 Silverstar freeroll where I lasted a whole 15 minutes. *sigh* I looked for ways that I could turn these FPP's into $$ and found a 70 FPP single table satellite into the $11 100K guarantee on Sunday. What do you know, after a couple of 3rds I took one down. Then I unregistered from the 100K guarantee and received $11 worth of tournament dollars. These can only be used to buy into tournaments so my goal is to play the $4.40 limit holdem tournament and the $1 HORSE tournament tonight.

I leave you with these screenshots showing my current BR and the 70 FPP single table satellite win. Hope to report good news tomorrow!

Current Bankroll: $0.03 + $11 T cash

Weekend Blues

2008-03-03T19:00:00.001-07:00

Saturday and Sunday, March 1st and 2nd 2008 Update

Saturday seemed like the perfect day to take down a few tournaments and qualify for the Sunday Million. I buy into a few $11.70 double shootouts to the Sunday Million. The first table runs well and I find myself in the chip lead with three people left. Then I get sucked out on twice and leave a dismal third. The rest don't go very well and I decide that I am not meant to play in this weeks Sunday Million, but there's always next week.

My tournament play is horrible for the day and already I've lost about $25 in tournaments without any close to ITM. The bankroll is depleting and I start to worry about staying afloat. Then I notice the $20,000 VIP freeroll. I totally forgot that my status was updated to Silverstar which makes me eligible for this freefoll on a weekly basis.

The event starts and quickly I find the top of the leaderboard. It's like all my bad luck from previous tournaments have been wiped away and I'm in position to take a tournament. Over 4000 entrants for this tournament, but first place is about 5k, not bad for a freeroll. With about 200 players remaining I get beat down when three of us get it all in and I hold kings to where my opponents show down jacks and eights. Dominating, it's all mine! Until the J flops and I ship most of my chips over. The blinds are aggressive and an early exit nets me $14.00 for my troubles. Not a great win, but a win none the less.

Saturday evening was not looking to well as the bankroll has slipped to about $60 even with the freeroll cash. It was time to go back to basics and play in the nightly $4 limit tournament as well as the $1 HORSE. The limit tournament goes pretty well along with the HORSE. As time goes by I bust from the HORSE, but get a nice run in limit to push my chips in the top 10 where I remain until the money bubble. After the bubble play starts to pick up to where I lose half my stack with a set to a flush on the river. This creates my unrecoverable downfall and I exit the tournament somewhere around 30th for a small rebate.

Sunday has to be a better day I think to myself. Should have seen the signs as quickly the BR is down to just dollars. I make a nice run at limit games which I thought would bring the BR back to life. Instead, I end up with spare change in the bank. It's time to move my money up the limits. First I buy into a .10/.20 limit ring game for $4 and cash out $10. I take this $10 and buy into a .25/.50 limit game and cash out $20. This $20 goes into a .50/1 ring game and turns into $40. Next up, the 1/2 limit game where I leave my hard earned $40 to the rest of the table.

With about $3 left in the bank it's almost time to give up. Give up? Never! I get into a 50 FPP freeroll with a $2000 prize pool and bust out in 200th place for $1.80. Then I grind out the ring games at .10/.20 for a $10 profit. Play a few $1 tournaments and a few more ring games. When all was said and done the BR was left with about $24. How horrible it is to grind it out at these levels, but I don't want to give up yet. Need another big score to keep going.

Bankroll Total: Approximately $24.00

Blog Changes

2008-02-29T14:42:00.002-07:00

As some of you may have noticed, there have been some changes to the blog appearance. Not too familiar with the way these things work, but just didn't want to have the old normal generic blog.

Recent changes made include color, removal of the blogger bar up top, widening of the margins to allow a wider viewing area, changes to the header and side bar links. Don't quite have everything where I would like it, but it's getting there.

Any suggestions or comments are welcome and encouraged as my HTML skills are starting to come back to me. Hope you all like the new layout.

Lot's of poker coming this weekend and there are still a couple days left to satellite into the PokerStars Sunday Million.

Good luck on the virtual felt all!

Killing me softly...

2008-02-27T02:00:00.002-07:00

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 Update

What can I say about my play today? A little erratic and wild, my normal style.

I buy into my normal $4 limit tournament and the $1 HORSE. Both go busto pretty quick and I am left with losses and no momentum. I really want to play the Sunday Million this week so I buy into a $11.70 double shootout to the event at the same time I notice the $11 Rebuy $55k guarantee. Heck, why not and I buy into it as well. This places me at $28 in tournaments already for the day meaning I will need something to keep me positive.

My very first hand in the rebuy tournament is 5-5 and I call a 5x raise by the button in middle position. BB also makes the call. Flop comes 2-5-10 and BB and I check, button bets out 300 and the BB and I call. Turn brings the 10 giving me a full house... what to do? I check and the button bets out 500, BB folds and I raise all in to which the button calls. Button tables 10-A and I am in the lead. Of course the A hits the river and I curse my monitor. The rebuy option pops up and I hesitate. I don't believe I can get myself back into the game after this beat and elect to not rebuy and exit the tournament. Bye, bye $11.

I do well in the double shootout to where 3 seats will be awarded to the Sunday Million. My table is pretty tight, but I take a nice lead after flopping a straight and getting a few players chips. Then I make a nice catch with J9 diamonds when two shortys go all in costing me only 1/5 of my chips to call. I'm way behind, but turn the straight to take both of them out. Now, down to three and I have a decent lead over the other two. They tighten up extremely and I take the role of bully and push my chips around. Then, when I have a real hand QQ I get beat down when it goes all in and my opponent catches a set with pocket 8's. My momentum leaves and I get chipped away as the blinds raise past my ability to sit back. I take my 3rd place exit and leave the tournament. I'm sure if I could make the second table that I would get a seat or some of the excess money paid out to the top 9 players. Guess I'll have to try again later this week as my goal is to satellite into this tournament.

Now I'm way down and decide to play in the 4/180 at the same time as I buy into a $1/$2 limit ring game (yes, yes I know this I shouldn't be here). Play is going well as I take the chip lead in the 4/180 with about 60 players to go and I am about a $35 winner in the ring game. I check my account and I am about even for the day, should I quit... never! I get moved to another table after knocking some players out of the 4/180 and I get sat right next to a crazy aggro style player. At the same time, I am getting great starting hands and missing every single flop. After pushing a great deal of my stack to this player I end up with 5000 chips and 20 players remaining when the tournament goes on break. We get back and I have to basically fold into the money as aggro player is still pumping every pot and taking them down. Then he gets caught and loses 2/3 of his stack. This slows things down and I sneak into the money with a whole 2000 chips remaining. These chips get pushed into the middle at the site of my first A and the big 2 kicker. Aggro player calls my raise and shows the KJ to which he flops two pair and rivers the full house. I make my exit in 14th place but still keeping my sit-n-go play positive.

This all goes on and I take some huge beats in the limit game. AA, KK, QQ and AK all go down on the effin river to pots in excess of $25. I look like a loose cannon raising and re-raising to eventually getting raised on the river and calling. I eventually drop the $40 buyin and rebuy for another $40. I lose this as well and buyin for yet another $40 and play super aggressive poker. A few players notice my lose play and battle me on every call and blind hands. I get the best of them and my stack grows, then falls, then grows, then falls finally I pissed off enough people with my unpredictable play and taking down pots with 74o that the table eventually breaks and I am left with about $75 and still down.

I quickly buy into another $1/$2 and find a $0.50/$1 limit ring game as well. Now I have $60 in ring games and it is getting late. Eventually I catch some cards in both games and have about $75 in the 1/2 and $30 in the .50/1. Then a pop-up message appears stating "Congratulations Scrupboy you have reached Silver VIP status, an email is being sent to you with more information." This is my queue and I cash out of both ring games. My BR has been dented, but I did get most of my money back in the ring games and I am now a Silverstar VIP member. lol

Bankroll Total: Approximately $135.00

Weekend poker recap

2008-02-25T19:00:00.003-07:00

Saturday and Sunday February 23 and 24 Update

It was a wild weekend and I played a TON of poker. Saturday started off pretty bad as I was only able to cash in one tournament of the many that I played. Nothing ever came about and I eventually lost about $70 in tournament entries. I tried a $22 deep stack that went bad on a suckout on the river in the second hour (we all know these go about 12 hours). Missed the money by 30 players in the $3 rebuy tournament after surviving the first hour and misplaying a hand close to the bubble. Horrible, horrible play against a big stack when I could have coasted to the money. A few $1 tournaments and my normal nightly tournaments. Even my sit n go play was a quick exit as I believe I went out in the first 30 minutes. Nothing worked out Saturday and the BR was down to $190.

Sunday was a different type of day. I started off trying to qualify into the Sunday million through a few of the $2.75 triple shootout sit n go's. At the same time I buy into a $.25/.50 ring game (I know, I said I wasn't going to play these anymore) for $10. I wanted so badly to play in the Sunday million, but my play in four of these sit n go's ended with me not even making it past the first round and these are only six handed tables! Not only that, but I end up being a $20 loser in ring games. Things are not going well and I wonder if I am going to eventually blow this BR as well and it's only noon.

I eventually enter into 3 tournaments that I feel will net me good results. First was the $3 rebuy tournament, next was the $11 100k, and a little $1.50 limit holdem tournament. By playing these three games, I stay away from the ring games and hopefully limit my losses as the BR stands at only $140.

The $3 rebuy doesn't go well and I end up buying a double rebuy after losing my initial 1500 chips. This takes me to break where I elect to make an add-on leaving me with about 8500 in chips. Not much and well below the average after the rebuy period. There is a player at the table that is totally talking trash and calling everyone donks. It's funny to listen to his remarks as he doesn't seem to grasp the concept of rebuy tournaments and tries to play it tightly. It works for him and he pretty much has most of the chips on the table after break (His name was luuckbox?? I don't know the ending numbers). We come back and I need to double up sooner or later. I get KQ and go all in, and this luuckbox guy calls me after saying "I'll donate." I double up as I have him dominated. About 40 minutes later I make a standard raise with AK and luuckbox is in the BB. He goes all in and I immediately call. He tables 88 and my AK makes it a race which I am more then happy to see. I flop the A and double up taking half of luuckbox's chips. He starts going into a tirade of how I risked my entire tournament life with AK and what a donk of a player I am. He mentions how I need to buy books and learn how to play poker. I am laughing to myself during this entire tirade, but I notice that he is serious and actually thinks this was a bad play on my part. Now, I am not an expert in surviving tournaments but getting all my money in short stack with AK is a pretty decent play. Especially when it is a race situation, but I digress. Eventually I make it into the money as top 780 get paid. My stack continues to build and I take some key pots to eventually get my chips up to 180k with just over 200 people left... then this happens.

I have AJ in the SB and all fold. I'm about to raise to take it down when I have an epiphany and simply cold call. That's mistake number one and the BB checks. Flop comes J53 and I bet about a pot sized bet and the BB calls. Turn is a blank and I bet about about 20k to which BB raises to 90k. Now, I should know I'm beat and I'm still in good position as my stack is over average and about 50th in total chips. I curse myself for not raising preflop and make the call (mistake number two), praying for the board to pair as I place my opponent on 2 pair. River is a blank and BB goes all in to which I call leaving myself about 12k to which the BB tables J5 and takes down the massive pot. WTF was I thinking! Next hand AA on the button. I immediately push all in hoping that the blinds will think that I am on tilt and pay me off. SB, whom just took a huge pot off me, makes the call and tables JQ. Flop comes QQX and double pairs the river giving the SB full house and enough to finish me off. I exit the tournament a disappointing 200th place and collect my $56.73.

Next up the $10 100k. I play well and double up almost immediately projecting myself into the top 100 within minutes. After the first 30 minutes I'm at 10k in chips and well on my way to making the top 3000 to double my money. Things level off and I have about 13k going into the first break. After break I lose a few pots, but still have about 11k left and just under the chip average. People are dropping like flies and we are all getting closer to the $$. With about 3300 people left I get dealt QQ in the cut off and make a 3x the BB raise. SB pumps it to 9k leaving me about 2k back and I go all in to an immediate call. What does SB have? Of course AA which holds up and I take my departure from the 100k about 250 places from the money.

Also being played is the $1.50 limit holdem to where I make a nice run and eventually take the chip lead with about 100 players left. We are all in the money and the top prize is about $380. It's not meant to be as my chips eventually fall and I exit a dismal 32nd place out of 1188 players and take my measly $5.35 cash.

I'm clearly disappointed with my recent play and buy into a 4/180 sit n go. My play is good and eventually make the final table with an average stack. I don't recall the actual play, but I depart in 7th place for a $25.20 cash. Immediately, I buy into another 4/180 and make the final table AGAIN. This time I have a third place stack and I'm ready to finally take one of these down. About 5 minutes into play I'm dealt AQ hearts and only one limper to my right to which I push. All fold and the limper makes the call and has me barely covered. Villain tables K9 and I pump my fist. The flop is 10-4-4 and I'm looking to take the chip lead. Turn brings the dreaded K and I leave the tournament in 9th place for $12.24. WTF! I'm done, going to bed, pissed off after hours and hours of play to leave my BR at about $195 or a few dollars ahead of where I started. One of these days I'll finally take down a 4/180, but in the meantime my Sharkscope is out of the red.

Bankroll Total: Approximately $192.00

BR still growing

2008-02-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

Friday, February 22, 2008 Update

Feeling good about my recent comeback, it was time to get back into the game full force. Friday night is no exception and I bought into my normal nightly tournaments.

First was the 7:00PM $4/$0.40 limit holdem tournament that I chopped in last night. Then the 7:45PM $1/$0.10 HORSE tournament. I decided that I would stay away from ring games for a while as that began my last death spiral. So in order to occupy my time and multi-task a few games, I also bought into a $4/$0.40 180 person sit n go. I love this sit n go and it's a great game to get into when there are no tournaments you are interested in as one starts about every 5 minutes.

I play well in all tournaments, but eventually fall out of the limit holdem and HORSE tournament beating out half the field, but never gaining any real momentum for a deep run. At the same time, I am running well in the 4/180 and feel a top 5 finish. With 50 players left I hang in the top 10 and eventually make the final 9. I play well and am in position to take the tournament down. 5 players left and I am second in chips. 1st place pays $216 and I am anticipating a nice pay day. While nearing the fourth hour in the tournament, I make a move and give away half my stack. Unable to recover I make my exit in 4th place for $57.60. It's a terrible feeling being at the final table and not taking it down. It's late, I'm wired and I have to do some weekend work in the morning. Hopefully the rest of the week will go well.

Bankroll Total: Approximately $265.00

When I think I'm out... they pull me back in

2008-02-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

The bankroll neared doom earlier this week. As Wednesday left less then $1 in my account! It was sad and I was ready to hang up the mouse as my poker challenge was about to be no more.

Thursday night and my account is reserected. I get a deposit of $20 from the money that I fronted earlier to another individual. With this $20 I will fight back and gain momentum! ...at least that is the thought.

I don't know if I ever mentioned that one of my favorite tournaments is the nightly $1000 guarantee limit holdem tournament at 7:00PM. The buy in is $4/0.40 and this night attracted 360 players paying out the top 45. I have played this tournament about 10 times in the past few weeks and never once made the money. My strategy changes each time and I am determined to find the right blend of play to cash in this tournament.

Things start out slow and right away I am down to about 1500 chips from my initial 3000 chip count. Slowly, but surely I turn things around which started with a call of 8-10. Now 8-10 is not a great hand normally, but it has become my new favorite online hand. I have taken many pots with this hand and believe that the numbers just work for online play. After taking down this pot I go on a nice mini heater and build my chips up to 5000.

Now at the same time as this tournament, I make a quick exit from the nightly 7:45 HORSE $1 tournament in the second hour. Just so I don't get bored, I buy into a $1/0.20 9 person sit-n-go. With 8 players left I take a commanding lead of about 8000 chips leaving my closest competition near 1500. Time to get aggressive and I start raising every hand preflop. Finally someone gets the balls to call me and oops, I wake up with AQ. Flop top two and river the full house to which my opponent keeps betting into me. Make the raise on the river and bye bye. It takes me a total of 45 minutes to knock out each player one by one and take my very first #1 in a tournament. Of course it wasn't a huge pay day $4.50, but it was a confidence builder after my last week of play.

During this time I am still building chips in the limit tournament which has been running for about 3 hours now. Strategy was pretty simple, play good cards and don't chase. Now in the past I would chase anything as this was a limit tournament. Any suited cards and connectors were fair game. My new strategy was to play a similar game to pot limit and try to control the size of the pots. Even though this is limit, there is no need to raise with TPTK or a draw. Wait for the hit, then attack or become a calling station and takes pots with little risk. This strategy worked and I found myself in the top 10 when the bubble broke. We get down to the final table and it looks like this:

and a few hands later I am chip leader.

You give a player like me the chip lead on the final table and I will pretty much make a top 3 finish which is fine as first is a cool $360.01 and 3rd is $148.90. We get down to the final 4 and I have increased my lead to over 400k in chips. Now the blinds are a ridiculous 10,000/20,000 and fortunes change very quickly. I lose a few key pots and now we're all about even with average chip stacks of 250k each. I ask the players for a chop with no answer. One of the bigger stacks loses a few chips and I pick up a few more to which a chop is asked for by another player. Since this is such a crap shoot at this point, we all agree to chop 4 ways even. I tell everyone to use the sit out button and contact support. I'm not sure if support is always this slow, but we must have waited between 10 - 15 minutes before a support person came to our table. During this time the 4 of us had some pretty funny chat and they were all great characters. You couldn't ask for a nicer bunch of people to chop. Below is my opinion of the profile for each player.

ROMEO1973 - Fairly new poker player. I would say mid 30's female. I could be wrong in this, but convo came up about how he/she did not get cleaning duties done due to this tournament being so long.

JuniorMi11er - Teenage or early twenties amateur player. He mentioned school and the chat seemed like a younger person. Nice fellow.

iaasc - I would say mid level late 20's player. Didn't chat much, but was an overall good player. I pretty much had to put him on a hand with each bet, but occasionally he would throw out a steal which worked well with my re-steal.

It was a fun tournament and after all was said and done, we ended with $209 and change each. We went all in after the deal was made and I received tournament points for 4th place. It was a great feeling to finally have a win. Even though it was chopped I feel as I have won my first online tournament (including sit-n-go's). The tournament went really late and it was 1:20AM. Time for bed.

Round 3 for those of you keeping track. I hope to incorporate some BR management to help me hold on to the money this time around. It sucks to build and lose, build and lose but at the same time it really is fun! See you all on the tables this week.

Current Bankroll: $218.00

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2008-02-17T22:00:00.001-07:00

Let me start with the BAD:

I have been on an extremely bad run of cards lately. I played every day this past week after the nice cash last Sunday. Monday was the start of my extremely miserable run where I posted a $100 loss for the night and left the virtual poker world with about $297. I think to myself, "No problem, one bad night it's going to happen."

I play the next day and have moved my limits up to the $2/$4 limit ring games. Also, play a few tournaments in the $5 - $11 range. My tournament play is alright as I am able to cash, but not much of a profit. The problem is with the ring games where I usually make enough money to bring my profits up for the day. This is not running well and I end up posting my second straight loss for the week.

Now...The UGLY:

I came down with a bug and had to take a couple days off of work. How else should one spend some time off of work other then signing in and playing some online poker! I start the day off with the famous rebuy tournament. This one is $3 and everything starts out alright. About 30 minutes into the tournament I get busted by a loose, crazy, raise every hand player. I look at pocket rockets and call the eventually all in raiser. He shows J8o and I pump my fists with anticipation of a nice pot. Flops and 8 and rivers an 8. Now in the past, I had the mindset of just leaving the table, but not now as I have bank. I rebuy and eventually get 4 rebuys in before break comes and saves my BR from a few more tags. I build my chips well into the next round and then get slapped as I get K's all in to A's. What can you do?

I move on and play some ring games as well. I'm not going to go into full detail, but after being home for two straight days and playing poker for about 12 hours each day the BR is left with..... $58. What a horrible 2 days of poker! If we were playing face up I would have seen that I was beat, but still called due to principle. Now I don't believe that my play was bad, but I witnessed some of the worst beats in my lifetime. Granted, I am generally a live player and online gives you the ability to see many more hands then live play, I still have not seen these kind of beats in my last 15 years of poker play. It was bad... it was UGLY!

To make matters even worse. I go back to basics with my measly fifty some odd dollars and still get beat up in the .25/.50, .10/.20 and even the .02/.04 ring games. That's it, I'm done as my BR as of Saturday night was... $0.89. Yes, that's a zero before the decimal point.

But wait... there's more! During this time I accumulated over 1000 FPP points with my hours and hours of play at higher limits. PokerStars announces their 2 Million dollar turbo FPP tournament and I lick my chops noticing the $180 for 4000th place. This is the way to get by BR back! I play a 99FPP Rebuy tournament giving away seats for every 10,000 FPP points in the prize pool. This turbo tournament has a very aggressive structure and I pay the price right up front. After 3 rebuys, I finally decide to double rebuy to get some chips. I totally suck out with Pocket 8's all in against pocket K's and pocket J's when my 8 flops and eventually I get a full house. Wow! I am now at 32,000 chips and in good position to just coast to the first break. I tell myself to play well and not risk my chips. Three hands later I am the BB and have a miserable Q3 and the pot is checked to me, I check as well. Flop brings Q-10-4 and is checked. Turn brings the 3 and SB bets out 5000 chips. Now I don't want any chasers and elect to go all in to protect my hand from the craze and from a late position limper who has just about as many chips as I do. My belief is he will not want to risk the stack that he has built against the only person that can break him. His turn comes and he requests time. Uh oh, I think to myself he may actually call. Time runs down and he makes the call and tables Q-10 for two bigger pair! Uhg! I curse out loud and watch the 60,000+ pot get shipped his way leaving me with just over 2000 chips. I eventually get this all in and rebuy a few more times leaving my FPP total at 122, enough for the add on at the end of the break. I never accumulate and eventually lose all my chips and decide to salvage the last 122 FPP in my account for one last hurrah later. Later comes and I play a 111 FPP Rebuy tournament and last a whole 10 minutes. When it gets ugly, it gets really ugly!

The GOOD:

Now I'm sure your thinking to yourself, what good could possibly come out of this entire situation. To which I respond, "Nothing!" The only "fortunate event" is that when my BR was a massive $400+ I transferred some money to my wife's account so that she could play in some games and not have to donk it in the freerolls. She was never able to really make any money and in total I transferred over $60 ($20 prior to my big cash last week). Luckily, she still had some money and I used it to get back into the game. I took $10 and noticed that I could tear up the .05/.10 limit game up pretty well, but had hit or misses with .10/.20 limit games. I eventually played in 3 .05/.10 limit games and doubled the $10 in about an hour. This gave me a little breathing room and allowed me to play in some small buy in tournaments.

Early Sunday, I bought into a $1 pot limit six handed max tournament. This was the first time I played a 6 handed or pot limit event. My style is almost perfect for this event as the game is pretty much setup for steals and re-steals. I build my chips well and never really put my stack in jeopardy. About 2 hours in the tournament I build my chips to about 3 times the chip average and stay in the top 5. I am second in chips for most of the next 2 hours of play. We get down to the final 12 and the blinds are just ridiculous. I end up losing half my stack with KJ when a K flopped and my opponent has KQ. The fith hour starts and I have my eye on the $200+ first prize money. 10 people left and I get my first hand from break in the BB at 6000/12000 blinds. I only have about 50,000 chips and look at an A2 hearts. I'm invested for about 1/4 of my chips and don't feel that I have many more opportunities. UTG raises to 24,000 and I call. The flop comes KJ2 and one heart. I check and UTG puts me all in. I make the call and UTG tables KQ. I never improve and go out in 9th place for a $12 and change cash plus a sick feeling in my stomach.

Eventually, I make small cashes in a HORSE and an Omaha/8 tournament, but nothing to brag about. I end Sunday night with a total BR of about $13 and a few FPP left in my account.

What a horrible turn of events. In hindsight, I wonder if I should have just put $215 into the Sunday million and take my chances there. There's nothing to do now, but hope that I can rebuild. I'm inclined to just put some cash into my account and stick to $10 to $30 tournaments in Omaha/8 and HORSE. These are the events that I seem to cash in consistently. My NL game has been modest, but I tend to take my aggressive play with me late into games. I should stick with being aggressive early, then tightening up deeper in tournaments. The pot limit game was very interesting. It took me about 15 minutes to adjust to the game, but once I found my own style of play, things went well. I will need to play more of these in the future. Perhaps it's time to place some BR management into my game. My recent losses can't really be considered losses as I started from scratch. If I take any thing away from this experience it will be that BR management is important if I want to pursue this with my own money in the future. For now, I will attempt to rebuild with what is left and continue to accomplish the goal of poker zero to hero to zero to hero. =]]

Current Bankroll: Aprox. $13.00

Money, Money...mooooney

2008-02-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

February 10, 2008 Update

Sunday's are now known as MTT days! You have to love the wide variety of games available on PokerStars on any given Sunday. Now if you notice, the blog description says "modified" Chris Ferguson challenge. I am risking more then the 5% that Chris
did during his challenge. It's not the correct way to manage a BR, but hey I started with nothing right.

I have not been too active the entire week and didn't even play online Saturday. My first thought upon waking up is, "What tournament do I want to play today?" (Sic isn't it) It's about 10AM and I'm looking for a bigger game today to escape all these micro buy-in's. Since I am fresh and ready to go, I elect the $10/$1 deep stack tournament that Floppy placed in weeks ago. Let's just say my patience for this deep stack was lost after about 30 minutes of tight play to where I reverted to my usual aggro style. This was short lived and I made a quick departure. So far for the day -$11.

I don't see any good tournaments for a while and decide on the $10/$1 100k at 1:00. I am still a few hours away from this and decide to play a ring game of $0.50/$1. This goes bad early and I am already sunk a total of $35 for the day! Not a good start and looking pretty sad to the $65 I have left in my BR. With some patience and the moving to a loose table, I regain some momentum and get all of my money back, plus enough to buy-in to the 100k.

About 20 minutes before the tournament, I attempt to buy-in to the 100k. "Your request has been placed on a list... yada, yada, yada, and will be processed in the order received" or whatever that statement is. I wait... and wait... What's going on? I also pre-registered for the $1 Omaha tournament that I played in last week. This tournament pop's up 15 minutes late and lags. We play one hand and the table just stops as if we were in hand-for-hand play. Something is definately f***** up. Then it happens, the 100k gets canceled. When I was attempting to register there was about 18,000 people registered. I wondered what happened with everyone that was registered. It didn't take me long to find some of them.

Now last week I played the $3 rebuy tournament with success. It was not a deep run, but I did get 10x my rebuy back due to no rebuys or add-on. I couldn't find this tournament today, but did notice that there was a $11 rebuy tournament about to begin. When I signed up there was already over 6000 players registered. This field was huge compared to the $3R tournament last week. I believe a lot of these players came from the 100k that was canceled as they are the same price (without rebuy). I put in my $11 with the notion of not rebuying or buying the add-on. There is no need to go reuby crazy if I bust and I treat it as a freeze out with benefits.

Things start off a little slow, but I get a good feel for the table and find all the loose rebuy players. About 20 minutes into the tournament I start picking up hands and I mean picking up hands. At one point I won 6 straight hands, not only that but I won 2 before the streak of 6 and then won 2 a few hands after the six in row for something like 10 for 13. (I have a screen shot of the hands that I will post later) Not only was I on a heater, I was getting and catching cards as if using a net during spawning season. If I had a gut shot, I'd get it. A race, I won it. 4 to the flush, I'd hit it. My opponents would have 4 to the flush, they'd miss it. It was awesome! The chip stack soared from the measly 1500 chip stack to well over 30k. I watched as the crazy players would double rebuy, go all in, give me their chips, double reuby, give someone else all their chips, then that person would give me all their chips and everyone would double rebuy. The first break comes and the add-on's start generating a huge $270,800 prize pool which is way larger then a maxed out 100k tournament ($200,000). My chip stack, without rebuys or an add-on is 33,090 good for
13th in chips with 5513 players remaining.

After seeing the first place and second place prize money of $38,180 and $19,326 I start to feel confident. This would be a HUGE cash for my measly $10 and I start to anticipate the final table. The break is over and it's back to the virtual felt. A few hands are played and I get moved to another table. Is may be just me, but when I get moved to another table I end up with someone on the table that has me out chipped even though I am in the top 1%. I try to use my chips to my advantage which fares pretty well until I get called down. This slows me down and I never get anything going for the next hour leaving me with only 21,965 chips after the second break.

I regroup during the break and decide, I'm going to have to get something going. The average is now around 19,000 chips and I have less then I did after the first break! It's time to start turning on some aggression and weed through the stragglers that are just trying to muck into the money. Again, I get moved to another table where there are 4 stacks that can send me to the virtual rail. I need to play well and start buying some pots since the ante's are staring. Now, I usually gain a lot of chips off mediocre bets and position raises, but not once have I sucked out in this entire tournament. With about 1300 players left and 1080 players paid I run into KQ of diamonds two from the button and raise. Slyguy4 is in the SB and makes the call, everyone else folds. Flop is KJJ rainbow and SB checks. I bet out the pot and SB check raises. I started the hand with about 25,000 chips and this call would leave me 12,000. After much deliberation, I make the call. Now if he has the J, it's a no brainer for him on the flop and will go all-in, if he doesn't I should get a free turn card. Turn comes a blank and he bets enough to put me all-in. Wow! decisions. I run my extra time by about 30 seconds and think to myself. Could this be a bluff, he's in the small blind and why would he call my pre-flop raise. Does he want me out now because of my short stack or could he possibly have AK. My wife is in the room and see's the hand. "He's got the J", she tells me and I go naw, it's a bluff and he wants me out. I go with my gut and make the call and he tables JQ for trips. I am sick to my stomach and curse out loud only to hear my wife say, "I told you so!" My other tournament table pops up blocking part of the screen and I am unable to see the river card. Thinking I have lost anyway, I play out the hand in the popped up table. I am unable to see the river card, but I notice the chat area saying Scrupboy wins with a full house Kings over Queens. What?! I flip to that table and sure enough, I grab one of two outs in the entire deck to suck out and take the pot of 60,000 chips. Wow! I take this as an omen to play smarter and hold on to my chips at least until 1080th place which pays $50 which would be 5x my buy-in. The next break comes and I have built my chips back up to 87,912 good for 60th in chips with 1153 players remaining.

The 3rd hour comes and I get moved again to a table that only has 2 people that can seriously damage my stack. I catch some hands and get my chips up to 170,000 boosting me into the top 30, not only that but the money bubble has been crushed and everyone is getting paid a minimum of $50. Then the following hand happens. I get 9's in the cutoff and raise four times the blind. Button goes all in for 5000 more, then another all-in on the SB, but can't cover the pot, then even another middle position player pushes all-in for 40,000 chips more. I deliberate and decide to make the call with 99 which still leaves me 100k in chips. The pot was huge and I felt this would be a good place to make a run for the chip lead while risking about 35% of my chips. Wow, I am way behind as the button has KK, SB has 10-10 and middle position guy has AK. Now 80k of this is with middle position guy to which I am in a race and two of his K's are gone. Flop comes A-10-8 leaving me with very little outs. I never improve and drop a crap load of chips to the rest of the table. Now the average is only about 75k so I am still in good position. The table starts to beat me up and I never fully recover ending this hour with only 60,368 chips.

Play begins again and about 30 minutes in I get moved to another table. Now I have been maintaining between 70 - 100k in chips, but the blinds are now ridiculous. Stealing the blinds are worthy now as the antes are in the 600 range. I survive this round on short stack poker and stealing the occasional blind per round. Not much happens, but I have moved up the money ladder slowly approaching the top 100. The break comes and I have 100,216 chips good for 141 out of the 169 remaining players.

Play resumes and I need chips. I make a couple all-in moves with AQ and AJ to take some blinds, but no hands really developed. My BB comes and I have about 75k in chips with the blinds at 6000/12000 and a 1200 ante. I look down at KQ of diamonds. Everyone folds to the SB. He hesitates and I can tell he wants to take my blinds. Now this guy has been real aggressive since I have been on the table and playing very loose. I can't put him on a hand and make a decision to call no matter what. He pushes all-in and he tables A6o. I'm behind, but not too much of a dog as my cards are live. The flop comes 8-8-2. I miss and bust out in 128th place for a payday of $297.88 and a $286.88 profit. I should have known the KQ of diamonds would eventually kill me as this is the same hand that I received the river suck out with earlier in the tournament. I'm disappointed and the hand keeps replaying in my mind. The one thought I did have in this tournament was to play to win, which I believe I did. I was not protecting my stack to the point of being blinded off. My intentions were to be a little more aggressive, take bigger risks and play smart in order to make a real run for 1st place. Overall I can't be too disappointed as this cash is 27x my buy-in and does wonder for my BR. One thing is for sure, I have cashed twice in rebuy tournaments without ever rebuying. I look forward to the next one.

Session Total: +$312.12
Bankroll Total: $410.04

How to blow a HUGE lead

2008-02-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

February 6, 2008 Update

It's Tuesday night and I get into a few limit tournaments. My first is a 7:00PM $4/0.30 limit holdem event. Not too much to talk about. Out of about 500 players I go out in 120th place and out of the money. I could not catch a flop for anything throughout this tournament.

Next up is the 7:45 PM $1/0.10 HORSE event. I have had great success with this tournament and almost always cash including 3rd and 13th place finishes. I quickly accumulate chips and stay above the chip average throughout most of the tournmanet. With 64 players remaining I take the chip lead and never let go until the final two tables. My leads are so huge that at one point I have almost triple the amount of chips as the next player. Check out the screen shots below.

As you can see from this last image, I had 152,000 in chips with 18 players left. This was during the Omaha H/L game with blinds of 4000/8000. Next up is Raz, not my greatest game. I have a nice lead and don't need to give up too many chips. I get involved in one hand against a short stack and we get all in. My opponent catches a miracle 8 on the river to out my 8653A low with his 86432 low. Things don't go well from here and I lose a bunch of chips in STUD when my trips get beat to a river flush. Wow, when things go wrong they go all wrong. I get to the final table with 18,000 chips! Talk about losing a lead. My first hand in stud gives me a Q in the window with a Q behind. My opponents are showing nothing higher and I raise. I get a reraise from a player showing a J. I reraise allin and get called. My opponenet tables JJJ. So sic! I don't improve and go out in a dissapointing 8th place for $10.09 and a $8.99 profit. It's a deep run, but I feel slapped in the face as I could see at LEAST a top 3 finish with the way I had been dominating the tournament for the last 2 hours. Oh well.

The same time I am playing this tournament, I was also playing the 9:30PM $1/0.10 Omaha/8 tournament. Played pretty well here and was in the top 10 for most of the tournament. We get down to 64 players and the tournament pays top 63. I had just busted out of the HORSE tournament and still a little pissed off. The bubble is taking forever and I am trying to push the short stacks around and get involved in almost every hand-for-hand play. Eventually, I get it all in with trips and my opponent catches the nut low and straight to beat me and... BUBBLE. Letting your emotions from one tournament effect your play in another tournament is not good. It doesn't matter as 63rd place was only worth a $1.80 and I could care less about this dollar at this time

I did play some .25/.50 limit in the earlier stages of the HORSE and during the limit holdem tournament for a profit. Actually, I was up about $15-$20 before I quit. It was a nice little win as I was basically on a freefoll for all of these tournaments. Overall a decent cash for the night, but huge dissapointment in my late play.

Session Total: +$23.36
Bankroll Total: $97.92

Super Bowl Sunday

2008-02-05T12:56:00.001-07:00

February 3, 2008 Update

I wake up Sunday morning with an itch to continue the bank roll building. Sunday is also the day of the PokerStars million guarantee as well as the 100k guarantee. I don't have the $215 yet to play the million, but I can afford the $11 to play in the 100k. I buy-in with an hour to spare and within 20 minutes of the tournament it is maxed out with 20,000 players paying out 3000 places and $20,000 for first.

My first table is really tight and I steal a lot of blinds only to lose about a 1000 chips with a real hand (pocket K's). It's okay as I had built up my stack and now am only 100 down from my starting chip stack of 3000. I get moved and start to pounce early on my new table and build my chips up to about 15k and well above the chip average. People are dropping fast and there are only about 11,000 players after the first hour. Blinds increase every 10 minutes and I play aggressive as this is required with short blind structures. We get down to 5000 players and I make a move with AQ under the gun. A standard raise with the blinds around 300/600. Everyone folds except the SB which is fine because I have position. Flop comes K-K-8 with two spades, SB checks and I bet out 4000. SB calls and now I'm a bit worried. The river comes an 8 double pairing the board, SB checks, I check. River brings a spade and SB goes all in for 7k. I think and ponder. I don't believe he has the K or 8 and the only thing slowing me down is wondering if he has a flush. I eventually fold and comment "nice catch on the flush" to which my opponent says "I had a full house". I don't believe him and perhaps he made a nice bluff on the river. This cuts my chip stack in half, then I am dealt pocket Q's and lose another half of my stack as AK hits the flop. These two hands have cost me some chips and I am short stacked now. Eventually I get it all in with the worst and lose in about 4200th place, about 1200 from the money. My thought is I wanted to win and being aggressive and building chips was my only chance at winning or going deep within this tournament due to the blind structure. I could have sat back and most likely coasted into the money as I did yesterday in the $3R tournament, but this was not the game plan today and it didn't pan out. No worries as I was also playing in a .10/.20 limit game and won most of my buy-in back.

Towards the end of the 100k tournament I also registered for a $1/.10 limit Omaha tournament that attracts 594 players. I adjust to the game well and end up getting into the money. With about 50 people left in the tournament I grab the chip lead for a whole 2 minutes with 49,000 chips. With some well timed moves and a few lucky catches I make it to the final table with a healthy chip stack of 135,720 good for second place in chips.
I'm feeling good and planning on taking the first place prize of $148, which would be a nice payday and quadruple my bank roll. At the same time as playing this tournament the Superbowl is playing and I throw out a few "Goooooooo Giants!" as I root for only two teams. The Broncos and anyone that plays the Patriots. =]]

I get involved in a hand with AKKJ and the ace high hearts. The flop brings me my flush and I get into a raising match with one of my opponents. This continues on to where the river brings a 9 pairing the board. I cringe as any pair is bothersome in an Omaha tournament. Sure enough my opponent bets and I call with a huge investment already. Showdown and my opponent tables 9-9-?-? hitting quads on the river! Overkill as I could not come close to competing with my pre-nut nut flop. This hurts and I barely am able to hang on to the rest of my chips. The next break comes and I have built my chips back up a little to 70,720.
My momentum leaves me and I am unable to gain it back. I go out in 5th place for a $37.43 cash and $36.33 profit. At the same time I bust out the Giant's win the Superbowl in the last couple minutes of the game! Wow, what a game. I kept getting beeped at due to watching the game while trying to play the tournament. That's why I didn't win, I was too glued to the television to play my A game..... yeah that's it...

Overall it was a profitable day and at one point the bankroll was about $85. I ended up losing some back in a limit game and another tournament, but all is alright as the day was profitable. Remembering where I was a week ago, I'm fortunate to be where I am today. Actually, I expected it to take a lot longer then a week to get the bankroll past it's highest point previously.

Session Total: +$34.22
Bankroll Total: $74.56

A Saturday of poker

2008-02-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

February 2, 2008 Update

I wake up and right away get online to see what is available today as far as tournaments. I notice the $10 NL deepstack touranment that FloppyMcNutz played a couple weeks ago, but know that I don't have the bankroll to play this game plus I don't know if I can sustain such a long tournament. Finally I find a few tournaments to play.

I heard that the $3/0.30 rebuy tournament gets some good action so I get in. Wow! If you have never played this tournament it gets extremely loose at the beginning with most people double buying in at the beginning for 3000 in chips. My thought is to just play my initial buyin and if I lose not to rebuy or add-on at the end of the break. I could not believe the rebuy totals and add-on after the break! There was 3900 entries and over 10,000 rebuys. After the break there was only around 2900 players and over 2200 of them bought the add-on generating a prize pool of over $43,000! Unbelievable as 1st place was over $8000.

I play well and accumulate chips from these wild players. They do end up putting some bad beats on others with their crazy style. I accumulate well and get to 8000 chips within 30 minutes from my initial 1500. Then within minutes of the first break and end of the rebuy period it just gets crazy. Players are going all in with anything preflop and then doing a double rebuy to go all in again. I lose some chips and end before break with about 4500 chips. Everyone is stacked and the average chip count is around 9000 chips. I feel no need to rebuy as it would not even put me at the average plus I told myself I would not invest any more into this tournament. Right after the break, some players are still a little loose and have not adjusted and I take in a nice pot with pocket K's and a full house. I build my chips to around 18,000 chips well above the average and play super tight poker. This goes well and I usually get a blind a round to keep myself at my current stack. Eventually, people start dropping and the average grows to 25,000 chips, but I never accumulate any more chips. We get close to the bubble of 558 players and I get chipped down to 6000 chips, but hold on as 558th place pays just over $19! Not bad for a $3 buy-in. After sneaking into the money I catch a few hands and build my chips up to just over 20,000, the highest amount I have had the entire tournament. With some decent play, I make it into the next two levels of money and bust out in 316th place good for $29.89 and a $26.59 win. Since I was playing to make the money, I never had a real shot of going for a top 10 finish. Next time I would like to play for first and build a lot of chips early, of course that would mean weeding through the crazy play at the beginning.

Also played a .10/.20 limit game throughout most of the day. Bought in for $4 and cashed out $20. This allowed me to play in a lot of tournaments which I did. I didn't have much success in anthing else execpt for a 147th place finish in a $1.50/0.15 fixed holdem tournament that attracted 918 players. My finish was good for $2.20 and a $0.55 profit. I did play a total of about 12 tournaments ranging from $1 - $3 and games of NL holdem, limit holdem, Omaha/8, HORSE and even a Stud H/L tournament.

The bankroll is coming back from it's near doom a week ago and perhaps I can get this thing going again and not "implode" as I did last week.

Session Total: $26.51
Bankroll Total: $40.34

Another "Micro" take

2008-02-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

February 1, 2008 Update

This night I decide to play a few small buy-in tournaments. I register for my usual 7:45PM HORSE tournament for buy-in of $1/.10 and a $.025 NL holdem tournament. The HORSE tournament ends up with 584 players and the NL holdem tournament has 4433 players.

These games go on forever and at about 12:30AM I fianlly bust from both tournaments. The results were alright as I placed 446th place from the NL tournament good for... $0.72 and a $0.47 profit! lol The HORSE tournament went a little better and I bust out in 30th place for a $3.16 cash. A small win, but it all adds to the bankroll.

Session Total: +$2.98
Bankroll Total: $13.83

Rebuilding...

2008-02-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

January 31, 2008

After about six days away from the virtual felt, I decide it's time to try and rebuild the bankroll. It was last Saturday that I "imploded" and took a huge hit and I have been hesitant to get back on since then. Now with $5.16 left, it was time to go back to the basics and try and rebuild.

It's Thursday night and I remember this was the same night a week ago that I took 3rd in the HORSE tournament. I login, look at my available real money (secretly cry) and buy into the 7:45PM HORSE tournament. 472 players eventually put up there $1/$0.10 up to play the game and we have a first place prize of over $120. At the same time I see a $0.25 (+$100 added by PokerStars) NL holdem tournament filling up and buy into this as well. As these tournaments play out I get into a .02/.04 limit game as well.

I come out of the gates betting early in the holdem portion of HORSE and proceed to lose a few hundred chips right away. Luckily, the Omaha portion starts and I profit by well timed plays, like catching the nut low and high with an A4 of hearts with a 3 of hearts on the river.... verrrry niiiiiiiccce. I have built up to over 8000 chips in the NL game putting me in the top 20 of over 4000 players. Things are looking good!

I end up dumping half of my chips to an aggressive player when I get AJ in the BB and he has AQ in the SB. Everyone mucks, SB calls I make a huge raise and he goes all in. I call and hand over half my chips. Things don't go well and I bust out around 1200th place with only top 800 getting paid. Oh well, bye bye $0.25.

I hold my own during the HORSE tournament and hang out around the average. About three hours into the tournament, we are getting close to the money and I have not won a hand in razz or stud. The stud H/L game starts and I am well below the average now. I get a hand of 10-Q wth a Q showing. I raise and get three callers. One is showing a 6 and the other a 5. I bet the flop and don't improve and get raised by the 6. I am so short stacked and have invested most of my chips to the hand that I raise and finally get it all in. I get a 10 on the next round and get a 10 on the last card to make a boat. Wow! Other player shows trip 6's that he flopped and another player shows the ace high flush. An unbelievable suck out for me and I chip up to above average in chips. Eventually I go on a nice run and hang out in the top 10 while play slows down close to the money. The money bubble is broke and I am guaranteed at least $2. I play pretty well and get down to the final two tables. The game is razz and the 1000 chip ante is killing me. I finally get a starting hand of A-3-4 and get into a raising match with a short stacked player. We get it all in and he tables 2-3-6. My next two cards are Q-K. WTF? Horrible, I eventually get a 8 and 10 which doesn't help as my opponent catches a 4 and 7. This depletes most of my stack and I get the rest in when I get 10-2-A and one caller. He ends up with a 6 low and I double pair. It was a good run, but I don't get the same results as last week, but I do end up with a 13th place finish good for $5.20.

At the same time I turned my $.80 buy-in on a .02/.04 limit game to about $2.50. I cash out and more then double my current bankroll. Perhaps I will be able to come back from my implosion last weekend. Tune in next time as I bluff call the river to bubble, go on tilt and thrown my computer monitor down the stairs.

Session Total: +$5.69
Bankroll Total: $10.85

The blow up

2008-02-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

January 26, 2008 Update

I am way late in writing this entry, but with good reason in my opinion. I'd like to share a word with everyone: Implode Dictionary.com defines this word as to burst inward (opposed to explode). I'm happy to say that this term describes my poker play for this night (or morning).

During the day I go "up the hill" to the Golden Gates Casino where I take a modified second place in a $80 NL holdem tournament good for a nice $820 cash. After losing some money in live action and a few slot machines (hate those things) it's time to head home.

It's about 10:00PM and I have yet to get my fix of poker for the day after coming off a nice win in a live tournament. I get online and attempt to build my current bankroll of $63.17. Things start off well and soon I am playing a .25/.50 limit game, $2 NL holdem tournament and a $3 NL holdem tournament. I quickly accumulate chips in both tournaments and am down about $3 in the limit game. Each tournament has me listed in the top 30 which is good with fields of 2000+ in both tournaments.

Hours later... Play has been going for a good 2 hours now and I can't catch a break in anything. My tournament chips are below the average and I've now lost over $10 in my limit game. This brings the bankroll down to about $50. Now in the past, I was usually able to make up for my tournament buy-in's from a limit game. Even though this bankroll is considerable compared to where it was a week ago, I don't want to have a losing session.

Eventually, I bust out of both tournaments (Pocket K's go down to A-2 and AK goes down to pocket 9's). Noticing that I am not doing too well for the session, I get into another .25/.50 limit game and a .10/.20 limit game. Now there are 3 limit games going with about $18 of my $50 left invested. It's about 1:00AM and I just want to get my money back so I can go to bed. At about 1:30AM I have a total bankroll of just over $60 which is just dollars away from breaking even for the session, almost time to quit... Then, I go on a bad run and nearly go broke in all games. I rebuy in the .25/.50 game for another $10, then tables break and the .02/.04 game is gone. Then I really implode and have three .25/.50 games going simultaneously with $10 invested into each one, leaving around $2 left in my account. I stick to premium hands in all three games and eventually start to falter. It's nearly 4:00AM and I am starting to fall asleep at the mouse. BEEP... what, oh it's my turn, I call... YOU LOSE! What's going on, why am I punishing myself with these darn small stakes after making a nice cash in live play? I know why, I hate to lose and need to set a daily loss limit to keep from having my entire bankroll depleted by one bad session. If history repeats itself, I will continue to play until there is nothing left in my account as I did about 4 years ago. In about two weeks I built a $50 bankroll into $1200 and lost it ALL after a 30 hour session that went from Friday night to early Sunday morning. This scenario repeats itself in my head and I close all games leaving my bankroll seriously damaged.

What a horrible session! I silently curse myself under my breath and head off to bed with about the same amount of money I had a week ago. It's bad enough to play at these micro limits, but to lose a weeks worth of good play to accumulate a bankroll is just plain dumb! At least I was able to salvage a small amount of money to hopefully rebuild in the future.

Session Total: -$58.01
Bankroll Total: $5.16

January 24, 2008 Update

2008-02-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

I feel pretty good after that win yesterday and decide to play a few tournaments today. I play in two NL holdem tournaments and a limit Omaha/8 tournament. Nothing ever develops and I eventually bust out of each one by one. Guess I'm not on a tournament streak. My play is not well and I end up making mistakes in each one keeping me from the money. I have moved my limits now to .10/.20 and .25/.50 limit games. For some reason I don't feel comfortable playing at NL or PL stakes yet and will stick to the limit games as they have been my bread and butter. I do end up winning in the limit games and even with spending about $5 in tournaments I pull a profit for the day. =]]

Session Total: +$5.36
Bankroll Total: $63.17

January 23, 2008

2008-01-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

Well it's been exactly one week since I started to seriously rebuild my bankroll and today is a major breakthrough!

At 7:45PM I find a $1/$0.10 HORSE tournament which attracts 448 players. I've always considered myself pretty decent at all forms of poker, not just holdem. This was the perfect opportunity to find out what my play was in all 5 of these different games. If I had to rate my play, it would be in the following order of best to worst:

Holdem

Omaha/8

Stud/8

Stud

Razz

Things start out well in the holdem and Omaha/8 rounds and I just about double my chips right away. I play well throughout the tournament and build a nice heft stack, good for 3rd in chips on the final table.

The final table starts out with 7 card stud and on the second hand of play I have two pair, Q's and 6's on my first 4 cards. Eventually it is heads up with CAT1966 and we get all our chips in with two cards remaining. Cards are shown and CAT1966 shows two pair as well, 10's and 5's. I anticipate a nice pot excelling myself into the chip lead. Turn, nothing, river brings my opponent the 5 and a full house. A four outer in a stud game! I end up crippled, but not out. Eventually we get down to 3 handed play and the chips were a little lopsided in my their favor.

Inevitably, I go out in 3rd for a decent cash and a major plus to my bankroll!

Also played some limit .05/.10 limit to which I made a small cash as well.

After one week of play the $0.60 has turned into a bankroll of.... drumroll please.... $57.81! This is 963.5% increase. If I continue this streak, I may be going to the WSOP this year. Well that's kind of speculating a bit..... a LOT.

Session Total: +$40.37

Bankroll Total: $57.81

January 22, 2008 Update

2008-01-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

Decide to start playing around 8:00PM and get into a few $1 tournaments. I can't get anywhere on my tournament play today and don't make a single cash. However, I am playing .05/.10 limit simultaneously as these tournaments and end up making my tournament money buy in back plus a slight profit.

Session Total: +$2.72
Bankroll Total: $17.44

January 21, 2008 Update

2008-01-26T07:32:00.000-07:00

It's Monday and back to the work schedule. Work, get home and after dinner I get online and play a $1/$0.10 limit Omaha/8 tournament at 9:30PM with 513 players. I play well and get into the top 50. I finally bust out in 26th place, good for $2.57. No noticeable hands in this tournament just some decent play and well timed aggression. Also played some .05/.10 limit (as now I can play at a higher limit, lol, higher) and cashed out a profit as well. It's after midnight and time for bed.

Session Total: +$3.20
Bankroll Total: $14.72

January 20, 2008 Update

2008-01-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

I get a quick wake up call from my oldest daughter at 6:45AM stating that she needs a ride to work. After I return from dropping her off at work, I'm wide awake and decide to get back online. Even though I spent the majority of Saturday online, I was still ready to go again.

Right away I find a .02/.04 limit game and start winning. Within an hour I am a $2 winner. Today's goal is to play some tournament poker and attempt a deep run.

My bankroll can't sustain too much so I elect a $1.00/$.010 Buyin NL Holdem tournament which attracts 3455 players. This starts at 9:00AM and I play my usual aggressive style and build some chips early. At the same time I look for my friend FloppyMcNutz and watch him play a $10 deep stack tournament. Unfortunately, I am unable to chat with him while in my tournament (pop up message tells me chat is only allowed for players registered in that tournament). I get on the Poker in Colorado forum and start to chat. Seems Floppy's been watching my play.

I did have a situation with a person to my immediate right that had me a little steaming. Two players go all-in and person to my right calls, I call with pocket 6's. Flop comes and player bets into the dry side. I think to myself, this person better have something good and muck my 6's to the three over cards on the board. Hands are shown and person has K high! WTF? To make matters worse, turn comes the 6 which would have given me a set and knocked both players out of the tournament! They survive and I make a comment as to why would you bet a dry side pot with nothing, I could have taken some people out and we would all move up the scoreboard. The reply is, "I'm glad you mucked." Dumbass!!! Just gets me boiling thinking about it again. Anyway, I slightly tilt and try to steal the small blind from this person and end up giving half my chips when this player wakes up with AJ in the small blind. I calm myself down and get back into the game knowing I will get my chips back. Eventually I get pocket A's and my enemy raises, I double the raise knowing that this person will surely make a move. Just like clockwork, enemy goes all in and I insta-call. Show down is 8's vs A's. I win and scoop in a nice pot leaving my enemy crippled =]] did I just smile out loud, my apologies. My man FloppyMcNutz gives me rail support with a "Nice hand!" or something to that nature to which I reply, "Thanks man". This gets enemy all fired up and tells me to stop being an ass when I win to which I reply, what are you talking about. Never did get to finish up the conversation as the table breaks and we go our separate ways. Dumbass!!

I go deep and start to flirt with the top 10 with about 100 people to go. Way in the money now and hoping to make it deep as first place is just over $500. Floppy starts a blog entry for me and I'm on my way! At the same time I am rooting for Floppy in his tournament and Mondogarage shows up and we chat it up. We're all supporting each other and pissing off other people with our loud antics, it was great!

At about 1:15PM the following hand occurs:
blinds at 2000/4000 and 400 ante
I'm in middle position with A10 and I raise to 12,000 hoping to take some blinds as I haven't seen a flop in two rounds.
cutoff calls, BB calls and UTG calls.
Flop is 6-10-6 rainbow, check to me and I bet 12,000.
cutoff raises to 58,000, everyone else folds to me and I deliberate and eventually call.
Turn is a K and I check. Cutoff goes all in. I'm sure he doesn't have a K or a 6, probably an over pair and I know it. He has me covered by about 10,000 chips. There is over 200k in the pot. I'm so committed that the measly 50k in front of me seems meaningless. The timer beeps at me and I decide to call.
Cutoff shows pocket Q's and I don't improve.

What was I thinking? The hand plays over and over in my head like a broken record and I am kicking myself in the arse for making such a donkey move. Oh well, you live and learn. All it takes is that one mistake to take you out of a tournament and that is just what happened here. I did cash for $5.53 giving myself a huge jump in my bankroll to over $10! Was I done?, of course not, it's Sunday.

I promised my daughter I would take her to the park and let her ride her new bicycle. After freezing my booty off for 3 hours while she was working up a sweat on her bicycle, we finally come home. Since my wife has been working outside of the house for a few days, we decide to clean up the house. Dishes, cleaning, vacuuming, etc... I now know why I work as doing this day after day would kill me!

I attempt another tourney but can't produce the same results and go out early. Now my boy Floppy has been running wild on his table and starts to build a nice healthy stack. He is playing a deep stack tournament with about 1800 (can't remember for sure) players. This tournament has been going since 10:00AM. At the same time Mondogarage is making a deep play in a Full Tilt Poker $3 KO tournament. I rail for these guys and get more interested in their play then my own. Floppy ends up getting to the final table and posting a 4th place finish for over $1000 and 14 hours later! Mondo makes it deep to 23rd place in his tournament. Nice job guys!

I do make another place of 584/4291 in a micro $0.50 NL holdem tournament for a cash of $0.85. What a night! It's late and I decide I've had enough for today.

Session Total: +$7.60
Total Bankroll: $12.15

January 19, 2008 Update

2008-01-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday morning and I'm ready to get online and build the bankroll. My wife and a few of the kids are gone for the day leaving my youngest daughter and me. She's a pretty independent girl and starts tearing up her room and such. As for me, it's off to the virtual felt.

I've broke the $5 mark now and still need to stay at the .02/.04 limit tables as my bankroll is no where near being ready for an increase in limits. Find a table and I'm off. Things go well and I am a $0.80 winner within the first 40 minutes (not much money, but good for micro). At this time I decide to buy into a tournament.

I buy into a $1 + $0.10 NL tournament. My aggressive style is useless as there seems to be way too much aggression at the game already. Finally, I look down and see KK in middle position and make a standard raise. BB instantly calls. Flop is 953 rainbow and BB checks. I continue with a pot sized bet and BB instantly calls again. BB does have me covered with 50% of his chips. Turn comes J and it's again checked to me with which I go all-in. BB hesitates, but calls showing 2-3 and I physically pump my fist in triumph. That was short lived as the 3 hits the board on the river and I'm out. WTF, 2-3? At the same time I bust out of this tournament, I am down $2 while playing simultaneously on my .02/.04 limit game. Time to find another tournament.

Tournament number 2 is a $1 + $0.10 limit tournament. This is my style of tournament, so I should be alright. Three hours later and I'm busted again, 15 places off of the money! What is wrong with my game? I need a new approach. It's now 4:00 PM and I only have $2.20 in my bankroll.

I take some time away from poker and play some Guitar Hero with my daughter. She loves this game too. We hang out, watch a little television, make and eat some dinner. 8:00PM and I'm ready to get back to the virtual felt.

Tournament number 3 is a $1 + $0.10 limit Omaha HI/LOW tournament. I've always been a pretty good Omaha/8 player and feel I can at least cash. As usual, I am also playing simultaneously in a .02/.04 limit game. The only thing left in my bank is $0.20! I am invested almost entirely to the limit game and tournament. At one point I was below average chip stack in the tournament and only had $0.30 available in the limit game. That put bankroll at only $0.50, less then what I had when I placed in the FPP tournament! This may all come to an end fast and I just started. Eventually I triple up on my limit investment with pocket Q's, then go on a nice little heater building my stack to $2.80 As for the tournament, I bust out in 82nd place of 621 players for $1.55. It's 11:30PM and my entire day has amounted to about a $1 loss. That's it for today.

Session Total: -$0.95
Bankroll Total: $4.55

January 17, 2008 Update

2008-01-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

I was getting ready for bed and decided to play a little poker. signed onto Pokerstars and found a .02/.04 limit game. Right away the action is loose and I am a $2 winner within 30 minutes. Should I quit now and just go to bed? Of course not, I'm on a heater. I continue to play and it's about 9:00PM. A few players drop out and the game breaks. Find another micro limit game and buy in for $1. I miss every flop for the next two hours and can't get anything going. Slowly but surely I leave my entire $1 to the table and leave. 11:00PM and it's time for bed... I could have in bed hours ago and + an extra dollar, oh well.

Session total: +$1.00
Bankroll total: $5.50

January 16, 2008 Update

2008-01-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

If you recall I have had the $0.60 sitting in my Pokerstars account for about a week now. It was a Wednesday night and my son and I were playing Guitar Hero II on his Xbox 360 for three hours. (very addicting game by the way, if you have never played I highly recommend it) It was late, my fingers were sore from Guitar Hero... so I got online and decided to see what I could do with my $0.60 on Pokerstars.

I login. Double check to make sure that I do indeed have some $$... check. Now I'm off! I go through to see what games may be available. Last time I played low limits there was only .05/.10, but I believe this was pot limit. To my surprise I notice .02/.04 limit games. Woohoo, I may just be able to play more then one hand! I find a seat sit down and I'm off. How much would you like to buyin for... $0.40 sound good so I at least have something in my account if I go out.

Round 1 goes to Scruboy as I double up right away. I don't recall specific hands, but the play was very loose. Another 15 minutes go by and the game breaks. It's all good now as I have $1.19 giving me a small lifeline and three buyins if necessary. I buy into another .02/.04 game for $.060 this time as now I have ammo. This continues for the next 3 hours and three different tables. Final result is $4.50 total to end the night... or morning. It's 12:30AM and I have to work in the morning, off to bed.

Session Total: +$3.90
Bankroll Total: $4.50

A Little History and The Goal

2008-01-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome Everyone,
As you can see from the title this blog will deal with making something from nothing with just my online Pokerstars account. This started originally as a thread in PoWda's forum, Poker in Colorado.

A little history about myself. I've been a low limit poker player for years, almost 13 years to be exact. Most of my experience has been in live action and not online. I did play online for a while back in 1999 when this was all pretty new and ParadisePoker ruled the online poker world (or at least I thought they did). I did make a transition to tournament poker play about five years ago and have been doing pretty well. I prefer live poker play to online play, but the limits of Colorado don't provide for as much skill play. The tournaments are a nice alternative to the low stakes action.

My Pokerstars account has been at zero for some time and it was time to revitalize it. I had 10FPP points available and that was it! On January 8, 2008 I decided to play one of their $500, 10FPP entry tournaments. This tournament ended up with 4688 players. After hours of grinding in out on the virtual felt, I finally busted in 106th place, good for $0.60.

The rest of these entries will detail how I attempt to build this bankroll and eventually go from Poker Zero to Poker Hero! (insert Guitar Hero plug here) Who knows, maybe this will be an ongoing blog for years to come... or it could all come to an end tomorrow.

Session Total: +$0.60
Bankroll Total: $0.60