Whatever Poker

October - February

2011-02-07T08:46:00.003-06:00

Well shortly after my last post I went on a $1,700 downswing - almost all of it at 3/6. After getting my $1,000 bonus in December I had another $700 losing session and decided to cashout down to $600 and just play for fun in 2011.

Weeks of losing takes it's toll. So much tilt and stress and bad feelings in general just made me want to take an extended break. So I did.

I barely played at all from December 16th until the end of January. My plan was to just play mtts in 2011 and play a tiny bit of 6 max LHE at .25/.50 or .5/1 to get my buy-ins back.

Well, as I added tables at .5/1 a funny thing happened:

I decided that maybe 8 tabling .5/1 for a nice little profit and maintaining Supernova status wouldn't be impossible. I have no idea how long I will be able to keep up the 40k+ hand a month pace needed but I know that as long as I'm winning poker has been fun again.

8 tabling delivers a 740/hand an hour which comes out to 50+ hours a week. 10-14 hours a week is doable for me most weeks so we'll see. I have no idea what my winrate will be.

A quick peak at PTR's all-time winner's list at .5/1 shows that I should probably be pleased with anything above 1.5.

October update

2010-10-12T09:54:00.002-05:00

I ended up losing $120 in August (14,500 hands) and made a little over $1,500 in September playing around 18,000 hands. The probem with that is that $1900 of that was Pokerstars bonus.

The good part about September is that I lost $1,300 while playing 2/4 tables with zero game selection because of the 50th billion hand promotion. So I did very well while table selecting with no exceptions.

I'm hoping that carries over into October, of course. So far it's been ok. I have been mixing in more 3/6 tables now that my bankroll is over $6,000 for the first time.

I feel like I'm playing better than I ever have. Hopefully the results follow this month.

July went well

2010-08-12T13:49:00.002-05:00

I played 5,700 hands of 2/4 and ran at 4.85 BB/100 for $1,146 for my best cash month ever. Wow $73/hour. Nice.

I ran well so I didn't tilt and that fed back into playing well. If every month could go like that I'd be one happy poker player.

Playing that few hands put me behind Supernova pace but I will be able to maintain it by playing 15k hands a month which is no big deal however it doesn't allow for any extended breaks either.

August started much the same up $400 through 1500 hands until I chased an incredible 80/65 fish up to 5/10 and met 2 of his 80/60 friends for the craziest 5/10 game I've ever seen. Lost $150 there and another $550 at 2/4 that night for possibly my largest losing night ever. Such is the life at 2/4.

For the month I'm a little above breakeven now and I'm on pace to get my vpp goal so all is well. If I can keep my flops seen % around 28 things tend to go a lot better for me. The first half of the year was disappointing for me really. I made $3200 but most of that was rakeback.

btw - I have noticed more and more 3/6 regs down at 2/4 now. Hopefully that turns around as summer gives way to fall however there are still plenty of fish to be had. I just have to keep improving my play against the regs and stay off of tilt as much as possible.

Another change of plans July 1st

2010-07-01T13:03:00.001-05:00

I played 28,622 hands of 6 max LHE in June.

It mostly sucked as I was 7 & 8 tabling 1/2 trying to get 14k vpps for the month.

I ended up giving up on that plan with a week to go (11k vpps) and decided to move up to 2/4 & 3/6 and 4 table.

That went much better but I have no idea if it was just positive variance or if my improved game selection and concentration really made that much of a difference. I am positive now, however, that mass tabling 6 max LHE is a really, really bad idea (for me at least).

Cash/mtt results: -$168.70
RB/Bonus: $1,500.00

TOTAL $1,331.30

July will be an interesting change for me as I will NOT play more than 4 tables at a time and I will play 2/4 & 3/6 the entire month.

I am sooo ready to get off of the crack that is the Stars rakeback racket. I feel like it's really hurt my development as a poker player when volume meant everything.

I want to play around 9,000 hands of 2/4 & 3,000 hands of 3/6 in July. It could be close to a 50/50 mix depending on how 3/6 treats me.

June 2010

2010-06-16T09:44:00.003-05:00

Well I'm down $330 since my last post - all at 1/2. That includes a $100 bonus and cashing for $100 in the Turbo Takedown.

I experienced a $660 downswing in there which is probably my worst downswing ever at 1/2. I have come out the other side now after working to eliminate the lagginess and fancy play syndrome that I picked up at 2/4. We will see how the changes work as now I feel like I've been too passive lately which is typical after experiencing a 10k stretch of horrid cards.

I've been 7 & 8 tabling again as I've decided to go for Supernova by the end of October.

Here's my schedule for the end of each month including spending 3k fpps on TT every month:

June 60k vpp 50k fpps $1500 bonus cleared
July 67.5 73.5
Augu 76.5 102k
Sept 91k 50k $1500 bonus cleared
Oct 100k 19.5k $1000 milestone bonus
Nov 108k 44.5k
Dec 117k 76k

I have included 2 14k vpp months in there which would be close to 40k hands in each month. That would be my new monthly record for hands. I'm in the middle of doing that now in June and I'm on pace and playing better - I think.

The changes in my game have been interesting to say the least. I can see where I've been spewing off bets in horrible spots. I still am, of course, through tilt and certain plays - especially middle pairs like 7s & 8s but I am more aware now than ever before. I feel like the games are still getting tougher over time - even way down at 1/2.

Hopefully the fact that i've played well over 200k hands as a lagtard will help me in some small way as I transition to a much tighter, solid player.

MTD - all at 1/2

2010-05-20T09:37:00.005-05:00

It's been a pretty frustrating month for some reason. You would think I would be used to the coolers and the continuous insane badbeats by now. I guess I'm a slow learner.

Still making money and on target for 8k vpps this month so I'm not going to complain.

Hopefully I continue to improve my tilt control & get a better attitude about the variance of this stupid game.

Hello old friend

2010-04-22T16:42:00.003-05:00

I went back down to 1/2 the first week of April. :(

2/4 was driving me crazy. I've posted a small loss at that level in 2010 but I booked an $800 loss in one session in March that got me thinking that a lower level of stress would be nice.

I am at -.30BB/100 thru 51k hands of 2/4 in 2010 for a loss of $660 or 165 BBs.

I think I'm going to cashout a good amount and rebuild at 1/2 for a couple of months and then try 2/4 again this summer when (hopefully) it's a little softer.

Down $300 so far in April but I'm playing the Turbo Takedown Sunday and if I cash in that I'll get a $200 bonus for cashing in 3 consecutive. I am going to try to put in between 8k and 9k hands at 1/2 before the end of the month. It's taken a bit of adjusting to remember how much more passive the play is but it's been a nice change for the most part.

Ah, I wanted to post my fpp schedule for later reference:

4/30/10 75k fpp 37vpp
5/31/10 100k fpp 45vpp
6/30/10 25k fpp 53vpp $1500 bonus
7/31/10 50k fpp 61
8/30/10 75k fpp 69
9/31/10 100k fpp 77
10/31/10 118k fpp 85
11/30/10 36k 93 $1500 bonus
12/31/10 4k 100 $1000 bonus

This assumes that I won't try 2/4 at some point.

I would love to be able to retain Supernova on October and get those extra 30k fpps but I don't see that happening right now.

2010 6 weeks in

2010-02-17T08:42:00.003-06:00

It's been an interesting 2010 so far.

I haven't played any form of cash poker besides LHE 6 max and I think that's helped my game a little bit. I've also played shorter sessions than I did at 1/2 last year. I'm certain that's helped my focus and tilt control.

I've only played 500 hands of 3/6 but I hit a couple of big pots and I'm up around $400 at that level for a whopping 14 BB/100. :)

I have been able to stick at 2/4 but I'm booking the tiniest of winrates so far at .27 BB/100 thru 29,000 hands. I am not complaining as I feel like the longer I'm able to stick the better chance I will have to feel comfortable and improve my play. The vpps have been nice at 2/4 - around .52 per hand or so. That has allowed me to book over 16k vpps and it has me feeling pretty good about retaining Supernova this year.

The swings have been interesting and I'm really working on trying to accept them as they come. I have booked losing days of $550 and $410 so far.

I was up over $1,000 the first two weeks of January and then hit a sweet $900 downswing in the final two weeks. February started off hot as well as I was up $1500 thru 12 days and then lost $400 on Friday of last week. I happened to clear the $650 bonus that day though so I still booked a solid week.

PokerStars held their first 1 Million Dollar freeroll for Supernovas and Supernova Elites a couple of weeks ago. It drew over 4,800 entrants and I was lucky enough to finish in the top 700 for $300 although in my final hand my KK did lose to J10 aipf. Yay me. I believe first place paid around $150,000.

PokerStars is holding another special NL tournament this Sunday that will guarantee a 4 million dollar prize pool. The buy-in is $215 but I think I'll just use 13,500 fpps and buy my way in if it looks like I'll have time to play it.

I'll probably stick at 2/4 in March and hopefully move up to 3/6 full-time in April.

2010 so far:

BR: $5,845

December is in the books

2010-01-05T10:17:00.002-06:00

Another breakeven rakeback month. 22k hands played for -$81.

The $800 bonus allowed me to book a $708 winner though and I have officially moved up to 2/4 & 3/6 with my $3,800 bankroll. I have decreased my tables from 7&8 to 3&4which I'm hoping allows me to get in 3,500 hands a week or so while increasing my winrate even though I'm moving up a level+.

I have beaten 1/2 for about .90 BB/100 while mostly 6 & 7 tabling with some 8 & 9 tabling thrown in.

I have gotten my butt kicked in my first two attempts at 2/4 so hopefully the third time is the charm.

2008 $2,056.61 96k hands
2009 $6,211.14 251k hands

I'm hoping to at least double my winnings in 2010 while getting in around 180k hands of mostly 2/4 & 3/6 with some 5/10 thrown in as my bankroll grows. It's gonna be tough to retain Supernova with 100k vpps by October 1st but I'll certainly give it a shot if I'm a winner at 2/4+.

$686.70 for November

2009-12-01T16:25:00.002-06:00

I screwed up and played 40 hands of $50 NL HU and lost $108. Oops.

I need 24k hands this month to make Supernova. It shouldn't be a problem.

I figured up my hourly...

2008: $9.15
2009: $10.35

Sigh. That should improve with the $800 bonus this month...

January $941.71
February -$807.15
March $8.70
April $2,154.49
May -$919.50
June $457.95
July $476.65
August $462.55
September $2,002.50
October $38.00
November $686.70

Fall update

2009-11-06T13:26:00.002-06:00

Played 2/4 again and lost again so I've decided to stick to 1/2 and go for Supernova in November and December. I made over $2k in September in 33k hands and then $38 last month in 17k hands.

I'm gonna play 25k hands this month and next and then see how Stars' changes to 1/2 6 max vpp points affect me. My goal is to move up to 2/4 after making Supernova.

My current online BR is just over $3k. I've cashed out over 4k this year. Unless I hit a big mtt score (I guess I need to play in one before I can cash big...) I'll probably end up making between 6 and 7k in 2009 from online poker.

I'll certainly take it but I hope there are bigger things in my future. My goal coming into 2009 was $1,000 a month. I've learned a lot but I know I have a long ways to go to get there since I'm pretty much maxing out my volume at the moment.

$8.11

2009-09-01T16:22:00.002-05:00

That's my hourly wage according to pokertracker since starting out in September 2008. Kinda gross but it beats a video game hobby I guess.

I made another $462 this month to mark my 3rd straight ~$450 month. I actually lost just over $500 playing in August which was especially depressing considering I made over $300 in my first session of the month. Thank God for bonuses.

Here's to a better September.

I am still attempting to tilt less and improve my overall play.

I hope it shows and I have my best cash game results yet.

PokerStars has dangled a $1,000 62k fpp bonus out there this month that's just within my reach so we'll see how it goes. I need around 3k vpps a week to get there.

There is hope yet.

2009-07-22T22:24:00.002-05:00

Tonight's 3.75 hour session (all at 1/2 LHE):

I guess I might be back at 2/4 by the end of the month afterall.

June in the books

2009-07-07T13:45:00.003-05:00

I ended up making $450 in June. Blah. I can't complain but it was a fairly frustrating month.

Last night I put in my first session of July and I was up $170 after 2 hours (which was surprising considering I had like 10 days off since my last session) and then proceeded to lose it all plus $10 over the next 900 hands. I lost a huge pot with set under set and also lost with an ace hi flush to a straight flush and my opponent was so sneaky that he only called on the river. Lucky me.

I wouldn't say I played great since I folded 2 winners for around $40 and tilted a little bit at the end but sometimes the beats start and don't let up for a couple of hours. That's how the 2nd half of the session felt for sure.

Losing huge pots on the river never feels good no matter how many times it happens. I just have to get back to feeling that it doesn't really matter because in truth it doesn't if you take the long view.

Still around $1,660 in the ole bankroll and striving to get back to $2,400 and 2/4 by the end of July although that looks like a mighty tall task. I probably need to start playing some cheap mtts to try to pad things.

May and June update

2009-06-23T15:52:00.002-05:00

Well I ended up losing $650 in my last 2/4 session of May (ouch) so I decided to drop back down to 1/2 and get my head straight. I lost $919.50 in May so I cashed out a little over $1,000 back down to $1,400 and have been grinding 4 and 5 tables of 1/2 since the first week of June.

1/2 has gone well as I'm making a little over 2 BB/100 and am up $600+ on the month with one more big session left.

Hopefully when I move back up to 2/4 in mid to late July I can stick this time.

Mid-month update

2009-05-19T14:02:00.006-05:00

Well I'm still at 2/4 after not cashing out earlier this month. I decided to keep my money in there and take a decent shot at the next level. Here's my graph since switching to 2/4 full-time:

Since downswinging around $750 (-$174 at 3/6 isn't included in this graph) I've switched to starting off each session at 3 tables and slowly adding the 4th. In the past I was playing up to 5 or 6 tables and that's just not good for me at this point.

Lately I've been lagging it up quite a bit which is fun and a lot more rewarding (when it works out). I'm pretty sure I'm gonna let Platinumstar go by the wayside this month. I should have a good shot at retaining it in June and getting the $650 bonus assuming I'm still at 2/4 (or hopefully 3/6).

I will beat 2/4 because players like this are everywhere:

PokerStars Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, 9

2 folds, CO calls, Hero raises, 2 folds, CO calls

Flop: (5.5 SB) 9, Q, 7 (2 players)

CO bets, Hero raises, CO 3-bets, Hero caps, CO calls

Turn: (6.75 BB) 7 (2 players)

CO bets, Hero raises, CO 3-bets, Hero caps, CO calls

River: (14.75 BB) Q (2 players)

CO bets, Hero calls

Total pot: $67 (16.75 BB) | Rake: $2

Results:

Hero mucked 9, 9 (full house, nines over Queens).

CO had Q, K (full house, Queens over sevens).

Outcome: CO won $65

Best month ever

2009-05-04T15:35:00.002-05:00

Woo-hoo!

Thanks to getting 45th in the Turbo Takedown ($1,250) I had my best month ever: $2,178.49. I squeaked into the money in that tournament and then just kept playing weak-tight and folding to each prize level until eventually I'd double or triple up with a well timed push or a made hand.

Baby steps but it feels good. I am now playing 2/4 but am only up $50 in 3,500 hands so far. I cashed out $1,000 and I guess I'll give myself a $500 cushion to try to stick at 2/4. If not I'll move back down to 1/2 and try again.

I still have a lot to learn and 2/4 is certainly different than 1/2 but I know it's beatable if I table select and PAY ATTENTION TO THE PLAYERS. I don't think tilt will be a problem but I always have to be on guard. I know playing weak-tight could be a problem too as the pots look pretty enormous after playing 70k hands of 1/2.

I ran at 2.25 bb/100 thru 18k hands at 1/2 after adjusting my playing style. That's a pretty good number but it's a fairly small sample.

With the cashout I guess I have made a conscious decision to take my time at 2/4 instead of trying to speed through it and avoid the 3 bb/100 raketrap. I don't see the point in getting to 5/10 with a 1/2 5 tabling mindset. I think I would probably get destroyed there and have to drop down anyway.

April is meh so far

2009-04-14T14:07:00.002-05:00

4/1/2009 $51.00
4/2/2009 $39.25
4/3/2009 ($2.25)
4/5/2009 $36.50
4/6/2009 $40.00
4/8/2009 ($49.20)
4/9/2009 $53.50
4/13/2009 ($20.25)

The $2.25 loss was over like 40 hands or something.

It's been a pretty frustrating month so far although the changes I have made have saved my butt so far in April as I feel like I'm running very poorly. I hope to have a little $500 uptick here in the next couple of weeks to salvage things. I have played in one mtt and cashed 106th out of 6,111 entrants in the $3 rebuy yesterday good for $95.

I feel like I'm ready to take on 2/4 now but I need a bankroll of at least $2,000 before I'll feel comfortable taking the leap. I think I am making giant strides in tilt control and game selection although being restricted* to two weekday nights each week really hinders game selection. I glance at the games on the weekend and just shake my head. If I could play only on the weekends I FEEL like I would be cleaning up. Game selection is so huge.

* = I play 2k hands at night twice a week and mix in about 300 hands during the day during the week.

I am still on target for Platiumstar in April for whatever that's worth.

Haha I looked at my 1/2 stats today. 72k hands for a profit of $4,650 at 1/2. Pretty good huh? However, I have a net profit of $550 after taking out the $4,100 of rake that Pokerstars has made off me in the past 8 months. Wow.

I'm up over $500 since making severe changes in my game 12k hands ago.

Hopefully my next post finds me challenging the lofty heights of 2/4.

Looking over my 1/2 sessions...

2009-04-01T14:17:00.003-05:00

8/18/2008 $135.25
8/20/2008 $9.00
8/25/2008 $150.50
8/27/2008 $54.00
9/2/2008 ($269.25)
10/29/2008 $288.75 (almost 2 months before I ground my way back to 1/2 from .25/.50)
11/3/2008 ($106.25)
11/5/2008 $47.50
11/10/2008 $112.25
11/12/2008 $52.50
11/15/2008 $5.75
11/17/2008 $140.25
11/19/2008 $221.25
11/24/2008 $349.50

Won 12 of my first 14 sessions. A lot of these early sessions were in the HORSE games. I beat those for like 6 bb/100 I think.

11/25/2008 ($73.75)
12/1/2008 ($288.75)
12/3/2008 $67.00
12/6/2008 $76.00
12/8/2008 ($104.50)
12/10/2008 $53.25
12/13/2008 $5.00
12/15/2008 ($13.50) <--- started using the HUD
12/17/2008 ($367.50)
12/18/2008 $18.50
12/19/2008 ($86.00)
12/22/2008 ($16.75)
12/23/2008 ($194.00)
1/9/2009 $46.00
1/10/2009 $71.00
1/12/2009 $91.00
1/13/2009 $14.75
1/14/2009 ($124.50)
1/17/2009 $28.50
1/19/2009 ($101.00)
1/24/2009 $45.00
2/8/2009 $29.50
2/12/2009 ($14.75)
2/13/2009 $50.50
2/23/2009 ($81.75)

Won 13 of 25 sessions.

3/23/2009 $6.75
3/25/2009 $112.00
3/30/2009 $215.25

Something clicked on 3/23/09. We'll see if it holds but I'm pretty sure it will.

Excellent month

2009-03-31T09:50:00.003-05:00

Kinda sorta. I feel like I'm back from the wilderness now. I think I have figured out a couple of major leaks in my 1/2 LHE 6 max game that appeared when I went to the HUD way back in September/October or whenever it was. I fully expect to kill 1/2 in April and be taking shots at 2/4 in May.

I'm excited about poker again although oddly this new tighter style (keep it simple stupid) makes for some boring sessions.

$50 NL was very beatable until I would tilt after receiving bad beats. I switched back to LHE after dropping $300 in 3 sessions. I would get up over $100 then take a couple of brutal beats and then tilt away $200.

I am currently reading Elements of Poker which is helping out. A lot.

My bankroll is still where it was as of last update but I have made about $325 in the past two sessions at 1/2 LHE since adjusting my play. I FEEL like there's no way I'm NOT going to make $900+ in April. We'll see.

Here's my March 1/2 graph. I feel like I closed some leaks in the last 3,500 hands or so.

Overdue update

2009-03-12T09:26:00.003-05:00

I waited to update until I had a good session. Good is defined as a +$100 night. It took me over a month to post this.

Sigh.

Went on tilt during the billionth hand promotion night. -$50 at .5/1 LHE. -$150 at 1/2 LHE. -$300 at 2/4 LHE then -$250 at 30/60 omaha hi/low.

Sat down with $400 at 30/60 omaha hi/low and immediately lost $360. Worked that back up to $393 and was gonna quit but noticed I was off the blinds with AA double suited. Raised to $90 and got 2 callers and folded the turn on a QQ35 board (was up against low draw and quads). I quit after that.

Just moronic stuff.

Finally booked a winning session last night at $50 NL. I'm up $21 on the month after losing $800 in February.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I'm gonna try to stick at $50 NL this month and cash out anything over $1,500 - I'm at $1200 now.

I was gonna play 15k hands of .5/1 LHE but it only took me 2k hands to figure out that I couldn't do it. Too much of a grind.

Robusto!

2009-02-05T14:23:00.005-06:00

Frustrating start to the month. I am playing horribly but hopefully I'm on my way to fixing some stupid leaks. It's so sad to look back at some of the big pots I've lost. Such horribly stupid calls when it's obvious I'm waaaay behind.

January in the books

2009-01-30T08:12:00.003-06:00

Well it was a good month. With the $285 fpp bonus I made $941 and cashed out $691 to take my account back down to $2k as I build towards $100 NL in 3 or 4 months.

I'm slowly learning some NL concepts and figuring out how to adapt to various situations I encounter. It's all fairly new to me even though I've dabbled in NL for 5 or 6 years now. I've been a victim of fancy play syndrome in the past. I am determined to stay on the keep it simple stupid path this time - at least through the $100 level.

Here's my monthly graph. The huge dip occurred back on 1/21 when I went on tilt for the first time. Not pretty but I got it back almost as fast as I lost it that night. I think I've fixed the leak that made the tilt that night worse. The first 9k hands or so was at 1/2 6 max LHE. I have given up on that game for now.

Running at 5.16ptbb/100 thru 18k hands of $50 NL. I'm excited to see what happens in February when I put in 20k hands of NL. I hope to have my first $1,000 month.

Goals for February:

20k hands of $50 NL.
Retain Goldstar.

Why I need to play more NL (part 2)

2009-01-27T08:55:00.003-06:00

This is last night's session that was cut short after an hour and a half unfortunately. If I can continue to follow my simple rules I see good things ahead for me in NL. I made the mistake of going on tilt in my last big session last week and that set me back a little over 3 buy-ins. I feel very good about the way I've played since though.

I still plan to cashout everything over $2,000 after Wednesday's session as I build my online roll $250 each month. My goal is to switch to $100 NL when I hit $3,000 online. That should give me around 100,000 hands at $50 NL and plenty of experience to handle what should be a very similar game.

BR $2,545.85 after clearing my $285 fpp bonus.

This is why I need to play more NL

2009-01-20T16:49:00.005-06:00

That's my $50 NL graph since starting last month.

Here's LHE this month:

Oh I entered my first 32 man $5.25 HU sng yesterday and won it. Made a questionable play in the first match with 77 getting it aipf versus AK on the 1st hand and winning the flip. I won one other race with 88 beating AQ and besides that I pretty much dominated the donks. Play was stunningly bad as expected but I made some hands against the crazies too.

Hopefully the last week and a half is kind to me and I cash another decent sized check to bring home. Oh, I'm working on a $285 25k fpp bonus as well. I should be able to get that by the end of the month. If I transition to NL those will be few and far between as I don't see myself getting to Platinum playing 20k to 25k hands a month - well unless I am able to climb the ladder to 1/2 I guess.

Typical

2009-01-15T13:32:00.002-06:00

Even after making $56 at 2/4 following a favorite fish I couldn't book a win. I still have plenty of improving to do but I feel like I'm close to breaking out of this funk.

VPP plans

2009-01-13T09:40:00.002-06:00

Well I put in 2300 hands last night and made exactly $90. A lot of frustration and some massive pots lost on river beats (including a $66 3 way pot where I flopped 2 pair but folded to a raise and reraise on the river after 2 guys got there with gutshots). I was able to finish on top thanks to a huge fish that ran at 85/21/1.90 over 160 hands and went through $150. So that was fun.

My Platinumstar dreams are dying hard so I am going to attempt to get there playing 1/2 6 max LHE. It won't be easy and I certainly run the risk of going on another downswing and coming up short but hopefully I've learned something in the past 3 weeks that will help. The 50k fpp $650 bonus is calling.

I'm gonna try to put in a massive session 4 and 5 tabling Wednesday for 1200 VPPs or so and gather another 300 VPPs 1 tabling this week and then do the same thing next week and see where that leaves me. Right now I'm just over 2k VPPs so I have a long ways to go with the month almost half over.

One of the differences between this month and last is that I am NOT going to play more than 5 tables at any one time and will be mostly sticking to 4. There is no way I am a winning player right now when 6 and 7 tabling 1/2 6 max. Sad but true.

My awesome 1/2 LHE 6 max graph

2009-01-12T14:07:00.004-06:00

My downswing roughly coincided with me starting to use the pt3 HUD and apparently springing a massive leak. In spite of the graph I'm only down $12 since the end of November. Yay for mtts and 8k hands of $50 NL!

I plan to get back on the 1/2 6 max LHE horse tonight and do some 4 tabling.

After cashing out $568 on the 1st my bankroll is back to $1907.

More of the same

2008-12-30T22:09:00.004-06:00

I had a couple of tough beats tonight but overall it went very well again. I got 2 outered on the river by a higher set. I called his $39 overbet because an ace and a busted flush draw was on the board. Oh well. That was a $102 pot.

I also lost a $65 pot after flopping top 2 against a flopped set on a 2 spade flop. I assumed he had 2 overs and the flush draw since he had lost a big pot to me not too long before that.

On the good side I had an AA versus AK aipf for a $113 pot. That was nice. Strange but nice.

All in all it was almost 2000 hands of 5 and 6 tabling NL experience while getting paid.

Here's my $50 NL chart so far:

That wraps up 2008. Glad to end it on a good note. I am gonna cash out an undetermined amount on the 1st and then hit the NL tables in January. I'm gonna try to put in around 16k NL hands and 4k hands .5/1 LHE single tabling. We'll see how it goes.

September $452.78
October $872.04
November $901.35
December -$169.56

BR $2,318.87

1885 hands of NL

2008-12-29T22:23:00.003-06:00

5 tabling the $50 tables. I had a couple of tough folds (for me) in the early going and then it was smooth sailing until I kept missing draws in big pots. Got some donks to donate near the end though so all ended well.

I am running at 8.83ptbb/100 thru 6500 hands. That's what I'm talkin' about!

I can't tell you how many times I saw somebody with AA make a horrible river call when they had to call a huge overbet. I guess if I can fold AA when I'm obviously beat I'll be ahead of the average $50 NL donk.

Speaking of:

Villian is 17/13/.8 AF btw which probably tells me I could've easily folded the turn. But hey, I'm learning and I guess he could've had a busted flush draw but I would be surprised with his stats being so passive.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Hero ($76.80)
MP ($36.35)
CO ($55.20)
Button ($104.40)
SB ($54.95)
BB ($33.25)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Ad, Ah.

Hero raises to $1.5, 3 folds, SB calls $1.25, 1 fold.

Flop: ($3.50) 8c, 7d, 4h (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $2.5, SB calls $2.50.

Turn: ($8.50) 3c (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $3.5, SB raises to $9, Hero calls $5.50.

River: ($26.50) 9s (2 players)

SB bets $19, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $45.50

SB doesn't show.
Outcome: SB wins $45.50.

Here's my chart from tonight:

It's nice to win money while I'm learning a new game. Hopefully things keep falling my way and I don't try to get too fancy. I think I was a victim of that tonight for a while. There's just no need to go crazy at this level. Make hands and make money.

Oh I also min-cashed in the 5k Turbo Takedown yesterday for $90. AQ < AK when I pushed 2 off the button with 6k and 1,100 in the middle. BB had me drawing dead on the turn. I made a big call early with QQ on a 542 board and 33 somehow missed 17 outs on the river to double me.

BR $2,190.72

Time to take a break from 1/2 LHE

2008-12-27T15:02:00.004-06:00

December 1/2 6 max LHE:

I'm pretty sure that while I'm trying to adjust my play to take advantage of the HUD I have sprung a massive leak. I will probably play a session or two next month and if that go well I'll keep playing but if not I will continue trying to learn $50 NL 6 max and kiss goodbye to Platinum for a while.

I've played 2500 hands of $50 NL and it has gone much better than LHE:

I'm running at over 10ptbb/100 right now so I'm sure that will come back to reality soon enough. I've never been much of a NL cash game player but maybe with the HUD and what I've learned the past 3 months in 90k hands of LHE I will have the skillset to succeed some.

We'll see.

Gonna play in the 5k turbo takedown tomorrow and the $11 35,000 person 500k guarantee.

BR = $1,973
December = -$515 so far

Still on track for Platinum sigh

2008-12-18T10:29:00.003-06:00

The funny/sad/encouraging part about last night is that I didn't really tilt although I DID play 2/4 HU LHE at the end. That was a lot of fun but not very profitable as I got up $100 after 20 minutes or so and then quit 10 minutes later up $4.

What I find that happens when I start off like I did last night is that I become way too passive. I was hoving around 1.4 to 1.2 AF at most of my tables and that's not good in 6 max. At all. I'm sure that contributed to people sucking out.

My plan is to continue 5 tabling 1/2 6 max this month and continue to try to improve. Last night was one of those epic bad nights where I folded two winners early in the session for $60 and then had hands like K hi flush versus ace hi several times, ace hi flush rivered by sets that filled, top pair to 2 pair, 2 pair to draws that hit, my draws continually missing, etc. etc.

BR at $1933.80

Ditto

2008-12-16T09:30:00.003-06:00

Well, I finally got to use the HUD on PT3 last night in a sweet 5.5 hour 2800 hand session. It was really, really nice to have everything right in front of me as I made my decisions. I'm looking forward to using it more as I try to improve my 6 max skills.

Last night's session:

Wow, what a night. About 2 hours in I was thinking HUD was the answer to all of my prayers and I was in for a $400 night. Boy was I wrong. That $300 nosedive was so horrible. It continually amazes me how streaky 6 max is. Ugh.

I worked my way back up thanks to two amazing maniacs and then once they left I drifted down again. It was an interesting feeling after they left. The tables seemed soooo tight. Just one night with the HUD opened my eyes as to how important table selection is - even at 1/2.

Even though December has been less than ideal I'm still looking forward to improving my skills and figuring this game out. I will probably cash out everything over $2,000 on 1/1/09 and attempt to retain my Platinum status in January at 1/2.

Still hanging around $2300 and on target to get Platinum while I'm learning so I'm not complaining.

More Pain

2008-12-11T12:47:00.003-06:00

That's the sad reality of 6 Max LHE. Lot's of pain with a little bit of fun mixed in and when you have finally played enough hands to take away the thrills and chills you are just punching a timeclock making money. Haha. Too dark? I agree.

Last session:

I had 3 set over sets last night in huge pots along with another huge pot where I flopped top two with AQ versus top set versus two other guys that eventually folded on the river. $77 pot. Weee. Those 4 pots were well over $200. I still squeaked out a win but it wasn't fun. At all.

I feel like I'm waiting for the 'ole 6k hand upswing that deposits $800 into my account and makes me like poker again. All the while I am trying to improve and figure out how to play against the various villians that populate my tables. To be honest that's the fun part - experimenting with my style of play and trying to pull moves against the few thinking players I encounter.

Ha I'm reviewing hands against a regular right now and some of them are from months ago. I was waaaay too passive. Wow. I still am but it's kinda shocking to see what I used to do.

Still down around $200 for December...

FPP Schedule for 2009

2008-12-10T16:03:00.004-06:00

I'm at 14k fpps right now. If I make Platinum this month I'll have 22k fpps on 1/1/09 (after deducting 5k for the Turbo Takedown). 10k vpps each month = 25k fpps at Platinum and 35k at Supernova starting around late October SO:

(deducting 5k for the TT each month and 50k for the $650 cash bonus when I accrue enough)

1/1/09 22k
2/1/09 42k
3/1/09 12k $650
4/1/09 32k
5/1/09 2k $650
6/1/09 22k
7/1/09 42k
8/1/09 12k $650
9/1/09 32k
10/1/09 2k $650
11/1/09 22k
12/1/09 2k $650
1/1/10 32k

So that's $3,250 in cash bonuses if I hit at least 10k vpps a month for the entire year. I'll revisit this in a few months and see how realistic it is.

Blah

2008-12-09T13:02:00.003-06:00

I have now lost in 3 out of the past 5 sessions including last night's $101 loss in 5 hours. Gross. I hate feeling like I have no idea what people have. That's exactly what seems to happen when I start running bad. Such a funny game.

Here's December so far:

Maybe my best session ever

2008-12-04T09:13:00.005-06:00

This stuff is so subjective. Coming off of two straight losing sessions it would've been easy to have a crisis of confidence.

Starting off the first hour killing it really helped me feel better. Then the horrible beats started and didn't let up for close to 3 hours. I was able to remain calm though and kept repeating this mantra: "if they keep playing this badly and I keep playing well I WILL make money in the long run". I felt like Stuart Smalley.

Anyway, the cards finally turned in my favor in the last hour and I ended the session on a positive note.

I am still on pace to get Platinum this month. My goal right now is to be able to get a $685 cash bonus the first week of February with 50,000 fpps. Hopefully my account is around $3,000 at the start of the new year and I can mix in some 2/4 tables.

$2,263.68

Going down?

2008-12-03T13:19:00.003-06:00

Yes, that would be me. Dropped close to 150 BBs Monday night. $291.75. Ouch.

The only good part was I put in 5 hours instead of 4. If I was smart I would cut my losing sessions short and extend my winning sessions - duh. So I made over 1,100 vpps which puts me on pace to maybe get platinum this month. I'll try it again tonight and see if I can play better and, more importantly, run better.

Monday's fun:

November

2008-12-01T09:24:00.002-06:00

Well I didn't have time to play in the freeroll or the 100 fpp tourney Saturday but I did manage to cash for the 3rd consecutive time in the 5k turbo takedown yesterday (9746 runners). I got $150 as AJ > 1010 aipf (got taken out on the river for a little extra drama). Winning that hand would've given me an average stack and I easily would've cruised into the $225 prize level as we were only 150 spots away - in fact the guy that took me out finished 123rd for $453.

It was an excellent month all in all.

September $452.78
October $872.04
November $901.35

Here's my run since I started following proper bankroll management:

9/5/2008 $261.96
9/16/2008 $494.59
9/29/2008 $714.74
10/15/2008 $745.63
10/29/2008 $1,586.78
11/15/2008 $1,694.63
11/30/2008 $2,488.43

Yuck

2008-11-25T23:47:00.003-06:00

The month ended as it started: tons and tons of river beats. Oh well. I controlled tilt pretty well and ended up booking a small loss after 2300 hands. I ran at 2.4/100 thru 15,492 hands in November for a total gain of $757.30. I'll certainly take it. Hopefully I can add a couple of hundred this weekend in the freeroll and the 5k turbo takedown.

Here's the final chart for November:

BR: $2,344.38

Bingo!

2008-11-24T21:14:00.003-06:00

Wow. I quit about an hour ahead of schedule because...*drumroll*... I hit $350. Well, really $349.50 but who's counting? I decided to quit at this amount as a one time thing since I've already reached most of my goals for this month.

So after a slow start things have really picked up this month:

I'll play one more cash session (probably tomorrow night) and then play in a couple of mtts this weekend.

BR: $2418.13

Almost had the $350 night

2008-11-19T22:11:00.002-06:00

Got it up to $325 tonight but couldn't finish it off. Got hit with a bunch of badbeats and coolers in the last hour but after the first 2 hours I was certainly due. No complaining here! There are a bunch of decent regulars at 1/2 and I did a good job of shutting down tables when 2 or more of them were sitting with me. There's no need to play with people who are decent to good with the amount of customers on Stars. There is still good game selection to be had.

The bankroll is now over $2,000. I've played 11,654 hands of 1/2 6 max this month for a BB/100 of 2.01. I'll probably play 2 more sessions next week and call it a month. I'll also try to play in the 100k GoldStar freeroll on the last Saturday of the month along with the Turbo Takedown on the 30th.

I still plan to play at 1/2 in December and then probably move up to 2/4 in January as I try to get Platinum and eventually SuperNova. Hopefully I have a bankroll of close to 3k to start 2009 off with and then cash out anything over 3k on the 1st of February. First things first though.

Here's the chart from tonight:

Biggest pot I've seen at 1/2 LHE 6 max

2008-11-17T21:57:00.003-06:00

and of course the rivered gutshot earns the huge payday.

PokerStars 1/2 Hold'em (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Preflop: Whatever is SB with Th, 9h.

UTG calls, MP calls, 1 fold, Whatever completes, BB checks.

Flop: (4 SB) 8d, 6d, 7s (4 players)

Whatever bets, BB raises, UTG calls, MP calls, Whatever 3-bets, BB caps, UTG calls, MP calls, Whatever calls.

Turn: (10 BB) 2h (4 players)

Whatever bets, BB raises, UTG calls, MP calls, Whatever 3-bets, BB caps, UTG calls, MP folds, Whatever calls.

River: (24 BB) 9s (3 players)

Whatever bets, BB raises, UTG 3-bets, Whatever calls, BB folds.

Final Pot: 32 BB

Whatever has Th 9h (straight, ten high).
UTG has Jc Tc (straight, jack high).
Outcome: UTG wins 32 BB.

Wow what a crazy night. I will make $350 in 2k hands one of these nights. The play is THAT bad.

Up over $1,800 now. I'm gonna stick at 1/2 until January no matter how much I make. There's no rush to move up. I'd love to get my 1/2 winrate over 2/100 BB. I'll probably stick my toe into the 2/4 waters in January and see if I can make platinum in 15k hands or so. All I know is it takes 24k hands at 1/2.

Oh and I recovered from the rivered gutshot partially by rivering a fullboat (I flopped 2 pair) in a $57 pot so we'll call it even... I guess.

Here's the chart from tonight:

4 hours of 1/2 6 Max LHE

2008-11-13T08:50:00.005-06:00

and a SNG 18 person $6.40 turbo. I lasted 11 minutes in the turbo. This hand sums up the 2nd half of my night by the way:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (7 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

MP1 (t2255)
MP2 (t1360)
CO (t1610)
Whatever (t1510)
SB (t3565)
BB (t3015)
UTG (t1545)

Preflop: Whatever is Button with Tc, Th.
1 fold, MP1 calls t50, 1 fold, CO calls t50, Whatever raises to t300, 2 folds, MP1 folds, CO calls t250.

Flop: (t725) 8d, 3s, 7s (2 players)
CO bets t600, Whatever raises to t1210, CO calls t610.

CO has Kh 8c
Whatever has Tc Th

Turn: (t3145) 8s (2 players)

River: (t3145) 5d (2 players)
Final Pot: t3145

CO has Kh 8c (three of a kind, eights).
Whatever has Tc Th (two pair, tens and eights).
Outcome: CO wins t3145.

I 4 and 5 tabled 1/2 6 max and was up $170 after going on a crazy 20 minute rush of cards and then the switch was flipped and the river became my opponents best friend for the last 2 hours. Oh well. I feel like I'm gonna have a $400 night one of these sessions but right now I'll continue to grind away and try to improve on the things I can control. Here's my chart from last night:

PT3 it is

2008-11-11T08:44:00.002-06:00

Since I'm already used to it I went ahead and bought PT3. $89. Hope it's worth it. I feel like tracking programs cost me a little bit until I figure out what the stats mean in real life situations and get used to certain scenarios. It's fun to be engaged and try to noodle through things.

Last night was awesome and then horrible. I ran very well the first half of the night and then got coolered, sucked out on and generally beat down in the last hour or so. Was up near $200 pretty quickly and then finished up $112 so it was rather frustrating as it looked like I might have a monster night.

My plan right now is to play around 15k hands this month and probably about the same in December and then go for Platinum in January and Supernova in 2009. I figured out that I can make Platinum playing 24k hands at 1/2 6 max. That works out to nine 5 hour sessions. I will be gone the first 6 days of January so I might have to play some 2/4 to make sure I get the 10k VPPs. If I happen to stick there then all the better.

Last night:

Slow Start

2008-11-06T10:51:00.003-06:00

I'm sick this week but I still put in 4k hands and was beset by a ton of badbeats and suckouts and set over set situations. Luckily I was able to book a small $60 loss so I'm still running at 4/100 BB thru 6100 hands at 1/2. I'm not sure if I'm gonna stick with PT3 or try out Hold Em Manager since my 60 day trial period is over. We'll see.

It looks like I'll be putting in pretty light volume this month due to the holidays and me being sick. Maybe something like 15k hands. It would be great to run at 3/100 and still pull in $900 or so. That's saying a lot since I'm negative on the month right now.

I folded two winners last night for a total of $45. That hurts. A lot. In both situations the pot was 3 handed on the turn and I was facing a bet and reraise holding something like K10 on a 10 hi board when the board had just turned flushy or straighty. Oh well. Those are almost always good folds.

Here's the graphs from Monday (-106) and Wednesday (+47):

1/2 and Oct/Nov goals

2008-10-30T10:20:00.006-05:00

Well October was my best month ever. +$999.54 = $463.64 at .5/1 6 max, $288.75 at 1/2 6 max, $315 from the turbo takedown and -$67.85 in 2 cash HU sessions and 4 other sngs and mtts.

Oct Goals
Play 24k hands CHECK Played 23,666 hands of .5/1 (ran at 1.98/100) and 1,982 hands of 1/2 (7.28/100).
Move up to 1/2 6 max LHE when I hit $1200 CHECK
Make Goldstar by the 25th to play in freeroll CHECK

Nov Goals
Play 20k hands
Retain Goldstar and go for platinum if it looks possible at ~ 10 hours a week

Last night was my first perfect start when moving up. 1/2 is certainly more aggro than .5/1 but the players are probably just as bad. We'll see. Here's my favorite hand from last night's 4 hour session:

PokerStars 1/2 Hold'em (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Preflop: Whatever is CO with 5d, 5s.

2 folds, Whatever raises, Button calls, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: (8 SB) Qh, 7d, 3s (4 players)

SB checks, BB checks, Whatever bets, Button calls, SB raises, BB folds, Whatever calls, Button calls.

Turn: (7 BB) 5h (3 players)

SB bets, Whatever raises, Button calls, SB 3-bets, Whatever caps, Button calls, SB calls.

River: (19 BB) 4c (3 players)

SB bets, Whatever calls, Button raises, SB calls, Whatever calls.

Final Pot: 25 BB

SB has 4d Qd (two pair, queens and fours).
Whatever has 5d 5s (three of a kind, fives).
Button has 6c 6d (straight, seven high).
Outcome: Button wins 25 BB.

Here's my chart from last night along with the October cash game chart:

Quote of the Day

2008-10-28T11:16:00.000-05:00

Tilt is evidence of arrogant ignorance.

Kinda.

It's a pride thing for sure.

Upswings are good

2008-10-28T09:07:00.008-05:00

First things first. I now realize that the rate of rake goes down as you move up so getting 10k vpps is not as simple as moving up from .5/1 to 1/2 and playing the same number of hands. I haven't really looked but I would guess that I would need to increase my hands by at least 33% to get 10k vpps in November and make platinum star. I seriously doubt I will be able to do that. However, I should easily be able to make 12k fpps (if I hang at 1/2) which will be plenty sweet.

Thursday ($64.75) 20 minutes of $50 HU - played fine but the villian just had the deck hit him in the face repeatedly as in KK once and AA twice and flush over flush once. Not fun.

Saturday +$22.65 30 minutes 3 tabling .5/1

Ah also played and 100 fpp 20k and the Goldstar 100k freeroll. Went out in both early but the Goldstar bust-out was especially sweet. 99 > QQ > JJ. 99 pushed and JJ called and I called with QQ only to see a 9 flop. Weeeeee. Would've more than tripled in the 1st level to a 5k stack. Oh well.

Sunday +$40.65 1 hour 20 minute session 3 tabling while playing the 5k fpp takedown mtt

Which leads me to the Turbo Takedown. What a beautiful tournament. 3k starting stack and 10 minute levels combined with the fact that people only paid fpps to play = an extreme donk-fest with an extreme payout of 100k for 1st and a min-cash of $90 in 4000th. 8,632 runners and we hit the cash an hour and a half in.

My first big hand was 40 minutes in sitting below average but not feeling any pressure with an M of 23:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

SB (t2650)

BB (t4070)

UTG (t3040)

UTG+1 (t7985)

MP1 (t6860)

MP2 (t2615)

MP3 (t2970)

Whatever (t3545)

Button (t2785)

Preflop: Whatever is CO with Jd, Jc.

UTG calls t100, UTG+1 raises to t400, 3 folds, Whatever raises to t800, 3 folds, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls t400.

Flop: (t1850) Ah, 3d, 9s (2 players)

UTG+1 checks, Whatever bets t400, UTG+1 calls t400.

Turn: (t2650) 8s (2 players)

UTG+1 checks, Whatever checks.

River: (t2650) Qs (2 players)

UTG+1 checks, Whatever checks.

Final Pot: t2650

UTG+1 has Td Tc (one pair, tens).

Whatever has Jd Jc (one pair, jacks).

Outcome: Whatever wins t2650.

I chipped up from 4800 to 6300 over the next 30 minutes and then this hand happened as we approached the bubble:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t300 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG+1 (t5240)

MP1 (t4045)

MP2 (t2715)

MP3 (t3960)

CO (t6185)

Button (t1690)

SB (t2195)

Whatever (t6385)

UTG (t10565)

Preflop: Whatever is BB with Ah, 5h.

1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t600, 6 folds, Whatever calls t300.

Flop: (t1100) 5d, Qh, As (2 players)

Whatever checks, UTG+1 bets t900, Whatever raises to t5760, UTG+1 folds.

Final Pot: t7760

No showdown. Whatever wins t7760.

Three hands later this gift was given and it put me comfortably above the average and able to cruise into the money:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t300 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

SB (t3365)

BB (t3970)

UTG (t2640)

UTG+1 (t3885)

MP1 (t6110)

MP2 (t1615)

MP3 (t2645)

Whatever (t8035)

Button (t10715)

Preflop: Whatever is CO with As, Ad.

2 folds, MP1 raises to t600, MP2 raises to t1590, 1 fold, Whatever raises to t8010, 3 folds, MP1 folds.

Flop: (t10350) Ts, Td, 5c (2 players)

Turn: (t10350) Kd (2 players)

River: (t10350) Th (2 players)

Final Pot: t10350

MP2 has Ah 7h (three of a kind, tens).

Whatever has As Ad (full house, tens full of aces).

Outcome: Whatever wins t10350.

This next hand was maybe a horrible call on my part. I felt his range was huge as a tiny stack that had just made the money and I was hoping for a 60/40 which is what I got.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t600 (8 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG+1 (t9114)

MP1 (t4220)

MP2 (t1767)

CO (t4036)

Button (t14750)

SB (t6660)

Whatever (t10025)

UTG (t10890)

Preflop: Whatever is BB with 2d, Ac.

3 folds, MP2 raises to t1717, 3 folds, Whatever calls t1117.

Flop: (t3184) Ts, 9c, Tc (2 players)

Turn: (t3184) 4h (2 players)

River: (t3184) 7h (2 players)

Final Pot: t3184

Whatever has 2d Ac (one pair, tens).

MP2 has Kd Qs (one pair, tens).

Outcome: Whatever wins t3184.

Chipped up to 17,000 with some blind steals before losing an 8k pot versus a shorty pushing with 77 after a K8o blindsteal versus my AQ in the BB. So just like that a few hands later I was back down to under 12,000 and every steal was worth 3600+ chips. I then stole 4 times in 16 hands from late position with KQ, J2 soooted, J10o, and AQ to move my chipstack up to 23k without seeing a flop. Here's the next important all-in hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t2000 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG+1 (t6609)

MP1 (t5366)

MP2 (t19337)

MP3 (t41868)

CO (t14716)

Button (t15030)

SB (t9565)

Whatever (t23467)

UTG (t9080)

Preflop: Whatever is BB with 3h, 9s.

4 folds, MP3 calls t2000, 2 folds, SB completes, Whatever checks.

Flop: (t6600) Tc, 9h, 3c (3 players)

SB bets t7365 (All-In), Whatever raises to t21267, MP3 folds.

Turn: (t35232) Js (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t35232) 6c (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t35232

SB has Th 8c (one pair, tens).

Whatever has 3h 9s (two pair, nines and threes).

Outcome: Whatever wins t35232.

5 hands later I got moved to a new table and my first hand there was pretty huge - I was even able to stupidly get a little value-town going on a scary river card since I put him on AK-AQ:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t2000 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG (t18727)

UTG+1 (t55386)

MP1 (t36313)

MP2 (t43447)

MP3 (t20640)

CO (t90162)

Button (t12945)

SB (t10026)

Whatever (t35632)

Preflop: Whatever is BB with Ah, 9h.

2 folds, MP1 raises to t4999, 5 folds, Whatever calls t2999.

Flop: (t9598) Jh, 9c, 3d (2 players)

Whatever checks, MP1 bets t6499, Whatever calls t6499.

Turn: (t22596) 4d (2 players)

Whatever checks, MP1 checks.

River: (t22596) Jd (2 players)

Whatever bets t6000, MP1 calls t6000.

Final Pot: t34596

Whatever has Ah 9h (two pair, jacks and nines).

MP1 has Tc Ad (one pair, jacks).

Outcome: Whatever wins t34596.

And then the very next hand for a top 10 chipstack with 700 left:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t3000 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

BB (t18527)

UTG (t55186)

UTG+1 (t18615)

MP1 (t43247)

MP2 (t20440)

MP3 (t89962)

CO (t12745)

Button (t8826)

Whatever (t55730)

Preflop: Whatever is SB with Kh, Kc.

4 folds, MP3 raises to t9000, CO raises to t12445, 1 fold, Whatever raises to t55430, 1 fold, MP3 folds.

Flop: (t78675) Js, 6h, Qd (2 players)

Turn: (t78675) As (2 players)

River: (t78675) 6d (2 players)

Final Pot: t78675

Whatever has Kh Kc (two pair, kings and sixes).

CO has 9d Ac (two pair, aces and sixes).

Outcome: CO wins t78675.

Blah. 20 minutes later I had gotten down to 38k and below average again when I won a coin-flip aipf with AQ versus 88. 10 minutes after that the hand that would ultimately decide my bust-out happened. The villian was by far the loosest player on the table and doubled me with this strange call:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t5000 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG+1 (t173316)

MP1 (t125283)

MP2 (t50850)

MP3 (t57826)

CO (t118226)

Button (t88544)

Whatever (t50670)

BB (t104998)

UTG (t150459)

Preflop: Whatever is SB with Ah, Ad.

1 fold, UTG+1 calls t5000, 5 folds, Whatever raises to t50170, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls t45170.

Flop: (t104340) Kh, Qh, 6d (2 players)

Turn: (t104340) 5h (2 players)

River: (t104340) Jc (2 players)

Final Pot: t104340

Whatever has Ah Ad (one pair, aces).

UTG+1 has Qs Ts (one pair, queens).

Outcome: Whatever wins t104340.

Lost a 37k flip vs a shorty's 55 and then came my bust-out hand after a couple of steals. This is the same guy that called my 50k push with Q10 soooted. I wince now when I look at my chip position. Average was 93k and I had 82k for like 130th out of 280 left or so and a prize bump of $138 to $453 coming at 199 left. I just really felt like he had ace high or an underpair because of his previous play. The one tell that was arguing for something much stronger was his min-raise. Oh well. This is pretty typical of my bust-out hands when going deep. Sigh.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t6000 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG+1 (t158746)

MP1 (t111683)

MP2 (t67900)

MP3 (t87426)

CO (t75226)

Button (t89344)

Whatever (t82890)

BB (t92898)

UTG (t229285)

Preflop: Whatever is SB with Jd, Kd.

1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t12000, 5 folds, Whatever calls t9000, BB calls t6000.

Flop: (t31800) Jc, 6d, 4s (3 players)

Whatever checks, BB checks, UTG+1 bets t24000, Whatever raises to t70290, BB folds, UTG+1 calls t46290.

Turn: (t172380) Td (2 players)

River: (t172380) 2h (2 players)

Final Pot: t172380

Whatever has Jd Kd (one pair, jacks).

UTG+1 has As Ad (one pair, aces).

Outcome: UTG+1 wins t172380.

So I'm now at $1431 after making $138 5 tabling .5/1 last night. I'll move up to 1/2 6 max next week and see how realistic attaining platium star is.

Goal attained

2008-10-23T09:33:00.005-05:00

I am now a Goldstar on Pokerstars. Weeeee. I'm pretty disappointed with the month so far however. I am up $238.89 in October after adding $5 last night in 5 hours of play. Sigh. I'll attach last night's chart at the bottom.

On Tuesday I tried a couple of 2000 fpp 6 person hyper turbo sngs. The top 2 spots pay 5000 fpps for the monthly turbo takedown mtt and 3rd place pays 2000. You start with 750 chips and 3 minute levels with blinds starting at 25/50. On hand 8 I got JJ and pushed 700 over a K10o 550 chip push. King on the turn. The next hand it folded to me in the SB and I pushed with AQ and somehow the big stack BB folded the 100 more. I went out on the next hand I believe when I pushed 68o and couldn't beat KQ. Whatever.

3 minutes later I was playing in sng 2 and got JJ on the first hand. Mid position opens up to 300 with A10o and I push and go out when the ace hits the river. My first thought was 'did I really just spend 4000 fpps in 5 minutes?' I then played a little $50 NL HU and got up to $64 after 7 hands when KK < 25o on a 652 flop. Weeeeee. My opponent immediately quit so in 10 minutes I had blown through 4000 fpps and $25 on 3 horrible hands. Poker.

Oh and then yesterday I played a $10 'double up' turbo sng. It's a 10 person sng that pays the top 5 spots double the buy-in. I busted 10th obviously because I'm not very good at poker.

I have realized now that becoming a Supernova is not out of reach at 1/2 6 max. If I can earn 5,000 vpps at .5/1 in a month it stands to reason that I can do 10,000 at 1/2. It would be close 5 tabling and to give myself a comfort zone I would have to eventually go to 6 tables I think. Anyway, 10 months of that in 2009 would get me to the Supernova level.

Hopefully I'll eventually get pokertracker HUD working on my computer and my win-rate will be better than 1.5/100 BB!

The plan right now is to play the $20k 100 fpp VIP tourney along with the $100k Goldstar freeroll Saturday and then the 5000 fpp (or 9000 fpp as I like to call it) Turbo Takedown Sunday.

Wednesday:

Good Session

2008-10-20T22:58:00.002-05:00

These sessions are almost fun. Got hit with a ton of rivered badbeats the last 1000 hands but I can't complain after how I ran the first 1000.

$179.10 in almost 5 hours of 5 tabling. One more session till goldstar and the $100k freeroll Saturday.

Another downswing

2008-10-20T10:48:00.003-05:00

Wednesday night was horrible. Typical horrid beats followed by tiltish tendencies. Nothing horrible on my part but I was certainly playing too many hands again and getting rivered very consistently.

Lost $224 Wednesday and then played Sunday for 20 minutes and made $60. Whatever. Here's my chart for .5/1 so far. How depressing. 18,809 hands and .81BB/100. Weeeeee.

3 more sessions till goldstar

2008-10-14T12:53:00.004-05:00

Here's the session from last night. Typical stuff. I did fold the best hand (AA) on the turn in what eventually became a $24 pot before I had a read on the two yahoos next to me. Stuff like that stings a little.

Ha my very first hand of the night was AK getting rivered by 1010 in a $14 pot. I don't know if I played good or was running good last night but I'm now at exactly 2.00 BB/100 thru almost 16k hands at .5/1 6 max. Ye olde bankroll is up to $970.

4 more sessions till goldstar

2008-10-09T10:59:00.002-05:00

Can't wait. These 5 hour sessions blow. Seriously. The last 45 minutes each night have been a true grind. Set over set 3 times last night.

I am now running at 1.59 BB/100 thru 13,245 hands at .5/1 6 max. Gross. Looks like I'm going to have to go to pokertracker 2 to fix my lagging HUD problem. Having a working HUD at my tables will have to help I would think.

$864.37 on my way to $1,200 and the promised land of 1/2 6 max where I can look forward to $200 swings. Woo-hoo!

Grinding

2008-10-07T08:53:00.003-05:00

My routine has been 2500 hands twice a week 5 tabling for 5 hours. I would prefer to 5 table for 4 hours but in order to make goldstar before the 100k freeroll on October 25th I gotta do 10 hours a week. It's a grind but I think the volume of hands is certainly helping the tilt factor. I hope so anyway. I am at 1.94 BB/100 through 7700 hands so far this month. I was hoping to be over 3/100 so I have a long ways to go. Here's my chart from last night:

September LHE results

2008-09-30T16:10:00.004-05:00

Well it was quite a month as the chart shows. The 1st 2500 hands was night #1, a $600+ tiltfest at 1/2 and then 2/4. That night inspired me to come up with a structured plan that included strict bankroll limits and keeping track of each session.

The way back has been good for the most part. I've won 9 of the 10 cash sessions I've played for $268 and played in 2 cash mtts for a net of $98.63 and 3 fpp/freerolls for a gain of $86 (shipped close to half to my brother). $452.78 gain after that first night. A good start. Hopefully I dodge the 160BB downswing session this month.

My goals for October are:

1) Play 20k hands. That's very doable at 9 1/2 hours a week 5 tabling .5/1.

2) It will be close but hopefully I'll be able to move up to 1/2 ($1200 BR).

3) Tilt is getting much better but I want to be able to practically eliminate it.

4) Make the goldstar level

I want my mommy

2008-09-29T23:26:00.004-05:00

<---- Tonight's session. 6 max is so brutal. I felt like I handled tilt probably better than I ever have though. This was the perfect session to improve my 'tilt control'. There were tons and tons of God awful beats that came in waves. Towards the end of the session everything started holding somehow and I stormed back.

I guess I would rate my play at about a 7 on a scale of 1-10 and the tilt control around 7.5. I have certainly come a long way in handling a session like this. I was telling myself to look at the big picture and at times I was actually encouraged by the horrible beats. There is plenty of money to be made at this level - that's for sure.

BR is over $700 after cashing in the 5000 fpp and the Goldstar freeroll over the weekend. According to Pokerstars I should be able to get back to Goldstar in October by 5 tabling .5/1 for 9 hours a week. I earned 500 tonight but it was a 5 hour session and I am currently a Goldstar which means I earn them at a slightly higher rate. I will be Silverstar for most of October. If I'm close at the end of the month I'll move up to 1/2 to get the necessary fpps.

That $100,000 freeroll is pretty sweet - oh and the 5000 fpp turbo takedown is ridiculously juicy. I can see me getting a serious cash in that tourney someday.

Officially at .5/1 now

2008-09-25T08:04:00.002-05:00

Mixed in 2 tables of .5/1 with my .25/.50 last night and now stand at $614 after making $40. I ran at 2.88/100 BB thru 13,914 hands at .25/.50 even while suffering through one downswing of 160 BBs in a night of variance enhanced by some good 'ole fashioned tilt.

It's funny how much bigger the bets look at .5/1 now. I think it helped me to play fairly tight and not do stupid stuff like constantly call down with AQ. Ha my very first hand at .5/1 I got beaten by a river gutshot in a $6 pot. Welcome to the next level! My goal is to run over 3/100 BB and move up to 1/2 with over $1200 in about 5 weeks.

Will probably play in the 5000 fpp turbo takedown Sunday. Last month I min-cashed for $90 and lost QQ < AK aipf in a pot that easily would've carried me to the next prize level ($150). I think there's a ton of value in that tournament. I'm sad that unless I satellite in I probably won't play in it again until December.

Ho Hum another 6 max session

2008-09-23T08:05:00.004-05:00

Sooooo ready to move up. I think AK was 3 for 12 at one point last night. My favorite part of the session was getting river gutshotted in big pots on two different tables at the same time. Here's my graph from last night's session. It's crazy that 90% of my profit was in the last 500 hands or so of 2000. I think I have improved my game a little although I still threw away a few bets last night. Every little bit helps.

That -$80 night really screwed up my plan to get to $600 and .5/1. Oh well I hope to run well in my 2nd session this week and double my bets next week. Running at 3.25/100 BB through 12,000 hands at .25/.50. I feel like I should be over 4 if I played well. The players really are that bad.

I think I may have to put in 500 or so hands at 1/2 next Monday to qualify for silver star. I went from getting 500 fpps a session at 1/2 to maybe 50 at .25/.50. I am like 140 away so I doubt a session at .25/.50 and one at .5/1 (assuming I get to $600) will do it. We'll see.

6 max sucks

2008-09-17T22:49:00.002-05:00

OMG. What torture. Lost $80 last night (apparently $60 stop losses only work if you observe them) on ridiculous beat after beat and then becoming a tiltish calling station.

I made a conscious effort tonight to not call down and tighten up a little bit. I don't think I changed my playing style but look at my obnoxious graph from tonight's session. Thank God I'm observing conservative bankroll management or I might've had a stroke. Blah. Still trying to get better. BR back at $510 now after briefly flirting with $580 after cashing for $16 in Saturday's 100 fpp tourney. Won $15 tonight in a wonderful, incredibly uplifting session (actually my throat hurts from yelling a couple of times. I guess I'm not emotionally where I need to be yet huh?)

Another session in my quest to get back to 1/2

2008-09-08T22:38:00.003-05:00

4 hours at 5 .25/.50 tables

+$95.50

I've put in 7 1/2 hours and right now I'm making over $20 an hour. Crazy. The beats are horrendous and steady but the players are worse. I need to get the latest poker tracker (if this computer will run it) just to see the pretty graph. :) I think 4 hours 5 tabling that mess is the definition of grinding.

Bankroll back to $413.90 after dipping well below $270.

I need to get to $600 asap so that I can move up to .5/1 and start getting some fpps. I think I've made like 40 fpps at the .25/.50 tables. At 1/2 I was making 500 in a 4 hour session 4 tabling. There is a very outside chance I can save my goldstar level this month but I doubt it. I would have to get to $600 in my next two sessions at .25/.50 and then run just as well at .5/1 next week.

The past 2 months

2008-09-07T17:03:00.002-05:00

Have been good for the most part. I won another $2 180 man turbo and then went deep in my 8th $3 rebuy ever finishing in 14th for $140. I was 3/14 and then it went to crap in my one big bluff of the tourney. K9 ran into A9dd on a 1010x 2 diamond flop. The 9 on the turn sealed my fate. I don't think I've gotten over it yet.

I now have a 19th and a 14th in 8 $3 rebuys. I need to play those more.

I switched away from 1/2 horse to 1/2 limit 6 max. I pumped my account up from $500 to $900 mostly through those tables. I would 4 and 5 table to clear my fpps and collect enough to buy in for the $1M guarantee at the end of the month. This is supposed to cost 5k fpps but through my faulty satellite schemes I ended up paying 9k for the August 30th running. I cashed in the first level of prizes (around 2900th out of 11,500) for $90. QQ < AK aipf took me out.

Last week I hit a horrible 2 hour stretch at 1/2 getting badbeat repeatedly and being down between $60 and $150. $900 is nowhere near the roll you need to survive going on tilt from such an episode and moving up to 2/4.

6 hour session = - $620. Ouch. So horrible. I haven't lost that much in a night since 2005 I think. It feels really, really bad to slowly work a bankroll up over 5 or 6 months and lose most of it in one night of stupidity. So dumb. I didn't have a stop loss in place and broke the rules by moving up to chase my losses. 2/4 plays like another game compared to 1/2. Big difference as far as aggression.

My new plan is to drop down to .25/.50 6 max limit and grind up to $600 and from then move up to .5/1. I'll move back to 1/2 6 max if/when I have $1200 in my account. I've put in 2 sessions so far totalling 3 1/2 hours and am up $60 or so. The players are horrible. The beats are horrible but playing within my bankroll gives me every opportunity to get better as I put a little bit of money back in my account.

I'll take it. It feels like rehabilitation.

I have over 7k in fpps so I'll have another shot at the 1M turbo tourney this month. I'm sure I won't grind anything near the points I'll need to retain my goldstar status. Sucks but I need to learn to stay within my 600 BB rule.

A steamrolled 180 man turbo

2008-07-08T16:25:00.002-05:00

I tilted the whole final table, eventually knocking out 7 of my 8 opponents. It’s fun to run goot. I think I lost with pocket pairs only twice – many, many times all in pre-flop. I had pocket pairs 20 times including Kings 3 times out of the entire 124 hands of the tourney.

#7
aipf (all-in preflop)
Bravro: shows [Ad Qs] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
Whatever: shows [Jc Jh] (three of a kind, Jacks)
Whatever collected 2985 from pot

#8
Dealt to Whatever [8s 8d] (lost)

#15
Dealt to Whatever [6s 6d] (folded to a pf raise)

#23
Dealt to Whatever [5c 5s] collects 450

#24
aipf
Southy77: shows [Ac 3c] (a pair of Threes)
Whatever: shows [7c 7d] (a pair of Sevens)
Whatever collected 6425 from pot

#26
aipf
Southy77: shows [Tc 5h] (a pair of Kings)
Whatever: shows [6d 6h] (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
Whatever collected 2835 from pot

#35
Whatever: shows [Ac 6c] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
crouse93321: shows [8d 8h] (two pair, Eights and Fours)
Whatever collected 4100 from pot

#37
aipf
Whatever: shows [Js Jd] (a pair of Jacks)
shervinho113: shows [6s As] (high card Ace)
Whatever collected 7475 from pot

#44
Whatever: shows [Jc Th] (two pair, Tens and Eights)
MatderHengst: shows [Jd Kh] (a pair of Eights)
Whatever collected 7200 from pot

#46
aipf
PonasPoniz: shows [Ah Ks] (a pair of Sevens)
Whatever: shows [Jd Jh] (two pair, Jacks and Sevens)
Whatever collected 12130 from pot

#55
JACK014: shows [5h Tc] (a pair of Tens)
Whatever: shows [Ah 4h] (a pair of Aces)
Whatever collected 9380 from pot

#66
aipf
Raised all-in pf with big stack to isolate a shorty and SB woke up with QQ. Turned out donkish but whatever. Too bad for him. I was running extremely well to say the least.

Whatever: shows [9d As] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
frietfighter: shows [Qh Qs] (two pair, Queens and Tens)
Whatever collected 11514 from side pot
Lt.Callahan: shows [4d 4s] (two pair, Tens and Fours)
Whatever collected 20535 from main pot

#68
Ah, the big stack.
Dealt to Whatever [8s 8c]
3 folds
Whatever: raises 800 to 1600
et831: calls 1600
3 folds
*** FLOP *** [Kd 7d 3s]
Whatever: checks
et831: bets 2400
Whatever: raises 38482 to 40882 and is all-in
et831: folds
Uncalled bet (38482) returned to Whatever
Whatever collected 9800 from pot

#73
aipf
Dealt to Whatever [8h 8s] (lost to 99)

#81
rgk2001: shows [7s 5s] (two pair, Sevens and Fives)
Whatever: shows [3d 3h] (three of a kind, Threes)
Whatever collected 7475 from pot

#85
aipf
Whatever: shows [Ah As] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
Forsteel: shows [9h Kc] (a pair of Jacks)
Whatever collected 17284 from pot

#86
(all-in after K hi flop)
pamchinco: shows [Js Jc] (a flush, Queen high)
Whatever: shows [Qd Kc] (a flush, King high)
Whatever collected 59488 from pot

#89
Dealt to Whatever [8h 8c]

#91
aipf steal suckout
migeul: shows [Ac 3h] (high card Ace)
Whatever: shows [Jc 7s] (a pair of Sevens)
Whatever collected 12578 from pot

FINAL TABLE

#99
aipf
mo(SAK): shows [As 6s] (two pair, Eights and Deuces)
Whatever: shows [Ts Td] (two pair, Tens and Eights)
Whatever said, "gg"
Whatever collected 36234 from pot

ArielSpivack [observer] said, "game is good but not you"

#102
Dealt to Whatever [6d 6s]

#105

Imbißstar: shows [As Qc] (a pair of Aces)
Whatever: shows [Ac Jh] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
Whatever said, "gg"
Whatever collected 71524 from pot
(rivered jack – pushed on turn with nut flush draw and pair of aces trying to use big stack)

#108
My other suckout (I think I had 3 total):
aipf
Whatever: shows [7h 6h] (two pair, Sevens and Sixes)
soepercat5: shows [Jd Jh] (a pair of Jacks)
Whatever said, "gg"
Whatever collected 51076 from pot

soepercat5 [observer] said, "lucky idiot"
ArielSpivack [observer] said, "he is a joke"

#110
aipf
Whatever: shows [3s 3d] (three of a kind, Threes)r
remix05: shows [Ac 7s] (a pair of Sevens)
Whatever collected 18382 from pot
Whatever said, "gg"

#112
aipf
rgk2001: shows [Ts Jh] (two pair, Tens and Eights)
Whatever: shows [Ks Kc] (two pair, Kings and Eights)
Whatever collected 54436 from side pot
kasipor: shows [Qs Qd] (two pair, Queens and Eights)
rgk2001 said, "gg"
Whatever collected 15936 from main pot

Imbißstar [observer] said, "his run is unbeliefibal"

HEADS UP

#115
Dealt to Whatever [Qs Qc]

#122
Dealt to Whatever [7s 7d]

#124
aipf
Whatever: shows [Kd Kc] (three of a kind, Kings)
kjs10: shows [Qc Ac] (a pair of Queens)
Whatever collected 179826 from pot

Forgot the bust out hand on the last match

2008-06-27T13:52:00.001-05:00

Standard heads up cooler I guess:

PokerStars Game #18403111738: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 18:57:25 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($126.10 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($44.60 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Ts 8s]
Donk: raises $1 to $1.50
Whatever: calls $1
*** FLOP *** [9d 6c 7c]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $1.50
Whatever: raises $2.50 to $4
Donk: raises $5 to $9
Whatever: raises $115.60 to $124.60 and is all-in
Donk: calls $34.10 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($81.50) returned to Whatever
*** TURN *** [9d 6c 7c] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [9d 6c 7c 5d] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [Ts 8s] (a straight, Six to Ten)
Donk: mucks hand
Whatever collected $88.70 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $89.20 Rake $0.50
Board [9d 6c 7c 5d 4s]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) showed [Ts 8s] and won ($88.70) with a straight, Six to Ten
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) mucked [6d 6s]

2 1/2 hours = $86.88

2008-06-27T13:43:00.004-05:00

in rake heads up at the $50 NL tables. Wow. If a had a huge bankroll I think I would love playing $100 HU all day long (assuming I could make money at it).

Got set over setted in my first match and lost a total of $60. Went on to play 3 more guys. The last match was against an aggro donk that I bluffed way too much. Very stupid of me but you live and learn I guess. Had him on the ropes twice and let him wriggle free only to finally beat him out of $60. It should've been well over $100 but like I said I stink. Here's some key hands. The good, bad and ugly.

Ah, the first two hands are the bust out hands. I call them gifts but whatever:

PokerStars Game #18400599722: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 16:54:22 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($71.15 in chips)
Seat 2: Bürste1986 ($9.15 in chips)
Whatever: posts small blind $0.25
Bürste1986: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Td Qh]
Whatever: raises $1 to $1.50
Bürste1986: calls $1
*** FLOP *** [Ah Qs 5c]
Bürste1986: checks
Whatever: bets $2
Bürste1986: raises $5.65 to $7.65 and is all-in
Whatever: calls $5.65
*** TURN *** [Ah Qs 5c] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [Ah Qs 5c 4c] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Bürste1986: shows [Js 5d] (two pair, Fives and Fours)
Whatever: shows [Td Qh] (two pair, Queens and Fours)
Bürste1986 leaves the table
Whatever collected $17.80 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $18.30 Rake $0.50
Board [Ah Qs 5c 4c 4s]
Seat 1: Whatever (button) (small blind) showed [Td Qh] and won ($17.80) with two pair, Queens and Fours
Seat 2: Bürste1986 (big blind) showed [Js 5d] and lost with two pair, Fives and Fours

PokerStars Game #18400796760: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:04:32 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($76.10 in chips)
Seat 2: kushman888 ($31.10 in chips)
kushman888: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [As Ac]
kushman888: raises $1 to $1.50
Whatever: raises $2.50 to $4
kushman888: calls $2.50
*** FLOP *** [2d Qh 4c]
Whatever: bets $3
kushman888: calls $3
*** TURN *** [2d Qh 4c] [2h]
Whatever: bets $8.50
kushman888: calls $8.50
*** RIVER *** [2d Qh 4c 2h] [7h]
Whatever: bets $17
kushman888: calls $15.60 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($1.40) returned to Whatever
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [As Ac] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
kushman888: mucks hand
Whatever collected $61.70 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $62.20 Rake $0.50
Board [2d Qh 4c 2h 7h]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) showed [As Ac] and won ($61.70) with two pair, Aces and Deuces
Seat 2: kushman888 (button) (small blind) mucked [Ad 4d]

This guy was incredibly donisk and tiltish but super aggro. He wanted to play massive pots and I'm just not usually comfortable making massive calls HU with marginal holdings. Combine that with my own donkish bluffs and you have a match that should've been over in 20 minutes lasting around an hour.

PokerStars Game #18400852010: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:07:19 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($99.05 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($36.80 in chips)
Whatever: posts small blind $0.25
Donk: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Ac Ah]
Whatever: raises $0.50 to $1
Donk: raises $1.50 to $2.50
Whatever: raises $3.50 to $6
Donk: raises $30.80 to $36.80 and is all-in
Whatever: calls $30.80
*** FLOP *** [5d 8h Qc]
*** TURN *** [5d 8h Qc] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [5d 8h Qc 5h] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [Ad Kd] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
Whatever: shows [Ac Ah] (two pair, Aces and Fives)
Whatever collected $73.10 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $73.60 Rake $0.50
Board [5d 8h Qc 5h Kh]
Seat 1: Whatever (button) (small blind) showed [Ac Ah] and won ($73.10) with two pair, Aces and Fives
Seat 2: Donk (big blind) showed [Ad Kd] and lost with two pair, Kings and Fives

PokerStars Game #18400946983: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:12:03 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($118.80 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($44.40 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [7s 8s]
Donk: raises $1 to $1.50
Whatever: calls $1
*** FLOP *** [3s 8h 5c]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $2
Whatever: calls $2
*** TURN *** [3s 8h 5c] [Jc]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $7.50
Whatever: calls $7.50
*** RIVER *** [3s 8h 5c Jc] [Ks]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $21
Whatever: calls $21
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [9s 2h] (high card King)
Whatever: shows [7s 8s] (a pair of Eights)
Whatever collected $63.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $64 Rake $0.50
Board [3s 8h 5c Jc Ks]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) showed [7s 8s] and won ($63.50) with a pair of Eights
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) showed [9s 2h] and lost with high card King

PokerStars Game #18401021535: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:15:45 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($153.60 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($46.25 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Js 7s]
Donk: raises $1 to $1.50
Whatever: calls $1
*** FLOP *** [8c 9h 9c]
Whatever: checks
Donk: checks
*** TURN *** [8c 9h 9c] [3s]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $2
Whatever: raises $4 to $6
Donk: calls $4
*** RIVER *** [8c 9h 9c 3s] [9s]
Whatever: bets $8
Donk: calls $8
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [Js 7s] (three of a kind, Nines)
Donk: shows [8s 5d] (a full house, Nines full of Eights)
Donk collected $30.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $31 Rake $0.50
Board [8c 9h 9c 3s 9s]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) showed [Js 7s] and lost with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) showed [8s 5d] and won ($30.50) with a full house, Nines full of Eights

PokerStars Game #18401104864: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:19:51 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($159.45 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($50 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Qs 3d]
Donk: raises $0.50 to $1
Whatever: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [3s 8s Jc]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $1.50
Whatever: calls $1.50
*** TURN *** [3s 8s Jc] [Qd]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $4
Whatever: calls $4
*** RIVER *** [3s 8s Jc Qd] [Kh]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $5.50
Whatever: calls $5.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [Qc Ah] (a pair of Queens)
Whatever: shows [Qs 3d] (two pair, Queens and Threes)
Whatever collected $23.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $24 Rake $0.50
Board [3s 8s Jc Qd Kh]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) showed [Qs 3d] and won ($23.50) with two pair, Queens and Threes
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) showed [Qc Ah] and lost with a pair of Queens

PokerStars Game #18401178723: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:23:30 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($156.10 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($69.15 in chips)
Whatever: posts small blind $0.25
Donk: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Ah 5c]
Whatever: calls $0.25
Donk: raises $2 to $2.50
Whatever: calls $2
*** FLOP *** [2s 2c Qd]
Donk: bets $3.50
Whatever: calls $3.50
*** TURN *** [2s 2c Qd] [6h]
Donk: bets $6.50
Whatever: calls $6.50
*** RIVER *** [2s 2c Qd 6h] [Ac]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $8
Donk: calls $8
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [Ah 5c] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
Donk: mucks hand
Whatever collected $40.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $41 Rake $0.50
Board [2s 2c Qd 6h Ac]
Seat 1: Whatever (button) (small blind) showed [Ah 5c] and won ($40.50) with two pair, Aces and Deuces
Seat 2: Donk (big blind) mucked [4s Qh]

PokerStars Game #18401240502: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:26:32 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($169.80 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($53.75 in chips)
Whatever: posts small blind $0.25
Donk: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Kh Jc]
Whatever: calls $0.25
Donk: raises $2 to $2.50
Whatever: calls $2
*** FLOP *** [8s Ac 5s]
Donk: bets $2.50
Whatever: calls $2.50
*** TURN *** [8s Ac 5s] [Td]
Donk: bets $5
Whatever: calls $5
*** RIVER *** [8s Ac 5s Td] [3h]
Donk: bets $6
Whatever: calls $6
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [5h 8h] (two pair, Eights and Fives)
Whatever: mucks hand
Donk collected $31.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $32 Rake $0.50
Board [8s Ac 5s Td 3h]
Seat 1: Whatever (button) (small blind) mucked [Kh Jc]
Seat 2: Donk (big blind) showed [5h 8h] and won ($31.50) with two pair, Eights and Fives

PokerStars Game #18401592901: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:43:17 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($113.35 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($97.65 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [9d 7d]
Donk: raises $0.50 to $1
Whatever: raises $1.50 to $2.50
Donk: calls $1.50
*** FLOP *** [2h Qs Qd]
Whatever: bets $3.50
Donk: raises $3.50 to $7
Whatever: raises $6 to $13
Donk: calls $6
*** TURN *** [2h Qs Qd] [5h]
Whatever: bets $17
Donk: calls $17
*** RIVER *** [2h Qs Qd 5h] [5s]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $19.50
Whatever: folds
Uncalled bet ($19.50) returned to Donk
Donk collected $64.50 from pot
Donk: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $65 Rake $0.50
Board [2h Qs Qd 5h 5s]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) folded on the River
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) collected ($64.50)

PokerStars Game #18401652810: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:46:09 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($97.65 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($111.50 in chips)
Whatever: posts small blind $0.25
Donk: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [4h 2h]
Whatever: raises $1 to $1.50
Donk: calls $1
*** FLOP *** [6c 4s 2c]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $2
Donk: calls $2
*** TURN *** [6c 4s 2c] [9h]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $6
Donk: raises $6.50 to $12.50
Whatever: calls $6.50
*** RIVER *** [6c 4s 2c 9h] [6s]
Donk: checks
Whatever: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [Th 9s] (two pair, Nines and Sixes)
Whatever: mucks hand
Donk collected $31.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $32 Rake $0.50
Board [6c 4s 2c 9h 6s]
Seat 1: Whatever (button) (small blind) mucked [4h 2h]
Seat 2: Donk (big blind) showed [Th 9s] and won ($31.50) with two pair, Nines and Sixes

PokerStars Game #18401708774: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:48:48 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($73.90 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($133.30 in chips)
Whatever: posts small blind $0.25
Donk: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Jd 6d]
Whatever: calls $0.25
Donk: checks
*** FLOP *** [3d 8d 8c]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $1
Donk: calls $1
*** TURN *** [3d 8d 8c] [2s]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $2
Donk: calls $2
*** RIVER *** [3d 8d 8c 2s] [4d]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $5
Donk: raises $7 to $12
Whatever: raises $18 to $30
Donk: raises $99.80 to $129.80 and is all-in
Whatever: calls $40.40 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($59.40) returned to Donk
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [Ad 5c] (a straight, Ace to Five)
Whatever: shows [Jd 6d] (a flush, Jack high)
Whatever collected $147.30 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $147.80 Rake $0.50
Board [3d 8d 8c 2s 4d]
Seat 1: Whatever (button) (small blind) showed [Jd 6d] and won ($147.30) with a flush, Jack high
Seat 2: Donk (big blind) showed [Ad 5c] and lost with a straight, Ace to Five

PokerStars Game #18401769208: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:51:40 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($143.85 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($62.35 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [9c Ks]
Donk: raises $0.50 to $1
Whatever: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [9s 6c 3d]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $1.50
Whatever: raises $1.50 to $3
Donk: calls $1.50
*** TURN *** [9s 6c 3d] [Td]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $10
Whatever: calls $10
*** RIVER *** [9s 6c 3d Td] [8c]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $10
Whatever: calls $10
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [Qc Jh] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
Whatever: mucks hand
Donk collected $47.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $48 Rake $0.50
Board [9s 6c 3d Td 8c]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) mucked [9c Ks]
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) showed [Qc Jh] and won ($47.50) with a straight, Eight to Queen

PokerStars Game #18401805779: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:53:24 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($133.30 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($71.35 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Qc 9s]
Donk: raises $0.50 to $1
Whatever: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [3h 9d 9h]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $1.50
Whatever: raises $2.50 to $4
Donk: raises $2.50 to $6.50
Whatever: calls $2.50
*** TURN *** [3h 9d 9h] [5d]
Whatever: checks
Donk: checks
*** RIVER *** [3h 9d 9h 5d] [3s]
Whatever: bets $7
Donk: calls $7
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [Qc 9s] (a full house, Nines full of Threes)
Donk: mucks hand
Whatever collected $28.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $29 Rake $0.50
Board [3h 9d 9h 5d 3s]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) showed [Qc 9s] and won ($28.50) with a full house, Nines full of Threes
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) mucked [Kd 4d]

PokerStars Game #18401814863: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 17:53:50 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($147.30 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($56.85 in chips)
Whatever: posts small blind $0.25
Donk: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [8s Kd]
Whatever: calls $0.25
Donk: checks
*** FLOP *** [4h Kh 6d]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $1
Donk: calls $1
*** TURN *** [4h Kh 6d] [Qc]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $2
Donk: calls $2
*** RIVER *** [4h Kh 6d Qc] [3s]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $5
Donk: calls $5
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [8s Kd] (a pair of Kings)
Donk: mucks hand
Whatever collected $16.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $17 Rake $0.50
Board [4h Kh 6d Qc 3s]
Seat 1: Whatever (button) (small blind) showed [8s Kd] and won ($16.50) with a pair of Kings
Seat 2: Donk (big blind) mucked [3h 9h]

PokerStars Game #18402257322: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 18:14:55 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($143.75 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($47.75 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [7c 3d]
Donk: raises $0.50 to $1
Whatever: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [6d Ts 3h]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $1.50
Whatever: calls $1.50
*** TURN *** [6d Ts 3h] [Ad]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $4
Whatever: raises $4 to $8
Donk: raises $8 to $16
Whatever: calls $8
*** RIVER *** [6d Ts 3h Ad] [4d]
Whatever: checks
Donk: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [7c 3d] (a pair of Threes)
Donk: shows [Kd 4s] (a pair of Fours)
Donk collected $36.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $37 Rake $0.50
Board [6d Ts 3h Ad 4d]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) showed [7c 3d] and lost with a pair of Threes
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) showed [Kd 4s] and won ($36.50) with a pair of Fours

Very next hand:

PokerStars Game #18402265893: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 18:15:19 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($125.25 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($65.75 in chips)
Whatever: posts small blind $0.25
Donk: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Js Kh]
Whatever: calls $0.25
Donk: checks
*** FLOP *** [Kc 8c 9d]
Donk: checks
Whatever: checks
*** TURN *** [Kc 8c 9d] [6h]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $1
Donk: calls $1
*** RIVER *** [Kc 8c 9d 6h] [7h]
Donk: bets $3.50
Whatever: calls $3.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [5h Ts] (a straight, Six to Ten)
Whatever: mucks hand
Donk collected $9.55 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $10 Rake $0.45
Board [Kc 8c 9d 6h 7h]
Seat 1: Whatever (button) (small blind) mucked [Js Kh]
Seat 2: Donk (big blind) showed [5h Ts] and won ($9.55) with a straight, Six to Ten

PokerStars Game #18402636448: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 18:33:19 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($93.15 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($85.80 in chips)
Whatever: posts small blind $0.25
Donk: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [8c 9h]
Whatever: calls $0.25
Donk: raises $2 to $2.50
Whatever: raises $3.50 to $6
Donk: calls $3.50
*** FLOP *** [2c As Jh]
Donk: checks
Whatever: checks
*** TURN *** [2c As Jh] [4s]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $6
Donk: calls $6
*** RIVER *** [2c As Jh 4s] [Ts]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $8
Donk: calls $8
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [8c 9h] (high card Ace)
Donk: shows [3d Js] (a pair of Jacks)
Donk collected $39.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $40 Rake $0.50
Board [2c As Jh 4s Ts]
Seat 1: Whatever (button) (small blind) showed [8c 9h] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 2: Donk (big blind) showed [3d Js] and won ($39.50) with a pair of Jacks

PokerStars Game #18402652454: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 18:34:07 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($78.15 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($99.80 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Kd 6c]
Donk: raises $1 to $1.50
Whatever: calls $1
*** FLOP *** [9h 5d 8h]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $2.50
Whatever: calls $2.50
*** TURN *** [9h 5d 8h] [7h]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $7
Whatever: calls $7
*** RIVER *** [9h 5d 8h 7h] [2s]
Whatever: bets $8
Donk: raises $8 to $16
Whatever: calls $8
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [Tc Jh] (a straight, Seven to Jack)
Whatever: mucks hand
Donk collected $53.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $54 Rake $0.50
Board [9h 5d 8h 7h 2s]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) mucked [Kd 6c]
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) showed [Tc Jh] and won ($53.50) with a straight, Seven to Jack

PokerStars Game #18402776915: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 18:40:19 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($64.15 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($119.95 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Qd 5s]
Donk: raises $0.50 to $1
Whatever: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [5h Qh 7d]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $1.50
Whatever: raises $2.50 to $4
Donk: raises $2.50 to $6.50
Whatever: calls $2.50
*** TURN *** [5h Qh 7d] [Ac]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $14.50
Whatever: raises $42.15 to $56.65 and is all-in
Donk: calls $42.15
*** RIVER *** [5h Qh 7d Ac] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [Qd 5s] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
Donk: mucks hand
Whatever collected $127.80 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $128.30 Rake $0.50
Board [5h Qh 7d Ac 2h]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) showed [Qd 5s] and won ($127.80) with two pair, Queens and Fives
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) mucked [Ad 6s]

PokerStars Game #18402882271: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 18:45:38 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($137.05 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($42.60 in chips)
Whatever: posts small blind $0.25
Donk: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Td Ks]
Whatever: calls $0.25
Donk: raises $2 to $2.50
Whatever: calls $2
*** FLOP *** [Kh Qc 9d]
Donk: checks
Whatever: checks
*** TURN *** [Kh Qc 9d] [8c]
Donk: bets $3.50
Whatever: calls $3.50
*** RIVER *** [Kh Qc 9d 8c] [3h]
Donk: checks
Whatever: bets $2.50
Donk: calls $2.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [Td Ks] (a pair of Kings)
Donk: mucks hand
Whatever collected $16.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $17 Rake $0.50
Board [Kh Qc 9d 8c 3h]
Seat 1: Whatever (button) (small blind) showed [Td Ks] and won ($16.50) with a pair of Kings
Seat 2: Donk (big blind) mucked [7c 8h]

PokerStars Game #18402910909: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 18:47:06 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($149 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($29.20 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [Qd Jc]
Donk: raises $0.50 to $1
Whatever: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [6d 5c Jh]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $1.50
Whatever: raises $2 to $3.50
Donk: raises $3 to $6.50
Whatever: raises $141.50 to $148 and is all-in
Donk: calls $21.70 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($119.80) returned to Whatever
*** TURN *** [6d 5c Jh] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [6d 5c Jh 2d] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Whatever: shows [Qd Jc] (two pair, Jacks and Fives)
Donk: shows [Qh Qc] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
Donk collected $57.90 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $58.40 Rake $0.50
Board [6d 5c Jh 2d 5h]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) showed [Qd Jc] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Fives
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) showed [Qh Qc] and won ($57.90) with two pair, Queens and Fives

PokerStars Game #18402989675: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 18:51:08 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($140 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($35.10 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [8d 4h]
Donk: raises $0.50 to $1
Whatever: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [8c 4c 9d]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $1.50
Whatever: raises $2 to $3.50
Donk: calls $2
*** TURN *** [8c 4c 9d] [6c]
Whatever: bets $1.50
Donk: raises $3.50 to $5
Whatever: calls $3.50
*** RIVER *** [8c 4c 9d 6c] [Jd]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $6
Whatever: calls $6
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [Ac Qc] (a flush, Ace high)
Whatever: mucks hand
Donk collected $30.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $31 Rake $0.50
Board [8c 4c 9d 6c Jd]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) mucked [8d 4h]
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) showed [Ac Qc] and won ($30.50) with a flush, Ace high

PokerStars Game #18403094382: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 18:56:31 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($110.60 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($60.60 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [9h Ts]
Donk: raises $0.50 to $1
Whatever: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [7c Kc Th]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $1.50
Whatever: raises $1.50 to $3
Donk: raises $3 to $6
Whatever: calls $3
*** TURN *** [7c Kc Th] [2s]
Whatever: checks
Donk: checks
*** RIVER *** [7c Kc Th 2s] [6d]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $10.50
Whatever: calls $10.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [4h 5h] (high card King)
Whatever: shows [9h Ts] (a pair of Tens)
Whatever collected $34.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $35 Rake $0.50
Board [7c Kc Th 2s 6d]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) showed [9h Ts] and won ($34.50) with a pair of Tens
Seat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) showed [4h 5h] and lost with high card King

PokerStars Game #18403094382: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/06/26 - 18:56:31 (ET)
Table 'Mathilde IV' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Whatever ($110.60 in chips)
Seat 2: Donk ($60.60 in chips)
Donk: posts small blind $0.25
Whatever: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Whatever [9h Ts]
Donk: raises $0.50 to $1
Whatever: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [7c Kc Th]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $1.50
Whatever: raises $1.50 to $3
Donk: raises $3 to $6
Whatever: calls $3
*** TURN *** [7c Kc Th] [2s]
Whatever: checks
Donk: checks
*** RIVER *** [7c Kc Th 2s] [6d]
Whatever: checks
Donk: bets $10.50
Whatever: calls $10.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Donk: shows [4h 5h] (high card King)
Whatever: shows [9h Ts] (a pair of Tens)
Whatever collected $34.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $35 Rake $0.50
Board [7c Kc Th 2s 6d]
Seat 1: Whatever (big blind) showed [9h Ts] and won ($34.50) with a pair of TensSeat 2: Donk (button) (small blind) showed [4h 5h] and lost with high card King

Bouncing around

2008-06-12T13:23:00.002-05:00

between $300 and $400. haha I see I'm actually down $30 since my last update. Sweet.

Zero success in the MTTs lately which isn't helping. I guess I'm staying afloat by beginning to figure out NL cash at the $10 tables. Tilt is still a problem but I've strung together some winning sessions 6 tabling. I can't believe it's been this difficult but whatever. I'll move up to $25 if I ever get to $800 (not including any MTT winnings).

Here's my favorite hand from yesterday's $5.50 3k starting stack MTT. Oh it was the 5th hand of the tourney and the two monkeys had already lost 1/3 of their stack. I don't think I've ever played AK this way in the 1st level ever. Thought I was screwed when they both called:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

UTG+1 (t3000)
Whatever (t2980)
MP2 (t2140)
MP3 (t2180)
CO (t2930)
Button (t3320)
SB (t2980)
BB (t4050)
UTG (t3400)

Preflop: Whatever is MP1 with As, Ks.
2 folds, MPA raises to t60, MP2 calls t60, MP3 raises to t520, 4 folds, MPA raises to t2980, MP2 calls t2080 (All-In), MP3 calls t1660 (All-In).

Flop: (t7330) 5c, 9s, 8s (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t7330) 3c (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t7330) 6c (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: t6530

Results in white below:
Whatever has As Ks (high card, ace).
MP2 has Kc Td (high card, king).
MP3 has Ad Tc (high card, ace).
Outcome: Whatever wins t7330.

Update

2008-05-24T11:41:00.005-05:00

Well let's see. I think I topped out at around $900 and then went in a freefall losing $300 in one night down to $210. Played above my bankroll on tilt again. Chasing losses, etc.

I have totally revamped my cash game for the bazillionith time and am now finally playing a tight(er) 6 max NL game at the $10 level. I won a 180 person $2.20 turbo for $108 the other day and now I'm over $420 again working my way back to $800 and the $25 NL level.

Hopefully I make it. Cash games have been tons better the past couple of weeks since I made the change. I basically just don't call pre-flop raises unless I have a great hand. What a concept!!!! Duh.

Tilt is still a problem but not as much. I think it helps to try to play a little bit of cash every day - even if it's just 15 minutes on 1 or 2 tables. I need to be reminded to stay tight and stay off tilt. Such simple rules to follow yet somehow it's difficult.

Anyway. Here's a hand from today after I was on tilt a little bit. I had just doubled my stack with KK > QQ aipf and then the very next hand lost it back with AK on a AA4 flop when I checked the flop in 1st position and let 1010 get there on the turn. Ugly.

Anyway, I never call a raise like this unless I'm on the tilt wagon:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

UTG ($9.65)
MP ($24.10)
CO ($11.55)
Button ($8.20)
SB ($25.50)
Whatever ($13)

Preflop: Whatever is BB with 7d, 6s.
UTG calls $0.10, 2 folds, Button calls $0.10, SB raises to $0.5, Whatever calls $0.40, UTG calls $0.40, Button calls $0.40.

Flop: ($2) 4s, 8h, 5s (4 players)
SB bets $1.5, BB raises to $3.5, UTG raises to $7.6, Button folds, SB raises to $25, Whatever calls $9 (All-In), UTG calls $1.55 (All-In).

Turn: ($36.15) Th (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($36.15) 2c (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $36.15

Results below:
SB has Js Ts (one pair, tens).
Whatever has 7d 6s (straight, eight high).
UTG has Ad 3d (straight, five high).
Outcome: Whatever wins $36.15.

Trying something new

2008-04-09T20:01:00.003-05:00

4 tabling $25 NL 6 max the last 2 nights. $92 last night and $65 tonight and I don't feel like I played great in either session. I called off a ton of money early both nights on semi-tilt. Just bad decisions. There's no reason to play big pots without great hands. The players will hand me their money if I just stop with the hero calls early. Even with that I got one table up to $151. Crazy.

Anyway, I'll take the money as I get used to something new. That's a nice change. Moving down from $50 is a big difference. If I can stop doing stupid stuff I should be able to grow my bankroll at a good rate here.

It's nice being able to check raise a low flop with air from the blinds and then fire on the turn without thinking twice. I guess playing comfortably inside of one's bankroll will do that.

I remember back in the day (2003) loading up $50 on Party Poker and playing their $25 PL games - sweating every decision because it could be my last for a while. I like this better.

Bankroll up to $790 with $11 invested in a private sng tonight.

Heads up

2008-04-07T20:00:00.002-05:00

This is what I do when I'm on tilt a little bit and sometimes it works out.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (2 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

BB ($100.55)
Whatever ($95.05)

Preflop: Whatever is Button with 7s, 5d.
Button raises to $2, BB raises to $4, Whatever calls $2.

Flop: ($8) 6s, Th, 4h (2 players)
BB bets $9, Whatever calls $9.

Turn: ($26) 8s (2 players)
BB bets $35, Button raises to $82.05, BB calls $47.05.

River: ($190.10) 6d (2 players)

Final Pot: $190.10

Results in white below:
BB has Tc Ad (two pair, tens and sixes).
Whatever has 7s 5d (straight, eight high).
Outcome: Whatever wins $190.10.

BB said, "lol"
BB said, "is this real"
BB said, "did you just pay 9 dollars to see 1 card?"
Whatever said, "did you just lose a 189 dollar pot with one pair?"
BB said, "to ppair top kicker aint enough?"
Whatever said, "you tell me"

Vegas '08

2008-04-02T11:37:00.005-05:00

Well got in Friday night and my buddy was waiting for me at the airport. Hit the taxi line for a 30 minute wait for our cab. Met up with a girl in line and she eventually insisted on sharing a cab with us. That's makes back to back Vegas trips where someone wanted to share our cab. I guess our vibe just attracts those types.

Went out that night and didn't play poker until Saturday afternoon (at South Point). The reviews were pretty much right on about the place. 1/2 NL was fairly tight but there were always 3 or 4 bad players who would do things like make it 18 or 20 to go preflop. So stupid.

I was never under my original $200 (I forgot that max buyin is $300 there) and enjoyed myself immensely. The table talk was good and most guys were pretty nice/laid back although nobody was drinking. It looked like at least 6 of the 9 players there were locals. At least.

Cashed out up $220 or so after 3 1/2 hours just playing tight poker. Bluffed small 3 or 4 times and always showed. Never got fancy in big pots just large bets when I thought I was ahead. There was a huge pot early that didn't involved me that was 5s versus 3s when all of the money went in on turn on a Jack hi board with 4 overs. Soooo crazy.

I hit trip aces early with A10 in the blinds versus a late position A9 sooooted just calling the whole way since he was one of the few tighter/better player on the table. Later a guy 2 off the button made it $20 to go (he was the 3s earlier) and I looked down to find AA on the button. I repopped it to $60 and he called fairly quickly. I bet out $80 on a K hi flop and he thought forever before folding. Oops. Later had JJ against the other horrible player at the table and I flat called his $12 raise on the button again. I reraised him from $20 to either $40 or $60 on the flop and then bet out a spade flush that got there on the turn (had the J of spades) and he folded pretty quickly.

Same guy limped with 104 off and $20 to go guy raised to $10 with aces. J54 flop and 104 guy bets out $12 and aces flat calls. 10 gets there on the turn and we see a nice big funny pot.

Just very basic/tight poker and I avoided any really hard decisions at all. I wanted to play their 2/4 limit game but we left Sunday around noon for the Wynn. No time for poker.

Arrived at the Wynn and got the free upgrade to their 5 star Tower Suites. 59th floor freaking amazing/incredible view from the ceiling to floor windows. Unbelievable. Buddy broke out the guitar so we just hung there after lunch and cruising the casino. The wait list for the 4/8 limit game was 9 people so I just decided to try later.

Our next gambling was Monday morning at sunrise at the Casino Royale and their 20x odds on craps. Had a great couple of hours being the only shooters and made a few dollars. Nothing much. Checked out the poker room at the Wynn on the way in but the 4/8 wasn't running. A couple of the NL games were going but I hadn't heard great things about that no max buy-in game for a guy like me that was only gonna put up a few shekels. lol one of the South Point guys said he played there once and a kid sat down with $12,000 at the 1/3 game.

Oh the strangest thing I saw was the first night at Stoneys I guess.

My friend was 2 stepping with a girl and out of nowhere she pushed a guy that was walking by with 2 hands and then full out punched him in the jaw as hard as she could. The dude immediately apologized for grabbing her boob and walked off. Later we had to get ice for her hand as it had swelled up. A few songs later the boob grabber and her were dancing as if nothing had happened.

Vegas.

Was that only a month ago?

2008-03-24T16:23:00.002-05:00

Chopped 1st in an $11 6 max LIMIT tourney today. I played to prepare myself a little bit for the 2/4 limit game at South Point in Vegas this weekend. 90 entrants and chopped it for $225 (50/50). We were pretty deep but I honestly didn't have time to play it HU. I have even been playing some HU limit cash lately with some success so I probably gave away $45 but whatever. I 'm pleased. The players were horrible but they always are when I go deep I guess.

Wow now I'm back to where I was a month ago. I gave away my money at $50 NL (again!). I remember one hand that cost me $50. Ace hi flush versus a flopped fullboat. Sweet. A little bit at PLO and I don't even know where the other $100 went to. Not a good sign.

I guess I should stick to MTTs. When my schedule allows I'm gonna play the $5.50 noon tourney on stars as much as possible. 3k in chips to start with and 15 minute blinds and it plays like a rebuy.

So Vegas is Friday night. Coming back Monday. I'm sure I'll have much to share.

BR $659.06

2nd Chance

2008-02-22T13:58:00.002-06:00

Wow so that was only 5 weeks ago.

I then proceeded to lose about $350 to the guys at $25 PLO because I obviously suck and then another $250 in $50 NL because I think AK is the nuts on a K hi board.

Bankroll was down to $194 this morning as I entered the 7:30 $8 PLO tourney with 220 runners. It was my first PLO tourney in years I think and yes, I TID for $478. Second chances are rare so I think I'll ban myself from any cash games above the $10 PLO until I know what the hell I'm doing.

Ah and a special thanks to the guys for not wanting to chop when we were down to 4. It would've been very dumb to do that as once we got down to 3 left they folded waaaay too much preflop and to reraises.

So BR $672.82. No more $25 PLO for me for a long, long time. I think I'll try some PLO sngs and will continue playing MTTs as much as possible which means about 7or 8 a week.

Wow my biggest MTT cash

2008-01-16T21:34:00.000-06:00

I think.

$384 for 4th in the $5.50 NL tourney this morning. 1291 runners. Way shortstacked until midway through the 2nd hour when I finally got some traction. From then it was just building my chips with steals and reraises. The players are so horrible in these.

Huge hand was when there was about 60 left and I am one of two big stacks at table that's in top 6 in chips. He raises utg to 4800 (3x blind) and I push 62k with KK. He almost instacalls and I assume he has aces. AKsoooooted. Wow. Somehow he missed and I rake in a 124k pot when the average is 28k. Amazing. From there I shot up until with 44 left i have about 160k and the chipleader has 170k and 3rd had less than 100k when pokerstars places the chipleader to my IMMEDIATE left. Oh well.

Treaded water until getting moved again with 20 something left and then built it up to over 200k - always in the top 3. Then I get moved with 18 left and guess who is to my immediate left again. It stayed that way until I busted to him with AJ after he had raised to 60k and I pushed 200k in. He had been extremely aggressive and I was more than shocked when he turned over AK. I probably could've gotten 2nd if I had not made that move but I have no complaints.

I played great and got good cards that usually held when they were favorites. Once I got chips I just rolled and people were more than willing to give me their chips with few outs. That's what sucky players do.

Tournies like that are so much fun.

Ah, so I decided to 4 table $25 PLO tonight (the highest I had been playing was $10) and made around $85 in an hour. Wow, bad players there too. My favorite hand was top set with a flush draw against TWO pair all in on the flop. When the flush hit the turn i figured i was beat. Nope. He had zero redraws. Wow.

Playing in the weekly NL tourney now. Quads got me to 2nd in chips with 11 left (18 started). We'll see.

oh yea - i played in a 6 person $6.50 sng to warm up and got KK first hand. Over-raised to 240 since there were 4 limpers and I assumed someone might push and sure enough but 1010 hit runner runner flush. Oh well. :)

BR $768

Wow - something I forgot

2008-01-14T09:43:00.000-06:00

I just now looked back at previous posts and I was shocked that I had over $1,000 in my account in May. I then saw that I had deposited $600 to take advantage of a bonus offer. I remember now that I withdrew that money after clearing the bonus in June. Wow - for a few minutes I thought I had blown through $700 since then.

What I've been doing the past 7 months

2008-01-14T09:19:00.000-06:00

Hmmm. Well my online account has been hovering between $100 and $500 as I have played mostly 6 man sngs, while leaking away money at NL cash (except heads up) and playing heads up sngs some.

I won a 492 person omaha $1.10 MTT a few weeks ago lol. That was a blast. I think it paid like $90. It was my first omaha MTT in at least a year or two I think.

That tourney (and the fact that I stupidly stack off at NL cash with moronic hands) got me to playing omaha cash games and after 3 or 4 sessions of getting my butt kicked at the $5 and $10 tables I have had continuous winning sessions when 4 tabling. The play is incredibly horrible at the $10 tables. I plan to hang out there for a long time while (hopefully) improving my play.

I have been playing a weekly private $11 tournament online for a couple of years now and that is a nice pad to the BR. We play in 6 month seasons and I won the most recent one that ended last month. We are getting 20 players a week now to start the new year so it should be another fun challenge.

My goal this year is to get to $1,000 and finally cash out $500. I didn't really have any goals last year and I didn't cash out one time which I think is a first. Of course I only deposited $50 in January and played on that all year but it's disappointing to not bring any money home.

Looking back on '07 my highlights were going deep in the $22 deepstacks a couple of times finishing in the 14th to 18th spots and going very deep in the $3r (only played it twice I think) and going out in 19th when I had a top 6 stack with AK on the button to the SB's QQ. Blah. That still hurts as 1st paid like $6k.

BR is $327.09

Vegas Report

2007-06-06T09:51:00.000-05:00

1st time and wow was it ever awesome. My best friend and I left our wives home (they had gone in the fall without us and had way, way too much fun.)

We're 38 so we were like kids in a candy store the entire 5 days there. The plan was to hit the clubs and lose up to $1000 gambling.

I was immediately shocked at the full amusement park line at the airport taxi stand Thursday night. Holy crap. They say there's 6,500 cab drivers in Vegas. I believe them.

Rolled into the IP a little after midnight Friday morning and immediately changed to go country dancing. My buddy and I are from Texas so we planned to do a lot of that if the club was good. It was and over the next 3 days we were there a total of 15 hours.

How much did we sleep during our Thursday 1130pm to Monday afternoon stay you ask? 17 hours.

So much fun was had at Gilleys. It's very sad that it's being torn down next month. Met a beautiful girl from Arizona the first night there and taught her to 2 step and got her number. Sent her a text the next day (this generation has it so easy) and danced another 4 hours with her Friday night. So much fun.

Played a little craps after getting back to the hotel at around 5am Friday and hit the sack up a little.

We played in the $55 daily 2pm tournament at the IP after changing hotels to the Westin Causerina. (Nice place but not much of a casino). Went out in 28th out of 43 or so with QQ versus AK all-in pre-flop. Never got much going at all.

Switched over to the 2/4 limit game while my buddy played the tourney (he busted shortly after) and won a big pot with K7 sooooted (6 limpers ahead of me) on a 555 board when a 7 hit the turn versus this dudes 10s. King on the river. He was pissed. Very.

That was the only pot I won in the hour that I played and I left up $9. Woo-hoo. I could’ve played in that game the entire time I was there and maybe funded my trip. 6 or 7 saw every flop.

The 10 cab day

We played a little blackjack and craps but didn’t get back to the IP poker room until Sunday afternoon. I sat down at the ½ $200 max game and looked down at my first hand. KK. Beautiful. The big stack (around a $1000 behind) across from me had raised to $7 and had 3 callers. I pop it to $40 still trying to get comfortable in my seat. He pushes and everyone else folds and I immediately call only to see that he indeed has aces. Wow.

I throw out $200 in cash and ask for chips and everybody at the table is shaking their heads and laughing at me. Nice. Very first hand of NL cash in Vegas and I get coolered. I laughed it off though and prepared for a long session.

My buddy had JJ 3 hands later. 6 limped so the button raised it up to $10 with 53o. Everybody folded except my friend. 553 flop. Nice start for us huh? He lost maybe $80 as he called down on a low board.

I made top pair with a flush draw with J9 soooted limped in and held on until donk to my right hits his set of 5s on the river when I hit my flush. He bet $5 into a $50 pot (or so) and I raise to $15. One fold and then he RE-raises me to $50. I figure I’m coolered again and make the crying call. Not long after that he left saying he needed to go back to his game. (video poker).

Made a couple of flushes in nice pots including one where I checked my turned nut flush and the guy to my left immediately pushed his last $48 with AJ on an ace hi board. I had to recheck to make sure I had a spade and not a club and he was drawing dead.

I was holding steady between $250 and $300 when I got kings again after the guy to my immediate right raised to $15. I re-raised to $40 (he missed my 1st hand) and he thought forever before folding the ace of clubs face up and saying he’d probably suck out on me. Later he told me he had A8 of clubs. Yes, huge lay down buddy. Geeze.

Then aggressive sunglassed youngster sits down with his luggage saying he’s transferring to the Venetian and their tournament poker rate of $120 a night. OK. Decent player but it didn’t take a genius to figure out he was stealing a ton. He was calling in position and taking down big pots with pure aggression.

I get kings again and raise to $12 or so. I forget. QJ66 board with 2 spades and he is calling down my large bets. It’s heads up and a blank on the river and I put out $50 with $150 behind. He pauses and says all-in. I beat him into the pot and throw out my kings and he mucked. I should’ve waited for him to show but oh well. Probably busted spade draw but I don’t know. Easily a $500 pot as he had me covered by $1. Quite a thrill for my first live ½ game.

As I’m stacking my chips on the very next hand I glance down at 2 more kings. Wow. Raise it up get one caller and an ace queen on the flop slows down the action. I check/call as I’m still stacking and he shows KQ and the table erupts. Another $150 pot easily. Next hand AK played slowly after a pf raise and I chop a 101055 board.

A few hands later I get JJ after utg to my immediate right limps in. I raise to $12. My buddy calls and it folds to utg. He goes to $40. I pause and say ‘hmmmm limp reraise. I fold’ and tossed it into the muck. My buddy thinks and does the same with 10s. UTG shows AA and can’t believe it later when I tell him I folded jacks and my buddy folded 10s. I kinda thought it was standard but then again I don’t think the play at IP is quite standard.

My buddy busts with his last $120 or so when utg aggressive boy to my left puts in a live straddle to $4. 1 caller then my friend raises to $12. 4 more callers so I call from the BB with 68 clubs. Live straddle dude raises to $30. Everyone mumbles bs under their breaths and my buddy pushes with 10s. Folds to live straddle dude and he thinks about it and calls with QQ. Nice. Destroyed by 53o button raiser and a live straddle who wakes up with queens.

I basically held steady at around $700 for the next 45 minutes or so and cashed out to go eat as by this time it was past 8pm.

I accidentally left the hotel underfunded so Sunday night found us trying unsuccessfully to double my friends last $80 at the Rio on one hand of blackjack so we could get into the Voodoo Lounge. We gave the cabdriver our last $12 and told him it was a flat fee to get back to the Westin. It was by far the fastest cab ride of the week. He got like a $5 tip.

Got my last $600 and rolled down to the craps table across the street at Bally’s. Our plan was to put $60 on the hard 4 or 10 (10 to 1 odds) and lay the 4 or 10 (bet a 7 would be rolled before a 4 or 10).

As we walked up the roller hit 4 for the mark or whatever it’s called. I immediately put the plan into action before my friend was even ready. The next roll was 7. No drama. Picked up my money (I think it paid somewhere close to $200) as the stick girl said ‘you can’t leave yet’. I said ‘oh yes we can, Vegas was built on guys like us not leaving’. And immediately cashed out and got a taxi BACK to the Rio to hit the Voodoo Lounge.

We roll into the CLOSED Voodoo Lounge and immediately start laughing uncontrollably. We had hit Gilleys (it was dead for the 1st time) then Toby Keiths place @ Harrahs (older crowd, no country music) then back to to Gilleys (still dead) then the Rio, back to Westin, walked to Bally’s, cab back to Rio for the Voodoo and another cab to the Wynn’s Tryst. 10 cabs between 2pm and 5am.

Totally worth it. Holy crap what a place! Hung out there until closing and took our last cab back to the Westin and had another $1.99 sunrise breakfast at Ellis Island.

Ended up around $500 in all forms of gambling and I figured out that I spent $800 so I came back $300 lighter (besides flight/hotel).

We had an amazing time. I left out about 90% of the funny/crazy stuff that happened that made me giggle like a school girl on the flight back. I had like 5 hours sleep for the last 2 nights combined and I was wide awake on my 3 hour flight back. For instance - we were offered $20 at the front of the taxi stand line at the airport to share a cab with this couple. We gladly accepted. It turns out they were about to miss a midnight wedding and he was a member of the Canadian Wakeboarding Team. ??? Vegas.

I wish I could include all of the stories but I’m afraid it would be book size and boring to those that hit Sin City all the time.

I love 4.40s and I suck at NL cash

2007-05-30T10:03:00.000-05:00

Wow. Dropped 3 buyins at the $50 NL tables Saturday night to drop below $800 in my account. I must be horrible. I shall not venture over the $10 NL cash tables for at least a month or two. I have dropped way too much money there. Just way too passive/calling stationish and when I make moves they seem to blow up in my face.

I got a lot of it back playing 1/2 6 max and then last night I cashed 2nd in another 180 person $4.40 person sit n go for $144. I was chipleader pretty much the whole tourney up until 6 were left. Then I was the shortstack with 5 to go and hit some hands and took a 2 to 1 chip lead a little while into heads up (started about 50/50). Screwed up by pushing with 33 over his preflop raise and his A4o outraced me. Then I pushed into his second nuts with an OESD and that was that. Oh well. I need to be more careful heads up when I have such an obvious advantage with tight players.

$1058 in the account. I'm gonna have to get 480 FPP points tonight to get to goldstar level. I guess I'll probably 3 table 1/2 6 max and try not to go on tilt. I also have another $20 rebuy live tourney tonight. Last week I blew the chiplead with 4 to go and bubbled. Whoops. Cashing for $500 there the night before my trip would be too sweet.

VEGAS TOMORROW. Woo-hoo! Staying through Monday with my buddy from Dallas. Can't wait. 1/2 NL and craps tables here we come.

the doom switch

2007-05-26T09:28:00.001-05:00

Ah - it's not really that bad but I haven't been able to avoid being sucked out on when all-in in tournies since I won the $4.40. It's kinda funny since it's small stakes but I have certainly not had any luck go my way. It happens.

QQ > KK aipf
1010 > AA aipf
K5 > 88 on a 543 flop.
A7 > A2 on a 26x flop.

Oh and I got it all-in poorly with Q10 on a 10 high flop and JJ held up. That was not good.

That's my last 5 tournies.

Had a great session of .5/1 horse followed up by a horrible session where I kept losing out on the river in stud. Love/hate that game. Down to $944 now from my high of $1036 mostly due to a 6 max NL session at $25 where I dropped 3 buyins where only the nuts would do.

I'll keep plugging away this week. Leaving for Vegas on Thursday.

Oh - we plan to stay at the Westin after spending our first night at the Imperial Palace. Got a good rate there for $49 thru an internet special. Got the Westin thru priceline for $60 (listed rate on their website is $175 for those dates).

$4.40 180 person a day keeps the bustaments away

2007-05-23T12:43:00.001-05:00

I've been trying to play in one (and limit myself to one) every day.

Came in 63rd yesterday by busting out 2 or 3 hands after the 1st break (yes, 2/3 of the field is gone after an hour) with AA in the BB to 1010. aipf. Meh - it was time for that to happen I guess. It had been awhile for me in a tourney situation.

Took down my first 180 person tourney this morning. $216 boosts the bankroll over $1000 (cleared the bonus Monday night). Woot for me.

It's incredible how bad most players are heads up. I had a 3 to 1 chiplead but this dude never had a chance. Folded waaaaaaaaaaaay too much preflop. Amazingly tight. I've played a good amount of heads up sit n gos over the years so I guess I have a pretty good advantage over the average $4.40 donk heads up. I hope to exploit that advantage again very soon.

It was great not having the tourney chipleader on my direct left for once. That helped a ton. I was able to play aggressively with chips near the bubble. That helps a lot also. It was fun to finally have the chips to push people around a little on the bubble. It also helped to have people try and steal my BB when I had them outchipped 5 to 1. Hello? I would shove over the top at least 1/2 the time but they didn't get the message.

I was down in chips when it got 3 handed but I was able to stay patient and (again) shove over the top when the player to my right got too frisky preflop. That helped a lot. Made a nice call with A7 on a 56A53 board when he shoved with 106 sooted. I had checked the check/call button so it was an instant call for his last 90k chips.

Also played like 6 hands of $25 NL while waiting to go out to eat. 108o 1st hand 4 handed raised to $1 I call. 769 flop. Check, he bets $1.75 I raise to $3.50 he folds. 3 hands later same guy raises my BB and I call $1 more with 89o. Flop 896 two hearts. I check he bets $1 and I raise to $2. He raises to $5 I push for $20 more. He calls with.... A7 clubs. So he has an OESD and ace hi. 8 on the turn and it was over. He sits out and I get 33 and hit my set for zero action on next hand. Oh well.

$25 in 6 hands. I like.

10 days till Vegas

2007-05-21T11:14:00.000-05:00

I like to update my blog after a good session. Saturday I had my 1st good session since late April. I was down to $140 (from just over $500) and deposited $600 to take advantage of the 25% reload bonus on Stars. Proceeded to lose another $200 playing $25 & $50 NL plus a horribly tilted .5/1 6 max limit.

I finally adjusted my .5/1 6 max play and made almost $100 Saturday afternoon while waiting for the 10 billionth hand to hit. Basically just tighted up a little bit and stopped calling down with crappy hands. You don't have to be fancy to make money at that level. Duh.

I think I'll be fine now as I clear the bonus. I've never failed to cash out over 1k when doing the $600 reload deposit. It would be nice to clear it in the next week so I can use the money in Vegas. Hopefully the PayTru card shows up so I can cash out via ATM.

I've been playing the $4.40 180 persons lately. 22nd, 43rd and a 10th just now. KQ>A4 aipf with same chip stacks. Oh well. I won 2 important races and it seems like that's all it takes to go deep in those things.

Blah

2007-05-02T17:34:00.000-05:00

Playing a deep stacks tourney right now. 1st level:

(btw - 10 guys out in the first 7 minutes. Yes, 5k starting chips and 30 minute blinds. Wow.

Seat 4: Whatever (4920 in chips)
Seat 5: metking (6380 in chips)
Seat 6: Lori (5480 in chips)
Seat 7: Breeze (3430 in chips)
Seat 8: KicknBall (4700 in chips)
Seat 9: jonah (5600 in chips)
metking: posts small blind 10
Lori: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to Whatever [2h 2c]
Breeze: raises 40 to 60
4 folds
Sixthson: calls 60
Whatever: calls 60
1 fold
Lori: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [5h 3s 2d]
Lori5: checks
Breeze: bets 100
Sixthson: calls 100
Whatever: raises 300 to 400
2 folds
Sixthson: calls 300
*** TURN *** [5h 3s 2d] [Ks]
Sixthson: checks
Whatever: bets 780
Sixthson: raises 1220 to 2000 **Wow. A4? Maybe I guess.**
Whatever: calls 1220*** RIVER *** [5h 3s 2d Ks] [4d] **gross. Or maybe it was a great card for me I dunno**
Sixthson: bets 2400 and is all-in
Whatever: instafolds
Sixthson collected 5150 from pot
Sixthson: doesn't show hand

lost 1/2 my chips there. Got 2/3 back on next hand when a guy's flush draw missed and I had top pair and OESD. Got more back 3 hands later by hitting top pair and calling down a little bluff. Sitting at 4400. Pretty typical for me. Can't cash in on the morons that are seemingly everywhere the first 2 or 3 levels.

3 more sessions at $25 NL

2007-04-23T09:23:00.000-05:00

My 2nd session went much like my first. 4 hours this time and I went down $75 pretty quickly. Was down around $100 at one point and came back in the last hour to finish an $11 loser.

3rd session I won $23. It was nice to finally build some big stacks without getting in the hole too badly first. I also won our weekly online $11 tourney for $85 so my little bankroll got a nice boost.

4th session I won a little over $30 after losing 2 $3.30 turbo 6 max sngs and one $6.60 turbo. I bubbled in two of the three. Sigh. So I'm now up to $530 with 38 days until Vegas.

Here's a hand from that cash session. Resident maniac going crazy so I reraised him all-in. I really thought he had crapola from how he had been playing. Very surprised to see him with AK there but I got lucky to win a race. It's nice when mistakes work. That helps. I think a fold would've been a much better play even though it was 50/50 in my mind (at worst) if he had a real hand or not.

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to Whatever [8h 8d]
1 fold
Whatever: raises $0.50 to $0.75
2 folds
billybroyles: raises $7.75 to $8.50
Whatever: raises $40.75 to $49.25 and is all-in
billybroyles: calls $20.30 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [7d 5d 9s]
*** TURN *** [7d 5d 9s] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [7d 5d 9s 7c] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
billybroyles: shows [Ad Kh] (a pair of Sevens)
Whatever: shows [8h 8d] (two pair, Eights and Sevens)
Whatever collected $55.70 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $57.70 Rake $2 Board [7d 5d 9s 7c 4s]
Seat 1: Whatever showed [8h 8d] and won ($55.70) with two pair, Eights and Sevens
Seat 5: billybroyles (big blind) showed [Ad Kh] and lost with a pair of Sevens

Thursday update

2007-04-12T09:47:00.000-05:00

Not much happening.

I haven't played in the deepstacks in a couple of weeks. The last one I played I went out in like 175th or so. Got short by getting badbeat in a 12k pot with AK to KQ on a K hi flop and he spiked the queen on the river.

I decided to move up my cash games to $25 6 max. Duh. My bankroll is still over $400 so it should be no problem. I'll move back down if I get under $250. Last night I 3 tabled and immediately got stacked 3 times. Oops. flush over flush, top 2 to a set, and straight with 77 to a dudes 97 higher stragith that I never would've guessed. I settled down after that and got back to even and quit. Played for a little over 3 hours.

I have a goal to get over $1,000 before my Vegas trip the first weekend of June. Playing $25 NL certainly makes it possible but I'll have to run good since I'll probably only have 10 sessions at most. 30 hours. Hmmm. It could happen. $60 a session. Yea. Possible but not probable. I'll have to move up to the $50 tables once I get to $750 probably. We'll see. Gotta have a winning session at $25 first.

I see a ton of flops at 6 max. The players are just so passive for the most part. I raise in late position pretty much every orbit and let it go if I get played back at unless I have a big hand or draw (of course). I also call a lot of raises in late position and try to take pots away no matter the cards. It usually works out because people see me as a bit of a crazy player and don't understand when I push in big pots I have a huge hand. It certainly works at the 6 max $10 tables. We'll see how it goes a step up.

Wow it's been some time since my last update

2007-04-03T15:28:00.000-05:00

Let's see.....

Party Poker stopped accepting US players since I last updated. I cashed out $150 from PP and used my last $55 or $90 I forget to enter a 45 person sng.

Must have been around $55 since I think 1st paid around $720. I had the chiplead with 12 left but an M of like 4 or something stupid and I went out in 10th or so. Oh well.

BoDog was at around $54 or so and I decided to bet a couple of football games with the goal of having a decent sized Super Bowl wager. Didn't workout. Sports betting. Duh.

My PokerStars account dwindled to around $20 at the beginning of this year and I deposited $50 mainly to see if I still could. It worked fine. I've increased that to around $450 now by cashing twice in the $22 deep stacks MTT and winning a 1500 FPP 9 person satellite for $215. I think I've played in 4 of those and won twice. Wow. Talk about soft.

I have finished 14th and 17th in the deep stacks in the 3 times I've played - all being in the past 5 weeks. My 17th was horrible because I was 3rd in chips with 20 left. I think first paid in the $2,400 range. 17th was around $108 or so. After playing for 8 hours at 1:15a I made a horrendous play versus one of the 2 chipstacks at my table that could hurt me (of course the top 3 were at the same table thank you pokerstars). I took a week off but I think I'm ready to try again tomorrow night. Patience, patience. Last time I twice folded 33 straight hands. Crazy.

I also started a $1.20 sng experiment. Started with $12 in this separate 'bankroll' and will stay at this level exclusively playing sngs until I hit $100. Then I'll branch out to $5 18 & 9 persons and $3 45 persons. Assuming I get there, of course.

3/28/2007($1.20)17th
3/28/2007($1.20)6th
3/28/2007$0.60 4th
3/28/2007($1.20)14th
3/28/2007($1.20)5th
3/28/2007($1.20)5th
3/28/2007$6.00 1st
3/31/2007($1.20)14th
3/31/2007($1.20)14th
3/31/2007($1.20)11th
3/31/2007$4.20 2nd
4/2/2007$4.20 2nd

So I'm up a total of $5.20 to $17.20. Woo-hoo.

Oh yea, I've also had success playing NL cash at the $10 max 6-max tables. Hadn't played NL cash in a few months and I wanted to start slow. It sure is fun playing bad micro-limit players. I wish it paid better.

PokerStars $455.49

Oh yea, one more thing. It sure is nice to play at a level that agrees with me emotionally. I remember all of those nights playing 2/4 limit on party poker. The horrible suckouts and how worked up I would get. That can't be healthy. I like to think that I've learned something in the meantime and I'll handle things better if/when I ever work it back up.

$3 Horse lesson

2006-08-29T08:48:00.000-05:00

Wow.

Got a little tilty in my Horse session Saturday and that's a very, very bad idea in games that involve so many cards. You need to play TIGHT in those games. So after 4 hours I quit down $90. Ouch. Not a good feeling when my bankroll at Stars read $160. Later that night I logged back on and played another 4 hour session. I played correctly, didn't get those horrible bad beats at the wrong time and made $87 back and felt like a king.

Whew. Lesson learned. I hope.

BTW - 8.75 hours of poker Saturday. Wow, that's a ton for me. Got to sleep at 4am and then up at 8:45. Beautiful.

So last night I put those 8 hours to good use and played a 2.5 hour session of 1/2 Horse and 1/2 HOSE (Sometimes I accidentally sit down at a HOSE table because I'm not very smart). Made $81. Blew $8.80 on a Horse turbo satellite MTT and another $3.50 on two turbo sngs for the hell of it.

I felt great about my play and certainly the play of my opponents. Could've been better but I got rivered on some scoops. I'm not complaining. Mixed games are a lot of fun - especially when you're making money. It's been a nice break from the NL tables at Party.

So I'm up about $150 at the Horse cash tables since starting last week. Hopefully I have a real advantage there for now as the Stars players learn the h/l games.

My little bankroll is growing.

ps $320.29
pp $262.93
bodog $53.99
---------------------------------
A little trip down memory lane.

I was looking back through my spreadsheet at the crazy year I've had so far and it got me to looking at my best and worst days since keeping details of my play. Here's the top 3 and bottom 3:

1/6/2006
($621.17)
2/4 BadBeat horror show for 7 hours

1/31/2006
($323.00)
45 minutes 2 2/4 and 1 5/10. WOW!
1/31/2006
($215.96)
3 hours 3/6 and 2 5/10 tables. Horrible luck continues. Oh well. Time for an extended break.

4/1/2006
($456.96)
sigh. 6 hours. 2 hours 8 tabling .5/1 down $87 so I went to the 2/4 6 max. Huge mistake as I dropped another $350 there in 3.5 hours then I went to 3 $100 NL tables. I did great up about $160 when I got sucked out on in a $350 pot. If my 11 to 1 odds had held up for the river I would've quit down $100 for the night and been quite happy.

4/19/2005
$163.75
Tues 805p 835p 3 $2/4 bb caught a straight on turn with 44 after flopping OE. Table went crazy reraising won 76.5 net.

1/27/2006
$234.37
3 hours of 3 2/4 BB tables

12/27/2005
$339.17
3 2/4 BB 2 1/2 hours. Beautiful night of poker. No complaints here.

Wow, that's kinda interesting. My three best days are for a total of $737. My three worst days blow them away at $1,617. Ouch. Maybe I'm due for a monster $1000 day ala DNAPoker from FCP. Or a big MTT win. (I need to play in one first.)

What?

2006-08-26T10:08:00.000-05:00

$5.60
45 minutes 2 (1/2) horse tables. Won my last stud hand with 55544 showing and they both called down after my bet on 7th street? No low. I have no idea why they both gave me $2.

No Poker last night

2006-08-25T08:03:00.000-05:00

But I finally feel better. I've been down with a nasty virus this week. The beginning of school usually means I get whatever my kids bring home. Last year it was a cough that stayed with me for 3 months. That sucked. A lot.

Monday I failed to mention that I broke my low score on the Par 3 course last Sunday. As you can see it came out of nowhere. I had been playing like crap since taking a 12 day break. Golf is weird.

07/30/06 Even
Vacation break
08/11/06 +6
08/13/06 +7
08/13/06 +7
08/17/06 +9
08/18/06 +5
08/19/06 +7
08/20/06 +6
08/20/06 -2

I've had a crazy week and haven't been able to get back out there since. Quite a change from the 7 rounds a week I had been playing before my vacation. I'm interested to see how I do once the big boy course opens back up in October. All this work on my short game should shave a few strokes off my sucky game. I just wonder how many.

In a week I'll be making the 400 mile trek to watch my Aggies play football. I can't wait. Maybe they'll actually be decent this season.

A little Horse and a .10 MTT

2006-08-24T08:44:00.000-05:00

$37.75
45 minutes of 2 HORSE tables (1/2). I LOVE razz. For now.

($1.78)
won a $1.75 2 table horse tourney. Lost a couple of $3.40 razz sngs on BULLCRAP. Wow, it really is a sick game. On both I lost because my opponent hit perfectly on the last 2 streets (after I was all-in) and I caught bad cards at the same time. The last guy called me with paired aces then caught a 2 and a 4 while I caught a queen and 10. Very nice.

Played in a $1.10 and .10 MTT for fun and cashed in the 10 center. More than doubled my buy-in! Blinds went up every 5 minutes so I finished in 281st out of 2700 in 55 minutes. Funny. I almost had a monster chipstack but couldn't pull the trigger with 3 6 hearts. It was a close decision and I would've ended up with 30k in chips near the end. Oh well. It was fun to push with crap and catch. I'm afraid I used up some luck though. Maybe.

The last couple of days

2006-08-23T12:45:00.000-05:00

Wow, a really big missed opportunity for my little bankroll Monday night. I played 4 hours of 3 $25 NL tables on PP and got up to $101 on one table, $90 on another and ended up only $10 on the night. I had to reload 4 times on my 3rd table and lost a bit on the other 2 to finish off the night. I should've closed down that 3rd table after the 2nd reload. Sometimes the mojo just isn't with you.

I lost $20 to a maniac that played for about 15 minutes. I was so glad to see him go. He basically alternated having the nuts to making huge bluffs every other hand. I, of course, get caught with jacks versus his A4 on a xAAAx board. Fun times. I think he was a good player but it's hard to tell when the deck hits him in the face and he's throwing money around. I prefer my players weak-tight thank you very much.

I had some monster hands included a set of kings vs aces that I wish I would've pushed on the river to get another $20 with, a set of queens versus a set of jacks and another set of queens taking out kings. I should've easily made $60+. Probably more like $100. Oh well. Flopping bottom 2 versus aces and getting it all in for a $60 pot and then seeing queen, queen come as the turn and river didn't help any. Oh yea, or flopping 994 with my A9 versus a set of 4s. That was ugly too. Anyway, that was a pretty frustrating night considering what could've been. The PP players are really, really bad though. That was again confirmed.

Last night I played 45 minutes on a HOSE table and one razz table on Stars. That was my first time to play razz (1/2 on both tables) and I ended up making $28. I made $7 on the HOSE table. I saw some crazy things on the razz table including 10 high winning a $30 pot. Hilarious.

Omaha and Stud are great games to play to break the hold 'em trance most of us have been under. I've played just enough Omaha the past 3 years to be ahead of the average HOSE player. Stud is another story. I don't really know what to do there other than play tight and figure 2 pair is good most of the time. Whatever.

Up to $530.19 online now.

Another weekend

2006-08-21T16:42:00.000-05:00

$32.98 to the good.

Lost 45 cents on Bodog Sunday morning watching a guy lose 5 buy-ins at a $25 6 max table. Everybody had over $50 except for me and Mr. Donkey. I just couldn't catch anything decent against him and when I did he folded instead of his insta-allin move he was so in love with.

Lost $25 on Stars playing tons of 18 person turbo sngs Friday night when I should've been sleeping. Playing 2 NL tourneys and 2 Horse tourneys (all turbo) at the same time is not advised. I guess. I got $10 of it back the next day winning a 18 person NL turbo sng. Most weak-tight players I've ever seen at that level. I play these things just to pass the time in the background while doing other things so I play pretty tight. I sat out and didn't really play a hand until we were down to 12. I then played like 6 straight hands and more than doubled up to 3500 in time to sit at the final table. I knocked out like 5 players and steamrolled to the title baby. Cause that's how I roll. Whatever.

Had another winning session - actually two - on PP's $25 NL tables. Would've had $34 more but I hit an ace hi flush on the turn against someone's top set (kings). When the board paired on the river and smelled something rotten and checked behind. Sometimes I'm a genius like that. Or weaktight. Whatever. I was actually pretty proud of that play.

The players are bad but especially so on the weekend. They really play any 2 cards and play them badly. I flopped another ace hi flush yesterday and built a huge pot against a set of 8s. I don't know what he thought I had but I was certain he had the 2nd nut flush. Moron. Sometimes sets don't win on a board filled with 3 hearts - especially when the other guy reraises you 4 times. I had to throw away 2 flopped sets on very scary boards. I really didn't even have to think that hard. I did throw away the nut straight once when 2 guys went crazy before me. I was certain one of them had the flush. Nope, one was on the ace hi flush draw on the turn and the other had 2 pair. The 4th flush card missed the river. Whoops.

$487.55 online now. Nice boost from the $50 I had in May.

BoDog

2006-08-17T13:24:00.000-05:00

I haven't played there in months.

Bodog.

Logged on a couple of days ago thanks to a reminder email from them and found $12 there. I forgot I had it. The last entry on my spreadsheet said $30.92. I guess I leaked away $18.92 somewhere. Anyway worked it down to $5 playing on one $25 NL table and bad beat Kings with my A2 and was off and running. Finished the session at $22.

Sat down at lunch with $20 and worked it up to $52 without breaking a sweat. These guys are really, really bad and I hit some flops. They love to bet .25 into a $4 pot. Min-raising is all the rage. Stuff like that. I turned the nut straight with a flush draw with 67 of spades and only bet $2 into a $7 pot with 2 other guys in the hand. I guess I thought I was bulletproof. Have I mentioned that slowplaying sucks? $13 pot on the river now and the only hand that has me beat is 79. No idea why someone would stay with that but he did. So I bet out $4 with a caller and mr. 79o nuts raises $6 more and I call thinking we're gonna split. The other dude calls off the last of his $5 and wow, there went a $38 pot to a gutshot on the river. Oh well. My mistake on the turn.

The table broke and I got heads up with a dude that had $12 left. 1st hand he raises it up to .70 and I fold. Next hand he does the same thing and I have A8 so I push him all-in. He thinks about it and calls with 67sooooted. 234 on the flop and I'm nervous. He turns the flush draw and now I'm dodging like 16 outs on the river. But I do and I'm back up above $52 again. Did I mention the players there are bad?

I guess the next time I play there I'll sit on one $25 table and not do things like push with A8 heads up. The Bodog account is real again. It's aliiiive.

So all of that to say I'm back up to $196.17 on PS, $203.96 on PP and $54.44 on Bodog for a lovely $454 total. Tiny bankroll but not bad after being below $50 in May.

$46.43

2006-08-14T22:11:00.000-05:00

Oh yea, and the straight flush down in my previous entry beat AsAd. He was not pleased. I think that might have been the first time my straight flush beat another deep stack when he had the ace hi flush. So often straight flushes take down the minimum.

$41.83 2 $25 NL tables 2.5 hours. Took some horrible beats early in huge pots and fought back very nicely. Never tilted and just ground away and then hit some big hands against morons.

$4.60 1 $1.75 18 person turbo tourney for kicks. 2nd place.

JJ and KK went down at the same time on my $25 tables. That was ugly. JJ on a 7 4 2 10 6 board to a set of 7s. At the same time my KK was going down in flames to 68 on a 66xxx board. I should not have lost a $20 pot there. I fired away guns blazing even with the paired board. The players have tended to be either weak-tight or just crazy bluffers. I'm proud of the way I stayed off of tilt tonight even though I took some crazy beats early in big pots. Like this one:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ Whatever (4 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

Button ($14.10)
SB ($33.33)
Whatever ($35.29)
UTG ($12.85)

Preflop: Whatever is BB with 9s, Ad. SB posts a blind of $0.10.
1 fold, Button calls $0.25, SB (poster) raises to $0.65, Whatever calls $0.50, Button calls $0.50.

Flop: ($2.25) 8c, 9d, Kd (3 players)
SB bets $1, Whatever calls $1, Mr Moron calls $1.

Turn: ($5.25) Ac (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets $2, Mr Moron calls $2.

River: ($9.25) Ts (3 players)
BB bets $2, Mr Moron 8.35 more, Whatever makes the crying call $8.35.

Final Pot: $28.50

So Mr. Moron catches runner, runner to take it down with QJo. Nice. I should've been more aggressive when I hit my 2nd pair on the turn. That was such a weak bet. But who knows, they sure do love their gutshots on the PP $25 tables.

Anyway, I played very well and kept my head and came back to finish with $97 on one table and $51 on the other. It's so much fun to build a pile of money on a table and use it to club people out of pots.

I'm still learning the NL game but am having a great time. For now.

Meager bankroll up to $395.38 split almost evenly between PP and PS.

BTW - another guy asked me what I had in a hand after I mucked a showdown. He didn't know how to use the hand history on PP. This happens almost once per session and always amazes me.

$91 pot at a $25 table

2006-08-13T15:07:00.000-05:00

Wow.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

MP ($21.59)
Button ($8.55)
SB ($38.32)
BB ($38.16)
Whatever ($54.88)

Preflop: Whatever is UTG with Qd, Jd. SB posts a blind of $0.10.
Whatever calls $0.25, MP calls $0.25, 1 fold, SB (poster) raises to $0.9, BB calls $0.75, Whatever calls $0.75, MP folds.

Flop: ($3.25) 9d, 5d, Td (3 players)
SB bets $1, BB raises to $3, Whatever calls $3, SB calls $2.

Turn: ($12.25) 8d (3 players)
SB bets $5, BB folds, Whatever calls $5.

River: ($22.25) 9s (2 players)
SB bets $20, UTGA raises to $40, SB calls $9.32 (All-In).

Final Pot: $91.57

Ugly

2006-08-11T13:33:00.000-05:00

I went back to the spreadsheet and checked my yearly stats. I really thought I had it down to only a 350 loss on the year. More like down $495. After making $4000 last year I really thought I'd make at least 10 in 2006. But then I hit a downswing and cashed out almost everything and decided to build a house. Here's the monthly blow by blow net amounts.

January -$697.48
Feb $234.20
March $370.46
April -$521.58
May -$113.78
June $106.91
July $62.38
August $64.40

I'm in a pretty precarious spot right now trying to grind up on PP with $124 on $25 tables. With a little luck and patience it can happen but I'm certainly not in control of the luck part. I'm gonna try and play some sngs to lower the variance a little.

Hehe, what a difference a year makes. I made my $500 deposit in April '05 and started tracking my bankroll playing mostly 2/4 limit. Wow, so consistent month over month with the profits. Those were the days. No negative months. Nice.

April $650.04
May $711.58
June $459.81
July $233.10
August $624.85

$54

2006-08-10T19:20:00.000-05:00

Woo-hoo.

Finally didn't do anything stupid in a session at PP and ground up $54.40 in about an hour on 2 .10/.25 NL 6 max tables. The players were incredibly weak tight for playing 4 and 5 handed.

Another aces over kings all-in preflop accounted for $28 of that. My time is coming soon I'm sure. I really haven't been hurt that bad by the kings cooler - maybe because I usually don't mind seeing a flop with them. I don't know. Probably just good variance that will go bad soon.

Up to $309.92 online now. Nice to get over that hump.

I think PP is about to give me another $30 for getting 100 points in 10 days in August. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. Now I'm dreaming about getting back in the black for the year.... Only about $350 to go or so. I need to check on that.

Vacation Over

2006-08-10T15:00:00.000-05:00

And what a lovely time we had. 8 days at the beach is nice. And now football season is only 3 weeks away. I can almost smell the tailgating.

What a great time of year!

Played a couple of sessions of .05/.10 NL at Stars before leaving and got my account up to $185. Weekend players are sooo much worse it's hard to describe. They make some truly amazing plays.

Right before I left I cleared a $50 bonus on that Party Poker sent to me to try out their casino. I played blackjack for 15 minutes and finished up $10 so I had $60 waiting for me there when I got back. Worked that up to $83 playing .10/.25 NL and then the next day lost a bunch down to $18. I'm horrible and was taking some truly amazing beats besides. Ah, that's the way it goes when you're trying to build up on $25 tables with limited NL skills. You have to have some luck or your bankroll is gonna drown in variance at the start.

Got smart and played in a couple of sngs. Won a 6 person $6 and came in 3rd in a 20 person and was back in business. Oh yea, also won a 10 person Omaha H/L $6 sng. I guess my month long $300 lesson in the hi version of that game wasn't all in vain. I got $19 back from it anyway.

Sat back down at the cash tables with $55 and immediately hit this hand. 4th hand after sitting down....

cmalgee posts small blind [$0.10].
Whatever posts big blind [$0.25].

** Dealing down cards **Dealt to Whatever [ Qc Ac ]
2 folds
pecann2 calls [$0.25].
1 more fold
cmalgee calls [$0.15].
Whatever raises [$0.50].
pecann2 calls [$0.50].
cmalgee calls [$0.50].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ad, 5c, 2c ]
cmalgee bets [$1].
Whatever calls [$1]. <----- I figured I'd slowplay my monster.....Slowplaying is so stupid, I don't care how many times Phil Laak gets away with it on GSN Hi Stakes Poker.
pecann2 raises [$2].
cmalgee calls [$1].
Whatever calls [$1].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9d ]
cmalgee checks.
Whatever checks.
pecann2 bets [$2].
cmalgee calls [$2].
Whatever calls [$2].
** Dealing River ** [ 2d ]
cmalgee checks.
Whatever checks.
pecann2 bets [$5].
cmalgee raises [$15].
Whatever folds. <--- I really didn't even have to think about it since I had absolutely zero read.
pecann2 calls [$10].
cmalgee shows [ 3c, 5h ] two pairs, fives and twos.
pecann2 shows [ 3h, As ] two pairs, aces and twos.
pecann2 wins $42.05 from the main pot with two pairs, aces and twos.

**vomit** Could've doubled my meager PP bankroll right there. Oh well. No guts no glory.

Next hand hit trip 8's with 86 only to lose to 87. Then hit 886 flop with my 99 and lost to A8. Got some back on tilt with AK calling down a KQ bluff on a ragged board. That snapped me out of it and I ended the session up $15. I basically doubled up from my low point of the session. Whew. I'll try again next session.

Because of the PP bonus I'll probably move up to the .10/.25 game on Stars. I certainly have the skill to kill that game. Not sure about the discipline. If I get below $75 I'll just drop back down to .05/.10.

So. $185 in PS and $70 in PP is where I stand right now. I'm gonna try and work that PP cash up and play in a $4.40 on PS the next chance I get.

Bleh

2006-07-28T15:47:00.000-05:00

Played in 2 12 person $13 sngs and lost both on horrible sucktastic beats with 5 players left.

Played 3 sessions of .05/.10 NL and tilted off $50ish. Pretty amazing one can play that bad at those limits really.

Won $20 in heads up sngs. One 4 person and one 2 person.

Played in the live tourney last night and lasted 4 hands. Raised to 70 with KQo with 4 callers. Q 7 2 flop check, check, donkey bets 200 so I reraise all-in. He thinks for 2 seconds and calls.... with Q4o. LOL nice. I knew the turn before it hit with the way things have been going. 4. GG me.

$153ish. Vacation starts Sunday and I'm looking forward to some fun in the sun. Hopefully I can come back and stop playing like a smuck.

I play good

2006-07-21T07:55:00.000-05:00

Too bad it wasn't for money.

http://www.thevalleypokertour.com/

Start with 1100 chips and 10/20 blinds against 80 dooooonkeys and if you're lucky enough you make it to heads up 3 hours later with blinds at 4000/8000. Fun fun. Got a trophy so that's nice.

I went in thinking I'd play a lot more aggressively than I usually do early on. In the 1st level I got Q10 of clubs so I limped. 5 limpers until the crazy agressive SB makes it 120 to go. I call. In the past I would've trashed the hand immediately but these guys have a rather large tendency to play almost any two cards and to get very passive postflop if they don't hit. One guy calls besides me and flop comes 2 4 8 and it's check check check. Turn is a 7 and I bet out 250. Fold and SB thinks about it and folds A 10 face up. I told him I had 3 5 but he was sure I had hit something.

Big hand a couple of orbits later. Same SB had just over bet the 75 chip pot by 500 with QQ. Everybody folded and I laughed my butt off. That's the level of play here. I guess he doesn't like queens. Next hand I get KK. 4 limpers of 50 each and I raise it to 200. 1st limper calls. Next pushes for 850 (A2 sooooted). Crazy SB guy pushes for 1400 ( a little more than me) (QJo), I push and other guy calls all in for his last 1100 (JJ). Board bricks out and suddenly I have a huge stack - over 4500.

I picked up QQ a few orbits later and won a decent sized pot after the flop. Raised with AQo UTG 3X the blinds and bet out when an ace came and took down a nice pot. Huge hand was 77 raised 3X the blinds UTG (didn't really like my play here) but flop came KK10 and I bet the pot and 1st dude pushes for 500 more. There was at least 3000 in the pot already but then the big stack to my right called as well. I thought he might have a 10 but I called. checked the turn and felt much better about my hand so I bet 1000 on the river and he called with AJ. Other guy had QJ so I had over 10,000 chips. My high was 12,300 before the final table.

Down to 10 players and the final table bubble we're playing 5 handed. Q9 in the BB and I have 11,000 in chips. UTG +1 limps for 2000, SB folds. BTW play really tightens up in these things when you get under 25 left. Flop 8, 3, 2 and I push my last 11k. If I lose this I'm down to 1 chip on the SB all in next hand. This girl looks like she's gonna fold but can't make up her mind. She agonizes for a good 2 or 3 minutes while the table - except for me obviously - tries to talk her into calling. What a horrible feeling. Here I was with an average chip stack if I just fold to the final table and I'm about to be taken out if she calls (assuming I miss a queen or nine). She eventually calls and I flip over my cards and the table says 'see we told you'. She has K8 for top pair. Apparently she was concerned because there were 2 clubs and she just knew another one would come and I was on the flush draw. Whatever.

9 on the turn and I hit the final table with 21k in chips. A set of 8s took 2 players out and pumped my stack up over 40k with blinds at 2/4. There's about 90k chips in play in total and there's 5 or 6 left. I pushed a couple of times to take down the blinds and then we're suddenly down to 3 handed. I'm still the chip leader when this hand comes up.

I push on the button with KJo. SB calls with QJ and BB insta-calls with 88. AQ8 on the flop and I'm way behind but the SB will be going out. I start chanting 10! 10! 10! and it comes on the turn. The table goes crazy and I start chanting 'don't pair the board' but another ace comes on the river. Almost.

So I was down to 27kish. At that point I had lost 3 allins at the final table to the guy I'm heads up with. I got the chip lead back by going all-in with 103o on a Jxx10 board after the BB put chips in the pot on the turn. He quickly mucked. The final hand I had A2 and called his allin. He had KJ. An ace on the turn sealed the deal.

I play bad

2006-07-20T17:01:00.000-05:00

when on tilt. 6 hour session two nights ago. Ugh. Got down $26 1st 30 minutes and took a break. Came back and got down $40. Bad beats galore (felt a lot like limit) no tilt yet. Worked it back up to only down $2 as the tables got a little crazy towards 10:30pm central time. People start pushing their shortish stacks preflop with crapola. It's kinda strange but then again short stacks at .05/.10 are only $3 or $4.

Went on another massive downswing to minus $50. Worked it back up to $1 down. Should have quit then at around 1am. Seriously. Quit at 2:30am after donking/tilting off a good $20. So stupid.

I played well overall. Very well. Just had some bad, bad luck (2 outers on the river were the theme of the night) and then went tiltish in my exhausted state at the end. I should never play for more than 4 hours straight. I know that. Oh well.

I really thought I was down over $50 when I went to bed but checked it the next day and was pleasantly surprised that the damage was only $36. It made me feel good and then bad that I could've snuck out with only a $15 hit if I had kept my head at the end.

Took Wednesday off like a good micro limit soldier and then played some heads up sngs this morning. I played a bunch of them last year. I just went back and looked at my stats. I was 45-19 over a 2 month stretch. I went 0-4 last week and swore them off and then this morning I went 0-2 and was cussing myself. Played in a $10 one to catch up and then opened up a $5 one at the same time since the $10 was playing very, very slowly and disconnecting.

I really think the players have gotten better. Of the 8 I've played in the last 2 weeks I'd say only 2 of them were horrible. Last year 7 of 8 would have been truly horrible. I know I'm not playing very well also. Too agressive still. Anyway, I won the last 2 (winning the last one after being down to 350 chips vs 2650) and ended up $3.75 to turn the tide. Even a tiny profit means a lot when you're running/playing badly.

So the account is at $246.28 or down $32.10 since the last update. It's not looking like I'll be hitting my goal of $150 up in July afterall. Maybe I'll get lucky in a $4.40 or kill the cash games a couple of times next week. We'll see.

Vacation starts July 30th. Can't wait.

3 1/2 hours

2006-07-17T23:45:00.000-05:00

on 3 .05/.10 tables. Got stacked early on with a set of jacks to an ace hi flush that confused me when he pushed on the river after getting there on the turn and checking. Doesn't take much to confuse me I guess. Had it up to $15. Oh well.

Played in a $4.40 and got the stack up to 4600 and then donked if off on another set of jacks. Couldn't put the dude on K10 o since I had raised in 5x the blinds and he got the staight on the turn. Then went out with top 2 versus the flush on the turn. gg me. Not really but that's the way it goes. Wanted to play another one but didn't.

Made $34.60 on the 3 $.05/.10 cash tables for $30.20 net. A good night at the micro levels - especially after getting stacked for $15.

$278.38.

Whatever Poker

October - February

October update

July went well

Another change of plans July 1st

June 2010

MTD - all at 1/2

Hello old friend

2010 6 weeks in

December is in the books

$686.70 for November

Fall update

$8.11

There is hope yet.

June in the books

May and June update

Mid-month update

Best month ever

April is meh so far

Looking over my 1/2 sessions...

Excellent month

Overdue update

Robusto!

January in the books

Why I need to play more NL (part 2)

This is why I need to play more NL

Typical

VPP plans

My awesome 1/2 LHE 6 max graph

More of the same

1885 hands of NL

Time to take a break from 1/2 LHE

Still on track for Platinum *sigh*

Ditto

More Pain

FPP Schedule for 2009

Blah

Maybe my best session ever

Going down?

November

Yuck

Bingo!

Almost had the $350 night

Biggest pot I've seen at 1/2 LHE 6 max

4 hours of 1/2 6 Max LHE

PT3 it is

Slow Start

1/2 and Oct/Nov goals

Quote of the Day

Upswings are good

Goal attained

Good Session

Another downswing

3 more sessions till goldstar

4 more sessions till goldstar

Grinding

September LHE results

I want my mommy

Officially at .5/1 now

Ho Hum another 6 max session

6 max sucks

Another session in my quest to get back to 1/2

The past 2 months

A steamrolled 180 man turbo

Forgot the bust out hand on the last match

2 1/2 hours = $86.88

Bouncing around

Update

Trying something new

Heads up

Vegas '08

Was that only a month ago?

2nd Chance

Wow my biggest MTT cash

Wow - something I forgot

What I've been doing the past 7 months

Vegas Report

I love 4.40s and I suck at NL cash

the doom switch

$4.40 180 person a day keeps the bustaments away

Still on track for Platinum sigh