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The Poker Province    Friends

Floundering

Date: Thu, Dec 30, 2010 Internet

What a bad day. I played three MTTs and a load of 90s and didn't hit a final table, nor do much better than min-cash. The MTTs were really bad.

I played a DNG Freeroll. I don't like it. It was basically a turbo with 40K runners. Top 7 get their tickets, 8-60 get $5.50. Sure it was free, but with that many runners and the rapid blind pace, it's a slot machine pull. I made top 1500. Wheee. I played a $5 Deepstack MTT on Full Tilt as well as a $3 MTT. Never got anything going. I was basically staying afloat in each through smoke and mirrors, but got nowhere near the money.

I also played seven $1/90 KOs and five $1/90 SnGs. I managed two min cashes in the $1/90s and none in the KOs. I did manage seven bounties total and bubbled 16th twice. Overall, it was a pretty sad experience.

Lost $18.93 while sporting a hefty -78.55% ROI. PokerStars' overall ROI through 221 SnGs has fallen to -14.08%, while Full Tilt's is holding steady, through 202 SnGs at +65.78%. All sites combined, my SnG ROI is at +18.55. Definitely slipping. Even 500 SnGs is no indication of overall ability. Also, I started in late September. I will finish what I consider my "trial run" in a few days and then start anew in 2011. In those blog posts I'll just fish out wins and losses each day and leave the ROI to end of month cumulative numbers.

Overall, I'm happy with my SnG and cash game stats. I'm disappointed with my MTT stats, but then again, I've never been a decent MTT player. We'll see how 2011 shakes out.

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Cash Games and SnGs

Date: Wed, Dec 29, 2010 Internet

Started Tuesday off playing some NL [and accidentally LHE] at a few sites. Namely played at Bodog, Cake, Lock, PDC Poker and PokerStars. The plan was to try to cover the day's buy-in of SnGs.

Bodog: Always very loose in their NL games. I played NL10 and scored a small pot early, but it became apparent that there was a huge fish at the table. You know the player. He calls a raise with utter garbage, flops bottom pair, donk bets, get's raised then pushes only to be called by an overpair. He luckboxes a two pair or better and stacks the player. So my strategy is simple. Compliment the player then get him to eventually double me up. Well I get whacked a few times [never stacked] and do a $5 rebuy to get me to about $9.80. I'm still lying in wait when I land a set of 8s and double through him. I could have stayed longer , but was happy with my slight $2.65 profit. With the major fish leaving, it made my exodus that much more easy.

PokerStars: Well this was a riot....When I was originally deciding what to do< i was angling towards playing LHE. But the smaller sites have virtually no LHE traffic. Problem is, once I decided to play NL, I forgot to switch tabs at PokerStars. So I opened up a "NL 10" table. I was wondering, why the heck can I buy-in for $1,000? It made no sense. And I was clueless until I flopped a set of Js and realized I could raise to 10 cents.....I stuck with it and despite getting as far down as 30 BBs, managed to finish at -$0.07.

Lock Poker: I played a real short session here, logging in a double up on hand 19. I definitely could have stayed longer and had thought of doing so, but wanted to play a bit higher since the Merge network is starting to increase traffic dramatically. I decided on playing some NL10, but am not rolled near enough at Lock to do so. So I moved to another Merge site, PDC Poker, and opened a NL10 table.

PDC Poker: Well a few small beats at NL10 and I'm not too optimistic on my move. I do manage to turn a small $0.35 profit in 180 hands right at the end of the session. I do like Merge. I'm going to have to play here more often. The biggest reason is that I have 35% rakeback at Lock and 33% at Poker Host. Other than that, my only rakeback deal is through Cake Poker.

Cake Poker: I really have no clue why I run so bad playing NL4 here. I get stacked twice by some really horrid bad luck, having gotten in well ahead only to see some weird runners crush me. So, down 2 buy-ins, what does the smart player do? They don't move up to NL10 chasing losses like me.....But it turns out well. Flopping straights vs AA and getting in on the flop will do that.

Cash games: +$8.55. That's not a horrible haul for the stakes. I do need to spend more time playing cash games online, both LHE and NL.

The usual session mix of Multi-SnGs: Two $1/90 KOs on Stars and two $1/90s on Full Tilt. I manage 3 KOs between the two KOs, finishing 16th and 25th. I manage a 9th place final table finish and a 26th at Full Tilt. Buy-ins cost $5 and I made $3, so a -40% ROI on the day.

+$6.55 overall however. It's better than a stick in the eye.

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Monday Poker

Date: Mon, Dec 27, 2010 Internet

Played a pair of $1/90 KOs on Stars and a pair of $1/90 on Full Tilt. I was runnign well in all four with about 20-25 left when I hit a rough patch. Finished the two Full Tilt 90s in 23rd and 27th place.

On Stars managed a bounty before bowing out 17th in one, but final tabled and finished 5th in teh last one with four bounties. I managed to get it in good versus smaller stacks three times but only once did I garner a bounty. Worst player at the table gave away his chip lead and most his chips overplaying TT on a AKQA board vs AJ. Very next hand, I'm under the gun with A5s and push. Worst player wakes up with another good hand, AK and busts me. Sigh. Donkeys and their card racks.....I might play later after dinner.

Up $2.55 so far.

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Merry Christmas

Date: Sun, Dec 26, 2010 Internet

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. My wife and I had breakfast, then proceeded to make snacks for Christmas dinner at my cousin's house. After dinner [and Pie], we came home and watched a movie before crashing for the night.

However, Christmas Eve day I managed to win a $1/90 on Full Tilt. Bad news is that I overplayed my bankroll a bit and crashed and burned in four $4/180s.

If I play $1/90 KOs, even if I lose all four, I finish with a $10 profit instead of a $1 loss. That'll teach me for overplaying. -8.16% ROI for the day.

Today, Sunday the 26th, I managed to lose JJ to AK all-in in the $18K Superstack [using the Step 3 ticket I won earlier in the month] on Full Tilt. I can't seem to hit a flip for a good stack in a more expensive MTT. Although the MTT was basically just a $3/30 loss, it feels bigger because of the real buy-in cost. I also failed to advance in the $2.20 $5,000 Guarantee. Finished out the day with a pair of non-money finishes in a $1/90 KO on Stars and a $1/90 on FTP. Managed three bounties in a 15th place finish at Stars.

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Good Thursday

Date: Fri, Dec 24, 2010 Internet

Played two sessions of SnGs today, as well as two sessions of LHE. Did well overall.

PokerStars:
Played a $0.25/90, a $1/90 KO, two $2/90s and two $1/45s. Bubbled the final table in the $0.25 for a meager profit and finished 9th in the $1/90 KO with four bounties. Neither of the $2/90s, nor the $1/45s went anywhere. However, I had a quick $0.50/$1 LHE session before dinner and a 3 hour session after my wife went to bed that I managed to turn into a $5.85 profit. Not fantastic, but the 1.24BB/100 was decent considering my online LHE is rusty and online, in general, is a much different beast than live.

Full Tilt:
I played a $1/90 and three $1/45s. Nothing happening in 90s right now and two 45s went awry, but I won the last $1/45, which was great. I hit the final table 9/9. Within a few hands a mid-size stack went all-in and lost. I doubled a couple times when bigger stacks gave me mercy calls on my pushes and I really started chipping up. We got to three handed pretty quickly with all three of us in close proximity, stack-wise. One was a very loose-passive player, the other was a rock. My choice was to get HU with the rock. I ended up HU with the loose guy, who started playing a bit more aggressive. After about 10 minutes, I was controlling the tempo and he was making mistakes. I got up huge a few times and he'd get some miracle card to save him. In the end, it came down to him limping A6 to my 86o and me getting the 862 flop while he pushed into my two pair. I won it there. Feels real good!

Overall up $14.35, including LHE results. ROI for the day: +66.51%

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Online leading up to Christmas

Date: Thu, Dec 23, 2010 Internet

Decided not to play live this week, but am contemplating it next week if I can get some stuff done at ITH and still leave myself with a decent amount of time to play. Have been playing a mixed bag of MTTs, 90s, 45s, 27s and STTs and am down overall -$23.38 for a -49.48% ROI.

Playing as we speak. I played some 90s this morning into early afternoon and took a break for a doctors appointment. Have had some bumps forming on my abdomen and arms. Decided to have them looked at and to meet my new doctor, seeing as how my last one left Kaiser. They're lipomas. Hyper-aggressive, benign fat cells which form when your metabolism is out of whack. Yes, I'm fat. I've already decided I'll be changing my eating habits and continuing my gym workouts. I really did go off the deep end and eat these past two months. Goal is to drop a pound a week in 2011. More if I can, but I'm going to shred it gradually. Back to the lipomas. Doctor told me weight loss will shrink them a little, but they won't go away. I then asked if they could be cut out. They can, but the choice I have is little fatty lumps or scra tissue and the discomfort of surgery.

So call me lumpy. More Christmas Eve.

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Sunday at Bay 101

Date: Mon, Dec 20, 2010 Internet

Sunday was Geek Day in San Jose. I was the Geek Master. Let's leave it at that.....

My wife was in Sacramento and since we start Sundays at 2PM, I decided to go down early and play 3/6 LHE at Bay 101. I got on a table about 10:45AM. Uggh. I blew through my first $100 and rebought an extra $40 in about an hour. I managed no winning hands. Missed draws and one folded winner. I folded 99 on an AKx flop after two other players decided a bet and raise were prudent with their T high and pair of deuces. I hit a couple winners in the second hour, but nowhere near what I had already lost. I had a monster broadway straight that ended up splitting when a guy on A4 hit a gutshot on the river.

Guy on my left elbow was on a heater. Straights, flushes, fullhouses. Oh, to see him at my next Bay 101 table. :)

I left at 1:15PM down $240. Not a problem. The $365 win on Friday leaves me up $125 and some losses just happen.

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Online vs Live

Date: Sat, Dec 18, 2010 Internet

It always strikes me funny, the differences between online and live poker. I've stopped playing online LHE and instead play a bit of NL because it is easier to protect your hand and generally people don't tend to pay off big bets while chasing gutshots or worse. In online the play is much better in LHE, despite the poor playing chasers, simply because the lowest limits are filled with the fish and the higher you progress, the better the average player. I've played a few live sessions lately and the 3/6 LHE game I've been playing in is akin to a $0.10/$0.20 online game. Seriously. You raise, you might get 7 or 8 callers, dependent on how many limped before you raised.

Thursday I played a Stars $1/90 KO and $2/90 as well as a $1/90 on FTP and a $2 On Demand hybrid. I only cashed the On Demand for 2nd tier. I was well ahead when I pushed only to lose to a 3 out bad kicker when my AQ lost to A4.

Friday night I played another online session with exactly the same spread of SnGs and bubbled the $1/90 KO and the $2 On Demand hybrid. In each, it was Go Big or Go Home, although losing the flip with my AK vs TT, was a bit painful when he runner runnered a straight to pour salt in the wounds.

However, I'll run like this if I can run like I did when I played 3/6 live. Let me set this up:

My wife has been trying to get our new kitty in to get her spayed. Problem is, they haven't wanted to do it because teh kitten has had a case of ringworm and they wanted that cleared up. Well, here in California, you cannot adopt a kitten from the Animal Shelter unless you also get it spayed or pay for the spayign process up front. I think this is somewhat barbaric myself, because I think competent adults who take care of their animals might want to breed a cat that they are very fond of in the hopes of getting offspring that emulate their cats. The other side of that is that there are way too many irresponsible people who would have 40 cats running the streets because they didn't care for their responsibility. And don't get me wrong. If you get a kitten fixed before she has had a chance to go into heat, they tend to be playful their entire life. Long story short. We had to get the kitten in Friday. And the Animal Shelter is about a mile away from the Casino, so.....

I had 4 or so hours to kill. I went to the casino, bought in for a rack and settled into my seat at the 3/6 HE table. There were a few real characters there. A guy on my left elbow was really talkative, obnoxiously punny and just the kind of butthead that normally would have me seeking a table change, His brother was at another table and much better behaved. He had a friend to his left. There was a retired butcher shop owner thatthey both knew as he'd been a fixture in the community for years. The table was rounded out by a myriad of horrid players, chasers and fish. OK, maybe all of that was oxymoronic. Anyway, I felt the obnoxious guy was softplayng his friend a bit as well as the butcher shop owner. I didn't say anything but merely kept it in my head. I ran up 10BBs early and thought I was on my way to an average, decent session. I then got a few hands beaten by some of the bad players. AA lost to 84o who called a capped preflop, a capped flop before hitting his trips on the turn. A flopped two pair got river gutshot. It was getting ugly. I was down to $20 and did a $40 rebuy to get me started. I know, I should have rebought for another $100, but I was still contemplating a table change. That's when I decided to loosen up my game a bit. I can play as loose as these donks, but still control my losses.

I went on a buzzsaw heater. And despite people saying I was lucky [sometimes] an how well I was playing [most the time], they continued to pay me off. The punny, obnoxious guy actually told a few others that "when he bets the river, you know he has it." But this didn't stop anyone from hero calling to "Keep him honest." All I kept muttering is stuff like, "Boy I got lucky there", or "Wow, I didn't put you on that..."

Well the two online SnG sessions were a loss of $11.03 for a -79.35% ROI.

And the live 3/6 LHE session? 3.5 hours netted me $365. Now that was monster.

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Jury Duty Woes into Poker Bliss

Date: Wed, Dec 15, 2010 Internet

Got a notice just before Thanksgiving that I had jury duty on the 8th of December. Only one problem. I was going to be on the road back from Tunica during that time. So I requested them to move it out. I could have had them ship it all the way to February, but I wanted it done with as soon as possible. They ended up moving it out a day. Then they moved it out another week. So it was slated on December 15th. I was to call in on the 14th after 5PM to see if my group was being called in. When I got the answering machine message, it said all groups needed to call in between 11:30-12Noon on Wednesday. OK. So I still didn't know. I finally call in at 11:40 AM and they took groups 1-6. Ahhh! Nice to be group 7. My jury duty was thus completed and they didn't need me. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!.

OK, so poker on the 14th. It consisted of two Full Tilt $1/90s, a Full Tilt $5 STT, a $1/90 KO, a $2/90 and a $4 KO STT on Stars. I did horribly in the 90s, except for yet another 12th place finish in a Full Tilt $1/90. I finished 2nd in the Full Tilt $5 STT as well as 2nd in the $4 Stars KO, with 3 bounties.

$5.70 profit and an ROI of 25.91%. Good day. I'm might need to concentrate my efforts on single table SnGs and have a couple of 90s in the background.

Today, I did pretty well. Still not knowing if I had jury duty this morning, I decided on a $3 Step 1 on Full Tilt. Managed to win a Step 2 ticket. Finished about 11AM, so did some other stuff waiting to make my phone call. Once I got the all clear, I settled in to play some SnGs. Signed up for a Step 2 SnG, but forgot to use the ticket I had just won. D'Oh! No problem, got a Step 3 ticket in that one too. Woot! Played three Bodog $4 Beginner SnGs. First one I took 4th for a small $1.60 profit. I realized that I had cashed all seven of these I had played. Jinxed myself. I went out 10th and 7th in the next two. I played a $2/27 and two $1/90s on Full Tilt but got nowhere. In the last $1/90 I managed to pretty much bust, when a donkey made a horrible call of my shove and got stupid lucky. You be the judge of this. Went out 24th in a $1/90 KO then finished 2nd [with a single bounty] in another. A bit down on that one. Once we got HU he had a 2:1 chip lead and we were extremely deep stacked. I managed to gain a substantial chip lead when he caught AQ vs my KTs and neither improved. I get A6s later and shove all-in. He thinks for around 20 seconds then calls. He shows AA. OK, asshole. Slowrolling is not cool. There is no reason for it.

Manage to finish up $25.15 with a 77.5% ROI when the value of the Step Tickets are valued in. Nice day.

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Sunday Blues and Monday Woo-hoos

Date: Tue, Dec 14, 2010 Internet

Sunday first. Played four MTTs: $3 Stars $5K, miniFTOPS #11 [the KO], a $1K Guarantee at UB and a $1 Donkament at FTP. All I managed was finishing 13th of 470 in the donkament, although I did get a bounty in the miniFTOPS.

On the SnG side of things, it was miserable in two $1/90 KOs on Stars and two $1/90s on FTP, although a 15th place finish at FTP did net $0.70.

Loss of $18.47. ROI: -75.39%

Monday was better. After working and doing some stuff around the house [read: dishes...] I squeezed in four SnGs of varying types. I played a Bodog $4 Beginner STT, a PDC $5 Double or Nothing, a standard $5 FTP STT and a $4 Stars STT KO. The FTP standard STT saw me push AK into the table donk, er chip leader who called my push with 32s and managed to catch a two. I may never understand some players. Meanwhile, despite a bad start in the PDC Poker DoN, I manage to chip up after a few kamikaze steals and winning AK vs QQ. I get into the money shortly after securing my chip position. At Bodog I finish 3rd for $8 after busting AK into AJ. Finally, after yet another slow start I started hitting hands in the $4 Stars KO. Finishing with a flourish as I rack up 5 bounties and the win. Winning hand was A6o and I felt like he was either getting tired or bored. He pushed 82o and I snap called for the win.

Nice hour and a half session for a profit of $15.85 for and ROI of 81.70%

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A Saturday Where I Win

Date: Sun, Dec 12, 2010 Internet

Not too shabby. Only posted a small win, but I played a diverse range of SnGs and MTTs and managed to bring a little profit.

I started by registering for a $1K [$1.10] PL O/8 MTT on Stars as well as a $5K NLHE [$2.20]. While I was waiting for them to start, I fired up a $1/90 KO on Stars as well as a $1/90 on Full Tilt. Went out really quick on Full Tilt SnG when I lost KK to AQs that flushed the river. I was plugging away, as standard, in the KO, when the MTTs started. I fired up another Full Tilt $1/90, so I had 4 tables going.

The PL O/8 MTT was real squirrely early on. I was getting only the low ends with plenty of low-card hands. I actually won a horrid low when my nut turn high got counterfeited by some player who caught a 4 out fullhouse with no low potential. I didn't make the money ultimately, but it wasn't for a lack of effort. I was getting some spectacular hands. In particular, I had A234 and AA23 and neither improved, especially considering all high flops. How it goes sometimes.

I fared a bit better in the NLHE tournament, moneying for $4.60. I had been in good shape for a long while until a shortstack badbeat took some chips and then a folded JJ after a raise and push convinced me I was beat preflop. 406 out of 5,000 runners. I wasn't too happy how it all fell apart really quickly, but when playing poor players it happens.

I bombed the Full Tilt $1/90, but had another up and running as well as a $4 STT KO on Stars. I monied all three of the remaining SnGs. I didn't get a single bounty in the $1/90 KO on Stars but finished 7th. I also didn't get a single bounty in the $4 but somehow managed to revive a 260 chip stack after losing A9 to TT while the BB was 200. I somehow finished 3rd. Eventual winner was a drooler who called my AKo that I 10BB pushed with 32s. Whatever. I bounced 88 off of AK in the last Full Tilt $1/90 on a flop of KK5. Player was an absolute rock who checked flop and turn. He surprised me well enough and I bubbled the final table finishing for a small profit in 10th.

$3.70 win for +30.58 ROI for the day. All in all, a decent day.

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