Trying to get rolling again

I just ordered IdleMiner and it is a godsend for helping to get good info on the players you are against. It also really helps me to focus on playing against bad players and leave the table when those guys run out of cash.

With more data I find I end up looking at Poker Tracker data much more. Do a screen for vpip over 50% and won show down % less than 35%. These guys make my buddy list for sure with a win rate of -86.8 ptbb / 100 hands. Is it possible to lose over 6 buyins in 150 hands? The answer is sure if you have stats like this: 66.2/21.8/5.8 and have an 18% win at SD %! You have to love how they build their image but still pot it with 2nd pair on all streets against an obvious overpair. Took an hour to repay me for the cost of the program!

Here was my hand of the night against this genius:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)


saw flopsaw showdown

Button ($163.65)
SB ($49.30)
BB ($62.10)
UTG Hero ($54.35)
MP (Villian)/ ($50)
CO ($71.75)



Preflop: Hero is UTG with Kd, Qc.

UTGA raises to $1.75, MP (Villian)/ calls $1.75, 4 folds.

Flop: ($4.25) Jd, Td, Ks (2 players)

UTG bets $2, Villian raises to $4, UTG raises to $14, Villian calls $8.
I have to bet here and try to get his money in the middle.

Turn: ($30.25) As (2 players)

Hero checks, Villian bets $36.25 (All-In), Hero calls $36.25.
Now it is time to give him some rope so he can hang himself.


River: ($0) 4h (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $102.75

Results in white below:

Hero has Kd Qc (straight, ace high).

Villian has Ac 5c (one pair, aces).

Outcome: Hero wins $102.75.

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Bad Call

Just wanted to put this out there to see if I should have folded this on the turn when I was drawing to a full house.

Full Tilt Poker Game #4330085106: The Mookie:Bow to Budo (32645907), Table 5 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:10:15 ET - 2007/11/28
Seat 1: wwonka69 (2,125)
Seat 2: VinNay (2,925), is sitting out
Seat 3: jjok (3,410)
Seat 4: sellthekids (3,045)
Seat 5: Rake Feeder (3,030)
Seat 6: Mungo36 (3,000)
Seat 7: JL514 (3,330)
Seat 8: whiskigrl (3,135)
Seat 9: BuddyDank (3,000)
VinNay posts the small blind of 15
jjok posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mungo36 [Qc Qh]
sellthekids folds
Rake Feeder folds
Mungo36 has 15 seconds left to act
Mungo36 raises to 90
JL514 folds
whiskigrl folds
BuddyDank calls 90
wwonka69 folds
VinNay folds
jjok folds
*** FLOP *** [Ts 9c 8s]
Mungo36 bets 166
BuddyDank calls 166
*** TURN *** [Ts 9c 8s] [Qs]
Mungo36 has 15 seconds left to act
Mungo36 bets 336
BuddyDank has 15 seconds left to act
BuddyDank raises to 1,110
Mungo36 calls 774
*** RIVER *** [Ts 9c 8s Qs] [Td]
Mungo36 has 15 seconds left to act
Mungo36 bets 666
BuddyDank has 15 seconds left to act
BuddyDank calls 666
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Mungo36 shows [Qc Qh] a full house, Queens full of Tens
BuddyDank mucks
Mungo36 wins the pot (4,109) with a full house, Queens full of Tens
The blinds are now 20/40
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4,109 Rake 0
Board: [Ts 9c 8s Qs Td]
Seat 1: wwonka69 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: VinNay (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: jjok (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: sellthekids didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Rake Feeder didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Mungo36 showed [Qc Qh] and won (4,109) with a full house, Queens full of Tens
Seat 7: JL514 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: whiskigrl didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: BuddyDank mucked [Js Kc] - a straight, King high

JJ not okay at blogger events

Played pretty solid but lost a race with JJ vs. AQ against Lucko. He didn't have much time at the table to see that I was playing quite tight that evening. Of course it bites to lose that key race as that would have given me the chips to survive a turbo event with shortstack pushing.

Next week I will attempt to not have other things going on until 5 mins before the start of the tournament... I really think you need to do a small warmup event or something before sitting down to get the silly out of my system!

Work is really ramping up and I expect to age about 7 years over this next year. Building a business is tough work.

Getting back into the swing of things

Been on a rollercoaster as I just watched the CTS videos on CR. Damn that guy is nice and loose and super aggro. Adds variance to the results but it sure mixes up play and gets you lots of action for your big hands. When I tried it out I was running 32/28 and cbetting about 80% of flops. Still using most of GP's position plays to make sure that I take advantage of early position limpers.

Here is a hand that shows the nice action I was getting this evening:

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

LeggoPoker Hand History Converter



Hero (SB): $24.75
BB: $25
UTG: $24.30
MP: $29.50
CO: $25
BTN: $42.25

CO posts $0.25

Pre-Flop: Q Q dealt to Hero (SB) <--- sweet position to get a real hand... have been 3 betting light to these min raises all evening and they are starting to call those reraises.

UTG folds, MP raises to $0.50, CO folds, BTN calls $0.50, Hero raises to $3.60, BB folds, MP calls $3.10, BTN folds


Flop: ($8.20) Q T 9 (2 Players) <---- good flop as KJ isn't likely to be around at this level but will still check and hope they bet into me.
Hero checks, MP checks <--- shucks missed bet


Turn: ($8.20) T (2 Players) <--- perfect turn card to play weak and let straight and flush hit on river
Hero checks, MP checks



River: ($8.20) 7 (2 Players) <--- bet pot and hope they have something
Hero bets $9, MP raises to $18, Hero raises to $21.15 and is All-In, MP calls $3.15

Results: $50.50 Pot ($2.50 Rake)
Hero showed Q Q (a full house, Queens full of Tens) and WON $48 (+$23.25 NET)
MP mucked A 3 (a flush, Ace high) and LOST (-$24.75 NET)

Now if I can stop the stupid 3 barrel bluffing from happening very often I can get back up to playing at least NL50 on a regular basis.

AA at Blogger Events

Finished my return to the ring with a nice 68th place finish monday night at Hoy's event. Had Fuel and Cmitch at my table and super aggro guy to my right.... so tough spot to be in but deep stacks so I decide to take my time and chat until I get AA on the button. Standard raise... get reraised... I rereraise and then villian pushes with 1010. River 10 gives me a flush but the board had already paired.... early exit for me and looking forward to the Mookie.

Gotta win one of these events because my online cash is so low.

Blogger Donk Time Again

It sure doesn't take long until I turn into a push monkey and lost most of the cash I won by playing good solid poker. You can actually feel yourself about to do something stupid and you can't stop your body from clicking the button.....



Well I know the solution to that... good banter at the Monday at the Hoy event tonight.... hope I can get my wireless going so I can watch my Penguins play tonight at the same time.

Couple days of playing

Moved into the new house now and have reliable internet access. Have spent the last couple days getting used to playing again at NL25. Nice to be up about 4 buyins and won 3 tournaments that I started at the same time the other night.

Currently working on getting my next job started as I left a hedge fund that I worked for over the last 5 years+ last week. Figure with the new house why not get the job stuff in order with a new opportunity to be my own boss.

Hopefully I can get home to play in a few of the blogger events next week.

Back in the Ring!

Glad that the games are still full of nice fat fish! Took me an hour to catch him but here is the capture. He was betting with anything and I knew if I hit he would pay me off with his stack. Love the reraise to $36 on the turn! Need to get off to a hot start to build up the bankroll again.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

saw flopsaw showdown

Button ($47.25)
SB ($66.25)
BB ($84.45)

UTG =(Villian)/ ($52.35)
MP ($50)
CO ($84.85)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6d, 7s.
UTG =/ raises to $1, 3 folds, SB calls $0.75, Hero calls $0.50.



Flop: ($3) 5s, 4s, 5h (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, Villian bets $3, SB folds, Hero calls $3.

Turn: ($9) 3c (2 players)
Hero checks, Villian bets $9, BB raises to $36, Villian calls $27.



River: ($81) Qd (2 players)
BB bets $13, Villian calls $12.35 (All-In).

Final Pot: $105.70

Results in white below:

Hero has 6d 7s (straight, seven high).

Villian has 7d 7h (two pair, sevens and fives).

Outcome: Hero wins $106.35.

It is so hard to close off loose ends

Finally got moved into the new house so it is possible that I can show up to some blogger events starting next week. It has been a long ride but now having internet access at home is going to get me back in the swing of things. Still have to setup the wireless network for the house but that shouldn't take long tonight.

Time to get back to reading everyone elses blogs as well which has been off and on over these last few months.

On the work front I am still waiting to tie up a few loose ends before figuring out my next move. Time to start hitting up some contacts for some good opportunities or at least some stock picks while I am waiting around.

New Work Developments

Lots of exciting stuff going to happen soon on the work front..... looking forward to getting back into my usual positive attitude. If things go well then hopefully I can afford to go to the WSOP and just buy my way into a few events without the wife worrying about me.

Anyway, just wanted to say that it won't be long until I am back.

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Getting killed in live events

Managed to get an invite to a 5k freeroll live event with 50 entrants... top 4 get paid. Most of the guys haven't played before so either don't know what they have or don't know how to bet. Either way I have no chance in those type of events.

So then I get to play 5-5 cash against these guys and watch guys call three big bets with tpnk. All said and done I run into set over set and set vs. flush draw and watch a ton of cash flow the wrong way. Oh well that is poker...

Outside of that there are a lot of changes coming in my life... moving to a new house .... a tide is turning at work (more to be announced later) and internet access is going to be mine again! Then the goal is to get home earlier and play in a few of the weekly events against the real bloggers.

Looking forward to raise of 336 coming your way soon.

Almost in new home

Only another couple weeks and then I will be in the new house... this should mean dependable internet access instead of not having any real contact to the world like over the last five months in the current location. It has been a struggle to keep up any poker game at all.

On the work front things aren't going the way I want them to. I can't stand seeing a bunch of guys in my type of position getting patted on the back because they document every phone call better than I do. In the end all we really should do is focus on the profit/loss in each position by person. One guy just got to cover a bunch of stuff that used to be in my wheelhouse. In the end they will pull all of those names from that guy when he loses some cash.

Hope you guys are making lots of money online.... hope to see most of you live or online soon.

Last Day in Current Club

Our poker club is moving I found out last night.... showed up because Kat said she would be there ... she wasn't in sight when I arrived. Shame since it has been too long since I last had a pint with her while ranting about some silly calling station getting lucky again.

Well last night I was the one making them whine. It is great when you can notice the cocky super lag before you see one hand... min raise from utg and then berates everyones play and taunts people the whole time. I mentioned to the guy sitting next to me what a piece of work that guy is and that I am going to run over him soon. He laughs at me and says that is his buddy and he has been pushing around the table for a while.

Took me about an orbit and he min raised from MP and I repoped him with QJs. He calls of course and when he checks to me I bet into him getting an insta call. Then he decides to get frisky with me and leads out on the turn so I call to induce a bluff bet on the river. He complys and puts out a weak river bet which I raise and he calls with J4o... nice first orbit time to get some food.

Overall he ended up busted along with a girl who loved to raise every hand because she said she didn't care about money. She must have not liked to win very often either because she did a lot of losing!

So I might check out this Nexxus club that is over at bloor and bathurst to try my hand against a group that has no clue how I play.

That is three profitable poker nights in a row... amazing what a little concentration and focus can do for the game.

3rd Place in Club Tournament

Managed to get out last Wed night and play some poker and managed to get 3rd place. Amazed that I was able to play super tight and still get paid off for big hands.

Only hand where I thought I got a little luck on when I raised from MP with 77. The BB was so weak that I could just steal the blinds with a regular raise. Short stack to my left goes all in. One crazy fool down the end reraises which could be AK which is why I decided to call and gambool... I win the race vs. 44 and AK (good read me!) even with the first card off the deck being a 4!

Set over set has been my luck lately with me having the higher set. I guess if you play almost no poker for months you get a little luck. Now lets just get some internet access for me and I am off to the races.

Starting to get back into the groove

Really hating the idea of not having internet access at home but only going to rent there for another couple months so not worth it to get it installed at this point. Going without cable and a home phone as well because the builder messed up when they never put a line from the house to the cable box... going to be a bitch to fix it now.

This last long weekend I decided to go to Fallsview to play live against the fish. They have silly blinds for the max buy in allowed at the table... sat down at a 2/5 NL table with a 200 max buy in. Hand of the night had to be my limp of JJ from UTG which gets called by six others (no chance of getting anyone to fold so playing it like a small pocket pair!). The BB raises to $30 and five callers...

Perfect flop A J 7 rainbow. BB leads out for $60 and I smooth call. Super aggro asian behind me pushes for a total of $175 and too tight Jewish fellow calls for his last $60. BB goes into the tank which lets me know that I am way ahead or he is a great actor! Either way I am going to get my cash in the middle here as I don't have him raising that much with AA based on playing against him for the last 4 hours. He finally calls and then I reraise all in which is another $87 to the BB. He actually folds his AK which was impressive vs. all the pay so far this evening.

Asian guy had pocket 7's, and the Jewish guy had AK. JJ holds and I scoop a huge pot of over $700! Donked away about $150 before getting my ass off the tables close to 4 am and heading home to get up the next day at 9 am. Don't forget the 1 hour drive I have before getting to my place.

Need Internet Connection

Hell I am so sick of not having internet access at home. We are waiting for Cogeco and the builder to figure out who has to build the line from the house to the cable box. This is taking forever and I am starting to get pissed off.

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

I think the rating for this blog should be infrequent boring poster!

No internet and no air conditioning.

Just moved into the rental house that I will live in for 5 months while the new house gets built. So far I have no AC and no internet access... so no poker but tomorrow night I will be playing in a $100 buyin tournament. Actually on second thought it looks like I might go play a quick tournament tonight for $60. Unless the wife is still not feeling well then I will rush to her side.

Smokkee I will be back.

I am moving this weekend as my fathers day gift! At least we hired movers to put us into our house rental for at least 5 months while our new place gets built.

Soon as I can I will do what I can to get back to the blogger events and try to win some of them!

I am sure that most of you guys miss my 336 reraises into you holding the nuts....

Finally some poker to report

Played live poker last night after a run around night on the town. Did my show up with a light buzz and the plan of not playing any hands until I got some pop into me. Had a great night overall where I was up over $450 playing 1-2 because my tight style got paid off.

I did try to alter my play a little and take some slowplay risks because my live cash game is quite ABC. KK in the SB and I call a raise with three other callers. I knew that if I reraised here I would be telling them I have A's or K's. By calling I could get away from the hand cheap if an A hit and I could check raise the flop because two of the players were aggro post flop. See a nice Q high flop and I don't get to check raise because 1st aggro guy raises to $15 and aggro player 2 re-raises to $60.

Now what do you do in this instance? 1st aggro player is solid but loose and aggro but will call bets out of position if he senses weakness. I tried to just call the reraise hoping that both come along for the ride. 1st aggro guy folds and a beautiful K falls on the turn. I check and she bets $60 and I go all in and she calls with AQ.

Now after this I notice that when I raise she always seems to call with any two cards. I am only raising pairs at this point of the evening once I am up a few bucks. In EP+1 I raise with AA and get thebutton and the BB (same villian) to call. Now even when I miss a flop I usually have to bet $25 to get these guys to fold as a cbet with a $10 preflop raise. So following the same pattern I fire out $25 and the button folds but my BB villian reraises me to $60. She only has $102 behind so I don't see her folding after putting 40% of her cash in the middle so I push. She calls and I don't get to see her cards as I rake in another good pot.

The key for me winning money in that place is to arrive sober enough to play and also leaving once I start to become a calling station.

First poker night in a while

Rusty as all hell.... down 90 or so tonight but tried a couple of those HU token tourneys... lost two in a row.... and also lost a reg token event... blah all around.

Going to start to work out again and try to lose about 20 lbs and see if I can pick up my energy level. At some point I also want to get my sleeping patterns analysed because I know that I wake up far too often. That is messing with my ability to get good rest and think better the next day.

Lots of good stuff to do and not enough time to get it all done!

Wow time is flying

I have to get back in gear and start to play some poker again.... been too long since I sat down at a blogger event and started raising every other hand to 336... I realize that I have been tagged multiple times so I figured I should start with those random 7 things about me.

1. I am shitty at being a husband, father, friend etc. Being so selfish is something that I try to not do but it still happens far too often. Add alcohol to the mix and I get even worse!

2. As I get older I am getting so lazy and fat. I think that getting overweight gives me less energy which contributes to my lazyness!

3. The new house I am buying is only a couple km's from my current house. Moving right next to a provincial park and looking forward to having more space. I did splurge a little by buying heated floors in the bathroom and we also put the toilet into its own room instead of it being part of the bathroom area.

4. Never been a pet person. I guess that comes from not having pets like a dog while I was a kid. The birds or fish I did have always died due to lack of care on my brother or my part.

5. I would like to spend half of the year on the east coast living near Halifax and my winters in TO. TO has snow but it is also the only place I have found that I can make good money working in the financial industry.

6. Multiplication tables were / are tough for me to recall. Learning stuff like that has always required pure memory and my mind always struggles in those situations. I remember at the time saying that the real issue was if we could always carry a calculator on us. Now I do have my rim on me to handle those difficult calculations!

7. I am a big Pepsi fan. I can and do drink upwards of 4-5 cans a day and if I am offered Coke I will usually 'settle' for it.

Now lets hope I can start to get into a few of these blogger events and win some damn points.

Lots going on

Been busy for the last few weeks and the poker game has to be rusty as hell. Managed to put my house up for sale and then sell it for 98% of list within a week. I also was on vacation that week visiting a friend in Atlanta for a couple days. After that the rest of the week was spent in Orlando taking little Guin to see Mickey Mouse.

Since I got back last week work has been busy as hell... just working hard to get back my stress level that made me need the last vacation! The good thing is that things are working out and making some good coin.

Yesterday was the deadline for filing my taxes and I found out that I am owed 3k by our gov't. Looking forward to getting that and hopefully not getting audited!

Tonight I have a university alumni event where we chat to current MBA and undergrads that are about to graduate and move to Toronto. Fun fun... at least the booze is free.

Later Neteller

Got my cheque from the folks over at Neteller. Sad to see a bunch of my poker bankroll come out but it should convince me to play better to build it back up. This is my first withdrawal since starting playing online.... only put $100 online to start and just took out almost 2k. Not a bad return especially when you consider all the awesome internet buddies I have made.

So Neteller doesn't want the Canadian cash moving business... well back to promoting MyCitadel to get cash to most sites trouble free.

Flying to Atlanta tomorrow but not much free time (would have loved to meet the whole Atlanta crew) this weekend. Starting by landing at 1 pm and then going to the hockey game at 3 pm. On the Sunday I am going to take little Guin to the Georgia Aquarium which looks like it will be a fun family event. Then it is off to Orlando for a week of fun and hopefully sun with lots of time spent on the beach and visiting with Micky Mouse.

The last thing to finish up before going on vacation is finalizing our upgrades on the house we bought. New builds leave 5,000 questions to be answered and we are getting closer to the end of it all. Our current place is just getting listed and hopefully it will sell at a good price.

Been Busy

Sorry for the lack of posting and playing in blogger events. Been super busy with my investments and trying to come up with the cash to pay for the new house the wife wanted.

In the process of getting the current house ready for sale we had a few rooms painted. The paint was giving me a headache (and I think giving me a weird 'high') while I proceeded to lose half of my FT bankroll. I did things that evening that would normally never even cross my mind. Now I will get a good chance to play another 10k hands at NL25 as the bankroll dictates that is the current level.

Painful but no problem as I should be able to regain lost cash soon enough and get the game to dominate 6 max tables.

Looking forward to rejoining the group soon as I can. Happy Bunny Day!

Does poker make me better?

Just read the ton of material that CC wrote on the impact of poker on seven areas of his life. Figured I would take a large shortcut method to plan out my own thoughts on the same issues... I promise to be much shorter than one of his writeups to cover all seven points!

Spiritual - Well pokers bad beats give me another explanation for all things spiritual. Bad beats and probability explain most situations better for me than the thought of some dude in the sky messing with my life. Being an atheist I feel comfortable knowing that *I* am the person who is accountable for my results. That gives me a feeling of peace to wake up each day to be the best at anything I choose to do. Also having no fear of an afterlife lets me focus on enjoying this reality here and now. Sort of like when a video game ends and the "Game Over" shows up is how I view the world.... in the meantime lets rack up a high score! So poker is positive for me as it is just another area where I can learn about people and study them while having fun.

Financial - This is an area of poker where I naturally excel. Money sort of comes easy to me and poker lets me utilize my skills of understanding risk / return. Bankroll management is similar to my portfolio where the goal is to consistenty put your money into risky situations that are +EV with no risk of ruin. I think poker is not positive or negative in my life in this regard because it is the one place that I am a professional. That being said my poker game better develop so I can get to play Fuel at some high level tables.

Career - Similar to financial for me where poker just sharpens my ability to read people and make better decisions. I already had the job that I worked years to achieve prior to getting into poker so again no real impact. I will say that it has allowed me to network with even more people that also play and it gives us a common interest. Networking is at an insane level in my job where I regularly run into 20 people I know at almost any hockey game I attend. Poker could become a big positive if / when I win some large poker tournament!

Physical Fitness - Hell nothing can be blamed for the sorry state of health I am currently in other than my lazyness. Poker sure didn't make things worse so again I don't think it impacts me here one way or the other.

Maritial Relationship - Lucky to have an amazing wife who gives me the space and time to play. She would like to have me go to sleep a lot earlier most times but I have a hard time slowing down at the end of the day. Now when I play when she is awake and wants to talk then poker is a big negative. I suffer from a serious case of ADD which gives me some hyper focus on stuff I want to do but I then ignore everything else. The thing is that if I wasn't playing poker I would be reading / playing video games / doing something else because watching tv isn't much of an option. Overall, poker has to fall into the negative on the relationship mostly because she wanted me to have a hobby like cooking instead.

Parent - I play when my little Guin is sleeping so not negative from that standpoint. The negative part is when I am too tired the next morning to really put my time and energy into her activities.

Intellectual - For sure poker is positive in helping us all discover more about ourselves. This is the one area where hopefully we all continue to work at using our mind to its fullest capability. Seeing Doyle continue to kick ass at his age is super impressive and we can all aspire to do similar things.

Friendship - Just another great place to run into non-Bay St. thinkers. Blogging has also been a fun way to document the journey. Unlucky for everyone is that my writing skills are not going to improve anytime soon. Poker is positive in this area..... now if I can just get to a few more live blogger filled events.

Psychological - Poker has been positive with helping me stay level. When I started the steaming over bad beats was constant but now I only flinch a bit. Now the wife does say that she finds that I appear emotionless a bit more often which she doesn't like.

Wow that was long.

New Rim and Bball tomorrow night

I am going to get the newest version of the Rim device. The old one just ran out of steam and it isn't working. The best part about this new one is the built in GPS and maps built in... I guess I won't be using my FT points to get that Garmin GPS system.

Tomorrow night is going to be a lot of fun at the ACC. Courtside seats to watch the Raptors... gotta love the chance to see Iverson and Carmelo vs. Bosh.

Riverrun over me!

Had a great night playing last night where I am starting to get a feel of the types of tables that I can run over alot easier. Playing against a table of rocks sure isn't the place for me because when they reraise you really have to give them respect. Of course it would have been nice to catch a real hand once in a while to pop them right back.

Riverrun shows up at my table yesterday and I get dealt QQ and we end up all in. Of course he has AA but a sweet Q shows on the flop. The K landing on the river to give him the nut straight wasn't so sweet but something that doesn't impact my results as much as in the past. Almost at 10k hands of CR style playing of 6 max at the NL25 and NL50 level. So hopefully after another 5k hands at NL50 will give me enough of a bankroll to start putting NL100 into the mix.

Finished my PPA bonus yesterday as well so that was an additional $100 into the account. Sweet! Now I know that Fuel put out a little challenge on why we all aren't playing the higher stakes games... my answer is that I am planning on it but want to have the right tools available so I can stay there. Like investing this is just a slow and steady progression to becoming the best at something I choose to do.

Not much poker last week

Went to the hockey game tuesday and watched the Leafs beat Tampa... on Wed went to the Raptors game which they won over the Knicks. Hopefully the Leafs get into the playoffs and go against my Penguins.

Started back at NL25 tonight since I am rusty and ended up about $60 tonight.... nice since that is in addition to the $120 in rakeback from last month. Now when I get comfortable and get to NL100 then the rakeback should pick up and add to the stack.

I did watch a CR video tonight where GP had trouble dealing with a shortstack with a premium pair. For sure this has been one of the toughest things for me to learn how to deal with at tables where I am trying to play a LAG style. But experience is what we are looking for and I am starting to get a few hands in to improve my play. Also still very committed to making myself a better player by using the CR videos.

Bad Beats (but it could be worse!)

Any of the three readers on this blog know that I don't whine usually about bad beats.... only thing that bugs me is if they happen to the same opponent who should realize that they are behind if I am calling or reraising them.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
5 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (5 players) Mungo36 is Button with :ac :qh
UTG folds, CO calls $0.5 (pot was $0.75), Mungo36 raises to $2.75, 2 folds, CO raises to $7, Mungo36 raises to $23, CO calls $13.75 (pot was $27.5).

Flop: :ts :qd :9c ($46.75, 2 players)
CO is all-in $1, Mungo36 calls $1 (pot was $47.75).

Turn: :3s ($48.75, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $48.75)

River: :kh ($48.75, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $48.75)

Results:
Final pot: $48.75
Mungo36 showed Ac Qh
CO showed Tc Kc

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
5 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (5 players) Mungo36 is BB with :5s :5d
UTG raises to $1, CO calls $1 (pot was $1.75), Button folds, SB raises to $2, Mungo36 calls $1.5 (pot was $4.25), UTG raises to $7.5, CO folds, SB calls $4.5 (pot was $11.25), Mungo36 calls $4.5 (pot was $15.75).

Flop: :3c :6h :5h ($23.5, 3 players)
SB bets $15.5, Mungo36 calls $15.5 (pot was $39), UTG calls all-in $12.35.

Turn: :2h ($66.85, 2 players + 1 all-in - Main pot: $60.55, Sidepot 1: $6.3)
SB is all-in $14.85, Mungo36 calls $14.85 (pot was $81.7).

River: :4c ($96.55, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $60.55, Sidepot 1: $36)

Results:
Final pot: $96.55
Mungo36 showed 5s 5d
UTG showed Qd Qh
SB showed 7h 7d

Flop TPTK after re-reraising him in the first hand (he was a bad player and I had seen him reraise with K high before) so I put him to the test. Of course he hits his two pair on river.

4 mins later I flop a set and manage to get both all in only to see him river his straight. The good thing is that I played solid tonight for a couple hours and the videos are starting to hit brain! I sort of had what could only be called a negative rush for five mins where I lost every big hand I was involved in. AK where I reraise a shortstack and he calls to see A88 flop. He has AA and I doubled him up.... set over set in another hand... so in 2 hours I make $200 to only lose $150 in 10 mins. Such is the game of poker and I will be back at it tomorrow evening.

A few 3 bets light working out when I notice guys multi tabling and taking advantage of position to raise... those guys are great for this move since it looks more genuine. Mining while watching a CR video does set me up nicely to join into a table with tons of confidence of what I am against.

Hand of the evening

Not sure when the last time I played at a table with so many calling stations. In the hand prior to this one the superstar managed to call a river bluff with his 3 high 4-flush calling 3/4 pot bet. So that is why I only have $40 because I couldn't reload in between hands fast enough while multi tabling.

So please take a look at this fantastic fun hand!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?894931

Made back most of the cost of the CR extension this evening while still working on a few things such as 3 betting and more focus on reads and taking good notes on players. Still don't have enough donkeys in the mix but working on it.... still finding the games sort of soft but not running super hot like before. Must be time to watch more videos and think more away from the game instead of hammering through another thousand hands.

No AC Vegas for me

Damn gov't didn't get me my passport in time so going to the US is out of the question. Don't want to be confused with the other terrorists and detained for a few days on no charges!

Well the good thing about blogger events is that there is always another one... I still haven't ever been to Vegas but this has to be the year. Of course to get to one of these events I better start winning some real cash online!

Today is the deadline to get your extension payment into cardrunners at the $20 / mth price. I did another 12 months and looking forward to seeing my progress over this next few months. So far I can see a change in my ability to read certain situations but I have to watch out in getting overaggressive at times. Learning to turn it down for a couple orbits and then ramping back up is something that GP is great at but I am still learning.

Have fun in AC guys.... wish I could have been there.

Been quiet lately

Not much poker going on these days.... ran into Astin and didn't make it back home in time for the Mookie. Instead ended up at Turf where I bet on the ponies for a while and had a good steak before heading home. Watched a couple episodes of Rome which is one of my favorite shows. I am looking forward to Regenesis having a 3rd season as they deal with some cool situations that can come our way.

Take a look at this bill (luckily I wasn't responsible for it!).... now that is a party. Of course I would have been drinking Krug and not Cristal (cuz I ain't no rapper).

Fun at the Mookie

Played like a donk in the Mookie last night and built up a huge amount of chips and then pissed it away. Got into a blind war with K2 and rereraised pushed against an unknown player (found out it was the winner of last weeks cc's thursday event) on a 882 flop. Of course he had A8 and I was a shortstack... at least he took the rest of my chips right after that.

Good thing was that the cash game was crusing along at NL50 6 max with me up $95 on the night after getting stacked early. Played tricky by calling a tight players pfr with JJ from the SB instead of raising. Flop comes all low hearts so I check (no Jh), MP player who limp/called preflop checked and the button raiser bets 3/4 pot. So to isolate I reraise him a pot sized bet thinking he has Ah and might be drawing / cbetting. The problem is that he had $35 to start and that meant that if he pushed I have to call. He pushes and I call a few more bucks and see he has A4h... shit. Reload and remember to reraise with JJ preflop to find out the strength of the opponents hands. So by the end of the night I had almost $200 in front of me at a table where I never got AA or KK even once.

I did have better success with the 3 betting light by improving my table image and making it tighter and more aggro post flop. Still having a hard time getting to a 5+ AF on the flop, 4+ on turn, and 3+ on the river. I enjoy floating people too often I guess!

Mac poker online

A bit of variance

One thing about learning this 3 betting light... it can be painful when you run into big hands. So lost about 4 buyins last night with some super aggro play and not hitting a single draw. Gnome also linked up an article on being super aggro with 4 bet bluffs which I tried once and lost a buyin.

I will say that I got a ton of action but only from shortstacks that ran into my big hands. I did also tilt off half of a buyin but then realized the error of my ways and went to bed.

Back to the CR style until I dominate for a few more weeks and I will for sure take another run at building this into my game.

High VPIP

The Superstar Poker Gnome (nice 10k winning day) asked me how I could possibly get my vpip over 30% and I said I would show one of the ways I was doing it.... raising from EP with hands that hit gold or are easy folds. I do cbet often but usually with position or when against weak/tight players that are likely to fold unless I am beat. Against tricky players I cbet less but just often enough that they play back at me when I have a big hand later on. Think of it as a way to induce bluffs later on in the session... lose a few small pots but stack them later on.

The Gnome just wrote a masterpiece on 3 betting that everyone should read and it will be a focus for me over the next week. To do this I will probably pull the vpip back to the mid 20% range so I appear to be a little less of a LAG type player.

Beware the Penguins! Gotta love the moves the team made at the trade deadline.

Getting money out of poker sites or neteller

Umm all those folks with money stuck in FT or PS (not sure about ability to send cash to someone else in neteller) I think I can help you out. For a small fee (still haven't looked through the financial costs yet) I can get you to fire me the cash on the site and I can put it in my bank account and mail you a cheque.

Not sure if anyone reads this or has an interest in getting cash out of poker sites but this probably works for a few of you who are currently stuck.

More Realistic Results

Managed to focus on getting in lots of hands this weekend... that meant less sleep so tomorrow night I might not play much. My problem hands right now are TPTK and overpairs vs. shortstacks with sets. I really don't see how you can get away from paying them off but then outplaying them when they have a larger stack. The ones I hate the most are the little hit and run experts!


The second leg down was from losing two big hands one of which pissed me off. I was running my now usual 34/23/3+ style and of course people play back at that after a while. I noticed that when I raised from MP and one person called he would use a squeeze play from the button. So a couple orbits later with KK in MP I do the same raise and get the same caller. He insta reraises again and I fire another reraise at him so he knows I am not folding to his push. He pushes with AKs and I have him dominated. We were both large stacks at the time so losing $80 at a NL50 table to a rivered flush was a bit annoying. The other was an overpair of 9's where I correct read that the guy was pushing the flop with a flush draw. He hits it and another large stack gone.

Oh well at least I was getting paid off when I flop trips because I bet almost every hand. The tough part is to not keep firing when they have a hand. Glad I pushed the number of hands I could get into a weekend just to see what it must be like to do this for a living... only fun when you want to play.

Sleep = good results

I came home last night and crashed at 9 pm! My body wasn't up for a couple hours of poker before my head hit that pillow so I played a few hands this morning and early afternoon.

Take a look at the graph:



Now most of the upswing is at the NL25 level. When I might have to get up for baby Guin I didn't want to play my regular stakes. Good to see that I was crushing the game today at 52 ptbb/100. Watching Cocktail (horrible Tom Cruise flick - I do like Elizabeth Shue though) and made $100 so the wife and me were happy!

Thanks Riverrun for seeing the same situation happening... sometimes with poker you think you are just running hot and it isn't due to you playing well. This is until others are going through the same transformation... the 2nd Sbrugby video told me that I wasn't aggressive enough! So a bit more folding on the flop and a few more cbets did increase the win rate. Gotta love it when the recipe works so well because it makes you look fearless.

So tonight back to the NL50 tables and hopefully I can continue to run at this torrid pace for a while longer.... I do need $240 to extend my cardrunners member for another year at the 20/mth price point.

Also for those talking about how it is a small sample size remember that 5k hands is about 2 months of playing for me. I am trying to pick that up but hard with my limited time in front of the computer.

CR style working

Got in a few hands after donking out of the blogger events last night. Managed to win back my buyins and another $100 to finish the night on a happy note. Played a bit on the PS2 and relaxed before going to bed for only 5 hours sleep... that is about 2-3 more than I got in either of the prior two nights.

So for next week the goal is to get some sleep and watch a few more CR videos and continue to dominate the NL50 games on FT. I did donate $40 to the PPA so that I can get that $100 bonus on FT which will get me to focus on playing enough hands to earn that bonus on top of my rakeback.

I also want to earn enough FT points to earn a Garmin GPS thing for the car. I get lost all the time and my wife luckily is not employed in map reading. So that is 69m points and currently I am only at 7.4m. Long way to go but at least it is another goal for the year.

Even More Rigged Live Poker

The Leafs put in a horrific effort last night which I watched from the bar at Hy's while putting down a nice New York steak and a good bottle of Malbec.

After that I was feeling like a little poker and headed over to the club for some live play. First hand get dealt 66 in the CO. EP raises to $12, one caller, Hero calls, BB calls. Flop is 9c8x6c so I have to think I am ahead here so when the EP bets $25 and one caller so I reraise all in for $146 to price out any draws of which there are many.

Now this is what I don't understand... if you have only a straight draw with no chance to backdoor a good flush then you are insane to chase in this situation.


Board: 9c 8d 6c
Dead:
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 26.869% 25.76% 01.11% 255 11.00 { Ac7h }
Hand 1: 73.131% 72.02% 01.11% 713 11.00 { 6d6s }

Of course the chase is on and the 5d falls on the turn and no pair on river so good bye $200 with a flopped set (first one of the night).

Managed to get back most of my loss and watched that donk lose all of his chips. Got home way too late and feeling tired today and the wife isn't happy that I didn't go right home... she has a point as this stuff should be reserved for weekends.

Solid Night

Rikidee (watch out as he is buying gay video games which are no longer cool according to some sports figures!) made a whole post out of a couple sentences from a CR video on overbetting that I missed when I watched it the first time. I heard something about it but certainly didn't take as much notice of it as he did.... so I watched it again and it looks like an interesting idea when you find a calling station. When watching these guys play 10/20 NL I am amazed at some of the crazy ass calls you see so it is a good tool to use on a rare occasion.

The one point that was nailed home for me was that for the majority of our time at the tables we should be playing ABC poker. I think for some reason that we often try to outplay everyone on each hand and that isn't the goal. In the end we want more cash than we started with and if we are patient and aggressive our opponents will give us their cash.

So last night refocused on playing solid poker I attacked a couple NL100 tables. Then I run into a guy who overbet every hand he was in and he did it twice against me. First hand I am dealt QQ in the BB. Villian raises to $3 and I reraise him to $12. Flop is K24r and I lead out for $20 and he insta reraises it to $65. I let it go.... but I like my bet with that type of flop because the texture was good and I think that I take that down way more often than I am reraised. It is a hand that I will post this evening on CR to see if I played it in a manner that is optimal vs. other ways to play it to take the hand down. A few hands later against the same Villian I call his raise with 22 and flop is Q high. He bets 1/2 pot and I reraise it and he insta pushes. Again I liked how I used position to take an aggressive stance on the hand when I thought he could be cbetting with Ax. About an orbit later after winning a couple small hands against him when I cbet he left the table.

What I like best about the CR style is that you piss off everyone at the table with the constant pressure. There is no way to play a LAG style when not playing your A game without bleeding chips everywhere. People by the end of the night were letting me walk because to complete from the SB meant you would probably face a raise. If you raised with trash could it stand up to a very possible reraise?!! Limping from EP's wasn't possible without facing a 5x bb raise. Now I wasn't just raising with junk but was using position to my advantage to take down lots of small pots and when someone fought back I usually had a hand.

Overall I only ended up about a buyin but the feeling of running over a table and getting guys to do what I wanted was a welcome change. The few suckouts by a shortstack who was playing 90/8 over 100 hands hurt a bit since he lost it all to another solid player at the table. But those are the types of players that I want at my table anytime.

I did donk out of the Hoy last night but I was trying to read what Hoy and Iak had when I called them. They of course were pushing with the goods again and my hands were dominated both times. The good part of the evening was coming back from 250 chips to 1200 before donating to Iak. Get em next week.

Playing like crap

I was playing like crap last night because I couldn't get motivated to play my A game at NL25 6 max. The hardest part of going back down a few levels to work on the game is that the results aren't worth anything to the bankroll.

So after donking away a couple buyins I decided to go up to NL100 and play a better game. At the lower limits you really just nut peddle and steal small pots to earn cash... sort of boring. At NL100 6 max I managed to come away up almost a buyin so overall I was flat on the night. Also got myself another token so hopefully that can be turned into something that builds the bankroll.

Starting to get used to the CR method of playing but I think I am still a bit too tight at a 6 max game. Playing a 29%/22% and my AF is running in the 3 range. I think I can open it up a bit more which can find me getting played back at when I have big hands. Play on site does seem to have improved with only one or two really bad donks per table instead of one or two good players.

Also it is time for me to get to bed before 11 pm at least twice a week. That alone should get me into the right frame of mind. Hard to think straight when you have two-three glasses of wine with dinner and the wife wants to buy a new house....

Can't play the FTOP #9

Hopefully I can find a blogger who likes to play some pot limit Omaha and HE to play the event for me.

First person who can guarantee me that they can play it will get a shot at a nice event. I only want 10% of what you win...

So Far Behind....

Been a while since my last post partially because I am still recovering from the Eh-Vegas crowd... two nights in a row of live poker till 5 am and getting up the next day to spend time with the family will do that to you.

Kat did a fantastic job of making it a great event that should only grow over time. Overall I think I was down about 500 over the weekend but it was well worth it. Our wine tasting on Friday was fun with Jules giving me some info on wine... hopefully she will send me a few rec's that our LCBO actually stocks.

Iak thanks again for the drive to Oakville as that was a good chance to chat and get to meet you. Now I have to focus a bit more on my game and try to bring the A game to the blogger events. Always interesting to hear people tell you to your face that they think you play like a donkey! Respect that he said it using $5 words that it took me a few days to truly understand the level of donkishness that he considers my current game to be in.

Cash games have been going well for me and I have also had some recent success in the token events. Used 1 to attempt a tier II but was crap in that so I sign up for a FTOP event 9 sat. Looked like a pot limit holdem event but was I ever surprised after 10 mins when the level went up and we switched to Omaha Hi. Ack! I suck at Omaha only having played it in blogger events and just for fun. Well I managed to play super tight and very aggro but an early suckout had me crippled down to 350 chips. Built the stack back up and got to the final table in 8th place. Finally another hour later I managed to win it so this Saturday lets hope my pot limit run continues.

Vegas-Eh Style!

Well the event that hopefully will grow over the years starts tonight with dinner and a few drinks. I am sure to spend a bit of cash to make sure that the out of towners enjoy themselves. It is cold out in Toronto these days and the nights get really cold... so not sure how many of the bloggers will want some live action post drinks this evening. I know I always enjoy donking away a few chips!

Tomorrow I will have to miss the tournament associated with the event because of the 'Guins coming to town to play the Leafs. But after the game I will be so pumped to come out and play some live pokah against those cash game players that stick around. Never been to the club on a weekend to interested to see if the quality of players is better or worse than the mid week crowd.

Kat has done a great job getting people to show up in our town during the coldest time of the year. Just to offset my excitement I went and renewed my passport, drivers license, and health card.

Now to go to Atlantic City for HighonPoker's gathering in a month I will need that passport to show up. The increase in the rules to cross the border into the US is a bit of a pain but the hard work for me is now done for another five years.

Reviewme - Cardroom Supply - Poker Tables

This is a sponsored post.

Cardroom Supply has a great assortment of poker tables available for purchase. Many of us would love to setup the ultimate poker room for our home games and here is a great place to get your main piece of equipment. If you want a games room they also have tables that are available that can be converted to poker tables. It is also possible to purchase a table and chair sets which I haven't seen anywhere else. Now if many of you guys are like me you are looking for good folding tables so lucky for me they have an assortment of tables than I can put away easily.

Now I did notice that the site has a good promotion where any purchase over $100 results in free shipping. The ability to use the 1-800 number for ordering will be good for those with some further questions about the products.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the site for lots of other items to give you the Ultimate Home Poker room.

Cab Fare

Went to the Raptors game last night and took the 5th row seats instead of the courtsides. That way some young guy got a chance to sit in the nice seats.... not that my seats were bad at all. Easy Raptors win and then off to Ki for some post game drinks. Now after a couple beers I didn't want to take a train home so I decided to go to the cash game for some cab money!

One hour later I am walking out with an extra $150 in my pocket... amazing how easy it is to win with an ABC style of poker... so $65 for the cab home and then gave the wife $100 to go spend on anything she wants. That way she doesn't give me as much grief when I stay out late (gotta do something to keep the heat down!)

Today got a good bonus so I will be happy for another year. This is the year that I really have to push my portfolio to new levels. I might have just found a new potential 10 bagger that I will have to buy in my PA in a large way.

That being said I will go and buy a good bottle of wine for my dinner tonight... gotta celebrate.

Keeping the Focus

Staying true to not playing when not focused is working. Normally I would have fired up a few games last night and donked away some cash. But not anymore! I was looking to get a Wii but instead settled for a PS2... yes the cost was cheap enough that it didn't matter and I wanted to play God of War... and II when it launches soon.

So a bit of video game time later and some actual sleep has me in a good mood for poker today. That would normally mean some live action tonight at the club and beating up those tournament donks that bust early. Instead, I got offered steak and a raptors game at courtside.... so maybe some poker if the beer flow is slow enough. Otherwise head home and get ready for tomorrow when I get my annual review and bonus number.... the wait is agonizing for the number that is a very large percentage of our earnings for the year.

I do have to say that I am very pissed off with the workers for the Go Transit system. These lazy shits keep cancelling my train that I use in the morning due to a labor dispute. Now I am someone who really hates unions in this day and age so these childish ways of denying your customers service is a disgrace. You guys want a raise so you call in sick for a few extra days? All of these people should be fired instead of caving into demands from those who don't realize how good they have things with their current CN based pay package. Oh and if you idiots are going to cancel a train please send out an email using your service to notify the passengers at least... that way I can forward it to my boss who is wondering what the hell is slowing me down in the morning. So enough of my tilted rant about using a gov't run service that just doesn't give value for the cost. Let it go public and we can strip all this crap out and make these people really work for a living and to generate a return on my money.

POY Event 1 & Live Last Week

So last week I decided to take the CR style and put it to good use at the live tables and see how it fares against the calling stations at my local club. All I can say is that it sure tightens a table up a bunch when they are scared of getting reraised and have sizable bets coming their way all night.

Focusing on position also allows me to steal a bunch of unwanted pots that I enter so my stack is much larger than it would normally be when the bad beats arrive. So overall the first week of CR style while playing live was +$400 and I still don't know what the hell I am doing yet!

On the online side I had to get back to NL25 after donking away 3 buyins at NL50 while drinking and playing... it was fun but have to earn that back (and continue to work on playing the CR style at 6 max tables) before I can jump up to higher levels.

So all this rambling gets me to discuss my play last night in the WPBT event 1. Played a bit tighter with Lucko on my right keeping me in line with his fantastic style. I still don't know why everyone tries to pick him off since he likes to call bets that are larger than value bets with middle pair! Nothing worse than a solid LAG on your right and with a ton of chips. The good thing is that these guys recognize the guys who play a TAG style and adapt. Had a phone call where I folded a BB where I should call and would have won a monster pot... damn mother in laws! Then the laptop decided to make it a tough night and folded my QQ on the BB with StatiKing with a shortstack raise. Reboot and try to play some poker... still over 2k chips no time to worry.

Finally get doubled up when I flop a set vs. AA and got all in on the turn. From there on I only had one really bad play that that was against Change100. *She* raised the SB when it folded to her and I took that to be a steal so I pushed with KQo and after thinking it was a steal only to see the call with AJo so still a race but 60/40 and I won. Sorry Change100 it was my worst play but the karma would come back to bite me on the butt later on.

Not enough bloggers know that Raveen is my poker nemesis... my poker goal is to stack him so often he drops out of medical school due to the shame! Actually he seems like a cool guy who kicks ass at poker but he was a luckbox last night. I announced to him that I would bring swift justice to the one who drops quads on my TPnoK hand for a stack at 1/2 NL (also known as the worst hand I have played in about a year)! Well I managed to reraise him 3 times and that drove him over the edge!

Raveen raises from MP which is his standard way to enter a pot. I know that I have been pushing back at him a lot so I decide to let him know that folding isn't an option for me in this hand with AQs and 15 people remaining. Blinds are 300/600 with 100 ante if I remember correctly. So his raise to 1,800 looked weak and from the CO I reraised to 6,666 and I only had 5,400 approx. behind. Why not push? Because I didn't want it to look like a desperate move with a small pair. And he knows that I have pot committed myself to my hand so no way can he feel that he has any fold equity in this hand. He pushes and I am hoping to be against a smaller Ax... instead he turns of 65o.... hmm that is interesting considering he is one of the chip leaders and I wasn't too far behind and only 7 get paid this evening. He hits the straight and I am done for the night.... ugg... at least he went on to win the whole tournament.

Now the concept of people just playing blogger events for fun making such moves normal just doesn't make sense to me. After investing 2+ hours of time the buyin for the event shouldn't dictate play anymore.... now we are down to the few guys who are actually trying to win this evening. With my KQ hand I actually thought I was ahead of steals (according to Pokerstove it is a top 9.2% hand) vs. doing the same with 56o (71.6% hand)... heck Hoy complains about calling reraises with AQo (6.5%) so I know where he stands on this hand.

In the end I got my money in good. Win that hand and then running towards the cash with a good stack and lots of people sitting with low M's getting ready to push. Good to know that my prior raises can get people to do silly stuff because they get tired of someone playing back at them. Still focused and working hard to be that pest who can get you to put your tourney life on the line preflop with a non paired 6 high. Either that or I am running into a lot of guys who would rather go to bed than win an event... who then go on to win the event.

Won the 2nd Chance!

PL Omaha Hi is a game that I still have no clue how to play. I asked slb and he just told me to be aggro and I used that technique postflop by reraising him and pushing him off a hand.... I wasn't sure what I had but it looked alright so I went with it!

Hit a couple good hands when needed and built up a good bunch of chips. I was also playing two cash tables where the suckouts have continued. I even joined a NL100 table and found a donk who thought bottom pair on the flop with no kicker was good enough to go all in on the turn. I held TPTK which is good against a short stack so an easy call of that small push only to watch that 3 kicker give the donk 2 pair. Ugly. Just make a note and hope to find this fish again.

So it was good to win a blogger event and also to play well and not get tilted in the cash games. KK < Q4 when my 5x bb raise was called and they hit top two pair! Ugly! At least I am not paying off these guys too much in those situations but it is still a bit annoying. My bankroll could use a couple positive hits to give me some room to take some shots at bigger games.

More Rigged Live Game Play

Well I was out meeting with a few friends last night and when a couple of the said they play poker "once in a while" I got a little excited. Luckily I am not endowed like Bobby or they would have noticed! So we go hit the ATM and 15 mins later sitting at the underground club slinging some chips. Two orbits in I get AA at a six handed table so I raise to the standard $10 from UTG+1. Now both of my buddies sat to my right so I wouldn't have to steal their blinds which they wouldn't imagine folding to me. Lets just say that they were a little drunk while I was slightly tipsy but ready to rock the table.

So an Asian dude who wore "cool" glasses and a fancy dress shirt calls (very loose table overall) from the SB and my buddies both call. Flop is KdQx4d so with the flush draw I reraise buddy in the BB (he bet $10) to $70 to isolate. Everyone calls but I see the nice Ax on the turn. No flush so all is good in the world as I can't put them on J10 but the flush draw looks real. SB bets $25 and both buddies call, so I reraise to $125 and everyone calls again. Of course SB has the flush draw with A3d and hits on the river. My buddies both had a K mid kicker which showed their inexperience to play that for their stack especially after the A on the turn.

So the SB says for sure he was willing to go to the felt with that draw because of how strong it was. He wasn't even worried when I showed the set of A's .... little shits like that seem to draw out far too often. Only played for another 1/2 hour and won back that buyin and also a bit of extra cash. Then one tight player left the game and that was my cue to get out of there.

Losing a $700+ pot to an idiot really hurt but I played well and I know those opportunities will come up again.

Lacking Focus for Timeframes

I need to setup a couple new rules so that I can focus properly and not start off down 1/2 - 1 buyin before I start playing well.

1. No big pots without the nuts against anyone you have less than 60 hands against. Too often I end up backing down from a crazy reraise with TPTK only to find out that was the maniac that had 2nd pair.

2. Leave tables when they aren't worth the time. Found myself at a table with 4 TAG players and here I am trying to play a looser game against those sharks... find waters that are safer.

3. Watch a full Cardrunners video prior to playing as listening to the constant consistent play of Taylor is a good way to focus.

4. Get some damn sleep... last night 3.5 hours the night before 2 hours. Not close to the 6 hours I am trying to average this year. Tonight I might just watch a couple videos and then go to bed early.

So down a couple buyins last night with some positive points. One I used the play of reraising pot against a person who led out at a pot with a small probe bet. I had nothing but took down a good pot instead of just calling which is my typical play. Keep control of the hand and punish people for calling my raises. I wasn't good at letting hands go or keeping pot size small when I had okay (TPTK) hands but that is something that will be the goal over the next week.

The good thing is that I am committed to making me a better player but hopefully my mistakes plus the bad beats don't kill my bankroll. Pissing away a buyin last night was probably the dumbest thing I have done in a while. 3 bullet bluffs into a TAG who has a high aggro rating but is calling tells me I am beat.... check it down .... I do not have to win every hand I raise.

Now the work begins

Well finally finished that damn 3k raked hands on the B2B network... crazy f'n site where I lost a couple buyins on silly plays but a handful more on crazy bad beats... I am not one to whine too much about that stuff as variance has been good to me in the past... just hurry up and get done with kicking my ass!

So now to rebuild my game I am starting at NL25 6 max on FT. Overplayed JJ last night but other than that the first 500 hands went well. slb watched me playing against a super donk (other than him!) and I finally had to bust the guy by going all in with KJs vs. K9. Next hand A9s vs. QJ. Luckily he wanted to continue to pay off my big hands and he scared the hell out of the rest of the table... most folded to his cbets. Going to look for that guy tonight to double up on that fun.

Time to get the most out of this Card Runners subscription.... the easy part was signing up... the hard part is working on my game.

Getting back on track

After blowing a bunch of my bankroll on FT with silly plays I decided to get back into the grind. Played in the D2S tonight and you know that you are playing well when they are complaining about my steals early in an event. Also, the guy who looked up my PS results in sharkscope was just funny. He got stacked by me a little while later so I guess it goes around.

Here is the screenshot of my results.


So I started the night out focused and the results were good with a good suckout to give me the big stack with 5 left. It is always nice when you win a couple races and then can just roll into the cash. Got all in HU with K8 on a 5s6x7s board vs. AJs. So we both had lots of outs to win the hand and we both whiffed! A high takes it down.... but I was happy with my play.

I then went back to B2B to work off a bit of the bonus while trying to avoid situations like this from the other night!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?732688 The friendly people at the site mentioned that I couldn't take down the Bad Beat Jackpot but they would look into giving me something... that was great customer service from these guys.

Found that if I was patient with a super LAG that I could find a spot to take him down instead of trying to play back at him. Poker is so much more fun when you are patient and have a solid game plan.

So after attempting to follow through with the few things I have picked up from Cardrunners I was up 80 euros this evening (plus . Not sure how many people are aware of how solid the CR guys did at the PCA 4 of the top 6! Glad I am working with this crew to improve my game. Wes also did a good job of making the cash in this event which is great to see bloggers represented!

Ending the evening tonight by watching a 10/20 cash game video... these videos are great for taking the game to the next level.

Late Live Play

Got out for a couple quick drinks last night with a buddy of mine who is just an action junkie at the poker tables. He also was way ahead of me in the drinking department when I showed up at 8 pm to grab a drink... well next thing I know we are having food and having a night cap at the SoHo hotel and then on to the poker club.

Amazed that an almost full table is already slinging chips with no scary players around at all. I build up my $200 stack to $350 when the wheels come off. In the BB with 67o I call a raise to $6 due to good pot odds. Flop is a golden 589r so I check knowing that one of the five other people in this pot will attempt to take it down. UTG raises to $6, the next guy reraises to $21, a tight player at the end of the table calls the $21... so I shove it all in figuring that some guy with an overpair or a set will call me and hopefully my hand can hold. It folds to the tight player who calls with top two pair as he said he could lay it down for the other $200 in front of him.

Turn is a blank and then the river is a 8.... live poker is so f'n rigged.

Posted my hand from the last post onto the cardrunners site and they said I am a chip spewer... oh okay but I doubt I will tighten it up too much but I will attempt to implement a more conservative stance and play back at people with the goods when they continually raise into me. Have to stop looking for places to beat a player and instead focus on winning cash.

Learning is always painful

Donked out of the Hoy last night due to my over excitement to get back into the big blogger 1/2 cash table. Call that mistake number 1. I have to focus and enter each event in order to at least end up in the money. If that isn't what I am feeling at the time I should just rail the event because the chat is a good part of the fun.

Got to the cash table sitting to the left of a guy who plays a very similar game to what Cardrunners tells people to play. Everytime he was on the button he raised any unraised pot ... usually a pot sized raise if a couple limpers or to $7 if no one else was in the pot. So I watched him to this for 6 orbits and finally decided to take a stand. He raises to $7.... I reraise to $23 and he is the only caller to a 10 high flop with two spades.

Flop couldn't have helped him so I lead out for a $40 bet into a $48 pot because I can't put him on a super strong hand just yet. He calls. Turn is another 10. Here is where I think I made the mistake by not going all in as I instead bet $66 which was about half of what he had left (also 1/2 pot). If he pushes I know I am beat and can fold and save some bucks.... he thinks for a long time before going all in. I fold. At least I am attempting a few things that I wouldn't have tried before but maybe learning should be done at a lower level than normal! That just wouldn't be my style.

Now on the turn I could have checked to see if he would bet and maybe get a free card or pushed... now anyone reading this far.... what am I holding and what is my opponent holding? Up to this point I am playing a TAG style of 22/11/3 and he was SLAGing it with a 35/17/4.5 with all his raises from the button or two to the left of it. So I know he is a strong positional player and I know I have them worried about my hand but couldn't get them to lay it down.

Positives: 1. Picked the player and figured out his game plan. 2. Built a plan to exploit that style. 3. Waited for my opportunity to execute and then took action. 4. Followed through and attempted something new. 5. Reviewed the situation to learn as much as I can from it.

Negatives: Played this hand about 2 mins later. Got sort of tilted and then I donked off my stack at the 1/2 game with TPnoK. Ugly. Back to NL25 6 max to learn how to play shorthanded and work up from there.

I did go to the B2B network and won back $60 and worked off 200 hands towards my 200 euro bonus so only 800 more hands to go. Will also get an additional PSO bonus with 1,300 more hands so I will definately play to get to that level. We will review where I should play at that point as the table selection on the B2B network isn't great as the Europeans are all sleeping. The guys I do get to play against are some of the most passive players around.... but I want to get back after those guys at Booyah where I had good success in the past.

Until then I will be Full Tilted until I win back some of my cash!

Cardrunner.com

Joined Cardrunner.com after taking note of the Gnome's success at cash games on his blog. If anyone else is interested in joining you can list guin36 as a referral. So far watched about 3 hours of video and tried out a few new moves last night at the blogger 1/2 table... of course after waffles got cracked by weak player it turned into a regular cash table.

Lost $85 in trying out being even more aggro with position but still think I am not raising enough preflop to drive out some limpers. Gotta punish them more and post the trouble hands onto the forum...

Which gets me on to the goals for the year... I know I am slow to post this stuff but time to catch up.

1. Focus on my game such that I am trying to actually win money instead of treating it like "play" money currently. My brother wants to buy a license for a taxi cab (over 100k CAD) and it would be cool to fund it from playing poker. Not to mention buying a bunch of great wine to enjoy over the next few years... need some quality for Fuel's visits to town as eating out will get too expensive.

2. Sit out when the wife is talking to me.... currently she is the only person who puts me on tilt... one outer... oh well that is poker... wife telling me to empty dishwasher while someone just reraised my AA on an 8 high board throws me for a loop!

3. Have more family nights where the closest I get to poker is through reading. This way I can put a book down easier mid sentence and still spend plenty of time with the wife and little Guin. Utilizing the forums at Cardrunner and 2+2 should improve my play more than just grinding it out. The family is super important to me and I don't want them to feel left out of my schedule.

4. Play when I am ready to play my best game and not because there is a game to play.

5. When I play live it is to win money and not just to play. Anyone noticing a trend of me f'n around with poker too much in the past year. Hitting my 10k goal would have been easy if I just worked on the game and didn't mess around.

Looking back at last year I think I only moved up to NL100 but I really should have tried to get to NL200. I go through stretches at NL100 where I dominate for days on end over 16 ptbb / 100. Just have to build the bankroll to play the 2/4 game.

6. That leads me to my big goal for the year which is to play 3/6 and even take a small shot at 5/10. Can't wait till I can bet in 36, 66 and 136 increments at a cash table.

7. In general I need to get more sleep (avg 4 hours now - try for 6 at least), eat better, drink less (keep binge drinking to minimum), and work harder (at work and at poker) to make this year as successful as it should be. Throw in a bit more exercise and sex (sex counts as exercise right?!) and it could be my best year ever.

Before I forget I did post my one pixel at 36 x 36.

Villian / Superhero

Thought I would follow the trend (interesting results!):

Your results:
You are Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor 80% Dr. Doom 72% Riddler 61% The Joker 57% Apocalypse 57% Magneto 55% Kingpin 48% Juggernaut 42% Green Goblin 42% Venom 41% Mr. Freeze 40% Two-Face 38% Dark Phoenix 36% Catwoman 31% Mystique 26% Poison Ivy 21%

A brilliant businessman on a quest for world domination and the self-proclaimed greatest criminal mind of our time!

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...

Your results:
You are Iron Man

Iron Man 80% Green Lantern 75% The Flash 60% Catwoman 60% Superman 50% Spider-Man 50% Supergirl 43% Batman 40% Hulk 40% Robin 33% Wonder Woman 28%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...