Happy Thanksgiving Week(US Only =) )

Whats up all. So poker has once again been pretty slow lately, but I think once it gets colder it will get a lot more prevalent for me. I haven't played any poker at all on a weekend in about 3 months I don't think because I have had all kinds of things from weddings to parties to going out of town, etc. that has kept me from playing at all. I have been playing at night during the week, but there isn't much progress that can be made when I only have about 4 hours of total free time from the time that I get home until the time I feel I should be in bed(that 4 hours also includes showering and eating dinner). It doesn't help that I have about an hour commute each way, so if I could get rid of that, I would have an extra hour after work and another possible hour of sleep(so maybe I could stay up an hour later). Need to figure some stuff out. I've been thinking of trying to get a new job and I have a friend in Nashville that I gave my resume to, so hopefully that works out. Other than that, nothing with that part of my life is really changing.

On to poker. There have been some more big jumps this update. On UltimateBet I got 2nd place in CardsChat's $5.50 tourney that had $100 added and I took home $51 for that, so that bumped my UB account over the $200 mark. I was kind of disappointed with myself in that tourney because when we went to HeadsUp, it was down to Snowmobiler(a CardsChat regular) and I and we were about even in chips, and stayed that way for about 10 minutes, and then I just made a dump play with King high and lost. I need to work on my HeadsUp game a little more. I have a Heads Up book by Colin Moshman that is supposed to be great that I just haven't gotten around to reading yet.

On Bodog I played in one of the BPOIV(Bodog Poker Open IV) events and I didn't realize that it was a rebuy tournament, which I hate, and I ended up bubbling out of that one, and also spent $20 on the $5.50 tournament(which is why I don't like them). Now I know that with rebuys, you should be expecting to rebuy about 10-15 times, but that is just dumb to me, especially in my challenge situation where I don't have an unlimited bankroll to support all of the rebuys, but whatever. I built my winnings up around another $150 on here by playing the $8.80 tournaments at night, they have been working great for me, and I'm not going to stop until they stop bringin in the money.

On FullTilt, I have pretty much been doing the same, playing cash games here and there, but I have also started playing some of the Matrix tournaments, and I have had nothing but success with them. Actually, every single one that I have played in the past month or so I have at least won my buy-in back, with one of them I won all 4, so I was the "Dominatrix". Haven't really improved much here, but it's still +EV. And with Carbon, I was just messing around one day with an All-In or Fold tournament, and I won .75.

That is all for now. Like I said, hopefully once the weather gets cooler there won't be as many events that I need to be at so I will be able to play more so I have something to update. Also, I will be fixing the VPIP Hand Range Calculator because the math is wrong on it, but I just need to find a way to do it is JavaScript. I know I could do it in Visual Basic or PHP, but JS isn't my forte, so just be on the lookout for that as well.

Fall Is Here

Hey everyone, been a while yet again, even though there should have been a post about 2 weeks ago, but when I was just about to publish the post, my computer shut down on me for no reason, then I was too lazy to go back and type everything back up again, so blame technology on that one, or me being lazy, what ever you choose.
So I have had another good month, bumping up my top 3 sites yet again. Bodog by about $154, mainly from playing $8.80 MTTs, as they, in my opinion at least, have the best ROI for the lower limits on Bodog, because their $2.20 and $3.30 MTTs have all of the people that would normally be in the $0.25-0.50 MTTs on FullTilt or PokerStars, because Bodog's micro limits are higher. So I have been pretty successfull with those. I haven't played any of them in the past couple weeks and I have no way of tracking the hand history on there(yet) because they are stupid, so I am unable to give any specific hands that I had played.
On FullTilt, I have been up and down with my cash game playing, and I'm still working that out. Lately I haven't been able to play much because everything has been so busy with work and events on the weekends, so I am going to try to get back into that next week I hope. But I have cashed in a couple CardsChats.com tournaments, the last one being two days ago when I got 2nd for $34, and I will go over two of the big hands from when we were Heads Up later on tonight when I get home from work.
On UltimateBet as well I got 2nd place in a CardsChat.com tournament, taking in $30 for 2nd place, but I should not have gotten 2nd place. My connection went out when there were still 8 people at the final table and I was chipleader, and I was never able to get back online. Later on I found out that when it was down to 3 players, I was just about to blind out, and one of the other guys playing went all in against the then chipleader and lost, so I ended up blinding out in the round or two later and got 2nd because he made the mistake of not just waiting for me to blind out. Funny stuff.
Well, I will be back on later tonight to post those hands, so see ya in a few hours!

Card Dead

So since the last time I posted, I have been playing absolutely terrible. Actually, I think it is in part my playing bad, and partly getting completely sucked out on time after time, which is in turn my fault on earlier play... My Aces have been getting cracked, I have flopped straights, only to get beaten by backdoor flush draws that go all-in on the flop, driving me crazy. I have not won a penny in a single tournament since last post, which was...July 17th, so a little over 2 weeks ago. And it hasn't just been on one site, it has been on just about all of them.

Starting off, I bubbled on Carbon, which would have given me at least $5(a lot considering .07c has been in there since the first week I had it). On UltimateBet, I played a like 5 $1 SnGs, to be of no help to me at all, I think I got 4th in 3 or 4 of them, which almost makes it worse. On Bodog, I played one of their $3.30 SnGs(which is higher than my bankroll allows, but it is the lowest they really have that isn't a 90-person) and bubbled on that one too!

Where I really screwed up was at FullTilt, playing the Daily Dollar tournament... I am mad at myself for this, because it could have been avoided. First of all, I won my seat into the tournament through winning a little 50 FPPs SnG satellite, which was easier than hell. So I am playing the tournament and build up a good stack, probably about 4 times the size of the average stack, and then like 4 hands in a row, I get the following: KK, AKs, AKo, JJ. Could I have any better cards consecutively? That's what I thought too, but I LOST WITH EVERY FUCKING ONE OF THEM!!! Why? Because it is a rebuy! So Joe Dumbfuck over there will go all-in with jack shit and suck out on me with my great hands, and if he loses, he will just rebuy again, and again, and again. So after those consecutive beats, I was pissed, and did a rebuy, then a double rebuy, and then a double addon when the break came. So I ended up spending like $7 on a stupid $1 tournament. I ended up getting pushed around after that, because I was moved to a table where everyone else had at least double my stack, and ended up getting out when I pushed with KQs and ran into KK and never held up. This is just one of the reasons that I usually never play Rebuys, because I hate how people play them... the damn game isn't played with skill, but how deep your pockets are, and that's stupid. Oh well.

I have brought my FullTilt back up about $2 by playing ring games though, and I think I might start to do this a little more often now, as I am pretty sure I have a good strategy that someone over at CardsChat helped me learn. So I have just been playing NL2(.01/.02) on FT just to try out my strategy, and I have doubled my buyins 3 times in just the past 2 days, so I think I am going to master it a little bit more at NL2, and hopefully will build the roll up a little bit to be able to get to NL5 soon(and on up), because it's kind of hard to take things seriously when you are playing for pennies, but I have to start somewhere, and it is more consistent than tournaments have been going for me lately, so I'll stick with it for now.

Also, I am thinking about possibly buying Hold'em Manager with some of my UltimateBet winnings. I have been doing trials on it for a long time now and it is a pain in the ass having to get rid of all of the tracks every two weeks when the trial is up(whoops, did I say that), and I love the program, just couldn't see spending $55 on it, but it will definitely be worth it over the long run. I just need to have a little bit more motivation to make that push. Well, hopefully next time I post, I will have some better news for you, this post was more of a rant I feel. Until next time, good luck at the felt(for me!!)

Another Bump

So I added a little more to UltimateBet yesterday, adding $5 to bring it just under $150. I won the $5 in the CardsChat U/B Freeroll, which I have already talked about a dozen times. I placed 12th in it, but the money wasn't the only good part about the game, I also won my 2nd Last Person Standing Challenge title, which doesn't earn me anything extra, just bragging rights for a day, lol, but it adds a little extra challenge to it to make it fun.

I also started using some of my Bodog winnings to try to turn a profit, as I haven't played with any of my roll there except for one time in a cash game, which I ended up losing $0.50, so I just played a 10-man SNG for $2.20 and I ended up winning it, making $6, but really only 3.80 after the buyin. I am kind of mad at myself for it though, I didn't realize it was listed as a Beginner SNG, so the top 5 out of 10 got paid, which just cut my winnings by about $4, but oh well, still won.

I think I am played a tournament on Carbon later on today, but I'm not sure how much poker I will be playing this weekend, but if anything happens, here will be the first place you'll be able to find out about it. Take it easy guys

Won a 45-Man SNG

So after a couple nights with my new strategy and cashing in about 4 SNGs for a small amount(not much more than the buy-in, or twice it), tonight I won a 45-person SNG for $13.50. I will contribute much of it to the amazing hands that I got for my last 10 or so hands. In the last 10 hands I was dealt AK twice, AQ twice, A9s, A8s, KK, JJ, 98s, and 44. I took the last 4 people at the table out in just those last 10 hands as well. It was working to my advantage as I was constantly betting 4xBB with every hand and they would push thinking I was just doing my regular raise and my hands would hold up(held up against trip Jacks, QQ, and a straight which I beat with the boat). I have lost a couple SNGs as well that my little strategy wasn't obviously working with, but I have won more than lost, so that is good. Well, keeping it short tonight, busy day tomorrow. Peace out.

Post From Work

So last night I went on a spree. I was bound to play some $1+.10 45-90 person SNGs on UltimateBet because I am sick of the 9 person ones(I find people don't care as much, therefore will go all-in with a wide range of hands and it is driving me nuts, and the payout for a win doesn't always justify all of the B.S.). But I found out something pretty important, people don't change their ways of playing just because of how many people are in the SNG, they still play like they don't care at all. I am not sure on the exact hand history as I am at work, and my PokerTracker is at home, but I will try...

45 person SNG, about 25-30 people left, so still pretty early, not even first break yet, blinds are about 50-100 and I have 2750 chips.
Dealt JhJs under-the-gun at a full table, so I raise it to 600(6xBB is a big raise, but in early position with JJ, I didn't want too many callers) and it folds around to the Cut-Off, who calls, everyone else folds, pot is now $1350.
Flop is 3c7sJc, good for me, so I lead out with a smaller continuation bet of 1/3 of the pot with 400, and the other guy pushes all in and has me covered by about 40 chips! So I am thinking either he has a smaller set(which didn't seem likely since he would have been calling a big raise with a pocket 3s or pocket 7s), a Ace(King, Queen, Ten) high flush draw(which I thought was most likely), or maybe a higher pair like Aces or Kings, which I had dominated right now. So I of course called, and what does he show?5c 8c?!?!
First....what the fuck were you calling a 6xBB bet preflop with that for, and second, why would you push with an 8 high flush draw??? Needless to say, he got his other club and beat me and I could have punched someone. This happened a couple more times last night on different tables in other ways, I think there was only one game where I just didn't get any good cards and just had to go in with 88 and got busted out, which is fine, it happens, but the other games pissed me off.
Tonight I am going to try to play in the CardsChat FullTilt Member's Freeroll if I can get out of work a little early, otherwise I might play some SNGs again tonight, but I am going to try to apply a different strategy. I will try to keep you posted. Take it easy.

Quick Update

So the 45 man SNG, didn't notice it was a damn Ultra-Turbo...I hate that damn format. I love Turbos, just not the Ultras. Anyway, got 10th in it and only paid out to 7, so I lost .60c, but learned to never play a UT again, lol. Blinds were 600/1200 and my stack was about 3700 and I went all-in preflop with KK. Guy with A4s calls and hits an Ace on the flop and holds up. The whole time people were calling with damn near anything, because you had to otherwise, by the time the damn blinds got back to you, it was already two more blind levels ahead. Some skill with a lot of luck involved there. Well, now I am just waiting for midnight. Take it easy fellas.

No More Step Tourney

So UltimateBet has had these Step to the World Series Tournaments that have the basic idea that you can start with a 9 person SNG for .10c, and that would be Step 1. 1st and 2nd place from that get to move on to Step 2, and 3rd and 4th get to replay Step 1. And that keeps going on as you move up the ladder, all the way to Step 10, which is a $2250+100 buyin, and the winner of that gets a seat to the WSOP and spending money.

Well, these tournaments are fun, and I have gotten up to Step 5 about 4 or 5 times now, but the problem is, that unless I make it all the way, I get no money(with exception to 2nd place on Step 10, they get $3550). So really, it is fun, but it is a waste of time. So as soon as I lose all of my coupons for those, I am done with them. Kind of sucks though, because most people are only playing those and not the regular SNGs, oh well.

So right now I am playing a .50+.10 45 person SNG, which is the first time I have played one on here that was bigger than 18(SNGs, I have played thousands of MTT Tournaments), so we shall see how this works out. Seven places pay out, and #1 gets $6.75, which isn't much, but I am really only playing down here because none of the other ones were even close to filling up. And I would normally be going to bed about now, but I wanted to be a good boyfriend and call my girlfriend at mindnight as her birthday is tomorrow.... how sweet, right? Well, I will keep you posted on how this SNG goes. I have only been playing about 10 minutes and already at the 6th blind level, they are increasing every 2 minutes. So I need to go so I can pay attention. Cya

One Little Tidbit

Forgot to put this in the last post. But this is another reason that I am going to try to play more MTTs, because I feel like a lot of the people that are playing the 6-10 person SNGs will go call all-ins with such a wide range of hands that it sickens me, because they can just go right back to the lobby and play another one if they lose. While with a larger SNG or bigger MTT tourney, they can still go to the lobby and wait for one, but it will take longer, so they may be less likely to make some of their stupid calls.

For instance, Tuesday, I was playing a tourney on UB and was chip leader by about 150 chips and bet out 5xBB with pocket AA in early position, and it folds around to a guy on the button(2nd in chips), and he raised me about the size of the pot. The blinds folded back to me and I hesitated and then pushed all-in and the guy immediately calls with 33!!! What the hell kind of strategy is that? He was going up against the chipleader, the ONLY person in the game that could knock him out in one swoop and calls an all-in with a pair of 3's. Stupid...But of course, he gets his trips on the Turn and beats out my rockets to cripple me.

Just wanted to talk about this hand.

Too Late For April Fools....

So I had a plan for a decent April Fools trick for the blog, but I was busy as hell yesterday and by the time I got home and had time to write something up, it was already after midnight....so blame my busy day for that.

I have been playing a little bit of poker the past couple days, but not a whole lot since I have some projects due and have had a lot of appointments, but they are thinning out a little bit more, so no worries.

I cashed in a couple U/B SNGs for minimal payouts and they are starting to annoy me, so I think I am going to set aside some more time and go for the bigger MTTs. If I do some SNGs, then no more of this 6-10 person crap, I am going to try to get some bigger payouts with the 18-45 person SNGs, make my time a little bit more worth it.

On A Roll

Hey all,
I know I haven't been on very much, but like I said last time, I have been really busy lately. Tomorrow I have to go all the way down to Springfield, IL to take a state test to become licensed in my field, and that is going to be a pain, so I have been stidying for that. On top of that, I started work today, so that takes up a ton of my time, but it went well, so that is ok.

Even though I have been busy, I have really been on my game, I have won $15 today in just 3 games, winning 2 times and getting 2nd once, so now I am up to $55, a new high and also the first time over $50, so that is pretty exciting. I kind of realized this week that I might need to start entering a couple MTTs so that I can get some real cash, because even though I am going upward, it isn't very fast, and with my original guidelines to follow, it will be a while before I can go up in limits for SNGs, and it sure isn't going very fast with $2 ones.

Maybe later this week or even next week I will start being more aggressive with the challenge because my test will be over so I might have a little more time. I will not be playing at all tomorrow or Wednesday during the day I know, so you won't hear from me until at least then. Til then good luck at the tables while my head's in the books. Later

Weekend Update

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't really been updating as much as I was before. I have been studying quite a bit for a test that I have to take next Wednesday that is going to be hard as hell. I have still been playing, but my swings have been going up and down and pretty much evened me out at $42. Really I have just been playing the Bounty SNGs, but I have played a couple of forum freerolls.

One of the freerolls that I played in earlier today I got out in 24th place, right on the bubble, so that kind of sucked. Then I played another freeroll, which I was the chipleader for the first 3 levels, then I had to go work on my car, changing the oil line, hoping it wouldn't take very long, but it did. So by the time I got back, I was down to 1.2 BB left, so I was forced to go all-in on Ace high. But I might play some more on Sunday. Til then good luck!

Meltdown Evaded

So adding on to last night, I started the morning out losing a couple more Bounty SNGs....I couldn't even manage to pick off one damn bounty for some reason, I was just playing terrible. Then I decided to play one last one before I go to my buddy's bachelor party tonight and I won it. I knocked out 5 of the 9 other players, so it netted me $10, bringing me back to what I was the other day.

That is all I am going to play today as I am busy, but I have a freeroll tomorrow that might add a little on to my Carbon account, $500 PokerSpace Freeroll, wish me luck. Til then, take it easy.

Short Post

So basically as of the last 24 hours, I suck. I have lost about $8 in $2 Bounty SNGs. I will try to make it back later. Bye

A Good Night

So I had a good night of poker tonight. It started off having nothing to do with this whole thing, but just playing a couple forum freerolls on my UltimateBet Account, the first of which I failed miserably at(the PokerSpace $300 freeroll). Then I played my freeroll for the forum CardsChat that I frequently visit, which I got 4th place for $5...but I am kind of pissed about it because 4-20 all get $5, then it goes 10, 20, 35. And I was chip leader going into the final 5, so I should have just stayed still, but I got cold cards and the stack dwindled. Oh well. Anyway, that boosted my UB account a little, not that it matters here.

On the other note, I also played another $2 Bounty SNG which I won for an almost $7 increase onto my Walker account, so in just under a week I have already almost made it to $50, I don't think that is too bad, starting out ONLY in freerolls and then progressing.

I also added a new graph on the sidebar that shows my progress, as you can see Carbon is pretty damn low, haha. There are a couple events coming up in the next couple days for there, so maybe I can add a little to that. Until next time, good luck!

Got myself back

So after my stupid mistake last night that I posted about, I lost another two $2 Bounty SNGs, which brought me down to $35.07, then this morning, I lost another $2 Bounty SNG, so then I was down to 32.87. Then I took a break, I went to work and I calmed down and realized something. In the bounty SNGs, people will, a lot of the time, play very conservative, because if they make anything on the flop, say two pair with 7-2off then they can put someone all-in and get their bounty, who cares if they won't last very long because eventually they might chip out, they are still making money.

So I kind of applied this loose strategy to my next Bounty SNG, which I just got done playing, and I won it. $10 all together, I guess $8 after my buy-in, but now I am back to my even from the other day. Tonight I have a couple freerolls on UltimateBet that I am going to play, but those don't have anything to do with this contest, so I might not be playing too many games for the bankroll tonight, but I will update you if there is anything exciting. Till then, good luck at the tables.