Predator314's Poker Journal

Tomahawk Chop Anyone?



Congrats on the Braves for winning game 2 against the Astros last night. John Smoltz was amazing. I've been a Braves fan for as long as I can remember. I used to love watch Murphy and Horner jack home runs in front of 1200 fans as they cruised to a 50-112 record. However, this year's Braves team is one of my favorites. They have youth and a lot of charisma. I love to see a team get pumped up. Last night was the most pumped up I've seen the Braves in a playoff game since 1992 when Sid Bream scored on the Franc Cabrera single in the bottom of the 9th to beat the Pirates in the NLCS game 7.

Now, onto poker. I didn't play as much last night as I intended. I was just in a pretty shitty mood all around. It seemed like everywhere I turned, someone irritated me. This is not a poker mindset. Plus I had to do some grocery shopping and run a couple other errands. I also fixed my first burrito dinner for myself. It was scrumpdillyicous. By the time I did all this, all my play was done during the Braves game. I couldn't keep my attention off the game long enough to play.

I did manage to grind out 600+ hands for a loss of about $7. However, this morning, I was single tabling the $3/6 6 max using my tiltblocker software. After what I thought was a mediocre session, I closed tilt blocker to reveal a nice win.

I was just checking out the weather forecast for this weekend. Looks pretty shitty. This means more poker. I don't have any plans tonight other than washing dishes and maybe a few loads of clothes. So it looks like I'll have plenty of time for poker.

Tomorrow is a live Moose tournament that I haven't played in since last spring. I'm gonna run that tomorrow. However, I used to have a running partner in these things. Not anymore, he works Saturdays cleaning the scum off our streets :) Actually, I think he just puts on his uniform and cruises for chicks, but who cares?

This tournament is really juicy. 1.) There is no juice, 100% payout. 2.) There is not a single good poker player in the building. It's a pure donkfest.

However, there are a few downsides to this tournament. 1.) It's sort of a No Limit HORSE tourney. All the games are no limit, but it's dealer's choice. Dealer can deal Texas Holdem, Omaha (Hi only), 7 card stud, 5 card stud. 2.) You don't play until there's one person standing. You play until 6:00pm (tourney starts at 12:00pm). At that time, payouts are done by chip count. The good news there is that usually only 5 or 6 are left by that time. So if you survive until 6, you got a good chance.

Now, in this tournament, they pay the top 5 places. There's usually 30-35 entries. The good money, however, is the top 3 places. You gotta play for those places or you might as well not even show up. Entry fee for this tournament is $100 plus an optional $50 rebuy. I just give them $150 off the bat so I can outchip most of the crowd. About 90% of the entries rebuy as necessary.

My strategy in these things is to play it safe early and use position to my advantage. In the latter stages of the tournament, we usually are short handed. This is where I turn up the aggrometer and go into "steal" mode. These guys usually won't play back at you until they actually have a lock on the hand.

If I win that tournament, I could almost double my bankroll which would be SUPER! I'll post a report here this weekend.

Bowling news and a little poker:



Last night was my Wednesday night bowling league. We have a kick ass team on Wednesdays. Just the perfect combination of talent and handicap :) I fall in the latter with a few displays of talent every now and again.

We started the night in first place by 2 points (1 game). Behind us was a clusterfuck of about 4 teams. 2 of them were 2 points behind. A few others were 4 or 6. The most points you can win in a week are 8. You bowl 3 games. Each game you win nets you 2 points. The other 2 points go to the team with the most pins for all 3 games.

So off we go with game #1. I threw like shit in practice and wasn't prepared. Somehow I composed myself and threw a strike in the 1st 3 frames. I opened the 4th, but spared in the 5th and struck in the 6th. I pretty much just blew up from there only ending the game with a 162. Do you believe that shit?

Game #2 got even worse. I bowled like a pure ass for a 139. Bleh. My average on Wednesday nights is 171. So in game #3, I decided to turn it up a notch and actually knock down a few pins. I started out decent with some spares. Then I struck in 5 straight frames. I had a chance to finish with a 247 I believe. However, I fucked it up in the 10th and ended up with a 214. That gave me a series of 515. Which is an average of 171.667. Just above my average.

Anyway, we ended up taking 6 out of 8 possible points last night. While the 2nd place teams lost all 8 of their points. We go in to last week of the first quarter with a pretty comfortable lead. We don't blow up next week, we're in the playoffs at the end of the season for the championship. Personally, I'd like to win all 4 quarters because you get paid some many dollars per point at the end of the season too. That would be a VERY nice payout.

I'd also like to congratulate my teamate Moose for bowling a 286 last night. He ripped shit loose in game #1. He threw a 9 spare in the first frame. Then threw 10 straight strikes and finished with a 6 count for a 286. Add in his handicap and that's a 313 handicap score. Enough to put him on top of the high scratch game and high handicap game scoreboards. Because of that game, we just missed beating the high handicap score for a team by 6 pins. We got 2nd though.

On to poker. I played just under 400 hands yesterday. I ran good during those hands. Something along the lines of 17BB/100. I would have liked to played more, but I was getting pretty tired and ready for bed.

Tonight, I'll get a little more poker played. I need to go grocery shopping after work, but after that I figure I'll play a little poker while watching the Braves game.

A session with Tilt Blocker 2000!



I have seen some posts on 2+2 in the past about something called Tilt Blocker 2000. I just thought they were joke posts about some imaginary product that reduced tilt induced behavior after a bad beat. So I skipped over those threads. Come to find out, this product really isn't a parody or joke, it's real.

The concept is simple. The program is simple. What does the program do? Nothing really, but it's damn near genius. Sort of like Seinfeld.

Basically, all Tilt Blocker 2000 does is bring up a little grey box on your monitor that you put over top your dollar count when playing online poker. This box will always stay on top where you cannot tell if you're winning or losing. This supposedly helps reduce tilt. Hey, after last month, I'll try anything twice.

So I downloaded this little program and tried it out last night. I have to say, I'm thoroughly impressed with the concept. I played 4 tables with Tilt Blocker covering my chipstack on each table. After about 10 minutes, I had no concept of whether I was winning or losing. I did have Poker Tracker running so it could import my hands and update my Poker Ace HUD display. However, I never checked poker tracker until after I finished my session to see what the results where.

After about 30 minutes, it started driving me nuts. I couldn't tell where I stood at each table. I felt like I was losing big time. I had lost some nice pots. But I won some decent ones too. I was card dead most of the night and just not catching any flops.

After my session was done, just for shits and giggles, I made a guesstimate of my winnings. I guessed I lost $100 or $110. When I finally revealed my results: -$11. Even though it was a loss, I was pleased with that result.

I'm going to keep using Tilt Blocker because I like how it makes you focus on playing cards rather than focus on whether you're winning or losing. I really want to try it when I can put in a nice 1000 hand session. It's a great tool if you're subject to going on Tilt when things go wrong. However, I wouldn't recommend it to No Limit players. I think it's pretty important to know your chipstack size playing NL.

A reporter asked President Bush what he thought about Roe v. Wade. Bush replied "I don't give shit how they get out New Orleans"

I chuckled pretty good on that one last night. If it offends you, you are definitely reading the wrong blog.

Anyway, I didn't play any additional poker last night. I bowled... very poorly I might add. We got our asses kicked again. Monday league sucks.

I've had an afternoon session already today with pretty crappy results. I found some very good tables, but just couldn't hit any hands.

I had one table with 5 bonified fish on it. One was the turbo fish. If you got raised on this table, they had the fucking nuts. Everyone limped in on every hand. If you raise, they don't care, just call.

I hit some monster pots on this table, but took some monster beats as well. I ended up breaking even on that table. All 5 fishies have been tagged and are currently being tracked on my sonar.

Tuesday night has become MY night. Nothing to do except for what I want to do. No bowling, no pool, no obligations. So I plan on going home here in about 10 minutes, fixing some supper, firing up Empire and Party and crank out some hands until time for the WSOP on ESPN. According to Pauly, there is a good lineup tonight.

4th and I swear the final post for the day.

I was doing some accounting for the new month. It seems like I had a better month of September than I had originally thought. Thank the Good Lord for rake rebates!

The bankroll is healthy again. I'm withdraw half of my profit for the month for expenses. This won't cover everything, but it sure will help.

This month, I'm going to remain at $2/4 with occasional times at the $3/6 6 max. If I have another decent month, I should be able to move to $3/6 full time. In fact, I expect to have a decent $5/10 6 max bankroll by the start of November, but I'm going to play it conservatively.

I figure I can make enough playing $3/6 6 max to live. Plus this will give me a chance to find a coach and work on my game.

One more post for the day.

I put in an afternoon session on the $3/6 6 max. I did this because I'm sick and demented and like torturing myself during the day. I love these tables. It's pure entertainment to see the plays these guys make. Here is an example:

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (6 max, 6 handed) converter


Preflop: Hero is CO with As, 7s.

1 fold, MP calls, Hero raises, Button calls, 1 fold, BB calls, MP calls.


Flop: (8.33 SB) 6s, Ts, 9d (4 players)

BB checks, MP bets, Hero raises, Button calls, BB folds, MP calls.


Turn: (7.16 BB) Ks (3 players)

MP bets, Hero raises, Button calls, MP calls.


River: (13.16 BB) Td (3 players)

MP checks, Hero bets, Button calls, MP calls.


Final Pot: 16.16 BB


Results in white below:

MP has Ad Js (one pair, tens).

Hero has As 7s (flush, ace high).

Button has Kh Qs (two pair, kings and tens).

Outcome: Hero wins 16.16 BB.

I was very fortunate to find this table. I was seated to the left of a complete donkey and then to the right was a more aggressive donkey who seemed to have preflop hand selection down (well, close enough), but no idea what to do after the flop (as you can see in the hand above).

My preflop raise was an isolation raise. I wanted to be heads up on donkey #1 with position. He's been donating to me already with some seriously dumb plays. One time he was in the small blind with a limper from Middle position, he limps with Aces from the small blind, I check with 6-10 offsuit. Flop comes 6,6,x. Ship it.

This time, he again limps with a premium hand. My hand, is not so premium, but being in the cut-off with 1 limper, it's worth a raise because I figure it's better than his most of the time.

So the flop is great for me. It gives me the nut flush draw plus an inside straight draw. I'm liking my hand. He lead into me without catching a piece. I raised to get my free river.

The turn is a beautiful spade giving me the nuts. He lead out again, I raised. I figured that would be all the free money I get from donkey #2. Amazingly, he calls too.

The river paired the board which made me unhappy. However, I wasn't letting up. One more value bet and I get paid off by 2 donkeys. That's how this game is supposed to work.

Oh yeah... notice that donkey #1 had Ace high.

Here's another hand with this guy:

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (6 max, 4 handed) converter


Preflop: Hero is SB with Ts, 9s.

1 fold, Button calls, Hero completes, BB checks.


Flop: (3 SB) 9c, 9h, 9d (3 players)

Hero bets, BB calls, Button calls.


Turn: (3 BB) 6c (3 players)

Hero bets, BB folds, Button calls.


River: (5 BB) Kc (2 players)

Hero bets, Button calls.


Final Pot: 7 BB


Results in white below:

Hero has Ts 9s (four of a kind, nines).

Button has 8c Qc (flush, king high).

Outcome: Hero wins 7 BB.

No way I need to slow play this hand. If I could rely on the guy behind me to bet, I would have check-raised the flop. However, i figured it would be a fairly safe bet that one of these guys would hang with me to the river. Hey and guess what!? Super donkey caught a runner runner flush on me!

As you can see, I ran pretty well for my session and once again have recouped all my downswing losses from last week. Now, if somehow I could just figure out how to make it stay and have a nice upswing.

An idea I've been pondering over...

I think I'm going to hire a coach to help me with the short handed games. These games are just too soft for me to not be crushing them.

I'm off to a slow start in October. I just haven't played all that much poker so far. I've played maybe 300 or 400 hands of limit. I have played in quite a few tournaments though. I've been doing decent, getting deep, even a few cashes. There have also been some frustrating bubble outs.

The most frustrating was last night, we are getting near the money on the $5000 Empire tournament. I'm the the BB with 3 or 4 limpers to me. I raise it up to something like 10 times the BB. Some donk from late/middle position limp-reraises all in. I was pretty much committed at this point and had a hard time giving the guy credit for a limp reraise with pocket aces. I called, he had pocket 2's and of course they held up. That's got to be single handedly one of the worst plays I've seen in a while. This guy had quite a few chips and had he lost that hand, would have been close to the felt. He was tossing a coin AT THE VERY BEST!

Tournaments are boring, so I played some sit n goes to pass the time. I played 6 on Saturday and ended up with 1 first, 2 second, 2 third, and a 4th. I played a couple more yesterday and didn't win anything. Then I played in 2 more last night while sweating the final table on Pokerstars $500,000. I got 1st in both of those.

Tonight, I bowl immediately after work. I'll probably try to grind out 700-1000 hands after bowling depending on my mood.

PokerStars Tournament #12956968, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $1.00
2203 players
Total Prize Pool: $2203.00
Tournament started - 2005/10/01 - 23:30:00 (ET)

Dear Predator314,

You finished the tournament in 162nd place.
A $1.76 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 40.45 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html

Fear Me!

I had a buck left in my tournament dollars on Stars. Figured I'd blow it in a huge tournament. The hand that did me in was the table chip leader bullying the table making huge raises pre-flop. I defend my blind with JJ and push. He calls with AK

Flop: 8,9,T
Turn: rag
River: King (of course)

Pokerstars hates me.