Saturday, November 19, 2005

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The heater continued today as I finished clearing my Stars bonus. 2 bonuses in a row on Stars where I actually made money. Maybe Lee Jones reads all the good things I say about them on this blog. Maybe he doesn't hate me so much anymore. Thanks Lee!

I know I'm glutton for punishment by posting my success on this site. It has always been bad luck in the past. Fuck it... I'm not superstitious (knock on wood). May the heater never die!

Posted by Predator314 at 9:51 PM 0 comments  

Friday, November 18, 2005

Heater!



It's been a long time since I went on a good heater. The past few weeks or even months, the wins and losses have been going at a moderately steady rate. Tonight, I finally hit a nice heater. I didn't get to play as much as I wanted because of a bowling tournament, but still got in about 400 hands. In those 400 hands, I managed to win over 100BBs. All the hands were played on stars $3/6 6 max. Think that winrate is sustainable?

Also, before I went out tonight, I checked out the $100/200 NL table on Full Tilt. Here is what I saw:



Talk about a tough table!

When I returned a few hours later, here is what I saw:



Now that's a heater.

Posted by Predator314 at 9:48 PM 1 comments  

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I have bonuses coming out my ying yang right now. I received a nice letter from Stars yesterday informing me of a 20% up to $120 bonus. So without hesitation I dropped another $600 into my Stars account and fired up a few tables of $2/4 6 max and proceeded to play 600 hands of break even poker. Once again, the games were very good, but this time I wasn't able to take advantage. Oh well.

Tonight I'll probably finish off that bonus. I'll probably go back up to $3/6 while clearing it though. I'm not sure why I played $2/4 last night. It was more of an instinct than anything. I didn't even really think about playing $3/6 until I was finished.

After my Stars bonus is cleared, I'll go back to clearing my bonus at Full Tilt. I still got quite a ways to go there. Then I have a good bit to clear at UB when that is done. All together this month, I've received $620 in bonuses. Looks like there is a 30% up to $150 bonus also going on with Party. I haven't played on Party in a while, but this will probably bring me back. Looks like it will take 1500 raked hands to clear. That shouldn't hardly take any time at all.

I was looking through my newest issue of All In magazine last night and noticed the Holiday Gift guide. They had a book out there I never knew existed. It is called Tales from the Tiltboys. I didn't even know they had a book out. If you haven't read the trip reports on the Tiltboys' website, you have missed out on, hands down, the best trip reports you will ever read. If you haven't heard of the Tiltboys before, it's a group of degenerate gamblers who get together and play poker while trying to put each other on tilt constantly. You've probably heard of a couple of these guys (Phil Gordon, Perry Friedman).

I made a post on 2+2 yesterday trying to get reviews on the Tiltboys book. While in the Books & Publications sections of the site, I found a thread about Matt from ThePokerChronicles.com's book. Surprisingly, the 2+2'ers had some really nice things to say about it. If you don't know the history between Matt and the 2+2 group, you should check out The Poker Chronicles. Short summary is that Matt has always claimed that a winning player can have a 30% VP$IP. Also he states that it can be just as profitable to have a 2+2'er at your table as your normal donkey. I agree with this. The 15% VP$IP'ers on 2+2 take offense. The player must adapt. I think most 2+2'ers play way too tight and are very predictable. I qualify that remark because there are some fantastic players that post on that site. However, the majority of the 2+2 population are donks like me.

That's all I have for right now. I'm planning to play as much poker tonight as I can possibly handle. I'm trying to save up a bit of money for a new Xbox 360 when they come out. Normally I don't care for buying a console at launch, but Project Gotham Racing 3 is one of the launch titles. Enough said.

Posted by Predator314 at 7:05 AM 0 comments  

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

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I watched the Final Table coverage of the WSOP last night. It was pretty entertaining. It could have been really entertaining had Matusow lasted longer. Something about that guy makes me like him. Sure he's a donk, but an entertaining donk. Actually, I'm not sure he's a donk, but in the few hands I've seen him play on TV and the hands I've watched him play online, he has played the role of TURBO-LAG-DONK.

Here's my opinion on each of the final table participants (based on the few hands they showed from each person on television):

Aaron Kanter - Ummmm...he's invited to my home games. Absolutely GAVE away his chips to Tex Barch. A little hint. You have top pair, SHITTY kicker, and no draws, and you get raised twice on the flop, you are more than likely beat. Give it up!

Tex Barch - One cool customer. He seemed to be a pretty solid player and didn't act like a complete tool when he won/lost a hand. He made an excellent read on Kanter with the 2 pair. I'm not sure I could have made that call at that point in the tournament. I'm not sure all the details of what his chipstack would be like had he folded, but there were a lot of hands that beat him. The only thing that would allow me to make that call would be the fact that it was against Kanter. After watching him play, I would have had to put him either on a set, K-10, or a WAY overplayed flush draw. Had I not known the final outcome of the WSOP, this guy would be my #2 pick after Matusow.

Andrew Black - How can you not like this guy? He's got a super-soft attitude, but sure is aggressive with his chips. I love watching the aggressive players. A very likeable guy. A little tip for you Mr. Black: turn your glasses over. Be original!

Mike Matusow - Definitely my favorite at the table. This guy is nonstop entertainment. Once again, invited to all my kiddie home games. Mike is a loose aggressive player (to put it mildly). It brought the biggest smile to my face when he flopped that king on the KK vs AA hand. It was great to watch him jump up and down to the crowd. Too bad, he still lost the hand.

Steve Dannenman - This was the coolest guy at the table. A much better player than he let on. He might not have given himself a chance but after watching the river value bet he put on Hachem in that first heads up hand, I definitely found out who was the better player between the two. He's also a funny guy. He was definitely having a good time.

Joseph Hachem - The champ. He's a decent player that has not chance of repeating that success. I put him more in a Chris Moneymaker class of player as opposed to a Greg Raymer. He played his short stack very well at the final table though.

Daniel Bergsdorf - Hrmmm... I don't remember a damn thing about this guy. I had to read the tournament summary to remember the hand where he lost with JJ vs. Barch's TT.

Scott Lazar - I didn't like this guy. I think he tried to hard to be a "personality" for the TV and failed miserably. He seemed to play fairly decent to begin. However, he really had a nice meltdown to end his run.

Brad Kondracki - Another guy I don't remember much about. I remember he was the quiet young guy with the small chipstack. That's all I have on him :)

I played a little bit of $3/6 6 max before and after the WSOP coverage last night. I stuck with Full Tilt and had a decent session while clearing about $70 of my bonus. I read alot of complaints about Full Tilt's bonus sucking, but it seems to clear fine at the $3/6 limit. I still have $230 in bonus money left to clear on this site and could actually clear it fairly quickly if I could find some time to play.

I'm getting frustrated with my lack of play lately. I want to play, but can't fit in the time. It seems like there is always something going on. On Mondays, I bowl. That ties me up until about 9:00 pm by the time I eat. Tuesday is a good poker day, but I usually eat dinner with the parents and the WSOP comes on at 8:00. Now that the WSOP is over, I will play a lot more on Tuesdays. Wednesday is another bowling night which ties me up until 9:00pm. Thursday is a "free" night, but I'm usually eating with the parents or something, so I don't get a lot of time for poker again. Friday has been my main poker playing night. But sometimes I go out with friends or whatever. Saturdays and Sundays, I usually get some more playing time in, but not like I want. I usually have household chores that need tended to. If I could just get more play in during the week, I'd be happy.

I'm currently looking for a replacement on my Monday bowling league, so that would free up that night. The reason for looking for a replacement is personal related, not just because I want to play mroe poker. The WSOP is finished on Tuesday. Wednesdays will always be bowling up until April I think. Hopefully I will get some more time put in the tables soon.

That's all I have for now. Peace Out!
-Wes

Posted by Predator314 at 7:03 AM 0 comments  

Monday, November 14, 2005

I've been bitten by the flu bug. Oh joy. I skipped out on work on Thursday and Friday. That's how I was able to finish that turd sit n go challenge so quickly.

Now I'm back in the cash games and couldn't be happier. I guess I've made my official move to $3/6. That's all I've been playing for the last few days. I have snuck in a $2/4 table or 2 when I can't find a good $3/6 table. I've been playing all my cash games on Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet while I clear the bonus. I'm not quite 1/2 way to finishing the Full Tilt Bonus, and I haven't cleared very much of the UB bonus.

I got some good news today. I got my first profit sharing/retirement money for my job. Now I just gotta figure out how to invest it. I've been reading about mutual funds and IRAs on the internet and I can honestly say that I'm plain fucking ignorant on the subject. I'm gonna give a friend of mine a call this evening. He's a financial advisor for BB&T banks. I'm just gonna say, "Hey, I got this many thousands of dollars to invest. Where do I put it?"

I tried getting my boss to make out the check to me, Neteller, or even Poker Stars, but evidently that's out of the question. I think I can get a better return on it. Just look at the return I'm getting on my initial $200 poker deposit 14 months ago. I'm not sure how to calculate it, but it's way up there! $200 has bought me a car, truck, 4 wheeler, guitars, computers, part of a home, many other toys, and still enough left over for a $5/10 bankroll.

Posted by Predator314 at 12:36 PM 0 comments